369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library Digital Library The University of Connecticut

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections?

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections? 1.Allows for the re-thinking of physical space. 2.Allows for the re-thinking of value-added, enhanced services against such collections. 3.Allows for the re-interpretation of the book as not simply pages between covers but more as a content database. 4.Allows for the private good of the local collection to become the public good of the online world.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections? 1. Physical Space: Stanford University’s planned bookless engineering library… Radical? Perhaps… Inevitable? Maybe… There is mounting evidence that material not in digital form does not get used (e.g. print vs. digitized journals). Students expect full text access to digitized information. It is the mental mode we all have to acknowledge.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections? 2. Value-added Services: Single search for all digitized books, journals, and other media in a non-federated but more efficiently aggregated manner. Re-purposed digitized content by instructors (e.g. course assigned readings) and students (e.g. assignments) alike.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections? 3. Re-interpretation of the book as database: Deep Text mining. Print-on-demand (should increase as more books become digitized). E-book readers (someday, when they work, the content will be ready)

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections How might the effects of mass digitization change our notions of collections? 4. Private Good goes Global: Unleash the unique and traditionally difficult-to- share institutional “signature collections” of rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections Challenges???

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections Challenges??? Copyright (not up to date with the digital, online world). Quality and authenticity of digital capture (who’s your vendor/partner? Do you trust their work? Is the arrangement centered around an advertiser model i.e. Google or an open access model, i.e. OCA?) Avoid redundant capture. Cooperate with fellow institutions and use analysis tools (e.g. OCLC’s Collection Analysis) to guide selection. Ensure interoperability. Don’t create more silos. Don’t re- enclose public domain materials in the digital environment. Assess UI in an ongoing basis with users. Is the vendor/partner solution good enough? Build your own?

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections Potential???

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections Potential??? Quite simply the enabling of research that is otherwise impossible…

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library I. Library Collections The goal? To strike the right balance point… “Collections without services are useless, and services without collections are empty. You can't have one and not the other and call your thing a library. Librarians need to provide equal amounts of both in order to practice balanced librarianship, especially in a digital environment.” – Eric Lease Morgan

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication The IR… What is it? …or more importantly, what is the institution’s vision and definition of the IR in their community?

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Original Assumptions = IR will reform scholarly communication, become competition to peer-reviewed journals and put publishing back into the hands of the academy. Current Reality = peer-reviewed journals aren’t going away because of IR’s. Content recruitment is low. Current content is made up of dissertations and grey literature (pamphlets, bulletins, visual conference presentations, and other materials that are typically ignored by traditional publishers). IR’s in many instances are supplements to traditional publishing.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Challenges to Recruiting Content No clear institutional policy or mandate. Copyright concerns of researchers. Concepts of IR publishing and their ramifications towards journal publishing. Quality association. Fear of plagiarism and of being scooped. Successful deposition requires focused consulting services by IR management with academic units in regard to selection, rights, and digital conversion logistics.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Advantages to Contributing Permanence vs. the ephemeral nature of faculty content hosted on personal websites. IR timeliness vs. the lag of traditional publishing. Funding agent stipulations that require IR deposition. Date stamp functionality of certain IR’s allow researchers to stake claims to their original ideas. Comprehensive usage statistics. University prestige through the showcasing of institutional intellectual assets in one online location.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Set the vision, then recruit accordingly… Possible contemporary IR makeup: 1.Primary Evidence (primary documents, datasets, etc.) 2.Grey Literature (working papers) 3.Peer Reviewed Content (pre or post prints if rights retained by authors) 4.Dissertations & Theses 5.Research Reports, Presentations 6.Teaching Materials 7.Student work of research value Note: any of the above may be in any digitized format, e.g. audio, video, executable files, etc.

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Danger…

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library II. Scholarly Communication Danger… In many institutions, IR funding is derived from library special initiative funds or through such cost absorption measures as the re-allocation of routine operating expenditures. In turn, how can IR’s meet their promise of informational sustainability without a more sustainable fiscal model?

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library III. The Profession Challenges???

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library III. The Profession Our Charge… 1.Make decisions around flexibility…balance digital preservation with the changing nature of search, file formats, etc. and the inevitability of wholesale content migration. 2.Don’t fall in love with past practice (or a vendor, or a particular workflow, functionality, etc. particularly if user needs point in novel directions). 3.Don’t fall prey to everything new and shiny if it doesn’t add tangible value and functionality. 4.Form new partnerships and be ever aware of the dynamic digital landscape (be ready to change, or be ready for quick irrelevance).

369 Fairfield Way Storrs Connecticut Homer D. Babbidge Library IV. The End Michael J. Bennett