snapshot: trendspotting and modeling for the next generation of library users

Snapshot.trendspotting and modeling for the next

generation of library users

Monica HarrisDeputy Director

Schaumburg Township District Library

"We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all

that was humanly possible." - George Santayana

What does America look like for kids and parents in 2014?

Child poverty rates are rising

Child Poverty By the Numbers by Curtis Skinner. http://prospect.org/article/child-poverty-numbers

Teen birth rates fell to an all-time low

Cities are getting wealthier, whiter, and more segregated

Income Segregation in America, Chicago Magazine, http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/July-2012/Income-Segregation-in-Chicago-and-the-Gentrification-of-America/

Thomas B Fordham Institute, http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/the-fastest-gentrifying-neighborhoods-in-the-united-states.html

Daniel Kay Hertz, Watch Chicago’s Middle Class Vanish Before Your Very Eyes, http://danielkayhertz.com/2014/03/31/middle-class/

Meanwhile, the suburbs are getting more diverse“Seven of the ten most diverse neighborhoods in America are suburban. None of them are in the evolving, creative-class city and inner suburban districts that many of us normally think of as undergoing change. Taken as a whole, average home values in the ten are slightly higher than those in other neighborhoods, and the most diverse are growing faster and their home prices are increasing somewhat faster that in other neighborhoods. Visually, they strike me as very middle class, though their settings range from beautiful to drab. They look like America.”

Kaid Benfield, NRDC Switchboard http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/meet_americas_most_diverse_nei.html

● About three in four (74%) teens ages 12-17 say they access the internet on cell phones, tablets, and other mobile devices at least occasionally.

● One in four teens are “cell-mostly” internet users — far more than the 15% of adults who are cell-mostly. Among teen smartphone owners, half are cell-mostly.

● Older girls are especially likely to be cell-mostly internet users; 34% of teen girls ages 14-17 say they mostly go online using their cell phone, compared with 24% of teen boys ages 14-17. This is notable since boys and girls are equally likely to be smartphone owners.

● Among older teen girls who are smartphone owners, 55% say they use the internet mostly from their phone.

Pew Teens and Technology 2013

"It used to be that there was lots of time, but the information was limited. You would go

to the library, it might take a while, but that's where all the information was. Now,

it's just the opposite. Information is everywhere, but nobody has any time.

The rules have changed."http://www.anythinklibraries.org/discuss/what-traditional-conventions-do-you-see-your-

library-and-how-would-you-disrupt-them#comments

One Piece of Advice:

Get. Comfortable. With. Change.

“Companies are valued less for their success than for the their ability to adapt and change.” -Tom Kelley, The Ten Faces of Innovation

“The greatest glory in living lies

not in never falling,

but in rising every time we fall.”

― Nelson Mandela

“The results suggest that Wikipedia articles in this sample scored higher altogether in each of the three languages, and fared particularly well in categories of accuracy and references. As the report notes, the English Wikipedia fared well in this sample against Encyclopaedia Britannica in terms of accuracy, references and overall judgement, with little differences between the two on style and overall quality score. Similar results were found when comparing Wikipedia articles in Spanish to Enciclonet. In Arabic, Mawsoah and Arab Encyclopaedia articles scored higher on style than Wikipedia, but no significant differences were found on accuracy, references, overall judgment and overall quality score.”

Seven years after Nature, pilot study compares Wikipedia favorably to other encyclopedias in three languages by Daria Taraborelli, August 2 2012. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/02/seven-years-after-nature-pilot-study-compares-wikipedia-favorably-to-other-encyclopedias-in-three-languages/

Encyclopedia Britannica Vs. Wikipedia

Britannica's goal is to become THE ironclad definitive source. Wikipedia can just

document the change in how information is perceived.

The real story is less about accuracy and more about documenting change.

traditional

participatory

Learning from each other is not new. This is what the college

experience is all about.

“Every day, we collectively produce millions of books’

worth of writing. Globally we send 154.6 billion emails, more

than 400 million tweets, and over 1 million blog posts and

around 2 million blog comments on WordPress. On Facebook, we

post about 16 billion words. Altogether, we compose some 3.6 trillion words every day on email and social media — the

equivalent of 36 million books.* (The entire US Library of

Congress, by comparison, holds around 23 million books.)”

- Clive Thompson

From Geeks to Mainstream

‘Twenty years ago, “jacking in” to the Internet provided an escape for boyd from the social trials of high school life. According to her book, teenagers today use social network sites to do just the opposite: to supplement their physical social activity with photos, videos and conversations. In this way, teens are doing what they’ve always been doing: hanging out in the socially designated “cool” place. Adults disturbed by the gravitational tug of social media on teens may be comforted to know it’s the virtual equivalent of the previous generation’s mall food court.’

- The Kids (Are Still) Alright by Emily Alhadeff. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/stories/people/danah-boyd.html

“Rather than get anxious about kids and technology, let’s get anxious about kids who are struggling. It’s about being conscientious not just about our own children, but about the communities we live in.”

-danah boyd

Introducing Generation Z

(Born 1995-2014)

Flynn McGarry (Trunk Media), Tavi Gevinson (Larry Busacca/Getty Images), and Adora Svitak (Jose Mandojana)

Generational Population Breakdown (Sparks & Honey)

Meet Generation Z; Sparks and Honey. http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17

Meet Generation Z; Sparks and Honey. http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17

How to Reach the Next Generation of Library Users

The Project for Public Spaces: The Power of 10

Barrington Area Library

Depict them as diverse.

Images matter.

Tom Deja, Oak Park Public Library

Snackable Content

Make Stuff

Meridian Library Detroit Public Library, HYPE Makerspace

Assume they have opinions and are vocal. Collaborate.

“Adult librarians are like lazy bakers: their patrons want a jelly doughnut, so they give them a jelly doughnut. Children’s

librarians are ambitious bakers: 'You like the jelly doughnut? I’ll get you a jelly doughnut. But you should try my cruller, too.

My cruller is gonna blow your mind, kid.” -John Green

Questions?Monica HarrisDeputy DirectorSchaumburg Township District Library

Email: mharris@stdl.orgTwitter: @showlola