Page 9 - ICDL 2019 - Background Paper
P. 9
1. Background
Digital transformation is about revolutionizing the
way organizations and institutions are continuously
changing internal operations and activities, addressing
the needs of various stakeholders, and embracing
new trends and technologies. An agile approach is to
roll out new initiatives across the organization, which
will ensure that all team members quickly adapt
and deliver key product and service innovations and
survive in a rapidly developing digital world.
Digital transformation has four major objectives:
To increase the opportunities of sharing 1 2
innovative practices and concepts across the To increase recognition of and support
profession, nationally and internationally, and for experimentation with innovative and
amongst all libraries. transformational ideas.
To help libraries make use of new and 3 To increase leadership development and 4
emerging technologies by promoting and training opportunities designed to support
supporting technological experimentation and the ongoing transformation of libraries.
innovation.
1.1 How Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation Are
Different?
Whether handwritten in ledgers or typed into documents, data was or has been in analogue formats. If you
wanted to gather or share information, you dealt with physical documents — papers and binders, photo-coping,
and faxes. Then computers went mainstream, and most organizations and institutions started converting all of
those ink-on-paper records to digital files. Therefore, digitization refers to the process of converting information
from analogue to digital.
Finding and sharing information became much easier once it had been digitized, but the ways in which
organizations or institutions used their new digital records largely mimicked the old analogue methods.
The process of using digitized information to make established ways of working simpler and more efficient
ways is called digitalization. Note the word established in that definition: Digitalization is not about changing
how you do business, or create new types of businesses. It is about keeping on keeping on, but faster and
better now that your data is instantly accessible and not trapped in a file cabinet somewhere in a dusty archive.
3
Digital transformation is about revolutionizing the
way organizations and institutions are continuously
changing internal operations and activities, addressing
the needs of various stakeholders, and embracing
new trends and technologies. An agile approach is to
roll out new initiatives across the organization, which
will ensure that all team members quickly adapt
and deliver key product and service innovations and
survive in a rapidly developing digital world.
Digital transformation has four major objectives:
To increase the opportunities of sharing 1 2
innovative practices and concepts across the To increase recognition of and support
profession, nationally and internationally, and for experimentation with innovative and
amongst all libraries. transformational ideas.
To help libraries make use of new and 3 To increase leadership development and 4
emerging technologies by promoting and training opportunities designed to support
supporting technological experimentation and the ongoing transformation of libraries.
innovation.
1.1 How Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation Are
Different?
Whether handwritten in ledgers or typed into documents, data was or has been in analogue formats. If you
wanted to gather or share information, you dealt with physical documents — papers and binders, photo-coping,
and faxes. Then computers went mainstream, and most organizations and institutions started converting all of
those ink-on-paper records to digital files. Therefore, digitization refers to the process of converting information
from analogue to digital.
Finding and sharing information became much easier once it had been digitized, but the ways in which
organizations or institutions used their new digital records largely mimicked the old analogue methods.
The process of using digitized information to make established ways of working simpler and more efficient
ways is called digitalization. Note the word established in that definition: Digitalization is not about changing
how you do business, or create new types of businesses. It is about keeping on keeping on, but faster and
better now that your data is instantly accessible and not trapped in a file cabinet somewhere in a dusty archive.
3
