The iGroup-InfoHost User Group Meeting was held on 18 September 2009 afternoon at Biopolis. Mr Lee Pit Teong opened the meeting and emphasized the need to learn from technology experts and to keep up our knowledge.

Paul Gandel from Singapore Management University and Syracuse University talked about “Branding Libraries for the Future”. Great brands have a vision that matters, reflect reality and are built from strengths. They communicate clearly, project a credible image and strike an emotional chord with their customers.

He recommended that libraries ask what is the role of the library, the role of librarians, the role of the organization, the role of the building (which might not necessarily be the same) and also these questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why does it matter?

He suggested taking advantage of the long tail of technology and to be better at using technology. Librarians could create value by shifting workload in the team to effectively do teaching, research and student engagement.

Richard Katz from Educause spoke on “The Scholar, Scholarship and the Scholarly Enterprise in the Digital Age”. He talked about the changes in scholarship and its implications for the future. A parallel could be drawn between scholarship and librarianship. Some universities are facing empty classrooms as student choose their mode of learning and this mirrors what some libraries are facing with empty libraries as students choose their mode of accessing information.

Scholars may not need to be in universities to do their work and he talked about what would draw them back. Universities could be a platonic gatekeeper, providing a Kantian separation of academia and society, providing a hierachy of facilities and being an educational factory. He postulated that education would stay put but the university in the future would be less of a physical place but more a place for ideas.

The panel discussion facilitated by Paul Gandel with Choy Fatt Cheong (NTU), Leong Mun Kew (NLB), Ruth Pagell (SMU) and Sylvia Yap (NUS), opened with the question of what could be done collectively for library services. Ruth proposed that libraries be seen to be working collaboratively and Choy proposed having librarians as a common resource that could be rotated among libraries like “cloud librarians” in line with the concept of cloud computing. Leong proposed that we create differentiation, use technology to lead and to create new platforms. Sylvia proposed finding out what about end user needs and then building the roles of librarians around their needs.

This led to the question of what library schools are teaching their students and what skills were needed when they joined the workforce. The skills mentioned were domain expertise, technology expertise, information management skills and facilitation skills.

Sylvia highlighted that they want their librarians to be seen in the user’s space and they focused more on outreach to faculty and students. Choy highlighted that they have changed the structure of NTU Library to create more subject librarians who also do library operations. The intention is to embed the librarians in the school. Ruth highlighted that there were contradictions in wanting to put librarians in different spaces, to have more roles beyond the traditional and to partner faculty. Librarians would need to learn new skills and new roles while keeping their core skills and domain knowledge. Paul put forth the idea of having a few librarians that set the brand, very much like what the F1 drivers do for their industry to market cars, while the rest of the librarians serve their local community.

The afternoon ended at Water & Wine with a cocktail party serving of course wine and water paired with scrumptious bites created by their new executive chef.

Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin