Ebooks, the future of research & cultural preservation by libraries

I read this post from O'Reilly TOC this morning and I was glad that someone finally raised these issues that have been bothering me for some time. I almost posted about the same issues a few weeks ago, but was distracted. The post raises some real concerns about the preservation of knowledge for future research. For me it is wider than that and goes to cultural preservation for our communities. Is it right that for our e-content we should just rely on someone else to have a copy (like Apple or Amazon as the article suggests)?

I had been worried about this, because like many other libraries we have been e-preferred for some time now. Is it also right that cultural material we collected and provided for our own communities could be unavailable for them in the future because the e-content is no longer available via our library? I don't think it is and I don't think we should simply hope for the best, divest ourselves of this responsibility and rely on others doing it for us, like say the National or State Libraries and certainly not the publishers because it isn't really their role and it really never has been. Don't we have an obligation along these lines (i.e. cultural preservation) for those in our communities? I think the rush to e-preferred has possibly led us to a focus on the now, the most convenient, the most efficient, and the least expensive alternatives, but quite probably at the expense of our obligation to preserve knowledge and culture for future generations.

I had been running around asking everyone who was involved with ebooks a lot of questions about what happens when the providers go bust, when we cease subscribing, or in the case of other inconvenient but worrying events (like hacking, file corruption, etc.). I am told that it varies with different ebook providers. Some regard it as a lease of those ebooks, others allow you to download the content in their proprietary format or in xml, but this ultimately isn't a solution. Encrypted formats offer a whole other dilemma. Many contemporary publications are in danger of disappearing, becoming untrustworthy or inaccessible in the future if we don't seriously consider this issue now. My own view is that there is actually more to cultural preservation of publications than simply preserving the xml. Books have always had other features, like covers, layout, typography, illustration, decoration, way finding assistance, etc., that add to the reader's experience. In our relentless hunt for efficiency and convenience I think we've progressively discounted the value of these features for our readers.

Perhaps this will be addressed by those talking about ebooks at the 2013 ALIA Information Online conference in Brisvegas next week.

This was originally posted here:
http://informationonline2013.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/ebooks-the-future-of-research-cultural-preservation-by-libraries/

Design & our future library: more than spaces & technology

UTS future library: more than spaces & technology from Mal Booth

Presentation from December 2012 for a UTS CMOS seminar on organisational spaces http://www.cmos.uts.edu.au/about/index.html 

On becoming extraordinary

Becoming extraordinary from Mal Booth

I found this recently, so thought I'd share the slides from this online talk that I did for QUT's Information Studies Group (@qutisg) in mid-2012. There are no speaker's notes, but most of the ideas presented are pretty self-explanatory.

Thanks to Chris Gaul for his design work on these slides.

Creating a future library

A short interview ... with me:

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.

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!

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.

New library services: why, what, how & so what?

UTS Library future service model (with notes)

View more documents from Mal Booth

Dangerous ideas for libraries

Dangerous ideas for libraries: ASLA 2011

View more documents from Mal Booth

This is the keynote presentation I gave to the ASLA 2011 Conference: http://www.asla.org.au/pd/conference/ 

I had a couple of good questions that went much further than the content of this presentation, perhaps into areas that I've covered in other recent presentations (also on SlideShare). One question, however, was on how we are going to manage all of the changes indicated in this presentation. I don't think I answered that one comprehensively.  I said that for some of the new initiatives such as developing a new range of services that will be more appropriate to the role of a new Library within a world-leading university of technology (UTS's aspiration), we are already engaged in active learning programs to improve our understanding of Design Thinking processes as they apply to service design.

What I should have added, however, is that I don't think there is anything in this presentation that presents a major change for us beyond the development of a new range of services. At UTS Library we are already actively exploring or already doing most of the "dangerous ideas" covered here. So none of this really presents a major change in direction for us.

Change & our future: it's not just about technology

Presentation to ALIA NLS5 2011

View more documents from Mal Booth

Future Smarts: Education for the 21st Century

I went to this event last night as part of Vivid Creative Sydney (#VCS). With me were: Jemima McDonald (change agent, @jemimaeve special subject: Shark Island), Sophie McDonald (Jemima's mother, @misssophiemac special subject: workplace disruption) and Dr Belinda Tiffen (intellectual, @bella1609 special subject: big words). I was invited to tag along because they felt sorry for me and because they thoight it would be good for me to hang around with some smart people.

It was an after hours event so in the spirit of "life-long learning" (the subject of one of the questions asked of the panel) we will all be submitting forms for overtime, time-in-lieu and for exposure to hazardous risks (ideas coming from outside the library and university world).

I was not expecting to get much from this event and had already thought up an excuse to leave early, but I was surprised by how stimulating some of the plainly-spoken issues raised by the panel were. We couldn't Tweet live because inside the Playhouse there was hardly any mobile phone coverage, so I took a few notes and they form the basis of this post.

After the moderator finished talking about himself the first panelist Raju Varanasi told us about what is currently happening in NSW schools. It was good to hear and see him illustrate co-creation, fun, interactive game-based learning, the use of multimedia, collaboration and cross-curricular learning. He recognised the enormous challenge in keeping teachers up to date with technology, but I don't think we had the time to fully explore any real answers.

Philip Cronin from Intel talked about the fast pace of change and showed an interesting Wordle about what mattered in education (now) in which music and video were writ large. I could see "mobile", but books and text were not readily evident. As I've said before most libraries are still locked into a text-based universe and that along with their failure to embrace technological change is probably why many are now under threat. Philip stressed the importance and growing development of connections.

Christopher Nicholls the founder of Sistema Australia was up next and spoke of the power of unlocking imagination through culture and technology. His initiative with Sistema brings to Australia a program started in Venezuela that transforms the learning and development of disadvantaged students through the power of music. He says it develops their ability to imagine and that is lacking in our current learning structures, possibly because of too many boundaries, rules, measures that do not value creativity and competition between institutions.

Finally Sharon Clerke from the Foundation for Young Australians/NAB Schools First program spoke of the benefits of deeper community involvement and partnerships in school education programs.

The discussions after their short presentations stressed the importance of social connections, sharing and a future in which personal and learning connections extend well beyond physical and institutional boundaries. The panelists saw great benefit in immersive sharing and the use of social capital if it is accessible as well as blurred boundaries between school, community, home and work. There was some talk about performance measurement and assessment in schools and how that fails to properly recognise the humanities and creative skills.

When asked to quickly sum up their key points for the future these were their final messages:

• We must unpack all of our current assumptions about education;
• We should embrace change now because it is only going to become more rapid;
• We must understand our humanity; and
• We need to increase our openness to community & our willingness to share.

For me I was reminded of the power and importance of connections and community and the importance of altruism for the future. I think that if these key points are ignored institutions will be locked into a world of isolation, defending their own selfishness.

Looking beyond the metrics and towards our future (Part 1 of 2)

TWITTER v. ZZZZZZ

I'd been trying to get some thoughts together for a few presentations that I have to give soon about the future of libraries (ours in particular) and a friend (@zaana) advised me late last night to take a look at the Twitter stream (#edge2011) from the Edge 2011 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. At least the first of the two days looked to be very library-centric. A lot of the tweets seemed to be a bit too much like navel-gazing without any helpful suggestions, but there were a couple of positive and provocative ideas thrown in from some (service) design thinkers. A few ideas really helped me with my own thinking, even though it was all very late at night. More about that in a moment.

SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS

Already in my head was a little bit of a debate about some basic metrics that a colleague at work presented us with recently relating to our use of and progress with social media and social networks. They were OK, but nothing amazing, apart from a few interesting blips where certain content had really taken off. I think there are other more useful measures we could include as well such as referrals to our more traditional web content, but essentially, the point I want to make here is that for me at least I think our experience in this academic library with social media goes beyond what any metrics can actually measure. And it is in my opinion critically and positively related to the preparations we are making for our future library. That building isn't going to be designed on metrics alone and it will just be a building. It could be all about books and transactions relating to books.

UTS FUTURE LIBRARY: ASRS & RFID

So, to explain now: before we get to designing our future library, we've decided to jump in and implement two other major technology initiatives that take the focus away from books and transactions. Currently we are busy with a large team of designers working on an underground Library Retrieval System that will store and retrieve for our clients about 80% of our collections of books and journals. That will squarely refocus the library itself on PEOPLE. (Refocusing libraries on people was something I saw that was suggested at Edge 2011.) We are also busy implementing RFID technology that will assist us to take our focus away from transactions and onto the provision of more value-added services (e.g. improved and extended services for our researchers). These two initiatives will be implemented between 2011 and 2014, but there is also much to do to reshape the library and our services so that we can maximise the potential of those technologies and that is where social media comes in.

UTS LIBRARY & SOCIAL MEDIA/NETWORKS

At UTS Library we started playing around (literally playing around) with social media in 2009. Staff at all levels were encouraged to try some new platforms and to produce content for them. We also started setting up a presence and creating a sense of community in a few selected social networks. These things take a while. They don't happen overnight and I think you can make the mistake of killing it all off too soon by over analysing it before it has had the chance to grow and evolve. We've been patient.

THE REAL BENEFITS

In my view, however, the real benefit of encouraging these relatively new initiatives has been internal. Dipping our toes into social media has been a bit of a cultural fire-starter for us. We cannot hope to move into a brave new library world without some drastic changes in our own culture and our attitudes towards exploring new ideas and services. Social media has helped us with both. It has also helped reposition our "persona" from a corporate voice to a more personal voice (which is another thing I saw mentioned at Edge 2011 last night) and that is necessary because we cannot be all about people if that is just on the outside. The focus on people also has to happen on the inside.

Playing with social media has encouraged our people to learn about new platforms and about creating content for them. Those skills in both exploration of new or emerging technologies and content production are invaluable. They've also gained confidence in their writing and presentation skills and learned how to "network" more effectively (which is critical for liaison on campus). All of this has helped us promote our services and our people and now more than ever we are in demand on campus and elsewhere.

Our social media experiments have already led to the development of improved and new services for students and researchers at UTS all through establishing a culture of fun, playfulness and a willingness to try new things. They have really helped our people in the ways they use and help others to use our discovery layer and our website and that has also helped us to understand how we should improve that layer with the addition of new features and services. There is a real momentum of openness, sharing and experimentation that has developed accordingly.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST

Underlying this has been a strong culture of trust at all levels of management and leadership in this library. We didn't issue a 27 page set of principles and rules for the use of social media. We simply referred to the existing UTS code of conduct for all staff and explained that for practical reasons we would concentrate our efforts on an agreed set of platforms: all the usual suspects. Everyone was treated like an adult and trusted to get on with it.

That's it for Part 1. In Part 2 I will explore a few more specific ideas about how we did this and what worked for us. (Oh, this is all straight off the top of my head after a late night following #edge2011, so I reserve the right to edit, add & change the content above over the next couple of days.)

Design Thinking

I took some photos at a recent (Sydney) Design Thinking Drinks event at Digital Eskimo. This Flickr set brings together a few thoughts of mine with deeper content created by many others and linked throughout the set in the text beneath the images. Take a look (on Flickr, so you can see the links and read all the text).

Libraries: Change and our Future

Libraries: Change and our Future

View more documents from Mal Booth.

Some musings post ILI2010

Bean Bags at LSE Library.

ILI2010 is now a week and hemisphere away, so here are a few thoughts it provoked from me:

1. At some stage someone tweeted that our #ILI2010 hastag was picked up by a non-librarian who investigated and then reported that it was just some dull library conference and of no interest to anyone else. Some of us laughed that off, but doesn't it tell us something more serious about our profession and how we are regarded by others? Are we happy with or accepting of that view?
2. I think that too often we just talk about us and our value (i.e. as "librarians") and this has virtually no, or very little focus on what we are doing to provide better services for our clients. Mostly we are preaching to the converted (us) and nobody else is much interested. Meanwhile, our online competition keeps developing or going around us. Stop being so library-centric, it won't work and isn't appropriate.
3. Using more social media and completing online learning programs isn't the answer, nor the end point. And I think that an anonymous presence on social media is next to useless for a librarian. We need to start using these channels to provide valuable content or services and to make real and ongoing human connections with our communities. Creating content and providing those services isn't always easy and it takes much energy, patience, effort, and creativity. Start now. Seek permission and write your policy documents later. Forget a cost-benefit analysis and measuring ROI.
4. Get out and find what your core community business or interest is (if you don't already know, or if you are locked into providing services to meet what it used to be 30 years ago). Then get involved in it. Digitise stuff, help facilitate much-needed services, help local community businesses or industry, educate, entertain or help researchers.
5. Don't just sit around waiting for someone to ask you a question - get out and offer your help and assistance.
6. Make yourself and your library more interesting and relevant to your community, whatever it is. Be active in collecting and developing a deeper interest in new media and games. Expose yourself as a real person. If you're dull you are asking to be left out. Sorry, but that is life's harsh reality.
7. As a profession we were more active in multi-media pre-Guttenberg. Illuminated manuscripts facilitated or produced by "librarians" contained art, music, calligraphy, laws, science, worship, text, etc. We can learn from that and start again.
8. I for one don't ever need to be reminded of Ranganathan's five laws of library science again. Let's move on now.
9. We need to listen more to what our clients, patrons or users are saying and respond accordingly: better search and discovery tools (vice unfriendly ontologies); more useful applications; customisable services; personalised service; less library jargon; etc.
10. Learn how to quickly and regularly scan the contemporary web and how to curate, create and collect content more actively.
11. Amassing blog statistics and metrics won't save us either. Nor will publishing more theory about "library science" in academic journals.
12. Learn how to take some risks: your own future is at stake here.
13. I may well be wrong, but I think you can have a library without librarians. You can at least have one without irrelevant librarians. And as for librarians without libraries: oh please! Get real. That little discussion was all a bit precious for me.

Future academic libraries: orientation spaces

And another thing! I knew there was something that I forgot to say in yesterday's non-post.

A couple of students I spoke with yesterday seemed quite obsessed by the elimination of noise in our new Library and what we intended to do about it. Initially, I just said it could be done via decent architecture and interior design of the spaces, including furnishings. I could not illustrate that point as there was no web access in the studio we were in, so later on I talked about the importance of the orientation space created by I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum. It links three buildings and after it was proven to be successful many museums around the world followed their example including the British Museum and the Australian War Memorial (AWM) as it was so effective in introducing visitors to the museum and in allowing for improved and more appropriate circulation.

I believe the orientation space provided via the main entry is also going to be extremely important for us in our new Library. That is what will primarily change visitor behaviour from that of the external learning commons and the services it provides. If designed well it should also assist in the provision of services to, and management of (non-UTS) community members who may be allowed access to the Library. When the AWM began the first phase of its massive redevelopment over the last 15 years, the first gallery to be upgraded and completely redesigned was the Second World War gallery. That gallery probably comprised about 1/3 of the space within the museum proper. It was deep-set in the museum after entry and you almost had to traverse part of the First World War galleries to find it. The AWM leadership was advised of the importance of also reworking the orientation gallery and embarked on an ambitious program to redesign both at the same time.

The orientation gallery was smaller and was finished first, but it provided a much more contemporary and enticing entry than the previous dark and cluttered space. A massive glass showcase was designed and built by a glass artists (now deceased) from Queanbeyan and the Director pushed the positioning of one of only two Gallipoli landing boats in that foyer as the main feature "statement". The showcase contained items from all parts of the collection giving people a taste of what followed in the main galleries: all without any textual interpretation. When it opened, people knew they were entering a special place designed to assist them to understand the Australian experience of war. There is something for everyone. Visitors are greeted and tours meet in that gallery. Since then many museums have followed suit and now the National Gallery of Australia is finishing off a completely redesigned entrance along the same lines.

I saw much the same thing in all of the modern public and academic libraries (and galleries) that I visited in the US last year. Some did it better than others, but all had clearly devoted attention to their "orientation space". Some examples can be seen in the Flickr slideshow above (all images are my own).

Why there's no real post today

I'm exhausted of ideas and I'm coming down with a head cold despite taking every natural immune system booster known in Western civilisation. Part of the reason I'm exhausted is because today I had to present most of our future library concepts to students in our UTS Designing Out Crime (DOC) Research Centre. I used a presentation of our key ideas around some illustrative images, but as it is a bit of a rehearsal for a short presentation that I'm to give later this year at the ILI conference in London, I don't think I should share it just yet.

By 2016 the UTS Library will be relocated to the building next the the big UTS tower on Broadway, one of the main avenues taking people into the city of Sydney. Having a more prominent location both within the University and within that area of Sydney will present its own challenges and we hope to get some decent ideas from the DOC students.

It isn't as if we are expecting a future series of Underbelly to be written about the crime in the UTS Library. We are just hoping for some proposals primarily to do with regulating or discouraging behaviours like theft, vandalism, consumption of inappropriate food and beverages, noise, etc. We are also looking for their ideas to assist us in presenting the key library resources and services as exclusive for UTS members (i.e not accessible by the general community). I spent a couple of hours with them making my presentation and then answering some really stimulating questions that gave me much food for thought.

I think we are really fortunate to have such a program at UTS and I love that we are giving UTS students the chance to contribute to the planning of the new Library in such a practical way (even though it is still very early in the planning stage).

The image is UTS tower from my place.

UTS Library Planning Day #2

UTS on future academic libraries

On 9 February 2010 Dr Belinda Tiffen, Sophie McDonald and me from the UTS Library presented some ideas for our future Library to a national library conference in Melbourne (VALA2010).

As part of the UTS City Campus Master Plan, we have begun the early stages of planning for a new library building or “learning commons” on Broadway that will set new standards for online and physical services to our clients (students, researchers, academics and staff), green culture and operations, and our own work environment. About 60% of our current collection will be buried in a robotically-served retrieval system under Alumni Green (adjacent to the new library building), freeing up the library space for things other than book storage. That facility will be designed and built in the near future.

Our ideas for the future library were presented in three short but entertaining video clips outlining scenarios for:

• students (by UTS students James Shepherd, Dan Miller and friends),
• researchers and
• our staff (in homage the the well-known CommonCraft videos).