The changing functions of libraries in higher education

Academic libraries, like higher education institutions, have multiple missions. They preserve information, provide that information to members of the institutions they belong to, and help people find and use that information. They serve both the highly specialized research needs of advanced scholars and the large volume of routine learning needs of undergraduate students. They also provide study spaces for students and access to hardware and software for learning and scholarship. While the missions continue, the mechanisms for executing the library's missions have expanded in the digital age.