Hitting our Stride： Reflections Four Years Later from a Born-Digital Medical Library

摘要

Four years ago, ATG published in its health sciences special issue a paper I wrote on founding a new medical school library. Being that this year was my fifth anniversary as the founding library director at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) library, I thought it was an appropriate time to share my observations and reflect on my experiences on managing an all-digital collection. A question I often receive from health sciences librarians at other new and developing schools is knowing what you know, would you have done anything differently in the setup of your library? My answer, confidently, is no. I still believe I have made all the correct decisions at the time, yet I will share that I never feel fully finished with building, implementing and shaping the library's digital collections and services. The digital library I have built for today will be obsolete tomorrow, but tomorrow's library will be far better than the one I have today. The born digital library is organic by nature, and being a steward of information, this means making the library's systems and website incredibly attractive and agile for all types of devices. It can be hard at times, as you like to believe you're one step ahead of the user and that you've created a perfect information paradise for the medical school. When I hear a user say, “I wish the digital library could...,"I see this as an invitation to adapt, evolve and reinvent how we interact with users to make it easier for them to find information. It also means empowering the library staff to be unafraid to construct and deconstruct library systems and web pages to ensure we are delivering seamless content without restrictive barriers.