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Rivers of knowledge9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries ConferenceRe-creating communities: a practitioner's view
M C Hamblyn Today's information managers and their users face a number of problems. These include librarians and users alike being intimidated by the volume of information which must be accessioned, stored and disseminated. Another is the expense of creating or purchasing and then maintaining databases and also what I describe as 'information artifacts' (newspapers, books, journals, reports). Larger libraries are often overly specialised and the large expenditure of capital has not always resulted in creating an entirely effective user environment - many users find libraries and databases exceedingly large and difficult to use, while small libraries struggle to serve their users, being dogged by limited resources and person-power at their disposal. Because there is no 'perfect' library, many initiatives have been put in place to ensure that libraries of all sizes fulfil their mission statements. In the following paper, I describe the growth and evolution of the Research Learning and Information Centre at the University of Otago's School of Business, which is designed around a new paradigm which I describe as the 'distributed gateway.' The 'distributed gateway' seeks to overcome the problems surrounding the cultural and technical obstacles met by sole-charge libraries which are being forced to reinvent themselves daily in the face of declining resources and competition for the diminishing dollar. What is a 'distributed gateway?'In general terms, subsidiary libraries within campuses are usually resource rooms or branch libraries. Resource rooms are normally not owned by the central library and so are not required to subscribe to the normal rules and regulations to which a fully-fledged library would be expected to adhere to. Branch libraries too, are predicated on the same principles as their larger, parent library. The RLIC however, from its start, fell uncomfortably between two stools: it was a resource room, staffed by an individual who had been appointed by representatives from the Central Library and the Faculty of Commerce as the resource was owned by what was then called the Faculty of Commerce (now School of Business). Accordingly, the scene was set for the changes which have led to the growth of RILC as a 'distributed gateway.' (I have used the term 'gateway' because I wanted to avoid any confusion with 'DL' which means 'digital library'). A 'distributed gateway' is a library which is co-operatively 'owned' by two or more funding bodies. The RLIC is 'owned' by the University of Otago's School of Business. The Business School pays the librarian's salary, for the 80 journal titles to which RLIC subscribes and for all other items associated with capital expenditure. The School also 'owns' the library's symbol or brand. But, where other libraries might keep their core competencies and outsource functions such as document delivery or cataloguing, RLIC has entered into an arrangement with the University of Otago whereby the University's Central Library 'owns' the right to set standards and protocols for the provision of document delivery; the Central Library also pays the costs associated with fulfilling RLIC's interloans. This 'distributed' paradigm has enabled the RLIC to flourish by dealing with issues, which have been placed under the following headings:
Of course, an immediate question is: why bother describing and discussing a small library like RLIC? Why not just dispense with small libraries such as RLIC, a resource that one might argue outgrew its usefulness in an environment now dominated by networked databases and desktop PCs? The answer is threefold. Firstly, there was a measure of professional satisfaction taken in creating such a resource and seeing how far it could be taken. Secondly, the growth of the RLIC came about at the same time as the Internet and networked, full-text databases such as ABI/ProQuest made their appearance and so the utility of RLIC was enhanced quite significantly within three years of its opening in mid-1990. Thirdly, RLIC represents a reaction to the specious assertions made by database vendors and various other parties, that computerised databases will make the traditional reference librarian redundant. Reference librarians are needed more than ever: according to CNN's senior writer Larry Keller in a report dated 28 November 2000, the number of reference librarians working in US public libraries has increased by fifty-six per cent in the last five years. Keller cites a Market Data Retrieval report which says there were 2634 reference librarians employed in public libraries in 1995 - and today, the number is closer to 4100! As well, RLIC provides a context for information, a comfortable venue in which to study and the enhanced utilisation of a variety of traditional and newer library resources. It will also be argued that RLIC promotes the notion that true knowledge resides everywhere and is something which is glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye: it celebrates the local, the quirky and the overlooked. And yet, for all this, RLIC is still a typical library. Like all libraries, RLIC:
RLIC also assists the larger libraries which surround it by:
A brief history of RLICThe Research Learning and Information Centre was established in late 1989. Its role was to care for the growing number of annual reports in the University of Otago's Commerce Division's collection which had accumulated since 1976, and to provide a home for the gift of 100 recently received journal titles, being the so-called 'Brierley Collection.' Its establishment was also a response to growing needs of the business schools which appeared, partly as a consequence of the free-market reforms of the third Labour government in 1984. Setting up such a library seemed straightforward and I am pleased to say that the Centre has flourished, expanding from a resource which could seat six or seven clients, to one which can seat almost fifty. When the RLIC was established, it was a resource room. It could seat about half a dozen people. It was a small-scale reflection of the larger model or paradigm provided by the University's Central library. Staffed by a library technician, it possessed no library symbol. Interlibrary loan forms were not actioned from the Centre but dispatched to the Central Library for processing. The Centre's holdings were not reported to the National Library's bibliographical database, the New Zealand Bibliographic Network (now Te Puna). (Indeed, RLIC could only subscribe only to duplicate titles already held in the University's Central Library). No special networking of professional knowledge or of resources existed; staff were to hand on 'difficult' problems to the Central Library. Within two years however, problems had begun to occur.
The short-term responseTo attract more foot traffic, the Centre had adopted a number of innovations. These included marketing the library and enhancing its profile (a regular newsletter was produced); new services were added(began processing interloans); the librarian's qualifications were upgraded to an MA in Librarianship; the librarian also joined Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and listservs; contributed articles to the professional literature specifically and on print culture generally and experimented with new ways of locating, storing and disseminating information. (the RLIC was the first information nexus on campus to network CD-ROM databases when it purchased copies of ABI/Inform and the Social Sciences Citation Index from 1988 onwards). By early 1995, as a consequence of processing interlibrary loans, the Centre had gained a symbol (DUCOM) which meant a new recognition in the wider professional community. It also attracted more users, who then began seeing the Centre in a new light. making access rather than ownership a priority. Other initiatives continued. Efforts were made to continue forging useful links with the University's Central Library and RLIC evolved in four stages over eleven years, to become an effective information nexus, contributing to the intellectual and social capital of the School of Business. The four stages were:
(I should note here that while I talk about the four stages, they actually overlap; while the latest manifestation of the RLIC is as a 'distributed gateway' (a term I will define more fully below) it is still a solo position and a hybridised resource). Facing challengesThese challenges were met head-on, under the following headings:
ProfessionalI bring four qualities to my job.
Like any knowledge worker in the profession of librarianship, the RLIC librarian has been forced to re-invent himself and the post-modern resource which he manages. This process of reinvention has occurred on a daily basis because the world is changing rapidly. A major challenge comes from those who do not appear to appreciate how experienced knowledge workers are - one writer recently asserted: 'Information is now a commodity. Anyone with a PC and phone can access whatever and whomever they need.' [Emphasis added]. If only it were that simple! Perhaps the writer thought she could merely tap into the resources of the nearest public library! In the final analysis, this boils down to the enthusiasm and skill of the library manager. Without a sense of mission, a willingness to try and infect others with the sense of enthusiasm and a cast-iron sense of self worth, all efforts are meaningless. Some training is required too, along with the experience, which enables me to reach decisions without apparently thinking about it. But qualifications aren't everything - life-experiences count for something too and if were to advertise for a librarian, I would be tempted to place the following: Wanted! User educationMy prime users are the young researchers who stand on the cusp of doing their own original research. The obstacles they face include :
The superabundance of information means that young players can not always see the wood for the trees: surrounded by knowledge, they sometimes fail to see it beneath their nose. They also assume all data/information or knowledge has been stored somewhere and that the 'Net will give them what they want. And why shouldn't they believe this? Isn't that what they've been told to believe is available? Showing them what is available and demonstrating how to use databases is invaluable. Showing students that 'old' sources of information are useful is important too. I like to tell the story I found in the New Scientist dated 14 December 1996 in which the value of books was reaffirmed. It seems that Hans Lauche of the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy near Gottingen needed a recipe for a ceramic material essential for building the spectrometer he was making for the Cassini probe which was to head for Saturn. Luache needed a compound which would expand and contract, when bonded to glass. However, modern Western ceramics are not designed to expand or contract, being made of aluminium or beryllium. Lauche needed to learn how to build the components from older materials such as magnesium silicate which can expand or contract, but there was noting in the literature in the West. Enter Pastor Martin Weskott, a Lutheran priest living in Katlenburg. Pastor Westkott had saved from certain destruction, some 700 000 old books, which had been ditched by Eastern European libraries, who believed that unification with the West would provide them with 'modern' books. After delving through Westkott's books, some of which had been retrieved from the roadside and were now stored in barns, Lauche learnt how to 'cook' his materials at 1400 degrees centigrade using dirty brown coal, rather than the 2000 degrees centigrade used by 'cleaner' Western industries. Another point I want to stress is that 'spoiling' clients never hurts. If it took me years to become a reasonable reference librarian, why should I expect a client to become adept at searching all sources of information overnight? CulturalAnother problem is with the internet, which gives the illusion, but not the substance of knowledge and in so doing, promotes the dubious notion that the world is becoming a 'global village.' This notion that the world is becoming a global or digital village is worrisome. The difficulty here is that of warring operating systems, the need to pay extravagant amounts of money for data (or processed information), cultural and language difficulties, all mean that the notion of a global village is not likely to come to pass. In fact, much of the knowledge I dispense comes from perusing local sources such as newspapers and making the information available through a vertical file. Secondly, all libraries are the guardians of our collective, tribal memory. In a society marked by centrifugal tendencies, atomisation, ethnic and religious differences, libraries help provide a sort of social cohesion. They provide not just information but a context for it to survive in because related (and opposite) subject matter is also stored there, arranged thematically and made available to non-specialists. Clifford Stoll once remarked that the problem with the internet is that '...it delivers just data. And data is just bits and bytes; and words and paragraphs, without context or content.' Libraries, particularly small ones, help restore the world to a human scale by providing a speedy, personalised response to all inquiries which reflects and enhances the context in which that question was asked. In so doing, I demonstrate to users that the answer or solution to their problem did not arrive out of a vacuum but arose from a set of circumstances, an historical context if you will, which provides 'added value.' Thirdly, small-scale libraries are flexible, cheap to run and user-friendly. Modernity here, if I've read Max Weber properly, reflects the fact that large libraries are forced by the dictates of what is generally called 'modernity,' to be efficient, for example, 'rational,' reflecting Weber's streams of differentiation, commodification and rationalisation. Efficiency of itself is a good thing; it simply means that staff and information are organised in hierarchies so that the dollars invested in the library go to serve the largest number of users. But modernity has a darker side. We've already seen the dubious notion above, that knowledge is a commodity, but the other worry is that large libraries are also prone to being bureaucratic. Mixing large, bureaucratic structures with high levels of specialisation (however that may be expressed) can intimidate users. And when space needs to be used efficiently, it means that areas given over to users need to be highly organised into spaces designated for 'reading' or 'consultation,' for 'group meetings' and for using laptops, just to name a few. Yet, when RLIC's floor space was given over to users to do any and all library-type activities, these distinctions disappeared and the most remarkable synergy emerged as users worked alone or in groups, moving and talking between computer terminals, desks and laptops which were sometimes spread on the floor. TechnicalAs Clifford Stoll noted in a recent article, each time a computer console is installed in a school, there is one less room for a bookshelf or money for books. Now while a database can alert a reader to the arrival of a useful article, there's nothing like a librarian who can phone and discuss the worth of the piece, thereby saving the client the time and effort of finding, downloading and reading the article. And while computers can 'trawl' or 'dredge' for information, they are not able to make the lateral moves a librarian can. The reference librarian can squeeze that extra twenty per cent out of a resource. Computers are efficient, but when being run by humans, their 'potential efficiency' drops off. This is caused by the friction between the user and the system which talk past one another. For instance, it is quite normal for users to score no 'hits' due to a simple error in syntax. Moreover, as natural language search terms are employed, it is normal for searchers to assume that the sort of information they need will have been entered. Moreover, as computers come to be more 'human than human' as the CEO from Bladerunner's fictious Tyrell Corporation put it, they will become prone to the same errors which humans make. But enter the librarian who can use the system expertly and, in reducing the 'friction' cause a greater hit rate to appear. All this begs the question though: why aren't larger libraries doing this? The answer is that the need put upon them to be 'efficient' cancels out their ability to take the extra time it takes to cater to the needs of a user who may not be so confident or willing to take responsibility for themselves. Final commentsDigitalised databases can store vast quantities of information. But reference librarians, be they 'cultural magpies' or scholars in their own right, add to our society's stock of information and knowledge capital by 'tinting' or 'colouring' raw data and in so doing, help users realise that the information stored in a digital format has no meaning unless it is seen in relation to the paper-based documents and the tribal memories, from which those databases arose. Librarians are 'intellectual midwives,' who stand between the paper-based society which is still here and the digital future which awaits us.
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