Discovering Our Way

July 2007 Calhoun / Age of Discovery 1

Discovering Our Way

Karen Calhoun‘New Age of Discovery’ InstituteASERL, SOLINET, Auburn University LibrariesDecatur, GeorgiaJuly 19, 2007


The Catalog: First Self-Service Information Tool


“Within the next five years …

… a large number of libraries will no longerhave local OPACs. Instead, we will haveentered a new age of data consolidation(either shared catalogs or catalogs that areintegrated into discovery tools), both of ourcatalogs and our collections.”

Provocative Statement #5,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf


“Within the next five years …

…there will no longer be a monolithic libraryWeb site. Instead library data will be pushedout to many starting places on the Web anddirectly to users.”

Provocative Statement #6,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf


The Well“They come and go and draw from the well” I Ching, hexagram 48

•The Library as a center of collections

•The Library as a center of experts and tools to guide users to appropriate resources


The River


Where Do You Begin a Search for Information on a Topic?

Starting an Information Search

89

20

20

40

60

80

100

Search engine Library Web site

Where Search Begins

Pe

rce

nt

College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: a Reportto the OCLC Membership: http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm

http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm


The Larger Context: Knowledge Management

Knowledge communities “interpret information about the environment in order to construct meaning … create new knowledge by converting and combiningthe expertise and know-how of their members …[and] analyze information in order to select and committo appropriate courses of action.”—Chun Wei Choo,professor of Information Studies, University of Toronto

The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to ConstructMeaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998), xii.


DOMAINEXPERTS:

Professors, grad.students, researchers, deans,university leaders and staff

COMMUNITYINFORMATION

EXPERTS:Librarians, records

managers, archivists,others

IT EXPERTS:Desktop, computer lab and server support;

applications for academic, research, administrative

support; networks,telecommunications, security

Knowledge Pyramid

Adapted from Choo, Information Management for the Intelligent Organization, 238.


A Hierarchy of Organizational Learning

Transformation of informationinto learning, insight and action

Info resources, IT (tools), policies andpractices

ID informa-

tion needs

Use informa

-tionAcquireinfo

Organize/storeinfo

Develop products/services

Distri-bute info

Adapted from Choo, Information Managementfor the Intelligent Organization, p. 24-25.


Knowledge Creation and Social Networks

“Improving efficiency and effectiveness in knowledge-intensive work demands more than sophisticated technologies—it requiresattending to the often idiosyncratic ways that people seek out knowledge, learn from and solve problems with other people.”—Rob Cross,University of Virginia

Rob Cross et al., “Knowing what we know” Organizational Dynamics 30, no. 2 (November 2001), 101.


Implications

Students and faculty engage in information network processes with or without libraries

Libraries have the opportunity to engage more proactively with teachers and learners

Librarians have natural partnerships with subject domain and IT experts

Libraries and librarians need to better understand how social networks and information seeking styles contribute to learning and teaching


A New Kind of Library

Build a vision of a new kind of library

Be more involved with research and learning materials and systems

Be more engaged withcampus communities

Make library collections and librarians more visible

Move to next generation systems and services

An online social network


Who ARE These Guys?


Knowing our Learners

Baby boomers 1946-1964

Generation X 1965-1982

Net Generation 1982-1991

http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen


Generations of Students

22%

55%

23%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Boomers Gen X Net Gen

95%

5%0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

25 Years Or Less Ot her Ages

Joel Hartman et al. University of Central Florida study. In Educating the Net Generation

Robert B. Kvavik. EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. 2004 study. In Educating the Net Generation


Net Generation Learners

Intuitive visual communicators

Can integrate the virtual and physical (gamers)

Learn better through discovery than lecture

Able to shift attention rapidly

Respond quickly and expect rapid response

“People want to build stuff”

Diana and James Oblinger. Is it age or IT? In Educating the Net Generation.


Net Geners and Library Services: A Disconnect

They like Multimedia

environments Figuring things out for

themselves Working in groups Multitasking Learning directly

related to courses

We offer Text-based

environments Systems that require

prior understanding (or librarian help)

Services for individual use

Focus, logical sequence

Catalogs, databases, subject guides and pathfinders

Joan Lippincott, Coalition for Networked Information. InEducating the Net Generation


Digital Repositories and Interactive Learning

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/


Michael Habib’s Library 2.0

“Academic Library 2.0 Concept Model,” p. 35. http://etd.ils.unc.edu/dspace/handle/1901/356

Gaps in Satis factio n

-1.6

-1.4

-1.2

-1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

E-resourcesremote access

Easy-to-useweb site

Print or e-journals

Printed librarymaterials

M ult imediacollect ions Space for study Group space

Undergrad Graduate Faculty

Online library Collections Space

LibQUAL+ 2005 Survey: Cornell University Library. Association of ResearchLibraries. http://www.libqual.org

http://www.libqual.org/


What Did Users Say They Want? (2002)

•Faculty and students do more work and study away from campus

•Loyal to the library, but library is only one element in complex information structure

•Print still important, but almost half of undergraduates say they rely exclusively or almost exclusively on electronic materials

•Seamless linking from one information object to another is expected

•Fast forward to 2007: these trends many times stronger!

Do you use electronic sources all of the time, most of the time, some of the time, or none of the

time?

0%

10%20%

30%

40%50%

60%

All of thetime/most of

the time

Some of thetime

None of thetime

Responses

Per

cen

t

Faculty/Graduate

Undergrad

http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub110/contents.html

Cornell Catalog and E-Resource Searching, First Quarter 2005

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Weeks 1 to 13

Nu

mb

er o

f S

earc

hes

/Ses

sio

ns

Catalog Sessions

E-Resource Searches

Total (Library Resources)

Studentsreturn

E-resourcesystem

problems

Springbreak

Average/week (Q1 2005):Google: 441 millionLibrary: 47 thousand

Titles in catalog:> 4 million E-resources:379 thousand


Networked E-Resources at Cornell

About 10% of the collection36% of the materials budget (2005)About 50% of the useAll searches from library pages = a tiny

fraction of the use of search engines

A multidimensional framework for academic support: a final report submitted tothe Mellon Foundation from the University of Minnesota Libraries, June 2006, p. 47. http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml

http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml


VIVO: Connecting Life Sciences Researchers

Combining social networking, traditional library services, & more

So what about the catalog????


Unanswered Questions

Who uses the online catalog?Who uses library Web pages?For what?How much?Compared to what?

Compared to library e-resource discovery systems?

Compared to Amazoogle?


Who Uses the Online Catalog?

8.6

15.9

1.5

61.2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Percent

Undergraduate Graduate

Never

At least once a week

Surveying the Students: the 2005 Student SurveyOn the University of Virginia Library. p. 15http://www.lib.virginia.edu/mis/reports/stusurv05/ultra_short_final.pdf

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/mis/reports/stusurv05/ultra_short_final.pdf


Review of Unanswered Questions

Who uses the online catalog? faculty and graduate students (comparatively

more)students (comparatively less) librarians

Who uses library Web pages? How much?strong preference for search engines


Strong preference for full text and media, other Web content

Some are familiar with bibliographic data/tools, many are not (and find what they want anyway?)

Personal and professional networking are important aspects of information seeking

Compared to What?


The Catalog in Context

•Online catalogs represent one node in the student’s and scholar’s information universe•As information systems, catalogs are hard to use


The Continuing Importance of the Catalog

Books and serials are not dead, and they are not yet digital

ARL libraries spent the lion’s share of $665 million on books and serials in 2004

The legacy of the world’s library collections is tied to the future of catalogs


New Models for the Catalog

What is Primo? “an enterprise-level solution for the discovery of institutional resources and the delivery of

materials and services for different types of collections.”

Thirteen Libraries Join Innovative forEncore Development (Press releaseOctober 2006)

worldcat.org

eXtensible Catalog (XC)“an open-source online system that can unify access to traditional and digital library resources.”

WorldCat LocalPilot

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/

http://worldcat.org/


Longer Term Vision Local catalog one link in a chain of services, one repository

managed by the library More coherent and comprehensive scholarly information

systems, perhaps by discipline Infrastructure to permit global discovery and delivery of

information among open, loosely-coupled systems Critical mass of digitized publications and special collections

online Many starting points on the Web leading to many types of

scholarly information objects Switch users from where they find things to library-managed

collections of all kinds


Find It on Google,* Get It from My Library

Open WorldCat WorldCat.org, WorldCat

Local Google Scholar Google Library Project Microsoft Live Search Books Million Book Project Open Content Alliance E-books Print on demand

*The word "google" was first used in the 1927 Little Rascals silent film"Dog Heaven", used to refer to a having a drink of water. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_(verb)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=12&oi=define&ei=hg36Q8--Jbbu4QGs-cCqAg&sig2=68Fv1M6-OQ17kI3fCbUjZw&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_%28verb%29


Intermediate Vision

Better library interface > better user experience >> more interaction, more fun!

Draw on the local catalog’s strongest suit: support for inventory control and delivery

Shared online catalogs: begin to aggregate discovery function for books, serials, and their e-counterparts

Larger scale collaboration on collection development/resource sharing, storage, preservation


Intermediate Vision, 2

Start to build bigger scholarly information environments—with libraries playing a role—to aggregate more of the expanding universe of scholarly digital assets

Metadata and outreach skills = strategic assets


Intermediate Vision, 3

Beginning of the era of special collections

Aggregate discovery of digital collectionsMore emphasis on visual resources


Vision for Change: The Catalog

The catalog will evolve toward full integration with other discovery tools

Shared catalogs and open information systems will radically democratize access to library collections and boost scholarly productivity to new levels


Thank You!

Karen Calhoun VP, WorldCat and Metadata Services OCLC, Inc. [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Education

Discovering Our Way