H. Anil Kumar

Librarian, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

August 9, 2008

Emerging trends in Librarianship

video

Is this the library of the future?By Megan Lane

BBC News Online

• The word library is set to fade from our vocabulary - but not because we've fallen out of love with books. Today's libraries are being made over as "idea stores", complete with cafés, crèches and multi-media offerings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/2859845.stm

Librarianship

Users Collection Staff

Resources

Understand and service the needs of users – faculty, students and researchers

Librarianship

Librarianship

• Users (Needs)– Identifying and seeking continuously– Designing, delivering and managing services– Matching or facilitating access– Interaction

VALUE TO THE USER

Librarianship

• Collection– Identify and Seek– Capture, Acquire and Access– Retrieve and Communicate – Manage and Monitor

VALUE TO THE USER

Librarianship

• Staff– Identify and Seek– Recruit and train – Facilitate, Manage and Understand– Interact

VALUE TO THE USER

Technologies in Libraries

• Library automation packages– CDS/ ISIS, Libsys, Liberty, VTLS, etc – Open Source like KOHA, New

Genlib,LearningAccess ILS, etc• Storage

– PCs, Floppy disks, CDs / DVDs / etc– Pen drives, Portable HDs, Blu Ray Disk

• Identification– Barcode, Tattle-tape, RFID, Biometric, etc

Technologies in Libraries

• Information capture– Key board, Scanner, Digital Cameras,

Mobiles, etc• Network

– Client-server, P2P, Internet• Databases

– Books, articles, reports, aggregators, publishers, IRs

Technologies in Libraries

• Information retrieval– Simple OPAC to Federated searches like a package tour – articles, books,

videos, teachers lectures, diagrams, etc

– Seamless integration of various sources

– Remote login / VPN

• User need not worry where the information is located

• Online Usage statistics

• User customized displays

• User Identification is simpler and secure

Technologies in Libraries

• Features

– Storage – Speed– Ease of use– Handling large volumes of information– Interoperability– Integration

Technologies in Libraries

• Networking or connecting technologies is easier– Open Standards - well defined interface– Componentization developments– Service oriented convergence

• Wireless• Mobile• Integration of Capture – Store – Authenticate –

Retrieve• Location and distances don’t matter for access

Emerging Trends - Technologies

• Technologies that will enable the development of Collaboration, Next Generation Architecture and Real World Web are highlighted as being particularly significant.

– Collaboration

• Peer to Peer (P2P)• Desktop Search• Podcasting• Really Simple Syndication (RSS)• Corporate Blogging• Wikis

Gartner Highlights

Emerging Trends - Technologies

• Next Generation Architecture– Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)– Web Services-Enabled Business Models– Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)– Business Process Platforms (BPP)

• Real World Web– Location-aware applications– Radio Frequency Identification– Mesh Networks — Sensor

Gartner Highlights

P2P

• A sharing and delivery of user specified files among groups of people who are logged on to a file sharing network. Napster was the first mainstream P2P software that enabled large scale file sharing.www.mp3-cdburner.com/MP3-glossary.shtml

• Peer-to-peer networking (P2P) is an application that runs on a personal computer and shares files with other users across the Internet. P2P networks work by connecting individual computers together to share files instead of having to go through a central server.www.netalert.net.au/01990-Glossary.asp

Emerging Trends - Technologies

Desktop Search

Desktop search is the name for the emerging field of search tools which search the contents of a user's own computer files, rather than searching the Internet. The emphasis is on data mining all the information that is available on the user's PC, including web browser histories, e-mail archives, word-processor documents, and so on. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_search

Emerging Trends - Technologies

Podcasting

Podcasting, a portmanteau of Apple's "iPod" and "broadcasting", is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost. It first became popular in late 2004, used largely for audio files. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

Podcasting entails audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed presenting a downloadable or streaming file (often mp3).

Emerging Trends - Technologies

Blogs

A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order).

Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs

Emerging Trends - Technologies

Wikis

A wiki (pronounced , or ; see Pronunciation below) is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website (see Wiki software). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikis

Emerging Trends - Technologies

RSS

RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. They are used to provide items containing short descriptions of web content together with a link to the full version of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol)

(Rich Site Summary or RDF [Resource Description Framework] Site Summary). An XML format for sharing content among different Web sites such as news items. How does it work? A Web site can allow other sites to publish some of its content by creating an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A web publisher can post a link to the rss feed so users can read the distributed content on his/her site. ...mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/netterms.htm

Emerging Trends - Technologies

Emerging Trends - User Environment

Instant messaging SMS MMS Blogs Social networking sites

a very different communication environment forcing librarians to rethink their communication strategies

Emerging trends - Internet

• Beyond connectivity and bandwidth• Social networking – Orkut, facebook, myspace, etc• Blogs• Sharing of files and information

– Open access– IR

• No physical carrying of files– Mail sites– Box.net– Mediamax.com

• Personal information management– Del.icio.us – similicio.us– Google – desktop search, earth, scholar, video, organiser, biorythm,

news, etc • Simple / interesting tools

– Google pages– Chacha.com– Deep web – closerlook, northernlights– stumbleupon – cuil

Emerging trends - management

• Space – digital and physical

• SUSHI - standardised usage statistics harvesting initiative

• Archiving Institutional Knowledge

• Outsourcing

• Lib 2.0

• Long Tail

Lib 2.0

• Any service, physical or virtual that successfully reaches users, is evaluated frequently and makes use of customer input is a Library 2.0 service.

• Library 2.0 will be a meeting place, online or in the physical world, where [library users’] needs will be fulfilled through entertainment, information and the ability to create (their) own stuff to contribute to the ocean of content out there.

Library 2.0 by Michael E. Casey and L.C. Savastinuk – www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

Chris Anderson’s Long Tail

Long Tail

• 80 – 20 principle (Pareto)• Chris Anderson “The Long Tail” in Wired

magazine (10/05)• Selling fewer of a larger variety of objects to

more people than a brick-and-mortar store• Amazon will have more than just best sellers

(20%)• Libraries follow this for time immemorial as

they would not have survived otherwise

Serving the Niche: Katherine Mossman – www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6349032.html

Long Tail

• Best sellers drive the demand for towards special interests like ‘read-alike lists’ ‘books bought by buyer who bought this book’

• Net facilitates this for libraries like ‘whatdoireadnext.com’

• Filters technology or slick technology – People or software that help you find what you

want in the long tail, driving demand from hits to niches

• Amazon makes more money in niche items rather than best sellers

Serving the Niche: Katherine Mossman – www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6349032.html

Long Tail: Eight lessons

• Be responsive to your customers• Locate, define and reach underserved• Find ways to solve all problems related to access• Librarians are not information brokers but

information filters• You can compete with free• Embrace the paradox that internet (google, wiki) is

our competitor and also not our competitor• Capitalize on all types of service points, ‘real’ and

‘virtual’ to the patrons greatest end• Using Google for research is like “working for less

than minimum wages”

Serving the Niche: Katherine Mossman – www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6349032.html

Challenges & Opportunities

• Open Access• Legal Issues (DMCA,..)• Reading Space• Indian Reading habits NOP Index• Institutional Repositories

Watching TV Listening to Radio ReadingComputer/Internet(Not for Work)***

16.6 (Av.) 13.3 8.0 (Av.) 4.1 6.5 (Av.) 8.9 (Av.)

7.9

MeanHours

MeanHours

MeanHours

MeanHours

Thailand 22.4 Argentina 20.8 India 10.7 Taiwan 12.6

Philippines 21.0 Brazil 17.2 Thailand 9.4 Thailand 11.7

Egypt 20.9 South Africa 15.0 China 8.0 Spain 11.5

Turkey 20.2 Czech Republic

13.5 Philippines 7.6 Hungary 10.9

Indonesia 19.7 Thailand 13.3 Egypt 7.5 China 10.8

USA 19.0 Turkey 13.3 Czech Republic

7.4 Hong Kong

10.7

Taiwan 18.9 Poland 12.5 Russia 7.1 Poland 10.6

Brazil 18.4 Hungary 12.1 Sweden 6.9 Turkey 10.6

U.K. 18.0 Germany 11.5 France 6.9 Brazil 10.5

Japan 17.9 Australia 11.3 Hungary 6.8 Egypt 10.3

http://www.nopworld.com/news.asp?go=news_item&key=179

• Resources’ Usage and Usage Evaluation• Library Users – virtual users –interact with the

profiles • Seamless integration• Information Literacy and Personal Counseling• Professional Management

Challenges & Opportunities

Useful Resources for librarians …

http://www.doaj.org

THANK YOU!

anilkumar@iimahd.ernet.in