Post by Penny Leach
Early in October some members of the Board of SLA Europe ventured over the border from their more normal English locations to Scotland – while it doesn’t presently require a passport to do so! John Coll, our representative for Scotland, kindly hosted in the august premises of the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, a panel discussion with three key information professionals giving their views on the future of information services within their three very different sectors.
First up, Louise Laidlaw of Pinsent Masons, not unexpectedly given her relatively conservative and wealthier sector, stressed similarities with the past. There may be almost too much technology rather than none, and skills might be updated – to training users in desktop sources, negotiating complicated and expensive contracts, filtering (too much) content for current awareness – but the role of information professionals in helping lawyers find the information they need efficiently and cost effectively essentially is the same.
And in the commercial legal sector paper remains significant – even a Papal Bull from the 15th century. Louise’s conclusion? Until there is a database that has everything they need, is as easy to use as Google, and has no copyright limitations… then information professionals are needed.
The view of Susan Mansfield of the Scottish Parliament was coloured by changes in the government sector, where the lack of money, the opportunities for new technology, and the rising demand for instant information from the funding tax payers, is driving innovation on many fronts. Information professionals can no longer expect to work in centralised libraries, but can be embedded in multiple functional teams, alongside IT, reporting to non-librarians, paying for their own training, and learning new skills on the job. Increasingly their roles are about managing internal content and merging it with external content to add value and layers, about delivering services via multiple content channels, about digitisation and big data, about integration and workflow.
Librarians really really need to be flexible and agile, and need to work in this way every day. They need to be absolutely aligned with their organisation’s objectives, and move services not only from ‘just in case’ to ‘just in time’ but to ‘just before needed’. They really really need to think like a customer, and let go of library language and thinking. They need to be able to deal with ambiguity and embrace risk taking, and above all have a plan B! Is there a future for libraries? Yes, but not the same as it wa,s that’s for sure.
In contrast, if unsurprisingly, John MacColl, University Librarian and Director of Library Services at the University of St Andrews since February 2011, had a much more library-centric view, but even for universities the value proposition of library space and staff has changed. It is no longer sustainable (even with technology advances) to maintain strong collections for all topics (the ‘just in time’ model).
But libraries can continue as the heart of universities – bonding staff across all disciplines, being repositories for the output of institutions and embodying the academic knowledge (perhaps within beautiful historic buildings), enhancing special collections to support the unique competitive edge that parent institutions choose to market in the global educational market, and providing good quality study spaces that are more popular than ever with digitized access to learning materials.
John pointed out that even the youngest researchers are very conservative – as they are aiming to follow the careers of their professors, while fee-paying students have an increasing awareness of the value they get for their money. Bottom line, university libraries also have to align with the business of their universities, balance rising service expectations and drive down costs.
In conclusion? The future looks positive, as long as we keep responding to the challenges of evolving technology, social requirements and economic environments. Membership of SLA as a network of information professionals engaging with the same challenges and providing many learning opportunities is a great step in the right direction!
Many thanks to LM Information Delivery for providing very welcome refreshments for the networking.
