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> On Dec 8, 2017, at 11:05 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Many sensible posts discuss the importance and value of the *public* library in serving a broad, general public. To me, this is laudable, but irrelevant — the question here involves the future of the university research library at major research universities. Ken, Please open up your irrelevance criteria a bit. Defining the university research library as the only topic relevant to the discussion seems irrelevant to the goal of finding a future for university libraries in a digital age. What my little post was intended to suggest is that the attitude, morality, and vision of the library has a great ideal to do with how it survives, evolves and flourishes. That vision seems lacking when the libraries of great Universities start complaining about the funding they receive rather than exploring the vision that attracts funding, awareness, and appreciation. I prefer to think that leadership at the University (as well as its libraries) is short sighted if it fails to help its components evolve successfully. The funding I give to the University of Pennsylvania is greater than the funds I give to the Athenaeum and the American Philosophical Society. None of which rely on my small contributions. As a former Principal Researcher at Penn I have experienced what it takes to obtain grant funding and sponsored research and how much the University extracted from those funds to cover everything from space rental to telephone costs. The library at Penn does bring in some research funds to pursue its leadership objectives, which address all the things I mentioned. The issues of the digital future for libraries is very much the challenge to be met and as usual the American Philosophical Society and the Athenaeum are engaged, with the APS convening an international conference on the future of libraries next fall. I continue to believe that the continuous reconstruction of knowledge in our brain needs the reconception and restructuring of the institutions that can help us do that. The models before me are not new. Both the institutions I have mentioned have found the way to survive as well as to evolve. We can learn from them. Or, so I believe, Chuck ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------