Changing and Expanding Libraries: Exhibitions, Institutional Repositories, and the Future of Academia

Academic libraries have been, and continue to be, at the vanguard of research, teaching, and learning on university campuses. Libraries continue to develop as multiuse information commons with computer labs, writing centers, coffee shops, and group study rooms to facilitate experiential learning, independent research, and professional development. As Miller eloquently notes in a recent essay, “visitors enter the future university by walking through the front door of its library” (2014, 329). Academic libraries also continue to provide longstanding critical services, such as collecting, organizing, and preserving materials from outside publishers or donors. In recent years, as various scholars have noted, the academic library has taken on the additional role of information disseminator, contributing to the scholarly record the library’s own materials and those of its researchers. Digital libraries, institutional repositories (IRs), and both physical and digital exhibitions are just a handful of the means by which academic libraries are leveraging their collections and institutional expertise to participate more actively in the research output of the academy. This essay explores two specific products—exhibitions and IRs—as analogs for broader movements in academic libraries and academic librarianship.