Changes & trends in the broad arena of digital libraries during the past decade: Reflections from the conference Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2000-2009
Tefko Saracevic, PhDSchool of Communication & InformationRutgers UniversityNew Brunswick, New Jersey USAhttp://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~tefko
Tefko Saracevic 1
Tefko Saracevic 2
Old Queens where Rutgers University started as Queens Collegein 1766
Tefko Saracevic 3
How thinking about trends is established
From: Robert B. Cialdini (1993). Influence: the psychology of persuasion
The big picture
In the first decade of the new century digital libraries exhibited a continuing, even accelerating growth and changes in many dimensionsThe phenomenon is globalMany changes and advances are evolutionary, some even revolutionaryAmong others:
Tefko Saracevic 4
The big picture - Among others:
New players, stakeholders, fields, and institutions joined the realm of digital librariesPosition of digital libraries in the networked environment as exhibited by their reach, access and diversity expanded significantly
Research community grew and research diversifiedCurricula and professional competencies changed to accommodate a variety of organizational, service and technological needs
Tefko Saracevic 5
The big picture - Among others (cont.)
Economic investments in and expenditures for digital libraries increased significantlyNumerous social, managerial, legal, and ethical issues and effects became more pronounced
Manifold issues about the evident impact of digital libraries on scholarship, education, society, and culture are being raised and explored
Tefko Saracevic 6
Ten years of LIDA 2000-2009
Purpose: to address the changing and challenging environment for libraries and information systems in the digital worldEach year a different and ‘hot’ theme was addressed, divided in two parts: the first part covering research and development
and the second part addressing advances in
applications and practice
Most of the topics from “the big picture” were addressed - variety of viewpoints
Tefko Saracevic 7
LIDA themes2000:Positioning libraries on the
Internet.Using Internet in libraries2001:The Internet: ethics and legal
issues.Information services - practice
and research 2002:Integrating information seeking
and information retrieval (IR).Information services in digital
environments - practice and research.
2003:WWW and information retrieval.WWW and libraries2004:Human information behavior and
digital libraries.Competences for digital libraries2005:What can digital libraries do that
traditional libraries cannot? Or do in addition? Achievements and prospects.
Building a small digital library and digital library network
Tefko Saracevic 8
Themes …
Tefko Saracevic 9
2006:Cultural, social and institutional
effects and place of digital libraries
Building a digital library for children and young adults
2007:Users and use of digital
libraries.Economics and digital libraries2008:Education and training in digital
libraries.Reference in digital
environments
2009:Reflections: changes brought
by and in digital libraries in the last decade.
Heritage & digital libraries - digitization, preservation, access
2010:?????????
LIDA Guests of Honor
2004
Eugene Garfield2005
Robert Hayes2006
Jack Meadows2007
Christine Borgman
2008
Peter Ingwersen
2009
Michael Buckland
2010
shall we vote?
Tefko Saracevic 10
LIDA themes reflected …
Development: building digital libraries ; d-lib research (LIDA 2005/II; 2006/II)
Practice: diversity, growth, digital libraries & the networked environment (LIDA 2000/parts I; 2003/I & II)
Services: variety of services provided (LIDA 2001/II; 2002/II; 2005/I;
2008/II)
Users & use: using digital libraries; human information behavior& information seeking in digital libraries (LIDA 2000/II; 2002/I; 2004/I;
2007/I)
Professional: education for digital librarians, competencies needed; ethical concerns (LIDA 2001/I; 2004/II; 2008/I)
Social: digital libraries and social, cultural, and institutional effects (LIDA 2006/I; 2007/II; 2009/II)
Tefko Saracevic 11
Tefko Saracevic 12
Here, for review of trends grouped in nine overreaching effects
D-libs are affected by trends in: proliferation of digital
information changes in needs for
& role of d-information increased diversity &
competition new or improved
services search for measuring,
justification cooperative activities
Plus they are affected by changes in their: immediate
institutional or community environment
users & use technology
developments policy, legal, and
political contexts
Graphically:General trends & mutual effects
Tefko Saracevic 13
Graphically: Plus changes in environments
Tefko Saracevic 14
© 2008 Tefko Saracevic 15
Effects on d-libs of
D-information is growing exponentially everything about digital information follows
Moore’s law (which is not about information but computer hardware: capacity of chips doubles every two years)
Information explosion is continuing unabated now including the web
Publishing & distribution migrated to digitalMany implications for d-libs in every aspect: selection, acquisition/licensing,
organization, access provision, rights management, preservation ….
Tefko Saracevic 16
… effects of proliferation (cont.)
As budgets of libraries are not increasing, higher & higher proportions are going for digital resources & services necessitating cuts for others & changes in professional deployment of
librarians somebody has to run and manage these
things
Collections are increasingly digital
Example: Rutgers University Libraries – electronic subscriptions
Tefko Saracevic 17
Tefko Saracevic 18
… effects of proliferation (cont.)
Many libraries are increasing own digitization & playing an active role in proliferation digitization of heritage (old stuff) & outputs
of own institutions (new stuff) is increasing born digital from libraries is going up as well
Many libraries are joining & even leading in preservation of digital records & with it libraries are becoming an important
social & cultural player in information society
Tefko Saracevic 19
… effects of proliferation (cont.)
In turn these trends are creating needs for properly educated and trained digital librarians curricula, distant education, workshops …
are adjusting to those needs & will adjust even more
professional life-long learning becomes imperative
professionally: a constant need to change & increase professional competencies this is a 100% sure trend
Tefko Saracevic 20
Effects on d-libs of
Digital information is also distributed (role of the internet) and accessed & used in a number of differing ways (role of the web) plus creation became relatively easy & sharable
All continue to affect what information is needed and how it is used the study of these needs & uses are proliferating
in many fields & commercially important for finding ways & means to satisfy
changing needs & uses
Tefko Saracevic 21
… effects of changing use, needs (cont.)
D-libs are being accessed & used by users that are never setting a foot in the library physically, only virtually – access by fingers not feet inspiring studies (or guessing) of needs and
access ways of these virtual users users studies of digital libraries & resources are
on the rise & more are under way involvement of librarians in such studies and in
interpretation & translation of findings should become a trend (but will it?)
to translate into appropriate responses
Effects on d-libs of
Many institutions, in addition to libraries, are into digital libraries museums, archives, historical societies,
professional organizations, academic fields, institutions, schools, governments, commercial enterprises … you name it
Diversity is growing users do not care libraries do – how to use this array? how to
distinguish themselves?
Tefko Saracevic 22
Also: Competition in information economy
A number of players got involved in digital information taking advantage of technology many new ones (Google, Amazon…) many old
ones reconfigured (publishers e.g. Elsevier) stakes are enormous & increasing a major & rapidly growing industry
Competition is cutthroat national & global with strategic significance for all
Tefko Saracevic 23
Tefko Saracevic 24
… effects of competition (cont.)
Libraries are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory – never had such competition positive trend: increasingly searching for and
defining a constructive (and winning) role in that environment
e.g. in commercial enterprises they are re-defining themselves into competitive intelligence services
Tefko Saracevic 25
… effects of competition (cont.)
Negative contrast: gloomy pronouncements on increased irrelevance of libraries (or books, or print, or newspapers, or …)
percent of people reading any book or newspapers a year is falling – one trend
yet more books and a variety of magazines are made and sold per year then ever before – another trend
Talking about books (one of the mainstreams of libraries)
Tefko Saracevic 26
Are books under siege?A lot of stuff is read now from the screen so far books not that much paper for books (i.e. analog) is still the king
However, will that change? with a lot of digitization – ever more books
are digital – effect of scale & variety with new digital reader technology – ever
more user friendly (e.g. Amazon’s Kindle) with new downloading & charging methods à
la iPod with new, wired, screen-oriented generation
© 2008 Tefko Saracevic 27
Effects: New digital book & libraries Doomsday scenario: users will bypass libraries in getting books libraries will slowly get irrelevant as book holders
Rethinking doomsday scenario: libraries will adjust digital collections & services &
offer “circulation” of digital books in new ways – value is added
services are free to own patrons – others are not
Libraries will get a new and different life if they adjust
Tefko Saracevic 28
Effects on d-libsof development of
On the web-based new services, capabilities, products related to d-information are mushrooming Even established ones are improving & evolving in new directions just think of paths taken by digitization of
books by Google & others
Tefko Saracevic 29
… effects of new services (cont.)
Libraries are participating in a number of new web services e.g. Google book digitization involves many
libraries, even national ones … going up & up
library catalogs & circulations are becoming a part of search engines getting integrated into the online search
experiences
Tefko Saracevic 30
… effects of new services (cont.)
Also developing own new services, e.g. e-reference: ask-a-librarian; chat reference searching: incorporation of cross-database
searching; filter options for refining searches; advanced searching by place, time, broad subject, & category; recommender services geared toward “Less Searching, More Finding.”
offering access to bibliography management software (e.g. RefWorks at many libraries )
providing webcasts of events in the library
Service: Searching
End user searching increased dramaticallyProfessional searching in many institutions declined, even disappearedReference transactions declined dramaticallyDigital resources for searching are a major & growing component & expenditure in librariesFrom searching move toward information literacy
Tefko Saracevic 31
Service: Information literacyKnowledge how to find, evaluate and process informationInvolves tutorials for a field or for specific courses information guides for given fields, areas conduct if inf. literacy courses or modules
including in distance education orientation for students
D-libs moving into education
Tefko Saracevic 32
But, major service: access
Networked, distributed access still major goal but ways & means changing also involves management of digital resources &
their access
Development of portals – never endingMega-portals e.g. Europeana- across countries & institutions American Memory – across heritage records, media
Increasingly, local libraries are also becoming portals for all kinds of local information
Tefko Saracevic 33
Tefko Saracevic 34
Effects on d-libs ofincreased focus on
For commercial organizations measuring exchange value fairly straight forward: Return on investment (ROI), profits even willing to take long term gamble, losses
But indicators of use value new & in flux tracking online visits: clicks, what words, phrases
used most, (“bangs for the buck”), from where use came (addresses…); ranks in visits …
instead of subscriptions measure downloads use of tracking tools on the rise to justify value
Tefko Saracevic 35
… effects of measuring (cont.)
Measuring & interpreting access & use in digital libraries is complex standards slowly developing
ROI & value in exchange not appropriate
Use measures are often equated with value in use – similarly as circulation measures statistics measures used as performance
measures e.g.: visits; fill rate; downloads; percent of population
(students, patrons) actually using; use level for titles
Tefko Saracevic 36
… effects of measuring (cont.)
New measures of value are constantly sought some are user-centric
e.g. experiences; outcomes - what did the user get out of the service; impact; scorecards
some within broader economic theory considering libraries as social capital
some with arguments of value added by libraries to information & inf. objects
Pressure to justify is rising & rising yet actually finding ways to do so is not what would be loss in terminating a library?
Tefko Saracevic 37
Effects on d-libs of
Connectivity coupled with cooperation becoming a major aspect of d-information benefit of feedback & contributions from a
community - “wisdom-of-the-crowds”
Besides blogs & Wikipedia many examples recent- aimed at scientist: 2collab bookmarks with folksonomy: del.icio.us
e.g. their entry for digital libraries study of cooperation in Cooperation Commons
(CoCo) of course there should be cooperation in study of
cooperation
Tefko Saracevic 38
… effects of cooperation (cont.)
Libraries have a long history of cooperation – continues in d-libraries e.g. cataloging, consortia, OCLC, networks cooperation on the rise because of
necessity
But there is also library type cooperation aimed at general public all about books: cataloging your books,
recommendations … LibraryThing e.g. their entry for Librarians who LibraryThing
More like that will appear has commercial value as well
Tefko Saracevic 39
Digital libraries & changes in their environments
Role of changes in immediate context institution or community users & use technology legal, policy, politics
Several large gravitational hubs of information infrastructure dominate
Google, Amazon, Yahoo…
Trends in these environments impact digital libraries a lot
Tefko Saracevic 40
Effects on d-libs of
Educational institutions trend: searching for role in digital environment
e.g. online offerings, open course materials (MIT)
Public communities & governments trend: e-government, e-communication
Commercial organization trend: increased participation in digital anything
Libraries are trying to increase their participation in new or changing aspects of their institution, organization, community if not they face being irrelevant to new
directions
© 2008 Tefko Saracevic 41
Effects on d-libs of
In many areas substantive changes public is more & more on the net for all kinds of
things
Open access movement continues to gain ground – but not without struggle significant support but also opposition rising
Social connections on the Web – big (for now) but also individualization - myXXXX
This keeps effecting d-libraries expectations & requirement of users changing
e.g. full texts required & expected
Changes in scholarship“Scholarly practices
across an astoundingly wide range of disciplines have become profoundly and irrevocably changed by the application of advanced information technology.”
Clifford Lynch (2008) in The Institutional Challengesof Cyberinfrastructure and E-Research
Academic & research institutions are adjusting & creating own infrastructure
In various ways libraries play a role in that infrastructure – still evolving incorporating growing
no. of databases, d-resources, web sources, access mechanisms, inf. literacy & assistance
Tefko Saracevic 42
Tefko Saracevic 43
Effects on d-libs ofTechnologies have reconstructed or changed social structures including institutions – libraries as well & have a potential to do so further
In turn, social structures shape how we think about & use technology – digital libraries are a part of that as well Technologies change stuff & the changed stuff affects how we use & consider technology
derived somewhat from Giddens' structuration theory
Tefko Saracevic 44
Effects on d-libs of technology (cont.)
Constant appearance of new technologies – hardware & software – is a constant trend D-libraries are totally technology dependent & their users are becoming so and will constantly keep chasing it
interaction with technology suppliers particularly of integrative & advanced software is becoming more sophisticated & knowledgeable on part of libraries
new access methods, hardware on the horizon libraries & iPods or some such & users will probably
expect that they can get to library that way
Technical problems
Substantial - larger & more complex than anticipated e.g.:
representing, storing & retrieving of library objects particularly if originally designed to be printed & then
digitized operationally managing large collections - issues of scale dealing with diverse & distributed collections
interoperability; federated searching assuring preservation & persistence incorporating rights management
Also affected research agendas & directions
Tefko Saracevic 45
Research issuesstarting from technical, but expanding …
understanding objects in DL representing in many formats
metadata, automating representation conversion, digitization organizing large collections managing collections, scaling preservation, archiving interoperability, standardization accessing, using, searching
federated searching of distributed collections evaluation of digital libraries
Tefko Saracevic 46
Tefko Saracevic 47
Effects on d-libs of
D-libs, as most public institutions, depend on policies, laws of their governments from economic sustenance, to research, to
intellectual freedom, to professional recognition …
Changes in policies = often changes in fortuneChanges in governments = often changes in policies
D-lib research policies
In the US, UK, European Union strong support for d-lib research starting in mid 1990’s – many projects Most such research was technology orientedCreated strong d-lib research communities world wide
But by 2009 d-lib research support ceased – no more
to some extend it shifted to other areas
It will have negative effect on d-lib research
larger projects cannot not be sustained without govermental support
move to institutional support
Tefko Saracevic 48
Legally, politically …
New forms of intellectual property rights for emergent information architectures of the 21st century are needed & soughtSignificant asymmetries in access to information have socioeconomic consequences – remedies are soughtD-libraries (as libraries in general) will continue to try to affect these changes voicing through a number of channels
Tefko Saracevic 49
ConclusionsBack to big picture
Tefko Saracevic 50
Digital libraries contribution
Affected handling of information in societyPenetrated many fields & human activitiesStarted on developing an organized body of knowledge & professional competenciesApplied interdisciplinarityReaching late adolescence - toward maturityStressed HUMAN in human-computer interaction
Tefko Saracevic 51
ChallengesAdjust to the growing & changing social & organizational role of inf. & related inf. infrastructurePlay a positive role in globalization of informationRespond to technological imperative in human termsJoin competition with quality – d-libraries are value addedJoin DIGITAL with LIBRARIES
Tefko Saracevic 52
JunctureLibraries are at a critical juncture in their evolution – digital components are revolutionizing their rolesMany fields, groups ... moving into digital libraries
big competition entrance of powerful players fight for stakes
Need to keep progressing in its: research & development professional competencies educational efforts interdisciplinary relations
And demonstrating their value to society
Tefko Saracevic 53
Tefko Saracevic 54
Conclusion for d-libs - A proper borrowing on how to act
“Think globally, act locally.” an environmentalist slogan coined by David Brower, founder of Friends
of the Earth
Tefko Saracevic 55
Giuseppe Arcimboldo(1527-1593):
The Librariancirca 1570see his other pictures athttp://nanimots.canalblog.com/
How will a digital librarian look like?
My favorite LIDA picture (LIDA 2006, Mljet)
Tefko Saracevic 56
This is how I looked when LIDA started (I wish)
Tefko Saracevic 57
Tefko Saracevic 58