In many areas of the sciences, the library is in danger of becoming irrelevant and librarians are going to have to get much more embedded in the research process, according to Michael Jubb of the Research Information Network (RIN) speaking on ‘The Future of Academic Libraries' at Internet Librarian International.
RIN's work in the UK suggests that there are correlations between levels of usage and levels of research outcomes. According to Jubb, the message is simple - levels of expenditure are reasonably good predictors of levels of usage. "What's particularly interesting is that there is a clear loop which shows that levels of usage of e-journals leads to research success, and in turn research success leads to more usage. A key message is that if we're going to look at ROI and the value of libraries then we need to look closely at what drives usage, because usage will drive research success. "