This lecture was delivered by Ms Christine Urquhart from Aberystwyth University. It had to do mostly with library systems and what library services are for different types of users.
Library systems have different types of users each with their own particular needs and expectations. These include undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic staff and researchers. For example undergraduate students want more resources and mobile devices and the library provides them with resources and also with study space. Researchers expect to have e-journals and specialist resources for their research. In fact they do depository negotiations for specialised material to be made available at the library. Thus it is important for libraries to focus clearly on every problem and issue to get a “rich picture” and then solve problems from there.
It is also necessary for libraries to do a business process analysis by seeing how different processes fit together and make sure not to leave anything important out. Librarians must also as themselves if the roles and activities are sufficient for the working of the library system.
To understand library systems better, librarians need also to understand what is so interesting about the book. This includes understanding how it can be used, its different versions if any and what type of relationships exist. We must have conceptual views such as who created the work, who produced the manifestation and who is the owner of the book. Is the book named Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen produced for schools or the edition published by the publisher, or the book found in my library at home?
Resource Description Framework (RDF) was also mentioned. Classification thinking here is much more than Dewey!
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