Equilibrium & Opportunism:information strategies and the
new environment
eLib ConferenceYork, 2-4 December 1998James Michalko, Research Libraries Group
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OVERVIEW
• Caveats– OUR PLACE, IGNORANCE & METAPHOR
• Ecology as a metaphoric device
• Population, community and symbiosis
• Ecological succession
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OUR PLACE, IGNORANCE & METAPHOR
• Rarefied air
• Deep ignorance
• Dim understanding
• Metaphors and analogies
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How Rarified?6 Billion World Population
119.5 million Online Worldwide
70 million Online North America
23 million Online Europe
17.25 million Online Asia/Pacific
7 million Online South America
1 million Online Africa
.75 million Online
Middle East
ONLINEWorldwide Worldwide 2% 2%
Total Population
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1.1
3.8
1.1
6
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
World Population in Billions
Worldwide Annual Income per Family Member
GREATERTHAN $7500MIDDLEINCOMELESS THAN$700Total WorldPopulation
U.S. Consumer spending per person was about $482 in 1998 for Communications and Entertainment
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OUR PLACE, IGNORANCE & METAPHOR
• Rarefied air
• Deep ignorance
• Dim understanding
• Metaphors and analogies
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Ecology as a Metaphoric Device
• Grounding our metaphors
• Baseline concepts
• eLib as context• Ecology: Study of the relationship
between living things (within species and between different species) and between them and their environment
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Biosphere
Biome
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Individual
Ecology - Relationships
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Biosphere
Biome
ECOSYSTEM
COMMUNITY
POPULATION
Individual
Ecology - Relationships
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Population -- Limits & Capacities
• Equilibrium• Rapid reproduction, short life span
• Opportunism• Slow reproduction, long life span
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Community and Symbiosis
• Symbiosis
• Parasites and predators
• Beneficial mutualism
• Competitive exclusion
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Ecological Succession• Transformations of communities• Successive species• Diversity of species• Climax vegetation
• Matter increases• More niches to be exploited• Production rate slows
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Equilibrium and Opportunism
• Population strategies and implications for eLib, The Library, the Information Economy
• Relationship to the Hybrid Library
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Symbiosis
• Change in principal relationships
• Collaboration and mutualism
• Peace between sectors
• Adaptation to new expectations
• Exploitation of unique assets
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Ecological Succession
• Stability vs. catastrophe
• Climactic ecosystems
• New species
• Environment of continual change
• Mass extinction or adaptation?
• The next metaphor...
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Consilience
A jumping together of knowledge as aresult of the linking of facts and fact-basedtheory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation.
Edward O. Wilson
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