A recent walk into a corporate library in Mumbai confirmed my thoughts, though imaginative till that point of time, on the 'Future Library'. A section of videos / CDs / DVDs was outsourced to BigFlix the desi version of Netflix. Collection, staff and management (including circulation) was responsibility of BigFlix. The corporate library had to provide space only. Response was good and people visiting the library had increased and this section was being found to be attractive.
Day may not be far away when many 'libraries' will be outsourced. Literally, other than space, the parent institution or users of the library, will have no other responsibility. Collection development (already with web technologies it is operating in a different paradigm), collection management, user services, staffing, etc would probably be managed by a specialised entity (organisation) that would be responsible for users services, technology adoption, staffing, and all other functions that a library may be performing today. The parent organisation would pay an annual contract amount to this entity for the services provided.
This may look like an extreme situation but I feel is the future. I recently was reading about LSSI (www.lssi.com) which actually does similar work in the US since 1981. If this is the case I do not see why this cannot happen in India. The impact of this on the profession will be tremendous and we will have to gear up for this challenge.
One can argue that this will be a doomsday outcome for the profession. I would differ and look at it differently. We will not be able to stop this development and may see many organisations will be formed in the near future to service such needs. For this to happen in the academic sector, government, may take time but will surely be lapped up by the corporate sector. The state governments and municipalities may also look at this as an opportunity to manage their public library systems.
The lessons from countries like US which adopted this model can be looked at and solutions developed appropriately. One of the main drawbacks of this outsourced model of library is the discontinuity of expertise / loyalty to the institution. The long term benefits that an organisation gets by having its own staff is quite high and indisputable. Hence we may see a model that will have staff on the rolls of an organisation that outsources other functions. This will call for very different skill sets of library professionals for the future.
The idea is to think and be prepared rather than deny and get shocked when these developments actually happen.
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7 comments:
These are easily said than done. There are talks about cloud computing too. How much ever, agreements (NDA) an organisation have with an outsider, they, like the organisation, exists for profit - they will have a customer base, which may include competitors. Can these people be trusted?
Your thoughs are right for very small or solo libraries. This model will definitely not work for big academic and research libraries. The very effective personal touch and service of librarians with faculty, researchers and students can not be supplied by outsourcing agencies. LSSI started in 1981 and there are no academic research libraries use them. Just my opinion. Thanks for bringing up this topic.
Interesting read. We may talk about low probabilities of such things, but I think it is important to realize that anything is possible... and it can happen much sooner than we think or like. We need to get geared to taking up such challenges. I would specifically see a role in guiding / teaching and an equivalent of "customer support" in using the resources correctly
Vasumathi Sriganesh
QMed Knowledge Foundation
This is really something new which I never thought of!!
But I agree with Mr. JK Vijayakumar as it will not work with academic or reseach libraries.
I don't think so...
circulation of CD/DVD is a very small part of library. Many academic and corporate libraries even do not have this service..
In corporate sector Libraries are very important places special in Manufacturing industries, service industries and Research and Development Industries... Libraries are used to get information on the queries about the business of the Industry. If the library is managed by the people other than of the industry, this will mean he also know many things about the company its product process etc... The person who is agent in this process must have contact with other industries too as per the possibilities of this concept. What it may lead, we can easily assume..
I see it as a wave of change that is inevitable. It may not happen exactly the way it has been discussed in the post. The change model may vary in nature and dimension depending upon the nature of the library and its parent organization.
This is an interesting discussion and thought provoking too. Have we ever thought of open source software? It just happened and is catching up. Our presumed model of OSS in libraries was completely free software implementation. But the models which are coming up are way different from our presumptions and they are constantly changing.
We librarians have been early adopters and adapters to change. So, I too support the view that we have to be prepared for any unpredictable change.
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