text of 'future of the library talk'

I've posted the text of my talk at http://bit.ly/cFb1Od

graphical view of the project

The big picture plan for this project

The Future of Everything

Below you will find the fundamental components of the educational enterprise that collectively define the ways and means of how we 'do' higher education. The profoundly disruptive forces of new technologies, networked information, new business models, the new economy, and the practices so enabled, challenge our conventional notions surrounding nearly every single one of these components, which in turn, complicates our understanding of adjacent components.

The 'Future of Everything' project proposes to interview leading theorists and practioners about these core concepts, and to explore the connections that exist within this ecosystem that collectively comprises the enterprise that we call higher education.

Practice/Policy

We organize our spaces, our information, and our technology in support of a set of evolving educational and scholarly practices, and in the context of our institutional policies and structures. All of this takes place in a social environment, with an ever-changing cast of characters. How might some of our practices, our policies, and our institutional structures change given the changes in space/information/technology on the one hand, and in the demographics of the people working at our schools?

1. the course
2. the lecture
3. the seminar
4. the lab
   
5. tenure
6. the college
7. the academic department
   
8. the curriculum
9. liberal education
10. reading
11. writing
12. assessment
13. copyright and intellectual property
    

Information/Technology

With the advent of the web, in the past ten years we've seen an ever-accelerating set of new approaches to scholarly communication, to providing access to resources, for organizing and visualizing nearly all types of information. What does the future hold for the various types of information and information management tools that we rely on to teach, learn, do research, and publish our research?

1. the monograph
2. the textbook
   
3. the journal article
4. the encyclopedia /reference
   
5. maps
6. video
7. audio
   
8. the course management system
9. the library catalog
10. educational games
11. virtual worlds
    
12. the web
13. data visulization
14. enterprise technology
    

Space

Residential colleges pour millions and millions of dollars into facilities, with the idea that the physical space where education takes place matters. How might our ideas about space change, and how might we design new spaces, or renovate existing spaces, given the changes in information/technology on the one hand, and pedagogy/practice on the other?

1. The library
2. The lecture hall
3. The computer lab
4. The seminar room
5. The reference desk
6. The museum
7. the dorm
   
8. the science lab
9. informal study space
   

The Library and the Future of Everything: Hard Choices in Uncertain Times

Here's the blurb I just wrote for a talk that Clem Guthro from Colby has asked me to give next month:

The Library and the Future of Everything: Hard Choices in Uncertain Times

What is the future of the library? Does the library have a future? In the face of a rapidly changing technology landscape, the library finds itself increasingly having to justify its own existence. The good (or bad) news is that it is not alone in this. The educational landscape in general finds that the challenges and opportunities of new technologies, new business models, and new demographics are forcing a re-thinking of many of its core institutions and practices. This talk will place the question of the future of the library in this broader context, arguing that the entire system of teaching, learning, research, and scholarly communication must be understood as a complex, interdependent system, and that we can expect the changes in one area to impact all other areas.