Shelving Books in the Digital Age
Ten Years of Change for Shields Librarians
By E. Cayce Dumont

As surely as online search engines and databases replaced old-fashioned card catalogs, other transformations are occurring in the contemporary library. "Media is distributed differently in different eras," says Gail Yokote, Assistant University Librarian for Research Services and Collections at Shields Library. For instance, while vinyl may have prevailed as the best audio format in past eras, digital compact discs are now the norm. These changes present new challenges to librarians. "When it is no longer realistic to assume that the average library user owns a record player, it's time for the library to decide whether or not the content on the records we house is worth keeping," Yokote explains. "If it is, we have to update our holdings with CDs instead." Along with this challenge comes a number of legal issues, due in large part to the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which presents guidelines about reformatting media. Since UC Davis must comply with the DMCA, librarians are developing a familiarity with legalese they wouldn't have had to deal with ten years ago.

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Other forms of media housed in the library-especially historical documents or photos-are protected from the ravages of wear and tear when they are reformatted. By scanning a set of photos and placing the new digitized images on the Web, library patrons no longer have to travelto hushed special collections rooms in which rare artifacts are housed under the proverbial glass. In order to provide this preservation of materials and convenience to users, the modern librarian is learning to come up to speed with scanning equipment, image resolution transfer, and Web navigation."The digital age is providing new avenues for faculty and students conducting research, but it also requires more work and skill on the part of the librarian," Yokote explains.

Likewise, most major publishers have begun to distribute their magazines and newspapers online, in addition to the traditional print formats they offer. Thus, librarians have to decide how to receive the materials via the usual print subscription, or online via a license that can be costly and prohibitive. Again, licenses and legal ramifications come into play, adding to the growing pains introduced by this digital era.

Yokote attests that "the biggest challenge now and in the future will be to accommodate the multiple formats that publishers produce and distribute and to swiftly deal with all the licensing agreements that come our way."

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