Digital Libraries in Australia Alex Byrne State Librarian & Chief Executive State Library of New...

Digital Libraries in Australia

Alex ByrneState Librarian & Chief Executive

State Library of New South Wales, AustraliaAustralian-Chinese Digital Library Seminar

16 April 2012

Digital Libraries- Alex Byrne 2

li·brar·y (lī’brĕr’ē)1. a. A place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books,

periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending.b. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.c. A room in a private home for such a collection.d. An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

2. A commercial establishment that lends books for a fee.3. A series or set of books issued by a publisher.4. A collection of recorded data or tapes arranged for ease of use.5. A set of things similar to a library in appearance, function, or

organization: a library of computer programs.6. Genetics A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose

location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/library The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition , 2000 updated 2009, Houghton Mifflin.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/library

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Library

‘buildings or rooms which house collections of books and other

materials, reading rooms and staff areas’

Digital Libraries- Alex Byrne


The world has gone mobile• mobiles and texting are ubiquitous• smart phones are commonplace • iPads and other tablets are walking

out shop doors• ebook readers can be seen in

restaurants and buses • music and video are streamed or

downloaded continually • wireless network access is more

robust and widespread, moving out of organisations and homes into cafés and streets

BUT the big change is in our behaviour: we now expect to be able to check a location, the weather, a timetable, a catalogue, a friend’s picture, a movie, ... wherever, whenever


Behavioural change … or not?• Researchers of Tomorrow: A

three year (BL/JISC) study tracking the research behaviour of 'Generation Y' doctoral students. Education for Change, June 2010. http://explorationforchange.net/attachments/056_RoT%20Year%201%20report%20final%20100622.pdf

• If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. Report. Research Information Network, July 2010. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-and-relevance-web-20-researchers

http://explorationforchange.net/attachments/056_RoT%20Year%201%20report%20final%20100622.pdf

http://explorationforchange.net/attachments/056_RoT%20Year%201%20report%20final%20100622.pdf

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-and-relevance-web-20-researchers

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-and-relevance-web-20-researchers


Students• Gen Y students are

– sophisticated information seekers but not dazzled by the technology

– not less inclined to use of printed materials

– highly competent users of ICT, so are older doctoral students • ‘we are all the Google

generation now’

University of Technology, Sydney, Australia


Going beyond ‘felt needs’


NSLA Re-imagining Libraries• more of our collections fully available

online and easily able to be found, used, adapted and transformed

• deep linking and improved discoverability of our collections

• faster digital delivery of images and full text

• seamless access to articles and databases• predictable experience and similar

services across our libraries• our collection knowledge and research

expertise available when it is needed• http://nsla.org.au/publications/papers/2011/pdf/NSLA.Disc

ussion-Paper-20110223-Re.imagining.LIbraries.Summary..January.2011.pdf

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http://nsla.org.au/publications/papers/2011/pdf/NSLA.Discussion-Paper-20110223-Re.imagining.LIbraries.Summary..January.2011.pdf




Digital technologies• equipment: computers, bar code

readers, electromagnetic security, RFID security and lending …

• operations management: inventory, stocktake, LMS, digital asset management …

• access to digital resources: journals, newspapers, databases, ebooks, images …

• catalogue, federated search to discovery …

• online reference, online learning …

• rendering and visualisationLondon School of Economics


Content

• tangible and intangible• wide and ever growing

variety of media• available 24/7 • mobile


Clients

• simultaneously in physical 3D space and in digital mobile spaces

• multitasking • diversely engaged


• spaces designed for impact and purpose• stunning social learning spaces• group and interactive spaces• hushed individual learning spaces• spaces for scholars• cultural places

‘places of learning’

Extraordinary library buildings

Open 24/7

Emergent Libraries creating new spaces

which encourage engagement with knowledge and with people

evolving spaces, not just ‘flexible’

client & activity centred, not collection centred

intersecting digital and physical


Beyond stacks

• steady state open access collections and automatic storage and retrieval systems (ASRS)

• first ASRS in Australia installed at Macquarie University Library



Emergent Libraries

burgeoning digital collections

books on open access

volumes in ASRS

extraordinary spaces

personalised services and

education

online services and education

24/7 open as much as possible

researcher/ business intersection

Utrecht University Library, Netherlands


Beyond the library desert: creating an ecology of knowledge

• from deserts of shelving with oases of human life and interaction• to flourishing ecologies in which students and researchers engage

with knowledge to develop new understandings and new ideas

Tampere Public Library, Finland

UTS Library, Create Space


Enabling eLearning• students – all of us – live in digital spaces as we

move around our physical environments we are all ‘elearners’

• we need to focus on – long term outcomes– trust– stability– openness– transparency

Bibliothèque Universitaire Chevreul, Lyon, France


Enabling technologies• ASRS• mobile• digitised content• born digital content

– open access• in the cloud• discovery

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Creating concept space ...... the space in which metamorphosis happens, ideas sprout, the unexpected arrives


... we learn

Digital Libraries in Australia Alex Byrne State Librarian & Chief Executive State Library of New...

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