David W. Lewis has written an insightful, provocative book on academic libraries titled Reimagining the Academic Library that notes six forces affecting libraries today:
• Technology has changed the socio-economic world around libraries. • Digitally shared knowledge changes how we use it. • The book is changing. • Opening the scholarly record poses challenges that are more social than technical; individual institutions cannot meet those challenges by themselves. • The commodification of scholarly knowledge has given libraries more access to knowledge at an unsustainable price. • Libraries are full of aging staff; to make the changes we need to make, organizations must both tend to morale while also developing new kinds of expertise.
Lewis claims libraries must work collectively to develop a shared responsibility for preserving print, shift funding to open access initiatives, and develop a systemic way for libraries of all sizes to combine their resources.
I propose a paper that asks: How do Lewis’ recommendations apply to theological libraries? How do these recommendations apply to ATLA as an association? How can ATLA librarians stop thinking in local terms and develop a vision of what we can do collectively to preserve, provide access to, and generate knowledge for the church and academy?
