Choose one of the resources above and write a 400 words analysis that addresses the following issues: What is the potential for the future of an organisation you are familiar with? What impact might the future have on us as information professionals?

What we can forecast about future is “change”. Everything is changing rapidly. Al-Ali et al. (2017) articulate that “the rate of change in modern times is greater than ever” (p.724). All organisations should recognise their own situation and potentials in this changing world, so that they could implement proper management. Christopher Cox (2020) mentions some key points in terms of “collections, services, spaces and operations”, that an academic library needs to consider as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on his predictions, I would like to present some of my insights.

• Collections

Cox (2020) highlights that everything is turning electronic. That means, the method of collection management should also be changed accordingly. For example, librarians need to arrange their budget wisely because the subscriptions for digital resources are expensive. They have to consider those physical books which do not have a e-version. What they can do to digitise those materials and make them accessible without offending the copyright rules? There are much more for them to think and deal with in the e-environment.

• Services

When there are more and more digital resources, the academic librarians are also required to change their service mode accordingly. It can be seen from Cox’s blog (2020), that academic librarians will do more interacting and teaching activities than ever before. They need to educate their patrons with information literacy skills, especially in finding the resources with searching techniques. Thus, academic librarians will not only manage the collections, but also provide direct support to their patrons.

• Spaces

When talking about the library spaces, Cox (2020) discusses the usage of the physical site. However, due the Covid-19 influences, users are using more online facilities rather than the physical library. They explore social platforms to watch news and discuss with their friends in social network sites, such as Facebooks and WeChat. Thus, can the academic library also move their “location” to an online space? The librarians should also think of using social media applications to communicate with their users and between themselves.

• Operation

I totally agree with Cox’s (2020) idea of the “librarian activism”. There are many social platforms which provide forums and fellowships that librarians could attend and share their opinions and experiences. Even though we may be isolated by the quarantine rules, we are not alone. Social media is functioned as a significant communicating tool for now and the future.

Information professionals must always have an attitude of accepting “change”, and keep studying and developing their professional skills. As many of the communicating activities are moving online, academic librarians are also expected to involve actively in the online networks with external users and internal workmates.

References:

Cox, C. (2020, June 5). Changed, changed utterly. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will- change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion

Al-Ali, A. A., Singh, S. K., Al-Nahyan, M., & Amrik, S. S. (2017). Change management through leadership: the mediating role of organizational culture. International Journal of Organisational Analysis, 25(4), 723-739. DOI: 10.1108/IJOA-01-2017-1117

Watch the video and identify five (5) examples of ‘shifts’ or trends that can have an impact on how individuals behave as a digital citizens. Then outline (in around 400 words) how you believe these behaviours can impact on the need for, and development of, information policy in organisations to address these behaviours. You may wish to explore these from either a user/customer perspective or employee/employer perspective, or a combination of both, and you may wish to consider this task within the specific context of your own library and/or organisation, or you can address this task in general terms.

YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcMPGyPr8k

This is a very interesting and inspiring video. It shows how the entire world is changing with the fast innovation of various technologies. There are many “shifts” and trends towards a digital world, but I would like to mention five of them here.

-The mobile phone contains much more functions than ever before.

-People express their opinions and share their moments on the social network sites (SNSs) more frequently than before.

-Virtual meeting are more and more popular in both work environment and private life.

-People use cloud database to save data as it can reduce the risk of computer breakdown. However, they have to tackle with the security issues of the online environment.

-As it is mentioned in this video, some new jobs that are even not existed ten years ago, are popular in the current information society, such as data scientist, big data architect, transformation manager et al. That means, people are learning new things fast to adapt the evolving technologies.

It can be seen that people have changed many of their behaviours to adapt the digital world. I would like to hight the privacy and ethical issues here. When people take the benefit of the convenient side, they also have to sacrifice their privacy to some extent. The internet browsers, such as Google, collect a lot of information from all our searching activities. In addition, the more information we share on a public blog, the more private data will be collected by other entities.

Although many information professionals, such as librarians, would like to protect their patrons, they still unintentionally contribute to the “surveillance capitalism” from the third-party tracking cookies (Marino, 2021, p. 129). If it is hard to avoid, the information professionals should consider how to build up their information policies to reduce the hazard.

The information policies should address to the internal employees and the external users. For internal employees, it needs to include explicit guidelines about the responsibilities of different departments, including the frequency of updating the security set up, the responsible person who should monitor the ethical issues etc. There are many existing templates that a policy constructor could explore and learn from. For example, professionals could search “information policy of academic libraries” to collect ideas.

For external users, the policies should not only address their obligations, but also inform them with the security alerts. It is important to notify them what information the institution will collect, and how it will be used and protected. Patrons could consider both of the benefits and the risks before they start to use. Therefore, it is important to include a comprehensive policy to instruct the online activities.

Reference:

Marino, B. (2021). Privacy concerns and the prevalence of third-party tracking cookies on ARL library homepages. Reference Services Review, 49(2), 115-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2021-0009

Esteves, J. (2021, January 17). Did you know 2021 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcMPGyPr8k

As Hannah et al. (2019) illustrated, documentations that used in VR and augmented reality (AR) are very helpful in improving students’ engagement and interaction of their learning activities (p. 277-278).  For example, the traditional academic library would only present a map or a video recording to show what the physical place looks like. With the VR technology, the learning experience will be immersive and impressive. There will be no requirement on time, physical condition and expenses, because students do not really need to travel to that place to do their research. Students will find it more interests in a VR tour than reading it a book.  As a result, they will have a better understanding with the heritage and culture.

However, the disadvantage is also obvious. Although the price of the VR equipment has dropped so that more information institution could afford, it is still very expensive (Hannah et al, 2019, p. 278). The budget restriction is one of the main obstacles in providing the VR devices in an academic library.  The management need to consider and compare the usage with the cost. Although it is fun and incentive to improve learning experiences, is it really necessary to pay such amount of expenses for the VR equipment and softwares? That could be the key reason why many academic libraries do not include VR in their collections. Academic libraries need to evaluate the learning outcome with the investment they spend on VR devices, because they have their objectives to support the teaching, learning and researching outcome of their parent institutions. Thus, they need to balance the usage with the cost.

To sum up, using VR in academic libraries is beneficial to students in improving their understanding. However, in comparison with its usage and effectiveness, one disadvantage of the VR devices is its cost. It is still very high. So it is expected that the VR will be innovated to include more learning functions and reduce their purchase price, so that more and more academic institutions will accept it as a common collection.

Reference:

Consider the services discussed by Laura Cole in the video in relation to a library or information agency that you know (as an employee or user). Select four key points made by the speaker, and consider how these may be applied to a library or an organisation you are familiar with to help it embrace a Library 2.0 ethos. Write 300 – 400 words.

What do you think of the future of our libraries?

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYDl66YfQ0

This video presentation is from Laura Cole (2016), who dedicates to promote the digitisation of the future libraries. There are four key points that are provoking.

• People’s reluctance to change

Emotionally, we do not want to see the disappearance of the paper books. People love to hold a book on their hand, reading the book with a sense of nice smell in a quiet library building. Although the physical books and the beautiful environment have created us with comfortable feelings and good memories, they cannot stop our steps moving forward. The innovation of new technology has driven us to explore more functions to serve the readers. Therefore, we cannot ignore the benefits of digitising our library, simply because we emotionally love the physical books and the library’s site. We need to take the advantages of the technologies and provide services to a broader community.

• Freedom of patron’s physical presentation

The digital library will have no restriction on its patron’s physical presentation. It is one of the most obvious advantages that a digital library could have in assisting a broader community. With internet connection, people could access the library anywhere around world. It provides great convenience for disables or for people who work full-time. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced many libraries to shut down, has no impact on digital libraries or less influence to the libraries with digital collection. Thus, it is important to develop the digital session of all kinds of information agencies.

• Change of librarians’ role

As Core suggests in this video, the librarian’s role is changing. Librarians are no longer just working as “preservers” of physical collections, but as “cultivators” and “navigators” in delivering information to their patrons.

• Usage of the library’s site

Some people may have concern about the usage of the library’s building after the revolution of digitisation. Actually, because of the digital divide in both literacy and finance, the library can still be used in providing facilities and education. The library’s building can still be functioned as community centre for local residences to acquire knowledge and information.

In summary, it is understandable that we love the beautiful environment that the libraries have created in our life. Emotionally, we do not want the electronic devices to replace the paper books. However, we also cannot stop the progress of moving towards a digital world. As an information professional, we need to always think of the future trend so that we can provide better service to a broader community.

References:

Cole, L. (2016, April 16). BiblioTech as the Re-Imagined Public Library: Where Will it Find You? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYDl66YfQ0

Based on your exploration, try to summarise in 400 words what you know and think about the influence of technology on society in general and specifically on organisations. What are some of the main points organisations have to consider that they may not have had to consider in the past?

This world is turning into a digital world. We can now only use the digit wallet in our mobile phone to carry our credit card, driver’s licences, and many other membership cards. It is very convenient that we can use a small mobile device to record all of this useful information. In fact, the outbreaks of the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the procedure of digitisation. People need to scan the QR code to record all the venues they have attended, so that all the casual and close contacts can be chased. The innovation of technology helps the society moving towards a digital world.

If an organisation has not paid much attention to the impact of the advanced technology, it could be left behind in the near future. For example, a live-chat conversation is much more efficient than the way of using email communication. Some questions can be solved by Artificial Intelligence system, which will save budget on human salaries. Just as Cox (2020) argues that the AI may take the academic librarian’s role in data analysing and literacy training et al. (p. 9). There is no “working hour” for an AI, so the clients could contact them at anytime. Therefore, the technology will help the organisations to provide better services.

In addition, as the world is moving towards digitisation, information organisations need to consider the changing roles of their employees. When the organisations start to apply new technologies to replace some jobs, they need to educate their users. Take the AI system as an example, although AI system could make recommendations based on our searching result, it may not be able to provide the exact result. Therefore, there is still a need for human involved activities. Just as Anna and Mannan suggest (2020) that librarians should transform their roles from from the traditional data manager to the knowledge provider. Information professionals need to teach their clients how to use these new technologies more proficiently. Therefore, the employees must keep the same pace with the development of the organisation and always be acknowledged with the innovation of the new technologies.

The world is moving towards digitisation with the inevitable usage of the new technologies. Organisations need to apply the advanced technology to improve their competence in the society. Meanwhile, they should also pay attention to the changing role of their staff.

References:

Anna, N.E.V. and Mannan, E.F. (2020). Big data adoption in academic libraries: A literature review. Library Hi Tech News, 37(4), 1-5. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1108/LHTN-11-2019-0079

Cox, J. (2020). The higher education environment driving academic library strategy: A political, economic, social and technological (PEST) analysis. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102219

Access this journal, Social Media and Society, and read one article from the current issue that appeals to your interests. In a blog post, provide a brief description and an analysis of the article of your choice. Do you agree with the authors? If not – why not? (350-400 words).

In the current issue of Social Media and Society, one of the articles attracts my attention. It is a study investigating the changing attitudes of the oldest-old on the usage of social networking sites (Casanova et al., 2021). The finding demonstrates that most of the older people present a positive attitude in using the social networking sites (SNS), after they receive some training courses. In this article, I particularly agree with the opinion that the use of SNS can improve “the intergenerational communication with children and grandchildren” (Casanova et al., 2021, p. 10). In my family, we use a family WeChat group to share information, pictures and recent stories. My 90 years old grandmother is also in this group. Although she does not talk much, she enjoys watching all these posts, especially the fun videos of her great grandchildren who live abroad. In this way, she is united tightly with the entire family by using the SNS. Therefore, the SNS has its potential influence in reducing the loneliness of older users.

Although the elders can technically interact with the family more frequently by using the SNS, they still need intimate contact. (I need to avoid to use the term “close contact”, as this phrase seems to represent another strange meaning after the Covid-19 outbreaks.) Just as one participants mentions, “real contact with real people counteracts loneliness  and not something virtual” (Casanova et al., 2021, p. 8). Thus, the SNS is not the key to eliminate loneliness. It can be used as a tool to improve older people’s social skills in this modern society. In addition, it is just a substitution when people have no way to get in real touch with each other. We need hugs, cuddle, and face to face communication in real life. The SNS can be applied as a tool to help the elders to join more community activities, and it should not be used as an excuse of not visiting or caring for them.

In other words, it is encouraged to hold more training programs in assisting the older generation using modern social networking tools. However, we must not forget that the tools, including SNS, are used to facilitate more intimate contacts.

Referece:

Casanova, G., Abbondanza, S., Rolandi, E., Vaccaro, R., Pettinato, L., Colombo, M., & Guaita, A. (2021). New older users’ attitudes toward social networking sites and loneliness: The case of the oldest-old residents in a small Italian city. Social Media + Society, 7(4): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211052905