MANAGING TECHNO

LOGY·Virtualization and Libraries: The Future isNow (or Virtualization: Whither Librariesor Libraries Wither?)by William C. DoughertyAvailable online 28 March 2009

The term virtualization has been receiving a greatdeal of press lately, both in the context of theconsolidation of information technology resources

and in reference to a change in one’s normal everydaylife. The latter case, often encapsulated by the term“virtual reality,” evokes science-fiction and fantasyelements from books, films, and especially videogames, while the former case is more down to earthand usually focuses on economics. Libraries andlibrarians will have an expanding role in the futurebased on the marriage of these concepts and theirimpact on higher education.

Libraries have always been early adopters of tech-nology and innovative in the use of automation.Initially this pertained primarily to accessing theircollections through the evolution of online catalogs.This is not difficult to understand when one considersthat standards, so important to automation andcreation of databases, existed early in the world oflibraries. (What does MARC stand for after all?MAchine Readable Catalog). Libraries also pioneeredaccess to other databases — first those obtainedthrough portable media (CDs), then external databasesthrough proxy subscriptions. Lexis/Nexis was one ofthe first the Virginia Tech libraries obtained. Their list isnow so long that it is alphabetized and requires twodozen individual web pages to display. The databasesinclude collections of audio and visual materials alongwith textual based information. Libraries were alsoproviding Internet access to the public long before itwas popular in cafés and coffee shops. The currentquestion becomes: will the acceptance of informationtechnology lead to further innovation in libraries orwill it wither?

If libraries wish to remain relevant, they must followthrough with their commitment to the use of techno-

William C. Dougherty is Director of Systems Support,Network Infrastructure & Services, Virginia Tech,1700 Pratt Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA<william@vt.edu>.

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logy, including embracing the use of virtualization in allof its contexts.

One strategy that may be deployed is to make thestorage of and access to information more efficient andcost effective. Libraries are some of the largest repo-sitories of data/information/knowledge (choose yourfavorite term) on the planet. There is no reason theyshould not act accordingly. The University of IowaLibraries decided to address this situation with theirarchival data in the Fall of 2008. “‘Actively managingour archival data allows us to move the least used filesto less expensive storage,’ said Mark Weber, leadsystem administrator for the library. ‘Digital objectsthat are frequently used remain on our high perform-ing storage area network. As a research library,however, we are also responsible for data curationand preservation on files that might be needed onceevery five, ten, or fifty years.’”1 This tension betweenthe desire to have new information immediatelyaccessible, but still have relatively quick access toolder data has been addressed by an I.T. concept knownas “Information Lifecycle Management” (or ILM). Theusual approach is to position a variety of disk drivetypes – from very fast and correspondingly expensiveto not so fast and a bit cheaper – and magnetic tapemedia (or CD/DVD/Optical disk media) along withindexing and monitoring software to manage databased on how often it is accessed. Data is protectedfrom loss and periodically refreshed, i.e., checked forcorruption, as it moves from place to place and throughthe different media types. Because the user doesn’tknow, nor do they need to know, where the data theyare accessing is actually stored, the storage is con-sidered to be “virtual” (from MS Encarta Dictionary:relating to data storage management technique: usedto describe a technique of moving data betweenstorage areas or media to create the impression that acomputer has a storage capacity greater than it actuallyhas). This technique is in use by large databasewarehousing operations the world over. By adopting atechnological solution for the task of storing andpreserving ever increasing amounts of data, ensuring

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access in the future to even some of the oldest infor-mation can be accomplished by libraries as well.

Another potential approach is to treat everything as a“digital object.” Fedora Commons software (see www.fedora.info) is an open source digital object repositorypackage that is in use at university libraries includingthe University of Virginia (a co-development partner),Tufts University, Rutgers, The University of Maryland,and Oxford. The use of this package, in the propercircumstances, can “enable storage, access, and man-agement of any kind of digital content.”2 The “digitalobjects” built by Fedora support “uniform managementand access to heterogeneous content including books,images, articles, datasets, multi-media, and more.”3 Thesharing of this data, which represents what can befound in most academic library collections, across bothorganizational and technological boundaries, can pro-mote collaboration, a goal for all educational institu-tions in one form or another.

If libraries were to combine mobile computing(through wireless access) and the abundance of avail-able devices (from inexpensive “Netbooks” to Apple'siTouch/iPod/iPhone type handhelds), access to thevirtualized storage could be further enhanced. Whyprovide static desktops for access to online catalogswhen mini laptop/Netbooks can be purchased for thesame or less funds? (A Dell Inspiron Mini 9 weighs lessthan 2.5 lbs, comes with a 4 h battery and an 802.11gwireless card for as low as $299.00.) If you’re worriedabout these devices “walking off,” remember you securemany thousands of smaller discrete units already. Butthen again, why even bother? Use the funds instead toinvest in wireless access for the building and allowpatrons to connect using their own devices. Providevirtual tours of the facility, including maps to where achosen item may be found in the stacks. An affiliationbased authentication/authorization system is all that isrequired to secure access to both the online catalog andthe subscription based databases. In this scenario, theonly place you would need a computer in a public spaceis at the self service checkout stations.

Although the trends for the future show continuedmovement towards video conferencing on the desk-top,4 video access rooms will continue to serve a largerole while the technology evolves. With the downturnin the world economy, and the cost (not to mention thehassle) of travel, there is every indication that such“virtual meeting spaces” will grow in popularity.Libraries have a long institutional history of managingshared resources, so their extension of services into thisrealm seems only natural. If a video room or lab exists ina library, it will also provide librarians and patrons alikethe first looks at the new features, such as HighDefinition (HD) and possibly 3D technologies, as theyare deployed.

The Texas Tech University libraries decided in Mayof 2007 that “animation and 3D representations arejust another form of content,” and that “3D animationtechnologies such as 3D games, virtual reality spaces,and interactive 3D text books permeate our cultureand the dynamic worlds of education, work, andentertainment.”5 So to assist their patrons, fulfill their

role as providers of access tools and content, and tohelp organize the collective chaos surrounding thisemerging field, they opened a 3D Animation Lab. Thelab provides the hardware and software, as well asinstructional resources, culled from their own staff, toorient their patrons (including local high schoolstudents) to this tool for exploring the world ofknowledge.

The potential impact on libraries of the use of 3Danimation tools to create virtual reality spaces wasactually foreseenmore than a decade ago. In a landmarksurvey of academic libraries on the future of the“Virtual/Digital Library,” Bob Travica shared someinteresting perspectives. While some of the observa-tions seem obvious with ten years of hindsight, e.g. “…probably the most remarkable changes are tied to theInternet technologies: in only a few years, the techno-logy for remote access/delivery migrated from telnet togopher and then to the WorldWide Web (Web); frantictransformations, when compared with almost anyperiod of an equivalent length in history,”6 othercomments were more prescient. For example: “Libra-rians can be either strategically dispersed throughoutthe home organization, or theymay not need to relocatephysically closer to library users because they can be‘virtually present’ anywhere through computer-mediated communication and electronic delivery ofholdings.”7 Chat sessions through Instant Messagingservices between patrons and reference librarians onlybegan at the Virginia Tech university libraries a fewyears ago.

Even more noteworthy for the theme of this columnwas Dr. Travica's struggle to effectively define the termvirtual as it pertained to the Virtual Library. “Virtual canalso trigger the idea of ‘virtual reality,’ yet anothertechnological concept which might introduce ambigu-ity rather than clarification (this is true for the presentmoment; in the future, virtual reality technology mightbecome part of, say, user interface).”8 It is in this contextthat the key to the future of libraries may be found.

To forecast what the future may hold for libraries andlibrarians, one has to review the past. Some mightdefine a library by its collection or its physical space. Forexample, the splitting off into branch libraries bycurricula or subject matter is common; at VirginiaTech we have specialized branches for Art and Archi-tecture, Geology, and Veterinary Medicine. Whensomeone says, “I’ll meet you at the library,” they meana specific place. Libraries, however, have always beenmore than what may be stored in a particular room orbuilding.

Just this point is made by Thomas Pfeffer in his paper“Virtualization of Research Libraries” published in 2003.He suggests that “the function of traditional librarieswas never simply the mere storage of material…[..]. Themain purpose was to organize existing content, tomaintain its availability, and to moderate access.”9

While the advent of technology has not changed thesetasks, in Pfeffer's words, “the ways of carrying them outare changing radically.”10

If one agrees that libraries are essentially “socialinstitutions,” 11 as Dr. Sujin Butdisuwan suggests in his

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paper “Breaking the Boundaries to IncreaseMore Accessto the World of Knowledge,” then human attitudesalong with human created policies and proceduresmust change as well. Dr. Butdisuwan's study found that“the majority of barriers are concerned with peopleissues. However, it would seem that emphasis should beplaced not on technology, but on how to best enablepeople to participate in breaking the barriers.”12 Oneway to break the boundaries or barriers is to embracevirtual technology to its fullest.

While cloning our best librarians or producingandroid replicas to expand staffing levels, (such aswhat one saw in the classic Star Trek episode “All OurYesterdays,” written by a former librarian at bothHarvard and U.C.LA., Jean Lisette Aroeste, where Mr.Atoz – for ‘A to Z’ – had several assistants with his visageto share the load), may not yet be feasible, it is certainlypossible to use virtual spaces to guide and educatepatrons. Envisioning a collaborative space, served eitherby an institutions’ own computing infrastructure orthrough an Internet based service such as “Second Life”(www.secondlife.com), where a librarian avatar would,in Pfeffer's words, “moderate access” to information forpatrons is not only probable, it is almost imperative.

As future campus master plans are developed in anera where climate change has raised awareness ofindividuals’ and institutions’ “carbon footprints,”whereincreases in energy costs restrict travel, and where realestate prices are volatile, virtualization and virtualreality spaces or worlds will play a key role. As ChrisCollins, IT Analyst and Manager of Second Life projectsat the University of Cincinnati, put it in her article“Higher Education in the Metaverse,” in the “Back to(virtual) School” edition of the EDUCAUSE Review:“Few college/university presidents or CIOs are currentlyprioritizing the exploration of virtual worlds, but itseems safe to predict that within the next three to fiveyears, a higher education institution without a virtualworlds presence will be like an institution without aweb presence today.”13 Let history repeat itself;libraries should lead their patrons into the future,virtual and otherwise.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. LISWire: The Librarian's News Wire; posted August 12,2008. (www.liswire.com/node/157)

2. Fedora Commons web site; about section (www.fedora.info/about)

3. Ibid.4. “Forecast 2009: Conferencing Section,” by Martin Bodleyand Robert Hagerty, Communications News; NelsonPublishing Co., Nokomis, FL. January 2009, page 18.This is a special issue on technology forecasts for 2009.

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5. “The 3D-Animated Library,” by Jim Brewer, Donald H. Dyal,and Robert Sweet, Campus Technology; 1105 Media Inc.,Chatsworth, CA. January 2009, pages 40–44.

6. “Organizational Aspects of the Virtual/Digital Library: ASurvey of Academic Libraries,” by Bob Travica, CSI WorkingPaper # WP-97-05, April 1997. Produced for the Center forSocial Informatics at Indiana University. (http://rkcsi.inidiana.edu/archive/CSI/WP/wp97-05B.html)

7. Ibid.8. Ibid.9. “Virtualization of Research Universities: Raising the RightQuestions to Address Key Functions of the Institution,” byThomas Pfeffer, CSHE Occasional Paper Series # 6.03, May2003. Produced for the University of California, Berkeley.(http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/publications.php?id=79)

10. Ibid.11. “Breaking the Boundaries to Increase More Access to the

World of Knowledge,” by Dr. Sujin Butdisuwan, presentedat the METLIB conference in Prague, Czech Republic, June1–6, 2008.

12. Ibib.13. “Looking to the Future: Higher Education in the Meta-

verse,” by Chris Collins, EDUCAUSE Review; EDUCAUSE,Boulder, CO. September/October 2008 (Volume 43/No. 5),pages 51–63.

For Further Reading:

EDUCAUSE Review September/October 2008; Volume 43No. 5. “Back to (virtual) school” issue. This issue is filledwith perspectives on technology, virtual spaces/reality, andeducational opportunities.The Best Damn Server Virtualization Book Period: IncludingVmware, Xen, and Microsoft Virtual Server, by Rogier Dittnerand David Rule; Syngress, 2007.Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds — and How It Promises toTransform Society by Howard Rheingold; Simon & Schuster,1992.Virtual Reality Technology by Grigore C. Burdea andPhilippe Coiffet; Wiley-IEEE, 2003.

For the Readers of Fiction:

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson; Bantam Books, 1992.The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner; Ballantine Books, 1975.

On the Web:

www.virtual.gmu.edu; a joint research project betweenGeorge Mason University, the University of Houston, andNASA’s Johnson Space Center.www.vrspace.org; a free software development and access tovirtual worlds built by members.www.skally.net/eduvr; a good place to learn the lingo.