The future of libraries (and us)

Northern Sydney District Teacher Librarian Association

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http://blogs.murdoch.edu.au/

katelyncollins/category/week-5 CC BY

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Times of change

Winds of change

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/03/change/

Change: It’s Okay. Really. Since 1768. Really.

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Pew research

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2012/Mar/NROC.aspx

iPads even a 2 year old can use them

Is a 2 year old a model for researchers?

App world

Angry birdsFacebookSkypeAngry birds RioGoogle MapsiBooks

Angry birds seasonsFruit ninjaTalking TomTwitter

http://mashable.com/2011/12/23/top-10-apps/#4008910-Twitter

Top 10 in 2011

What is happening in the academy

mrkuroud.tumblr.com/

After ipad?

http://politicsjob.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/look-like-pro-clear-off-that-messy-desk.html

Dense information

Read short segments Can use dense complex publication

Our mutual friend4224p, 2668p

Our mutual friend 985 p

annotations – an impossible dream

Marginalia, the print experience

Access to lots of information – reliable, long term?

Quality – role of scholarly publishersMany versions

Mobile and tablets vs print

Locking up access to information

• Deep web• When is open really open• Risks to research, teaching and learning

and collaboration• Locking up is more thank big

publishers….electoral rolls and more• Up to 75% of government “publications”

disappear in a decade

Debates

• Joseph Konrath “Amazon will destroy you”• Emma Wright. “The future of the book

business”– Publishing quality– Reading (esp children)– Market and value

• Neil Gaiman - publishers must be like dandelions

Remembering and knowing

• Students operate in print and e environments

• Garland study– Small differences but– More repetition required for digital texts to impart the

same information – Book readers digest material more easily

(Szalavitz, Maria “Do e-books make it harder to remember what you just read?”)

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Game changes

• Google• What is a publication? What is Data? • Open access

A future narrative• Digital coevolution

(Nick Harkaway)

• Nicholas Carr “Is Google making us stupid?”

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Google: licence to hunt

http://www.public-domain-image.com/sport-public-domain-images-pictures/fishing-and-hunting-public-domain-images-pictures/camouflaged-hunters-hunt-birds-at-night.jpg.html

data vs publishing

http://datavisualization.ch/showcases/just-landed-a-twitter-visualization-in-processing/

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Australian National Data Service

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Open access

But a total conversion will be slow in coming, because scientists still have every economic incentive to submit their papers to high-prestige subscription journals. The subscriptions tend to be paid for by campus libraries, and few individual scientists see the costs directly. From their perspective, publication is effectively free.

(Van Noorden, 2013)

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Government informaiton

• President Obama’s Executive Order directs government-held data be made more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs and others as fuel for innovation and economic growth. (9 May 2013)

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Libraries

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Selected National Statistics 2010-2011

• 1,491 public library service points • Over 182 million items were lent to more

than 10 million members of Australia’s public libraries.

• Over 114 million customer visits annually, or more than 9 million per month

(State Library of Queensland, 2012)

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Reading

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Roles

• Started with information literacy• Now digital literacy• Next??? – rights management, data

management• Canary in the knowledge

coal mine?

Thorpe Jim Canary in the coal mine… wear a mask!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiomiguel/3946174063/

• Will a design for a 2 year old suit academic publishing?

• Is the battle for quality worth fighting for?• Collaboration a new alternative?

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Futures thinking

National context

(West, 2013)

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• ALIA paper – themes convergence, connection, the golden age of information

• MOOCs new environment – many opportunities beyond traditional academic outcomes

Small beauty By SharonPerretthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/81494696@N00/287199385/

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But

• In the UK– 293 libraries (258 buildings and 35 mobiles)

are currently under threat or have been closed/left council control since 1/4/13 out of c.4265 in the UK.  

– 78 libraries and 14 mobiles (est.) were lost in 2012/13

– 201 library service points were lost 2011/12

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• Are we “run over by technology”?• Sir Bruce Williams Boyer lecture 1982

• What must we do to demonstrate value?• Elliot – collection value, public libraries

contingent valuation

… the electronic screen lends the text within its frame the eternally pristine appearance of a newly cut page, and this produces in me a distancing feeling that, like Brecht’s dramatic techniques, allows me a freer reading, uncluttered by the sense of labouring under previous perusals by myself and others.Alberto Manguel cited in Barmé

Either you print things out, and find yourself oppressed by piles of documents you’ll never read, or you read online, but as soon as you click onto the next page you forget what you’ve just read, the very thing that has brought you to the page now on your screenAlberto Manguel cited in Barmé

References• ALIA (2013) Library and information services: the future of the profession themes and

scenarios 2025, Discussion paper. Canberra: ALIA http://aliafutures.wikispaces.com/ • Barmé, G. R. (2011) “Slow reading and fast reference, East Asian history 37.

http://www.eastasianhistory.org/37/barme • Boston College, Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room (2010) Recent additions to

the collection – Fall 2010: An illustrated guide to the exhibit. http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/law_sites/library/pdf/RBR_items/pdf/F10RecentAcqsExhibitHandout.pdf

• Britannica Editors (2012) Change: It’s Okay. Really. Encyclopaedia Britannica Blog. http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/03/change/

• Brockman, J. ed. (2012) How is the Internet changing the way you think? Allen & Unwin. (also see review by Appleyard at http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2012/01/appleyard-internet-book)

• Elliott, V. (2010) ‘Why then we rack the value’ Building Value Frameworks for Academic Libraries, presentation to CAUL. http://www.caul.edu.au/content/upload/files/best-practice/caul20101elliott-value.pdf

• Gainman, N. (2013) Keynote presentation to London Book Fair’s Digital Minds Conference. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/05/video-neil-gaimans-keynote-at-the-2013-london-book-fairs-digital-minds-conference/

• Harkaway, N. (2012) ... everything looks like a nail... Futurebook blog. http://www.futurebook.net/content/everything-looks-nail

• Intel (2012) What happens in an Internet minute? http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/internet-minute-infographic.html

• Konrath, J. (2012) Amazon Will Destroy You, blog. • http://jakonrath.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/amazon-will-destroy-you.html • Murphy, S. (2012) Top 10 Apps Downloaded in 2011, Mashable.

http://mashable.com/2011/12/23/top-10-apps/#4008910-Twitter• Miller, C. et al (2013) http

://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/05/01/parents-children-libraries-and-reading/• Plato's Phaedrus from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9, translated by H.N. Fowler. Ca

mbridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925. 

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• Rainie, L. (2012) The Shifting Education Landscape: Networked Learning, Pew Research. http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2012/Mar/NROC.aspx

• Samtani, H. (2013) “Librarians Take Aim at Pew Study on Parents and Libraries” School Library Journal http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/05/research/librarians-take-aim-at-pew-study/

• State Library of Queensland (2912) Australian public libraries statistical report 2010-2011. Brisbane: the Library. http://www.nsla.org.au/sites/www.nsla.org.au/files/publications/Aust_Pub_Lib_Stats_2010-11.pdf

• Szalavitz, M. (2012) Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? TimeHealthland. http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/

• telstarlogistics (2010) A 2.5 Year-Old Has A First Encounter with An iPad, YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4EbM7dCMs

• Tenopir, C. (2013) Scholarly Reading in a Digital Age: Some things change, some stay the same. Presentation given at ANU.

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• Van Noorden, R. (2013) “Open access: The true cost of science publishing” Nature 27 March 2013 Corrected: 5 April 2013 http://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-science-publishing-1.12676

• West, M. (2013) Benchmarking Australian science performance. Canberra: Office of the Chief Scientist. http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/OPS6-Paper-for-print.pdf

• Wikipedia (2012) “Is Google making us stupid?”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Google_Making_Us_Stupid%3F

• Wright, E. (2010) The Future of the Book Business: A Classicist’s View, Futurebook blog. http://www.futurebook.net/content/future-book-business-classicist’s-view