1. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Andrew Lewis 10 handy things to ponder when thinking about delivering library services with multimedia

2. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead What’s in this for me?

3. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead This session: Is about multimedia content creation Offers some tips to anyone who uses or may need to use multimedia in libraries Based on experience from the Multi-Lib development programme in Windsor and Maidenhead No panacea – covers things that I have found to be useful to think about, good and bad

4. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead What is Multi-Lib? Pilot-based research into creating multimedia content for new uses Plays with possibilities of potentially disruptive technologies Micro-scale, very limited budget, active when resources can be scraped A mental attitude! Outputs mainly based on web mounted games and their derivatives

5. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 10 things 1.remember why you’re here 2.understand your audience 3.know your onions 4.find what you can control 5.park your ideas 6.be web 2.0 savvy 7.consider the business case 8.have startling vision, but seeing is believing 9.who owns what 10.feel the complexity and do it anyway

6. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 1. remembering why you’re here Why use multimedia –Because it benefits your customers? –Because it does something you can't do another way? –Because it is what customers expect or prefer? HAVE A REASON, but be aware that you may not yet know what that is!

7. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 2. understand your audience Markets can be defined by their use of multimedia – SMS vs email, MySpace vs FaceBook, shoot-em-up versus SIMS Find out what technology your main audiences use People may use specific multimedia because: –it does something for them –it has content they want, –it is easier to access than another equal or better service –it relates to their personal identity

8. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 3. knowing your onions Beware of just looking at how people use things now – also understand the technology Sound, vision, multi-person, data tracking, gaming, communication, simulators, distribution, mobile devices, display, self- service - it’s vast! Suss out what it can do, and keep any eye on new developments Understand the characteristics Find out how it can be created and distributed

9. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 4. the business case Ideally match user needs to technological possibilities But new uses may not have obvious markets - hard to gauge new models. Random creative development for new ideas - small, quick and numerous Linear progressive development for perfecting ideas that are working

10. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 5. finding what you can control IT departments’ role is essentially limiting and security orientated Web 2.0 can grant access to new opportunities but these can be removed You and customers have access to consumer kit - digital cameras (aka video and sound recorders), mobile phones, MP3 players Can you use freeware where budget is limited? Socially created content requires little resource, but is not controlled by you What is the penetration of any required players or engines for your content Who can access available different delivery channels

11. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 6. being web 2.0 savvy It can be a great way to bypass corporate restrictions for fast pilotting Its mass audience allows development on a scale you are unlikely to have resource for It increases access, but reduces ownership It can be transient. What is here (or free) today may not be there tomorrow You may have to rethink data protection

12. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 7. park your ideas Multiple ideas are required, but you can’t do them all. Don’t stop thinking just because things are not possible right now You may have to store ideas away and wait Look out for changes you can take advantage of to introduce your ideas: –System upgrades –New technology becoming available –Changes in organisational structure –Mass markets making existing technology affordable –Grants, Olympics…

13. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 8. who owns what Copyright is complex Freeware may only be free in certain circumstances Web 2.0 may mean loss of control Decide your terms of use for content you create Ideas are not as copyrighted as code Who owns social and customer created content Let go sometimes, you may not need to own it to use it

14. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 9. seeing is believing Risk-taking and experiment are politically sensitive issues People may not understand what does not yet exist - ideas sometimes need to be made real Create cheap prototypes and pilots that generate evidence Use impact to get them noticed Don’t ask what you can do. Tell people what you have done

15. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 10. Feel the complexity and do it anyway Using multimedia is more like film making than painting Needs direction to take forward, but a number of skills to achieve Only some of these may be available immediately to achieve results Complexity is here, get used to it!

16. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead OK, so exactly what is he talking about?

17. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead An interactive comment form for kids?

18. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 35 comments per month comments (by age)

19. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Comments im 12 and i think that u should get some games for people my age im discusted i mean dont get me wrong the bgames are ok but they get really boring so please just hurry up and get ur act together and think of every one else apart from little children The libray is very fun.I like all the activities.I adore reading so I take fiction and non- fiction.As I cycle here the thing the library needs is a bike rack Horrid Henry is really really really good! Very good except i can not find some things is the non- fiction area. Besides that it is good it is very fun to come too this libry imma gunna blow this shit hole in to the ground it is so shit i had 2 pay £3.00 just becouse my book was ova due soooooooo fuk you and die

20. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Summary to take away Multimedia is culturally embedded and you should consider how your audiences use it in their lives It complex and disruptive, and requires experiment and risk taking There are lots of available ways to create and distribute it Just do it!

21. andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk Andrew Lewis, Library Information Heritage and Arts The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Andrew Lewis andrew.lewis @ rbwm.gov.uk