Challenges facing e-resource librarians

I first put this together in 2008 when asked to consider what would be the concerns and challenges for e-resource librarians by 2014.  Four years later was I anywhere near the mark?

My first reaction was to group my thoughts into eight distinct areas:

Management                   Staffing                  Technology              Perpetuity               Invisibility            User understanding           Licensing          Sharing

 

My 2008 projections for Management:

—By 2014 publications such as proceedings in e will exceed those in print

—Web 3.0 / the intelligent web will develop

—Libraries will be truly virtual

—Staff skill sets must evolve to cope

—Virtual training packages for students plus virtual helpdesks will be the norm

 

2012 thoughts: What has really taken off is ‘the cloud’ and mobile interfaces (iPad etc.).  Both only starting to emerge four years ago, now central to our thinking and the way we manage, organise and access digital content.  I still believe in the 24/7 virtual library and I think the physical collections will decline to be replaced by more technologically developed solutions to access and share information.  I’m not sure about virtual worlds like Second Life and virtual realities but time will tell.  By 2014?  It isn’t impossible. 

 

My projections for Staffing:

 

—By 2014 staff will be much more virtual-savvy and confident

—Turnover of staff means younger dynamic librarians come in

—Potentially less team- or site-based working

—LIS courses will have e-resource components by default

—Networking will become key

 

2012 thoughts: What I omitted was that our customers/audience will have higher expectations and require high level support across a number of areas.  I can see specialisms continuing, but also a more fluid dynamic – as cloud applications are hinting at – which does not compartmentalise processes or staff working within those processes.  On the other hand it is counterproductive to expect every member of staff to know everything as this is impossible.  I do see more home-based working, more working on mobile devices, more working across social media and networks.  I also see universities becoming more fluid rather than having students coming to a physical building for their tuition, with all the different demands thats puts in place on staff there to support them.  In terms of e-resource management we need people people as well as technical geeks, and LIS graduates should be prepared to mix the two.  This is the one area where there is potential for the line which marks IT from library to be crossed for good (and for the good).

 

My projections for Technology:

 

—By 2014 sign-on between systems will be truly seamless

—Virtual mirrors of real life scenarios will become commonplace

—Books and journals will need added value to survive in an ‘open access’ marketplace

—ICT skills will become central to e-resource provision

 

2012 thoughts: I didn’t go far enough.  Will sign-on actually matter going forward?  What about open access, Creative Commons, material created for sharing?  Where do publishers see their resources going in the future?  Added value is needed absolutely when there is quality content available ‘for free’.  I’m no longer convinced about the virtual mirrors but it’s an intriguing idea.

 

My projections for Perpetuity:

 

—By 2014 more than 70% of all information will be available digitally (currently it is around 10%)

—Paper collections will largely disappear

—Legal deposit of dot.uk material will be guaranteed

—Project Transfer will become an engrained part of publishing practice

 

2012 thoughts: Absolutely yes on the amount of content, but at what cost for both purchase and adminstration?  Who looks after it, who monitors its quality?  When everyone can be an author in seconds, will peer review eventually die out?  Has the reference librarian of old lost their mojo and ability to keep track of the vast expanse of material being created day by day?  Is all media permanent or is some of it so transient it is likely to disappear from view?  Paper collections may well go outside of archives – and even they will eventually become digital once copyright issues around unpublished material has been addressed.  Legal deposit of all dot.uk content by 2014?  It looked as if this could have become a reality, but lack of commitment and resource may have scuppered it.  And Transfer needs to gain teeth if it is ever to be a fully ingrained step in publishing practice.

 

My projections for Invisibility:

 

—By 2014 every library will have a dedicated e-resource unit, seen as essential

—IT skills will increase and so will understanding of e

—Enhanced collaboration between sectors

—Repositories, portfolios, VLE, intranet – boundaries will become less clear

—Added value of service

 

2012 thoughts:  I still believe in all these, and that ‘invisibility’ will become ‘visibility’ because of them.  Projects like ELCAT, KB+, JUSP and others have led to considerable collaboration between sectors and institutions, and this can only continue after years of talking about it and saying ‘wouldn’t it be great if …?’.  But all this takes resourcing – time, money, manpower.  Do we have it?  Are we committed to it?  What level of service are we hoping to achieve?

 

My projections for User understanding:

 

—By 2014 information literacy (and the SCONUL 7 Pillars) will be part of assessment

—Library will be needed to guide and develop users in the content they choose and trust

—Books, journals, databases, websites will all mean the same to a user

—Response times will have to shrink even further

 

2012 thoughts: We’re already there with IL assessments.  I do believe that to a user content = content and they don’t care what it is, where it is from, who buys it, who produces it, or why it is there.  This can be foolhardy or even dangerous – going back to the ‘everyone’s an author’ view – it isn’t just about distrusting Wikipedia.  And yes, a 24 or 48 hour turnaround time on an email query will no longer be a viable KPI.  How do we deal with that?

 

My projections for Licensing:

 

—By 2014 publishers will be more receptive to the model licence

—Licenses will enable a full range of copying and sharing possibilities

—Copyright and e-resources will sit more closely together

—The internet will become more, rather than less, regulated … but self- or state-regulated?

 

2012 thoughts: Licensing seems to be becoming more complex, rather than less, and interpretations vary.  Ideally one licence should fit all, but will we ever get there?  A ‘full range of copying and sharing’: we need to ensure that licences do not override our basic copyright allowances enshrined in law.  New copyright initatives will seek to encompass digital content – it will have to, if projections are correct about the decline of print!  Regulation of the internet – curious I mentioned this.  Now I’m not sure if this is practical, possible, or desirable.  If it is – how would it work?  China has state-regulated internet access.  The world must not follow suit unless we want to put a brake on education. commerce, marketing, and the global network.

 

My projections for Sharing:

 

—By 2014 e- will not be tied to national, international, or sector boundaries

—Collaboration between subject groups and research units will increase

—Copying material from one format to another will become legally easy as well as technologically

 

2012 thoughts: I think subject groups might well become research units.  Format shifting is coming according to the Hargreaves recommendations.  Those boundaries are shifting.

 

There are many diverse challenges, it is clear – the greatest one being that it is no longer about resources or collections alone, but anything and everything together.  The speed of change is bewildering, exhilarating, exciting.  It is possible that change will come so fast that we can’t react to it, but we must try.  Making do will no longer ‘do’, and who knows in the future what we will be required to do, when. why, how and where from?