Using Technologies Strategically: A Special Librarians Guide Stephen Abram, MLS International Conference of Asian Special Libraries Japan Special Libraries Association Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 10, 2011

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What is an information science strategy?

Welcome Questions for Today: 1.What is strategy? 2.Why do we need to be strategic? 3.About what do we need to be strategic? 4.How should we respond?

What is strategy? “Strategy is the intentional response to change and changing conditions.”

What is change? A threat? An opportunity? Chaos? A constant condition? Inevitable? Good?

Librarians play a vital role in building the critical connections between information, knowledge and learning.

The Elephant in the Room Very Big Secret

Change can happen very fast

6 Things Are Changing Fast 1.Books & Media 2.Behaviour: Users, Decision-makers, Learners, Students, Scholars, Researchers, Teachers, Professors, Cardholders, Users, Members, Patrons, Clients, Customers 3.Mobile 4.Search, Content Farms, 5.Analytics The History of Unintended Consequences & Unpredictability

“Strategy is a Choice... To be a victim and feel these changes are fated and blamestorm OR Create the future we need and take collective responsibility for the conversation and development of the future.” Find Reasons not Excuses.

Emboldened Librarians hold the key

GOOG

News Flash News Flash “The Internet and technology have now progressed to their infancy” “The Internet and technology have now progressed to their infancy”

Your Strategic Challenge Your Strategic Challenge “To plan for adaptation to change on your own and on your organizational level.” “To plan for adaptation to change on your own and on your organizational level.”

People

What We Never Really Knew Before  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 very first time!  Only 29% found the databases via the library website.  59% found what they were looking for on their first search.  72% trusted our content more than what they found on Google.  But, 81% still use Google. We often believe a lot that isn’t true.

People are Changing  Demographic– Millennial, Boomer, Seniors  Increased educational attainment & engagement  eBooks outsell hard cover books and now outsell paperbacks  Some libraries are crediting most cardholder growth to e-book accessibility  Personal device proliferation  Some sectors are very tech-dominated (farming, cattle, trucking, natural resources…)  Mobile data usage is growing very quickly, workplace use is huge

People Have Changed  In North America, Twitter & Facebook are dominated by the middle aged  Gaming too... Mothers in their 30’s  In the U.S. 60% of Internet users have Facebook accounts. In Japan, only 2% of Internet users have Facebook accounts and services like Mixi, Gree and Mobage-town are 10 times as big. (Privacy?)MixiGree Mobage-town  Social networks fastest growing populations are seniors and will be more international and less urban and English.  eBooks usage is largely middle-aged.

Have Students Changed?

NextGen Differences  Increase in IQ Points  Brain & Developmental Changes  Eye Movement Changes  Massive Behavioural Changes  Major Decline in Crime Rates – 65%+  But still a 70% behavior overlap with Boomers (see Boomers & Beyond)

Discovery & Ideas

Has the future changed? Has our future changed?

COWS, etc.

The Future Discovered Stem Cells fMRI and The Brain Cloning Trucking and GPS Wind and other energy Nanotechnology Robotics Massive Book Digitization Music Translation Streaming Media Seed Bank Inter- disciplinary Cross Disciplinary Integrated

A 1965 iPhone

E-Learning

Books

Can we frame the e-book issue so that it can be addressed rationally?

MindMap: What is a book? 1.Reading 2.Learning 3.Pedagogy 4.Scaffolds 5.Research 6.Exploration 7.Reference 8.Engagement 9.Enjoyment 10.Evaluation Reading

Books

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Encyclopedia

Reference

Directories

Dictionaries

Textbooks

Can libraries keep up with change? Can you recall buying a 45?Can you recall dials on TVs?Can you recall dialling?

Formats have died before.

What does all this mean?  The Article level universe  The Chapter and Paragraph Universe  Integrated with Visuals – graphics and charts  Integrated with ‘video’  Integrated with Sound and Speech  Integrated with social web  Integrated with interaction and not just interactivity  How would you enhance a book?

Kobo, Nook, Kindle, iPad, Sony, etc....

Search

Business Models  Search Engine Optimization  Social Media Optimization  Content Farms  Advertising  Geo-tagging, Geocoding

Challenges for Search = Opportunity Content Farms Demand Media ehow.com experts-exchange.com naymz.com activehotels.com robtex.com fixya.com chacha.com allexperts.com freewebs.com copygator.com  123people.com  download3k.com  petitionspot.com  thefreedictionary.com  networkedblogs.com  buzzillions.com  shopwiki.com  wowxos.com  answerbag.com

Mobility

Knowledge Portals

Strategic Analytics

What do we need to know?  How do library databases and virtual services compare with other web experiences?  Who are our core virtual users? Are there gaps?  Does learning happen?  What are user expectations for true satisfaction?  How does library search compare to consumer search like Google and retail or government?  How do people find and connect with library virtual services?  Are end users being successful in their POV?  Are they happy? Will they come back? Tell a friend?

The power of libraries

It Takes A Team: Work Together & Pick Each Other Up

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA VP strategic partnerships and markets Cengage Learning (Gale) Cel: Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog Facebook: Stephen Abram LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram Twitter: sabram SlideShare: StephenAbram1