Editor’s note: Today’s post is by Jane Jiang, Director of Libraries at UCNJ, Union College of Union County, NJ, with over 25 years of experience in academic and public libraries.
In an era of rapid change in higher education, one constant remains: students need support not just to access information, but to understand it, evaluate it, and use it responsibly. The academic library has long provided that foundation. Yet today, its value is too often misunderstood, overlooked, or quietly diminished.
The Library’s Role in a Changing Academic Landscape
Across the country, college libraries face shrinking budgets, limited space, reduced staffing, and growing pressure to do more with less. As institutional priorities shift toward new technologies, centralized academic services, and administrative restructuring, the library is sometimes treated as an optional add-on rather than essential academic infrastructure. These changes affect not only teaching and learning but also the integrity of the research and publishing process. Such practices undermine the foundational skills necessary for rigorous scholarship, with significant consequences for student success, academic integrity, and equitable learning.
Far from being quiet book warehouses, today’s libraries are active learning environments. Librarians teach students how to navigate databases, locate and interpret scholarly content, evaluate online information, and understand the ethics of research and citation. These are skills students carry into every discipline — and well beyond college.
Take, for example, a student I once worked with — a first-year commuter juggling a part-time job and caring for siblings at home. She had never used a library database before and wasn’t sure how to begin her first research assignment. During a one-on-one consultation, we walked through search strategies, how to evaluate sources, and how to cite them properly. By the end of the semester, she was not only completing assignments with confidence but helping her classmates find sources, too. This transformation didn’t happen in the classroom or at home — it happened in the library, with the support of staff who had the time and training to meet her where she was.
For students who are new to academic culture, underprepared for college-level research, or unfamiliar with digital tools, the library may be the only place they receive one-on-one guidance in developing independent learning habits. When library resources are cut, those students lose critical support.
The rapid rise of generative AI tools has introduced both opportunity and uncertainty into academia. Students now have instant access to platforms that can write, summarize, and synthesize — but not always ethically, and not always accurately. Faculty and institutions are understandably concerned about plagiarism, misinformation, and the erosion of authentic student voice.
Beyond Access: Librarians as Partners in Research Integrity
Librarians’ expertise in information ethics and citation practices directly supports the accuracy, transparency, and attribution standards on which scholarly publishing depends. They help students, faculty, and researchers use AI tools responsibly, asking critical questions about information sources, potential biases, and the proper citation or adaptation of AI-generated content. But these contributions are only possible if librarians are given the institutional recognition to engage in that work. Without it, the risk grows that AI will be used poorly—and academic integrity will suffer.
Extended library hours are often promoted as a way to support student success — but without sufficient staffing, those open doors may ring hollow. More hours do not automatically mean better service. In fact, when libraries are asked to stay open longer without additional personnel or funding, the burden falls on already overstretched staff, leading to burnout, reduced support quality, and a diminished student experience.
Students need more than just access to a quiet room or a functioning Wi-Fi connection. They need guidance — especially first-generation students, ESL learners, or those struggling to evaluate online sources and use information responsibly. When trained library staff are unavailable, students sometimes rely on alternative campus resources for research assistance, since the library’s role is not emphasized.
What Colleges and the Research Community Stand to Lose
All too often, the library is not fully included in conversations that guide student learning and academic support. Whether it’s curriculum planning, academic technology rollouts, or student support initiatives, libraries and librarians are sometimes left out. When the library is treated as background infrastructure rather than as an active learning environment, the entire academic mission is weakened. Students lose access to research instruction. Faculty lose collaborators who can reinforce critical thinking and source evaluation. Institutions lose a key space where academic integrity, inclusion, and intellectual curiosity are nurtured, and the larger research community loses a vital foundation for sustaining these principles. To truly serve researchers, faculty, and students, colleges must pair extended access with intellectual engagement. That means ensuring library staff are not only present but empowered — and that the library remains a living, evolving part of academic life.
To restore the library’s rightful place as a cornerstone of academic life, we must move beyond the idea that the library is just one of many student services. The library is a central academic institution. Its work touches every course, every discipline, and every student and faculty member.
This means:
- Maintaining strong, professionally trained full-time library staff
- Including librarians in conversations about curriculum, instruction, and academic technology
- Supporting professional development in emerging areas like AI literacy
- Recognizing the library not just as a study space, but as an instructional space
None of this is nostalgic thinking. It’s pragmatic. It’s student-centered. And it’s essential if we want to prepare learners not just to pass exams, but to thrive in a world full of complex, often unreliable information.
Members of the research and publishing community have a stake in this work. We rely on students and scholars who understand how to evaluate, cite, and build research ethically. Supporting academic libraries is an investment in the very foundation of quality scholarship and responsible publishing. Through partnerships, advocacy, and shared initiatives, we all share responsibility for ensuring that libraries — and the expertise they embody — remain central to academic success. Let’s not wait until we’ve lost it to realize how much we needed it all along.
Discussion
5 Thoughts on "Guest Post — What Do College Students Lose When Libraries Are Ignored?"
I absolutely agree with the thrust of this article – the question that bothers me is why libraries are in this situation in the first place? Why are they “sometimes treated as an optional add-on rather than essential academic infrastructure”? Why have they not been able to communicate this value to those holding the purse strings, and how can they change this situation? (sorry, more questions than answers there, but I think there’s a fundamental ongoing problem if academic libraries are unable to answer these, and fail to adjust their advocacy to adequately demonstrate their value to the parts of the university that control the library budget)
Many university top level financial decision-makers are more concerned with simple statistics showing return on investment. These kinds of statistics are notoriously difficult to produce for libraries. It can be difficult to break through to powerful decision-makers who have a long-standing tradition of side-lining/ignoring libraries during the decision-making process. Some universities have a pattern of bullying those who protest or question decisions.
“When the library is treated as background infrastructure rather than as an active learning environment, the entire academic mission is weakened.” I could not have said it better. I’m old enough to remember when bibliographic instruction was not only common but actually required for new freshmen and other new students if not also others working in particular subject areas. Is this still the case in most academic libraries or has bibliographic instruction died the death and is long gone? If the latter, why did it die the death?
This article describes what I see happening at my own institution. As a paraprofessional working toward my MLIS, I notice every day that information literacy has become the library’s responsibility alone. Faculty often complain about students’ weak research skills but rarely help develop them, and committees do nothing.
The problem is not just that administrators neglect this issue. It is also a lack of advocacy within our own profession. Many skilled library colleagues feel tired and unsure, so they hesitate to challenge the status quo or to speak up to campus leaders. But staying silent only makes our role less critical.
I want to help change this situation by serving as a Library Ambassador. I plan to build connections across campus and show why information literacy matters when it is ignored. Academic integrity depends on libraries being seen as essential partners in education, not as something that automated tutorials can replace. Now is the time for librarians to speak up.
Thank you Jane for raising such issues, which unfortunately are worldwide. I have read with great interest your article and will also suggest posting it on the portal of the Association of Professional Librarians of Mauritius, with a view to raise awareness among members first and foremost and hopefully among decision makers in Libraries of all types. We are observing the slow demise of such vital institutions like libraries. As a librarian having served for four decades before retirement in the tiny Indian ocean Island of Mauritius, I will continue to act as a soldier at the forefront, respectfully but fearlessly. No doubt, with the continual emerging of new technologies, libraries must adapt to changes, but the core mission remains unchanged: to provide the right information to the right user at the right time, to encourage the free flow of information and facilitate easy access to information!
