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A few possibilities for
librarianship by 2015
      Eric Lease Morgan
   University of Notre Dame

  November 26 and 30, 2009
Types of libraries
There are many individual libraries, but there
  are only a few different types. No matter what
  type, they all share a number of core values,
  and the all support a set of similar services.
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
The whats of librarianship
Libraries collect, preserve, organize, and
  disseminate data, information, and knowledge for
  the purposes of making the work of their
  respective communities easier.

To one degree or another, just about everything us
  librarians do can be associated with one of these
  processes.

These things are the whats of librarianship, and
  they change very slowly.
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
The hows of librarianship
The hows of librarianship are the things of our
  everyday work, our day-to-day operations, the
  specific workflows within each of our libraries.

The hows of librarianship change at a much
  faster pace, and these changes are usually
  driven by technology.

And, librarians love lists
Catalogs are a good example
Journal indexes are another
Lists as indexes, not databases
With the advent of freely available, industrial
 strength indexers ¨C not databases ¨C we have
 seen an evolutionary development in the
 creation of lists. This is the work of the
 ¡°information retrieval¡± community whose
 tools are mathematics, and the epitome of
 this community is¡­
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
¡°Smart¡± computer indexes
# calculate term frequency/inverse document frequency

sub tfidf {

    my $n = shift; # number of times found in document
    my $t = shift; # total number of words in document
    my $d = shift; # total number of documents
    my $h = shift; # number of hits in the corpus

    my $tfidf = 0;

    if ( $d == $h ) { $tfidf = ( $n / $t ) }
    else { $tfidf = ( $n / $t ) * log( $d / $h ) }

    return $tfidf;

}
¡°Next-generation¡± catalogs
One possible future for libraries lies in the re-
 creation of our venerable library catalogs, but
 I think this represents a limited vision¡­
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
Putting content into context
Considering the current environment, a more
  promising future of libraries lies in making
  content more useful. Examples include:
  annotate, compare & contrast, create flip
  book, do concordance against, find opposite,
  find similar, highlight, incorporate into
  syllabus, plot on a map, print, rate, review,
  save, share, summarize, tag, trace citation,
  translate, etc.
Demonstrations


(Psst, Eric, do a couple of demonstrations here!)
Customization/personalization
Putting content into context is also a matter of
  understanding who your customers are, what
  they are trying to accomplish, and creating
  systems that seem to ¡°know¡± these things.
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
Plan B - Archives
A ¡°Plan B¡± or another future of libraries lies in
  their ability to be more like archives.

This work falls into two categories: 1) the work
  of ¡°institutional repositories¡±, and 2) the
  digitization of ¡°special collections¡±.
New ways to do old thing
If this is the case, then you will need to use
   computer technology to:
  1.   Decide what content to include (collections)
  2.   Collect it (acquisitions)
  3.   Normalize it (cataloging)
  4.   Index it (systems)
  5.   Provide access to the index (public service)
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
Change happens s l o o w l y
Books are not going anywhere. Journals are still
  the medium of formal scholarly
  communication. The licensing of content will
  continue. Because of these things, the work of
  librarianship as it stands today will change
  slowly over the next five years.
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015
Evolution, not revolution
Time and energy need to be spent now in
  order for change to become a reality, to
  discover new, additional, and
  supplemental roles for ourselves. The
  opportunities are only limited by our
  imagination and willingness to transform
  them into reality.
¡°Gracias¡±
http://infomotions.com/musings/future-2015/

More Related Content

A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015

  • 1. A few possibilities for librarianship by 2015 Eric Lease Morgan University of Notre Dame November 26 and 30, 2009
  • 2. Types of libraries There are many individual libraries, but there are only a few different types. No matter what type, they all share a number of core values, and the all support a set of similar services.
  • 6. The whats of librarianship Libraries collect, preserve, organize, and disseminate data, information, and knowledge for the purposes of making the work of their respective communities easier. To one degree or another, just about everything us librarians do can be associated with one of these processes. These things are the whats of librarianship, and they change very slowly.
  • 11. The hows of librarianship The hows of librarianship are the things of our everyday work, our day-to-day operations, the specific workflows within each of our libraries. The hows of librarianship change at a much faster pace, and these changes are usually driven by technology. And, librarians love lists
  • 12. Catalogs are a good example
  • 14. Lists as indexes, not databases With the advent of freely available, industrial strength indexers ¨C not databases ¨C we have seen an evolutionary development in the creation of lists. This is the work of the ¡°information retrieval¡± community whose tools are mathematics, and the epitome of this community is¡­
  • 16. ¡°Smart¡± computer indexes # calculate term frequency/inverse document frequency sub tfidf { my $n = shift; # number of times found in document my $t = shift; # total number of words in document my $d = shift; # total number of documents my $h = shift; # number of hits in the corpus my $tfidf = 0; if ( $d == $h ) { $tfidf = ( $n / $t ) } else { $tfidf = ( $n / $t ) * log( $d / $h ) } return $tfidf; }
  • 17. ¡°Next-generation¡± catalogs One possible future for libraries lies in the re- creation of our venerable library catalogs, but I think this represents a limited vision¡­
  • 19. Putting content into context Considering the current environment, a more promising future of libraries lies in making content more useful. Examples include: annotate, compare & contrast, create flip book, do concordance against, find opposite, find similar, highlight, incorporate into syllabus, plot on a map, print, rate, review, save, share, summarize, tag, trace citation, translate, etc.
  • 20. Demonstrations (Psst, Eric, do a couple of demonstrations here!)
  • 21. Customization/personalization Putting content into context is also a matter of understanding who your customers are, what they are trying to accomplish, and creating systems that seem to ¡°know¡± these things.
  • 25. Plan B - Archives A ¡°Plan B¡± or another future of libraries lies in their ability to be more like archives. This work falls into two categories: 1) the work of ¡°institutional repositories¡±, and 2) the digitization of ¡°special collections¡±.
  • 26. New ways to do old thing If this is the case, then you will need to use computer technology to: 1. Decide what content to include (collections) 2. Collect it (acquisitions) 3. Normalize it (cataloging) 4. Index it (systems) 5. Provide access to the index (public service)
  • 31. Change happens s l o o w l y Books are not going anywhere. Journals are still the medium of formal scholarly communication. The licensing of content will continue. Because of these things, the work of librarianship as it stands today will change slowly over the next five years.
  • 35. Evolution, not revolution Time and energy need to be spent now in order for change to become a reality, to discover new, additional, and supplemental roles for ourselves. The opportunities are only limited by our imagination and willingness to transform them into reality.