1. Public Library Trends CyberTour
Stephen Abram, MLS
Computers in Libraries
Washington, DC
April 7, 2014

2. Librarian Magic

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

5. Grocery Stores

6. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

7. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

8. Meals

9. Remaining Relevant and Having a Positive Impact

10. Up Your Game
• Know your local community demographics
• Focus on needs assessment and social assessments
• Outreach versus engagement and partnerships
• Prioritize: Love all, Serve all, Save the World means nothing
gets done
• Priorities are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, & Time bound
• Look for partnerships that add value

11. Amazon
Chapters/Indigo
Barnes & Noble
BN BookBrowser
Borders
Suggestica
Inside a Dog (teens)
MySpace Books
Books We Like
OCLC's FictionFinder
All Consuming
LibraryThing
Next Favorite
StoryCode
Rating Zone
Hypatia and AlexLit
WhichBook.net
AllReaders.com
Reader's Robot
gnooks

12. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – every collection must be justified by
programs and strategic alignment
• Force strategic investment budgeting
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Don’t go it alone. Focus on large scale sustainable programs
• Connect to the longer process not just events - Virtual and in-person
• Programs that aren’t text first – Arduino, Makerspaces, music, media…
• In the Library and reaching out with partners

13. What are the real issues?
• Craft versus Industrial Strength
• Personal service only when there’s impact
• Pilot, Project, Initiative versus Portfolio Strategy
• Hand-knitted prototypes versus Production
• e.g. Information Literacy and Fluency initiatives
• Discovery versus Search versus Deep Search
• eLearning units and program dissemination
• Citation and information ethics
• Content and repository archipelagos

14. 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 20 question domains? Start there.
• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability.
• Look for replicability – every neighbourhood

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

16. Up Your Game
• Start offering diplomas and certificates
• The Non-credit Course
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Offer real educational opportunities not just adjacencies
• What does your community need for economic advantage?
• What courses to you offer or recommend? (TED, Khan Academy, etc.)
• Play and connect yourself

17. Up Your Game
• Understand the new Common Curriculum (esp. 6-8 and 9-12)
• Understand Pedagogy in the context of student experiences
and educational goals
• Understand human development from early years through
teens and adult learning
• Understand the projects
• Connect across developmental stages, link to schools
• Consider partnerships to put teachers in the library
• Consider coaches and tutoring partnerships

18. Up Your Game
• Take the strong ‘library’ brand and add dimension
• Personal branding – Who are your stars? Promote them.
• Program branding
• Take risks for attention (AIDA)
• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually
• Go beyond the information brand to informing, creating, and
social

19. Up Your Game
• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example
economic impact, jobs, early years, hobbies, political alignment,
homework, curriculum, degrees…)
• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent and integrated for
digital and print and programs
• Be obsessive about consultation, recommendations and advice
• Integrate virtual and physical – hybridize
• Social alignment rules

20. Value & Impact Measures
Behaviours, Satisfaction
Economic and strategic alignment
Beyond circulation (Ugh)
20

21. Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?
• Reduce investment in successes
• Increase investment
• Look at TCO
• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs
• Do NOT value your time at zero
• Review opportunity costs in soft costs

22. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
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