Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Dr. M. Sai Baba Associate Director, Resources Management Group msb@igcar.gov.in Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute Official Spokesperson Adjunct Professor, PSG College of Technology “ From Building Collections to Making Connections: Transforming Libraries in the Knowledge Era” NACLIN 2014 DELNET & French Institute of Pondicherry December 9-11, 2014 1

Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Our Knowledge is the amassed thought and experiences of innumerable minds -R.W.Emerson

Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Information Explosion Today we live in a competitive world, which is rapidly evolving, where everyday life is dependent on Information and Knowledge Libraries play a vital role for serving the people with the necessary information Scholarly literature: growing gradually New facets are being added progressively Inter-disciplinary approach Information Tsunami

Transforming Libraries: Be the Change The problem ? Trying to control the content in : Information explosion exponential growth of information Communication explosion exponential growth of means and ways by which information is: communicated, transmitted, accesses, and used

Transforming Libraries: Be the Change in Transition Information Print > Electronic Strong emphasis on digitizing local collections Users New generations of users: Millennial generation Web savvy

Transforming Libraries: Be the Change library and information science no longer confined to four walls of classification and cataloguing Automation To embrace new concepts digitization, wikis, blogging, podcasts other web related technologies Traditional Libraries

Towards the Digital Library Three Key Transformations

Omnipresent (it will be wherever the users are) From Database/Repository to Seamless (fully integrated with digital learning and research; beyond?) Managed Digital Space Environment Community (resources, people, interaction, process, activities, services) - digital silos are still possible; it is possible to not leverage the technology - dynamic documents and dynamic spaces - community: Virtual Lucy Maud Montgomery Museum (NLC, UPEI, UG) Dynamic & Organic (the users will construct it as much as we will)

Information Management to From Information Management to Coherence & Sense Making (value added outcomes and benefits) Knowledge Management People Centric (a focus on understanding not just data) Explicit & Tacit Knowledge (beyond recorded information) Trusted Information Systems (status, reputation, influence, impact)

Control (users not systems) Intelligent Agents Personal Information Systems (discovery, assistance, utility) Control (users not systems) Managing People’s Interests (trusted information systems) Wireless Communication (whenever, wherever, right now) From People Finding Information to Smart Information (telemetry, propagation) Information Finding People

Challenges in Digital Libraries Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Challenges in Digital Libraries representing, storing and retrieving of library objects particularly if originally designed to be printed operationally managing large collections - issues of scale dealing with diverse and distributed collections interoperability; federated searching assuring preservation and persistence incorporating rights management

Problem with Current Digital Libraries Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Problem with Current Digital Libraries Digital Libraries consist of a huge collection of data which cannot be retrieved in contexts other than the one it was published for The problem is – Computers do not understand the semantics of the stored information Inability to integrate and process the available data automatically. This results in inefficient information retrieval system and poor data integration Semantic Digital Libraries: Adding contextual meaning to the search

Acquisitions Traditionally Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Acquisitions Traditionally Book placed in Stacks Request placed by patron Book invoiced, processed Book sent to Acquisitions Order placed with vendor Patron uses book, finds references

Acquisitions Advancement Transforming Libraries: Be the Change Acquisitions Advancement Patron Driven Acquisitions Innovative acquisitions model Seamless acquisition or lending of e-books Purchase triggered by threshold

Crowded Landscape of Information Providers on the Web Workforce Challenges Crowded Landscape of Information Providers on the Web Lots of non-library Web destinations Delivering content to patrons Google Scholar Amazon.com Wikipedia Ask.com Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the information needs of our users? Do they attract their interest?

Google Scholar : Google uses retrieval algorithms based on ranking and relevance to the search term users likely to feel that it’s a more useful tool for research than a library catalog that often ranks relevant items in chronological order The ease of use has made Google Scholar popular amongst the users who were in the past drawn to more traditional resources The challenge: users bypassing the library

Use of Blogs in Libraries Blogs Can Help to Communicate with Library Users Librarians have long used a variety of means for getting information about the library out to our communities – newsletters, alerts, emails, posters and flyers and more Using a blog offers the opportunity to innovate your communications. Blogging gives you a way to push information out, but also to gather feedback and build a community without having very much technical know-how

Workforce Challenges Library and Information Service personnel to be on their toes Advancements in the Information Technology Technological innovations

Workforce Challenges Importance of Traditional Skills still Relevant Working within continued hybrid environment with new skills sets to achieve Need for new model for facilitating acquisition and exposition of different skills sets Encouragement and appreciation of the need for relevant portfolio skills development 19

Building the Libraries of Future Workforce Challenges Building the Libraries of Future Managing the Knowledge/Information/Data Revolution Dealing with Digitisation Leading Transformation Realising New Platforms Building a Community of Practice Unlocking the Staff Potential Ensuring Sustainability 20

How to Get There: Building a Transformed Library Move from cooperation to collaboration ( Cloud) Focus on the needs of users & Build the e-collection Provide all services to the user desktops Redesign Library spaces as people space, not storage areas Integration of the latest technology and value added services in library Librarians to turn as technocrats in this Google generation

Making Information available: The future Traditionally: build - Just in case collections Standardisation of e-books / e-readers Offer printing on demand services delivering books in digitized form on request from ‘just in case’ collections to ‘just in time’ collections? digital collections with focus on computational use Collections housed in national/regional warehouses TREND: DIGITAL, JUST IN TIME

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