The University Leadership Council in the US has recently published a report, Redefining the Academic Library - Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services.

The Council describes the now familiar transformational changes affecting libraries - unsustainable costs, viable alternatives such as Google and Amazon, declining usage numbers and new patron demands - and suggests a number of actions to help libraries redefine their roles and stay relevant.

The report covers a number of issues:

• Managing the migration to digital information services
• Rethinking the scholarly publishing model
• Repurposing library space
• Redeploying library staff

In scholarly publishing, changes include the dramatic increase in the number of institutions incentivising and providing infrastructure for open access, and the emergence of pay-per-view and open access alternatives to the "Big Deal". These changes have the potential to disrupt the current publishing business model.

The report recommends the repurposing of library space, freed up by smaller collections, to support collaborative learning. Library staff roles also need to be re-drawn, with the decline of individual cataloguing efforts and the slump in the numbers of reference enquiries. The report sees new roles emerging for librarians, the key tasks being 'embedding' librarians with research teams, developing and delivering advanced information and research literacy programs, and building the new data management infrastructure .

The Council provides its member provosts with expert advice, and innovative strategies and information on best practice to help them tackle their most pressing issues.