PDA and a New Landscape for Librarians?

As Les has offered in his post below, the library landscape has indeed changed, whether or not the collection development tool of patron-driven acquisitions is here to stay, and he leaves us with a question about what the future may hold.  As we have engaged in these initial explorations of PDA, I see a future that is quite bright.  We are in the middle of an information and technology sea change, which we could not have predicted even just a few years ago, and which will no doubt move in future directions we cannot yet predict – and professional librarians must embrace this change and move in our own directions that will allow us to lead and serve in relevant ways.  PDA is one of the tools that will allow us to navigate this journey with creativity and innovation, and in relationship with the aspect of our libraries that matters most – the people who use them!

Dennis Dillon (2011) puts it this way: “The library is no longer the only doorway to scarce information; instead, it is one information room in a very large house that is overflowing with information;” and a tool such as PDA allows libraries “to elevate their sights so they can make more significant, more professional contributions that have a wider effect on what information their users can access”  (p. 191).  The kind of librarian-patron collaboration that is at the heart of PDA is an important means toward creating stronger collections – relevant for now, and relevant for the next generation of users (Dillon, 2011, p. 193).

With sights thus elevated and a portion of time now available for other professional contributions, the librarian may use “his or her freed-up time to work on improving access, discovery and the library’s relevancy” (p. 192).  Somewhat ironically, while PDA is a new tool that helps to grow the library’s collection (albeit in a different medium), it is also a tool that helps the librarian to shift focus from previously essential tasks around collection development, so s/he may now consider different and better ways to lead the library of today and tomorrow, in service to the people who use that library.

Writing about today’s library world, Andy Burkhardt, a.k.a. Information Tyrannosaur (2013), reminds us that libraries can be so very focused on “stuff” (even digital stuff counts as stuff); yet “while this stuff and its access and organization are still important to the mission of libraries, if we lose sight of the human side of the library, we fail our users and ourselves” (p. 14).  Burkhardt encourages us instead to see the world through what he calls “a human-centered librarianship,” which is “essential for navigating change and addressing the new challenges that face us” (p. 14, emphasis in original).

As one example, he notes that at Champlain College Library, where he is Assistant Director for Digital Strategy, the collection is enhanced through the work of a “scholarly resource and academic outreach librarian,” who builds relationships with the faculty and helps them to develop the curriculum and educational experience for students.  This shift in focus from stuff-centeredness to human-centeredness helps to make it clear that the relationships matter, more so than the collection itself (2103, p. 14).  Building off of this model, I would suggest that PDA can be a good step in such relationship building with the entire user community (even thought it’s still focused on stuff!)  The librarian-patron collaboration that Dillon notes above doesn’t just help make a collection stronger – it can help to make a library community stronger, perhaps especially if library users (faculty in particular) are aware of the role that their choices play in building the library’s information resources.  Further, as librarians begin to analyze PDA trends, they can use these findings as a helpful outreach and relationship building tool, connecting with faculty and students around their current work and interests and using that information and those relationships to enhance the library’s role in the overall educational experience.

And even as PDA offers us a chance to make our “stuff collection” more human-centered, the time and money it can save us also affords librarians an opportunity to focus our energies elsewhere and imagine other ways that the library can serve its community.  Many of today’s academic libraries, for instance, are listening carefully – taking space that might otherwise be used for print collections and re-designing it as “learning commons” or “information commons” that meet students’ desires for flexible study space, collaboration tools, coffee shops, writing programs, additional computer terminals, private study rooms, and much more.  (The Champlain College Library even responded to students’ “tweeted” suggestions by offering “puppy therapy” to help students de-stress during finals week (Burkhardt, 2013, p. 16)  J ).

Burkhardt, the “Information Tyrannosaur,” offers an essential reminder that as professional librarians, our “core business is not books, collections or access.  The core business of libraries is human learning, curiosity and knowledge” (2013, p.17).  With that reminder about our shared mission, are you comfortable with picking up a tool like PDA, and venturing out into a new librarian’s landscape?

References

Dillon, D. (2011).  PDA and Libraries Today and Tomorrow. In David A. Swords (Ed.), Patron-Driven Acquisitions: History and Best Practices (pp. 191-195).  Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Saur.

Burkhardt, A.  (2013, April). Libraries and the Information Food Chain.  ILA Reporter, Vol. 31 (2), pp. 14-17.