College libraries were supposed to go the way of the dodo bird as academic research went online. But that hasn't happened, and librarians say their role in helping students and scholars find the information they need is more essential than ever. Join Kojo as we talk about the future of libraries and how the meaning of research is changing on American campuses.
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2009-09-29/tech-tuesday-future-libraries
Tech Tuesday: The Future of Libraries
Listen Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009 at 12:06 p.m. in Books, Science, Tech Tuesday, Technology
CD or 
TRANSCRIPT of this program.
Guests
Pat Steele
Dean of University Libraries, University of Maryland
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Comments
As libraries become more electronic, there is are many benefits until the system goes down. It is funny that today of all days, a provider line was cut at Montgomery College's Takoma Park Campus so there is not a current catalog, a way to check accounts, use webmail, etc. So, digitization and electronic catalogs aren't much help to students today. We can't access items and we don't know when we will be able to. Can't get a timeline.
True we lost access to the catalog among other things. But we still managed to locate a video on Da Vinci for a professor, point a student to the dictionaries, use the UMD catalog to check the call number for Snow Falling on Cedars, etc. Heck we're even teaching Library Instruction classes. All it takes is some creative thinking, a little extra time and knowledge of our collections. Librarians and library staff rock!