You're Either With Us, or Against Us

Today's LJ Academic Newswire gives the highlights from a recent (apparently unpublished) advisory memo from the ARL to academic library directors.

I think the "mission drift" that they discuss, referring to the comments in the Ithaka Report, is a problem in many universities. The author of an article in this morning's IHE sees universities as the ones drifting from their mission. If anything, the UP "drift" from their university's mission is similar to the drift many libraries find themselves taking. Neither make the kind of money that has become the true primary mission of many universities, with research and education coming in a distant second and third. If I remember the Ithaka Report correctly, it emphasized the practicality of making nice with the money-focused elements of the university rather than holding to concepts of liberal education that both libraries and UPs still try to cling to.

Because libraries and presses seem to be sliding to the margins of the universities, of course they are going to end up fighting each other for resources. As UPs try to bring themselves in line with expectations From Above, rifts with libraries will become more common.

Of course, I don't believe that the walled garden model of academic publishing has a real future.