Track 1 – Part 1 What can we do to prepare the library of the future for researchers ? The Europeana Library Conference Madrid, December 2012

Background  Traditional purpose of library under pressure  Expectations and possibilities shaped by digital changes  Changing patterns of work and information consumption – students, researchers, teacher, public, publishers, new media companies  Current economic austerity reducing budgets

Background  Researchers visiting libraries less often, particularly in science subjects  What can national and research libraries do to remain relevant to those undertaking research ?

Managing research data sets  Library takes more control of managing research data sets  Focus could be on researcher at institution or a particular subject field  Long-term digital preservation of data sets also important  Creating relationships between journal articles and datasets

Improving Licensing Capabilities  Work more closely with consortia or directly with publishers  Find better ways to lower costs  Find ways to improve accuracy of data supplied by publishers on collections; sharing that information with other libraries  Improving negotiations with publishers to allow for more sophisticated use of licenced content (esp., text and data mining)

Greater focus on sharing collections  Improve metadata via automated processes  Sharing metadata (and content) with different aggregators  More time and money spent on Search Engine Optimisation

Changing Physical Space  Remove many of physical collections from direct access within library  Provide more space for research, teaching, group learning, individual learning  Create library as a more of a social space

Helping Research Teams  Librarians becoming part of research teams  Providing guidance on such issues as Open Access and publication, dataset creation, preservation,  Subject librarian replaces by research librarian

Enhancing Discovery  Working with providers to improve search experience for users  Building new tools for searching and analysing digital content, concentrating on particular collections or subject areas  (Alternatively, … letting Google do much more searching)

Developing Mobile Technologies  Providing end-user services via mobile phones  Improving resource discovery and resource delivery via phones (e.g. QR codes for scanning in the library, location centric)  Expand reminder services for users via mobiles

More public engagement  Greater exposure of unique collections to external researchers  Find new ways for students to interact with unique collections  Greater focus on physical exhibition space – interaction with general public  More crowdsourcing type projects to interact with public

Focus on the Digital Library  Provide smaller physical library  Go digital for as much of the library collection as possible  Follow public / private deals to digitise special collections  Place most of physical collection in other locations outside main library

Other possibilities …  You may have other ideas …. ?  You may have undertaken ideas that you can share with others  Discuss in groups of x??  Write headline ideas on post it notes (as many as you want  There are no limits and very few bad ideas !  Big ideas (broader strategies) AND small ideas (short-term goals)  Put them all on sheet on the wall

What can we do to prepare the library of the future for researchers ? Focus on the Digital Library / Students and Researchers ? / Science, Technology, Medicine / Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences / Focus on secondary resources / Aggregate digitised primary resources / Aggregate collections-level metadata / Maintain focus on bibliographic data

And now …  Select top 10 ideas on post it notes  Place them on second sheets on wall, according to cost and impact  Select one person to speak for two minutes on your choices