Abstract
Abstract Academic libraries are under a severe pressure of transforming towards a novel form of information organization. Book circulation, learning space and licensing digital content continue to be core services. But the sciences and the humanities are increasingly requesting support for their novel publishing activities. Open Access in science or digital editions in the humanities, and data-intensive operations in research, e.g. data management plans, research software support or data curation and preservation services become mission critical. Thus, in order to stay the central partner for academic information within the institution, libraries need to change. But how fast could libraries possibly change, if the existing services were also to be continued, particularly considering that budget increases are rare? Experiences at the State and University Library Göttingen (SUB) shall elucidate opportunities and challenges.
Highlights
Innovation in scholarly communication is rapid and disruptive
Dozens of new services have been introduced over the last years that are crucial in research but not regularly supported by librarians
The State and University Library Göttingen (SUB) is currently undergoing an unprecedented transformation from a local service organization to a global player in academic information
Summary
Innovation in scholarly communication is rapid and disruptive. Dozens of new services have been introduced over the last years that are crucial in research but not regularly supported by librarians. Alone, for the transformation from subscription models to Open Access in the STM journal market, more than ten substantial new services can be identified. Research data management is increasingly considered as a major new field to be taken on by libraries. And the pipeline of global technology for innovation is full, with sometimes erratic, disruptive and unpredictable implications for libraries. The questions, are: 1. Do libraries transform fast enough and have a sufficiently precise model for strategically steering transformation? 2. In the arbitrary example of introducing a campus reference service for research data management with 1 FTE in the library, the following steps would have to be taken: (i) a post from a staff member going into pension or leaving the organization would have to be free, (ii) a new person could be appointed or an existing staff member takes over, (iii) former tasks of the leaving or re-positioned staff member are either discontinued or efficiencies are found by distributing the tasks to other staff members. The SUB is currently undergoing an unprecedented transformation from a local service organization to a global player in academic information It is today a massively digitized enterprise that provides, on average, one service each second of the year to 44,000 local users and much wider a global audience – it engages in research in ways not yet to be found regularly in libraries. In absence of a German national library before the 19th and 20th century, large libraries in Germany share responsibilities for maintaining and developing collections in certain temporal periods as a distributed national library system, in which the SUB takes care of the 18th century
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