This Changes Everything: Transforming the Academic Library

ABSTRACT

Library users and their expectations for services and collections have changed. Among the factors driving change are: networked technologies, powerful search engines available to all, social technologies and the digitization of everything, to name a few. A research university library staff reorganized to meet changed expectations and succeeded in transforming the organization and its culture. This article describes alterations in the library's key functions that produced a new level of readiness to serve the university's students and faculty into the future. The transformed library is outward facing, de-siloed, technology diffused, collaborative, and operated by an engaged staff who demonstrate leadership in small and large ways in all sections of the organization.

KEYWORDS:

• organizational change
• cultural change
• technical services
• collection development
• branch libraries
• leadership