This year was nothing short of a wild ride. As 2016 comes to a close and we lay our sights on what we want to accomplish in 2017, we took a few minutes to chat with product and marketing leaders at Gale for their thoughts, hopes and predictions for the coming year.
Overall, they predict academic libraries will be taking on more visible roles when it comes affordability and advancing digital scholarship (aka digital humanities). An exceptional year in politics globally may lead to more calls for diversity-based content and will likely present new opportunities for public libraries to support Americans and American workers when it comes to information and media literacy as well as education and workforce training. As the digital transition in K-12 moves full speed ahead, personalized learning environments and flexibility will be key especially as ESSA legislation is implemented.
More from our experts here….
“2017 is poised to be a year where greater societal rights discussions will be played out in the media, courts and political systems globally. This will lead to greater demand for diversity-based content for research, both current and retrospective. Social sciences and humanities discovery will be put in the spotlight, potentially supported by new advances in digital scholarship.” – Brian McDonough, Senior Vice President for North American Sales at Gale.
“As scrutiny around the value of a college education grows, the library will play a key role in supporting students who need to embed a skill rather than remember a concept. Beyond being just a source for reference the trend towards the usage of library content and holdings for applied learning will continue to grow. Libraries are well-positioned to leverage their holdings, offer new and expanded services and products that support the application of skills to demonstrate mastery of concepts.” – Phil Faust, VP of Academic Product at Gale
“In 2017, the software output of digital scholarship projects will emerge as critical to the effort of sharing and replicating findings. Scholars will increasingly document and present the tools leading to their insights, to support the efforts of others to build upon their findings.” – Liz Mason, Vice President, Gale Product.
“The rise of fake news sources and political pressures will make it more important than ever for libraries and librarians to demonstrate how they help users achieve their educational and economic goals, as well as promote the increasing value of information literacy skills by providing guidance and access to trusted content in a judgement-free zone.” – Harmony Faust, VP of Marketing and Communications at Gale
“The 2016 election turned increased attention to the American worker. With mission-driven efforts to support lifelong learning, the public library stands to make a marked impact on local labor markets and the economic recovery of the middle-skills workforce in the years ahead. Helping patrons obtain specific, industry-focused educational opportunities will be key.” – Leigh Ann Cusack, Sr. Director, Public Library and Consortia Product
“Pressure to lower the cost of education, coupled with the growing adoption of Open Education Resources (OER) and Affordable Educational Resources (AER), will present an opportunity for academic libraries to take the lead as coordinators of these initiatives. Librarians are experts at curating collections that support instruction and research. Leveraging library content in OER/AER initiatives will be the next step.” – Paul Gazzolo, Senior Vice President and General Manger, Gale.
“As the print to digital transition accelerates, K12 institutions and libraries push the boundaries of traditional textbook-based learning with digital content and scholarship, resulting in more hybrid and personalized learning environments. Combined with hardware initiatives like 1:1 and BYOD, K12 institutions will require products and services that are completely device and platform agnostic, while being flexible enough to meet the demands of the changing curriculum and supportive of ESSA and other legislation.”- Lemma Shomali, Director for K-12 Products, Gale.
What do you hope for in 2017? Feel free to share in the comments.
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