LA BIBLIOTECA DEL FUTURO… 15 AÑOS DESPUÉS: Current and future Trends in Library automation. Marshall Breeding Director for Innovative Technology and Research Vanderbilt University Library Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guides September 2011 IX International Conference on University Libraries

Objective  Conference: In 1996 the General Directorate of Libraries celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with a series of lectures and panel discussions in which the central idea was to imagine the features of the library of the future at that time. In this conference we intend to analyze how the library of the future is being built and how it would be in 15 years from now, in  Technological resources Panel: To analyze the prospective of technological infrastructure and its implementation in library services and activities.

Imagining Technical Infrastructure in Academic Libraries in 2026  Projections made on trends underway today  Disruptions can produce radically different long- term outcomes  Present an optimistic view that libraries will maintain key role in academic institutions  Acquire, manage, and deliver access to information in support of teaching and research

Assumptions regarding library collections

2011: Transition toward electronic and digital content  University Libraries increasing proportions of collections budgets toward electronic content.  E-Journals: 95%,  E-Books minor factor  Many libraries have programs to digitize specialized local collections

2016: Growing dominance of digital  E-Journals: 100%,  E-books increasing – few new print acquisitions  Legacy book collections mostly in print  Increasing availability of full-text for discovery (HathiTrust, Google Books, Open Library)

2026: Digital fully dominant  All new content acquired in electronic formats  E-Journals, E-books: all acquired and accessed electronically  Legacy collections fully digitized  Full digitization of local specialized collections

Need to reinvent how libraries manage collections and deliver services Impact on Library Management Systems

2011: Integrated Library Systems  Designed and developed to support print collections  Self-contained  Communicate through library-specific protocols  Not programmed to manage electronic content at the level of individual articles  Not intended to manage collections of digital objects  New models of automation emerging…

2016: Transition to Library Services Platforms  New platforms take the stage  Ex Libris Alma, OCLC Web-Scale Management Services, Serials Solutions, Kuali OLE, (others?)  Basic design to manage resources of all formats and media  Reliance on collaboratively built and shared data models  Deployed through cloud technologies

What about Integrated Library Systems? (2016)  Continue to be operated in many academic libraries  Evolved toward increased capacity for managing electronic content  Supplemented by additional products specializing in managing electronic content and digital collections

2026: Mature infrastructure  Optimized for managing library collections of primarily digital and electronic content  Unified approach to resource management prevails  Physical materials will represent a small minority of active library collections  Embrace standards of the broader IT environment  XML, RDF, open linked data  Nice to be optimistic, but throughout the history of library automation, changes have outpaced development.

Computing moves to the cloud Software Delivery Methods

2011: Early transition  Legacy Client/server products dominate library automation  Most current implementations based on local computer hardware  Software as a Service offerings launched – pioneering phase  Internet Bandwidth continues to restrain adoption in many regions and sectors

2016: Service-based computing gains ground  New-generation products designed specifically for service deployment widely implemented  Legacy products evolve toward multi-tenant SaaS  Internet Bandwidth continues to restrain adoption in many regions and sectors

2026: Cloud computing as the Norm  Internet bandwidth plentiful  Digital divide mostly closed on a macro level  Local servers rare, if not extinct  End-user access exclusively delivered through mobile devices, including new genres of devices not yet imagined

What about Open Source Software in 2026?  As computing moves to the cloud, license models become less relevant  Cooperative open source / community source projects will compete vigorously with commercially licensed products  Extensively, interoperability, and control gained through services oriented design (API)  Both models delivered primarily though providers  Generally a service-driven economy rather than license based  Open source alternatives will be functionally competitive with fully commercial offerings.

Tools and technologies for access to library collections and services Discovery and Delivery

2011: The current state of discovery  Online Catalogs of ILS modules dominate, increasing numbers of academic libraries implement separate discovery products  Index-based search emerges  Summon, Primo/Primo Central, EBSCO Discovery Service, WorldCat Local  Indexes growing, but incomplete. Based primarily on citation-level metadata for articles, MARC for books  Relevancy algorithms primitive  Increasing numbers of publishers and providers cooperate with library discovery services  Open Discovery Initiative launched October 2011

2016: Discovery Services Mature  Majority of academic libraries implement index- based discovery  Most publishers cooperate with discovery services  Marginalized if they don’t  Relevancy improves to include increased social and user-oriented factors  Basic services related to electronic assets  Tools to allow users to consume library content in more meaningful ways

2026: Full library experience through the Web  All library resources available through unified discovery services  Full content exposed: full-text of books and articles Visual retrieval of images and video Audio retrieval of audio an video  Sophisticated services offered along with discovery  Will be tightly integrated with management systems

Will academic libraries continue to operate physical libraries? Impact on Library futures:

Physical spaces complement digital realities  Spaces for collaborative learning and research;  Services in support of research data management  Organization, metadata, access, preservation  Aligned with mandates for transparent research data  Mature management and access to library- provided content frees information professionals in the library for deeper collaboration with information needs of faculty in teaching and research