SCONUL vision 2005
- Introduction
- Planning assumptions
- Technology
- Publishing
- Higher education
- Learning and teaching
- Research
- National libraries
- The SCONUL Vision
- Actions for SCONUL
- SCONUL vision group
Introduction
SCONUL is a membership organisation of 157 library and information services
in the UK and Ireland. Its members include libraries in higher education
institutions (universities and colleges); the British Library and the National
Libraries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and libraries in national museums
and other specialist institutions. (The words ‘library’ and ‘library
staff’ are used throughout this document as convenient terms to cover
the full spectrum of services and facilities provided by SCONUL members,
including learning and resource centres.)
During 1997-98, SCONUL formulated and published its vision of the academic
library in the year 2002. That vision statement did not claim to be a complete
or comprehensive picture of the future, but aimed rather to capture and highlight
key themes of relevance to the SCONUL membership. Over the last three years
the statement has proved its value as it has been widely used to inform strategy
and planning at both national and institutional levels.
In summer 2000 we decided that the pace of change in our operating environment
required a new vision to reflect the political, economic, social and technological
forces affecting our services. Following the same process as before we formed
a small group, broadly representative of our membership, to develop a new statement
as the basis for further dialogue with stakeholders. The statement presented
here is the result of that work.
We have followed our previous practice of providing alongside our vision statement
the set of planning assumptions on which it is based together with a short
list of action points for SCONUL. The format differs slightly from the previous
statement in that the planning assumptions now precede the vision itself. For
both the assumptions and the vision, significant changes from the last statement
are highlighted in the respective introductory paragraphs.
Many people have contributed to the development of this statement, directly
and indirectly. I am particularly grateful to the colleagues who found the
time to attend our workshop in Banbury and to comment on drafts in progress.
I am especially indebted to Toby Bainton and Ray Lester as the two other members
of the organising team.
Sheila Corrall
January 2001
Planning assumptions
We believe most of our previous assumptions were well founded and merit repetition
with only minor amendment or elaboration. However there are some areas where
we have made significant additions to or departures from the points previously
listed. Under Technology, we draw attention to development
of the Web as a medium for communication and interaction, and growth in the
range of client devices offering access to networked information. In Publishing,
we see the possibility of open e-print archives challenging the commercial
publication model, but also anticipate debates and disputes within institutions
about intellectual property rights. For Higher education,
we predict continuing diversification in the sector, with an increasing requirement
to widen participation and extend services to meet the expectations of a
24-hour society. In Learning and teaching, the concept
of Managed Learning Environments will expedite interworking of library management
and other systems, and the notion of an e-university suggests both collaboration
and competition with the private sector. For National libraries,
we see renewed focus on their collecting and repository functions, and more
formal approaches to working in partnership with the higher education sector.
Technology
T1 Network capacity, within and between organisations
and individuals, will continue to increase and will be able to handle all types
of media, including data, text, voice and images.
T2 The Web will become more important as a communications
medium, supporting institutional processes (such as learning) and encouraging
self-service administration and transactions.
T3 Learners and researchers will expect direct
access to information resources from not only their libraries, but also their
homes, offices and other locations, via a wide range of client devices.
T4 The hardware and software environment will become
standardised around Internet/Intranet technologies and the focus of attention
will shift from conduit to content, with the means of reproduction continuing
to migrate from photocopying to printing.
Publishing
P1 Scholarly information will continue to grow in volume
and open e-print archives will begin to mount a significant challenge to the
traditional dominant position of commercial suppliers.
P2 Printed materials will continue to be important,
but digital delivery of full text and other media will increase (mediated by
the Distributed National Electronic Resource) and there will be a variety of
e-book suppliers and products targeted at students/learners.
P3 Access to some research materials may be restricted
to closed virtual communities.
P4 The legitimacy of fair dealing in the electronic
environment will eventually be confirmed, but rights management will be complex
(especially for multimedia and non-textual materials) and will increasingly
be determined by licences not legislation.
P5 There will be debates and disputes over intellectual
property rights within institutions.
Higher education
H1 There will be a continuing requirement for efficiency
savings and diversification of income streams, as well as increasing emphasis
on transparency costing, which will put pressure on libraries to demonstrate
the value for money of their acquisition and retention policies.
H2 There will be tensions between financial and service
imperatives arising from the need to enhance the student experience in a fee-paying
consumerist environment and ‘24x7’ society.
H3 Many students will need a considerable level of
support to cope with the academic and economic pressures of studying.
H4 There will be continuing growth in student numbers,
particularly in part-time and non-traditional entrants, but mostly at foundation
and postgraduate levels, involving franchise arrangements, other links with
FE and courses for continuing professional development.
H5 There will be growth in consortia-based activities
and further institutional mergers, as well as expectations of stronger roles
for institutions and libraries within their own regions.
H6 There will be an increasing requirement to serve
the widest possible audiences and to work with business and the local community
(including public libraries and museums) as part of the national infrastructure
for economic regeneration, lifelong learning and social cohesion.
H7 The sector will continue to diversify with significant
differences emerging between research-led and learning/teaching institutions
and also between the four ‘home countries’ of the UK.
Learning and teaching
L1 The shift from teaching to learning will continue
throughout the sector with the development and implementation of formal learning
and teaching strategies, but teaching will remain a significant activity.
L2 Technology will facilitate accelerated development
of customised materials and packages, suitable for modular or incremental delivery,
which will combine externally-published and institutionally-created elements
and require more effort to be spent on rights management.
L3 Growth of Managed Learning Environments will support
the development of cross-sectoral and work-based approaches through distributed
learning centres, requiring interoperability between library management systems
and other internal and external information systems.
L4 There will be an official E-university embracing
the whole UK higher education sector, as well as various institutional- and
consortial-based initiatives, which will all develop both in collaboration
and in competition with private-sector provision and work-based learning.
L5 Growth in mixed-mode distributed learning, on and
off campus, will be significant – to improve access and choice, to serve
remote areas, and to compete in global and niche markets.
L6 Libraries will need to develop distributed services,
but will still have an important function as central locations where essential
services and support for students are brought together, and there will be opportunities
for library staff to become more involved in learning support.
L7 There will be increased emphasis on key skills for
students, creating opportunities for library staff to play a major role in
the development of information and other learning skills, but they may have
to argue the case for information skills and for their involvement in this
area.
L8 The continuous widening of access to higher education will accentuate the diversity of student needs for training in the use of information technology.
Research
R1 Diversification of missions will increase, accentuating
the differences between research-led and learning/teaching institutions; applied
research will increase.
R2 There will be continuing pressure and support at
national level for more formal arrangements for resource-sharing through (distributed)
centres of excellence.
R3 There will be tensions between expectations of national
co-operation and services to multiple constituencies and institutional demands
to concentrate on primary users.
R4 Training of research students will continue to be emphasised and library staff will have a role in helping research students and research staff to develop their information-handling skills.
National libraries
N1 There will be a continuing requirement for efficiency
savings and diversification of income streams.
N2 Service development to support academic research
will become less important, with the roles of national libraries being concentrated
on their collections and particularly associated with fulfilling the functions
of national repositories and formulating digital preservation policies.
N3 There will be an increasing requirement to serve
the widest possible audiences and to work with other players as part of the
national infrastructure for lifelong learning.
N4 Relationships with other libraries will be strengthened
with formalised agreements underpinning strategic partnerships between national
libraries and higher education.
N5 There will be progress towards the extension of
legal deposit provisions to material in electronic and audiovisual formats,
but this will not be accomplished within this period.
THE SCONUL VISION
Academic information services in the year 2005
Our vision for 2005 is not radically different to our previous view of 2002,
but there are a few elements that have become more prominent in line with
our perceptions of environmental forces. For example, we see web portals
developing significantly in the context of managed information environments
and formal partnerships underpinning cross-sectoral and multi-national consortia.
Both learning and research support will have to be organised on a distributed
model to reflect student and staff modes of working, but will need to be
delivered as a seamless system, integrating local, regional, national and
global resources. As boundaries between functions become increasingly fluid,
we can expect staff roles to evolve and expand – or contract – according
to institutional circumstances. There will be opportunities to act as rights
managers, learning advisers and cross-disciplinary brokers for those who
can demonstrate their competence to do so. The ‘library’ will
retain its importance as a physical place and will be able to consolidate
its position by bringing related services into its space.
Our vision of the future
Information services will operate in a hybrid environment of traditional and
digital resources of static and dynamic nature. While support services for
learning and research will vary significantly, there are several themes that
are common to both areas.
1 The development of web portals for students and staff will accelerate in the context of managed environments for learning and research, which has significant implications for the role of library management systems.
2 The establishment of formal partnerships within and beyond the sector will become the norm, involving new players with different business interests, who may want to form alliances with institutions or just with support services.
3 The complexity of the operating environment will require more effort to be expended on institutional security policies and unified authentication systems, which must allow controlled seamless access for users from any physical location.
4 The role of library staff as advisers and trainers will continue to develop, with some scope for expansion and integration with related functions, which in turn may raise questions about future service structures.
5 A focus on user needs, for the present and the future, will be critical to service success in a situation characterised by increasing diversity and choice, which creates both opportunities and threats for library staff.
The future positions of academic information services within their institutions
will depend on their willingness and ability to take responsibility for continuous
development and improvement. There will be opportunities to extend and develop
the role of library staff, as boundaries between functions become increasingly
fluid, but this blurring of functions offers similar opportunities to other
professionals, and libraries also face the threat of disintermediation through
direct service provision to users. The library workforce will have to be
more flexible and versatile, with different structural arrangements and management
practices to meet changing needs. Significant investment in continuous professional
development will be required for all library staff, including development
of learning support competencies and continual refreshment of professional
and technical skills.
Learning and teaching
Both learning and teaching will be much more distributed than before and will
take place around and away from the campus in the local area and at a distance,
requiring information and other support services organised to fit a distributed
learning environment. Service delivery will have to integrate resources in
a seamless way within a managed learning environment that is learner-centred
but still includes traditional teaching. The ‘library’ as a physical
place will fulfil an important function as a community hub and social centre,
particularly where the opportunity has been taken to bring other related
services into the building. New types of e-book devices and handheld PCs
connected through wireless networks to information resources within the library
will shift the balance of PC provision and provide new opportunities for
imaginative use of space.
The success of the service will depend on its alignment with the institutional
learning and teaching strategy and on management capacity to exercise leadership,
foster innovation and generate cultural change. The quality of learning resources
and services will continue to be a central feature of formal quality assurance
and assessment systems. Services which do not respond positively to the new
learning agenda will run the risk of being marginalised. New forms of strategic
alliances and learning partnerships will be common at both service and institutional
levels. Such partnerships will include relationships with teachers and other
learning providers, with other learning support professionals, and with external
clients in the public and private sectors (in the context of learning organisations
and learning cities), and may operate at local, regional, national or global
levels.
Service staff will need to develop their information and management competencies
to deal with the complexities of the digital environment and will also have
the chance to deploy their communication and questioning skills in expanded
roles reflecting the new forms of support required by distributed learners.
Competency in these areas will be critical:
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resource management will be more complicated with the range of different forms and formats, an array of payment models and methods, a plethora of access controls and the challenge of quality assurance;
-
academic liaison will have to ensure strategic alignment and operational attunement, and will need to be managed in conjunction with other support functions, such as educational developers and learning technologists;
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collaborative working will be fundamental to the provision of a seamless service and will need to be pursued actively in person and via electronic systems, both with service colleagues and with other players;
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learning support will see a further blurring of boundaries between the roles of academic, academically-related and support staff, with opportunities for library staff to act as learning advisers and rights managers, as well as extending their roles as trainers and developers of information/learning skills.
Research and outreach
There will be more research and consultancy activity overall with considerable
variation across the sector, but a general increase in applied and commissioned
research with a wider range of sponsors and an emphasis on business relevance.
This will mean a corresponding growth in confidential reports, leading to
a higher proportion of grey literature in the system. The trend from holdings
to access will continue and the electronic environment will reinforce the
concept of invisible colleges. There will be a risk of access to information
being limited by the operation of closed discipline-based communities, but
this development should be mitigated by promoting the establishment of open
e-print archives, which will also begin to undermine the position of commercial
publishers.
The library may be forced into a secondary role as researchers turn to alternative
sources of supply and professional associations and commercial publishers compete
for their attention. There will be opportunities for service staff to act as
independent brokers by creating higher-level portals that cross disciplinary
boundaries and incorporate collection-level descriptions covering all types
of holdings. Technology will facilitate the rapid formation of worldwide consortia
for developing and managing specialist collections of expensive or little-used
items. This will require a proactive approach informed by in-depth knowledge
of research interests. It will depend on a concerted effort as part of a national
strategy based on distributed centres of excellence, with designated institutions
assuming a vital repository role for both traditional and digital resources
under the leadership of the British Library.
Service staff will need to develop their subject and business understanding
to play a significant part in the networked research community but will still
have the chance to deploy their information and presentation skills in accepted
roles as advisers and trainers, guiding new researchers through the global
information landscape. Competency will be needed in these areas:
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resource management will involve negotiating acquisition and retention agreements within and between institutions and could include responsibility for managing the institution’s intellectual resource/knowledge base;
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academic liaison will have to focus on current research interests and will need to be organised around existing or emerging research groups, which may not coincide with traditional departmental/faculty boundaries;
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co-operative provision will cover both digital and traditional resources selected to meet identified community needs and arrangements will be planned, managed and assessed on a more formal basis;
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research support will be a relatively low-profile role, but with continuing opportunities for library staff to assist with skills development of researchers, especially in relation to new sources and systems.
Actions for SCONUL
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The Vision should inform SCONUL’s strategic and operational planning and the work programmes of its Advisory Committees and Task Forces.
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SCONUL should use the Vision as the basis for strengthening its relationships with UCISA, JISC, the ILT and Universities UK.
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SCONUL should initiate discussions with BAILER, the isNTO, Library Association and HESDA to inform future provision of education and training for all levels of the workforce.
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The Vision should be communicated to other players (such as ALT, the Learning and Skills Councils, public libraries and Re:source) who should be consulted about its key messages.
- SCONUL should consider organising conferences and workshops on relevant issues, such as Managed Learning Environments and information service structures
SCONUL Vision Group
The following participated in the vision workshop and/or made substantial
comments on drafts:
John Akeroyd, Head of Learning & Information Services, South Bank University
Jeremy Atkinson, Head of Learning Resources Centre, University of Glamorgan,
Toby Bainton, Secretary, SCONUL
David Bradbury, Director General of Collections and Services, The British Library,
Sheila Corrall, University Librarian, University of Reading
Ray Lester, Head of Library and Information Services, The Natural History Museum
Liz Lyon, Director, UKOLN (formerly Head of Research and Learning Support Systems, University of Surrey)
John Matthews, Director, Information Support Service, Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds (Treasurer, HCRLG)
Andrew McDonald, Director of Information Services, University of Sunderland
Bob Sharpe, Director of Information Services, University of Plymouth
Karen Stanton, Director of Information Services, University of Nottingham
Les Watson, Director of Information Resources, Glasgow Caledonian University
Keith Webster, Librarian & Director of Information Services, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Hazel Woodward, University Librarian, Cranfield University