D-Lib Magazine

July/August 2011
Volume 17, Number 7/8

Editorial

Library and Archive Services

Laurence Lannom
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
llannom@cnri.reston.va.us

doi:10.1045/july2011-editorial

The current issue of D-Lib focuses on the new and evolving strategies that libraries and archives are using to confront the growing challenge of providing trusted and useful information services in the digital age.

We begin with a study of "the integration of Web 2.0 services into the working framework of some of the most advanced academic libraries in the world" by Gerolimos and Konsta. It is a follow-up of a similar study by the same authors in 2009 and it is a cautionary tale highlighting some basic problems in these efforts and, in many cases, very low impact and user acceptance. The second article, by Schrier, complements this by providing advice on how librarians should approach social media. It is not entirely by accident that this is written by someone who is just now finishing an MSLIS degree.

Our last two articles provide case studies in the provision of digitally based services. The first of these, by Li and others, describes the implementation of a successful institutional repository at the China Agricultural University Library in Beijing. One take-away from this article is that successful library services will continue to be based on what they have always been based on — listening to users and responding to their needs. The final article in our set of four is in the form of an interview by the author, Cynthia Tobar, with Mitch Brodsky, the New York Philharmonic's Digital Archives Project Manager. That same archive is also this issue's Featured Digital Collection and I believe that the combination ends the article set on quite a positive note — a valuable archive that was formerly available to only a few is now available to anyone with an Internet connection and includes tools that make digital access better in many ways than physical access.

About the Editor

Laurence Lannom is Director of Information Management Technology and Vice President at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), where he works with organizations in both the public and private sectors to develop experimental and pilot applications of advanced networking and information management technologies.