AALT Conference Keynote

1. Cautionary Tales:
FrankenLibraries or Librarytopia?
Stephen Abram, MLS
Calgary, AB– May 13, 2016

2. Every Day in every way libraries are
throwing pebbles

3. What business are you in?

4. What Public Libraries Say They Mean - Missions

5. The Role of Questions

6. Books, eBooks
Magazines
Websites
Buildings
Rooms
Desks
Stations
Programs
Nouns can be warehoused
and ‘cut’
Serve
Answer
Engage
Link
Entertain
Tell a story
Teach
Create
Do
Action verbs imply dynamism and
impact

7. YOU

9. Strategy and Direction Planning

11. 11

12. 12

13. 13
Who are you?

14. 14
What are you?

15. Black & White

20. 20

21. These are Millennials

22. My son: Zachary

31. The disruptions that were predicted . . .
31

32. 32

34. Can everyone source their force?
Can we contribute to everyone’s self-actualization?
34

35. Print was complicated too

36. It’s simple really, shift happens, gedoverit
• Learners & Communities will continue to be diverse in the extreme –
especially on learning styles
• A foot in both camps for many, many years to come: digital and physical
• Content is already be dominated by non-text (gamification, 3D, graphics,
numeric, visual, music, video, audio, etc.)
• Search will explode with more options and one-step, one box search is
for dummies not professionally educated folks
• The single purpose anchored device is already dead as a target
• Devices will focus on social, collaboration, sharing, learning, multimedia,
creation and successful library strategies must align with that
• Librarians will need to focus primarily on transformational librarianship
and strategic alignment with curriculum
• Systems, E-Learning, collections and metadata will go to the cloud
massively
• Watch Blockchain, Drones, Toys, iBeacons, for hints

37. Library Megatrends
It doesn’t take a genius to see that librarian skills
and competencies applied to the trends and issues
in our communities can help in very strategic ways
– social, economic, creative, and discovery impacts.

38. Public Libraries
• Are you a librarian or an educator?
• Are you a support or mission-critical?
• Your business is community impact and learning
(they’re different)
• Your new competitors are non-traditional
• Renewed advocacy has moved from apple pie to
influencing and selling the value and impact of
libraries
• Library staff competencies need a plateau upgrade –
consultation, relationship, influence, educating . . .

42. Deer in headlamps slide here.

44. Libraries core skill is not
delivering information
Libraries improve the
quality of the question
and the user experience
Learning Libraries are about
building life competencies

45. Libraries Have Seasons

46. Library Magic
What are your magic tricks?

48. Failure to Reward Risk

49. Digital risk has raised the bar on risk taking in library land.

50. Librarianship Culture
Avoiding the triple diseases of:
1. Conflict avoidance
2. Passive resistance
3. Risk aversion

52. Think deeply about . . .
52
Your
Operation’s
Scalability
Your
sustainability
The depth of your
relationships How you set
priorities:
Daily and Future

53. Smelly
Yellow
Liquid
Or
Sex
Appeal?
The Complex Value Proposition

54. Are you locked into an old library mindset?

55. A Verb . . . an Experience, enlivened for an audience

56. A Noun . . . A foundation but not sufficient with professional animation

57. Grocery Stores

58. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

59. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

60. Meals

62. Library Land
What changes, disruptions
and shifts are already in
the environment?

63. What does way out mean?
• Normal means that enough libraries have adopted and are learning by
doing that the adoption curve is well launched.

65. What does way out mean?
• This stuff is ‘normal’ now.
▫ Makerspaces
▫ Print and Digital Publishing on demand
▫ Wide Social Media use for engagement and marketing

66. Pre-
Creative?
Research
Support
Inspiration
Learning
Creative
Spaces?
Play
Learning
Making
Performing
Post-
Creative?
Organize
Store
Exhibit
Sensemaking
Are libraries … ?

67. The Flavours of Makerspaces
• http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/4-flavors-makerspaces/
• FabLabs
• Hackerspaces
• TechShops
• Makerspaces
• Bakerspaces
• Writing Labs – Poetry Slams, Lyrics, NaNoWriMo
• Art Shows: ArtSpaces
• Music: PerformanceSpaces

68. 1. Some ideas
• ONE ILS
http://www.goscl.com/scl-working-to-create-unified-digital-platform-for-all-libraries/

69. 2. Some Ideas
• Internet of Things
• What is a thing?
• How does this
impact library land?

70. The Evolution of Integrated, Sensing, Aware Devices
Connected-home device shipments will grow at a compound annual rate of 67% over
the next five years, much faster than smartphone or tablet device growth, and hit 1.8
billion units shipped in 2019, according to BI Intelligence estimates. Connected-home
devices include all smart appliances (washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc.), safety and security
systems (internet-connected sensors, monitors, cameras, and alarm systems), and energy
equipment like smart thermostats and smart lighting.
Connected-home device sales will drive over $61 billion in revenue this year. That
number will climb at a 52% compound annual growth rate to reach $490 billion in 2019.
Home-energy equipment and safety and security systems, including devices like
connected thermostats and smoke detectors, will become popular first, leading the
way to broader consumer adoption.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/connected-home-market-forecasts-2015-2#ixzz3S7SyxO1Y

71. 3. Some ideas
• Truly disrupting the BOOK codex
• Are we at phase one of digital books where we merely create a digital
version of the Gutenberg Codex?
• 3 dimensional text, type, leading, spines, ears and feet.
• Audio, video,
• Interactivity with the server, community, other readers, classmates…
• Create your own path…
• Add yourself into the story – fan readers versus fan fiction…

72. 4. Some Ideas
• Beacons
• NFC killed the QR Star!

73. Librarybox.com

74. • To state the obvious: Modern, smartphone-toting humans spend most of
their time indoors.
But indoor spaces often block cell signals and make it nearly impossible to
locate devices via GPS. Beacons are a solution.
• Beacons are a low-cost piece of hardware — small enough to attach to a
wall or countertop — that use battery-friendly, low-energy Bluetooth
connections to transmit messages or prompts directly to a smartphone or
tablet. They are poised to transform how retailers, event organizers,
transit systems, enterprises, and educational institutions communicate
with people indoors. Consumers might even want to deploy them as part
of home automation systems.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/beacons-and-ibeacons-create-a-
new-market-2013-12#ixzz3S7eEl65U

75. 5. Some Ideas
• Big Data, Little Data
• Insights from Aggregated and Anonymized Data Patterns
• Very few libraries have truly BIG data but many of our vendors do.
• Can this be the end of handcrafted book choices? Newspapers? POV
periodicals? Albums? Scholarly festschrifts?

76. Snapchat and their Plans
At launch, Snapchat is
working with ten media
partners, including CNN,
ESPN, and National
Geographic. These
companies will release a
new edition of Discover
content every 24 hours,
featuring both videos and
articles hand picked by
their staffers. The goal for
these media companies, of
course, is to hook a new,
younger audience that
doesn’t often connect with
traditional media.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/01/snapchats-new-discover-feature-could-be-a-significant-moment-in-the-evolution-of-mobile-news/

77. 6. Some ideas
• Marketing Disruption
• Instagram
• Facebook
• 20 Ways to Make People Fall in Love With Your Instagram: A Guide
for Libraries and Other Cultural Institutions
• http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/12/23/20-ways-make-people-fall-
love-your-instagram-guide-libraries-and-other-cultural
• And more on Stephen’s Lighthouse

78. 7. Some ideas
• Payment Systems
• Selling and Charging and Leading
• Square, PayPal,
• Debit cards as library card

79. 8. Some ideas
• Truly Local
• GPS GIS

80. 9. Some ideas
• Pop-Ups
• And Mobile-aided presence

81. Trend: Pop Up Retail Stores

89. Mobile Maker

91. Questions . . .

92. When you’re doing it right you . . .

93. • If all users are ubiquitously connected with
broadband, have downloading skills for books
and movies, own smartphones, whither
libraries?
• What about the ‘digital divide’?
• If the school system (K-12 and HigherEd)
changes radically …?

94. • What if all music, audiobooks, and video
moved to streaming formats by 2018?
• What if the DVD and CD go the way of vinyl,
VHS, and cassettes?

95. • What if all books are digital?
• What if book services move to a subscription
model of unlimited use for $7/month?
• What about next generation e-books?

96. • What if all books are ‘beyond text’?
• The NextGen Textbook…
• Can we support books with embedded video,
adaptive technologies, audio, updating,
software tools, assessments, web-links, etc.
• Ask ourselves about archiving and
preservation – the record

97. • Are you positioned at the lesson level?
• Could your library support all curricula and
distance education?
• Have you catalogued the learning
opportunities on the web? (Khan Academy,
Coursera, Udacity, edX, MIT, Harvard, MOOCs,
YouTube, Learn4All (ed2go), …)

98. E-Learning Free, fee, hybrid
Khan Academy
Coursera, Udacity, EdX
Learn4Life, Ed2Go, Lynda.com, etc.

99. • Could your library support real e-learning
• Is EVERY staff member fluent in your LMS and the
needs of supporting hybrid or total distance
learning?
• By the way – nearly all learning is distance
learning from the perspective of the library and
user.

100. • Could your library support any kind of mobile
device? (mCobiss)
• Are you fully ready to deliver, agnostically to
desktops, laptops, tablets, phablets,
smartphones, televisions, appliances, at a
much higher level?

101. • Are you prepared for new forms of content?
• Real multimedia? 3D objects and databases?
Holographics? Enhanced media?
• Embedded assessment and tracking tools?
• Can you be ready for makerspaces, creative
spaces, writing labs, business and start-up
incubators, etc.
• Can you publish for your community?

102. • What kinds of learning spaces are needed in
the future?
• Can you support real learning spaces,
community meeting spaces, performance
spaces, maker spaces, real advisory spaces,
true relationship, collaboration, and
consultation management . . .? In a virtual
space?

103. • Makerspaces
• Writing Labs
• Poetry and short story contests
• Cooking
• Music
• Robotics, Lego, ….
• Crafts, knitting, sewing clubs
• Photography and art

104. • What if everything was in the cloud?
(software, databases, metadata, content . . .)
• What would you do with those system skills
on staff?
• What if all metadata and content discovery is
freely available using open APIs through the
OCLC WorldShare vault and the Digital Public
Library of America / Europeana vault of open
and free metadata?

105. • What if search immersive resource discovery
becomes as ubiquitous as search engines?
• Can they find as well as search?
• Are your training sessions hitting 100% of
students?
• Are they aligned with workflow or
transactions?

106. Definitions
• Discovery
• Search – known item retrieval
• Topical or Subject Search
• Research
• Immersive Learning
• Assembly
• Two step discovery: discover, searching, finding,
use
• The pressure is ON for librarians to scale up their
information fluency training initiatives

108. -
200,000,000
400,000,000
600,000,000
800,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,200,000,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Series1
Double a penny every day for a month =
Over $1 billion in just 30 days

109. Next generation content linking architecture
It’s not about library to library but library in the broader content
eco-system (and it’s not about text first)

110. Living our values needs structure in the digital world . . .
Some Thoughts on Libraries, Ethics, and Privacy
Gary Price
http://www.slideshare.net/GaryPrice_infoDOCKET/gary-
price-cnispring14bbbpptx

111. A Drone's Eye View of Toronto Reference Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYALiE-Lwhc
Flying a Drone around The NY Public Library - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9FMlv5a_FI

112. THE INTERNET OF THINGS PLAN TO MAKE LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
AWESOMER: ARE CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS THE ENVIRONMENT
IBEACON HAS BEEN WAITING FOR?
http://www.fastcompany.com/3040451/elasticity/the-internet-of-
things-plan-to-make-libraries-and-museums-awesomer

113. McMaster U

114. As we know it . . .

115. • What does your experience portal look like?
• What are your top questions?
• Pathfinder - - LibGuides - Portals
• What are the outcome domains?

116. • Can you do it all ALONE?
• What would it look like if you cooperated?
• Consortia, Cooperatives, … national, regional,
global – buying groups or real foundational
infrastructure

117. And what would you sacrifice?

118. The Library as Sandbox

119. Focus and Understand on the Whole Experience

120. Up Your Game
• Know your local community demographics i.e. Teachers &
Librarians vs. Students vs. admin
• Focus on needs assessment and social assessments
• Prioritize: Love all, Serve all, Save the World means nothing
gets done
• Focus on scalability and grand cooperation
• Look for partnerships that add value

121. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – every collection must be justified by
programs
• Craft leads to industrial strength
• Force strategic investment budgeting
• Look for partnerships that add value and priority setting
• Don’t go it alone. Focus on large scale sustainable programs
• Connect to the longer process not just events
• e.g, Forest of Reading or TD Summer Reading Program
• Virtual and in-person - in the Library and reaching out with partners
• SCALE: eLearning and Surveys – e.g. citation methods

122. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – But add virtual experiences
• Start being Mobile in the extreme
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Focus on relationship management / liaisons
• Ensure the program delivery person is embedded including
librarians
• What are your top learning or research domains? Start there.
• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability.
• Look for replicability – look for commonalities

123. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
Ask Us, KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

124. Up Your Game
• Learn the LMS system – everyone
• Learn copyright and licensing rights
• Learn developmental, genome, IQ, and learning styles research
• Relationship management, team building
• Advocacy and influence and research support
• MOOCs and eLearning

125. Up Your Game
• Learn how to reach and teach online
• Teach how to learn online – MOOCs and e-learning
• Teach how to research online
• Everyone in academic libraries should be focused on
teaching/researching first, then library
• Learn more systems than one!
• Be obsessive about consultation, recommendations and advice
• Social alignment rules and use the tools

126. Up Your Game
• Start to understand the real issues with e-books
• Study e-textbooks
• Study Learning Objects
• Balance content with interface
• Focus on learner not librarian behaviours

127. Up Your Game
• Learn consulting and relationship management practices
• Understand the research goals
• Understand Pedagogy in the context of student experiences
and educational goals
• Understand human development and age/stage(teens)
• Know where your programs are heading
• Consider deep partnerships
• Consider coaches, peer, and tutoring partnerships

128. Up Your Game
• The strong ‘library’ brand – adding dimension
• Personal branding – Who are your stars? Promote them.
• Program branding
• OMG – fix your signage
• Take risks for attention (AIDA)
• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually

129. Up Your Game
• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example
economic impact, jobs, early years, hobbies, political alignment,
homework, research agenda …)
• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent for digital and print
and programs
• Be obsessive about recommendations and advice and added value
• Integrate virtual and physical – hybridize
• Don’t fear off-site cooperation
• CURATE – real curation not assembly

130. Up Your Game
• Move the ILS to the Cloud
• Linked Data models – OCLC WorldShare, Europeana, DPLA, etc.
• Fix the ‘repository problem’
• Look at TCO and look at all costs incurred and not just hard
costs
• Review opportunity costs in soft costs

131. Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/The Unknown?
• Reduce investment in successes
• Increase investments in the future
• Set priorities
• ‘Park’ some stuff temporarily

133. 133

135. Is your library ready to support a
world of unlimited content, multiple
formats, massive access, and
consumer expectations of MORE?
Yes?
No?
With Effort, Vision,
Leadership?
Never?

136. Embracing Change

137. Change is….

138. Global

139. Constant

140. Inevitable

141. Stressful

142. Breathe

143. Find Your
Rhythm

144. Do you like change?
Does it matter?

145. What are the risks of not changing?

146. We can’t control change…
We can control our attitude towards change…

147. Deny

148. Resist

149. React

150. Explore

151. Commit

152. Change can be difficult
and ambiguous

153. Personal change
precedes organizational
change

155. Negativity

156. Contagious

157. I can learn and I can
change and I can do it
quickly.

158. What can you do to deal with
change?

159. Accept that change
is an attitude

160. Create a personal vision
In the context of your team

161. Focus on what you can do…
……not what you can’t do
Strengths

162. velop a perspective of
portunity

163. Create a willingness to learn & develop

164. Learn to love ambiguity

165. Support Aspiration

166. Be Creative and Attract

167. Being More Open to Change

169. ‘New’ Library Cultures
Support Your Team

170. Too Much Respect for Tradition
While Neglecting to Curate the Future

171. Are there any of these in your library?
The Black
Hole
Sucking the life out of initiative(s)?

172. Being More Open Experimentation,
Pilots and Innovation

173. Being More Open to Risk

174. Being Open to Ambiguity

175. Be
More
Open
to Social
Technologies
and
Unintended
Consequences

176. Being Comfortable with Speed

177. Letting Go of Control

178. Be Inspirational

179. Honest to G*d – Let’s
Encourage Some Fun!

180. Tell Your Story:
Until lions learn to write their own story,
the story will always be from the perspective
of the hunter not the hunted.

182. Don’t study the issue to death.

185. 185

186. 186

188. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
CEO, Federation of Ontario Public Libraries
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: @sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1