Three pictures, some questions and no answers

1
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
2
Crude, Simplistic Reductive
Jokes
3
Institution scale
4
(No Transcript)
5
Transaction/interaction costs
6
Harvard Business Review (1999)
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Core components of a company
Attracting and building relationships with
customers Service-oriented, customization Econom
ies of scope important (i.e., sell customer wide
range of products)
Develop new products and services and bring them
to market Speed/flexibility important
Customer Relationship Management
Product Innovation
Infrastructure
Back office capacities that support day-to-day
operations Routinized workflows Economies of
scale important
8
Libraries
Provision of study social spaces Interpret
learning and research needs Personalized
research assistance Marketing and
assessment Customization/personalization
Acquire/develop new information resources and
services to support evolving research and
learning workflows
Customer Relationship Management
Product Innovation
Customer Relationship Management
Product Innovation
Infrastructure
Infrastructure
Physical space, Physical inventory,
RepositorySystems infrastructureOnline
services, etc.
9
Rescaling
What is at institution scale?
Historic externalizations E-journals Cataloging
?
National-scale JISC
Web-scale GoogleAmazon
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Collections grid
Stewardship
high
low
low
Uniqueness
high
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• Rescaling the uniform?
• Developing the unique?
• Distinctive scope of the institutional?

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Books and journals
Stewardship
high
low
Uniform?
low
Uniqueness

• Print (BJ)

high

• Discovery
• Management
• Preservation

• Licensed

• Discovery
• Management
• Preservation

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Stewardship
high
low
low
Uniqueness
high

• The outputs of research and learning
• Data big and small
• Eprints, learning materials
• A lifes work on a thumb drive
• Records management
• Podcasts, videos,
• Website, prospectus,
• Business records

Multiscalar confusion?
Institutional
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The special
Stewardship
high
low
low
Uniqueness
high

• Discovery
• fragmented
• Manage
• Cottage industry
• Preserve
• Locally variable

Multiscalar
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Institutional needs

• Management
• Preservation

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From institution to multiscalar

• Institutional no longer the appropriate scale for
  many things
• Infrastructure collaboratively, nationally or
  externally sourced

• Supra-institutional institutions immature