Talk for UTS FASS Alumni on our future library & social media

UTS Library:
dangerous ideas
for our future
(Part One)
IMAGE: Salt Lake City Public Library, Utah
Wednesday, 16 November 11
Freeing the library space from its current focus on storing books to more people friendly spaces facilitates the delivery of
new services and functions for the library. Freeing our staff from transaction processing means that we can provide more of
the value added services that we know are appreciated by our clients.

IMAGE: UTS Campus Master Plan
LIBRARY RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
Underground
LEARNING COMMONS
Relocated & upgraded UTS Library
Map context: urban campus, inner city; limited space; Broadway is a major avenue & thoroughfare to Sydney City; close to
Central station and other transport hubs.
This map is the UTS Campus Redevelopment Masterplan. Projects currently underway include the Student Housing Tower,
an underground Multi-purpose Sports Hall and a new Broadway Building for the Faculty of Engineering & IT. Building 14 will
be a Frank Gehry designed building for the Business school and soon we kick off the preparatory work for the Library
Retrieval System with excavation to begin in late 2011.
The UTS Library will be relocated in two stages from its current location in Building 5 of the Haymarket Campus:
Stage 1 is the occupation and operation of our Library Retrieval System (LRS) to be installed under Alumni Green. It will be
operational in 2014.
Stage 2 is the occupation of the redeveloped Library building or Learning Commons in what is currently Building 2. Currently
that is envisaged for 2016-17.
UTS Student vision ﬁlm http://www.youtube.com/user/UTSLibrary#p/c/EB8DFE0C0A8A304D/0/G8TnzAdGnqI
From restricted opening hours -> towards 24/7 services

From book storage & shelving deserts
IMAGE: Dr Alex Byrne, Tampere Public Library , Finland
(Image taken by Dr Alex Byrne in the Tampere Public Library, Finland.)
Libraries storing all or most of their collections on open access (like this image) become shelving deserts with the patrons
mostly isolated in the remaining space on the periphery as collections continue to grow. Occasionally patrons make raids
into the stacks to hunt for resources, returning to the relative safety of their own spaces.
Our future library will not be designed as a book storage facility. About 75-80% of our collection will be housed in a Library
Retrieval System like the one in this link http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/malbooth/4118722777/in/set-72157623121781717/.
From book storage facility + a website -> customised physical spaces & personalised web services/apps that assist users to
search for and ﬁnd what they want and also to discover resources they did not know about.
From books & journals -> multiple media formats & games

Library Retrieval
System:
fast & storage for
950k items
IMAGE:J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
(Image taken by me in the ASRS of the University of Utah Library, Salt Lake City.)
The LRS will take away the ability to serendipitously browse the entire physical collection. It will, however, improve access to
and delivery of those items stored in it. It also allows for a less cluttered and more spacious display of the most well-used
books on open storage in our new Library, allowing for them to be found more easily.
The LRS is an investment in the Library space. It provides compact storage for much of the book collection and in doing so it
saves investment in about four times as much traditional Library space that would need to be lit, heated, cooled, cleaned, etc.
What we need to do, however, to maximise our investment in such a facility is to encourage use of the materials stored within
it.

LRS in operation at Chicago
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/ESCxYchCaWI
This video from the University of Chicago displays a working LRS in operation. It is also an underground installation, like ours.

To better spaces for people
IMAGE: Philological Library of Free University, Berlin
We believe that a sense of place and space will be important in our new library. With less books on display that is easier to
deliver in a given space.
Even current school students have recently reminded us of the importance of an appropriately welcoming space to ﬁrst enter
for the Library. They recognised the critical importance of that space in reminding you about the purpose of the institution
you are entering. The use of appropriate orientation spaces has been well recognised in the museum world and in well-
designed new libraries such as the one shown here in Free University, Berlin.
Clever design can assist us in designing out undesirable behaviour (like theft, excess noise, vandalism, etc.) and in
encouraging appropriate behaviour like reading, study, collaboration, self-service, reference assistance, etc.
Some answers and ideas will come from participatory design: we are already working with 4th year design students on
projects such as Designing Out Crime to explore the possibilities offered by RFID and mobile computing platforms as well as
more traditional solutions to be found in spatial and furniture design.
We believe it is very important to have our current and future students participating in the conceptual design stage. As a
university of technology our design, engineering, and IT students and researchers also have much to offer us from their own
expertise.

Design
– Welcoming.
– Porous.
– Merging physical & digital.
– Encouraging behaviours.
From restricted opening hours -> towards 24/7 services
From desks/counters/signs/screens/boards -> orientation spaces
From website -> applications and open development with our content/data
From catalogues -> Google, Amazon, iTunes (interfaces)
From face-to-face classes -> ubiquitous learning
From Library (only as a location) -> mobile services across the campus (people & virtual)
From passive consumers of technology -> active trend-setters and explorers through partnerships in research & publishing
From GATES, DON’T! & SHUSH! -> Welcome, how can we help? & inﬂuencing behaviour (theft, vandalism, inappropriate
behaviour/food/drink) by design

And improved search and discovery
Image taken by me at the British Museum.
We will replace physical browsing with improved browsing online of entire covers of “virtual shelves” (including the uniting of
print & online resources, books available & those on loan & possibly arrangements other than Dewey), suggestions and
recommendations (like Amazon & StumbleUpon), an opt-in “Genius” like service that can list books you might be interested
in based on your browsing and use patterns.
We are also looking at the application of social bookmarks to the collection (e.g. using something like Delicious or Diigo) as
well as offering users the ability to tag catalogue entries.
We are talking to UTS visual communications staff and students to look at visual ways to represent the vast amounts of data
we have about our collections, their attributes and their use in terms of In addition, we are looking at things like the ratings,
recommendations and folksonomies or tags to our catalogue search and also investigating whether features like Apple’s
Genius selections or a feature like StumbleUpon discovery service might be possible. We know our users also enjoy
accidental discoveries, not necessarily related to what they ﬁrst started searching for. So we might also look at services like
Tumblr, a cross between a blog, Twitter, and Flickr/YouTube as a good example of shared discovery or crowd-curated
discovery. I think we can incorporate something like this in addition to more focussed catalogue search facilities.

9
DiscoverySearch
We think there is a spectrum of difference between search and discovery.

10
DiscoverySearch
Search is a bit like the White Pages. Speciﬁc, targetted.

11
DiscoverySearch
Discovery is a completely different concept, more like Christopher Columbus - he was looking for something, but he didn’t
really know where it was or what it was like.

12
DiscoverySearch
efﬁcient
targetted
speciﬁc
advanced
expanded
text-biased
So this is search in more detail. What we specialise in now.

Our thoughts and dreams
possess no typographic
system. We dream in
pictures, feelings and
imaginary awareness.
Gunter Rambow
As Professor Brian Cox would say: “but ..”.
Yes, we don’t dream & imagine the same way we search.

14
DiscoverySearch
efﬁcient
targetted
speciﬁc
advanced
expanded
text-biased
accidental
incidental
abstract
non-text
browsable
shared
curated
So this is my take on Discovery.

15
DiscoverySearch
efﬁcient
targetted
speciﬁc
advanced
expanded
text-biased
80
accidental
incidental
abstract
non-text
browsable
shared
curated
And if we think of the 80:20 rule, where is 80% of our effort going? Yes, on Search.

16
DiscoverySearch
efﬁcient
targetted
speciﬁc
advanced
expanded
text-biased
80 + 20
accidental
incidental
abstract
non-text
browsable
shared
curated
But the problem is that the other 20% of our effort is there too.

17
DiscoverySearch
efﬁcient
targetted
speciﬁc
advanced
expanded
text-biased
accidental
incidental
abstract
non-text
browsable
shared
curated
80 + 20
So I am not saying that we should ditch Search for Discovery, but maybe just add some of our effort in that direction.

RFID tags will
allow for virtual
browsing of these
IMAGE:UTS Blake Library
Image taken by me in UTS Library.

A Cultural, Social &
Learning hub
IMAGE: http://davidgarciastudio.blogspot.com/2009/07/archive-series.html]
• From service provider -> cultural, learning & community hub
• Going beyond the ordinary; Importance of cultural materials within academic & other communities
• Developing cultural & special collections, not an assumption, not passive!
• Artist-in-residence programs
• Understanding the curatorial process and what that means for access, exposure, promotion, research, publication,
etc.
• Have we forgotten the full curatorial process?
o Develop>organise>manage>disseminate>imagine & create
o Get out of silos and apply/develop the full range of your skillset
o Better for your career anyway!
• Connecting to others and connecting others
• Engaging effectively in a community – immersive in participation!
• Shared interests – what are they in your community?
• Promoting debate & discussion
• Culture – what it is & why it is important. How did we ever forget that role?
• Engage – don’t ignore!

Mobile Check Out Natural Light
Book History
Customisable
Spaces
Comfy Chairs Participation
Inspirational &
Quiet Spaces
24/7 Operations
(Images all taken by me in (L-R, top then bottom rows): iPhone screen; Vivid Festival 2011; British Museum; Philological
Library of the Free Uni, Berlin; British Library; UTS Library Create Space; Poerhouse Museum Designers’ Markets 2010; Bike
Tank at ulab, UTS.)
We have become aware of these needs through a number of small but useful initiatives:
. using Wallwisher software on a spare large TV screen with a keyboard in our front stair well to facilitate a regular engaging
conversation with those using our current Library. Moving from a culture of complaint in an old corporate complaint book to
one of conversation with real people in the Library - not just because we moved from print to electronic media, but because
we moved our responses from corporate to authentic individual voices of Library staff
. by fully participating with academics, researchers and students as a “client” on some of their research projects into library
services and spaces, and
. by getting to know some local co-designers/design thinkers who understand the reality of community engagement and its
potential to deliver outcomes that synthesise organically the perspectives of all people involved in or touched by a project.

Atriums Media Spaces
Art & Randomness Intuitive Tech Meaningful signage Thematic Identity
Obvious SustainabilityGreenery & Water
(Images all taken by me in (L-R, top then bottom rows): TU Library, Berlin; Macquarie Uni Library; The Edge at SLQ; The
Grove Public Library, Perth; UNR Library, Nevada, US: Macquarie Uni Library; and SLQ Pacific Design Lounge.)
These points are what the year 7 & 9 students told us they wanted in a university library of the future after a half day informal
workshop in our current library in September of 2010.
Extended learning means the opportunity to learn beyond the set curriculum.
What can we do to provide randomness in our libraries. Everything we do is about (mostly outdated ontologies and
structures!
Gaming & media spaces are probably essential now. A library without them in the future will be irrelevant.
Orientation spaces have a significant effect, more significant than any signage, on the behaviour of those entering. It is
expected by our clients.
Water features, greenery and natural light are probably things we would wish to see ourselves.
Future students will expect all technology that we provide to be intuitive. If it isn’t it won’t be used.
Signage can be over-done, and to be effective it must be meaningful.
Our future students expect like-books to have some kind of thematic identity that gives users/readers a clue about their
content.
I didn’t really understand why students said they liked the curved spaces in the UTS Library until I saw those of the
Philological Library in Berlin’s Free University.
Library spaces and services must learn to be customisable and personalised. Maybe we are too precious about those spaces
and don’t understand their true potential.
We want our future library to be a social hub, but it also must provide exposure to culture, so the use of art within the library
will be critical.
Our sustainability initiatives must be visible and demonstrate our progress (or not) in all dimensions/facets.
Comfy chairs are essential because patrons simply will not spend every hour in a library awake.
“Lack of rules” perhaps indicates that we still have too many rules, or too many signs indicating the rules. Perhaps there are
other ways to influence and encourage behaviour besides rules.

Suggestions
for Adult
Learners &
Researchers
(Part Two)
There is also:
http://webgear.pbworks.com/w/page/27624828/Welcome!
http://libguides.mit.edu/content.php?pid=174869&sid=1481857

http://groups.diigo.com/group/research-utslibrary
You can just look through this list yourself. All the useful sites I found have been tagged and brieﬂy described. If you have
any feedback or more to add to the list, just join yourself or let one of us know at UTS Library.

Networks
http://www.academia.edu/
http://www.researcherid.com/
http://www.researchgate.net/
http://network.nature.com/
https://www.linkedin.com
http://www.graduatejunction.net/
http://sciencestage.com/
http://www.epernicus.com/
Links:
http://www.academia.edu/ This is a bit like Facebook for academic researchers without the dumb ads and games.
http://www.researcherid.com/
http://www.labmeeting.com/
http://sciencestage.com/
http://www.epernicus.com/
http://www.researchgate.net/
http://www.graduatejunction.net/
http://network.nature.com/
https://www.linkedin.com try some LinkedIn Groups for interesting discussions

Blogs & Twitter
Digital Researcher Blog 2011
http://www.researchblogging.org/
Twitter Search : #phdchat
http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/
Research@UTSLibrary blog
Other Links:
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1218/Postgraduate-researchers.html
http://research-blog.lib.uts.edu.au/2011/09/shut-up-and-write-reverse-outlines.html
http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/arsenic-associated-bacteria-nasas.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/19/alan-rusbridger-twitter
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110119/full/469286a.html
http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=1328
http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/

TextTextText
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/21370/index.html

Reference & Citation
http://www.citeulike.org
http://www.mendeley.com/
http://www.zotero.org
http://www.connotea.org

Collaboration
http://wiggio.com
http://www.myexperiment.org
Jive engage employees
https://docs.google.com/
http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/engage-employees/modules/jive-for-ofﬁce

Mindmapping & Data
Presentation
http://www.mind42.com
http://www.bubbl.us/
http://ﬂare.prefuse.org
http://www.degrafa.org/
http://popplet.com/
You may also be interested in:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/07/creating-and-distributing-presentations-on-the-web
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mrtu4MmthE (short video on Game Storming)

Utilities & Crowd Sourcing
http://www.backupify.com
https://www.dropbox.com/
http://www.quora.com
http://ideascale.com/
Some related articles:
http://www.techi.com/2011/01/quora-has-social-trumped-the-semantic-web/
http://www.quora.com/Drew-Benvie/Quora/What-are-your-top-tips-for-using-Quora-10-from-me-to-start
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/01/esri-australia-ushahidi.html
http://www.scientiﬁcamerican.com/article.cfm?id=question-time

Benefits
Connections
Engagement
Interactivity
Communications
Instantaneous
Extends reach
Learning
Sharing wisdom
This is just my own quick & dirty list. I’ve highlighted those that I think are the most important benefits with the most potential for researchers with an
imagination.
The benefits vary from an individual perspective, so I’ve tried to be generic here. I’ve also avoided the marketing benefits because if social media turns into
marketing media, people will flock away from it in droves.
Connections means that social media encourages and facilitates connections online and I think that can only be a good thing, whether they be for work, family,
social or even intimate personal purposes. Engagement refers to the chance to engage with others whether they be individuals or organisations in communities
of mutual interest. It is possible that such engagement simply was not possible or feasible before social media - well at least not as broadly and easily. Simply
being able to participate is a major benefit facilitated by relatively simple and free social technologies giving everyone the opportunity to have their say should
they wish. Interactivity refers to the fact that social media has changed communications in the media from one-to-many to many-to-many and from a one-way to
a two-way process. So Communications have been broadened and now almost everyone has an endless list of possibilities for communicating. Social media can
offer you an Instantaneous outlet and sometimes an instantaneous response to questions, observations, invitations, etc. The extension of reach is a huge benefit.
It works that way for both organisations and individuals through the sheer global scale of the web. The web doesn’t really care when you are online or where you
are - you can connect regardless of those factors. Social media has offered me major benefits in terms of my own learning in many different areas and on many
different subjects.
For researchers, perhaps the most important way that you can benefit from the use of social technologies is through the sharing of wisdom. Of course you still
need to sort the cheese from the chalk, but you probably do that already in traditional media anyway, so all it takes is a bit of time getting familiar with the
networks you select and it also helps to have list of trusted advisers you can run to when confused or in need or advice.
See also:
http://www.slideshare.net/ignatia/social-media-benefits-for-researchers-def

My suggestions
oh my god by Lucy Vader
For using social media. This is the how-to bit. It’ll be brief.

Start with
your own
tribe
It is probably best to start within your own “tribe” as Seth Godin would say. Then branch out when you feel more
comfortable. Networks can be funny things and a bit tribal to begin with so it is easier to stay on familiar ground. Don’t just
be happy with family members and close friends on Facebook. You know your interests, so maybe try another platform that
seems appropriate.

Perspective
Scale from the tool colour group by Robert MacPherson
Keep what you do in social media in perspective with the rest of your life. It isn’t everything.
Try to remember that not everyone is going to be hanging on everything you do or say, so you cannot expect instant
responses all the time.

Listen
hello mate by Stephen King
Listen to what is said online and try to understand why. You don’t need to react to everything. Sometimes people are just
letting off steam.

Engage
Engaging in social media is probably one of the main things: just be involved. Do more than just lurk.

Play, fail,
learn
It really is OK to try some different new things and make mistakes. You won’t be punished or kicked out. Listen to feedback
and if in doubt ask someone what the form is, but experiment and play.

Respect
Respect for others is key. The social web is multi-cultural and it generally isn’t popular to be intolerant, ignorant or abusive.

Be real
Audrey Hepburn by Douglas
Kirkland
Some people say that anonymity is OK, but I don’t agree. I think that you need to be as real as possible to have any real
impact. You don’t need to give everything away, but the social web can be really generous with you if you make genuine
contributions.

Be careful how
much you revealsitting hen by Tae-Geun Yang
There are many ways to make sure you do not give everything away. Just read the guidelines and learn how to adjust the
settings of the applications or tools you are using to suit your own interests.

Don’t feed the trolls
jolly giants by Steve Croquett
You can read what the trolls are doing on the blog posts of any major newspaper or media enterprise. They enjoy being
abusive and hurling insults in ongoing arguments, usually from the safety of their own anonymity. Don’t encourage them
with a response.

Be patient
It isn’t always going to happen instantly, although sometimes it does. Wait for people on the other side of the world to
wake up and then catch-up on their networks.

Readings
Everything is
Miscellaneous, David
Weinberger
The Long Tail,
Chris Anderson
Tribes,
Seth Godin
The Wisdom of
Crowds,
James
Surowiecki
Cognitive
Surplus & Here
Comes
Everybody,
Clay Shirky
The Wealth of
Networks,
Yochai Benkler

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