Libraries as Life-Systems: Information, Entropy, and Coevolution on Campus

Just as the study of natural life-forms has benefited from the insights of ecologists, so too our understanding of the university library and its future evolution can be enriched by studying the changing ecology of information flow on campus. The introduction of new technologies for generating, storing, and transmitting information will radically alter the character, magnitude, and direction of information flow on campus in the years to come, just as these things are likely to shift in our society at large. In response to these evolving technologies, major institutional changes can be anticipated. As the group primarily concerned with designing the environments for storing and recalling these new types of information, university librarians need to be attentive to the delicate intellectual life-forms that may well be extinguished by massive or pervasive shifts in the library environment. Their choices need to be wise, kind, and careful.