Lorcan Dempsey Lir Seminar 2008 14 April 2008 Liberty Hall, Dublin The network reconfigures the library: people and places, collections and services. Lorcan Dempsey Lir Seminar 2008 14 April 2008 Liberty Hall, Dublin

Picture: Robin Alston

Space Expertise Collections Systems and services Then: vertically integrated around collection Now: moving apart in network environment New skills ….

Place High touch service

Place Place Space Space infused with value How has the value changed over time? Engagement with collections, expertise and services? Space Opportunity costs Valuable real estate Growing pressure in many environments New spaces

Place Infrastructure -> “customer relations” Higher value activity Access to scarce resources – people, equipment, specialist advice, exhibition, … Individual, group, social

These student comments suggest that good study space is responsive to the academic and social dimensions of study in ways that allow students to control them both. Scott Bennett

Gleason Library U Rochester Photos: S. Gibbons

engage with the learning process Partnership Repurpose and recalibrate Place engage with the learning process Partnership Repurpose and recalibrate

Collections New directions

Collections grid STEWARDSHIP Books Freely-accessible web resources high low Books Journals Newspapers Gov. docs CD, DVD Maps Scores Freely-accessible web resources Websites Open source software Newsgroup archives low UNIQUENESS Research, learning and administrative materials, ePrints/tech reports Learning objects Courseware E-portfolios Research data Institutional records Reports, newsletters, etc high Special collections Rare books Local/Historical newspapers Local history materials Archives & Manuscripts, Theses & dissertations

Trends Mass digitization and off-site storage Licensed: rented ‘Special collections’ onto the web Thematic collections of web resources Research, learning and administrative materials ‘published’ on the web The new special collections.

Thematic research collections

Published materials: discourse Primary materials: evidence Interpreted materials: exhibition Library Archive Museum

Collections negotiation engagement with researchers and learners as creators archival practice: institutional assets interpretation and exhibition

The person is an entry point Expertise The person is an entry point

Source: Susan Gibbons, U Rochester

Expertise Improve university research and learning capacities: publishing interpreting available resources in terms of specific research and learning needs specialist consultancy: GIS, metadata, IPR, … Marketing and assessment: understand needs and develop services to meet those needs

Services and systems In the flow

library Consumer environments Management environment Network level Institutional Workflow Portals, CMS, IR, … Personal RSS, toolbars, .. Network level workflow Google, … Integrated local user environment? Library web presence Resource sharing, … library Consumer environments … Management environment Bought Licensed Faculty& students Digitized Aggregations Resource sharing

Discovery happens elsewhere Resources are abundant; attention scarce Build services around workflow The big squeeze

Now: Federated access to multi-institutional holdings with support for personal collection-building and sharing “Special collections beginning to move into digital environment – new usefulness” Ex. NINES project The NINES project consolidates special collections materials from different institutions and enables researchers to build and share personal collections from the aggregated materials; personally-assigned keywords become part of a shared vocabulary.

Systems and services Support for faculty and student gather/create/share Placing the library in the flow digital asset management more sophisticated sourcing decisions

Leadership value translation: showing the value of the library in the context of the values of the home institution

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