Tuesday July 29th saw the Library and Information Group's (LIRG ) AGM and annual address, held in London. As well as the usual AGM business, including the awarding of our annual prizes - the Research Award and the student prize for best dissertation - we had a presentation from last year's Research Award winner, Jackie Chelin (and colleagues), followed by a set of linked presentations around the theme of the ACRL's 2007 Environmental Scan, a horizon-scanning of issues relating (in particular) to academic libraries, published in January this year. ACRL is the Association of College & Research Libraries, a Division of the American Library Association .
The document lists the 'Top Ten Assumptions for the future of Academic Libraries and Librarians' in ranked order, as well as some 'emergent issues'. The Top Ten are:
- increased emphasis on digital collections
- evolving skills set for librarians
- greater expectations from users
- IPR debates will become increasingly common
- IT will continue to shape practice & demands for IT-rich environments will grow
- HE will increasingly be viewed as a business
- students will view themselves as customers
- online learning will expand
- growong demand for free public access to research data
- privacy and intellectual freedom continue to be defining issues
Some of the 'emergent issues' include:
- greater collaboration between librraies from different sectors
- increased role for libraries as 'publishers'
- shift from focus on collections to design & delivery
- social computing will provide new opportunities but increase demands on staff & systems
A series of three excellent and well-thought out presentations provided a reflection from a UK perspective on the ACRL document. According to Sheila Cannell, Director of Library and Collections at the University of Edinburgh, the Top Ten are 'spot on'. This was widely agreed upon by the two other speakers, Chris Powell, Director of Academic Services at the University of Northampton and Gary Horrocks, Deputy Director of Customer Services, Information Services & Systems at Kings College London. A number of observations were made on the differences between the UK and USA environments: for example, it was felt that accountability in the UK would be higher up the list, and there was some surprsie at 'students as customers' in the list. Gary Horrocks found some of the document 'pedestrian' and pointed out that the library profession has always been in transition, suggesting that Change Management is therefore a CPD skill that librarians should be developing. Many useful and entertaining metaphors were adopted; by far the best was Chris Powell's 'Dad dancing at the wedding' as an observation on librarians reacting to potential technological fads (i.e. Web 2.0) without careful consideration of their applicability and use. Gary Horrocks too indicated we need proper research and evaluation of these tools - where do they fit in the 'hype cycle'? Debate around skills sets and the role of LIS education (and library and information management departments) was lively, and as ever controversial, and will continue to be so.
The final contribution was via video link from Scott Walker, current Chair of the ACRL Research Committee and co-author of the report; he explained how the scan will be updated in the coming year(s) and refected upon to what extent the assumptions have (already) 'lived out their life'.
It was a packed programme, but highly stimulating and enjoyable. A more detailed report on the afternoon will be included in the next LIRG newsletter (sent to members only).
