“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly”:

1. “Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not alteredfor the better designedly”: Managing systemic change Professor Derek Law, University of Strathclyde

2. Theme: The New Atlantis • The shifting challenges for libraries and librarians; • are we close to being able to outsource the library? • The importance to librarians of the intermediary in the purchase chain; • Digital asset management: managing the intellectual output of the university • - through trusted intermediaries? • New forms of scholarly communication • do we need publisher skills in the chain?

3. “The Librarians and Libraries that do not accept the change will inevitably be victims of evolution. For the dinosaurs it will indeed be the end. James Thompson “We are already very close to the day in which a great science Library could exist in a spaceLess than 10 feet square” F W Lancaster The End of Libraries

4. Idols of the Tribe • This is humans' tendency to perceive more order and regularity in systems than truly exists, and is due to people following their preconceived ideas about things.

5. The failure of Librarians Making the technology work too well Lack of underpinning philosophy Rise of the managerial technocrat Complacency Failure to engage with e-resources Obsessed with licences Digitising oddities

6. OCLC Study of College Student Perceptions in 2006 • 89% use search engines to begin a search • 2% use a library web site • 93% are satisfied or very satisfied with this • 84% if librarian assisted • Search engines fit the student life style • Library use is diminishing • “books” are the library brand

7. Idols of the Cave • This is due to individuals' personal weaknesses in reasoning due to particular personalities, likes and dislikes.

8. Digital Content “It seems to me that after the digital "singularity" there are now two kinds of content: "Legacy" content (to borrow the computer term for old systems) and "Future" content. "Legacy" content includes reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past, etc - all of our "traditional" curriculum.  It is of course still important, but it is from a different era.  Some of it (such as logical thinking) will continue to be important, but some (perhaps like Euclidean geometry) will become less so, as did Latin and Greek. "Future" content is to a large extent, not surprisingly, digital and technological.  But while it includes software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology, genomics, etc. it also includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things that go with them.” (Prensky, 2001)

9. Behaviour in the virtual world • Horizontal information seeking • Skimming one or two pages then bouncing out • Navigation • The dominant activity is finding their bearings • Viewing • Four minutes for a book, eight for a journal • Squirreling • Downloads (cf unread photocopies) • Diverse • Few real patterns emerging • Checking • Users assess trust through favoured brand reliance (eg Google)

10. ChildWise Annual Survey 2008 • 40% of 9year olds have internet in their room • They have six hours of screen time a day, with 1.7 hours online • “2008 has seen a major boost in intensity” • Reading for pleasure has declined from 84% to 74% in two years • They are fluent communicators who don’t read and rely on spellcheckers • They multitask • They are abandoning print and paper and communicate in a completely different way

11. Idols of the Marketplace • This is due to confusions in the use of language and taking some words in science to have a different meaning than their common usage.

12. Urban myths • SMT publishing is the norm • Scholarly communication relies on journals • Big deals and aggregation are good things

13. Idols of the Theatre • This is due to using philosophical systems which have incorporated mistaken methods. Here Bacon is referring to the influence of major philosophers (Aristotle) and major religions on science.

14. This is not an incremental change but a discontinuity “Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.” Prensky 2001

15. Librarians as they see themselves on Second Life CybraryCity2: screen capture from Second Life

16. Second Life: Libraries as seen by users Screen capture from Second Life

17. Digital Overlap Strategy • At this point the author launches into a remarkably funny true story of everyday hospital life in which a treatment called “digital overlap therapy” is revealed as jargon for keeping your fingers crossed • At least that was the intention. • All too often keeping one’s fingers crossed is seen as a substitute for thinking issues through and dealing with them

18. Outsourcing libraries? • Why do we need librarians when it’s all on the web? • The first attempts are being made to cut back on professional staffing because of this “logic” • What are our USPs?

19. The Library is dead, long live social networking

20. OR, how libraries can build next generation services using social networking

21. What if. . . You can find 35,000,000 books through the Google 6 and the Open Content Alliance?

24. Microsoft’s View http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/tc/scholarly_communication.mspx

25. Web 2.0: A Research Agenda • Growing importance of these tools in scholarly communication • E.g. Openwetware, nanohub, Blue Obelisk, JOVE (Journal of Visualised Experiments) • As these mature, who will mediate and manage them? • Definitely an area to watch

26. USPs for libraries • Trust and trust metrics • Training • Aggregation of born digital material

27. Trust Metrics • “Library” is a trusted brand • Rather than take it for granted seek a role as a partner in the teaching and research process, offering useful, timely and relevant advice on information resources • Perhaps manage tools such as wikis which academics populate with content?

28. Law’s Second Law Publishers sell on difference not similarity but users have limited skills in differentiating. There is real value in offering training which helps users optimise Time and effort spent in searching Individual products User Friendly Systems Aren’t

30. Research papers Conference presentations Theses Wikis Blogs Websites Podcasts Reusable Learning Objects Research data E-Lab books Streamed lectures Images Audio files Digitised collections E-Archives E-mail HR Records Student/Staff records Corporate publications National heritage artefacts Forms of institutional e-content

31. Trusted repositories: the five Maori tests • Receive the information with accuracy • Store the information with integrity beyond doubt • Retrieve the information without amendment • Apply appropriate judgement in the use of the information • Pass the information on appropriately

32. Options for libraries • Building e-Research collections and contributing to a virtual research environment of born digital material • Importance of kite marking, quality assurance, trust metrics and relevance ranking • Managing institutional born digital assets and making content available with bibliographic integrity • Training [Law’s Second Law] • And always be prepared to read the road signs, no matter how unexpected……

33. Expect the Unexpected