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UKOLN is supported by ...

… and it provides policy,research, and awarenessservices for the library and information communities ...

THE BRITISH LIBRARY

www.ukoln.ac.uk

York

Overview

• Programme

• Prospect–step vs continuous development–‘integration is key’–dissemination and evaluation

• Projects

• Prospect

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Philip E. Agre TLS, July 3 1998

… The concept of cyberspace, however, may have had its day. The Internet is now slowly becoming integrated with the institutional world around it, and it is increasingly evident that the very notion of cyberspace is an artifact of this transient situation.

… It no longer suffices to ask “what effect will the Internet have on …?” Rather, we must understand ….. the many and various institutional worlds with which the Internet now coevolves, and make sense of technology in that dynamic context. …

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Chris Rusbridge

… living and working with the projects for the last three years …

Towards the hybrid libraryD-Lib Magazine, July/August 1998

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Programme

• “… the eLib programme characterised itself right from the start as ‘development’ rather than research.”

• “… the emphasis within eLib itself has been very much on ‘action research’ and the programme has encouraged projects to experiment with a variety of approaches whilst accepting that these will meet with varying degrees of success.”

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Comparing programmes

• DLI• research (multidisciplinary - comp sci)• ahead of practice

• EU Telematics for Libraries• applied R&TD

– market and competetiveness

• eLib• action research

– national motivation– intensity and impact

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As a practitioner I do feel a little removed from the eLib projects, however I do feel that the projects have helped greatly in effecting a cultural change …

… very successful in generating a sector wide awareness of the volatile nature of the informationworld we inhabit ...

The explosion of information, publicity, etc. abouteLib and the sheer number of people involved, even if peripherally, has been one of the most important elements ...

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What eLib has done

• A signal that library and information management issues are at centre of academic mission• international attention

• exemplary (New Library, NHS, …)

• Created a knowledge and experience base which extends into all parts of library community• staff, users, proxy stakeholders, ...

• development, project, collaboration, (costs), …

• service, organisation, human, …

Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.

Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.

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What eLib has done - CC

• People • The end of business as usual?

• Research/development closer to practice

• ‘reflexive’

• The end of digital? Technology is in the fabric - not ‘applied’ (IT)• service building

– authentication

– personalisation

– preservation (LLL)

– rights

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What eLib has done

• Examples of Success• ANR services

– DC, RDF, FIND

• electronic journals (RAE)

• CLA (ODER)

• hybrid-ready, clumps

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But ...

eLib may have or has the potential to create a bit of a two tier library society - those whoparticipate and those who don’t ...

… (need to) turn projects into services which sit comfortably alongside other library services and which are fully integrated into the core services a library offers to its readers.

Rapid change - variable participation, variable take-up

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Projects

• Star burst effect• Variable participation, variable take up

• redundancy of effort

• extinguished

• Best outcome?– document delivery

• Move towards integration• More direction on basis of unrivalled

emerging experience and knowledge

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… from conversations within SCONUL I am noteven sure that we have achieved such a cultural change ...

… if by that phrase is meant a realisationthroughout higher education libraries and higher education institutions more generally that thingslibrary-wise are about to change radically ...

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Prospect

• Prospect• step vs continuous development

• ‘integration is key’

• dissemination and evaluation

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Step or continuous ...

• It takes a long time to get big programmes rolling.

• The OSI factor• EU programmes

• eLib • WWW

• Lucky?

• But … missed the object web?

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… step or continuous?

• Structured/Object web• XML/RDF, objects, ...• changing level of infrastructure - factor out

technologies• Continuous development• Coevolves with service building:

– commerce, rating, profiling, …

• development programmes with definite priorities• absorb JTAP?

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Integration is key

• However the most outstanding lesson from this phase and from JISC’s other work in provision of data sets is the need for integration.

• Cf EU and DLI

• Individual resources are designed for a particular use and IT context, with a bit of specialisation, differentiation and branding thrown in, but with little thought for the user who needs to access many such resources.

• Cf web, remote control: point and click

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Integration is key

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Integration is key

• Business model (road map)• What the bits are and how they relate

• repositories

• flows (objects, messages)

• control (IPR, security, …)

• actors (Roles)

• INDECS, IMS• guide development

• priorities

• communication - shared view of problem areas

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Integration is key

• Concrete

• hybrid libraries / DNER

• cohesion and autonomy

• Work

• architecture

• ‘Information infrastructure’

– authentication

– collection description

– user profiling

– ….

• Guidelines• model agreements• interfaces and

formats: best practice

• Toolkit??• systems integration• clearinghouse?• Integrate local

metadata with central services

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It is all the same thing?

• Consider the range of services as part of a fabric• RDNC, caching, mirroring, …• subject gateways, data centres, AHDS, ..• Abstracting and indexing services - document

stores ….• Hybrid library - DNER• High profile, innovative, exemplary

• Disclose the resources of UK HE• services• UK Internet shop window

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Dissemination and evaluation

• Dissemination• inform practice, influence policy and

contribute to knowledge

• programme-led activity

• e.g. what do we know about distributed electronic document delivery issues?

• Evaluation?• Variable

• Monitor - EU annual peer review

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So ...

• More continuous development to build on and lever emerging experience and practice

• Strategic projects with ...• clear goals• appropriate partners

• … to deliver key components of DNER/HL• Basis for exemplary development on world scale• Central organisation of targeted guidelines, good

practice, toolkit, innovative service• Guide local activity and DNER (interfaces)

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One of the best projects, in terms of awarenessraising, was Ariadne - disappointingly this did not

receive further funding.

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A good project

• Acronym• Motivating scenario

• product• service• scale

• Appropriate mix of partners• service• technical • project management

• Project management

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Prospects

DNER

NelH

NgFL New Lib

Learning

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UKOLN is supported by ...

… and it provides policy,research, and awarenessservices for the library and information communities ...

THE BRITISH LIBRARY

www.ukoln.ac.uk