Report on the participation in the International Summer School on the Digital Library, 15-27 August 1999 held at the Katholieke Universiteit Brabant in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Organised by: Tilburg Innovation Centre for Electronic Resources (Ticer)
	By Linda Cloete
	1. Introduction
	"Five years ago, the library at my laboratory used to occupy several large rooms and employ 30 people. It has been replaced by a digital library that is now ten times bigger - and growing fast. This digital library is staffed by only 12 of the original librarians who are now amongst the best html programmers in the company. The digital library has become an essential part of our lives and the work output has gone up tenfold in 10 years." Professor Peter Cochrane Head of Research British Telecom
	The forty five participants in the 1999 summer school were confronted with the above quotation during the opening presentation by John Mackenzie Owen (professor of information science at the University of Amsterdam). Immediately the question was voiced: "But what happened to the other 18 librarians?". Answer: They had to find other employment. Only the best qualified and trained librarians, especially in information technology skills, eager to learn new skills and participate in change, could stay. The goal of the summer school was stated as: " ... to prepare librarians for setting up their own digital library". The summer school, however, also prepared participants, who are mostly librarians in middle management positions in academic and corporate libraries, to prepare their existing libraries for the digital age.
	2. The digital library
	Changing to the digital library is a drastic change. It should be distinguished from library automation, which means the automation or computerisation of existing library routines. Digitalisation in the library context means that information that was previously on paper is now on computer. A user will not walk in the library anymore, select a document with relevant information, take it out of the library to his/her office / home / other destination to use the information in a task. The user of the digital library stays in the office / home / another country / sits in the bus or train and presses a few keys on the keyboard and the relevant information for a task is available on his/her desktop to use. The entry point to the library is not a door anymore, but a browser.
	The whole concept of a "document" changes with the use of interactive multimedia and hypertext. Distinction should be made between documents that appeared in printed format and are merely also made available on computer by means of PDF. The electronic document created by means of hypertext and interactive multimedia is a dynamic source of information that can easily be manipulated and changed. This results in new challenges regarding copyright, authority control and quality control, to name but a few crucial aspects. It is expected that in the future libraries will become more subject or domain based and not be restricted to an institution or even a country. One could therefore have one "South African Library of Economics" instead of academic and other institutions having their own libraries for economics. Co-operation among libraries and other organisations will become more and more important to eliminate duplication and promote resource sharing. International online networking amongst libraries is already a daily activity in library work. In South Africa even the smaller public and community libraries have online electronic access to information sources via the provincial and national library services. The future users of the library, and then in particular the digital library, are often referred to as the NET generation. They are the children of today who grow up in front of computers and who already believe that if anything is not on the NET, it does not exist. As students they already pose new challenges to teachers and lecturers. They are not interested in lectures - they have already found all the information given in lectures on the NET. They need to learn what to do with the information. The constructivist approach to teaching and action learning will play a vital role in educating and training the NET generation. As students they are also media centre users (school level) and academic library users. Since their information world is the digital environment it means that they will demand electronic information sources and hardly use the traditional paper-based sources and facilities. Whether librarians find this acceptable or not, it will be the reality. The new authors will also become present on the web and not in print. More and more authors and researchers are quite happy to publish their findings and information directly on the web and not in printed sources or even electronic scientific journals. Their motivation is that their information can immediately be available for colleagues and fellow-researchers. Publishing in scientific journals (paper or electronic) takes too long since an article first has to be reviewed and that can take several months. In certain study fields this results in the information already being outdated by the time it is published. A pre-published copy on the web makes the information immediately available. Of course this brings new problems. Information on the web is not controlled. It can be removed or changed. If it is not properly indexed, it is very difficult to retrieve. There is no quality control of the contents. It is up to the user to decide what is useful, quality information and what not. Where the librarian serves as an intermediary between the information sources and the user (s)he has to decide. Services to users will become mush more personalised. Computerised profiles of user will enable the computer to select the best possible information sources for the user's needs. Libraries will compete with other sources of information. There are more choices for users. Quality and service must go up and cost come down (for the user). In the digital environment, the catalogue will not only describe and locate information sources in a particular library, but will do that for information sources anywhere in the world or in cyberspace, in any format. Access should be provided via multiple access points in the online catalogue. This means that all the web sites should also be meticulously catalogued and indexed. The functions of cataloguing and indexing will not be restricted to librarians any more, but will also be performed by publishers (formal and informal) and subscription agents. This means that these people will have to be trained in cataloguing and indexing skills. The digital library is not an end, but a tool. It must provide more of what the users want and less of what they do not want.
	3. Information literacy
	Hans Geleinse (university librarian at Tilburg) emphasised the importance of information literacy, i.e. training users on how to find and locate relevant information and how to actually use that information for optimal task performance. He suggested that at academic institutions the responsible faculty and/or subject librarians should become involved in lecturing on how to use information in a particular study field. In an academic institution where there is a school / programme for library and information training, as in the case of the programme Library and Information Studies (LIS) at TSA, such a programme should be responsible for information literacy training. This could be done in co-operation with the library where the library would be responsible for the training in finding and locating information sources and the lecturing staff of LIS would be responsible for training users how to use the information. At TSA initiatives to that effect are already in progress.
	4. Strategic planning
	Strategic planning is essential for developing the digital library or changing the existing traditional library into a digital library. The strategic planning process was studied extensively using case studies. A major concern voiced by participants was that they already had to work with limited budgets and that financially it would be extremely difficult to change to the digital environment. To that Eugenie Prime (manager of Corporate Libraries at Hewlett-Packard Company) gave the following answer: Money should never be a preventative factor - if you have good plans, money will always be found sooner or later.
	5. Hybrid libraries
	It would be totally unrealistic to think that our traditional paper-based libraries will overnight be transformed into electronic suppliers of information on our desktops. Even in the highly technological developed countries it is anticipated that the combination of paper- based and electronic libraries, the so-called hybrid library, will for a long time still exist. This means of course that librarians will still have to maintain traditional functions as well as introduce new initiatives related to the electronic environment. Proper task management and time management as well as dedication and training in all the necessary skills are therefore essential for the librarian.
	6. SWOT analysis
	During one of the practical sessions of the summer school, the participants had to perform a SWOT analysis of their libraries. Since I do not work at a library I used the opportunity to do a SWOT analysis of our LIS programme and this is the result:
	Strengths: Enthusiastic, well qualified staff Visionary ideas and initiatives Pleasant physical work environment Well defined student market Manageable student numbers Adequate computer equipment (hardware and software) Experiential training system in place Geographical location Positive image (of LIS programme) Weaknesses Out-dated course material Inadequate support systems Inadequate technical infrastructure Inadequate communication infrastructure (with students) Inadequate remuneration, rewards and incentives for staff Opportunities Upgrading of course material for OBE (already in process) Lots of new contents on the digital library to include in our course material Expanding our market to include students from the publishing world, as well as internationally via online courses Many research topics regarding the digital library and training librarians for the digital environment Close co-operation with ITC to improve communication and technical infrastructures Training and staff development Short courses in co-operation with the Bureau of Applied Communication Training information users in information literacy More co-operation with libraries as well as other academic institutions and stakeholders Threats Too much administrative work and therefore not enough time for research and development The bureaucratic organisation within which we have to function Decrease in funds Competition Inadequate marketing (This list is open for comments and criticism by my LIS colleagues!)
	After such a SWOT analysis one usually tries to use the strengths to overcome the weaknesses and threats and to change them into opportunities. In the LIS programme we attempt as far as it is within our control to do this.
	We can also use weaknesses of libraries as an opportunity for the LIS programme. Most of the participating librarians at the summer school identified lack of qualified staff as a weakness in their SWOT analysis. This provides us with the opportunity to train librarians (also internationally).
	Librarians of the digital library must have the following qualities / qualifications / skills: A pro-active attitude Subject expertise Traditional library skills New library skills Communication skills Project management skills Strategic planning skills Time management skills Computer skills Web publishing skills Information management skills How to handle copyright issues The ability to work in teams (within the library as well as with other stakeholders) Teaching skills For the LIS programme this means that it is our responsibility to prepare our existing library students as well as future students, who could be anywhere in the world and who could also come from other environments than libraries, in the above mentioned skills.
	7. Value of participation in the summer school for TSA, programme group Applied Communication and in particular the LIS programme
	The visit added value: to the delivery of high quality study material including all the latest developments in the electronic library; to incorporating information technology with regard to the electronic library and as an integral part of the study material; to resource allocation, especially human resources, in the sense that much of what was learned by one staff member during the summer school, can also be incorporated into other library subjects such as Library and Information Technology II and Information Retrieval III and the proposed development of Library and Information Technology III, IV and V; to total quality management in that study material and practical learning opportunities of a high quality can be provided to our students; in that the contact with individuals and institutions at the summer school could lead to closer collaboration and liaison between TSA and these institutions; to staff development in that the training of a staff member will enable the staff member to produce up-to-date, relevant study material; to improved student services : they will receive up-to date course material as well as hands-on exercises and applications could be developed for them in their own work situations. Revision of course material
	The LIS programme is presently revising the course material for all subjects. Information Retrieval III is scheduled to be revised in 2000. Information Retrieval III concentrates on electronic organisation and retrieval of information. The subject Library and Information Technology II is also scheduled for revision in 2000. The contents of that subject will concentrate largely on new electronic and technological innovations in libraries, networks, the internet and web publishing in the library environment. We will also start with the development of Library and Information Technology on third and fourth year levels - the first technikon to do this. Our proposal in this regard has already been approved by our Advisory Committee. We envisage to add Library and Information Technology as another optional subject for the MTech (Coursework and Research Paper).
	The Summer School provided me with all the latest information to be incorporated in the course material. We will adapt as many as possible of the hands-on exercises and case studies for practical projects for our students.
	Further training
	A discussion list has also been established through which participants and lecturers are able to continue training and have discussions after the summer school. We will therefore keep up to date with the latest developments as well as proceedings of future summer schools.
	8. Conclusion
	Participating in the summer school of 1999 provided me with some insight in the latest developments towards the digital library. It was especially important to identify the training needs in this regard. I believe that TSA and in particular our LIS programme could become international leaders in providing training opportunities.
	This article is written by Linda Cloete, Lecturer library & information studies at Technikon Southern Africa. Ticer B.V. is not responsible for its content. Copyright Linda Cloete (1999-09-13).

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last updated 27 October 1999