Dive Brief:
- Inside Higher Ed recaps Educause's annual conference held last month, in which one session asked participants to visualize the college library of the future.
- A recent MIT report suggests that libraries will transition from repositories of historical and research information, to open source hubs with information on best practices and real-time deployments to address intractable problems.
- The model follows a similar effort from the Georgia Institute of Technology, which will share book storage space with Emory University to make its library facility more conducive to studying and innovation.
Dive Insight:
Renovating and re-envisioning research space is a critical element of making the campus more attractive for potential students while helping to realize cost savings in personnel and circular management. Much in the way that college bookstores are being redeveloped to meet new needs for shopping, and college mailrooms for shipping, the library is experiencing similar metamorphosis to prepare for the 21st century college experience.
Administrators should look data and expenses related to library operations and staffing, to make the best decisions about when to renovate, raze or construct based upon student usage and digital resources which could be secured for much cheaper.