Academic & Special Libraries
Section of Library Association of Ireland
Helen Shenton - Librarian & College Archivist Trinity College Dublin
About Helen: Helen took up the role as librarian and archivist at TCD in May 2014. Prior to this she was Executive Director of Harvard Library. This role saw her bring together seventy-three individual libraries in areas such as digitisation, accessibility, collection and content development, and records management.
Helen has extensive experience in managing world renowned collections through positions at The British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Keynote Title; Transformative shifts in libraries
Abstract; There are transformative shifts underway in higher education, in research, in teaching and learning, and in information. These range from increasing globalization of higher education and the impact of MOOCs to increasing inter- and multi-disciplinarity; from big data to large scale digital humanities; from mobile technologies to the Open Access movement.
At the same time, there are transformational shifts underway in libraries. These include moving beyond digitisation of the library to “digitalisation” of the library; the development of “library as place, and place as library”; partnership opportunities for capital and infrastructure development and innovation; new business models of access to content and collaborative collection and content development; the democratisation of collections through digitization leading to greater emphasis on unique collections; the need for new skills for information and library staff.
The implications and opportunities of these transformational shifts for the future of libraries and those working in libraries will be explored.
