Hybrid Libraries
Hybrid Libraries
The first identified use of the term hybrid library was in 1996 by Sutton. However it was almost simultaneously coined by Rusbridge, then Programme Director of the Electronic Libraries Programme in the United Kingdom, who popularised the term and with whose name it is now associated. Although largely confined to Higher Education, it is likely that the concept will spread to other types of library.
The term has been used rather loosely in the literature – even as a synonym for digital libraries. Two distinct interpretations are in common usage, the first location dependent and the second collection dependent. In the first, a hybrid library may be described as a physical library in which seamless, integrated access is provided to all the resources available to that library, irrespective of medium or location – sometimes known as a one-stop shop. As a separate strand of definition the hybrid library is used more specifically to describe the integration of electronic services into a more coherent whole, irrespective of their location. A similar meaning is conveyed by the term Gateway Library, sometimes used in the USA, while the process involved is often if jocularly referred to as Clicks and Mortar and appears to be in the process of being superseded by the interest in and increasingly commonly used term personal portals. In the latter case it is often associated with the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER), which provides a range of shared services – middleware, content, resource discovery etc. – which can be assembled to meet local needs.
It may seem a statement of the obvious that a library will provide access to many different types of media, but the essential element of hybridity is that the user is presented with simple and unified access. Rusbridge identifies four classes of resource which must be brought together: legacy resources, that is existing non digital resources; traditional resources, that is legacy resources which also exist in digitised form; new resources which are born digital; and future resources which will incorporate access methods. Although some work is required to combine technologies, the hybrid library is seen much more as embodying cultural rather than technological change. Whether the hybrid library is seen as a sort of staging post towards truly electronic libraries or whether the idea will develop in its own right is as yet unclear.
The term was introduced into general parlance by a call for demonstrator projects by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in March 1997. Five projects were funded: Agora, which is building a standards based broker system; BUILDER, which covers institutional issues; HEADLINE is about information landscapes and the set of resources of interest to the user; HYLIFE is about different client groups and types; MALIBU is about management implications and the development of models.
By 2000, the term was sufficiently embedded into both usage and practice that the University of Birmingham could be awarded a contract for the development of Hybrid Information Management Skills for Senior Managers. The concept has also found favour in the Asia-Pacific region, again in Higher Education and is seen as a key building block in enhancing the relationship between library and university
References
e-Lib Phase 3 Websites:
AGORA http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/agora/scope.html
BUILDER http://builder.bham.ac.uk
HEADLINE http://www.headline.ac.uk/
HYLIFE http://www.unn.ac.uk/~xcu2/hylife/summary.htm
MALIBU http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/malibu/
Joint Information Systems Committee, JISC Circular 3/97 – Electronic Information Development Programme: e-Lib Phase 3 (JISC, 6 March 1997). URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub97/c3-97.html
Sutton, S. Future service models and the convergence of functions: the reference librarian as technician, author and consultant. In: K. Low (ed.), The roles of reference librarians, today and tomorrow New York, Haworth Press, 1996
University of Birmingham HIMSS Project (2000)
http://www.himss.bham.ac.uk/Documents/OfficialDocs/PBSummary.html
Further Reading:
New Review of Academic Librarianship Vol 4 (1989) [a special issue on hybrid libraries]
Bundy, Alan A Partner in Learning and Research: the Hybrid University Library of the 21st Century. http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/papers/hybrid.htm
Oppenheim, C. & Smithson, D. What is the hybrid library? Journal of Information Science Vol 25 no 2 (1999) pp97-112
Pinfield, S. & Dempsey, L. The Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) and the hybrid library Ariadne, 26 (2001) 9pp. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/dner/intro.html
Rusbridge, C. Towards the Hybrid Library D-Lib Magazine July/August 1998 23p.
Rusbridge, C. & Royan, B. Towards the hybrid library: developments in UK Higher Education Paper 001-142-E. 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem 2000. 11pp http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/001-142e.htm
See also: electronic library; information service; university libraries