Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC Research
Systemwide organization of information resources:
a multiscalar environment
JISC Pre-conference Forum:
Higher education in a global economy: implications for technology and JISC
Edinburgh International Conference Centre
23 March 2009
Crude,
Simplistic &
Reductive
Jokes
INSTITUTION
SCALE
TRANSACTION/
INTERACTION COSTS
Harvard Business Review (1999)
Attracting and building relationships
with customers
“Service-oriented”, customization Develop new products and
Economies of scope important services and bring them to
(i.e., sell customer wide range market
of products) Speed/flexibility important
Customer
Product
Relationship
Innovation
Management
Infrastructure
Back office capacities that
support day-to-day operations
“Routinized” workflows
Economies of scale important
CORE COMPONENTS OF A COMPANY
Provision of study & social spaces Acquire/develop new information
Interpret learning and research needs resources and services to support
Personalized research assistance evolving research and learning
Marketing and assessment workflows
Customization/personalization
Customer Product
Customer
Relationship Product
Innovation
Relationship
Management Innovation
Management
Infrastructure
Infrastructure
Physical space,
Physical inventory,
Repository
LIBRARIES Systems infrastructure
Online services, etc.
What is at institution scale?
Historic
externalizations …
E-journals
Cataloging
?
National-scale
JISC Web-scale
Google
Amazon
RESCALING
Stewardship
high low
Low-High Low-Low
Books & Journals Freely-accessible
Newspapers
web resources
Gov Documents
Open source software
low
CD & DVD
Newsgroup archives
Uniqueness
Maps
Scores
High-Low
High-High
Research & Learning
high
Special Collections Materials
Rare books
Local/Historical Newspapers
Institutional records
Local History Materials ePrints/tech reports
Archives & Manuscripts Learning objects
Theses & dissertations Courseware
E-portfolios
Research data
Prospectus
Insitutional website
COLLECTIONS GRID
• Rescaling the uniform?
• Developing the unique?
• Distinctive scope of the institutional?
Stewardship
high low
low Uniform?
Uniqueness
high
Print (B&J)
• Discovery
Licensed • Management
• Discovery • Preservation
• Management
• Preservation
BOOKS AND JOURNALS
Stewardship
high low
low
Uniqueness
high
• The outputs of
research and learning
– Data – big and small
Multiscalar confusion? – Eprints, learning
materials
– A life’s work on a thumb
drive
• Records management
Institutional
– Podcasts, videos, …
– Website, prospectus, …
– Business records
Stewardship
high low
low
Uniqueness
high
• Discovery
– fragmented
• Manage
Multiscalar
– Cottage industry
• Preserve
– Locally variable
THE SPECIAL
Institutional needs …
• Management
• Preservation
• Institutional no • Supra-institutional
longer the institutions
appropriate scale immature
for many things
• Infrastructure
collaboratively,
nationally or
externally sourced
From institution to multiscalar