Internet Librarian International 2009 – I'd like your ideas

I have been honoured to be asked to speak at the Internet Librarian International 2009 #ILI2009 meeting this October (Oct 14,15,16, London). We’ve had a phone call and some snippets of thought to outline what I might talk about but – as I always make clear – don’t know what I shall actually say till I find out what the audience is like. I shall – by necessity – be urging that we change. I’m not quite sure what but here are some ideas:

• We must get young people immediately involved in changing the future.

• We must be immersed in how the real web works, not how we would like it to work. Unless we think like Google, Wikipedia, Twine, Twitter we miss the point. It, not us, are reality.

• We must reform the practice of copyright. We may be getting close to civil disobedience. Because unless we do we shall not control our future but be controlled by others.

• We must move fast.

• We must find ways of collaborating using the web. I’ve just been talking with Rufus Pollock about how the Open Knowledge Foundation can use digital media to grow a community of practice.

Last time I was asked to speak (at the JISC Libraries of the Future 2009) I used this blog to try to gather ideas about what I should say. That didn’t start out very successful in that I got no responses. So – whether deliberately or not – I turned up the outrage button and started to get input – on the blog and more valuably on FriendFeed. FF is a much more loquacious feedback than the blog and Twitter is even more so.

I came away from #LOTF09 convinced that (a) libraries were going to have to work harder to change towards the future and that (b) academia was slowly starting to get the point – e.g. Harvard would start challenging the publishers to insist that Harvard’s work was Open to the world. The details of this are still being worked/fought out (and I gather there is another publisher cartel lobbying the US congress/senate next week). But we have to get more universities fighting for their rights.

Of course Internet Librarian is not just academia and certainly not just science. But as Brian Kelly (another speaker at ILI2009) makes clear (http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/respect-copyright-and-subvert-it/) we have to change:

Free your materials: Make use of Creative Commons for the materials that you create.

Take a risk management approach: Change does not occur without taking risks. So we prepared to take risks, but asses the risks and make an informed decision.

Be open about the risks: Share the approaches your have taken with others. Help them to assess the risks they may face in reusing your content.

But change is neededAnd remember that there will be people and organisations within our sector who will have vested interests in maintaining the status quo. If, for example, you are involved in negotiating copyright deals, you may be concerned that your empire would be threatened by the widespread available of open content. Or maybe you simply don’t want to rock the boat.  !

So I need your ideas! In the debate about LOTF09 Brian called me a “critical friend” – someone who was aligned in the same direction but prepared to challenge. So I am supportive of libraries and Libraries (even though I am adhering to a personal view rather than any manifestation). I don’t know what the Library of the future will look like. But whatever it is it must belong to the commons of the web and it must be managed in their interest.