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I was at MIT a few days ago and had the opportunity to participate in Erik Brynjolfsson‘s class at Sloan School of Management. It was a fun class.  We discussed the early days of SSRN, bundled services, and electronic resources in general. During the conversation, I asked the MBA students if they knew where the library was and received many blank stares.  Maybe it was because MIT has a a lot of them, but more likely it was the fact that students’ relationships with their library has changed.

While the gap between students and stacks continues to grow, several libraries are building bridges. Personal Librarian Programs are being rolled out by a small number of universities across the country, including Drexel University and Yale. Essentially, these programs assign incoming students a personal librarian to serve as a direct access point in the library.  I haven’t looked at it from a cost perspective but from a customer service perspective, I think it is great.

Today, many of us understand and appreciate the overwhelming abundance of information available at our fingertips.  There is too much content to consume and crucial educational resources can get lost in the pile.  Librarians have a wealth of knowledge and specifically know:

• How to research & evaluate content
• How to use different resources for different purposes
• How to determine validity and appropriation
• How to think critically

Several months ago I spoke with Susan Gibbons, a forward-thinking librarian from the University of Rochester. She understands the challenge and provided some insight into how she has been able to enrich and simplify students’ experience at the UR library.  One idea that stuck with me was noting the library’s front desk phone numbers at the end of each stack, allowing students to get help immediately.

In addition to valuing libraries by their resources, Susan explained that important learning functions like camaraderie and group work are also fostered by the library structure.  Building learning communities is one of a library’s most important core missions.

For Susan’s view of the future, watch the video below:

Earlier in the day at MIT I had a conversation with a librarian and asked if students knew where to find the library. She replied, “Of course they know where it is, that’s where they go to sleep in between classes.”

I hope the Personal Librarian Programs and other initiatives are a success.  Students need to learn how to manage the overabundance of information today and it would be a shame for them to spend more time with their eyes closed than open in the library …

As many of you know, we have worked closely with The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to create our Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network (ERPN). Earlier this year, they held the first Economics Bloggers Forum and I was fortunate to be able to participate.  It was a wonderful event and a great opportunity to meet and learn from some very intelligent people, a few of which are included in the Renewal of Entrepreneurial Capitalism video below.  Other than my friends at the Kauffman Foundation inserting the wrong blog URL for me, I was very impressed with the quality of the videos and the professionalism of the staff.

Overview – Economic Bloggers and the Renewal of Entrepreneurial Capitalism

Gregg Gordon – Entrepreneurship Research and Policy Network

Gregg Gordon – Building the Field of Entrepreneurship Research

Please let me know what you think about the videos and what changes are occurring in your discipline.

Here is the latest announcement from SSRN:

Loyola University Chicago School of Law Joins LSN Research Paper Series

We are pleased to announce that Loyola University Chicago School of Law has started a Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series within the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN).

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Loyola-U-PUB.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Loyola-U-PUB
First Issue: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/sample_issues/1410172_CMBO.html

Founded in 1908, Loyola University Chicago School of Law is a community of engaged scholars and students inspired by the Jesuit tradition of academic excellence, intellectual openness, and a commitment to justice and the rule of law. The articles and papers in its Research Paper Series serve that tradition by contributing to a deeper understanding of law, legal institutions, and legal theory through faculty research and scholarship. (View full announcement)