Library 3.0

Intelligent Libraries and Apomediation

Tom Kwanya, Christine Stilwell, Peter Underwood

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781843347187
• eBook ISBN: 9781780633848
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The emerging generation of research and academic library users expect the delivery of user-centered information services. 'Apomediation' refers to the supporting role librarians can give users by stepping in when users need help. Library 3.0 explores the ongoing debates on the "point oh phenomenon and its impact on service delivery in libraries. This title analyses Library 3.0 and its potential in creating intelligent libraries capable of meeting contemporary needs, and the growing role of librarians as apomediators. Library 3.0 is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces and places the topic in context. The second chapter considers "point oh libraries. The third chapter covers library 3.0 librarianship, while the final chapter explores ways libraries can move towards '3.0'. - Focuses on social media in research and academic libraries - Gives context to the discussion of apomediation in librarianship and information services provision - Provides a balance between more traditional and more progressive approaches

1

Introduction

Abstract

The socio-economic, technological and information environment in which academic and research libraries operate continues to change rapidly. The emergence of the Internet and its related technologies has prompted a momentous change in the way library users seek information, communicate and collaborate. Users are more aware of the possibilities of using technology and academic and research libraries face immense challenges with regard to how to offer services to such users effectively. Several conversations about how the libraries can manage this change are ongoing. This chapter discusses the salient issues arising from these conversations.

Keywords

information as conversation

prosumption

disintermediation

technostress

McDonaldisation of libraries

The emergence of the Internet and its related technologies has prompted a momentous change in the ways in which library users seek information, communicate and collaborate (Limb, 2004; Casey and Savastinuk, 2006; Miller, 2006; Rothman, 2006; Courtney, 2007). Similarly, the scope and depth of what the library users are able to do with the emerging information and communication technology (ICT) applications are growing by the day. The emerging ICT-enabled information environment has considerable implications for academic and research libraries because they support scholars and researchers working at the cutting edge of their fields (Franklin, 2007). For instance, the new tools and techniques have the potential to enable the scholars and researchers to search, identify, select, manipulate, use, communicate and store more information easily, instantaneously and inexpensively (Ramana, 2006; Casey and Savastinuk, 2007). Thus, the tools offer a new and versatile means of satisfying the information needs of the academic and research library users (Ramana, 2006; Chaddha, 2009). As these users become more aware of the possibilities of using technology and find it easier to go to Google than travel to the library, academic and research libraries face immense challenges on how to offer services to such users effectively.

These challenges and possibilities have triggered new conversations about how to discover, invent and share knowledge (Casey and Savastinuk, 2007). These emerging applications, possibilities and conversations are rapidly altering perceptions of the fundamental principles and concepts of librarianship (Smith, 1990; Underwood, 1990; Miller, 2006; Casey and Savastinuk, 2007) and further complicating the situation. They have also created new expectations of better usability and faster responses to customer needs with better products (Casey and Savastinuk, 2007) and have exposed the limitations of library services available at a physical building that is not continuously accessible because of limited opening hours (Shuman, 2001; Chad and Miller, 2005; Rothman, 2006), with strict membership requirements, restricted information resources and often inadequate user involvement in influencing the level and quality of services provided (Cohen, 2006).

As the pace of this change accelerates, the greatest challenge, especially to the academic and research libraries, is how to keep up (Courtney, 2007). Indeed, the latest library usage statistics show that there exists a dissonance between the environment and content that libraries provide and the environment and content that information consumers want and use (OCLC, 2005; Miller, 2006). Preferences for self-service, satisfaction and seamlessness have been identified as some of the indicators of this dissonance. Therefore, library service characteristics that support self-service or disintermediation (Downie, 1998), increased user satisfaction and seamlessness such as ease of use, and convenience are now as important to the modern library user as the quality and trustworthiness of the products (OCLC, 2005).

Salwasser and Murray-Rust (2002) conducted a needs assessment of the users of the Oregon State University libraries and found that the users wanted to find, retrieve, integrate and synthesise well-organised information quickly. The study also found that, although many scholars of librarianship and practitioners recommend the involvement of the relevant stakeholders early and, indeed, at all stages of new library developments, the common approach still seems to be to ignore the users (Salwasser and Murray-Rust, 2002). Farkas (2008) also explains that the user studies she conducted revealed that users want to have more full-text articles available online so that they do not have to use interlibrary loans, a notion she calls self-sufficiency.

Similarly, the results of the OCLC (2005) library users study revealed very unflattering perceptions of the modern library user about the library and its resources in the light of the digital revolution: 1) A large number of users begin their information searches with search engines, not librarians or library catalogues; 2) People who have used both search engines and librarians for information searches admit that the two approaches yield results of more or less similar quality; 3) Libraries are about the provision of outdated, dirty, bulky and often not immediately available books, rather than information; 4) The library is not the first or only stop for many information seekers and, although this is not an entirely new finding, the situation is worse now because more alternatives to the library exist; and 5) Information seekers are not satisfied with the library experience and desire that it should stretch beyond books, crowded noisy reading areas, limited parking, bureaucratic limitations on the use of resources, and the need to travel, as well as unfriendly, unavailable and inadequate library staff. Choh (2011) also reports that a user study conducted in 2010 in Singapore revealed that researchers and general users found the national libraries there inconvenient to use and preferred digital resources. The findings of the Singaporean user study also revealed that the researchers were not proficient in using library databases and relied on the help of the librarians for this.

As libraries struggle to cope with the new demands and challenges, OCLC’s (2005) report and other statistics (Aiken, 2006) indicate that they are rapidly relinquishing their place as a main point of enquiry (Chad and Miller, 2005; Campbell, 2006). Indeed, a sizeable number of current library users indicate that they will reduce their library use in due course (OCLC, 2005). This change can be attributed to the constantly shifting expectations of users, especially revolving around time and convenience of use of library services and collections (D’Elia et al., 2002). Fundamentally, modern library users expect to be able to access any information they want, any time, anywhere (Blyberg, 2006; Crawford, 2006). They want the library service to fit their lifestyle and not vice versa (OCLC, 2005). They easily realise when this is not happening and stop using the library (Albanese, 2004). All these trends illustrate that expectations that libraries, regardless of their typology, will be able to deliver high-quality, comprehensive, user-friendly, new-gen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• About the authors
• 1: Introduction
• 2: ‘Point oh’ libraries
• 3: Library 3.0
• 4: Library 3.0 librarianship
• 5: Becoming 3.0
• Index