Thanks to the Friends of the Washington State Library and the Washington Library Association, I was the lone staff-person at the Washington State Library who got to sneak off to Chicago last week for the American Library Association Annual conference. Attendance was pretty good at the event (I think even more than last year), but I imagine these were mostly east-coast attendees and less folks from Washington State.  As such, I thought I would share my notes (pardon their lack of organization) and general impressions.

I liked Chicago a lot more than I thought I would. I’d built up a bias against it from travelling through it, but had never stopped and looked around inside the city proper. There was a lot to do, plenty of excellent food and interesting sights, and I walked until my feet issued a proclamation that if I didn’t stop walking they would be writing up their two weeks notice. I saw quite a few Segway tours, which I found amusing but had to admit were actually pretty sensible.

The conference itself was a bit of a mixed bag. I was mainly there for my Emerging Leader work (which was the only reason I got to go in the first place), and that was interesting and fulfilling and all things good. The other sessions I squeezed into my schedule were hit or miss, and the only thing that kept my awake at certain points was sneaking peeks at ALASecrets and ALASecrets2009 on my netbook. It should be noted that this was perhaps one of the more interesting things to happen during the conference. Not only did a secret back-channel ALA conference gossip rag pop out of nowhere and blossom (200 followers within a couple hours); but it was subsequently censored, and presumably by a librarian. That it was replaced within an hour with a non-censorable but equally accessible alternative speaks volumes for the ingenuity of people in our profession and, in general, the total lameness of censorship.

But we all knew that already. Right?

I enjoyed the conference in the end, though I always think there should be something more, like I’m missing something. I definitely enjoyed Chicago, and would recommend it to anyone who likes an active vacation in the big city.

Detailed “session” notes after the break.

OCLC Update Breakfast (Jay Jordan is a fast talker)

OCLC is building web-scale for libraries
– creating compelling user environments and system-wide efficiencies
– libraries should look toward economies of scale
— things are cheaper when we all do them together (kind of the OCLC mantra, I suspect)
— reduce costs and share resources
— e.g. worldcat.org, which is adding more digital content, including many local projects

Libraries with both OCLC and EBSCO will be able to get EBSCO results through Worldcat.org

Quickstart will soon be adding pilots for many more processes

QuestionPoint: over 2,300 libraries in 25 countries
– adding in Twitter functionality! (why didn’t I hear about this before?)

WorldCat is becoming the catalog for the Hathi Trust and OAIster collections

WebJunction is developing (has developed?) a competency index for libraries / librarians
– so you can see the things you should know / know how to do in a given position

ILLiad: Something about unmediated article resource sharing (it’s been a long time since I worked with ILL)

ContentDM Quickstart available to anyone (for free) who already has a FirstSearch base package subscription

NetLibrary, CAMIO, FirstSearch, ArchiveGrid collections are all moving to the WorldCat.org search interface

“Expert Community” Experiment: all full member libraries will have increased ability to edit OCLC cataloguing records (hopefully improving their quality and faster)

New report available: “Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want”

—-

The Future of Libraries – OITP

Basically update reports on these upcoming policy briefs:
powerful forces for change – america’s libraries for the 21st century
talking about the future of libraries – a synthesis of public literature and expert accounts
the future of libraries – lessons from cutting-edge programs and activities
visions for tomorrow – future libraries that strengthen america’s communities

big pictures trends – alan inouye (OITP Director)
forces outside the library community likely to have big impact on our future:
– demographic and societal trends
– institutional evolution
– technologically-based evidence
in data analysis now, policy brief out in 2010
demographic and societal trends
– US population continues to grow slowly, rise in minorities
— 1/3 pop now is minorities; by 2042 minorities will be the majority
— particularly hispanic population is increasing significantly
– baby boomers continue to retire in great numbers
— decline of financial assets for retirement
— new retirees will come to libraries expecting certain services to be done for them
— vs past retirees who were more willing to be trained / learn how to do for themselves
– echo boomers / young people
— peak of this boom hitting college now
— digital natives – different orientation and information processing
– economic recession – long-term recovery
— long-term funding implications for libraries (less money but more work to do)
– job/career stability expectations (people expect to stay in the same jobs for less time)
– competition from china, india, other countries
— we have to keep ratcheting up our skills, stay competetive
— our patrons will need more and more help developing their skills, part. online and info skills
– left brain and right brain – focus on logic skills, but also on creative and non-linear skills
implications
– increased sophistication of tech abilities and demands in the future 65+ clientele
– clash in info needs between 65+ and under-30 clientele
– increase focus on info services oriented towards asia, hispanicws in the americas
– desirability of new revenue sources and partnerships, etc…
— what are other ways to raise money without jeapordizing public service / mission of library
– need for more creative spaces – more creative, holistic, intuitive skills

institutional evolution
– demise of the newspaper industry
— precursor to demise of other media (magazines, journals, etc)
— what holes can we fill in without sacrificing our primary mission?
– forget about traditional library boundaries
— what are strategic assets / advantages of libraries
— we have a powerful infrastructure; essential place within our communities
– a future that is increasingly collaborative and interdependent
— implications for future library professionals

technologically-based advances
– in general, more of what we have now
— more speed, smaller devices, more compatibility, more mobility, faster networks, more wireless, etc etc etc
— computers in more places
— the “new” internet
– cloud computing
– promises of the past
— virtual reality? augmented reality? AI? language interfaces?
– more options, more complexity, more of everything
— digital copyright becomes even more challenging
— digitial privacy becomes even more challending
— hyper-connectivity creates burnout / stress?
– increased need to figure out where libraries fit in best

jennifer hendrix (OITP consultant) – perspectives from libraries in the community
libraries are talking about the future
opinions vary
where there is consensus:
– libraries are about the people in them — librarians, staff, and users
– WE must determine our future
technology information is changing traditional media
– networked books, print-on-demand
– e-research, digital natives, the future of reading
– libraries becoming more collaborative, flexible, creative spaces
– collaborate with users to create and manage content
– collaborate with civic organizations, communities, business (to create new economic models)
– COLLABORATION!!!

Speaker #3: pure tone vision
– a vision that implements one specific theme
– will we evolve the physical library, or go completely virtual
— how will this library continue to “serve the individual”
— range of various local services — coffee house, theater, community space, etc
-library as portal
— point of entry and access to vast amounts of information (information boutique)
— librarians as highly knowledge guides
– actual future will likely be a mix of these “pure tones”

school library visions
– continuity of current state but with more digital collections
– highly digitized collections, centrally located and with librarians visiting schools
– like b. but with librarians and collections centered at public library

academic and research libraries
– serve broad teaching function as well as research
— maintain extensive physical collection adding digital catalogs and media
– tied closely to research activity of specific department
— vast majority of materials digital
— may become archive of local research products

Speaker #4:
patternicity – finding patterns where there are none (jargon watch)
– we need to start finding connections where there were no connections before
STEEP – society, technology, economy, ecology, politics
– what are the things happening in one of these that are tweaking, changing the others
— e.g. how does technology change society, and vice versa
— shifts in one drive changes in the other
-vision, scenarios for the future
— variables: physical, virtual, individual, community, portal, archive
— what does it look like when we start changing / brainstorming these variables?

– 5 questions
— how do people know things?
— how do people find and use information?
— what is a community? – not a physical definitiion anymore, necessarily
— what is learning?
— what is entertainment and leisure?

– will we really be guides to information in 10 years?
– do we need more of the same, or just different? or do we transform ourselves into something useful in our communities
— and this could mean different things in different communities
– will people really retire? maybe retirement will mean something else …
– how will generational changes change us?

-if our future is apps, how do we become an app?
— library as an “app” — would be a good future session

– future possibilities of our roles
— content packagers
— information designers
— skill builders
— community futurists
— keepers of the collective memory
— retro-quiet zones
— hackers of data and interfacers

“We must determine our future.”

“People don’t change because they see the light, people change because they feel the heat.” -Mary Jane Naquin

—-

Future Perspectives: Innovation and Collaboration (ASCLA ICAN)

(I only stayed for the first speaker at this session)

Lorcan Dempsey – OCLC

the example of mobile
– fastest diffusing technology ever – merges with youth behaviors
– being used in lots of ways we never anticipated
– “layer” app, example of augmented reality (on android phone)
— provides information re: what the phone is looking at, e.g. tour info, billboard info, etc …
— uses compass and gps to geolocate and provide accurate local info

mobile networks – intensification of general network activity
– atomization – snippets, ringtones, tags, tweets, abstracts – smaller and smaller
– attention – get to relevance quickly, rank, relate, recommend, specialized info, location-aware
– action – share something, vote for someone, see something, buy something, etc.

tying together virtual and physical
– qr codes – airlines, catalog records, etc … being used for a variety of things
– take a picture of a cover of book, will bring back details of book for you

microcoordination
– i’m here, wanna meet? having lunch. buying a book at b&n … etc
– ad hoc rendezvous
– incremental social synchronization
– less planning ahead, more as-you-go microplanning

space
– architecture used to be about specialized purposes
– rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be appropriated for multiple purposes
– places for ad hoc rendezvous where people can meet, do what they want, and move on
– less formal!

cloud
– mesh of devices that compliment each other in the cloud / form concentration
– want things that are above the level of the device
— because you want to interact with them from a variety of places (flexibility!)

innovation
– innovation is taking an idea and making it real
– not just the idea or invention, but the implementation of it in real life to a purpose
– needs a champion / entrepreneur – requires time and a way to sustain
– innovation can really come from the unpredictable uses of an invention / idea
– can happen with products, services, processes, markets, organizational structures, institutions, etc …

collaboration
– “unbundling the corporation” -John Hagel and Marc Singer (Harvard BR 1999)
– companies outsource non-innovative processes, those not directly related to purpose of institution
– can create multiple dependencies, however, which can cause problems (e.g. GM, Chrysler, etc)
– more specialization will occur in certain classes
— customer relocation management / production manufacture / infrastructure
— will then help those outsourcing companies with certain processes

– libraries have a big infrastrcture at the moment
— varieties of collections / complex systems / buildings
— libraries have difficult reaching all their users in a systematic way

scale?
– the network pushes things up – scales become larger
– print was pretty much at institution level scale
– now at consortial level, then web-scale level, expanding more and more
– what should be attempted at the different scales? how far should you reach with different processes?

sourcing?
– do you build things yourselves? do them collaboratively?
– collaboration is growing more and more, too hard to do things locally all the time
– group-scale, e.g. share the workload

collaboration
– spend more time on customer relationship management
– make sure you are providing the right services to the right people
– how is the infrastructure provided? should gradually move up?
– some things make more sense locally, some make more sense on other scales
– consolidating expertise and building capacity
– wisdom of the crowds; generates a better view of directions to go in

—-

QuestionPoint User’s Group Meeting

Updates via Jeff Penka: planned by end of year implementation

qwidget is growing up
– extended set of color options
– more modern design
– pop-out ability, popout of page and resize qwidget window
– custome sizeability
– can require email before user can ask question
– privacy safeguard on question exit
– expanded access; facebook, twitter, etc; also expanded on mobile devices

QP mobile – mobile device interface
– “mobs”? -fall timeframe
– bind institution/sup to a twitter account
— users ask in twitter and goes into QP for librarian
— will integrate into ASK module (not chat)
— will have built in tinyurl functionality
— will send “private” or direct messages to help user privacy

network issues
– ISP issues, resolved – opened new larger pipes with other ISPs
– recent issues getting cleared up, much better in the past week
– performance should improve to better than it has ever been in the near future
– began offering https protocol service

community update – institutions
– 2200+ profiles/libraries/service points
– 1400+ using 24/7
– in 28 countries
– Michigan academic group joining this fall

QP wiki!
– promote your service section (share / use)
– scripts clearinghouse – different scripted messages on different subjects
— particularly handy for homework help
– join the 24/7 virtual group (so you can refer questions)
– july 9 blog posting on joining and referring to the 24/7 group

Virginia Cole – Text-a-librarian at Cornell U.
– students use phones, librarians have web-based interface
– interface allows for 288 character-answers
– shows how many Qs user has asked total (for librarians, shows how many answers provided)
– ambiguity in text questions is staggering (and hard to do reference interview)
– provides answer templates (i.e. scripts)

Tags: ALA, ala annual, American Library Association, Chicago, conference, library conference

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