fort bend tx may 2013 staff day

Expect More!At the Heart of LibrariesInnovation, Community, Success

Stephen Abram, MLSFort Bend County LibrariesStaff Development Day May 10, 2013

These slides will be up on Stephen’s Lighthouse and Slideshare tonight

I’ll link to it through my Twitter (@sabram) and Facebook pages too.

I’ll stay through the day to have any conversation you might like …

Every Day in every way libraries are throwing pebbles

Gee County Community

My tie . . .

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 library strategies 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

CH CH CHANGE

• Speed of change• Economic growth• Employment growth• Education issues• Diminution of voice

Library Megatrends

It doesn’t take a genius to see librarian skills and competencies applied to the trends and issues in library communities in very strategic ways.

Public Libraries

• Recommendations (Bibliocommons, LibraryThing for Libraries / Book Psychic) • Community Glue• Economic Impact and VALUE studies• Programs on steroids aligned with collections and space• Bi-directional Partnerships• Education and Learning – REALLY committing to learning and credits / diplomas / certificates• A volatile supplier space• Renewed advocacy moves to Influencing and selling

Consortia & State Licensing

• Consortia level the playing field• ALA & 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

Deer in headlamps slide here.

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

Libraries Have Seasons

Librarian and Library Staff Magic

SmellyYellowLiquid

OrSex

Appeal?

The Complex Value Proposition

•What are your goals?

•What are their goals?

•Is there a difference?

What are the goals?

NounsBooks, eBooksMagazinesWebsitesBuildings, BranchesRoomsDesksProgramsNouns can be warehoused and ‘cut’

VerbsServeAnswerEngageLinkEntertainTell a storyDoAction verbs imply dynamism and impact

Are you locked into an old library mindset?

A Verb . . . an Experience, enlivened for an audience

A Noun . . . A foundation but not sufficient with professional animation

Retail Sales Down?

Teen Reading Down?

Titles Down?

Circulation Down?

Reading Down?

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Focus on the REAL IssuesNot BOOKS! The experience

Grocery Stores

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Meals

So What Should Our Public Library Priorities Be?

1. Community Focus?Or Engagement?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

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

2. Programs --- More, more, moreUp 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• Virtual and in-person• In the Library and reaching out with partners

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 and program dissemination • Citation and information ethics• Content and repository archipelagos

• Strategic Analytics• Value & Impact Measures• Behaviours, Satisfaction• Economic and strategic alignment

3. Experience PortalsThe Virtual ‘Branch’Up 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 question domains? Start there.• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability.• Look for replicability – every neighbourhood

The new bibliography and

collection development

Ask Us, KNOWLEDGE

PORTALSKNOWLEDGE,

LEARNING,INFORMATION &

RESEARCHCOMMONS

4. 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?• What courses to you offer or recommend? (TED, Khan

Academy, etc.)

5. Get real about homeworkUp Your Game• Understand the new Common Curriculum (esp. 6-8 and 9-12)• Home schooling (Millennials and their kids) NextGen users• Understand Pedagogy in the context of student experiences and

educational goals• Understand human development from early years through teens• Connect across developmental stages, link • Consider partnerships to put teachers in the library• Consider coaches and tutoring partnerships

6. Take Branding to the Next LevelUp Your Game• The strong ‘library’ brand – adding dimension• Personal branding – Who are your stars? Promote them.• Program branding• Take risks for attention (AIDA)• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually

7. Collections AlignmentUp Your Game• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example

economic impact, jobs, early years, hobbies, political alignment, homework, …)

• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent for digital and print and programs

• Be obsessive about recommendations and advice• Integrate virtual and physical - hybridize

8. Customer Service and PresenceUp Your Game• Outside the library is still the library• Entrances and gardens• Complaints often center on fines, washrooms, etc.• Customer service best practices training (Starbucks,

Nordstrom, Marriott, Ritz Carlton, Disney)

9. Uncomfortable Bonus: 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• Focus on future not protecting the past

Being More Open to Comment

Being More Open to Criticism and Feedback

Being More Open to Recommendations

Support Aspiration

Be Creative and Attract

Being More Open to Change

The Library as Sandbox

‘New’ Library CulturesSupport 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.

Be Inspirational

Know What Makes Us Different

Finding Our Voice and Using It

Tell Your Story: Until lions learn to write their own story,

the story will always be from the perspective of the hunter not the hunted.

The power of answers

Honest to G*d – Let’s Encourage Some Fun!

74

75

76

Starlings on the MoorA metaphor for public libraries…

77

79

Who are you?

80

What are you?

81

82

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

Will Reading Matter?

Build inFormat

Agnosticity

Next Step in eBooksMake your ownAnimationSoundChapter and paragraph recombinations

A projector the size of a sugar cube

Everything’s getting smaller

PayAttention toMobile

Be Inspirational

Be Important

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) and cloud metadata• 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• Experience portals• 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?

114

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

121

• 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

Recognize key shifts

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 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.

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

Choose

The power of libraries

A Third Path

Don’t study the issue to death.

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAConsultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners

Cel: 416-669-4855stephen.abram@gmail.comStephen’s Lighthouse Blog

http://stephenslighthouse.comFacebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram

LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen AbramTwitter: @sabram

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