Interlend 2002
University of Exeter, 1-3 July 2002
All Change: Future Scenarios
for Information Provision
Sheila Corrall
Director of Academic Support Services
University of Southampton
President
CILIP
Interlend 2002
University of Exeter, 1-3 July 2002
Future Scenarios for
Information Provision
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Change drivers: environmental forces
Trends and developments in information work
Roles and skills of information professionals
Interlending and document supply services
Change drivers
Political
• Data Protection Act
• EU Copyright Directive
• Freedom of Information
• Joined-up government
• Lifelong learning
• Modernisation agenda
• Public accountability
• Quality assurance
• Regional development
• Social inclusion
Economic
• Borderless business
• Consumer power
• E-commerce
• Global competition
• Information costs
• Knowledge assets
• Mass customisation
• Outsourced functions
• Public expenditure
• Strategic alliances
Change drivers
Social
• Ageing population
• Cultural diversity
• Digital divide
• Environmental concerns
• Geographical differences
• Portfolio careers
• Quality of life
• 24-hour society
• Ubiquitous computing
• Workplace flexibility
Technological
• Broadband networks
• Collaborative tools
• Digital broadcasting
• Electronic publishing
• Intelligent agents
• Mobile communications
• Open archives
• Push technology
• Virtual environments
• Web portals
Change drivers
Known forces
• Continuing convergence – computing + telecomms,
IT + libraries, libraries + learning, learning + work
• E-everything – e-commerce, e-government, e-learning,
e-university, e-science, e-prints, e-journals, e-books!
• Information imperatives – regulatory environment,
knowledge economy, fast access, IT infrastructure
• Resource restraints – earmarked funding, competitive
bids, skills gaps and shortages, doing more for less
Change drivers
Critical uncertainties
• Pace of change – within our own organisations,
among our competitors and in the wider community
• Levels of competence – the skills, understanding and
motivation of our staff, our partners and our customers
• Economic models – purchase, annual subscription,
institutional / site licence, pay-per-view, pay-to-publish
• Professional roles – support function, service provider,
valued partner, strategic leader, change agent
Trends in information management
• Identified need for hybrid managers combining
business understanding and IT competence
• Information as an asset (Hawley report, 1995)
• Establishment of Chief Information Officers at
board level – in business, industry and universities
• Growth of organisational intranets and extranets
• Integration of internal and external information with
management of explicit and tacit knowledge
• Development of formal information and knowledge
strategies, programmes and competencies
Developments in library services
• Expansion of information skills programmes and
extension to include study, research and key skills
• Creation of specialist roles to provide advice on
digital copyright and intellectual property matters
• Introduction of e-print archive services offering
bibliographical support and technical assistance
• Provision of assistive technology and personal
help for individuals with learning differences
• Development of themed portals and VLEs
• Hosting related services in library buildings, eg
Internet cafes, NAPs, video-conferencing suites,
IAG services, language resources, IT help points
Roles for librarians in the digital age
Most significant roles – predictions of librarians
1. Instructing users in navigation and evaluation of info
2. Directing users to information resources
3. Evaluating and purchasing resources for collections
4. Creating new guides and / or tools for e-resources
5. Organising and cataloguing resources
6. Creating services for under-served communities
7. Archiving and digital preservation
American Libraries, 33 (3) 2002, p22.
Jones e-global library www.jonesknowledge.com/eglobal/
Developing roles for librarians
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Teaching information literacy and resource evaluation
Multimedia authoring and management
Partnering information-intensive research projects
Developing new information resources to support the
planning and delivery of distance education
• Providing stewardship of instructional materials
• Rights and intellectual property management
• Training and consultation in data structuring,
representation, organisation and preservation
Clifford Lynch. From automation to transformation.
EDUCAUSE Review, 35 (1) 2000
Important new proficiencies
• Ability to achieve new methods of collaboration
• Understanding of the capacities of digital technology
• Thorough grounding in the use of information and
technologies by scholars of different disciplines
• Willingness to eliminate territorial barriers and work
productively with other specialists to common goals
• Ability to design and teach creative educational
programmes
Patricia M. Battin. Librarianship in the twenty-first century.
Syracuse University Library Associates Courier,
XXXIII, 1998-2001, pp43-61
Our role as information educators
• Now ranked as high as our traditional roles
• Relates to proliferation of online sources
• Arguably our most important responsibility
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to bridge the ‘digital divide’
to enable independent learning
to support evidence-based decisions
to counter information overload
to manage knowledge and intellectual capital
• Information professionals need to know about
learning styles and training methods to fulfil this role
• Most Schools of Information Studies have totally
neglected this area and need to change fast!
Sector skills needs
isNTO project findings
• Information services staff need to develop the
strategic and practical skills enabling them to become
more outward-looking and proactive
• Management abilities and personal attributes are
more important sector development needs than
professional or technical skills
Skills foresight in the information services sector 2000-2007.
Information Services National Training Organisation, 2001
Skelton, V. & Abell, A. Developing skills for the information
services workforce in the knowledge economy. TFPL, 2001
Skills needs of info professionals
People
personal (self)
interpersonal
Business
organisation-specific
generic / transferable
Professional
information technology
information management
Future of interlending services
Key influences
• Empowering the learning community (LIC, 2000)
– recommended a new kind of partnership
www.lic.gov.uk/publications/policyreports/empower/
• Research Support Libraries Group – envisages a
more actively planned and co-ordinated system
www.rslg.ac.uk/about/
• Packaged alerting and document supply services,
eg British Library inside web, Ingenta.com
• The open access movement – e-print archives,
alternative journals, library advocacy www.eprints.org/
www.soros.org/openaccess/ www.createchange.org/
Interlending futures - books
• Rapid migration to e-monographs or e-books unlikely
(apart from reference books and student textbooks)
• Possible shift from transporting books to people flows
– to nationally designated centres of excellence
• Probable change in sources and costs of supply as a
result of new co-operation and partnership schemes
• Interloans staff will need to have thorough grounding
in the costs and benefits of different delivery options
• Quality of service will be measured against the 3Es
– Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness
Interlending futures - articles
• Accelerated migration to e-journals extremely likely –
for both current issues and back volumes (eg JSTOR)
• Possible shift away from commercial publishers to
alternative offerings of not-for-profit providers
• Probable change in policies and practices on access
with the effect of liberating much of scholarly output
• Restricted items will be purchased direct from
publishers or aggregators on a pay-per-view basis
• Interloans staff will need to consider how they can
add value as intermediaries in this model . . .
Sheila Corrall, President
Email: [email protected]
Chartered Institute of
Library and Information
Professionals
7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
Telephone: 020 7255 0500
Fax:
020 7255 0501
Textphone: 020 7255 0505
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.cilip.org.uk