NISO Webinar, Defining the Library - The Mission, Role and Community

early twenty years into the 21st century, how exactly do we define the word, library? This is hardly a frivolous question. Neither is it a settled one. If a library is less defined by its information resources or access services than by foot traffic or usage stats, then appropriate assessment of its contribution to the institution -- through either quantitative or qualitative metrics -- becomes demonstrably more difficult. The question has implications for administrators with budgetary concerns as much as for educators in the field. Should libraries be focused on decentralization in order to better serve specialized research communities? Or should they be more centralized as the central organ of an educational organism?

Event

77 Videos

NISO Webinar

Helping people gain a greater understanding of the information community — our issues and concerns, challenges and opportunities — is core to NISO's mission. Our events are a key element of this, with our popular webinar program at their heart. And, following the NISO/NFAIS merger earlier this year, all NISO members can now attend all 14 webinars in 2020 completely free of charge! This includes an unlimited number of places and full access to a recording of each webinar for anyone who is unable to attend the event itself.

Speaker

1 Video

Patricia Flatley Brennan

Director, National Library of Medicine

Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, is the Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NLM is the world’s largest biomedical library and the producer of digital information services used by scientists, health professionals, and members of the public worldwide. Since assuming the directorship in August 2016 Dr. Brennan has positioned the Library to be the hub of data science at NIH and a national and international leader in the field.

Speaker

1 Video

Roger MacDonald

Director, Television Archive, Internet Archive

Roger joined the Internet Archive to help create an open digital public library of TV news, providing a means to thoughtfully reflect upon the most pervasive and persuasive medium of our time. Certainly no coincidence that he had spent the previous eleven years helping to manage the nation's largest independent noncommercial TV network, Link TV. Prior to co-founding the network devoted to global news and culture in 1999, Roger helped create and manage several other organizations engaged in addressing international challenges, often through media, including the Gorbachev Foundation.

Speaker

1 Video

Stanley J. Wilder

Dean of the Library, Louisiana State University

Stanley Wilder is currently in his second and final stint at Louisiana State University, having served as an Assistant and Associate Dean there from 1989 to 1999, before returning in 2014. In between, he spent 10 years as an AD at the University of Rochester, and then another five as University Librarian at UNC Charlotte. Wilder writes frequently on the demographics of academic librarianship.