Digital Lending

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/books/15libraries.html
Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending [The New York Times]

The Nine Tribes of the Internet

Digital Collaborators, Ambivalent Networkers, Media Movers, Roving Nodes, Mobile Newbies, Desktop Veterans, Drifting Surfers, Information Encumbered, or Tech Indifferents - what Tribe of Internet users do you belong to? What tribes do library customers belong to? This presentation from the Pew Internet & American Life Project looks at how the information ecosystem has changed, and why we should use varied digital strategies to serve the needs of different tribes of technology users.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/21--The-Nine-Tribes-of-the-Internet.aspx

Did you know 4.0

Another official update to the "Shift Happens" video. This version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence...

• During February 2008, John McCain raised $11 million for this presidential campaign through traditional fundraising. During the same 29 days, Obama leveraged online social networks to raise $55 million.
• Twitter played an unprecedented role in sharing information during the 2009 Iranian presidential election.
• 4.0 Prediction: The mobile device will be the world's primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020. I'm guessing 2015.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

A tale of two countries' libraries

A local (GTA) look at the public library sector and how they are adapting to change.
http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/698252

The usual hook about libraries in decline, soon to be extinct, etc. (will journalists ever find a fresh angle?), but overall a good summary of the issues.

And a great quote from Wendy Newman:

• Libraries are not in a terminal state of decline, "they're not even sick....Libraries are back big-time, they're having a renaissance."

The future of libraries, with or without books

(CNN) -- "The stereotypical library is dying -- and it's taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it."An interesting external take on how libraries are changing. Story Highlights:

• As books go digital, libraries are reevaluating their roles
• Some say libraries will soon act more like community centers
• Most say the physical book will stay in libraries, but with less importance
• Some libraries use futuristic tools to attract new patrons

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/04/future.library.technology/index.html?iref=newssearch

Social Networking and Kids

Common Sense Media has released the results of a national poll of teens and parents on social networking behaviors. The poll results showed that kids increasingly connect with friends, classmates and people with similar interests through social networks—and that parents are out of the loop.
Among the poll’s key findings:
- 22% of teens check social networking sites more than 10 times a day, while only 4% of parents believe kids are checking that much
- 51% percent of teens check social networking sites more than once a day, while only 23% of parents say their kids check more than once a day
- 28% have shared personal information that they normally wouldn’t have shared in public
- 25% have shared a profile with a false identity
- 39% have posted something they regretted
- 26% have pretended to be someone else online
- 54% have joined an online community or Facebook/MySpace group in support of a cause
- 34% have volunteered for a campaign, nonprofit or charity

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/teen-social-media

This We Believe - from George and Joan

Some well-articulated statements from George and Joan about the professional responsiblities of librarians in a wrold of change:
http://georgeandjoan.com/about/believe.html

J: I believe that librarians
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Do well to cultivate our innate curiosity. We benefit when we listen to and learn from other people, especially people who aren’t just like us.
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Are responsible for the consequences of our professional choices – including when the choice is to take no action, and even when the consequences are unintended.
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Need to be steadfast in support of our principles, and flexible in pursuit of new techniques for implementing those principles.
G: I believe that to thrive in the future, libraries and librarians must
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Understand our value proposition. What do we bring to our communities that no one else does? Is this valuable to our communities?
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Understand how the roles have changed (reference service, AV).
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Understand how the rules have changed (privacy, open source).
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Embrace the stereotype. Books are our brand. Reading, and by extension learning, is our most important product. Secular transformation is the outcome. But entertainment is OK, too.
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Avoid confusing the community with extraneous details or symbols.
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Avoid antagonizing the community with rules that are a holdover from the age of scarcity.
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Talk to non‐librarians in words that are meaningful to them, not us.
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Develop meaningful ways to measure and describe the work we do.
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Build teams that look like our communities.
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Continue to provide the respite from commercialism, while understanding that adopting a sanctimonious avoidance of the commercial world is not in the best long term interest of the institution, either.

George and Joan

George Needham and Joan Frye-Williams have formed a new consultancy to help libraries in future planning and strategy development.
They have a website:
http://georgeandjoan.com/about/who.html

and a blog:
http://www.georgeandjoan.com/blog/

Their what we believe statement sums it up:
http://georgeandjoan.com/about/believe.html

Print On Demand - The Espresso Book Machine

A long tail solution?
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/05/12/f-espresso-book-machine.html

The Library Rebooted

How libraries are changing to stay relevant in the age of Google
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/09108?gko=ef8aa-1876-27600325

7 Imperatives for Library Leadership
1. Rethink the operating model
2. Understand and respond to user needs
3. Embrace the concept of continuous innovation
4. Forge a digital identity
5. Connect with stakeholders in ways that pure internet companies cannot
6. Expand the metrics
7. Be courageous

A Checklist for Strategic Thinking

A three-part Infopeople series from Joan Frye Williams and George Needham on the questions we should be asking when allocating our budget resources in tough economic times.

1. Will it show?
• In tough times, we need to make sure that our stakeholders can see what we’re doing.
• Prioritize things than can be seen and are valued by stakeholders/the community (rather than backstage, behind-the-scenes things)
• Will the stakeholders see the results and notice?
• Does it match the priorities that the stakeholders value? What do they want and appreciate?
• Does it foster community connections? Will it result in opportunities for the community to converse and interact?
• Is it green?
• Does it strengthen the local economy? Does it make the library part of the economic solution? Does it contribute to economic development?
2. Can it grow? How do you decide what activities have a future? And once you make that determination, how can you be sure that you have the staff and resource time to keep the activities going? Another important question as well: are you ready for success?
• Is it scalable without an increase in staff costs? Can it (the service, the innovation, etc.) grow even if we don’t get more staff? Are you ready for success? Is it designed and planned so that it can absorb popularity/success with our customers?
• Is it targeting a growing clientele (e.g. multilingual customers)?
• Does it respond to the exception or to the routine things that you want to encourage? Policies should be designed for the 99.9%, not for the exception – e.g. cell phone policy. Deal with the exceptions as one-offs, rather than penalizing the whole community with a policy designed around the exception.
• Will it encourage repeat business? Is it more important to get the book back or to get the customer back?
• Does it use staff as facilitators rather than gatekeepers? We need to set up the candystore and then get out of the way – set up policies and tools that let people be successful on their own, and consult staff for the non-routine and difficult transactions.
• From a job satisfaction perspective, it’s more fun to say yes than to say no. Saying no burns staff out and repels customers.
3. Does it flow?
• Does it fit into the flow of what you’re doing?

http://www.infoblog.infopeople.org/2009/04/george-joan-thinking-out-loud-a-checklist-for-strategic-thinking-part-one/
http://www.infoblog.infopeople.org/2009/05/george-joan-thinking-out-loud-a-checklist-for-strategic-thinking-part-two/

Digital Future Project - 2009 Report

Who is online and who is not? What is the impact of the Internet on consumer behavior, communication patterns and society? Each year, the Digital Future studies and reports on more than 100 major issues, focusing on Internet users vs. non-users, as well as light users (five hours or less per week of use) compared to heavy users (more than 24 hours per week of use).
Among the highlights of the 2009 Report:

• The amount of time that Internet users spend online now surpasses an average of 17 hours per week. The study found very large differences between the online hours of heavy users and light users. Light users spent an average of 2.8 hours per week online, compared to heavy users who average 42 hours a week online.
• 81 percent of Internet users said that government Web sites were generally reliable and accurate—about the same as in 2007.
• Faith in news pages posted by established media (such as nytimes.com and cnn.com) has decreased.
• The percentage of Internet users who said that most or all of the information provided by search engines such as Google is reliable and accurate rose slightly in the current study after a decline in 2007.
• Although Internet users express strong negative views about advertising online, they prefer Web ads to support Internet pages rather than personally paying for content.

http://www.digitalcenter.org/pdf/2009_Digital_Future_Project_Release_Highlights.pdf

What do customers want in online catalogues?

A new OCLC study looks at Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want
http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/default.htm
The study compares what librarians consider important in a catalogue record and what users consider important.

The Changing Economic Landscape

From the creative economy visionary, Richard Florida, a view of how the crash of 2008 will transform cities and regions.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/meltdown-geography

Generations Online 2009

A new Pew report looks at the online lifestyles of all generations.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/275/report_display.asp

Third Generation Public Libraries

Third Generation Public Libraries: The Ontario Ministry of Culture commissioned this report to assist with updating its policy framework for supporting public libraries. The report examines how visionary thinking and services could apply to Ontario’s public libraries by 2020.

http://www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/library/newman_study.htm

Ontario in the Creative Age

Report on how Ontario can prosper in the ongoing global economic transformation.
http://martinprosperity.org/research-and-publications/publication/ontario-in-the-creative-age-project

We are moving to an economy that values people’s creativity, especially analytical and social intelligence skills. Libraries provide opportunities for people to engage and develop their full creative talents, and invest in life-long learning and skill development.

On the Horizon

The 2009 Horizon Report identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education within three adoption horizons: a year or less, two to three years, and four to five years.The areas of emerging technology cited for 2009 are:
• Mobiles (i.e., mobile devices) - one year or less
• Cloud computing - one year or less
• Geo-everything (i.e., geo-tagging) - 2 to 3 years
• The personal web - 2 to 3 years
• Semantic-aware applications - 4 to 5 years
• Smart objects - 4 to 5 years
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/2009HorizonReport/48003?time=1233509699

Libraries emerge as new town squares

In a report on 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Our Communities, the Project for Public Spaces identifies libraries as places that foster a sense of community and offer a unique gathering place.

"Librarians represent a newly emerging force for placemaking. They already provide a resource center for their communities, but many of them are now pushing to turn their libraries into civic centers that foster a sense of community and offer a unique gathering place. Many librarians now envision their facilities as both virtual and literal town squares for their neighborhoods and downtowns. "
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/Ten_Trends_Shaping_the_Future_of_Our_Communities/trends4_7#

A new chapter begins for libraries as economy sinks

Great article about library use going up in tough economic times , and how libraries contribute to the workforce-capacity-building that is essential to economic prosperity.

A new chapter begins for libraries as economy sinks
Crowds flock in, not for musty books, but for free CDs, DVDs, Internet access — and help finding a job
DAWN WALTON
From Monday's Globe and Mail
January 26, 2009 at 4:36 AM EST
CALGARY — Even before Calgary's Central Library opened yesterday at noon, dozens of people crowded inside its modest-sized heated foyer, while still more were lined up outside braving the -19 wind chill.
Crowds have been growing since the economy started to sour. Some were waiting to download music onto their iPods. Others wanted to borrow books. And lately, many congregate here looking for jobs.
"We're kind of a recession sanctuary," said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library.
Across the country - indeed, around the world - public library visits are up and are expected to rise in 2009 as personal finances take a hit during a global recession that is only projected to get worse. In a time of belt-tightening, libraries provide cheap and, depending on the location, free entertainment, as well as a haven for the unemployed.
Patrons of the Toronto Reference Library surf the Internet at a bank of computers. The turbulent economy is sending crowds into libraries across Canada. ‘We’re kind of a recession sanctuary,’ said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library. (DEBORAH BAIC/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
"It's generally accepted conventional wisdom that libraries get busier during rough economic times," said Paul Whitney, city librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, which has 22 branches.
In downtown Calgary, 46-year-old Mark Titley arrived early, anxious to use the public computers to search for work in the construction industry or with a seismic crew.
"This is typical," said Mr. Titley, a daily visitor, as he looked at the crowd. "You'll see this place get really packed."
At the Toronto Public Library, the biggest in the country with 99 branches, visits were up 8 per cent in the second half of 2008 as the recession bore down. Use of materials increased 12 per cent over the same period, while computer usage jumped 13 per cent.
Last year, the 17 public library branches in Calgary circulated a record 15.4-million items, up 1.1-million items, or almost 7.7 per cent, from 2007.
Libraries in Ireland have also noticed the wave of visitors. But the trend is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in the United States, where the recession, fuelled by the subprime mortgage crisis, began earlier and cut deeper.
"We're hearing from people who said I could no longer afford my newspaper subscription or I could not afford my Internet connection and now I'm going to my library because it's there," said Loriene Roy, immediate past president of the American Library Association.
Gone are the days of musty books, card catalogues and the threat of being told to "shhh." Today library visitors borrow CDs and DVDs and use study space for boisterous group work. They take advantage of free computers and bring along their laptops to use free wireless Internet.
"Now you can eat and drink in the library," added Jane Pyper, chief librarian in the Toronto system.
"The place is just more appealing."
There's also practical help for tough times.
At Vancouver's Central Library, 10 to 30 people are routinely showing up on Tuesday nights for the free "One Stop Job Search @ Your Library" workshop. Registration in programs for all ages has jumped, while the number of people logging on to the library's Web-based services was up 50 per cent in 2008 compared with 2007. Even in Calgary, Canada's biggest boomtown, seminars at the Central Library on interview skills, keeping a job and résumé development are full even though they don't begin for a month or more.
Goran Jelica, a 42-year-old computer programmer in Calgary, often brings his three-year-old son, Benjamin, to their local library to pass on his passion for reading. But the trip is also a money-saver.
"Here, if you find something you borrow it, and if you don't like it you just bring it back," he said. "At a bookstore, you can't return it."

Family Literacy & MPL

On January 24th, MPL celebrated Family Literacy Day with a mass family reading of 5 Robert Munsch books, in support of ABC Canada's attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most children reading with an adult.

On the same day, the Globe and Mail published an editorial on the value and power of parent- child reading.

From Saturday's Globe and Mail January 24, 2009 at 12:13 AM EST
Parental sine qua non

"While parents cast about at great expense looking for programs to improve their children's brainpower, a magic bullet exists at low cost that has never quite received its due. It is a life-enhancing, literacy-inducing, time-travelling device, colloquially known as a “book.” It works optimally when a parent or two read it out loud. Best of all, it is free at public libraries, though woe betide the person who returns it late.
"This device – sold separately, as they say (the book and the parental reading unit) – is far, far better than a Baby Einstein video. Imagine, if it only had the name. Let's do the Baby Einstein before bed. Think how eagerly parents would embrace it.
"What parent-child reading needs is marketing. It is getting some. Beginning Friday, and ending Saturday, thousands of Canadian adults and children are attempting to enter the Guinness World Records, for “most children reading with an adult, multiple locations,” trying to grab the record of 78,791 from the Americans, who set it in 2006. At last word, Canada had 187,043 people registered. Everyone is reading the same five books by the Canadian author Robert Munsch. Corny? No.
"Not when research has found that parental involvement in their children's reading is a more important influence on literacy than family wealth, or the level of parental education. Not when, of all school subjects, reading is the most sensitive to parental involvement, according to the research. And not when literacy is the sine qua non of school success, and much else that is good in life.
"Even if it is corny, it is the right kind of corny. And it pales next to Britain's focus on literacy. Canada has an annual Family Literacy Day – this Tuesday – sponsored by the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation and Honda Canada; Britain just finished a National Year of Reading, which is being followed by a national Reading for Life campaign. Young fathers, particularly working-class fathers, are one focus of that campaign; research has found that fathers' role in reading to their children has been undervalued. The goal is for all families “to see reading as an important part of their daily lives and part of the culture of their home.”
"Teaching children to love reading is not a job that can be offloaded on a video, or a daycare centre or the schools. The joy of reading is either in the air at home or it is not, and children, even small ones, can detect the difference."

Obama Loves Libraries

As noted by Moe, our Director of Excellence in everything -
Did you know that Obama loves libraries? I found the following on Stephen Abram's Lighthouse Blog: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/
Here is an article from American Libraries based on Omaba's Keynote Speech at the 2005 ALA Conference: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/obama05.cfm
I highly recommend taking a minute to read the article.
And here is an excerpt from his address:
"More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That’s the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books. Whether it’s the ransacking of the great library at Alexandria, controlling information during the Middle Ages, book burnings, or the imprisonment of writers in former communist block countries, the idea has been that if we can control the word, if we can control what people hear and what they read and what they comprehend, then we can control and imprison them, or at least imprison their minds."
"At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams. That’s what all of you do each and every day, and for that, I am grateful."
No wonder he is now the President...he knows what he's talking about.
Be proud of what you do and keep up the great work.

Did You Know 3.0

Latest in the Did You Know? series by some educators from Colorado. Starting out as a PowerPoint presentation, Did You Know? "went viral" on the Web in February 2007, and has been seen millions of online viewers.
Thought-provoking, sobering, Did You Know? is intended to provoke a conversation about shifts that are happening in the world around us, such as:
"The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years…For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8

Related wiki: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/

Best Practices for the Customer-Focused Library

Relevant research and reports from the Metropolitan Library System in Illinois' LSTA grant project The Customer Focused Library. Among the findings: Only one third of the people who come into a library stop at a service desk, and two thirds of the people who come into a library have no idea what they came in for.

Great source of ideas for improving our spaces and services in the report Best Practices for the Customer-Focused Library
http://www.webjunction.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=8052623&name=DLFE-1830002.pdf
and at
http://www.mls.lib.il.us/consulting/envirosell.asp

How to Make a Library Great

A great article from Project for Public Spaces - How to Make Your Library Great
14 lessons from local libraries all over North America about how to turn libraries into great community destinations. To help libraries fulfill theirpotential as neighborhood institutions, PPS offers the following strategies as a roadmap to success.
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april2007/library_attributes