1. Are we Fit for the Future? Judy Palmer Radcliffe Science Library Oxford judith.palmer@ouls.ox.ac.uk

2. Professional futures Most successful professionals and professions were those with their eye on the horizon Future of the Professions;Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership 2002.

3. Information futures Amazoogle culture Order vs anarchy Scarcity vs overload Transitory collections and publications Environmental scan : pattern recognition, OCLC, 2004

4. Future assumptions Increased emphasis on digitisation Evolving skill set for librarians Demands for faster and greater access IP issues Demand for technology driven services HE seeing libraries as business Students will see themselves as customers & consumers Growth of distance learning Open access to publicly funded research will increase Privacy ACRL: Top Ten Assumptions for the Future http://www.ala.org

5. How much do we know about our users? Scientists use: Google Yahoo PubMed Librarians use: Science Direct ISI Web of Science MedLine PubMed

6. What do we know about what our users think of us? Copyright/IPR IT Support Metadata manager e-accessor VRE manager E-learning facilitator Datasets Manager IR manager Archive custodian Subject expert in and out of library Teacher of info skills Researchers use of academic libraries and their services, 2007 http://www.rin.ac.uk

7. Researchers identification of core roles for librarians in 5 years time

8. The relative importance of librarians' roles in 5 years time: the views of library directors, other library staff, and researchers (per cent)

9. Librarians and Users There are significant differences of perceptions and views between researchers and librarians, and differences in awareness of key issues. They agree that communication channels need to be improved. How is a major challenge. The research community – in the widest sense – is using social networking technologies to exchange and share research-based information. The role of libraries in these developments is at present ill-defined. Researchers may not readily recognize that the content they receive on their desktop is provided through the library, or be aware of the administrative overheads involved. This presents a branding and marketing challenge for libraries.

10. Are librarians obsolete? http://www.degreetutor.com/library/adu lt-continued-education/librarians- needed

11. What do we need to be? Organisational anthropologists Explorers outside the library Linguists and Translators Analysts and Assessors Information architects and Structure Engineers (metadata) Subject information experts Knowledge Managers Techno-sperts

12. Impact of Web 2.0 Traditional Library ActivityWeb 2.0 CataloguingAutomated metadata (del.icio.us ClassificationFolksonomies, semantic web AcquisitionsE-bay,Paypal,Amazon, Abebooks ReferenceWikipedia User educationChatrooms SpaceBedroom and Starbucks with a laptop CollectionsYoutube, Flikr, Google Books Professional expertiseWisdom of crowds

13. The Social Web or Web 2.0 http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

14. Fighting fit! Take the high ground. Stay in touch and keep on moving! Advice to US Marines