From input and output measures to quality and outcome measures , or , from the user in the life of the library to the library in the life of the user

This paper discusses library models and user roles in relation to the transformative effects of technology. It explores how these models are changing our conceptualization of library assessment models from a linear to a more cyclical and dynamic perspective shaping relations between input, output, quality and outcome indicators. "Nothing is permanent but change" Heraclitus Do libraries matter in the life of the everyday men and women, in the lives of the readers who explore new ideas and thoughts, in the lives of the scholars who are engaged in the systematic investigation of furthering knowledge? These may be rhetorical questions; yet, their answer may be evading the reality of higher education institutions where the value of the library is sometimes placed at a peril in an era of competing priorities, limited resources, and exponential growth in the areas of technology, information content, and communication capabilities. In a recent invited address at the Library Research Seminar II, Yvonna S. Lincoln captured the audience's imagination by providing insights into the perception of library services and users from qualitative research. In her remarks "library service is not performed ... but enacted as an elaborate cultural ritual, the texture and fabric of which is changing in front of us ..Embodying multiple overlays of meaning ... many of which might have to be discovered or even created."2 The need to create the new library, to reinvent or reconceptualize, is real and many are engaged in trying to do just that.3 Possible models to emulate are available by looking either backward, learning from the historical perspective, or looking forward, learning from newly gained insights into the operation of future libraries. Libraries have adopted different pragmatic and symbolic historical roles throughout the years. Krummel describes the historical perspective of libraries in terms of the seven ages of librarianship. In his seven ages of librarianship Krummel used as a criterion for determining the different ages what he calls "the objectives" of the libraries, which are characterized, as quotidian (around 3000 BC), intellectual (around 300 BC), religious (around 500 AD), virtuous (around 1350 AD), scientific (around 1600 AD), utilitarian (around 1840 AD), and pragmatic (around 1910 and beyond). Each one of these adjectives describes the different messages libraries sustained throughout the ages.4 Peter Brophy also tries to describe possible future models for libraries in the 21st century. He