Library of the Future

In 1989 Tilburg University, The Netherlands, launched a plan in which the building of a new high-tech library and the development of innovative information services was announced. At that moment the University Library had six centrally managed departmental branches on different locations on the campus. It was a medium-sized library with approximately 700,000 volumes and 54 full time equivalent staff. The first wave of library automation was completed.

The university participated in and contributed to the Dutch PICA shared cataloguing system and national Inter Library Loan system. The PICA Local Library system was implemented for acquisition and circulation, campus-wide access was provided to the local OPAC. Immediately after the decision of the Dutch government to grant subsidy for a new library building at Tilburg university, the library started to make a comprehensive program for this building. In detail the requirements were described not only with respect to stacks and study places, but also with respect to the computer infrastructure and the consequences for heating, cooling, ducts, electricity, sunrays, ozone etc.

Important principles in the program were:

• Flexibility: the three floors of the library should have a minimum of fixed elements. It should be possible to realize important changes in the future within the building: for instance to have more study places and fewer volumes in open access will be a realistic option for the future.
• User Orientation: the library should have a pleasant and inviting atmosphere where users can browse through the bookstacks but can also do their work, singly or with others, using books and/or computers.
• Network Connectivity: every single desk and every single study place should have ducts and should possibly be equipped with a personal computer or a UNIX work station. This means that at any moment a computer can be installed and directly connected to the university local area network. The ideas with respect to the building were very much connected with ideas on the role of an academic library in the future. In close cooperation with the university's computer centre a blueprint was made for new library services and for new ways of information handling and information production.

Based on this blueprint an innovation program was launched with the wholehearted support of the Board of Governors of the university and in close cooperation with Digital Equipment Corporation as the most important industrial partner in the program. Key elements in this program were:

• To make full use of information technology in order to improve library processes and library services.
• Electronic information will be of growing importance. The library - in conjunction with the computer centre - should provide facilities to handle this information. It should be irrelevant whether the information concerns text, data, voice, still or moving images, where and how the information is stored, local or remote. Users should have access to (multimedia) information from their desktop at the university and at home.
• The consumer of information in a university environment is often also the producer of new information. Researchers and students conduct database searches, retrieve information, use this information, add results of new research and new ideas to it in order to produce new information, new articles, new theses and papers that can be discussed and communicated with colleagues and others. The library should support the productivity of the university and should facilitate this process. An important way to do that is
• Desktop integration. The online library information should be integrated with other computing services like database management, electronic communication, word processing, statistical and graphical software, and printing in order to support education and research in the university.
• The technical infrastructure should be characterized by flexibility and stability, and should be based on technological standards and open solutions. It was a privilege to manage the team of Digital Equipment.

For four years, I have spend all my energy to contribute to the success of this project.