The information world is changing at breakneck pace, and Stanford, in part through its libraries, is at the leading edge of innovation in information and information services. We embrace the challenges of providing students and faculty with new tools and resources made possible by digital technologies. Our libraries, integrated with Academic Computing and several publishing arms, have brought to Stanford—as well as to the rest of the scholarly world—many genuine innovations in digital library services, course management systems, publishing, digital preservation, and innovative access to digital resources, to say nothing of being one of the initial partners in the Google Book Search digitization program. It is also thrilling to support the new areas of teaching and research brought to the fore by the new initiatives on campus.
At the same time, we remain committed to supporting the established disciplines and subject foci throughout the campus and to providing access to all our resources, the vast majority of which still exist exclusively on paper, or tape, or film. As we bring on, say, acquisitions in film studies or Korean Studies (two recent real examples), it is not an option to finance them by dropping subscriptions, ceasing to acquire maps, or shutting down our social science database servers. The new technologies and the new scholarly interests are additives, not replacements; thus we must support both digital and traditional information modalities for all subjects to our faculty and students. As our scholars embark on new areas of research made possible by The Stanford Challenge, we in the libraries must support new needs, new intellectual domains, and new tools for navigating the frontiers of the information age. We are growing and changing as the Stanford research agenda grows and changes. The success of that agenda depends in part on our ability to match library, academic computing, and publishing programs to the needs of Stanford’s imaginative scholars, in both new disciplines and established studies.
I feel fortunate indeed to be part of this university at this juncture; there is no better place or time to be an academic librarian than Stanford today. The opportunities to improve existing services and to create new services for our faculty and students are unprecedented and boundless—and they depend on the generous gifts of our donors.
Michael A. Keller
THE IDA M. GREEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN
