Supporting researchers & research publication at UTS

Supporting researchers & research publication at UTS from Mal Booth

Presentation I gave at seminar "Measuring & Improving Library Value" on 29 November 2012 in Sydney.

The implications for libraries of recent global trends in open online education (Part 2)

With assistance from my colleagues at UTS Library and the commenters on the first part of this post, here is a listing of the implications for libraries of recent trends in open online education (such as MOOCs). These implications vary depending on whether the University is providing MOOCs or seeking to utilise the content available on them. I have tried below to account for the implications covering both of these situations.

Open Access

If MOOCs (and the like) are seen as another form of scholarly publishing, it makes sense for libraries to push for Open Access as the default standard for MOOC course materials. Protecting and extending Open Access policies and initiatives that facilitate open online education through enhanced access to Open Educational Resources will provide a far better and more accessible future for all than one in which another form of “open access” is available for a fee. (This can already be seen in the publishers using “Gold Open Access” models that are facilitated via Article/Author Processing Charges levied instead of subscription fees.) This issue is covered very well in this recent post by Timothy Vollmer http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/34852

Discoverability 

Discoverability of MOOC courses is mainly the problem of the course provider, but to date this seems not to be a problem if we look at the large numbers enrolling in some courses. Some MOOC directories already exist and some of these include rankings. It should be noted that MOOC resources are often behind registration/password walls. Lecturers seeking advice on MOOCs can always consult Librarians at their institutions for help in collaboration in finding resources for a course as is currently the case.

Accessibility

Equitable access for all users should be the ethical obligation and should be design in at the outset for all MOOC courses. Research shows that retroactively making material accessible is much more difficult, expensive, time consuming and a job that usually falls to libraries.

Advising on IP, Copyright and the use of licensed resources 

This primarily involves access to our existing online resources and the physical collections of the library which are governed by existing access guidelines and policies. It also involves the copyright clearance and management of course materials. It is already believed that fair-use exemptions will not hold for open courses in the US. The terms and conditions applying to many existing MOOCs also indicate that not all MOOCs should be assumed to be “Open”, so their free re-use cannot always be assumed.

Delivery of teaching & learning assistance and support 

If an institution were to offer a MOOC-type course what library involvement and support is envisaged? Our enquiries indicate limited involvement by libraries in other Australian universities providing MOOCs. Librarians should be able to work with academics to develop the courses and advise on the inclusion of appropriate scholarly resources. Librarians may need to engage more with and within these new online environments and learn the skills to create, mash, present and market content in aid of promoting the expertise and knowledge within the institution. Libraries will need to consider how to embed information literacy into “flipped” learning models, but to some extent we are already using this model with our current forms of IL being more hands-on and interactive (less lecture style).

If support is to be offered for remote courses and a massive extension of the hours is involved are collaborative arrangements between participating institutions the answer here (e.g. the Australian and NZ public libraries collaborating in virtual reference services)?

If MOOCs do lead to a major change in the delivery of a lot of higher education, it could mean that libraries need to offer more online services in terms of training, resources and digitisation of collections (where possible) – for remote and online users.

If an institution offers a MOOC course, to what extent (if any) are those enrolled in that course to be considered the same as currently enrolled university students and afforded access to the same library resources that those students pay fees for? I doubt that this will happen to any great extent.

Assistance and advice in the future as the lines between MOOC and LMS providers and publishers blur 

This seems already to be happening and libraries can offer useful advice re vendors and in negotiating with publishers for content and licenses. Publishers may also start to offer new products such as e-texts that are aimed specifically at the mass MOOC market and library staff will most likely be the best to deal with and provide this form of content to support MOOC courses.  Examples so far indicate that publishers see e-texts as revenue-saving at least or a money making opportunity at most so the issue is who pays?  For a free MOOC, they would target individuals directly rather than the university but students of a fee-paying MOOC would expect them gratis.

Collaboration 

If some of the commentators are correct in predicting that MOOCs are likely to be the first disruptive step that changes the provision of education, then the most thoughtful and helpful initiatives are likely to be found in new forms of collaboration. Libraries have a long background in this field, nationally, internationally and across all kinds of other boundaries and we can probably build on some already existing collaborative arrangements.

One major need if higher education moves in this direction is a need for well designed and dedicated online collaboration spaces where people can easily connect with each other beyond a classroom, learning commons or a formal LMS as they exist. Maybe this kind of platform should be built into the MOOC itself?

Technology support issues 

There are some technology support issues that MOOCs raise because of their massive scale. These issues mostly concern those in institutions who provide and maintain the LMS, but the Library may also have a role to play in providing the sophisticated, extended, remote and scalable support and systems that will be required to support our initiatives. Scalability, but also reliability are major requirements. Integration of some of our online services and resources (where allowed and feasible) into MOOC platforms is another technical consideration.

Continuing to promote the relevance, value and impact of the Library and its services 

This is a competitive advantage to the University and also to its enrolled students. Those enrolling in MOOCs without being enrolled in a university will have little or no access to the wide variety of reading, reference and other special collections available from institutional libraries, beyond the course materials provided.

In addition, some libraries (like ours) are busy expanding cultural services and experiences with things like events, exhibitions, performances and art works in the Library. Should these also be offered online? The generation currently attending university is said to value experiences, so perhaps those experiences are another advantage of the campus-based university?

Mobile access

The trend now is for everything going online, but also there is an even greater trend of mobile devices outselling traditional PCs. Not only will MOOCs need to consider this, but libraries in general must do the same.

A more general consideration

Lastly, and more generally than specifically about libraries, a major issue is the amount of time and resources we invest into MOOCs and this depends on the institution's objectives. If the courses do not account for credit, should we be focusing more on our degree/paying/enrolled students. The priority and resourcing to be allocated for the support MOOCs needs to be determined at each institution.

A New York Holiday

No four wheel drives, no fishing, no birds (although there was one squirrel), no campervans as large as small suburbs, no dirt roads and no peasant class flights (Qantas had a business class sale & I was a bit tanked when I booked). And no cyclones (I got out a week ahead of that muck). Sorry for the long post.

My (first) New York visit, October 2012
I tended to catch the subway somewhere and then usually walk back so as not to miss any sites. Every second day I ran about 40-45 mins early in Central Park and I did that one day, but then forgot to eat until late in the PM and by then I had bonked and my legs packed it all in. I think I was not really walking too far, but the slow standing around and wandering in museums does not help in terms of time on one's feet. I usually found that I had done so much during the day (starting early) that all I could do at night was eat and collapse on the couch in the apartment after that. I wasn't with friends so there was no real incentive to go out late I suppose.
I stayed in E 54th St, just off Park Ave in Midtown East, so it is pretty central to most things I wanted to do and close to three subway stations to allow for travel further afield. I booked the apartment through Airbnb http://www.airbnb.com/  so it was not even half the price of any NYC hotel. I bought a weekly MTA card and used it a fair bit - it seemed very good value.

Here is a day-by-day report on my wanderings ...

Wednesday (Day 1 really):
Just shopping and wandering as I was very tired & weird in the head from the trip and date line changes. Stores - Bloomingdales (clothes & shoes), Niketown (running shoes as I did not bring any with me), B&N (Nook reader for Mum), Mont Blanc (fountain pen). At Bloomingdales you get a voucher in the NY City Pass book for 15% off (one day visit) and that is about the best bargain shopping you'll get in NYC. It isn't really a bargain shopping place.

Thursday:
Run through Central Park (still v. tired, so much harder than I thought), back to apartment to shower, up to Abercrombie & Fitch for some clothes shopping, back to apartment and then most of the day at MoMA. It was a little bit disappointing really. You have to go though. It does have a great store. I expected to be wowed by the building and exhibitions and just wasn't (sorry). Some good things, but the Met is far more impressive (and so too the Tate Modern). Enjoyed the store and bought some Xmas cards and gifts. Had a great early evening meal at Bergdorf Goodman's restaurant (7th floor) in a window seat, overlooking Central Park, drinking champagne. I had two meals here - both early dinners and really loved it. I loved just sitting there with champagne looking at the view. I had booked a window seat. Also bought a Xmas gift at BG's for my sister & brother-in-law. Hideously expensive French wine cork screw thingy in bone. Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631763179933/

Friday:
Went early to a disappointing discount department store (Century 21 - don't bother) near the old World Trade Centre site and saw the new buildings going up down there. Then back to apartment and up to the Metropolitan Museum by subway. Loved it but only spent a lot of time in the galleries I liked. Great collections and a good Warhol exhibition (no photography allowed). Joined as a member as that helped me send two huge books back to Australia (one on Matisse's Jazz Book and his cut-outs and the other an illuminated Psalter that was a great facsimile edition & they beat me back here!) and it also gave me 20% off for a great lunch in the members' dining room (a must do really). Had virtually the whole day there. Walked back via the Whitney Museum of American Art, down Madison Ave (a really cool walk to do), but it was being renovated on the outside, so I don't know what it looks like. They warned me that a lot of their collection galleries were not open because of the renovations so I did not think it worth the entry fee and declined. Enjoyed the PM walk back down Madison Ave. Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631774523003/

Saturday:
An early trip to Empire State building to avoid the crowds (very successful and surprisingly amazing views as people had told me not to bother). Then Macy's large store (meh), Bryant Park (being renovated), NYPL (you have to go, but again, meh) http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631805006305/, St Pat's Cathedral (being renovated), Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station (amazing).  I brought the large Canon 7D and a big lens and had been regretting not just bringing a lighter smaller camera until this day. It was well worth it from the observation deck of the Empire State (see shots here http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631788175661/ ), inside the cathedral and also inside Grand Central Station http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631809435838/  I had a PM run in Central Park after this and really enjoyed it - lots of Saturday arvo people and a fun place to be when it is sunny.

Sunday:
Lonely Planet Guide walking tour of most of lower Manhattan (Soho, Tribeca, Noho, Nolita, West Village. Greenwich Village, Flatiron & Meat Packing then back thru Midtown East) http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631959934578/. I missed the Young Designer's Markets in Nolita because the guide book said Sat & Sun, but they were only on for Sat. I also spent some time in the NYU Library - the Bobst as it was near Washington Square http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631826281377/. It was almost dark by the time I had walked back to the NYPL, so I ate at Andaz, right across the road and wandered home from there. (I ate twice at Andaz as I really liked it and it was on the way home for me.) Most photos yet to be uploaded to Flickr, sorry.

Monday:
Guggenheim (stunning building and great Picasso exhibition in B&W - I loved his early figurative work) and then walked across Central Park Great Lawn to the Natural History Museum (meh - it was in my City Pass book of six attractions) http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631958799343/. I'd not done enough reading to find that the National Academy of Design (next to the Guggenheim did not open Mondays and then walked back across Central Park to find it was the same for the Frick Collection, so I needed to go back. Major shopping - more shirts at Thomas Pink's. Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631848847752/

So now my last few days in NYC. I have heaps more photos to add to Flickr that cover most of what I did on these days (because it was mainly just wandering around taking photos of interesting stuff), but they all require some citing, tagging and naming of buildings, etc. I've just not yet gotten to it.

Tuesday:
Was really tired, had a late and leisurely start. Had to do some washing and await a fedEx delivery of some cheap online shopping.
Then walked around lower Midtown - to the Rockefeller Centre and Times Square via the International Centre for Photography http://www.icp.org/ I wish I'd researched them a bit earlier as they had a lovely weekend workshop on street photography in Chelsea that I'd have done. Nice exhibits from time to time too.
Time Square is a big mess of advertising signs and lights, run down buildings and too many cars and people. But you have to go there. Not really my thing.
I then wandered back very slowly via Bryant Park and Madison Avenue.

Wednesday:
Another sleep in. Exchanged a Mont Blanc that had a faulty nib at Bloomingdales, bought some make-up for Mum and then caught the subway north to take some pics of the Guggenheim under a blue sky. It wasn't that successful as it clouded over again by the time I got there. I was going to go to the cafe at Neue Galerie http://www.neuegalerie.org/, but it wasn't open (aaarrrggghhh!) and then looked at the Frick Collection, but decided that I'd seen enough old art in Europe, so didn't pay to go in. By then I think I was over-museumed too. Interesting Building, but it wasn't worth the entry fee for my tastes.
I then had a more leisurely stroll again through Central Park to the West Side and took some better photos of The Lake and then the famous Dakota building (outside which John Lennon was shot). Then strolled down Columbus Ave to the Lincoln Centre and took some more pics there and visited the NYPL's Library of the Performing Arts (which had just opened a Katherine Hepburn exhibition).
After that I looked through the massive Time Warner Centre on Columbus Circle, looking for somewhere decent to eat, but nothing took my fancy really.
So I walked back towards Fifth Ave (heading East) and called in again for a very late lunch or early dinner at Bergdorf Goodman's restaurant. I got a seat by a window again overlooking Central Park and had a second enjoyable meal there with great food and French champagne. It was great to take a load off and just sit for a while. I browsed some more shops on the way home but bought nothing.

Thursday:
An early start to get down to the Highline http://www.thehighline.org/ before the crowds. It is probably nearly two miles long, but not that wide and gets crowded easily during good weather. I walked the whole length and took heaps of photos of the surrounding buildings (old and new) and the plantings http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157631886829721/. It is unique, amazing, inspiring and really enjoyable. So popular that it is probably a victim of its own success now.
Then I walked up to 42nd St and down to Pier 83 for the Circle Line 2 hour cruise round lower Manhattan. I wasn't sure about doing this when I saw the huge crowds, but we all got on board and had seats and I was glad I did it. The boat offers a different perspective on Manhattan from the water that surrounds it and the tour guide was really entertaining. We left and headed south  viewing Downtown and Jersey City then on to Ellis Island and there Statue of Liberty before heading north on the Brooklyn side under four bridges including Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg. It was a good chance to sit down and be entertained for a couple of hours and well worth the effort.
Later I caught the subway down to the World Trade Centre and wandered around taking photos of many of the interesting buildings including City Hall, the huge Municipal Building, a Gehry designed tall apartment building and Wall St.

Friday:
I just walked around Midtown again before it started raining and then headed into the Museum of Arts and Design http://madmuseum.org/ on Columbus Circle. The first thing I did was to head right up to the top floor and book a seat by the window for lunch at Robert restaurant. Then I wandered through their galleries and exhibitions and met an artist called Trong Gia Nguyen http://madmuseum.org/learn/trong-gia-nguyen-0  He had some beautiful work that focussed on libraries and books so I am now wondering whether we could acquire a couple of his Library works http://www.cameandwent.com/books.html for display in the UTS Library. He was featured in an artists' studio at the museum where you could see his work and ask him questions. A great idea!
When done I returned to the restaurant and had a fantastic lunch of Scottish Salmon, a beautiful carrot cake dessert, Pinot Gris and a beautiful espresso coffee, all for $70 including a generous tip. I had a fantastic seat by the window that looked over Columbus Circle and the West Side of Central Park and it was just so special I wished I had discovered it earlier. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/8125923621/
Afterwards I just walked back down West 57th St where there are many interesting buildings to look at. There is scaffolding everywhere though. Even Carnegie Hall is being renovated.

Saturday:
I had a late flight which is a bit of a problem when staying in an apartment under Airbnb https://www.airbnb.com/ as you have nowhere to leave your bags and by then mine were too heavy to lug all over the city.
So I delayed as long as I could and got the MTA card topped up for the subway trip to Suphin Blvd and then the AirTrain to JFK Terminal 7 - all for only $7.25! Cab fares are likely to be as much as $65-70 incl tip. (On the way in I got the Airport Express bus for only $7 or $10, but it took ages going to every terminal at JFK (all eight!) and I had a longish walk from GCT with my bags because it only drops off there and at two other big hotels.)
After breakfast I walked down Lexington Ave with my trusty camera to photograph the beautiful Chrysler Building again (it was a lovely day). I also took in the RCA/GE art deco building as it is almost as fascinating.
The other thing I discovered far too late was the Grand Central Terminal market hall. I'd missed it because I always came at GCT from the West side and this is on the East or Lexington Ave side. It is pretty amazing and perhaps best for my health that I didn't see it earlier as it wasn't a long walk from the apartment I had.

Overall:
I ran out out time to do everything, but I was exhausted and could not really have fit in much more. Things for next time: Brooklyn, Staten Island Ferry, Jersey City, Yankee Stadium (for a ball game), Dia Beacon (I didn't go because it is almost a day trip on the train and they don't allow photography in their galleries), Long Island coast, perhaps Boston, etc.
Eating: Not to be missed is the Met members dining room. I thought it well worth the museum membership ($60), especially give the two huge tomes they shipped bad for me for hardly anything. I really enjoyed the food there. I'm not really into experimental menus, but all of those I went to seemed to have choices to suit all tastes.
For both Robert & B-G, you need to book a window seat ahead of time, but it always worked for me. I think http://www.opentable.com/new-york-city-restaurants  & http://www.zagat.com/newyork are pretty widely used in NYC now.
Next time I think I'll want a faster sim card than the T-Mobile 2G sim, but at least it was cheap. My apartment had free and fast wifi.
An American friend suggested taking out a weekly gym pass because I had several to select from nearby and all the running around Central Park got a bit stressful on the legs.
That's all!

The implications for libraries of recent global trends in open online education

This is really a plea for advice or debate. I'd like to read your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, questions and comments. (There hasn't been much over the last few days, so I'm adding a bit more content now just in case you feel you need more from me up front.) I've also posted this here http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-implications-for-libraries-of-recent-global-trends-in-open-online-education/ 

As one of the references below notes, there is increased pressure on us all to develop a cohesive strategy to address this major global trend that you really could not have missed unless you've been sitting under a rock near a log all year. We've recently been asked about the main issues, considerations and questions for libraries of the major trend towards the provision of open online education.  I think it is an important issue for all of us to understand more deeply, but it is of particular importance to academic libraries. I'm afraid that I don't have a lot of answers, just some questions and a few thoughts.

I've recently read a number of posts that are starting to do some more analysis over what was earlier in the year a bit of an excited blog fest of news items.

Here are just a few articles that I think have been noteworthy of late:

Clay Shirky addressing Educause 2012 - The Real Revolution is Opennness http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/the-real-revolution-is-openness-clay-shirky-tells-tech-leaders/40894 In his address Clay seemed to be encouraging us to understand that openness is the real key to changing online education. He gives some excellent examples of the benefits, sometimes unexpected, from online sharing. I too think there is a lot in online altruism and collaboration. It isn't and should not just be about marketing.

Everybody wants to MOOC the World http://mfeldstein.com/everybody-wants-to-mooc-the-world/ This post is by Michael Feldstein and he talks about the response by Learning Management System (LMS) providers to the new MOOC platforms. He raises the real issue of long term sustainability (for content providers) and he also questions whether there really has been a great deal of innovation and experimentation in the pedagogy from the "xMOOCs" (Coursera/Udacity/edX). He says that innovation in pedagogy has come from the connectivist MOOCs (or cMOOCs - see http://www.connectivistmoocs.org/what-is-a-connectivist-mooc/). Phil Hill is a colleague of Michael on the e-Literate blog and on 9 November he posted this article that looks at the overlap between the LMS and MOOC markets http://mfeldstein.com/canvas-network-are-the-lms-and-mooc-markets-colliding/  His post illustrates the influence they are already having on each other.

Radical Openness - The End of Education As We Know It http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/radical-openness/the-end-of-education-as-we-know-it.html This article is a bit of a review of the major new open online educational offerings, but it really focusses more on the numbers and the Massive side of MOOCs rather than the availability of Open Educational Resources (OER). I think that really is the key: they are Massive, but not really so open. Here is an article from 9 November that explains how Coursera bans reuse of its content (even by non-profits), illustrating why they are not so open http://hapgood.us/2012/11/09/coursera-praises-mooc-wrapping-as-they-attempt-to-ban-it/ Here is a useful guide to finding open content online from Edudemic http://edudemic.com/2012/11/how-to-find-the-best-open-course-materials/ There is also Stephen Downes' Open Online Course Directory http://www.mooc.ca/courses.htm Even more on OER can be read in: Extending the Territory: From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/viewFile/64/46 and this very detailed OECD report on OER http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38654317.pdf that outlines the cost, technical, Copyright, licensing and policy challenges that must be faced (thanks Amani!).

Hangingtogether.org - The Flipped Library http://hangingtogether.org/?p=2277 This post deals with MOOCs in light of the flipped classroom concept and quotes Betsy Wilson, Dean of Libraries at the University of Washington as saying that libraries are already "flipped". See also Answers to the Biggest Questions About Flipped Classrooms in Edudemic (which explains some of the above) http://edudemic.com/2012/11/flipped-classrooms/

Nicholas Carr in the MIT Technology Review - The Crisis in Higher Education http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/ This is yet another review of the MOOC environment as we know it. Nicholas touches on the sophisticated technical challenges for the future and also recognises the challenges in passing on the "soft skills" that no machine can simulate. I also liked this recent article by D'Arcy Norman who questions the hype that says MOOCs are the most important innovation in educational technology over the last two hundred years http://darcynorman.net/2012/11/10/on-moocs-as-the-most-important-education-technology-in-the-last-200-years/ (I agree that things like the PC, the internet, other software and tools might be further up the list.)

Why are we freaking out about all of this? (by Genevieve Bell - I've previously posted here about this short article, but her three rules also apply to this issue because Open Online Education changes our relationship to time, space and each other. ) - http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/st_opinion/

My helpful colleagues at UTS Library have alerted me to these useful resources over the course of the last week or so:

• A useful ARL Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries by Brandon Butler http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/issuebrief-mooc-22oct12.pdf  This brief encourages us to start thinking strategically about how we will support the MOOC phenomenon and highlights the following as key issues for us to come to terms with: fair use; protecting and extending open access policies; ensuring accessibility; and the continued relevance of librarians and library collections to teaching.
• What Campus Leaders Need to Know about MOOCs http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB4005.pdf This highlights the following as key issues related to library responsibilities and interests: intellectual property, Copyright, licensing of content, technical challenges, resource discovery and the delivery of teaching assistance and support.

Here are a few of the thoughts swimming around in my head at present (in no particular order & updated in light of some comments offered by a colleague - Stephen Gates):

• Should we just provide directories for various relevant open online courses (like we now provide books, journals and databases)? Or is more judgement needed? Do we need new skills to do this or should we collaborate with academics to do it? Some Directories Like that of Stephen Downes (above) already exist and essentially, the nature of the MOOC beast is to be "discoverable", so keeping directories like this is a bit like that pre-Google approach of Yahoo. I don't think it will work.
• Access to reading and reference materials is all well and good if you are enrolled in a university with access to the required or relevant texts and learning materials, but if not, are Open Access materials the answer and if so do we need to be doing more to encourage and promote them? This probably is the key step for most libraries. Many of us are already active in this space, but we probably could and should do more.
• If courses offered on things like various MOOCs, Coursera, Udacity, etc. are basically just new open platforms for education is the real threat to our individual learning management systems like Blackboard? Will online learning platforms simply become much more open and broader in scope? To some extent this is covered already in some of the links above and we are now seeing reports of providers like Blackboard and Instructure taking the initiative.
• Is there a link to the evolving provision of complex new e-Textbooks being promoted by publishers like Pearson (in various forms - hybrid, digital, enhanced and proprietary). Do we need to understand more about this too? I think we do need to understand more and it is another issue requiring collaboration between libraries, publishers and academics.
• How are publishers getting involved in supporting this global trend? I'm sure they've seen it and will be considering ways to generate revenue. As Stephen points out, this is something librarians already deal with on a daily basis, so we are well positioned to engage with them.
• Similarly, some LMS providers are also looking to get involved. Dealing with LMS providers is a bit of a line ball really, as at UTS, this isn't our responsibility. It could, however, become more complex and require our input if there is a cross-over and we end up dealing with consortiums of content providers, platform providers and publishers.
• What do our academics want us to do? And what do students expect from us - e.g. 24/7 support. Will we be required to enhance the support provided (anytime, anywhere) for online or more remote learners, along with academic staff? Can that be done in isolation or is the answer here not in competing with other providers, but collaborating with them? I think libraries understand the benefits of collaboration and collaborative referencing models have already been proven in public libraries.
• Are libraries and librarians already "flipped"? (See articles above.) If we read what Betsy Wilson says on this above, we probably are already running like more of a flipped model. We have re-engineered our collections, services and learning spaces to reflect this over the last decade or even earlier.
• How can we do more with the data we have to assist us in responding to some of these questions with proper analytics? We are working on that now and looking at collecting open data from all new systems used within the Library. We are also looking at Privacy protections.
• Is increasing gamification in libraries at least part of the answer or do real libraries now offer a unique competitive advantage to enrolled students (in the physical spaces they offer)? The advantage is probably in developing innovative learning and study spaces that meet student and researcher needs. These spaces will probably include more space devoted to non-text media and even gaming, but primarily we still need to meet the demand for spaces that facilitate collaborative group work and meet student demands for silent and individual study.
• If libraries are already "flipped" should we be concentrating on the library as a "space or place" for more inquiry based learning that is supported in person by real people? This probably is the key advantage we can offer over any form of remote learning. We are reviewing the services we offer with a view towards a new service model for academic libraries that capitalises on this advantage in our future library.
• We are already positioned for more interactivity in libraries, but should we be providing even more spaces for this and less to simply store collections? Our current Library is still dominated by books, but with the excavation of our underground Library Retrieval System now complete, we will soon have the majority of our collection stored in it and quickly accessible from it. That will prob=vide us with more space in the current and future Library to meet all of the needs already touched on above as well as a few more.
• Students still come to academic libraries in their droves, but we need to know more about why they do. Is it simply for access to clean, moderated or mediated spaces with wifi, or are they seeking our help services, access to books and journals, a better environment for reading and writing, independent and quiet study spaces that are more conducive to learning than their homes (or informal learning hubs, cafes, etc.)? Are our (managed) collaborative group work spaces really important? Stephen believes that both part-time students and overseas students have a lot in common in what they need and want from the Library in terms of access to dedicated quiet spaces to study, particularly closer to exam times.
• How do we support future learning and research needs (vice simply managing our collections)? This probably means a further extension of our hours of opening, beyond what is offered today and collaborative arrangements with others to provide 24/7 online support. There could be workload implications in this.
• What are the technical issues for libraries (i.e. the real ICT issues) in all of this? Others are better equipped than me to deal with this, but certainly those providing and supporting MOOCs will have to consider the impact of a large increase in load on the ICT systems involved. 
• What does open education actually mean for libraries - should it lead to more competition or are libraries well positioned and do we have a proven history to model the benefits of increased collaboration? Interestingly, my colleague Stephen says that campus based academic libraries are not in competition with online course providers. The free online providers do not give away access to the rich library collections that we provide to our enrolled students. Their's is a very different model to fee-based higher education. Public libraries will not be able to satisfy their needs.
• Are there major costs involved - from the new services that we will need to purchase from publishers and other learning providers and possibly for increased or new licenses that facilitate this trend/initiative? As Stephen thoughtfully points out again, the increasing use of e-texts has driven down costs to some extent, allowing libraries to build broader collections than previously possible.  We are now purchasing new titles or back-titles that were not previously covered or affordable. Other newer "special" collections are being established by campus-based libraries too. These are relevant to the needs of our institution and are unlikely ever to be part of the MOOC model.

Again, I know that I don't seem to have many answers, but I think these issues require a great deal more thought and more minds with varied backgrounds applied to them if we are to build a clearer picture, so please, just let me know what you think.

Creativity & academic libraries

Creativity & (academic) libraries from Mal Booth

Creating a future library

A short interview ... with me:

Unlikely Avian Taxonomies

For those of you who are obsessed with taxonomic strictures and ontological classification:

This image will take you to a set on Flickr that showcases the recent research interests of Zoë Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple in DAB LAB. See also cargocollective.com/

Videos from Shelf Life

Early in August 2012 I said we'd document Chris Gaul's exhibition Shelf Life by video. Here are those three videos, by the very talented Dave Katague. Enjoy.


Shelf Life from Chris Gaul on Vimeo.

Library Frequency Tuner from Chris Gaul on Vimeo.

Call Number Telephone from Chris Gaul on Vimeo.

I've also posted this here:
http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/videos-from-shelf-life/

Design as Catalyst presentation

Design Catalyst CI Lab Notes from Mal Booth
This presentation includes speaker's notes against quite a few of the slides.
It was given during the UTS:CI Labs Series 1 in July 2012.

Shelf Life slideshow

These images relate to the exhibition Shelf Life that I posted about here: http://www.frommelbin.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/shelf-life-usefulness-of-useless.html

Really, it is from triathlons to tomes ...

Here is a short news article about me from UTS U:Mag.
Tomes to triathlons http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2012/09/tomes-to-triathlons?utm_source=tomestotriathalons&utm_medium=gk_2&utm_campaign=tomestotriathalons_Sept12 via @utsnewsroom

Sometimes I also make small films like this:

Books Are Not Dead!

From Book Spotter's Guide

Not for thith little black duck ...

So here are some notes from a short talk I did last night for ALIA Sydney on The Future of Reading. (It is also posted here https://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/books-are-not-dead/) What follows are really just some random thoughts, not a deep, definitive or comprehensive prediction. It is a bit like Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses: My theory, which belongs to me, is mine.

I started by talking about the books in my own library, many of which I've not yet coloured in. You can view those I think highly enough of to catalogue, here on LibraryThing.

The Web & rich media
Only this week I saw the "Howl" animation on YouTube and was amazed. I'd not yet seen the entire film nor read much of Alan Ginsberg's writings, but I will now. In these clips James Franco reads Ginsberg's poem and it is brought to life, illuminated by his voice, Carter Burwell's music and Eric Drooker's brilliant animation design. I think it is a great example of using the web at its best to encourage reading. From there I think it is easy to see how the web has restored reading and writing as central activities in our culture (vice sitcoms on TV) as Clay Shirky said in the Wall Street Journal in 2010.

Yes, parts of the web are ephemeral, but so too should be a lot of printed text. Just because it is printed on paper does make our reading material more valuable.

Aggregation & Disaggregation of content
I see and use a number of things that are all positive signs for the future: aggregators and personalised reader advisories (like Zite, Huffington Post, & FlipBoard - and sometimes I wonder how long they can survive as free services), piracy (Neil Young says it is the new radio for recorded music); and we could also talk about those authors who give away online books for free online  and then sell more print books accordingly, like Cory Doctorow and Seth Godin. Then there is the wonderful Interactivity we see in Zite (an app for iPads and iPhones) which learns what you like to read via voting up and down and your ongoing selection of subject matter and creators.

Disaggregation of content comes in here too because that is how aggregators work. They select and aggregate disaggregated content. Disaggregation has already happened in music (e.g. buy a song rather than whole album on iTunes) and is happening in some publishing (buy a chapter, article etc rather than whole book or issue). Some see it as a bad thing, quoting death of the book, loss of narrative form, negative effects on literacy, etc. but it can also lead to new forms of non-linear story-telling, plus it’s also not new. The great Victorian novels like those of Dickens often were serialised. I think disaggregation is particularly important for journalism now because over the last decade we've become more exposed to the variety of news sources that are now available to read via the web and hardly anyone is really going to continue to be satisfied by the one subscription to a particular news publisher (IMHO).

Revenue - new streams?
I'm an optimist here too, but we might need to be patient. I don't think we see a stable digital publishing market, particularly not for ebook lending and newspapers. As well everyone is still trying to protect and defend IP and ownership of content on a copying machine that now has global scale via outdated, unworkable and inappropriate models (e.g. Copyright law and DRM). Solutions will probably come from a range of options like micro payments, subscriptions, advertisements, application sales, premium upgrade options, renting like films, marketing associated product and memberships. Perhaps the publishing industry has a bit to learn from film and music? It does seem to be slow to react and evolve, and resistant to inevitable change

NYR12
For Librarians, every year should be the National Year of Reading (NYR), we must be more active in encouraging reading, get more involved, and should not just stop what has been happening this year after 2012 comes to an end. There are many great causes that need our support like the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.  Don't stop now!

Books are not dead & neither are bikes 
Books and bikes are both great models that will survive. Just as bikes survived the motor car and aeroplanes, books too are really good at what they do. I think those of us in the reading industry (if you can actually call it that) need to understand deeply why the model and power of the printed word (and illustration!) will survive. There’s a lot more to books and reading than just efficiency of digital storage and the ability to transport 453 books with you on the tram or on holiday. Who cares that you can carry more than 400 books in your small Crumpler bag? Do we have the same experience with all ebooks? Do they form the same lasting relationships and remind us of holiday reads? Can you decorate a whole house or even one room with your Kindle? Do they capture the same attention? I'm not so sure.

Maybe some of the future for printed books will be as art and artefacts. A colleague at UTS Library Dr Belinda Tiffen says you only have to think of illuminated manuscripts or even coffee table books as art objects rather than (or as well as) just a means to convey text. So one possible future for reading could be that a lot of ‘ephemeral’ material could become purely digital (popular novels, etc.), and printed books could become more niche or specialised editions. We are also starting to see the emergence of ebooks as conveyers of design, more interesting typography, illustration, alternative endings and even interactivity with regard to story-telling, so the game isn't up yet. (My thanks to Belinda for a few of the ideas I've used here!)

The future for reading is richer for the digital age. We have even more options and the old formats like books, newspapers and magazines will have to evolve to survive. That's all!

Book Spotter's Guide to Avian Titled Literature

An installation by Zoë Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple in UTS Library. See also cargocollective.com/

The Bookless Library?

(Reblogged from something I posted here: http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/the-bookless-library/)

This article in The New Republic by David A. Bell is a pretty interesting read about the NYPL and its struggle for a slice of the future, albeit on a much larger and more public scale than ours: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/david-bell-future-bookless-library?page=0,0

Much of the ground covered in the article will be familiar to those of us interested in the subject matter, i.e. us and our institutions. It is a long read, but it covers issues including the place of books, ebooks, obsolescence of core library functions, "banishing" books from the library proper (to offsite storage), nostalgia for dead-tree books, Copyright & licensing, the consolidation of library spaces, access to knowledge, the evolution of digital formats and digitisation of text, acquisition, "curation" and building design. All in a climate of constant change. Ring any bells?

I do not think that we will become glorified internet cafes, but I do agree that change is afoot and we must change with it. I enjoyed seeing a couple of things in the article, such as: libraries as communities; a nod to the library's role in the collaborative consumption (of knowledge); and recognition that libraries are a source of crucial expertise, not least with regard to acquisition. David Bell recognises that libraries are "homes to lovingly compiled collections that amount to far more than the sum of their individual printed parts" and recognises that special collections are to be treasured. He almost starts to imagine new roles for us, but stops short of recognising those large public libraries that have already taken such steps such as the British Library (and its BIPC), The State Library of Queensland (and The Edge) and some new programs led by the NYPL itself.

Bell says, and I agree, that the digital revolution is creating the need for more spaces of physical interaction and the easy access to online academic courses will not kill off the desire to rub shoulders with fellow students and professors. He goes on to encourage more partnerships between public libraries and universities and also to advocate spaces in libraries in which readers can organise appropriate activities themselves.

What is missing? I guess some explanation and understanding of the role that librarians have in properly curating their collections as experts. By that I mean researching, acquiring, describing & arranging, promoting, exposing and encouraging the discovery of library collections, no matter what format they are. Being more active in such roles establishes a valued role for the future that cannot be eroded by the march of online services. Also I think he deals with libraries as mostly keepers of text-based, largely monograph collections and therefore he fails to recognise that knowledge and culture these days is not just contained in books and journals. Increasingly, other richer and more engaging media formats are being used for storytelling, as containers of knowledge and for the sharing of ideas. Libraries need to understand this and part of that understanding is a new more proactive research and acquisition process that comes to terms with these new creative practices. Finally, I think he might have touched on our role in encouraging public debate of pressing social issues, in part because we provide access to the knowledge that gives a deeper level of understanding, but also because we are or should be active participants in some of the themes: coping in a digital age; the democratisation of knowledge and opening access to it; and being more sustainable in our daily lives.

Thanks to Hamish Curry @hamishcurry for alerting me to this on Twitter. Let me know what you think if you get a chance.

Thinking Differently: Twitter and Zite can help

(Reblogged from something I posted here: http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/thinking-differently-twitter-and-zite-can-help/)

Here is a rag bag of different articles that you could have read and pondered over just the last 24 hours if you were a Twitter or Zite user. For those who don't know it, Zite is a great free iPad app that functions for me as a personal newspaper or reader. It knows my interests (I told it) and it learns what I like to read and delivers me more content on a regular basis without all the rubbish that clutters other services. I wonder how long it'll last like this so get in fast before Rupert kills it.

• The e-book lending wars: When authors attack. Fear of piracy and authors against lending on principle. It all sounds awful. What is lovely is this bit: As musician Neil Young put it recently: “Piracy is the new radio — it’s how music gets around.” So true. I heard a very experienced lawyer for US musicians recently at an ideas fest in the OPera House. He said that the problem the record companies had with Napster was not that they stole their content, but that Napster could do what they could not do: distribute music really fast (online).
• Top 10 Clever Uses for Dropbox. Normally I don't like top 10 lists, but I do like Lifehacker and I use Dropbox, so I looked at this and saw some uses that I wasn't familiar with like monitoring your computer for unauthorised access or managing BitTorrent downloads (not that I even know what a torrent file is!).
• Twitter and Scientists. A PhD candidate shares some of the things she finds useful with Twitter.
• Textbooks Unbound. A startup called Boundless challenges the textbook market by packaging (freely available) open access materials. This talks about moves by companies like Amazon to rent textbooks and the developing open educational resources movement (or market?). Boundless is being sued by at least three publishers. Of course it is.
• What Will Higher Education Look Like in 2020? Tanya's maths is bad: 2020 is only eight years away, not 12. This is, however, a topic that is concentrating a lot of thought in universities at present. It is all still a bit debatable. You could look into the economics behind Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in this essay Bitter Reality of MOOConomics or another article on What's right and wrong about Coursera-style MOOCs. How do future libraries fit into all this? If you have any thoughts please send them to me. And here are Four Reasons Librarians Should Join a MOOC.
• For those keen on sport and the recent Olympics in London there is this great article Swimming Australia's incentive model was a failure: fact. Essentially the article is about people, not sport. As a lapsed economist I agree with this sociologist's take on it all that not everything in life should be reduced to a simple cost-benefit analysis and also that sociability shapes our motivation. We do care what others think of us. I really enjoyed reading this article and the voicing of opinions like this is long overdue.
• Putting an End to the Biggest Lie on the Internet. Those pesky Terms of Service that we all agree to! A new site aims to give more power to users by summarizing terms of service, flagging potential issues and rating apps on a scale from A (the best) to E (the worst). TwitPic gets the worst possible rating so you might want to consider future use. Thanks to @marksmithers of Swinburne Uni for that tweet!
• BrainPickings is always good for thought-provoking content, so here's 10 Rules for Students, Teachers and Life by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent. I really like rules 4, 6 & 8. Life is short: share your passion!
• Finally, some tips for those with iPads: a how-to guide for Blogging Using Just the iPad.

All of this was collected and shared in just 24 hours using Twitter and Zite. It is that easy.

Different or the Same

Sometimes being different is all about being the same. Take the state of South Australia for instance. Not too far, I hear they like where they are. They're rolling out a program to connect all the public libraries on the one library system with all the punters using the same card. Here is the news item: http://www.libraries.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=499

So it might take three years, but it'll connect almost a million SA residents with nearly five million items across more than 130 libraries and they'll soon be three years ahead of the rest of us. It is more than time we looked at doing this as a nation. If we were as clever as we think we are, we'd have done it ages ago.

Thanks to @edwardshaddow (from WA) for alerting me to this.

Discuss.

Shelf Life & The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

I've reblogged this from a post I did here: http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/shelf-life-the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge/ 

I'm on the program committee for Information ONLINE 2013. Kate Davis dobbed me in. Currently we are still trying to tie down keynotes so we can tell you who they are. One thing I am allowed to say is that they'll be different.

We've all been asked to keep this blog alive on a regular basis, so this is my first post. I think my theme will be posts about being a bit different. Then again, I reserve the right to change my mind at any stage.

Anywho, on with the post, so here we go, mind the step. I saw this on Zite over the last weekend and loved it: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/07/27/the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge/

I think it very nicely encapsulates a lot of our recent initiatives to deepen the impact of the Library within our community (at UTS). In many ways, if we are successful at this we build a more relevant institution for the future that helps to distinguish this University from the providers of online course materials. It is useful to look at some of the ideas raised by Abraham Flexner and why I think they are even more relevant in today's fast-paced and really dynamic online world. Here are a few quotes from the article that I found really inspiring, (but please try to read the full post):

... this dangerous tendency to forgo pure curiosity in favor of pragmatism ...

Now I sometimes wonder whether that current has not become too strong and whether there would be sufficient opportunity for a full life if the world were emptied of some of the useless things that give it spiritual significance; in other words, whether our conception of what is useful may not have become too narrow to be adequate to the roaming and capricious possibilities of the human spirit.

... the really great discoveries which had ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind had been made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their curiosity.

Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity ...

Out of this useless activity there come discoveries which may well prove of infinitely more importance to the human mind and to the human spirit than the accomplishment of the useful ends for which the schools were founded.

Justification of spiritual freedom goes, however, much farther than originality whether in the realm of science or humanism, for it implies tolerance throughout the range of human dissimilarities.

On 1 August 2012 our first Artist-in-Residence, Chris Gaul, opened his Shelf Life exhibition in the DAB LAB Research Gallery. I think Abraham and Chris would get on swimmingly. Chris has helped us to understand beyond what we know, he has given us fresh new perspectives on our challenges and presented us with stimulating original ideas to encourage the curiosity of our clients.


Shelf Life displays a few concepts for very different methods of discovery as we prepare to store up to 80% of our physical collection in an underground automated retrieval system that will be adjacent to a new and relocated library on Broadway, in the middle of our redeveloped campus. Chris recognises that in this brave new environment the nature of online interfaces for exploring the collection and browsing books becomes even more relevant. Rather than being sterile and uninspiring, these interfaces can be creative, unexpected tools that encourage playful exploration and serendipitous discovery. As Chris writes:

What if you could wear a pair of headphones and wander library shelves listening to the babble of books reading themselves aloud? What if you could tune into different frequencies of books, or use their Dewey call numbers to call them on the telephone?

That's all!

P.S. I went back and bolded the quote I used at the launch of Shelf Life. It really is amazing stuff, so if you're in Sydney come and have a look. If not, we agreed to document the three concepts by video so everyone can se how they work when used. MMB

Responses to the UK Finch Report on Open Access research publication

By now many of you will have heard reports of the Finch Group Report (released 18 June) on expanding access to the publication of publicly funded research in the UK. Essentially, whilst recommending that such research be made freely available on Open Access (OA), it also rather weirdly suggests that it be done under so-called Gold OA arrangements, recommending that publisher revenue be switched from library subscription fees (as it is now) to author fees (or "article processing charges"). This is plainly a ridiculous and unworkable recommendation that has been heavily influenced by the publishers lobby.

You may care to read some decent responses to the report here:

David Price: Vice-Provost (Research) at University College London http://poynder.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/finch-report-ucls-david-price-responds.html

The Conversation http://theconversation.edu.au/uk-move-to-open-access-in-publishing-misguided-7777

SPARC Europe http://sparceurope.org/sparc-europes-response-to-the-inaccuracies-in-the-article-by-the-daily-mails-city-editor-on-18-june/

I follow @openaccess_oz on Twitter to keep up with this.

There is movement at the station … (finally)

Shapeshifters: the new creatives

Last night I went to the UTSpeaks event called Shapeshifters. I've been engaging with all of the speakers for some time now, but I still heard some useful and stimulating advice from them at this talk. So here are the thoughts that I noted during the event:

First up was Professor Kees Dorst. He said that after years of research into the processes used by the world's great designers that he has found that expert design behaviour centres around frame creation. Apparently good designers focus on the problem through frame creation. He says the process moves through these stages or phases: Archaeology (gaining a deep understanding of the problem); Paradox; Stakeholders; Problem arena; Themes; Frames; Futures; Transformations; and Connections.

His research led to UTS establishing a Designing Out Crime (DOC) research centre.  Frame creation is at basis of all DOC projects. For example to tackle traffic congestion problems during the Marathon in Eindhoven, DOC started with analysis of the environment and the participants. They widened problem and enriched it to solve it. They mapped all participants, gathered data and mapped the city. This resulted in spreading people all over city according to their interests to solve traffic problem but also much more.

Second to speak was Dr Jochen Schweitzer. He first stressed the need for UTS to graduate more entrepreneurs. To do that we need to provide students with opportunities to test ideas. He also said we should be in the business of surprising customers (I like this idea A LOT).  He went on to point out that innovation is held back by homogenous or non-diverse groups of people (ring any bells?) and said that a common language is needed for design (from designers) and that we need to use it more.

Dr Joanne Jakovich was the last speaker. She also gave some background on her work as a designer and researcher and then talked about her recent experience with u.lab.  She said that u.lab provided a playful creative space for an open design process, allowing for deep understanding from observation. U.lab practices iteration, failing, sharing, prototyping and doing (not just talking). She stressed the importance of initiatives like BikeTank that make connections to rediscover the innate creativity in all of us as a function of our capacity for shared humanity. BikeTank was aimed at making cities more human and she said that cities desperately needed innovation via collective creativity.

Joanne then gave us her 10 point manifesto:

1. Encourage creative collectivism 
2. Love the city 
3. Action first then stewardship 
4. Use creative altruism 
5. Reverse engineer the emotional experience of innovation (what makes people really join in and contribute?) 
6. Raise the bar of creative expression however you can (e.g. bribes and creating the best environment for it) 
7. Orchestrate extraordinary experiences (I love this!) 
8. Good ideas scale when dead 
9. Foster everyday entrepreneurship 
10. We must tap into diversity in our urban being 

In response to a question after the talks Kees said that after tapping into the top level layer of design knowledge he found that the things creative leaders do best is to create an environment in which creativity is encouraged, allowed and recognized. Leaders also need to market and communicate about that, at least in part for their internal audience.

UTS Library & Sustainability

UTS Library & Sustainability

View more presentations from Mal Booth

If you have Keynote, and let's face it why wouldn't you have Keynote, you can download the full presentation with the speaker's notes from Slideshare.

Making researchers famous with social media

Making researchers famous with social media

View more documents from Mal Booth

These are the slides and notes for a workshop we are running for academic researchers on using social media to raise their profiles as part of our UTS Research Week 2012 program.

2011 Music (post 3 of 4)

Grouplove: Never Trust a Happy Song.
*****

Gypsy & The Cat: Gilgamesh.
****

Jinja Safari (EP).
****

The Middle East: I want that you are always happy.
****

The Naked and Famous: Passive Me, Aggressive You.
****

Grouplove: They play happy music and I always trust happy music. I absolutely love this album and was lucky enough to see them in a smallish Sydney venue live in mid-2011. They're brilliant, new, original, enjoy playing together and just so enthusiastic about their music. So much energy they just make you want to jump about or thump something in time with their beat! I love the clapping, the guitars, the teeth, the hair, the vocals, the stomping, the screaming and the words. They are like crazy animals released live on stage. It is all good. The first song I heard was Colours and I knew I would love whatever they did. Then I was wild for Naked Kids and soon came Itchin' On a Photograph and its brilliant video and I especially love Andrew Wessen's guitar work right at the end of the song. I also love his vocals and ukelele playing on Spun. Love Will Save Your Soul is another powerful song backed by guitar work that I find addictive. Hannah Hooper painted the art work on the album cover. Her vocals are wonderful. They have it. They use it. They do it.
Dancing, California, Rock, Fun, Energy, Pace.

Gypsy & The Cat: Yeah, so they unashamedly echo the soft rock of the 80s like Boston and Toto, but I like this album more than the original tunes that might have inspired them. There are a good number of instantly likeable tunes and the hit tune Time to Wander had a fantastic music video set outside the Tate Modern staring Art Malik that just mesmerised me. I don't really like Jona Vark, but others like The Piper's Song, Parallel Universe and Breakaway are great.
80s, Pop, Tate Modern, Dancing.

Jinja Safari (EP): I was really into Peter Pan in late 2010, but I think that I didn't buy this EP until 2011 and I'm including it in this list because I think the real highlight on the EP is the haunting Stepping Stones. It is a very beautiful song and entirely under-rated. Their music reminds me of Yes. MGMT and Fleet Foxes. An odd mix, I know.
Hippies, Happiness, Dancing, Jumping, Bush.

The Middle East: They are very hard to label but I think they have an alternative folk rock sound not unlike Fleet Foxes for the most part and I like them a lot. It is a pity that this is their second and last album. I was lucky enough to see and hear them perform live at the Metro soon after the release of this album and they're even better live. Their live performance is much stronger and more energetic than the finessed studio production of this album. I really like Hunger Song and The Land of the Bloody Unknown. I still cannot believe that this band came out of Townsville. Some of their music is truly beautiful.
Bush, Australia, Country, Driving, Sadness.

The Naked and Famous: This is another electro-pop album that I love with many great and varied tracks. It deservedly scored 8/10 from an NME review. They're from New Zealand and their music is instantly engaging. Young Blood certainly is a highlight and an obvious single, but so too are Punching in  Dream,  Eyes, the fascinating Jilted Lovers and All Of This. On some of those tracks you almost cannot tell it is the same band. I'd love to see them live. For most of their music you just cannot sit still. It just makes you want to get up and start stomping and jumping around.
80s, Pop, Energy, Darkness, Parties.