What are the Perspectives of Academic Libraries in the Information Era?

Abstract

Academic libraries have some kind of hybrid position, belonging to higher education and to the library world at the same time. Evolution of higher education, changing habits in scientific communication, life-long learning processes and the spreading of distance learning push the academic libraries to intensify their work and to shift from collection centred policy to user-centred policy. Digitization of the collections, user education, 24-hour reference services, intensive cooperation between academic and other libraries in the country and abroad are some main issues. Discussions about the future of academic and other libraries at international librarians conferences showed that no matter from which part of the world they come, librarians believe that libraries are here to stay, not as museums of books but as focal points for people seeking information.