Physical Space for Virtual Services and Collections

When discussing the information environment and how information is used, they cannot be better described than by the words of Bob Dylan in the song, "The Times They Are A-Changin":

If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

As librarians, we need to understand better how people are acquiring and using information—"start swimming," or we may "sink like a stone."

Users from the Alexandrian Library in 331 BC would easily recognize that they were in today's modern library. The physical attributes of the collection would be different, but they would know they were in a library. What happens to the library as place when the collection becomes increasingly electronic? New libraries continue to be built—to house the libraries' physical collections, provide access to electronicmaterials, and serve as a physical place where people come to read and to study. Fifteen years ago new libraries were being built to accommodate public access terminals. It was rare to see a user with a portable computer. Now that libraries and campuses are wired, the user is becoming unwired. What is the future of the library as a physical space?

In 2003, Grant Gross reported that five billion gigabytes of data were generated in 2002, equaling 800 megabytes per person or enough data to fill 500,000 Library of Congresses. Of these data, 92 percent were stored magnetically on hard drives. Between 1999 and 2002 the amount of magnetically stored data increased 80 percent, and the amount of physically stored data increased 43 percent. Yet, Americans consume 11,916 sheets of paper a year, and Europeans consume 7,280 sheets of paper a year.¹ The notion of the "paperless society" has not materialized. Indeed, content that is accessed electronically is often printed for use. Therefore, in order to provide services and resources, including physical space, it is necessary to understand what types of information are being used, how that information is being used, and by whom.

Information Use and Physical Space Studies

One of the user communities that has embraced electronic information delivery most enthusiastically is the health science information community. Several recent studies of health information use may provide a clue where other disciplines are headed in terms of user needs, which will have an impact on planning for library space.

An online survey of 2,000 adults aged 18 or older was conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project to determine whether and how they use the Internet to gather health and medical information. The report indicates that80 percent of adult Internet users (93 million Americans) searched for at least one of 16 health topics online. This is an 18 percent increase from a previously conducted study by Pew. The study reports, "Looking for health or medical information is one of the most popular activities online, after using e-mail (93 percent of adult users), and researching a product or service (83 percent)."² Those seeking online health information believe that their health information and services improve; and their relationships with their doctors change, because of their newly gained knowledge of the subjects. Online groups and e-mail provide a support network for those who seek consumer health information.³

In the academic world, Brinley Franklin and Terry Plum examined the usage of networked electronic services in four health sciences libraries during a six-year period. In these libraries there are more than five remote users for each in-library user among the faculty, staff, and research fellow groups. Grant-funded research "accounted for approximately 32 percent of the networked electronic services activity at the health sciences libraries and 16 percent at the main campus libraries."⁴ For researchers with grant-funded projects, networked electronic services appeared to be used more from on-campus than from inside the library.⁵

In a recent Pew Internet and American Life study, Deborah Fallows reported, "Most Internet users still default to the traditional offline ways of communicating, transacting affairs, getting information, and entertaining themselves. ... The Internet...