A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Recommendations

The unfocused nature of library research in the period 1983-1997, the decline in research support from traditional sources, the relatively low level of federal support in relation to other research areas advanced through National Research Centers, and recent shifts in research support towards electronic library issues, all suggest the need for a coordinated national agenda for library research. It is recommended that the U.S. Department of Education:

• Develop a national library research policy and capacity.

• Develop a Federal -- interdepartmental -- library research policy.

• Develop a National Center for Library Research, modeled after other U.S. Department of Education research centers, to provide national and Federal leadership in library research. The National Center for Library Research should be closely linked to both the National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning and the National Library of Education with strong liaison relationships with the National Science Foundation and other Federal funders of library research, such as the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the United States Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

Preliminary objectives for the National Center for Library Research might include:

1. To strengthen nationally the library-based information infrastructure and delivery system.
2. To inform investment in library development.

As the nation makes substantial investments in library services and library redevelopment -- through such programs as NSF's Digital Library Initiative, the Library of Congress' National Digital Library, the Commerce Department's TIAAP grants, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Libraries of Education, Agriculture and the Environment -- it is especially important to recognize libraries as a national resource and to build a research program that can help inform public and private investment. Without such a program library development and redevelopment is chaotic, haphazard and non-strategic.

3. To develop a national perspective on connectivity among types and sizes of libraries.

A truly national library research program must embrace all types and sizes of libraries, for today the size, location, or institutional affiliation of a library is less important than its connections to other institutions and information sources. As libraries are increasingly linked through new technologies, they are increasingly one vast institution offering seamless access to the world's information resources as well as local information and documentation.

Other objectives for the proposed National Center for Libraries will arise from the planned discussions leading to its establishment. This report will support those discussions through its documentation of nearly fifteen years of library research, its relationship to earlier priorities, its funding support, principal investigators, and institutional base.

In the early 1980's public libraries were thought of in much the same way as they had been thought of a hundred years before. They were buildings in which collections were held and made accessible to the public. As libraries are public institutions, and as those buildings are frequently large and centrally located, libraries were also seen as providing public space for library-related, and unrelated, public activities, chief among, cultural and literacy classes and exhibitions. It was probably not widely foreseen at the time that in the mid-1990s major research universities would be receiving millions of dollars for library research, not about any of these issues, but in reference to the novel concept of an electronic or digital library, and that much, if not most, of this funding would come from Federal sources not traditionally associated with library research.

The effort to establish national priorities for library research that took place within the Department of Education in the 1980s was not only overtaken by events, it was also challenged by the way in which library research is funded and by the absence of a strong policy initiative congruent with those priorities that were developed. Certainly, all the library research that is tabulated in this report can be attributed to one or more of the 1980s priorities. On the other hand, the distribution seems to indicate that the motivation for the research studies did not arise from the priorities, and, especially, the congruence between the distributions among the priorities of Federally funded and non-Federally funded research indicates that the field was not influenced by a strong perception of Federal policy in this area. The sudden support for digital library projects from Federal sources outside the Department of Education and from two key foundations is also significant in reference to Department of Education policy leadership in this area.

The nature and future of libraries and their role in the nation's information infrastructure is an increasingly important national issue in the context of the emerging global information economy. To use and develop that infrastructure to support economic development, education, cultural development, and civic involvement we must understand its relevant problems, trends and opportunities; innovative programs and institutions, and best practices in terms of library services today. The future of American libraries will include electronic, digital, collections and services. It will also include books, objects, visual materials, the functions of library buildings as focal points for research, lifelong learning and access to the digital collections currently under development. It will include -- need it be said? -- librarians, their training, both pre-service and in-service, and it will include the public itself.

All of these are important research priorities.

There is today, even more than there was in the early 1980s, an urgent need for a national library research agenda to support the development of all facets of our libraries. An appropriate mechanism for developing and -- crucially -- supporting that agenda is ready at hand in the national research center process of OERI. Just as there are national centers in many other fields -- for example, adult literacy -- so there should be a National Center for Library Research. This Center, like other OERI centers, would:

• Conduct a coherent, sustained program of research and development to address problems and issues of national significance, using a well-conceptualized and theoretically sound framework;

• Contribute to the development and advancement of theory;

• Conduct scientifically rigorous studies capable of generating findings that contribute substantially to understanding in the field;

• Conduct work of sufficient size, scope, and duration to produce definitive guidance for improvement efforts and further research;

• Address issues of both equity and excellence in education for all students, and

• Document, report and disseminate information about research findings and other accomplishments in ways that will facilitate effective use of that information in professional development for teachers, families, and communities members, as appropriate.

The request for proposals process for initiating this center will include the identification of a national research agenda for library research; the funding of the center subsequently designated would be tied to work on that agenda. Funded at levels parallel with other OERI centers (approximately $1.5 million annually), the National Center for Library Research would have at its disposal historically significant support for the national research agenda. It would also be encouraged to seek other Federal and non-Federal funding to extend its research capacity and to help coordinate public and private research on libraries and information science. In this way the goals of the 1980s initiatives of the Department of Education would be fulfilled.

[Conclusions]

[The Digital Library Initiative]