Research Article
An Analysis of Academic Libraries’ Participation in
21st Century Library Trends
Amy
Jo Catalano
Associate
Professor, Teaching Learning and Technology
Hofstra
University
Hempstead,
New York, United States of America
Email:
Amy.Catalano@Hofstra.edu
Sarah
Glasser
Associate
Professor
Joan
and Donald Axinn Library
Hofstra
University
Hempstead,
New York, United States of America
Email:
Sarah.Glasser@Hofstra.edu
Lori
Caniano
Adjunct
Professor
Swirbul
Library
Adelphi
University
Garden
City, New York, United States of America
Email:
lcaniano@adelphi.edu
William
Caniano
Associate
Professor
Joan
and Donald Axinn Library
Hempstead,
New York, United States of America
Email:
William.Caniano@Hofstra.edu
Lawrence
Paretta
Email:
lparetta82@gmail.com
Received: 18 May 2018 Accepted:
17 July 2018
2018 Catalano,
Glasser, Caniano, Caniano, and Paretta.. This is an Open
Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
DOI: 10.18438/eblip29332
Abstract
Objective – As academic libraries evolve to meet the changing needs of students in
the digital age, the emphasis has shifted from the physical book collection to
a suite of services incorporating innovations in teaching, technology, and
social media, among others. Based on trends identified by the Association of
College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and other sources, the authors
investigated the extent to which academic libraries have adopted 21st century
library trends.
Methods – The authors examined the websites of 100 Association of Research
Libraries (ARL) member libraries, their branches, and 160 randomly selected
academic libraries to determine whether they adopted selected 21st century library
trends.
Results – Results indicated that ARL member libraries were significantly more
likely to adopt these trends, quite possibly due to their larger size and
larger budgets.
Conclusion – This research can assist librarians, library directors, and other
stakeholders in making the case for the adoption or avoidance of particular
21st century library trends, especially where considerable outlay of funds is
necessary.
Introduction
As
academic libraries evolve to meet the changing needs of students in the digital
age, the emphasis has shifted from the physical book collection to a suite of services
incorporating innovations in teaching, technology, and social media. These
services tend to facilitate creativity, engagement, and the ability to access
resources anywhere any time (Andrews et al., 2016). While there is much
“crystal ball gazing,” little assessment of how academic libraries have come to
implement 21st century trends has taken place (Garofalo, Johnston,
& Lupold, 2015). Data collection efforts such as those conducted by
organizations like the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) describe what libraries have
done or what researchers and faculty want, but they do not operationalize what
a 21st century library looks like. In this study, the authors first
identified the most commonly cited trends that comprise 21st century
libraries, then evaluated the websites of over 300 academic libraries to
determine the extent to which they adopted these trends. The 300+ sample
included a mix of ARL member libraries, ARL branch libraries, and randomly
selected non-ARL academic libraries. The authors also investigated which
institutional factors, such as number of librarians on staff, budget,
collection size, institution size, and institution status (private versus
public), predicted the adoption of these trends.
A
review of the literature indicated no single definition or description of a
21st century library. Garofalo et al. (2015) advocated focusing on “engagement”
and striving to connect with patrons, whether it be through personalized
librarians, shared spaces, or collaboration with other services like writing
centers. Leong (2013) also supported community engagement and outreach as a 21st
century library goal. One particularly innovative way some libraries are
engaging their patrons is by creating makerspaces, which encourage exploration
and innovation by allowing people to create, build, and experiment with a variety
of equipment, software programs, and tools (Harris & Cooper, 2015; Herron
& Kaneshiro, 2017; Nichols, Melo, & Dewland, 2017).
In
the book Leading the 21st
Century Academic Library, edited by Bradford Lee Eden (2015), contributors
described emerging positions that require technological skills capable of
engaging in online learning, data management, digital collections such as
institutional repositories, and other technologies to provide new services.
Other topics include pursuing open education resources and ways to increase
student engagement in library instruction.
Emerging
staff positions, data management, digital scholarship, and open education
resources are also mentioned in the Association of College and Research
Libraries (ACRL)’s report “2016 Top Trends in Academic Libraries” (2017). The
ACRL report further noted activities and services in the areas of research data
services (RDS), information literacy and evidence of learning, collection
assessment, altmetrics, and the use of social media. Tenopir et al. (2015) looked
specifically at research data services (RDS) in relation to library
demographics and found that they are more common in four-year and research
universities than two-year institutions. As would be expected, Tenopir et al.
note that research universities are more likely to employ RDS.
Sewell
and Kingsley (2017) noted that academic librarianship is moving away from
curation of material and into support for research with new staff skills needed
in areas such as research data management and curation of open access
resources. These shifts are confirmed by ACRL’s trends toward data management
services, digital scholarship/institutional repository support, and emerging
staff positions with skills in scholarly and digital communications, knowledge
management, data management, digital humanities, and geographic information
systems (ACRL, 2017). The American Library Association’s (ALA) The State of America's Libraries report
(Rosa, 2016) confirmed this further, noting that academic libraries are
“embracing new responsibilities in such areas as scholarly communication,
digital archives, data curation, digital humanities, visualization, and
born-digital objects” (p. 3) as well as working in areas like altmetrics and
research data management.
An important recent initiative in
information literacy and evidence of learning is the Assessment in Action (AiA)
program lead by ACRL. AiA challenged participating institutions to plan and
implement projects “that aligned with institutional priorities and contributed
to campus assessment activities” (Brown, 2017, p. 1). The three-year program
produced several documents describing multiple ways in which libraries can
positively impact student success. ACRL’s report documents five areas where the
library had a particularly positive impact on student learning and success, two
of which concern information literacy instruction and one that concerns library
partnerships with other campus units such as writing centers (Brown, 2017).
Innovative
or non-traditional reference services are another area that could be considered
a 21st century library trend. Increasingly, academic librarians are developing
new and innovative ways to reach their patrons, whether finding students and
faculty where they are (e.g., dorms and academic buildings outside the library)
or through virtual services such as chat or LibAnswers (via Springshare).
MacDonald and McCabe (2011) reported on a service called iRoaming in which
librarians walk around the library with tablets to assist patrons at point of
need. Other libraries have employed
tablets mounted on robots which telechat to provide reference services remotely
(Hartsell-Gundy, Johnson, & Kromer, 2015). Coleman, Mallon, and Lo (2016)
investigated the impact of innovative reference services at academic libraries
and found that many libraries have developed alternate ways of reaching patrons
including using a cooperative reference service, methods for making
appointments with librarians, creation of an FAQ, and creation of a blog to enable
patrons to see answers to questions already asked. Finally, Li (2013) discussed
how distance education has caused reference services to adjust, offering
various virtual reference services such as chat, videoconferencing, voice-over
IP, co-browsing, instant messaging, use of a toll-free telephone number, and
email.
While
libraries are addressing the needs of the 21st century learner in
many ways, a review of the literature reveals a consensus to include some of
the following: digital scholarship (including institutional repositories), data
management services, makerspaces, evidence of learning with respect to
information literacy instruction, innovative staffing with an emphasis on
technology or digital services, engagement with open access resources (e.g.,
curation of open educational resources via a Libguide), collaboration with
other departments, innovative reference services, altmetrics, and the use of
social media. In what follows, the authors describe an assessment of 314
academic libraries as to their adoption of some of these 21st
century trends using the following research questions to guide our inquiry:
·
What
21st century trends have the libraries in our sample adopted?
·
Are
ARL libraries more likely to adopt 21st century trends than branches
of ARLs or non-ARL members?
·
What
factors predict the likelihood of an academic library adopting 21st
century library trends?
Methods
Trends
Selected
Based
on the literature review and examination of academic library websites for
information commonly available on websites, the authors chose the following
eight 21st century library trends to look for in this study: research data
services (RDS), digital scholarship (including institutional repository),
makerspace, emerging staff positions, open educational resources, distance
learner services, non-traditional reference services, and use of social media.
Additionally, the authors checked for related variables they felt important to
explore, such as whether the library offered research design and analysis help
(not just reference assistance), collaborated with a campus writing center,
offered specific services for international students or students with disabilities,
loaned out devices such as laptops and tablets, and had a mobile-friendly
website.
Sample
The
sample included a combination of libraries that are members of the ARL,
libraries at branches of ARL membership institutions but not ARL members themselves,
and non-ARL libraries. ARL is an organization of 123 research libraries in the
United States and Canada. ARL libraries share similar research missions and
make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace. They
are typically at larger, comprehensive, research institutions (ARL, 2017). ARL
libraries were used as a variable in this study because they may be more likely
to adopt these trends due to their typically higher budgets and their mission
to support research. The total sample included the 100 ARL libraries at
institutions in the United States (Canada was excluded due to our sampling
decision to only study the United States), 54 libraries that are branches of
ARL member institutions but not ARL libraries themselves, and 160 randomly
selected, non-ARL libraries. The final sample consisted of 314 libraries from
post-secondary institutions in the United States.
To
obtain the random sample of non-ARL libraries, a full list of all 3,148
four-year institutions was drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education
Data System (IPEDS). Entries for any institutions that closed were removed.
Technical schools were also filtered out, as the authors were interested in
academic institutions only. This brought the list to 1,653, from which the ARL
libraries and their branches were removed. The authors then used an online
random number generator to randomly select 200 libraries from the list, 160 of
which were ultimately included in the sample. The 40 that were excluded were
branches where all data appeared the same for the whole school system (i.e.,
the system shares one library).
It
is important to clarify that for university systems with several branches, only
the branches designated as members of ARL have ARL status. Being a branch of an
ARL library does not automatically confer ARL membership to that branch. In
some cases, all branches of an ARL library are members (e.g., Rutgers).
However, in many cases the branches of ARL libraries do not have ARL membership
(e.g., campuses of the University of Michigan other than the main campus in Ann
Arbor). In order to add this variable into the data analysis, the branches of
ARL libraries that were not ARL members themselves were coded separately. This
allowed the authors to test whether being a part of a system with an ARL member
may have benefits not afforded to non-ARL affiliated libraries.
Procedure
The
authors visited the website of each school in the sample in order to ascertain
whether the trends described above were adopted by the libraries. Although
surveying librarians at the sample institutions would have allowed us to gather
more complete data on trend adoption, the method we utilized allowed for 100%
representation of our selected sample.
Prior
to data collection, the research team went through a period of training. During
the first session, the team collected data for 10 libraries to develop a method
for searching for each variable completely. Teams of 2 researchers were then
assigned 15 libraries. Each team member filled out the data collection
worksheet separately. Those worksheets were returned to the first author who
calculated interrater reliability (IRR). IRR was computed by calculating the
number of responses that were in agreement out of the entire sample for each pair
of raters using an Excel spreadsheet. The first team demonstrated 92% agreement
in their responses. This team then reviewed places of disagreement to determine
where agreement could be improved. IRR
for the second team had 73% agreement, which was lower than desirable so that
team retrained and worked together on an additional set of libraries in order
to norm their responses. After retraining, the IRR for the second team was
recalculated on a new sample of 20 schools which resulted in 90% agreement. After
all teams demonstrated that their data collection was reliable, each researcher
was assigned a set of libraries on which to collect data. After all data were
returned to the first author, who managed and analyzed the data, each library
website and data line for that website was cursorily checked to ensure that the
other researchers did not miss any data. Additionally, the first researcher
randomly selected libraries assigned to each team member to check the data
collection more thoroughly. Through these procedures, the reliability of the
data can be affirmed.
The
next portion of the data collection included pulling institutional and library
characteristics from IPEDS. These data included institution size (FTE student
enrollment), whether private or public, Carnegie classifications, highest
degree granted, library budget for salaries, materials and operations,
physical, electronic, and media collection size, and circulation statistics of
these items. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.
Results
Description
of the Sample
A
total of 314 schools were investigated. The sample included 160 randomly
selected schools, the 100 ARL member United States libraries, and 54 branch
libraries of the ARL libraries. Although a portion of the sample was randomly
selected, 48 of 50 states were represented.
Description
of Trend Adoption by Library Type
Trend
adoption varied by library type (ARL, branch, non-ARL). ARL libraries more
often adopted most trends, except for distance learning/learner services. The
numbers presented in Table 1 are raw numbers and not percentages. Therefore,
since there are 100 ARL libraries, 84 of which have an institutional repository
(IR), 84% of ARL libraries have an IR, while 26% (n = 41) of non-ARL libraries
have an IR. Sixty-six percent (n = 66)
of ARL libraries openly support OER, while only 26% (n = 42) of non-ARL
libraries do. RDS, a relatively new
service among academic libraries, has only been adopted by 10 non-ARL libraries
(6%), while 73 ARL libraries (73%) offer such services. Makerspaces too have
seen limited adoption in all libraries: 39% (n = 39) of ARL libraries have a
makerspace while 11% of non-ARL libraries (n = 18) offer these services. Most
libraries (n = 92 for both ARL and non-ARL libraries) had a social media presence;
similarly, most libraries offered some form of non-traditional reference. Most
non-traditional reference included chat or LibAnswers, but also personal
librarian services, delivering reference service in the residence halls,
Twitter, and other virtual forms of chat.
Emerging
staff positions as defined by ACRL include scholarly communications, digital
projects, data management, user experience, technical support, digital
humanities, and learning commons librarians (ACRL, 2016). Although ACRL’s top
trends noted knowledge management librarian as an up-and-coming position, and
one for which ACRL commonly found job descriptions, no such position was found
at any of the libraries in our study.
Table
1
21st
Century Trends by Library Type (ARL, ARL branch, non-ARL)
|
IR/Digital
Scholarship |
Emerging
Staff Positions |
Social
Media |
RDS |
Maker-space |
OER |
DL
Services (to DL students) |
Non-Traditional
Reference (e.g., chat, virtual, Twitter) |
Non-ARL
Libraries (n= 160) |
41 |
50 |
92 |
10 |
18 |
42 |
42 |
88 |
ARL
Libraries (n = 100) |
84 |
85 |
92 |
73 |
39 |
66 |
41 |
91 |
ARL
Branches (n = 44) |
32 |
23 |
34 |
8 |
10 |
27 |
17 |
38 |
Total |
157 |
158 |
218 |
91 |
67 |
135 |
100 |
217 |
Trend
scores that ranged from 0-8 were calculated for each library. One point was
given for each of the eight trends adopted. The mean trend score for the entire
sample was 3.6 with a standard deviation of 2.2. Mean trend scores for each
group are as follows: Non-ARL, 2.4; ARL, 5.7; branch, 3.6. Although no benefit
of ARL membership is assigned to libraries that are branches of, or in the same
university system as, an ARL, branch scores were moderately higher than non-ARL
affiliated libraries. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant
differences between these three groups on the trend scores (F (2,308) = 112.811, p < 0.001).
Description
of Library Characteristics by Library Type
The
data from IPEDS is reported in Tables 2-4 as means by library type (ARL, ARL
branch, non-ARL). Several outliers from non-ARL libraries were removed as they
greatly impacted the means superficially. For example, 2 institutions reported
over 100,000 electronic databases where the means for electronic databases for
ARL libraries without these 2 outliers were 890 and 156 for non-ARL libraries,
indicating either an error in reporting or an uncommon method of characterizing
an electronic database. As expected, ARL libraries and their branches reported
higher means for economic factors, particularly with respect to staff salaries.
Interestingly, the amount of money spent on salaries was similar to the amount
of money spent on materials and services for all three library types. For
library collection sizes (reported in Table 3), ARL libraries and their
branches possessed greater numbers of each material type, almost by a factor of
five, over non-ARL libraries. Physical book collections were exponentially
larger for ARL libraries than for non-ARL libraries, with the former housing a
mean of 4,399,197 while non-ARL libraries housed an average of 326,572.
Table
2
Library
Expenditures on Staff, Materials, and Operations
Library
Type |
N |
Avg.
Total Salaries |
Avg.
Total Materials/Services Expenditures |
Avg.
Total Operations and Maintenance |
Avg.
Total Expenditures |
Non-ARL |
151 |
980,016 |
898,717 |
157,130 |
2,207,241 |
ARL |
99 |
12,308,587 |
12,814,542 |
4,007,414 |
32,185,023 |
Branch |
46 |
1,413,746 |
1,363,755 |
276,372 |
3,313,217 |
Table 3
Size
of Library Collections
|
N |
Avg.
Number of Physical Books |
Avg.
Number of Electronic Books |
Avg.
Number of Electronic Databases |
Avg.
Number of Physical Media |
Avg. Number
of Electronic Media |
Non-ARL |
157 |
326,572 |
197,348 |
156 |
46,492 |
46,036 |
ARL |
99 |
4,399,197 |
1,001,269 |
890 |
1,618,960 |
179,977 |
Branch |
45 |
413,957 |
345,059 |
262 |
130,438 |
45,540 |
Table
4
Circulation
of Materials
|
N |
Avg.
Total Physical Library Circulation |
Avg.
Total Digital/Electronic Circulation (Media
and Books) |
Avg.
Total Library Circulation |
Non-ARL |
151 |
29,088 |
186,473 |
215,562 |
ARL |
99 |
220,414 |
2,107,993 |
2,328,408 |
Branch |
46 |
28,056 |
377,357 |
404,762 |
Factors
that Impact Adoption of 21st Century Trends
A
multiple regression was conducted to determine which of the following
institutional variables impacted an institution’s likelihood of adopting 21st
century trends: designation as ARL/non-ARL/branch, private or public status,
student FTE, and Carnegie classification. Library characteristics that were
examined included physical collection size, database collection size, e-book
collection size, salary for staff, and total operations budget. An initial
analysis revealed ARL status, Carnegie classification, operations budget, and
student FTE as the significant variables among those entered. An additional
analysis was conducted with only these four variables entered. This analysis of
the 292 schools for which we had complete data (some schools were removed
because branches shared reported resources) confirmed that those 4 variables
contributed to trend adoption. A significant model was fit (F (4, 290) =
63.538, p < .0001), with an R2 of .467. Trend scores are equal to 1.110, +
537 (ARL status) + -.037 (Carnegie classification) + .853 (student FTE) is
equal to 1.110, Carnegie classification is equal to -.037 (meaning that
classification had an inverse relationship), and student FTE is equal to .853.
This analysis did not show that total operations expenditures were a
significant predictor indicating that this variable was associated with other
variables such as student FTE. In sum, each variable contributed some portion
of the trend score. For example, trend scores increased .537 points for each school
with ARL member status.
Because
the goals of an ARL member are notably different than non-ARL libraries, a
second analysis looked at the factors that impacted adoption of trends among
non-ARL libraries only. This analysis included the following predictor
variables: total operations expenditures, expenditures on materials,
expenditures on salaries, number of physical books, number of electronic books,
number of electronic databases, student FTE, and Carnegie Classification. In
this analysis, salary expenditures were a significant predictor of trend scores
at p =0.05. The model fit (F [8, 141]) = 8.568, p < .0001, with an R-squared
value of .327. In other words, library staffing allowed for support of trend
adoption.
Other
Trends Observed
In
addition to the eight trends included in the trend score calculation, the
authors collected data on other, related variables that the authors thought
were important to explore. These are reported below in Tables 5 and 6 and
include trends related to staffing positions and services.
Table
5
Other
Common Staff Positions Found at Academic Libraries but Not Identified as a 21st
Century Trend
|
Outreach
Librarian |
First
Year Librarian |
GIS
Librarian |
Distance
Ed. Librarian |
Embedded
Librarian |
Instructional
Coordinator |
Non-ARL
Libraries (n= 160) |
27 |
4 |
3 |
11 |
10 |
39 |
ARL
Libraries (n =
100) |
38 |
19 |
40 |
11 |
6 |
35 |
ARL
Branches (n =
44) |
13 |
3 |
3 |
7 |
7 |
14 |
Total
(n =
304) |
78 |
26 |
48 |
29 |
23 |
88 |
Table
6
Other
Services
|
Research
Design and Analysis Help |
Writing
Center Collaboration |
Services
for International Students |
Disabilities
Services |
Device
Loan |
Mobile
Website |
Non-ARL
Libraries (n=
160) |
5 |
31 |
5 |
31 |
43 |
123 |
ARL
Libraries (n =
100) |
44 |
43 |
20 |
66 |
68 |
89 |
ARL
Branches (n =
44) |
7 |
22 |
8 |
24 |
31 |
44 |
Total (n =
304) |
56 |
96 |
33 |
121 |
142 |
256 |
Discussion
A
total of 314 websites of academic libraries were analyzed to determine the
extent to which these libraries adopted 21st century trends. For ARL
libraries the most common trends were research data services (RDS), IR/digital
scholarship, and innovative reference. For non-ARL libraries, emerging staff,
IR/digital scholarship, and innovative reference were the most commonly adopted
trends. These findings are also supported by the regression analysis in which
it was demonstrated that the money spent on library staffing at an institution
was the only significant predictor of trend score.
ARL
libraries were more likely to adopt 21st century library trends than
non-ARL libraries, due to the size and budget of the institution. Most
importantly, however, the goals of ARL libraries to support research likely
drive the adoption of these trends. It is important to note that comparisons among
ARL and non-ARL libraries may not be suitable because non-ARL libraries include
a wide variety of sizes of institutions (from very small private to very large
public), while ARL libraries are typically larger schools with a larger average
FTE.
Additionally, because ARL libraries are larger
and better funded, they are often early adopters. Simply put, they can afford to be wrong about
a trend. Many libraries that do not have budgets flexible enough to tolerate
chasing a trend that may turn out to be a fad, will wait until the trend is
supported by the literature or becomes so commonplace in other libraries that
students expect it. In this way, ARL libraries can influence the trajectory of
certain trends. This dynamic can be seen in the research conducted for this
article. For every new service or job title, the ARL libraries have adopted
them in greater number.
One of the more commonly adopted trends by ARL
over non-ARL libraries is IR/digital scholarship. IRs can be prohibitively
expensive and/or technologically challenging to operate. Smaller and less well funded libraries may
find these significant barriers to adoption. Interestingly, OERs, which are
about leveraging free resources and therefore appealing to the cost conscious,
were more readily adopted by ARL than non-ARL libraries. One reason for this
might be a lack of sufficient staff. While OERs themselves are free resources,
it takes time and expertise to vet them, clarify any copyright provisions, and
keep up with the constantly changing and expanding OER landscape.
Data on services other than the eight 21st
century trends are represented in tables 5 and 6. As with social media, the
adoption of mobile websites is ubiquitous enough to be considered a new
standard in website design. Out of this seemingly eclectic group of services,
the most commonly adopted service is device loans, with 68 out of 100 (68%) ARL
libraries, 31 out of 44 (70%) ARL branches, and 43 out of 160 (27%) non-ARL
libraries offering this service. To more thoroughly examine this trend,
research into the types of devices being loaned and what the circulation
statistics are, is needed. The second
most popular service trend for non-ARL libraries are writing center
collaborations and disability services. For ARL libraries, disability services
are also the second most popular. These trends, together and in conjunction
with the growing number of Outreach Librarian positions (38% of ARL libraries,
30% ARL branches, and 17% of non-ARL libraries), show the growing importance of
outreach and external collaboration.
Interestingly, while the above-mentioned collaboration services are on
the rise, adoption of collaboration with international students appears to be
lagging; it is the least likely service trend for both ARL and non-ARL
libraries. This may be a weakness in solely examining library websites, as
library subject specialists may very well be conducting outreach to this group
without it being represented in their job titles. Further research could
compare the number of international students enrolled in the schools sampled.
For ARL libraries, the third most adopted service trend was research design and
analysis assistance. As previously mentioned with respect to RDS, this trend
reflects the importance ARL institutions place on conducting research.
Another interesting observation is the number of
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Librarian positions at ARL libraries
(40%). This is a relatively new area that seems to have become quite popular as
more research in done using geospatial data. It can require significant
technological knowledge, which may explain why it is not a high-ranking trend
for non-ARL libraries or ARL branches (2% and 7% respectively). While not
identified as a 21st century trend for this paper, it is a trend
worth watching.
If we were to distill the findings of this
study, a strong case could be made that the most important and popular trends
are supporting and curating IRs/digital scholarship and outreach/external
collaboration. If we look to ARL libraries as trend setters in the library
profession, it is clear that IR/digital scholarship is the most pressing
trend.
Although the 2018 ACRL analysis of emerging
trends was published prior to the data collection in this study, it showed that
some focus has shifted to fake news and information literacy, and legacy print
collections, while trends that remain the same are project management, open
access resources, data management and data collection, and patron driven
collections.
Limitations
The
method of this study, while allowing for 100% participation of the selected
sample, has some weaknesses. Two trends that the authors could not assess
through this method was collection development assessment and evidence of
learning. Although some websites included information about information
literacy assessment, the authors could not be certain that this particular
trend would be found consistently on a website. A survey would have allowed a
better assessment of these trends. It is recommended that future research
validate the results of this study through more interactive means. Lastly, the
eight trends selected for the trend score, while supported by the library
literature, are somewhat subjective in that there may be multiple ways to
assess one variable. For example, although we could not determine the use of
altmetrics, a social media presence was a clue that libraries were using common
and modern methods of connecting with patrons. It is important to note that due
to random selection, a portion of the non-ARL libraries are in small
institutions and are therefore poorly compared to the larger ARL libraries.
Implications
and Recommendations for Future Research
The
implications for library practice and policy as a result of this research
primarily point to the need for professional development of library staff in
order to be able to support these new trends, particularly with an emphasis on
technology and research support. Future
research should continue to analyze adoption of these trends and others to both
validate the results written here and to establish a model of prediction. Such
models can assist libraries in avoiding costly mistakes and adopting trends that
are appropriate for their library type and budget.
Conclusion
To
define and assess what 21st century academic libraries look like,
the authors identified the most commonly cited 21st century library
trends and evaluated the websites of over 300 academic libraries to determine
the extent to which they adopted these trends. The authors visited the websites
of all ARL member libraries in the United States, their branches, and 160
randomly selected academic libraries that are not ARL libraries. The primary goal
of this study was to identify the extent to which the libraries in the sample
reflected the status of a 21st century library, as defined by
adoption of the trends discussed above. Additionally, the study sought to
determine whether ARL libraries were more likely to adopt these trends over
non-ARL libraries. Lastly, regardless of ARL status, the authors investigated
which institutional factors, such as number of librarians on staff, budget,
collection size, student FTE, and institution status (private versus public),
predicted the adoption of 21st century trends. Results indicated
that ARL member libraries were significantly more likely to adopt these trends,
quite possibly due to their larger size and larger budgets. This research can
assist librarians, library directors and other stakeholders in making the case
for the adoption or avoidance of some trends, especially where considerable
outlay of funds is necessary.
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