NISO Two Day Virtual Conference: Using the Web as an E-Content Distribution Platform: Challenges and Opportunities Oct 21-22, 2014 
 R. David Lankes, Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies; Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse

1. Publisher of the
Community
We’re All Doomed
R. David Lankes
Professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship
Syracuse University
http://www.DavidLankes.org

2. Death of Documents
• Print Becomes Digital
• Editions
• Digital Becomes Flexible
• Death of Editions
• Terms Become Metaphors
• eJournal, eBook…Neither Books nor
Journals

3. Terms Become
Metaphors • eJournal, eBook…Neither Books nor Journals
• Instant Updates
• Embedded Functionality
• Accounting Books that Count
• Flexible Containers
• PDF-HTML-Text
• We’re All Doomed

4. When eBooks Become
Apps
• Document Like Objects Dissolve into a Sea of
Services
• Embedded Apps, Distributed Metadata,
Visualizations, Annotations
• We’re All Doomed

5. Footnote
• Footnotes are Annotations
• Annotations Are Context
• What Happens When Annotations Become
the Primary Document?
• How Can You Tell Context from Content?
• We’re All Doomed

6. Unless We See the
Sea Change
Collection
Focused
Service
Focused
Conversatio
n
Focused

7. The Conversation
Approach
Perhaps it is an overstatement to say that academic librarians are drifting in a
vast sea of information and technological advances, searching for an
appropriate course of action. Nevertheless, we appear to have lost the
stabilizing rudder of confidence in who we are and what we are to do.
As a more powerful alternative to the images of librarianship already available
or proposed, I suggest that we begin to think of libraries as centers for
conversation and of ourselves as mediators of and participants in the
conversations of the world.
Joan Bechtel In 1986!
Bechtel, J. M. (1986). Conversation, a New Paradigm for Librarianship? College and
Research Libraries. 47 (3), 219-24.

8. Conversations
Conversation Theory
• Conversants
• Language
• Agreements
• Memory

9. The Mission of Librarians is
to Improve Society through
Facilitating Knowledge
Creation in their
Communities
Knowledge is Created through
Conversation
Conversants
Agreements Language Memory
Entailment
Mesh
Cataloging
Relationships
Scapes
The Mission of Librarians is
to Improve Society through
Facilitating Knowledge
Creation in their
Communities
as seen inas seen in
Importance of Theory
and Deep Concepts
Information
Organization Administration
Reference
Extract
Artifacts
Source
Amnesia
L1
L0
Pressure for Participation
Boundary
Issues
Free Library of
Philadelphia
Department of
Justice
Importance of a Worldview
Importance of Theory
and Deep Concepts
Longitude
Example
Agreement Relationship Agreement
Core Skills
Importance of a Worldview
Ambiguity is
Essential for
Professional
Work
Facilitating
Knowledge Creation
Communities
Librarians
Improve Society
T H R E A D S
LIS Education
Importance of Action and Activism
Service Leadership
Obligation of
Leadership
Innovation
versus
Entrepreneurship
Means of Facilitation
Knowledge Access
Environment
Motivation
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Massive Scale
Evolution of Systems System View
helps define
User-Based
Design
Information
Seeking
User Systems
Gaming Service is not Invisibility
Core Values
Ethics Openness Learning
Intellectual
Freedom and
Safety
Intellectually
Honest not
Unbiased
Internet Model
Example
User
Credibility
Information
Services
Web 2.0
Application
Builders
Open Source
Infrastructure
Providers
Music Center Writing Center Entrepreneurium TCP-IP
Publisher of
Community
True
Facilitation
means Shared
Ownership
Invest in Tools
of Creation
over Collection
of Artifacts
Shift in
Innovation from
Academy to
Ubiquity
Recognize a
School as a
Participatory
Network
From School to
School of
Thought
Co-Learning
Mission
Increase
Friction in the
Process
Every Course
has Symposia
and Practica
Curriculum of Communication
and Change over Traditional
Ideas of Leadership
Need to
Expand the
Educational
Ladder
Bachelor of
Information and
Instructional
Design
Need for an
Executive
Doctorate
Institute for
Advanced
Librarianship
Idea
Avoiding the
Florentine
Dilemma
Vital Roles of
Mentors
Evolution of
Integrated
Library
Systems
Democracy
and Openness
Overshadowed
by Technology
Different
Communities
Librarians
Serve
Public
Academic
Government Special School
Growing
Importance of
Two Way
Infrastructure
School
Information
Management
Systems
Archives
Conversation Theory
Sense-Making
Motivation
Theories
Dialectic
Theories
Learning
Theory
Transition of
Traditional
Skills
Reference
Collection
Development
Community as
Collection
Issues of
Institutional
Repositories
Scholarly
Communications
Go to the
Conversation
Embedded
Librarians
Digital
Environments
Physical
Environments
Hybrid
Environments
Policy Assessment
Mapping
Conversations
Annotations
Limitations of
Tagging
Library
Instruction
Selective
Dissemination
of Information
Meeting
Spaces
Topical Centers
with Curriculum
Conversation Theory
Postmodernism
Constructivism Public Service
Members not
Patrons or
Users
Shared
Shelves with
the Community
From Authority
to Reliability
Authoritative vs
Authoritarian
Truly
Distributed
Digital Library
Need for an
Expanded
Definition of
Literacy
Social Literacy
Libraries are in the Knowledge
Business therefore the
Conversation Business
Creating an
Agenda
Risks of Data
Death of
Documents
Ability to Work
in
Interdisciplinary
Teams
Relation to
other Domains
Communications
Computer
Science
Humanities Information Science
Getting Past
the L v I
Debate
Creating a New Social
Compact
Evolution of the
Social
Compact
Social Justice
Issues
Innovation
Warehousing
Functions
Circulation Shelving
Para-professionals
Importance of Technical
Skills
Social Network Sites
exemplified as
Education
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
mission
librarians
improve society
facilitating
knowledge creation
communities
such as
is composed of
is composed of
is composed ofis composed of
is composed of
is composed of
conversants are equal, therefore
a danger is
managing two-way information flows becomes complex
needs a method
highlights the importance of
an example case is
an example case is
an example case is
a key issue in schools is
this has an impact in
deals with
demonstrated the concept of
created concept for
created concept for
will be influenced by
a strategy is
such as
such as
such as
such as
are served by
such as
created concept for
as seen inas seen in
has
an example case is
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
results in
results in
results in
results in
results inhas an aspect of
demonstrates
a key theory is
a relevant theory is
a relevant theory is
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
therefore
defines
Systems are going to have to allow multiple L1's
demonstrate
need system to capture meshes
Now can search on meshes
The nature means
susceptible to
influenced by
will influence
will influence can be represented in
leads to
means knowledge of
redefines
therefore
will be translated as
however, must avoid
such as
comes with an
is part of
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
will influence
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
is seen in
such as
such as
to from to
influenced by
influenced by
can become
results in
as seen in
has a type
has a type
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
is composed of
results in
can be done through
redefines
can be done through
can be done through
such as
such as
such as
such as
such as
such as
such as
such as
such as
requires knowledge of
includes
includes
requires
requires
includesrequires
changes because
requires
requires
leads to
includes
involves
involves
requires
requires
an example is
an example is
an example is
an example is
means knowledge of
involves
means knowledge of
results in
is influenced by
will influence
will influence
must change
the field must
must
comes from
example is
will be influenced by
includes
includes
is related to
can be achieved by
influences
includesincludes
includes
explains
includes
explained in
helps define
is enabled by
based on
might become
Example
is further defined by
such as
The Atlas of New LIBRARIANSHIP
R. David Lankes
Longitude
Example
Motivation
Credibility
Sense-Making
Motivation
Theories
Dialectic
Theories
Learning
Theory
Postmodernism
Constructivism
Creating a New Social
Compact
Evolution of the
Social
Compact
mission
a key theory is
a relevant theory is
a relevant theory is
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
a relevant area is
results in
leads to
comes from
example is
explains
helps define

10. Advantages
• True Graph in Publications
• Citations Become Weighted Links
• Corpora Become Maps of
Conversation/Thought
• Move Beyond Metadata
• We Can Publish Beyond Scholarship

11. Future of Publishing
and Libraries and
• PlatformPs uof Cbolnivsershateionr –sN…OT Content
Delivery
• Platform
• Delivers Content AND Context
• Geared Towards Learning NOT
Consumption
• Geared Towards Production NOT
Distribution

12. The Future
• Reading, Citing, Organizing, Sharing
• Acts of Learning and Conversation
• Reading is Making (Sense Making)
• Focus on Communities and Members
• Not Buyers and Users

13. The Future
• Beyond Linked Metadata to Linked Ideas and
People
• Beyond Content to Context and Meaning
• Beyond Information to Knowledge and Action
• Beyond Discovery to Epiphanies