Cases
Resources and technology
Abstract
Library resources and technology can be positioned similarly to collections. They can also be specifically targeted to alumni with an interest in a particular area of study. Technology can be positioned through the libraries as an opportunity for the entire student body. Donors with an affinity for technology can be made to understand that only in the libraries are these resources available to every student, whatever the area of study.
Keywords
Library resources; Makerspace; Information commons; Information resources; Learning commons; Library technology
Librarians have the greatest need for information resources and technology, yet those needs are typically the most difficult to fund with private dollars. Although the academic dean or department head may be attuned to these needs, most development officers aren't used to thinking about how to position compelling cases for resources and technology to donors. Furthermore, most higher education fundraisers may not appreciate that technology in the libraries benefits everyone across campus. College- or unit-based technology is only available to students in these areas of study. In the libraries, this same technology is leveraged for all.
Resources and technology can be made interesting to a variety of prospective donors if they are messaged in a way that resonates. Learning to speak a donor's or prospective donor's language may be the single most important strategy in development.
Resources and technology can initially seem like a pretty boring case for giving. It's true that they are crucial to the libraries and to students and scholars, but they must be messaged in a compelling way to gain interest from potential donors. For example, instead of asking for a financial gift to support the “Resources and Technology in the Libraries” ask for a gift to the libraries that will align important research and emerging technology to the entire student body in a central location on campus. Explain the potential of liberal arts majors integrating technology in their studies or engineers working alongside arts students in the same lab.
By making the solicitation more appealing and exciting, you are more likely to receive the support you seek. For this often challenging case, it's important to build a strong strategy with supporting materials to make the case easy to message. Building a case for resources and technology in the academic library is similar to building a case for collections. Such cases need to be packaged in such a way that they have interest and value to a prospect.
Prospects with an affinity for technology might be interested in funding technology in the libraries. The argument here is that the technology they value will be available to all students, not just those in a particular college or major. As a result, students who encounter technology in the libraries may be able to pair it with their own interests. Digital humanities are an example of a pairing of technology and liberal arts. The pairing of technology and art is another; and all scholarship is supported by technology that helps with data management, a growing specialty in university libraries that has splintered off from information literacy.
Information resources may be approached in the same way. The first thing to understand about resources, however, is that most people, even on campus, do not understand this part of the libraries even though it is the element that is most utilized. Resources for the academic library include book collections of course, but most resources are digital. Acquiring and providing access to resources is the “heavy lifting” without which higher education could not exist. When a student consults “the stuff in the library” via his or her smartphone, he or she is benefiting from a long chain of events: Librarians identify a valuable source, negotiate with the publisher for a license, mount the material on the delivery platform, and maintain the search interface that lets the student type in a few keywords and receive a hit list of matching articles, white papers, data sets, etc. What many may not fully understand is the huge expense associated with academic information resources. Libraries spend millions of dollars each year in licensing fees to provide these resources to students and faculty, but many of those beneficiaries aren't aware of that fact. It comes as a surprise to many users when the content budget of the library is mentioned. No, the “stuff in the library” isn't free. It could be argued that the librarians and the IT specialists in the library have done themselves a disfavor by making a search in the library databases resemble an internet search!
The cost of resources is probably the biggest frustration for libraries (academic publishers routinely raise their prices by hefty percentages each and every year). Librarians worry more about paying for content licenses than just about anything else. In some cases, when the budget cannot accommodate the full lineup of databases, some resources must be eliminated. For librarians, the idea of actually cutting out resources is devastating. Removing resources limits research and limits learning. Publishers, being in business to produce a profit, are unmoved.
Without diving too deeply into a discussion about university budgeting, the annually increasing costs for resources in the library are often unknown to the staff in the budgeting office. Unless the librarians have educated the budgeting office staff regarding the size of the annual increase, they are held to the same static budget year to year, with the predictable result that resources must be cut. Some academic libraries choose to compensate for the increase in resources costs by reducing line items for other expenses. All this is to say that if you integrate academic information resources into your presentation to prospective donors, you will win the hearts of your colleagues in the academic library.
A natural way to package resources is to align them with an area of study or a particular college. One library fundraiser we know once spoke about a strategy to convince university development to attach a resource stipend to every faculty chair named on campus. That's quite a challenge to achieve, but it would be great for the library, and it is beginning to happen at universities.
In the meantime, resources and technology are great cases to present on discovery visits with prospective donors. Helping them understand how the resources in the academic library support their college or department is an effective way to engage them. Working with the collection development staff to identify and clarify the value of specific resources is a good way to prepare to meet with prospects.
Another way to work resources into a gift is to work with a colleague in an academic college. This requires education about the library to internal constituents (a topic of a later chapter). It is very important to position library resources to colleagues across campus and to help them understand that these resources represent opportunities to enhance cases they are putting before their prospective donors.
6.1 Learning commons
Another way to position technology and resources in the libraries to prospective donors is through the physical spaces on campus where students and scholars access the resources. A current trend is the learning commons. In a book on the information commons, authors Bailey and Tierney (2008) describe it as the environment where information literacy occurs (p. 6). More specifically, it is a space for collaborations where innovations occur and learning strategies are explored through the integration of teamwork not only in the way students learn but also in the way instructors teach (Beagle, 2012, p. 518). At a time when reference desks are disappearing, this environment is a place where students can interact with staff and faculty who have the kind of expertise they need (Moore and Wells, 2009, p. 84).
A new kind of space in a library is always exciting for donors. The information commons is changing the way students are taught and allows them to engage in ways that mimic what they will encounter in their professional careers; that is important to some donors. Innovations in learning can become a point of pride with prospects if they understand that students will be better prepared upon graduation from their school than those from another school. The information commons is a way to talk about information literacy in a tangible way. Making a case for technology and resources from this angle can be more interesting, and watching a project like this evolve and transform real students can be very exciting for donors.
6.2 Makerspaces
Another exciting opportunity for a potential donor is the makerspace. These laboratory environments are getting a lot of attention in scholarship in the last few years, and the academic library is the perfect environment for a makerspace that is specifically designed for students and faculty. Loertscher (2012) defines them as “places where design and entrepreneurial ideas are allowed and where serious technology and construction equipment are available in a place dedicated to plan meaning to make, construct, tinker, experiment, invent and create” (p. 45). In the academic environment this is further expanded to support learning and supplement classroom curriculum.
Unfortunately, when it comes to technology, it is often just the students in these fields of study who are able to engage. By building technology labs in the academic library, these assets are made available to the entire student body as well as faculty. One of the most popular makerspaces in the university environment at the moment is the 3D lab.
This kind of space offers nontechnology degree seekers the chance to integrate technology into their area of study. Like makerspaces all over the country that encourage play and creativity, the opportunities to take studies like humanities or fine arts into new directions through the use of technology are endless, and that makes a compelling case for giving for donors. Though makerspaces can take many forms, including those primarily focused on artistic creativity or building sciences, the major focus on makerspaces on the university campus is technology. Much is being written about the potential outcomes for the learning and collaboration that can occur in these environments. For higher education, scholars discuss the opportunities for business and science majors to greatly increase the value of their instruction through learning the fundamentals alongside the technology they will encounter in the work place (Buxmann and Hinz, 2013, p. 360). This is a fact for any area of study, and the academic library is uniquely positioned to give all students representing all academic tracks the chance to apply their studies in a hands-on fashion that has the ability to not only expand the learning experience but also foster creative approaches to their education material and solve problems in innovative ways.
In a study of three makerspaces, it became clear that the element that seemed to encourage engagement and innovation the most was the multidisciplinary environment itself. Researchers found that, though students might enter the environment with a specific technological or skill focus, a diversity of materials, tools and technologies were explored and often applied (Sheridan et al., 2014, p. 527). In terms of learning, they found that process was valued (in a departure from the traditional learning environment) (p. 528). The opportunity to apply academic study in a physical way can transform teaching and provide learning that will be more meaningful to students when they go into the professional environment.
This is one of those cases that can be positioned to donors as a game-changer in instruction and education and as a much-needed resource for students.