Slides for talk on "What are the Major Technology Trends that will Impact Library Services and their Users?" to be given by Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate, Cetis at the ILI 2014 conference in London on 21-22 October 2014. See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ili-2014/

1. Event hashtag: #ili2014
What are the Major Technology Trends that will
Impact Library Services and their Users?
Brian Kelly
Innovation Advocate
Cetis
University of Bolton
Bolton, UK
Contact Details
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly
Cetis Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
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A presentation for the ILI 2014 conference, London on 21-22 October 2014
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ili-2014/
Accompanying blog post available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/

2. Contents
• About me
• The NMC Horizon Report for Libraries and the Delphi
process:
 What are the major technology trends?
 Beyond the technology trends – the drivers
accelerating technology adoption
 Beyond the technology trends & drivers – the
challenges impeding technology adoption
• Carrying out your own trend analysis and preparing
for the implications
• Conclusions
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3. About Me
Brian Kelly
• Innovative Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton
• Interests in promoting use of innovative technologies
and practices in higher education
• Independent consultant from 28 October (TBC)!
Long-standing involvement in:
• Supporting library sector & speaking at ILI conferences
In 2014:
• Delivered “planning for the future” workshops at
international library conference in Pretoria & Bath
• Invited expert, NMC Horizon Report, Academic Libraries
In 2013:
• Presented paper “Reflecting on Yesterday, Understanding
Today, Planning for Tomorrow” paper at Umbrella 2013 3

4. About the NMC Horizon Library Study
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NMC Horizon Report, 2014:
Library edition:
• Published in Aug 2014
• Based on ideas from panel
of experts
• Ideas refined using Delphi
process
• Report available under
Creative Commons licence
Your interests:
• What are the technology trends? What are the implications for me?
• What is the ‘Delphi process’? Can I use it?

5. NMC Panel
Panel composed of 47
library and technology
experts from 16
countries on five
continents
(includes several
speakers from ILI
conferences)
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6. Short-Term Technology Trends
What technology trends did the NMC Horizon panel identify?
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Seven key categories were identified:

7. Short-Term Technology Trends
Two areas of importance in the short-term (<1 year to
adoption) were identified and prioritised:
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“electronic publishing is redefining the tools between print and digital,
still image and video, passive and interactive”
Report gives examples of innovative uses e.g. ANU Press, established
in 2003 to explore & enable new modes of scholarly publishing.
“the way we think about software itself is changing, and whole industries
are adjusting to a new world in which sophisticated but simple tools
routinely sell for 99 cents or are completely free”
Technology Trends

8. What’s Missing?
Let’s use the Delphi process (abbreviated version!):
• What significant technology trends do you feel will
have an impact in the short term (< 1 year)
• Tweet (or shout) your ideas!
• Session chair will record ideas
This is an example of crowd-sourcing ideas from a group
of experts
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Vote on two ideas which you feel are most important:
• Area 1
• Area 2
This is an example of how crowd-sourced ideas can be
refined and prioritised
Technology Trends
hashtag: #ili2014 #fut

9. Medium-Term Drivers
What trends driving technology adoption in the medium
term (3-5 years?) did the NMC Horizon panel identify?
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Trends are sorted into three movement-related
categories: (1) fast-moving trends that will realize their
impact in the next 1-2 years and two categories of
slower-moving trends that will realize their impact within
(2) 3-5 or (3) 5+ years.
After summarising technologies important in short-term,
lets look at medium-term drivers of technology adoption
Technology Drivers

10. Medium-Term Drivers
Two drivers of technology adoption in medium term (3-5
years to adoption) were identified and prioritised:
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“Once limited to print-based journals and monographic series, scholarly
communications now reside in networked environments and can be
accessed through an expansive array of publishing platforms”.
“Academic & research libraries are gradually embracing the movement
toward openness as the Internet has opened the floodgates of
information and scientific knowledge”.
Technology Drivers

11. What’s Missing?
Let’s use the Delphi process:
• What significant drivers of technology adoption
do you feel will have an impact in the medium term
(3-5 years)
• Tweet (or shout) your ideas!
• Session chair will record ideas
This is a further example of crowd-sourcing ideas from a
group of experts
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Vote on two ideas which you feel are most important:
• Area 1
• Area 2
This is a further example of how crowd-sourced ideas can
be refined based on your experiences
Technology Drivers
hashtag: #ili2014 #fut

12. The Challenges
What challenges impeding technology adoption in
academic and research libraries did the NMC Horizon
panel identify?
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These were classed as:
• Solvable Challenges: those that we
understand and know how to solve
• Difficult Challenges: Those that
we understand but for which
solutions are elusive
• Wicked Challenges: Those that are
complex to even define, much less
address
The Challenges

13. The Challenges
Two difficult challenges were identified:
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“It is important for these new digital data sets to be preserved alongside
the research derived from them for future use and in longitudinal
studies, but this presents a perpetual challenge for library acquisition
and archiving practices as formats continue to evolve”.
“.. advents in Internet technology are fostering changes in patron
behavior, challenging libraries to either participate in the online
knowledge exchange or risk becoming obsolete over time. ”.
The Challenges

14. What’s Missing?
Let’s use the Delphi process:
• What:
 Solvable  Difficult  Wicked
challenges are missing?
• Tweet (or shout) your ideas!
• Session chair will record ideas
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Choose on one idea per category:
• Solvable
• Difficult
• Wicked
This is a further example of how crowd-sourced ideas can
be prioritised based on your personal/institutional context
The Challenges
hashtag: #ili2014 #fut

15. Review
NMC Horizon report:
• Provides insights into technological trends,
driver & barriers for library
• Open methodology which caters for experts
highlighting their own particular interests
But:
• It may not be applicable to your specific
context
• It doesn’t address “What do I need to do
next?”
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16. The Full NMC Horizon Report
NMC Horizon report
for Libraries 2014:
• 50 pages
• 18 topics
 6 key trends
 6 significant
challenges
 6 important
technologies
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1
2
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17. Do it For Yourself
Do it for yourself!
• Slides, exercises, etc. for half-day workshop
available under a Creative Commons licence
Workshop held at SAOIM 2014 (South Africa) & ELAG 2014 (Bath) conferences. See:
• http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/saoim-2014-lets-predict-the-future-workshop/
• http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/elag-2014-preparing-for-the-future-workshop/
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As described
Institutional planning

18. Participate in the NMC Webinar
NMC webinar (virtual
symposium):
• Based on Future
of Libraries report
• Takes place on
Wed 12 Nov from
10.00-14.00 ET
(15.00-19.00
GMT)
• Costs $59/$69 for
non-members
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See http://www.nmc.org/events/virtual-symposium-future-libraries

19. Co-creation of New Insights
We have:
• Seen selected examples of technology trends,
drivers & challenges as agreed to NMC Library
panel of experts
• Learnt about the NMC’s Delphi processes
• Contributed our perspectives
• Voted on the ideas provided
Next steps:
• Read the NMC Horizon Report and use it to
inform planning processes
• Implement an institutional event to help prepare
your organisation for the future (run it annually?)
• Invite an independent consult to facilitate 
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20. Opportunities
for continuing
the discussion:
• At ILI breaks
• On the UK
Web Focus
blog
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Continue the Discussion
See https://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/

21. Questions?
Any questions, comments, …?
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22. Licence and Additional Resources
This presentation, “What are the Major Technology Trends that will
Impact Library Services and their Users?”, by Brian Kelly, Cetis is
licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence
Note the licence covers most of the text in this presentation. Quotations
may have other licence conditions.
Images may also have other licence conditions. Where possible links are
provided to the source of images so that licence conditions can be found.
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Slides and further information available at:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/ili-2014/
Accompanying blog post at:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/
major-technology-trends-which-will-impact-libraries/