Jay SchaferDirector of Libraries

UMass Amherst

Innovationin an Age of Limits

ACRL Science & Technology Section – June 27, 2011

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Perfect Storm

Main Entry: perfect stormFunction: noun Date: 1936: a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors

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Critical/Disastrous Situation #1In “A Letter to His Kids,” Wired's Founding Editor Recalls the Dawn of the Digital Revolution:

In the very first issue (March 1993) I wrote, "The Digital Revolution is whipping through our lives like a Bengali typhoon.“ Got a lot of grief for that typhoon reference — as if it were a pretentious exaggeration instead of the understatement it turned out to be. Should have said the Digital Revolution was ripping through our lives like the meteor that extinguished the dinosaurs. Practically every institution that our society is based on, from the local to the supranational, is being rendered obsolete. This is the world you are inheriting.

Louis Rossetto “What we got right – and wrong.” Wired. June 2008

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Critical/Disastrous Situation #2Global economic downturn

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The Perfect Storm – The Movie

Is this the Library ???

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Biggest Challenge for Libraries

Biggest challenge is not budgets

Biggest challenge is adapting to the digital environment

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Attributed to Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead

James A. Dewar

Rand Report P-8014. 1998 http://rand.org/pubs/papers/P8014/index2.html

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

Information Age is defined by networked computers

Internet dates back to 1962 when concept of packet switching and ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was developed to maintain connectivity of the military command and control network in case of nuclear attack.

World Wide Web – 1990

Google released – 2000

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

Communication before the printing press:One to One

Communication with the printing press:One to Many

Communication in the Information Age:Many to Many

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

Changes in the information age will be as dramatic as those in the Middle Ages in Europe. The printing press has been implicated in the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, all of which had profound effects on their eras; similarly profound changes may already be underway in the information age.

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

The future of the information age will be dominated by unintended consequences. The Protestant Reformation and the shift from an earth-centered to a sun-centered universe were unintended consequences in the printing press era.

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

It will be decades before we see the full effects of the information age. The important effects of the printing press era were not seen clearly for more than 100 years.

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

The above factors combine to argue for:a) keeping the Internet unregulated, andb) taking a much more experimental

approach to information policy.

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

Changes in the information age will be as dramatic as those in the Middle Ages in Europe.

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The Shift from Print to Digital Resources

Library Card Catalog and print A&I tools Online Catalog and electronic A&I tools Aggregator full text databases E-journals Digitized print/media resources Born digital resources E-books

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The Shift from Print to Digital Resources

Discovery • Cards• Online Catalog• Cloud Discovery

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The Shift from Print to Digital Resources

Serials• Ordering by individual title• Check in• Binding• E-journals• Open URL linking

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The Shift from Print to Digital Resources

Monographs• Selection• Acquisitions• Licensing• E-Books

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Overcoming Limits

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Overcoming Limits

Funding for Staffing

• Retirements

• Vacancies

• Reassignments (voluntary)

• Cost-sharing

• Grants

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Overcoming Limits

Funding for Acquisitions

• Consortium purchases/License negotiations

• Use analysis and cancellations

• Interlibrary Loan – the collection you don’t own

• Rapid ILL• Consortial borrowing

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Overcoming Limits

Funding for Operations and Facilities

• Salary savings

• Fundraising

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Limits Drive Innovation

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Limits Drive Innovation: Tech ServicesThe Last Recession

Consolidated vendors E-selection Shelf ready books Use-based collection decisions “Just in time” vs. “Just in case” Expedited document delivery/ILL services

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Limits Drive Innovation: Tech ServicesThis Recession

Five Colleges Consolidated Tech Services• Unify the user experience across the five libraries• Maximize efficiencies so staff can deal with new “21st

Century” tasks• Provide cost savings where possible

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Limits Drive Innovation: Tech ServicesThis Recession

Acquisitions Budget• 80% electronic resources• 20% print resources

Technical Services Staffing• 80% print resources• 20% electronic resources

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Limits Drive Innovation: Tech ServicesFive Colleges Consolidated Tech Services

The Dream – Print Resources• Consolidation• The “One Centralize Technical Services” Model

The Dream – Electronic Resources• Common Collections• Common Discovery

• Discovery tool to supplement OPAC• A-Z E-journal list• A-Z Database list

• Expedited article delivery – Rapid ILL

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Limits Drive Innovation: Tech ServicesFive Colleges Consolidated Tech Services

The Reality – Print Resources• Consolidated vendor • Shelf ready books• Reduce unnecessary duplication

The Reality – Implementation Issues• Perceived “disrespecting” of past work• Perceived disregard of “local value added”• Loss of local control• HR Issues

• Re-location of employees• Benefits/Retire issues• Unions

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Limits Drive Innovation: Scholarly Communication

ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst

• Institutional repository• Cloud solution - Digital Commons• E-Theses/dissertations• E-journals• E-Conference proceedings

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Limits Drive Innovation: Scholarly Communication

Campus Partners• Provost

• Showcase faculty • Community engagement

• Vice Chancellor for Research• Showcase research• NIH mandate• NSF data plans

• Dean, Graduate School• Electronic theses/dissertations

• Dean, Commonwealth Honors College• Honors theses

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Limits Drive Innovation: Scholarly Communication

Open Educational Resources

• Joint Provost/Library “Open Education Initiative” Grants

• $1,000 each for 10 faculty

• $71,950 estimated savings to students

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Limits Drive Innovation: Facilities

Five Colleges Depository (the Bunker)• Single shared copy• Affiliates programs for JStor Collection• Expansion

New England Regional Depository (the NERD)• Discussions this summer• Single shared copy

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Limits Drive Innovation: Facilities

Learning Commons• Procrastination Station Café, Library services,

Technology services, Writing Center, Student tutoring, Assistive Technologies Lab, Academic advising, Study Abroad advising

Teaching Commons• Library services for faculty, Academic Computing, Office

of Faculty Development

Multimedia Student Production Hub (Fall 2012)

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Limits Drive Innovation: Facilities – coming attractions

Research Commons• Library services, Office of Contracts & Grants, Office of

Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property Graduate Commons

• Graduate students

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Limits Drive Innovation: Digital Initiates

Digital Strategies Group• Metadata Working Group• Digital Creation and Preservation Working Group• Data Working Group

Streaming video – e-reserves

CREDO – Special Collections Fedora repository Digital Image Library

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The Future (5 to 10 years out)

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The Future (5-10 years out)

Cloud discovery Digital Media and Information Literacy Tablets and handheld devices rule Re-define “e-books” Multi-media Open Educational Resources Open Access E-Publishing

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The Future (5-10 years out)

Cloud collections Cloud technical services Caring for the legacy print collections

• Maintain small current print collections, print on demand• Move legacy print collections to depository

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The Future (5-10 years out)

Emphasis on Special Collections Digitization Data curation for locally created resources (digital

humanities, E-science, digital repositories) Preservation of local digital scholarship

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The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead.

The parallels between the printing press era and today are sufficiently compelling to suggest:

Changes in the information age will be as dramatic as those in the Middle Ages in Europe.

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Attributed to Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Thank You

Jay Schaferjschafer@library.umass.edu