Future Directions in Digital Information: Predictions, Practice, Participation

David Baker · Lucy Ellis

Oct 2020 · Chandos Publishing

About this ebook

The last decade has seen significant global changes that have impacted the library, information, and learning services and sciences. There is now a mood to find pragmatic information solutions to pressing global challenges. Future Directions in Digital Information presents the latest ideas and approaches to digital information from across the globe, portraying a sense of transition from old to new. This title is a comprehensive, international take on key themes, advances, and trends in digital information, including the impact of developing technologies. The latest volume in the ‘Chandos Digital Information Review Series’, this book will help practitioners and thinkers looking to keep pace with, and excel among, the digital choices and pathways on offer, to develop new systems and models, and gain information on trends in the educational and industry contexts that make up the information sphere. A group of international contributors has been assembled to give their view on how information professionals and scientists are creating the future along five distinct themes: Strategy and Design; Who are the Users?; Where Formal meets Informal; Applications and Delivery; and finally, New Paradigms. The multinational perspectives contained in this volume acquaint readers with problems, approaches, and achievements in digital information from around the world, with equity of information access emerging as a key challenge.

• Presents a global perspective on how information science and services are changing and how they can best adapt
• Gives insight into how managers can make the best decisions about the future provision of their information services
• Engages key practical issues faced by information professionals such as how best to collect and deploy user data in libraries
• Presents digital literacy as a global theme, stressing the need to foster literacy in a broad range of contexts
• Interrogates how ready information professionals are for emergent technological and social change across the globe

About the author

David Baker has published widely in the field of Library and Information Studies, with 19 monographs and over 100 articles to his credit. He has spoken worldwide at numerous conferences and led workshops and seminars. His other key professional interest and expertise has been in the field of human resources, where he has also been active in major national projects. He has held senior positions at several institutions, including as Principal and Chief Executive of Plymouth Marjon University, and Emeritus Professor of Strategic Information Management. He has also been Deputy Chair of the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc). Until recently he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Universities of Northampton and South Wales. He is Chair of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance. He is a leader in the field of library and information science.

Lucy Ellis is a consultant and research associate within higher education. Her background is as a lecturer, research scientist and project development consultant. With Professor David Baker she is Editor-in-Chief for the Elsevier Major Reference Work ‘Encyclopaedia of Libraries, Librarianship, and Information Science’ and Chandos-Elsevier Series Editor for ‘Digital Information Review’ and the ‘Advances in Information’ series. Recent books in this series include Libraries, Digital Information and COVID: Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change and Future Directions in Digital Information: Predictions, Practice and Participation. She is a reviewer for Information and Learning Sciences (Wiley), Journal of British Institute of Organ Studies, British Academy grants scheme and the publisher Palgrave. Following a PhD in Experimental Phonetics she worked as a Senior Lecturer and programme leader at Plymouth Marjon University and as a project development consultant. She holds an Honorary Research Fellowship with the College of Humanities at Exeter University.