Natural selection in Libraryland

– the changing landscape of the

University Library

North South Conference

Belfast

20 April 2012

The research library

Vanishing into oblivion...or soaring to new heights?

In other wordsWe fly...or we die!

“Librarians” – An Endangered Species?

The old way

The BIGGER the better

The way ahead

Fit for the future

Association of Research Libraries

www.arl.org

Libraries of the Future

www.futurelibraries.info

Refocussing

Feed me now!

Survival in Libraryland depends on effective knowledge transfer...right stuff, in time, on demand

ever more personalised services

RLUK Strategic Plan

• Redefining the research library model• Collaborating to reduce costs and improve quality• Shaping ethical and effective publishing• Promoting unique and distinctive collections• Modelling the library role in research data

management

http://www.rluk.ac.uk/

Redefining the research library model

• Physical collections are shrinking• Library as publisher• Manipulation of information resources

Collaborating to reduce costs and improve quality

• United Kingdom Research Reserve (UKRR)http://www.ukrr.ac.uk/

• Shared cataloguing (yet again!)

Shaping ethical and effective publishing

• Scholarly communications are changing

• Journal costs spiralling

• Monographs at risk

• But new publishing models emerging

Promoting unique and distinctive collections

• Collaborative digitisation

• Resource discovery

• Promoting access

The library’s role in research data management

• Uniquely complex network of metadata• Institutional, national and international initiatives

So in practical terms...

• Space

• Stuff

• Staff

The future

• Today’s research library model is obsolescentbut

• The research library of tomorrow can and will

support evolving models of

scholarly communications

not

Doing things differentlyrather

Doing different things

Debby Shorley

Director of Library Services

Imperial College London

d.shorley@imperial.ac.uk

RLUK www.rluk.ac.uk

UKRR www.ukrr.ac.uk

ARL www.arl.org

LOTF www.futurelibraries.info

Imperial College Library www3.imperial.ac.uk/library