Eric Wainwright ALIA 2004, Gold Coast 21-24 September

1. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies for University Academic Information & Service Delivery Eric Wainwright ALIA 2004, Gold Coast 21-24 September

2. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery It was the best of timesIt was the worst of times ….. Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

3. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery The game has changed. We face an array of possibilities and challenges that will leave no library untouched. We are, whether we want to or not, about to become much more than we are now – or much less. Roy Tennant 1998

4. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery It would be folly to imagine that the academic library will develop over the next decade as a purely natural progression from the library of today. Harold Billings 2003

5. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery When we have information available from desktops, who needs libraries? Who needs librarians? Bill Crowley 2001

6. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery …just what does the library contribute to student learning? Kuh/Gonyea

7. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery …teaching faculty are unlikely to be sympathetic to the travails of librarians who helped create the environment for electronically delivered education and now complain that the system they have brought into being is threatening their preferred way of doing business. Bill Crowley 2001

8. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery The indisputable fact is that information and content on the open Web is far easier and convenient to access and find than is information and content in libraries, virtual or physical. (p9) OCLC 2004

9. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery At the risk of trivialising and over-simplifying decades of innovation, commitment and hard work … what’s been done has been done in a closed shop, using our own architects and consultants, with little direct assistance for our primary constituents, the information consumers. One result? Information Consumer is hanging out at the Information Mall with Google (p 96). OCLC 2004

10. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery SOME CHANGES • Nature of research • Forms of research output/publication • Composition/location of student body • Technological opportunities • Pedagogy • Information glut/time scarcity

11. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery One trend evident in this scan was that for at least ten years, … bright people have been writing and speaking eloquently about possible futures. Yet, not much has fundamentally changed (p104). OCLC 2004

12. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Barriers to Progress • Lack of analysis • Extent of sunk investment • Available skills • Professional socializations • Physical/organizational territoriality • Personality types • Focus on information • Institutional trust/symbolism

13. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Scarcity of information is the basis for the modern library. (p ix) OCLC 2004

14. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery A university’s role in society is to bring together scholars and students to allow the creation, advancement and dissemination of information and knowledge. Richard West

15. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery The library’s role is to increase opportunities for effective interaction with knowledge.

16. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Do we have to abolish the library in order to save it? Or In order to serve the university?

17. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery …a catalog designed as a guide to what is locally stored becomes progressively less complete as a guide to what is conveniently accessible. One might as well catalog books published in odd years but not those published in even years. Michael Buckland 1989

18. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

19. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Library as place • Personal reflection • Personal guidance • Group learning/interaction • Social interactions • Technology access • Commons

20. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Why use it? • Attractive/symbolic • Time-saving • Serendipitous Social/learning • No alternative equipment quiet study unique objects

21. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery People want what they want when they want it. They don’t want something else, they don’t want less than they want, and they certainly don’t want it at some other time. Harry Forsha 1992

22. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Service Use • Known and trusted • Convenient via favored channel • Available 24x7 • Contextual help at time of need • Responsive and sufficient • Unexpected extras

23. People, Networks, Books: New Strategies For University Academic Information and Service Delivery Even the most misfitting child who’s chanced upon the library’s worth sits with the genius of the earth and turns the key to the whole world • Ted Hughes