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For this fourth column in the IT I‐V (information technology interview) series participants actively engaged or interested in the metadata harvesting protocol of the open archives initiative were interviewed. The metadata harvesting initiative targets information generally inaccessible through standard browser searches, such as information stored in databases or within library online public access catalogs. We selected this topic as an information technology‐based initiative with the potential to provide information about the usefulness of metadata: in particular the Dublin Core metadata standard, but also about other metadata standards, as the protocol design supports community‐specific schemas as well. The group interviewed represents developers, commercial information providers, funders, and members of the scholarly publishing community. Along with learning about the interests and concerns of each of these stakeholders and about specific applications of the protocol, we identify potential questions that will ultimately need to be addressed.

Because of online digital resources, academic libraries no longer need to spend as much time and energy organizing their own collections as they used to. They now have an opportunity to pivot their expertise in organizing information outward. “Inside-out” library services can include support for special collections, digital scholarship, scholarly communication, and data management. A key characteristic of such services is that an academic library takes on broader information management challenges at their college or university. This chapter will examine what it takes to build successful inside-out library services by looking at their cost, how well they complement existing library expertise and culture, and their impact on teaching, research, and the wider community.

The purpose of this article is to present a series of reflections on future scenarios distributed to Taiga Forum participants in March 2006.

Permission was obtained to reprint the scenarios, and select national library leaders, seasoned professionals and mid‐career librarians were invited to respond to these scenarios.

Taiga scenarios focus on broad areas – internal organizational structures, advances in information technology, changing user expectations. Local engagement with these scenarios will help staff prepare for the future. Scenarios lend themselves to a variety of uses, including in‐service training, staff development, team building. Scenario planning can easily be tailored to the specific needs of an institution.

The Taiga Forum was an invitation‐only event. Broader dissemination of the scenarios provides others not only with the opportunity to move beyond their borders in technical services, public services, collection development, or information technology, and transcend the traditional library organization, but also with the opportunity to develop new solutions.

Repository Libraries need to pause and re-consider their role and future purpose in the light of the Digital Disruption of the whole library and publishing industries. This paper seeks to expose some of the issues in this re-examination.

The Kuopio Conference is a seminal conference series exploring the trials, successes and futures of repository libraries globally. The paper seeks to draw out the tensions in libraries and in publishing asking the questions of why and how.

Scenario planning assists in enabling us to think about issues which are disruptive rather than assuming that the future will be steady and assured. This paper is a call to the community to re-think what is being planned and executed.

This re-examination is different in the nature of the papers detailing what has been achieved.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize and discuss potential factors for convergence between libraries, archives and museums (LAMs).

This is a conceptual paper that criticizes existing research on the convergence between the LAMs for a lack of theoretical reflection and a sacralization of technology. Therefore, concepts such as convergent evolution, isomorphism, social fields and autonomy are used to analyze other potential factors for convergence.

The paper demonstrates that digitalization is not the only potential driver of convergence between the LAMs. Indeed, other changes in institutions’ environments, such as societal changes, shifts in cultural policy and increasingly common practices among cultural institutions can represent important drivers.

Given that this paper is primarily based on theoretical reflections, future research should empirically investigate the non-digital factors suggested for convergence.

The paper represents an attempt to detect a “blind spot” in existing research on convergences between the LAM institutions and to identify some potential paths for future research to follow.

The purpose of this article is to explore the changing skill sets, operating environments and community engagement activities which can create a robust and valued future for libraries and librarians. It is easy to paint a doom-laden picture of the future of libraries against a background of library cuts, professional deskilling and the relentless advance of ever more powerful digital information systems. However, these self-same threats offer new challenges for information management.

Personal view of the future based on current literature.

It is better to seek forgiveness than permission. Seize the day.

Just one point of view among many.

Librarians need to act.

The library can remain core to civilised societies.

Others must judge that.

This paper reviews BIBLINK, an EC funded project that is attempting to create links between national bibliographic agencies and the publishers of electronic resources. The project focuses on the flow of information, primarily in the form of metadata, between publishers and national libraries. The paper argues that in the digital information environment, the role of national bibliographic agencies will become increasingly dependent upon the generation of electronic links between publishers and other agents in the bibliographic chain. Related work carried out by the Library of Congress with regard to its Electronic CIP Program is described. The core of the paper outlines studies produced by the BIBLINK project as background to the production of a demonstrator that will attempt to establish some of these links. This research includes studies of metadata formats in use and an investigation of the potential for format conversion, including an outline of the BIBLINK Core metadata elements and comments on their potential conversion into UNIMARC. BIBLINK studies on digital identifiers and authentication are also outlined.