New Use for Dentistry Library?

The growing use of and demand for electronic access to information coupled with advances in technology is prompting changes at many libraries on the U-M campus, including the School of Dentistry library. In short, the need for physical facilities to archive printed materials such as books and journals is decreasing.

Recently, the University Library System and the School of Dentistry agreed that the physical space occupied by the dental school library will no longer be needed to store printed materials.

According to Dean Peter Polverini, with the increasing demand for electronic access to information, the need to maintain physical space and the cost of storing printed information can no longer be justified. "This issue is not unique to dentistry or to the University of Michigan, and is manifesting itself in nearly all disciplines, and in most, if not all, institutions worldwide," he said.

Future Use to be Evaluated

A timetable for removing the print publications from the dental school library and how the space will be used in the future once it's been vacated has yet to be determined. A joint School of Dentistry and Health Sciences Library task force is working on a plan that will address those issues.

However, services including electronic document delivery and print materials delivery will be maintained.

The role and even the title of "librarian" will change to a new name, "informationist." The informationist will have an office in the dentistry building and will work with faculty, staff, and students on teaching, research, grants, informatics, community outreach, and special projects.

Polverini expressed his appreciation to dental school librarian Patricia Anderson for "the essential role she has played in the dental school and her contributions to its teaching and research." Anderson, now at the Taubman Library, is assessing the impact of emerging technologies and information storage and retrieval.