A more than usually interesting set of powerpoints is available from the Sustaining the Digital Library : Symposium, 13-14 September 2007, University of Edinburgh. It looks at the future of academic libraries from several perspectives. The presentations from Peter Buneman and John Houghton may make folks think a little differently about things, which is always useful.
1. Keynote Presentation [pdf], Rick Luce, Vice Provost and Director of University Libraries, Emory University
Rick asks an interesting question: “Could it be that we are well enough funded to be comfortable with our traditional roles?”
2. How Users Behave [ppt], Dave Nicholas, Director of the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London
This presentation remarks that we “Have been bleating on about users for years, but have not made much progress” and asks “How many libraries [have] a department dedicated to following the users every move and relating that to academic outcomes and impacts?”
3. Public Good vs Private Profit [ppt], Michael Jubb, Director, Research Information Network
4. Reskilling the Library [ppt], Sheila Cannell, Director of Library Services, University of Edinburgh
5. The Economics of Scholarly Publication [ppt], John Houghton, Professor of Economics, Victoria University of Melbourne
6. The New Curators [ppt] Peter Buneman, Director of Research, UK Digital Curation Centre
7. Business models for an open digital world [ppt] David Prosser, Director of SPARC Europe
8. Summary [ppt] Martin Lewis, University Librarian, University of Sheffield
Via John MacColl.
Update: This entry escaped into the world with ‘wither’ in the title. This was a mistake and I changed it to ‘whither’ when I realized. No other significance than a momentary lapse of attention 😉
