Plenary presentation for the ANZ Society of Indexers Conference in Sydney, 16 October 2009

1. Miscellaneous Connections the digital and institutional environments Mal Booth UTS Library, October 2009

2. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922 text) Contains Hazel Bell’s Wheatley Medal winning index. http://www.telawrence.info/telawrenceinfo/books/works.shtml#sp22

3. Seven Pillars of WisdomThe ParallelText (1997) Collection of the Australian War Memorial, presented by the publishers, Jeremy Wilson & Nicole Helari

4. A messy but connected collection of miscellaneous ideas, thoughts, images and links to places on the web and about some institutions Collaborators: @CathStyles @paulhagon @MissSophieMac @mhuston @lizholcombeall in Google Documents + Robyn Van Dyk & Alex Byrne by email

5. If this doesn't work: blame them!

6. It just doesn't make sense to chunk it up and put an arbitrary structure around stuff like this, so I won’t.Maybe that is why things like DAMS, ECM, WCM and EDRMS are so hard to do and so painful as experiences?I think we are trying to apply too many techniques and methods from the physical world in the digital world.

7. Trying to put a physical taxonomic protocol on digital material either doesn't work at all or at best, not very well. It is too cumbersome, too slow, too costly, too restricted.There is no "right" way to do it because we cannot agree on the categories & because of the size of the problem and the time it takes to do things the old way (in unhelpful systems, adding formal metadata). http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?fID=569&rID=16134

8. The web is too fluid, too dynamic. It is never finished; a work in progressWe are no longer limited by volume, storage, film, distance, membership, pages, chapters, paragraphs, the concept of the physical object, place, time or even ownershipAnd yes, we're struggling with that last one too - Copyright wasn't designed for a web platform http://frommelbin.blogspot.com/2009/10/cory-doctorow-on-copyright-open-access.html

9. So what helps now? In addition to given subject headings, Dewey, & other taxonomies Tagging, playlists, hyperlinks, shared platforms & data, applications, mashups, ‘digital altruism’ Is it really digital convergence or is it convergence of the best of the physical and digital worlds?

10. . . . by letting users tag URLs and then aggregating those tags, we're going to be able to build alternate organizational systems, systems that, like the Web itself, do a better job of letting individuals create value for one another, often without realizing it. http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html http://www.librarything.com/home/malboo http://www.last.fm/home http://delicious.com/malbooth

11. We're sharing knowledge & collaborating to do it (think Wikipedia) We're staying connected: social networks and the mobile web, micro-blogging We're helping & engaging with each other Examples from the film: http://www.couchsurfing.org/ http://www.mumsnet.com/ http://theps.net/ http://watch.usnowfilm.com/

12. Have you seen this? http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/

13. We're creating and sharing film, images, games, data and text more freely than ever http://www.flickr.com/photos/malbooth/sets/72157607919370856/

14. We're sharing software and free applications to help all of the above, e.g. Echofon and Tweetdeck for iPhones http://www.linux.org.au/

15. We're having our say and we're reading what others have to say, not just traditional media & publishing http://www.google.com.au/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=wy#overview-page http://www.frommelbin.blogspot.com/

16. We're figuring out new ways to trust each other and to judge authenticity http://www.ebay.com.au/ http://sydney.craigslist.com.au/

17. Institutions It is no longer adequate to wait for people to come to us: physically or via our homepages. Our content MUST be findable open and then we must get out to where the people are! Content is king, but clever access to content is God, no amount of content is good, if you can't access it. @paulhagon (NLA)

18. We're freeing up our data (slowly) and allowing others to do clever things with it http://data.australia.gov.au/ http://about.nsw.gov.au/

19. Other stuff I like http://pandora.nla.gov.au/

20. http://www.pictureaustralia.org/

21. http://www.digitalnz.org/

22. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/

23. http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/war_diaries/cew_bean/

24. http://www.flickr.com/commons

25. http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/

26. NewUTSLibraryservices: data curation, e-publishing, i-repositories (for research), & facilitating better rights management http://utsescholarship.lib.uts.edu.au/

27. Librarians must continue to be proactive in their attempts to reach students and other researchers where they begin their search. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Australia/UTS-Library/93282252430 http://twitter.com/utslibrary http://www.youtube.com/user/UTSLibrary http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/news/*/*/*/feed http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/students/need-help

28. Library of the Future How we will get there Vodafone Electronics Tutor, Lisbon

29. Automated Storage & retrieval system Specification development (now) Relegation policies & algorithms (soon) ASRS tender(s) from early 2010 Excavation & build from 2011 Plan decant & ingest from mid-2012 Procure ASRS – late 2012 Collection decant & tote load from Aug 2013 Operational use of ASRS from Aug 2013?

30. exemplars 1. Service delivery • “Barefoot” librarians • 24/7 service • “Triage” or tiered levels of service • Client & staff circulation and interaction • Use of furniture or space design that helps or facilitates improved service • Way finding & signage Qantas Sydney First lounge Faculty hub concept, US

31. exemplars 2. Personalised or customised services • Spaces designed specifically to meet target groups or individuals • Personalised services • Consultation services Codrington Library, All Souls, Oxford

33. Evidence of the physical and digital spaces working together

34. New teaching & learning spaces, group study spaces, training facilities

35. Staff office spaces or other concepts

36. Showcasing eScholarshipTop: “reactable”, tangible multi-touch interface. Bottom: AMP office refurbishment, Sydney

38. Affect on the environment

39. How is staff participation encouraged?

40. Creating a fun environment to work inGreen City Council building, Melbourne SYNTHe roof garden, Los Angeles Surry Hills Library & Community Centre.

42. Lighting

43. Inclusion of other facilities (eg. cafes)

44. Evidence of a community being encouragedUQ Engineering learning commons. Left: Listening Lounge in atrium Murray State U. Right: Forest Science Centre, UBC.

46. Multi-purpose spaces

47. Spaces that differ between night & day

48. Behaviour stimulation?

49. Creative spatial experiments!Bike parking & repairs @ Digital Eskimo “Box” innovation lab @ the London School of Economics.

50. Image credits: http://www-lib.icu.ac.jp/ASRS/index-e.htm http://www.archdaily.com/14063/qantas-sydney-first-lounge/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/building_ub/3038276269/ http://fistswithyourtoes.blogs.com/fistswithyourtoes/2007/05/index.html http://www.cox.com.au/projects.aspx?projectId=3944&disciplineId=1208 http://www.siteisight.com/green_project.html http://constructionblog.org/tag/green-building http://www.arnewde.com/architecture-design/architecture-building-of-surry-hills-library-and-community-centre-by-fjmt-architect/ http://cedirsd.uow.edu.au/ils/globe.aspx?type=2 http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/NEW/NEW22.htm http://www.educause.edu/learningspacesch23 http://digitaleskimo.net/blog/2009/09/02/bicycle-parking-and-repair-station-opens My profile can be found here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mal.booth