The Proactive Library- Getting smarter togetherInternet Librarian InternationalLondon, October 21st 2015

Mikkel Christoffersen// Senior adviser, Copenhagen Libraries

Mikkel Christoffersen

• Senior adviser, City of Copenhagen and project manager of ”eReolen” (national ebook platform)

• Works with digitisation, digital strategy, business and lending models for ebooks etc.

• BA in Greek and English, MLIS• Former consultant to ”Danish Agency for Culture”

– National representative; DG Connect MSEG on digital culture– European framework project manager– Nordic programme manager of Open Access R&D

More importantly

• Father of Mathilde (5) and Josephine (12)

• The secretary in Nyborg Karate Club

• Avid CCG player• A horror and SF freak• Neophyte baseball fan

Background

• Copenhagen needed a library strategy toward 2020• We identified salient trends and megatrends• Conclusion: The library needs to change

fundamentally• Because the world has changed fundamentally• Change brings threats and opportunities

”Opportunities are either seized or lost. They don’t pile up.”

Hans Engell, former minister of justice

The strategy

• Strategy work began September 2013

• Based on an analysis of our societal surroundings and megatrends

Changing framework conditions

Gøre en større forskel for flere københavnere

Resource strain Cut-backs New tasks Reach non-users

New user needs Media literacy Reading skills Life-long learning Community

Media development Internet-based media Social media Decline in loans of

physical materials

New opportunities Digitisation Digital service Self-service Citizen involvement

Need for a new library mission

The media landscape- the seismic shift

The open internet

MusicPrinted books

TV

Movies

The library

The user’s information environment in 2000

Radio

News-papers

and journals

https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/reports/escan/downloads/future.pdf

The open internet

Social media

E-books

MusicPrinted books

TV

Movies and tv-series

The library

The user’s information environment 2015

Radio

News-papers and

journals

The user’s information environment

The user’s information environment

The library collection

The library collection has decreasing relevance

Do you help the user by teaching her to navigate the green area?

Internet magazine Quartz: http://qz.com/124899/in-a-year-netflixs-competition-shifted-from-hulu-to-hbo-to-everything/#!

Netflix is simply acknowledging that it doesn’t just compete with other TV networks… It also competes for attention with nearly any kind of leisure activity.

If you’re in book publishing, say, the reality is that you don’t just have to think about the shift from paper to tablets. You also need to worry about whether people will use their tablets to read, or instead prefer to surf the web, watch movies, etc.

Attention as the scarce resource

The user’s attention and time as scarce resources

In short …

• The quasi-monopoly of being the place where people could go for free and equal access is gone

• Copenhagen Libraries’ motto used to be: ”Everything you can imagine”

• Arguably; the internet does that better now• But is providing access and media to people a

good place to be now anyway?

The bad place

• Everyone standing between content creator and content consumer must prove value

• Getting content from creators to consumers is a painful place with lots of huge players

• But it’s also a tiny thing in the whole process!

We don’t need to be the ones handing people

the media to be valuable! What they do before and after is more

important

Filter bubbles

We have ambitions!

• … on behalf of our users• When every selfrespecting commercial service

gives you something, the library should give you something completely new and unexpected you didn’t know you needed!

• Read Vampire Diaries and Twilight and a commercial service will give you The Immortal Instruments. The library should give you James Joyce and Medieval French poetry!

Reading and learning - new user and societal

needs

Children’s leisure reading, intl.

Children’s leisure reading, DK

3 hours daily media consumption

Years

http://www.dr.dk/NR/rdonlyres/7D4E2F8D-FAF8-4285-8196-827CE78C646B/6079828/Media_Development_2014.pdf

The importance of reading

“The bottom line: Fewer students today are reading for pleasure, even though daily reading for pleasure is associated with better performance in school and with adult reading proficiency”

PISA in Focus, OECD 2011

Reading is the fundamental skill

• Reading underlies other skills like IT and math• It also underlies social skills• Don’t read well at 8?

You never catch up!• Reading is your ticket to

culture, social communities and learning

• You learn to read and then your read to learn

The early catastrophe: The 30million word gap

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/TheEarlyCatastrophe.pdf

Globalisation and lifelong learning

But as the world has gone flat, Gates said, and so many people can now plug and play from anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography.”Now,” he said, ”I would rather be a genius born in China than an average guy born in Poughkeepsie.”

Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, p. 226

Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)

• At least one in ten adults is proficient only at or below Level 1 in literacy or numeracy

• In other words, significant numbers of adults do not possess the most basic information-processing skills considered necessary to succeed in today’s world

Literacy levels

LEVEL 1 Read short texts, locate a single piece of

information. Complete simple forms, understand basic

Vocabulary, determine the meaning of sentences, and read continuous texts with a degree of fluency.

LEVEL 2 Integrate two or more pieces of information

based on criteria Compare and contrast or reason about

information and make low-level inferences. Navigate digital texts to access and identify

information from various parts of a document

LEVEL 3 Understand and respond appropriately to dense

or lengthy texts. Understand text structures and rhetorical

devices. Identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more

pieces of information and make appropriate inferences.

Perform multi-step operations and select relevant data from competing informationLEVEL 4/5

Perform multiple-step operations to integrate, interpret, or synthesise information from complex or lengthy texts that involve conditional and/or competing information.

Make complex inferences and appropriately apply background knowledge as well as interpret or evaluate subtle truth claims or arguments.

Italy

Spain

Cyprus¹ ²

France

Ireland

Poland

Austria

United States

Germany

England/N. Ireland (UK)

Korea

Denmark

Average

Czech Republic

Canada

Flanders (Belgium)

Slovak Republic

Russian Federation³

Estonia

Norway

Australia

Sweden

Netherlands

Finland

Japan

100 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100

0.7

0.8

17.7

0.8

0.5

0.0

1.8

4.2

1.5

1.4

0.3

0.4

1.2

0.6

0.9

5.2

0.3

0.0

0.4

2.2

1.9

0.0

2.3

0.0

1.2

Percent

Lvl DK Avg

1 3.81% 3.31%

2 11.89% 12.16%

3 33.97% 33.29%

4/5 10.01% 11.79%

Who produces value in the globalised knowledge economy?

Reading makes you a better person! (if you read good things)

The crisis of the wellfare state and why it matters

http://fremtidensbiblioteker.dk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Rapport_Folkebibliotekernes_samfunds%C3%B8konomiske_v%C3%A6rdi_lang.pdf

2015 report: Public libraries contribute a net +€800 mn to the economy of Denmark annually due to their beneficial contributions to reading, education etc.

So when can we expect more money?• Based on two days reading the newspaper looking

for sectors calling out for more funding:• The elderly, the school system, the mentally

disabled, the physically handicapped, every ward in every hospital for rising medicine costs, refugee aid, the foreign service, the suicide hotline, the universities, the university colleges, nature preservation programs, the rest of the cultural sector, the police AND the F16s fighting ISIS

We are not eternal and no additional funding is coming • Our short and sweet analysis; we are last in line

for new funding• We will be missed but we are not irreplacable• We will lose the funding we do have, if we cannot

explain what we do and for whom and why it matters greatly

• Greatly!

Physical space

The future of the physical library?

A new library space with more people and fewer bookcases?

Should we go all digital?

Copenhagen Libraries

We are just one app. Why should people choose us?

Indeed; are we not all small apps in the great iPad of life?

Physical space• Loans are going down, attendance is going up

William Mitchell quoted byLorcan Dempsey in his blog reprinted in the book ”The Network Reshapes The Library.”

• We need more space for activities arranged by ourselves, facilitated by ourselves or that we don’t know of

• Longer opening hours, fewer shelves, more self-directed services, links between physical and digital library, online or screen or phone help, collections digitised

The conclusion

Disconnect between library ends and means

The objective of the public libraries is to promote information, education and cultural activity ...

… by making available books, periodicals, talking books and other suitable materials.

x

Createknowledge

shareWorkshops labs

Learning and participationCourses, clubs and forums

Inspiration, communities and experiencesEvents, presentation and interaction

Easy access and flexible library facilitiesDigital library, extended opening hours and modern

physical libraries

Literature, music, movies and databasesEfficient collection development and digitisation

DigitisationDigital serviceSelf service

User involvementVolunteersPartnerships

Logistics, collection management, statistics,

internet- and media knowledge

Service, digital skills, segmentation, marketing

Presentation, guidance, communication, project

management

Teaching, facilitation, innovation, service

design, social media

Managing volunteers, co-creation, partnerships

The valuepyramid

Napkin logic

Napkin logic

The proactive library

The Classical Library

Media as scarce resources

Library collection central for citizen

The citizen comes to the library

Recommendations from experts

The collection as centre of attention

Visits and loans as KPI

Library system as key system

The proactive library

Abundance of media

Attention as the scarce resource

The library comes to the citizen

Recommendation from peers

The citizen as centre of attention

Focus on effect and target groups

Customer relations management system as key system

Access and presentation Learning and user involvement

Getting smarter together!

Homework cafés

It-courses

It-cafésLiterature presentation at schools

Author presentations

Reading campaigns

Guidance in high schools

Individual guidance in the library

Reading clubsEvents

New concepts

Digital library service

Self-service Digitisation Citizen

involvement

Everything you can imagine

The digital library

The development of a digital library• A public digital library is not the

library homepage• It can be defined as:

– An organised collection of information resources and related services that is made available to the public on the internet

• Notice that it also includes access to physical materials e.g. through an integrated library system

The need for a digital strategy

• A digital library can be as traditional and irrelevant as a an outdated physical library

• For instance by relying on a homepage• The digital library must support the overall library

strategy• It-systems and development must support the

purpose of the digital library• There is a need to prioritise and make choices • If there is no plan, it is guaranteed not to work

eReolen : a cornerstone• eReolen is the Danish public libraries’ joint

ebook and digital audio books service• Web, Android and iOS• 11,500 ebooks and 4,500 digital audio

books. 250+ publishers supply the material from 1000+ authors

eReolen loans monthly ebooks

eReolen number of ebooks

The digital library requires new competencies• Access independent of time and

space is the main advantage of a digital library and digital service

• But access is not enough• The internet is not just a

distribution platform – it is also an ongoing conversation

• It requires new competencies, a new way of thinking and more resources

• But it must be closely linked to the physical library

Social media – new expertiseTime and attention are commodities. Most marketers treat social media as a distribution channel. They are missing the fact that social networks are the first platforms ever that are actually a two-way conversation. Now what makes you a good cocktail party guest? Is it talking about yourself for 95% of the time?

http://www.slideshare.net/vaynerchuk/storytelling-slideshare-finalpdf

In a connected world, you can’t just sell copies of files. You also have to sell context, community, convenience, and connectivity

http://gerdleonhard.typepad.com/files/gerd-leonhard-inma-future-of-content-ideas-1.pdf

Strategy overview

General action areas

https://bibliotek.kk.dk/sites/default/files/files/page/copenhagen_libraries_strategy_2014-2019.pdf#overlay-context=About

External target groupsStrategic focus Initiatives Effect

Schools and youth educationCritical information users and

keen readers

• The large assignments• Library introduction and social

media norms• Homework help and support• Literature presentation and

inspiration• Events for schools and youth

education

The best educated generation+ =

Active citizensAll Copenhageners can contribute

to the city’s development

• Reading clubs• Digital Copenhagener• Community centres• Debate and open government• Read Danish

Strong and diverse local communities

+ =

Children and cultureCulturally quality-aware and

inquisitive children

Cultural foundation for the good children’s life+ =

• The 2-year book• Parents and children• Children and art• The digital children’s library• Network for children’s culture

The citizen as the library’s most important asset• Citizens get smarter together (than they do individually)• The library has ambitions on behalf of the citizen – and it’s felt!• The library must serve all citizens; but not all are created equal• Loans are not the purpose of the library• Digital solutions and self-service are not sufficient to fulfil the

purpose of the library• Learning and cultural activity is enhanced by activities with other

citizens• The library purpose is fulfilled by deliberate planned

activities• The library supports reading and digital competencies• The library is a space for conversations among

citizens based on literature and other media• Volunteers are not used to replace library

employees but to deliver a new and different offer

• A so-called package• Invest €5.6 over four years; then save 1/3 of that

annually afterwards from year 4• An implementation of the strategy• A godsend to our digital strategy• For some a herald of doom

https://bibliotek.kk.dk/sites/default/files/files/page/empower_the_citizens.pdf#overlay-context=About

The elements of the plan

Targeted library service

Differentiated service and increased self-service

User involvement and voluntary work

Digital service Outreach initiatives

Investments It-systems Service

development Competence

development Digitisation

Digital library New library system

for digital media New library system

for printed materials More e-books

Integrated citizen service

Integration with libraries

Citizen service at employment centres and social services

Digital Copenhagener courses

The librarians

Collective pool of work hours in case of self-service

2.500 daily work hours(340 x 7,4) distributed to new services

Thought experiment

Digital service – call center

• Joint e-mail, phone, chat and interactive screen service

• Open 8 am – 10 pm• Reduction of individual

guidance in the physical library

• Supports growing need for assistance with digital materials

SCREEN TECHNOLOGYFace to face

LEARNING SPECIALIST PROJECT MANAGERIN

FORM

ATION

SPECIALIST

CULT

URE

CRE

ATO

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JOINT TASKS &

EXPERTISE

NEW ROLES

COLLECTION SPECIALIST

SERVICE FACILITATOR

% ? % ?% ? % ?

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01-05-2023

Projects

Schools (and children and students)Activity Phys- libr. Dig. Libr. Proactice

Co-location Plugs into the digital library

Special events arranged for the schools esp. viz. leasure reading

Special screen service in the unmanned hours

All branches

Digital library in a mall Outlet; more to come ”Library inside”

Special school access to eReolen

Tie-ins will be made

eReolen is a cornerstone of our digital library

Killing two birds with one ebook. Schools are using eReolen ”illegally” and our business models are set up to accommodate t(w)eenagers

Picture books app Tie-ins will be made

Will be a cornerstone Collaboration with publishers on business models and rights for digitisation

Classes for school children+ on safe web life and information competencies

Held here too Online classes, special sections for children and students

Most of these classes are done at their home institutions

Literature for adults

Activity Phys- libr. Dig. Libr. Proactice

Literature promotion and debate on social media

Tie-ins Part of the digital library

Getting to people at home actually. Getting into the dark matter!

Outreach to non-readers Based in part on citizen service

Social media Book dispensers in relevant places for instance

Literature Circle Classic events

Our digital platforms’ presence in the physical room (eReolen and litteratursiden.dk)

All over; audio too

Integral part Overall strengthening of our outreach “package” … physical library, digital library, social media

Working with publishers and commercial partners for awareness through recommendations and referrals to commercial sites through eReolen

Recommendations and reading lists at commercial sites too is part of the promotional efforts of the digital library

Getting into the dark matter by benignly joining the conversation evolving around the commercial sites

Talking literature om social media

• … is not revolutionary, but there is a a twist• Directly inspired by Michael Edson last year• It is an attempt to get our people out there, into

the dark matter, joining the larger conversation as themselves! Not employees.

• People listen to other people – not institutions

• Personal and work life blur together

Setup

• A corp of librarians write casually about literature on Facebook, Twitter, through Goodreads, Instagram etc. and tag with #bogsnak. A Facebook page collects the best.

• The corp befriends publishers, authors, each other and try to bring in readers

• The hashtag was dormant on Twitter, but is now being used by publishers and authors and journalists

”It’s just me”

Collection reduction

• Aim: Get rid of 1/3 of the physical materials • Why: To make more room for people and events

and to provide a lighter, friendlier physical space• Performed by a group of librarians with

comprehensive statistics at their disposal• Quantitive measures, but there’s been a

”conservation board”

Result: Controversy and chaos

We even made it to Estonian TV!