1:45pm – Stephen Abrams: Technologies and innovations related to the future of library services

Next massive wave of innovation and demand for it will start in 2005/2006, similar to what happened at the turn of the last century (cars, phones, tv, electricity, etc)

Things to watch for in the next few years:
– secure broadband wireless will be huge
– low-power batteries on many things
– real-time infrastructure… emerging
– service-oriented architecture – perfect compliment for how libraries actually run

Hardware innovations in the next decade:
– “Living in a video game” – life might seem like this
– A bridge for physical and electronic worlds
– Smart pills, nanotechnology, etc.
– RFID – interesting challenge
– Trusted computing

Mobile and wireless in the next decade:
– continued integration between phones and PDAs
– mesh network – your wireless thing will know where you are
– mobile commerce – being able to buy articles online

computer human interactionin the next decade:
– biometrics, speech, handwriting, eye position
– head-mounted displays
– natural language, taxonomies, etc – search logic
– GIS – so your device can tell you where something is

Data Analytics in the next decade:
– advanced functionality
– comment – librarians are text based learners. That’s why only 20% of the population uses libraries. It’s a design thing…
– libraries need to figure out streaming media (CDs and DVDs will go away soon)
– sending a picture of someone to Google to find information about them… wow!

System development in the next decade:
– XML will get big
– Integration with other systems will become more commonplace

Other things mentioned:

• People will spend more time interacting with people in the electronic world
• 93% of kids 19 or younger currently have at least two IM addresses…
• Connected society – wearable tech. smart phones – outsell laptops, phones, PDA, etc.
• Location-based services – like wireless grabs your screen and puts you on a hotel’s webpage – libraries should be able to do that, too.
• Handsets will get huge – focus on applications
• e-learning and distance education will get huge… some usiversities already have 60% of students as distance students
• every university will have federated search and open url technology within 2 years, public libs within 4 years – they’ll need to have them to survive.
• shared ideas (intranets) shared creation – workflow content management, web conferencing shared presence – IM, video conferencing

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3:15pm – Institutional Digital Repositories, Frank Cervone

It’s changing the nature of scholarly communication

5 aims of a repository:
1. research – self archiving research output
2. management
3. preservation
4. teaching – even online teaching materials… (syllabi)
5. electronic publishing

Local history collections are a type of repository

Commercial vs Open Source – there are both

Open Source:
– EPrints – focuses on traditional text-based scholarship – pre-and post-prints
– DSpace – created as a general – purpose repository to hold more than just text.
– Fedora – doesn’t come with a ready-to-use user interface out of the box!!! Allows for a wide range of material types.
– Greenstone – suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections.

Commercial:
– CONTENTdm
– DigitoolEncompass
– Hyperion (SIRSI)

And the Dead Technologies session in the evening was hilarious, as usual!

Here’s a quick run-down on what I listened to this morning:

9am – Intro (I think it was Dick Kaser):

• Best turnout in over 5 years.
• Over 2100 registered.
• From all 50 states and DC. 10 countries.
• 139 speakers and moderators, 62 exhibitors

Clifford Lynch (keynote):
No Powerpoint. Cool – I need a cheatsheet.

Clifford spoke on the history of the Internet and then projected possible future stuff:

• History of internet and web…
• In 1985, what we have now (the web) would have seemed like science fiction.

Current Trends:

• we’ll see a huge amount of historical content placed online.
• Entire cumulative amount of literature on certain subjects will be available online.
• We’ve been raised to think there’s a scarcity of content (limited amount of space on bookshelves, record stores, etc.). We’re now finding out that someone loves practically everything – it’s a move to abundance.
• Move to digital representations that stand by themselves. move from bib records and description to a move to full text. This is a huge cultural shift. We need to rethink metadata because of this.
• Images are plentiful – we can represent physical objects digitally. Physical things are much more accessible and preservable now. Like museums. (or local history/archives collections)
• TV stations, radio stations, printing presses, etc – all belonged to big organizations. Now you can have a computer of your own with a fast internet connection, and the big organization trend is shrinking.
• We can take networking ans wireless for granted – he hasn’t had to use a modem for a long time.

Future trends down the road:

• Images are going to become much more common discourse in electronic communication.
• Are we moving into an age of broader authorship? Tim Berners-Lee idea of the web was collaboration… we’ve seen the rise of blogs, photo blogs. It’s energized a large number of people.
• Age of popular authorship… some authorship will turn into a type of conversation.
• Large digital collections of historical content. For example – a photo of some confederate general usually has little to no descriptive content – Once you put it online, it becomes a conversation – hey, that’s my grandpa…. let me tell you about him. Content becomes conversation. That’s cool.
• Content designed for humans, and content designed for machines to read – we’ll see this division. There aren’t really maps now – they’re databases that output a map.
• Digital Preservation concerns are growing: larger interest in preservation for digital content.
• Starting to see “digital shoeboxes” of content (like family photos) that people want to preserve.
• Sensory integration. – Seeing this in the sciences. starting to see it in medicine. low end – surveillance cameras attached to the net

And his conclusion:
Embarrasing content is becoming an issue – 4th graders who put up a webpages – they’ll deal with that when they are adults, becuase their 4th grade info will still be out there.

Since then, I gave two presentations, so I haven’t really taken more notes… more to come fromt his afternoon’s sessions.

11am:
I’m sitting in the Chicago O’Hare (thanks, Steve) Airport, waiting for my flight to Washington DC. I’m having an awesome trip so far!

Good stuff:

• Good drive through the country this morning while headed to the airport
• Seeing the Expedia.com Cafe at KCI – sorta funny!
• Having Soul Coughing’s Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago start playing while landing at the Chicago airport – how cool is that?

5pm:
OK, I can add some bad stuff now…

• Remember to print out a map of the hotel before you get off the Metro and start looking around, thinking “I wonder where my hotel is?” I did get a good workout, however – while walking around a huge mile or so with my luggage – the wrong way. And up hill.
• A Kansas City International Airport parking ticket WILL NOT get you on the Metro. No matter how many times you try.

8pm:
Checked out the conference hotel – it takes me 35 minutes to get from the Iwo Jima Quality Inn to the Hilton. Some walking and a Metro transfer involved. But not bad at all. And hey – the Quality Inn has FREE wireless internet in each room. Dude.

More to come – I’m really looking forward to the conference – hanging out with friends, speaking about topics I care about, and learning lots of cool stuff… I can’t wait!

Update 2 – even better list of things to do!

I’ll be presenting at Computers in Libraries 2005 next week, and thought I should give first-timers to the conference a run down of what to do while at the conference:

1. Attend everything you can – there are so many good topics, presenters, and ideas being shared. You’re bound to find a time where you really want to attend two sessions at the same time.
2. Participate – do you have a question for the speaker? Ask it! Don’t be shy. If there isn’t time to ask at the end of a session, find the speaker later in the day – we’re there to share!
3. Network – Talk to the person sitting beside you before a session. Talk to someone milling about between sessions. Talk to speakers. Share your business card with people [reminder to David – pack some business cards].
4. Bug the vendors – besides just getting a year’s supply of free pens and squishy toys for the kids, there’s some amazing vendors with awesome products! You don’t even have to buy stuff – you can have a literature gathering party, and take back a lot of good info to digest later.
5. Get there early – More networking, and … well … what can I say: “Free breakfast.”
6. Don’t eat alone – Those people you networked with? Go to lunch with them. Ask them questions. Go to a Dine Around – you’ll probably learn more than you bargained for.
7. Lulls – Let’s be honest here. There comes a time at every conference where the afternoon session about Using Streaming Robo-Folksonomies for XML Tagging of College Freshmen really just doesn’t do it for you, and gee whiz – it’s a heck of a sunny day outside. Blow it off and go to the Mall – check out all the cool museums (or, if your boss read this, take an extra day before or after the conference to see the sights).
8. Enjoy the area – The conference is in a cool part of DC, with neat loft apartments, some odd little stores, etc – take a walk around the block between sessions.
9. Check your email – You can use the conference-provided PCs. Great setup, but long lines. Or take your laptop and visit one of the many Starbucks and other similar coffee shops and cafes in the area with wireless access. Update 1: I’m told that the Hilton’s lobby area had free wireless access last year. Here’s hoping for this year, too! Or, 9 1/2 – Don’t check your email. It might be nice to be away from your email for a few days.
10. Share when you get back to work – most important. Don’t let your time at CIL be wasted. Share your new knowledge with library staff. You might just start a new initiative out of your notes from a session.

And – see you there!

Michael Stephens is organizing a track at the Internet Librarian 2005 conference. This could be a VERY COOL THING.

So take a look and send him ideas! What would YOU like to hear, if you went?