From the Dean: Stewarding Digital Access for Tomorrow’s Learners & Researchers

A common thread through this issue of Stay Connected is digitization and how the Colorado State University Libraries serves students’ learning and research today and will serve them far into the future. 

Transforming information from an analog format to a digital one can greatly expand access to that information. Once digitized, information is more shareable and accessible to the world. Where once it would take weeks, or months, for a book to be shipped across the globe, now it takes seconds to download. 

While digitizing information helps expand access today and into the future, it comes with drawbacks. Digital materials take continuous care. As technology continues to rapidly changing, new devices and digital formats are invented, and then become obsolete. 

Libraries and archives must work persistently to maintain and steward digital information across platform migrations, format changes, and IT updates. 

In the past, you would buy a book, put it on a shelf, and there it would stay for 50 years. Now, with digitized materials, your shelf disappears every five years or so as server lifespans come to an end. You have to keep replacing the shelf, because the technology used to create that shelf changes and eventually becomes obsolete. It takes so much labor, time, and funding to ensure tomorrow’s learners and researchers will have access to the vital information in the Libraries’ care. I’m proud of what we are able to accomplish every day, through the support of donors. 

As you read these stories and watch interviews with our student employees, I hope you feel inspired by our employees’ dedication and effort, as well as their impact on learners and researchers from now and into the future. 

As you read these stories and watch interviews with our student employees, I hope you feel inspired by our employees’ dedication and effort, as well as their impact on learners and researchers.

– Karen Estlund, dean of libraries