ACRLog: StevenB: The Question They Forgot To Ask: http://acrlog.org/2008/08/22/the-question-they-forgot-to-ask/

The post was in reference to the Ithaka Report, released August 18th.

Ithaka: Faculty and Librarian Surveys: http://ithaka.org/research/faculty-and-librarian-surveys

[PDF] Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education, August 18, 2008: http://ithaka.org/research/Ithakas%202006%20Studies%20of%20Key%20Stakeholders%20in%20the%20Digital%20Transformation%20in%20Higher%20Education.pdf

Around the same time as the Ithaka Report a related report was released from Portico, one of the partners on the Ithaka Report, available for download from the following page.

Portico and Ithaka Digital Preservation Survey of U.S. Library Directors – Results Released: http://www.portico.org/comment/

[PDF] Digital preservation of e-journals in 2008:
Urgent Action revisited; Results from a Portico/Ithaka Survey of U.S. Library Directors. http://www.portico.org/comment/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/porticosurveyondigitalpreservation.pdf

The Portico document refers to a survey of library directors performed in 2008, and provides a brief preliminary overview of their data, while the Ithaka Report is a fuller (but still incomplete) preliminary analysis of data collected in 2006 from faculty and academic librarians at four-year institutions. Both reports examine the significance and impact of a shift toward electronic collections, with a focus on digital preservation of electronic resources, as well as looking at how these trends impact on the profession of librarianship.

StevenB's main take home point in his response to the Ithaka report boils down to this take-home snippet.

"If we want to avoid a further decline in the profile and relevance of the academic library, I advocate that the major change needed to ensure our important role in the intellectual life of the campus is the one that transitions us to a fully integrated partner in the teaching and learning process - in both physical and virtual classroom spaces."

This was primarily in response to this sentence from the original report.

"Over the course of these three surveys, we have tested three 'roles' of the library—purchaser, archive and gateway." Ithaka, op cit, p. 5.

The Ithaka Report is quite overt about the limitations of the study -- that their focus is on academic libraries and "how to best serve faculty" (p. 4), not students, administrators, staff, or community. In other words, what they do is important and useful as far as it goes, but it does not in any sense look at the larger view of the roles and functions of academic librarians, much less librarianship as a whole. It leaves plenty of room for other groups to make similar enquiries about the future of the profession.

The Portico overview statement provides a footnote stating their restrictions on data collection and response rate.

"A web-based survey was sent to 1,371 library directors at four-year academic institutions in the United States. The survey launched on January 11, 2008 and stayed open for 11 days. A total of 186 full submissions were received, in addition to 10 partially completed surveys, for a response rate of 13.6%." Portico, op cit., p. 1.

There are discussions currently objecting to the response rate as insufficient. Personally, I find the response rate rather remarkable and quite satisfactory, especially given that this is for a survey of library directors sent in January of the year and open for response for only eleven days. My concern is that the timing and constraints on the survey would tend to self-select toward responses from persons who care passionately about the topic, and would tend to exclude opinions from more moderate viewpoints. The Portico analysis did make an attempt to account for a possible skew or bias in the results, but this would remain a concern of mine to be kept in mind while reading the report.

"We found no evidence of response bias according to the Library Materials Expenditure of the institutions polled; our sample mirrored the larger population in its LME breakdown (according to ACRL data). We also checked to see if the survey might be skewed towards those who were actively concerned about preservation or favorably disposed towards Portico, since the survey announcement came from the librarians on the Portico Advisory Committee. ... In order to correct for this bias, we removed responses from Portico participants at random from the sample until the proportion of Portico participants in the sample matched that of the larger population." Portico, op cit, p. 1.

Now, beyond questions of the validity of the studies, moving on towards the bigger picture. Both reports are looking at the impact of current trends on the future of the profession. The Ithaka Report provides the following vision of what an academic library does.

"The [academic] library exists to maximise its value to is constituency, both improving its own stature locally as well as facilitating scholarship, teaching, and learning among its community." Ithaka, p. 33

I agree completely with StevenB's observation that the education component is and has been historically a critical role for librarians. I would even suggest that this role is but a small element in a role that is both a broader and deeper element of librarianship—that of the expert "dog with a bone" searcher, the person who (within the questioning and research processes) is partner, facilitator, scout, guide, translator, mentor, even information magician—in short, the Trailblazer, in the sense in which Vannevar Bush used the term.

"There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected." Bush, Vannevar. As We May Think. Atlantic Monthly July 1945. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

I have never forgotten the first time I read those words, the way my brain burned, as if a voice inside me shouted, "This is what I am. This is what I do. This is what I will be."

In my mind, I tend to think of the rest of what we librarians do as falling into tasks that support this one unifying fundamental and critical function—discovery. The functions examined by the Ithaka Report—gateway, archive, buyer—are important parts of what we do but do not represent the overarching unifying theme of librarianship. While education comes closer to connecting with the fundamental mission of the profession, I would argue there are many important and useful functions of librarians that are not overtly stated in images of the profession by either the patrons or the librarians. There are assumptions being made on both sides about what the profession of librarianship is, does, and supports. Decisions being made now will impact on those unstated functions in unpredictable ways, that may prove to be to the detriment of all for having not been addressed in the overt decisionmaking process.

What I looked for from the Ithaka Report was a clarification of the phrase "among its community". Every academic institution is embedded in a local community as well as having broader national and international partnerships. The academic libraries' roles and duties should reflect these relationships in addition to direct service to the immediate local academic community of that specific institution.

Portico asked a series of useful and provocative questions at the close of their report.

"* Who is responsible for ensuring the digital preservation of e-journals? Can e-journal
preservation be sustained if only a relatively small proportion of libraries is engaged
in supporting e-journal preservation initiatives?
* If it is desirable for participation in the digital preservation of e-journals to move
beyond the 'trailblazers' of the library community, when and how might that 'tipping
point' be reached? In the meantime, is there a risk that libraries could wait until they
are out of options?
* What can community leaders and e-journal preservation initiatives themselves do to
help simplify the e-journal preservation landscape?
* What is the appropriate place for e-journal preservation efforts in the face of
competing priorities?"
Portico, p. 10.

I am concerned that while the Ithaka Report does a good job of looking at the relationship between faculty and librarians, and Portico is examining the assumptions of library directors with respect to digital preservation, no one is yet examining in similar ways the relationships of libraries with and the impact of digital preservation on other community members — students and local communities in particular. I suspect there are assumptions being made about what academic libraries do, assumptions of the sort where people think the library is, of course, doing XYZ, but in reality the libraries feel it is someone else's job.

One example of this that has come to my attention is the role libraries play (or could play) in local disaster response. Does the library, in planning digital preservation initiatives and in making de-accessioning decisions, make decisions based on the day-to-day needs of the faculty, administrators, and students of the institution? Do they also consider what potential disasters are most likely to occur in their local physical environment and what information would be needed in what format by the institutional and regional decisionmakers in responding to these specific types of crises? If the decisions are focusing on the day-to-day needs are the institutional and regional decisionmakers aware that this is what is happening, or are they assuming that the library has kept the appropriate information in appropriate formats and locations for responding to the crises that could be anticipated? If the library is not keeping information to address these situations, who is? What other situations or information needs might be assumed as part of the role of the library, but have not been made overt to the library as part of their role?

I very much liked the Ithaka Report's emphasis on holistic and collaborative approaches to making these types of decisions, and encourage institutions to adopt those themes in their planning (p.33).

"It is equally if not more important, however, to engage with local faculty to determine what changes are and are not appropriate for the local campus environment. As we move further into the digital age, questions of campus information strategy must receive serious consideration from a variety of different players; care must be given to ensure that we develop a future in which scholarship, teaching, and learning are effectively supported, and in which important scholarly values are not lost." Ithaka, p. 33

Indeed. But let's not simply engage in these discussions with local faculty, but with a broader community of stakeholders.

Another statement that held my interest was the speaker's self- admitted reluctance to tell a faculty member that he/she was infringing on a publisher's copyright if he/she was posting his/her published papers on his/her website without proper permission, since "that is not the way to start a friendly conversation." I know that many people think it's perfectly okay to post one's own publications, because they are uninformed about or don't remember signing their rights away. I asked the question that came to the forefront of my mind: Wouldn't an academic want to have this information, if only for ethical--if not for legal--reasons? I would want to be told, so I figured that others would want to do the right thing, too. I did not receive any confirmation from the audience, which I thought was also interesting. Again, could I be the only one who thinks this way?

I have for years been pondering the difference between the professional and personal views of the patient experience. I have read many articles about it, had many discussions, have many long-winded ways I describe it, and even touch on the topic in the intro to my book. I don't know that I have ever seen the topic described so succinctly and elegantly as in the above quotation. I don't know that a geek-oriented computer programming, software, hardware journal would be very last place I would look for this type of insight (geeks are awful smart folk, after all!), but it is probably getting close to the end!

Part of what interests me about the quote is what it says, part is where I found it, part is how I found it, part is how other might find it. For myself, I was following a conversation on Del.icio.us; (2) Twitter; (3) Second Life. Then I add in Google, Flickr and Slideshare.

The point is that I built habits to bring useful and relevant information to me, remaining engaged with communities and individuals who shared my interests, so perhaps, my discovery of this very interesting article in an unusual place was less accidental and more a case of the prepared mind. [footnote 1]

Or perhaps it is that being engaged with a topic means being engaged with other people also interested in that topic? A popular phrase in the social media community is about being "engaged in the conversation." Ah, but where is the conversation? For science, the published journals have traditionally been a way to capture and record the thoughts of different knowledgeable people working in related areas. Recently I've wondered if the scientific conversation is still primarily being held in research journals, or is it moving (little by little) into other venues? [footnote 2] I had a discussion over lunch with a research faculty member about this very topic, roaming around issues of whether peer review actually offers the benefits claimed for it, the failing economic models of academic publication, and is the model of journal publication a practical and sustainable model for the future. Then there is the looming question of if the "traditional" models are no longer viable, what are our other options? All excellent questions to ponder for future discussions.

Back to the discovery of Doc Searl's interesting healthcare article in the LINUX Journal. I cast my net widely - engaging ing discussion with communities in healthcare, technologies, education, and more. I could have found this through any of those, but found it through an overlap -- a geek type that does Twittering for a healthcare organization (MD Anderson).

Now ask yourself, how did you find this article? What habits or connections or conversations lead you here?

FOOTNOTES:

1. "Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés." "In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind."
WikiQuote: Louis Pasteur. Lecture, University of Lille (7 December 1854). http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur

2. Emerging Technologies Librarian. "Science as Conversation, Part 2: Evolution of Scientific Conversation." http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/etechlib/archives/2008/06/science_as_conv_1.html

Wish us luck!

The hot story this morning is "Nature disses PLoS," based on Declan Butler's article "PLoS stays afloat with bulk publishing: Science-publishing firm struggles to make ends meet with open-access model." The article (Nature 2008;454(11), doi:10.1038/454011a, published online July 2, 2008) has already drawn reactions around the scientific and library blogging worlds ranging from "told you so" to "how dare they!"

Jonathan Eisen, Academic Editor in Chief of PLoS Biology, wrote a response and links to a number of other responses.

Personally, I think Nature has as much right as any business to take potshots at the competition. Whether they are wise to do so remains to be seen. I doubt that true believers on either side of the open access movement are going to persuaded by the article or the reactions to it, so it's difficult to see what they gain. And as Britannica learned when it challenged wikipedia, such challenges can come back to haunt you later. Britannica endured an extended comparison of the accuracy of its articles versus those in Wikipedia, and now includes wikipedia-like features. Will we see Nature Publishing Group journals change as a result of this discussion?

The end of the academic year has just passed, and that, along with a round number of posts, promotes reflection. I'll give some thought to why I blog as well as what I blog and post my reflections here in the next few days.

My friends and colleagues at the Ann Arbor District Library are super. They are cool. They are a model not only for other public libraries, but for all types of libraries and for other public institutions.

Should this be a disclaimer? I'm a patron of this library. As a user, I love it, and I'm a user of libraries in the addictive sense of the world. I'm at my local branch multiple times a week, and my husband and I churn books, music CDs, and DVDs through our accounts regularly and consistently.

As a librarian and library director, I see this a model and a goal. If all libraries were this good, would anyone be talking about the obsolescence of libraries?

A few of my favorite things

Andrew Zolli High energy, upbeat, aware of the challenges of the future and thriving on them, inspiring us to do the same with humor and intelligence. He lived up to our hopes and expectations for the meeting keynote address.

Web 2.0 Arc The CE Committee Webcast in March, the Social Networking Task Force, the free SNTF class on social software in April and May, and the MLA’08 Wednesday Plenary Session Webcast in real time worked together as parts of a continuum. Something for everyone, whether they were able to come to Chicago in person or not.

Community Service Projects An opportunity to give back to our host city, particularly appropriate in Chicago, MLA’s headquarters city.

Open Forums on Health Literacy, Vital Pathways, Open Access, Social Networking, and Librarians without Borders. I wish I could have gone to all of them, because these were the venue for reporting out some of the association’s most vibrant and exciting initiatives and for discussing the most critical issues in our professional lives.

Blogs and Bloggers Michelle Kraft blogs that MLA needs to do more in this area. In theory, I agree with her, but in practice this conference like every other one involves trade offs. We took steps in the right direction to facilitate blogging and social networking in real time and I’m glad we did. It adds another dimension to the meeting and further extends it outside the hotel walls. I hope future meetings will extend even further.

Had I but known …

If there was one thing I would have done differently, it would have been to promote the social networking aspects of the meeting more than we did. It’s a bit of a vicious circle – until there’s a perception that the need and interest is widespread rather than the concern solely of a small (and perhaps elite) group, the motivation to expand this access and support will be limited. On the other hand, until the infrastructure makes online networking as seamless and easy as the in-person networking, only the dedicated and technologically adept will be able to participate and the grassroots demand will remain small.

What else?

I found David Rothman’s comments on Second Life during the Wednesday plenary ironic, using as he did many of the same arguments that have been marshaled against blogging, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube as professional tools. My colleague Patricia Anderson presented the opposing view during the comments segment of that session. Listen to both and join the ongoing conversation.

On a local level, I was very proud of the showing my colleagues from UM made at this meeting. We had lots of posters and papers, and I learned anew how creative and how much fun they are when we came together to present a skit on second life, complete with avatar costumes. Major kudos to the HSL Players and all my HSL colleagues for their outstanding presentation of our work.

I’ve returned from the meeting excited, energized, and full of ideas for the future. I can’t wait to work on them. I hope you all are feeling the same, and will be at MLA’09 to continue the conversation and share your year of accomplishments between now and then.

Add a button and link to your web page, profile, or blog.

MLA has just announced Web 2.0 101: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools, a free online course for MLA members on using social networking tools. I like that this course bridges between the upcoming CE webcast in March and the closing plenary session and webcast in May, and that it's a cooperative effort between multiple units within MLA.

We'll have a few more announcements between now and the opening events on Saturday, May 17. I'm looking forward to watching the meeting continue to unfold, and look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Cleveland Clinic partners with Google to extend patient access to medical records. A related question: will the library or librarians be involved in choosing links to health information, or will that be handled through Google autopilot? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Google and use it all the time. That doesn't mean that I don't also see the need to insure quality health info rises to the top.

Of course, we here at UM, having just celebrated the digitization of our 1,000,000TH book, do not suffer from the "anxiety/fear/loathing" that David references. :) However, I wonder if we are using MBooks and Google Books to their full potential, and if we are exploiting the practical (and perhaps life-saving) anecdotes of usefulness fully? Reading Dr Schwimmer's post which started this thread is interesting, both for the current uses of Google Books and for the thoughts on how this resources might develop in the future. Would an effective AI application raise the practical utility to an unprecedented level as he speculates? Regardless of whether you agree on that particular point, it's good to hear a non-librarian (physician) user say multiple times "there’s never been anything like this before."