The Future of the Universities starts from the Library

How many universities have realized that the future of their intellectual excellence is in their libraries.

For example, Harvard started from a library, and now it is renewing its world-leading research hub by its "digital-plus” -project. Provost, Steven E. Hyman, who chaired the Library Task Force said just recently that "Over time, a lack of coordination has led to a fragmented collection of collections that is not optimally positioned to respond to the 21st century information needs of faculty and students."

In similar vein, "Harvard West", Stanford realized the digital challenge already before the Milennium. Stanford Library started a project with the help of couple of computer science grad students. The project was so succesful that a company was later formed around its ideas. The name of the company is Google. Stanford's library and Google still cooperates.

See more about Harvard's Task Forces recommendations from its report.