JISC’s Libraries of the Future Guardian supplement
A Guardian supplement published yesterday explores the achievements of academic libraries in the UK, assesses current challenges and looks forward to the future.
Sponsored by JISC and published free with yesterday’s Education Guardian, the supplement begins with some of the questions raised by the recently published Google Generation report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, which explored the issue of ‘information literacy’. The report called for libraries to respond urgently to the changing needs of their users and to understand the new means of searching and navigating information.
In a lead article, editor Stephen Hoare says that academic libraries are indeed rising to the challenges and, he writes, ‘changing faster than at any time in their history. Information technology, online databases, and catalogues and digitised archives have put the library back at the heart of teaching, learning and academic research on campus.’
The supplement also explores the ways in which libraries are changing physically as they incorporate functions more commonly associated with leisure activities and become more flexible and technology-rich ‘learning spaces’. Other articles explores open access, the phenomenon of ‘Library 2.0 – the integration of user generated content with traditional library content – e-books, new business models, digitisation, digital preservation and much more.
Among the areas of activity funded or supported by JISC covered in the supplement are: the repositories partnership Sherpa; JISC’s student expectations research; services such as Intute, copac and the Archives Hub; the digitisation programme, including projects such as the Archival Sound Recordings and the British Library 19th century newspapers project; the LOCKSS journals preservation project; the electronic e-theses online service EThOS; the national e-books observatory project, and a number of others.
The supplement marks the start of ‘Libraries of the Future’, an attempt by JISC to initiate a debate about academic libraries and to open up - with partner organisations and librarians themselves - a debate about the future of the academic and research library.
See the online version of the supplement here.
Challenges for the digital librarian
In an increasingly complex, ICT-intensive world, digital libraries face multiple challenges, but perhaps the greatest is to achieve a recognised and indeed indispensable presence within the workflow of their user communities. With the increased emphasis on Web 2.0 technologies, digital library developers will need to be agile to ensure that they demonstrate both ease of interoperability across disparate end user systems and added value in terms of the content they can deliver. This session will reflect on key strategies to achieve long-term success within this scenario. On the panel here at the JISC conference in Birmingham are:
Ian Dolphin, Head of eStrategy & eServices, University of Hull - Session Chair
Peter Brophy, Director, Centre for Research in Library & Information Management, Manchester Metropolitan University
David Kay, Director, Sero Consulting
Read on for the debate
Library of the future debate: live now
From eLib to the Library of the future will present an overview of the long term changes that will lead to the library of the future by highlighting the emerging issues that face libraries and information services today and taking a view into the future. On the panel are:
- Catherine Grout, Programme Director (e-Content), JISC - Session Chair
- Jon Duke and Andy Jordan, Directors, Duke & Jordan Ltd
- Jean Sykes, Librarian and Director of IT Services, LSE
- Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Strategist, OCLC
- Ian Dolphin Programme Director (Information Environment), JISC
Read on for the debate…
The e-textbook debate: live now
As part of the National E-books Observatory Project and the first in a series of events for JISC’s Libraries of the Future programme, the JISC National E-textbook Debate provides a unique opportunity to quiz a panel of experts and to openly debate the future role of the library in the provision of electronic textbooks. Gathered here in Birmingham on the panel are:
Tom Davy, CEO of Cengage
Dominic Knight, MD of Palgrave
Sue McKnight, Director of Libraries and Knowledge Resources at Nottingham Trent University
Mandy Phillips, Information Resources Manager at Edge Hill University
Chair: Malcolm Read
Read on to follow the debate as it happens… Read more
Join the debate
Two key debates on the libraries of the future will be taking place at the JISC conference over the next couple of days and you can follow them as they happen, and add your own comments, through this blog.
On Monday April 14 at 18.00, Revolution or Evolution: the JISC National E Textbook Debate provides a unique opportunity to quiz a panel of experts and to openly debate the future role of the library in the provision of electronic textbooks.
JISC’s Executive Secretary, Malcolm Read, will be chairing the event. The panel of experts consists of publishers and librarians. Representing the publishing community we have Tom Davy, CEO of Cengage and Dominic Knight, MD of Palgrave. Representing the library community we have Sue McKnight, Director of Libraries and Knowledge Resources at Nottingham Trent University and Mandy Phillips, Information Resources Manager at Edge Hill University.
Each will have their own viewpoint, some arguing that in order to meet expectations and demand the institution/library purchase model must continue and some arguing against the institutional/library purchase model of e-textbooks on the grounds of sustainability and diversity of needs.
On Tuesday April 15 at 11.15, From eLib to the Library of the future will present an overview of the long term changes that will lead to the library of the future by highlighting the emerging issues that face libraries and information services today and taking a view into the future.
- Catherine Grout, Programme Director (e-Content), JISC - Session Chair
- Jon Duke and Andy Jordan, Directors, Duke & Jordan Ltd
- Jean Sykes, Librarian and Director of IT Services, LSE
- Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Strategist, OCLC
- Ian Dolphin Programme Director (Information Environment), JISC
Let the debate begin!
What does the academic library of the future look like? Where do its walls begin and end? On campus? On our desktop? At home? Does it still have a function as a separate and distinct space? Or has it become the first step to an all-virtual future?
Libraries have never been more interesting, difficult and challenging… So says Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library: ‘What is a library and what should it be in 2012, 2020 and beyond are questions that require thought and debate.’
Plans are now in place for this debate which kicks off next week at the JISC conference. Sessions at the conference will explore this theme and hopefully some of the questions above. A Guardian supplement the following week will take them up too and hopefully, before long, we’ll all be giving them thought and debate…
‘I’m delighted that JISC is up for the task,’ says Lynne Brindley, about JISC’s new campaign theme. We hope others are too!