My Notes from LITA Top Tech Trends at ALA MidWinter

January 21, 2010 · Posted in Conferences · View Comments

The panel consisted of David Walker, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Joe Murphy, Lauren Pressley, Jason Griffey and was moderated by Greg Silvis

David Watson discovery systems

to get the rss for a specific journal you need to visit the specific site or vendor,
different silos for information, need to wait for vendors to create mobile system
bring data together in aggregated system have one local for info
if everything is all together in one place, books article etc does that really help students?
are libraries giving up too much control to the cloud?

Panel response

Griffey – expected to see collapse of these databases and vendors fighting each other
Etches – federated searching was a disaster, is discovery system better?
David – system helps level playing field

Amanda – user experience buzz word for 2009

People can’t agree on what it means, user experience design is about designing everything buildings etc, but interest for her (us) is web
Visual design coupled with interactive design, how does that make our users feel?
We aren’t ready to make our users feel we need to keep talking about user interface and usability
Mobile interfaces are necessarily stripped down because they have to be
Mobile browsing – if site doesn’t have a mobile version a user will not spend much time on it, she either finds what she needs right away or moves on,
people are starting to seek out the mobile interface on a regular screen because they know that it will get them the info they need faster
What we do for mobile is really going to affect what we do for web design in general, mobile design with force user experience designers to re-evaluate and reverse design
Usability will continue to be separate from user experience design
Online automated usability testing, pay them & install on server
Analytics – how do you measure your users experience on your website? We aren’t selling anything so we can’t measure sales

Panel response

Greg – who is responsible for development of user experience? We each place reinvent the wheel or will we have standards
Lauren – think about users we serve, public is different from undergrad or even grad
Amanda – need to talk more to usability community
Jason – building a new lib at TN , thinking a lot about physical user experience – how do digital & brick & mortar usability interact?
Amanda – literature talks about providing a more holistic experience, step back and figure out how it actually fits in with what users experience when they come into the building, be really cognizant that what you design online mirrors what you’re designing physically, signage and headers match, taxonomy

Joe – mobile tech

some of the mobile tech we’re going to focus on we’ve already heard of, we’ve reached saturation and now are driven by user demand
sms – oldest of mobile tech, strongest, most universal, most flexible, more than communication tool, also a research tool, it has just been introduced to reference but has really blown up
We need to transfer our skills into new environments, translate from reference desk to 140 characters
Print collections are only relevant when content isn’t available digitally, also tactical appeal
Libraries need Basic things like enough outlets, or stronger cell reception
Location based gaming, like 4sq, something that bring competition into location, allure to things are that are location based
Twitter emerged in 2007, blew up in 2008, standard in 2009
Mobile techs are going to come & go, we need to be flexible and be able to adapt, everyday struggle to keep up with mobile tech
There should not be tension between those who are ready to adapt & those who are not?
Skills – although nothing major is changing, our role is the same, but everything else is different, should allow change to happen but should not allow compromise of soul of libraries
Let’s learn together, let’s play and let’s go through it

Panel response

David – for smaller libraries, ones without staff with time to play, what should they be focusing on in terms of mobile tech?
Joe – every library has this problem, not enough staff, not enough time, strategize services, have to make decisions on what is greater value, how do we balance servicing all patron groups, we can’t do everything for everyone, how do we decide priority?

Lauren – augmented reality –

blending virtual data with real world, been thought about for years, but is becoming more mainstream
combo of real & virtual in real time, starting to see on smart phones, with aps, hold up phone & have data overlaid with what device “sees” very new & still buggy
trail on the hockey puck if you’re watching on tv, same for 1st down line on football field, people who are there in person don’t see these things they are virtual
real estate app will know where you are what houses are for sale in the neighborhood you’re in, prices houses have sold for etc
AAA app that lets you find discount places
Library application – how to use call number system, how to select appropriate article if in serial section

From panel

David – library application is cool, but example of coliseum sounds even neater, do you see libraries to take ownership of these, of cities?
Lauren – see some place with resources to create input that other places can use to input to help standard,
Jason – overlap between libraries & AR is the unique stuff in our archives, if we can get to standard for display if libraries can then really dive into archive & use as teaching training tools for community, what did main street look like in 1890 & 1990 etc
Joe – how libraries leverage it for collections?
David – as we move towards more electronic collections, so if browsing physical stacks can now see there is an eBook on same subject

Jason – Mobile applications

2009 was the year of the iphone app store, app store opening in mid 2008 July, in Jan 2009 apeoplee announced 500 million apps downloaded, 4 months after billion, 5 mos later 2 billion
134000 iphone apps , how many are library specific? 4? 5? DC public, OCLC and Librarything just launched one called Local Books,
weird things now have apps, like printers from HP, Ford announced software development kit at CES, everyone is jumping on this bandwagon
2010 will be a bigger year for apps
when iphone launched there was no app store, Steve jobs said no need for apps because if you can write for web will work on the iphone,
Steve Jobs was right, 2010 will be the death of apps CSS3 & html 5 brings new things with it, allows drag & drop from browser to desktop, best supported in mobile browsers right now, FF, chrome, Safari, ‘
If you write it once in html 5 it will work anywhere desktop tablet iphone, don’t need to recreate and support multiple platform

Response from panel

David – glad to see app die because background in programming & one of things is don’t repeat yourself, if you have apps across multiple platforms you do have to repeat yourself, mobile sites are completely separate from regular site, have to make changes 2 places
IE does not support HTML 5
Twitter question – is it the year all apps die or just mobile apps?
Griffey – probably not desktop, about 95 % of work is on a browser, we will see less of things like everyone using Microsoft office
Has apps been a worthwhile investment?

Part 2 topic introduced each person gets 3 min to respond

Reinvention of the book - Rocket eBook reader, bulky heavy, shows kindle, these 2 devices are remarkably similar, in terms of great advances in tech, not so sure we’re there.
Griffey – 2 things he saw at CES, he things eBook hardware is dying,

Copia – software platform that reinvents electronic reading as a social experience, similar to LT & GR but actual interaction with text, can take notes & share notes with friends, can sync comments & sections, can highlight section & send to people, relies on text its self to drive sociality of it, copia will be selling hardware, but is platform so will be pushing to tablets, desktops etch
In 10 days our minds with be blown by apeoplee tablet, may be doing something with copia
Blio – attempt by Ray Kurzweil & others content by B& T, non ereader format for reading of books, full visual representations of book to take place, can imbed interactive media, example anatomy textbook, instructor has access to website to create the quiz within the book (read more on Wired)

Lauren –

issue of ownership with eBooks
for a lot of people reading is still a solitary experience that you share with author of book
Issue of ownership has kept her from getting a device, when you buy a paper book you can share with anyone, but eBooks are tied to device
Now seeing that we’re seeing that you are not actually buying eBooks but rather leasing it with license that publisher puts on it, seeing some movement in loaning from Nook, some allow eBooks from library to be loaded

Joe –

doesn’t see the ereader device having a place in libraries, should be focusing on the contents, eBooks,
can’t get library books on iphone, so using kindle app to pay for book to put on iphone, because of convenience,
Could replace everything we do with print books with eBooks, different venues might have to have different technologies

Amanda –

eBooks are being read on PC, device agnostic platforms for eBooks, embedding multimedia

David –

electronic content is allows students to diving into very specific articles or text, may used more complex info that they need especially undergrad, if eBooks makes access to this type of content as easy as electronic, will allow undergrads to get the material they actually need
If we are licensing journals and books do we become collection less libraries?

The twitter hashtag was alamwttt and you can read about it on The Inside Scoop from American Libraries and watch the video on the LITA blog.

Tags: <ala, alamw10, augmented reality, discovery systems, eBooks, ereaders, lita, midwinter, mobile applications, mobile technology, top tech trends, user experience>

CLENERT changes its name to LearnRT and gets a new site, what next?

August 25, 2009 · Posted in Blogging · View Comments

Well, I’ll be blogging for them for starters! Along with the recent name change from CLENE to Learn the decision was made to move to a new site and add more bloggers. I’m thrilled to be included in the number and working with:

The new blog/website, ALA Learning, will feature training and learning news, information, best practices and thoughtful discussion.

About the Learn Round Table:

LearnRT, formerly CLENERT, is the Learning Round Table of the American Library Association.
LearnRT promotes quality continuing education for all library personnel. We help you NETWORK with other CE providers for the exchange of ideas, concerns and solutions.
LearnRT serves as your SOURCE for CE assistance, publications, materials, training and activities.
LearnRT is your ADVOCATE for quality library CE at both the local and national levels.
More information on the LearnRT
LearnRT membership is only $20 on top of your regular ALA membership and includes a FREE membership to the American Management Association. More information on LearnRT membership
Questions? Please contact: info@alalearning.org.

Tags: <ala, clene, learn, round table>

ALA 2009 wrap up

July 16, 2009 · Posted in ALA Annual 2009 · View Comments

I survived my first ALA! It was intense and exhilorating and tiring, but worth every minute of it. When I return from conferences there are always a lot of thoughts rolling around and it takes me about a week to solidify everything. But here are the things that really stuck with me and what I’m thinking about. Expect to see at least some of these as full blog posts when I’ve got my thoughts in line.

You may not have signed up for this job but it’s the job you have deal with it
admins and managers let your staff go, the worse that could happen is that you have a failed project you learn something from
these technologies are not a magic wand, you shouldn’t just have a blog to have a blog, you need to do what your community needs, have a plan a strategy, don’t just jump in without knowing where you’re going
how long have we had computers? Why do you still have staff who are intimidated by computers, why did you hire them? Why are they still working there?
we don’t have any problem doing what we’ve always done, but if we don’t do anything more than we’ve always done we’re going to be in trouble
Patience is hard to come by for innovators, we see something and want it now, and have made the change before others even see it coming
Get comfortable with ambiguity
Push power down org chart wherever and whenever possible
Don’t try to do too much or some of your projects will rust while pursuing others
Not everyone knows who Darien Library is or what they are doing, look outside your bubble
Library 2.0 never promised anything

And some photos, although I didn’t take many.

David Lee King talks about Facebook pages at BIGWIG Social Software Showcase

Jason Griffey talks about Google Wave at BIGWIG Social Software Showcase

The Unconference

Tags: <ala, ALA Annual 2009, conference, Conferences, librarian, Libraries>

The Great Debate – Has library 2.0 fulfilled its promise?

July 16, 2009 · Posted in ALA Annual 2009 · View Comments

This is the last session from ALA I took notes on. It went by fast and I tried to be as accurate as possible.
Has library 2.0 fulfilled its promise?

Modorated by Roy Tennant

The panel consisted of : David Lee King, Meredith Farkas, Michael Porter and Cindi Trainor

What is library 2.0 –
Cindi – create spaces for people, value participation
Michael – what libraries do to fulfill role as community anchors has to change, mentioned KBG text company, they will answer your reference question but you to pay for it
Meredith – about being user focus, seeing creation of service as an iterative process, we need to stop making assumptions about users based on articles, assuming services are working without doing surveys
David – using wikipedia as an example, it’s a wiki that allows people to edit and access and share info in a way that hasn’t been done before,
Michael – library 2.0 is a buzz word more interested in functionality and what works, read some answers from Twitter to Question has library 2.0 fulfill its promise, see responses under #lib20prom
Cindi relates library 2.0 to web 2.0 by Tim OReilly, allows us to harness our collective intelligence, software as a platform
Meredith – how all the people on the panel know each other
David making tools easy enuf to use for non techies, easily moving content from one place to another think RSS, 2.0 technologies are made to connect me to you
Michael – hard to track success and lack of success with these tools, a lot of it is anecdotal evidence,
David disagrees with Michael – tools are new and we’re trying to figure them out, which is sad cuz some of them have been around for 15 years, you can track stats for a lot of these tools, blog stats, facebook stats, you get numbers from youtube and twitter
Cindi – just because someone is staring at a page for 13 minutes you don’t know that they weren’t chatting with a friend, or if you are having an impact on their life
Meredith – Even ARL libraries aren’t doing assessment on web 2.0 technologies
Michael – every hour we spend on a social tool is an hour we can’t spend doing something else, and that it isn’t all fun and games, its work, reporting is hard and can take a lot of time, sometimes the dates or the small parts of information don’t match up with your information needs
David – that at the reference desk if someone says the library is awesome you have to remember write it down and remember it, but with web2.0 tools you have that information saved for you.

Roy – question about barriers
Meredith – libraries aren’t planning for web2.0 tools the same way they would for other technology tools, will this company be around in 20 years
Cindi – how many libraries have a flickr account, so we’ve all promised to give yahoo $25 year for as long as our libraries exist? Its important to keep those photos somewhere else too, think of terms of service, if I upload a photo does it belong to this company forever
David – its very easy to set up basic tools like a blog, bigger barriers are our own barriers, you need to learn how to use these tools, how to understand them, for a library having a person in charge of that tool, don’t just throw up a blog, if that person leaves or gets bored then the blog dies but is still showing whats new from 2005, if you’re going to spend time and resources on something you need to train staff so they know how to use them
Michael – history debate among public libraries about circulating fiction, libraries had to give up nonfiction shelf space and the clientele was gonna change, court battle with beta and vhs to be able to circulate and we won, fast forward to today, how many libraries provide digital downloads, very few, if we don’t find a way to be able to provide digital content, the future of libraries is in trouble, we’ll still have books and reference but we need to be looking at the future tools, we’re being cut out of market share, we are being usurped by for profit content distributors
You may not have signed up for this job but it’s the job you have deal with it
David – gives argument against time complaint, if there is enough time to push a book cart around to music you have time to learn some of this stuff
Michael – if you’re gonna spend the time to do a book cart drill use these web2.0 to document it and share it, put the video up, then do the drill and get everyone to come up, get the mayor to come, get the tv station to come, work it work it, get more value of these tools and time you put into them
Meredith – disagrees with David, if your admin doesn’t give you time at job a to learn then they don’t value them, so it may be a real issue
David – agrees with Meredith, partially, some people don’t know how to manage their time, put 15 minutes on your calendar each week to write a blog post if you get 1 done fine, if you get 5 done great
Meredith – Chad Boeningers blog but if he knows an assignment is coming up he puts the info up on his blog, students use it, its simple and he’s created a personal connection, Muscogee Public Library has scogeenet, where community members can post events, information about the community
Roy – shout out to John Blybert and the Darien community
Cindi – there are pockets of innovation, there might be a department who is using a wiki or archives using LibGuides and Flickr stream

Roy anything you want to say
David – admins and managers let your staff go, the worse that could happen is that you have a failed project you learn something from.
Meredith – these technologies are not a magic wand, you shouldn’t just have a blog to have a blog, you need to do what your community needs
Michael – have a mission and a vision and focus on your communities
Cindi – awareness of the tools, 23 Things, ddid at university, Dean did pbwiki for strategic plan and others could edit, education libraries started to blog, people started using rss and flickr, having someone in your lib who is a aware is important so others can learn

Question from audience – TaraLSF: #ala2009 #lib2.0 how can library 2.0 technologies be supported in actual libraries & brick & mortar buildings with F2F services?
David – tweet up in community, in fall library is hosting a podcamp
Question – Sarah – can you talk about ways to help people who are still intimidated by the computer nevermind these things on the internet, on example is they introduced staff to twitter using post it notes on paper
David – how long have we had computers? Why do you still have staff who are intimidated by computers, why did you hire them? Why are they still working there
Michael – big fan of partnering people, one person who is helpful, but need to be respectful

Question – example of famous library that everyone is supposed to know about, she doesn’t, not everyone knows who Darien is or what they are doing, John Blyberg gave some info

Question – a lot of this sounds about marketing,

David – more about sharing, communicating and using pool of knowledge,
Cindi – allows users to more easily give feedback, not just wooden box in the corner
Michael –
Roy – technology petting zoo, which tools or hardware would you show them?
Meredith – depend on population, faculty tools that help them do their work, staff much wider
Cindi – tech tool box to allow toys to play, people who used it bought one

Question – more I hear you talk the more I think you need to add a disclaimer to everything you say, tiny library in a nursing school, 3 staff including her, other staff go to conferences and come back and say we need 2.0, but there are students who have never used a computer, how much time commitment will each take, there is no point at doing these tools if no one is going to maintain them
Roy be use focused
David – do some strategic planning, and then focus on those priorities, not the tools
Michael – you need to budget staff time and make the tools you choose successful
David – disclaimer should be to directors who blandly go back and say we need a blog without setting goals or having a plan

Question – privacy online, last month got a bogus message from a coworker to about 25 staff to invite others join, she went to say sorry she doesn’t do facebook he said it wasn’t him, what tips can they share to give patrons who are signing up
Michael – this is hugely important, sometimes its important to stake claim even if you’re aren’t gonna use it, so that no one else claims it, everyone of these companies is a full profit organization, they don’t care about libraries or privacy they care about the bottom line, we get privacy and freedom of access to information, Google can say don’t be evil all they want, but they came to ALA for couple of years and did the google and libraries thing then they got what they wanted and went away
David – bigger issue is that people don’t understand how privacy works, we’ve all heard of someone being fired for posting something to facebook or twitter or their blog, and librarians are doing this too, things like that patron is an idiot, where anyone can see

Question – Long Tail, about social networks we care about the things that people we care about care about, recommends that everyone in school should read the long tail

Question – that there are some legit concern about facebook and twitter being a waste of time and that in our move to connect with younger generations there are others feel left out

David – largest growing group of facebook users is 55+
Michael – we don’t have any problem doing what we’ve always done, but if we don’t do anything more than we’ve always done we’re going to be in trouble
David – admits that he is a branch manager and those are his people

Question – Kenley – 20000 students, 4 library staff including the director him, we do these things because he as an administration thinks that these things are possible, but that it is easy to do these things because they are easy and they are free

Tags: <ala, ALA Annual 2009, future, great debate, Libraries, library, library 2.0>