The Future Library in the Age of Digital Disruption
30 Aug | Dr Rafael Ball, director of the ETH Library will discuss the impact of big data, digital disruption, open access, open data and open science on science communication and the role of libraries.
The development of modern scientific libraries is being shaped by technological changes, a change in user behaviour (Generation Y) and the developments in the commercial information market. At this lunch talk, Dr Rafael Ball, director of the ETH Library will start with a brief look into the evolution of science communication, the emergence of the first scientific journals and the impact of digitalization on the format and media in science communication.
A closer look at the present and the future will provide insight into how science communicates today and will do so in the future, and how libraries have to adapt and develop to remain sustainable and sought after by service providers for research and teaching.
About the speaker
Dr Rafael Ball has been director of ETH-Bibliothek since 1 March 2015. He holds doctorates in biology and science history and studied biology, Slavonic studies and philosophy at the Universities of Mainz, Warsaw and Moscow. He completed a two-year postgraduate qualification as a scientific librarian in 1996 and was head of user services at the Central Library in the Forschungszentrum Jülich from 1996 to 1998, which he ran from 1998. Ball was director of the University Library of Regensburg from 2008 to 2015. He has written and edited numerous publications, and is a dedicated speaker and a lecturer at various universities. His main work and research interests are the library of the future, science communication and the role of the printed book in the digital age.
He is a member of the German Research Foundation (consultant on the LIS programme, Subcommittee for Information Management), IFLA (IFLA Journal – Editorial Committee, Standing Committee Academic and Research Libraries), IARU International Alliance of Research Universities (Library Group), Scientific Advisory Board at the University and City Library of Cologne, Advisory Board of the Informations- und Kommunikationsring der Finanzdienstleister (IK), and various professional associations.