Gateways to Knowledge: The Role of Academic Libraries in Teaching, Learning, and Research(Gateways to Knowledge)

"Gateways to Knowledge" is about change, about suspending old ideas without rejecting them and rethinking the purpose of the university and the library. Proponents of the gateway concept - which ties together these 15 essays by scholars, librarians and academic administrators - envision the library as a point of access to other library and research resources, and electronically beyond; as a place for teaching; and as a site for services and support where students and faculty can locate and use the information they need in the form in which they need it. These essays focus on how information may be packaged and disseminated in a networked environment, as well as on how to think about the nature and qualities of electronic information. There are discussions of specific gateway projects such as the Mann Library at Cornell, the gateway library at the University of Southern California, the Information Arcade at the University of Iowa, and of "Who Built America?" - an educational software packages currently.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The academy in transition: Universities in transition - implications for libraries, Billy E. Frye. Part 2 Changing scholarship - influences on teaching and research: History in the era of theory, methodology, and multiculturalism: new configurations for the discipline, Patrick Manning; Realizing the virtual library, Anthony Appiah. Part 3 The gateway in research and scholarly communication: first steps toward electronic research communication, Paul Ginsparg; Using electronic social science data in the age of the Internet, Richard C. Rockwell; Some effects of advanced technology on research in the humanities, John Unsworth. Part 4 Concepts of the gateway - libraries and technology: gateways to knowledge - a new direction for the Harvard College Library, Lawrence Dowler; The concept of the gateway library - a view from the periphery, Richard C. Rockwell; The gateway - point of entry to the electronic library, Jan Olsen; The gateway library - teaching and research in the Global Reference Room, Peter Lyman. Part 5 Technology and education - the role of libraries in teaching and learning: A computer-based 'Harvard red book' - general education in the digital age, Richard A. lanham; Information processing and the making of meaning, Karen Price; Homesteading on the electronic frontier - technology, libraries, and learning, James Wilkinson. Part 6 Tools for learning: Gateways to the classroom, Anita Lowry; Historians and hypertex - is it more than hype? Roy Rozenzweig, Steve Brier.

Review :
"This book is about revolutionary change in the means of scholarlyproduction, and the role of libraries in that revolution. Blessedly freeof cyberbole, this book is instead about academic values, and how tosecure them in the digitial environment. If you care about why we shouldbe building digital libraries then you need to read this book." Paul Evan Peters, Coalition for Networked Information