David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Transforming the Library Empire – Possible?

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Speakers – Steve Coffman, LSSI
Roy Tennant, OCLC

This was the morning keynote presentation – here are some notes from their talk.

Steve talked first. He compared cataloging the web (some libraries were interested in that around 1999 or so) to Library 2.0, and said both those didn’t really work. I’ll disagree with him on the library 2.0 side of things…

Ebooks:
– the real problem – google and amazon have larger collections than we do
– there is a huge amount of free material, and the average price is $7 so it’s cheap
– amazon, audible, and Netflix are capable of setting up library-like lending services

So – why would people go to a library, when you can get stuff pretty cheaply and more conveniently from other places?

His point – the digital library is here. It’s just not something we created or are in charge of.

Post-print futures

Maker spaces, gadget gurus, community convenors, publishers … Help improve society by facilitating the creation of knowledge in their communities…

Questions – what makes a maker space different from places like build-a-bear? Etc…what makes librarians unique in these new roles, because many others are already doing this stuff?

So where does that leave us? Because he thinks we are closely associated with books and buildings.

So …he thinks instead of running from our books and our buildings, maybe we should focus on them. That’s where our assets are right now.

So now he’s talking about how there are lots of print books still being published, don’t count print out, etc.

Also thinks that, in a few years, there will be some sort of digital backlash.

Ok … So I’m not really into Steve’s points. To me anyway, he’s basically saying people think of libraries as books and buildings, and publishers are still making print books, so lets still do that.

Again, to me anyway … That’s sorta like IBM saying let’s keep focusing on making typewriters, because people think of us as making them, and people are still buying them.

Um… ????

Roy spoke next…

Roy thinks libraries will survive.

Our flexibility is important.

Showing a bunch of old technology that has come and gone … and it wasn’t really that long ago

We as libraries have been through these technology changes – have done nothing but change for a long time.

Our gender matters. Our industry is overwhelmingly female.

Our principles matter. Freedom to read. Right to privacy matters. Yikes! Roy showed my old Facebook privacy settings video. I should update that one!

Our people matter. We have great people working at libraries that do awesome things. Patrick Sweeney’s Story Sailboat idea for example.

Maker spaces – a bit more positive thinking from Roy. Entrepreneurs try many things before something clicks. This might be one of them, but you have to try things to see what happens.

R-Squared conference – very different type of conference.

ALA ThinkTank – another great, lively idea.

Me here – I personally got more out of Roy’s part of the talk…

Websites at the Next Level – Internet Librarian 2012

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Here are my slides from my session.

Here’s the session description – Ever had that feeling there was something missing on your website, or something not quite right … but you couldn’t put your finger on it? In addition to the seven essential elements, King describes ways to take your library’s web presence to the next level. Leave with lots of insights and ideas to improve your library’s website!

Great turnout, and a ton of tweets from it, too. Thanks!

iPads at the Airport

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Like iPads, and think they could work in a public space? Check this video out! I recently saw a bunch of iPads at the Delta terminal at LaGuardia airport in New York, and took a short video of them. Here’s a link to some photos, too.

Basically, here’s what I saw – hundreds of iPads in the airport terminal gates, secured to tables with a cable. Each iPad had airport info, news, games, a restaurant menu, and web access apps installed. You could order items from the restaurant via a credit card swiper beside the iPad. No signup, no waiting list – just find an empty iPad and start using it. Here’s a couple of news articles written about this experiment.

The only real problem I saw was one of sorta gross smudges on the iPads. Thankfully, I also saw someone walking around, cleaning the screens.

iPads in the airportI think this type of setup could easily work in a library setting! Here are some starter thoughts on potential uses:

  • catalog-only computers
  • computer “overflow” – get out the iPads!
  • Simple browsing stations. Who needs PCs?
  • Complete mobile technology in the library – no PCs needed (with those handy self-service tablet checkout machines that were being shown in the exhibit hall at ALA Annual). Just check out an iPad, then take it wherever you want to in the library.
  • Out-of-the-building events
  • For staff, they could work nicely as roving reference tools.

Question – how does your library use iPads or mobile tablet technology? I’ll start: so far, we have some iPads that staff can check out for a learning opportunity, we have experimented with them for roving reference, and we teach a class on using an iPad. How about you?

We’re Writing a Novel!

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book and ebookMy library is heading up a really cool project that I thought I’d tell you guys about.

In short, we thought we’d write a novel.

A community-driven novel, that is. Here’s a blurb about the project: “A community novel is one that is written collaboratively by members of your community. The library invites writers to each contribute a chapter to advance the group’s story. The story is set in Topeka and will use landmarks and a setting that all will recognize. Writing and publication began in April and continues through August with a chapter added each week (just like any other serial novel you’ve experienced). Each chapter will appear here so you may read them in order, with a new chapter published each week.”

Here’s a link to the main page for the project, and here’s chapter one. Please read it!

When we’re done writing the novel, we plan to throw an author book signing party! We also plan to publish the book in both ebook and print formats, and sell it online. And we’ll put the book in our collection, so people can check it out.

We have two goals:

  1. We want to showcase content creation in our local community, and this type of focused writing project provides us with a fun way to start doing that.
  2. We also want to get our feet wet in content creation. Libraries traditionally house books, help customers find books, and create programs around books and authors, etc. Why can’t a library and a community … create a novel?

Anyway – check it out – chapter two comes out this week!

book pic by Remi Mathis

Sign the Petition at ebooksforlibraries.com!

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Ebooks in libraries got you down? Feel like you can’t do anything about it, or that you don’t have a voice? My library wants to help!

We have created a petition website – ebooksforlibraries.com. Visit the website, watch the video (also embedded in this post), and more importantly – fill out the petition today!

What’s going on? Pretty simple:

  • Libraries are having trouble getting ebooks from the largest publishing companies. These publishers are adding restrictions and price increases, or simply not selling ebooks to libraries at all.
  • This means that library customers can get a print copy of a book from a library, but can’t get that same book in an ebook format. And that’s just weird.
  • Goal – we need 10,000 e-signatures from readers.
  • Once we hit that magic number, we plan to mail the completed petitions to each of the big six publishers. Why? We want to communicate directly with publishers through this petition process, with the intent of establishing formal and consistent communication between publishers and readers.

One other thing – you can help!

  • Fill out the petition!
  • Share the petition – on your website, in Facebook, in Twitter, etc.
  • Point to the petition in your buildings – put up signs, mention it in your library’s newsletter, etc.

Why do this? Our ultimate goal is to get books, in all formats, to our readers. This helps authors, publishers, libraries … and most importantly, our readers.