Slides and presenter's notes from a short presentation for City of Sydney Libraries in late June 2013. Slide #25 is my fave:)

1. Libraries and the
Digital Future
@malbooth
This short presentation was aimed at just stimulating some thought about how some “back-
end” technologies (like RFID & ASRS) relate to the front end in digital libraries. I only had 20
minutes or so and therefore it doesn’t even attempt to cover everything. I wanted to make the
point that the technologies we are using are merely enablers and not the end-game or the
solution. Much of this won’t be news to any of those who have seen my presentations before.
It ends with a few simple slides that sum up the major things I think we need to consider
when contemplating future libraries.

2. RFID
|can hold more data|
self service|other
efficiencies*|future
potential|
* scanning; security; smart cards; stocktake
Future Library - technologies
Radio Frequency Identification tags are not for all libraries, but they do have some future
potential, especially if we consider application like way-finding and data mash-ups. It is a
start ...

3. Future Library technologies - ASRS
At UTS Library we are implementing an Automated Storage & Retrieval System that will be
located underground and adjacent to the future Library on Broadway. Currently the
excavation is completed and the builder has started on the underground vault which is to be
completed by around September 2013.

4. Six aisles,
12,000+
bins: ~
one
million
print
items
Future Library - technologies
After that, a Dematic ASRS will be installed over a number of months with six 15m cranes
services the aisles and over 12,000 bins. By mid-2014 we will have loaded this system with
the first batch of our less well used print items from the Blake (City Campus) Library. The
next load will come from the Kuring-Gai Campus Library at the end of 2015 when we merge
both libraries in the City. We estimate that the system will cope with annual relegations from
the open shelves in the Library until well beyond 2040, thus keeping research collections on-
site and within easy reach of Library patrons.
With up to 80% of our print collection in this facility, we believe the investment is wasted if it
isn’t used and to use it to its fullest extent, the items in it need to be discovered online. The
serendipity of physical browsing has to be replaced in imaginative ways, online, by new
features that excite curiosity and encourage requests from the facility.

5. Discovery Is More Playful
Moving from Search to Discovery
We think that successful Discovery is going to be more playful than our Search interfaces. So
we are looking for inspiration beyond library applications and programs. And it isn’t a
challenge to be solved by more benchmarking and best practice measurement. So, we’ve
looked the the ways people are using mobile devices to discover new content when
convenient to them. We think there is a lot to learn from new content aggregators and
discovery applications like Zite http://www.zite.com/ The UI is playful, intuitive and assists
the application to learn more about your interests and needs. Other examples include
StumbleUpon http://www.stumbleupon.com/ and Artsy http://artsy.net/

6. From Search to Discovery
Discovery Is More Playful
Another example is how we are learning to discover new music by online platforms like
iTunes, Pandora http://www.pandora.com/, rdio http://www.rdio.com/ and Spotify https://
www.spotify.com/au/ These online services assist users in exploring musical content well
beyond the playlists of most radio stations or your own music library.

7. From Search to Discovery
Discovery Is More Playful
Other helpful discovery platforms like Pinterest http://pinterest.com/ and Urbanspoon
http://www.urbanspoon.com/ or Yelp http://www.yelp.com.au/ have much to teach us about
discovery too.

8. From Search to Discovery
We have even more help! In 2012 we started an Artist-in-Residence program and it continues
in 2013. Our first Artist Chris Gaul focussed on looking at discovery in libraries in very
different ways. As an artist he had a very different approach to the same challenge that we
did as librarians and we found this to be extremely helpful in improving our understanding,
providing a new perspective and many original ideas, like the discovery of text based content
through sound.

9. How Our Artist In Residence Has
Helped
From Search to Discovery
We have even more help! In 2012 we started an Artist-in-Residence program and it continues
in 2013. Our first Artist Chris Gaul focussed on looking at discovery in libraries in very
different ways. As an artist he had a very different approach to the same challenge that we
did as librarians and we found this to be extremely helpful in improving our understanding,
providing a new perspective and many original ideas, like the discovery of text based content
through sound.

10. How Our Artist In Residence Has
Helped
Libraries
Rational
Efficient
Logical
From Search to Discovery
We have even more help! In 2012 we started an Artist-in-Residence program and it continues
in 2013. Our first Artist Chris Gaul focussed on looking at discovery in libraries in very
different ways. As an artist he had a very different approach to the same challenge that we
did as librarians and we found this to be extremely helpful in improving our understanding,
providing a new perspective and many original ideas, like the discovery of text based content
through sound.

11. How Our Artist In Residence Has
Helped
Libraries
Rational
Efficient
Logical
Artists
Emotive
Intuitive
Questioning
From Search to Discovery
We have even more help! In 2012 we started an Artist-in-Residence program and it continues
in 2013. Our first Artist Chris Gaul focussed on looking at discovery in libraries in very
different ways. As an artist he had a very different approach to the same challenge that we
did as librarians and we found this to be extremely helpful in improving our understanding,
providing a new perspective and many original ideas, like the discovery of text based content
through sound.

12. How Our Artist In Residence Has
Helped
> Understanding beyond what
we know
> Fresh Perspective
> New & Original Ideas
From Search to Discovery
We have even more help! In 2012 we started an Artist-in-Residence program and it continues
in 2013. Our first Artist Chris Gaul focussed on looking at discovery in libraries in very
different ways. As an artist he had a very different approach to the same challenge that we
did as librarians and we found this to be extremely helpful in improving our understanding,
providing a new perspective and many original ideas, like the discovery of text based content
through sound.

13. From Search to Discovery
http://find.lib.uts.edu.au
The colourful bar above isn’t just decorative, it facilitates browsing for an unknown item
within the collection and it visualises search results.
See http://find.lib.uts.edu.au/

14. From Search to Discovery
Discovery is not
a system problem.
But Discovery is not just something that needs to be provided in an online environment. The
people in libraries need to be involved and this means both staff and users.

15. From Search to Discovery
Rediscovering the
curatorial role.
research > acquire >
arrange > describe >
provide
We think there is a need to encourage more understanding and practice of the entire
curatorial role in libraries. Sometimes a focus on efficiencies and systems makes us lose sight
of this role.

16. From Search to Discovery
CURIOSITY
ENGAGEMENT
DELIGHT
SERENDIPITY
SURPRISE
These are some of the things we need to aim at in being more active as curators of our
collections. These things should be the objectives of our events and programs that are
delivered within our libraries to assist the process of discovery, as well as our online
programs and services.

17. "Be curious. Read
widely. Try new
things. I think a
lot of what people
call intelligence
boils down to
curiosity."
Aaron Swartz,
1986-2013
Curiosity
If you do not know who Aaron Swartz was, you should look him up now. Try the Google.
And then go to http://www.demandprogress.org/
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/9132665129/

18. “... [technological] solutionism
presumes rather than
investigates the problems that
it is trying to solve, reaching
for the answer before the
questions have been fully
asked.”
Evgeny Morozov, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism
Techno-solutionism
And whatever we do needs to start with a better understanding of our users and their needs and behaviours. We’ve
recently done a lot of user experience testing and research at the start of our projects so that the results deliver
services users need and will use. We are also looking at hiring and anthropologist or ethnographer to embed that
research as an ongoing program within our Library. I originally used this quote deliberately to be provocative at
THETA. I grabbed it from a long review of Evgeneny Morozov’s book in The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/
technology/archive/13/03/toward-a-complex-realistic-and-moral-tech-criticism/273996/ We have the book on
order, but I’ve not yet seen or read it.
I have since read this criticism of Morozov’s book by Cory Doctorow which is a bit of a worry: http://
boingboing.net/2013/04/14/blowing-up-morozovs-to-sav.html Doctorow refers to Tim Wu’s review but offers
further criticism and analysis of his own. I have heard Doctorow speak and read his work online regularly and
respect his opinion on matters including this subject. This indicates that I may have been too eager to support
Morozov’s analysis without fully digesting his argument.
Regardless, the point of this slide it to emphasise that we start with understanding our users and not leap into
following the latest fad or fashion and then delivering them something they will not use.

19. Connections
This is about not working in silos. Virtually everything we do in libraries works better if we
understand the connections within the library and also to our various communities. We work
better together than we do in competition.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/8935583483/

20. Engaging
We need to engage with our communities, express interest in what they do and what they
create. This can lead us to a more active form of collection development within our
communities and not just with publishers.
The work here: http://www.pagescreenstudio.com/The-Book-Spotter-s-Guide
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/7787894376/

21. Should we
change our
style of
play to:
Why not?
Many times in libraries when someone suggests something different or new we default to
voicing an opinion about all the great reasons something isn’t going to work or accounting
for everything that could go wrong. Maybe we should instead try asking why not or how we
might make this work.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/9033916040/

22. Not Knowing
This image from Vivid 2013 is from the Praxis Makes Perfect installation in Walsh Bay near
the STC. It was by 2nd year Bachelor of Animation students from UTS. After they got the nod
for their proposal they had only eight weeks to put it together. Perhaps they managed
because they did not know how complex and time consuming producing such a work would
be for someone far more experienced?
See: http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/blog/university-librarian/2013/06/praxis-makes-perfect
Or visit the Museum of Old & New Art: http://malbooth.com/2013/04/18/some-thoughts-
about-mona-part-1/
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/8935562855/

23. ... or efficiency?
Libraries are obsessed with efficiency. Sometimes this is a good thing, but it also tends to
steer us away from what we can learn and initiate through Play. That is not a good thing and
sometimes play delivers a far better solution.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/8965199768/
Play of course means experimentation and making mistakes, so if we are to apply this and
also utilise the power of not knowing, we need support and tolerance from management. I
think it is also best if management set the example by playing and making a few mistakes
too:)

24. Multiple Platforms
Nowadays I don’t think we can look at the one digital platform, try something on it and then
conclude that our work here is done. Our communities use multiple platforms for all kinds of
things, so should we. IMHO.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/9033575540/

25. The Danger of Being Normal
Libraries are too good at being “normal”. I think this is dangerous. Don’t be happy with being
normal. Being comfortable with normal could lead to complacency and irrelevance.
(This is an unabashed steal from James Franco who said his teacher at Yale had lectured
about this.)

26. THANK
YOU
UTS:
LIBRARY @malbooth