Nmla2012

Future Ready Libraries:
First Steps to the Next 100 Years

Stephen Abram, ML
New Mexico Library Association Conference
Las Cruces, NM
April 12, 2012

Change

These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

We Only Get So Many
Once-in-a-Lifetime
Chances To Do Great
Things

News Flash
“The Internet and technology have
now progressed to their infancy”

Borders Kobo, B&N Nook, Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony, etc. . . .

Can we frame the e-book issue so
that it can be addressed rationally?

Be More Open to the Users’ Paths -
Filtering

So how must library
strategies change?

Conclusions Up Front

1. Prioritize Programs not Collections
2. Drive ‘Reference’ with Data and Know Your Top Questions
3. Balance of Physical and Virtual
4. Invest Time in Demographics & Analytics (Measurements
not Stats)
5. Put Technological Tools in Context
6. Build Recreational Reading Away From Effort and Get Real
About the eBook Issue
7. Homework: Deal With It
8. Transliteracy is a Key Opportunity
9. Partnerships are about everything

Specific Challenges

1. Setting Priorities and Making Sacrifices
2. Innovation Culture, Pilots and Diffusion
3. Program Hiatuses
4. Backroom and Front Room Balance
5. Alignment with Goals
6. Measuring the Right Stuff
7. Organizational Structure and Governance
8. Investing in HR Development & Cross-training
9. Sacred Cows (desks, books, …)
10. Promotion, Marketing, Communication, Advocacy

What is an EXPERIENCE?
What is a library experience?
What differentiates a library experience from a transaction?
What differentiates public libraries from Google/Bing?

Why do people ask questions?
Is your library experience conceptually organized around
answers and programs?
Or collections, technology and buildings?

Why do people ask questions?

 Who, What, When, Where
 How & Why
 Data – Information – Knowledge - Behavior
 To Learn or to Know
 To Acquire Information, Clarify, Tune
 To Decide, to Solve, to Choose, to Delay
 To Interview, Delve, Interact, Progress
 To Entertain or Socialize
 To Reduce Fear
 To Help, Aid, Cure, Be a Friend
 To Win A Bet

What are your top 10-20 questions?
What is the service portfolio model
that goes with those?

The Baker’s Dozen: 1 Library System’s Top 13
1. Health and Wellness / Community Health / Nutrition / Diet /
Recovery
2. DIY Do It Yourself Activities and Car Repair
3. Genealogy
4. Test prep (SAT, ACT, occupational tests, etc. etc.)
5. Legal Questions (including family law, divorce, adoption, etc)
6. Hobbies, Games and Gardening
7. Local History
8. Consumer reviews (Choosing a car, appliance, etc.)
9. Homework Help (grade school)
10. Technology Skills (software, hardware, web)
11. Government Programs, Services and Taxation
12. Self-help/personal development
13. Careers (jobs, counselling, etc.)
14. Readers Advisory was 14th

Top 12 Patron Hobbies
Recreational Reading

Cooking & Recipes

Computers

Movies & Film

Exercise, Cycling & Walking

Traveling, Tourism & Vacations
Top Hobbies?
Music
Top Homework Questions?
Pets Top Travel Destinations?
Gardening
What do you know?

Television Shows

Arts & Crafts

Knitting & Needlecrafts

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

News Flash

News Flash

Tech Shift Happens

Seth Godin on Decisions (June 8, 2011)

o Which of these are getting in the way?
o You don't know what to do
o You don't know how to do it
o You don't have the authority or the resources to do it
o You're afraid
o You believe that money matters most
o Once you figure out what's getting in the way, it's far
easier to find the answer (or decide to work on a
different problem).
o Stuck is a state of mind, and it's curable.

What Are Libraries Really For?

• Community
• Learning
• Discovery
• Progress
• Research (Applied and Theoretical)
• Cultural & Knowledge Custody
• Economic Impact

What Are Librarians For?

• Expertise
• Relationships
• Transformation
• Service (not servant)
• Vision
• Leadership
• Economic Impact

Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Libraries:
Searching for the corners of the earth, the edge of the
oceans and discovering dragons ...

Questions for Libraries Today:

1. Are our priorities right?
2. Are learning, research, discovery changing
materially and what is actually changing?
3. What is the foundation of future library
success . . . Books? Meh…
4. What is the role for librarians in the real
future (that is not an extension of the past)?

Let’s chat

What is a meal in library end-user or education
and learning terms?

The new
bibliography and
collection
development

KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

What are
your user’s
real goals?

Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians

Librarians play a vital role in building the
critical connections between
information , knowledge and learning.

Service Metaphor

o Cafeterias
o Take Out
o Private Dining Rooms
o Private Chefs
o Variety

Programs
What are the components of a program focus?

What lifts Libraries beyond our foundations?

Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills
 Reading literacy  News literacy
 Numeracy  Technology literacy
 Critical literacy  Information literacy
 Social literacy  Media literacy
 Computer literacy  Adaptive literacy
 Web literacy  Research literacy
 Content literacy  Academic literacy
 Written literacy  Reputation, Etc.

List of content farms and general spammy
user generated content sites:
 Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com)
 All Experts (allexperts.com)
 eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
 Answers (answers.com)
 Find Articles (findarticles.com)
 Answer Bag (answerbag.com)
 FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com)
 Articles Base (articlesbase.com)
 Hub Pages (hubpages.com)
 Ask (ask.com)
 InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com)
 Associated Content (associatedcontent.com)
 Livestrong (livestrong.com)
 BizRate (bizrate.com)
 Mahalo (mahalo.com)
 Buzle (buzzle.com)
 Mail Archive (mail-archive.com)
 Brothersoft (brothersoft.com)
 Question Hub (questionhub.com)
 Bytes (bytes.com)
 Squidoo (squidoo.com)
 ChaCha (chacha.com)
 Suite101 (suite101.com)
 eFreedom (efreedom.com)
 Twenga (twenga.com)
 eHow (ehow.com)
 WiseGeek (wisegeek.com)
 Essortment (essortment.com)
 Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com)
 Examiner (examiner.com)
 Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com)
 Expert Village (expertvillage.com)
 Xomba (xomba.com)
 )

The nasty facts
about Google &
Bing and
consumer search:

SEO / SMO
Content Farms
Advertiser-driven
Geotagging

What We Never Really Knew Before (US/Canada)
 27% of our users are under 18.

We often 59% are female.
 believe a lot
29% are college students.
that isn’t
 5% are professors and 6% are teachers.
true.
 On any given day, 35% of our users are there for the very
first time!
 Only 29% found the databases via the library website.
 59% found what they were looking for on their first search.
 72% trusted our content more than Google.
 But, 81% still use Google.

2010 Eduventures Research on Investments
 58% of instructors believe that technology in courses positively impacts student engagement.
 71% of instructors that rated student engagement levels as “high” as a result of using technology
in courses.
 71% of students who are employed full-time and 77% of students who are employed part-time
prefer more technology-based tools in the classroom.
 79% of instructors and 86 percent of students have seen the average level of engagement improve
over the last year as they have increased their use of digital educational tools.
 87% of students believe online libraries and databases have had the most significant impact on
their overall learning.
 62% identify blogs, wikis, and other online authoring tools while 59% identify YouTube and
recorded lectures.
 E-books and e-textbooks impact overall learning among 50% of students surveyed, while 42% of
students identify online portals.
 44% of instructors believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 32% of instructors identify e-textbooks and 30% identify interactive homework solutions as having
the potential to improve engagement and learning outcomes. (e-readers was 11%)
 49% of students believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 Students are more optimistic about the potential for technology.

What do we need to know?

 How do library databases and virtual services
compare with other web experiences?
 Who are our core virtual users? Are there gaps?
 Does learning happen? How about discovery?
 What are user expectations for true satisfaction?
 How does library search compare to consumer
search like Google and retail or government?
 How do people find and connect with library virtual
services?
 Are end users being successful in their POV?
 Are they happy? Will they come back? Tell a friend?

Top-Level Benchmarks
Gale-Cengage Browse Survey
August 01, 2010 - August 31, 2010

90 90 90 89 90 90 90 90 90
88 87 87
85 84
78 77
71 75 76
73 74 74
71 72 72 72
70 70 69
68
65
62
59 59

48 48
41
37
33
30 30 30 30 30

0

Emboldened Librarians hold the key

The BASICS

 Data
 Information
 Knowledge
 Wisdom NOT
 Behavior

Death of Reference

 Who
 What
 Where
 When
 Why
 How

How & Why Questions

 Now that’s research
 The interview is more involved
 Transformational not Transactional
 Expertise counts
 The position and reputation of the delivery
professional is key
 Expertise is shared mutually
 Groups and patterns matter

What does all this mean?

 The Article level universe
 The Chapter and Paragraph Universe
 Integrated with Visuals – graphics and charts
 Integrated with ‘video’
 Integrated with Sound and Speech
 Integrated with social web
 Integrated with interaction and not just
interactivity
 How would you enhance a book?

What is Changing?

1. Evidence-based Reference Strategies
2. Experience-based Portals: The New Commons
3. Personal Service on Steroids
4. Quality Strategies: Consumer vs. Professional
Search
5. Social Networks and Recommendations
6. Trans-literacy Strategies
7. People-driven Strategies
8. Curriculum and Research Agenda
9. Service and Programs

Recommendations

 Strengthen Your Personal Brand
 Reposition the Library and Librarian
 Don’t Tie Yourself directly to Collections or
Physical Space
 Network with Your Users Socially
 Measure, Don’t Count
 Engage in partnerships
 Know
 Take Risks

Technology Context

 Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)
 Laptops and Tablets
 Mobility / Smartphones
 Bandwidth (Wired, WiFi, Whitespace)
 Learning Management Systems
 Streaming video and audio vs. download
 HTML5 and Apps – the battle
 Advertising auction models and ‘product’
 New(ish) Players (Amazon, Apple, G, B&N, Uni’s,
states/provinces/nations)

Book Challenges

 Format Agnosticism
 Browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
 Devices: Macintosh, PC Desktops & Laptops
 Mobile: Laptops, Tablets (iPad, Fire, etc.)
 Mobile: Smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry,
Android, Windows, etc.)
 Container: PDF, ePub, .mobi, Kindle, etc.
 Learning Management System: Blackboard /
WebCT, D2L, Moodle, Sakai, etc.
 Purchasing (Amazon, B&N, Chegg, CengageBrain,
Apple Store, University Textbook Store, etc.)

Should we tie users and students to a
specific and proprietary device or
operating system?

This era will see a Fundamental
Reimagining the Book
For the present there will be those who
resist and the resisters will be the
majority.

Reimagine Service
Reference and Research

Consider the differences . . .

 Computer Commons
 Mall
 Service Commons
 Information Commons
 Knowledge Commons
 Learning Commons
 Science Commons
 Centre or Central?
 Physical / Virtual Hybrid

 Business Models
 Concept of Place - GPS
 Concept of “Personal’
 Frictionlessness
 Virtual Content increases

 Google (Android partners, Motorola acquisition)
 Microsoft (Skype acquisition, Windows mobile)
 Facebook (post-IPO)
 eBay
 Apple (iTunes and App Store)
 Twitter (& Square)
 Research in Motion (as an acquisition target?)
 Amazon
 Open Source or any company on the fringes
that is disruptive as a new player or an
acquisition target)

 This is an evolution not a revolution
 The REAL revolution was the Internet and the Web.
 The hybrid ecology is winning in the near term for
operating systems and content formats.
 This is good since competition drives innovation.
 Engage in critical thinking not raw criticism. Be
constructive.
 Critical thinking is not part of dogma or religious fervor
or fan boy behavior.

 Perfectionism will not move us forward at this
juncture.
 Really understand the digital divide and remove your
economic and social class blinkers
 Get over library obsession with statistics and
comprehensiveness.
 Get excellent at real measurements, sampling and
understanding impact and satisfaction.
(Analytics, Foresee, Pew)

 We need to revisit the concept of
preservation, archives, repositories, and
conservation.
 Check out new publishing models like
Flipboard.
 Watch for emerging book enhancements and
other features that will challenge library
metadata, selection policies, and collection
development.

What Would You Attempt If
You Knew You Would Not
Fail?

Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

Considering the Whole Experience

There are no knights on
horses in technology.

The VAST majority of library use is virtual and is dwarfed by all information use

‘Reading’ trumps print books . . .

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook, Pinterest: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: @sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1

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