K. Matthew Dames has a nice article at http://www.copycense.com/2005/12/buying_econtent.html all about the management of e-resources in libraries. This is big stuff. My favorite point is the one he makes about library schools:
It is sheer lunacy to graduate librarians into the work force who have no idea how to negotiate an e-content license. Talk about having a butter knife at the proverbial gunfight: without proper training, librarians have virtually no chance of knowing how to obtain optimal value for their e-content dollar, and therefore the institutions that hire them to negotiate these deals likely are overpaying for that content. In an era where every institution is charged with doing more work with less money, the combination of no training and a flexible content landscape means that many libraries and information centers are economically inefficient when it comes to e-content. Inefficiencies, of course, ultimately get eliminated.
Ouch. Jenny and I are slated to speak on this topic in Toronto in February and this is great food for thought. What classes should our library schools be teaching to produce librarians ready to meet the needs of what libraries should become?
I’ll do a patented Blyberg “brain dump” of some thoughts:
Social Software for Librarians and Libraries (Check this out!)
The New Library Web Site
Electronic Resource Management
Technology Planning 101 & 102
Communication in Libraries (because we STILL need to learn how to talk to each other and have good meetings no matter how much technology we throw at the problem!)