ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

External factors analysis statement

The first draft of this statement was prepared by the ACRL Planning Committee. It was then re vised by the ACRL Strategic Planning Task Force and incorporated into their planning process, which will culminate in a written five-year plan for the Association. The statement is essentially an up dating of the environmental considerations portion of the original ACRL activity model (C&RL News, May 1982, p. 164).

A. Economic Considerations.

1. The concept of information as a commodity will increasingly influence decisions relating to libraries.

2. Steady-state or declining purchase power will be available to academic/research libraries.

3. Costs of computing hardware will decline; the costs of software and telecommunications will increase.

4. Competition between libraries and other organizations, both on campus and in the for-profit sector, will increase.

5. Libraries will be expected to increase productivity.

B. Political Considerations.

1. Information will be an increasingly important strategic factor in domestic and international markets and in world politics.

2. Conflict will .escalate among government, business and academia over the ownership, value, and control of information.

3. Federal government attitude toward academic/research libraries will be increasingly laissez-faire.

4. State governments will increase efforts to centralize authority/control over tax-supported higher education, including academic libraries.

5. The distribution of computing power will diminish the political impact of national consortia.

6. Local, state, and regional computer-based networks will continue to develop.

7. There will be continuing international pressure for bibliographical standardization.

C. Social Considerations.

1. Equality of opportunity for women and minorities will continue to be an elusive goal.

2. Illiteracy will continue to be a problem in spite of the efforts of schools, libraries, and the educational reform movement.

3. Well-organized political and religious groups will continue to mount challenges to intellectual freedom.

4. The development of massive databases may threaten individual privacy.

5. Academy-based research activity will advance slowly.

6. The demographic profile and educational needs/expectations of college students will continue to change.

7. The use of non-print and micro-based materials in research and college teaching will increase.

8. Society will continue to press for dollar accountability.

D. Technical Considerations.

1. Word processing/communication/computer technology will improve and proliferate.

2. Advances in storage technology will alter the way in which information is published and distributed.

3. Changes in technology will change the kinds of information services provided.

4. Libraries and the for-profit sector will be in competition to meet the demand for speedier delivery of information/documents.

5. Personal ownership of word processing/computing/telecommunications hardware and software will continue to increase.

6. As the use of terminals and microcomputers grows, access to information will become more decentralized.

7. Preservation methods for disintegrating library book stocks will become more effective and more widely used.

E. Human Resources.

1. The rigorous competency standards of the educational reform movement will improve the performance of both teachers and students in public schools.

2. Scholarly communication will continue in its present state of relative good health; researchers, scholarly publishers, and librarians will continue to be the major links in the process.

3. Libraries will not become less labor intensive but will require a new mix of staff and skills.

4. Libraries will remain in competition with other organizations for staff.

5. Society will require training and the help of intermediaries to use proliferating online information sources.

6. Information management and data processing staff will be increasingly costly to hire and retain.