Michael Ridley Chief Information Officer (CIO) & Chief Librarian University of Guelph University of Western Ontario, December 5, 2008 Scholarly Communications, Academic Libraries & Literacy
How will you contribute to that preferred future? What is the future you see? What is the future you want?
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” Henry Ford
“The way forward is paradoxically to look not ahead, but to look around.”
iClickers…. Turn the remote on Vote early, vote often … Turn on your TV! Open your car doors! Enjoy but please return
Musical Preferences. I like ….? A. J. S. Bach B. Miles Davis C. Led Zeppelin D. The Killers E. Kanye West Your Turn
I’m taking this course because … A. Want to work in academic libraries B. Curious about academic libraries C. Fit my schedule D. Joyce is an easy marker E. Academic libraries? I thought this was Biology 104? Your Turn
Disclaimer… I’m an academic librarian. I’m also a CIO and a university administrator. So, I come to you from the dark side.
Street Cred
Communications Reputation Smart InformationCyberInfrastructure Preservation Where Are We? Navigating the Landscape
Collaboration Innovation
Collaboration
The New 16GB iPod nano The Eventual 2PB iPod nano
Another in a series of wake-up calls regarding the confluence of scholarship & academic libraries
“When simple change becomes transformational change … … the desire for continuity becomes a dysfunctional mirage.” The Mirage of Continuity (Hawkins & Battin)
The most important skill ….. A. Financial management B. Information technology C. Administration / Management D. Information management E. Research credentials (PhD) Your Turn
Communications
Communication is not publishing
Old School: (e)Books & (e)Journals. New School: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Graduate Junction … and (e)Books & (e)Journals. Websites, Multimedia, Blogs, Tweets, Simulations, Visualization, Commentary, Data, Data, Data.
Smart Information
Not people finding information but information finding people
Massively distributed & ubiquitous content; with intelligent, proactive metadata. Interoperable objects/data/content: not references or links but semantically embedded dependences. The scholarship is in the network not the content nodes; focus on the connections, the relationships, the glue.
Plastic objects: adjusted, played with, riffed on, sampled, repurposed (yet with integrity, authority, authenticity preserved). An architecture of participation within a global environment. Cyberscholarship: “Correlation is enough”
Reputation
Academic values persist but morph
Old School: peer review, P&T, citations, league tables. New School: reputation management. An integration of smart information, social networks, global reach, ubiquitous content, & participatory architecture.
Trust, reputation management, verification, validation: automated (e.g. digital money). “Networked individualism” Barry Wellman Academic research libraries as trusted agents in managing people (reputation) not just information.
Preservation
Integrity Management
Integrity management: the information ecology
Not as much the objects and more the interconnections & dependencies. Libraries as coherence engines with sense making tools. Preservation = access Preservation = integrity
CyberInfrastructure
Platform, tools & environment
Virtual Research Organizations (VROs) Disciplinary, trans-national, emergent, large scale, proven(?), powerful. Not just big science, not even just science; transforming the humanities. The “cloud”, CI & VROs – the new research library?
Where Are We?
Ignorance is bliss.
The most important skill ….. A. Financial management B. Information technology C. Administration / Management D. Information management E. Research credentials (PhD) Your Turn
Who will direct the future …..? A. Faculty B. Librarians C. IT Professionals D. Learning Professionals E. Students Your Turn
Most significant threat …..? A. Google B. Professional apathy C. Resistance to change D. Technology E. Irrelevance Your Turn
Most important role …..? A. Scholarly Communications B. Learning & Curriculum Support C. Information Resources D. Archives & Special Collections E. Access & Discovery Your Turn
Leadership roles, choices, & alternative futures
Collaboration: beyond campus, outside libraries, global implications. Technology: we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Complexity: data curation; full scholarly communication lifecycle. Leadership: the big picture “agency” (the academic research library consortium).
“Culture eats strategy for lunch every day of the week.” Elson Floyd, President Washington State University
The “Information Age” is over. Welcome to the “Age of Imagination.”
The demise of the Titanic was brought about by the As we consider the future of scholarly communications and research libraries, are we thinking about airplanes or icebergs ? In the final analysis the Titanic was not sunk by an iceberg. rise of commercial air travel. A Cautionary Tale...
David Penniman Executive Director, Nylink “To remain what it is, the library must change if it does not change, it will not remain what it is.” Your Moment of Zen
Michael Ridley Chief Information Officer (CIO) & Chief Librarian University of Guelph University of Western Ontario, December 5, 2008 Scholarly Communications, Academic Libraries & Literacy