University Futures, Library Futures

OCLC Research and Ithaka S+R have examined the impact of increased institutional differentiation in universities on the organization of academic libraries and the services they provide. For decades, models of excellence in academic library service have been shaped by a collections-centric paradigm in which the size of local print inventory is considered a key indicator of quality. OCLC Research and Ithaka have joined forces to develop a new framework for understanding the fit between emerging library service paradigms and university types.

This project has resulted in:

Research Report
University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning library strategies with institutional directions
establishes a new framework for understanding the fit between emerging library service paradigms and university types.

Literature Review
Toward a New Understanding of American Higher Education Institutions: Focus of Educational Offer, Mode of Provision, which provides context for the institution typology OCLC has developed to support this project.

Supplemental Work
In addition to the report and literature review, you can download a set of selected figures for reuse as well as the underlying dataset and scoring formula (coming soon).

Short URL: oc.lc/uflf-report

Learn More


Visit the University Futures, Library Futures project page.