PSTF - Summary of Chris Ferguson lecture

"Convergence, Integration, and Reference Service in an Increasingly Digital Era"

A Lecture by CHRIS FERGUSON, Executive Director of the Public Services Core; Information Services Division, University of Southern California

Sponsored by the LAUC-BERKELEY'S PUBLIC SERVICE TASK FORCE Alumni House Thursday 25 February 1999

In thinking about the shape of things to come and "values based" reference, enduring values we ought to preserve include:

Our particular challenge is to carry these values into a new, increasingly digital user environment.

At present we are witnessing the emergence of two ideas of the digital library. The first is associated chiefly with technologists who see primarily technological challenges of access and the creation of the digital library as a collection of digital objects. The second is more complex as seen by librarians who project future concerns about our legacy collections, access to them, and their integration with access to digital resources. They are concerned about the persistence of these legacy resources in the future-500 years from now-and about enabling access to them.

Quote: "The game has changed. Of this I am certain. We now face an array of possibilities and challenges that will leave no library untouched." Roy Tennant in talk to OCLC Users Group, December 1998.

Three themes today:

CONVERGENCE:
Information services and information technologies are converging in the eyes of our users.

INTEGRATION
I will speak chiefly of integration in academic organizations, a phenomenon not unlike increasingly interdisciplinary approaches to problems in academe generally.

TRANSFORMATION
I will discuss this concept in terms of future reference or most-discussed values and organizations and technology.

Imagine these scenarios a couple of years from now:

1. A student sits at a work station at home. Has a term paper; goes into a web-based subject matrix and along the way has frequent access to service requests, information technologists, subject specialists. Finds web sites; plus contact information re subject consultants; information re principal collections; service access points.

2. A scholar in his office puts finishing touches on an article; he performs a search and needs about 1/2 dozen items; two items are in the collection, and he has them delivered electronically.

3. An administrator in her office goes to a finding page on the web to determine the Information Services Delivery [ISD] policy on the appropriate use of computing; orders a net connection for some one in her office.

4. An information specialist sits at an Internet Call Center work station which receives and queues video connections, telephone calls, and e-mail messages. The specialist refers in-depth reference questions to colleagues on call, makes appointments for some other specialists, answers some ready-reference questions using both electronic and print sources, and processes some requests for desktop hardware repair.

All of these technologies exist right now, and can be common-place in academic information service practices within one or two years.

ENDURING SERVICE VALUES
It is just as important, however, to have backward reaching values. For one-and-a-half centuries we have had librarians who have striven for equity of access and high-quality services tailored to individual need. I am less interested in preserving an elite caste than in preserving these values.

Some pressures on our service environment include:
1. Technology
Issues of ownership vs. access. We are expected to design systems as well as provide access to information and collections.
2. Increasing expectations.
Culture of customer satisfaction, with one-stop shopping as part of this culture.
3. Increasing costs, while budgets decline.
4. Convergence of Information Systems and Information Technology.

On Leavey Library desktops the user finds online and network navigational tools: a web browser, an ftp client, a telnet client, email software, online catalogs and indices, etc, plus application software for word processing, spreadsheets database development, etc. This array of possibilities we call holistic computing.

NEW VALUES FOR A NEW ERA
Services through the network
Make technology work for all
Holistic computing
In a single work station environment;
7/24 (7 days a week; 24 hrs per day)
Collaboration between technologists and librarians: NB-Is collaboration enough?
Reduce complexity

Collaboration between technologists and librarians who must work together more and more on a daily basis is essential. Collaboration across organizational lines is not, however, enough. Computing, libraries and tele-communications must be combined into a single organization. When that happens, many more possibilities for collaboration occur naturally.

Why integrate organizations?
Librarians need technologists. And vice versa. Budget flexibility and leverage; better customer service; increased responsiveness to change; opportunity to rethink conventions. It may be easier to bring collaboration into smaller institutions than large ones. Integration means more than just having a single administrator to whom both libraries and computer people report. At Leavey cross training was needed. We must change notions of librarian and of reference service; an environment in which people are using the web for reference supposes a different kind of reference service environment, an integrated environment. Why integrate organizations? The integration can provide increased responsiveness to change and new synergies, as well as a chance to rethink conventions.

Some benefits of integration include:

Communication

Financial flexibility

R & D capability

Customer-oriented planning

Staff training & professional development

New planning environment

Unified service interfaces

A Vision for Reference Service in a New Era

Redefine "Reference"?

(24-Hour Leavey) + (Customer Support Center w/Automatic call distribution (ACD), Computer-telephone integration (CTI), and Internet call center (ICC) technologies + (Tiered Info/Ref Service)
Add a Web Interface, and one can readily partner with other agencies (USC is exploring partnership with LA County Public Library)
Offer fee-based service to others
Reference Kiosks
Telephone
FAX
Email
Video Conference Ready-Reference
World Wide Web (Forms, Chat, Audio)
Key: all these inputs into single, integrated workstation with integrated organization behind it and CTI/ACD underlying it.

Restructuring for Integrated Reference
New Reference Service Models
Central Leadership
Integrate Reference, Instruction, Software/Hardware Support Center
Converge Information Centers [at present USC has about 15 libraries with planned consolidations to about 4 or 5 larger integrated centers over the next few years]
New Roles for Librarians [USC is deploying librarians from closed branches out to offices in academic departments]

Elements of the Transitional Library

Print Collections

Physical access

Physical library

Digital Collections

Commercial electronic resources

Local and non-local digital-only collections

Digital Library Capabilities

Single Use (e.g., Document Delivery)

Limited Term (e.g., Reserves)

Permanent (e.g. Special Collections)

Physical Layer of Digital Capability

IBM, Oracle, etc.

Service Layer

Mother of all catalogs (MOAC) that integrates access to print and digital, and integrates information services with information access.

Derived Services Layer

Distributed learning

For-fee products & services

Summary Overview: New values for a New Era