Catalogue is a register of all items found in the library. (showed Wikipedia definition – long). Told us Charles Cutter”s definition – incorporates what there is and where can I find it.

Who is the catalogue for? Our users, but not sure if it was always that way. Have lots of content to assist users to find what they want. Its also for inventory control – tells us loans, physical location and helps with acquisitions.

What do we catalogue? Physical items, databases, aggregations, web sites and items owned but held elsewhere? And it has changed over time. Since 2004, the ANZ expenditure on e-resources has climbed from 15 to 30% of budgets.

Special collections, serial collections are all digital and are being catalogued.

User behaviour – what is the easiest place to start research according to students? – Google.

So what is the catalogue becoming? Is it to provide access to library materials or just a place to collect metadata. Most catalogue data now comes from national agencies, libraries, publishers and commercial entities.

The standards of cataloguing are changing. RDA, based on FRBR principles, to replace AACR. It will bring different format of same title together. eg. dvd, books, notes etc. Recently announced that ALA will begin the massive transition away from MARC.

Catalogues inventory control purpose isloans – between 2004 and 2010, loans ffell from 24.5 million to 15 million.

What might we do? Keep the catalogue, continue to buy records, layer the catalogue with discovery layers, maintain loan systems, work with library vendors to improve systems. In other words, we can keep up with the times, moving along gently.

OR

We could stop copy cataloguing, stop focusing on details, point to records rather than buying or storing them, embrace new standards (and be cheerful about it), incorporate virtual and physical shelves in the virtual and physical worlds. Become super efficient and flexible.

We don’t do so well at getting knowledge of our virtual resources to our physical shelves.

OR

Ditch the catalogue as a tool for users, ditch it as an inventory control system, incorporate records for in-house physical material into discovery systems, get a simple inventory control systems for the decreasing physical purchases, make loans REALLY simple (or don’t lend the physical out of the building!)

The Internet of everything: linking the print and online collections – David Feighan and Sue Healey

Showed the “Internet of things” on YouTube. (IBM Social Media)

The internet of things is going to be big, to the point where there will be many more things on the internet than actual people on the internet. NIC sees it as a major disruptive trend by 2025. Raises a lot of privacy concerns etc. China has also identified it as a key strategic emerging industries for them.

First two areas that physical collections and spaces have gone virtual, have been via RFID and QR codes on their rooms. But will students use them? Surveyed them and found that at Year 7, 45% had smart phones, but Year 10 it was 83% and ubiquitous in Years 11 and 12. They showed a QR code and as long as they could say how they were used, they were defined as knowing what they were. It was over 70%.

The library space is being used so they are using QR codes to connect them to the online resources. On shelves, they have A4 size shelf talkers, which are themed and have a QR code which links to their online resources.

www.qrstuff.com Allows you to link to websites, Facebook, YouTube video, Google Maps location and many, many more. There are other sites for QR code generation and doing a site on YouTube will give you many videos of how QR codes are being used.

Near future? Using RFID and geospatial tagging will your phone show you where the items is?

And then let you touch on to check it out? Its not happening because we want them, but is actually being driven by the retail and entertainment sectors. But these developments can also lend themselves to libraries.

As we re-purpose our space as learning commons, how do we get those space on the internet?

Linking objects and people within spaces and games (Parallel Kingdom).

Change or fade away: school libraries need to change – Bronwyn Foxall – Abbotsleigh

School libraries are not immune to the challenges facing all libraries. The only way forward is to discover what your own community wants.

Why are librarians important in schools? What do you do that is so important that the school would suffer if you weren’t there.

Library functions are changing – AV is going digital, reducing number of books, empty spaces due to PC removal and more.

Surveyed students and stakeholders to find out what they could do to revision what they are doing. Main reason why students came to the library, to study alone, to research, to find a book, to attend a class and then to study in a group. Use of computers will die due to laptops for every student.

Asked them what spaces they needed? Quiet study was the biggest demand, and then individual spaces. Open ended questions biggest response was a request for a cafe. More demand for specific spaces – quiet study rooms, group study rooms, individual study space. They were also asking for more books, even more than requests for e-books and magazines etc.

In response they removed shelves to create discussion spaces, created quiet study rooms and a multimedia space – all of which have delighted students.

Need to keep rethinking the library facilities, but also the services. Used a fun film and library vouchers to reach Year 12s, added a discovery layer and federated search to their catalogue, library blogs, run competitions around the library using QR codes and the students have responded well.

Some of the things they want to be able to do:

• new furniture styles for collaborative learning

• add a bit of whimsy

• put some bookcases on the balcony with tables and chairs (WD books)

• funky shelving spaces

• different lighting styles

In order to survive, school libraries must be engaged in a continual process of assessment and evaulation.

It has moved from only a communication tool to a data tool. Most of the web currently is pages and links – its things pointing at other things, via a common platform, which can be accessed from a variety of devices. The Web as a protocol has been a very effective way of wrapping other protocols which are required for specific purposes. Its a very lightweight infrastructure – a very powerful unifying principle. It has enabled people to make connections on the web, record the connection and make it available for others to follow. And it was done by us!

Most of the web is for humans, but opaque to machines. We understand relationships, but to machines its just code. We add the meaning.

Most of the web is connected, but compartmentalised. Its page granular – pointing from one to another. Not much is being done with underlying data. But there are sites like Expedia.com, retrievr which grab the data from other sites.

Remix

• mix data from different sites tor provide added value

• the mix sources don’t need to be involved

• hybrid client-server mode

Problems:

• data is mostly locked up in pages

• each website is different

• and keeps changing

• very blurry lines between use and fair-use

• even after extraction, data needs to be modeled so that it can be mixed

• a remixed website looks like another website (so difficult for further mixing)

Remixing is extremely useful, hard and doesn’t cascade well.

Success story: News!

Whether its RSS or Atom. It describes a chronology of news items, consumers poll and receive new items, items can be easily mixed-up by web sites and applications and they cascade. A web range of applications can also be built on that. eg. Pulse

Achieve that by using XML instead of HTML, give extensibility through XML namespaces and granularity at the news item level.

But its not enough. Limitations include no standard ways of representing relationships between items (its all temporal and chronological), no ways of joining similar items and no standard way to query the web other than polling (can only get the most recent stuff).

How do we solve this issues? Linked data – ways to integrate data in a huge range of ways. Databases are set up for the types of queries you expect to receive. Not knowing what sort of queries were going to be received, linked data had to be built on flexibility.

Linked data is a term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing and connecting pieces of data, information and knowledge on the semantic web using URIs and RDF. (Wikipedia) This allows us to get down to the level of relating things, not just pointing to other things.

This web of data is about making it easier to publish, remix, cascade this data and empower people to do new and interesting things with this data, at a reduced cost.

Many organisations are looking at this as a framework to expose their data, not just libraries, museums and archives. Showed backstage.bbc, the New York Times, NPR,The World Bank, Data.gov, HM Government and many national libraries.

We are no longer matching on the string, but on the identifier. These organisations are creating identifiers for the concepts that they are concerned about sharing. These identifiers can be reused, rethought or new ones can be created.

Rather than leaving data where it naturally resides and making it easy to connect to. Integration is not by heaping it all into centralised repositories or apps.

There is power in human computing – OCR correction, captchas. The power of identifiers – Creative Commons – the licences are identifiers. We are assigning this relationships, making it easier for the search engines to bring back things that we can re-use.

Power of recombinant data – Lego works. Lego can be recombined to create new things. It works for Eric’s kids and it has its own meaning, which is understood and done quickly.

RDF- Resource Description Framework – common model for identifying and linking data. Can link a wide variety of types of data that we didn’t traditionally see as linkable. If the data can be surfaced, it doesn’t matter what format its in, it can be referenced and linked.

What”s the catch? It takes the big step of fundamentally rethinking applications and their integration. Not applications on the web, but in the web, using the webs existing architecture. I want your data, in my way!

Example: where to stay? Ask for accommodation recommendations and was site a website which listed local hotels and motels. He was able to scrape and encode the data as addresses and prices etc and then displayed it on a map. He built wrappers and scrapers to extract data from his calendar, to then match up where his meetings were to be held, in relation to potential accommodation.

LOC Digital Preservation Program:

• 180+ partners (NDIIPP)

• Located across the globe

• each with different charters, goals, budgets

• benefits for sharing and connecting their data

• but it exists in disconnected silos

In order to facilitate the sharing, they created “ViewShare – interfaces to our heritage”. http://www.viewshare.org

Using identifiers, we can specify data and then contribute more data – eg. Once assigned address type, can then add latitude and longitude. Was able to do a search of Powerhouse and narrow down by height of the title, as this data is surfaced by them.

Solution is to empower users to create their own views of data, build a community round the data.

Linked data gives us simple conventions for expressing context, a mechanism for collaborating despite different points of view and a mechanism for recording agreements as they evolve. Its about building on how people communicate to mature the way systems interact.

Adoption: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo schema.org effort and LOC Marc efforts.

Libraries have the oppportunity to use our trust, brand and skills to be involved in making these connections. Its not far from where we are to where we need to go. we need to expose what we have, build the policies that enable this and empower our users to build off it.

Lots of information challenges to e-science:

1. eScience is built on a lot of data – it is smart data, not just because you can play with it using computers, but because of forthcoming technologies like semantic publishing, and computable. It not only comes as numbers, but intelligent, computable, with metadata.

2. eScience is more than a lot of data – it covers the entire research and development chain, enables integrated resource development and analysis and envisions an integrative infrastructure. Its computable knowledge – can have visualised searches, intelligent tracking, tech trends analysis. Its knowledge driven scientific discovery, workflow and problem solving. The whole discovery process then becomes knowledge driven.

3. eScience is a different information world? Its strategic innovation, interdisciplinary and translational research, its cooperative research, its data intensive knowledge discovery. Now serving R & I decision-makers, lab & project leaders, front-line researchers and engineers. Now scientists go from data to information to intelligence to a solution is happening on the go. They need scholarly publications, research data, applied and market data, applied market and social information and more.

4. A new approach is required. Library solution is no longer the user solution. Library can only build its contribution on users solutions. Users solutions are not data or collections, but R& problem solving solutions. Library should aim for high impact services.

Libraries as smart power for e-Science:

1. Re-purpose the research library: trends tracking, potential testing and priority selection. Not just data, but visualisation and presentation. If we miss these opportunities, we miss this trust and miss the future. Focus on R&D’s new and hurting knowledge bottlenecks – help them to do research better, but with added value. Knowledge as a service – science as service, take steps to make the knowledge into a live tool – smart data.

2. Smart reading for R&D. First look at how people consumer information. No longer linear, static and lonely or reactive. Now weak vs strong information – weak is information you don’t know and don’t know its relevance. Power browsing – key messages rather than linear reading. Strategic reading – fast scanning to extract and accumulate for building context, frameworks and direction. Looked at who is reading what – the higher the position, the more strategic, innovation, interdisciplinary and translational research. Need to provide a lot of information analysis and tools to do this.

3. Integrative knowledge support for R&D> need discovery, customised, embedded, analysis and preservation provenance. Which matches the R&D workflow.

4. Knowledge based collaborative R&D; networked-based knowledge experiments,not just resources, but tools, experts and specialists. Need the facilities, the rights, ability to experiment.

5. Capitalising on complexity of meta-knowledge – we help by building knowledge as a service. Provide knowledge on knowledge, on collaborating, on processes, structures and interactions. Its now a verb as well as a noun. It is live. To do so, need to be strong, have special expertise and organisation. Libraries can do this, but are not ready to do so quite yet. Vendors are already offering this type of service.

Because most researchers and students live over 1000kms away from the National Science Library, they have built a system where the information is pushed out to the users (who are all connected online). They are shifting to a R&D support service, which incorporates an integrated discovery service. They are experimenting with clustering,GIS and visualisation technologies to gather and explore diverse data resources from many institutions and websites. Put much more emphasis on building user environments.RH

Planning a China IR alliance, with other research institutions and also with European partners. They are supporting OA publishing and are a member of arXiv.org. They plan to be a central force in OA resources and policies.

Have fourteen teams working on Research Intelligence Services. Do regular R&D tracking, R &D structure and evolution analysis – using purchased tools and others they have developed themselves, Mapping of sciences and R&D roadmapping, Tech trends analysis – now a big part of what they do. They are developing computer-assisted integrated analysis generation, including automatic profiles, customised analysis, etc.

Also have embedded research support – they liase with their institutes, but not library or documente based. They are user centred. They are doing integrated resource development, helping their institutes to determine what information they need and how it should be organised.

Developing Knowledge platforms as an Academy wide initiative. By end of 2012, it will be live in 15 institutes, by 2012 in all 100 CASS institutes. This will include improved knowledge literacy, so that they not only know how to find the data.

Library will become an open innovation centre. From a library, to a knowledge co-laboratory? They are using the under-utilised library space for consultation, video conferencing, lectures, exhibitions, experiments, seminars and classes.

Challenges:

• technologies – types and integration

• staff – need a knowledge of R&D and tech, not just subject areas

• organisation – reversing pyramid structure – embedded knowledge specialists first

 Once upon a time………… there was a princess, the princess loved books, but the princess also loved computers – enamoured with the digital, loves media on all sorts of computers. Her media is everywhere and goes with her everywhere she goes. She doesn’t understand what “we don’t have it” means. She didn’t understand videotapes and the requirement to rewind before watching, it was broken technology to her.

 Our users expect our services to reflect the experiences they are getting from external services, such as Amazon and Netflix.

 No surprise that smart phones outnumber computers. It is a bit of a surprise that it is the same worldwide.

 Linux is less common, than even iOS, which is on the iPad. Australia has over 100% cell phone penetration and nearly ½ of the population have smart phones. The access this gives these people is transformative. In the US, penetration is over 100%, but smart phones is 35%. Mobile phones are the fastest spreading communication technology in the world.

 84% of Australian online adults who have mobile phones use them for more than voice. Not just SMS either.

He works at the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga – has 10,000 students. A good representation of a mid-sized school in the US. 82% of students access their resources online – the other 18% in person. Gate count – 428,032. Website – 1,973,612. Think about how many people are serving in your buildings and then how many are serving your website.

 They can measure on campus use. 18.25% using Macs, 39.32& using Windows devices and 39.31% using mobile devices. 2.89% using games consoles and the remaining mostly Linux. So what are the most common mobile operating systems. These includes 5 Nooks, 41 Kindles, 69 Kindle Fires, over 1000 Androids, 770 iPod Touches, 839 iPads and 2173 iPhones.

 Of the Australian smart phone users, over 50% are using iPhones.

 What are the campus users doing on their devices? 36.5% Netflix. 17.8% Flash video over Http. 11.2% Http – standard web traffic. 11.1% http – media stream. 65.4% – of all traffic is streaming video. How much is coming from the library? People aren’t coming to us for this stuff anymore.

They have this as Chattanooga has the fastest Internet in the US and its cheap. $300 per month for a Gig of bandwidth. This is coming everywhere though. Media streaming is just the beginning.

 What does a post PC world look like? Not just talking about mobile. Its about everything that connected to the Internet. The Internet of things that talk to each other is coming.

 In ten years, we went from iMac to iPhone, from 2000 to 2010. Moore’s Law gets us this – every 18 months get twice as fast and half as expensive. This is what 10 years of Moore’s Law looks like.

 We have single-purpose devices – the Kindle is a great example – it is great at reading books, but terrible at everything else. We have multi-purpose devices – such as the iPad or Kindle Fire. They become anything you want them to become. Harder to understand how we deliver content to these devices because they are infinitely flexible. 55.28 million iPads sold in the three years since its launch. In 2008, Apple sold more iPhones than in 2007. In 2009, 2010 and then again 2011, they sold more than in all previous years combined. In 2011, Apple has sold 315 million devices running iOS. This is the platform we need to pay attention to, because this is what they are buying.

 PC is an example of a mediated interface – you interact with it via a keyboard or a mouse. With a touch screen, there is a direct interaction. Touch is something that everyone understands as a means of interface. What have we done for our library that uses touch as the interface. Its the easy one.

Microsoft Surface Table 2 is out now and that’s another big change coming.

 Xbox Kinect is another change coming. It controls via gesture. People are building it into laptops and will be coming to tablets. It will be commonplace within the next three years. We should be paying attention to this.

 Voice control was envisioned by Apple in the late 1980s and is now happening with smart phones. Another area to be watching.

 Jawbone bracelet monitors your daily movement and links to your phone to provide a daily report. It is becoming more widespread because the cost of sensors is dropping, making it much easier. Twine is a small ambient sensor which started as a Kickstart project – it can be left somewhere to sense changes and then contact you. eg. Lets you know when washing machine stops, if your aquarium leaks, if someone raids the pantry – its a generic device. It could text you, tweet you, when your programmed event happens. We could have them on our shelves, to record when someone moves a book! They can be bought right now, but are probably 3-5 years away from being robust.

 “Predictions are hard – particularly when they are about the future” – Yogi Bera.

 Showed Arthur C Clarke video about the difficulties of predicting the future. If what he says sounds ridiculous, its more likely to be true.

 Showed video on flip scanning from University of Tokyo – just flip through the pages and it is digitised. Can scan a 200 page book in about one minute, uses lasers to de-skew and uses a usual camera and a infra-red camera. The professor in charge sees this eventually in mobile phones. What happens when a user can just walk in with their phone and walk out with everything we own. Samsung Transparent Smart Window – light transmissive, unless you want it to be. Coming out later this year – already in mass production. 3D printing – Maker Bot already has a depository online of things to print – can buy one for $1750 in the US. This is an awesome opportunity for libraries to get into, before they become affordable to the average consumer.

 “Rainbows end” by Vernor Vinge is a MUST read – he describes an academic library after the human race is rendered super-human.

 There are heads up displays in goggles and glasses already available. LEDs on contact lenses are already in development.

 We are experiencing temporary INCOHERENT RAGE – Please stand by!

 We need to be thinking long term – Moore’s Law makes everything cheap eventually. They get so cheap that they end up being disposable. We need to be ready for when that happens.

 We need to be looking outside ourselves. Our issues are not unique and there are solutions out there that can work for us as well. Others are doing better than we are.

 We need to be thinking about mobile first and not fourth or fifth. “Adaptive web design” by Aaron Gustafson. Need better metrics and prepare for the data flood – its not about circulation or gate count. There are other things that are much more important.

 Roger’s adoption curve for adoption of new technology. Not all libraries need to be on the cutting edge. We need to be where our users are. If our patrons are late majority, we need to be early majority. Knowing where our users are, should drive where we our library is.

 Douglas Adams – anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things – unfortunately this is the group that most librarians are in – we need to change this.

 Clay Shirkey – tools dont get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.

 Henry Ford – if I’d asked them what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

 Steve Jobs – It isn’t the consumer’s job to know what they want.

 The best way for us to predict the future is to create it. Libraries need to be involved in this. The future needs us.

 griffey@gmail.com

jasongriffey.net

 Questions:

 We are needed? Please elaborate.

Patrons bypass us for resources. But they don’t use the web well – they need us to help them to discover and assess appropriate online resources. We also have a local role – not just community centre, but cultural memory – about the objects for which the community cares.

 Experiences cause expectations. How do you manage your undergrads who are early adopters and academics who are laggards?

We serve populations as best we can by segmenting them. Different services for different users. “but those people are going to die” – plan for the future, which means not planning for those who won’t be around for it.

 Are staff ready and willing for the post PC world?

Fortunate to work in a change oriented library – even if have had times where people have been dragged kicking and screaming. However, if they won’t change, then maybe they need to be elsewhere. Cant let the contrarians keep us from the future.

 Breakdown of remote to on campus students?

About 1200 remote – but large growth in off campus users, which will continue.

 NBN impact besides video?

Communication, learning etc. Skype is a trivial example but most relevant. Streaming media ranges widely between learning through classes to watching cat videos on YouTube.

 Concern about social control issue and privacy?

Should get over it because its almost about to go ahead away. Privacy is something we need to frame differently – users should have control over it themselves. Dont yet have a culturally good way to express the changes brought about by ‘things like CCTV, biometrics, social networking and more – much of which will have to be controlled legally. Going to have a hard time with personal privacy over the next ten years.

 When our free broadband is no longer required – where does our careful training go?

Our careful training will be used elsewhere – collection development – human filtered is still better than machine filtered.

You may have seen this story doing the rounds, a fascinating part of both literary and library history, due to the fact that Troy Library is under significant funding threat.

I had already seen it, but my husband saw it too and emailed me (which he does with things he thinks will interest me – and he’s right). I had thought it was fascinating to begin with, but when I stopped and read some of the thoughts, it fascinated me even more.  Letters were received from 97 luminaries. “Those writing included First Lady Pat Nixon; Michigan Governor William Milliken; then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan; Michigan State University President Clifton Wharton, Jr., the first African-American president of a major U.S. university; first-man-on-the-moon Neil Armstrong; Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown; authors Isaac Asimov, Hardie Gramatky, Dr. Seuss, Dr. Ben Spock, and E.B. White; and actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Vincent Price, and Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.” (Our History: Letters to the Children of Troy, May 1971). I really encourage you to check out these many words of wisdom and insight.

Now I don’t have the space or the time, to write a letter to say how important libraries are to me and my memories of reading, at least not in this blog post. So instead, I’ll ask a simple question.

If you were asked to write one sentence to a child, about the importance of libraries, what would it be?

Off the cuff answers are totally acceptable, because that is what my answer is, totally off the cuff.  Libraries are  open for you to discover the wealth of known information and explore the potential of universe, from the innermost parts of yourself to the fartherest reach of the galaxies.

What would your answer be?

Libraries after the iPad – Christine McKenzie – YPRL

Our world is changing fast, so fast that the paper that Chris wrote four months ago and was presented at LIANZA is already out of date.

Kurt Vonnegut quote – ……………the people on the edge see them first.

Being on the edge is not the place to be, being well prepared, with the right equipment and safely landing is (parachuting story).

So what makes now ‘the edge”?  Digital books are here – is one of the tipping points. Books are no longer just books. Stories are all around that have predicted the demise of the book.

Beyond the book summit at Columbus. Will libraries be part of the digital world circulating materials? How sure are we that vendors will let us in?  What does a non-circulating library look like ? Are we asking the right questions?

The container is changing, after being the same for hundreds of years. The book is still the most ubiquitous format we have.  E-readers are mimicking books because they are the ideal size for the aim of the device.

Books will be longer in dying because we have a love affair with them – they have been around for 500 years and we have a personal relationship with them. The change will be multi-generational.

What is you personal comfort with digital readiness?  Do you think libraries are digital ready?  What about our users?

Need to be thinking about:

Making information accessible: who needs a reference librarian when you have the internet. The librarian CAN be a better friend than Google.

Provide free access to information: internet is like the mind of god – its all free. Libraries are providing quality info and provides context.

Promoting literacy: how do we engage the kids today when they are more comfortable with digital devices. Having said that, there is still a demand for literacy at all levels.

Encouraging reading:  article “Is Google making us stupid?” “The way we read is changing. “Most of the arguments against the printing press were correct” – but nobody could predict the myriad blessings.” (Clay Shirky)

Community connectedness:  libraries are non-institutional, non-welfare facilities which are open to all.

Free flow of information: don’t let our line of thinking be dictated by the funding bodies we report to. Having Chopper Read as a speaker or Philip Nitzschke. Last place where you can promote both sides of an argument.

Monopoly on lending:  leisure time can be spent in many different ways. There is no secondhand in digital, but libraries are in the secondhand business.

Traditional library skills:  cataloguing is not even a compulsory subject  at library school anymore. But cataloguers are the ones who will make taxonomies work.

Biggest challenge is – are we even going to be at the table?

Content control – big players are Amazon, Google and Apple. Will vendors let libraries into the circulationless environment. The interfaces are clunky at present. Freegal is coming – music offerings – not the best model, but models are changing.

Worrying restrictions – Harper Collins only 26 loans and UK ebooks can only be downloaded in libraries. In Victoria, libraries were told they couldn’t link to SLV which has databases which they no longer subscribe to.

Public Library Manifesto – IFLA.
Top 10 things about libraries:

1. Libraries have good stuff. Community learning spaces give none of the visual cues that libraries do. Content is recreational, information, directional, inspirational and more.

2. Literacy – programs in the US are run so that children are ready to start reading before they start school. This program changes generational illiteracy. YPRL partnered with the train system and handed out books which were Book Crossing listed and encouraged to leave the book to be left in the wild….

3. Innovative and adaptable – libraries embraced the internet. What lessons can we learn from our excitement and foresight from the introduction of the internet into public libraries. Web 2.0 also brought excitement, new services, training both staff and members of the public.  We are moving more to apps, so mobile computing is the way we are going, but we don’t have the excitement we had in the early days of internet introduction. How can we get that back?

4. Trusted brand – Far Rockaway, Meetingpoint@latsapalatsi, Book Dispenser in Singapore, are these libraries? Tank U at DOK – recognises mobile phones nearby and allows users to download audio, e-books or music – like a top-up of fuel. The Edge at SLQ – digital productions and installations, Swedish libraries are using RFID and PIN numbers to get entry to the library even after staff have gone from the day – cameras and gates keep the libraries secure. (Sonderborg)

5. Physical spaces – the heart of the community – Nilimbuk residents were polled on this question and their response was the Eltham Library because the library takes them to new places – knowledge and discovery, inspirational, everywhere is here, has all they need to study and focus, provides material in their language and in learning new lagnauges, library has taught them what they never thought they could learn, marketplace of ideas, connected, social – allowed them to meet new people and learn new things, world away – a place of serenity and quality time. Libraries – infinite possibilities. Libraries are a great place to be alone.

6. Physical destinations – they can be tourist attractions. Amsterdam – transformed from a lending library to an adventure library. Is the  most popular building in the city.

7. Wifi – changing the way that people use the building – using it for business, study and social and the provision of it encouraged use of the library.

8. Community initiatives – fight cancer in Queens – Queens library Helathlink program is improving early diagnosis na dtreatment. YPRLS Nemi butteflies project resulted in jobs and award wins for participants.

9. We add value – economic, social and environmental – demonstrates the value that libraries provide to their communities. Providing safe spaces, virtual spaces etc, how do you put a value on that?

10. We have stories – libraries need to give out stories – not about the container. Powerful stories – Sarajevo Library – Hatzida Demiorvic.  The library remained open, being refuge, inspiration, relief and more for the residents of Sarajevo during the four years of war.

Planning for the future: What is the added value of the library to the participation culture. Is it only the space?  How do we develop the combination of media, staff and users. Victorian project is looking to 2030.

We don”t know what happens when DVD and CDs disappear or what will happen with DRM. Will newspapers and magazines survive? What will happen with e-readers?  We know we have value and that people are still using us – new libraries are still being built. Its what we don’t know that we don’t know that’s the problem.

Where to now? Get mobile – more quickly. Get social – in there and creating our own. Get active – get a seat at the table, with publishers and providers Get a partner – the right one, makes life easier.

Fortune favours the prepared.

Library Hack 2011 – Hamish Curry
(Online Learning Manager – SLV)

http://libraryhack.org

Hack has a different meaning these days.

Library Hack is a mash-ups competition. Its about gathering library data from Australian and overseas, bringing it together to create new mash-ups.   There are already reams of data and ideas gathered on the library hack site. Encouraging library data and turning it into something else.

Some real life examples include Flinklabs, Visuwords, Timeglider, Trendsmap, We feel fine, Spezify, Personas.

Trying to take libraries away from just being consumers, to also being providers of data which can be reused for wider purposes. Information from the social space can be accessed and used in libraries.

Library hack is open to everyone. You don’t need to be a programmer – ideas are very welcome.

A lot of the data has been added to the data.gov.au website.

End of May, SLV is running some events – check the Library hack website for details.

John Blyberg – Tomorrows library: top technology trends & user experience design for the 21st century library – Darien Library

Data is the 21st century version of clay, which can be molded into a new product – digital clay=mash-ups.  Take the opportunity to look under the hood and check out the data and how it may be able to be mashed up.

How can technology be used to enhance the library experience?

Last ten years have been interesting in technology change. Today we all have mobile devices, ten years ago not many had them and they were just phones. Today’s phones have more computing power than the computers of yesterday. The rate of change is still growing.

Showed Microsoft  Labs 2019 montage. All the technology seen on the video is available today, but in a primitive form. Its all going to be a part of our reality in the not too distant future.

What does that mean for libraries? We need to be very good at customer service, so that people walk away having experienced an ideal interaction.

Why do we provide good customer service? Because the users like that. Its a feel good thing.

What is user experience (UX)? Its a design method that looks at the interaction between users, machines, environment etc, as an ecology rather than a discrete set of elements. It includes industrial design, interface, physical experience. Everything from the shrink wrap to the product itself is part of the user experience.

At its core, it is a planned, positive, desirable experience.  It needs a synthesis of multiple discrete interactions – everything in our collection, our staff expertise, what our users bring in with them, all need to be considered and brought together in systems which meets the aim of a desirable experience.

It is more than the sum of its parts. It can be the little things, like what you call your library users, all brought together to create a unique experience for your library attendees.

It doesn’t happen on its own, it needs successful process management. Fourth level of economy is the experience business.  Disney is the ultimate experience, although libraries aren’t on that level, but we can still bring something special to our users experiences.

Design context – Michael Cummings – the four legs of interactive design – users, resources, technology and organisation. Need to have a balance, but with technology always changing, the balance in other areas also need to change to address the balance. Changes in one area, will lead to changes in another and so the balance is always changing and needs continuous adjustment.

Have our community, with its culture and then its different levels of sub-culture. Twitter has a lot going on, which we can’t possibly consume, so there are sub-cultures online too. The library is a node in our society, which sits out there where anyone can access it, we provide and expect very little in return.

Libraries need to be major players in the voluntary networks. Social media is a very voluntary network – these are networks that people choose to be a part of – at some level (may be partial).

The Road ahead – constantly scanning ahead to see what the future might be like and to position ourselves for our users. We need to accept reality and fold it into our business practices.

In order to stay relevant we need to commit to a process of continuous sustainable change. Innovation is a necessary part, it helps us to move forward, to be a part of the future. It takes short term resources however, to achieve long term gains. This can be hard to achieve. Once you have made that commitment, it becomes a stable resource.

At Darien, they allow innovation to drive change and its not just about technology. They removed the circulation desk, introduced a new classification system that encourages browsing and re-organised the picture books into subject areas which in turn dramatically increased circulation.

Scary thing about innovation is that it can lead to FAIL. Failure is a good thing – lessons learned have helped drive us to where we are today. eg. Steam engine was very inefficient,but many people worked on top of the original work to develop it into the combustion engine we have now. You don’t get to a Eureka moment until you have had failures. But how do you fold your failures into your organisation? Adapt and make mid-course corrections. Waste of time to berate on failures, but instead invest your time in trying new things. No-one will die if we screw up. Our resilience to failure is one of our strengths.

Interface design – the veneer that gets put over everything. Its the first impression that people have.

People – (training + talent) x (temperament+communication style+ability to collaborate). We are institutions of people, so we need to make sure we have the right ones on staff. If we were making loads of money and were hoarding ideas, we wouldn’t be librarians.

Presentation – don’t have a messy home when you invite someone over for dinner – you want to show your visitor that you respect them. We invite thousands to come into our institutions everyday, so think of their visit in terms of hospitality. This is our library, which has some rules, but its your place too whilst you are here.

Content – core part of what libraries are about, but its form is changing, as is what is inside.

Persona – how is the library personified in the minds of your users. How would they describe you. You need to be thinking about that.

Physical space – there is still the need and if anything it is growing.

Convergence – mobiles are convergent devices – they are no longer phones alone. Social is happening both online and in person – need to be aware of this.

Events and programming – never used to have spaces for these things – its such a key part of what we are doing now.

Openness – openly show how we are making the decisions that we do – but also about open data and open source – we want to be able to access open data, so we can do interesting things and view the world in new ways.

“The library encourages the heart.” (Dr Michael Stephens). The most succinct description of what libraries are all about. We want to inspire wonder, discovery and connection, inspire imagination and help people build on it.

Simplicity – we need to make everything as simple as possible for our users, even if it is illusion. We need to hide the complexity – to take that burden on ourselves.

Resilience – we need ensure that our users are our biggest fans, they will tell the stories that ensure our future existence. We do this by engaging them at the experience level.

Coordination and collaboration makes this easier.

Feedback helps to stay the course -want the one on ones with our users so that we can get the qualitative feedback from them. So they will tell us what value we provide, whether we are providing what they want and how we are doing in their eyes.

Personal transformation – the fifth economy beyond the experience economy. That’s where libraries want to be – not every visit will be an epiphany, but every visit should have the potential for a transformative experience.

Inhibitors of UX:

Security = lack of trust. If you don’t trust your users, it becomes a one way experience, transactional rather than collaborative. We focus so heavily on prevention – stop them because they might do something.  Move our resources to mitigation – what will we do if it does happen – if it does, how will we respond – what framework will we have in place so front line staff can deal with it if it arises.

Dis-organisation – how are you going about achieving the goals you have started for your service.

Apathy – a lack of purpose. Generally systemic. Everyone will know about it, but how do you address. None of us are doing it for the money – we felt the calling – we need a sense of purpose. You can then end up saying No a lot. Next time, when you feel the need to say no – say yes and see what consequences will you have to deal with – the world will not end. Try to be an organisation that says yes, and only says no in extenuating circumstances.

Darien Library has highest circulation and door count in Connecticut. Get users from neighbouring cities, due to the quality of the library. Got the inspiration for their new library from Lockheed Martin who took staff, gave them a space and a large budget and told them to design what they wanted.  Some of their most successful projects came out of this. Darien’s user experience department was based on this premise.

IT department was eliminated as a separate entity and folded into the user experience department. Brought programs, strategic planning and teen programming into this department. UX team is charged with evaluating every point of contact with users and systems and users and staff.

Implications:

Tethering. They spent a lot on making the building totally wireless.

Mobility: can be a 100 devices logged in during the day – staff are moving around so are using VOIP .

Roving staff: all want to be doing it, but difficult to get happening. Small desk with ability for users to page them if they were roving. Roving staff now have iPads. Have to think about practicalities – can’t carry phone, ipad etc especially if no pockets.

RFID: all business practices are based upon a successful implementation of RFID. Have same staff  as 2005, but in a building twice the size. Has paid for itself in 6 years (including automated returns system). All materials purchased, come pre-processed and ready to go. No time spent in tech services – just get unpacked, put straight into the returns system and then straight to the shelf. Once item returned, can be back on the shelf in 20 minutes.

Marketing – don’t do paper signage anymore – all electronic – with display screens throughout the library.

Display – used for movies and promotion.

Immersion – build the wow factor into the building – smart whiteboards etc.

Education – teaching about technology.

Control – over the environment, from a central location.

Convenience – access to power and the network, in central as well as wall locations.

Sharing – surface table installed but weren’t sure how to use it – children’s librarians built a sharing component into it.

Gaming – for teens, where they can engage socially with other people, whereas at home it is a solitary experience.

SOPAC : a module for Drupal which they use for their website. User usually clicks on library website, then goes to the separate OPAC.  SOPAC brings the catalogue back to the website.  John wrote and developed SOPAC.

Think about technology not only in terms of coolness, but how it will enhance the user experience.

And that was it for an interesting afternoon, which intrigued me with ideas relating not so directly to technology after all.

The presentations will soon be available on the Victoria’s Virtual Library - Infonet – podcasts will follow later.

SIL Base Ukarumpa

We visited the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) mission base in Ukarumpa in the PNG Highlands. It is the largest mission base in the world and supports the translation and literacy work in Papua New Guinea (with 869 languages), the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It is home to around 1000 people, so as expected, it has its own primary and secondary schools.

With the schools comes the school libraries, as well as a separate research library for the work SIL does and a public library for personal and recreational needs. We visited the primary school and research libraries and one thing of obvious note was that they were running on different LMS’s.

Both my husband and I immediately thought about the wasted opportunity this was.

My public library is in an LMS consortia and our borrowers enjoy the benefits of having access to the collections of 15 public libraries, through one catalogue search.  At Ukarumpa, they have a small geographic area in a controlled environment – ideal for enabling cross borrowing between the libraries, but that facility is not available.

Who would such a thing be good for? Initially I thought mainly for the secondary school students, who may have research to do on the work of SIL or on more specialist topics relating to Papua New Guinea (the research library’s survey maps were wonderful).  But then I started realising that it could go much broader than that. The public library is not large, so a base resident looking for a book from their childhood to read to their children, might find it at the primary school library. Someone wanting to satisfy their curiosity as to the history of a particular time period may find it at the secondary school library. Someone studying literature might find related works at the public library.

How could this translate into our environment?  As I said, my public library already has access to both our consortial library catalogues and then broader to the greater Victorian public library network with Library Link Victoria. But what about other libraries and what they can access?

I know the National Library of Australia has a vision for all libraries to have their catalogue holdings live on Libraries Australia and I love that vision, but it could be overwhelming for the borrower wanting to find something in their local area.

So what am I suggesting? I keep thinking that my kids at school could find it useful to be searching their school catalogue and at the same time, if required, be able to see the holdings of their local public library too. I would like to see our public library catalogue able to search the local university for anything that our library doesn’t hold. I’d like to think that all the different sorts of libraries could overcome their differences and restrictions, in a way that is still fair to their primary users of course, to make their materials available to whoever wants it.

Pipe dream or not?  Love to hear what you think.

Insight into Victorian Public Library Experience with Downloadables – Thursday 10th June 2010 101m-4pm

Kenneth Harris – Port Phillip Library

They have recently implemented Wave Sound eaudio downloads.

Not many choices in terms of vendors.

They use IP addresses for inhouse downloading. External was organised through referring URL, with authentication provided by the library itself.  Clunky but it works.

Raised awareness through high level links in the catalogue, which link back to the referrer page. Unfortunately you have to login to the catalogue first to get authenticated, so it then has a quick link to the ebooks from the account page.

Once you have logged in, you have to create a Clipper account. Once that is done, you don’t need to authenticate a second time.

Marc records are part of the sub. Links are displayed to everyone – so they needed to be changed to the link to ebooks info.

Took a while to upload the records (588) – took some fiddling and lots of discussion to get it right.

Stats can be retrieved on use, including popular titles, users, checkouts and renewals, activity by subject and more.

Have a 10 item limit for users.

In 6 weeks, they have had 245 accesses 197 checkouts ad 48 renewals.  95 User accounts have been created.

What they’ve learnt so far:
- not much they didn’t already know
- problems with DRM – macs cant play wma files (1/3 of files are wma)
- public PCs can’t  download the wma files due to an issue with DRM and PC deployment
- WMA files wont play on your car stereo
- users find it difficult to locate files they can download
- if it takes more than couple of minutes, people give up
- needs to be improvement in catalogue and subscription integration
- authentication should be done by the vendor, done off the library catalogue login (not by the library)

Marketing – didn’t tell people it was coming. When it came, they used a screensaver on their catalogue PCs, Wavesound provided brochures and posters and want to come and talk to users and staff about the product. Have to promote more – difficult at this time due to RFID project in process.

Authentication: after initial authentication with library card, and setup Clipper account, they can go to straight in to the Clipper page. When they setup, it refers to Port Phillip, so that’s where the account is based and Port Phillip’s limits etc apply.

EZ Proxy authentication is available, but only if it is done by the library. Don’t offer SIP2. However, they may be able to connect using WebFeat, which is what Port Phillip has – but will still be adding extra steps.

Stats don’t show where people come from to get there – whether its from the catalogue or direct from the website (once the account has been created).

Knowing what they know now, they still believe that they made the right choice. A major reason for going with them was that there were no extra software requirements. Works on a yearly contract – they start with a base library and get an extra supply of titles each month. You can opt to choose titles or let them be chosen for you. You have the option to change titles.

Loan period is 3 weeks and can be renewed. Up to 10 titles at a time. Files disappear at the end of the loan period. Can’t return early.

Its a totally separate loan system to the LMS. All statistics are kept separately. Could happen in the future if we get SIP2 connections with our ebook providers.

All the products run using an online store model like Amazon.

No limit on simultaneous users. Fees based on population.

Wavesound has both ebook and eaudio, but Port Phillip only has eaudio.

As login is based on username and password, can’t tell age, where joined etc, etc.

Jennifer Khan, Greg Evans and Tony Brooks from Melbourne Library Service
Melbourne has had Overdrive eaudio books for 12 months.

Have introduced downloadable audio first not ebooks – due to degree of uncertainty in ebook market. Used a staged approach. As there are a limited field of vendors, decided to go with Overdrive because of their proven track record and a good market share. Overdrive provide professional and free marketing support and a very slick product.

Once they signed up, they sorted out policy definitions such as circulation, connection and IP issues, membership exceptions and different card types, which was all pretty straightforward with good technical vendor support. Got access to a development site for testing.

Support from local rep was not good, so dealt mainly with the US via email and teleconferences (6pm there to 9am here).

Greg had already introduced it at ACT, so had great experience to begin with.

Collection management:  never handed it over to Overdrive but eaudio content has been limited. Shifting market makes things very difficult as titles can change with changing publishers agreements.  However, users have taken to them with great enthusiasm.

Overdrive have a number of specialists – Collections, IT and marketing and the support is fantastic. Did a user survey to gauge interest and find out what they would be interested in. Got a lot of people provide email addresses and become their testers and feedbackers.

Marketing – lots of support from Overdrive. Library branding throughout. Got media engagement. Day after it was written up in the Green guide, everything went out. Had to buy more titles. Have about 400 titles now.

Have concluded that they will need to use more eaudio vendors. Next challenge is how to create a seamless interface to all the content being provided by these different vendors.

Vendor training to staff user group was very complex – consisting of a teleconference from the US which was very thorough but over the top. Too much information delivered. Had a overarching marketing emphasis however, rather than technical/user experience. Once completed, they played with the product some more.

Cascading information to general staff was simplified to customer needs and
was compulsory for all staff. They quickly learned what issues may be encountered in a real environment, the key features and bugs and then
redesigned the training again for the public.

Training public was easier as they were all keyed up and ready to go by the time they launched, the integration with LMS was seamless. Public sessions were very well attended – running 2-3 sessions a day for 2 weeks – many people brought own laptops. They also did some individual follow up with special need users and they are getting constant feedback and making minor changes as they go.

Needed a lot of patience throughout the launch process, to help get people on board. Overdrive provides a help service, where individual issues can be addressed – has a 4 hour turn around.

Interface is seamless with the Melbourne website. Although the Overdrive site is external, it looks like the Melbourne website. Overdrive has 2 to 1 WMA to MP3 format. WMA files can be downloaded to a PC however and then transferred to an iPod, during which it gets reformatted to a iPod readable.

However, you do need to download an Overdrive media console to access the content.

Future:
ebooks next – would be easy to go with Overdrive as DRM is less problematic and they have a great range of titles, a nice interface and great support. Checked out different options and have gone with Overdrive.

Issues for ebooks included limited reader functionality and availability, in a market where there is a huge range of devices. Sony ebook readers and Nooks will play the content, but not available here yet.

However, users are fascinated with mobile devices and readers. May yet lend some of the older generation ebook readers that they own, with pre-loaded content. They area also considering the options of bookstores vs vendors and online sellers. iPhone app is also now available for Overdrive. Have been advised to go with ePub format with ebooks.

Issues: format issues – ie WMA vs MP3, licensing vs ownership – different models and some vendors let you own the book, DRM and access to content and limited Oz content. Overdrive is licensing, Bolinda is ownership.

Check out BLIO? – downloads the software with the content and can be played on any device. May be major DRM issues so getting content from publishers may be difficult.

Success factors: critical mass strategy, group of early adopters, DRM minimal vendor, concurrent users, Marc records, ease of circulation, availability of stats, review and user group.

Lot of success due to holistic approach – collections, IT and marketing working together with staff. Staff are enthusiastic and the service has had great use and feedback from users.

Overdrive – one copy one user model. If you want more users, then have to purchase more copies.

Authentication – user is presented with a login screen – uses SIP2 to library system. Overdrive manages the user account, SIP2 is only used to verify that it is a valid user. If you login to catalogue, you still have to login to Overdrive.

Offer optional load periods – one or two weeks. Items cant be checked in, you have to wait for it to expire. Some titles are available in a single file – many titles are in multiple files to download (like CD based audio books). Can download progressively over your loan period.

User stats – have not done much as yet.  Will now look at it now that they are 12 months down the track.

User Experience panel

I was then on a panel of three committee members, who used the Overdrive and Wavesound services as brand new users, using a PC, a Mac and an iPhone (that was me). We are still compiling experiences and hope to add more. If you are interested in the report thus far, let me know and I’ll get a copy out.

Vendor presentations

The early part of the afternoon was taken up with presentations from Wave Sound, NetLibrary – newly purchased by Ebsco, and Bolinda. The first and last only offer eaudio at this time, NetLibrary does both. Overdrive does not have an Australian based rep at this time. Each vendor gave a short marketing spiel and then demonstrated the user interface and answered questions relating to the IT structure of their product.

Vendor panel

We finished the day with a panel involving the vendors answering questions from the attendees. They were:

Will you be offering streaming content now or in the future?  Not yet, but its on the radar for all of them.

Can you see a future where all content is device neutral?  Yes, but no timeline though, everything is changing so fast and at different rates. Eaudio market is much more mature than the ebook market, which is why its much more device adaptable.

What do you mean by fully accessible?  Bolinda downloads can be used by all – including screen readers. Files can be played on most devices – they are all MP3. All titles are remastered into chapters with logical breaks.

What do you mean by exclusive rights?  Why exclusivity?  Lots of money is involved in purchasing rights and publishers aim to get the best possible deals for their content. There are licences for print, audio and downloadable. Not all arrangements are exclusive.  Rights are for a certain length of time, somewhere between 5 and 10 years.  Also depends on the model – purchase model means you have it forever, subscription model means you only have it whilst you have the sub and the vendor has the rights.

Will we end up getting this content from multiple vendors? Yes, the issue then becomes how to make the whole process seamless so that the users experience one process. Library processes are changing. Moving from print to digital including how we join and access collections. Is getting to the point where the whole interaction that users have with the library will be totally digital. Collections offered are different, but so are our users. So we will have to pick and choose from vendors.

Is reciprocal borrowing available? It is through Overdrive in the US, where you can borrow between different libraries. Publishers much prefer consortium purchase, rather than reciprocal borrowing.  Ebsco does consortial arrangements, as does Wavesound. Bolinda does not do consortia, because they believe they are affordable and give each library service flexibility.

Do you have plans to intergrate with LMS’s? Definitely on Ebsco’s radar. Libraries would like to have all their account information in one location, so they can check all their holds, all their loans etc, in the one setup. Bolinda says it can be done because the technology is available.  Importing this data back into our circulation modules for statistical purposes is a lot more problematic. Bolinda has established Web Services with Aurora and SirsiDynix LMSs. In discussions with other vendors, but have confirmed that they will be establishing a SIP2 connection with Civica. This will also require an extra software install at both ends to help improve security.

Do you have any thoughts on offering other media for download?  eg. Film, games, media etc. Bolinda is already looking to do this. Not Wavesound, but Ebsco will look at this as well.

Are there any plans to integrate back into social media platforms? Ebscohost has a module EIT – which has an array of tools with widgets etc, that can be inserted into a range of tools. Bolinda is looking at it. Wavesound works on Ebsco’s platform so they have access to the same tools as Net Library, through Ebsco.

Summary

The day was well received and well attended with about 50 people coming from over half of Victoria’s public library services, most for the whole day and some from quite a distance away. As an organiser and attendee I was very pleased, not only with how the day ran, but from what I got out of it. I feel much better prepared for when we venture into the world of downloadable eaudio, which will be soon.

The impact and benefits of Learning 2.0 programs in Australian Libraries: Michael Stephens – Dominican University, Richard Sayers – CAVAL and Warren Cheetham – City Libraries Townsville

Methodology – lit review, web survey of program administrators, national survey of Library 2.0 participants and case study at City Libraries Townsville.

National survey was conducted in June 2009 and garnered 385 responses, across all sectors, but particularly from the public and academic sectors. Most did it at work (61%), nearly ¼ through a consortial ie. State Library of Victoria and the rest on their own by joining in on another program. 85% completed the program. For those who didn’t finish it, 3/4s reported no time or too busy, 25% too hard, didn’t like it, not comfortable.  Reasons included program too fast, other demands on time, sites blocked and personal privacy concerns.

Open question: After finishing Learning 2.0. I feel comfortable using new technologies – agreed and strongly agree – up around 80%. I like to explore technology on my own dropped a bit. Team/committee structures have improved because of this training – only 40% strongly agreed.  Personal impact seems to be much stronger than institutional impact.

Impact on your libraries after Learning 2.0 has been completed: better awareness of these tools 30%, more use 21%, no change 20%.

Success =  Support plus Time allowed – perceived usefulness.
Support = Admin plus coworkers plus programme leaders plus IT support

Its not bringing broad sweeping changes to libraries, but is changing how individual staff perceive technology and how they work with it.

Find out more at: http://research.tametheweb.com/.

From library automation to Library 2.0: exploring Web 2.0 tools,while reflecting on our traditional values as we move towards Library 2.0 and beyond – Paul Sutherland – Christchurch City Libraries.

Thinks he was born digital, using technology from a very young age. Threw in a convicts comment (cross Tasman rivalry). Lots of Facebook users, not many Friends of VALA – MUST FIX THIS.

Don’t be afraid of being afraid.

What are your top trends?

Libraries have never been about books – they have been about ideas and creating new things from those ideas.

Let go and see what happens, stop acting like librarians (twitter comment).

Connections, content and conversation. Books we can see, data we can’t see, it just whizzes about us. Learning 2.0 is more about learning to adapt and adopt.

What is a blog? Its really a conversation, but also directing users back to the library.

Libraries need a presence in library thing. We should own and manage our presence in these spaces.

Used Flickr to engage their users – asked for and scanned their photos in Flickr about the ordinary day things happening in their city. People want to share their content with the world and where better than the library as a channel for that. People want to tell us things. Stop using ‘user-generated content’ as a term, use local experts. Librarians don’t know everything, we should know however, where to find it.

Very bad at recording our own history.  Need to get better at that.  Every library should have a Wikipedia presence. Check how many incoming links come to your wikipedia entry (when you get it).

Embed your catalogue – make it easy for your users – eg LibX toolbar.

How do you try out a new tool, with really committing to it or feeling foolish when you don’t go through with it. Running a competition solves this problem.

Check out Open Library.

History of Melbourne on Wikipedia only has 12 references.  We are in a position to fix this for our local communities’ entries.

Where is the memory space for things like Black Saturday.  We need to be collecting the things of now, because they will be important in future – including things as simple as shopping catalogues.

Christchurch is piloting Kete – trying to use it as a place to store their stories – not about accuracy.

Impressed with what libraries are doing with open access to data.

DigitalNZ – GLAM plus more – check the website. Want to find stuff for our users and be able to deliver it to our users with our brands.

Rachel Chidlow -Aging gracefully?: Reviewing and enhancing Information Commons services at the University of Auckland

Started with an introductory video about their Information Commons.

Technological changes and staffing model changes made, based on student feedback. They user focus groups, suggestions, etc. Get a lot of feedback from their Information Commons blog – seeks input on software updates, arrangements and more.

What has been changed? Software – more and more varied. Students are very forward in their requests, but library also seeks feedback from faculty. Try to offer the same software as the general software offered in departmental computer labs.

Access to recreational resources online is available but had been charged or offered at a lower speed. New model introduced a flat rate model and data limits with high rates for exceeding limits, which student’s readily accepted. Educational access is still free.

Upgraded university email service and introduced access to Google Docs and Gmail.  Implemented UserLock & PC Booking System, to help with the issue of multiple bookings, while still allowing access to Web 2.0 including social networks. Yet to implement a booking system – looking at MyPC and Pharos Sign-up. Trial of software changed studen’ts minds about it – they complained when it was removed. Software was helpful in giving trend and use information, which help them to determine future booking and use limitations.

13 FTE and 17 casual staff in the 3 Information Commons locations. Permanent staff have portfolio responsibilities, casual student assistants work on housekeeping roles and elsewhere as required.

Finished with a short video showing how busy it gets.

Mal Booth, Sophie McDonald and Belinda Tiffen – UTS – A new vision for universitylibraries towards 2015.

Technical issues – video, then animation, then Common Craft idea based video, showing what their 3 visions for the future of UTS which is getting a new library by 2015.

Firstv Video available on YouTube – UTS Library.  Lots of open spaces, natural light, funky furniture, impressive buildings, technology, collaboration space.
2nd video produced by students,outlining their vision of the future of the library.

Key points: social hub, everywhere all the time, mulitmedia, personalised services, collaboration, both happening in physical and virtual realms.  Mobile catalogue, exploring QR codes. ¾ of collection moving to storage – will change what they are and what they do.

Students content creators – need to provide multimedia content and facilities – encouraging it with competitions and YouTube channel. Encouraging playfulness and more open dialogue with library users – personal relationships.

3rd video – video blog entry from researcher in 2015. Talked about personal information consultants, worldwide collaboration, open access publishing, cloud computing, digital media. (quote at end , if you can type, you can make movies)

Researching in 2015 key points – collaboration, personal service, open acsess, support across research life cycle.

4th video with apologies to Common Craft – working in 2015.
Working culture key points: trusting open culture, flexibile visible and mobile, personal and connected, green aware and sustainable, creative and constantly evolving.

All their videos are available on YouTube – they have a UTS Channel.