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The Hidden Curse of Automation

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When Algorithms Are Cheaper than Humans: The Hidden Curse of Automation

–from Los Angeles Review of Books

In his review of Nicholas Carr’s new book The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, Clive Thompson delivers a sobering examination of what we stand to lose in the face of advancing automation, as mechanical ‘outsourcing’ of hard work and problem solving saps us of our skills, safety and possibly our souls (though that last one is a lot more difficult to prove…).

He then concludes by arguing that “the best machines are ones that confront us with a useful amount of friction and inefficiency. They give us problems to solve, reskilling us.” Definitely something to keep in mind as we continue to examine and refine the relationships between our resources, technological systems and end users.

The Library as Infrastructure / Discovering Irvine

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I’ve just read 2 fascinating and relevant articles from the Places architecture/urban planning journal:

Stacks to Servers

Library as Infrastructure by Shannon Mattern

Viewing libraries’ physical space/services as reflections of their mission and values is nothing new, of course. But Mattern illuminates the many ways that the library, as a network of mutually reinforcing infrastructures, must evolve in the digital age. She finds a lot of promising work but also some problems, such as the tension between a library’s goal to ‘serve all’ and the diverse, often conflicting needs of different user populations. I also liked how she frames the library as a space for technology in service of communal discovery and exploration, in opposition to Silicon Valley’s endless entrepreneurial striving for increase profit and efficiency. Lots of great pictures and linked examples.

Pereira making an Irvine

Discovering Irvine by Alan Hess

Just in time for UC Irvine’s 50th anniversary celebration (and featuring images from our own Special Collections and Archives!), Hess dives deep into Irvine’s thoughtful beginnings and just how different they were from the urban planning projects of both the 1950s-60s and today. He points out that the Irvine master plan’s focus on merging with the landscape and building neighborhoods around walkable centers predates the trendy New Urbanism movement by 30 years. Most importantly, Hess points to the success of Irvine as proof that “suburban conventions can be rationalized and improved without entirely rejecting the logic and appeal of suburbia itself”, a somewhat radical view in an age where urban planners and the general public seem to automatically recoil from the popular image of a bland, car-centric suburbia. Lots of us know the broad strokes of UCI & Irvine’s development, but there’s some fascinating detail to be found here.

The Data-Driven Library of the Future

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Short and sweet article from Christopher Erdmann, head librarian at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, with some salient points on reconfiguring the research library space and services for today’s research environment:

  • “If we’re able to offer a tool…that tips off a researcher’s interest and causes him or her to run back to an office or study carrel or computer and say “Eureka!” then we’re making a strong argument for the library as a place.”
  • “What’s more, if we’re able to train our librarians to make research easier in an increasingly data-driven environment, we’re making a good case for our services…We often hear from scientists that most of their time is spent finding, integrating, cleaning and transforming data – not analyzing it…this seems like ideal work for librarians who are prepared to assist in the research, teaching and learning process.”

The Data-Driven Library of the Future

At Sea in a Deluge of Data

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This new study reveals a gap between the searching, research & comprehension skills expected by employers and what newly graduated employees deliver:

“Many employers said their fresh-from-college hires frequently lack deeper and more traditional skills in research and analysis. Instead, the new workers default to quick answers plucked from the Internet.”

The author posits that a new curriculum blending search techniques, statistical analysis, and knowledge of major research institutes & the scientific method will be needed to effectively teach students how to synthesize and support their research, both in the classroom and on the job.

One bright spot: a shout-out to librarians!

“…from community colleges to the Ivy League, a significant learning gap is widening. Librarians, trained in both digital and print research techniques, are in the best position to step into the breach.”

At Sea in a Deluge of Data

Leaked NYT Innovation Report & Insights

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Apparently inspired by some abrupt changes in top leadership, an anonymous New York Times staffer leaked a lengthy internal Innovation Report to Buzzfeed yesterday. And since it’s out there, we might as well read it!

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Well, except for the fact that it’s 91 pages long. Luckily, Harvard’s Neiman Journalism Lab has the literal highlights:

The leaked New York Times innovation report is one of the key documents of this media age

The article is a fascinating and useful summary of how the venerable institution is responding to the challenges and opportunities of news-making in the digital age. There are also some valuable insights for libraries as we consider the best way to digitally organize, surface and publicize our resources:

  • The value of the homepage is decreasing. “Only a third of our readers ever visit it. And those who do visit are spending less time: page views and minutes spent per reader dropped by double-digit percentages last year.” (luckily, we aren’t seeing such a drop off at lib.uci.edu, but we do need to keep in mind that information consumption is no longer just page-as-destination)
  • The Times needs to do a better job of resurfacing archival content. (or we need to beat them to it!)
  • Consider tools to make it easier for journalists, and maybe even readers, to create collections and repackage the content / uses reader patterns to customize a list of content that readers missed but would most likely want to see (responsive & customizable interfaces–make it easier to give users what they really want/care about)
  • Simple steps can be taken to lessen the loss of traffic to competitors: “Just adding structured data, for example, immediately increased traffic to our recipes from search engines by 52 percent.” (pound-for-pound, structuring and linking what we already have is the most efficient way to increase visibility & Google hits)

There’s a lot more, both in the article and the report itself. Definitely worth a look!

NDSA 2014 Agenda for Digital Stewardship

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The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), a consortium dedicated to advancing digital preservation & stewardship organized by the Library of Congress’ National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIPP), has released their yearly agenda for 2014:

NDSA National Agenda for Digital Stewardship

The Executive Summary is a concise summary of issues to be addressed in the field of digital preservation, and a good primer for anyone interested in learning more about the advancement of this crucial field. This agenda, as well as LOC’s Digital Preservation blog The Signal, are a wonderful way to keep up with exciting digital stewardship and infrastructure work without getting bogged down in too many technical details.

Some highlights:

  • As a community, we need to dramatically increase cross-organizational cooperation to increase impact and leverage investments made by individual institutions
  • Content value and selection (what should I preserve & how much?) represent a core challenge, especially for the following content areas:
    • Electronic Records
    • Research Data
    • Web and Social Media
    • Moving Image and Recorded Sound
  • Infrastructure priorities include developing File Format Action Plans (I’ve received X file type. I need to do X and record X before sending to next party/putting in repository) and Interoperability and Portability in Storage Architectures (how well do our filesystems, digital repositories & other information storage systems “talk” to each other?)
  • There is a clear need for organizations to share their assessments of institutional risk and their plans for mitigating those risks

The full document offers more detail as well as advice on policies and next steps.

Webinar: People-Management Skills: 7 Leadership Competencies

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Yesterday I attended a free webinar put on by UCI Extension entitled People-Management Skills: 7 Leadership Competencies. The webinar is available online until the end of the quarter. Just follow this link and click Playback.

Here’s the description: “For generations, the origins of leadership have been in a state of evolution. Theories to determine leadership effectiveness started with trait and behavior approaches. These theories led scientists to use a scientific approach to determine the behaviors, sources of power and situational dynamics that led and provided leadership opportunities. Contemporary research has coupled previous findings with modern interpretations to shed significant insights on how to develop and utilize effective leadership skills.”

7 Qualities for Future of Leadership

  • Vision
  • Superb oral & written communication skills
  • Self-confidence
  • Ability to inspire trust
  • High-risk orientation
  • High energy & active orientation
  • Ability to empower others

4 (or 13) Things about Discovery and Research Library Transformation

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If you feel like driving your vision into a galaxy far far far … away this morning …

From OCLC Research Library Partners Metadata Management Interest Group (July 3) –

Lorcan Dempsey (OCLC Vice Present and Chief Strategist) and Judi Nadler (University Librarian at the University of Chicago) made presentations on the future of technical services in the library of the future at last Friday’s “Big Heads” meeting. (Big Heads is the common nickname for ALA’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services’ Directors of Large Research Libraries Interest Group, most of which are also OCLC Research Library Partners.)

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This is a shortened version of the Educause article Lorcan wrote in December 2012, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Libraries, Discovery, and the Catalog: Scale, Workflow, Attention.” (The second slide about hats is Lorcan’s amusing way of showing he also qualifies as a “big head”.)

Judi presented a “circular map” she uses of research library transformation, divided into five sections: service, collections, discovery, access, perpetuity, with concentric circles going from past to future. She uses it to talk about library priorities with different university constituencies.

Great food for thought! (and actions? :))