I argued that librarians need marketing skills, to analyse what business we are in, to be less process focussed and more client focussed, to use advances in other industries such as materials handling to modernise library operations, and to be as sensitive to the changing economic and social environment as other professions are. 

From my perspective I was arguing:

•  for librarians to be skilful modern managers who deliver products and services to a market  - the market being those people and organisations who need our services.
•  and so we need to move our focus from the processes we have used for generations to  create “traditional libraries" to a focus on the end-results we need – a way of successfully  delivering products and services that library clients need. 

However, I am optimistic about the future of libraries and of librarians if we can face realities and be strategically smart. 
 
 

In 1991 the Internet existed but use of it was not widespread. The US Defense Department is said to have developed ARPAnet in the early 1970’s to support military research ¹ .   In 1990, Tim Berners–Lee a computer programmer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) had created the World Wide Web (WWW) – a software protocol that runs on top of the Internet allowing users to access files stored in Internet computers ². 

Who could have predicted in 1991 the dramatic influence the Internet and the WWW would have in so many areas? 

• e-commerce and e-business
• e-recruiting and a more mobile workforce 
• e-procurement, JIT and more efficient supply chain management 
• e-learning and the opportunities for the best universities in the world to offer courses  globally 
• webcasting 
• the consumerisaton of online information retrieval with the development of the World Wide Web and web browsers
• a technology platform that facilitates inexpensive global telecommunications

E-commerce - Steve Coffman who wrote “What if you ran your library like a book store" ³   planned and established F.Y.I. at the County of Los Angeles public library (https://fyi.co.la.ca.us/) probably a decade ago. 
 

Consumers from college students to high-powered executives order online the information they want and pay for it. From as little as $9, clients can purchase Brief Business Backgrounders from F.Y.I. and have them emailed to them. 

This is an e-commerce application in a library, meeting the needs of some sectors of the community, while other parts of the public library provide free services. 

E-procurement and integrated supply chain management.  The Internet has enabled organizations to modernise their purchasing methods (supply chain) and improve customer-supplier relationships.  A recent management article revealed 70% of the items sold by Wal-Mart had not been paid for when they were sold. This illustrates dramatically the speedy throughput time involved in Wal-Mart ordering, placing goods on the shelves and selling them, with a modern supply chain management and inventory management system facilitated by the Internet ⁴ . 

Libraries have already moved in this direction with their use of book supplier and subscription agent services including cataloguing, processing, management of accessioning and claims processes.  One Sydney school library employs 7 librarians to work with students and no cataloguing or processing staff. This in my view is smart management of resources. 

E-learning   E-learning may offer huge opportunities for librarians to teach their clients to be more discriminating users of Internet resources.   Webcasting too offers opportunities for distance learning for students – will libraries be involved? 

The consumerisation of online information retrieval is an enormous threat to libraries. How many times have you heard the statement – but it is all on the Internet.  My brother proudly told me how many records Google found on a heart condition his cardiologist mentioned. I winced as I thought of the volume of material he had waded through, how much of it was peer reviewed, how much was nonsense or fakery, and how his understanding of the condition was being influenced by people of unknown authority. 

But at the same time the peer reviewed medical information service MEDLINE is freely available on the web at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi.  So while some material on the Internet may not be authoritative, other free information is of high quality. 

Knowledge management Although it is now well recognised that people play a key role in Knowledge Management, it appears the emergence of Knowledge Management coincided with the availability of groupware such as Lotus Notes, and the ability to use Internet technology to harness and share information. ⁵

Those special librarians, who managed internal reports and other records, have been involved in knowledge management for decades. "Many special libraries…act as archival repository for the reports issued by the particular organizations they serve," wrote C.P. Auger in the 1980's! ⁶   So of course, librarians need to retain their roles in the management of published or unpublished information in a knowledge enterprise. 
 
 

• if we needed Company Annual reports we contacted the Share Registries of listed companies and asked for copies to be mailed to us, and if we wanted reports of government departments we contacted those departments. Today these are frequently available on the web. 
• there were almost no government web sites, but today most modern governments have transferred most of their publishing activities to the Internet with very good web sites. 
• professional societies have also transferred their publishing activities to the Web; some with restricted sections for their members.  The Royal Australian Institute of Architects site is an interesting example: http://www.architecture.com.au/ 
• to search large library catalogues we had to visit them or search union catalogues.  But today large libraries now have their catalogues on the Web
• to search for company information one examined heavy, often out of date company directories some filed in the 380’s, others in the 680’s and still others at 658!  Today we can go to portals like www.corporateinformation.com or www.business.com and quickly find much of the information we formerly took quite a lot of time to locate. Even the giant heavy multi volume Thomas Register is now available online for free -  www.thomasregister.com 
• If we needed a definition of “bioequivalence” or “bioavailability" we needed to refer to large and often expensive and sometimes out of date technical encyclopedias.  The process for finding this information was quite obscure  and tedious for many library users: 

In the past decade there has been an enormous shift of “free” information to the web. Even free journals – e.g. Australian Energy News or McKinsey Quarterly  - are now only available on the web. 

The downside of this is anyone can publish on the web, and sometimes the information published on the web is simply false. 
 
 

Meanwhile consolidation of the commercial online information providers has proceeded in the past decade: 

• AUSINET, which hosted several small Australian databases, the Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and Business Review Weekly from Fairfax and The Bulletin from Australian Consolidated Press was sold to Fairfax in 1995 .⁷  Fairfax made a terrible mess of trying to run an online vendor business. And when the Packer group realised their publication The Bulletin was being distributed by arch-rival Fairfax, it was quickly removed! 
• Fairfax cut its losses with its failed venture and did a deal with Dow Jones allowing all the Fairfax data to be accessed from their service in the US. In the past few months Fairfax has finally permitted Lexis Nexis and Dialog to distribute their data also. 
• The small Australian databases migrated to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s INFORMIT service (www.informit.com.au) where most remain today. 
• Knight Ridder sold Dialog and Datastar to Dan Wagner’s UK based Profound service in 1996.  Profound was known to be expensive and industry observers talked of the minnow swallowing the whale. In time it became clear the minnow had digestive problems of a financial nature and Dialog, Datastar and Profound were sold to Canadian newspaper publishing house Thomson in 2000.
• In 1996, Dow Jones executives appear to have done some smart strategic analysis and realised that they had weak coverage of European information resources.  Many were amazed when it was announced that Dow Jones of the USA and Reuters of UK – two powerful press competitors  - had agreed to form a joint venture.  www.factiva.com  was formed and claims to have the largest collection of global newspaper sources.
• Thomson made several acquisitions in the 1990's including a $3.4 billion acquisition of West publishing - known as Westlaw - the online law database in 1996.
• Lexis Nexis was snapped up by Reed Elsevier – another huge publishing house originating from Holland and well known to librarians as publishers of  Excerpta Medica (the database now known as Embase) and a wide range of scholarly scientific and technical journals some of which are now available on Science Direct.
• Ovid, formerly Orbit, was acquired by the publishing conglomerate Walters Kluwer which employs 19,000 people worldwide - a company that acquired 37 companies in 2002. ⁸ 
• In 2002 divine inc. acquired Northern Light and subscription agent RoweCom. Northern Light had been developed in the late 1990’s as a Web search service with a special collection of periodical articles.  Now divine is offering its Premium Document Search said by some to be “almost complete when it comes to English language periodicals” ⁹ 
• Other journal article aggregators including Jstore and Ebsconet have also emerged. 

• REED ELSEVIER (USA) -  owns Lexis Nexis, Science Direct, Embase, Butterworths
• FACTIVA (USA, UK) - replaces Reuters Business Briefings and Dow Jones Interactive
• THOMSON (CANADA) - owns Dialog, Datastar, Profound, Westlaw, Derwent, Gale etc. 
• WALTER KLUWERS – owns Ovid, a major player in medical information. 

Eminent librarians claim more people visit libraries than make use of other community facilities – such as sport or cinemas, so why do we need to change?  Dr. Alan Bundy, the immediate past President of ALIA stated in his submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Role of libraries in the on-line environment ¹⁰    approximately 60% of Australians - over 12 million people use public libraries. 

But I question the quality of experiences many people have in libraries. How many people queuing in large libraries are seeking help on how to use libraries because they cannot navigate our complicated systems?  How many are locked out by the opening hours? How quickly do people find what they need? How many never find what they need? 

I also question who uses the libraries.  Is the usage spread across the community?  If not who is and is not using libraries? Do sports mad teenagers use libraries? Do the poor use libraries or the affluent?  Can libraries find ways to attract bored angry Sydney teenagers into libraries? We know many parents take their children to libraries and we know students use libraries and retirees.  A vocal Australian journalist claims many public libraries are only used by bored middle aged middle-class women wanting to read novels!  How many libraries provide effective services to their local professional firms and business? 

But most of all, I think some libraries need to change because the competitive environment has changed so dramatically.  The Internet has changed the rules regarding searching for information conveniently and we must adapt. ¹¹    Amazon.com Inc recently reported its e-commerce sales of books in Britain, France, Germany and Japan had grown by 70% annually in each of the past 3 quarters! ¹²    Are libraries experiencing that sort of growth?  Can we really afford to ignore this competition?
 
 

 Before going further, let's examine what we think libraries are, because librarians may have 
different perceptions of what "a library" is. 

• Some see libraries as places with lots of books, peaceful, safe, quiet places – havens in which one can escape from the turmoil of everyday life. 
• Some perhaps see libraries as exciting places full of wonderful treasures. 
• Others see them as fabulous resources for the transfer of knowledge. 
• Others are frustrated by how difficult and time consuming some libraries are to use. 

 The large archival libraries have inherited those responsibilities of collecting and preserving books,  journals, manuscripts, and other items.  In Australia these are the State libraries in every capital city, and the National Library in Canberra. The university libraries inherit the  traditions of the original universities as centres of research and learning.  It is precisely because these libraries have collecting and preserving responsibilities, that I believe they are probably the least threatened by the consumerisation of the Internet and the development of  the World Wide Web and clever search engines. 

What collecting responsibilities do other types of libraries have? Which libraries have a similar responsibilities for collecting and preserving in the monastic or university traditions? 
 

Why do government department libraries, hospital libraries, corporate libraries, law firm libraries not need to maintain large collections?  Because as special libraries, their primary role is not collection and preservation.  Their primary role is to provide information to support the objectives of their parent bodies. Today in an online world much of that can be provided from electronic resources – not all admittedly – but a large percentage. 

It is important to focus on that word – information.  Special librarians should not see themselves as “keepers of items” or interlibrary lenders, but as gateways to information wherever it is available – on paper or online. I despair when I hear special librarians say the only online resources they have are Kinetica and Google! To me that says they are still focussing on traditional methods of paper based resources, and they are excluding the huge volume of information only available on line through commercial information providers such as Lexis Nexis, Factiva and Thomson and others - services for which librarians should have unique searching skills. 

What about school libraries?  School libraries have a fantastic role to play in educating children to be information literate. "Information literacy standards for student learning" issued by the ALA in 1998 provides inspiring examples of how children can supplement their classroom learning by using various information resources including the Internet.  They obviously need small current well targeted collections. 

Perhaps the most puzzling is the suburban public library.  What is their primary role?  My understanding is public libraries are responsible for supporting recreation and learning needs of the community. Yes they need collections of books and other media.  But I think their collections should be turned over and refreshed perhaps as frequently as a bookstore changes its stock.  They need as other libraries do, to be able to borrow from the large archival collections, but they have not inherited the monastic role for building large collections except perhaps for their local history collections. The public library may provide a haven for those weary of the world’s turmoils, but the reality is a large percentage of potential clients are now surfing the web.

Since the World Wide Web emerged in the 1990’s, how have public libraries responded? The public libraries I have seen recently have not really changed substantially.  Rules remain the same. Collections remain split between fiction and non-fiction, reference, lending and childrens. There are more OPAC catalogues but some are little more than card catalogues with all the inflexibility of rigid subject headings transferred to computers.   There are more computers available for patrons to use in 30-minute time slots. 

To illustrate these points, consider these two scenarios:
 

Imagine what resources will be available on the WWW in another 5 years!!  Will public libraries still be the same, or will they evolve into resource centres incorporating the best of the traditional libraries and the best of the Internet and other media?
 

Suburban Sydney public library

Client focussed public library resource centre

A non-fiction collection organised in numerical Dewey order from 000-999. A separate non-borrowable reference collection also in number order.  A fiction collection  with big books, talking books etc  A few periodicals A Reference desk  with one “librarian” seated at a  computer terminal 3 library assistants standing  behind the circulation desk 3 OPAC catalogue terminals presenting users with 3 options - search under author, title or subject (but not all three!). How do the uninitiated search if they want information about your Prime Minister for instance?  A  great collection of CDs  Photocopiers – coin operated  2 computers for Internet access  - bookings for 30-minute slots required.  Great children's collection  with story time sessions  10am- 4pm  Sat and Sun 10.00 – 8pm weekdays

A library arranged like an art gallery  - not in numerical order - but in themed spaces each with a different décor.   Online computers available in each room along with specialist staff to advise on usage.  Each room should have a different personality.  The SPORTS ROOM for example may have vibrant stimulating colours.  While the ARTS and RECREATION room should have facilities for listening to music or watching videos. No barriers between staff at desks and clients.  A web catalogue where keywords can be used and consumers can use from home to reserve or renew loans, search for local district information and possibly pay for local services including rates.  Themes may include BUSINESS, LAW, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY including online access to several online hosts, excellent reference collection; fees for value added services.  TRAVEL, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY. Staff here also maintain the districts web site  SPORTS AND LEISURE Includes books, periodicals, books, cable TV services on sports, hobbies. ARTS AND RECREATION Includes fiction, and non-fiction books, periodicals, video and audio facilities for music, opera, ballet, the arts, and languages.  INTERNET CAFÉ  - licensed café with internet stations , can be leased out to earn additional income  HEALTH AND HOME Partially funded by your Health insurance funds – includes material on medicine, home economics, gardening, architecture, etc.  CHILDRENS SERVICES  TRAINING and VIRTUAL REFERENCE providing 24 x 7 service

I hope there will be a more imaginative evolution of public libraries into vital community resource centres attracting and serving all sectors of the community and providing value added services for a fee. 
 
 

All functions in business and government now have to prove their value.   Specialist journals on Human Resources management, Information Technology, Research and Development for years have carried stories about proving value to management.  Libraries are no exception.  Increasingly management is examining what is the return they are getting on their investment - what is the ROI.    And just as IT, HR and R & D departments have to demonstrate their value - so too do special libraries. 

In Australia, there are reports almost weekly that special libraries have closed or have been severely downsized.  Some librarians report they are “exhausted” from justifying their existence to non-users.  Some special libraries are clearly rationalising branch locations because information facilities can be shared more easily in the wired environment ¹⁴, but frequently the excuse given is “It’s all on the Internet” ¹⁵ .
 
 

The survivors have proved they provide value and the survivors that are flourishing appear to be those that have adapted to the changed environment.    Take Bell Canada for instance in Montreal. Bell Canada used to have a huge library with 30-foot high ceilings and walls of Italian marble and collections of journals going back to the 1900's.  How could old journals going back to the 1900's contribute to the success of a modern telecommunications company, one may ask!

Today Bell Canada has replaced its traditional library with a virtual library by taking these steps: 

• Developing a library web site  - initially a simple one but now a Portal 
• Alignment with a knowledge management initiative within the corporate structure 
• Strategic analysis examining the question  "What business are we in". There was a shift in usage from reading books  and walk in usage to use of online services and email requests
• Instead of systematically acquiring new books, a Just in Time process for acquiring new books was introduced - i.e. they bought books when asked to - and book acquisitions fell from 1000 titles a year to 120 a year for 2 cities
• The book collection was therefore out of date so it was closed
• But users wanted consultant reports and these were delivered to the Intranet 
• Periodical circulation  to 3300 clients in two cities was a massive operation but when a fee for service was introduced 70% refused to pay, so the service was cancelled and clients invited to go to links at the Intranet site 
• Space was reduced  which lowered budget costs 
• The new demands required a different staffing mix including  Web specialists and writers
• Information was made available to the desktops of clients
• The expectation was the reference function would decrease, but in fact demand has increased and the depth and scope of the inquiries has increased  and clients are demanding much more value added ¹⁶  

It is time to get back to basics and core responsibilities. Few special libraries have legitimate reasons for building large collections. All, in my view, have responsibilities to support their parent organizations by providing access to high quality information.   But these days there are many ways of achieving that goal. 

The days of expecting clients to come to the library to look for information are over. When library clients are using the Internet at home for online shopping, booking their holidays, checking on sporting results, and online banking, and at work to check on customers, suppliers, or the Intranet, they will also of course use the WWW to search for information, and may or may not be satisfied with what they can find there. 

The challenge for the special librarians is to educate the clients to be discriminating users of the WWW and to teach them when they need to go beyond the Free Internet to the For Fee Internet delivered products.  Information Brokers have the same challenge. 

In my view the best strategy is to teach clients about reliable web sites and how to use the search engines.  Encourage them to seek information for themselves when they can and provide the more "value added" support services for more difficult research tasks. Bell Canada library staff found the library clients were so busy with their own tasks they were quite happy to seek information they could find for themselves quickly on the Intranet or on the Internet, but they were more than happy to pass the more complicated searches to the library staff.  Teach your clients that over 70% of the most used publications on Factiva for example cannot be found for free on the Web. ¹⁷    Explore whether e-learning can be used or web based training for client training. 

So what many special librarians are facing is the need to change the roles they play.  Instead of managing a collection, they now need to manage access to information often arranging delivery of information to the clients' desktops. This means they have to evaluate the services that are needed, negotiate and manage the supplier licenses, and train the users for effective use. There is no doubt that if special librarians do not accept this challenge the large commercial online providers will by-pass them and go straight to their clients. 

Special librarians also have to ask is journal circulation still practical, or would a corporate subscription to a journal article aggregator be more effective in meeting client needs.   Given that there are both free and relatively inexpensive sites available that your clients may need, special librarians now have the responsibility for evaluating and recommending sites perhaps through the library's portal.  Clearly good quality industry sites need to be there and generic cheap sites such as www.newstext.com.au, which allows access to News Ltd journal articles for $1 a copy.  Teach your clients how to use the features of the clever search engines to find reliable material. 

And with a highly information literate clientele, perhaps the experience will be similar to that of Bell Canada library staff, the demand for in depth and complex value added services will actually increase while costs decrease with less space, thus demonstrating that you are able to provide value. 

As Barbara Quint wrote over a decade ago "Modern librarians know that they could "library" from a phone booth if they had the money, the modem and the micro". Wilson Library Bulletin, March 1988 ¹⁸

Libraries and librarians cannot escape these tidal waves of change.  It is essential that we examine the strategic impact of these changes and determine the best way to respond to the threats and to the opportunities. Educators need to match the new needs with their professional training of librarians for an online world.  All librarians, wherever they work, need to understand the different requirements for different libraries in an online world. 

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