Digital Age and Library

¶ … Digital Age Horava (2010) begins his study by asking, "What is collection management in the digital age?" (p. 142). The question is important because digital technology has disrupted so many sectors and changed the way all organizations conduct business. Assessing the impact of this technology on library science and, in particularly, on collection management is a way to better maintain a grasp on current environments, community expectations and organizational possibilities.

What the researcher finds is that the digital age has transformed the way in which scholarly communications are shared, the manner in which information technology is utilized in collection practices, and has expanded options regarding information-seeking for library patrons thanks to the rise of the Internet as a mega-database.

Driving Forces of Collection Management The study notes that one of the driving forces of earlier collection management practices was "pride and prestige" -- i.e., libraries competed with one another to have prized collections -- highly sought after materials (Horava, 2010, p. 143). Today, however, prestige has somewhat been neutralized by the great equalizer that is the Internet: in the digital age, virtually everyone has access to the same materials that can be shared from any place in the world.

Users upload previously hard to find information and make it available at the click of a button. Clearly this ease of access has an effect on how collections are managed in libraries and while "quality and quantity were interwoven values" for collections managers, the same cannot be said to be the case -- at least completely -- in today's digital age (Horava, 2010, p. 143).

One way that libraries are changing their collection management practices is through the development and implementation of resource-sharing networks, the focusing of attention on the collection of digital materials that educators and students can use, and the providing of free digital media resources to patrons for lending (Horava, 2010). The main issue related to these changes is the age-old issues of funding, time, and energy: change takes time, energy and money to effect.

Libraries cannot achieve all their goals regarding collections in the digital era at once so must proceed gradually with an eye both to budgeting and to how technology is changing and what expectations patrons have going forward. Core Values Horava (2010) discusses some of the core values pertinent to collection management and identifies them as "equity of access, intellectual freedom, open access, stewardship, and trustworthiness" (p. 144). How these values are impacted by the digital era's changes in technology and communication are what the bulk of the study addresses.

The values are defined in detail and described as essential aspects of library sciences. As Johnson (2009) notes, part of collection management efficacy is efficient collection analysis, which "encompasses analysis of the library's collection, its use, and ultimately its impact" (p. 225). This same sense of collection management is described by Horava (2010) in terms of ensuring that the core values of the library are upheld and secured even through transitional phases such as those currently impacting libraries as they adapt to the digital era's impositions.

The challenge facing collections managers now is that collections no longer need be completely tangible as in the old days. New media has fast displaced old media in the minds of the young generation and going forward there can be discerned no sense that old media will make a comeback. The digital era has so completely altered how knowledge and information are transferred that most young people now utilize a computer and the Internet as primary sources of information.

Does this mean that the core values of collection management and by extension library science must change? Horava (2010) suggests that the principles of selection process -- "such as authority, originality, impact, timeliness, breadth and depth of coverage, and demand. must be expanded to encompass new forms of scholarly communication and publishing" (p. 146). The issue of author rights and copyright permission is also a subject that must be addressed as digital files can easily be copied and shared. Traditional boundaries of ownership are no longer as clear as they once were.

What Horava (2010) identifies as essential to the maintenance of collections is a web-based presence that supports "new capabilities to connect and be relevant to the population" (p. 149). Steps to be taken to ensure that library collections are relevant should be centered on the immediacy factor, since information is spread so easily and quickly in today's digital era. Having immediate access to new and indeed to all information is essential to ensuring the relevancy of library collections in the future (Horava, 2010).

This means that library resources should be both web-based and able to be accessed by numerous devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, computers, and so on. Some of the issues that library collections managers will have to answer include: "How to finance, license, and deliver information resources in multiple formats and delivery options" (Horava, 2010, p. 149). Acknowledging that public libraries are now in competition with information providers like Google, Amazon and Microsoft is something that managers must do -- ignoring the fact will not help library information services at all.

In short, libraries must be able to provide patrons with something that the big information providers cannot give. This is the challenge facing collections managers and indeed library information services in general: without relevance in the digital era, libraries will not last. Methodology No methodology is described by the author for how information was accrued for this study; thus, it can be viewed solely as a level 7 evidence study: authority based on research.

There are numerous studies cited throughout the article, which indicates that the researcher has at least completed a type a substantial literature review of the relevant material regarding library collections, maintenance, management and the impact of the digital era. The study did not perform any type of qualitative or quantitative assessment; no variables were measured and no hypothesis was tested.

Instead, the study served as a kind of meta-analysis of relevant literature associated with how libraries must face changes in collections management as a result of the arrival of the digital era. The study thus served as a review of the subject by basing its findings on what other studies have found. The article's relevance to library information services is that libraries must stay abreast of communication and media changes in society or else they will lose their relevance among the public they are there to serve.

This is why more and more libraries are turning to storing digital media and to offering e-books for patrons to download. Conclusion The article's relevance for collection development librarianship is in its guidance for libraries in the face of the rise of the digital era and web-based technology. The new generation is used to obtaining information via web-based devices such as smart phones, tablets, and computers.

Libraries must address this issue as well as the fact that information services such as Google, Amazon and other web-based platforms are offering users the same type of portal access to data that libraries once commanded with their tangible information services. Because so much information is now obtainable for free over the Web, libraries must rethink their position in society and how they can distinguish themselves from the information providers that are currently the favored platforms on the Internet.

What libraries can do to address these issues are to focus on immediacy -- i.e., how they can help patrons to obtain information directly and quickly and also to focus on how to integrate a number of media and channels into their collections and information services so as to be able to stay relevant in a society that is increasingly oriented towards obtaining data through the Web.

My own opinion of the article is that it offers a good background history on the role that library collections have played in the past and the core values that made these collections important in society. However, with the rise of the digital era, it is evident that values are shifting and that what society valued prior to the digital era is not what is being valued today. Technology has allowed people to find information more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

Moreover, information is now stored on databases and shared directly with.