The Future of Libraries: Challenges & Strategies

Presenters: Ken Haycock, USC; Kim Bui-Burton, City of Monterey; Susan Hildreth, Peninsula Library System

Recommendation: embedding ourselves in our communities – have deep awareness, know how assets we have can help communities succeed. This is a shift – not everyone in org or in community may embrace it.

Rising to the challenge – reenvisioning public libraries. Gates Foundation is sunsetting their investment. Aspen Institute/Report – libraries as people, place, platform. Helps us/public to articulate importance of libraries. Platform – we can connect people with information, with the benefits of a high-speed broadband network, variety of formats of eResources. Embrace those we’re now labeling as competitors.

Challenge – funding. City & jurisdiction – enough $ only in good times. Showing stakeholders the strategic value of investing in library: it’s free, but do people value it less for that reason? Reaching people (stakeholders) who don’t use the library – e.g. wine & chocolate event inside the library. Know story well enough that you can get them excited. Think strategically about value of library services, show impact or difference we’re making in people’s lives – more important than circ figures.

California – culture of free library service. Library often considered nice-to-have but not need-to-have institutions. Library partnerships w/city depts., non-profits so they will defend library funding, be your champions. Reposition ourselves as critical infrastructure. People know why they support fire & police. Listen & help partners achieve their goals.

Libraries can provide tax information, passport services, assistance with affordable care act. Library as mediator between public & public services. Assist with workforce development, financial literacy. People having challenges prefer going to library to get assistance. It's a much more welcoming and helpful atmosphere.

Value of our traditionally being a place, a meeting space. One library is even asking for permit to let homeless people park there overnight. Library as community center – some of existing community centers offer maker spaces, preschools. Shared services? Duplication? We are community knowledge centers. Literacy sets up apart (including tech literacy). Need for research to show how we contribute to literacy, which could facilitate support for funding.

Gates Foundation has identified key indicators of value, which could be helpful in doing this research nationally. Impact – are we showing best ROI? There is much high quality data that isn’t being aggregated and presented to decision makers.

What should be the unique expertise of our professional staff? The number of librarians being hired is declining. We could look at model where our entry level professional staff receive some important skill sets at Bachelor’s level and get deep/specialized expertise as Master’s level. Our unique skills: connecting individuals to what they need. Public libraries have to have a generalist approach. We can help customers be as literate as possible in this world of information. We supplement and complement what’s presented in required settings and help patrons be successful. Be should be welcoming to all (diversity), with no agenda but as facilitators (which is growing rarer and rarer), a place for lifelong learning. We can be excited and open to learning and willing to engage with others, either virtually or live.

Wisdom/strategy to ensure future of libraries: read Bibliotech: why libraries matter more than ever in the age of Google, which is articulate and communicates urgency.

Leadership Lessons & Strategies

Presenters: Rebecca Raven, Brampton PL; Frank Cervone, University of Illinois; Rudy Leon, UNC Wilmington; Ben Bizzle, Craighead County Jonesboro PL

Own your mistakes. In a new leadership role: Listen as long as you should before starting to implement changes. Ask questions to gain knowledge of culture, who we are and how we do things, to avoid stepping on toes. Need to go deep enough, beyond the surface. Is it a collaborative environment? Sphere of influence vs. sphere of control. May need to use same strategies that you used as non-manager librarian to make changes. Where does your authority lie, even if you have title of authority? Have regular meetings, listen to gossip, eavesdrop in lunchroom, listen for what’s assumed but not said and deeper concerns. Everything that you hear is not necessarily an action item.

When you take a new position, you have about 90 days to set the course for what you plan to do, how you’re going to change the organization in the way it needs to change. If you set the course too early, you may not understand subtle things, things you don’t realize are happening. If you wait too long, things return to normal and you become part of the system. Most often in a new position you’ll be given a charge, things that need to be investigated. Don’t put that off, even though it’s uncomfortable. You’ll probably have to have frank conversations, resetting the expectations of others. The environment could be resistant to change or have external factors inhibiting change.

Take a different perspective, responsibility rather than authority. Listen to folks, interpret what they’re saying, call out what they’re really trying to tell you. People don’t realize what it’s possible to do.

Let creative people be creative. Good leaders foster a culture of creativity that allow people to fail with confidence. If you can do that, you’ll succeed as leader by putting people in a place they can grow and excel. Leadership is relationship w/people, vs. managers having relationship w/processes. Managers may be more interested in controlled environment vs. leaders creating environment where people can flourish. Know what you don’t know and trust people that you believe know those things to do them, with checks and balances. Let them bring their ideas to you, and make them explain their ideas until you understand them, and only then decide as leader if you want to implement.

Make it clear as a leader that we support your professional development: give people time during day for purchased training, as many opportunities for local events as possible and the occasional trip. Have people tell you what they’re interested in and why and how it relates to organization, and think strategically about how we can use that interest. This gives the leader an idea of where organization should go at a larger level. Let people have responsibility and increase that as both sides gets more comfortable.

Be honest w/choosing whom to hire – how much dynamic disruption can you handle? Have their back if you hire them and others are pushing back.

Accept that it’s not your library.

Leader of library needs to advocate for library and demonstrate why it is relevant, talking to other leaders of organization. Know how you are perceived by the rest of the organization, and be sure that you are regarded highly. This is key to getting funding, having support from stakeholders and patrons. Be the voice or create the voice (have other staff do this if they're better at it).

If organization is changing a lot – have set of core initiatives that can get done regardless. Adapt to new direction of organization, to be successful in the environment (you may get to inflection point where you need to get on board or get out).

Won’t win every battle. Have meeting and ask everyone to explain person by person what is going on in department, so you have understanding of what was going on in institution as a whole. Inspire those below you – ask lots of open-ended questions and wait for responses and listen. Force them to answer. People above you – you don’t know the reasoning behind their decision – may be political, not in best interests of organization. If someone is not willing to grow with you – replace them. Look for disposition to learning in new hires. Every role deals with technology, learning new systems. How is review system organized? Build technology into review goals, such as learning to use systems or spending 1 hour/week learning.

Gamification & Learning

Presenters: Raymond Pun, Cal State Fresno; Stanislav Bogdanov, Adelphi University

“When we think of games, we think of fun. When we think of learning we think of work.” James Paul Gee

Gaming can equal learning – games allow players to learn by experiencing, without realizing that they’re learning. But making games is hard, costly

Gamification – use of game design elements and game mechanics in non-game contexts (e.g. lives, gaining or losing points for right or wrong answers)

Why gamify?

• Make library instruction more fun and engaging
• Drive participation or awareness
• Increase attention, interest, and improve overall user experience

Research – BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model, Jane Mcgonigal, James Paul Gee
Fogg Behavior Model – make games not too easy, not too hard.

Games’ key positives:

• Problem solving
• Meaning and bigger purpose
• Increase resilience to face challenges
• Empower learners
• Enhance understanding

Educational games examples

• Duolingo – app to learn languages. Well-ordered problems – break down learning into smaller chunks, building up to harder challenges
• NCLEX RN Mastery
• McDonald’s Training
• Medieval Swansea
• KnowRe (K-12, build custom map curriculum)

Learning by experience & providing just-in-time information if problems come up

Library games examples

• NYPL’s “Find the Future” – 500 games found 100 artifacts, worked in teams and wrote about them, published in book
• Adelphi Libraries’ “mobiLit” Treasure Hunt
• Digital Badges – for skill accomplishment, motivation to participate, motivation collaboration
• Promoting Games – International Games Day (ALA), Murder in the Stacks (research game)
• From UCLA to Library of Congress: Game Collecting Program (consoles)
• Making Games: The Tools – GameSalad, Construct 2, GameMaker, Stencyl
• Construct 2 – can expand if you know HTML and JavaScript

Gamification Principles and Tips

• Well-ordered problems – early problems are designed to lead players to form good guesses about how to proceed when they face harder problems later on in the game
• Pleasantly frustrating challenges – players feel the game is challenging but doable and their effort is paying off
• Just-in-time information – players do not need to read a manual to start

Ingress – Google online game that allows them to get new information for Google Maps

Tech Tools InfoBlitz

Presenters: Gretchen Rings, University of Chicago; Emily Clasper, Suffolk Cooperative Library System; Michelle Zaffino, In the Stacks; Philip Gunderson, San Diego Public Library

Oak Park Public Library launched a mobile hotspot lending program using mobile broadband wireless Internet, which connects your Wi-Fi enabled device to a 4G mobile high speed network. Small, portable, easy to use, connects up to 8 devices. Provided by Mobile Beacon (Device $45, service $10 per month, prepaid $120/year) and includes unlimited 4G. They work with TechSoup for Libraries (both are nonprofits). However, there is currently a lawsuit between Sprint and Mobile Beacon, so Oak Park Library has discontinued this lending program.

Emily Clasper, Suffolk Cooperative Library System (54 libraries) talked about project management. What tool should we use? It depends on: What problem do you need to solve? What do you need help with?

• Slack – https://slack.com – team communication, file sharing, “group chat on steroids”
• Asana – https://asana.com – task management, progress tracking, unicorns and hearts
• Trello – https://trello.com – task management, progress tracking
• Basecamp – https://basecamp.com – simple project management, basic planning tools
• Ganttic – https://ganttic.com – project planning, resource management and scheduling, task assignment (no task management)
• Smartsheet – https://smartsheet.com – project planning, fuller functionality but more expensive
• Gameplan – https://www.gameplanpro.com
• Mindmeister – https://www.mindmeister.com

Expert Book Recommendations from a Librarian Brain: “In the Stacks” app www.inthestacks.tv/submit-review

Innovaton in Libraries

Presenters: David Lee King, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library; Brian Pichman, Evolve Project; Rudy Leon, UNC Wilmington

To stay current on technology, one presenter attends consumer electronics shows – talks to exhibitors, talks about libraries. Asks: have you ever thought about working with libraries? They’re not aware of the cool things libraries are doing, and you discover things for libraries you might not have thought about.

Hang out with non-librarians and find out what innovative things they’re doing. Other conferences – Southwest Southwest, Maker Fair, search for technology fests

Examples of cool technology:

• Wonderworks – blue robots, dragging and dropping commands and sequences.
• Ozobot – you draw and robot will trace what you draw. Drawing to create coding.
• Taylor Family Digital Library – has visualization wall for researchers (maps, watermarks, fiber of paper, large spreadsheets, data modeling. Also has digital globe that could be programmed and mapped (earth or other planets), with scanning station by maps with enormous screen (patrons could view maps, take copy with them).
• Meeting rooms with glass walls – could use windows as white boards. One college campus has an interactive wall.
• Use of Meet Up for promoting events. People can connect with each other outside of event.
• Tool (or garden tool) lending library
• Fix-It Fairs w/volunteer experts (e.g. fix own bicycle)
• Check out kit that includes things to let you try out activity (e.g. crocheting)
• People make things with Little Bits and other people buy them from storefront

Privacy – some libraries are using the Tor network (but this is not allowed for libraries that use eRate, which we will if our plans work out to connect to the CENIC high-speed network). However, some websites block Tor traffic (e.g. Wikipedia)

To get more information about privacy:

• Library Freedom Project.org
• ALA – LITA interest group
• NISO working on Privacy Standards
• Talk to vendors.

Suggestions:

• Learn more.
• Do privacy audit (databases, ILS, Wi-Fi).
• Teach classes.
• For open Wi-Fi networks: check Wire Shark (can allow see passwords). There are private VPN networks that encrypt
• Meet Up Pro: $15 per event per month. Can ask for donations. Friends in community can create account (free) for library to feed events into. You can create surveys to RSVP for program. You get their email addresses.

Trends in Tech & Biz

Presenter: Jean-Claude Monney, Microsoft

What can we learn from the technology and business?
Knowledge is the world’s most precious renewable resource
The world has become a giant knowledge network where knowledge discovery and collaboration are the best approach to solving complex problems
Managing knowledge is critical for companies and nations to build sustainable value creation

Knowledge Key Value Creation Drivers
- Sharing and reusing knowledge
- Productivity
- Readiness
- Knowledge Retention – need way to capture knowledge

Microsoft Knowledge Management Vision: instant, relevant knowledge in context

Strategy: Sharing and re-use of collection knowledge toward value creation
You can’t search for knowledge you don’t know exists.
We champion the knowledge so people can consume the knowledge.

Make it easy for people to find knowledge.
Book: Sketching User Experiences

Knowledge discovery approaches – search, browse, push, company network, company library, social network
Decision: knowledge relevancy & trust
Synchronous or asynchronous communication? Formal or informal?

Skype Translate - can serve as Web Translator, where one person can speak one language, the second person can speak a different language, and Skype will provide an immediate verbal translation.

By leveraging existing librarians’ core competencies and by embracing the digital shift, new roles for libraries and librarians are emerging to create value.

Recipe for IT – Librarians’ Collaboration

Presenters: Deb Hunt, Mechanics’ Institute and Scott Hargrove, Fraser Valley Regional Library

• Librarians know audiences – who they are, what they look for and how – we are great connectors
• We have expertise in building metadata schema and taxonomies
• Recognize the business value that finding information brings to an organization – we do what IT people do but call it something different
• Librarians can create IP policies that address copyright issues
• We have a big picture view

The Librarian’s Skillbook: 51 Essential Skills for Information Professionals - www.librarianskillbook.com – parallel careers, work for librarians outside libraries

For librarians: learning to be a geek

• “I can do that”
• Let go of library stuff that no one else cares about
• Invest in yourself, adding certifications and education wherever you can
• Read a lot and attend free and paid webinars
• Spend time with IT folks, who will become your allies
• Call upon your network for help when needed.

Scott Hargrove – IT professional working in a library, with degrees in both.

• IT touches everything – for new projects, always ask first what the tech implications are and involve IT, rather than telling them halfway through the project or toward the end
• No such thing as a silver bullet. Things that seem simple aren’t necessarily so.
• Chains are only as strong as the weakest link – problem may be a part of the chain that IT can’t control.
• Rate of change is FAST
• Details matter – communication is key. Librarians and IT folk both have preference for introversion, but it’s critical to communicate. 90% of work for IT staff is up front, before the project goes to other staff.
• IT and policy – run policies past IT to make sure that the policy will work
• Money flow – don’t buy computers using one-time grants. Nothing lasts longer than 4-5 years, so computers will need to be replaced at that time.
• Social media is not IT. IT is series of highly specialized fields. Don’t ask IT staff to set up your Facebook page.
• 90% of IT is invisible to the average user, but it can still sink ships if the 90% is ignored.
• Ignore security at your peril – passwords known by more than one person can lead to fraud
• Redundancy, over-engineering and redundancy
• Get involved! Accept the black box – you don’t need to know everything about technology but be aware of basic information about it and how it affects you. Lots of areas of common ground.

How do IT people learn about libraries and vice versa? Library conferences, Webinars, blogs, etc. Include IT on planning committees. Communicate. Meetings/walks.

Information security – a field that library professionals could work in.

The Library Director must set culture that supports both sides.