1. Spotting
Trends and
Opportunities:
Innovation
in an Age
of Limits

2. Stephen Abram, MLS
Indiana Library Federation
Fort Wayne, IN
Nov. 15, 2011

3. News Flash
News Flash
Tech Shift Happens
People Shift Follows

4. What has changed academically?
• Recognize key shifts:
1. Library at the center of academic settings – NOT.
2. Serials versus Books
3. Non-fiction versus fiction
4. Teens versus the rest
5. Administration and Faculty Shift
6. Discipline versus inter-disciplinary
7. Technology as a tool, not the goal

5. Focus on the Shifts
And Innovate THERE
Incremental improvements of past
successes and platforms will not get
us to where we need to be

6. Sensemaking

7. Grocery Stores

8. Grocery Stores

9. Grocery Stores

10. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

11. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

12. Meals

13. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

14. You have the tools.

15. Stop Making it so Hard!

16. Trans-Literacy: Measure the Impact(s)
 Reading literacy  News literacy
 Numeracy  Technology literacy
 Critical literacy  Information literacy
 Social literacy  Media literacy
 Computer literacy  Adaptive literacy
 Web literacy  Research literacy
 Content literacy  Academic literacy
 Written literacy  Reputation, Etc.

18. List of content farms and general spammy
user generated content sites:
 All Experts (allexperts.com)  Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com)
 Answers (answers.com)  eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
 Answer Bag (answerbag.com)  Find Articles (findarticles.com)
 Articles Base (articlesbase.com)  FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com)
 Ask (ask.com)  Hub Pages (hubpages.com)
 Associated Content (associatedcontent.com)  InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com)
 BizRate (bizrate.com)  Livestrong (livestrong.com)
 Buzle (buzzle.com)
 Mahalo (mahalo.com)
 Brothersoft (brothersoft.com)
 Mail Archive (mail-archive.com)
 Bytes (bytes.com)
 ChaCha (chacha.com)  Question Hub (questionhub.com)
 eFreedom (efreedom.com)  Squidoo (squidoo.com)
 eHow (ehow.com)  Suite101 (suite101.com)
 Essortment (essortment.com)  Twenga (twenga.com)
 Examiner (examiner.com)  WiseGeek (wisegeek.com)
 Expert Village (expertvillage.com)  Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com)
 Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com)
 Xomba (xomba.com)

22. The nasty facts
about Google &
Bing and
consumer search:
SEO / SMO
Content Farms
Advertiser-driven
Geotagging

23. Strategic
Analytics

25. What We Never Really Knew Before (US/Canada)
 27% of our users are under 18.
 59% are female. We often
 29% are college students. believe a lot
 5% are professors and 6% are teachers.isn’t
that
true.
 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 Google.
 But, 81% still use Google.

26. 2010 Eduventures Research on Investments
 58% of instructors believe that technology in courses positively impacts student engagement.
 71% of instructors that rated student engagement levels as “high” as a result of using technology in
courses.
 71% of students who are employed full-time and 77% of students who are employed part-time
prefer more technology-based tools in the classroom.
 79% of instructors and 86 percent of students have seen the average level of engagement improve
over the last year as they have increased their use of digital educational tools.
 87% of students believe online libraries and databases have had the most significant impact on
their overall learning.
 62% identify blogs, wikis, and other online authoring tools while 59% identify YouTube and
recorded lectures.
 E-books and e-textbooks impact overall learning among 50% of students surveyed, while 42% of
students identify online portals.
 44% of instructors believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 32% of instructors identify e-textbooks and 30% identify interactive homework solutions as having
the potential to improve engagement and learning outcomes. (e-readers was 11%)
 49% of students believe that online libraries and databases will have the greatest impact on
student engagement.
 Students are more optimistic about the potential for technology.

28. 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? How about discovery?
 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?

37. Take back
the
Strategy:
Rebalance

47. Summary
 Focus on the Questions (Needs, CRM)
 Build or Buy Knowledge Portals (Meals)
 Emphasize Content Quality (not books)
 Expand Programs on Information Literacy
 Become Truly Format Agnostic
 Invest in Strategic Analytics – Measurements
of Impact, ROI and Value
 Be Lesson-centric

49. A Third Path

51. Emboldened Librarians hold the key

52. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1