Facing the future

Technology trends and the information professions

Brenda ChawnerinFIRE

28 February 2012

Outline

Looking back:

– 20 years ago

– 10 years ago The present Looking ahead

– The pessimist

– The optimist Discussion

Introduction

Libraries and the information professions emerged because information was scarce and expensive

The purpose of a library was to buy information resources that members of its community could share, since no one could afford to buy everything he or she might need

Copyright was an enabler

The first sale doctrine, in combination with fair dealing/fair use, and provisions for interlibrary lending, enabled these resources to be shared widely

Twenty years ago

Technologies were emerging that were challenging the traditional role of libraries

– WANs and LANs, the early Internet

– Personal computers were more affordable

– CD-ROMs were used to store 'vast' amounts of information

– At CERN, an unknown computer scientist called Tim Berners-Lee had an idea to make it easier to share files stored on personal computers

End-user searching emerges

Databases were distributed on CD-ROMs, and we started to see end-user searching emerge

Before that, library users could search catalogues and hard copy indexes and abstracts on their own, but online searching was normally done by a librarian acting as an intermediary

Libraries experiment with hosting databases themselves

At the same time as CD-ROMs dominated searching for articles, some libraries experimented with hosting databases locally

In the mid-1990s, the VUW library licensed Library Literature from Wilson, and provided 'search LL' as an option in their online catalogue

People could now search the database from their desktop, without coming to the library

But at the same time …

TimBL's idea was becoming more popular, and more and more organisations began publishing information on the World Wide Web

Web browsers became important software for anyone connected to the Internet

Web search engines emerged as an essential way of finding information on the Web

Who remembers …

Lycos? Excite? AltaVista? InfoSeek? Inktomi? AskJeeves? Metasearch engines like Dogpile,

ProFusion, MetaFind and HotBot?

By the late 1990s

CD-ROM databases were being phased out, replaced by Web-based ones

Though CD-ROM's were usually licensed, because they were a physical item librarans felt that they 'owned' the content

Sergey Brin and Larry Page were developing a new approach to searching the Web, using backlinks as a measure of importance

Ten years ago

Google was emerging as the dominant search engine

Their revenue model provided 'free' searching, but used ads to generate revenue

Mobile phones were becoming affordable Journal publishers were licensing their

content to be included in Web-based databases, removing the need to visit the library for full-text

The present

The library as a physical place is less important, at least in some contexts

Many services are delivered virtually, relying on email or Intranet/Internet portals

Users/customers expect to be self-sufficient, and they expect to have everything they need on their desktop

The costs of licensing full-text databases increase each year

Implicatins

What does this mean for librarians/library services?

How do they remain relevant in this new environment?

The vendor perspective

Their business models have changed as well

– They need to keep their software up to date, in order to meet changing user expectations

– This means R & D is now compulsory

– New platforms need to be supported: smartphones, iOS

– And this needs real-time support: “no one ever called a hotline to ask how to turn the page of a book” (Lawlor, 2003)

Copyright changes

Copyright licences are used to enforce an artificial scarcity on digital resources, acting as a barrier rather than an enabler

Many licences restrict what was previously fair dealing/fair use, or interlibrary lending, for example

Users of electronic books can be monitored/restricted using DRM

Where to from here?

The current situation presents many challenges for today's information professionals

The library is no longer providing physical access to a scarce and expensive resource

Information is easily delivered to client desktops with a minimum of effort, and the librarian is almost invisible in the process

'Pay-as-you-go' is an option, so clients can buy access on an as-needed basis

Amazon and Google are trying to become information publishers (Google Books)

Where to from here?

'Pay-as-you-go' is an option, so clients can buy access on an as-needed basis

Amazon and Google are trying to become information publishers (for example, Google's ebookstore)

The future (1)

The pessimistic view:

– Traditional information managers struggle to survive in the new information age. Their role is reduced to negotiating contracts and persuading clients that they need to be trained to use these 'user friendly' systems

– The library has become a warehouse of print material, and staff are reduced to providing a document delivery service for information not available in digital form

This future is happening now

Public library funding has been cut (or cuts have been proposed) in the UK, US, and Canada

In mid-2011, a KPMG report proposed closing branches at the Toronto Public Library, reducing hours, and cancelling programmes to save $CAD35 million

– Decisions about which branches to close were to be based on circulation figures, ignoring any other services (free wifi, meeting rooms, community programs, etc.)

The future (2a)

The optimistic view:

– Information managers redefine their role in the new environment

– They have understand what information resources are available, and provide a proactive service letting clients know of new resources and systems that make it easier for them to find what they need when they need it

– Internal systems allow clients to store information they generate and tag it for future retrieval using terms that are meaningful to the; they can also tag external resources in the same way, building a modern version of Vannevar Bush's Memex

The future (2b)

– Internal systems allow clients to store information they generate and tag it for future retrieval using terms that are meaningful to the; they can also tag external resources in the same way, building a modern version of Vannevar Bush's Memex

This future is nearly here

At the University of Prince Edward Island, the Library provides new research projects with a:

– Website

– Data archive

– Publication repository Uses the Islandora free/libre and open

source software package More controversially, Mark Leggott, the

UPEI Librarian, has proposed taking control of resources back from vendors, with a collaborative project to build an open-access citation index

An alternative?

More controversially, Mark Leggott, the UPEI Librarian, has proposed taking control of resources back from vendors, with a collaborative project to build an open-access citation index

So far there has been little uptake, but how much longer can library services cope with regular vendor price increases?

Which future do you want?

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? What technology-related issues are you

most concerned about? What are the solutions? How do we make the value of non-

physical information resources and services visible?

Thank you

Brenda Chawner School of Information Management Victoria University of Wellington (04) 463 5780 brenda.chawner@vuw.ac.nz Follow me on identica/Twitter: @chawnerb