I get some feelings of déjà vue as enterprises like Amazon look to reinvent
the old notion of the commercial circulating library --but based on (digital
content) ebooks. The ‘Library’ (it had the word in big letters on the shop
front) in my home town High Street was a commercial circulating library . It
was a kind of ‘one-stop-shop’. It had a lending library at the back and also
sold all kinds of other goods. The public library with its crazy and radical
social market based business model put it out of business in the 1960s.
I've been doing some really interesting work on strategy with some great
librarians in public and academic libraries. It's been related to reviewing
and re-aligning their library technology infrastructure (ILS, Archives,
Repository etc). I think it's a good time for libraries to look again and
think hard strategically. Very often what looks like a strategy is really a
'mission' or a strategic 'goal' (or set of goals) without any clear sense
('guiding principle' is the phrase used by Richard Rumelt in 'Good Strategy,
Bad Strategy') of how that it be achieved using the library's key
'capabilities'. Of course this isn't a problem unique to libraries...far
from it. But we do face a particular combination of budget cuts and
disruptive and highly competitive technologies and services. So taking a
hard look at strategy now seems to me to be worthwhile. I recently spoke at
a couple of library events on this theme
http://www.kenchadconsulting.com/conferences/
Ken
Ken Chad Consulting Ltd
Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845. Email: ken_at_kenchadconsulting.com
www.kenchadconsulting.com
Skype: kenchadconsulting Twitter: @KenChad
Open Library Systems Specifications: http://libtechrfp.wikispaces.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of James Weinheimer
Sent: 29 September 2011 18:49
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Technology advances
On 28/09/2011 22:00, Joe Hourcle wrote:
<snip>
And a lot of it's not in books (or journals, or other bibliographic
materials), and never will be.
... but it still needs to be collected, cataloged, preserved, etc.
All of the skills of a librarian apply, it's just on something other than
books.
As for the library as an organization, you still need a place to store the
collected stuff. (and for the stuff I deal with, I still feel I'm closer to
a librarian than an archivist, so I can't say that place is an archive, even
if that's what most people call us)
</snip>
As the library's holdings become more virtual, it seems to follow logically
that the library itself will become more virtual as well. If the
"library-as-a-place" continues to exist, it will probably become more of a
locality for people to meet, e.g. group and town meetings, perhaps also as
an restful sanctuary for personal reflection; naturally it will be a place
to get a decent cup of coffee.
But the idea of the library as a physical place to find information (the
collection) and where I can find the answers to my questions (reference) is
disappearing even now. It's amazing how quickly this has changed!
Nevertheless, I do not believe that materials can either organize themselves
or that a mathematical formula can do it, no matter if just looking at that
formula will make your hair stand on end and leave you speechless for a
couple of days! Relying on a tool to determine something as vague as
"relevance"--a tool that can be manipulated in all kinds of extremely clever
ways to serve the purpose of either the greed or propaganda of unknown
people (read "search engine optimization"), is really a frightening
prospect.
If librarians play it right, there will be plenty of need for their skills
and ethics. But I don't know--it is a very difficult time for everyone.
--
James Weinheimer weinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
First Thus: http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
Cooperative Cataloging Rules:
http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
Received on Mon Oct 10 2011 - 07:56:44 EDT