Transcript Slide 1

Public Libraries and the Nordic
Welfare States
Opening Discussion
Theme: If you do not know what to do, go back to
basic principles.
Michael Buckland
and we can celebrate a birthday!
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The Platform Paper . . .
Many questions and “challenges”:
-- Market liberalism
-- Multiculturalism
-- Info literacy education
-- Digitization
-- Is it a good platform?
-- How complete is it?
-- Are these past issues or future priorities?
-- Are the questions productively formulated?
-- Which challenges need research? Why? How?
-- Can research priorities be selected?
Important: These are perceived to be problems.
What are libraries for? – in principle.
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Library Science 200 years old: 1808-2008. Happy Birthday!
Martin Schrettinger. 1772-1851. Forget metaphysics. Design
systematic arrangements to make documents available
simply, quickly, effectively, economically.
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Documents in society
-- Lawyers and law courts use documents as evidence, as proof.
-- Educators use documents (textbooks, instructional materials) to
teach, and to empower and limit teachers.
-- Scientists use documents (articles, offprints) as the archive of
achievement and for personal status.
-- Media specialists and publicists use documents to persuade.
-- Governments use documents to exercise social control.
-- Religions use documents for authority and adherence.
-- Patriots use documents to commemorate and for loyalty.
-- Artists create documents to inspire and to challenge.
-- Commerce is based on documented transactions. The transition to
reliable digital documents is a major challenge in commerce
-- etc., etc. More and more…!
Society is very full of documents!
In this context what should libraries do?
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Six aspects of providing access to documents:
1. Identification: Is there a suitable document for my purpose:
Bibliography, documentation, classification, indexing and retrieval.
Where to search? How to select?
2. Availability: Physical access, document delivery.
3. Price to the user: User’s effort, time and money;
4. Cost to the provider: Effort, money, other resources used by the
library. Policy constraints: Security, safety, social values, . . .
5. Understanding: Does the reader understand it: language, specialized
expertise, context, . . .
6. Acceptability: Does the reader trust it, believe it. Should he/she?
1 – 4: Document-supplying systems.
1 – 6: Systems that inform.
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Status
Character
1. Phenomenological aspect: Documents are objects perceived
as signifying something. The status of being a “document” is not
inherent but attributed (given to) an object. Meanings always
constructed by observers.
2. Cultural codes: All forms of expression depend on some
some shared understandings, language in a broad sense.
3. Media Types: Different type of expression have evolved: Texts,
images, numbers, diagrams, art …
4. Physical Media: Paper; film; analog magnetic tape; bits;….
Anything perceived as a DOCUMENT (=1) has cultural (2), type (3),
and physical (4) aspects. Genres are situated combinations.
Being digital affects directly only aspect 4.
Limited benefit in studying only digital documents.
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Exploratory Search Interfaces: Medical specialties
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Nordic Welfare States
An outside view: Likely developments include:
-- Continued relative inflation in costs of library
services (and other human services) because
technological costs tend to decrease but human
costs do not, unless services adapt, e.g. delegate
more work to users (self-service) and/or to
technology.
-- Public funding policy change, e,g, from
Good for government to fund to
Good and also necessary for government to fund –
a more complementary role.
It is important to study bad and dangerous ideas!
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Categories of library purposes
Finnish public library legislation:
1. Promote equal access to information
2. Stimulate cultural activities
3. Lifelong learning
4. Citizenship
Platform paper:
1. Social roles
2. Learning (Opportunities, Information literacy)
3. Digitization
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An alternative set of categories
1. Cultural activities:
1.1. Culture is active: Performance of reading, writing,
singing, dancing, filming, listening, acting,…
1.2. Cultural memory: Recording, collecting, preserving,
documenting, providing access
2. Learning, education, esp. access to explanations
3. Learning skills: How to find out; Information literacy;…
4. Citizenship
4.1. Political information: Laws, regulations, officials,…
4.2. Community development: Resources,
communication,…
What is good library service for each?
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Library goodness
We want good libraries. What does that mean?
– How good is it? Quality; Capability
– What good does it do? Value; beneficial effects
The books on shelves paradox
– How well is it done? Cost-effectiveness
Whose values?
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Libraries, Community and Government
-- Libraries serve (complex) communities
-- Libraries are government agencies,
“bourgeois paternalism”
-- Libraries are purposive cultural enterprises
using evolving techniques and technologies
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COMMUNITY
Situation
Impact?
Problem seen
Action
Uncertainties
Decision
GOVERNMENT
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The Platform Paper has many uncertainties:
We don’t know what to do….
-- Not all uncertainty needs academic research
-- Three kinds of uncertainty:
-- Uncertainties about values (priorities): Ask funders.
-- Uncertainties about actions of others in related
areas: Consultation, collaboration, coordination
-- Uncertainties about the environment: of impact of
changes: Descriptive, analytical, and predictive
research.
-- Uncertainty is a reason for adaptive systems.
J. K. Friend & W. N. Jessop 1969. Local government and
strategic choice. London: Tavistock.
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Platform theme: Digitization
Technology and technological change
-- Technological stability encourages failure to distinguish
between process and purpose (means and ends) because more
of the same process is more of the same purpose. New
technology (process) seen as criticism of purpose (values). Go
back to purpose as the basis for choice of process (technology).
-- Technological usually in two stages:
1. Do the same thing better with different technology
2. Do better different things with the new technology
-- Design is the essence of being professional and of
professional education (Herb Simon): Developing better designs
of existing tasks; designs for new or changed situations.
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Research in General
-- Research and development make the choices possible.
-- Innovation is managerial: choosing, implementing different programs.
-- Scholarly: Search for contrary evidence (in all domains).
-- Scientific: Develop / test theories, models (formal, quantitative domains)
-- Critical: Examine assumptions and methods (all domains).
-- Study things of in themselves: “academic” research (Neglected in LIS).
-- Solve practical problems: Applied, professional, design.
-- Tension between methods and purpose.
-- Choice of method defined by problem. Whatever method works!
-- But when purpose weak or unclear, method dominates.
-- Real-world problems usually require multiple methods.
-- Economics of scope: Study / teach similar problems in different areas.
-- Look for exceptions, anomalies, opposites, . . .
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Dissertations -- a personal U.S. perspective
– Is there a question? No question, no answer! Avoid vague curiosity.
– Can the question be answered? Is it a realistic question?
– Interesting enough to want to work for years on it? Worth your
valuable time? Change the world! Simple curiosity not enough.
– Do your advisors understand what you are doing? If not, dangerous.
– A coherent, approved proposal is very useful.
– Use the minimal necessary cubic meters of effort. Extra ideas and
material can be used outside and after the dissertation.
– Ideally, improve theory and description and methodology and have
practical consequences
– Design! However it is done, there is probably a better way.
– Methodology depends on the purpose. (Often the other way round).
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Four examples
1. Book availability: How often can readers find the books
they want? What are the causes of failure to find a
copy? What changes in libraries service would improve
service? (Length of loan period; extra copies) How
much impact?
2. Stability of public library funding in a local government
financial crisis: What factors are associated with larger
or smaller impact on public library budgets? (Snunith
Shoham. Organizational adaptation by public libraries.
Greenwood, 1984)
3. Biography: Emanuel Goldberg, search engine 1927.
4. Design: Self-service reference. <ecai.org/neh2007>
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Initial sketch for
“Context Finding /
Building” interface.
Insert / block
text
Ranked
lists of
suggested
resources
for each
facet
chosen
Define
facet
Save search path
Save link & notes as
“stand-off” markup.
Display of
search result
Save link & notes as
embedded mark-up.
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Reading a text online…
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Names found
20
Hovering over a named entity highlights the
areas where it appears in the text.
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Name links to search of relevant resources.
http://metadata.berkeley.edu/demos
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Summary
Not all questions are serious problems.
Not all problems need academic research.
Significant problems need multiple methods.
We want good research: What does that mean?
– How good is it? Quality
– What good does it do? Value; beneficial effects
– How well is it done? Cost-effectiveness
Platform paper is a discourse of “challenges” -which are really opportunities.
There are many good problems needing research
as we (re)design library services.
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