The Australian Library Journal

The future role of librarians in the virtual library environment

Liz Burke

Manuscript received September 2001

This is a refereed article

Defining the 'virtual library environment'

Before commencing an examination of the role of librarians within the virtual library environment, it is necessary to reach an understanding of the phrase 'virtual library'. The concept of the virtual library is one that has developed with the growth in telecommunication networks, especially the internet. The 'virtual library' emulates a 'real' library, but is understood to be a product of the virtual world of the internet. To work with a definition that is meaningful within the field of librarianship, I will examine some of the definitions of the virtual library appearing in the professional literature.

Within the library field there is a tendency to refer to the 'virtual' library, the 'digital' library, and the 'electronic' library interchangeably. Waters (1998) describes the phrase 'digital library' as replacing earlier references to 'electronic' and 'virtual' libraries. A few years earlier, Graham (1995) stated that 'virtual library' is a companion term to 'digital library' and that up to 1995 both terms were 'used narrowly to define a quantity of databases available for use at a given time'. Graham's idea that the virtual and digital libraries are synonymous is interesting, but as he himself admits, the definition he provides is very narrow.

Wainwright (1996) believes a digital library possesses the same functions and goals of the traditional print-based library and that the difference lies in 'the digital part of the term [which] indicates merely that the material is stored and accessed digitally'. Like Graham's definition, Wainwright's definition of the digital library is also very narrow. A more comprehensive definition of the digital library is provided by the Digital Library Federation (1999) in the United States:

Organisations that provide the resources, including the specialised staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities.

These definitions are concerned with a purely digital collection and while there are increasing numbers of such, they do not as yet form the majority and it does not appear practical or viable to equate the 'digital library' with the library of the future where all valuable resources might be available digitally [1].

Other definitions of the digital or virtual library provide a more integrated approach. McMillan (1999) stated 'digital libraries and traditional libraries should not be separate, but should coalesce to accomplish more than either can do independently to serve the user community on the highest order'. McMillan (2000) later refined her definition of a digital library to one that 'should be a seamless extension of the library that provides scholars with access to information in any format that has been evaluated, organised, and preserved' and that the digital library 'adds value and saves time while extending the hours of access'. Mason (1998) believes it is imperative for libraries to offer both print and digital resources, 'together they are the yin and yang of knowing'. Rusbridge (1997) believes the library and its governing organisation is critically important in digital libraries, 'we must provide integrated access for our community to a wide range of resources, placed in a service context'.

In his description of a virtual library established at Monash University's Berwick Campus in 1991, Lim (1996) emphasised that the virtual library is not synonymous with the purely digital or electronic library, but rather 'a parallel library which includes a finely balanced mix of print, multimedia and electronic information resources'. The concept of a library which offers seamless access to integrated print, electronic, local and remote resources has sometimes been termed a 'hybrid library' (Pinfield, 1998). Many researchers within the library field concur with this view: Waters (1998) noted that an integrated collection of materials in digital and other formats would be a strategic issue as digital libraries mature and Young (1998) stated that in future, the librarian 'will encounter the twin challenges of managing buildings and print collections while simultaneously developing policies, tools, and support for digital collections and network information services'.

This examination of various definitions of the virtual libraries within the professional literature brings me to that which I will use:

The virtual library environment encompasses the concept of the digital library but is more than a collection of digitised resources. The virtual library provides access to an integrated collection of print, electronic and multimedia resources delivered seamlessly and transparently to users regardless either of their physical location or the location and ownership of the information.

The role of the librarian

In order to reach an understanding of the role of librarians in the virtual library environment, it is worthwhile examining the role librarians have filled in the past. In ancient times, there was little if any distinction between an archive and a library. For many centuries book collecting was an opportunity either to display one's wealth, or the results of scholarship. It was not until the nineteenth century that library collections became more universally available and library science began to codify standards for describing and organising resources and librarians began to move beyond merely keeping and preserving books. [2] Melville Dewey wrote in an early edition of the American Library Journal:

It is not enough that the books are cared for properly, are well arranged, are never lost... [The librarian] must put every facility in the way of the readers, so that they shall be led on from good to better. He must teach them how, after studying their own wants, they may themselves select their reading wisely. (Rice-Livy & Racine, 1997)

The role of the librarian grew from that of a collector and preserver of information resources to a professional involved in very complex issues of organisation, the dissemination of and access to information.

The role of the librarian, particularly during the past two decades, has further evolved to encompass the burgeoning technological developments. Crawford and Gorman (1995) have defined the role of the librarian today:

To acquire, give access to, and safeguard carriers of knowledge and information in all forms and to provide instruction and assistance in the use of the collections to which their users have access... [libraries] are about the preservation, dissemination, and use of recorded knowledge in whatever form it may come. (pp 3,5)

Rusbridge (1997) agreed with this definition, writing:

The role of the library is to select, acquire, organise and make available an appropriate subset of ...resources... The library has a role here in the digital world as with print - not just in excluding access to rubbish, but in encouraging access paths to quality.

This broad understanding of the role of libraries in the electronic age has gained widespread acceptance. In a 1998 report to the European Parliament The Role of Libraries in the Modern World a similarly broad view was accepted:

The unique function of libraries is to acquire, organise, offer for use and preserve publicly available material irrespective of the form in which it is packaged (print, cassette, CD-ROM, network form) in such a way that, when it is needed, it can be found and put to use'.[3]

These definitions provide an indication of the roles which librarians have assumed during the final half of the twentieth century. They acquire information resources relevant to their user population in whatever format is available and appropriate; they organise the information within the library collection; they provide a means for users to access that information; and they educate users in accessing and interpreting information resources. Librarians are moving beyond the traditional roles of collection maintenance and custodial duties to newer functions of translating, accessing and marketing resources beyond the walls of the physical library collection (Rice-Livy & Racine, 1997).

The formation of a working definition of the virtual library environment and the preceding examination of the role of librarians both in the past and the components of their role today, provides many indications of the elements making up the overall activities of the librarian within that environment: to provide intellectual access to information in any format, to evaluate available sources of information, to organise and structure information, to ensure the preservation of information, and to provide specialised staff to offer instruction and assistance in interpreting resources and accessing resources. Rusbridge (1998) described the role of the librarian in the print environment as the person responsible for selecting, acquiring, organising and providing access to relevant information. These tasks have become more complex as the volume and range of information available has increased (Dugdale, 1999). Not only that, but new tasks and roles have emerged. Both these traditional roles and the newly emerging ones will be examined in addition to some of the economic implications, to discover the future role of the librarian in the virtual library environment.

Roles

To provide intellectual access to information in any format

Providing intellectual access to information is a role librarians have filled for a long time. Traditionally librarians have done this via print-based resources. During the second half of the twentieth century the range of available resources expanded to include microform, video and audio formats. The final decades of the twentieth century witnessed a further explosion in formats, and libraries can now offer information in the form of print, audio, video, microforms, numeric, computer programs, or multimedia composites of each. For librarians, the most important issue is to provide the information in whatever form it is packaged. As McMillan (2000) observed, librarians do not attempt to meet the information needs of users with just one format.

Within the virtual library environment, the choice of format is not the most crucial issue: it is being able to provide information resources to patrons - regardless of format. Librarians and patrons will no longer be restricted to 'a single entity where everything is stored', but rather librarians will be able to offer 'a range of services and collections, linked together or made accessible through electronic networks' (Lim, 1996)

In such an environment, access to information does not always imply ownership, merely that the library has negotiated the means by which patrons gain access to resources and information. This has created what Lim terms a paradigm shift 'from ownership to access'. This in turn has created a new role for librarians - that of negotiating access rights through contracts and licenses.

The development in electronic access to scholarly journals is a key example of the shift from ownership to access. University and research libraries especially, find the option of providing electronic access to journal subscriptions to be a means of dealing with complex multi-campus organisations where the client population comprises an increasing mixture of on- and off-campus students.

While electronic access to journals appears to be a godsend to patrons and researchers, cutting out countless hours of tedious bibliographic detective work, the behind-the-scenes decisions and negotiations conducted by librarians to provide the service are fraught with numerous complex issues. Electronic serials must be evaluated against the relative importance of content. For example, scientific journals may lack full equations, graphics, and charts. Journals within the social sciences and humanities may lack book reviews and advertisements. These content issues must be weighted against issues of speed and ease of access (Miller, Peters, Pappano and Manuel, 1999).

A further issue to be considered is the ability to access earlier issues of an electronic subscription. With printed subscriptions libraries own and may continue to access those issues they purchase during the lifetime of the subscription. With electronic subscriptions, libraries pay for access to the journals rather than ownership, and at the end of a subscription a library may no longer have the right to access a title. Some publishers will provide access to a specific number of issues, for example the previous five years rather than offering a cumulative arrangement. The need to negotiate continuing access with publishers is becoming a significant responsibility for librarians.

Providing electronic access to journal literature was one of the first ways libraries began to use the newly-evolving technologies. The development of electronic reserve (e-reserve) collections, demonstrates another way in which librarians are adapting new technologies to deliver services more effectively. Electronic reserves provide the ability to digitise a printed document, video, audio, or data, so that many students can access it simultaneously without the limits of attending a library building within opening hours.

The technology to provide digital access to library reserve collections has been available for some time. However the wholesale adoption of this mechanism has been impeded by a lack of clear copyright and intellectual property ownership laws for the digital environment. The pace of technological development has, inevitably, outstripped established legislation. Copyright is still covered in Australia by the Australian Copyright Amendment Act (1989). The Australian Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000 establishes a legal framework for the further development of the virtual library. Librarians, through various professional bodies[4] provided the government with significant feedback on the proposed legislation.

To evaluate available sources of information

Batt (1999) observed that there is an increasing diversity of information resources from which to choose the most appropriate vehicle, and that librarians must widen their selection processes in order to decide on the right medium for each situation. The objective in the evolving virtual library is 'to develop information systems providing access to a coherent collection of material, more and more of which will be in digital form as time goes on' (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995).

There are those who have been prophesying the end of printed information resources as we know them for at least a decade. As recently as 1996 Odlyzko predicted the demise of the printed scholarly journal in ten to twenty years. He contends that electronic resources will replace the printed word. Other authors vigorously refute such a claim (Crawford & Gorman, 1995; Crawford, 1998; Mason, 1998).

Young (1998) observed, 'the computer will not replace the book any more than the book has replaced speech'. He also contends that printed resources and digital media are not alternatives. This is an important distinction and forms a significant issue for librarians. Electronic sources of information are excellent for data which must be timely and is subject to frequent change, such as stock market data, weather reports, and population statistics. It is also valuable for the ease in which information such as full-text articles from newspapers and journals can be delivered. Printed resources may continue for a long time to be the most efficient form of delivering ideas and theories as opposed to data in subject areas such as history, philosophy, and literature.

In evaluating electronic sources of information there is also a distinction to be made between those sources of data which have been digitised for the speed and ease of transportation, and data which is of limited usefulness, volatile and fluid in nature. Mason (1998) likens the use of the internet in delivering documents such as journal articles to a 'very large omnipotent copying machine' where the value of the item is not inherent in its format but in the ease of its delivery to the user.

There are numerous free resources available on the web, to say nothing of the full-text journals now available. Whether or not to include these in the library catalogue is a challenge facing librarians in the virtual library environment. This issue became apparent at the University of Melbourne Library when a new single gateway connection from public access PCs to local CD-ROM networks, stand-alone databases and the internet was developed. (Cunnington, 1998). The new gateway, named Buddy, created new challenges for the Library's selection policies, according to Cunnington.

To organise and structure information

Traditionally, librarians have organised and managed information resources through classification schemes. The retrieval of information relevant to a user's enquiry has been facilitated by standardised methods of describing resources, such as MARC. It is ironic that organising vast quantities of information is becoming a demanding issue for those involved in the development of the internet. Mason (1998) noted that 'the more there is on the web, the harder it becomes to find ...' Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and others are now developing indexing systems' the structure of which is closely aligned to the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme or the Library of Congress Classification scheme.

Many of the challenges facing those attempting to organise and structure information in the virtual environment is its nature. Ward and Wood (1998) note that one significant management problem in the networked environment compared to traditional library management issues, is coping with the nature of the 'information space'. They describe the information space as large and rapidly growing, highly distributed, of varying quality, and dynamic. Working with such resources requires an understanding of traditional library management issues, but also the ability to adapt these to the new environment, and even to go beyond these skills and develop news ways to organise and structure information. Garrod and Sidgreaves (1998) observed that professional boundaries between computing professionals and librarians are overlapping and becoming more blurred. For librarians to effectively organise and structure information available on the internet, they require more than basic IT skills.

The organisation and structure of information within the virtual library is critical to ensure the easiest path for the library user to access and use resources. Within the developing virtual library, users are presented with information resources in traditional formats but also in formats made possible through technological developments. Increasingly, libraries are providing access to web-based resources, either those freely available or for which the library has paid a subscription. It is essential that users can access all of these through a single interface, usually the library's catalogue. This provides what Lynch and Garcia-Molina (1995) describe as a 'superficial uniformity' for ease of navigation and access. New organisational tools are being developed to accommodate these issues: one of the most significant is metadata.

Cathro (1999) states, 'Integrated access to diverse materials is usually accomplished through services which allow the relevant metadata for all materials to be searched simultaneously'. The development of metadata was inevitable, given the enormous scale of information available through the web, and the need to be able to search and retrieve relevant material. Metadata has been defined by Iannella (1998) as structured data about data and is a format for describing an internet or digital information resource.

Metadata specifies the format for describing a digital resource in much the same way the MARC format specifies the descriptive elements of an item held in a library collection. Seven workshops have been held around the world to first define, and later refine, the core elements to be used in describing networked resources. The first, held in Dublin, Ohio in the United States in 1995, give the Dublin Core its name. The aim of this scheme is that the creators of internet resources can insert the descriptive data about their resources at the time of creation, and this will lead to an environment where the majority of resources available on the Internet are searchable using a standard scheme.

As Iannella (1998) states the 'key issue with metadata is interoperability'. It is a concept described by Lynch and Garcia-Molina (1995) as 'the ability of a user to access, consistently and coherently, similar ... classes of digital objects and services, distributed across heterogeneous repositories, with federating or mediating software compensating for site-by-site variations'. In today's library environment, users are faced with a wide range of systems with different search interfaces and capabilities. It is essential that user interfaces be developed to make databases as accessible as possible to the user. Standards such as Z39.50 are being developed which allow users to search across multiple databases simultaneously.

Librarians have been at the forefront of metadata scheme developments. They have also contributed to the development and adoption of standards such as Z39.50. This requires a sophisticated level of understanding of the technical issues involved and is a further demonstration of Garrod's and Sidgreave's (1998) assertion concerning the blurring of distinctions between librarians and IT professionals.

To ensure the preservation of information

The issue of preservation in the virtual library environment is a complex one. Librarians and archivists have long-established standards and guidelines for the preservation and storage of print materials for long-term survival. The preservation of electronic and digital information resources creates new dilemmas for librarians and archivists.

As Klemperer and Chapman (1997) observe, digital media have not been around long enough for fail-safe archiving and preservation procedures to be developed. One of the significant issues affecting preservation of digital information resources is the very technology which creates them. These technologies have an increasingly rapid obsolescence and the preservation of digital information is dependent on ensuring that the software and the mediating technology is also preserved. Many research initiatives have been directed to the preserving of digital information resources. Cathro (1999) states:

The ability to access and read digital information in the future will depend on strategies such as migration (in which the data is migrated ... to new operating systems and data structures) or emulation (in which modern computers emulate the operating systems and data structures of previous eras).

In tandem with developments in preserving digital information resources is the issue of preserving digital resources available on the internet. Berthon and Webb (2000) describe preservation developments with web-based resources so that they remain findable. 'URLs serve to identify resources and describe their location on the World Wide Web, [but] they are notoriously unreliable as they must change whenever a digital resource moves to a new location'. Methods of providing persistent and comprehensive resource discovery on the internet are being explored and librarians are playing an important role in these initiatives. Berthon and Webb describe a meeting of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries in 1998 chaired by a librarian from the Library of Congress to investigate these issues.

In Australia, the PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information) Working Group has been formed and the National Library of Australia maintains its website. The aim is to identify the main issues being addressed, the main groups involved, and the main directions being explored.

To provide specialised staff to offer instruction and assistance in interpreting resources and access to resources

Information retrieval is the most obvious skill a librarian demonstrates to the public. The increasing sophistication of search engine design is creating an environment where anyone can, at varying levels of efficiency retrieve information from the internet. It has been suggested that the skills of the reference librarian are becoming superfluous (Odlyzko, 1996). However, without professional guidance many searchers, particularly novice internet-users, do not exploit the full potential of search engines and consequently do not retrieve all the relevant information available to them. Pollock and Hockley (1997) examined the use of the internet by internet-naïve but PC-literate users and concluded that to execute successful searches, internet users need at least a basic understanding of internet searching concepts, but also very high levels of support - from a librarian or other experienced internet searcher.

McMillan (2000) notes that within the university environment, undergraduate students can be seduced by the convenience of information available through the internet and the intervention of the librarian can teach the difference between intellectual access and electronic access. She observed that librarians 'teach information discrimination through personalised research assistance, guidance, and instruction'.

Librarians working at integrating new technologies to form the virtual library are discovering an increasing demand for their professional skills. Cunnington (1998) describes the experience at the University of Melbourne in creating a single electronic gateway to the university library's plethora of electronic information resources. One of the documented outcomes of the introduction of the new gateway included greater and more sophisticated demands by users, and a greater emphasis for customer service staff in the selection of electronic resources and instruction of users.

McMillan (2000) observes that the librarian 'makes a significant contribution, often defining the search, honing the researcher's goals, and helping the researchers to understand their needs'. She believes the value of human expertise, judgment and empathy are integral to the development of the electronic library environment. Wood and Walther (2000) also noted that rather than rendering the librarian obsolete, 'the digital revolution has made librarians all the more essential'. Hawkins (1998) observed that as the information explosion continues, everyone will need more help finding, sorting and filtering the available material.

The virtual library environment provides both an opportunity and a requirement for librarians to develop greater familiarity with IT-type skills. Garrod and Sidgreaves (1998) conducted research in the United Kingdom on the impact IT is having on the skills required of librarians working in the electronic and networked information resources environment. They concluded that staff working in different areas of university libraries required different skills. Paraprofessional staff required practical 'hands on' experience and training. Librarians are moving into database development, courseware, open learning and academic staff development and need a combination of knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and personal qualities in order to fill their multi-faceted roles.

Economic impact

The economic implications of the developing virtual library are varied and complex. On the one hand, libraries are facing immense increases in budget requirements for the necessary equipment to provide access to electronic and networked services. Another cost, which is less obvious and immediate, is the increasing demands on librarians to develop and evaluate resources in new formats, often without a corresponding increase in staffing to offset their 'new' responsibilities. On the other hand, the ability to network resources and provide digital versions of previously printed material provides the opportunity to reduce the costs of some resources and services.

The drop in value of the Australian dollar, the spiralling increase in costs of monographs and serials, and the increasing cost of staff salaries in an era of enterprise bargaining has brought about a funding crisis for libraries. The economic crisis is not restricted to Australian libraries; Baker (1997) observed that his own library at the University of East Anglia in Britain, 'was acquiring forty per cent of what we acquired twenty years ago, but spending three times as much money doing so'.

More flexible methods of document delivery are one of the key attractions of the virtual library. A concept of just-in-time information delivery, rather than just-in-case (Baker, 1997) where library patrons can identify required material from a workstation, order it, and wait for its delivery back to the workstation. Such a model can save a library the cost of exorbitant serials subscriptions as well as the associated costs of housing back runs of printed serials.

Monash University has addressed the spiralling serials subscription costs by developing a system for resource sharing called MEADS (Monash Electronic Access and Delivery of Serials). Using a web-based document delivery service, library patrons can access cancelled serial titles (Lim, 1998). After only an eighteen-month trial, considerable savings were already evident.

Yet a view that the technology revolution will provide significant decreases in budget requirements is overly optimistic (Wood and Walther, 2000). The infrastructure needed to support the many technological developments forms a significant component of today's library budget - an item not previously necessary. The cost not only of computers, printers, scanners, and associated cabling, but the physical space in which to provide these workstations, is considerable. This equipment is expensive to install and maintain, and the cost of upgrading or replacing must be anticipated, as the rate of technological change is increasingly rapid. Schuyler (1999) advises that libraries should plan on replacing all computers on a four-year cycle. He describes the rate of change as no longer incremental (where we can expect more of the same, only better), but rather, fast and furious. 'The library of 2010 is going to be a lot more different from the library of 2000 than the library of 2000 is from the library of 1990'.

Libraries spend a significant proportion of their budgets on salaries. Hawkins (1998) warns that a prudent library planner should expect increases rather than decreases in the human capital needed to help people navigate the digital information network. As demonstrated here, the need for the skills of the librarian in seeking, accessing, and evaluating information is likely to increase rather than decline. The challenge for the library administrator is likely to be in redeploying skilled staff into these new service areas, reassessing the need for traditional library services, and providing a fine balance of the 'old' and the 'new' in terms of services and resources.

Conclusion

Librarians are professionals trained in the acquisition, organisation, retrieval, and dissemination of information. In essence, the practice of librarianship in the virtual library environment will not be very different from that in the traditional print-based library. The librarian's role will continue to include selection of suitable resources, providing access to such resources, offering instruction and assistance to patrons in interpreting resources, and preserving both the medium and the information contained therein. Librarians will also continue their role in the broader arena of society in representing issues of access to information to governments and other decision-making bodies.

Issues that are new to librarians in the virtual library environment are related to the new technologies making digital libraries possible, and the techniques necessary to deliver new forms of information resources and services. In providing access to information, the librarian in the virtual library environment must consider the requirements of any digital resources - any hardware or software necessary, the most effective way to refer patrons to the resource, and whether availability is limited to a defined user group. Young (1998) called this the 'knowledge navigator' role. In navigating access to knowledge, librarians in the virtual library are confronted with the repercussions of the shift from 'ownership to access', and the resulting rights to access considerations which must be specified and negotiated in contracts and licenses.

The virtual library environment requires a new technical set of competencies for librarians which were not previously required. Skills such as creating web pages, building and maintaining computer networks, designing search interfaces are sought after in today's library employment market. Indeed, Schuyler (1999) advises, 'the next librarian you hire should have significant web skills'. The level of technical sophistication required by librarians in the virtual library environment is already leading to a blurring of distinctions with computing professionals. As the virtual library environment continues to develop there may be an even greater demand for professional staff with either computing or librarian qualifications.[5]

Along with the need for technical skills is the ability 'to cultivate a level of comfort with ambiguity and change' (Rice-Livy and Racine, 1997). One characteristic of the virtual library which librarians must accommodate is the rapidly changing and evolving nature of the environment. This environment is subject to immense change very quickly, and a key role for the librarian in the future will be the ability to adapt and to work effectively in such an environment.

McMillan (1999) presented a manifesto for the librarian of the virtual library:

We have new roles to fill. While the format of our resources may change, while access to information may change, while styles of service may change, the vision of high quality, service-oriented, information centres still fits the library's mission. We will serve our user communities best if we incorporate this into the [digital library].

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Endnotes

1. Crawford and Gorman (1995) provide a hypothetical example of digitising the New Yorker and PC Magazine to 'prove' the impracticality of universal conversion of printed resources into digital resources.

2. Encyclopaedia Britannica at http://www.britannica.com provides a detailed history of the development and role of libraries.

3. This statement is contained within a submission from the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media to the European Parliament titled 'Report on the Role of Libraries in the Modern World' available online: http://www.publiclibraries.fi/publications/report.htm

4. ALIA's submission: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/laca/digitalagenda/Sub47.pdf

CAVAL's submission: http://online.anu.edu.au/caul/gov-inqu/dig-agenda99.html

Council of Australian State Libraries submission: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/laca/digitalagenda/Sub10councilstatelib.pdf

5. During interviews conducted for the SKIP Project (Garrod and Sidgreaves, 1998), one senior manager stated that library qualifications were never specified when advertising posts.

Liz Burke is currently divisional librarian, Reference and Information Services at La Trobe University Library. She has recently completed a Masters in Information Management and Systems at Monash University. Liz has a range of experience in academic libraries including positions as reference librarian, liaison librarian, and campus librarian. Contact: l.burke@latrobe.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address); phone 61 3 9479 1926; fax 61 3 9471 0993.