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A
native North Dakotan who holds two degrees from the
University of North Dakota and two from the University
of Illinois, Wilbur Stolt was named UND’s director
of libraries in 2000. He previously held positions at
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the
University of Oklahoma.
As
a society, we have moved into the “Information
Age.” How has this changed the Chester
Fritz Library, housed at a growing research university?
In the past, you’d go to the library, be
surrounded by card catalogs, and the librarians would
know about everything that was in their library’s
world of information. That information world has now
become an information universe, which goes far beyond
the walls of the facility. Librarians can no longer
know everything that is out there. One of our challenges
is to help the students and researchers understand how
to mine information in that universe, and how to analyze
the quality of its source.
Our primary mission is to provide informational
resources and to educate people within the University
community. Library resources are in diverse formats
— they may be in print, they may be in microformat,
they may be digital — which causes all kinds of
challenges from access, to storage, to delivery, to
preservation of the information.
The informational needs of the University are
diverse, spanning support for scientific experiments
to theater performances. We work with the faculty to
identify the scholarly information they need to enhance
the classroom experience and advance research and creative
activities.
You won’t find many of our journals on
the newsstand. The cost of our information — that
subset of scholarly information that supports internationally
ranked research programs — is high.
What
about technology? What role is it playing?
Technology has had a huge impact on the way people
access information and the way librarians do their jobs.
At this moment we are moving to a new automated library
management system. We’ve used the same system
since 1989, which is a long time to use the same technology.
With the continuing innovations in technology, we need
to adopt newer software that takes advantage of advances
in search engines, management capabilities, and the
potential of networking.
We’re working now on converting data and
preparing the new software package to fit our needs.
Our goal is to have the new system running in 2005.
This library technology project is being undertaken
by a group of North Dakota libraries that comprise the
Online Dakota Information Network (ODIN). ODIN staff
are working with the staff in the various member libraries
to get the project completed. There have been no grants
or special funding to accomplish the upgrade. It has
been a true team effort to accomplish this formidable
task.
With the advent of digital formats, you can now
have a scholarly journal in bits and bytes delivered
to your computer. Libraries license large information
databases that allow you to search thousands of articles
from your desktop. A person can go online and read anything
from an encyclopedia to computer manuals to Moby Dick.
So is the Internet replacing the
traditional library?
There is a perception that everything is available
on the Internet. That’s not true. There is still
a significant amount of information — particularly
scholarly information — that is in print, in book
form. Print is still the most portable form. Some people
say the Internet means the library is not needed. That’s
also not true. The library provides a key service in
guiding students through the different resources on
the Internet and recognizing the differences in sources.
We see a growing role for the Chester Fritz Library
in teaching what we call “information literacy.”
More than 335,000 people entered the library
last year. The library works with information suppliers
and publishers, works with other libraries, works with
faculty and students — the academy — to
get the information they need and want. We provide an
important consulting service to classroom instructors,
researchers, members of the general public, and, of
course, students. Some of them come to the desk and
say: “I have this project that is due tomorrow.
I need three sources.” We do our best to guide
them to appropriate sources, and also to help them learn
to help themselves. More than 5,000 students participated
in our library classes last year.
We also think we provide a quality study environment.
It’s difficult to find a quality, quiet environment
where you can find resources at your fingertips. The
Chester Fritz Library continues to be a busy but quiet
place to study.
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