The Way We Were

Cooperatives were created to help do things that the Library of Michigan couldn’t – potential services included in PA 89 of 1977:

·          A central pool or rotating book collection.

·          In-service training.

·          Book selection aids.

·          Bibliographic services.

·          Audio-visual services.

·          Bookmobile service or other outlets to outlying areas.

·          Publicity and public relations.

·          Printing.

·          A centralized purchasing operation.

·          Centralized processing, including cataloging and marking.

·          Reference services.

·          Delivery service.

 

The Way We Are

It has become increasingly difficult to characterize and describe the purpose of and the experience of using libraries and Library Support Organizations (LSO’s).

“The traditional notions of “library,” “collection,” “patron” and “archive” have changed and continue to change. The relationships among the information professional, the user and the content have changed and continue to change.  What has not changed is the implicit assumption among most librarians that the order and rationality that libraries represent is necessary and a public good. Scarcity of information is the basis for the modern library.” (OCLC Environmental Scan)

 

Services currently provided by Michigan Cooperatives – Attachment A.

Services provided by other states’ Cooperatives – Attachment B

 

Trends Affecting Libraries and LSO’s

For many years, many bright people have been writing and speaking about possible futures. Yet, not much has fundamentally changed.  The Web has become the most significant engine driving changes impacting Libraries and LSO’s.  We have been using “old school” methods to do “new school” things.  Libraries and LSO’s need to identify services that go beyond a single institution to remove redundancy, build capacity and allow for collective activity.  Rapid transformations, particularly in the technological sphere of the public world, are more profound and more frequent than at any other time in humanity’s history.  The human factor is still important to libraries and those who use them. Library staff can help the overloaded information user by helping them select and evaluate material.

 

Delivery

Six trends affecting library delivery services

·          increasing availability of library holdings in shared catalogs,

·          growth of patron-initiated borrowing,

·          development of tools to display library holdings in non-library applications,

·          increased availability of electronic material,

·          increased service level demands caused by competing information providers,

·          and aggregation of supply and demand.

·           

World Cat is currently testing a delivery pilot, allowing libraries to send items directly to users.

 

User Expectations - Library users expect an easy-to-use, transparent system for locating and requesting library material for delivery anywhere- service comparable to Amazon and NetFlix. Libraries will need to respond to the demand for customization, interactivity, and excellent customer support with new products and attitudes.  Time compression is changing the lifestyle of library patrons

 

Building and Maintaining Collections - Collections have been the heart of the library with services developing around them. Now, technology is changing how libraries collect, store, and access materials.

 

Copyright and Privacy - The issues of the next decade may very well be coping with the legalities of copyright and the challenge of protecting privacy.

 

Recruitment, Retention, Training, and Retirement of Library Staff - The skills required of those who work in libraries have changed while the competition for qualified workers has intensified. Core competencies of current staff are expanding to include technology and teaching skills.

 

Archiving Print And Electronic Information - Archiving and storage of information continues to be problematic.. The archiving of digital information poses its unique challenges. To use information in all formats, libraries will have to address preserving the content and the format.

 

Libraries As Content Providers And Collaborators -  As content providers, libraries will expand traditional bibliographic information into the realm of customized resources, online tutorials, and digital collections of unique material.  Increased collaboration among libraries, publishers, software producers, and business opens possibilities for more useful products and systems..

 

Changing Formats And New Choices - A great deal of public information and scholarly communication is moving from print to electronic format. The technology offers many advantages: lower cost of reproduction and distribution, ease and speed of access, functionality and flexibility of non-linear, hypertext content, the richness of multimedia products.

 

Economics Of Collections - The cost of library resources continues to rise dramatically every year.

 

Technology Trends

·          Decrease in guided access to content

·          Disaggregation and disintermediation

·          Communication systems continually changing the way people access information

·          All technology ends.  All technologies commonly used today will be replaced by something new.

·          We haven’t yet reached the ultimate small particle for storage.

·          Search Technology will become increasingly more complicated

·          Over time we will be transitioning to a verbal society (demise of keyboard)

·          The demand for global information is growing exponentially

·          The Stage is being set for a new era of Global Systems

·          We are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy

·          Libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture

·          OPACs suck

 

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes. If library users are experiencing a new living Web, shouldn’t they find us waiting for them?

 

Library 2.0

·          The library is everywhere.

·          The library has no barriers.

·          The library invites participation.

·          The library uses flexible, best-of-breed systems.

·          The heart of Library 2.0 is user-centered change, with customers as collaborators.

 

A cooperative is not a library!

Characteristics of a 21st Century Cooperative

LSO’s are feeling the impact of increased competition, technology, globalization, diverse members, competing member expectations and  higher member expectations for maximum benefit and service.  To stay relevant and effective in a rapidly changing environment, leading organizations are adopting more sophisticated business practices, expanding and refining their use of technology, assuming new leadership roles, entering into non-traditional partnerships and collaborations, and seeking ways to generate greater revenues from traditional and non-traditional sources.

 

Trends affecting Cooperatives include:

·          Convergence of technologies – a phone is a browser, a camera, a GPS, etc

·          Products and services blur together

·          Trustee CE

·          Mergers eg. RLG and OCLC

·          Push vs. pull technologies

·          Need for technology planning

·          The standards movement and the need for unified training and quality measures

·          People will always feel a need to associate

·          Proliferation of LSO’s

·          Regionalism only makes sense in certain areas

·          Demographic trends

·          Uneven provision of coop services

·          Uneven distribution of resources

·          Funding

·          Multitype configuration poses special challenges

 

Cooperatives’ Members Expectations

·          High quality, customized programs and services based on individual library needs and characteristics

·          Help brokering partnerships and collaborations

·          Proactive servant-leadership

·          On-demand access to information and services

·          Effective relationships with state government to address term-limits

·          Promotion of standards and best practices

·          Marketing programs, products and services

·          Education programs supporting standards and best practices that provide consistent content, greater value and high quality

·          Alternative funding models

·          Improved use of technology

·          Trustee development

 

Organizational Characteristics for Effective LSO’s

·          Effective advocacy with state government

·          Leadership for best practices and standards

·          Shared leadership

·          High performing/highly accountable boards

·          Knowledgeable staff and consultants

·          Entrepreneurial, nimble, flexible, adaptive

·          Prizing intellectual capital over financial and physical assets

·          Customer focused: building product into every service, service into every product

·          Technology savvy

·          Global in mindset and culture

·          Shared decision making

·          Customer focused

·          Diverse

 

Strategic Questions (from OCLC Environmental Scan)

·          Are we automating nineteenth-century librarianship?

·          Is there a future for the proprietary containers built to guide access to content?

·          Does it make sense to devote many resources to building containers?

·          How can libraries empower the information consumer to be well-guided?

·          If patrons do not value structure and mediated content, how should libraries build products and services?

·          How can libraries and library support organizations collaborate to effect changes that bring the collective wealth of libraries to the attention and desktop of the information consumer?

·          How can we reconstitute the old landscape in a new space?

·          How do we take information, information sources and our expertise to the user, rather than making the user come to our spheres?

·          How do we together, as a community of libraries and allied organizations, move our trusted circle closer to information consumers at the level of their need?

 

Core Competencies for Librarians (ALA) – Attachment C

 

Proposed Competencies for LSO Staff

Personal skills

·          Capacity to learn constantly and quickly.

·          Flexibility.

·          Ability to work in teams and collaborate across LSO’s.

·          Capacity and desire to work independently.

·          Ability to work under pressure.

·          Commitment to the ethical use of information.

Technical skills

·          Adeptness at evaluating and using a variety of electronic information, productivity and presentation tools.

·          Knowledge of the nature of the Internet.

·          Interest and awareness of changes in technology.

Leadership skills

·          Understanding of project development and management.

·          Ability to lead change in both libraries and their larger organizations.

·          Capacity to take risks.

Service skills

·          Ability to communicate with and understand the needs of users of a variety of ethnic, racial and language backgrounds.

·          Training and teaching skills.

·          Understanding of the cognitive development and learning styles of users of all ages and capabilities.

·          Ability to design and implement new services.

 

The Way Forward

Shared Vision Conference

Michigan residents need access to information resources and materials in Michigan’s libraries anytime, anywhere. With the formation of the Michigan Electronic Library (MEL) in 1995 and Access Michigan in 1997, LM put forth a vision for providing Michigan residents with greater access to information resources no matter where they might be found. The need for a statewide resource sharing system was reinforced during the Our Preferred Future Conference for Libraries in September 1999. At that conference, librarians from all types of libraries strongly supported the idea that Michigan needed a statewide catalog of library holdings. The catalog would be integrated with a mechanism for users to request and receive the materials they needed from any participating library in the state.

Areas of Opportunity

·           Access to sustainable, statewide virtual services such as virtual reference, online tutoring, and digitization of resources.

·           A sustainable, statewide, coordinated digitization and preservation effort

·           A sustainable, expanding collection of electronic content for all residents including databases, e-books, e-journals, and audiovisual materials

·           Professional Development to support 21st Century Librarianship

·           People inside and outside the library community know, understand, and appreciate that libraries uphold core library values and ethics.

·           Residents receive services from libraries and librarians that support educational achievement and lifelong learning.

·           Leaders develop, distribute, fund and support quantitative and qualitative statewide standards for libraries.

·           Library staff, trustees, users and LSO’s continue to advocate for themselves and their programs.

·          Advance new ways to serve diverse and underserved residents

·           Library staff reflect the demographic make-up of the communities they serve.

·           Residents, educational leaders and community members understand the value of libraries and support libraries in providing quality library service.

·           Library leaders and LSO’s cooperate to create sustainable, on-going funding sources for libraries.

·           Libraries and LSO’s continue to cooperate to develop strategies and techniques that assure the sharing of resources to best meet the needs of residents.

·          Libraries of all types participate in cooperative collection development activities

·          Delivery will continue to be a critical service requirement of libraries and agencies providing delivery services must actively monitor the changing needs of libraries and ensure that they can be responsive to the demands for higher levels of service.

·          Demands on organizations that provide delivery to libraries are going to increase due to high user expectations of turnaround times, cost and convenience. 

·          Interactive and interconnected library services will be the most valued

·          Libraries cannot afford inefficiency or duplication of effort.

·          Libraries will need to identify submerging technologies and let them go to make way for emerging ones.

·          Awareness of new products and potentially useful services should permeate the entire staff, not just those in automation. Identifying and implementing new technology will be the job of everybody in the library.  Hire staff who can operate in this kind of world.

·          Collaboration has built the foundations of modern librarianship and must form the foundation of the new world in which libraries and LSO’s marry technology with collaboration to deliver services to the information consumer.

·          Libraries need to be where the users are in order to serve future users best.

·          Coops need to understand the challenges their libraries face