Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly:

1
Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if
they be not alteredfor the better designedly

• Managing systemic change

Professor Derek Law, University of Strathclyde
2
Theme The New Atlantis

• The shifting challenges for libraries and
  librarians
• are we close to being able to outsource the
  library?
• The importance to librarians of the intermediary
• in the purchase chain
• Digital asset management managing the
  intellectual
• output of the university
• - through trusted intermediaries?
• New forms of scholarly communication
• do we need publisher skills in the chain?

3
The End of Libraries

• The Librarians and Libraries that do not accept
  the change will inevitably be victims of
  evolution. For the dinosaurs it will indeed be
  the end.
• James Thompson

• We are already very close to the day in which a
  great science Library could exist in a
  spaceLess than 10 feet square
• F W Lancaster

4
Idols of the Tribe

• This is humans' tendency to perceive more order
  and regularity in systems than truly exists, and
  is due to people following their preconceived
  ideas about things.

5
The failure of Librarians

• Making the technology work too well
• Lack of underpinning philosophy
• Rise of the managerial technocrat
• Complacency
• Failure to engage with e-resources
• Obsessed with licences
• Digitising oddities

6
OCLC Study of College Student Perceptions in 2006

• 89 use search engines to begin a search
• 2 use a library web site
• 93 are satisfied or very satisfied with this
• 84 if librarian assisted
• Search engines fit the student life style
• Library use is diminishing
• books are the library brand

7
Idols of the Cave

• This is due to individuals' personal weaknesses
  in reasoning due to particular personalities,
  likes and dislikes.

8
Digital Content

• It seems to me that after the digital
  "singularity" there are now two kinds of content
  "Legacy" content (to borrow the computer term for
  old systems) and "Future" content. "Legacy"
  content includes reading, writing, arithmetic,
  logical thinking, understanding the writings and
  ideas of the past, etc - all of our "traditional"
  curriculum.  It is of course still important, but
  it is from a different era. 
• Some of it (such as logical thinking) will
  continue to be important, but some (perhaps like
  Euclidean geometry) will become less so, as did
  Latin and Greek.
• "Future" content is to a large extent, not
  surprisingly, digital and technological.  But
  while it includes software, hardware, robotics,
  nanotechnology, genomics, etc. it also includes
  the ethics, politics, sociology, languages and
  other things that go with them.
• (Prensky, 2001) 

9
Behaviour in the virtual world

• Horizontal information seeking
• Skimming one or two pages then bouncing out
• Navigation
• The dominant activity is finding their bearings
• Viewing
• Four minutes for a book, eight for a journal
• Squirreling
• Downloads (cf unread photocopies)
• Diverse
• Few real patterns emerging
• Checking
• Users assess trust through favoured brand
  reliance (eg Google)

10
ChildWise Annual Survey 2008

• 40 of 9year olds have internet in their room
• They have six hours of screen time a day, with
  1.7 hours online
• 2008 has seen a major boost in intensity
• Reading for pleasure has declined from 84 to 74
  in two years
• They are fluent communicators who dont read and
  rely on spellcheckers
• They multitask
• They are abandoning print and paper and
  communicate in a completely different way

11
Idols of the Marketplace

• This is due to confusions in the use of language
  and taking some words in science to have a
  different meaning than their common usage.

12
Urban myths

• SMT publishing is the norm
• Scholarly communication relies on journals
• Big deals and aggregation are good things

13
Idols of the Theatre

• This is due to using philosophical systems which
  have incorporated mistaken methods. Here Bacon is
  referring to the influence of major philosophers
  (Aristotle) and major religions on science.

14
This is not an incremental change but a
discontinuity

• Todays students K through college represent
  the first generations to grow up with this new
  technology. They have spent their entire lives
  surrounded by and using computers, videogames,
  digital music players, video cams, cell phones,
  and all the other toys and tools of the digital
  age. Todays average college grads have spent
  less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but
  over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to
  mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer
  games, email, the Internet, cell phones and
  instant messaging are integral parts of their
  lives.
• Prensky 2001

15
Librarians as they see themselves on Second Life
CybraryCity2 screen capture from Second Life
16
Second Life Libraries as seen by users
Screen capture from Second Life
17
Digital Overlap Strategy

• At this point the author launches into a
  remarkably funny true story of everyday hospital
  life in which a treatment called digital overlap
  therapy is revealed as jargon for keeping your
  fingers crossed
• At least that was the intention.
• All too often keeping ones fingers crossed is
  seen as a substitute for thinking issues through
  and dealing with them

18
Outsourcing libraries?

• Why do we need librarians when its all on the
  web?
• The first attempts are being made to cut back on
  professional staffing because of this logic
• What are our USPs?

19
The Library is dead, long live social networking
20
OR, how libraries can build next generation
services using social networking
21
What if. . .
You can find 35,000,000 books through the Google
6 and the Open Content Alliance?
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
Microsofts View
http//www.microsoft.com/mscorp/tc/scholarly_commu
nication.mspx
25
Web 2.0 A Research Agenda

• Growing importance of these tools in scholarly
  communication
• E.g. Openwetware, nanohub, Blue Obelisk, JOVE
  (Journal of Visualised Experiments)
• As these mature, who will mediate and manage
  them?
• Definitely an area to watch

26
USPs for libraries

• Trust and trust metrics
• Training
• Aggregation of born digital material

27
Trust Metrics

• Library is a trusted brand
• Rather than take it for granted seek a role as a
  partner in the teaching and research process,
  offering useful, timely and relevant advice on
  information resources
• Perhaps manage tools such as wikis which
  academics populate with content?

28
Laws Second Law
Publishers sell on difference not similarity but
users have limited skills in differentiating. The
re is real value in offering training which
helps users optimise Time and effort spent in
searching Individual products

• User
• Friendly
• Systems
• Arent

29
(No Transcript)
30
Forms of institutional e-content

• Research papers
• Conference presentations
• Theses
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Websites
• Podcasts
• Reusable Learning Objects
• Research data
• E-Lab books

• Streamed lectures
• Images
• Audio files
• Digitised collections
• E-Archives
• E-mail
• HR Records
• Student/Staff records
• Corporate publications
• National heritage artefacts

31
Trusted repositories the five Maori tests

• Receive the information with accuracy
• Store the information with integrity beyond doubt
• Retrieve the information without amendment
• Apply appropriate judgement in the use of the
  information
• Pass the information on appropriately

32
Options for libraries

• Building e-Research collections and contributing
  to a virtual research environment of born digital
  material
• Importance of kite marking, quality assurance,
  trust metrics and relevance ranking
• Managing institutional born digital assets and
  making content available with bibliographic
  integrity
• Training Laws Second Law
• And always be prepared to read the road signs, no
  matter how unexpected

33
Expect the Unexpected