Talk of the revolution continues. The
transformational nature of the information revolution has been the dark
cloud with a silver lining of library conferences since the Web began.
The slogan for this year’s VALA conference — connections, content,
conversations — stimulated fresh curiosity about the forces driving us
through the next phase of the revolution. [i]
DRIVERS OF THE REVOLUTION
Three keynote speakers set the scene.
Changing online habits
Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American
Life Project, was to give an address about the predilections of online
users. He was unable to attend because of a blizzard in Washington. But
his paper, Network Creators, assessing how users of social media
have changed the ecology of information, is the obvious starting point
for this article.
The statistics flag the story. In 1990, a tenth of the
population in the United States used the internet to broadcast or
“narrowcast” to an audience. Now, well over half the population is
involved in such activities. Roughly two-thirds of adult Internet users
have created material for the Web, 57% have written material on a social
networking site such as Facebook, 19% are using services like Twitter,
and 15% are creating or working on a personal website, a blog and
re-mixed information. More is known about the political views, tastes,
friendship circles, basic lifestyle preferences, and daily activities of
individuals than ever before.
The online world is as varied as people who inhabit it.
It is composed of a number of cultures or classes, who are driven by
technical, social and entrepreneurial interests. There is also a participatory class, consisting of people
who “move across, undermine and go beyond the boundaries of existing
institutions.” Amateurs participate in many of the arenas that used to
be limited to experts. Online mobs influence government policies and
marshal forces against evil-doers. Committed individuals create powerful
online resources without any thought of making money from the exercise.
Public and private universes have become more entwined.
This new world of user-generated content is changing the
media landscape. Evidence of this change has been pinpointed by the
Pew’s Excellence in Journalism Project. The social media world is built
on reaction to the traditional media world and it often focuses on
special, small corners of that world rather than the weightier subjects
that are covered by the traditional media.
This information ecology, Rainie writes, requires vastly
different survival traits for information users and the librarians who
help them. These traits include reviewing traditional services,
exploiting new media networks to become more vivid “nodes”, and
acquiring the skills demanded by the new world.
Librarians reading these suggestions may be
left wondering why there is a perception their mindset is in need of
renovation: the advice does underline the direction in which they are
moving.
The changing economy
McKenzie Wark’s story was about the
contradictions of working in the gift economy, based on his experience
of writing books. His talk coincided with his essay on the same topic in
Meanjin.[ii]
Walk first started thinking about the contradictions when
writing The Hacker Manifesto. Although he gave a digital version
away, people still bought copies of the book. Although he owned the
copyright, he only wanted people to seek his permission to use it.
Observing the letter of the law was less important than the relationship
with the readers. The Hacker Manifesto was both gift and
commodity.
When he began to write his later book,
Gamer Theory he decided to push the boundaries further. Working with
the Institute for the Future of the Book, he made the book available on
a website before it was finished and invited readers to comment.[iii]
What the readers said informed the revised editions, including the
final printed version published by Harvard University Press. The process
demonstrated two complementary forms of knowledge at work — consensus
knowledge and critical knowledge. Although this form of collaboration is
not democratic, the reader’s voice matters and it does improve the
process of writing and proofing. The reader-writer relationships may not
work for everyone, but special kinds of knowledge are open to
connection. The right time for interaction is during the experimental
stage.
Working towards the semantic web
Tom Tague is also someone who has gained
from the experience of giving something away. He said he knew little of
what libraries do. As leader of the OpenCalais initiative at Thomson
Reuters [iv],
his universe was the semantic web and the linked content economy.
OpenCalais offers free metadata generation services,
developer tools and an automatic connection to the Linked Data
cloud. Users of the service feed their content into an extraction
engine. This categorises each document, finds people, places, companies,
facts and events, and then returns the metadata to the user. Along with
the extracted metadata, it returns links to free data on the open web –
such as Wikipedia, CIA World Factbook, and the Internet Movie Database.
The metadata is then used to improve the reader experience through
additional information, better search navigation, and other
enhancements.
Some great work is being done by users of the service, he
said. The Powerhouse Museum uses it to generate tags for items in its
collection. Media Cloud uses it to explore trends in media coverage,
blog posts and other information. Document Cloud, an online resource
offering public access to reporters’ original source material, uses it
to highlight hidden connections, thus reducing the cost of investigative
journalism. Large daily newspapers are using OpenCalais to expose
scoundrels. More and more metadata generation tools are being created.
Linked Data, a standard promulgated by Sir Tim
Berners-Lee, is going to take over the world, he promised. By embracing
the standard Thomson Reuters has built the scaffolding that enables
websites, social networks and other content-rich applications to
navigate between previously separate silos of data and information.
Publisher sites will be able to dynamically mingle and deliver
additional content based on user preferences, profiles, friends’
selections and breaking topics. Media Monitoring tools will deliver
slices of information from websites and blogs. Plug-ins will bypass
searching by integrating social networking and blogging sites.
His next comments may have been the most interesting of
the conference. The web is now a big mess. We need to overhaul the human
knowledge system. The new form of democracy brings cacophony, many
voices, many truths, noise in an echo chamber. This makes it harder to
find what we are looking for. Web 3.0 will arrive when we’ve cleaned up
Web 2.0. We’re in the wild ride of our lifetime.
The web may be a disaster but structure is emerging.
Mega-scale interoperability is on the horizon. We’re getting close to
the “ipod moment.” There will be a Semantic Web and it will be
fantastic. But, in its current state, it is struggling to catalogue new
content types, to reconcile consistently tagged content, to offer
federated search against diverse content. It needs to address ambiguity,
automate tagged content in a consistent way, detect connections, provide
contexts, deliver insights, and chunk content so it can be mashed-up in
new ways. In this universe, the aggregated metadata of libraries will be
extremely valuable. The knowledge of librarians, their experience and
expertise, their commitment to truth, trust, authority and their keen
understanding of the user, are needed.
To be a more effective player in the linked content
revolution, he said, librarians need to move from cataloguing to
knowledge engineering and build domain-technology partnerships. “Don’t
just talk about end users, talk back end.”
CALLS TO ARM
The voice of librarians was well served by three
prominent Americans with outstanding credentials. They also urged us to
be part of the revolution and to look at things with fresh eyes, but
without jettisoning what we now do.
Be part of the cloud revolution
Roy Tennant, Senior Program Officer at OCLC, owner of the
Web4Lib and XML4Lib e-lists and creator and editor of Current Cites,
underscored the components of the future laid out by Tom Tague. We are
actually part of a third revolution, he said. The first revolution was
the creation of the Internet. The second was the arrival of the World
Wide Web. And the third, revolving around cloud computing, draws on
structured data, which are revealed through the use of APIs and Linked
Data. Tennant gave the lesson on this revolution to those who needed
it.
An API (application programming interface) is a
method for one software application to communicate with another. To
learn more about it, Tennant recommended Programmable Web (http://www.programmableweb.com/apis)
and TechEssence.info (http;//techessence.info/apis). Research underway
includes terminology services at Indiana University’s
Digital Library Program (http://www.dlib.indiana.edu),
where a demonstration site
searches descriptions of images in three of the Program's collections
and offers term expansions and suggestions using the experimental OCLC’s
Terminology Services (http://tspilot.oclc.org/resources/). Other
experiments have involved the use of the WorldCat API and the WorldCat
Identities API to deliver information to the iPhone.
Linked Data involves use of Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URIs) as the names for things, the use of HTTP
URIs to enable people to look up those names, the provision of useful
data when someone looks up a URI by using relevant standards such as RDF
and SPARQL, and the inclusion of links to other URIs so they can find
more things. See, for example, DBpedia, the linked data version of
Wikipedia (http://dbpedia.org/), GeoNames
(http://www.geonames.org/), and OpenCalais. In the library context,
Tennant recommended we check out LC authorities and vocabularies
(http://id.loc.gov/authorities),
Media Spaces (http://www.mediaspaces.info)
and Dewey Decimal Classifications at Dewey Info (http://dewey.info)..
Cloud computing, to use the Wikipedia definition, is “a
style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized
resources are provided as a service over the Internet.” In offering low
barriers to entry and pay-as- you-go mechanisms it avoids the need for
capital investment. It avoids the need for local server capacity. It
takes advantage of automatically distributed software upgrades. And it
saves staff time. Its drawbacks include the lack of complete control and
the reliance on network connectivity and speed. For examples of cloud
computing, see Amazon Web Services (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
and http://aws.amazon.com/ec2),
Xerxes (http://xerxes.calstate.edu/),
Worldcat (http://www.worldcat.org)
and Ex Libris MetaLib (http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/category/MetLibOverview).
“The revolution will not be televised,” he concluded. “It
will happen in the cloud led by individuals doing creative things with
structured data.”
Look at things with new eyes
Karen Calhoun, Vice President of OCLC WorldCat and
Metadata Services, called on the authority of groundbreakers from
Copernicus onwards in urging librarians to look at things afresh. As
Marcel Proust wrote in À la Recherche du temps perdu: "The real
act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new
eyes."
Recent technological developments have had an incredible,
disruptive impact on libraries and other enterprises. Traditional
practices have been upended. We
need to adapt to new conditions by strengthening cooperation on four
fronts.
Cooperative front number one is embedding
collections in discovery spaces to enable readers to “find it on Google,
get it from my library.” Her 2006 study of library cataloguing proposed
a number of strategies for revitalising library catalogues[v].
Leadership is needed to encourage outward integration into the wider
Web. Today’s separate library systems could be
independent but loosely connected, or we could have many more shared
systems, or we could rely on the cloud and “not care what’s up there as
long as it works,” or some combination of solutions. WorldCat
creates one form of outward integration through the use of lightweight
but deliberate cooperative management of metadata from thousands of
loosely coupled systems. The key features of this system are frequent
synchronisation of data, use of identifiers for information objects and
people, use of configuration profiles that automate information sharing
among separate organisations, accurate linking of data and syntax, and
the application of standards.
The more we pay attention to these details, the
better will be the experience of users in discovering material and
getting hold of it from library collections.
Cooperative front number two is
enabling discovery and delivery of a wider range of information objects.
The public is interested in a wider range of information objects. The
library collection is being redefined. Digital library collections are
greatly increasing in popularity. There is rising Interest in the
digital collections of national libraries. Open access repositories are
gaining visibility and impact..
Cooperative front number three is
engaging with communities. The library sector has achieved much through
cooperation, but we can push engagement with local communities much
further.
Cooperative front number four is
cultural change. “It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to
do, and then do your best”, she said, quoting W. Edward Deming. We need
to collectively embrace a culture of assessment, evidence-based decision
making, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Good intentions,
hard work and an old blueprint for service are insufficient.
To wrap up her talk and to stimulate
thinking after VALA 2010, she offered a series of what-ifs about library
cooperation at global, national and regional levels. What if libraries
could more readily share the effort and costs of collection management,
including analysis, collection development,
offsite storage, preservation, e-resources and networked knowledge
bases? What if they
could manage collections in the cloud?
What if they could take this current picture
of many systems to support locally and move these systems up to a Web
scale solution, or cloud computing? What if they could cooperate
to move from isolated digital collections to interoperable digital
libraries? What if they could
turn the world’s largest aggregation of bibliographic and holdings data
into the world’s largest aggregation of information about authors and
other creators?
Some of these what-ifs have become
more than mere speculation. Three projects at OCLC serve as examples.
The OCLC Digital Collections Gateway is a web-based, self-service tool
to assist libraries and other cultural heritage enterprises using
CONTENTdm to contribute digital repository metadata to WorldCat.
WorldCat Identities, a larger, beta version of People Australia, is an
example of the kind of things that can be done if you have enough
aggregated data. It gives an overview of the person, lists the most
widely held works by and about a person, and links to the LC authority
file, Wikipedia and other sources. VIAF, the Virtual International
Authority File is another global cooperative venture to support
multilingual searching and provide better value of services at national,
regional and local levels.
The prize of achieving new levels of
library cooperation, Calhoun said, is nothing less than commanding a
much larger, more visible and effective presence for libraries in our
societies. Library cooperation is an effective adaptive behavior that
has the potential to keep libraries strong and vibrant in the
communities they serve.
Marshall Breeding, Director for Innovative
Technologies and Research at Vanderbilt University Libraries, Nashville,
and creator and editor of the Library Technology Guides[vi],
focused on systems in his presentation, Blending Evolution with
Revolution.
Headlines for his annual reviews of
the automation marketplace for the ALA Library Journal’s Automation
Marketplace tell a story of constant marketplace fluctuation,
underscored by sales figures for individual systems.
The Library automation scene is in a
period of transition.
Libraries are in transition. There is
a shift from print to electronic. There is increasing emphasis on
subscribed content, especially articles and databases. There is a strong
emphasis on digitising local collections. There is demand for enterprise
integration and interoperability.
Users are in transition. The
Millennial generation is self sufficient and is reluctant to seek
assistance. This generation perceives itself as competent to use
information tools without help. It is Web savvy. Collaborative work
styles are its modus operandi.
Technologies are in transition. XML,
Web services and service-oriented architecture define the landscape.
They are moving beyond Web 2.0 by integrating social computing into core
infrastructure. Local computing is shifting to cloud platforms, such as
SaaS, the private cloud and the public cloud. Mobile technology is the
current focus, but is only one example of the range of devices and
interfaces.
The evolutionary path is characterised
by gradual enhancement of long-standing integrated library system (ILS)
platforms, wrapping legacy code in APIs and Web services, and continued
development of particular systems (as exemplified by the work of
SirsiDynix, Innovative and Civica). The library automation market has a
long-standing preference of evolved systems. It is a very difficult and
lengthy process to build a new library automation system from scratch.
Legacy systems bring forward both rich functionality as well as concepts
tied to the past.
But we are also seeing developments
along a revolutionary path. There are now competing models of library
automation. There are traditional proprietary commercial systems, as
represented by Millennium, Symphony and Polaris. There are traditional
open source systems, as represented by Evergreen and Koha. There are
clean slate, service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise-ready
automation frameworks, as represented by Ex Libris URM and the OLE
Project. And there are cloud-based automation systems, as represented by
WorldCat Local.
There is now a fundamental assumption
about the need for hybrid libraries comprising print and digital
materials. The traditional ILS model is not adequate for hybrid
libraries. Libraries are currently moving towards surrounding core
systems with additional modules to handle electronic content. New
discovery layer interfaces are replacing or supplementing ILS OPACS.
Do open source products
have the potential to transform library operations? At the moment,
reviews are mixed. Open source companies are struggling to meet
expectations. Two open source systems lag behind proprietary systems in
terms of extending functionality and interoperability. “The APIs
available to library programmers continue to be quirky and less than
comprehensive, even from the vendors with the strongest offerings in
this area.”[vii]
Libraries are moving beyond an
automated version of the old card cataloguing, but there is still a
disjointed approach to information and service delivery. Silos prevail,
even in the delivery of books and journal articles online. There is a
lack of a lack of a unified web presence. Users don’t understand the
distinctions we make.
Breeding has a simple vision. “We need
a single point of entry to all the content and services offered by the
library, but with precision, nuanced sophistication, and multiple
dimensions.” To support this vision, the online catalogue will need to
be replaced by a discovery layer that utilises a range of products,
decoupled from integrated library systems. It will need to leverage
social networking interactions. It will need harness deep indexing;
metadata will no longer serve as the only basis for discovery. There
will need to be more opportunities to search for content using improved,
high-quality metadata. There will be a need to move beyond the
limitations of federated searching. There will be a need to move beyond
local discovery interfaces. There will be a need to use mobile
technologies, the new front for library discovery. And there will be a
need to shift to cloud-based computing platforms.
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
If the well-chosen keynote presentations were
weathervanes, those who had been given slots in the concurrent sessions
revealed the extent to which librarians and others were responding to
necessity and opportunity. The peer-reviewed papers are available on the
VALA conference site. The following summaries will assist navigation to
the details.
Portals
Australia’s flagship service, Trove (http://trove.nla.gov.au/),
launched in December 2009 by the National Library, exemplifies the drive
towards a simpler path to the wealth in Australia’s libraries. Warwick
Cathro and Susan Collier describe the policy and technical challenges of
creating Trove and plans for its development. These include continued
decommissioning of standalone services such as Libraries Australia free
search, Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, Australian
Newspapers service, and Picture Australia. It includes enhancements such
as RSS feeds, improved sorting of results, and more external targets. In
the second half of 2010, public access to more full text journal
articles is expected and the Library aims to strengthen the coverage of
content held by archives and museums. In a separate presentation, Jane
Hunter and Anna Gerber describe the Aust-e-lit project, which aims to
address the e-research needs of researchers involved in the study of
Australian literature and Australian print culture and to enhance and
extend the existing AustLit Web portal with data integration, searching,
reporting, and publishing services.[viii]
Data curation
Increased interest in data curation and the role of
libraries and librarians in managing and providing access to research
data was reflected in two papers on the Australian National Data Service
(ANDS, http://ands.org.au/). The $72
million Australian Government-funded service operates as a collaborative
enterprise of Monash University, the Australian National University and
CSIRO and aims to “transform the disparate collections of research data
around Australia into a cohesive collection of research resources.”
Achieving this will draw on a range of activities from data management
policies and plans through to discovery service. At the centre of its
services will be a research data commons to encourage publication of
data and access to it. Adrian Burton and Andrew Treloar outline plans
for the development of the Publish My Data service. David Groenewegen,
in his paper, focuses on the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct
of Research and the necessity of creating a compliance regime in the
higher education sector. Librarians, record managers and archivists and
their employers have a potentially useful role, based on the experience
in managing institutional repositories and metadata.
Institutional repositories
Data curation, as an opportunity for
institutional repositories, also percolates to the surface in papers by
Jean-Gabriel Bankier, Tim Tamminga and Courtney Smith, from Berkeley
Electronic Press in the United States, by Andrew Harrison and Sam
Searle, from Monash University, on the ARROW Repository, and by
Danny Kingsley, from the Australian National University, on Australian
and international techniques for promoting institutional repositories.
The message from these papers is that digital repositories are at the
crossroads. To succeed, they need to increase the scope of content,
become more effectively integrated with university programs, and deal
with quality control on expert-created metadata.
University libraries
The impact of technology on buildings and services are
considered thoroughly in two papers. Mal Booth, Sophie McDonald and
Belinda Tiffen from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) explore
technology issues raised by the keynote speakers. Additional concepts
driving library structures and design specifications for a new building
in 2015 include a more ubiquitous presence, personalised and customised
service, integrated physical and digital spaces, provision of ‘always
on’ services, the development of a new green building and green work
practices, and, in essence, developing the library “as a vital part of a
new creative digital ecosystem.” The vision for the UTS is underscored
in the paper by Rachel Chidlow and Hester Mountfield about the
experience of the Information Commons Group at the University of
Auckland, which already has runs on the board.
Systems management
The integration of different databases within libraries
has been a real challenge for the last couple of decades. Simon Huggard
and Michele Hosking describe data modelling and other work undertaken in
synchronising systems within the State Library of Victoria (Ex Libris’s
Primo, DigiTool, Metalib, SFX and Voyager systems, Relais
international’s Interlibrary Loans system, and smaller systems such as
EAD XML documents and the open source system Archivists Toolkit). John
Garraway writes about business models and other issues
affecting the development of integrated technology solutions in
universities. Shirley White, Roxanne Missingham and Rina Brettell
describe the experience of developing ParlInfo Search, which provides
integrated access to bibliographic and full text information to the
Parliament of Australia and the general public. Carolyn McDonald and
Kate Davis comment on the possible impact of cloud computing, open
source software and other developments on ICT support for library
services. And May Chang, from the University of Maryland Baltimore
County, describes the Agile project management approach and the Crystal
Clear method in managing IT solutions.
Open source software
To add to Marshall Breeding’s keynote
address, Kathryn Greenhill trawls through the territory of
open source library software, including Scriblio, SOPAC2, VUFind,
Blacklight, Koha, Evergreen and the Open Library Environment. Among her
conclusions: don’t expect to save money; ensure that project management
fundamentals are observed; reassess existing in-house procedures before
adopting any an open source solution in case there are workarounds for
existing software; make sure that decisions for change are based on
necessity; make sure that staff understand the nature of software
development.
Website management and usability studies
User behaviour continues to information
website development. Bobby Graham and Paul Hagon report on a
review of user behaviour and usability at the National library after the
implementation of VuFind, an open source library resource portal, as its
new online catalogue. Kat Clancy and Michelle Watson report on usability
testing at Deakin University. Karen Joc and Kayo Chang, in their paper,
explore the impact of discovery platforms on the information seeking
behaviour of English-as-a-second-language undergraduate students at
Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. While, Michelle McLean and
Linda Burridge give us the benefit of their experience in using the free
Drupal content management system at Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation,
Search engines and discovery layers
The front end continues to depend on the back end. Jane
Burke explores search technology broadly, including discovery
layers, federated search, and Web-scale discovery as tools for
attracting researchers to the library. Michael Gonzalez
highlights issues for libraries choosing to make federated searching,
based on the experience of the University of Western Sydney. Paul Hagon
describes investigations into searching audio material and images at the
National Library of Australia and possible impacts on traditional
cataloguing methodologies.
Using Web 2.0 technology to provide services
Web 2.0 tools are all the rage, but are they effective or
do they just generate activity? Michelle McLean and Paul Mercieca
attempt to answer the question based on the experience of five library
blogs at Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation. Paul Sutherland reports
on the use of a range of technologies at Christchurch City Libraries.
Fiona Salisbury and Sandi Monaghan looks at the experience of La
Trobe University Library. Majella Pugh reports on the use of wikis for a
virtual health hub at the University of Queensland. Ellen Forsyth
reports on their use by the New South Wales Public Library Reference and
Information Services Group. While Zaana Howard and Darren Ryan consider
Yammer, an enterprise microblogging application at CPA Australia.
Amirhossein Mohtasebi and Parnian Najafi Borazjani raise privacy
concerns about the use social networks and online communities by
students in Malaysian universities
Using Web 2.0 tools for professional development
And, for librarians, what’s the best way of
keeping ahead of the game now? Sue Cook and Constance Wiebrands provide
advice on using online social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and
Friendfeed. While Michael Stephens, Richard Sayers and Warren Cheetham
report on the CAVAL 2009 Visiting Scholar Research Project,
Measuring the Impact of Learning 2.0 Programs in Australian Libraries,
as a tool for training library staff in emerging technologies.
Mobile technology
In reflections on the new hot topic, Patrick
Gregory describes the pros and cons of implementing the Vocera wireless
communications system to support mobile customer service at the State
Library of Victoria. Sarah-Jane Saravani discusses standards
under development for mobile learning services and the methodologies
used to change the Waikato Institute of Technology Library's search
interfaces as a result of the studies of the nomadic learners. And Alan
Butters, from Sybis, gives an update on the development of the RFID
standard ISO/IEC 28560 and comments on its implications for libraries.
Digitisation
Mal Booth, in a blog about the conference,
lamented Australia’s lack of a digitisation strategy.[ix]
At VALA 2010, surprisingly, digitisation and digital preservation wasn’t
represented as a major issue. Anna Shadbolt, Joe Arthur and Silvia
Paparozzi describe the experience of digitising the University of
Melbourne calendar. Robyn Van Dyk explores the experience of
publishing private records online, the notebooks and diaries of CEW Bean
at the Australian War Memorial. And Cathie Jilovsky, George Panagiotidis
and Janette Wright describe processes used by CAVAL to convert content
into digital form, using a Kirtas 2400 RA Book Digitising device.
Metrics
Number crunching as a management necessity
is represented by at least three papers. David Wells and Petra Dumbell
analyse the relationship between e-book usage statistics and acquisition
approaches. Lynne Horwood and Sabina Robertson provide an update on
bibliometrics as a tool for librarians to engage with their academic
communities, focusing on visual representation features of Scopus
(Elsevier) and Web of Science (Thomson Reuters). Carol Tenopir and
Donald King explore measures of value in supporting the worth of the
library. And Les Firth writes about tools used to inform management of
Yarra Plenty Regional Library.
Exhibitions and multimedia experiences
Museums and galleries have been playing with high-tech
displays for the best part of twenty years. Stephanie Orlic’s multimedia
presentation on the Louvre Museum Lab project (http://www.museumlab.jp/english/)
was therefore of special interest at VALA 2010. The Lab is a joint
effort with the Japanese firm, Dai Nippon Printing, and explores new
approaches for providing “an exceptional encounter
with works from the Louvre collection.” Experimental efforts include
tools to bring the geographical and historical backdrop into
focus, and blending filmed and digital images to highlight details of
interest in artworks, among other projects.
WRAPPING IT UP
Two panels were brought together to sum up major trends
and challenges.
In the first, chaired by Anne Beaumont, Karen Calhoun,
Roy Tennant, Marshall Breeding and Tom Tague gave their views about the
impact of user generated and social networked content on the next
generation of information portals. Their views were not necessarily the
same, but the messages that came through made common sense. We shouldn’t
get too hung up about social media. In working out what to do with them,
clearly differentiate types of information. Treat some social media
content as conversations, as letters to the editor. Be prepared to blend
things, to make the cloud better. Develop systems to answer questions
not just to discover things.
Another panel session, A Fireside Chat with Roy Tennant
and Friends, was organised at the last minute to make up for the absence
of the blizzard-bound Lee Rainie. Their focus was on the dynamics of the
e-content marketplace. Publishers have major concerns about potential
economic impacts. There is still a place for indexing and abstracting
services, but these services will die unless there is an increase in
links to full texts. Small publishers in the social sciences and
humanities may be at risk. On the other hand, niche will be important –
for example, in the provision of Australian content. Libraries and
publishers are not really responding to the rising demand for ebooks. We
need to start looking at producing books in chunks. Multimedia is
challenging the nature of books. Libraries buy 4% of what is available,
but to the bookselling business, 4% is a highly influential part of the
market.
If the members of the panel could be granted one wish for
the future what would it be? Heather Crosby (RMIT Publishing) wanted
simplification of rights management. Carol Tenopir (University of
Tennessee) urged an emphasis on products and services. Teule Morgan
(Swinburne University of Technology) wanted quicker responses to
changing circumstances. Jane Burke (Serials Solutions) hoped for tools
to generate high quality metadata more quickly. Ingrid Mason
(Collections Australian Network) wanted more speed, more lateral
connections, and more digitisation of unique materials. Roy Tennant’s
thinking was revolutionary and evolutionary: create ferment, seize
opportunities, and be relevant. As we left the auditorium after fireside
chat, a crooner on the public address system sang the Harold Arlen and
Ted Koehler song, Stormy Weather.
The underlying currents of the conference
were that the Semantic Web is near and that cloud computing is a pearly
path leading us towards that destination. Indeed, if you look at the
Hugh Hefner professor in Apple’s Knowledge Navigator promo, you do get a
feeling that the 1987 fantasy is now close to the reality.[x]
But the Semantic Web is still a promised land. Those driven towards it
continue to wrestle with sceptics who doubt its feasibility. Semantic
issues await answers to the challenges identified by Tom Tague. Some
people look at cloud computing in the same way that some people look at
bottled water. Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software
Foundation, for example, has dubbed it a marketing hype campaign.
"Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody
saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to
make it true."[xi]
At the conference, questions about ownership and preservation of
information in the cloud were flagged, but not explored.
The conference began with a YouTube clip of
a pre-school digital native called Abby, who sympathised with delegates
but asked for more rapid action: “I know you’re really busy working on
this. But I’m a digital native and I want it now! So hurry up and
get cracking.”[xii]
Well, Abby, life wasn’t meant to be easy: you’ve got to
feel some pain on the path to heaven. The information revolution is one
of de Tocqueville’s slow but sweeping transformations that will take several
generations to bring about. It’s an evolution with innovative outbursts.
An organic Web is leading us to a linked up future in which language is
the impediment as well as the currency. If the Web is a wonderful
disaster waiting to be cleaned up, librarians have had the experience to
know that you can’t necessarily rush these things and that dealing with
dirty data involves discipline in the back end at a time when the back
end is an open office.
End notes
[vii]
Breeding M. Opening up Library Systems
through Web Services and SOA: Hype or Reality?
(Library Technology Reports Nov/Dec Issue 2009)
[xii]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_zzPBbXjWs
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