Around the world, many
were feeling the rug being pulled from under them. Cultural institutions
were being stung by Government budget cuts on most continents. In
London, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, had cornered himself at
the Ecuador Embassy as ambiguous forces gathered around him. And, in
Australia, the shedding of nearly 2000 members of its staff by Fairfax
signalled information industry restructuring.
As the winds of change
gathered, the theme for this year’s Australian Library and Information
Association (ALIA) 2012 Biennial conference was "Discovery".[1]
Senator Ursula Stephens opened the conference by giving assurance to the
500 delegates. Libraries are important. They house our collective
memory. Technology just makes it easier. After the National Broadband
Network is rolled out libraries will take their place as community hubs.
As ALIA celebrates its 75th anniversary, it continues to be
an important mechanism for promoting libraries and developing
professional skill.
KEYNOTES
Five keynote speakers
teased out the discovery theme by asking questions and offering
solutions.
How can
we create a better digital universe?
Tom Chatfield, who
writes about the digital age, began proceedings by taking us back to the
past. In 1849, the British Parliament’s Select
Committee on Public Libraries promoted the need for “creating a
place of deposit, a local habitation for books.” The sentiment was
echoed in 2011, when British author Alan Bennett,
commenting on recent public library closures in England, asserted
that “not enough emphasis has been placed on libraries as a place.”
There was something concrete about libraries in the old days, Chatfield
said. New digital spaces are places we enter in order to have an
experience. We have to sign licences in order to enter them. Technology
is creating behaviours that aren’t necessarily good for us. Do we
control it? Or does it control us?
We need to do more than
what technology wants us to do. To create a better experience, we need
better interactions with each other. To
escape the echo chamber of information noise, we need better
interactions with the technology itself. Otherwise we
risk becoming consumers rather than citizens. Promote
the value of discovery over aggregation, he urged. Consider the
advice of Daniel J Boorstin, Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987: “The
greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of
knowledge.”
Don’t
forget values in giving service
Doing more than what
technology wants you to do was also a thread in a talk by Michael Kirby,
who retired from the High Court of Australia in 2009 after a
distinguished legal career. As detailed in three new books about his
journey, his acute understanding of discrimination helped shake off
conservative traditions in Australian laws.[2]
He began his address by
paying tribute to the librarians who have assisted him through his life.
He named them. There was Mrs Godwin at North Strathfield Public School.
There was Mr Trehearne and Mr Barnard at Fort Street High. There were
the law librarians - Roy Jordan, Virginia Pursell, Lyn Pollock, Jackie
Elliott and Petal Kinder. And there was Warren Horton, then at the State
Library. They all went the extra mile in leading him to new ideas and
other points of view.
His acquaintance with
information technology goes back to 1980, when as chair of the
international OECD expert group examining the implications of
computerised data, his legal and negotiating skills were instrumental in
producing the OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and
Transborder Flows of Personal Data. The privacy principles he helped
codify were put to a test in 2002 when Senator Bill Heffernan cast
unfounded aspersions about Justice Kirby’s use of Commonwealth cars.
Heffernan’s claims were laced with bigotry about homosexuality. Although
out-of-date and inaccurate, the story can still be found on the
internet. Without knowledge of the context, the truth may not be
apparent to the unwary.
He recalled another
personal experience illustrating the sometimes complex relationship of
principles, politics and public opinion. The 1950s ushered in a period
of fear and intimidation, now characterised as McCarthyism. His
grandmother’s second husband, Jack Simpson, was national treasurer of
the Australian Communist Party. When Prime Minister Robert Menzies
attempted to ban the Communist Party, Simpson was forced to go into hiding.
After the High Court struck down the Communist Party Dissolution Act
1950(Cth),
Menzies attempted to change the constitution to accommodate his beliefs
though a referendum. The Australian people turned down the Menzies’
proposition. How would this play out today, Kirby asked, in a world
where political will is influenced by online megaphone conversations?
That’s where libraries
and lawyers come in, he said. They are both in the values business.
Discrimination persists. There is a tension between perfection and
imperfection in finding common ground. Machines don’t present
information in a neutral way. People still need librarians to ask the
extra question – “have you thought about this?” Libraries and librarians
have a secure future. But, in order to make the most of this new golden
age, let’s not forget the values that have informed the past.
Give
mobile users more than a catalogue
Tom Rhuven, Manager of
Digital Library Development at the University of NSW, concentrated on
two things - the growth of mobile technology and the development of
user-centric discovery tools. He drew inspiration from the
transformation of China in the Song dynasty. 960-1279, when the
invention of woodblock printing and moveable type printing contributed
to the spread of education, scholarship and knowledge.
The rapid growth in the
use of mobile devices is well documented. According to one report,
tablets will replace textbooks within the next 5 years. Libraries need
to gear up their services accordingly. Data mining offers the potential
to amplify basic information in the catalogue. Extra data already exists
about academic staff and students in the form of their articles,
citations, CVs, grants, students supervised, course material,
conferences attended, experiments, field trips, exam questions and other
details. Useful data can be also found on the way people search for
information – such as hourly search patterns, most used services, and
the physical location of the searcher. By joining this information, they
will be able to provide services at a much higher level. “There’s power
in data mining way beyond AACR2.”
Think
visually, be engaging
Mitchell Whitelaw, a
Canberra-based academic, questioned theories about searching. Approaches
to information retrieval, he said, have tended to be driven by two
flawed assumptions: that it is possible for the user to specify
precisely the information required and that information resides in a
repository. Traditional searching seems to work fine, but it may not be
the right approach in all circumstances.
There are alternatives.
The first is exploratory search, where the user is presented with the
result of a search, but is given a little bit extra. Trove is a good
example. The second alternative is browsing, a technique that is
familiar to those who visit library buildings, but doesn’t seem to work
as well in an online environment. And the third approach is to provide
website interfaces to meet the needs of the information flaneur. The
French word flaneur conjures up the picture of a man of leisure,
an urban explorer and literary connoisseur in 19th century
Paris. By thinking of some users as information flaneurs, we reframe
them as curious, creative and critical. We could do well to follow the
example of Flipboard, Pinterest and online retail sales catalogues. They
offer experiences that are leisurely, browsable and beautiful. They are
generous, but not overwhelming. They encourage exploration and
engagement.
Whitelaw is assisting
two organisations to put these principles into practice. Manly Council,
with support from the State Library of NSW, is experimenting with ways
of searching more than 6000 pictures in its Image Collection by
displaying results as themed clusters.[3]
The National Gallery of Australia is working on a more visual approach
to searching its Prints and Printmaking Collection. To make their
catalogues more engaging, libraries could provide a rich overview and
immersive experience, give samples, reveal relationships, and be
delightful.
Be
optimistic about the odyssey
The final keynote
speaker was Alex Byrne, recently appointed State Librarian and Chief
Executive of the State Library of New South Wales. After nearly a year
in the job, he compared the challenges before him to those of Ulysses in
Homer’s Odyssey and the richness of his daily life to Leopold
Bloom’s experience on 16 June 1904 in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
There are reasons to be
pessimistic about the future. In the United Kingdom, government funding
for libraries has been slashed and many council libraries have closed.
Readers are shifting to ebooks. Newspapers and bookshops are under
threat as publishers seek new business models.
But there are also
reasons to be optimistic. The general public is turned on to discovering
information. New public and academic libraries are being built.
Scholarly publications continue to grow rapidly.
Libraries have not been
standing still. They have been early adopters of technology. They fill
many roles in their communities far beyond providing information and
recreational reading. However, they need to be more lithe and responsive.
They need to explain what they do. They need to engage much more
wholeheartedly with both their multicultural and indigenous communities.
And they need to stand up for civic virtues.
Change will involve
partnerships. At the State Library, a vital partner is the NSW State
Government, which has just allocated $10.2 million to renew the
library’s digital infrastructure and $55 million over ten years to
digitise its heritage collections. Another is the network of 347 public
libraries across the state. The statistics show that they are being used
more than ever. In 2011 they attracted 36 million visits and lent more
than 50 million items to nearly half the population of NSW.
To enhance their
capacities and capabilities, the State Library and its network must
speak with one voice. To enable them to speak with a more effective
voice, the State library has commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to
update earlier studies on their value. Findings from studies in
2007-2008 estimated their economic benefit to the state to be $1.216
billion: for each dollar spent on public libraries, $4.24 of economic
benefit was generated.
CHORDS
The rest of the
conference acted as a counterpoint to the keynote addresses.
A panel of suppliers
anticipated constant change in an uncertain future, based on further
supplier-library collaboration in search of productivity, new business
models to support e-content and web-scale discovery, more emphasis on
patron-driven acquisitions, and securing the future of librarians in the
face of budget cuts and closures.
Another group of
suppliers, a panel of writers, expressed their appreciation as customers
of libraries. Richard Glover, Anita Heiss, Melina Marchetta and PM
Newton use libraries to help produce their books. For Anita Heiss a
borrowed video on Paris offered the dubious benefit of giving her a feel
for the City of Light without the cost of an air ticket to get her
there. Matthew Reilly undertook much of his research for Ice Station
in Willoughby Library. “It’s an illusion that everything is on the
internet.”
Other speakers in
concurrent sessions covered organisational change, return on investment,
library design, research practices, document delivery, reading and
literacy, use of social media, customers and communities, collaboration
and advocacy, among other topics. This commentary teases out some of the
threads in the sessions I attended.
Responding to mobile users
The National Library of
Australia has given thorough consideration to the mobile universe by
developing a strategy to deal with it.[4]
Librarian of Digital
Services at the National Library, Sarah Schindeler, laid out information industry
trends. Libraries face increased competition from search engines and
other services. Publishers are generating content and services that
circumvent librarians. More and more people are using mobile devices to
connect to libraries. Australian libraries are responding by developing
mobile websites or apps. Efforts to date have focussed on proving access
to catalogues, mobile tours, SMS services, social media and
mobile-optimised content. Staff at the National Library have used the
National Library mobile catalogue app on acquisition trips. Researchers have used
mobile devices to monitor the status of the collection items they have
requested. Mobile tour apps have been used in conjunction with its
Treasures exhibition.
These strategies have
been based on the assumption that users want a mobile equivalent of core
services. Although online users are not in favour of games as a
development proposition, they do want an online experience that is
enjoyable. The National Library’s major focus over the next few years
will be on a Digital Library Infrastructure Replacement Project aimed at
increasing its capacity to manage digital resources and support
different forms of mobile delivery.
Making
the most of more speed
City Libraries
Townsville was the first public library service in Australia to be
connected to the National Broadband Network. Susan Cocker gave delegates
the benefit of her experience at Townsville and sketched out
opportunities for reshaping public library services elsewhere.
Digital strategies by
the three levels of government vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and
Communications report captures input from ALIA on the value of libraries
as complementary facilities for broadband in the home.[5]
The Federal Government’s latest Digital Economy Strategy has eight broad
goals that signal opportunities for libraries.[6]
The Queensland Government’s Queensland NBN strategic plan 2012-2016 made
scant note of the potential of libraries, she said. It is now under
review by the Newman Government. On the other hand, the
Townsville City Digital Economy Strategy 2012
acknowledges the key role to be played by its local library service.
The Australian
Government’s National Broadband Network program has provided funds to the 40 communities in the
first phase of the rollout to assists the development of services by
local councils, small businesses, not-for-profit organisations and
digital hubs. CityLibraries Townsville’s digital hub consists of a smart
lounge with internet-enabled TV, multi-user skype licences and other
equipment available to individuals and small groups.[7]
Teacher groups have used the lounge for children with special needs.
Wollongong University has approached the library over a potential
partnership in delivering courses on community journalism. A local GP
network will use one of the branches to trial in-home monitoring of
diabetes patients. Discussions are underway about possible streaming of
programs from the State Library of Queensland. There is long-term
potential for libraries to broadcast programs to residents in their
homes and other libraries.
Amplifying local history
Daniel Rozas gave good
advice on how to amplify local history using as a case study a four-year
digitisation project at the City of Joondalup Libraries in Western
Australia.
Picture Joondalup is the result.[8]
Associated developments include
Picture Joondalup YouTube Slideshow Videos,
with sound bites from its digitised oral history collection, a library
e-newsletter and monthly radio programs that help market the library.
Picture Joondalup is now a core function of the Reference and Local
History Library. There are plans to digitise the library’s cartographic,
archive, ephemera and newspaper clipping collections.
Publicising a niche
Local libraries can
surprise. Wendy Ford and John Taggart talked about the Manly Library
Artist Book and Zine Collections, the first such collection to be
established by a public library in New South Wales. Artists books and
ezines are mediums for independent self-expression and offer “spectrums
of ideas and unfiltered interpretations of the world that we might not
otherwise be able to access.” The Manly Library collection is derived
from a range of sources, including local artists and art students. They
are part of the cultural history of the local region and they introduce
library users to less processed or less mainstream media.
Dealing
with a crisis in school libraries
Digital developments
can produce unexpected consequences. Judy O’Connell from Charles Sturt
University explored a perceived crisis in the provision of school
library services. Evidence of a crisis can be found in the recent House
of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment
report.[9]
The report assessed government expenditure on school libraries and the
impact and potential of digital technologies in the school environment.
It concluded that that there is a mismatch between the rhetoric about
the value of school libraries and the reality. School libraries are
under-resourced, they employ under-qualified staff, and services are
declining. The Australian Government has essentially left it to those
responsible for funding and managing school libraries to address
concerns.
A number of
organisations have contributed significantly to promoting new
directions. These include the NSW Curriculum and Innovation Centre, the
NSW Department of Education and Community, the School of Information
Studies at Charles Sturt University and the State Library of Victoria
through its Personal Learning Network program. But teacher librarians,
often working alone, continue to be faced with the challenge of learning
how to deal with the changing media landscape in circumstances over
which they sometimes have little control. Strategies are needed to equip
teacher librarians to deal with this environment. The Australian School
Library Association is preparing a paper picking up these threads to be
published at the end of 2012.
Being
inspired by others
Librarians can learn a
lot from chefs. Gordon Ramsay in Kitchen Nightmares gave good
advice on running any kind of business. Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of
Food revolution is an excellent advocacy model for promoting the
importance of cultural heritage. Ellen Forsyth, from the State Library
of NSW, in her presentation about the technical expertise of librarians,
drew attention to another Jamie Oliver enterprise, Barbecoa, a restaurant
and butchers shop that he runs with Adam Perry Lang (http://www.barbecoa.com/).
Barbecoa’s motto - feel good, inspire, respect, and evolve – and the way
it promotes in-house skill and supplier expertise are beacons for
libraries.
Librarians can learn a
lot about creativity and collaboration from other organisations within
the sector and outside it. The smorgasbord of enterprises includes
Fayetteville Free Public Library’s maker space in which 3D printers and
other equipment is used to encourage people to make new things.
Strategies by the Royal Shakespeare Company, New York Public Library,
Ann Arbor District Library, Monstrum (a Danish playground design firm)
and Scottsdale
and Phoenix public libraries
demonstrate new ways of providing services and highlighting the skills
of staff.
Collaborating
Maryanne Hyde at Geelong
Regional Libraries Corporation has been inspired by Dancing with the
Stars in delivering services to children and young people. The
television program offers the following tips for selecting a dance
partner: compatibility, flexibility, commitment, creativity, patience,
and passion. These principles have been applied in developing a number
of partnerships in Geelong. Story Time in the Park is a partnership with
Parks Victoria to encourage people to read, anywhere, anytime. It offers
sessions at a wildlife sanctuary, the coastal foreshore and parks around
the region. Kaleidoscope involves collaboration with the Geelong
Gallery, Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Courthouse ARTS to provide
experiences across the curriculum for students in Years 5 to 8.
Serving
regional users
North Coast TAFE (NCTAFE)
Library is challenged by distance and demography. It serves 17 campuses
connected by 700 kilometres along the north coast of New South Wales.
Those who use its services include retirees, Indigenous learners,
farmers and agriculturalists. Andrew Blundell, Janelle Everest, and
Kerry Watson outlined work by the library to maintain its relevance. An
integrated Library, Information and Learning Technologies Unit has been
established. A team from the unit is assigned to each faculty. Services
are supported by a suite of software programs to facilitate
administrative, learning, information management and publishing
functions. These include Moodle, Adobe products, Equella, Sharepoint
and LibGuides. NCTAFE has worked with universities and schools in the
region to share services and campuses. Although there are issues to
resolve – use of different library management systems and different
opening hours for example - the partnerships have ensured that
professional currency is maintained.
Redesigning interfaces
Mal Booth, Belinda
Tiffen and Josh Vawdrey backed up Mitchell Whitelaw’s advice about the
nature of information retrieval in talking about developments at the
University of Technology Sydney. Preparations are underway for a move to a new library building and
plans to store 75% of its physical collection in an automatically-served
adjacent repository.
Current library
catalogues, discovery platforms and web-scale discovery services, they
said, fail to cater to users with ill-defined information needs. While
search has its place, there is a need for a process that encourages
exploration of a range of possibilities. Discovery is more about the
journey than the destination. In looking at future options for
human-mediated services, UTS Library has used design thinking and user
research. It has employed a design consultancy firm to assist. It has
launched an artist-in-residence program. And it is encouraging
serendipity and exploration through its readers’ advisory services.
It’s new single-search
catalogue uses Endeca Technology’s Information Access Platform.
Development work has focused on four inter-dependent areas. Aggregated
resources such as electronic readings, exam papers, university research
output and publications from the UTS e-Press suite are now searchable in
the Endeca catalogue. To facilitate recommendation functions, it has
employed the OpenCalais service (www.opencalais.com) to automatically
generate rich semantic metadata in Resource Description Framework format
for all content on its website. Data mining techniques have been used to
analyse borrowing patterns, search data and enrolment data in order to
point users to appropriate resources. The Library is making greater use
of social bookmarking and tagging on web pages and in user-submitted
content. The new interface is expected to be launched mid-to-late 2012.
Educating librarians
Professor Helen
Partridge from Queensland University of Technology led a panel of
speakers - ANU’s Roxanne Missingham, Innotecture’s Matt Moore and
Central West Libraries’ Jan Richards - on the subject of library and
information science (LIS) education, prompted by a recent report by the
Australian Teaching and Learning Council.
[10]
As traditional roles
continue to be challenged, the report considered qualifications in an
environment that is underpinned by the Australian Government’s 2009
report Transforming Australia’s Higher Education Systems. In
recent years the number of LIS students has declined. Lack of incentive
in professional pay levels, alternative prospects in the information and
communications technology arena, and
the blurring of boundaries between professional and paraprofessional
roles have generated new complexities. In a changing e-landscape, the
curriculum has become a moveable feast. There is an imbalance between
the number of courses being offered and openings in the marketplace:
more LIS courses per capita are offered in Australia than elsewhere. As
a niche discipline, LIS programs often find their identity, autonomy and
survival under threat. Course recognition by ALIA is being challenged by
multiple pathways to credentials.
The report makes 11
recommendations. These include the adoption of a broader and more
inclusive nomenclature to reflect the expanding field, the establishment
of a self-directed body representing teaching and research within the
information discipline and further research. Strategies are needed to
ensure the relevance of the profession and create
more flexible professional development
delivery options.
The panel and its
audience discussed the rapid and profound change that has occurred in
libraries since 1995 and the new roles being adopted in many contexts.
Life-long learning strategies are essential in a profession in which
most understanding is gained from experience. There is a challenge in
persuading young people to choose librarianship over alternatives.
Suggestions about a change of name and a fresh image were countered with
reminders that existing names such as librarian and archivist
were well understood. Although librarians need to evolve, they have
solutions. Standard educational models will not serve libraries well
because not all libraries are the same. The profession could be
strengthened by traineeships, recruitment of people from other types of
jobs and encouraging mature people to join the ranks.
Kate Byrne, from the
University of NSW Library, addressed the role of associations in the
providing professional development programs. Associations, she
said, have had a mixed record in this area. The Chartered Institute of
Library and Information Professionals in the United Kingdom and the
Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa have
recently adopted compulsory professional development schemes. But debate
continues about the effectiveness and practicality of such schemes.
Changes are needed for associations to effectively support the
industry.
She has been the
catalyst revitalising an ALIA group by applying two concepts - social
learning networks and communities of practice. ALIA Sydney emerged from
ALIA NSW, after the latter group had run out of steam. Initial work
involved matching expectations with capacity, based on the recruitment
of a committee of ten, position descriptions and surveys. The new group
has operated successfully for two years, with an injection of new blood
to ensure the momentum is sustained.
Association membership
is now less compelling because of the proliferation of social networking
tools. ALIA Sydney’s experience has reinforced the view that “people now
are looking for access to other people instead of access to content as
sources for new information.” Associations need to support this demand
otherwise the “communities may support themselves and ultimately do
without the association.” Associations, employers and individuals need
to work together to create learning communities within the sector.
Training programs by employers and the commitment of individuals are
important elements in the mix.
CODA
In drawing these themes
to a conclusion, do we need to introduce more notes?
Changing contexts
Technology continues to drive all
before it.
Time Magazine in
a recent 30-page spread reinforced signals at the conference about
mobile technology’s anticipated transformation of democracy, industry
and society.[11]
Social media are making us cross-eyed.
Larry Rosen, an American psychology professor, says they are increasing
psychiatric maladies and are taking their toll on our propensity for
deep thinking.[12]
Former science minister Barry Jones goes a step further by claiming that
stupidity is on the rise. The technology is
sophisticated but the ideas generated, he said, are banal and naive.[13]
Sydney Morning Herald columnist,
Richard Ackland, reckons the zeitgeist
is captured by one of Mitt Romney’s operatives who recently said “we’re
not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”[14]
The WikiLeaks saga, photographs of a
topless Kate Middleton and a secret recording of a speech by Alan Jones
have prompted debates about personal privacy and public secrecy.
According to Simon
Jenkins, opening up
public transparency through freedom of
information legislation has undermined sensible
government. But there can be no going back to secrecy in the public
sector.[15]
The information revolution may have
stalled.
John Naughton, reviewing a book by the
American legal scholar Tim Wu, writes that the internet now seems to be
in a state of inventive stasis. It has spawned utopian dreams and
surprises, but all we see now is an endless stream of incremental
changes and copying. There is an epidemic of patent wars. The
intellectual property regime is obsolete. Business models encourage
"free" services in return for massive intrusions on privacy and
swindles. “We may be the first civilisation in history that invented a
golden goose – and then strangled it.”[16]
On the other hand, Henry Blodger, in
State of the Internet: 2012, says it is just a phase. After a
period of high growth in the market, expectations are likely to return
to reality. Internet companies may experience years of “multiple
compression” followed by steady growth – or death. It is the way of the
world.[17]
Mathew Ingram reckons the internet is eating up our history as web pages
and links rapidly disappear.[18]
Clay Shirky is more laid back about it
all. Revolutions, he says, take a while to play out.
Collaboration doesn’t necessarily lead to innovation. Innovation needs
incubation. The internet has made it possible for more disagreement,
which is good for innovation. Cooperation without coordination, as
exemplified in the development of the Linux open source operating system
and use of the distributed version control system Git, is a good example
of how collaboration can work in a way that fits in with the ideals of
democracy.[19]
Changing libraries
Libraries continue to
be responsive to change. It has been nearly 25 years since the Librarian
of Congress James Billington, at the ALIA biennial conference in 1990,
talked about the promise of digitisation as embodied in the American
Memory Project. More than a decade later, ALIA designed its 2002
conference to explore future necessities in response to the World Wide
Web. Ten years further down the track, the long revolution rolls on, but
for libraries the basic issues remain much the same.
With limited control over their
destinies, labour intensive libraries continue to be reliant on
government funds at a time when public spending on libraries, archives
and museums is unpredictable and sometimes perplexing. Alex Byrne’s
announcement of State Government support for a major digitisation
program at the State Library of NSW coincided with budget cuts that have
led to staff reductions at the State Library and the closure of the city
reading room of State Records NSW. In North America, the razor applied
to Library and Archives Canada is indicative of tough
times being experienced in other parts of the world. The promise of
whole-of-government thinking is often followed by decisions that suggest
one hand of government doesn’t know what its other hand is doing.
Libraries value
collaboration, but serious collaboration in the cultural heritage sector
has been difficult to muster. The idea of regional hubs appeared to have
disappeared when the Federal Government pulled the plug on the
Collections Council of Australia, but it has resurfaced in a different
form as part of the National Broadband Network program. The National
Digitisation Information Infrastructure Program in the United States
demonstrated the difficulty of collaboration in diverse environments.
Managing institutional interests is not easily transferable to
sector-wide, multi-jurisdictional programs. Solutions are not
necessarily found by looking for silver bullets.
Changing associations
Kate Byrne rightly
observed that library associations depend in large part on the efforts
of committed catalysts and voluntary committees to make them work.
Answers to perpetual change, though, are likely to come from business
solutions. Ways of doing business in The Race for Relevance will
no doubt prove to be necessary partners for communities of practice.[20]
Successful strategies will be defined by the amount of money
associations make. Increased income will improve their capacity for
advocacy and improving professional practices.
SUMMING IT UP
Discovery, supported by
visualisation and data mining, were worthwhile themes to fire up those
attending the conference. Reinventing libraries for the mobile flaneurs
will no doubt involve more than rediscovering serendipity. Underscoring
the point by Ellen Forsyth, OCLC’s Lorcan Dempsey wrote in a recent blog
that libraries must make their staff more discoverable: “if libraries
wish to be seen as expert, then their expertise must be visible.”[21]
If the internet is a new City of Troy, the time may have arrived for the
librarians to emerge from their Trojan horses. Let the odyssey
continue!
