College library rankings

bclintonk
Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:20:06 +0000

I do a lot of browsing and serious reading for research purposes online these days. These technologies are terrific, and they immensely aid the research process. But IMO they’ll never completely replace physical libraries, for several reasons. First, when you really want to bore into a text, there’s nothing like having it in hard copy; it’s actually much easier to bookmark key passages, flip back and forth between the index and particular topics, compare what the author said on page X with what she said on page Y, and so on. So usually the online work is just the beginning; if the book is really valuable, I ask the librarians to get me a hard copy. Second, there’s the service aspect. Skilled professional reference librarians are a priceless asset to any researcher at any level, from undergrads to senior research faculty; you just don’t get that kind of assistance from online services. Third, I have to agree with barrons: there’s nothing quite like the serendipity of a stack search in a major research library, especially when you’re plunging into a literature you don’t know well. You go looking for one title and you find half a dozen more, some fitting the bill better than the one you started with. And those in turn cite to others. It’s a much slower and more uncertain process to try to replicate that through online searches. When I look at these lists I realize I’ve been blessed to be around some of the country’s greatest libraries all my life. Notwithstanding all the digitization that’s now going on, which I regard as a positive development, I firmly believe these great libraries will continue to be an enormous advantage for the great universities they serve long into the future.

On a related note, one of D’s greatest frustrations when visiting many small LACs is their limited library collections, as well as their limited hours—many close at midnight weekdays and 5 or 6 pm on weekends. D is a night-owl by nature. After visiting a couple of small but highly regarded LACS with limited library collections and limited hours, D was bowled over on our tour at Michigan when she learned at the university’s collection exceeds 8 million volumes and the undergraduate library is open until 5:00 am during the academic year, and re-opens at 7 or 8 am. Not quite enough to sell her on Dad’s alma mater, but a strong selling point indeed.