Maine Libraries

At the Heart of Libraries?

Encouraging Innovation in Library Land

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA

Bangor, Augusta & Portland, Maine

May 12-14, 2010

CHANGE

The BIG Challenge

“The Internet has now progressed to its infancy”

Search, Social Networks, Learning, Commerce

Classic Cartoon, but . . .

Start here

Not the solution!

The Adoption Curve

LEAD

Learning FlowLife FlowWorkflowCommunity FlowSocial FlowAge Stage

Where are they going?Where did they come from?

Discovery

Discovery & Ideas

A Challenge to Leadership

The Future Discovered

• Stem Cells• fMRI and The Brain• Cloning• Wind and other energy• Nanotechnology• Robotics• Book Digitization• Music• Streaming Media• Seed Bank

Diabetes Online

Yes, Stephen did just say Lizard Spit

Kids

The Scary re-wiring of the Millennials and post-Millennials

Eye Movement Changes

Usability

The A frame adopted

from newspaper

layout is not what

works.

Eyetools

Learning

Learning Styles

• Visual/Spatial (Picture Smart)• Verbal/Linguistic (Word Smart)• Musical/Rhythmic (Music Smart)• Logical/Mathematical (Number Smart)• Bodily/Kinesthetic (Body Smart)• Interpersonal (People Smart)• Intrapersonal (Self Smart)

– Piaget, Bloom, Gardner, etc.

Principled /

Values

More Friends More Diverse

Respect Intelligence

Optimistic /

Positive

Internet Natives

More Choices

Format Agnostic

Balanced Lives Adaptive / Flexible

Civic Minded

High Expectations

Collaborative Nomadic Gamers Experiential

Independent Confident Direct More Liberal and more conservative

Multi-taskers Inclusive Patriotic Entrepreneurial

Healthy Lifestyle Family Oriented

Graphical Achievement Oriented

Millennial Characteristics

Credit: Richard Sweeney, NJIT

The Engagement Ladder

Read/View

Argue/Defend

Present/Teach

Stimulate/Live

Act on/ Discuss

Content

Source

Situation

Dr. Thomas Davenport

Literacy

• Reading literacy

• Numeracy

• Critical literacy

• Social literacy

• Computer literacy

• Web literacy

• Content literacy

• Written literacy

• News literacy

• Technology literacy

• Information literacy

• Media literacy

• Adaptive literacy

• Research literacy

• Academic literacy

• etc.

Search

Will we find our voice?

BingGoogle

FacebookSocial Media (Twitter)

Libraries

Next up:Geo-IP

Play

It is about play

Teamwork

Mobile

Are you ready for a 21st Century book experience?

What about censorship?Freedom of expression?Freedom….In general

Piano

content

Get your head out of the book

DedicatedeBook

Readers

Are you ready for boundaryless, containerless content?

Is the traditional book or text booknow a hollowexperience?

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=book+sculpture&page=44

Are we ready for the post book world?

New Containers

• What are the new containers?

• The are mostly virtual

• e-courses, e-coursepacks, lessons, e-learning objects, websites, portals, sessions, event, digital photo albums, etc.

• How do these fit into a positive transformational experience?

Types of Containers• OLD• Databases• Articles• Books• DVD• Spreadsheets• Albums• Game• Weight &

Volume

• REVISED• Paragraphs• Chapters• Clips• Graphics• Pictures• Animations• Games• Engaging

Experiences

Container Success• Focus on the End User(s) in context• Content is not enough• Focus on the results of the Experience:• Learning, Social, Entertainment, Community,

Hobbies, etc.• Collectors not collections, Learners not

Teachers, Readers not authors, publishers or librarians.

• Short and long term subscription models• Borrowing and rental models

Issues in Experience Publishing

• Design for Use not clicks• Transformations not Transactions• Learning styles• Psychographics• Technology adoption and penetration• Learning curves• Multiple intelligences• Target market differences• Tuning – e.g. Flesch-Kincaid, Lexiles, levelling,

levelled reading• Technical issues like persistent content (persistent

URLs, etc.) and deep linking, rights management, etc.

What We Never Knew 27% of our users are under 18. 59% are female. 29% are college students. 5% are professors and 6% are teachers. On any given day, 35% of our users are there

for the first time. 29% found our products via the library

website. 59% found what they were looking for on their

first search. 72% trusted the content more than what they

found on Google. But, 81% still use Google.

What will the new text and reading experience be for books, news, scholarship and magazines?

Can we assemble them like IKEA? Or on the fly?

Can we do better than GM did in adapting to change?

Does the IKEA Strategy work for GM. End User - Assemble it yourself!

Newspapers: Assemble them yourself.Re-imagine the book, the textbook, the video,

the coursepack, and the experience.

social

Magazine Content Goes Social

News Content Goes Social

Geo-Social 4Sq/Gowalla

Apple/Amazon

Community

Conversations

Relationships

Community Networks

Life

Connection

Personalization

Personalization

Personalization

I am unique.Understand me.

It’s personal.

Don’t limit me!Who are you to limit me?

The Next 17 Slides

“Detail that can be

reviewed later online”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nessman/2590572476/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/2735401175/

TheSharing

Economy

“Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the WWW that lets people

collaborate and share information online.” Wikipedia

• Shared Pictures =

• Shared Knowledge =

• Shared Bookmarks =

• Shared News =

• Shared Videos =

• Shared Everything =

Get Good at The Cloud

Public Library Strategies

Luck / Opportunity

Comfort

Simplicity

How do you get noticed?

Don’t let this ecology scare you.

What is the scariest scenario?I have an archaeology background . .

.

Exercise #1

Exercise #2

How are you going to reach out?

Exercise #3What else have you got?

Exercise #4

We held our electronic prices flat for all customers in 2009, saving libraries more than $10,000,000.

Guess what, we’re doing it again this year.

We saved 8 states more than $3,000,000 by having them switch to Gale resources from EBSCO.

We are now moving all customers to unlimited usage for no additional charge.

We reduced our list prices on a number of products.

is advocating for libraries

Gale is now exploring a new business model with Wyoming – usage-based pricing for resources.

Gale is now authenticating by geolocation in a number of states – users can access resources without putting in a barcode or password.

Gale increased its marketing budget in the current year, but reallocated the money to help libraries market to their users.

is advocating for libraries.

We don’t only do busses at ALA… we also stand behind our customers when their voices need to be heard.

is advocating for libraries.

is going to help you understand your users.

• Power to the User; Value to the Library.– Understanding users leads to better products.– Better products lead to more usage.– More usage leads to more value per dollar to

the library.

What We Never Knew

27% of our users are under 18. 59% are female. 29% are college students. 5% are professors and 6% are teachers. On any given day, 35% of our users are there

for the first time. 29% found our products via the library

website. 59% found what they were looking for on their

first search. 72% trusted the content more than what they

found on Google. But, 81% still use Google.

v

is creating library awareness.

Gale is proud to introduce the new iPhone App.

Gale is directing web traffic to your resources.

• Top-ten reference site• Search engine discoverability for

libraries and their resources• Article excerpts from library

products (e.g. GVRL)• Full-text articles courtesy of your

library

• Top-ten reference site• Search engine discoverability for

libraries and their resources• Article excerpts from library

products (e.g. GVRL)• Full-text articles courtesy of your

library

Read the rest of this article courtesy of your local libraryRead the rest of this article courtesy of your local library

15%

is helping you market to your users.

Gale has created more than 1,000 websites for libraries…

Including…www.flelibrary.org

is going to double your usage.

With more than 300 widgets, and counting… we are going to unlock your products to users.

Has confirmed your friend request.

Gale wants to be your friend, and partner. Not just another vendor.

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAVP Strategic Partnerships and Markets

Gale, Cengage LearningCel: 416-669-4855

stephen.abram@cengage.comhttp://www.cengage.com

Stephen’s Lighthouse Bloghttp://stephenslighthouse.com