IU in the year 2015: Libraries

A committee to examine the impact of digital information will shape the future of IU libraries, said IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis. The committee will mold the University's libraries to changing technology.\nThe committee has not been established, but will probably include Michael McRobbie, vice president for Information Technology, and Pat Steele, interim dean of IU libraries. \nGros Louis said there are several questions that the committee hopes to answer, including if it will effect how libraries are organized, how they are funded and how their budgets might be distributed differently. What kind of skills might their staff need? What might be their relationship to University IT organizations?\n"There will surely be books and journals, but much information will be available online in digital form. The implications of this shift could be very substantial," he said. "A longer range goal is to determine if the libraries are well-positioned to take full advantage of the rapidly approaching digital future. If not, what changes need to be made to better position them?"\nSteele said the committee will most likely last for more than a year, being headed by the new chancellor when the position is filled in early November. \nAbout eight months ago, the library unveiled a substantial renovation taking several months that added a second Information Commons to the Herman B Wells Library. The 68 individual computer work stations hint at the direction that libraries may be taking in the future as more and more information is being made accessible by computer.