Hungover52

What trends do you see facing Academic libraries in the next five years, both in public services and technical services?

Expanding on the second part, it seems that cataloguing departments seem to be disappearing and libraries, public and academic, seem to be relying on corporate metadata suppliers. How do you see this affecting libraries in the future, and is there much hope for those with cataloguing training and skills to work for academic institutions over private corporations? What are the pros and cons of this trend (if you feel it is actually a trend)?

What approaches are being made to record digital data (websites/pages, videos, et cetra) and preserve it?

What challenges have you experienced so far or expect will make this more difficult in the future?

What recommendations and criteria do you think are important for choosing what materials should be preserved, or at least prioritised?

(Thank you for doing this AMA)

What are the qualities that have served you best during your career that helped you become the Librarian of the Bodleian?

Are there other qualities you may see in applicants or people already working in library services that you believe are a detriment to their professional abilities?

Culturally, what do you feel are the biggest differences between librarians in differing nations? Does a particular country do something particularly well (or poorly), or does their culture support libraries (and library staff) in enviable ways?