Wow another month has flown by and its been busy, busy, busy throughout Australian library blogland.

The month began with LINT getting into the spirit of Australian Library Week by running a competition which started off as Get creative in May and soon became Your Library in 2010. Although we only had a few entries which didn’t come from LINT members (check out Kathryn’s great visual story), the quality was top class and our winner Andrew Finegan’s entry was also noted by several of the top US bloggers. If you haven’t seen the entries yet, check them all out. (Thanks to Ivan and Sue for your contributions also). Will be interesting to see if any of these visions come true in the next three years!

Trevor Wakely on the ALIAVic list, picked up on the ALIA blog which hasn’t had any new content on it since the end of last year and ALIA considered their e-list guidelines at their May meeting after the dramas on the ALIAVic list in April. Have yet to hear the outcome of those considerations.

Blisspix blogged here about May Day: saving our cultural heritage, which linked to the Australian organisations which picked up on the US initiative, to raise awareness. Kathryn blogged at Libarians Matter about the upcoming Barcamp and Unconferences in Perth. If you are in the area, make sure you get to both events, they are ones not to be missed.

Many blogs noted the implications from the Federal budget. ALIA gives a good analysis with regards to libraries. On the ALIA front again, the election was run and won – by a blogger! Derek Whitehead of Derek’s ALIA blog is the new vice-president (president elect), with Damian Lodge and Kate Watson being elected to the Board of Directors. Derek and Kate have also done a LINTerview for us – thanks!

Also of particular interest to libraries was the launch was ERA – Electronic Resources Australia - a new nationwide consortia managed by the National Library of Australia. There will be more coming out on that in the coming months.

Here’s another entry in our Library 2010 competition. Andrew Finegan‘s Libraries in 2010 . Enjoy.

I see a dark future…flickering in the candlelight. A dsytopic paradise with electricity a luxury not a right. Illuminators (no, I’m not a tracer!) working hard to ensure everyone has a copy of the current book on their desktop. Advanced delivery mechanisms guarantee article delivery in mere months across a drought stricken land. The Water & Power Conglomerate dominates and strange beings lurk beneath the surface. Oh Kevin, where art thou?

So you would like to hear my vision of my library in 2010? My first reaction is that its only three years away – not long at all, I had better get busy. I am new to my current position and this is my attempt at thinking through my first three year plan.

My vision is not about my library as a place but about my services. My library is already no longer about a collection in a place. The place where I sit is called an “Information Services Point” but I need to get the information services to where my clients are, into their work-spaces. Not just offering training in their offices but services which are integrated into their electronic and virtual work-spaces.

I need to develop and establish relationships and conversations. I have already heard that my clients need simpler interfaces to the huge range of information tools that we have gathered, they need ways to manage their information overloads and they need ways to connect with each other to foster interdisciplinary research.

Like Fiona I will need to acquire skills in GIS and data mining just to be able to talk with my clients. I have already had a client tell me that he needs to use data-mining and there are no longer maps in my library for a reason. I need to get to know the information management tools they are using everyday. I am learning Procite and Endnote well enough to offer training but how many are using BibTeX instead? I have found one group already.

My organisation is talking about getting my team involved in setting up an institutional repository and my team is starting to use a wiki. I need to look at whether my clients use RSS, IM and social networks and, if they are, then I need get our services into those spaces. I need to look at the bestpractises of the universities, their services to their researchers but also their students. Their students are our future researchers. Those changes would be necessary just to catch up. I need to do more than catchup, I need to get innovative. My clients are, so I need to be also. Then I need to be constantly in the loop, constantly aware of where our clients are moving and be prepared to move there along with them or, better, leading the way, to show them better ways of retrieving, organising and (as Fiona said) adding value to the information that they need. Actually, that last bit was in my job description.

[Prelude: Thanks to CW for telling me about this post from LINT, and Peta for inviting me to "get creative for May". I've slightly revised this earlier post, i.e. rewrote the introduction, added section headings, and a part on "Would there be librarians..."]

My vision of future library spaces was inspired by a video by my non-librarian friend (Kevin). who produced this video of a newly opened “cafe + lounge + bar + business centre + broadcast centre + technogear playhouse” in Singapore called Geek Terminal (GT).

Here’s what you’ll see in my Library of the Future (the future may be closer than we think):

1) Plug, Power & Play
01:20 mins – “You get to have free power,” says GT CEO, Chris. But that’s not what’s cool. Check out the power-track sockets (Brand name ‘Eubiq‘) that gives new meaning to “plug and play”. Produced by a Singapore-based company. More reviews about the power-track socket: here, here, here and here.

2) Coffee, Wine, and Information
03:10 mins – A bar that serves wine and coffee. While it’s not surprising to find coffee joints in libraries nowadays, I’ve not heard of wine bars… yet. “Books and wine”. And the librarian could double-up as the bartender serving up coffee, tea, wine and information! Wine-not? *ouch*

3) Furniture that lasts!
03:35 mins – Custom-made stain-proof chairs. According to the GT CEO, “wine, coffee… nothing can stain this chair”. If the chairs offer permanent protection against ink (pen, markers etc) from bored teens, then library will get a few thousands of those, thank you.

4) Multi-function furniture
03:45 mins – Well thought-out design for the table. When the food arrives, there’s a slot in the table for you to put your laptop away.

5) Discussion spaces & Noise Dampeners
05:50 mins – I took this shot to show that such a scene (of people crowding around computers for discussions) is already happening in some public libraries, especially those with free WIFI. Perhaps to handle the increase in noise levels, the Library of the Future could have Noise Dampeners — devices installed just above the individual discussion area that cancels out the noise made from a specific location.

6) Real Meet-ups in Virtual Worlds
07:40 mins – Here’s a shot of a Ping.sg meetup participant moving his avatar in Second Life. In the Library of the Future, interactions in virtual worlds might become part of the library’s regular activities, in addition to the “traditional” face-to-face interactions. E.g. book discussions in virtual worlds, with international participants.

7) Configurable Walls and Spaces
09:00 mins – Chris points out the collapsible wall panels. The Library of the Future would have spaces that are configurable and customisable — without requiring specialist skills to set them up.

Geek-speak Galore (we hope not!)
10:00 & 11:35, 12:20 mins - This part’s Geek-talk Galore, on servers, load balancers, bandwidth, Industrial routers… “N-series, which is cool,” says Chris. Kevin responds, “You mean A-O2-11-N?” Heh.

In the Library of the Future, library professionals won’t be expected to go gah-gah over Geek-speak, but I think at the basic level we must be able to hold our own where end-user level of computer is concerned (maybe by then, we’d understand what they are talking about).

9) User-sensitive Information Bar
13:00 mins – The bar pulsates with LED lights installed underneath. OK, a little SciFi indulgence here — maybe the Library of the Future’s “Information Bar” has some built in intelligence.

As the librarian conducts the reference interview with the customer, the bar would glow according to the customer’s satisfaction level. The warmer colours, the closer the search is to the customer’s expectations. The cooler the colours, the more the librarian has to try alternative search strategies.

Instead of computer screens and keyboards, the bar counter top acts as the display and input device. I’m sure this aspect is already feasible with today’s technology.

10) Would books have a place in the Library of the Future?
Yes they will have a place, in my version of the future library.

11) Automated retrieval of physical items
Customers would search the library catalogue via WIFI, and place their “order” for the physical book they’d like to read. The books would be automatically retrieved from compact storage areas (hidden away but still within the library premise) and delivered to the customer at their table.

If it’s not delivered directly to the table, at the very least the customer would receive an alert (via SMS or IM) that their items have been delivered to the collection point (e.g. the cafe/ book bar).

12) Space, Aesthetics & Use
The Library of the Future would be a place where there’s a harmony between space, aesthetics, and use. If libraries can excite all its users, like what Geek Terminal elicits from those folks, then the library’s future is assured. : )

13) Would there be librarians in this Library of the Future?
But of course! It’s implied in all the required activities and services mentioned above. I’ve treated it as a given (plus the need to adapt and change the profession in accordance to customer needs).

[Original post here. Kevin's video here.]

While we’re gazing toward 2010, here is an amazing 7 minute video of the Transformation Lab experiment in a Danish Library that transforms one library space into many possible library futures. My favourite bit is the “questions floor”, where library users can answer questions projected onto the library floor via their mobile phones.

Alane at OCLC’s It’s All Good blog describes it so well.

Prototyping the Future Library

Thanks to Darlene Fichter for pointing out this really excellent video from the Aarhus Public Library in Denmark. “When everything is available online, why come to the library at all?” The video attempts to answer this.

It is in English and reports on a project they called The Transformation Lab that included the Literature Lab, the Music Lab (which included an Inspiration Zone), the News Lab, The Square, and the Exhibition Lab.

They present five lessons learned (and shown):
- flexible spaces are necessary
- open events are a good idea and well received
- the physical library needs to be augmented with interactive technology
- networking is critical among users, IT specialists, library staff, architects etc
- users need to have a more visible role inside the library

Simple techniques produced the greatest impact…the users like to become involved “as long as it was not too much trouble and providing it brings about an instant result.”

The narrator comments that users have been forced to dismiss the book as library brand (makes me wonder if they’ve read The Perceptions report) and that they are co-creators of a new library space.

My vision of library services is a vision of partnership, between librarians, clients, patrons and stakeholders. We began as gatekeepers, progressed to intermediaries, and are now in the era of ‘value-added information’. In the future, the transition to partnership, where we really should be, will be realised.

Academic librarians will partner in the academy by being part of research teams – they will be involved in research grants, data gathering, and the publishing process. Many libraries will be publishers. Librarians of the future will need to have skills in data mining and GIS. Some of this has already begun, but by 2010 it will be ubiquitous.

My vision isn’t a radical one, but I hope that it’s an achievable one, and closer than we think.

Edit: image added. Radiohead graphic shamlessly redrawn by me, in Gimp with tablet.

Here’s my doodle of the way I’d like to see our academic library in 2010.

Tell us your vision for your library in 2010 and you can win a signed copy of Meredith Farkas’ new book Social Software in Libraries.

Academic Library 2010 uploaded onFlickr May 12, 2007 by sirexkat

To get the ball rolling and get some inspiration going for our “Get creative for May competition“, the Libraries Interact team is going to share some of its vision for the future of libraries (at least until 2010). Here I am sharing where I think my library, which is a public library, will be in 2010. 2010 is only three years away, but considering the speed of change in the last 3, a lot can still happen.

So in my public library in 2010, I see ubiquitous computing – PCs everywhere throughout our buildings for those who don’t have their own devices, and wifi for those that do. Content available to access, regardless of the device being used. More gaming with in-house consoles available for use in the same way that we now have Internet PCs. Users will be able to deal with the library exclusively on-line, from joining to using electronic resources and even getting items delivered to their homes (probably for a fee) so that the building for them becomes unnecessary. On the other-hand, the focus of the building will continue to shift from not just the place to find the books and other items it contains, it will also be more of a place to meet those with common interests, a place to get away from it all, a third place if you like. There will be RFID, more self-check and staff will be providing extra personalised service and expanded programmes as they are freed from the more routine circulation work. I can our main branch having an awesome lab, with the equipment and creation tools, so that users can create and upload their own mash-ups to the web. And enough bandwidth for that to happen too. We will still get our same users, just hopefully more of them, as we offer programs and resources (including technologies) that appeal to a wider range of people.

Pipe dream? Wishful thinking? Achievable? Maybe all three. But if I can see even a part of this vision come true by 2010 and more of it in process, then it will be a dream come true. What’s your vision for your library in 2010?