[Sigia-l] From libraries to Œ libratories ¹

[Listera]

While the eighties of the last century were a time of local automation for
libraries and the nineties the decade in which libraries embraced the
Internet and the Web, now is the age in which the big search engines and
institutional repositories are gaining a firm footing. This heralds a new
era in both the evolution of scholarly communication and its agencies
themselves, i.e. the libraries.

Until now libraries and publishers have developed a digital variant of
existing processes and products, i.e. catalogues posted on the Web, scanned
copies of articles, e­mail notification about acquisitions or expired
lending periods, or traditional journals in a digital jacket. However, the
new OAI repositories and services based upon them have given rise to
entirely new processes and products, libraries transforming themselves into
partners in setting up virtual learning environments, building an
institution¹s digital showcase, maintaining academics¹ personal Web sites,
designing refereed portals and ‹ further into the future ‹ taking part in
organising virtual research environments or collaboratories. Libraries are
set to metamorphose into Œlibratories¹, an imaginary word to express their
combined functions of library, repository and collaboratory. In such
environments scholarly communication will be liberated from its current
copyright bridle while its coverage will be both broader ‹ including primary
data, audiovisuals and dynamic models ‹ and deeper, with cross­disciplinary
analyses of methodologies and applications of instruments. Universities will
make it compulsory to store in their institutional repositories the results
of research conducted within their walls for purposes of academic reporting,
review committees, and other modes of clarification and explanation. Big
search engines will provide access to this profusion of information and
organise its mass customization.

<http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_12/waaijers/>

Likely? Too late?

----
Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."