Challenges for Engineering Libraries: Supporting Research and Teaching in a Cross-Disciplinary Environment

The long-term relationship between engineering education, academic research, and the National Science Foundation has revolutionized the nature of engineering research and education. This paper focuses on engineers who work and teach in cross-disciplinary environments and use information from diverse disciplines. As disciplinary literature becomes increasingly fragmented and the volume of published information larger, engineers feel overwhelmed, trying to keep up with current research and teaching methods. These obstacles make it difficult for engineers to maintain an intellectual grasp of information, and challenge librarians to provide adequate physical access and manage collections. Two case studies are included to illustrate the problems of research and teaching in a cross-disciplinary environment.