NUMBER 1000!! Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Again

This is my 1000th post! Amazing.

Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Again (based on a true story)
by Michael Stephens, Tame the Web blog, 8 April 2006, http://tametheweb.com/2006/04/ten_phrases_i_hope_i_never_hea.html

1. We’ve always done it this way.
I think it’s time to red flag any utterance of that phrase in our libraries and make sure it’s not just an excuse to avoid change. It may however, be the best way to do something... so if you say it, add “and we examined other ways, and this way is still the best!”
If you are hiding behind that phrase because you’ve had enough new things or just want to keep things the same, it might be time to move on. Is it anxiety that puts up barriers?

2. He/She is a roadblock for anything to get done.
This is a tough one. It usually comes in a whisper from an exasperated librarian who can’t seem to get anything done because someone on their team or up above stops everything in its tracks to think. What did Abram say...? "When librarians study something to death, we forget that death was not the original goal."
In this climate of rapid change, we can’t take 6 months, form a committee, write agendas, meet, transcribe the minutes, make more agendas, have more meetings and on and on. The best librarians in the future will make good, rapid decisions, based on evidence, experience and a view of the big picture.

3. The IT department won’t let us.
I know there are many reasons why some things simply can’t be done in some libraries, but after many workshops, talks and receptions talking to librarians, this seems to be the number one hit on the Librarian’s Frustration Hit Parade. Thank Goodness we have folks writing about it:

4. I don’t have time for (insert new social tool here).
Ouch. Here’s where a healthy dose of evidence will help. Print some copies of the Newsweek story, The New Wisdom of the Web (http://www.newsweek.com/id/45976), any of the Pew Reports that discuss uses and their online activities and some of the wonderful real life examples we have of librarians using social tools.

5. Our director doesn’t like technology.
Attention library directors! If you don’t like technology, there may be a problem! You do not have to be a tech genius, but you need people under you who aren’t afraid of change, can innovate and will help guide your decisions. And you have to be able to talk to them. Failure to implement technological change can hurt the reputation of a library. Failure to allow your librarians, techie or otherwise, to move forward with improvements and new services in this 2.0 world, will send them running away screaming. (And they will tell their colleagues at conferences all about it! Trust me.)

Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies Report Available Free

An ACRL report, Informing Innovation: Tracking Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies at Ohio University, by Char Booth, is available as a free download. If you're in an academic setting, this could be very enlightening. You can also purchase it in softcover for US$46 at http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2704

Download at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/digital/

WHY LEARNING ABOUT EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IS PART OF EVERY LIBRARIAN’S JOB

Kathryn Greenhill [Emerging Technologies Specialist, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia] has written wonderful piece on 21 reasons why learning about emerging technologies is part of every librarian’s job. She writes, “This list is designed to provide context and motivation for library workers to find time in their day for their own learning – either as part of a formal workplace learning programme or as self-directed professional development.”

1. Performing core business better: Our core business is linking information and people. There are new and better ways to do this and we need to know how.

2. Increased productivity: [Our work] can be made easier using emerging technologies, but you need to know how to use them.

3. Gaining international perspective: Your network of professional contacts does not have to be restricted to your own country. New tools make “communities of interest” easier to form.

4. Finding out what other libraries are doing: Printed journals and conferences are no longer the best way to find out about the successes and failures in other libraries. With blogs, wikis, podcasts--all harnessed into your aggregator via a subject search, you can keep up and have an avenue to discuss these things with professional colleagues.

5. Understanding all formats of information: Users will ask us about these information sources. Are we serving them well if we say “sorry I only know about information in some formats?”

6. Trend watching: Tools are constantly evolving and changing. What starts as a seemingly pointless diversion can become a potent information source when it reaches critical mass or people discover a new use for it. (eg. twitter). We need to be there watching this and understanding it.

7. Repurposing our traditional skills: Tagging, metadata, data-mining, indexing - new technologies need our skills.

8. Understanding technical background when dealing with vendors: If we don’t know what can be done, for free, using new tools, then library software vendors can continue to sell us “solutions” that are inflexible and costly.

9. Being prepared for when a tool moves out of early adoption phase: What a few early adopters are using now, others will use in 18 months time. If we learn about them in their early phase, we will have a good understanding how to use them when our users expect our services to incorporate these.

10. Understanding the redefinition of our core business: The definitions of some core concerns of librarianship are being re-negotiated - copyright, plagiarism, scholarship, authority, privacy and recreation. We need to be in among the conversations on sites where this is happening.

11. Managing our tech-savvy workers: We need young, tech-savvy, passionate, clever library staff to deal with the changes, and we need to know enough to manage these people and get the best out of their new skills.

12. No-one else knows your users as well as you do: Many new web tools are very simple to use and learn. A thorough knowledge or your clients – their needs, preferences and ability tends is not easily learned. Nobody but you will be able to assess how these new tools can serve your clients – but you need to know what the tools can do and how they work to do this.

13. Fun: If staff are given permission to have fun and be creative as they learn in a supportive environment, it can lift workplace morale.

14. Providing better service to our clients: If we know how, we can offer better service to our users, where they are and using their preferred tools. (e.g., SMS output of item location records to their mobile device via Bluetooth)

15. So we can tell the IT department what we want: If we feel overwhelmed by web-based technologies that are now only available in beta, imagine how it feels if your job has been to set up software, protect a network and standardise operating environments.

16. Our professional users are required to keep up: In academic and special libraries, our users are required by our organization to keep up to date with technology in their fields. To support them, we need to know what that is.

17. Many user interfaces have become “pseudo-standards:” The tools we will use from now on aren’t old standards like AACR2 and LCSH. The best tool for the job shifts and changes daily with our users’ needs. We need to learn general flexibility and skills to adapt to this.

18. Can’t predict the future–-so experimentation is insurance: Without crystal balls, we don’t know for sure what will be widely used. We need to try and assess many services to find what works for our users.

19. Crowds are fickle: Good quality tools with easy user interfaces may not be favoured over early established tools with a critical mass of users…and the crowd may switch. This happened when a mass of people migrated from bloglines to Google reader as their preferred aggregator. Today’s unused startup may be the Next Big Thing.

20. Collaborate better: Libraries have a culture of sharing resources and ideas with each other. Emerging technologies enhance this.

21. Experimenting increases skills: When Windows was first released, it came packaged with a game of Solitaire. People needed to learn how to use the mouse interface and to put in several hours of repetitive movements to get good at it. Solitaire turned out to be the fastest, most efficient way to educate the workforce. Some seemingly pointless sites teach us new interfaces.

URL:
Download the paper from http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2009/05/05/why-learning-about-emerging-technologies-is-part-of-every-librarians-job-educause-australasia-2009-presentation/

FREE PAPER ON THE MOBILE WEB

Ellyssa Kroski has made available her report for Library Technology Reports titled "On The Move With The Mobile Web: Libraries And Mobile Technologies." (vol. 44, n. 5 / pp. 1-48, 2008).,
You should read about these technologies; if you aren't using them now you will be doing so eventually. Thanks to Ellyssa for the work and making it available free.

Chapter 1: What is the Mobile Web?
Chapter 2: Mobile Devices
Chapter 3: What Can You Do with the Mobile Web?: Mobile Web Applications
Chapter 4: Library Mobile Initiatives
Chapter 5: How to Create a Mobile Experience
Chapter 6: Getting Started with the Mobile Web

URL: Full Text Available At
http://eprints.rclis.org/15024/1/mobile_web_ltr.pdf

MOBILITY IN AND AROUND THE LIBRARY

Jessamyn West has a great entry in her "tech tips for every librarian" column in the May issue of Computers in Libraries (v. 29, n. 5). In "Mobility in and Around the Library," she discusses three kinds of mobility.

Patron mobility is making it easier for customers to connect wherever they are in the library. For instance, instead of telling them not to drape computer cords across aisles to plug into wall sockets, move furniture to where there are outlets or add outlets to areas where customers may want to sit and connect their laptops.

Content mobility is using whatever software is best for the customers, not the library. She advocates using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, but thinks Chrome might be another good alternative.

Finally, accessibility and mobility covers making everything available to those with sight, mobility, or other physical challenges. One idea that I personally use is a trackball instead of a mouse.

For details on the above and much more, see the full article. (It may be available free online later--check at http://www.infotoday.com under the Computers in Libraries link.)

Twelve Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs

Dave Pollard [Meeting of Minds, Caledon, Ontario, Canada] wrote about this on his blog, How to Save the World. Here are snippets.

1. Hard Drives:
The price of bandwidth, and the price of storage space in cyberspace, have both dropped precipitously. Expect them to drop further. At the same time, Homeland Security is going to be scanning our laptops every time we cross borders, and delaying or charging us if they deem the content to be uh... unpatriotic. So why keep anything on a hard drive anymore? Let the storage and processing all be done in cyberplaces with lots of space and processing power and just stream the results to us, so our machines can be light, pocket-sized, always-connected, pure communication devices.
2. “Wall of Text” Reports & Documents:
Generation Millennium is returning to an oral or visual real-time culture, where blocks of text are used only when visualizations don’t convey what’s happening better….
3. “Best Practices”:
…the sad truth is that most “best practices” are so devoid of context, of the knowledge and history that explains why they are so effective, that they essentially become unactionable. Show, don’t tell, and discuss, don’t proclaim…
4. Email and Groupware:
…replaced by simple real-time face-to-face, voice-to-voice and IM technologies.
5. Corporate Websites:
You just can’t put a filing cabinet up online and expect people to wade through it. Next-gen blogs by individual employees—personal, casual, chatty, accessible, hosted but uncensored by the employer—will soon blow even the best corporate websites out of the water.
6. Corporate Intranets:
Same rationale as #5.
7. Corporate Libraries and Purchased Content:
With luck, [librarians will] learn the employer’s business and morph into subject matter specialists, producing real research and analysis and adding meaning and value to information. But they won’t need a proprietary library for that. Nor will they have to pay for the content they add value to much longer.
8. Cell Phones:
On my increasingly-compact, full-screen, full-keyboard laptop I can get wireless anywhere for a small flat monthly rate, and then make unlimited phone calls, download files and communicate in a dozen different ways for free. But now on this tiny awkward cell phone, you’re going to charge me for every message, and severely restrict what I can send and receive. And I’m going to put up with this why?
9. Classrooms:
There is really nothing that can be done in a classroom that can’t be done using desktop videoconferencing with screensharing, for free.
10. Meetings:
Same rationale as #9.
11. Job Titles:
[replaced by] cross-disciplinary teams.
12. Offices:
People would rather have the money than the real estate…. The next generation works anywhere, anytime, anyway—home, car, coffee shop, and there is “virtually” no reason to go into an office to talk on the phone and work on the

URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2008/08/05.html#a2212

TO MOBILE OR NOT TO MOBILE?

The latest Pew Research Center Publication is called Internet Typology: The Mobile Difference (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1162/internet-typology-users-mobile-communication-devices). Kerry Smith [Education.au, Dulwich, South Australia, Australia] summarized some of its findings on her blog, You Are Never Alone (http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/ksmith/2009/04/14/are-you-a-digital-collaborator/).

Fewer than half (39 percent) of the adult population of the USA are power mobile communication users. They divided people into 10 groups. Here are some of the ones that may impact how offer our library services.

Digital Collaborators (8 percent) “use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world”—power users. Seven percent use mobile devices, but aren’t really thrilled about it. Another 7 percent look for information on the net and make it available through their social networks. Eight percent don’t have “robust” access to the net (e.g., broadband), but like their cell phones. Thirteen percent are net veterans, but use wired access. Fourteen percent have mobile devices, but don’t use them much and could live without them. Ten percent feel overwhelmed; 10 percent are indifferent; and 14 percent don’t use either cell phones or the internet.

Adding these up, only 15 percent of the US adults are real users of mobile technology; the other 85 percent would not benefit from our offering mobile applications. Now, where are you going to put your money?

DEFINITIONS OF INFORMATION LITERACY

Information Literacy:
the ability “to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information--from the American Library Association

Sub-competencies:
Media literacy: “being able to critically evaluate media, use media, and produce one’s own communication through the use of visual and audio media.” Information Age Inquiry, Indiana University, http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/media.htm

Visual literacy: “the ability to understand and produce visual messages.” 21st Century Literacies: Visual Literacy, AT&T Knowledge Net, http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/21stcent/visual.html

ICT literacy: “using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society.” Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy, Educational Testing Service, http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/Information_and_Communication_Technology_Literacy/ictreport.pdf

Digital literacy: “an individual can read and write digitally in order to ‘access the Internet; find, manage and edit digital information; join in communications; and otherwise engage with an online information and communications network.” Leigh Blackall, Digital literacy: how it affects teaching practices and networked learning futures—a proposal for action research, The Knowledge Tree, 7 October 2005, http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition07/download/c_blackall.doc

SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR CUSTOMERS

Jay Ehret, founder of The Marketing Spot, had this to say about social media on the Flooring the Consumer blog.

1) Start now. Establish a presence and get comfortable using social media. It’s not yet imperative that use social media, but it probably will be someday. You need to be ready.

2) Don’t try to do everything. Pick one thing, the most appropriate for your [library], and get good at it.

3) Don’t ignore traditional media. It’s not dead and never will be. However, look for traditional media that are innovative and also understand the new media.

4) Don’t get evangelized. There’s a lot of hype out there coming from so-called social media evangelists. I’ve seen the question asked by one social media evangelist: “Can social media save (a particular) small business?” Turns out, no. That particular business went out of business. A [library] will not live or die based on involvement with social media.

5) Do what your customers will accept, not what you want them to do. If your customers do not congregate on Facebook, there’s nothing you can do about it. Be where your customers are likely to be.

URL: http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-media-series-jay-ehret-on.html

HINTS FOR WORKING WITH A LUDDITE

Mick Jacobsen of the Skokie (Illinois) Public Library has a great post on Tame the Web. The Importance of the Non-Techie or How I Learned to Stop Pulling Out My Hair and Love my Luddite gives three good hints for how to work with the staff member (or customer) who just isn't into technology.

1. Listen.
Never dismiss what your Luddite says. You may not see how it applies, but it surely does in their eyes. You might be introducing the wrong technology at that particular time or you may need to reexamine the technology. The Luddite may very well have thought of something you haven’t and it may not be as useful as you hope.
2. Don’t push too hard (if you can avoid it).
Sometimes all it takes is talking to them at the right time. Understand their schedule. Some people are ready to play at the start of the day, some after lunch, some while eating lunch, etc.
3. Respect.
Their concerns are not generated from hate of technology or lack of intelligence; it is because they don’t see the point. Show how you are personally using this new technology, how others are using it, and how they specifically could. Hypothetical situations just don’t seem to work.

As a side note it is probably better not call anybody a Luddite.

URL: http://tametheweb.com/2009/03/11/ttw-guest-post-love-thy-luddite/

FUN SITES

The following are from the Jessamyn West’s Tech Tips for Every Librarian column in the March 2009 Computers in Libraries. Enjoy.

URLs:
To see if Google is down: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
This one is just fun, not useful: http://didyoutryrebooting.com/
Handy: http://whatismyipaddress.com/

THE JOY OF COMPUTERS

I found a neat guide to help you with your IT issues. TechSoup has a set of guides called MaintainIT Project Cookbooks. All three would be good for OPLs, but one is designed especially for us: The Joy of Computing: Small & Rural Libraries. Each chapter is called a “Meal Plan” (a cute contrivance—ignore it). They include: Focusing on Your Ingredients for Success, Meat and Potato Patron Computers, Volunteers for the Kitchen, Computer Culinary Academy—Getting the Technology Training You Need, and Future Menus for Library Technology Services. There is also an appendix on tips and tricks and an index.

This is all available as a free download or you can purchase a bound copy for only $8.92.

The other two cookbooks are: Recipes for a 5-Star Library and Planning for Success.

“The MaintainIT Project is an effort of CompuMentor, home to TechSoup, a non-profit serving fellow nonprofits and [US] public libraries with technology information, resources, and project donations.” It is funded by the Gates Foundation.

Another service of TechSoup is the provision of software at discounts up to 90 percent. There are other programs (including computers) available for public libraries that are 501(c)(3) organization.

URLs:
Free download: http://www.maintainitproject.org/files/TheJoyofComputing-061807.pdf
The other Cookbooks: http://www.maintainitproject.org
Purchase: http://www.cafepress.com/maintainit
Software discounts: http://www.techsoup.org/stock/libraries/default.asp

WHO IN THE WORLD IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA?

Power to the People Social Media Tracker Wave 3, the third study by Universal McCann, is the result of a survey of 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries. It is surprisingly current—completed in March 2008. Here are some of the more interesting results (to me, at least).

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social, and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media.

Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region.

Video Clips are the quickest growing platform.

57 percent [of those surveyed] have joined a Social Network; 23 percent of users have uploaded photos; 22 percent have uploaded videos

Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide; 73 percent have read a blog; now 184 million bloggers world-wide; the number one thing to blog about is personal life and family; China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42 million bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined;

Other interesting stats:
83 percent have ever watched video clips online; 55 percent left a comment on a blog; 45 percent downloaded a podcast; 40 percent started their own blog, and 34 percent , subscribed to an RSS feed.

How many active Internet users are there worldwide? 475 million. Of those, 100 million are in the USA, 61 million in China, 30 million in Japan, 19 million in Germany, 18 million in India, 18 million in the UK, 14 million in South Korea, 14 million in Brazil, 12 million in France, 11 million in Spain, 10 million in Italy. (Australia has about 5 million.)

But what about percentages? The countries rank a bit differently when we look at percentage of all adults online. Number 1 is the Netherlands at 88 percent, followed by Australia (73 percent); USA (71 percent); South Korea, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, Canada, Germany (all 60-70 percent). Brazil has 44 percent, China 12 percent, and India only 5 percent.

The study’s “Final Word” says, “the key technologies that underpin the social media revolution continue their ascent. Social media is established everywhere there is an Internet connection…” They suggest creating content to establish an experience with your customers, “develop widgets applications, services and platforms that create a genuine consumer benefit and drive engagement. Be inventive in connecting with consumers. Integrate it with offline communications and use social media as link or as a story to communicate.” I like this statement: “Consumers are doing it well; well resources brands [libraries] have no excuse.”

URL: http://www.universalmccann.com/Assets/wave_3_20080403093750.pdf

DISAPPEARING TECHNOLOGIES??

Dave Pollard [Meeting of Minds, Caledon, Ontario, Canada] has written an interesting post on his blog, How to Save the World. He lists Twelve Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs. You should really read the entire post, but here are the 12 tools.

1. Hard Drives:

2. “Wall of Text” Reports & Documents:

3. “Best Practices”:

4. Email and Groupware:

5. Corporate Websites:

6. Corporate Intranets:

7. Corporate Libraries and Purchased Content:

8. Cell Phones:

9. Classrooms:

10. Meetings:

11. Job Titles:

12. Offices:

URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2008/08/05.html#a2212

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING LATELY

Like most of you (I hope), I still get some of my library news from print sources. Here’s some of what I’ve read lately.

Rise and Shine, by Tracey Caldwell, gives an European view of the changes in medical information. Here are some excerpts:
"Dan Penny, analyst at Outsell, identifies a number of issues that will affect the role of the health information professional. ‘The emphasis of the role will change from being purely a curator [!!!!??] to sitting on cross-disciplinary teams working with IT and medical practitioners to establish what is the best value-added product,’ he says.” [In a sidebar…] “Up and Coming in Health Information: Health information professionals and analysts tip the following trends: involvement in cross-disciplinary work and more tailored training; standardizing data input and semantic interoperability in health information systems; librarians’ taking on knowledge management; workflow is a concern of information professionals, not just content service providers; library space usage changing to reflect new roles and priorities; convergence of technologies and content in ways is likely to be reflected by supplier tie-ups; consortial purchasing of health information.” They also list technology trends not yet in the mainstream, including electronic patient records, blogs and wikis (facing reliability and trust issues), PDAs, e-books, and digital imaging management. Caldwell ends the article with, “…it is up to the health information professionals to get in at the beginning to build new models if they are to secure their future.”
Read the entire article in Information World Review (224):12-14, March 2008.

Tales of Technology Innovation Gone Wrong, by Mary Mallery.
It is very unusual for anyone to write about what didn’t work, but Mallery has put together a list of failures that we can learn from. She even says, “technology is not the best solution for every problem in a library”—what a concept! There are good sidebars on issues to consider before and after innovating. Well worth a read.
Computers in Libraries 28(4):22-25, April 2008

In the same issue, columnist Marshall Breeding has a good article, Content, Community, and Visibility: A Winning Combination, on operating “in a dual existence, divided between in-person and online services. Excerpts: “Content is a natural area of excellence for libraries. It’s what we do.” But that’s not enough. On community, “it’s no longer only about serving up pages of static content but also about engagement, community and participation.” “It’s not that I necessarily expect the library Web presence to ever displace social networking hotspots such as Facebook of LinkedIn, but we do need to ratchet up our social engagement a notch or two….” He also writes about the importance of location, findability and measurable performance.
Computers in Libraries 28(4):26-28, April 2008

You should also read the column by Terence Huwe on “understanding fun and its crucial role is an important skill for digital librarians.” (pp. 33-35), Janet Balas’s list of resources on social networks and the library community (p. 40), and the tech tips for every librarian column on Optimizing In-House Internet Experiences (pp. 46-47). And don’t miss one ad (sponsored content): Robert Berkman’s Twenty Years of Changes in Information, Online Technology, and Research. Berkman is the editor of The Information Advisor and the two-page article (pp. 44-45) covers 1988-2013—that’s 25 years, but who’s counting.

Thanks to Information Today, Inc., publishers of The New OPL Sourcebook, for free subscriptions to these journals—but this does not influence my reviews—I read a lot of other not-free journals, too.

SUPER ISSUE OF INFORMATION OUTLOOK!

If you're a member of the Special Libraries Association, you've already received the February issue of Information Outlook. If you're not a member, you may want to beg, borrow, or "steal" one. Why? There a lot of good stuff in this issue.

Young Librarian, On the Job: a profile of an OPL at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Proactive Marketing; Connecting with the Corporate Client --highly recommended
Is There Such a Thing as Information Overload? by Pres. Stephen Abram
Know Thyself and Thy Library So You Can Offer Top Service by good guy John Latham

You may be able to access these articles at http://www.sla.org/io/

OBSOLETE SKILLS

I ran across a really interesting site. It is a wiki called Obsolete Skills and lists 12 skills that used to be necessary but are no longer, according to Robert Scoble. I imagine you can add more if you wish.
The ones there now include:

• dialing a rotary phone
• using a slide rule
• refilling a fountain pen

I'm not too sure all are really obsolete (some people still use fountain pens), but they are certainly less needed. There's also a link to new skills, too.

Very interesting.

URL: http://www.obsoleteskills.com and http://obsoleteskills.wikispot.org

THE SPANISH BLOGOSPHERE

Bitacoras Puntocom (Beta) is a social network/search engine and more in Spanish. You can search for videos, blogs, and news in technology, gadgets, politics, culture, and the general blogosphere and send the results via email. Neat. It was created by the Metroblog project in 2003. Although it is based in Madrid, it says it covers Latin America as well. (Bitacora means log.)

URL: http://bitacoras.com

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT FROM LIBRARY TECH? CHECK OUT THE LATEST ISSUE OF CIL

Editor Kathy Dempsey has done it again! The latest (January 2008) issue of Computers in Libraries is fantastic. The theme is “Finding Out What People Want From Library Technology.” Here is her editor’s notes, Why Assume When You Can Ask?

“In the library world, many processes are still done the way they were years ago. The old adage ‘because we’ve always done it that way’ still holds sway, and entangled layers of bureaucracy can make real change incredibly slow, if no impossible. But as I preach in keynotes and workshops while I’m wearing my other hat, as editor of the Marketing Library Services newsletter, what you’ve ‘always done’ doesn’t cut it anymore. You’ve all heard that sermon before, but hearing it doesn’t really help. What you need is a place to start. How should you change? What should you change? What do people want you to do differently?
“That’s why I chose the theme Finding Out What People Want From Library Technology for this issue. It’s perfect for January; the month of changing and renewing and starting fresh. And I have the only logical answer about where to start the process. Start with your patrons. Your collections and services are all for them, so update them to match patron wants and needs.
“But what do these users want and need? Even more important, what do nonusers want and need that you’re not offering? You could read other people’s research, you could make assumptions, or you could guess. Or you could do the only sensible thing—just ask them!
“If this concept makes you picture in-depth focus groups and expensive market research, stop right there. That stuff is great, but you can do it on a more manageable level. This month’s features show you how. I can’t explain their simple brilliance without getting up on my marketing soapbox and orating exorbitantly, so I’ll let you explore them for yourselves. What I will do with my remaining space here is to implore you to take these concepts to heart, to share these articles with your manager, and to push the issue until you can start surveying patrons. Only then can you be sure you’re delivering what your constituents need. And isn’t that what your work is really all about?”

I absolutely could not have said it better!

To carry out this theme, Dempsey chose the following articles, columns and departments:
Features:
How We Surveyed Doctors to Learn What They Want from Computers and Technology (by three librarians at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital)
Building a Web-Based Laboratory so Users can Experiment with New Services (available for free at http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jan08/Battles_Combs.shtml
Using Focus Groups to Learn about My Wiki
Columns:
An Analytical Approach to Assessing the Effectiveness of Web-Based Resources, by Marshall Breeding
The Joy of Finding out What People Don’t Want, by Terence K. Huwe
Departments:
Asking Users What They Want, by Janet Balas (other sources of information)
Data and Desires: What Users Really Want, by brand-new to CIL Jessamyn West

What more could anyone want? Get this issue and read it all!

What Academic Libraries Can Expect in 2008

Based on the recently released 2007 Environmental Scan by the Association of College and Research Libraries, here are the top ten assumptions for the future of academic libraries and librarians.

1. Increased emphasis on digitization, preservation, curation, and service.

2. Need for additional skills by librarians and an increasingly diverse library staff.

3. Demand for increased access, especially in digital resources and social computing.

4. More debate about intellectual property rights and management.

5. Additional demand for technology services and resources, requiring additional funds.

6. More accountability and quantitative services measures of the library’s contribution to the research, teaching and service sectors of the higher-education business.

7. Demand by student customers for higher-quality and relevant resources, facilities and services.

8. Expansion of online learning options requiring new or expanded resource and service delivery by the library.

9. Increased demand for free, public access to publicly funded research and data.

10. Increased importance of privacy and intellectual freedom issues.

Thanks to Stephen Abram [SirsiDynix, Toronto, Ontario, Canada] and his blog, Stephen’s Lighthouse, for calling my attention to this publication.

URLs:

Abram’s post: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/

2008/01/acrl_environmen.html

ACRL Environmental Scan, full 29-pages:

http://www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/

Environmental_Scan_2.pdf