Transcript Facing the future Technology trends and the information professions Brenda Chawner inFIRE 28 February 2012

Facing the future
Technology trends and the
information professions
Brenda Chawner
inFIRE
28 February 2012
Outline

Looking back:
–
20 years ago
–
10 years ago

The present

Looking ahead

–
The pessimist
–
The optimist
Discussion
Introduction
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
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


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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 …
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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?
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AltaVista?

InfoSeek?

Inktomi?
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AskJeeves?
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Metasearch engines like Dogpile,
ProFusion, MetaFind and HotBot?
By the late 1990s
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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
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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
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

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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 selfsufficient, 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
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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?
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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
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
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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)
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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
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
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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,
An alternative?
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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?
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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 nonphysical information resources and
services visible?
Thank you

Brenda Chawner

School of Information Management

Victoria University of Wellington

(04) 463 5780
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[email protected]
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Follow me on identica/Twitter: @chawnerb