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| source: @markyb09 |
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| source: @richove |
Following on from Mr Keating was
Mike Keller from Stanford University. He began his talk with a summarising
statement saying what they were about that followed on from the two side of the
library – both tradition and innovation in supporting and stimulating. Although
he pointed out that their aims are mostly in line with serving their university
population of students and faculty, what they do at the university is very
useful in their responsibility towards “cultural patrimony and documenting
[current time]”. Mike went on to talk
about how they preserve reference based information assets via LOCKSS and
CLOCKSS (which he explained for those not in the know), Stanford Digital
Repository which contains over 1100 collections, and they have also begun web
archiving alongside other libraries and institutions. Key points he mentioned
included the importance of having a data management plan when seeking funding
for research, which encouraged a follow-up question from the audience after he
was done speaking. Next Mike spoke about how their catalogue search worked and
how library catalogues are much better for finding titles over Google Scholar.
He also spoke about a very useful tool developed by a friend of his called Yewno.com.
This search is based around conceptual maps that connect areas of a topic when
searched which researchers can then discuss. He demonstrated this by searching
‘Ireland Easter 1916’ which drew a plain but detailed mind map of concepts
around this event. He explained that 50 algorithms are used to create this.
Mike also talked about a several year long project that occurred in the
University which gathered 67,000 and counting maps from the collections of
David Ramsey and created an exhibition centre with a stunning floor to ceiling
screen. Following this he discussed the IIIF vision for the future of this and
other projects, questioning if in the future of digitising these items if they
could be analysed, a search could be done within the collection and results
could be even compared across websites. Stanford is working with many other institutions,
including UCD, to make the tools to meet this vision and make the project
findable on the web. Another project they have undertaken at Stanford launched
mere days ago and is entitled ‘Enchanting the Desert’ and aims to provide a
interactive resource where peer-reviewed scholarly articles were available.
Mike finished up with the empowering message that people are what will make the
future of libraries and not necessarily just those with degrees.
The third speaker was Richard
Ovenden of Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. Richard continued the theme of
traditional and new library uses in his talk when comparing conserving the
heritage of the historical reading room and the new needs of the library in
relation to the refurbishment of the New Bodleian. He mentioned the problems
with fitting these new needs within although beautiful, restricted
architecture. Therefore they have preserved the older parts for the heritage
but also for the historical books and manuscripts and refurbished the 1930’s
building in the centre of town to make
it less “opaque” and more visible to students and the public and suitable for
use as a cultural and research building. The first step in this process ,aside
from changing the front of the building to be more visible with a open facade, was
to move a great deal of their low-use titles to the appropriate storage
facility for the work on the building. They would then be returning some of
them while keeping a flexible storage facility with a smooth service should any
of these texts be required. This storage facility would be staffed by an
interesting mix of library staff and those with forklift licences! This
reduction of books would make for more open shelf access and study space as
well as exhibition space. They also worked on the general appearance of the
spaces to make the tunnels more Star Trek and the space in general more open,
while retaining important spaces such as reading rooms. These reading rooms would
get a more fresh and well-lit look, while the stonework would be cleaned and unseen
features would be made visible. All of these changes made a huge impact
academically and in terms of the public. In Academic terms it opened up the
space for research collaboration and international fellowship projects (which
would include a ten week immersion project) as well as seminars. The updates
also supported the changing nature of the library. In terms of public impact,
footfalls exceeded expectation at over 880,000 visitors in 13 months, with the
Oxford Literary Festival hosting 49 events in the library. Other cultural
highlights include the Shakespeare’s Dead exhibition which was launched
recently by Dame Maggie Smith. The library has now also hosted educational
events such as coding for young people and the Big Draw of the Year. He closes
on the points that the library functions completely on philanthropic donations
and that marketing is key in libraries.
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| source: @martinoconnor3 |
The final talk of the day was
given by the founder of MetaLAB at Harvard, Jeffrey Schnapp. He began with an
extinction chart from the past that suggested that the library as a physical
form would be extinct by 2020, which he mused was simply not true. The belief
at the time was that the library was “vestige of the past” and ideas along
these lines of the library as only physical were naïve ideas about what the
library was or will be or indeed what knowledge is. This fantasy is an
either/or idea; that there can be libraries with books or the internet with
knowledge. Jeffrey then suggested that the library was an experimental space
and as he mentioned later on it had been since early in the 20th
century as new types of technology had to be dealt with. This is where the idea
of Metalab came – “a idea foundry, knowledge-design lab”. Two things of interest are designing a user-centric digital lab and archive
(as a physical space) and designing the 21st century library, one
component at a time. One project undertaken at the University was something
called a Library Test Kitchen that didn’t lose the expert element but brought
the conversation into an area of speculative design. This project asked
questions such as ‘what would a reading room fit for text and digital library
use look like’ and ‘what does the contemplatory space in this 21 century
library look like’. An interesting point that Jeffrey brought up was how
libraries are leading the pack in relation to collecting data in databases and
catalgoues and how useful it would be if this was open. One project he was part
of that looked at this used records to show how the printing of books was
disseminated across Europe over the first 1000 years of printing. Something
that he said towards the end really stuck with me. He claimed that having a
background in cultural history made him interested in ethnology. He spoke about
how the work library and its origin Biblioteca essentially means bookshelf and
that although people use this to justify the extinction of the use of libraries,
the idea of a book is also changeable, so why should the shelf not? He then
proceeded to talk a bit about the interesting history of libraries from
Alexandria and Pergumon to Napolean’s mobile library that he brought to war
with him to attempts at the modern library incuding the Idea Store. His
concluding points concern an important recipe – What is the library yesterday,
what is the library today and to link up with the topic of the day, what is the
library in the future. Jeffrey believes this is a hybrid, a multimedia space
for knowledge access and activation. It will include reading rooms but will not
be the ridiculous space for books mapped when the New York library was opening
and the reference desk will need to be changed.
