posted on 1997-09-01, 00:00authored byGloriana St. Clair
Academic librarians practice in an increasingly turbulent
information environment. Writing in the NACUBO
Journal, Brian Hawkins recently laid out an alarming
scenario for the future of academic libraries as collectors of the
world's cumulative published knowledge. While most academic
librarians had thought of information as doubling at an
alarming rate of every 10 years, Hawkins asserts that the body
of information now doubles every two to three years. His data
indicate that while information production is increasing exponentially,
library budgets have not and will not be able to keep
up with the rising costs. His analysis shows that the aggregate
of all academic libraries now collects about six percent of total
available knowledge and that within 20 years that figure will
drop to one half of one percent.1 The implications of that drop
for librarian's roles as selectors will be the focus of a future
editorial.