Editorial: Innovations for aScholarly Communications System

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.