Special report: symposium on transformational change in health sciences libraries: space, collections, and roles

Abstract

In November 2003, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) cosponsored a symposium, “The Library as Place: Building and Revitalizing Health Sciences Libraries in the Digital Age,” focusing on the question: “What is the role of the library in the twenty-first century?” After two days of presentations and discussions, symposium participants concluded “that both the print and the virtual electronic library are here to stay.” As Deanna Marcum observed, “The library will certainly change. And its need for space may significantly shrink. But the digital era, far from ending the physical library, may free it to facilitate learning rather than to house shelves—and may free those who work within the library spaces to do less book processing and more learning facilitation” [1]. In the summer of 2008, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), as a follow-up to the NLM/AAHSL symposium, announced their intention to fund a regional conference about library space planning and solicited applications for their Library Space and Its Impact Conference Award. In response to this solicitation, the George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library (Harrell HSL) applied for and received the award. The announcement proved to be timely: The Harrell HSL was in the process of repurposing 10,000 square feet of library space into the new Penn State Hershey Clinical Simulation Center [2, 3]. The Harrell HSL experience provided a firsthand, real-life example of the issues faced by libraries in a rapidly changing environment. The award funded a one-day library space planning conference, held in April 2009, which was offered to librarians both regionally and nationally.