New development directions for libraries

Around the world, university libraries mainly do variable business of purchasing books, licensing access to academic journals and providing study spaces and research training for students. In the digital age, they are racing to reinvent themselves to keep up with rapid transformations. They are increasingly help teachers to disseminate courses and students to learn themselves. Now they are about to prepare themselves to help them do research. Working scientist can browse scientific literature online without leaving their desks. Libraries intend to play an active role in the research activities, which is likely to alter the way scientists conduct and publish their work. Libraries are looking to assist with all stages of research, by offering guidance and tools for collecting, exploring, visualizing, labeling and sharing data.



Last month the Barack Obama's administration ordered granting agencies to ensure that the public can access publications and data generated by federally funded research. “This is going to have significant repercussions and result in much greater appreciation and support for the need to preserve data and make it available for scientific use,” says William Michener, an information scientist at the University of New Mexico libraries in Albuquerque. Sharing, processing, managing, data and information becomes clear for libraries. Oalib (http://www.oalib.com) is a first tryout for scientists to share their research outputs online.