Being a Librarian
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Transcript of Being a Librarian
Being a Librarian
Karen CalhounAcademic AssemblySeptember 14, 2006
Yellowstone Mud Pots
Background of This Talk
“Being a Librarian: Metadata and Metadata Specialists in the Twenty-first Century” (in press)http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/181
3/2231The Taiga Forum
http://www.taigaforum.org/
“Whether we are in technical services, public services, collectiondevelopment, or information technology, we must develop cross-functional vision that makes internal organizational structuresmore flexible, agile, and effective.”—Taiga home page
Welcome!
The More Things Change …
“It is doubtful whether the subject catalogue does as much good as it does harm. The average student uses it without discrimination. He wants a treatise on electricity; the catalogue offers him a choice of a hundred titles, and he copies one of them absolutely at random.”—Charles Henry Hull, then assistant librarian at Cornell
Library Journal 15, no. 6 (June 1890): 167.
“Within the next five years …
… a large number of libraries will no longerhave local OPACs. Instead, we will haveentered a new age of data consolidation(either shared catalogs or catalogs that areintegrated into discovery tools), both of ourcatalogs and our collections.”
Provocative Statement #5,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
BooksJournalsNewspapersGov docsMapsScoresAVDissertations
Special collectionsManuscriptsPapersUniv records
Journal articlesConference proceedingsEtc.
Library catalogs
Archives
Abstracting &Indexing services
The Way We Worked
From Dempsey, Lorcan, Eric Childress et al. 2005. “Metadata switch.” In E-Scholarship: A LITA Guide (Chicago: LITA).
The Larger Context: Knowledge Management
Knowledge communities “interpret information about the environment in order to construct meaning … create new knowledge by converting and combiningthe expertise and know-how of their members …[and] analyze information in order to select and committo appropriate courses of action.”—Chun Wei Choo,professor of Information Studies, University of Toronto
The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to ConstructMeaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998), xii.
DOMAINEXPERTS:
Professors, grad.students, researchers, deans,university leaders and staff
THE UNIVERSITY KNOWING
COMMUNITYINFORMATIONEXPERTS:
Librarians, recordsmanagers, archivists,
others
IT EXPERTS:Desktop, computer lab
and server support; applications for academic, research, administrative
support; networks,telecommunications, security
Knowledge Pyramid of the University Community
Adapted from Choo, Information Management for the Intelligent Organization, 238.
A multidimensional framework for academic support: a final report submitted to the Mellon Foundation from the University of Minnesota Libraries, June 2006, p. 47.http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml
Geocentric/Aristotelian view:The local catalog is thesun
Heliocentric/Copernican view:The local catalogis a planet
Vision for Change: The Catalog
The catalog will evolve toward full integration with other discovery tools
Shared catalogs and open information systems will radically democratize access to library collections and boost scholarly productivity to new levels
Calhoun, Karen. The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integrationwith Other Discovery Tools. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 17 March 2006. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf
“Within the next five years …
…there will no longer be a monolithic libraryWeb site. Instead library data will be pushedout to many starting places on the Web anddirectly to users.”
Provocative Statement #6,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
“Within the next five years …
… academic computing and libraries willhave merged. The library will be a partnerin the learning and research support infrastructure. Its value will depend on itsability to reallocate resources to new curation, workflow, and resource specializa-tion services.”
Provocative Statement #7,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
A New Kind of Library
Build a vision of a new kind of library
Be more involved with research and learning materials and systems
Be more engaged withcampus communities
Make library collections and librarians more visible
Move to next generation systems and services
An online social network
Information Silos
21 LIBRARY SYSTEM
PUBLIC SERVICESTECH SERVICES
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT
IT
7 UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS, 7
GRADUATE/PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS
“INFORMATION NETWORK” PROCESSES
Outreach: A BOTH/AND World
DATA
PEOPLE
Outward Integration
“Integration should be outward rather than inward, with libraries seeking to use their components in new ways”
--Interviewee for LC report on future of the catalog
The Tucson Retreat
“Instead of being a hoarder of containers, the library must become the facilitator of retrieval and dissemination.”—William Wulf,professor of engineering and applied science,University of Virginia
“Individual libraries will still maintain uniqueand wonderful special collections, but our primary investment will be in access systems.”—Joseph Brewer et al., Tucson Retreat
Joseph Brewer et al., “Libraries dealing with the future now,” ARL Bimonthly Report 234 (June 2004).
Knowledge Creation and Social Networks
“Improving efficiency and effectiveness in knowledge-intensive work demands more than sophisticated technologies—it requiresattending to the often idiosyncratic ways that people seek out knowledge, learn from and solve problems with other people.”—Rob Cross,University of Virginia
Rob Cross et al., “Knowing what we know” Organizational Dynamics 30, no. 2 (November 2001), 101.
“Within the next five years …
…libraries will have reduced the physical footprint of the physical collection by at least 50 percent …”
Provocative Statement #2,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
Library Space and Print Collections
MAS 2010: Models for Academic Support: Final Report to the Mellon Foundation.Cornell University, November 2003, p. 5. (Oya Rieger, MAS2010 team chair)http://www.library.cornell.edu/MAS/MAS2010%20Final%20Report.pdf
Gaps in Satisfaction
-1.6
-1.4
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
E-resourcesremote access
Easy-to-useweb site
Print or e-journals
Printed librarymaterials
Multimediacollections Space for study Group space
Undergrad Graduate Faculty
Online library Collections Space
LibQUAL+ 2005 Survey: Cornell University Library. Association of ResearchLibraries. http://www.libqual.org
30 Second Summary of MAS2010 Recommendations
Front-end: Central Campus Buildings State-of-the-art user spaces (individuals and groups) Service and consulting desks House high-demand/selected portions of physical collections
Middle: Online Collections & Services Digitize Provide easy-to-use systems Fast content delivery, preferably at the speed of the Internet Push content out to where users are
Back End: Off-Campus Nearby Free up prime space on central campus to enhance collaboration of
researchers and learners Move less-used collections offsite Establish library service center for provision of integrated back-end
services (e.g., acquisitions and cataloging)
MAS2010 report, p. 13.
“Within the next five years …
…there will be no more librarians as weknow them ...”
Provocative Statement #8,http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
Summary: Being a Librarian
Cross-functional teamwork
Project management User-centered design Partnerships Collaboration Relationship
management
Metadata Outreach Advocacy Marketing Active participation in
university community IT fluency >> IT
specialization And more …
Be a Librarian First
+ Endure
Defend and promote the freedom to readConnect people and ideas
Help people discover and use information resourcesProtect privacy and confidentiality
Make space for lifelong learning, quiet reflection and community