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July 30, 2005
A long weekend . . .
A long weekend you say - pshaw! Well it is for me. It is Simcoe Day in Ontario and the first Monday of August is a holiday celebrating the founder of our province. We celebrated this year by starting the weekend off by settling a feared strike in the liquor stores.
It's been a long week of reading market research reports, Gartner Group forecasts on portals, wireless and devices, and focus group transcripts. Phew. So I thought, it's a long weekend and what have a read lately that I thought was great that wasn't just for work. Here are a few good titles that I've read lately for you to consider for your August reading (you'll notice a paucity of fiction - I am a non-fiction kind of guy).
Freakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
It's a very interesting book that takes a slanted look at what causes things in society. There's even a few sections on learning and reading and libraries. He even has a blog here that's pretty interesting.
The Tipping Point and Blink
by Malcolm Gladwell
Two really cool books that help to explain a lot about how change and insight happen. In my continuing quest to understand how people adapt information and change behaviours, this is a great read. Tipping Point is particularly good on the role of 'context' and helping us to further understand why context is king rather than content.
Everything Bad is Good For You
by Steven B. Johnson
his is a great book that talks about a few things I suspected but didn't know there was so much research to support it. He shows how the generations are getting smarter; how television and movies are getting more complex; how PC games help to develop better thinking skills. All in all, it's a pretty powerful book. It give one a little hope and aAgain this guy has a blog.
Your Call is Important to Use: The History of Bullsh*t
by Laura Penny
This Dalhousie University Professor has written a powerful book about lying that is really about truth. It's a great reminder about the masses of information about us and the role libraries play in providing access to a wider range of information than just that which is paid for and pre-digested. Her combination of web and original primary source research is fascinating.
Well there's the latest five. I'd recommend them all. Most have been devoured in a plane seat as I head from library to library across the continent. Books still seem to be the right format for planes. Sanitized movies on small screens just don't do it for me.
Happy Simcoe Day! I'm heading off the pick up and start reading my new copy of The World is Flat: A Brief History fo the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman. Maybe it'll tell me what's happening next...
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
Some useful lists of principles
I was reviewing Sirsi's Reading Rooms (Specialized Rooms that are part of our Enterprise Portal Solution -EPS for short - that help folks select books to read by genre) the other day and it made me remember the Reader's Bill of Rights create by Daniel Pennac. If you don't know them, here they are:
The Reader's Bill of Rights
1. The right not to read.
2. The right to skip pages.
3. The right to not finish.
4. The right to reread.
5. The right to read anything.
6. The right to escapism.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to browse.
9. The right to read out loud.
10.The right to not defend your tastes.
Some people find these controversial. Amazing! It doesn't include my favourite - the right to highlight, dog ear and annotate your own books.
I find these principles a nice adjunct to Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library
1. Books are for use.
2. Every reader his or her book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. The Library is a growing organism.
It's a good idea that we remind ourselves of these basic principles of library service. We build user focused services. We build user focused websites. Some, but not all of our users are readers. I find Walt Crawford's and Michael Gorman's 5 additional or updated laws useful too:
1. Libraries serve humanity.
2. Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated.
3. Use technology intelligently to enhance service.
4. Protect free access to knowledge.
5. Honor the past and create the future.
A French paper, by Alireza Noruzi poses the question, "Does the web save the time of the user?" and adds this little list:
1. Web resources are for use.
2. Every user his or her web resource.
3. Every web resource its user.
4. Save the time of the user.
5. The Web is a growing organism.
Sounds familiar. Now we just need to noodle long and had on the essential goal - making our new and revamped virtual services align with our basic service mandates to serve the user and reader. Ask ourselves the hadr question - are the needs of users and readers the same? It's not an easy question. We're not anywhere near done yet. It will be a great and exciting journey. As we continue to let a thousand flowers bloom, we will find just the right ones to discover the library of the future.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:02 PM | Comments (2)
July 28, 2005
Gotta Have It
OK - It's a fun Friday posting.
First, I admit that I have the full collection of Unshelved comic strip collections. I subscribe to the daily feed through my Hotmail account and through my Bloglines. I am addict for a library themed comic strip. It's just too much fun. Find e-mail and RSS feeds here.
NOW, even bigger news, a hometown (Toronto) based comic strip artist has published a graphic novel with a librarian hero! Too much. My son, the graphic novel afficionado, is searching to order my copy as you read this (launch date August 2005)! The novel is named after its hero so it's called Rex Libris. There's an interview with James Turner, the illustrator here. It's worth seeing just for the book cover and the poster farther down the page. I, Librarian!
Anyway - I gotta have vol. 1, number one, in mint condition! This is bigger than Harry Potter in my world. I hope this gets the full Librarian Action Figure buzz.
Cool.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:03 PM | Comments (4)
Things that make you say hmmmmm....
I read a few articles lately and they seem to point to an interesting economic relationship. In today's (August 28th) New York Times, Hal Varian (of Berkeley) discusses the role of used books in the marketplace. Authors' and rightsholders' groups have long complained that Amazon's selling of used and new books through the same service hurts their sales. Varian argues that this might actual help the market for new books. What struck me was his metaphor - you purchase a new car, and pay a good premium to buy it new, based on the sure knowledge that there is a resale market for it. I'd never throught of it that way.
Then, almost the same day, I forget exactly where, I read that teens who download free music are very much more likely to actually buy music (through iTunes or on CD, etc.) Hmmmm.
Combined these facts with the common knowledge that library users are much more likely to buy books too - even though they borrow a lot as well. I find this very interesting.
I have long suspected that there must be a different relationship economically between commodities and information/ideas.
Soooo, it makes me think that we need to look at the overall information and reading market more broadly than just the role of libraries, search engines, databases or bookstores. We're part of a greater global knowledge ecology and this has a very different economic model that is expanding exponentially due to the boundarylessness of new technolgies. The supply and demand model applies to limited resources like grain, oil or pork bellies. In a world where there is an infinite supply of information and ideas things are different.
Think of it this way: If I have an apple and you have an orange. We each have one piece of fruit. I give you my apple and you give me your orange, we each still have one piece of fruit. Now, in another scenario, I have an idea and you also have a good idea. I share my idea with you and you share your dea with me. We each now have TWO good ideas. See the difference?
Now put this on a global scale, speed it up with better idea and information storage and distribution, and you see the power of the idea storehouses of our culture. Libraries. Hmmmmm.
Stephen
Things that make you say Hmmmm
Posted by stephen at 11:47 AM | Comments (5)
July 27, 2005
Millennials: My Favourite Topic
OK, I just can't let this one go by. I always catch the research done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. You can even subscribe to their many blogs and RSS feeds there.
Anyway, the latest one is announced in their press release "Teens Forge Forward with the Internet and Other New Technologies" which notes that the number of teenagers using the Internet has grown 24% in the past four years and 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. A few highlights from the press release are:
...About 21 million teens use the Internet and half of them say they go online every day.
...51% of online teens live in homes with broadband connections.
...81% of wired teens play games online, which is 52% higher than four years ago.
...76% of online teens get news online, which is 38% higher than four years ago
...43% have made purchases online, which is 71% higher than four years ago.
...31% use the Internet to get health information, which is 47% higher than four years ago.
This latest data continues to support Judy Luther's and my cover story for Library Journal, Born With A Chip, about Millennials and their behaviours.
This is exactly why we are doing what we're doing in libraries today with technoloogy. We're staying in tune and in line with our users and emerging users.
Sirsi had Lee Rainie of Pew as the keynote on our executive track sessions at the Sirsi SuperConference in 2005. I am thrilled that Lee will be returning in 2006 at the Sirsi Nashville SuperConference.
The full report is free here. It's a worthwhile read.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Cliff Lynch and the Future of Digital Libraries
If you haven't read the latest issue of D-Lib let me point you to one article there - Cliff Lynch's latest forecast. It is here. Here's the conclusion:
"The next decade for digital libraries may well be characterized most profoundly by the transition from technologies and prototypes to the ubiquitous, immersive, and pervasive deployment of digital library technologies and services in the broader information and information technology landscape."
He notes that digital library work now has a semi-mature set of tools, engineering approaches, and technologies and that we can now apply them to greater issues such as personal information management, human and computer relationships, collaborative work and the real work of learning and research.
It is worth the read.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2005
iPods and Learning and Libraries
I've been following the Duke University experiment in providing iPods to all students. It's pretty interesting and a marvel in the law of unintended consequences.
The evaluation report on Duke’s 2004/05 academic uses of iPods initiative is available and it's free here.
It must have been a bit of a success since they're continuing it in modified form next term. What I found most interesting was the surprising and innovative ways (though logical in hindsight) that professors and students found to use the devices. There were the usual shirty comments from lecturers that feared some students would not attend class and just listen to downloaded lectures while jogging. I have to say that if they're providing so little interactivity or visuals in their lectures and so carefully avoid any socratic dialogue with the students, then how is a recording any worse or better than being there? As a lesson reviewing tool (even while exercising or multitasking), it seems pretty adequate.
But what I enjoyed was seeing the uses by music students to play recordings over and over to learn; to record their own work; and to share music in context of discussion. I liked the stories about language students repeating lectures to get all the nuances of the language, to get pronunciations right and to study. There are many stories like this about the power of these MP3 players in an academic context. There are even quite a few library uses! It's a fairly concise report and worth the read.
I think that iPods are a bellwether technology. There are things to learn in this experiment that apply to all types of libraries. As we try to adapt our services to the wide range of multi-media technologies like MP3's and streaming media, the services provided by such companies as iTunes, Overdrive and Audible.com, and even simple things like the streaming media author interviews in Sirsi's enhanced OPAC feeds through DataStream. A few public libraries are offering audio-books on iPods to borrow and others are recording and podcasting teen and user book reviews. It's a real renaissance right now where creativity is flowering. Pretty cool. Sure makes their library's portals lively
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:58 PM | Comments (2)
July 20, 2005
Proofs of the Impact of Public Libraries
I still think that we need to internalize the findings of the famous Sept. 2004 Florida study. It is very rich in data and soundbites (bytes?).
It was a comprehensive taxpayer ROI study on the impact of public libraries in Florida found, for example, that:
• Overall, Florida's public libraries return $6.54 US for every $1.00 invested from all sources.
• For every $6,448 US spent on public libraries from public funding sources in Florida, one job is created.
• For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, gross regional product increases by $9.08 US.
• For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, income (wages) increases by $12.66 US.
You can find the full study for free.
The South Carolina study showed similar results in 2005. It's available for free here.
Why is it so hard to quantify the impact of public libraries or is it easy and we just shy aay from these sorts of conversations and proofs? Some people think that we might need to have our associations engage in some traditional advertising. That seems so Darren Stevens and 1960's Madison Avenue. Promotion seems to have changed in the over thre decades since TV's Bewitched. Maybe we need to get more creative and try something like a viral marketing campaign. Maybe we can use search engine optimization techniques through the web to bring folks to our message. Could we experiment with a few clickhrough campaigns on the major search engines? Maybe we can use the same influencing techniques that were used in the last few elections to promote specific ideas and policy options. I don't know the final answer but, as a community, we need to try harder to experiment and to promote the amazing things libraries are doing and get it into the public and political consciousness.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:11 AM | Comments (1)
July 19, 2005
25 Years!
Well, it has been 25 years since I graduated from library school. I decided to celebrate by writing a list of the 32 things I've learned in the past 25 years. It will be published as a three part series in the Sirsi OneSource newsletter starting this month. Part One is here.
I sure hope I have more insights that 32 of them for 25 years work (grin), and can come up with a few more in the next 25 (I am working on the Freedom 85 Plan).
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:58 AM | Comments (1)
July 18, 2005
More Pressure for Better Portals
The recent report "Re-Defining Libraries for the Google Age" by Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, is very interesting. She writes that it is a UK national imperative to create a national digital research collection to ensure the UK’s future innovation and economic growth. She also goes out on a limb with some EPS study projections and starts to apply some numbers to what the world of publishing will look like within 15 years:
"Most people are aware that a national switch to digital broadcasting is expected by the end of this decade. Rather less well known is the fact that a similar trend is underway in the world of publishing: a study by EPS, commissioned by the British Library, projects that, by the year 2020, 40% of UK research monographs will be available in electronic format only, while a further 50% will be produced in both print and digital. A mere 10% of new titles will be available in print alone by 2020."
For those of us who manage the bridge between print and electronic formats this is quite the challenge. Some libraries still manage their digital collections quite separately (in terms of staff, budgets, classification, portal interface, etc.) from print, microform and other hard copy collections. I'll go out on a limb too - for the foreseeable future we must provide seamless access to both without regard to format. By this I mean that navigation and discovery of all resources should ideally be based on a principle that the user just doesn't care to decide in advance what the preferred format is before they ask their questions and begin to search. We seem to be getting there slowly but we might need to pick up the pace a bit.
It is also interesting to see how some folks have adapted their OPACs to discover a wider range of formats (like audio files, e-books, streaming media, etc.). It seems that these experiments are still coming somewhat from a physical object mindset rather than a virtual object mindset. I suppose when the next generation of AACR3 and FRBR rules are ultimately promulgated we'll need to see another mindset.
Pretty interesting to think about...
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
Your Personality and Searching
I love this dissertation from 2004: "The impact of personality and approaches to learning on information behaviour" by Jannica Heinström in the Department of Information Studies at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. I am always quoting it and telling people to read it so I maight as well make it easy to find through my blog!
You can dowload it here or here for free.
Abstract
Previous studies have shown how personality influences learning strategies and learning outcome. In this study this will be taken further by combining personality and approaches to learning with information behaviour. The aim of this study is to show how the five traits of the Five-Factor Inventory related to the approaches to learning of the ASSIST-test affect information behaviour. The subjects will be approximately 500 university students writing their dissertation. The five key personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.
In a pilot study it was shown that personality traits can be related to approaches to learning. Moreover they seem to form distinctive information behaviour.
There's a lot to learn here in the design of portals, services and virtual services.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:52 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
Virtual Reference or what
Another insight I learned is so much of virtual reference isn't traditional reference at all. Loads of questions involve things that we traditionally think of as circulation tasks - Where am I in the hold list for Harry Potter?, What do I owe in fines?, What are the library hours?, etc. - but the public actually thinks of these as library questions. Some questions are the good ol' community information questions and a few VR collaboratives have partnerships with the 211 phone number operations near them. Others are very complex and a few libraries have partnerships with law societies and hospitals to answer those scarier questions.
Anyway, the whole thing made me think that "Ask a" and 'Virtual Reference' as 'names' needs a little more debate and brand name testing with the users to see if they percieve the same service we do.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)
Ephebiphobia
Ephebiphobia: The coolest word I heard this week at the Collaborative Digital Reference Symposium in Denver. It means "fear and loathing of teenagers". It came up in an interesting context. The VR conversation centered around all the planning that went into launching VR services for adult users as the alpha target and lo and behold so much, sometimes even the majority, of the usage is coming from teens. Ewwww! They speak differently, they don't know how to ask a question, they're rude, they're abrupt, some of them are boys!, etc., etc. They're also our future. Most felt they'd learned and were really positive about their interactions with today's millennial users. Many were acknowledging that some of their colleagues were still struggling. All n all it was an interesting example of the unintended consequences of new technologies. And it has real implications for us as we develop portals and e-learning tools for kids, millennials and students if we aren't one of them. It sure underlined the importance of the reference interview and clarification in the VR experience and how it different and somewhat hard to learn without just diving in and experiencing it.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
Creating the Next Generation of Librarians
This is to let you all know that our book, Staff Planning in a Time of Demographic Change, has been published. There was a nice author signing at CLA and ALA. I wrote the chapter on Next Generation Librarians in the Workplace. The information about the book and the table of contents, which was edited by Vicki Whitmell of the Ontario Legislative Library, is on the Scarecrow Press website.
I think that this book is timely. As president of the Canadian Library Association, I appointed a task force on the Report of the 8Rs which delivered the results of thousands of interviews of library workers in Canada. I am looking forward to seeing action on this issue.
I also think that the conferences, training, seminars and e-learning put on by vendors such as SirsiDynix will be well informed by this research. We absolutely must focus on bringing all sectors and demographics of library work into the changing world of information.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
Virtual Reference
Well I am off today to the Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium in Denver. I love the explorations we're doing with VR. I am very interested in the work of our company Sirsi Docutek as well as others in the industry like OCLC's Questionpoint and Tutor.com. Even the entry level stuff like instant messenger services in libraries and JYBE and Skype.
I like to consider the big picture - the really big picture. These technologies are not just about serving up our reference services virtually. They're about putting the librarian back into the virtual space! Think about it. We are rapidly moving to the time (if some libraries are not already there) where the vast majority of our interactions with our users will be virtual - website hits, patron driven ILL, remote database searching and on and on. Loads of this happens with very little (or no) interaction with the humans in the library - librarians, information professionals and library workers - that improve the service. While our virtual services deliver information quickly, they don't improve the quality of the question which has been reference librarians' stock in trade for more than a century. If we want to improve, remain and stay relevant, we have to discover the virtual reference modalities that work. That requires a lot of experimentation, sharing and cooperation. It's an exciting field right now as technology moves into the user space more and more.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:16 PM | Comments (2)
July 11, 2005
More on Value of Libraries
My recent article in Sirsi OneSource on the value of all types of libraries has garnered some nice comments. I am always interested in this type of research. Just recently Lorcan Dempsey at OCLC pointed me to a recent PDF report commissioned by from PriceWaterhouseCoopers by the LASER Foundation. Lorcan notes that the "report argues that public libraries have demonstrable impact and proposes 'practical and consistent approaches to measuring impact'".
We really need to do more of these studies and then shout the results from more than the rooftops!
Cool reading,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)
July 9, 2005
Stephen's Articles and Presentations
There are quite a few articles and PowerPoint presentations on assorted topics on the Sirsi website. You can find these here.
I'd love to hear any comments at stephen.abram@sirsi.com.
Cheers,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
July 8, 2005
Welcome to the Lighthouse
Well here's my first formal blog posting. Welcome to Stephen's Lighthouse where I'll muse about things library and librarianesque.
The lighthouse theme is based on what lighthouses do - shine a light on the waters and/or sound a horn to help ships navigate the course. They don't always stop the ships from crashing onto the rocks but they help most of the time.
So, arrogant or not, I hope that this blog contributes in some small way to helping the good ship Library World navigate to their vision of the future,
Cheers,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:47 PM | Comments (6)