Slides (currently unannotated) to support the "Preparing for the Future: Technological Challenges and Beyond" workshop presented with Brian Kelly - http://ukwebfocus.com/events/ili-2015-preparing-for-the-future/ Note - slideshare seems to have messed up the conversion - some slides are (unintentionally) blank....

1. Tony Hirst
Computing and Communications,
The Open University, UK
@psychemedia / blog.ouseful.info
Notes on
the Future
#ILI2015

2. W2 - Preparing for the Future: Technological Challenges and Beyond
10.00 – 17.00
Brian Kelly, Cetis, University of Bolton
Tony Hirst, Department of Communication and Systems, The Open University
Despite the uncertainties faced by librarians and information professionals, technology
continues to develop at breakneck speed offering many new opportunities for the sector. At
the same time, technological developments can be distracting and may result in wasted time
and effort.
This workshop will help participants identify potentially relevant technological developments
by learning about and making use of processes for spotting and prioritising signals which may
indicate early use of technologies of future importance.
Having identified potentially important technological developments, organisations then need
to decide how to respond. What will be the impact on existing technologies? What are the
strategic implications and what are the implications for staff within the organisation?
This interactive workshop will provide opportunities to address the challenges in
understanding the implications of technological developments and making appropriate
organisational interventions.

3. “Know Thyself”
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

4. “Famously Ryle imagined a visitor who has
seen the colleges, departments, and
libraries of a university but still wonders
where the university is. The visitor fails to
realize that the university consists of these
organizational units. In this paper I ask
what exactly the relation is between
institutional entities such as universities
and the entities they are composed of.”

5. "But where
– or indeed, what –
is the Library?”
- with apologies to Gilbert Ryle

8. Public
Library
School
Library
Academic
Library
Legal /
Medical
Library
Company
Library
Gov’t Dept
/ Int’l
Agency
Library

9. “So what is the Library?”
- with even more apologies to Gilbert Ryle
ACTIVITY
What is a library?
What is the library for?
What makes the library the library?

10. Values
A place to learn new skills or
techniques
Curated resources/ collections / archive
Access Gateway to other resources
Physical space
Conceptual models
What is a library?
Access to information
What is a library for?
Is the library a place or an idea?
"But where is the University?"
Publisher
What makes the library the library?
Archive

11. Infoskills:
looking things up
by numbers…

13. USPTO 20150124107
BS 5605 or BS 6371
ISBN 075381093X
978-0753810934
823.7 SCO JOH
E06000046

14. Cross-Indexing&
Cross-Referencing

19. “Perceive what
You have heard”
Ακουσας νοει

20. We perceive the
future in the context
of the present and
the consequences of
the past

21. planning for the
future
planning the future

22. “Plans are of little importance,
but planning is essential.”
-- Winston Churchill
“In preparing for battle, I have
always found that plans are useless
but planning is indispensable.”
-- Dwight Eisenhower

23. If we’re planning for
the future of the
library, then what is
this library thing we’re
planning for?

24. Do your planning
tools allow you to
accommodate
the future?

25. Where are we now? Where do we want to
be?
Strategic No clear strategy about where we
want to be with A
Clear understanding of strategy
around A
Impact We don’t know what impact Library
Services has on B
Clear understanding of impact of
the things we do relating to B
Integration Library controlled C is held in library
silos and not available to other
internal analysts or users
Library controlled C is available as
needed throughout the organisation
using standard tools
Skills Limited skills in dealing with D Core of library staff with trained in
D. Capacity to do D.
Infrastructure Some legacy underlying
infrastructure in place to support E,
but services fragmented using non-
standard interfaces. No organisation
wide UI.
Interoperable, shared services
associated with E using open
standards. User interface available
Business as
usual
Consideration of F not embedded
into practice or business as usual.
Not part of culture
Decisions and processes that take
into account F are part of standard
practice

26. Where are we
now?
THE
FUTURE
Where do we want to
be?
Strategic No clear strategy about
where we want to be with A
Clear understanding of strategy
around A
Impact We don’t know what impact
Library Services has on B
Clear understanding of impact of the
things we do relating to B
Integration Library controlled C is held in
library silos and not available
to other internal analysts or
users
Library controlled C is available as
needed throughout the organisation
using standard tools
Skills Limited skills in dealing with
D
Core of library staff with trained in D.
Capacity to do D.
Infrastruct
ure
Some legacy underlying
infrastructure in place to
support E, but services
fragmented using non-
standard interfaces. No
organisation wide UI.
Interoperable, shared services
associated with E using open
standards. User interface available
Business as
usual
Consideration of F not
embedded into practice or
business as usual. Not part
of culture
Decisions and processes that take into
account F are part of standard practice

27. “Psychicdefences”

28. How does your
organisation
frame itself for
the future?

29. Core ideology
- core values
- core purpose
Envisioned future
- long term goals
- vivid description
“Companies that enjoy enduring success have core
values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their
business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a
changing world.”
James Collins & Jerry Porras
Building your company vision
Harvard Business Review,
Sept-Oct 1996, pp. 65-77

30. “Core values are the essential and enduring
tenets of an organization. A small set of
timeless guiding principles, core values require
no external justification; they have intrinsic
value and importance to those inside the
organization.”
Core ideology “the enduring character of
an organization - a consistent identity that
transcends product or market life cycles,
technological breakthroughs, management
fads, and individual leaders.
“Core purpose, the second part of core
ideology, is the organization's reason for being.
An effective purpose reflects people's idealistic
motivations for doing the company's work.”
“Whereas you might achieve a goal or
complete a strategy, you cannot fulfill a
purpose”
“Core ideology needs to he meaningful and
inspirational only to people inside the
organization; it need not be exciting to
outsiders.”
“don't confuse core ideology with the concept
of core competence. Core competence is a
strategic concept that defines your
organization's capabilities - what you are
particularly good at – whereas core ideology
captures what you stand for and why you
exist.”

31. “One powerful method for getting at purpose is
the five whys.
Start with the descriptive statement: We make
X products or We deliver X services, and then
ask, Why is that important? five times.
After a few whys, you'll find that you're getting
down to the fundamental purpose of the
organization.”

32. The “second primary component of the vision framework is envisioned future. It
consists of two parts: a 10-to-30-year audacious goal plus vivid descriptions of what
it will be like to achieve the goal”
“BHAGs (pronounced Companies need an
audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress
toward an envisioned future. BEE-hags and
shorthand for Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals”
Vivid Description. “In addition to vision-level
BHAGs, an envisioned future needs what we call vivid description - that is, a
vibrant, engaging, and specific description of what it will be like to achieve
the BHAG. Think of it as translating the vision from words into pictures, of
creating an image that people can carry around in their heads. It is a
question of painting a picture with your words. Picture
painting is essential for making the 10-to-30- year BHAG tangible in people's
minds.”
“A BHAG is a clearly articulated goal. Gore
purpose can never be completed, whereas the
BHAG is reachable in 10 to 30 years.”

33. “Foresee the
future”
Ορα το μελλον

34. What are the
changes that will
make a difference?
“This workshop will help participants identify
potentially relevant technological developments …”

35. -Legislation
-Market moves
-(Technological innovation)
The big changes in technology may not be
down just to “the technology”…
They are also OUTSIDE OF YOUR CONTROL…

36. Market Moves

37. What is about
technology that
changes…?
…and does it matter?

38. - Will the predominant service model,
security model or user models change?
- Will the underlying business models
change?
- Will the underlying technological
platforms change?
- Will the actual applications change?
“What will be the impact on existing technologies? What
are the strategic implications and what are the
implications for staff within the organisation?”

39. What changes are relevant?
- ones that make a service you currently provide
obsolete
- ones that can’t be integrated or accommodated
within your current organisational structure
- ones that require you to start providing a
particular sort of service or replacement service
- ones that will require skills or capacity you
cannot currently provide

40. Stop doing something you
currently do
Start doing something you
currently don’t
Start doing something that’s
completely new to everyone
STEP
CHANGES

41. Step gradually?

42. “Act when
you know”
Γνους πραττε

43. Noticing the future
that’s unevenly
distributed about
you…

44. “There must be a
better way…”

45. “So does that
mean I could…”

46. What did you see for the first time today?
Could it affect your library?

47. Two more things
to consider when
noticing the
future…

48. What if X
becomes
commoditised?

49. What’s the
adoption
path…?

50. “Have respect
For suppliants”
Ικετας αιδου

51. End user development
End user expectations
End-user adoption / BYOD
Listen to the User…?

52. “What is the Library for?”

53. The Library plays an important
role in the knowledge
ecosystem…
…so what can learn by
looking at failures in that
system?

55. “Educate
your sons”
Υιους παιδευε

56. Open Notebooks
& Reproducible
(“Replicable”)
Research

57. CodeOutput

58. CodeOutput

59. CodeOutput

60. Data Futures

62. Jian Qin and John D'Ignazio, "Lessons learned from a two-year experience in science data literacy education" ( June 22, 2010).
International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries, 31st Annual Conference. Paper 5.
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iatul2010/conf/day2/5
The Library as Training Unit

63. “Do not tire
of learning”
Μανθανων μη καμνε

64. To what extent does
technology adoption
and/or changes to the
information environment
drive the need for skills
development?

65. Information skill,
digital skill,
or data skill?
Boolean search
SQLRegular Expressions

66. Internal services
requirements
External users
Provided services
External users
Internal skills
requirements
Skills requirements
associated with
service delivery to
users
Skills requirements
associated with skills
teaching / training

67. Data Curation
(RDM)
Data Resourcing
(subject/reference
librarian)
Data Reporting
(internal
audit/analytics)
Data Sensemaking
(“data
literacy”/infoskills)

68. “Be a seeker
Of wisdom”
Φιλοσοφος γινου

69. Helping people “find”
information in a generative
sense – from data?
If digital skills (digital literacy) - in the sense of skills
that support the organisation and production of
information using digital tools – are in scope for the
library, then are data skills (data literacy) - in the
sense of skills associated with organising and
producing (and making sense of) information from
data also in scope?

71. Trending
now…

72. Increasing
“open”ness

73. open to
everyone
open access
journal and
open data
discovery
open
textbook and
OER shelves
open
(scholarly)
infrastructure
invisible
library
support
open digital
workbenches
What would an open access library look like?

76. Conversational
Interfaces

77. From link-clicking
to conversational
UIs?

82. Seemless
updates

83. When did you last update (as in,
upgrade) your operating system?
When did you last update your
browser?
When did you last upgrade your car?

84. What does it mean if
you’ve always got the
latest, most up to date
version?

85. Staged
vs
continuous
deployment

86. One off or ubiquitous?
Firmware inside?

87. Virtual
Computing

88. Student’s computer
e.g. Windows
VirtualBox Application
Guest Operating
System e.g. Linux
Course software I
Course software
II
Student’s own browser
Personal folder
Download files from web
Access as
web/browser
application

91. Identifying
Yourself

92. Tap to pay -> tap to X
From
fingerprint
readers to
facial ident…

93. “It’s Alive…”
[Smart X]

95. Soon-to-be-commodity
Computing?
Image recognition
Automatic language translation
“Robot authors” - data2txt
OCR
Text Analysis –
Named Entity Recognition

96. “Know your
opportunity”
Καιρον γνωθι

97. Ahead of the
curve or behind
the game?

99. Sharing economy, meh…
…but ownership is being replaced by
leasing and licensing

100. “Gig economy”
"Th[e] so-called gig economy - the trading of
individual tasks and commissions (or “gigs”) online
- is associated with the growth of self-employed,
freelancers, and micro-entrepreneurs working
either full or part time.
“The business model of much of the gig economy
tends to transfer risk from the digital platform
providers to individual consumers and workers.”

101. Public service trends –
from service provision to
service commissioning

102. Brought in scope
through legislation

103. Having ceded ground in terms of
discovery to ad hoc aggregation
sources such as Google, will
legislation reinvigorate discovery
using primary sources or through
more formal
intermediaries?

110. “Five Laws of Library Science”, rochelle hartman (flickr: tinfoilraccoon)