2020 VISION:
CHARTING A PATH FORWARD FOR
THE BOWDOIN COLLEGE LIBRARY
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
December 2019
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................2
Convening of the Working Group ...........................................................................................3
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4
Broad Trends in Academic Libraries .........................................................................................5
The Current Landscape at Bowdoin .........................................................................................7
Trends, Tensions, and Limitations at Bowdoin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Insights from the Community .............................................................................................. 11
Risks of Inaction ..........................................................................................................14
Planning for the Future ....................................................................................................16
Conclusion ...............................................................................................................18
Appendix ................................................................................................................19
I. Working Group Members ..............................................................................................19
II. Working Group Charge ..............................................................................................20
III. Working Group Sources ..............................................................................................21
IV. Bowdoin College 2019 Faculty Library Survey: Key Findings ............................................................. 23
V. Bowdoin College 2019 Student Library Survey: Key Findings ............................................................ 35
2 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Bowdoin College has always had a deep-seated commitment to its libraries. Since
Bowdoin’s founding in 1794, its leadership, faculty, students, and staff have all
acknowledged the centrality of the Library to realizing the mission of the College.
The College’s current libraries—Hawthorne-Longfellow and the art, music, and
science branch libraries—serve not only as vast repositories of knowledge but also
as physical hubs of the College’s intellectual life and future. Aware of the increasingly
changing nature of libraries across the country and the globe—technological and
otherwise—President Clayton Rose, in May of 2018, commissioned a working group
to think about the future of the Library at Bowdoin College. Comprising faculty, staff,
students, and trustees, the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group (FOLAB)
met monthly over the course of the 2018–2019 academic year with the express aim of
drafting a report that includes a set of recommendations for planning for the future of
the libraries at Bowdoin College. To reach these recommendations, FOLAB members
toured a number of libraries in the region, read extensively about trends and changes
among academic libraries, held focus groups with faculty and students, conducted
an extensive online survey for faculty and students, and spoke to members of the
College’s Facilities Management team about the physical future of Bowdoin’s libraries.
FOLAB members unanimously agreed that our charge was not to think about libraries
in the abstract, but rather to make recommendations about the specific needs and
priorities of the Library at Bowdoin College.
Inasmuch as the Library at Bowdoin continues to do more and more—from creating
a robust special collections to facilitating experimental pedagogies—it became
clear in conversation with students and faculty that the current library system
(most particularly the physical space of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library) is no longer
meeting the needs of its users. Indeed, it was the risk of inaction that most concerned
students and faculty alike. The libraries must be contemplative, collaborative, and
creative spaces that balance print and digital collections, while also prioritizing and
emphasizing the specific strengths of the Bowdoin collection and offering space
and services for innovative pedagogical practices. The report that follows contains
our findings and recommendations about the future of Bowdoin’s libraries, both
as physical and intellectual spaces. In order to continue to meet the intellectual,
technological, and pedagogical needs of members of the Bowdoin community,
FOLAB is making six distinct but related recommendations.
First, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library should be completely reconceived—whether
through a major renovation or new construction—with a goal to create a twenty-first-
century Library that maximizes the College’s resources and provides flexibility for the
future. Second, the Library should be at the forefront of the campus master plan. An
architect should be engaged with all deliberate speed to identify and evaluate options
for a future physical library. Third, in developing new spaces, adjacencies among the
Library and other campus support services—including Information Technology and
the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching—should be considered. Fourth, active
engagement of Bowdoin’s faculty, staff, and students should be an integral aspect
of planning for the Library’s future. Fifth, investment in the Library’s technological
infrastructure and systems is critical. Technology is fundamental to the Library’s ability
to support teaching and scholarship; ensure the long-term preservation of Bowdoin’s
digital collections and assets; and, foster innovation. And sixth, ongoing support of
collections, services, and staff, including fostering professional development, is key
to the Library’s ability to develop and maintain expertise in the contexts of evolving
technologies and the dynamic landscape of libraries and higher education.
It is our sincere hope that these recommendations, which have the full endorsement
of all members of the Working Group, will provide a foundational roadmap as
Bowdoin navigates the next chapter in the storied history of its Library.
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 3
1 Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of Libraries: Preliminary Report (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, October 24, 2016),
https://future-of-libraries.mit.edu/.
2 The Working Group charge can be found in this report’s appendix.
3 The Working Group reviewed a variety of literature, including David Lewis’ Reimagining the Academic Library (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman
& Littlefield, 2016); Educause’s annual Horizon Report on key trends, challenges, and developments in higher education and technology;
the Association of College & Research Libraries’ “2018 Top Trends in Academic Libraries” (College & Research Libraries News, 2018); Brewster
Kahle’s “Transforming our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision” (Educause Review, 2017); and Marshall Breeding’s “Library
Systems Report” for 2018 and 2019 (American Libraries). Full citations and additional resources may be found in the Working Group’s
selected reading list appended to this report.
CONVENING OF THE WORKING GROUP
President Clayton Rose began the process to consider the future of Bowdoin’s libraries
by hosting a program at the Spring 2017 trustees meeting. Chris Bourg, director of
libraries at MIT, was invited to speak about libraries as academic and intellectual
spaces, with specific reference to MIT’s 2016 report on the Future of Libraries.
1
In May
2018, President Rose formally charged the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working
Group (FOLAB) with “thinking broadly and creatively” about how the Library can
evolve over the coming decades to support the campus community and with
producing “a report that includes a set of recommendations for planning for the
future of the libraries at Bowdoin College.”
2
FOLAB, comprising faculty, staff, students, and trustees, met monthly throughout
the 2018–2019 academic year to gain a deep understanding of the current Library
and consider the trends that will impact its collections, spaces, and services in the
future. The group reviewed reports and articles related to libraries and the future,
3
engaged in discussions with Library staff, consulted with academic libraries currently
undergoing or planning renovations—including Barnard College, Colorado College,
Harvard University, Haverford College, Kenyon College, and Smith College—and made
a site visit to Williams College’s new Sawyer Library. In addition, the group collected
considerable data from multiple student and faculty focus groups, from an online
survey administered to all faculty and students, and through several “intercept
surveys” employed in the libraries and other buildings on campus popular with
students, to collect information on student use of study spaces. Through this process
of discovery, FOLAB came to appreciate the way in which the campus community
engages with the Library, its collections, staff, services, and physical spaces; the
advantages and limitations of the Library’s spaces and how they relate to other
campus academic, study, and gathering spaces; the technological, pedagogical,
scholarly, and social trends that will continue to impact the Library in the future; and
the challenges those trends reveal.
4 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
INTRODUCTION
Throughout its history, Bowdoin College has viewed the Library as central to the
academic and scholarly pursuits of students and faculty. Joseph McKeen, the College’s
first president, made the strategic development of a Library a priority, noting that “[t]he
number of books and instruments is not of so much importance, as that the selection
be good.”
4
By the end of the College’s first century, the carefully selected and cultivated
Library collection had outgrown its home in Hubbard Hall, and a Special Committee on
the Library was appointed to consider its future. Concluding that “[t]he importance of
the library to the institution as a whole, and in particular to the departments of instruction
relating to literature and the life of man, is so manifest that more than a mere reference to
it is unnecessary,”
5
the committee recommended a new building.
6
Despite its centrality
to the College, the Library did not receive that new building until some seventy years later
when Hawthorne-Longfellow Library opened its doors in 1965. At that time, reflecting on
the move from Hubbard Hall to Hawthorne-Longfellow, College Librarian Richard Harwell
wrote that “a library of the 1960s […] has an emphasis that is different from that of a library
of the 1900s. It still contains and preserves the recorded knowledge that is ‘the wealth of
the wise,’ but its chief function is to make recorded knowledge useful and used.”
7
Harwell’s statements foreshadow the beginning of the modern era of Bowdoin
College’s Library, in which services and programs came to be as vital as collections;
and, they extend to today’s library, in which services, collections, and spaces
are components of a deeply interwoven, complex information ecosystem, each
conferring vitality to the others. In the fifty-five years since Hawthorne-Longfellow
Library’s opening, the College has experienced significant changes in the form of
curricular and pedagogical requirements, technological advances, and demographic
and cultural shifts. During that same time, the Library has creatively and adaptively
evolved its acquisition practices, its engagement with the campus community, and
its organization and internal operations. As a result, its collections and services are
flourishing despite serious limitations imposed on them by a building that has now
reached the end of its useful life. Significant infrastructure issues, major environmental
and accessibility concerns, and simply not enough space for the people, services,
materials, and technology that constitute today’s Library conspire to make the
Hawthorne-Longfellow building a liability to the ongoing success of Bowdoin’s Library.
Furthermore, these issues are mirrored to varying degrees in the campus’ three
branch libraries, exacerbating the challenges the current situation presents.
To continue its tradition of excellence, Bowdoin College must create a Library for its
future, one that will sustain the exceptional collections and services that have come
to define it, support the work of its expert staff, and provide the space necessary for
the entire community to thrive. The Library’s future achieves definition in this report,
which contains a summary of the trends, globally and locally, that are shaping today’s
academic libraries; a portrait of how the College currently regards the collections,
spaces, and services of Bowdoin’s libraries; and an assessment of key areas of
development and additional new opportunities. Most significantly, the report offers
recommendations about how the College should move forward with planning for a
future Library that will support Bowdoin’s commitment to academic excellence, original
research, and intellectual curiosity.
4 Joseph McKeen to John Abbot, December 30, 1801. Joseph McKeen Collection (M117, Box 1 Folder 15). George J. Mitchell Dept. of Special Collections &
Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine.
5 “Report of the Special Committee on the Library,” in the Report of the President of Bowdoin College for the Academic Year 1895-96 to Which are Appended the
Reports of the Librarian and the Special Committee on the Library (Brunswick, Maine, 1896), 27-28.
6 “Report of the Special Committee on the Library,” 27.
7 Harwell in his introduction to The Hawthorne-Longfellow Library of Bowdoin College: A Brief Guide to the Building, to the Collections, and to their Use (Brunswick,
Maine: Bowdoin College Library, 1966), [3].
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 5
BROAD TRENDS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES
The broad trends impacting academic libraries today provide a context in which the
Bowdoin Library can be considered. In particular, several major forces are shaping the
ways in which libraries engage with teaching and learning, research and scholarship,
information organization and access, spaces, collections, and the long-term
stewardship and sustainability of knowledge.
Libraries as Contemplative, Collaborative, and
Creative Spaces
Recognizing the fundamentally social nature of learning, newly built or reconceived
academic libraries emphasize user-centered design, interpersonal interaction,
and accessibility. Flexible classrooms and ample group study rooms are the new
norm, and some libraries, such as the Sawyer Library at Williams College, include
distinctive makerspaces and sound/video studios to support multimodal, active, and
creative learning. The integration of information literacy into teaching and learning
has deepened the relationship between librarians and students, encouraging more
active and sustained conversation and necessitating consultation and collaboration
spaces to support this type of engagement. Meeting these interpersonal needs
must be balanced with the still very much relevant individual ones, especially quiet,
contemplative study spaces.
Print and Digital Hybrid Collections
Announcements of the book’s demise were premature, and today’s libraries recognize
that books, along with electronic resources, will persist well into the future. Most readers
prefer printed works when it comes to in-depth reading, and efforts by some academic
libraries to remove all books to offsite warehouses have provoked a backlash from users
for whom proximity of collections is paramount and who embrace the inimitable power
of serendipity that browsing library stacks affords.
8
While many humanists still consider
print publishing the gold standard, electronic publishing dominates the sciences. This
means an expansive model for collections, one where the universe of “library resources”
is ever-growing. Today’s academic libraries now routinely collect data sets, full-text
archives, streaming video, role-playing games, virtual reality software, and myriad other
formats along with printed works.
The Distinctiveness of Collections
Historically, academic libraries were defined and evaluated by the size and scope of their
print collections. In today’s scholarly world, cooperative print retention agreements,
expedited borrowing services, and increased digitization of print materials have
transformed institutional collections into universal ones. Libraries are shifting from
a purely “outside-in” focus—bringing outside knowledge into the library—toward
incorporating an “inside-out” approach to collections, increasing the visibility of their
own institutions’ unique contributions. For a local audience this can mean greater
opportunities to engage with primary materials, while global audiences gain access
to digitized versions of special collections and rare books. Simultaneously, universal
collections have liberated libraries to selectively and strategically weed their print holdings
to free up room to create collaborative work spaces and support new initiatives.
8 Andrew Perrin, “One-in-five Americans Now Listen to Audiobooks,” Pew Research Center, September 25, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2019/09/25/one-in-five-americans-now- listen-to-audiobooks/.
6 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
The Evolution of Scholarly Publishing
Today’s scholarly publishing landscape is a volatile marketplace. Publishers are
constantly experimenting with new publishing technologies, bundling options, and
pricing models. To mitigate rising costs, most electronic resources are licensed,
opening up libraries to new risks, such as lack of permanence, unreliability, and
unpredictability. To break the cycle of “buying back their own research,” academic
libraries are developing and supporting Open Access (OA) and Open Educational
Resources (OER) publication models. Such models offer transformative potential not
only in terms of library budgets but for open content and open pedagogy to improve
educational equity and inclusion.
9
Encouraging student and faculty participation in
the OA movement requires librarians to develop expertise and consulting services on
copyright and intellectual property and publishing.
Preservation in the Digital Age
The proliferation of formats, particularly digital ones, and modes of access introduce
formidable challenges for the long-term care and preservation of today’s library
collections. While physical books also need care to ensure their continued usefulness,
the preservation of digital objects is resource-intensive, constant, and largely invisible
work that is easily underestimated. In addition to continuing traditional analog
operations, libraries are now administering complex digital asset management
systems, institutional repositories, and other digital preservation systems in order
to provide for the safe and secure storage of electronic institutional records, email,
and digital collections in a variety of formats, and to accommodate secure and tiered
access to those assets with rights and/or permissions issues.
Community and Connectivity in Library Technology
Library technology, like all technology, is rapidly evolving. Motivated by the desire to
provide users with improved means of navigating expansive and expanding pools of
data and to offer libraries more affordable solutions, communities of practitioners
are banding together to develop open-source software solutions to rival vended
solutions. Through polyglot APIs, application programming interfaces that speak with
multiple computer programs, siloed systems specialized to particular functions are
now beginning to communicate with each other, allowing end-users to have more
integrated experiences with different types of collections. And, libraries are beginning
to experiment with harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to reveal collections
in new ways and augment traditional research practices.
Digital Scholarship, Interdisciplinarity, and Evolving
Pedagogical Methods
Digital scholarship methodologies are transforming research and teaching, bringing
a new focus to integrated learning, quantitative reasoning, and interdisciplinarity.
Increasingly, librarians are collaborating with faculty on integrating primary materials
and research into course design. Many libraries are developing data services teams
to facilitate text and data mining; data visualization; data management plan creation;
and, discovery, access, and long-term storage of research data. And, new media
are being integrated into coursework and assignments, necessitating expertise in
hardware and software. The academic library is seeking to balance its support for
these rapidly evolving modes of learning and technologies with support for time-
honored research methods and materials.
9 There is currently a “2.5% Commitment” movement, a call from within the library profession to consider dedicating that much of any library’s
budget to support of Open Access. In recent years, the Bowdoin College Library redirected some collections funds to supporting Lever Press,
a platinum open access monograph publishing initiative founded by a group of liberal arts college libraries, and to other OA projects.
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 7
THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE AT BOWDOIN
The national and global trends impacting academic libraries provide a framework
for understanding the Bowdoin libraries’ “roles on campus, their collections, the
breadth of their work and service programs, the role their current physical spaces play
in the intellectual and cultural life of the campus, and current library staff expertise
in supporting the academic mission of the college.”
10
The future-oriented trends,
seen together with the historical centrality of the Library to the vitality of the College,
provide a measure of the Library’s ambitions and successes on behalf of faculty and
students. Intrinsically, the Bowdoin Library contributes in multifaceted ways to the
intellectual, social, and ethical dimensions of life at the College through its:
collections, which are expansive in scope and have been strategically and responsively
developed in partnership with Bowdoin faculty over the past two centuries. They
reflect sustained administrative support for building a robust collection of print
and, more recently, electronic resources with a budget that adequately addresses
ongoing needs while allowing for collecting in new areas and formats in tandem
with changing faculty and their needs and interests. A strong and engaged
alumni community—as well as external donors—has allowed the College to build
exceptional special collections, which bring distinction to the Library, and to Bowdoin
more generally, and engage faculty, students, and other scholars in original research.
strategic partnerships, which have extended access to resources, most notably
through the long-term partnership with Colby and Bates, known as the CBB
consortium. In recent years, this relationship has deepened and the three institutions
cooperatively share and develop collections, providing users access to a larger
pool of resources and extending the purchasing power of each individual school.
Frequently, CBB collectively negotiates access to electronic resources, providing
parity of access and typically better pricing for each college. Access to materials
through a well-respected interlibrary loan program and the state-wide MaineCat
system means that faculty and students are overwhelmingly pleased with the
breadth of materials they can access. And, partnerships such as the Maine Shared
Collections Collaborative have allowed Bowdoin to make informed weeding decisions
while ensuring long-term statewide access to physical copies of print material.
spaces, which include seven distinct facilities, and among them, the art, music, and
science branch libraries. All of the libraries are well-used, with Hawthorne-Longfellow
Library serving as the most popular study space on campus, surpassing even Smith
Union. As the major research library in the state, Bowdoin’s Library also attracts
external researchers, who come to campus to use the Library’s print collections,
Special Collections & Archives, and electronic resources available only locally.
Between this extensive activity and an increasing number of classes scheduled in
Hawthorne-Longfellow, the Library is a vibrant and active place.
11
Several modest
renovations at Hawthorne-Longfellow and Hatch Libraries in the past few years have
improved study spaces for students and introduced new programmatic areas in
response to student and faculty needs.
programs and services, provided by expert staff, who offer proactive, collaborative,
and personalized assistance to the campus community. The Library provides
support for the curriculum and student learning in a variety of forms: online and
in person, one-on-one, and small and large groups. Services both anticipate the
needs of students, faculty, and staff, as well as respond to students’ course-related
and research needs. Increasingly and strategically, the Library is evolving generalist
positions into subject experts to provide specialized research services around new
areas of inquiry, such as computational data and object-based teaching.
10 From the Working Group charge.
11 Use of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library has been increasing for the past five years—275,874 building entries were recorded in the 2018–2019 academic year.
“The Library strives to
balance its traditional
services—circulating
materials, acquiring and
stewarding resources,
and providing research
assistance—with supporting
new forms of scholarship and
pedagogy, experimenting
with and employing
developing technologies,
and meeting the needs of an
increasingly social world
that is influencing the ways
in which students learn,
collaborate, and engage.
”
8 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
TRENDS, TENSIONS, AND LIMITATIONS
AT BOWDOIN
The trends impacting academic libraries also underscore the significant challenges
Bowdoin’s Library faces in its effort to meet the needs of the campus. The Library
strives to balance its traditional services—circulating materials, acquiring and
stewarding resources, and providing research assistance—with supporting new
forms of scholarship and pedagogy, experimenting with and employing developing
technologies, and meeting the needs of an increasingly social world that is influencing
the ways in which students learn, collaborate, and engage. These complex systems
and the Library’s multifaceted role on campus lead to competing expectations from
which tensions arise, including the:
n differing requirements for acquiring and stewarding physical and digital collections;
n continuance of time-honored research methods and materials alongside the
adoption of technological innovation;
n sensitive alignment of automated processes and workflows with a strong
commitment to individualized and “in person” service;
n distinct and overlapping needs of students and faculty; and, the
n many and varied competing needs for space in the Library, which houses
collections, creates the range of conditions—solitary or social, quiet or interactive—
that people prefer for their work, and makes the Library’s services not only possible,
but also intelligible and accessible to patrons.
12
These tensions are evidenced in all the Library’s work, but perhaps are most apparent
as the Library responds to new and emerging curricular needs and technological
demands.
13
While not exhaustive, the following examples illustrate how these tensions
manifest themselves as the Library adapts to today’s needs.
Pedagogy and Information Literacy
Research librarians have developed a multifaceted and collaborative approach to
supporting student learning, working closely with faculty to design effective research
assignments and classroom workshops, and supporting students outside of class in
multiple ways. Librarian teaching has increased over the last decade, as has faculty
and student demand for librarian expertise in the form of in-depth consultations.
14
Changes in the methods and difficulty of accessing materials has necessitated that
librarians focus instead on complex concepts and processes, shifting away from
simple skills-based demonstrations to individual and group work in support of
topic development, evaluation, synthesis, and scholarly communication and ethics.
First-year seminars offer an initial opportunity for librarians to provide the essential
foundation for students’ understanding of how academic literature and resources are
organized and used, and for students to engage with the Library directly. Currently
librarians are invited to work with students in 84 percent of first-year seminars.
12 In discussion sessions held in the Spring 2019 semester, staff across all Library departments remarked on the inflexibility of the Library’s current
spaces, which do not meet the needs of current workflows or support cross-functional collaboration and inhibit efficiencies. Instructional librarians
emphasized the ever-growing demand for specialized research instruction requiring dedicated teaching spaces designed for flexibility and that will
support integration of digital and analog technologies.
13 The Working Group met with Library staff who serve as subject experts in areas that are experiencing significant development for in-depth
discussion.
14 From 2010 to the last academic year, the number of courses for which librarians provided instructional support, including teaching information-literacy
sessions, increased by 61 percent (from 119 to 192); the number of individual class sessions increased by 95 percent (from 139 to 271); and, the total
number of student participants reached 4,222, an increase of 137 percent.
“…today’s research librarians
need to be as adept at
engaging students
via multimodal instruction
as helping them evaluate
‘fake news.’
”
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 9
n While Hawthorne-Longfellow Library’s Electronic Classroom (ECR) is useful for
training on specific tools or techniques, its size and inflexibility limit the modes of
teaching possible within the space; while the room has a capacity of twenty-four,
most classes now exceed that number.
n Research librarians continue to manage service points in multiple facilities, while
meeting increasing demand for their teaching and consultation services and
incorporating new pedagogies, practices, and subject expertise into their work;
today’s research librarians need to be as adept at engaging students via multimodal
instruction as helping them evaluate “fake news.”
Integration of Special Collections & Archives into
Teaching and Research
The George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives instruction program
emphasizes active, hands-on learning for primary source, information, digital, and
visual literacy. Librarians work with faculty across all disciplines to meet a wide variety of
learning goals and support teaching with the Library’s unique materials. The number of
classes that utilize Special Collections & Archives has risen sharply for the past five years
(this past academic year, fifty individual classes in fifteen areas of study participated in
seventy-seven sessions). Demand is expected to rise even more as Special Collections &
Archives staff have recently launched an Integrated Learning Initiative about the Histories
of the Book, and are collaborating with colleagues in the Bowdoin College Museum
of Art and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum on faculty workshops centered on
“teaching with the collections.”
n Staff have reached capacity regarding the number of courses that can be supported
and now require that a request be submitted at least three weeks in advance.
Current demand exceeds what the department can offer by way of teaching space,
patron hold shelves, and consultation requests.
n The lack of appropriate teaching and consultation spaces has major implications
for the special collections’ instruction program. Currently, librarians teach in a
multipurpose room that is also used as the staff lounge and lunch room, for staff
meetings, and to host public events, placing irreplaceable materials at risk. Both
a dedicated classroom and a seminar room are needed to accommodate class
requests, ensure the security of collections, and to effectively integrate digital
collections into instruction sessions.
Digitization and Digital Collections
The Library’s digital collections, including newly digitized analog materials and those
that are “born digital,” are expanding at a rapid rate. Currently, the Library manages
over ten terabytes of digital collections online through a variety of discovery and storage
systems. Digitization occurs in-house and through outsourcing. The College archives is
managing a growing collection of digital administrative records and email, images, audio
and video recordings, and captures of the College website. Digitization of collections to
increase access and ensure preservation of significant resources is ongoing, primarily
supported by grant funds. The bulk of the Library’s physical collections has not been
digitized, yet the current needs and potential uses of such digital surrogates only grows.
n The digitization program and the work that can be accomplished is severely
handicapped by the lack of appropriate physical space for staff, materials, and
equipment; the recent acquisition of a planetary scanner displaced a computer
workstation and vital workspace, limiting the nature and scope of projects that can
be managed simultaneously.
n Currently, multiple systems are employed to manage digital collections, an
unwieldy and unsustainable approach that limits discovery and the development
of a comprehensive digital preservation program.
10 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
Data Services
The Library’s support for data services has expanded over the past several years as
the incorporation of numeric, image, text, and spatial data into teaching and research
has increased. The data services librarian, in collaboration with staff in Academic
Technology & Consulting, works with students and faculty on data identification,
access, manipulation, transformation, analysis, visualization, and storage. Issues
around copyright and licensing are becoming more common.
n Data-intensive projects typically require multiple interactions between a student
and a librarian. With only one librarian on the staff with the requisite subject
expertise, the current model is not extensible to meet growing needs.
n The Library lacks appropriate consultation and collaboration spaces, e.g., large
group study and seminar rooms, which are needed to support projects.
n The acquisition of data sets is a new area for the Library and brings with it multiple
challenges in regard to licensing, permissions, discoverability, storage, and
sustainability—issues that impact all departments and that can be time-consuming
and challenging to address.
Student Study Spaces
Library spaces are an integral aspect of the student academic experience at Bowdoin,
supporting a variety of approaches to study, from quiet solitude in carrels to
interactive group work and projects that require the use of multimedia technologies.
As Bowdoin’s curriculum and the pedagogical approaches employed by faculty
increasingly emphasize interdisciplinary, collaborative, and multimodal work, the
need for appropriate spaces to support this work has escalated. In addition, students
increasingly seek out study areas where they can easily power their laptops, spread
out their books and papers, and work in quiet community with others, much like in
the grand reading rooms of the past. In Hawthorne-Longfellow and across all of the
branch libraries, student demand for different types of spaces is intense and rising.
The limitations of the Library’s current spaces, and the furniture within, are apparent,
and regularly noted by Bowdoin’s student population.
n Recent updates to the main floor of Hatch Science Library and modest renovations
in Hawthorne-Longfellow serve as a stopgap solution to the significant problem of
inadequate and ineffective Library space.
n Commensurate action to address current and anticipated future student study
space needs cannot be accomplished within the current building envelopes
without impairing collections, services, or both, and would require significant
infrastructure investment.
“Commensurate action
to address current and
anticipated future student
study space needs cannot
be accomplished within the
current building envelopes
without impairing collections,
services, or both, and
would require significant
infrastructure investment.
”
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 11
INSIGHTS FROM THE COMMUNITY
The insights of students, faculty, and staff arguably shine the brightest light on the
strengths and limitations of current Library collections, spaces, and services; how
faculty and students actually use and value these resources, what they think might
be missing, and what they wish for; and, the local trends that are impacting the
Library’s support of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, information
organization and access, and the long-term stewardship of knowledge. The
comments interspersed throughout the following discussion are drawn directly from
survey responses and focus group conversations. Broader summaries of that data are
included in the appendix to this report.
15
The Library is viewed as central to the campus by students and faculty. Both
symbolically and functionally, the Library is viewed by students and faculty as
fundamental to the mission of the College, reinforcing the common understanding
of the Library’s role. Faculty refer to the Library as “an invaluable resource,” “the
intellectual heart of campus,” “the facilitator of the transmission of knowledge,” and
“a place for democratic entry” to information. For students, it is “very much the center
of academic work.” The Library’s services, information resources—both electronic and
print—and the expertise of the staff are highly valued; its physical space is utilized by
faculty in numerous ways and serves as the “third place” on campus for students—a
combination academic-social space outside of the classroom or residence. At the
same time, the data indicate that the Library’s discovery tools can be frustrating to
use; students don’t always take advantage of the Library’s services or staff expertise;
there is a desire for an expanded program of workshops; and, in many respects,
the Library’s spaces are not meeting current needs or developing trends. Notably,
the data also reveal the clear, distinct, and coequal needs of faculty and students at
Bowdoin. Above all, when faculty think about the Library, collections are prime; for
students it is the library as place. Both are fundamental definitions of a library.
n “Bowdoin has a remarkably robust library system with rich collections backed by
smart, professional librarians, archivists, and academic technology consultants. But,
this gem of a library—a standout among selective liberal arts colleges—is in danger
of losing its luster because of aging and increasingly inadequate buildings (H-L most
notable), declining space devoted to physical collections (e.g., books, journals) in favor
of more study spaces, and a possible retirement wave that could affect the most vital
resource of all: the expertise of human beings who have made the Library their career.”
(faculty member)
The Library’s collections are integral to the work of faculty and students. By its very
nature, the Library is a microcosm of the scholarly world, reflecting the forces that
shape information production, consumption, and exchange. Faculty are unequivocal
regarding the value of Library collections to their teaching and research. Furthermore,
75 percent of faculty who responded to the online survey disagreed with the statement
that “Given trends in my area of scholarship and the increasing availability of e-books, I
anticipate that in the near future I will rarely need to consult a print version of a book.”
16
An overwhelming majority of students are very likely to use materials immediately
available to them online (92 percent of student respondents reported that access to
databases, e-books, and online journals was important for their academic success),
15 The Working Group held multiple focus groups for faculty, students, and Library staff over the course of the academic year and, with the assistance
of staff from Bowdoin’s Office of Institutional Research, Analytics, and Consulting, administered two online surveys in the spring semester of
2019—one to faculty and one to all currently enrolled students. Response rates were 60 percent for faculty and 44 percent for students. The surveys
were not intended to measure satisfaction with the Library, rather they focused on the ways in which students and faculty currently engage with
the Library and, for faculty, the ways in which they anticipate their engagement will change in the future based on scholarly and pedagogical needs.
The Working Group also reviewed a variety of Library-related data that had been collected previously, including that from the MISO (Measuring
Information Service Outcomes) Survey, which the Library, along with Information Technology, administered to the campus in 2017.
16 The total number of survey respondents was 172, representing 60 percent of the College’s faculty. Many faculty, across disciplines, expressed
apprehension about the long-term availability of the Library’s print collection, specifically noting concerns about the withdrawal of books in
conjunction with the acquisition of their electronic counterparts, or renovation projects that require reduction of the stacks’ footprint.
“[the Library’s] physical
space is utilized by faculty in
numerous ways and serves as
the “third place” on campus
for students—a combination
academic-social space
outside of the classroom or
dorm room.
”
12 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
though access to physical collections remains of value (noted by 63 percent of student
respondents). Despite their reliance on electronic resources, students also voiced a
strong preference for print as their preferred medium for reading. Faculty, in particular,
praised the Interlibrary Loan service and the broad access to resources it supports,
though at the same time there is a desire for the Library to deepen onsite collections.
n “What’s been the most important aspect for me has been the Library’s access to a wide
variety of research material both on and off campus. The Library’s access to digital
sources as well as CBB/Interlibrary Loan have been crucial to the academic research
I’ve done.” (student)
n “I do hope that you do not discard a physical library for a digitized one. While I
understand the need to expand the resources available to a diverse faculty, there is still
nothing quite like searching for a physical book, holding that book in your hand, and
getting the resources that you need.” (faculty member)
n “[The Library has] good basic collections in our field that are sufficient for most
teaching purposes but lacking for research purposes; however, the ILL system works
well and is able to supply most necessities within a reasonable time frame.” (faculty
member)
The spaces of the Bowdoin College Library are crucial. The Library functions as a social
and intellectual hub on campus for both students and faculty, offering a comfortable
and welcoming environment while supporting academic purpose. Students take
advantage of a variety of Library services and engage with staff when in a Library, though
they identify the Library’s spaces as most important to their success. They read, study,
and work alone or in groups; they like working in close proximity with other students
as they can be both within a social environment and feel part of a serious intellectual
community.
17
Much of the feedback from students focused on environmental factors
and ambiance: design, lighting, seating options, noise level, and comfort. Students value
the variety of Library spaces, though many complained about crowding and noise and
indicated the need for additional and more functional furniture and group study rooms.
Faculty expressed the desire for writing and collaboration spaces (to meet with students
as well as with faculty colleagues) and those who teach with collections noted the
benefits of instructional spaces and seminar rooms.
18
“What’s been the most
important aspect for me has
been the Library’s access to
a wide variety of research
material both on and off
campus. The Library’s access
to digital sources as well as
CBB/Interlibrary Loan have
been crucial to the academic
research I’ve done.
” (student)
Library Collections: browsing, proximity, and the future need for print
Faculty survey responses to questions regarding the value of physical collections to their teaching
and scholarship.
17 Answering the question, “What do you do in a Bowdoin library,” the top responses were “read, study, or work alone (93 percent); use printers/
scanners (91 percent), study with a group (68 percent); and use Library resources (55 percent).
18 In regard to desired new or expanded spaces and services, over 70 percent of both students and faculty identified a café. Eighty-three percent of
faculty indicated a computer helpdesk in the Library would be beneficial.
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 13
n “Honestly I think we have a decently weak library physically. The study space is really
important to me and I find it hard sometimes to find spaces that are quiet enough or
offer room to spread out. Additionally, if I get hungry, I have to leave the library, which
wastes time, and I wish there were more food options.” (student)
n “I have been touring students on campus for years and the Library is always my least
favorite part of the tour. It is not beautiful, it feels worn, people aren’t struck by it.
Bowdoin has such an academically rigorous reputation and our library services are
so strong—we just need a building and spaces to match!” (student)
n “[It would be helpful if I] had a classroom in which I could not only teach but also
keep materials relevant to the research goals of the course—not for a day but for the
semester—and allow students in the course to use that space for their work at night and
on weekends.” (faculty member)
n “Continue expanding the technological resources available to [students]. My teaching
has heavily relied on students using diverse media to make their classroom experience
accessible beyond the classroom. The more resources available to them, the more capable
and confident they will be able to take advantage of these resources.” (faculty member)
The Library’s staff, and the support the librarians
provide for teaching, learning, and research, are highly
regarded. Faculty look to the Library, specifically the
research librarians, for support of their students’ academic
work. In particular, faculty want increased support for
student understanding and proper use of citations,
and many are interested in opportunities to integrate
archival and special materials into teaching. Students do
take advantage of the research assistance provided by
librarians outside of class, though many are not aware of
the extensive services available.
n “The librarians are eager to help you. They will make
themselves available to assist with your specific needs. I
have had one-on-one meetings with librarians numerous
times last semester, resulting in successful research
papers.” (student)
n “The staff is excellent, and support for teaching and
research is extremely good—probably as good or better
than any other campus library in the country.” (faculty member)
n “The reference librarians … have amazing and useful skills to enhance scholarship and
teaching endeavors.” (faculty member)
n “I don’t know what it would look like, but students need help with research and
citation—they are less and less adept at these things. I think we need to do more—
professors and librarians—to think about how to collaborate productively to address
this ever-increasing issue.” (faculty member)
The seventy-five most-used words from student
survey responses to the question, “My academic
work would be enhanced if the Library...”
14 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
RISKS OF INACTION
Feedback gathered from students and faculty confirm the centrality of the Library to
the academic success of the College. However, such comments also illuminate the
inherent tensions at work in the twenty-first-century research hub that is Bowdoin’s
Library. Creativity, resolve, and resilience have ensured the Library’s success despite
significant challenges, particularly regarding infrastructure, that will become
insurmountable in the foreseeable future without action on the College’s part.
The Library has continuously focused on strategic priorities, evaluated ongoing
processes, reorganized administratively, reallocated staff resources, and creatively
re-used space in order to advance its mission. Its facilities, in particular, have been an
ongoing focus as evidenced by the number of renovation projects that have occurred
over the past five years.
n Between 2015 and 2016, much of Hawthorne-Longfellow’s lower level was
repurposed into a Media Commons, which supports multimedia use and creation
and includes an eighteen-seat screening room and twenty-four-seat telepresence
classroom. This renovation consolidated services and video collections previously
located in the Language Media Center in Sills Hall and increased the Library’s
teaching spaces, but reduced its overall square footage and displaced collections.
n Renovations in 2017 on the ground floor of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library created
the Research Lab, which supports student research and collaboration and provides
easier access to research librarians; the Innovation Lab, which houses Academic
Technology and Consulting staff; and, a recent addition, the Tech Hub, a student-
run computer help desk. New staff adjacencies were gained while others were lost,
and staff saw an overall reduction to their already cramped spaces.
n In 2018, the second floor of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library was renovated to create
the College Test Center and an expanded Faculty Research Commons. The Test
Center functions as much-needed quiet study space evenings and weekends,
though the renovation eliminated private faculty studies as well as a portion of the
Library’s minimal storage space.
n In 2019, the Library opened an annex in the College’s new warehouse to consolidate
the 80,000 volumes it had previously stored remotely, alleviate overcrowding of
onsite stacks, especially for Special Collections & Archives, and accommodate
future collection growth. The project provides significant benefits for the Library,
though simultaneously has taxed already stretched resources in terms of the
staffing models, technology, and workflows needed to administer an entirely new
facility and program.
To date, these renovations—which have allowed the Library to improve and enhance
services and create operational efficiencies and adjacencies—have been worth
the trade-offs. However, given the structural concerns, inflexibility, and physical
inaccessibility of both the Hawthorne-Longfellow and Hubbard buildings, the
notion that through additional incremental renovations the Library can continue to
keep pace with curricular innovation, faculty and student needs, and the evolving
knowledge production environment is simply untenable.
19
Moreover, even with the
observable improvements that accrue to the Library with multiple recent renovations,
the status quo already shows some of the penalties for and risks of inaction.
19 The Working Group discussed Hawthorne-Longfellow Library’s major infrastructure issues with Don Borkowski, Bowdoin’s director of capital
projects, on April 19, 2019. These include the challenges of remediation of the complex building envelope, which were last explored in 2004 when
a formal investigation of building-wide condensation issues was completed; absence of appropriate windows and HVAC; and inaccessibility of the
Hubbard stacks, which also lacks temperature and humidity controls appropriate to ensure the long-term stability of print collections.
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 15
n Faculty, students, and Library staff complain about the restrictions and dreariness
of Library spaces. Bowdoin gambles on maintaining a deteriorating and
unappealing Library that students and faculty will come to avoid and that will
become a marginalized resource on campus, rather than one embraced by the
community.
n It is unconscionable that much of the Library’s physical collection is inaccessible
to mobility-compromised people, except by the use of clumsy lifts. In the context
of the increasing diversity of Bowdoin’s student body, the Library’s inaccessible,
inflexible, and constraining public spaces across all branches conspicuously
diminish support for an inclusive community.
n Overcrowding and suboptimal environmental conditions place all physical
collections at risk.
n Barriers to incorporating essential information technology infrastructure place a
short horizon on the Library’s capacity to integrate data-intensive technologies
into teaching, hindering access to collections and to scholarly knowledge and
limiting the participation of faculty and students in immersive and other emerging
technologies.
n Lack of space noticeably limits the Library’s capacity for sharing with the world
Bowdoin’s unique history, faculty scholarship, and student learning through
digitization programs.
n Inflexible and inadequate classrooms directly impede the Library’s ability to keep
up with the changing demands of the curriculum and with innovative pedagogical
models, and to address the wide array of information literacies with active, hands-
on methods.
16 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
As laid bare by the efforts of this working group, the Library’s ability to succeed has
been both fostered and stymied by resources. Over the past centuries, the Library has
received administrative and community support that has shaped the development
of impressive collections and innovative instructional services. At the same time, its
inadequate and outdated physical environment and infrastructure have challenged
staff, jeopardized collections, and left students without sufficient study space. No
additional incremental investments can adequately address these issues.
To ensure the College’s future success, Bowdoin must commit to investing in a
building for its Library that will not only sustain its critical functions, services, and
collections, but empower it to become the multidisciplinary public forum for
investigation, dialogue, experimentation, and knowledge creation that tomorrow’s
Library must be. In particular, Bowdoin’s future Library must aspire to:
n democratize, demystify, and share the College. In our current era of skepticism
about academia in general and the value of a liberal arts education in particular, the
Library is a tangible reminder of the power of information to shape knowledge and
to inspire a better world. By inviting the Bowdoin community in through scholarship
and learning, and extending the institution’s educational and civic mission out
through its sharing of collections, services, and ideas, the Library is both a window
on the world and a window for the world.
n equip students, faculty, and the broader Bowdoin community to cope with the
challenges of intellectually grasping and exploring the world they encounter.
Library staff are—and will remain—key to building and applying expertise to help
faculty and students learn to do what they need to do in order to adapt to the same
trends that are reshaping the Library. The staff are both stewards of knowledge and
innovators in teaching intellectual adaptation in an evolving world.
n augment and create learning experiences particular to Bowdoin. As an intimate
and welcoming space that fosters inclusion, personal transformation, and
connection, the Library has always reflected and strengthened Bowdoin’s core
values, distinctive character, and unique history. As Bowdoin continues to adapt
to the demands of the twenty-first century through its curricular and cocurricular
programs, the Library will engender new opportunities to be of service for the many
ways that faculty and students alike will derive, create, and share their knowledge.
Values and Principles
The Bowdoin College Library is the only library in the world that reflects the changing
goals, priorities, and aspirations of Bowdoin College itself. The Library supports the
mission, curriculum, and values of the College, as well as the individual endeavors
of Bowdoin’s faculty and students across the disciplines, and their perspectives on
and modes of teaching, learning, inquiry, and scholarship. This symbiotic relationship
between the College and the Library was underscored during the Working Group’s
investigation of other college library renovation projects, which drew attention
to differences in campus cultures as well as to the preferences and priorities of
Bowdoin’s faculty and students. Thus, to achieve the aspirations articulated above for
Bowdoin’s Library, the Working Group has identified a set of fundamental values and
principles that are core to any future planning.
The Bowdoin College Library will:
n occupy, both literally and figuratively, a central place in the Bowdoin community,
undergirding the College’s academic mission, mirroring its fundamental values,
fueling its aspirations;
“As an intimate and
welcoming space that
fosters inclusion, personal
transformation, and
connection, the Library
has always reflected and
strengthened Bowdoin’s core
values, distinctive character,
and unique history.
”
The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 17
n command attention as an inviting and inspirational “third” place for students,
offering resources and discrete spaces for individual and collaborative exploration
outside classrooms and residences;
n extend the reach of faculty beyond lecture halls, laboratories, and departmental
offices, supporting their scholarship and assisting them to encourage the
incorporation of intellectual work into their students’ lives;
n respond to the emergence of new disciplines and to the exigencies of teaching,
learning, and scholarly engagement in a changing world;
n embrace through its interactions the College’s established traditions of generosity,
inclusion, and the encouragement of experimentation and innovation;
n express the College’s commitment to access and sustainability; and
n advance the College’s profile as a premier liberal arts institution in the United States
and as a principal locus of teaching, learning, and research in the state of Maine.
Recommendations
Through the lens of these values, principles, and aspirations, the Working Group
unanimously offers the following recommendations.
1. The physical Library should be completely reconceived—whether through a major
renovation or new construction—with a goal to create a twenty-first-century Library
that will make it possible to sustain critical functions, services, and collections;
maximize the use of College resources; provide flexibility for the future; and, ensure
accessibility for all members of the community.
2. The Library should be at the forefront of the campus master plan. An architect
should be engaged with all deliberate speed to identify and evaluate options for
a future physical library. Given Hawthorne-Longfellow Library’s known, serious
infrastructure issues, which place collections and services at immediate risk, and
the complexity of the project, planning should not be delayed.
3. In developing new spaces, adjacencies among the Library and other campus
support services—including Information Technology and the Baldwin Center
for Learning and Teaching—should be considered. Efforts to identify the most
meaningful and forward-looking organizational relationships and determine the
potential benefits of co-location should begin as soon as possible.
4. Active engagement of Bowdoin’s faculty, staff, and students should be an integral
aspect of planning for the Library’s future.
5. Investment in the Library’s technological infrastructure and systems is critical.
Technology is fundamental to the Library’s ability to support teaching and
scholarship; ensure the long-term preservation of Bowdoin’s digital collections and
assets; and, foster innovation.
6. Ongoing support of collections, services, and staff, including fostering professional
development, is key to the Library’s ability to develop and maintain expertise in
the contexts of evolving technologies and the dynamic landscape of libraries and
higher education.
“The Library’s ability to
adapt and evolve has been
both tested and proven,
as has its centrality to the
mission of the College.
”
18 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group
CONCLUSION
Core to its mission, Bowdoin College seeks to nurture a more diverse, ethical, and
thoughtful community and to create good in the world through the intentional
actions of its students and alumni. In today’s complex political, economic, and social
environment, students must absorb, parse, and react to information at a dizzying
pace. The question of how to be a global citizen has never been more challenging, nor
has the College’s role in the answer assumed more urgency.
As an inclusive intellectual hub for the entire Bowdoin campus, the College Library
exemplifies the social vision for education that defines the institution’s mission and
plays an active and vibrant role in the community. The Library’s ability to adapt and
evolve has been both tested and proven, as has its centrality to the mission of the
College.
As this report shows, with the ever-increasing ubiquity and complexity of
information, the Library’s work to cultivate and maintain an information ecosystem
supportive of faculty and student scholarship increases in intensity. Contrary to
technology eliminating the need for print-based traditional collections, technology
has dramatically broadened their accessibility and introduced opportunities to
engage digitally with print artifacts; and, contrary to the belief that the availability
of information and powerful search tools at our desktops abrogates the need for
personal assistance, the expert guidance of library professionals is critical to the
tasks of identifying, evaluating, and curating information sources and supporting
knowledge production and dissemination.
For Bowdoin to remain a leader in liberal education it must invest in its next library
while navigating a time of dramatic change, copious uncertainties, and multiple
tensions, all of which will shape its future. The values and principles articulated
above, which already infuse the work of the Bowdoin College Library, must remain in
the forefront as we envision the next chapter in our Library’s history, one that looks
toward and welcomes an increasingly complex and diverse world.
“For Bowdoin to remain a
leader in liberal education it
must invest in its next Library
while navigating a time of
dramatic change, copious
uncertainties, and multiple
tensions, all of which will
shape its future.
”
APPENDIX I — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 19
APPENDIX
I. THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES AT BOWDOIN WORKING
GROUP MEMBERS
Faculty
Todd Berzon, assistant professor of religion
Crystal Hall, associate professor in the digital humanities
Ann Kibbie, associate professor of English
Elizabeth McCormack, senior vice president and dean for academic affairs; and professor of physics (co-chair)
Jeffrey Nagle, Charles Weston Pickard Professor of Chemistry
Erik Nelson, associate professor of economics
Staff
Kathryn Byrnes, director of the Baldwin Program for Academic Development
Michael Cato, senior vice president and chief information officer
Marjorie Hassen, director of the Bowdoin College Library (co-chair)
Kat Stefko, associate librarian for discovery, digitization, and special collections; and director, George J. Mitchell Department of
Special Collections & Archives
Erin Valentino, associate librarian for research, instruction, and outreach
Trustees
David Brown
Linda Roth
John Thorndike
Students
Mohamed Saidou Camara ’19
Augustus Gilchrist ’20 (fall only)
Tessa Peterson ’20 (fall only)
Phoebe Zipper ’19
20 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX II
II. THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES AT BOWDOIN WORKING
GROUP CHARGE
May 21, 2018
At their core, libraries share information, advance knowledge, and facilitate connection. In a rapidly changing digital age, the way
libraries and their users collect, access, and disseminate data, information, and research results will continue to evolve quickly.
As a result, there are unprecedented opportunities to improve how we engage with one another and with information through
new mechanisms of collecting, storing, organizing, and disseminating information; new models of publishing; and new modes of
discovery and use. We must ensure that the Bowdoin community has access to the best tools and resources for this work.
The Working Group is charged with thinking broadly and creatively about how the libraries at Bowdoin College can evolve over
the next ten-fifteen-twenty years to best advance the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge through engaged
community building and collaborative partnerships.
The Working Group will be co-chaired by the dean for academic affairs and the director of the Library and be comprised of faculty,
trustees, staff, and students. The group will undertake its work in the context of our mission, “The Offer of the College,” and our
goal to remain a deeply relevant and preeminent liberal arts college.
The group’s work will include developing an understanding of:
n the current libraries’ roles on campus, their collections, the breadth of their work and service programs, the role their current
physical spaces play in the intellectual and cultural life of the campus, and current library staff expertise in supporting the
academic mission of the College
n trends that will impact teaching and learning, research and scholarship, information organization and access, collections and
long-term stewardship and sustainability of knowledge (e.g., trends in technologies and digitization, publishing, peer-review,
social media, required expertise of academic library professionals, globalization, diversity and inclusion, universal design, etc.)
n trends that will impact the design of physical spaces that promote and support the engagement of internal and external
communities; enhance the discovery, access, and use of information; enhance learning and teaching; and facilitate faculty and
student research and scholarship (active learning, blended teaching and learning, project-driven curricula, interdisciplinary
project-based curricula, digital tools, digital archives and databases, digital communications platforms, etc.)
The group will seek insights from members of the Bowdoin community as well as individuals and institutions outside of Bowdoin.
Members of the group will travel to conduct interviews and see examples of what others have done or are planning for
their libraries.
The Working Group is expected to conduct its work over the next twelve to eighteen months with regular check-ins with the
Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs, the Academic Affairs Committee of the trustees, and President Rose. The group
will produce a report that includes an analysis of the above trends and a set of recommendations for planning for the future of the
libraries at Bowdoin College. The report will inform resource allocation and the master planning for the campus. The final report will
be sent to President Rose. The president’s office will provide the group with financial resources for travel, data, etc.
APPENDIX III — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 21
III. THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES AT BOWDOIN WORKING
GROUP SOURCES
DATA COLLECTED OR CONSULTED BY THE WORKING GROUP
Bowdoin Faculty
Online survey administered in the Spring 2019 semester: 172 respondents.
Focus groups: five sessions held in December 2018 and February 2019; thirty-two faculty attended.
Meetings with faculty in science, art, and music centered on the use of the branch libraries: twenty faculty attended department-
focused sessions in the Spring 2019 semester.
Bowdoin Students
Online survey administered in the Spring 2019 semester: 785 respondents.
Focus groups: three sessions held in February 2019; fourteen students attended.
Oversized campus maps placed in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and Smith Union in December 2018 with the direction to “place
dots on the map indicating where you study,” to identify major study spaces on campus: 345 responses.
“Intercept surveys” employed over three weeks in the Fall 2018 semester in Hawthorne-Longfellow and the art, music, and science
libraries to collect information on student use of study spaces: 154 responses.
“Intercept Surveys” employed over four weeks in the Spring 2019 semester at popular study spaces across campus, including Smith
Union, the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching, and several academic buildings: 117 responses.
Bowdoin Library Staff
Discussion sessions held with the full staff and individual departments in the Spring 2019 semester: thirty-four participants.
Additional Data Consulted
Bowdoin Library data related to collections, course instruction, research consultations, gate counts, and use of physical space.
Bowdoin Senior Survey data related to library use, 2016–2018.
MISO Survey (Measuring Information Services Outcomes), administered to the Bowdoin campus by the Library and Information
Technology, 2017.
Patron head counts conducted daily in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, November-December, 2018; and March-May, 2019.
Data related to library physical space collected from peer liberal arts colleges.
SELECTED READINGS
General
Blankstein, Melissa, and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg. Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018.Ithaka S+R, April 12, 2019.
doi.org/10.18665/sr.311199.
Eyre, Jodi Reeves, John C. Maclachlan, and Christa Williford, editors. A Splendid Torch: Learning and Teaching in Today’s Academic
Libraries. Washington DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2017. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub174/.
Lewis, David W. Reimagining the Academic Library. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Wolff-Eisenberg, Christine, et al. Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2015.New York: Ithaka S+R, April 4, 2016. doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685.
Current Trends and the Future
ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee. Environmental Scan 2017. Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries,
March 2017. http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/ content/publications/whitepapers/EnvironmentalScan2017.pdf.
ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee. “2018 Top Trends in Academic Libraries.” College & Research Libraries News 79, no.
4 (2018): 286-293, 300. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/ crlnews/article/view/17001/18750.
Adams Becker, S., et al. NMC Horizon Report: 2018 Higher Education Edition. Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE, 2018.
library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2018/8/2018horizonreport.pdf.
———. Horizon Report 2017 Library Edition. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium, 2017.
library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2017/12/2017nmchorizonreportlibraryEN.pdf.
Alexander, Bryan, et al. EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: 2019 Higher Education Edition. Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE, 2019.
https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2019/4/ 2019horizonreport.pdf?la=en&hash=
C8E8D444AF372E705FA1BF9D4FF0DD4CC6F0FDD1.
22 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX III
Ellis, Lindsay. “A Turning Point for Scholarly Publishing.” Chronicle of Higher Education Trends Report, February 18, 2019.
http://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-OpenAccess-Main.
Johnson, Stephen. “The Fall, and Rise, of Reading.” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2019.
http://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190419-Fall-of-Reading.
Kim, Bohyun. “Academic Libraries and the EDUCAUSE 2017 Top 10 IT Issues.” EDUCAUSE Review 52, no. 1 (January/February 2017):
64-65. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/1/academic-libraries-and-the-educause-2017-top-10-it-issues.
Malpas, Constance, et al. University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning Library Strategies with Institutional Directions. Ithaka S-R and
OCLC, 2018. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/ publications/2018/oclcresearch-university-futures-library-futures.pdf.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute-Wide Task Force on the Future of Libraries: Preliminary Report. October 24, 2016.
future-of-libraries.mit.edu/sites/default/files/FutureLibraries-PrelimReport-Final.pdf.
Meier, John J. “The Future of Academic Libraries: Conversations with Today’s Leaders about Tomorrow.” portal: Libraries and the
Academy 16, no. 2 (April 2016): 263–288. doi.org/10.1353/pla.2016.0015.
Najmabadi, Shannon. “Information Literacy: It’s Become a Priority in an Era of Fake News.” Chronicle of Higher Education, February
26, 2017. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Information-Literacy/239264.
Schnapp, Jeffrey. “The Permanent Library of the Now.” Know: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge 2, no. 2 (2018): 303-320.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/699555.
Digital Library
Kahle, Brewster. “Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision.” EDUCAUSE Review 52, no. 2 (March/April 2017):
26-36. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/3/transforming-our-libraries-from-analog-to-digital-a-2020-vision.
Library Journal Research. Academic Student Ebook Experience Survey. Library Journal, 2018.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/WebVault/research/2018_AcademicStudentEbookExperience.pdf.
Perrin, Andrew. “One-in-five Americans Now Listen to Audiobooks.” Pew Research Center. September 25, 2019.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/25/one-in-five-americans-now-listen-to-audiobooks/.
Physical Space
Caulfield, John. “Building for the future: Five Trends in Higher Education Projects.” Building Design + Construction, June 7, 2017.
https://www.bdcnetwork.com/building-future-five-trends-higher-education-projects.
Head, Alison. “Planning and Designing Academic Library Learning Spaces: Expert Perspectives of Architects, Librarians, and Library
Consultants.” Project Information Literacy, December 6, 2016.
https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/pil_libspace_report_12_6_16.pdf.
Lippincott, Joan. “The Link to Content in 21st-Century Libraries.” EDUCAUSE Review 53, no. 1 (January/February 2018): 64-65.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/1/the-link-to-content-in-21st-century-libraries.
Opidee, Ioanna. “College Library Goes Beyond the Reading Room.” University Business, September 23, 2016.
https://universitybusiness.com/college-library-goes-beyond-the-reading-room/.
Smith College Libraries. Neilson Library Planning Documents & Reports.
https://libraries.smith.edu/about/new-neilson/our-story/documents-reports.
University of California, Davis in collaboration with Brightspot. Library Space Planning: Phase 1 Final Report, Facility Vision + Space
Playbook, December 2016.
https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/files/UC-Davis-Library-Facility-Vision-and-Space-Playbook.pdf.
Technology and Systems
Breeding, Marshall. “Library Systems Report 2018.” American Libraries, May 1, 2018.
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/05/01/library-systems-report-2018/.
———.“Library Systems Report 2019.”American Libraries,May1, 2019.
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/05/01/library-systems-report-2019/.
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 23
IV. BOWDOIN COLLEGE 2019 FACULTY LIBRARY SURVEY:
KEY FINDINGS
All faculty, including lab instructors and those on leave, were invited to participate in the 2019 Bowdoin Library survey, which was
fielded from January 29 to February 11, 2019. A total of 172 faculty responded for an overall response rate of 60 percent. Response
rates were highest for faculty from the humanities and fine arts (66 percent) and full professors (68 percent); rates were lowest for
faculty from natural science and math (54 percent) and lab instructors (35 percent).
Scholarship, Teaching, and the Library
Faculty respondents indicated that library services were more important to their success as a scholar and teacher than library
collections. As shown in the chart below, 85 percent of respondents agreed (63 percent strongly agree and 22 percent agree) that
they could not succeed as a scholar and teacher without the services provided by the Bowdoin Library. This compares to 71 percent
who agreed (43 percent strongly agree and 28 percent agree) that they could not succeed without the collections of the Bowdoin
Library.
Respondents from the humanities and fine arts were significantly more likely than those from natural science and math to agree
(strongly agree and agree) that they could not succeed as a scholar and teacher without the services provided by the Bowdoin
Library (93 percent versus 71 percent).
*indicates a statistically significant difference at significance level of .05 for Agree
24 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
Humanities and fine arts respondents were more likely than their peers to agree (strongly agree and agree) that they could not
succeed without the collections provided by the Bowdoin Library.
Note that interdisciplinary departments and programs are listed in Appendix A.
Overall, 85 percent of faculty respondents agreed (strongly agree and agree) that they can easily find the research resources they
need for their scholarship through the Library website. As shown in the chart below, responses varied by division, but
not significantly.
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 25
Visiting the Bowdoin Libraries
Faculty were asked how often they typically visit the different campus libraries, including the Library website (virtual library). As
shown in the chart below, the most frequently used library by faculty was the Library website, which 81 percent of respondents
reported visiting once a week or more. This includes 41 percent who said they visited daily; only 2 percent of faculty respondents
said they rarely/never visit the Library website. (This compares to the students who reported using Hawthorne-Longfellow most
frequently—84 percent once a week or more). The most popular branch library was the Hatch Science Library, with about half the
respondents visiting it at least once a semester or more.
Respondents from the social sciences and humanities were the heaviest users of the library website; they were significantly more
likely than their colleagues in science and math to use the website once a week or more often.
26 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
As shown in the following chart, respondents from the humanities, interdisciplinary, and social science divisions were significantly
more likely than science and math respondents to visit Hawthorne-Longfellow once a week or more often.
There were twenty-two unique respondents who reported visiting one or more branch libraries at least once a week or more often.
The top two reasons they visited the branch libraries were for the physical collections and because of the availability of staff to
provide specialized assistance.
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 27
Faculty Use of the Bowdoin Libraries
Faculty were asked how often they engage in certain activities when they visit a Bowdoin library. Over half the respondents said they
often pick up a book delivered from CBB or interlibrary loan and check out an item from the Library’s collection.
The activities that occur most often at a Bowdoin library are being driven by respondents from the humanities and fine arts. This
is in part because the division has the largest number of respondents, and also because they are more likely than their peers, and
sometimes significantly, to engage in these activities. For example, humanities respondents, as well as interdisciplinary and social
sciences, were significantly more likely than their science and math colleagues to say they often pick up a book delivered from
CBB or interlibrary loan. Humanities and interdisciplinary respondents were also significantly more likely than science and math
respondents to say they often check out an item from the Library’s collection. Humanities respondents were significantly more
likely than science and math or social sciences respondents to often browse library shelves. And although their numbers are small
(fourteen), interdisciplinary respondents were significantly more likely than their colleagues in science and math to often meet with
a student at a campus library.
28 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
Scholarship and Teaching
Faculty were asked which research resources, spaces, and services were important to their scholarship or teaching. The two
most important research resources were online journals and print materials (books, journals), selected by over 80 percent
of respondents.
* The percentage is calculated based on the number of respondents who selected a particular activity divided by the total number
of respondents who answered the question by selecting any response.
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 29
When asked what library spaces and services were important to their scholarship or teaching, the top response, selected by 87
percent of respondents, was the delivery of materials from Bates, Colby, and ILL. This is not surprising since the library activity
faculty engage in most frequently was picking up a book delivered from Bates, Colby, or ILL.
New or Expanded Library Facilities and Services
Faculty were asked how valuable certain new or expanded library facilities would be to supporting their work. The item generating
the most interest was an IT/computer helpdesk, with 83 percent of respondents indicating it was valuable (extremely and
somewhat). Collaboration spaces to meet with students or colleagues (73 percent) and a café (72 percent) were the other two items
considered most valuable (extremely and somewhat).
30 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
In addition, faculty were asked to identify which expanded or new services would support their scholarship and teaching. The
service they were most interested in, selected by 75 percent of respondents, was support for student understanding and proper
use of citation formats. Only two other areas were selected by at least half the respondents: workshops to support the use of digital
technologies and increased support to assist with developing research assignments for students.
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 31
Trends and the Use of Materials
Faculty were asked which types of materials they anticipate using in the coming decade, given trends in their research area and
pedagogy and curriculum changes. As shown in the chart below, journals, print books, and e-books were the top-three materials
that faculty anticipated using in the coming decade. Less than 20 percent of respondents chose government documents, computer
code stored on sites like GitHub, or microfilm/fiche.
32 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
There were 145 faculty respondents (84 percent) who anticipated using print in the future for either research, teaching, or both (123
respondents said both).
Half of those who anticipated using print were from the humanities and arts (seventy-six respondents or 52 percent) with 21 percent
from science and math, 19 percent from social sciences, and 8 percent interdisciplinary. They come from thirty-two different
departments. There were fifteen respondents each from history and Romance languages and literature; followed by sociology and
anthropology with eleven; and art, government, and math with nine.
Physical Collections
Faculty respondents overwhelmingly agreed that access to the physical collections is important. When asked if they valued the
ability to browse physical library collections, 84 percent agreed (64 percent strongly agree and 20 percent agree). When asked if
the close proximity of physical collections to campus was important to them, 78 percent agreed (56 percent strongly agree and 22
percent agree). And finally, 74 percent disagreed (47 percent strongly disagree and 27 percent disagree) that in the near future, they
will rarely need to consult a print version of a book given trends in their scholarship and the increasing availability of e-books. These
results were driven by respondents from the humanities and fine arts.
Responses about the physical collections differed, sometimes significantly, depending upon the division of the faculty respondent.
Faculty from the humanities and arts were significantly more likely than those from social sciences or science and math to agree
(strongly agree and agree) that they value the ability to browse physical library collections.
Anticipate using print for: Respondents Percent
Research only 12 7 percent
Teaching only 10 6 percent
Both teaching and research 123 72 percent
Total print users 145 84 percent
Will not use print 27 16 percent
APPENDIX IV — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 33
Again, respondents from the humanities and fine arts were significantly more likely than science and math and social science
respondents to agree (strongly agree and agree) that the close proximity of physical collections to campus work or office space was
important to them. Interestingly, this proximity was least important to social science respondents. The percentage of respondents
from the social sciences who disagreed (strongly disagree and disagree) that this was important was significantly higher than for
respondents from the humanities and fine arts (18 percent versus 1 percent).
Humanities and fine arts respondents were significantly more likely than science and math respondents to disagree (strongly
disagree and disagree) that in the near future they will rarely need to consult a print version of a book.
34 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX IV
Faculty and Student Comparison
There were seven facilities and services that were asked about on both the faculty and student surveys. As shown in the chart
below, there was complete agreement between the two groups concerning interest in a café, with approximately 70 percent
of both faculty and student respondents indicating that a café would support their work. In contrast, 83 percent of faculty
respondents expressed interest in an IT/computer helpdesk, but only 21 percent of students said this would support their work.
Both groups were interested in more or expanded collaboration spaces, additional seating options, and student support for
citations. Citation support for students ranked second among faculty and fifth for students.
*Question wording was not identical across faculty and student surveys. See table for details when wording varied.
Question comparison between faculty and student surveys:
Faculty version
Collaboration spaces to meet with students or
colleagues
Additional seating options
Support for student understanding and proper
use of citation formats
More opportunities to integrate archival and
special materials into teaching
Student version
Additional reservable group study rooms
Additional seating and furniture options
Workshops on organizing and citing sources
Workshops related to rare books and
manuscripts in Special Collections and
Archives
1 The faculty and student survey questions and options were not identical. When asked about library facilities on the faculty survey, respondents could
answer extremely valuable, somewhat valuable or not valuable. The percentages in this chart include both the extremely valuable and somewhat
valuable responses. The faculty question about services and the student questions about both services and facilities were “select all that apply” format
questions. (Which services or facilities would best support your academic work (students) or your scholarship and teaching (faculty)?)
APPENDIX V — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 35
V. BOWDOIN COLLEGE 2019 STUDENT LIBRARY SURVEY:
KEY FINDINGS
All students in residence were invited to participate in the 2019 Bowdoin Library survey which was fielded from January 27–February
11, 2019. A total of 785 students responded for a response rate of 44 percent. Compared to the survey group, respondents were
significantly more likely to be female than male, but otherwise were representative of the student body in terms of class year, race,
and first-generation-to-college status.
Academic Success and the Library
Survey respondents indicated that library spaces were more important to their academic success than library collections and
services. As shown in the chart below, 72 percent of respondents agreed (strongly agree and agree) that spaces were integral to the
success of their academic work while only 62 percent agreed that they could not do their academic work without the collections
and services of the Bowdoin Library.
Visiting the Bowdoin Libraries
Students were asked how often during the current academic year they typically visit the different campus libraries, including the
Library website (virtual library). As shown in the chart below, the most frequently used library, used even more often than the
library website, was Hawthorne-Longfellow (H-L), which 84 percent of respondents reported visiting once a week or more. This
includes 31 percent who visited daily; only 3 percent of respondents said they rarely/never visit H-L. The most popular branch
library was the science library, which 31 percent reported visiting once a week or more (daily, more than once a week, weekly),
followed by art and music.
36 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX V
There were twenty respondents (3 percent) who are non-users of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L) (rarely/never visit). Among
these respondents, twelve of them do not visit any of the libraries regularly (rarely/never visit branch libraries); four only visit the art
or science libraries occasionally (1-2 times per month or semester); and the remaining four frequent the science library regularly (daily
or more than once a week).
There were 138 respondents (18 percent) who rarely/never visit any of the branch libraries. As shown in the chart below, 56 percent
of respondents did not visit a branch library regularly (daily, more than once/week, weekly). Another 38 percent of respondents
visited one branch library once a week or more often.
Student Use of the Bowdoin Libraries
Students were asked what they do in a Bowdoin library. Among those who answered the question, the two most popular activities,
selected by over 90 percent of respondents, were read, study, or work alone or use the printers/scanners.* Only 17 percent reported
that they meet with a librarian. Other responses included: socialize, work at campus job, nap, and pet dogs.
* The percentage is calculated based on the number of respondents who selected a particular activity divided by the total number
of respondents who answered the question by selecting any response (779).
APPENDIX V — The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 37
When asked what library services were important to their academic success this year, 92 percent of respondents said access to
databases, e-books, and online journals. Although only 17 percent said they had met with a librarian (previous question), 34 percent
said research assistance from a librarian was important to their academic success.
Hawthorne-Longfellow
Overall, Hawthorne-Longfellow is serving students well, with less than half the respondents indicating that Hawthorne-Longfellow
was NOT meeting their needs in terms of spaces and services. The top item that did not meet their needs was the number of
electrical outlets, selected by 47 percent of respondents. The other items in the top four all relate to space—variety of work spaces,
quiet study space, and collaboration space. Among the thirty-two respondents who selected other, the items mentioned most
frequently included study spaces, furniture (standing desks, chairs, tables), and bathrooms.
38 The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group — APPENDIX V
Expanded or New Spaces, Services, or Programs
Respondents were asked what expanded or new spaces, services, or programs would best support their academic work. The first
chart below shows that the number-one service or space respondents would like the Library to provide is a café, selected by 71
percent of respondents. Less than half the respondents (45 percent) were interested in extended hours. The remaining items in
the top five related to spaces—additional quiet study space, space to practice presentations or use for video meetings, and additional
reservable study rooms.
Many of the responses provided under other reiterated items already selected such as café, extended hours, video conferencing, etc.
The following chart shows the programs that respondents would like the Library to offer to support their academic success. Nearly
half the respondents were interested in specialized workshops in their discipline.
APPENDIX V— The Report of the Future of Libraries at Bowdoin Working Group 39
Access and Use of Library Resources
The overwhelming majority of respondents (84 percent) were very likely to use library resources that were available immediately
(accessible from their computer). The percentage of respondents who were very likely to use resources at H-L, or requested
through CBB or another library, was equivalent at 25 percent. Respondents were least likely to use resources physically located at a
branch library.
Science, Art, and Music Libraries
Respondents who reported visiting a branch library at least once a week were asked to indicate the most important factors in their
decision to visit that library. For all three branch libraries, the most important factor was environment (design, seating, noise level).
