“The data deluge is affecting scholarship and learning in ways both subtle and profound.” (Borgman p8)
In shaping a strategy for the next decade we must reflect upon some key strategic questions to inform our choices.
In a decade’s time how do we believe:
- researchers across different disciplines will access, analyse, create and disseminate research data, research outputs, creative works?
- teachers will create, synthesise and use scholarly information and scholarly works in their teaching?
- learners will access, analyse, use, synthesize and create scholarly information and scholarly works?
- the broader community will seek to engage with and be part of the University’s scholarship?
What will our University community look like? What will the mix of students be? How will they seek to access our services, to participate in learning, to do research? What technologies will they bring to the campus? How will our physical campus have changed?
The answers to these questions must shape the way in which we address the difficult choices below. In reality it may not be possible to answer these questions — it may be that the assumptions we each make now are at the foundations of the difficult choices we must make.
From the consultation process there have emerged some clear areas of agreement about what is important, but strong divergence about how each should be addressed:
- Ongoing development of scholarly literacy for students (embedded within the curriculum) and for staff (mentioned positively in 19 submissions)
- Mix of physical and digital collections (mentioned in 31 submissions: 19 mentioned physical collections positively, 12 mentioned digital and 10 expressed a need for both)
- Research data management services (17 submissions)
- The need to have/to develop a new type of staff member, the ’scholar librarian for a digital age’ or informatics professional to work closely with researchers (17 submissions)
- Infrastructure for research and collaboration (17 submissions on data storage, 7 on identity management, 9 on high bandwidth network, 8 on collaboration tools)
Some choices are less clear. The questions below are interdependent, and the answer to one question may constrain the possibilities for another. We invite your thoughts on these difficult decisions.
The difficulty is that we want it all.
The reality is that we must make choices and set priorities.
Difficult choices: