2011 - Future Ready - Abram

Future Ready: Getting Out In Front of the Curve

Stephen Abram, MLSSLA Annual Conference

Government Information DivisionJune 13, 2011

These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

Change

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”

Change can happen very fast

Sensemaking

News Flash

News Flash

Tech Shift Happens

Seth Godin on Decisions (June 8, 2011)

o Which of the four are getting in the way?o You don't know what to doo You don't know how to do ito You don't have the authority or the resources to

do ito You're afraido 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.

20th Century Strategies

Inventory and CollectionsBuildingsSearchReading is FundamentalPatronsOutreachCirculationPrivacy

21st Century Strategies

Content AccessBricks and Clicks and TricksCommunities of Knowledge and PracticeResearch ImpactRelationships & Partnerships Information Literacy ProgramsSocial Alignment

What Are Libraries Really For?

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

Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Libraries: Searching for the corners of the earth, the edge of the

oceans and discovering dragons ...

-

Cook’s Voyage

Columbus, Cabot, Cortes

Magellan Columbus Cook

Questions for Libraries Today:

1. Are our priorities right?2. Are learning, research, discovery changing

materially and what is actually changing?3. Books. Meh.4. What is the role for librarians in the real

future (that is not an extension of the past)?

What has changed?

End UsersPhysical access and basic reading has already

evolved to intellectual access with new competencies

Libraries at the heart of the campus? Nope. Students are focused at the lesson and event

(essay, test, exam) level Researchers are connected beyond the host

institution.

A Metaphor

Grocery Stores

Grocery Stores

Grocery Stores

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

Meals

The new bibliography and

collection development

KNOWLEDGE PORTALS

KNOWLEDGE,LEARNING,

INFORMATION &RESEARCHCOMMONS

Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians

Librarians play a vital role in building the critical connections between

information , knowledge and learning.

Service Metaphor

o Cafeteriaso Take Outo Private Dining Roomso Private Chefso Variety

You have the tools.

Stop Making it so Hard!

Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills Reading literacy Numeracy Critical literacy Social literacy Computer literacy Web literacy Content literacy Written literacy

News literacy Technology literacy Information literacy Media literacy Adaptive literacy Research literacy Academic literacy Reputation, Etc.

Steal This Idea

List of content farms and general spammy user generated content sites:

All Experts (allexperts.com) Answers (answers.com) Answer Bag (answerbag.com) Articles Base (articlesbase.com) Ask (ask.com) Associated Content (associatedcontent.com) BizRate (bizrate.com) Buzle (buzzle.com) Brothersoft (brothersoft.com) Bytes (bytes.com) ChaCha (chacha.com) eFreedom (efreedom.com) eHow (ehow.com) Essortment (essortment.com) Examiner (examiner.com) Expert Village (expertvillage.com) )

Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com) eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com) Find Articles (findarticles.com) FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com) Hub Pages (hubpages.com) InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com) Livestrong (livestrong.com) Mahalo (mahalo.com) Mail Archive (mail-archive.com) Question Hub (questionhub.com) Squidoo (squidoo.com) Suite101 (suite101.com) Twenga (twenga.com) WiseGeek (wisegeek.com) Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com) Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com) Xomba (xomba.com)

Emerging Tech that Drives Users to the Library

Content Farms, Mills (Demand Media, AOL, etc.)

Encyclopedia.com HighBeam & Questia WorldCat AccessMyLibrary iPhone App for

public, school and higher ed – iPhone, iPad, iTouch and Droid!

Geo-IP features and measures Watch for more . . .

GOOG

The nasty facts about Google &

Bing and consumer search:

SEO / SMOContent Farms

Advertiser-drivenGeotagging

Have Users

Changed?

YES (duh!)

My son: Zachary

Millennial & Post-Millennial Differences

Increase in IQ - 15-20 Points Educational attainment up, a lot Reading up, markedly Brain & Developmental Changes Eye Movement Changes Massive Behavioural Changes Major Decline in Crime Rates – down 65% But still a 70% behavior overlap with

Boomers (see my book chapter)

Young People Have Changed, but

Twitter & Facebook are dominated by the middle-aged

Gaming too. . . Mothers in their 30’s Social networks fastest growing populations

are seniors and is more international and less urban and less English dominated.

eBook reader usage is largely middle-aged. Mobile data usage is growing beyond youth

very quickly, workplace use is huge

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 We Never Really Knew Before (US/Canada)

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.

5 Things have Changed . . A LOT!

1. Cardholders, Users, Members, Patrons, Clients, Customers, Learners, Students, Scholars, Researchers, Teachers, Professors

2. Books & Media & Collections3. Mobility4. Learning & Research5. Government

The History of Unintended

Consequences & Unpredictability

“Strategy is a Choice . . .

To be a victim and feel these changes are fated and blamestormOR

Create the future we need and take collective responsibility for the conversation and development of the future.”

Find Reasons not Excuses.

As technology advances

Emboldened Librarians hold the key

So how must librarian and Infopro strategies change?

Discovery & Ideas

Has academic research focus shifted entirely?

Has the future changed?Has our future changed?

COWS, etc.

The Future Discovered

• Stem Cells• fMRI and The Brain• Cloning• Trucking and GPS• Wind and other energy• Nanotechnology• Robotics• Massive Book Digitization• Music• Translation• Streaming Media• Seed Bank

Inter-disciplinary

Cross-DisciplinaryIntegrated

Books

We have a shallow understanding of the Codex – the book format(s)

Transition from scrolls – illumination – codex – and beyond

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?

So how must library and educator strategies change?

Mobility

A 1965 iPhone

Broadband

You must clearly understand the latest US FCC Whitespace Broadband Decision – THIS IS TRANSFORMATIONAL and going global

Net neutrality, kill switches . . . Local wired, mobile access ‘everywhere’ to the

home and workplace on a personal basis Geo-awareness: GIS, GPS, GEO-IP, etc. Wireless as a business strategy (Starbucks) Mobile dominates the largest generation

What changes with personal devices?

The Fanboys

are failing us.

The Physical Act of Reading

Speaking of e-

Books...

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

GBS

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

Books

Fiction

Non-Fiction

E-Learning

What do we need to know?

What are we going

to do next?

StrategicAnalytics

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?

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Top-Level BenchmarksGale-Cengage Browse Survey

August 01, 2010 - August 31, 2010

Save the User!

What Would You Attempt If You Knew You Would Not

Fail?

The power of libraries

A Third Path

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAVP strategic partnerships and markets

Cengage Learning (Gale)Cel: 416-669-4855

[email protected]’s Lighthouse Blog

http://stephenslighthouse.comFacebook: Stephen Abram

LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen AbramTwitter: sabram

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