Webster: Looking to the Future: What’s the Mindset for a Successful Information Organization?

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Looking to the future: what’s the mindset for a successful information organisation?

Keith WebsterDean of University Libraries16 October 2013

Our Professional Future

Access to information, ideas and works of imagination is an essential characteristic of thriving democracies, cultures and economies. This is increasingly so in the global information society. Information is a cultural, social and economic resource and a commodity of crucial importance in a huge range of diverse enterprises. Librarians and information scientists can be at the heart of this revolution, in demand for their creative, technical and managerial expertise.

Library Association/Institute of Information Scientists, 1999

Overview of remarks

As a profession we add valueNot everyone recognises that!There are tremendous opportunities to

deploy our skillsThere isn’t much money to pay for

more of usWe need to rethink our business

operations to free up our people

How do we add value?

British Library adds £419m of value to the economy each year

http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/increasingvalue/britishlibrary_economicevaluation.pdf

Australian research study

Contingent valuationRespondents were presented with

different hypothetical scenariosThey were asked about their

willingness to pay, and the amount they would expect to pay

Webster (2012) The evolving role of libraries in the scholarly ecosystem

Use of print resources

Frequently Sometimes Never

Journal articles 748 328 99

Books 557 565 53

Abstracts, indexes and bibliographies 342 458 375

Standards and specifications 32 264 879

Conference proceedings 163 633 379

Technical papers 144 408 623

Patents 10 116 1,049

Government publications 148 554 473

CDs, DVDs, etc. 65 432 678

Other 27 51 206

Use of electronic resources

Frequently Sometimes Never

Journal articles 1,112 57 6Books 307 611 257Datasets 204 411 560Databases 624 371 180Standards and specifications 52 275 848Conference proceedings 250 667 258Technical papers 174 432 569Patents 27 167 981Government publications 195 565 415AV materials 73 415 687Other 18 23 213

Time devoted to using information resources

Personal expenditure on information resources

Nothing 15.4

$1-250 33.4

$251-500 23.9

$501-1000 16.3

$1001-1250 4.3

$1251-1500 1.7

Over $1500 5.1

How much does it all cost?Respondents asked to indicate annual spend

on collections - to nearest $1 million6 said $30 million + (3 reported $100m +)51 less than $1,000,000600 don’t knowUQ mean of $11.3 millionEquates to mean of $1,760 per capitaActual spend is $2,797 per capita (37.1%

under)

Value for money

Excellent Very good Good Fair Poor

Value for money relative to the level

of expenditure disclosed

182 118 53 16 10

Where else would you go for stuff?

Another university to which I am also affiliated 106Other universities to which I have no affiliation 173

National Library of Australia 113State libraries 149

Other public libraries 58Overseas universities 97

Learned Societies 36Specialist subject-focused research institutions 73

Institutional and open access repositories 160Purchase from publishers or document delivery

intermediaries 172

Obtain from colleagues/authors 183Other 23

Time mattersLess time than now – I could work more efficiently 1

None – it would make no difference to me 8

Up to 10 per cent more time 15

11-15 per cent more time 15

16-20 per cent more time 33

21-25 per cent more time 44

26-30 per cent more time 36

31-35 per cent more time 17

36-40 per cent more time 19

Over 40 per cent more time 191

Medium-long term effect on research

Volume of research outputs

Volume will increase 16

Volume will remain unchanged

37

Volume will decrease 326

Total responses: 379

Quality of research

Quality will increase 15

Quality will remain unchanged

62

Quality will decrease 302

Total responses: 379

Key impacts of free access to information on research

Access to information is indispensible for research (91% strongly agree)

Maintain comprehensive overview of developments in field (77%)

Eliminate unproductive time (74%)Avoiding duplication of research

done elsewhere (50%)

Funding scenarios

Current spent on information resources across the three sites is $2,496 per capita

Respondents were asked to recommend a budget for the purchase of single-user access to the resources they need - average $3,511 per capita

Respondents were also asked to estimate the costs if they had to be self-sufficient (purchases, travel to libraries etc) - average $5,894 per capita

Summary finding

The final scenario would result in total costs to the institution of $81.4m compared to actual spend of $34.5m - a financial return of 136 percent

Making a difference

Adverse event avoided Percent

Hospital admission 11.5

Hospital acquired infection 8.2

Surgery 21.2

Additional tests/procedures 49.0

Additional out-patient visits 26.4

Marshall (1994) The impact of information services on decision making

Making a difference

Adverse event avoided Percent

Hospital admission 11.5

Hospital acquired infection 8.2

Surgery 21.2

Additional tests/procedures 49.0

Additional out-patient visits 26.4

Patient mortality 19.2

Marshall (1994) The impact of information services on decision making

What is happening in the world is bypassing university libraries

Peter Murray-Rust The scientist’s view

JISC Libraries of the future debate, April 2009

“…contact with librarians and information professionals is rare”

“…researchers are generally confident in their [self-taught] abilities.., librarians see them as..relatively unsophisticated”

“…librarians see it as a problem that they are not reaching all researchers with formal training, whereas most researchers don’t think they need it”

“The bad news is that I’m not sure they understand what goes on in the library other than taking out books.”

Benton Foundation, 1996

“User perceptions negatively affect the ability of librarians to meet information needs simply because a profession cannot serve those who do not understand its purpose and expertise.”

Durrance, 1988

•Within five years, graduate students and faculty will fill all their information needs online, never coming into the library

•Libraries will open up their space to other areas of the university, and develop designer spaces for students

•All library collections and services will be delivered from the cloud, and 90% of information needs will be met by non-Library providers

http://taigaforumprovocativestatements.blogspot.com/

The transformed library of the future will be at the core of teaching, learning and scholarship

• partnering with academic departments to create learning activities and environments

• helping to build an infrastructure for learning

• creating an intellectual commons for the community

Guskin (2004) Project on the Future of Higher Education

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Demands for our core skills

Data servicesDigital researchOpen scholarshipEvidence-based medicineKnowledge-based professions

Collection-centric - 1st generation

Client-focused - 2nd generation

Experience-centered - 3rd generation

Connected Learning Experiences - 4th generation

Current priorities in academic libraries1. Continue and complete migration

from print to electronic and realign service operations

2. Retire legacy collections3. Continue to repurpose library as

primary learning space4. Reposition library expertise and

resources to be more closely embedded in research and teaching enterprise outside library

5. Extend focus of collection development from external purchase to local curation

Lewis (2007); Webster (2010)

Barriers to implementation

Hybrid environmentFaculty (and librarian?) resistanceCosts of space redevelopmentLibrary staff trainingFaculty receptionInstitutional acceptance of

repository services

• Local access costs low - saved time allowed for research productivity

• Library costs high - acquisitions, maintenance, curation, buildings

• Correspondence between library reputation and research quality

• Great libraries attracted great scholars

• Great scholars attracted great funding

In the print library

Research publication is essential to future research

Technology reduces costs of production and distribution

Demand from academy is for online content

Almost all new content born digital

Large swathe of scholarly print material now digitised

What might this mean?

Ongoing acquisitions will require increasingly less space

Substantial parts of existing collections can be relocated off-site and replaced with digital versions

As services like Google books mature this will accelerate (subject to statutory provisions)

This will provide new space opportunities for universities and their libraries

What’s involved in storing books?Open shelves in libraries

Accessible, but expensive centre of campus real estate

Highly compact off-site configurationsLow storage costs, better preservation

but high access costsVery different to electronic storage!

Courant and Nielsen (2009) On the Cost of Keeping a Book

Storage costs for pbooks

Estimated over time to exceed purchase price on average by 50 percent (Lawrence et al, 2001)

Grow over time as acquisitions continue

Require either more storage, more discards or more efficient storage

Open stack Warehouse10 year

open then WHS

20 year open then

WHS

141.89 28.77 50.98 66.43

Indicative costs

Compare with ebooks

HathiTrust will archive and backup an ebook at $0.15-$0.40 per annum (using same discount rates as for print books that equates to $5-$13)

Use of print collections

Pittsburgh study1979

40% of collection never circulates

If a book isn’t borrowed during first 6 years, only 2% chance it will ever be used

Cornell study2010

55% of books purchased since 1990 never borrowed

65% of books purchased in 2001 hadn’t been borrowed

13%

Average circulation from open

shelf collections

1%

Average circulation from high density

collections

~0%Average

circulation from off-site

storage

Moving forward

Ruthless move towards digital only - acquisitions policy, relocation to storage, collaborative retention, disposal

Lobbying publishers and aggregators for better ebook terms

Securing campus buy-in

Accelerate the reduction and removal of routine transactions

- Increase use of web-based activity- Increase use of self-service- Close labour-intensive low volume services

Prefer digital form at all timesPatron-driven acquisition as supplementBetter discovery services - eg Summon

Identify opportunities to leverage economies of scale

- Buy publishers’ bundles to reduce need for selection decisions

- Consolidate distributed collections, warehousing or disposing of obsolete material

- Consolidate and multi-purpose service points

Library redevelopment

Lots of success storiesUnderstand need for different

spaces on your campus - do good research

ActivitiesIntentions Achievements

What did you do in the Library?

Use a computerQuiet studyMeet friendsGroup workFind course materialsThinkCoffeeBorrow books

Library redevelopment

Lots of success storiesUnderstand need for different

spaces on your campus - do good research

Showcase good examples (e.g. Hunt Library, UQ)

The role of librarians

Current state

Many libraries retain large numbers of librarians to catalogue and count

Even more librarians wait at service desks ‘just in case’

Few librarians leave the library building

Future state

Librarians embedded in research and teaching activities

Librarians become campus specialists in areas such as e-science, academic technology and research evaluation

Librarians have meaningful impact

Current barriers

Many librarians lack skills and useful qualificationsMany librarians are resistant to changeAcademics do not believe librarians are useful or credible partners

W(h)ither the Library?

Local distributio

n1990s

Global digital2000s

Cloud-based models2010s

Convergent media services