13 ways of saying something ordinary in New Haven:

some notes about libraries in a changing environment A presentation to the staff of Yale University Libraries, 5 December 2003 Lorcan Dempsey OCLC OCLC

Overview

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Some trends (1-7) It’s research and learning, stupid .. (8) It’s the library, stupid … (9-13) OCLC

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1. Collections grid

Books Journals

Newspapers Gov. docs CD, DVD Maps Scores

Special collections

Rare books Local/Historical newspapers Local history materials Archives & Manuscripts, Theses & dissertations high stewardship low

Freely-accessible web resources

Open source software Newsgroup archives

Research and learning materials

•ePrints/tech reports •Learning objects •Courseware •E-portfolios •Research data

2. Research and learning

Universities will provide open access to their digital assets, including elevation of these assets into global access platforms; develop digital asset holdings in line with their strategic interests; and foster and sponsor national and global communities that will be built around education, research, and research training.

Robin Stanton, Australian National University In: Emerging visions for access in the Twenty-first Century library. Washington: CLIR, 2003.

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http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub119abst.html

Jim Gray, various presentations, http://research.microsoft.com/~gray/

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science

Science projects are data publishers. The scale and complexity of current and future science data changes the nature of the publication process. Publication is becoming a major project component. At a minimum, a project must preserve the ephemeral data it gathers.

Jim Gray (Microsoft research), et al

Online Scientific Data Curation, Publication, and Archiving

http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?msr_tr_id=MSR-TR-2002-74

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http://skyserver.pha.jhu.edu/DR1/en/

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http://www.lib.washington.edu/digitalscholar/projects.html

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the humanities

“The digital scholarship initiative * will bring (or at least help to bring) focus to an emerging need and opportunity to many scholars on campus who have been struggling individually with attempting to articulate and elucidate this area of study. Both the opportunity and challenges are enormous for making significant contributions in scholarship previously impossible without digital technology.”

Quoted in Ogburn, Joyce SPARC Forum – Scholarly Communication Advocacy on Campus ALA Annual Meeting Toronto 2003 June 21, 2003

*

New models of academic support. An initiative of the University of Washington Libraries supported by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation

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learning materials, courseware

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Digital assets ‘Learning objects’ Content packages E-portfolio Courses Increase in number of courses which use course management systems

2000 2002 Change

Carnegie Mellon University *

150 567 378%

Denison University *

25 150 600%

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[i] * Information Technology and Libraries, June 2003 (p. 80).

*

personal communication, Scott Siddal

oclc taskforce on elearning

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Diffusion of information skills and use through the learning process Life cycle management of learning materials Systems interaction between library and learning management systems

Picture courtesy Dan Rehak, Carnegie Mellon University

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Institutional repository

Our institutions of higher education have overlooked an opportunity to support our most innovative and creative faculty for at least a decade now, to the detriment of both the faculty members and the institutions themselves.

Cliff Lynch, http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html

And yet …

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First steps …

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Mission …

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Long term costs … OCLC

what is institutional interest in institutional asset management?

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Reputation management Curatorial responsibility to the ‘intellectual record’ Enrich the discourse of scholarly communication

– Surface rich resources – New opportunities for access, analysis, re-use

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3. The web

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What to expose?

Selectively harvest and persistently manage scholarly resources?

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4. Bought materials

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Cost and effectiveness of managing a redundant, distributed print collection

– Depositories – nascent national infrastructure?

– – Collection analysis and management Space

Growing divide between

– mass market (see music) and – scholarly materials (evolving forms)?

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5. Licensed materials

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Homogeneous collections Gated environments

– Cost – Licenses (what is publishing?)

Serials crisis <> Optimal diffusion and impact?

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6. Reclaiming the special

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Mainstreaming ‘special’ as primary research materials Special?

– Primary materials – Costly to process and manage – Unique/rare

Special collections of the future OCLC

7. Above and below the line

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Industrialized

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Standards/best practice

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Out of the box Routine Operational

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Gated

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Cottage Emerging

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Open source/homegrown Learning curve

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Soft money Open reusable Multiple copies

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Unique Local physical/ access digital

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Digital content management

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preservation

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preservation OCLC

8. Mission, value and change

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It’s research and learning stupid … Focus on ends … What drives change?

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Mission Statement The Yale University Library, as one of the world's leading research libraries, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to and services for a rich and unique record of human thought and creativity. It fosters intellectual growth and supports the teaching and research missions of Yale University and scholarly communities worldwide.

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Resource allocation

Stefan Collini, London Review of Books • • •

But universities are a problem for governments, and they are an especial problem for populist governments in market democracies. The only two forms of justification that such governments can assume will be accepted by their electorates are, first, the benefits of 'research', especially the medical, technological and economic benefits ; and, second, manpower planning, the training of future employees in a particular economy. A third function, the preservation, cultivation and transmission of a cultural tradition , cuts some ice if it is understood to be confined to a small number of outstanding institutions , somewhat analogous to the case for national galleries and museums. A fourth justification, one that has had considerable purchase in the United States and, in a different idiom, in France, concerns socialisation in civic values , but has never played very well in Britain, where the implicit nature of the political and social ideals allegedly governing our lives have not, to most people, seemed to need explicit formulation and inculcation. OCLC

Resource allocation

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NSF has requested $5,481 M for 2004 NEH has requested $152 M for 2004

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Support?

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Special collections

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Institutional repositories Learning materials OCLC

9. It’s the library, stupid …

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The ‘digital library’ is the library

– The library has a responsibility to the scholarly record in its historical continuity and media diversity.

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And yet …

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The ‘digital library’ is not a library

– Lacks: • Systemic perspective • Shared understanding manifest in common architectural principles – Displays: • Ad hoc development • Service stovepipes

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10. Digital library developments …

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Consolidated access to licensed materials: automating the discovery to delivery chain

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Framework for digital collections

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Access to licensed resources Z39.50

Industry driven?

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Digital content management Harvesting Community driven?

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11. Components

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Repositories

– Life cycle management of materials – – – Metadata, content and service models Preservation as integral part of responsible data curation Creating the persistent stuff of scholarship – ‘excitable’ •

Services

– Search/request/deliver – – Recommend/analyze/compare Create/edit/annotate/manipulate/combine

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Components

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Portal/presentation

– Orchestrate services – – – Workflow integration Multiple workflows – multiple presentations Unplug and play – architectural perspective •

Environment of use

– Creation, curation, use – Aggregate, manipulate,

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Application architecture

Directory: local knowledge base Directory: ILL policy Directory: service description Directory: user profile Authentication Common services OpenURL resolver Reference db Circ/ILL system Article db Request broker Query broker Repositories The User Presentation Services

13. Moving forward

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Locally responsive Architecture and service development a community activity Which community?

– Pool uncertainty – – – Create shared view Share development and service Federated services

Need to take a much more instrumental view of available organizations OCLC

So ..

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Responsibility to the scholarly record involves complex balance of external and internal, common and unique, commodity and special.

Support for research and learning creates value. This is measured in terms of political support.

Securing future services requires a systemic approach to library service design and development. Needs to be driven in concert.

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