Digital Environment: Users Empowered and Librarians

Deserted

1 February 2011

Karnataka State Library Association

M S Sridharmirlesridhar@gmail.com

Synopsis

1. Features of digital content

2. Characteristics of digital era

3. Need for digital information user studies

4. What to understand?

5. Digital environment: implications, threats,

and opportunities

6. Some findings on digital information users

7. Repositioning alternatives for the profession

8. Conclusion: future libraries and librarians

M S Sridhar 2Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted

Features of Digital Content1. Content boom or Information plethora

2. Economical multiple pointers

3. Location independence

4. Manipulation of contents

5. Quality is patchy and often unknown

6. Everything is meta data

7. Dynamic nature

8. Interactivity

9. More non-textual and image based content

10. Diminished demarcation between published and unpublished

11. More user created and organized

12. Greatly facilitate sharing and collaborationM S Sridhar 3Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted

Characteristics of Digital Era1. Users think they don‟t need intermediaries

2. More and more users are becoming producers

3. Linguistic whateverism

4. World of Alitracy

5. Moving from text-based to image-based society

6. Technically complex & heterogeneous services

7. Need to provide less rather than more

8. Work & home are mixed with digital nomads

9. Digital natives and immigrants discontinuity

10.Pervasive and universal access

11.Open dissemination, increased web citations

12.Brought people virtually closer M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 4

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 5

Implications of Digital Environment on

Libraries1. No more prominent players in information

provision and management

2. Lost reference service and archival functions

3. Filtering responsibility shifted to users

4. Users snatched control of organization of information

5. Access and convenience over ride validity and quality

6. Cheap and easy digitization expanded the reach and also brought some use for traditionally less used content

Implications on Libraries …contd.7. Self-searching and relying on SEs replaced

delegated searching and relying on library

8. Users confused by variety of platforms; try trial

and error mode

9. Self-evaluation is a key element of digital

literacy

10. Online catalogs are to access specific items rather than IR; OPAC expected to have links to online contents

11. Increase collections, enhance content and functionality; improve usability; list libraries that own an item

12. Access management with risk tolerance for litigation

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 6

Digital Environment Opportunities

1. Technology encouraged and acted as

catalyst for the trio factors:

Accessibility

Ease of use and

Perceived utility of information

2. Made wisdom of crowd available

3. Enabled Mobile-based services

4. New technologies brought new competitors

5. Managing information for business benefits

Fee based services

Public-private partnershipM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 7

Opportunity to Understand Digital

Information Users

1. Logs („foot prints‟) of what users have done

2. Enable monitoring users & deep log analysis

3. Mines of robust quantitative/ statistical data

4. Evidence base can be developed on virtual

scholars

5. Enables learning and developing intelligent

agents

6. Navigation is the clue

7. Wider sphere of operation for librarianship

M S Sridhar 8Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 9

Dehumanization Threat

1. Physically inhabited, psychologically absent

2. No „natural‟ ways of accessing with all senses

3. Physical propinquity is the powerful force of innovation

4. Often, text is separated from context

5. Anytime any place office is the tiger cage of every time every where with permanently anxiousness

6. No time to think and care, concentrate on speed alone

Access Barriers

1. Alphabetization barrier replaced by need for

consumption skills

2. Too many complex strategies &

terminologies

3. Access, use and usefulness are mixed up

4. New excess and silliness with their own

backlash

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 10

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 11

Access to Excess and Multitude of

Choices

1.Effect of small amount of choices vs. large

amount of choices on user and his

satisfaction/ success need to be understood

2.Abundance of choice attracts users, but it is

not to their advantage

3.When options are few, user can be happy

with what he chooses confidently

4.Only small number of choices can be easily

handled and evaluated by users

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 12

Access to Excess and Multitude of

Choices

5. If user is looking for a specific item,

evaluating, deciding and laying hands

become easy

6. To handle multitude of choices, users are

expected to develop domain expertise

7. Users are normally aware of the positive

effects of choice, but not harm of negative

ones caused by too much choice

Need for Understanding Digital Information

Users

• Huge number of users migrated to digital

world

• Librarians know less about them:

“ …the information community must stop

thinking it knows best, otherwise it will be in

danger of becoming irrelevant. The consumer

knows best”

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 13

Digital user perception of library

1. Libraries viewed as being books

2. Sharp fall in researchers‟ visit to libraries

3. Researchers retain a sense of importance of

the library

4. Those who visit library continue to

experience satisfaction

5. Users value traditional browsing, praise

library as space for information

6. For students, the most common activity in the

physical library is to do homework/ study

7. Considered key player in the market for e-

booksM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 16

Some Findings on Digital Environment/ User 1. Digital information is popular and has

increased demand

2. Diverse set of users

3. Huge volatility & use variety of sources with

no Loyalty, Trust, Branding and Repeat

behavior (Return visits)

4. Read shorter articles online („digital

osmosis‟)

5. Expect instant gratification with just enough

attitude

6. Self judge authenticity and relevance

7. Increased use of older materialM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 17

General Findings on Digital User

1. Speed, simplicity, immediate access/ answer,

instant gratification, and convenience are

important

2. Prefer everything available in digital form in

quick chunks/ snippets of information

3. Shorter sessions - Very little time using the

content

4. Increased centrality (use, familiarity & trust)

of Google and other search engines

5. D2D Process is crucial

6. Look for easy interface

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 18

General Findings on Digital User

7. No site penetration; „Bouncing‟ or „Flicking‟

with „shallow searching‟ and „promiscuity‟

8. Gathering information horizontally rather than

vertically

9. Problem of irrelevant results and fear of

missing items

10. Prefer natural language searching with one

or two terms

11. Advanced search tools are largely ignored

12. Growth in searching at the cost of browsing

13. Asking colleagues is still an important

strategyM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 19

Confidence, Skill & Quality Judgment of

Digital Information Users1. Determine quality based on own experience and

common sense

2. Students assess contents based on its relevance to their assignment

3. They are confident of their self-taught skills and satisfied with the result

4. Feel results are same as that of what libraries provide

5. Getting an answer is cited as the success

6. Over estimates ability (students) and give up after initial search

7. But, there is big gap between performance and self-estimates

M S Sridhar 20Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted

New Values of Digital Information Users

1. Weighs convenience as more important than

quality

2. Needs just enough to do the task on hand

3. Wants to follow the path of cheap, fast and

good

4. Expects wide choice as well as selectivity

5. Expects both information and technology to

be mobile

6. Believes if it is not on the web, it just does

not exist

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 21

Cognitive Behavior of (Student) Users

Access to full text caused and lead to:

1. Believe that no need to read thoroughly for

ideas and themes

2. Believe notes are no longer required

3. Increased plagiarism

4. Going online to avoid reading

5. Speed and simplicity over rule everything

else

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 22

Digital user perception of e-books

1. Reported significant technical difficulties

2. Convenience is a major factor in usage

3. Students preferred using off-campus

4. Used to get snippets of information with very

little extended reading

5. Do not spend much time in the book, but use

then to quickly find facts, viewing only a few

pages (85% spent less than 1 m viewing a

page)

6. E-availability did not significantly reduce print

circulation

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 23

Digital user perception of e-Journals

1. Give increased importance

2. Consider „critical part‟ of current research

climate

3. Article downloads has doubled between

2001/3 to 2007

4. Little time is spent using the content

5. Ignore publishers‟ platform (to discover)

6. Felt problems in accessing identified

material

7. Libraries need to increase access to open

source materials, repositories and back files

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 24

Scholarly reading of e-Journals

• No. of journals increased by 3% and no. of

articles by 3.5% (1986 – 2004)

• Average length of article increased from 7.4p

to 12.4p and size of journal itself increased

from 820p to 2216p per annum

1. Average number of journal articles read per

year increased

2. Average time spent reading journal article

reduced

Thoroughness of reading sacrificed for

quantity? Or reading only shorter articles/

abstract online („digital osmosis‟)M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 25

Alternatives for repositioning the

profession

1. The invisible Intermediary

2. The proactive Librarian

3. The embedded Librarian

4. Aligning with or move to Information

provider Institutions

…more rehabilitation options

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 26

The Invisible Intermediary

1. An ICT based „digital library‟

2. Disintermediated services

3. Meeting both legacy of the past and the

promise of the future

4. Facilitate meaningful interactions

5. „Smoothening the way‟ for the users

6. Commercial intermediaries/ e-providers are

already doing

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 27

The Proactive Librarian

1. Learns the users‟ language

2. Understands their concerns

3. Becomes part of the team

4. Offers solutions before they are requested

5. An acknowledged expert in handling

information

6. Believes in libraries as agencies of

civilization and progress

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 28

The Embedded Librarian1. Participates in academic courses

2. Teaches information literacy skills

3. His office will be in customer group

4. Works closely with the group members

5. Funding and supervision differ

6. Sound in librarianship and subject matter

7. Extensive informal education & practical

experience

8. Provides complex, value-added services

9. Collaborates/ contributes to group's work

10. Employer supported continuing education/

continuous learning across the board M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 29

Align with or move to information

provider institutions• Disintermediation at two levels:

Need for Librarian to access and use

resources

Library as information delivery channel

• Librarian is definitely required as long as

dominance of „print „ exists

• As more content becomes digital, the

Librarian's role will be limited to license

manager

• Librarian will continue to be needed in user

institutions as long as the 'paid' content existM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 30

Conclusion: Future librarians1. Multi-faceted professional competence

2. Information literacy training

3. Taking care of internally generated born-digital content

4. „Future is digital, digitize and democratize‟ with a collection development policy

5. Go behind market

6. Become academic partner and not servant

7. Meet diverse needs of users with vital services for the colony

8. Show innovation to bring opportunity

9. Repackage products and services in a way to deliver unique experiences

M S Sridhar 31Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted

Conclusion: Future Libraries

1. Interactive catalogs accessible on multiple

devices

2. Replace lending with downloadable books

3. Space imaging technologies

4. Search Command Center

5. A refuge from the isolation of house

6. A temporary office space

7. The interface between information and brains

as seamless and invisible as possible

8. Mini-theaters to offer full sensory experience

9. Time Capsule RoomM S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 32

M S Sridhar Digital environment: users empowered and librarians deserted 36

Thank you

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