The New University Library: Four Case Studies by Matthew Conner (review)

University libraries are wrestling with how to adapt to the future and thrive amidst tremendous change. In The New University Library: Four Case Studies, Matthew Conner, an instruction and reference librarian at the University of California, Davis demonstrates how two midsized university libraries (the University of California, Merced and the University of California, Davis) and two large university libraries (the University of Hawai‘i, Manoa and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) address these challenges. As the chair of the Librarians Association of the University of California Professional Governance Committee, Conner led a system-wide study of the University of California Libraries. Building on that study, Conner aims to show how libraries presently cope with change rather than how they plan for it. He explores seven themes—reference, personnel, technology, collections, buildings, campus roles, and library culture—while prominently featuring the voices of librarians on the ground at each institution. Conner proposes that these four libraries are fairly representative of conditions at university libraries in general.

The New University Library is organized into two parts with a short but excellent conclusion. Harking back to Melvil Dewey and setting the stage for the case studies, Part I reminds the reader that the library profession has always been forward-looking by reviewing the history of change, adaptation, and evolution in libraries. Part II presents the four case studies, each of which includes the historical context and an abundance of detail demonstrating both unique and industry-wide challenges. Readers learn how each institution balances local customs and traditions with constantly evolving faculty and student needs. While all four libraries face familiar challenges with budgets, physical space, collection size and storage, and staffing, they utilize different problem-solving approaches suitable for their individual campus environments. These cases also illustrate various attempts at reorganizing staff competencies to achieve efficiencies in critical areas of support and service.

The importance of place is a common thread that runs through the four case studies, as campuses expand and library buildings remain largely fixed. Each library is challenged to develop meaningful and efficient spaces, redefine services, and make accommodations for future needs while having little flexibility to make significant physical changes. Tied closely to this theme is a shared interest in developing space for undergraduate learning and study. The learning commons has been with us for some time, but libraries still struggle to implement it successfully.

While these case studies might offer a reassuring familiarity to librarians and administrators, readers should also gain a greater appreciation for useful and reliable data. Since we will likely be asking “What is the future of academic libraries?” for a while, libraries engaged in meaningful assessment and data collection will find themselves better positioned to adapt to change and uncertainty. Rather than offer a list of recommendations or identify best practices from these cases, Conner invites his readers to draw their own ideas and inspiration. In his conclusion, he explains that these four cases are meant to provide multiple perspectives in order to define a context for future libraries. He uses the metaphor of the organization as organism to depict the evolutionary complexity of each individual library as well as academic libraries overall. Given the myriad of issues each library faces, no one institution can be representative. Yet there are developments worth examining as we progress. Though some small and private academic libraries may find it more difficult to appropriate the ideas in The New University Library, most librarians and administrators will find it easy to read and applicable to their own circumstances.