Libraries: Change and our Future

In this slide the image used is from a workshop we ran in the Library (September
2010) for year 7 & 9 students so that they could tell us what the liked, disliked and
would imagine for a library of the future that they might be using. Some of the
outcomes from that workshop are listed on Slide 20.

1

I saw all of this the morning before delivering this talk to the Sydney Institute TAFE
Sustainable Libraries – Sustainable Life Program 2010.
Currently Australian libraries do not seem to be under as much of a threat as those
in both North America and Western Europe (particularly the UK). The context is
different in Australia, at least economically. In the UK, even sacred cows like Defence
are being targetted for spending cuts.
I was in the UK in late 2010 and it struck me that whilst some libraries such as the
British Library have taken the opportunity to substantially change their “business
model” many have either not had the resources or will power to change the way
they do their business and the way they present themselves to their communities.
My observations above are not meant as criticisms of our UK colleagues, merely my
observations about what we need to do in Australia to remain viable as institutions
with real roles.

2

This is just my quick representation of the way we were with the dawning of the age
of the web in library land.

3

So this is what we are grappling with today – a vast landscape of competing priorities
and many issues that seemingly pull us in different directions at the same time. New
values and opportunities are emerging, however, and there are many exemplars to
follow if inspiration is needed. What remains, however, is the imperative to tailor
what you deliver in your library for the needs of your community. To do that you
MUST understand what your community’s core business or priorities are and then
stay relevant to them.

4

Here is where I think we are heading and I’ve highlighted some of the key areas.
Sure, some of the long-established obligations and responsibilities will also come
with us, but the challenge is to decide what must be dropped so we can ramp up for
new demands and the new environment we are working within.
Our future is no longer just about the book.

5

By way of illustration, I will now show a few of the initiatives we are taking at the
UTS Library in order to set up our own future.

This map is the UTS Campus Redevelopment Masterplan. Projects currently
underway include the Student Housing Tower, an underground Multi-purpose Sports
Hall and a new Broadway Building for the Faculty of Engineering & IT. Building 14 will
be a Frank Gehry designed building for the Business school and soon we kick off the
preparatory work for the Library Retrieval System with excavation to begin in 2012.

The UTS Library will be relocated in two stages from its current location in Building 5
of the Haymarket Campus:
Stage 1 is the occupation and operation of our Library Retrieval System (LRS) to be
installed under Alumni Green. It will be operational in 2014.
Stage 2 is the occupation of the redeveloped Library building or Learning Commons
in what is currently Building 2. Currently that is envisaged for 2016.

UTS Student vision film http://www.youtube.com/user/UTSLibrary
From restricted opening hours -> towards 24/7 services

6

Film of an ASRS at work (in Utah)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/4118722777/in/set-72157623121781717/

Our future library will not be designed as a book storage facility. About 75-80% of
our collection will be housed in a Library Retrieval System like the one shown.
From book storage facility + a website -> customised physical spaces & personalised
web services/apps
From books & journals -> multiple media formats & games

7

The LRS will take away the ability to serendipitously bowse the entire physical
collection. We will replace that with improve browsing online of entire covers of
“virtual shelves”, suggestions and recommendations (like Amazon & StumbleUpon),
an opt-in “Genius” like service that can list books you might be interested in based
on your browsing and use patterns.
We are also looking at the application of social bookmarks to the collection (e.g.
Using something like Delicious or Diigo) as well as offering users the ability to tag
catalogue entries.
We are also talking to UTS visual communications staff to look at visual ways to
represent the vast amounts of data we have about our collections, their attributes
and their use in terms of datavisualisation.

8

Primary uses:
Access
Tracking
Transactions processing & self-service

Also:
Location
Making library smarter
Assisting IL?

We’d like to explore the possibilities currently being applied and tested with RFID but
not inside the library or academic sector. The retail, transport and logistics industry
offer us some different applications of RFID technology and these could be combined
with the standard library applications by a smart systems integrator in the second
phase of our RFID deployment/implementation.

9

We believe that a sense of place and space will be important in our new library. With
less books on display that is easier to deliver in a given space.

Even current school students have recently reminded us of the importance of an
appropriately welcoming space to first enter for the Library. They recognised the
critical importance of that space in reminding you about the purpose of the
institution you are entering. The use of appropriate orientation spaces has been well
recognised in the museum world and in well-designed new libraries such as the one
shown here in Salt Lake City.
From restricted opening hours -> towards 24/7 services
From desks/counters/signs/screens/boards -> orientation spaces

10

Clever design can assist us in designing out undesirable behaviour (like theft, excess
noise, vandalism, etc.) and in encouraging appropriate behaviour like reading, study,
collaboration, self-service, reference assistance, etc.
We are already working with 4th year design students on projects such as Designing
Out Crime to explore the possibilities offered by RFID and mobile computing
platforms as well as more traditional solutions to be found in spatial and furniture
design.
We believe it is very important to have our current and future students participating
in the conceptual design stage. As a university of technology our design, engineering,
and IT students and researchers also have much to offer us from their own expertise.
From GATES, DON’T! & SHUSH! -> Welcome, how can we help? & influencing
behaviour (theft, vandalism, inappropriate behaviour/food/drink) by design

11

From website -> applications and open development with our content/data
From catalogues -> Google, Amazon, iTunes (interfaces)
From face-to-face classes -> ubiquitous learning
From Library (only as a location) -> mobile services across the campus (people &
virtual)

From passive consumers of technology -> active trend-setters and explorers through
partnerships in research & publishing

12

From passive “collectors” -> more active collectors, publishers, creators & co-
creators

13

From book stacks & desks -> sound studios, editing suites & collaborative learning
spaces
Spaces need to be provided for all of the functions on this slide. Some need to be
dedicated and others need to be flexible and easily adaptable to suit different
purposes.
Should we be looking at more ephemeral design in some spaces? Maybe more
robust in its nature and spaces we are less precious about? Is it “our” space or
“their” space. How can we encourage their “ownership” & care, even if it is only
temporary?

Shown above is an experimental “create Space that we set up in the current library
to “play” with different furnishings, interactive white-boards and white-board paint
and glass panels in stead of white-boards on the walls. It has been very useful for us
to observe what students do in such spaces and what they prefer to use these
spaces for.

14

From “Lending” “Research Help Desk” “Access” “Security” “IT” “Information literacy”
-> triage HELP & expert consultancies
We like the Apple model that is more generic and helpful than ours is at present.

In terms of service design I think we have a lot to learn from the whole Participatory
Design movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_design
Recently I attended Industry Day at the PD Conference in Sydney and I thought there
was a lot for us to learn just from several short examples that were presented during
the course of that day.
I’ve started to post about some of them via my blog:
http://frommelbin.blogspot.com/2010/12/participatory-service-design.html

15

From waste -> GREEN and sustainability in all dimensions. That means the building,
our operations, our procurement, & sustainable relationships at work both within
the workplace and with our patrons, partners, stakeholders and our masters. I think
we’ve been trying to model that behaviour already in the UTS Library and we are
making some progress.

16

From mere service provider -> cultural, learning & community hub
Our library will serve as a cultural & learning hub within our university.

17

From controlled bureaucratic structures -> trusted agile & adaptable teams,
constantly evolving to meet new needs.
Library staff should be more visible in the Library and across the campus. That means
in both the physical and digital realms.

18

Everything we offer must be intuitive. Some of the most common feedback we get in
the library world is that our clients don’t know what to make of our signage,
classification system, collections arrangement, web structures, and catalogues. If we
were Amazon we’d have gone broke ages ago.

19

These points are what the year 7 & 9 students told us they wanted in a university
library of the future after a half day informal workshop in our current library in
September of 2010.
Extended learning means the opportunity to learn beyond the set curriculum.
What can we do to provide randomness in our libraries. Everything we do is about
(mostly outdated ontologies and structures!
Gaming & media spaces are probably essential now. A library without them in the
future will be irrelevant.
Orientation spaces have a significant effect, more significant than any signage, on
the behaviour of those entering. It is expected by our clients.
Water features, greenery and natural light are probably things we would wish to see
ourselves.
Future students will expect all technology that we provide to be intuitive. If it isn’t it
won’t be used.
Signage can be over-done, and to be effective it must be meaningful.
Our future students expect like-books to have some kind of thematic identity that
gives users/readers a clue about their content.
I didn’t really understand why students said they liked the curved spaces in the UTS
Library until I saw those of the Philological Library in Berlin’s Free University.
Library spaces and services must learn to be customisable and personalised. Maybe
we are too precious about those spaces and don’t understand their true potential.
We want our future library to be a social hub, but it also must provide exposure to
culture, so the use of art within the library will be critical.
Our sustainability initiatives must be visible and demonstrate our progress (or not) in
all dimensions/facets.
Comfy chairs are essential because patrons simply will not spend every hour in a
library awake.
“Lack of rules” perhaps indicates that we still have too many rules, or too many signs 20

http://www.youtube.com/user/UTSLibrary#p/a/u/2/iLelhZHb3G8

21

A final set of reminders, many of which hark back to that earlier wordle about
Library3.0.

22

So to bring it all back to the situation in the UK and spending cuts, where is there an
example of a library doing just about everything I mentioned in the previous slide?

At the British Library in their Business and Intellectual Property Centre. This is
impressive new business for the British Library and an example of seeing an
opportunity and grasping it with both hands. They’ve developed great partnerships
with the business of the City and now librarians in this centre help people starting up
new businesses. I believe this is the kind of thing all of us need to learn how to do in
our own communities.
http://www.bl.uk/bipc/index.html
On the far wall you can see examples of success stories encouraged as businesses by
this centre.
For UTS I see this as a model we might use somewhere in our new Learning
Commons, perhaps to link industry experts with researchers or others from URS
starting businesses or seeking help getting inventions and prototypes off the ground.
It might also be a useful industry mentoring centre for post-grad students.
We could even use the model to assist academics and researchers with e-publishing
and in order to understand Copyright better (in he way BIPC does much the same
thing with IP and Patents law).
Another example in London are the Idea Stores in East London – deeply relevant and
connected to their communities, providing what they need.
http://www.ideastore.co.uk/

In Australia I think the State Library of Queensland (particularly The Edge)
http://theedge.slq.qld.gov.au/home and as a public library I think Mosman Council 23

Libraries: Change and our Future

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