1. The Academic Library of the Future
Chris Banks :: Director of Library Services :: Imperial College London

2. Overview Personal observations
How we might go about thinking of the future of libraries
Where we might look for pointers, clues and opportunities
Ways in which we might start to think about our services
How we might describe services and facilities
How we might seek to understand needs
Areas where we need to think, act and spend differently
Tools to help us do all of the above
List above, then:
The Personal bit
2 music degrees – 1 “ology” – Historical Musicology
Career spans retail, performing arts, publishing, cultural, Charity and HE
Started work in libraries over 30 years ago English National Opera

3. My invitation to join you all today
It all began with a meeting
Sconul offices!
Sconul Content Strategy
I was free
I could get here
I was interested in the topic
Thank Emma for causing me to think more deeply about the main topic of your 2016 colloquium: “The academic library of the future”.
Something about which I think about a lot
Necessary within the institution and in the midst of institutional challenge – particular at a STEMB institution like Imperial
no Special Collections
no humanities or social sciences
Over 95% content budget spent on e-
Oh, and we are landlocked on south ken.
Not typical circs

4. Pace Pace formerly equalled increase in volume
Now, pace = increase in variety (and volatility)
Pace of change of our collections – print – digital or digitised
Changes in spaces – brought about by
re-balance of physical vs digital
Re-thinking in light of increased numbers and usage
Just in time vs just in case
Deep caution about physical – institution is still rated by some by the size of its physical collection
Collections
E-Textbooks
Open science

5. Fragmentation Disaggreation Space Services Stuff Space:
not always valued by wider university
Still considered neutral
Services: known about by relatively few
all free on the internet?
Publishers bypassing us (trying to)
Services:

6. Are we looking in the right places?

7. How many remember this report?
Involved?
Used subsequently?
Still using?

10. Wild West
In this world, provision of standard content services is typically outsourced competitively to commercial vendors across the UK, Europe and other countries, depending on the subject area. No supplier has yet obtained global dominance. The market sets the interoperability standards.
Particular issues are:
How will the library interact with the mix of traditional academic publishers, self publishing and new peer review approaches in this scenario?
How should any special collections be exploited for the benefit of the institution;
How any content developed by the institution covering research, teaching and learning should be exploited (eg this might be internally or through sale to another institution or company)?
How will IP be best protected in this competitive world?
An early indicator for the Wild West scenario occurring is a sustained trend of new commercial vendors wishing to provide content and the institutions buying from them.

11. Beehive
Use of shared services to provide content is most likely in this world. Negotiation with content providers is likely to be at state or regional level.
Particular issues are:
If you become a spoke for the majority of the teaching and learning materials, how will you choose your hubs?
If you are spoke dominated, how many different hub institutions would it be feasible to deal with (eg could choose to be a spoke for the best hub for every subject but might lead to technical and other challenges to deliver this)?
If you become a hub for specific subjects, what marketing and sales activities might be necessary to sign up spokes etc?
If you are a hub, how far does your ambition go (would you wish to provide content to a few or many spokes)?
Early indicators for the Beehive scenario occurring are:
a significant amount of content being procured and provided through one or more shared services (eg at a national or regional level);
large institutions marketing teaching and learning materials to smaller institutions.

12. Walled Garden
Libraries have become increasingly specialised around specific disciplines, services and/or content. Some institutions have sold or otherwise divested themselves of ‘non-relevant’ holdings and physical special collections, or now house them off-site. Materials that supported the group’s values would be exchanged with other members of the group. Acquisition of content not produced by the group would most likely be through separate negotiation with content providers (ie publishers, other walled gardens).
Particular issues are:
How should the holdings be reduced?
Whether and how holdings not representative of the group should be maintained/ acquired (and how this is to be done), especially for research (the latter is likely to involve complex negotiations with external publishers and other HEIs etc)?
How should content be protected from those outside the Walled Garden?
Early indicators for the Walled Garden occurring are:
institutions refusing to share content with other institutions;
an increase in content which is specific to a particular set of institutions and values that might be a putative ‘Walled Garden’;
content provision moving away from any shared service aspects of the current arrangements for content acquisition (eg the withdrawal of JISC Collections from the market).

13. Space

14. Space – what kind of space is this?
Space is divided into flexible work zones
No fixed seating
Those who leave their workspace for more than one-and-a-half hours need to take all their stuff with them.
"In our May 2016 survey, 88% said they liked the choice of where to work. They get a choice of different settings to suit their activity or mood, including a quiet space, a buzzing social area with background music, comfy chairs in cosy corners or big banks of desks to share with others"

16. Digitised / Born Digital
CM (e.g. UKRR)
Physical
Digitised / Born Digital
Re-thinking space
Conservation
Digital Preservation

17. Where are others focusing thinking?

18. The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Government in 2016
Source: Gartner (June 2016)

19. Each Hype Cycle drills down into the five key phases of a technology's life cycle.
Technology Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.
Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories — often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; many do not.
Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.
Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.
Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology's broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.
HYPE CYCLES HELP YOU:
Separate hype from the real drivers of a technology's commercial promise  
Reduce the risk of your technology investment decisions   
Compare your understanding of a technology's business value with the objectivity of experienced IT analysts  
RESOURCES
Gartner Magic Quadrant FAQ
Publication Calendar
CONTACT GARTNER
General Contacts
Become a Gartner Client

20. Emerging technologies 2015
Emerging technologies Source: Gartner (August 2015)

21. Mobile Devices
Hype Cycle for Mobile Device Technologies, 2015, Source: Gartner (July 2015)

22. Customer Analytics
Hype Cycle for Customer Analytic Applications, 2015, Source: Gartner (August 2015)

24. 3D Printing
Hype Cycle for 3D Printing, 2015, Source Gartner (July 2015)

26. Smart Machines
Hype Cycle for Smart Machines, 2015, Source: Gartner (July 2015)

27. Big Data
Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2014, Source: Gartner (July 2014)

28. Credits and resources
Images where not otherwise credited: Shutterstock
Academic libraries of the future
Resources:
Final report: