Thursday March 22, 2007

More provocative thoughts on the future of libraries

Peter Brantley shares some provocative thoughts on the future of libraries.

He quotes a friend:  "discovery has moved to the network layer and libraries should stop allocating their time and money trying to build better end-user UI, and concentrate instead on delivery".

He goes on say as "discovery services move to the network there is less reason why libraries should maintain duplicative local data caches."

Please read the full post to put these quotes in context.  

What I find interesting is that the library technology community now seems precisely focused on "trying to build better end-user UI" and trying to develop "local data caches" in response to the limitations of licensed access.  I don't hear much about delivery and fulfillment services at digital library or library technology conferences.  Thoughts?

Impact of Google Books on the academic profession

Take a minute to read this blog post from a landscape architecture researcher about  how google books is changing academic history.

Some choice quotes in there such as "[in six months Google] Book Search has accomplished enough to transform the academic profession."  Also: "Research in my world is very often a personal matter of haggling for more time with the particular librarian in question. They're used to us, and I figure they need a good struggle to keep them alert. But thanks to Google Book Search, these days of scavenger-hunt and tug-of-war are drawing to an end."

Whoa.

Interesting that I found this post through a search industry analyst blog and not through the usual library channels.

Also worth checking out is Content Statistics from O'Reilly books.