Review of: Documenting the Global Conversation: Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World.

‘Documenting the Global Conversation’ is written by Fred Heath for the Journal of Library Administration. Heath is ‘Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas Libraries, a position he has held since 2003. He has served in similar capacities at Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University and the University of North Alabama during his career of 30+ years in academic librarianship.’ (“Fred Heath,” n.d., para. 1)
The first half of this article looks at how the rise of the digital world has affected a variety of academic areas, including libraries. Heath focuses on a few different subjects to provide the audience with an understanding of the variety of changes that have taken place over the past few years as the digital world has become increasingly more popular. The second half of this article looks at how research libraries can deal with the challenges that arise from the digital world and how by embracing the technologies involved with this rise they can stay relevant and become an important part of the new generation that is continuing to rise.
This article takes a different approach to studying the digital age and its influence on libraries by also taking a look at how it affects other areas in the information sector, including: newspapers, the music industry, book publishing and higher education (mainly universities.) Through this study the audience is able to gain an understanding on how the digital age is having a consequence in many areas throughout the information sector and how it is important for all these areas to make changes before they become irrelevant.
Heath then takes a look at how the digital age is affecting libraries and what they could possibly do to stay relevant; focusing mainly on the University of Texas library he works in. The main problem Heath proposes is that fact that: ‘Libraries no longer set all the rules when it comes to the academic community’s pursuit of information. Students are very self-reliant and increasingly willing to make their own judgements about the utility of information. Very few users would find asking a librarian to be a preferred method of locating information.’ (Heath, 2009, p.527) Through raising this point Heath puts forward a concern that is on many people’s minds from the information sector, how do we stay relevant in a world where information is at everyone’s finger tips?
Unlike the previous article Heath takes a less optimistic view towards the digital world and its effect on librarians and often focuses on the problems that are beginning to rise. He touches on a variety of different departments that can be found in a library and how they are being affected because of the digital world.
Although this article is an informative piece of work it could also gain a great deal from developing the arguments and solutions more. Heath focuses too much on the problems that have come about because of the digital world and does not provide a lot of detail into how these problems may be solved. He does look at a few solutions that have been proposed but often then goes directly to their problems rather than how they may help to solve the issues that have risen. Heath’s article allows the audience to gain an insight into the digital world and how it is not only affecting libraries but many other areas in the information sector, but does not give a well-rounded look at what may be done about these problems, nor on how the digital world is developing many areas in the information sector.
Heath, F. (2009) ‘Documenting the Global Conversation: Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World’, Journal of Library Administration, 49(5), 519-532. Doi: 10.1080/01930820903090896
Fred Heath, (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/vprovost/heath_f.html