The Research Library: scalable efficiency and scalable learning

David Kaser Lecture Series

Lorcan Dempsey / @LorcanDIndiana University,

7 October 2012

How terrific to see you are the featured lecturer this year. Just thought I'd mention that David Kaser was a most terrific library school professor. He was definitely the professor at Indiana who was most influential in my library career and also my favorite professor. I think it is fabulous that you are giving this lecture this year.

(OCLC colleague)

“

Overview

How did you go bankrupt?Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly. ― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Prelude

In the wake of increasing enrollment and costs and declining per student state appropriations, the Board is concerned with the continued ability of public research universities to provide affordable, quality education and training to a broad range of students, conduct the basic science and engineering research that leads to innovations, and perform their public service missions.NSB: diminishing funding and rising expectations: trends and challenges for public research universities

“

The network

Colleges and universities have long competed against one another, measuring themselves in comparison to each other and holding tightly to their idiosyncrasies as defining elements of their status. But today, the distribution and reuse of information digitally via the Internet is rapidly changing the game, rewarding those who instead aggregate and scale toward a common infrastructure. It is becoming increasingly clear that neither the challenges that confront colleges and universities nor the solutions to those challenges are unique to each institution.

Chuck Henry and Brad WheelerThe game has changedEducause Review, March 2012

“

“aggregate and scale towards a common infrastructure”

Beyond the mobile web. Stephanie Rieger. http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu/beyond-themobilewebbyyiibu

Beyond the mobile web. Stephanie Rieger. http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu/beyond-themobilewebbyyiibu

• Webscale• Tend to one/two …– Network effects– Massive aggregation– Gravitational pull

• Data driven engagement– Analytics– Social

• Platform– Leverage for developers …

65%Discoverability Phase 1 Final Report. Hanson et al. U Minnesota. http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/48258

Researchers prefer to adopt open source and social media technologies that are available in the public domain rather than institutional license-based applications ….. First the social media technologies facilitate networking and community building. Second, researchers prefer to use technologies that will enable them access to resources and their own materials beyond their institution-based PhD research.

e.g. Mendeley, Zotero, Endnote“

What has changed?1

The library is institution scale where many of its users operate at network

scale

What has changed?2

Libraries are redundantly managing local infrastructure which creates little

distinctive local value.

Ronald CoasePic: Wikimedia

Space SystemsCollections

Services &expertise

Then: vertically integrated around collection

Now: moving apart in network environment

Then: high transaction costs lead to locally assembled collection

Now: low transaction costs distribute activities across the network

Unbundling

Harvard Business Review (1999)

Engagement Innovation

Infrastructure

Back office capacities thatsupport day-to-day operations“Routinized” workflowsEconomies of scale important

Develop newservices and have them acceptedSpeed/flexibility important

Attracting and building relationships with researchers and learners“Service-oriented”, customizationEconomies of scope important

Note: Engagement substituted for Customer relationship management

Space

• Being reconfigured around the user experience rather than around collections.

• Moving from Infrastructure to engagement

• Ad hoc rendezvous

• Meeting place

Social, showcase and sharing

• Exhibitions• Specialist equipment• Specialist staff• GIS, Writing centre, • Digital humanities, …• Research commons

Services

• The service turn (Scott Walter)

• U Minnesota, ARL Institutional profile:– In alignment with the

University's strategic positioning, the University Libraries have re-conceived goals, shifting from a collection-centric focus to one that is engagement-based.

... to serve the emerging needs of faculty, researchers and graduate students pursuing in-depth research and scholarly inquiry. Access to expertise, hardware and software.

MPublishing, U MichiganThe University of Michigan Press, the Scholarly Publishing Office, Deep Blue (the University’s institutional repository service), the Copyright Office, and the Text Creation Partnership,

Salman Rushdie Archive, Emory UPersonal digital papers of Salman Rushdie. Have become his reference collection.

Scholarly Commons, U Illinois Urbana Champaign

Systems

Focus on engagementResource guides, integration with learning

management, widgets, etcRecommendation (aggregation)

Move to cloud for infrastructureILS, ERM, Discovery: move to

cloud-based solutions

Deep collaboration Shared systems infrastructure:

Orbis Cascade Alliance, 2CUL

Outside in Bought, licensed

Increased consolidation Move from print to licensedManage down print – shared printMove to user-driven models

Aim: to discover

Inside outInstitutional assets: special collections, research and learning materials, institutional records, …Reputation managementIncreasingly important?Aim: to *have* discovered … to disclose

Collections

Outside in collections – increasingly externalised to collaborative or third party. Reduced local infrastructure.

Inside out collections. Growing engagement around scholarly communication, data curation, institutional asset management, reputation/profiles. Leverage internal/external infrastructure.

Rescaling

A reminder

Space Systems

CollectionsServices &expertise

Increase local impact: Greater engagement

Scale efficiency:Share infrastructure

Infrastructure: scalable efficiences

Engagement and innovation: scalable learning

Rightscale infrastructure for efficiency and impact in a webscale world …

Invigorate institution-scale approaches to engagement …

“the rate of learning, innovation, and performance improvement within the institution must match (or exceed) that of the surrounding environment if the institution is to survive (or thrive)”

Infrastructure

• Cataloging• eJournals• Preservation

• Systems in the cloud– (cloud is a question not an

answer)

Infrastructure

• The collective print collection

Infrastructure

• The collective print collection?• Preservation of institutional assets?

Infrastructure

• The collective print collection?• Preservation of institutional assets?• Data driven engagement?– Social/Analytics?

• A shared Knowledge Base?

• …..

Engagement

• Curricular support• Scholarly communication and digital

scholarship• Data curation• Expertise and profile management• ….

Engagement

From the talent side of the equation the key requirement for institutional success is to move from scalable efficiency to scalable learning. Near-constant innovation is the only way to respond successfully to near-constant disruption. Said differently, the rate of learning, innovation, and performance improvement within the institution must match (or exceed) that of the surrounding environment if the institution is to survive (or thrive). Given that innovation is inherently a human activity--one performed by talented individuals--it follows that talent will pull institutions into the 21st century.

The New Organization Model: Learning at Scaleby John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison | 6:03 PM March 11, 2009

Libraries need to do both .. Earlier stage in cycle

http://blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/2009/03/can-your-company-scale-its-lea.html

Engagement - Learning

1. A variety of staff rolesAttorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, ….

2. Marketing, assessment, outreach

Engagement - Learning

1. A variety of staff rolesAttorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, ….

2. Marketing, assessment, outreach3. Deeper engagement with faculty/students

around digital scholarship/communication

Engagement - Learning

1. A variety of staff rolesAttorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, ….

2. Marketing, assessment, outreach3. Deeper engagement with faculty/students

digital scholarship/communication4. Partnership with campus players …

Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, …

Platform…

Strategic PartnershipsThe library of the future is engagement-centered and reinforced by joint ventures and programmatic partnerships. We imagine the Libraries as an outwardly engaged organization that creates partnerships and provides leadership in the pursuit of excellence in research and learning. Transformation…

Our strategy: be regenerativeOctober 4, 2012, 12:51 pmBy Brian Mathews

Engagement - Learning

1. A variety of staff rolesAttorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, ….

2. Marketing, assessment, outreach3. Engagement with digital scholarship/communication4. Partnership with campus players …

Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, …

5. Project working (grant)6. Supporting community/sharing ..

Platform… Strategic Partnerships… TransformationThe library of the future is constantly changing both physically and virtually. We imagine the Libraries’ core functions evolving through emerging expertise in curation, community development, and knowledge production. We curate digital research data and scholarship; we develop and optimize communities for collaboration and the exchange of ideas and discoveries; and we help our users create new knowledge and provide access to the world’s digital scholarship. Our strategy: be regenerative

October 4, 2012, 12:51 pmBy Brian Mathews

Engagement - Learning

1. A variety of staff rolesAttorney, creative, technology, pedagogy, subject, ….

2. Marketing, assessment, outreach3. Engagement with digital scholarship/communication4. Partnership with campus players …

Elearning, IT, publishing, digital humanities, data curation, …

5. Project working (grant)6. Supporting community/sharing ..7. Training trainers (student mentors, …)8. Personal ‘brand’ management …

Twitter, Mendeley, Academia.edu, ….

1. It is difficult to speak knowledgably about social services or provide sensible support for them if you don’t have some experience of network services. Picturing a rhino: experience is the only guide.

2. How do you get in the flow of communications and interaction? Is your expertise visible? Can you help researchers get into the flow and be visible? The power of pull.

Increasing library impact in a network environment

• Scalable efficiencies– Share infrastructure in a network environment

• Scalable learning– Fuller engagement in the research and learning

process

Thank you …