There’s a culture taking over the information highway that has Libraries and Media Services looking toward the future.

The “Google culture,” as Mark Weber, dean of Libraries and Media Services called them, are students whose memories of U.S. presidents start with Bill Clinton.

Weber explained during the Academic Affairs Priorities Presentation presented to the Provost office yesterday that students today “believe there is one starting point for all information needs. They want immediate information access. The Web has all the information needed and everything they find on the Web is of equal credibility and substance.”

This “Google culture” has certain expectations in the library.

Weber addressed a few priorities the library has in order to meet student expectations.

The first priority addressed was the need for a life sciences librarian. This person would have expertise in the life science to serve biological sciences and biomedical sciences.

The second priority was to get a digital resources librarian to direct Library and Media Services projects to digitize unique content.

Changing the staffing demands would create a greater reliance on student assistants for desk coverage and materials processing, which is the third priority of the library.

Another priority is the critical capital priority associated with developing digital television production facility, Weber said.

The library would also like to see an increase in its budget for all of its collections. Weber said they need to “advocate for base budget increases to stave off the need for serials cancellation in this next fiscal year.”

Contact libraries and information services reporter Sara Huebner at [email protected].