Transforming Libraries: Openness and Control in Society’s Knowledge Provision

Planning grant: The project investigates the on-going transformation of academic libraries from organizations primarily concerned with collecting, preserving and making accessible literature, to also contributing to processes of publishing, curation of research data, evolving online searching and evaluation of research, while catering to different parts of society, within and outside academia.

Planning grant: Academic libraries are an information infrastructure fundamental to society’s knowledge provision. They are positioned at the interface between researchers, students, policy makers, civil society and industry. Traditionally libraries collect, organize, and facilitate access to literature through acquisitions and licenses. In the new academic landscape, where outreach activities become more important and there is emphasis on competition and quantification of, as well as open access to, research results and data, their role is expanding as well as transforming. Yet, despite their unique position in society’s knowledge provision, academic libraries have often been neglected in the study of knowledge- producing institutions. This project investigates the on-going transformation of contemporary academic libraries from organizations primarily concerned with collecting, preserving and making accessible literature, to also contributing to processes of publishing, curation of research data, evolving online searching and evaluation of research, while catering to different parts of society, within and outside academia. These four empirically informed themes are tied together by two theoretically grounded, cross-cutting themes: the changing role of trust and the re-negotiations of professional expertise. The project draws on a socio- material theoretical perspective and the project uses both qualitative and quantitative methods.