There is an interesting short piece in the latest issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy by Charles B. Lowry, the Dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland. In the article, titled “Let’s Call it the ‘Ubiquitous Library’ Instead…” (subscribers-only link to Project Muse), he suggests that we use the term the “ubiquitous library” to describe the kind of academic library that we envision for the future.

I think he may be right that more common terms like “virtual library” may be played out because (a) they have too many different established uses and (b) they ignore the library as a place, which is still such an important part of what a library is, even as we reach out beyond the walls of the building itself.

“It is amply clear,” Lowry writes, “that the academic library as a place will be sustained. At the same time, it will become ubiquitous because of the use of advanced networking and computing to support innovation in how libraries work with and for the students and faculty. The use of the term ubiquitous is meant to convey that the resources of libraries will be available to the campus community in a pervasive fashion, basically at their fingertips” (294). I’d also like to think that if library resources become ubiquitous,they will also cease to exist solely in their usual silos (catalog, database, digital collection), and will become easy to discover, manipulate, and use (rip, mix, burn?).

Another thing I like about “ubiquitous library” is that it seems to point more directly at our real goal. Our goal isn’t to make everything digital or virtual or electronic for the sake of making it digital; our goal is to make our stuff (your stuff!) available to you when, how, and where you want it.

Full citation for the article: Lowry, Charles B. “Let’s Call it the ‘Ubiquitous Library’ Instead…” portal: Libraries and the Academy 5 (2005) 293-296.