Scenario planning: a tool for academic health sciences libraries.
OBJECTIVE
Review the International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine (ICRAM) Future Scenarios as a potential starting point for developing scenarios to envisage plausible futures for health sciences libraries.


METHODS
At an educational workshop, 15 groups, each composed of four to seven Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) directors and AAHSL/NLM Fellows, created plausible stories using the five ICRAM scenarios.


RESULTS
Participants created 15 plausible stories regarding roles played by health sciences librarians, how libraries are used and their physical properties in response to technology, scholarly communication, learning environments and health care economic changes.


CONCLUSIONS
Libraries are affected by many forces, including economic pressures, curriculum and changes in technology, health care delivery and scholarly communications business models. The future is likely to contain ICRAM scenario elements, although not all, and each, if they come to pass, will impact health sciences libraries. The AAHSL groups identified common features in their scenarios to learn lessons for now. The hope is that other groups find the scenarios useful in thinking about academic health science library futures.
Ludwig
Logan
L
Building Projects, Journal of the Medical Library Association, University of Nebraska, NE, USA. lludwig@lumc.edu
Giesecke
Joan
J
Walton
Linda
L
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D004493:Education; D016245:Librarians; D007993:Libraries, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D024382:Professional Role; D000078329:Workforce