This document discusses the future of academic libraries and how library strategies must change. It notes that technology has progressed rapidly and libraries must adapt. Libraries should focus on learning, discovery, research, and cultural knowledge. The role of librarians is changing from collections to impact. Data analytics will be important to understand users and improve services. Discovery of ideas will be key.

1. Academic Libraries in The Future:
From collections to impact
Stephen Abram, MLS
Langara College
Vancouver, BC
Feb. 13, 2012

2. Change
These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

3. We Only Get So Many
Once-in-a-Lifetime
Chances To Do Great
Things

4. News Flash
“The Internet and technology have
now progressed to their infancy”

8. So how must library and
educator strategies change?

9. Change can happen very fast

10. Sensemaking

11. News Flash
News Flash
Tech Shift Happens

12. Seth Godin on Decisions (June 8, 2011)
o Which of the four are getting in the way?
o You don't know what to do
o You don't know how to do it
o You don't have the authority or the resources
to do it
o You're afraid
o Once you figure out what's getting in the way,
it's far easier to find the answer (or decide to
work on a different problem).
o Stuck is a state of mind, and it's curable.

14. What Are Libraries Really For?
• Community
• Learning
• Discovery
• Progress
• Research (Applied and Theoretical)
• Cultural & Knowledge Custody
• Economic Impact

15. Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Libraries:
Searching for the corners of the earth, the edge of the
oceans and discovering dragons ...

16. -

17. Cook’s Voyage

18. Columbus, Cabot, Cortes

19. Magellan Columbus Cook

21. Questions for Libraries Today:
1. Are our priorities right?
2. Are learning, research, discovery changing
materially and what is actually changing?
3. Books. Meh.
4. What is the role for librarians in the real
future (that is not an extension of the past)?

23. Grocery Stores

24. Grocery Stores

25. Grocery Stores

26. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

27. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

28. Meals

29. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

33. Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians
Librarians play a vital role in building the
critical connections between
information , knowledge and learning.

34. Service Metaphor
o Cafeterias
o Take Out
o Private Dining Rooms
o Private Chefs
o Variety

35. You have the tools.

36. Stop Making it So Hard!

38. Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills
 Reading literacy  News literacy
 Numeracy  Technology literacy
 Critical literacy  Information literacy
 Social literacy  Media literacy
 Computer literacy  Adaptive literacy
 Web literacy  Research literacy
 Content literacy  Academic literacy
 Written literacy  Reputation, Etc.

40. Steal
This
Idea

41. List of content farms and general spammy
user generated content sites:
 Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com)
 All Experts (allexperts.com)
 eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
 Answers (answers.com)
 Find Articles (findarticles.com)
 Answer Bag (answerbag.com)
 FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com)
 Articles Base (articlesbase.com)
 Hub Pages (hubpages.com)
 Ask (ask.com)
 InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com)
 Associated Content (associatedcontent.com)
 Livestrong (livestrong.com)
 BizRate (bizrate.com)
 Mahalo (mahalo.com)
 Buzle (buzzle.com)
 Mail Archive (mail-archive.com)
 Brothersoft (brothersoft.com)
 Question Hub (questionhub.com)
 Bytes (bytes.com)
 Squidoo (squidoo.com)
 ChaCha (chacha.com)
 Suite101 (suite101.com)
 eFreedom (efreedom.com)
 Twenga (twenga.com)
 eHow (ehow.com)
 WiseGeek (wisegeek.com)
 Essortment (essortment.com)
 Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com)
 Examiner (examiner.com)
 Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com)
 Expert Village (expertvillage.com)
 Xomba (xomba.com)
 )

45. The nasty facts
about Google &
Bing and
consumer search:
SEO / SMO
Content Farms
Advertiser-driven
Geotagging

46. Strategic
Analytics

48. What We Never Really Knew Before (US/Canada)
 27% of our users are under 18.

We often 59% are female.
 believe a lot
29% are college students.
that isn’t
 5% are professors and 6% are teachers.
true.
 On any given day, 35% of our users are there for the very
first time!
 Only 29% found the databases via the library website.
 59% found what they were looking for on their first search.
 72% trusted our content more than Google.
 But, 81% still use Google.

49. 2010 Eduventures Research on Investments
 58% of instructors believe that technology in courses positively impacts student engagement.
 71% of instructors that rated student engagement levels as “high” as a result of using technology
in courses.
 71% of students who are employed full-time and 77% of students who are employed part-time
prefer more technology-based tools in the classroom.
 79% of instructors and 86 percent of students have seen the average level of engagement improve
over the last year as they have increased their use of digital educational tools.
 87% of students believe online libraries and databases have had the most significant impact on
their overall learning.
 62% identify blogs, wikis, and other online authoring tools while 59% identify YouTube and
recorded lectures.
 E-books and e-textbooks impact overall learning among 50% of students surveyed, while 42% of
students identify online portals.
 44% of instructors believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 32% of instructors identify e-textbooks and 30% identify interactive homework solutions as having
the potential to improve engagement and learning outcomes. (e-readers was 11%)
 49% of students believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 Students are more optimistic about the potential for technology.

51. What do we need to know?
 How do library databases and virtual services
compare with other web experiences?
 Who are our core virtual users? Are there gaps?
 Does learning happen? How about discovery?
 What are user expectations for true satisfaction?
 How does library search compare to consumer
search like Google and retail or government?
 How do people find and connect with library virtual
services?
 Are end users being successful in their POV?
 Are they happy? Will they come back? Tell a friend?

52. Top-Level Benchmarks
Gale-Cengage Browse Survey
August 01, 2010 - August 31, 2010
90 90 90 89 90 90 90 90 90
88 87 87
85 84
78 77
71 75 76
73 74 74
71 72 72 72
70 70 69
68
65
62
59 59
48 48
41
37
33
30 30 30 30 30
0

53. Emboldened Librarians hold the key

54. So how must library and
educator strategies change?

55. Discovery & Ideas

56. Books

57. We have a shallow understanding of the
Codex – the book format(s)
Transition from scrolls – illumination – codex
– and beyond

59. Strategic Challenges for Reference and
Research Work
in the Coming Decade

60. The BASICS
 Data
 Information
 Knowledge
 Wisdom NOT
 Behavior

61. Death of Reference
 Who
 What
 Where
 When
 Why
 How

62. How & Why Questions
 Now that’s research
 The interview is more involved
 Transformational not Transactional
 Expertise counts
 Expertise is shared mutually

63. What does all this mean?
 The Article level universe
 The Chapter and Paragraph Universe
 Integrated with Visuals – graphics and charts
 Integrated with ‘video’
 Integrated with Sound and Speech
 Integrated with social web
 Integrated with interaction and not just
interactivity
 How would you enhance a book?

64. What is Changing?
1. Evidence-based Reference Strategies
2. Experience-based Portals: The New Commons
3. Personal Service on Steroids
4. Quality Strategies: Consumer vs. Professional
Search
5. Social Networks and Recommendations
6. Trans-literacy Strategies
7. People-driven Strategies
8. Curriculum and Research Agenda
9. Service and Programs

65. Recommendations
 Strengthen Your Personal Brand
 Reposition the Library and Librarian
 Don’t Tie Yourself to Collections or Physical
Space
 Network with Your Users Socially
 Measure, Don’t Count
 Know
 Risk
 Engage

66. Reimagine Service
Reference and Research

67. Consider the differences . . .
 Computer Commons
 Mall
 Service Commons
 Information Commons
 Knowledge Commons
 Learning Commons
 Science Commons
 Centre or Central?
 Physical / Virtual Hybrid

68. Mobility

69. A 1965 iPhone

71. Broadband
 You must clearly understand the latest US FCC
Whitespace Broadband Decision – THIS IS
TRANSFORMATIONAL and going global
 Net neutrality, kill switches . . .
 Local wired, mobile access ‘everywhere’ to
the home and workplace on a personal basis
 Geo-awareness: GIS, GPS, GEO-IP, etc.
 Wireless as a business strategy (Starbucks)
 Mobile dominates the largest generation

72. Speaking of e-
Books...

74. Borders Kobo, B&N Nook, Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony, etc. . . .

83. GBS

88. Context
 Information and Knowledge-based economy
 Globalization
 Canada is a leading education economy
 Stress on core markets (US)
 Changing knowledge about current crop of
students (genome, eye tracking, gaming, IQ,
ICT and social behaviours, etc.)
 Information ethics and copyright

89. Books
 Reception of Reading and Experience
 Fiction – paper, e-paper
 Non-Fiction
 Articles - disaggregation
 Media – physical vs. streaming
 Learning Objects
 Stories vs. Pedagogy

90. Technology Context
 Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)
 Laptops and Tablets
 Mobility / Smartphones
 Bandwidth (Wired, WiFi, Whitespace)
 Learning Management Systems
 Streaming video and audio vs. download
 HTML5 and Apps – the battle
 Advertising auction models and ‘product’
 New(ish) Players (Amazon, Apple, G, B&N, Uni’s,
states/provinces/nations)

91. The BASICS
 Containers for Pedagogy
 Created by Teams (e.g. 40,000 authors a year
for Cengage alone) (yes that’s a lot of lawyers)
 Copyright and complicated layering of millions
of rights (creators - pictures, graphics, video,
tests, text, documents, etc.)
 Serious Lawsuits: Feist, Texaco, LSUC, Tasini,
NatGeo, Authors Guild, GBS, etc.
 Complex extension opportunities (links to
articles, databases, library assistance, etc.)

92. Textbook Challenges
 Format Agnosticism
 Browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
 Devices: Macintosh, PC Desktops & Laptops
 Mobile: Laptops, Tablets (iPad, Fire, etc.)
 Mobile: Smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry,
Android, Windows, etc.)
 Container: PDF, ePub, .mobi, Kindle, etc.
 Learning Management System: Blackboard /
WebCT, D2L, Moodle, Sakai, etc.
 Purchasing (Amazon, B&N, Chegg, CengageBrain,
Apple Store, University Textbook Store, etc.)

93. Should we tie students and professors to
a specific and proprietary device,
operating system, browser, or LMS?

94. What is the priority?
Price, Cost, Value, ROI
Managing or Mandating the Adoption Curve
Learning and Progress
Societal Impact = 17%, 40%, 70%?

95. Death of the Textbook?
Shallow pool innovation – e-copies
Open Access Textbooks?
Coursepacks and e-coursepacks?
Apple?
Google?
Etc.

96. What is Changing?
1. Componentization of pedagogy
2. Enhanced textbooks (tests, tracking, video,
etc.)
3. Advanced e-learning
4. Ability to archive
5. The purchaser matrix (individual student,
class, institutions, state/province/country)
6. Textbook boundaries (library links first…)

97. Pricing Models
Buy the print copy
Buy the exact electronic copy of the print
Buy both (bundling)
Rent the print or e-copy for a specified period
Create custom coursepacks in print or e-copy
Buy at the course level included in fee
Buy at the institution / enterprise level
Buy at the state/province level
Espresso Book Machines
Pay-per-use, micro-payments, ‘Square’ and
phones

98. This era will see a Fundamental
Reimagining the Textbook
For the present there will be those who
resist and the resisters will be the
majority.

100. Can we frame the e-book issue so
that it can be addressed rationally?

101. Books

102. Fiction

103. Non-Fiction

104. E-Learning

105. What Would You Attempt If
You Knew You Would Not
Fail?

107. A Third Path

109. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1