what’s next? new directions for -...

What’s Next? New Directions for

Academic LibrariesTamar Sadeh, PhD

BYBSYS Conference 2015

Trondheim, Norway ◊ March 10, 2015

Abstract

With the advancement of sophisticated, unmediated information environments in academia, one of the traditional key roles of the library—as the intermediary between the end user and the library collection—is losing substance. Are libraries in danger of becoming just a means for enabling users to seamlessly access scholarly resources? Or are there new ways for librarians to demonstrate their library’s core asset—a thorough understanding of the scholarly information landscape, its twists and turns, and the manner in which it can be harnessed for the enrichment of an innovative, knowledgeable, critical, and collaborative academic community?

In this talk, I will discuss areas in academia in which the library can take an active, and even leading, role.

Let’s first look at academia at large

Research

and

innovation

Cultivating

openness

and critical

thinking

Knowledge

Transfer

Outputs

And then think about the library’s

strengths

Comprehending scholarly content

Curating

Classifying

Describing

Indexing

Searching, retrieving, enabling

access, and aiding dissemination

And libraries have trust capital.

This is where the library is today

In the foreground

A physical space

Offering physical, digital, and subscribed collections

Providing guidance related to finding materials

In the background

Busy with acquisition, circulation, cataloging…

Developing physical and electronic collections

Perhaps leading or being involved in creating and maintaining digital collections and institutional repositories

And all along collaborating with other institutional bodies, other libraries, and other external stakeholders (e.g., subscription agents and publishers)

The

Library

But the world is moving on!

Users are information savvy*

Materials are available in non-physical media and through

alternative channels**

Library buildings change their function

Practices are changing for

Scholarly communication

Teaching and learning

Research

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive,

nor the most intelligent, but the ones most

responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

So where will libraries be in five or

ten years?

Still more to do in our comfort zone:

e.g., the library as a place

This is not enough.

Let’s look at the world around us.

The Horizon Reports

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon

Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Three focus areas

Key trends accelerating technology adoption in higher education

short-, mid-, and long-term

Significant challenges impeding technology adoption in higher

education

Solvable, difficult, and wicked

Important developments in educational technology for higher education

Immediate, close, and further time-to-adoption

Three meta-dimensions

Policy: formal laws, regulations, rules, and guidelines that govern

universities and colleges

e.g., endorsement of open access and open educational resources (OERs)

Leadership: the product of experts’ visions of the future of learning

e.g., the redesign of learning spaces and leading university alliances

Practice: where new ideas and pedagogies take action

e.g., the support of blended learning

A word about leadership

‘It will require visionary leadership to build higher education

environments that are equipped to quickly change processes and strategies as startups do. If these organizational models are designed

well, universities can experience more efficient implementation of new

practices and pedagogies.’

An example: Aalborg University

Benefits of the Aalborg PBL model

The PBL-based pedagogical model of the University has become both

nationally and internationally recognised by universities, researchers and

students as an advanced and efficient learning model. Thus,UNESCO has

placed its only Danish Chair in PBL at Aalborg University. AAU will continue to

develop and adapt the Aalborg PBL Model to meet the societal and

educational demands and changes. This learning model provides AAU students with the possibility of:

acquiring knowledge and skills independently and at a high academic level

working analytically and according to interdisciplinary and problem and result

oriented methods

cooperating with the business community on the solution of authentic professional

problems

developing their abilities within teamwork

becoming well prepared for the labour market

Trends, challenges, and

developments in technology

Meta-dimensions: policy, leadership, and practice

Trends accelerating technology adoption in

academic and research libraries

Fast trends

Increasing focus on research data management for publications

Prioritization of mobile content and delivery

Mid-range trends

Evolving nature of the scholarly record

Increasing accessibility of research content

Long-range trends

Continual progress in technology, standards, and infrastructure

Rise of new forms of multidisciplinary research

Increasing focus on research data

management for publications

Growing availability of non-final products—reports, experiments,

tests, and simulation data

Diverse representations media, including audio, video, and

visualizations technologies

New methods of processing and managing data

Linking between all parts of a research

Linking between multiple researches

New tools for data mining scientific data and final publications

This is where libraries can fit in

Trends accelerating technology adoption in academic and research libraries Fast trends

What can libraries do?

Archive datasets and other materials

Describe materials

Make them linkable

Make them discoverable

Enable pattern and trend recognition

Develop assessment tools

Help researchers with formal matters

Re-distribution and citation rights

Alternative licensing

Legal language for fair re-use

Next step: research information

management systems

Managing research life-cycle, including organizations, procedures,

data, and outputs

Synchronization of data about the research and of the research

Dealing with compliance and assessment

Providing better visibility and improved reputation management

Research information management systems - a new service category?Lorcan Dempsey; October 26, 2014 ◊ http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002218.html

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/research-information-management

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140702233839/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/di_researchmanagement/researchinformation.aspx

Prioritization of mobile content and

delivery

Increasing adoption of mobile devices in the information market,

including academia

A mobile strategy for libraries

Supporting existing services on mobile platforms

Developing new services

And yet, a question.

Trends accelerating technology adoption in academic and research libraries Fast trends

Evolving nature of the scholarly

record

The internet has changed our world

Practically every scholarly work can be accessed online

Information is immediate

Communication is more immediate, more frequent, more public

No limitation on types of publications and media used to access and

process them

Libraries can play a role

Develop alternative assessment tools

Determine the various publication routes

Define a framework for a new scholarly record

Trends accelerating technology adoption in academic and research libraries Mid-range trends

Lots of questions, also for libraries

What is considered a scholarly record?

Who are the stakeholders involved in the lifecycle of such record

and what are their roles?

How can and should digital materials change?

How such changes will impact discovery, access, use, and citation

and referencing practices?

How can we ensure long-term sustainability?

Increasing accessibility of research

content

Building institutional repositories and enabling the discoverability of

their content

Adopting open-access guidelines, now also being required by

research funders

Working with publishers on new subscription models

Trends accelerating technology adoption in academic and research libraries Mid-range trends

Continual progress in technology,

standards, and infrastructure

To maintain their relevance, libraries need to develop their resources

and services

Become user-centric rather than collection centric

Support mobile and social behaviors

Optimize e-content, including through cross-institution collaborations

and partnerships

Share digital content and enable it to text-mining tools

Form global networks

Update facilities

Trends accelerating technology adoption in academic and research libraries Long-range trends

Challenges impeding technology adoption in

academic and research libraries

Solvable challenges

Embedding academic and research libraries in the curriculum

Rethinking the roles and skills of librarians

Difficult challenges

Capturing and archiving the digital outputs of research as collection material

Competition from alternative avenues of discovery

Wicked challenges

Embracing the need for radical change

Maintaining ongoing integration, interoperability, and collaborative projects

The library in the teaching and

learning realm

Being involved in teaching and learning

To better support instructors and students

To ensure the proper use of materials

To optimally develop the library collections

To advise about new materials and new types of materials

To measure and demonstrate the library’s value to the institution

The library needs to become an integral part

Technology is the key

Five Outsell predictions for 2015

Increased investment in educational technology (edtech)

The "edtech gap"

Improving learning outcomes

The hybrid nature of the market

Lifelong learning

Summing Up

Possible directions for the library: being

involved in new areas and playing new roles in

existing ones

Evidence-based collection development

Assessment measurements and student engagement

Teaching and learning

Publishing

Open-access publishing

Diverse research outputs

New publishing media

Research

Pre-research services

Administration of research workflows

Research data management

‘We recognize that the library really needs to provide modalities for all

kinds of learning. We need to move beyond the process of just finding

information and discovering information. We are moving to a stage

now where we take information, and we analyze it. We synthesize it.

We think about it. And finally, we create.’

Richard E. Luce

Associate vice president for research

Dean University Libraries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqPqqzC70Hc

At Johns Hopkins and many other top universities, libraries are aiming to

become more active partners in the research enterprise — altering the

way scientists conduct and publish their work. Libraries are looking to

assist with all stages of research, by offering guidance and tools for

collecting, exploring, visualizing, labelling and sharing data.

‘I see us moving up the food chain and being co-contributors to

the creation of new knowledge,’ says Sarah Thomas, the head of

libraries at the University of Oxford, UK.

Publishing frontiers: The library reboot. As scientific publishing moves to

embrace open data, libraries and researchers are trying to keep upby: Richard MonasterskyNature, Vol. 495, No. 7442. (27 March 2013), pp. 430-432, doi:10.1038/495430a Key: citeulike:12227931

Thank You!Tamar Sadeh, PhD

Director of Discovery and Delivery Strategy

tamar.sadeh@exlibrisgroup.com

Making the Most of Discovery—

Primo Today and in the FutureTamar Sadeh, PhD

Director of Discovery and Delivery Strategy

Abstract

Discovery systems have become the norm for the academic

community. As these systems mature, new possibilities are emerging that enable the systems to leverage the unique technological and

content infrastructure that is now available. In today’s vast high-quality,

well-structured information landscape, the combination of massive

computing power and sophisticated algorithms can generate

structures and build relationships between data elements. With the

addition of advanced integration capabilities, new types of interfaces

and services are now becoming feasible.

This presentation will describe recent enhancements to the Ex Libris

Primo solution and illustrate various ways in which institutions have

leveraged its capabilities. The talk will then focus on the Ex Libris plans

for next-generation discovery and delivery.

Agenda

The basics of discovery: a reminder

Primo in action

Next to come

Search and exploration

The treasure trove: data and technological expertise

User experience

Reading lists

The basics of discovery

Why discovery systems?

One interface—everything the library deems relevant in one place

User experience—branded and consistent; a platform for offering

relevant services

Content—structured, comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and relevant

Full-text access—clear and with no frustration

Search—pre- and post-search options that help users focus

Recommendations—leading to relevant items, regardless of the query

Analytics—supporting decision making

Primo in action

The goal

Make the library Website become the virtual manifestation of the

library with Search and Website forming a unified whole.

Key principles

Focus on the local characteristics

Modern design and simplicity

Make all library collections available through a single interface

Make a Primo-driven website the library’s primary service platform*

No distinctions between the website and the library collections

Integrate search into every library page

Include the library site in the search scope

Develop services using ‘Uber’ principles

Integrate additional services in context

Create dynamic pages based on Primo searches

Make use of the full Primo capabilities

* BU are using the Wordpress enterprise-level content management system

The proof of the pudding is in

the eating

Number of Primo Searches per Day

Boston University, MA, USA

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

October

2009*

August

2010

March

2011

May

2012

November

2013

Primo

implementation:

June 2010

900

11,000

28,000

47,000

78,000

* OPAC searches

Some comments following the

implementation of Hollis+ at Harvard

I just wanted to say, on behalf of graduate students across

the Harvard campus, THANK YOU for Hollis+!!!! and the

same enthusiastic thank you for the retrieval ("request

item") service (plus "map it"). We really, really appreciate

these services.

HOLLIS+ Is The Best

I thank you, and praise you, O you Hollis+ of my library, who

have given me wisdom and access, and have made known to

me now what we desired of you: for you have now made known

to us the knowledge of the ages.

Thank you, Harvard library, for enabling database searches in

Chinese and Japanese characters in Hollis +. It makes a huge

difference in my research.

Next to come

This is what we know*

More than 50% of searches are for known-items

Learning is part of information searching; e.g., building terminology

Following trails is hugely important

No one strategy or technique fits all

Academic degree, expertise, discipline, specific task at hand—all matter

Most materials used by undergraduates are listed in course readings

* Based on log analysis and user studies

From search to discovery

The base: optimal support of known-item searching

Additionally: browsing

Finding through recognition rather than specification

Next layer: building exploration trails to follow

References and citations

Implicit recommendations based on real-life selection patterns

Topics

Authors, institutions, and departments

Known-item search

Support various types of queries, e.g.,

Support query variations, e.g.,

Typos or spelling mistakes

Missing or redundant words

Traditional browsing

Virtual shelf

Exploration trails: references and

citations

Implicit recommendations based

on real-life selection patterns

Themes and concepts

The treasure trove

One billion items in the Primo Central Index

Automated text analysis and clustering of items, based on similarities

Clustering based on data mining

User experience

Optimal support for

Search and navigation

Mobile devices

Personalization

And for librarians: Oracle business intelligence (OBI) reports

Expanding the reach of the library

The library is looking for ways in which it can be more involved in

teaching and learning

To better support instructors and students

To ensure the proper use of materials

To optimally develop the library collections

To measure and demonstrate the library’s value to the institution

Reading-list offering

Serves instructors, students, and librarians

Instructors create, maintain, evaluate, and share reading lists and

monitor their use

Students access materials, share their views, and suggest additional

materials

Librarians make materials available and track their use through the

library management service

Tightly integrates with the course management system and other

relevant systems and services and supports cross-system workflows

Summing up: our focus in 2015-2016

Current focus: a higher level of discovery

Optimal support for known-item searching

Exploration trails, following relations between items

Support for serendipitous discovery

Clustering, based on extensive data and Big Data technologies

User experience

How things look and function

Support for mobile devices

Personalization

Better integration of the library services in teaching and learning environments

Thank you!Tamar Sadeh, PhD

Director of Discovery and Delivery Strategy

tamar.sadeh@exlibrisgroup.com