Knowledge Lost in Information Report of the NSF Workshop on Digital Library Research Directions An Addendum on Digital Library Management Issues

Centrality of Management Issues Grand challenges: Embedding Socio-Economic Values Research Program: Increase the scope and scale of information resources and services Improve availability, accessibility, and productivity Infrastructure Program: Assured stewardship over humanity’s scholarly and cultural legacy Efficient and accountable management of systems, services, and resources 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Focus on Management Grand challenges: Embedding Socio-Economic Values Research Program Increase the scope and scale of information resources and services Improve availability, accessibility, and productivity Infrastructure Program Assured stewardship over humanity’s scholarly and cultural legacy Efficient and accountable management of systems, services, and resources 12/9/2003 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Focus on Management Stewardship requires attention to mission, marketplaces, business practices, and management to specific goals and objectives At Mellon Foundation, single area of failure is management issues: leadership, organization, and business practice Need for explicit and ambitious attention to organizational design and other management issues 12/9/2003 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Need for attention: 1 Research agendas typically take privacy, security, and usability as exogenous variables But these vary at least in part by the type, purpose, and structure of the organizations in which information and technology users are embedded More careful investigation is needed of these organizational assumptions, including those about business models and modes of operation 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Need for attention: 2 The economies of scale of “going digital” implies the need for collaboration and centers of digital library research, development, and operations These centers must be designed in such a way that they operate in a business-like fashion and can sustain themselves independently of NSF support The design should be informed by research on how certain types of mission, leadership, governance, organizational structure, legal arrangements for intellectual property, and financing, especially in the context of public goods economics, affect organizational success 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Need for attention: 3 Substantial databases of content are often created in research projects without thought to how they will be sustained after the project is completed Attention is needed so that content is developed and curated from the beginning by designated leaders of specific organizations, charged with data management, responsible for safeguarding property, use, and users, and fully accountable in a clearly defined governance structure 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Research program Objectives: Define organizational variation in scientific communities Explore the effects of different mixes of organizational features on various scenarios for research, development, and operation. Funded work could employ a mix of empirical case studies and theoretical approaches, and it could be embedded as part of a larger project or conducted as a standalone initiative 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Research program: key variables Types of mission such as commercial and non-profit; Types of governance, including membership, board, and partnership models Leadership qualities Structural dimensions, such as size Policy issues, such as privacy, security, and risk management approaches to the ownership and use of intellectual property Financing options, taking account of the importance of common or public good economics 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop

Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop Operational program New centers and content-management organizations should have access to a highly specialized organization—or set of organizations—that can provide expert advice on questions of mission, leadership, governance, and general business practices To economize on the costly duplication of services, the supporting organization(s) might also take direct responsibility for providing a set of common services, such as accounting, human resources, board governance, and legal advice, thereby helping to create a family (or families) of efficiently run organizations 9/14/2019 Chatham Digital Libraries Workshop