Below is an edited version of a recent short presentation I gave, and an updated statement of my professional vision and philosophy.I think that the profession’s adoption of the word information back hearkens to a time when academic libraries were managed gateways, and technology was a way to deliver this “stuff” called “information” as efficiently as possible. And, unfortunately, the notion that the library is in the information business is the source of the problems facing academic libraries today. Or at least the source under our direct control.Instead of teaching, supporting learning, and fostering discovery, the old academic library focused simply on getting information into the hands of its users. Instead of creating a balance between physical space and virtual space, the old library saw technology as a license to focus on resources and not people. And instead of making connections between itself and the wider community, the library relied on the strength of its information to bring people through the doors.Balancing our virtual and physical spacesYou might be surprised that I did not mention the Internet and digital technology itself as one of challenges. This is not because I don’t have a concern, but because I think all of us are pressing to innovate in this direction. And too often the library focuses on technology as a catch all solution to our problems. But what you get from talking to our newest students is that they don’t make the same distinctions we do. The Internet for them is not something world changing–it is their world. Apart from the ease of getting items while in their fuzzy pajamas, they don’t see the same revolutionary gulf between the physical and digital as we do. For them it is just space. Space for work, space for discovery, space for collaboration. …

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