[LINK] Books Go Underground

[Tom Worthington]

On 2011/May/10, at 7:10 PM, Tom Koltai wrote (was: "Re: [LINK] Expiring 
English Terms Leaving Every Day Usage"):

>  The Phone's off the hook  ...

A university librarian said to me last week that to her clients
"Journal" now means an online publication. If they want a print edition
they ask for a "Paper Journal".

I suggest we are less than two years away from "Book" meaning an 
electronic publication and a print edition being a "paper book".

The Fisher Library at Sydney University is in the news for plans to get 
rid of 30 staff and half a million paper publications: 
<http://www.cowraguardian.com.au/news/national/national/education/you-can-judge-a-book-by-its-dust-test-as-university-library-cuts-its-staff-and-stock/2161164.aspx>.

This is something many universities are doing. But the others have been 
smart enough to disguise the removal of print publications in a 
refurbishment of their library, to turn it into "learning commons". 
Emphasis is placed on comfortable seating, computers and informal 
teaching spaces, so no one notices the books have been relegated to the 
basement, the upper floors, an off-site repository, or pulped.

Speaker after speaker at the recent 2nd Annual Learning Commons 
Development and Design Forum, talked about refurbishing 1970s university 
libraries: removing the books and walls, putting in bright furnishing 
and computers, to the point where this became a running joke: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/search/label/Learning%20Commons%20Development%20and%20Design%20Forum>.

One issue for the Fisher library is to work out what books are used in 
the library and should be kept, but are never borrowed and therefore not 
recorded in usage statistics. The media report use of a "dust test" 
where the amount of dust on the books is used to estimate when they were 
last used.

At CCA Educause 2011 in Sydney a few weeks ago, there was a presentation 
on a UTS library proposal to use RFID tags on the books to track them in 
the library. At the time it was not clear to me what this was for. But 
one use would be to see which books are used and therefore need to be on 
the shelf. UTS is building a automated underground warehouse to hold 
paper publications nearby: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/04/library-of-future.html>.

It is regrettable to see the end of publication. I have suggested the 
National Library of Australia install eBook readers in the arms of some 
of their comfy chairs, to replicate part of the experience of sitting in 
the library and browsing through the new materials.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra