2. Every Day in every way libraries are
throwing pebbles
3. It’s simple really, shift happens, gedoverit
• Users & Communities will continue to be diverse in the extreme
• Expectations around timeliness will increase
• We will have a foot in both camps for many, many years to come: digital
and physical
• Content will (is already) be dominated by non-text (gamification, 3D,
visual, music, video, audio, etc.)
• Search will explode with options and one-step, one box search is for
dummies
• The single purpose anchored device is already dead as a target
• Devices will focus on social, collaboration, sharing, learning, multimedia,
creation and successful library strategies will align with that
• Librarians will need to focus primarily on professional service(s) and
strategic alignment (reduced roles in organizing knowledge and
step&fetchit politeness) . . . Service Professionals NOT Servants,
Educators not Supplements
• E-Learning, collections and metadata will go to the cloud massively
4. Library Megatrends
It doesn’t take a genius to see librarian
skills and competencies applied to the
trends and issues in library
communities in very strategic ways –
social, economic, and discovery impacts.
5. Libraries
• Recommendations (Bibliocommons, LibraryThing
for Libraries / Book Psychic)
• Community Glue
• Economic Impact and VALUE studies
• Programs on steroids aligned with collections and
space
• Repositories
• Bi-directional Partnerships
• Education and Learning – REALLY committing to
learning and credits / diplomas / certificates
• A volatile supplier space
• Renewed advocacy moves to Influencing and selling
6. Consortia
• Consortia
• CRKN, OCUL, TAL, CULC, Readers First, etc.
• Dealing with the small town mindset
• OCLC Linked Data, RDA and global metadata strategies
• DPLA
• Library Renewal / EveryLibrary Advocacy PAC
• 3M e-books (CALIFA / Douglas County initiatives)
• Dark literature, orphan works, etc.
• Cloud initiatives
• Mergers increase
12. Libraries core skill is not
delivering information
Libraries improve the
quality of the question
and the user experience
Libraries are about learning
and building communities
19. A Verb . . . an Experience, enlivened for an audience
20. A Noun . . . A foundation but not sufficient with professional animation
21. Retail Sales Down?
Teen Reading Down?
Titles Down?
Circulation Down?
Reading Down?
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
Focus on the REAL Issues
Not BOOKS! The experience
28. Mergers and Acquisitions
What if the provincial and municipal
governments change funding models?
What if higher levels of consortial cooperation
are mandated?
What about shocks to the economy?
29. If all users are ubiquitously connected with
broadband, have downloading skills for books
and movies, own smartphones, whither
libraries?
What about the ‘digital divide’
If the school system (K-12 and HigherEd) changes
radically …?
30. What if all music, audiobooks, and video moved to
streaming formats by 2018?
What if the DVD and CD go the way of vinyl, VHS, and
cassettes?
31. What if all books are digital?
What if book services move to a subscription model
of unlimited use for $7/month?
What about next generation e-books?
32. What if all books are ‘beyond text’?
Can we support books with embedded video,
adaptive technologies, audio, updating, software
tools, assessments, web-links, etc.
33. Could your library support advanced higher
education and offer accredited courses or
support universities and colleges for distance
education?
Have you catalogued them?
Can you see yourself offering diplomas?
34. Could your library support distance high school
education, credits, and home schooling on a much
higher level?
35. • Could your library support any kind of mobile
device?
• Are you fully ready to deliver, agnostically to
desktops, laptops, tablets, phablets,
smartphones, televisions, appliances, at a
much higher level?
36. Are you prepared for new forms of content?
Real multimedia? 3D objects and databases?
Holographics? Enhanced media?
Can you be ready for makerspaces, creative
spaces, writing labs, business and start-up
incubators, etc.
Can you publish for your community?
37. What kinds of community spaces are needed in
the future?
Can you support learning spaces, community
meeting spaces, performance spaces, maker
spaces, real advisory spaces, true relationship
and consultation management . . .?
38. What if everything was in the cloud? (software,
databases, metadata, content . . .)
What would you do with those system skills on staff?
39. What if search immersive resource discovery becomes as
ubiquitous as search engines?
What if schools and public libraries partner on discovery
services (a la NYPL, BPL, QBPL, and NYED with their
BiblioCommons initiative)
40. What if all metadata and content discovery is
freely available using open APIs through the
OCLC WorldShare vault and the Digital Public
Library of America / Europeana vault of open and
free metadata?
What does your experience portal look like? Top
questions?
42. Up Your Game
• Know your local community demographics
• Focus on needs assessment and social assessments
• Prioritize: Love all, Serve all, Save the World means nothing
gets done
• Priorities are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, & Time bound
• Look for partnerships that add value
43. Amazon
Chapters/Indigo
Barnes & Noble
BN BookBrowser
Borders
Suggestica
Inside a Dog (teens)
MySpace Books
Books We Like
OCLC's FictionFinder
All Consuming
LibraryThing
Next Favorite
StoryCode
Rating Zone
Hypatia and AlexLit
WhichBook.net
AllReaders.com
Reader's Robot
gnooks
44. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – every collection must be justified by
programs
• Force strategic investment budgeting
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Don’t go it alone. Focus on large scale sustainable programs
• Connect to the longer process not just events
• Virtual and in-person
• In the Library and reaching out with partners
45. What are the real issues?
• Craft versus Industrial Strength
• Personal service only when there’s impact
• Pilot, Project, Initiative versus Portfolio Strategy
• Hand-knitted prototypes versus Production
• e.g. Information Literacy initiatives (LibGuides)
• Discovery versus Search versus Deep Search
• eLearning units and program dissemination
• Citation and information ethics
• Content and repository archipelagos
• Strategic Analytics
• Value & Impact Measures
• Behaviours, Satisfaction
• Economic and strategic alignment
46. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – But add virtual experiences
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Ensure the program delivery person is embedded including
librarians
• What are your top 20 question domains? Start there.
• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability.
• Look for replicability – every neighbourhood
48. Up Your Game
• Start offering diplomas and certificates
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Offer real educational opportunities not just adjacencies
• What does your community need for economic advantage?
• What courses to you offer or recommend? (TED, Khan
Academy, Coursera, Udacity, , etc.)
49. Up Your Game
• Understand the new Curriculum (esp. 6-8 and 9-12)
• Understand Pedagogy in the context of student experiences
and educational goals
• Understand human development from early years through
teens
• Connect across developmental stages, link
• Consider partnerships to put teachers in the library
• Consider coaches and tutoring partnerships
50. Up Your Game
• The strong ‘library’ brand – adding dimension
• Personal branding – Who are your stars? Promote them.
• Program branding
• Take risks for attention (AIDA)
• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually
51. Up Your Game
• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example
economic impact, jobs, early years, hobbies, political alignment,
homework, research agenda …)
• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent for digital and print
and programs
• Be obsessive about recommendations and advice and added value
• Integrate virtual and physical - hybridize
52. Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?
• Reduce investment in successes
• Increase investment
• Look at TCO
• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs
• Review opportunity costs in soft costs
53.
54.
55.
56. Is this library ready to support a
world of unlimited content, multiple
formats, massive access, and
consumer expectations of MORE?
Yes?
No?
With Effort, Vision,
Leadership?
Never?
