We are becoming used to living in an interconnected world, with vast amounts of data at our fingertips, but what happens when our preconceptions are challenged? What happens when the things that we take for granted simply don’t work any more? How can librarians rise to the challenge? In this invited talk for CILIP, I reflect on the impact for libraries and librarians of some of the defining narratives of the late Anthropocene era: from climate change and failed states to cheap space travel and artificial intelligence

1. Librarians in Outer Space
Martin Hamilton

2. About Jisc
» Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g.Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

3. » Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g.Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
About Jisc
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

4. » Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g.Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
About Jisc
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

5. Librarians in Outer Space
1. We were promised jet packs…
2. Utopia or dystopia?
3. Librarians in Outer Space?
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

6. 1. We were promised jet packs…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

7. We were promised jet packs…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

8. We were promised jet packs…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

9. We were promised jet packs…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

10. Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Data vandalism

11. Data vandalism
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

12. Radical librarians
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

13. Radical librarians
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

14. 2. Utopia or dystopia?
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

15. Let’s play: Utopia or dystopia?
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
1. Driverless (or self-driving, or
autonomous) cars (lorries, buses…)
- blessed relief, or frankly terrifying?
2. Space tourism - fancy a weekend
break on the moon?
3. Smart homes - from Internet
connected locks to toothbrushes
4. DNA editing (CRISPR/Cas9) - we can
rebuild you (or your unborn child)
Actually Brunel University, even if it looks a bit like
some kind of Martian habitat

16. It’s all cats from here…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

17. It’s all cats from here… (and cat monsters!)
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

18. It’s all cats from here… (and dogs!)
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Trending image from Deep Dream Generator - https://deepdreamgenerator.com/

19. AI meets Shakespeare
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
From http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/
VIOLA:Why, Salisbury must find his flesh and thought
That which I am not aps, not a man and in fire,
To show the reining of the raven and the wars
To grace my hand reproach within, and not a fair are hand,
That Caesar and my goodly father's world;
When I was heaven of presence and our fleets,
We spare with hours, but cut thy council I am great,
Murdered and by thy master's ready there
My power to give thee but so much as hell:
Some service in the noble bondman here,
Would show him to her wine.
KING LEAR: O, if you were a feeble sight, the courtesy of your law,
Your sight and several breath, will wear the gods
With his heads, and my hands are wonder'd at the deeds,
So drop upon your lordship's head, and your opinion
Shall be against your honour.

20. Wrapping up
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Mr Shadow – song composed by Sony CSL Research Laboratory’s AI

21. 3. Librarians in Outer Space?
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

22. Lifelong learning and portfolio careers
http://www.stanford2025.com/#fast-forward
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

23. Near future careers
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Now hiring… DNA editors

24. Near future careers
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Now hiring… DNA editors, drone engineers

25. Near future careers
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
Now hiring… DNA editors, drone engineers, asteroid miners

26. Near future careers
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
SpaceX first stage booster landing, IRIDIUM-2 mission, June 2017 - via Elon Musk

27. The road to Mars
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

28. The road to Mars
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

29. The road to Mars
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

30. The road to Mars
» A few things that have never been done off-
world:
› Large scale agriculture
› Mining
› Smelting
› Living without a magnetosphere
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

31. The road to Mars
» A few things that have never been done off-
world:
› Large scale agriculture
› Mining
› Smelting
› Living without a magnetosphere
» But that’s not all…
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

32. The road to Mars
» A few things that have never been done off-
world:
› Large scale agriculture
› Mining
› Smelting
› Living without a magnetosphere
» But that’s not all…
› Pregnancy
› Childbirth
› Learning to walk/run/jump
› Going to school
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk

33. Wrapping up
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk
» Librarians in Outer Space?
› From Data Refuge to Global
SeedVault [*]
› Reference library or
InterplanetaryWikipedia?
› Latency of learning
› Help - my AI is a librarian!
› Serials in space - DNA based
data storage?
[*] #MoonbaseJisc? 
Photo credit:The CropTrust

34. That’s all folks!
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY
Connect with me:
Martin Hamilton
Futurist, Jisc, London
@martin_hamilton
martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Martin Hamilton - Librarians in Outer Space - CILIP invited talk