12 WWW.IWR.CO.UK/ANALYSIS
Invisible libraries lift veil on content
The inexorable rush of technological progress equips digital libraries with the tools
to offer a great deal more than a set of electronic databases
A
s the backbone of the UK’s copyright and ensuring they have tive web platforms will generate statis- simply shops filled with the works of
information infrastructure, resources in place that are compatible tics, book profiles, the number of peo- others. He spoke approvingly of how
libraries have to work hard to with user technologies and tools. Cost ple who have cited a study, and similar shops engaged in “invisible theatre”,
keep pace with the rapid technology- is also a huge deterrent to all libraries information useful for researchers. setting up puppet-filled scenes as win-
driven changes in how users search for moving towards a virtual service. Kent dow displays to engage an audience.
and use information. It is this tradition said that digitising all the physical KEEP UP TO DATE Hirst went on to suggest that indi-
that has spawned the virtual libraries works the library had acquired over If virtual libraries are to be optimised, viduals could use a combination of
possessed by major institutions. But the the past five years would cost around training for information professionals web services to deliver their own
virtual library can be more than just a £13m. The question naturally arises is important. Kent, who is also a mem- library and information services invis-
wall-less, digital or even invisible entity. whether digitisation and IT projects ber of UKeiG, CILIP’s special interest ibly. He cited as a potential example
Tracy Kent, digital assets librarian should be a library’s sole responsibility group, said that 10 years down the people combining the web service
at the University of Birmingham, said: or whether the state should fund them.
“It is a misnomer to call them invisible As a professional responsible for
libraries, because libraries and their digital repository and opening access
The emergence of IT and the internet
collections of data are more visible to to digital assets, Kent engages with
info pros now than they have ever researchers to make their “outputs”
on a mass scale has affected almost all
been. With the help of technology, accessible. She said the resulting digi-
hitherto hidden and dormant content tal access to full texts and data could
information-related activity.
has resurfaced. It raises the profile and make abstracting for libraries obso-
rediscovers older material.” lete. “Why look at abstracts in the old-
According to Kent, the virtual fashioned way, when with open access line, UKeiG is still running courses on Freecycle with online giant Amazon
library is associated with the obsoles- virtual libraries, professionals can optimising Google search. It also runs and a digital bookshelf from the Open
cence of standard or age-old library access all the information they need?” courses on the legal implications of the University. Such a service would be a
services and the rise of newer types of Which raises another challenge: that interactive web and comparing and place “where books are bought,
information needs. of information obesity. What libraries contrasting research-specific search accessed or exchanged virtually, with-
need is a robust system that allows engines to help professionals make the out an established library playing any
ALWAYS OPEN information professionals to conduct most of virtual libraries. role in it”. Users exchanging books
The emergence of IT and the internet efficient search and filter out the irrel- At the Internet Librarian confer- through such a mechanism would
on a mass scale has affected almost all evant information. ence, held in London last October, have effectively created their own
information-related activity. Amanda “In the next few years, semantic Tony Hirst of the Open University out- library service.
Richardson, a research analyst with web, tagging and metadata will all lined a different dimension to virtual
Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol, take information search to an libraries. Reminding attendees of the MORE THAN JUST MORPHING
pointed out that a virtual corporate advanced level,” Kent said. That level fairytale of the (invisible) elves and the Hirst’s take is very different from just
information service, unlike a physical will be one where searching collabora- shoemaker, he said that libraries were thinking of virtual libraries as academ-
library, can stay connected with digital ic or corporate libraries that have mor-
users around the clock. phed into digital resources. Peer loans,
Certainly, as lending and maintain- social media and search engine optimi-
ing a repository of physical books has sation (SEO) have all resulted in the
become costlier and increasingly mar- virtual exchange of information and
ginal to user consumption preferences, books, which was not possible a few
libraries have had to ramp up their years ago.
services with the latest technology and Hirst urged internet librarians to
digitisation. They have even engaged “engage with the information and
with publishers to produce born-digi- technology flow”. He pointed out that
tal material and content that can be social networking sites such as Twitter
easily digitised. supported searches of specific user
“Remember, libraries are well-estab- tweets for keywords such as “how”
lished institutions for rare collections and “libraries”, allowing users to tap
and so contain huge amounts of phys- into a rich source of useful tips. But he
ical content that needs to be scanned, also warned that implementing the
tagged and saved in virtual form to wrong sort of invisibility (setting up a
help increase their visibility and acces- digital repository that is wrongly
sibility,” Kent added. “We are trying tagged, for example, or not indexed by
to change working practices and pro- Google) would be more disastrous
duce content in forms that can be than not being virtual at all.
repurposed and converted into prefer- From bookless libraries and peer
able formats.” She believes informa- loans to proactive social media sup-
tion providers must adopt open access port, from the SEO of research reposi-
publishing methods and make their tory content to mining library web
works Google-indexable to give users analytics and invisible authentication
the easy and complete access to data on third-party servers, properly devel-
they now demand. oped and properly resourced virtual
But this goal is not without chal- services can give academic libraries an
lenges. Kent said two of the biggest invisible but powerful presence. a73
challenges for virtual libraries are Archana Venkatraman
INFORMATION WORLD REVIEW DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010 WWW.IWR.CO.UK
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44