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Presentation
Speculative Friction: Reconciling the Roles of Public and Private Research Collections on the 21st-Century University Campus
The Promise of Paradise: Reading, Researching, and Using the Private Library / Concordia University (2016)
  • Melanie Mills, Huron University, London
  • David J Fiander, Western University
Abstract
What is the role of the research library in the 21st century? What assumptions do members of the academic community (i.e., research and teaching faculty, academic librarians, students, and university administrators) make about its form and function? How are broader trends in academic libraries and higher education impacting users’ experience with and expectations of research library collections? In an effort to better understand these questions, as well as the relationship between scholars’ invisible or ‘private’ libraries (i.e., academics’ working research collections housed in faculty workspaces) and the university’s ‘public’ research library, David Fiander and Melanie Mills began reviewing the hidden collections of humanities scholars at Western University in early 2013. Bibliographic data for each volume housed in a faculty member’s primary workspace is collected; data gathered is then used to identify materials that faculty members own but that Western Libraries has not acquired. The information gathered for this research study will help to determine whether or not significant gaps in the University’s ‘public’ research collection exist (e.g., specific imprints or disciplinary subjects). Insights gained may also help reconcile the roles of ‘public’ and ‘private’ research collections. In this paper, the authors will situate their research-in-progress within the broader and shifting contexts of academic librarianship and higher education. Established, as well as emerging trends in research library acquisitions and collections management strategies will be considered, as will the existing and possible future roles of ‘public’ and ‘private’ research libraries on the 21st century university campus.

Melanie Mills is an Assistant Librarian at Western University, where she is a Research & Instructional Services Librarian in The D.B. Weldon Library serving the Faculties of Arts & Humanities, Information and Media Studies, and Social Science. She has held administrative positions in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and with Western Libraries. Her current research includes investigations into: humanities scholars' private research collections (i.e., working libraries); and the use conceptual frameworks as sensemaking devices for teaching and learning initiatives in academic libraries. David Fiander is an Associate Librarian at Western University.
Keywords
  • personal libraries,
  • research libraries,
  • academic libraries,
  • collections management,
  • library acquisitions
Publication Date
June, 2016
Location
Montreal, QC
Citation Information
Melanie Mills and David J Fiander. "Speculative Friction: Reconciling the Roles of Public and Private Research Collections on the 21st-Century University Campus" The Promise of Paradise: Reading, Researching, and Using the Private Library / Concordia University (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/melanie-mills/7/