A bookless future for the libraries?
~ A comedy in 3 Acts by ~
Stefano Mazzocchi

~ Act I ~
where we go looking in the past to understand
more about the present

information
vs.
information technology

what
vs.
how transfer
encode
our focus

speech
enabled coordination
pros
required no tools

speech
cons
transient
synchronous
localized
marginal cost >= 1

[aside: marginal cost]
after acting on N items,
the cost of acting on one more

Transition [⇒]
reduction of marginal costs

speaking ⇒ cave drawing

cave drawings
pros
persistent
asynchronous

cave drawings
cons
immovable
marginal cost ~ 1
require tools

cave drawing ⇒ clay inscribing

inscribed clay
pros
persistent
asynchronous
portable

inscribed clay
cons
marginal cost ~ 1
fragile
heavy

clay ⇒ fiber

fiber inscribing
pros
persistent
asynchronous
portable
light

fiber inscribing
cons
marginal cost ~ 1

fiber inscribing ⇒ fiber printing

printed fiber
pros
persistent
asynchronous
portable
light
marginal cost < 1

printed fiber
cons
many marginal costs still > 0
production
consumption (access)
storage
preservation

fiber printing ⇒ electronic publishing

electronic publishing
pros
asynchronous & synchronous
portable
high density
many marginal costs ~ 0

electronic publishing
cons
?

~ Act II ~
where we look at the present with our
knowledge from the past

a transition is in progress

substantial benefits
unprecedented information density and access
unprecedented retrieval ability
unprecedented reduction in distribution costs

yet there are issues

degraded consumption experience
very low screen resolution
batteries needed
poor user interfaces
poor network access

disrupted business models

disrupted institutions
[the libraries]

~0 marginal costs are here to stay

which means an “ipod for books” is an
ecosystem necessity (the only missing
piece), not just a possibility

...how does that impact the
libraries?
if the ecosystem of information
turns into all-electronic...

libraries vs. museums of books
Managing physical non-unique copies of books
will often be uneconomical
Think of VHS tapes and vinyl LPs

no more shelves
What happens to serendipitous discovery?
Browse vs. Search?

nearly infinite storage space
Is there a justification for filtering anymore?

indices created from full text
Is metadata still needed?
Does metadata have to be a human production
or can it be emerged by computers
thru statistical analysis?
or a mix of the two?

fragmenting information
unit of information goes from book of pages,
to journals of articles,
to webs of hyperlinked pages,
to networks of relational assertions
Can library technologies and
skill set still be useful across all such
granularity spectrum?

networks of relational assertions
(a.k.a. a web of data)
small pieces of information
uniquely identified
related to one another
can be mixed and queried symbolically

Demos!

first, a few questions

Who is the youngest winner of the
2008 Academy Awards?

What battles of the american civil war were
not fought on US territory?

What is the only building in Brasil
designed by an architect that designed a
building in New York City?

How many male actors that co-starred
in a movie with Al Pacino were born
in Russia?

how would you find out?

let’s use Freebase!

~ Act III ~
where we save the day by applying the
wisdom of the past to an uncertain future

despite the obvious advantages, and
immediate shortcomings, electronic
publishing retains many long term
uncertainties

Digital Preservation
storing bits is not the same
as preserving information
format/system obsolescence
lossy format conversions
Librarians have unique skills
and affinity for such problems.

Digital Divide
Low marginal cost is not the same as low cost
Accessibility is not the same as access
Libraries, by definition, remain
a key institution in bridging these gaps

Data Modeling
Library metadata is just another form of
low granular relational data.
Librarians naturally understand
the value of modeling data.
Statistical emergence of metadata can
only go so far without human common sense,
help will be needed.

Data Integration
Different data models for similar data
will emerge and will evolve.
Integration between different schemas
requires specific skills and abilities, very close
to the current set of librarians skills.

Data Pollution
Vandalism, defacing, spamming or general abuse
are all negative sides of the low marginal
cost ecology of information.
Fighting the degradation of signal/noise
ratio in such ecology is another area where
librarians’ expertise will be highly valued.

Data Quality
How do we distinguish between
high quality data vs. low quality data?
How do we increase quality without
reducing diversity of opinion or
capacity of adaptation?

Dissent
How do we distinguish truth
from opinion and from deception?
How do we construct the new information
ecology so that people are allowed to disagree
yet without exploding in another tower of Babel?

~ The End ~