Talis Insight 2004 conference: views of technology futures
| Date | 01 October 2005 |
| Published date | 01 October 2005 |
| Pages | 514-520 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510631227 |
| Author | Ken Chad |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
VIEWPOINT
Talis Insight 2004 conference:
views of technology futures
Ken Chad
Executive Director, Talis, Birmingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose – To share with a wider audience key papers from the Talis Insight conference held in
November 2004.
Design/methodology/approach – The article highlights four key presentations, and gives an
executive summary showing key themes from the whole event.
Findings – The paper highlights libraries’ work with text messaging, web applications to highlight
resource collections, libraries’ integration with councils to provide better access to library and council
services, and improved stock disposal through selling books online through Amazon.
Originality/value – Offers librarians and information managers the opportunity to see what
innovations in service other libraries are achieving through use of new technology or new ways of
working.
Keywords Libraries, Mobilecommunication systems, Worldwideweb, Government
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
The two-day Talis conference, Talis Insight 2004, presented a strong mix of external
speakers and Talis customers, who shared their experiences in libraries and of
technology with the 150 delegates from public and academic libraries. Talis customers
represent around one quarter of the UK’s public libraries and over one quarter of the
UK’s higher education libraries. Held at the Birmingham NEC on 9-10 November 2004,
external speakers included Mary Jackson, Director of Collections and Access Programs
of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Rachel van Riel of Opening the Book,
and Paul Miller, Common Information Environment Director for the Joint Information
Services Committee (JISC).
The overarching message to take away from the conference was that libraries are in
a changing world of user demands and expectations, technological changes, changing
funding streams ... and libraries must change what they are doing to survive and
must add value with the change to make themselves more relevant to the user
community.
The importance of technology in driving developments in libraries and user
expectations was an omnipresent theme of the conference and in his presentation of
Talis’s strategic vision, the company’s CEO, Dave Errington, stated, “We’re navigating
through a new information environment and so are libraries. Talis is applying
technology to harness the opportunities presented by the evolving role of libraries, to
provide competitive advantage to our library customers so that they can provide ev er
better service to their users. Information services are in a changing world of user
demands and expectations, technological changes, changing funding strea ms [...] they
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
EL
23,5
514
The Electronic Library
Vol. 23 No. 5, 2005
pp. 514-520
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470510631227
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