The Reinvention of the U.S. Academic Library: 1990 to 2025

The information most essential for life in the modern world falls under the rubric of scholarly communication: the vast and ever-growing body of words and data produced by scholarly researchers, the majority of whom work in academia. Scholarly communications are fundamental to creating and informing the digital and mechanical tools we use every day, contributing to the world in which we live, advanced healthcare, macro- and micro-economic choices, environmental sustainability, concepts of justice and equity, and a fuller understanding of the human history.

For the last several centuries, there have been three key components to scholarly communication:
- The scholars who conduct the research, gather the data, and record their findings.
- The scholarly publishers who replicate and distribute those findings.
- The academic libraries that provide connection between the fruits of scholarly communications and the researchers, instructors, students, and members of the general public who then use that information to advance learning and make decisions both personal and public.

Focusing on U.S. academic libraries, The Reinvention of the U.S. Academic Library begins by providing a concise history of the traditional role and function of academic libraries from their earliest times up to the dawn of theDigital Age and the spread of digital technology into all aspects of academic research and scholarly communication. This introduction is followed by chapters analyzing how digital technology has transformed, over the course of a few swift decades, not only the role and function of academic libraries, but also the nature of scholarly communication itself.

Specifically, The Reinvention of the U.S. Academic Library will consider how digital technology has changed the way academic libraries:
- Acquire and exercise bibliographic control over collections.
- Provide equitable access to information. Allocate and utilize library space. Instruct and guide students, faculty, and others.
- Relate to the larger academic and scholarly publishing communities. Sustain scholarly communications.

Donald A. Barclay worked as an academic librarian from 1990 until his retirement in 2022, during his library career holding positions at New Mexico State University, the University of Houston, the Texas Medical Center, and the University of California, Merced. Barclay began working at the University of California, Merced in 2002, before ground was broken on what would become the first (and thus far only) new U.S. research university of the twenty-first century. The unique opportunity of creating an academic research library from the ground up at a time when digital technology was expanding into every aspect of human life and radically transforming scholarly communication allowed him to both closely observe and actively participate in the biggest technological change to hit libraries since the advent of printing from moveable type.

Barclay has authored numerous articles and books over the course of his career on topics ranging from the literature of the American West to children’s literature to library and information science. His book, Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in June 2018 and spent two months as an Amazon #1 New Release. His follow up book, Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2022.
Barclay earned his bachelor’s degree from Boise State University and holds masters’ degrees in both English and Library and Information Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to working as a librarian, he spent four years teaching college writing as well as ten seasons working as a wildland fire fighter, mostly as a member of a U.S. Forest Service Hotshot Crew. He lives in Merced, California with his wife Caroline Dawson and their three daughters, Tess, Emily, and Alexandra.