1. Stephen Abram
Gale Cengage Learning
Education Institute
Sept. 17, 2012

5. Content Fragmentation
Digitization’s real impact – non-fiction
Format
Print, ePUB, PDF, Kindle, etc. etc.
CD, DVD, USB, etc. etc.
Streaming
Licenses, Open Access, Creative Commons, etc. etc.
eBooks
eJournals
eContent
Copyright Issues (NatGeo, Tasini, TPP, SOPA, etc. etc.)
Author Lawsuits
Citation fragmentation

6. Beyond Text
Challenging the concept of the ‘book’
• Text
• Links and extension experiences
• Graphics & Charts
• Working Formulae
• Interactive Pictures
• Interactive Maps
• Video
• Audio
• Music – book scores
• Gamification
• Deep Data Mining
• Assessments
• Etc. etc.

7. Walled Gardens
ILS
CMS
Cloud(s)
Device dependencies
Formats (e.g. Kindle)
Amazon
Apple
ADVICE . . .

8. Learning Object Diversification
Next Generation Textbooks
eLearning – object componentization
Learning Management Systems
Cohort Learning Environments
Presentation Systems
Virtual Conference Environments
Personal Learning Environments
Collaboration Software and environments
MOOCs
Freelearning

9. End User Fragmentation
Teens / Post-Millennials
Millennials
Other demographics
Markets driven by the walled gardens (devices, search engines, software,
retailers, schools)
Business versus Consumer
The Device Divide
Mobility

10. Search Fragmentation
Display versus List
• Consumer Search
• Specialized Search
• Professional Search
• Semantic, Sentiment, Suggestion Search etc.
• Mobile search
• Social search
• Visual Search
• Augmented Reality
• SEO
• SMO
• Content Spam
• Geo-location

11. Technology Fragmentation
The Contradiction: device dependency and divorce
• Feature Phones
• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Laptops
• Desktops
• Gaming stations
• Television
• E-Readers
• Internet of Things
• Browsers

14. The polarization of professional
discussion
Dogmatic vs. Professional positions
on: eBooks, access, copyright, etc.

15. Black & White

20. Recognize key shifts

21. Trends Differ by Library Sector
Public Libraries
Academic Research Libraries
Community College Libraries
School Libraries
Specialized Libraries
Consortia

22. Public Libraries
Recommendations (LibraryThing for Libraries, BiblioCommons, BookPsychic
(Portland PL)
eBook issues
Community Glue
Economic Impact
Patron-driven acquisitions
Experience Portals
Programs
Partnerships
Education and Learning
Literacy of all kinds

23. Academic Research Libraries
eLearning
Repositories
Content Archipelagos
LibGuides
Patron-driven acquisitions
Information Fluency
Demarcation between Undergrad, Grad and Faculty/Staff strategies
Copyright compliance
E-Coursepacks and e-Reserves
Strategic budgeting
Partnerships

24. Community College and Undergrad
Information Literacy
Distance education and eLearning
Textbooks, Reserves, Coursepacks, e-all
MOOCs
Mobility
Collections for new degrees and certifications

25. School Libraries
Common Core
21st Century Learning
Future of the textbook
Scaffolded Information Literacy / Fluency
Filters
Staff and Faculty relationships
Classroom pages

26. Specialized Libraries
Intranets
MS SharePoint
Relationship building
Embedded Librarianship
Social and Professional Positioning, Reputation and Awareness

27. Consortia
DPLA (US based, global impact)
Library Renewal
Europeana
EveryLibrary (US Advocacy PAC)
OCLC Linked Data
3M e-books
Califa / Douglas County initiatives
Cloud initiatives

28. Where are the real opportunities?
What strategic pilots and
interventions are needed?

29. It’s a long list . . .
QR Codes versus Near Field Communication (NFC)
eLearning and Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)
Mobility – concept of place
HTML, HTML5, Apps, etc.
Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops
Internet of Things, Intelligent Appliances
Retro-conversions: CD, DVD, Espresso Book Machines, 3D Printing
E-Readers versus Tablet reading
Augmented Reality
Gamification versus Gaming
Payments: Square, NFC, MTML5, Apps

30. A longer List . . .
Post processing tools and literacy
LibGuides and Webliography
Information Portals . . . Knowledge Portals . . . Experience Portals . . .
Smart Rooms . . . Smart Houses . . . Smart Classrooms
Open Access – free, fee, models and accessibility . . . Archipelagos
Mobile versus Landline . . . Decline of the shared phone
Television versus DVD versus Streaming
eBooks evolution – Fiction and Non-Fiction
Collaboration versus Social Sites and software
Consumer versus Professional Search . . . The divorce
Library Collaboration and Cooperation – The Cloud

31. A long list …
End user diversification – tech Luddites versus zealots
Device literacy . . . Information Literacy . . . Information Fluency . . . Actual
work
Globalization of copyright and information / intellectual tools
Geo-tagging and geo-location
Contextual advertising in books and places heretofore unconsidered
Advanced behavioural analytics and impact and satisfaction measures
3D Printing as a service

32. A longer List . . .
Publishing Industry Changes
• Liquid books
• Multimedia embedding
• The beyond text hybrid ‘book’ aimed at learning, work, or entertainment
• Long period of format fragmentation
• Walled gardens and exclusives in some sectors – more retail stressors
• Bestselling ‘Author’ power plays
• eTextbooks and the role of digitally wrapped 20th century solutions
• Rights wars among big players – Apple, Amazon, B&N, and publishers who
didn’t exist as publishers in 1999
• Large library acquisition consortia & alliances
• Giant lawsuits
• TPP, ACTA, WIPO, etc.
• Movement to less ownership and more usage based models
• Print on Demand (EBM Kodak announcement)

33. Not ready for primetime
At least in the near future:
• True deep federated search retrieval versus decent source discovery
• Deep Holographs and Holodecks
• Machine language translation
• Android-like Robots
• Self driving cars
• Google glasses
• Death of libraries or the decline of librarians

35. Grocery Stores

36. Grocery Stores

37. Grocery Stores

38. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

39. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

40. Meals

41. What is a meal in library end-user or
research, and learning terms?
Think: Are you thinking food, courses,
days, weekly plan, or nutrition
overall?

43. Library Space Concerns
Community expectations
First Impressions
Cleanliness
Retail models
Displays (return carts, colour blocking, …)
Signage
Smart Rooms
Experience Commons
Community Commons
Boundaries
Parking lots and the skirts as public programming space
Street fairs
Partnerships
Gardens

44. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

45. What are the real issues?
Craft versus Industrial Strength
Pilot, Project, Initiative versus Portfolio Strategy
Hand knitted prototypes versus Production
e.g. Information Literacy initiatives
Discovery versus Search versus Deep Search
eLearning units
Strategic Analytics
Value measures
Behaviours

47. Be More Open to the Users’ Path

48. What Would You Attempt If
You Knew You Would Not
Fail?

49. My Humble Recommendations
 Focus on the user, I mean really
 Pilot and experiment with mobile social cohorts
 Classes (mobile training or extended learning)
 Reading cohorts and book clubs (LibraryPsychic and
BiblioCommons)
 Patron-driven acquisition strategies
 Fundraising innovation
 Meetings and conferences - webinars

50. My Humble Recommendations
Actively lobby and educate to ensure that the emerging mobile
ecosystem supports the values and principles of librarianship for
balance in the rights of end users for use, access, learning and
research.
 Support vendors and laws to be as agnostic as possible by ensuring
that, as far as possible your services and content offerings support the
widest range of devices, formats, browsers, and platforms.

51. eLearning
Mobile
Distant
Tools

52. My Humble Recommendations
 Design for frictionless access using such opportunities
as geo-IP and mobile ready websites
 Test everything in all browsers – mobile or not – all
devices.
 Invest in usability research aimed at the user experience
and test and learn from it and share your learning.
 Don’t prioritize the librarian experience first
 Watch key developments in major publishing spaces –
retail, kiddy lit, textbooks, e-learning, fiction, etc. Sport
the differences and opportunities

53. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 The REAL revolution was the Internet and the Web.
 The hybrid ecology is winning in the near term for
operating systems and content formats.
 This is good since competition drives innovation and
we’re in a Renaissance not an end game right now.
 Engage in critical thinking not raw criticism. Be
constructive.
 Critical thinking is not part of dogma, technolust, or
religious fervor or fan boy behavior.

54. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 Perfectionism will not move us forward at this juncture.
 Really understand the digital divide and remove your
economic and social class blinkers
 Get real about teens and Boomers
 Get over library obsession with statistics and
comprehensiveness.
 Get excellent at real measurements, sampling and
understanding impact and satisfaction. (Analytics,
Foresee, Pew)

55. My Personal Hobby Horses
 This is an evolution not a revolution
 We need to revisit the concept of preservation,
archives, repositories, and conservation from an
access and linked data view.
 Check out new publishing models like Flipboard.
 Watch for emerging book enhancements and
other features that will challenge library metadata,
selection policies, and collection development.

59. Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

60. Consider the Whole Experience

62. Until the lion learns to write her own story, the
story will always be from the perspective o the
hunter not the hunted.

63. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
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