The Research Library: scalable efficiency and scalable learning David Kaser Lecture Series Lorcan Dempsey Indiana University, 7 October 2012

How terrific to see you are the featured lecturer this year. Just thought I'd mention that David Kaser was a most terrific library school professor. He was definitely the professor at Indiana who was most influential in my library career and also my favorite professor. I think it is fabulous that you are giving this lecture this year. (OCLC colleague) “

Overview

How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly. ― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Prelude

In the wake of increasing enrollment and costs and declining per student state appropriations, the Board is concerned with the continued ability of public research universities to provide affordable, quality education and training to a broad range of students, conduct the basic science and engineering research that leads to innovations, and perform their public service missions. NSB: diminishing funding and rising expectations: trends and challenges for public research universities “

The network

Colleges and universities have long competed against one another, measuring themselves in comparison to each other and holding tightly to their idiosyncrasies as defining elements of their status. But today, the distribution and reuse of information digitally via the Internet is rapidly changing the game, rewarding those who instead aggregate and scale toward a common infrastructure. It is becoming increasingly clear that neither the challenges that confront colleges and universities nor the solutions to those challenges are unique to each institution. Chuck Henry and Brad Wheeler The game has changed Educause Review, March 2012 “

“aggregate and scale towards a common infrastructure”

Beyond the mobile web. Stephanie Rieger.

Beyond the mobile web. Stephanie Rieger.

Webscale Tend to one/two … – Network effects – Massive aggregation – Gravitational pull Data driven engagement – Analytics – Social Platform – Leverage for developers …

65% Discoverability Phase 1 Final Report. Hanson et al. U Minnesota.

Researchers prefer to adopt open source and social media technologies that are available in the public domain rather than institutional license-based applications ….. First the social media technologies facilitate networking and community building. Second, researchers prefer to use technologies that will enable them access to resources and their own materials beyond their institution-based PhD research. e.g. Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote “

What has changed? 1 The library is institution scale where many of its users operate at network scale

What has changed? 2 Libraries are redundantly managing local infrastructure which creates little distinctive local value.

Ronald Coase Pic: Wikimedia

Space Systems Collections Services & expertise Then: vertically integrated around collection Now: moving apart in network environment Then: high transaction costs lead to locally assembled collection Now: low transaction costs distribute activities across the network

Unbundling

Harvard Business Review (1999)

Core components of a firm Customer Relationship Management Product Innovation Infrastructure Back office capacities that support day-to-day operations “Routinized” workflows Economies of scale important Develop new products and services and bring them to market Speed/flexibility important Attracting and building relationships with customers “Service-oriented”, customization Economies of scope important

Engagement Innovation Infrastructure Back office capacities that support day-to-day operations “Routinized” workflows Economies of scale important Develop new services and have them accepted Speed/flexibility important Attracting and building relationships with researchers and learners “Service-oriented”, customization Economies of scope important Note: Engagement substituted for Customer relationship management

Space Being reconfigured around the user experience rather than around collections. Moving from Infrastructure to engagement Ad hoc rendezvous Meeting place Social, showcase and sharing Exhibitions Specialist equipment Specialist staff GIS, Writing centre, Digital humanities, … Research commons

Services The service turn (Scott Walter) U Minnesota, ARL Institutional profile: – In alignment with the University's strategic positioning, the University Libraries have re-conceived goals, shifting from a collection-centric focus to one that is engagement- based.

... to serve the emerging needs of faculty, researchers and graduate students pursuing in-depth research and scholarly inquiry. Access to expertise, hardware and software. MPublishing, U Michigan The University of Michigan Press, the Scholarly Publishing Office, Deep Blue (the University’s institutional repository service), the Copyright Office, and the Text Creation Partnership, Salman Rushdie Archive, Emory U Personal digital papers of Salman Rushdie. Have become his reference collection. Scholarly Commons, U Illinois Urbana Champaign

Systems Focus on engagement Resource guides, integration with learning management, widgets, etc Recommendation (aggregation) Move to cloud for infrastructure ILS, ERM, Discovery: move to cloud-based solutions Deep collaboration Shared systems infrastructure: Orbis Cascade Alliance, 2CUL

Outside in Bought, licensed Increased consolidation Move from print to licensed Manage down print – shared print Move to user-driven models Aim: to discover Inside out Institutional assets: special collections, research and learning materials, institutional records, … Reputation management Increasingly important? Aim: to *have* discovered … to disclose Collections

Outside in collections – increasingly externalised to collaborative or third party. Reduced local infrastructure. Inside out collections. Growing engagement around scholarly communication, data curation, institutional asset management, reputation/profiles. Leverage internal/ external infrastructure.

Rescaling

A reminder

Space Systems Collections Services & expertise Increase local impact: Greater engagement Scale efficiency: Share infrastructure

Infrastructure: scalable efficiences Engagement and innovation: scalable learning Rightscale infrastructure for efficiency and impact in a webscale world … Invigorate institution-scale approaches to engagement … “the rate of learning, innovation, and performance improvement within the institution must match (or exceed) that of the surrounding environment if the institution is to survive (or thrive)”

Infrastructure Cataloging eJournals Preservation Systems in the cloud – (cloud is a question not an answer)

Infrastructure The collective print collection

Infrastructure The collective print collection? Preservation of institutional assets?

Infrastructure The collective print collection? Preservation of institutional assets? Data driven engagement? – Social/Analytics? A shared Knowledge Base? …..

Engagement Curricular support Scholarly communication and digital scholarship Data curation Expertise and profile management ….

Engagement From the talent side of the equation the key requirement for institutional success is to move from scalable efficiency to scalable learning. Near-constant innovation is the only way to respond successfully to near-constant disruption. Said differently, the rate of learning, innovation, and performance improvement within the institution must match (or exceed) that of the surrounding environment if the institution is to survive (or thrive). Given that innovation is inherently a human activity--one performed by talented individuals--it follows that talent will pull institutions into the 21st century. The New Organization Model: Learning at Scale by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison | 6:03 PM March 11, 2009 Libraries need to do both.. Earlier stage in cycle scale-its-lea.html

Engagement - Learning 1.A variety of staff roles Attorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, …. 2.Marketing, assessment, outreach

Engagement - Learning 1.A variety of staff roles Attorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, …. 2.Marketing, assessment, outreach 3.Deeper engagement with faculty/students around digital scholarship/communication

Engagement - Learning 1.A variety of staff roles Attorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, …. 2.Marketing, assessment, outreach 3.Deeper engagement with faculty/students digital scholarship/communication 4.Partnership with campus players … Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, …

Platform … Strategic Partnerships The library of the future is engagement-centered and reinforced by joint ventures and programmatic partnerships. We imagine the Libraries as an outwardly engaged organization that creates partnerships and provides leadership in the pursuit of excellence in research and learning. Transformation … Our strategy: be regenerative October 4, 2012, 12:51 pm By Brian MathewsBrian Mathews

Engagement - Learning 1.A variety of staff roles Attorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, …. 2.Marketing, assessment, outreach 3.Engagement with digital scholarship/communication 4.Partnership with campus players … Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, … 5.Project working (grant) 6.Supporting community/sharing..

Platform … Strategic Partnerships … Transformation The library of the future is constantly changing both physically and virtually. We imagine the Libraries’ core functions evolving through emerging expertise in curation, community development, and knowledge production. We curate digital research data and scholarship; we develop and optimize communities for collaboration and the exchange of ideas and discoveries; and we help our users create new knowledge and provide access to the world’s digital scholarship. Our strategy: be regenerative October 4, 2012, 12:51 pm By Brian MathewsBrian Mathews

Engagement - Learning 1.A variety of staff roles Attorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, …. 2.Marketing, assessment, outreach 3.Engagement with digital scholarship/communication 4.Partnership with campus players … Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, … 5.Project working (grant) 6.Supporting community/sharing.. 7.Training trainers (student mentors, …) 8.Personal ‘brand’ management … Twitter, Mendeley, Academia.edu, ….

1.It is difficult to speak knowledgably about social services or provide sensible support for them if you don’t have some experience of network services. Picturing a rhino: experience is the only guide. 2.How do you get in the flow of communications and interaction? Is your expertise visible? Can you help researchers get into the flow and be visible? The power of pull. Lorcan Dempsey. Managing our online profersonal lives.

Increasing library impact in a network environment Scalable efficiencies – Share infrastructure in a network environment Scalable learning – Fuller engagement in the research and learning process

Thank you …