epl feb 2013 public lecture
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Expect More!At the Heart of LibrariesInnovation, Community, Success
Stephen Abram, MLSEdmonton Public Library Feb. 11, 2013
Starlings on the MoorA metaphor for public libraries…
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It’s simple really, shift happens, gedoverit
• Users & Communities will continue to be diverse in the extreme• Expectations around timeliness will increase• We will have a foot in both camps for many, many years to come: digital
and physical• Content will (is already) be dominated by non-text (gamification, 3D,
visual, music, video, audio, etc.)• Search will explode with options and one-step, one box search is for
dummies• The single purpose anchored device is dead as a target environment• Devices will focus on social, collaboration, sharing, multimedia, creation
and successful Services will align with that• Librarians will need to focus primarily on professional service(s) and
strategic alignment (reduced roles in organizing knowledge and step&fetchit politeness)
• Service Professionals NOT Servants • E-Learning, collections and metadata will go to the cloud massively
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Deer in headlamps slide here.
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What are you?
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Library MegatrendsIt doesn’t take a genius to see librarian skills and competencies applied to the trends and issues in library communities
Libraries core skill is not delivering information
Libraries improve the quality of the question
and the user experience
Libraries are about learning and building communities
People Have Seasons
Librarian Magic
Studying the Future
•What are folks like? Are they different than us? Do their needs change?
•What world will they experience and what skills do they need?
•How can we make a difference? (Very different than help)
•What are your goals?
•What are their goals?
•Is there a difference?
What are the goals?
Building blocks
• Information • Communication• Media• Social• Numeracy• Visual• Literacies
What does Sustainability
Mean?
What Does Boundarylessness
mean?
•When something needs to change…
•Do it.
•Take accountability.
•Delegate responsibility.
Be More Open to New Paths
Be More Open to the Users’ Paths
Do You Feel Poor?
Are you locked into library mindsets?
Retail Sales Down?
Teen Reading Down?
Titles Down?
Circulation Down?
Reading Down?
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
Focus on the REAL Issues
AmazonChapters/IndigoBarnes & NobleBN BookBrowser
BordersSuggestica
Inside a Dog (teens)MySpace BooksBooks We Like
OCLC's FictionFinderAll ConsumingLibraryThingNext Favorite
StoryCodeRating Zone
Hypatia and AlexLitWhichBook.netAllReaders.comReader's Robot
gnooks
Will Reading Matter?
Build inFormat
Agnosticity
A projector the size of a sugar cube
Everything’s getting smaller
PayAttention toMobile
Being More Open to Comment
Being More Open to Criticism and Feedback
Being More Open to Recommendations
Support Aspiration
Be Creative and Attract
Your Career Has Seasons
Being More Open to Change
The Library as Sandbox
Support Your Team
Being More Open Experimentation, Pilots and Innovation
Being More Flexible
Being More Open to Risk
Being Open to a Mosaic of Solutions
Being Open to Ambiguity
BeMoreOpen to SocialTechnologiesand UnintendedConsequences
Being Comfortable with Speed
Being Open to New Ideas
Letting Go of Control
Remove the Borders Inside Libraries
Be the Change We Want to See
Remove the Borders In the Library Community
Be the Change We Want to See.
Remove theBorders Between
Libraries and Users
Be the Change We Want to See.
Remove the Borders Between Libraries and Influencers
Be Inspirational
Be Important
Know What Makes Us Different
Finding Our Voice and Using It
Libraries core skill is not delivering information
Libraries improve the quality of the question
and the user experience
Libraries are about learning and building communities
So what should Public Library Priorities Be?
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Community Focus?Up Your Game• Know your local community demographics• Focus on needs assessment and social assessments• Prioritize: Love all, Serve all, Save the World means nothing gets
done• Priorities are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant,
& Time bound• Look for partnerships that add value
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ProgramsUp Your Game• Align with Collections –every collection must be justified by programs• Force strategic investment budgeting• Look for partnerships that add value• Don’t go it alone. Focus on large scale sustainable programs• Connect to the longer process not just events
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Experience PortalsUp Your Game• Align with Collections – But add virtual experiences• Look for partnerships that add value• Ensure the program delivery person is embedded including librarians• What are your top 20 questions? Start there• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability
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Learning StrategiesUp Your Game• Start offering diplomas and certificates• Look for partnerships that add value• Offer real educational opportunities not just adjacencies• What does your community need for economic advantage?
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Get real about homeworkUp Your Game• Understand the new Western Common Curriculum (9-12)• Understand Pedagogy• Understand human development from early years through teens • Consider partnerships to put teachers in the library• Consider coaches and tutoring partnerships
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Take Branding to the Next LevelUp Your Game• Personal branding• Program branding• Take risks for attention (AIDA)• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually
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Collections AlignmentUp Your Game• U of Alberta relationship• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example
economic impact, early years, political alignment…)• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent for digital and
print and programs• Be obsessive about recommendations and advice
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SacrificeUp Your Game• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?• Reduce investment in successes• Increase investment• Look at TCO• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs• Review opportunity costs in soft costs
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Honest to G*d – Let’s Encourage Fun
Content Fragmentation
•Digitization’s real impact – non-fiction vs. non-fiction•Format• Print, ePUB, PDF, Kindle, etc. etc.• CD, DVD, USB, etc. etc.• Streaming• Licenses, Open Access, Creative Commons, etc.•eBooks, eJournals, eContent•Games, Learning Objects, Guides, …•Copyright Issues (NatGeo, Tasini, TPP, SOPA, AC, etc. etc.)•Author Lawsuits, WikiLeaks•Citation fragmentation•Make no mistake, the legal framework for knowledge economy is being built now.
Beyond Text, Books and Reading Literacies
• Text aloud and shrinking codex market• Graphics & Charts• Formulae• Pictures, Maps• Video & Audio• 3D objects• Gamification• Deep Data Mining• Assessments• Community collaboration, cohorts, & social sharing • The book model in your head is nostalgia
Walled Gardens or Infinite Access
• ILS• CMS• Cloud(s)• Device dependencies• Formats (e.g. Kindle)• Discovery versus consumer search versus native search• 4 horseman to watch: Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook (not Microsoft)• Who controls reading and intellectual freedom?
Learning Object Diversification
• NextGen Textbooks• eLearning (white label, proprietary, custom,…) • Learning Management Systems• Cohort Learning Environments• Presentation Systems & Virtual Conference Environment• Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)• Collaboration Software as standard workplace• MOOCs, e-learning, ‘distance environments’• Open Access, scholarly publishing and deep aggregations digitization• The Academic Bubble is the next BIG disruption
End User Fragmentation
• Teens / Post-Millennials• Millennials (gender, IQ, social)• Aging workforce and tipping points• Other demographics – ethnicity, income, households, immigration …• The new digital divide is not economic or aligned with poverty• Business versus Consumer• The Device Divide • Mobility• Librarians’ relationships with cohorts are critical.
Search Fragmentation
• The new Algorithms• Consumer Search• Specialized Search• Professional Search• Semantic, Sentiment, Social, Suggestion Search etc.• Mobile search• Social search• Work and personalized alignment• Augmented Reality• SEO & SMO & Content Spam• Geo-location• The ultimate search choice fragments
Technology Fragmentation
• Feature Phones die• Smartphones dominate• Tablets (Phablets?!)• Laptops• Desktops become rare• Gaming stations as access• Television as device• E-Readers (e-paper versus plasma)• Internet of Things• Browsers lose dominance to apps and HTML5• Fanboy behaviour is NOT Professional behaviour
Imagine
How do your skills apply to these issues and challenges?
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Black and White
•The polarization of discussionDogmatic vs. Professional positions on: eBooks, access, copyright, etc.
Political and social value systems in confl ict
Black & White
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• Examples of B&W discussions
• These can sometimes lack professional perspectives, be politically dogmatic and belief driven, and use death symbolic metaphors
• E-books versus Physical Books• Open access versus Proprietary Content• Free versus Fee• Business Models versus Social Models• Apple versus Microsoft PC• Desktop vs. Laptop vs. Tablet vs. Phone• Privacy and Confidentiality
• Make no mistake. I’m not saying the discussions are wrong or taking sides, I just think professionals see colours and shades of gray.
Definitions
•Discovery•Search – known item retrieval•Topical or Subject Search•Research• Immersive Learning•Assembly•Two step discovery: discover, searching, finding, use•The pressure is ON for librarians to scale up their
information fluency training initiatives
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 -
200,000,000
400,000,000
600,000,000
800,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,200,000,000
Series1
Double a penny every day for a month =Over $1 billion in just 30 days
Recognize key shifts
OMG – the digital book!
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•Public Libraries•Academic Research Libraries•Community College Libraries•School Libraries•Specialized Libraries•Consortia
Trends Differ Slightly by Library Sector
And so do the audiences, members, users …
Public Libraries
• Recommendations (LibraryThing for Libraries, Bibliocommons, Book Psychic) • Community Glue• Economic Impact and VALUE studies• Programs on steroids aligned with collections and space• Partnerships• Education and Learning – REALLY committing to learning and accreditation/ credits / diplomas / certificates• Renewed advocacy moves to Influencing and selling
Consortia
• Consortia• CRKN, OCUL, TAL, CULC, Readers First, etc.• Dealing with the small town mindset• OCLC Linked Data, RDA and global metadata strategies• DPLA• Library Renewal• EveryLibrary Advocacy PAC• 3M e-books (CALIFA / Douglas County initiatives)• Dark literature, orphan works, etc.• Cloud initiatives
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• Issues in the Private Sector
• Cooperation vs. Competition• Walled Gardens versus Openness• Living in all technologies• Mapping and understanding changes in users• Licensing content and lawsuits• Staff development• E-first versus print first• Integrating non-print content• Choosing to stay ahead of most customers• The adoption curve• Adding dimensions to Pricing
• Revenue is a measurement of success not a goal in itself.
Where are the real pain points?
So what is the answer?
Grocery Stores
Grocery Stores
Grocery Stores
Cookbooks, Chefs . . .
Cookbooks, Chefs . . .
Meals
Are we going to support a totally build it yourself world?
Imagine IKEA merging with GM...
What is a meal in library end-user community or research, education and learning terms? Are you focusing on scale?
Let’s think
Think: Are you thinking food, courses, days, weekly plan, or nutrition overall?
The new bibliography and
collection development
KNOWLEDGE PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,LEARNING,
INFORMATION &RESEARCHCOMMONS
What are the real issues?
• Craft versus Industrial Strength• Personal service only when there’s impact• Pilot, Project, Initiative versus Portfolio Strategy• Hand-knitted prototypes versus Production• e.g. Information Literacy initiatives• Discovery versus Search versus Deep Search• eLearning units• Citation and information ethics• Repository archipelagos
• Strategic Analytics• Value & Impact Measures• Behaviours, Satisfaction• Economic and strategic alignment
What We Never Really Knew Before 27% of our users are under 18. 59% are female. 29% are college students. 5% are professors and 6% are teachers. 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.
We often believe a lot
that isn’t true.
Be More Open to the Users’ Path
What Would You Attempt If You Knew You Would Not Fail?
eLearning, Mobile, Distant, Virtual, Workflow
Get to where the user is.
Choose
The power of libraries
A Third Path
Don’t study the issue to death.
SmellyYellowLiquid
OrSex
Appeal?
Focus on the Whole Experience
Until lions learn to write their own story, the story will always be from the perspective
of the hunter not the hunted.
Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAConsultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: [email protected]’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.comFacebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen AbramTwitter: @sabram
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