Digital Shift
The rapid evolution and diversification of digital technologies, tools, and techniques will continue to transform research library collections, services, and user expectations. As the fourth industrial revolution deepens, RLUK will proactively support its members to seize the collective opportunities and face the shared challenges that new and emerging technologies and methodologies bring. It will do so with an emphasis on openness, inclusivity, and sustainability.
RLUK will be refreshing its Digital Shift Manifesto, outlining the actions our community will undertake to be ready for the next decade of the Digital Shift. Research libraries are strongly positioned to lead and influence the effective exploitation of digital technologies within their institutions, and we are keen to unlock the potential which the Digital Shift offers.
We will build programmes, joint resources, and skills-sharing opportunities that enhance the collective digital skills base of its members, directed by a digital workforce development strategy which has diversity at its core.
The Digital Workforce Development Strategy provides a model for RLUK members to both reflect and to look ahead to managing their digital workforce development and proposes a Digital Skills Framework reflecting current initiatives over the short, medium and long term for Library Directors, Associate Directors and Senior Managers.
The Digital Shift Forum will continue to bring together colleagues from across the information, research, cultural and heritage communities, and third and commercial sectors, to discuss the future of the digital shift in collections, services, and audiences.
EXECUTIVE LEAD
William Nixon
BOARD CHAMPIONS
Kirsty Lingstadt
Kate Price
RLUK Networks
RLUK’s Networks explore areas of professional or strategic interest to members, and work closely with the Board and Executive to deliver RLUK’s strategic objectives.
The Digital Shift strategic strand is supported by:
The Digital Scholarship Network (DSN), a professional peer network for RLUK members involved in the development and delivery of Digital Scholarship services within member libraries.
The Digital Shift Working Group (DSWG) is formed of colleagues drawn from across RLUK’s member networks with an interest in the digital shift. The group created ‘the digital shift manifesto’, and will oversee and lead a programme of activity to realise its vision.
Related Events
RLUK’s Digital Shift Forum brings together colleagues from across the information, research, cultural and heritage communities, and third and commercial sectors, to discuss the future of the digital shift in collections, services, and audiences.
The series aims to promote cross-sector discussion and debate, to enable knowledge exchange, and inspire collaborative endeavour across sectors and communities, for the benefit of RLUK members and the wider research and information management communities.
Related Reports
Digital scholarship and the role of the research library
This report presents the findings of RLUK’s digital scholarship survey, which was undertaken between January-April 2019. The purpose of survey was to establish the nature and extent of digital scholarship activities taking place within RLUK member libraries, the infrastructural, skills and funding requirements of these activities, and the potential areas for future collective action between RLUK members. It also sought to enable international benchmarking between RLUK member libraries and their counterparts in North America and Ireland through its alignment with research undertaken elsewhere.
Covid-19 and the Future of the Digital Shift amongst Research Libraries
This article explores how the Covid-19 pandemic has witnessed the digital shift in action. Combining the reflections of individual academic and research libraries, and using RLUK’s previous research into the impact of Covid-19 as a foundation, this article reflects on how realistic and future looking the manifesto was. It explores the collective experiences of libraries regarding the digital shift, considers progress made in the implementation of the manifesto against this rapidly changing backdrop, and provides a series of reflections for the future.