Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Attaining Sustainable Digital Libraries
Disruptive Libraries
Feng Chia University
12 December 2008
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
What is normal?
• Financial tsunami
• Changing world geo-political world
• Altered world communication patterns
• Election of President-Elect Barrack Obama
• Unexpected change has dominated
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
‘Normal’ varies from era to era
• Rate of change in our own lives
• Dependent on our observation and awareness of our worlds
• A further factor is the extent to which we can influence the environment
• No one is immune from change
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
“ You can’t stop change from coming… you can only usher it in and work out the terms. If you are smart and a little lucky, you can make it your friend”
Barrack Obama
Time Nov 17, 2008: 25
“ You can’t stop change from coming… you can only usher it in and work out the terms. If you are smart and a little lucky, you can make it your friend”
Barrack Obama
Time Nov 17, 2008: 25
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
‘Rear Vision Mirror’
• Looking to the past helps to understand how the future happens
• Remember the past • Remember how to look
forward from that time• Rates of change can be
determined
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Uncertainty and ‘Wei Ji’
• If we were able to predict the future, we would be rich
• A crisis can mean different things to different people: may not even be a crisis!
• With every crisis there is an opportunity
• Opportunity can make people super-people if they have the skills
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Disruptive Technologies
• Clayton Christensen Innovator’s Dilemma
• Disruptive technologies– Initially limited functionality eg PC’s, diaries,
PDA’s– Eventually DT’s have enough functionality for
most people
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Five PrinciplesClayton Christensen Innovators dilemma
1. Companies depend on customers and investors for resources
*Do not meet current customer need fail
2. Small markets do not solve growth needs of large companies
*Emerging market first mover advantage ..margins too small for large companies..new markets often larger
3. Markets that do not exist cannot be analysed *Market research and planning good for sustaining
technologies
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Five Principles ……..4.Organisation’s capabilities define its disabilities
*Capability in processes and values…work against organisation implementing change
5. Technology supply may not equal market demand
*Technology improvement provides greater performance than market can absorb
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Just two…………• Markets which do not exist cannot be
analysed– What are the future markets for Libraries?
• An Organisation’s capabilities define it’s disabilities– What do we see our capabilities?
• Storage; cataloguing; information services????
– These are our disabilities!!! What are our future strengths???
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
What is the disruptive technology for Libraries?
• Three main disruptions….– One, Digital delivery destroyed the Traditional
Library model
– Two, Google has made the library catalogue redundant
– Three, the above two have made the old Librarian role redundant
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
….an Opportunity!!
• How do we create a new Business Model for the Library?
• How do we develop the new Librarian with a new set of skills?
• How do we alter the direction and shape of our organisations and the training organisations?
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Strategic Thinking
Future Focus
Strong
Weak
Weak Strong
Mindless Action
Futures Trap
Paradigm challengingstrategies
Within paradigmstrategies
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristics of the new direction
• Digital, digital, digital……• Users are more remote… or, at least,
many of our interactions are with an unseen clientele to content which cannot be seen either
• New modes of learning • Cost pressures… everywhere• Most especially, User expectations are
very different
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristic: Digital
• Not everything will be digital and if it is… it will cost significant amounts of money– Google Books never free……….
• Collaborative storage for low-use research materials
• Focus on good choices ofTechnology to invest in
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
Period
Use
Normal Life Cycle 一般的生命周期
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
Period
Use
Life Cycle with Spikes 跳跃的生命周期
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Life Cycle with Long Tail 长尾巴的生命周期
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
How many copies?
• Is everything digital?
• Is everything which is digital, digital forever?
• What is the redundancy rate for technology?
• How many copies of journals need to be retained to ensure a digital copy can be made in 100 years?
Candace Arai Yano “Optimising the number of copies for print preservation of research journals. October 2008
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
• JULAC is establishing a KHD350 Million low use print robotic repository
• A shared collection• No Duplication of
content• Shared capital
ownership and management
JURA
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristic: Remote
• How do we relate to users we never meet?
• Impacts of technological horizons– Far beyond the campus for access and
license arrangements
• Meet on the terms of our future users– Generation Y
• Seamless to content– From wherever to wherever
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristic: Learning
• Engage in new digital environments such as Second Life– Avatar Librarians– Library resources linked to learning courses
• Our staffs need to learn to manage in a collaborative environment– Need different managerial styles– Need to be even more creative and forward thinking– Need to be qualified teachers
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
PolyU Library Second Life
Second Life address: hkpolyU Campus
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristic: Cost Pressures
• Increasing value of Consortia
• Roles of Consortia changing further– OCLC ‘disintermediation’– Merger of large consortia into even bigger
consortia– JULAC’s Consortiall saving HKD27 million in
2007
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Characteristic: User Expectations
• Increasing expectation of service, instant service
• JULAC commenced HKALL– Empowered users to go to or have materials
brought to them… at no cost
• JULAC also introduced RAPID to make articles available in 24 hours
• PolyU is creating collaborative spaces
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Independent libraries
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Hierarchical libraries in a system…centralised
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Networked libraries…Local Regional or International
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Imagination, knowledge and methodology
• Choices need process
• Processes describe the journey
• Journey needs knowledge
• Knowledge needs to avoid being ‘blinkered’
• Imagination is supreme, it allows for creativity
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Imagining a Library
Individual Library– Preferred Library
Scenario– Strategic Plan
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Imagining a system
• Nothing remains the same
• Evolution of Consortia
• Members are libraries
• No longer a collection of libraries
• What are the drivers influencing the future of consortia?
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
What ‘wei lai’ should we choose?
• Important to understand options / alternatives
• Important to scope out the alternatives
• Is there a difference between Scenario Planning and Strategic Planning?• Important not to engage in strategic planning too early
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
What is sustainability?
• A state of mind.. to think completely ‘outside-the-box’ !
• A state of preparedness
• Aware of developments and trends in allied and even unrelated disciplines
• Motivated to grasp and shape the future
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
• Obama said ‘You can make change your friend !’
• You can choose to position yourself ahead of the pack
• You can choose to be ‘out there’, or to wait for the future to happen to you
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Disruptive Librarians
and
Libraries will make the future
And
Make it a sustainable one!
Steve O’ConnorUniversity Librarian
Xie Xie Diajia