All library staff must understand their role in providing the library resources and services that are necessary for academic excellence. University students will usually move toward the use of electronic resources even though the print or media resource is, perhaps, only fifty feet away. There is no doubt that the concept of instant access to virtually any information from any place will continue to profoundly change the way academic libraries interact with the university world. This will change academic library collections, library services, the way librarians interact with university teaching faculty and students, and, eventually, the way university faculty teach. No matter how large an organization, staff must have input.
Participative management is crucial to the operation of an academic library program.
In addition to the participation of the library administrator, library staff, and any faculty-student library committee, assessment of library services by all university faculty and students should be established and they should be invited to make suggestions regarding library services. Participative planning and management, when properly done within the parameters of the existing organization, does not negate the important roles of the university administration and the university library administration. Programs should be proposed, trial periods recommended, evaluative criteria established, and decisions reached on the data collected. Fiscal responsibility means not only operating within the parameters of the allocated library budget, but also refusing to continue to perform ineffective library services simply because they have always been done. Modern academic librarians should continue to think outside the box of traditional library resources and services and never refuse to provide innovative and needed library resources and services simply because they have never done it that way before.