The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Report of the Task Force on (Harvard) University Libraries (Note: PDF)

From the Office of the Provost, Harvard University website

Harvard’s library system now includes 73 separate libraries with 1,200 full-time employees, 16.3 million volumes, 12.8 million digital files, over 100,000 serial titles, and millions of manuscripts, photographs, musical recordings, films, and artefacts of all kinds, making it by far the largest university library in the world.

Statement on the Report of the Task Force on University Libraries (Note: PDF)

The Core Recommendations of the Task Force are:

• Establish and implement a shared administrative infrastructure
• Rationalise and enhance information technology systems
• Revamp the financial model for the Harvard libraries
• Rationalise system for acquiring, accessing, and developing materials for a “single university” collection
• Collaborate more ambitiously with peer libraries and other institutions
  

Making the case for European research libraries (Note: PDF)

From the Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (LIBER) website

The Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (LIBER) Strategic Plan 2009-2012 provides a framework for the LIBER Strategy in the coming years. In 2009-2012 LIBER will give priority to the following areas:

• Scholarly communication
• Digitisation and resource discovery
• Heritage collections and preservation
• Organisation and human resources
• LIBER Services
  

Social isolation and new technology: how the internet and mobile phones impact Americans’ social networks (Note: PDF)

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project website

This survey is the first ever that examines the role of the internet and cell phones in the way that people interact with those in their core social network. Key findings challenge previous research and commonplace fears about the harmful social impact of new technology.