Emerging Cybraries

De Lange ConferenceRice University

070305

© Michael A. Keller 2007

It isn’t just this anymore…

An expanding spectrum…

Webs of Information Objects…

“The Library of the Mind”

That which an individual scholar, and by implication a team of scholars, controls by memory (or some aide memoire) of source materials relevant to his or her or

their topic of research.There is, of course, some correlation between

the Library of the Mind and the contents of a library or many libraries.

Duckles, Vincent.  “The Library of the Mind:  Observations on the Relationship between Musical Scholarship and Bibliography,” in Current Thought in Musicology, ed. John W. Grubbs (Austin:  University of Texas Press, 1976).

An Information Object

Feigenbaum’s Library of the Future

“Imagine the Library as an active intelligent knowledge server…a network of systems in which people and machines collaborate.”

Feigenbaum, Edward, “Age of Intelligent Machines: from file servers to knowledge servers” 1990

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS!

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre

counts

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre

counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important Identifying genres in results is helpful

To note later

Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important Identifying genres in results is helpful Broadening a search is good too

To note later Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important Identifying genres in results is helpful Broadening a search is good too Transparency of the relevance engine is

important

To note later Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important Identifying genres in results is helpful Broadening a search is good too Transparency of the relevance engine is important Providing opportunities for deeper examination of a

source counts

To note later Accuracy and precision count Meta Data counts GUI navigation may help Great engineering ROCKS! Searching across silos is necessary Searching deeply regardless of genre counts Narrowing a search iteratively is important Identifying genres in results is helpful Broadening a search is good too Transparency of the relevance engine is important Providing opportunities for deeper examination of a

source counts Providing various formats for reading is good

To note later -2-

The citation map makes relationships clear

Showing relative frequency of citing helps Hot links beneath the citation blobs saves

time

To note later -2-

The citation map makes relationships clear

Showing relatively frequency of citing helps

Hot links beneath the citations saves time Taxonomic terms allow precise

identification of subjects within an information object

To note later -2-

The citation map makes relationships clear Showing relatively frequency of citing helps Hot links beneath the citations saves time Taxonomic terms allow precise identification

of subjects within an information object Supplying copious data about an information

object speeds research

To note later -2-

The citation map makes relationships clear Showing relatively frequency of citing helps Hot links beneath the citations saves time Taxonomic terms allow precise identification

of subjects within an information object Supplying copious data about an information

object speeds research Taxonomic terms need to be precise

To note later -2-

The citation map makes relationships clear Showing relatively frequency of citing helps Hot links beneath the citations saves time Taxonomic terms allow precise identification of

subjects within an information object Supplying copious data about an information

object speeds research Taxonomic terms need to be precise Searching in a document & providing the

context of the “hits” helps readers

To note later -3-

Subject portals can be helpful if current & deep

To note later -3-

Subject portals can be helpful if current & deep

Portal information & services must be current, relevant

To note later -3-

Subject portals can be helpful if current & deep

Portal information & services must be current, relevant

Good portals are not inexpensive, but save time & enhance communities of shared interests

To note later -3-

Subject portals can be helpful if current & deep

Portal information & services must be current, relevant

Good portals are not inexpensive, but save time & enhance communities of shared interests

Great portals are closely responsive to their readers’ needs

To note later -3-

Subject portals can be helpful if current & deep Portal information & services must be current,

relevant Good portals are not inexpensive, but save

time & enhance communities of shared interests

Great portals are closely responsive to their readers’ needs

Great portals provide real depth of information and services

To note later -4-

Some good portals are merely guides to research and the literature of a discipline or topic

To note later -4-

Some good portals are merely guides to research and the literature of a discipline or topic

Better portals have reciprocal links from discovery devices (like OPACs)

To note later -4-

Some good portals are merely guides to research and the literature of a discipline or topic

Better portals have reciprocal links from discovery devices (like OPACs)

Alerting & recommendation services save readers time & keep them current

Alerting & recommendation services are best invoked by readers

We need an effective Federated Search Engine

that covers our local OPACs, the Public Web, and the Access Controlled, Deep

Web!OR

We need a fully realized Semantic Web, one

populated with richly documented digital objects.

Universal Librarian/Cybrarian Functions

(regardless of format or genre)• Selection & Acquisition• Providing Intellectual Access• Providing full access, when legal & possible• Guiding, Teaching, Interpreting, Answering• Assisting with Analysis & Presentation• Preserving physical & digital information

objects• Evolving as “the Web of actionable

information expands” & Information services are created

New Roles for Cybrarians• As subject specialists & reference cybrarians

– “diagnose” faculty interests algorithmically & by direct contact– Create subject/topical portals; push information from them to

clients– Become “channel editors” for researchers– Instruct students in information heuristic– Help faculty manage their intellectual property– Select & care for collections of digital objects from the Web, from

publications, from labs, from personal computers

• As intellectual access specialists– Apply taxonomic & semantic indexing engines– Assure (algorithmic) linking of information objects– Create meta-data when needed

Library Facilities

• Becoming “bookless”?• Must provide intellectual support, mediation,

instruction• Must provide comfortable & varied study/research

environments• Must provide for collaborative work, over the net &

in the Library• Must be identified as the home of cybrarians• Must be flexible & interact with functions in “genius

bars”, “research gyms” & “exploratoria” as well as labs, offices & classrooms.

http://library.stanford.edu/about_sulair/SEQ2_library_vision.html

Maybe a Cybrary will operate like this

Thanks for your attention

Michael A. KellerStanford University

Michael.Keller@Stanford.edu