1. Future Ready Libraries:
Strategic Trends in Reference
Stephen Abram, ML
San Jose State University SLIS
Online Course
April 17, 2012

2. The Final
Change
The Last Cowboys
These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog

3. News Flash
“The Internet and technology have
now progressed to their infancy”

13. Speaking of e-
Books...

15. Borders Kobo, B&N Nook, Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony, etc. . . .

23. GBS

27. Pottermore

28.  Consider the effect of the above and this on
reference:
 Chapters and Articles
 Audio and streaming media
 Subscriptions, rentals,
 Read It Later becomes Pocket
 Other ‘real’ bookmarking tools
 Quora, Virtual Reference
 Mobile

29. Can we frame the e-book issue so
that it can be addressed rationally?

30. Books

31. Fiction

32. Non-Fiction

33. E-Learning

34. Be More Open to the Users’ Paths -
Filtering

35. So how must library
strategies change?

36. Conclusions Up Front
1. Prioritize Programs not Collections
2. Drive ‘Reference’ with Data and Know Your Top Questions
3. Balance of Physical and Virtual
4. Invest Time in Demographics & Analytics (Measurements
not Stats)
5. Put Technological Tools in Context
6. Build Recreational Reading Away From Effort and Get Real
About the eBook Issue
7. Homework: Deal With It
8. Transliteracy is a Key Opportunity
9. Partnerships are about everything

37. Specific Challenges
1. Setting Priorities and Making Sacrifices
2. Innovation Culture, Pilots and Diffusion
3. Program Hiatuses
4. Backroom and Front Room Balance
5. Alignment with Goals
6. Measuring the Right Stuff
7. Organizational Structure and Governance
8. Investing in HR Development & Cross-training
9. Sacred Cows (desks, books, …)
10. Promotion, Marketing, Communication, Advocacy

38. Sensemaking

39. The BASICS
 Data
 Information
 Knowledge
 Wisdom NOT
 Behavior

40. Death of Reference
 Who
 What
 Where
 When
 Why
 How

41. How & Why Questions
 Now that’s research
 The interview is more involved
 Transformational not Transactional
 Expertise counts
 The position and reputation of the delivery
professional is key
 Expertise is shared mutually
 Groups and patterns matter

42. What is an EXPERIENCE?
What is a library experience?
What differentiates a library experience from a transaction?
What differentiates public libraries from Google/Bing?

43. The Evolution
of Answers

44. Why do people ask questions?
Is your library experience conceptually organized around
answers and programs?
Or collections, technology and buildings?

45. Why do people ask questions?
 Who, What, When, Where
 How & Why
 Data – Information – Knowledge - Behavior
 To Learn or to Know
 To Acquire Information, Clarify, Tune
 To Decide, to Solve, to Choose, to Delay
 To Interview, Delve, Interact, Progress
 To Entertain or Socialize
 To Reduce Fear
 To Help, Aid, Cure, Be a Friend
 To Win A Bet

46. What are your top 10-20 questions?
What is the service portfolio model
that goes with those?

47. The Baker’s Dozen: 1 Library System’s Top 13
1. Health and Wellness / Community Health / Nutrition / Diet /
Recovery
2. DIY Do It Yourself Activities and Car Repair
3. Genealogy
4. Test prep (SAT, ACT, occupational tests, etc. etc.)
5. Legal Questions (including family law, divorce, adoption, etc)
6. Hobbies, Games and Gardening
7. Local History
8. Consumer reviews (Choosing a car, appliance, etc.)
9. Homework Help (grade school)
10. Technology Skills (software, hardware, web)
11. Government Programs, Services and Taxation
12. Self-help/personal development
13. Careers (jobs, counselling, etc.)
14. Readers Advisory was 14th

48. Top 12 Patron Hobbies
Recreational Reading
Cooking & Recipes
Computers
Movies & Film
Exercise, Cycling & Walking
Traveling, Tourism & Vacations
Top Hobbies?
Music
Top Homework Questions?
Pets Top Travel Destinations?
Gardening
What do you know?
Television Shows
Arts & Crafts
Knitting & Needlecrafts
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

49. News Flash
News Flash
Tech Shift Happens

50. Deer in headlamps slide here.

51. What Are Libraries Really For?
• Community
• Learning
• Discovery
• Progress
• Research (Applied and Theoretical)
• Cultural & Knowledge Custody
• Economic Impact

52. What Are Librarians For?
• Expertise
• Relationships
• Transformation
• Service (not servant)
• Vision
• Leadership
• Economic Impact
• Get OK with being an EXPERT and a
PROFESSIONAL

53. Questions for Libraries Today:
1. Are our priorities right?
2. Are learning, research, discovery changing
materially and what is actually changing?
3. What is the foundation of future library
success . . . Books? Meh…
4. What is the role for librarians in the real
future (that is not an extension of the past)?

55. Grocery Stores

56. Grocery Stores

57. Grocery Stores

58. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

59. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

60. Meals

61. What is a meal in library end-user or education
and learning terms?
How do you put your meat in the game?
LibGuides are 1% of the way there.

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

64. What are
your user’s
real goals?

66. Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians
Librarians play a vital role in building the
critical connections between
information , knowledge and learning.

67. Programs
What are the components of a program focus?
What lifts Libraries beyond our foundations?

68. Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills
 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.

70. Steal
This
Idea

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

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

75. Strategic
Analytics

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

78. 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.

80. 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?

81. Emboldened Librarians hold the key

82. So how must library
strategies change?

83. What does all this mean?
 The Article level universe
 The Chapter and Paragraph Universe
 Integrated with Visuals – graphics and charts
 Integrated with ‘video’
 Integrated with Sound and Speech
 Integrated with social web
 Integrated with interaction and not just
interactivity
 How would you enhance a book?

84. What is Changing?
1. Evidence-based Reference Strategies
2. Experience-based Portals: The New Commons
3. Personal Service on Steroids
4. Quality Strategies: Consumer vs. Professional
Search
5. Social Networks and Recommendations
6. Trans-literacy Strategies
7. People-driven Strategies
8. Curriculum and Research Agenda
9. Service and Programs

85. Recommendations
 Strengthen Your Personal Brand
 Reposition the Library and Librarian
 Don’t Tie Yourself directly to Collections or
Physical Space
 Network with Your Users Socially
 Measure, Don’t Count
 Engage in partnerships
 Know
 Take Risks

86. Technology Context
 Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)
 Laptops and Tablets
 Mobility / Smartphones
 Bandwidth (Wired, WiFi, Whitespace)
 Learning Management Systems
 Streaming video and audio vs. download
 HTML5 and Apps – the battle
 Advertising auction models and ‘product’
 New(ish) Players (Amazon, Apple, G, B&N, Uni’s,
states/provinces/nations)

87. Book Challenges
 Format Agnosticism
 Browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
 Devices: Macintosh, PC Desktops & Laptops
 Mobile: Laptops, Tablets (iPad, Fire, etc.)
 Mobile: Smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry,
Android, Windows, etc.)
 Container: PDF, ePub, .mobi, Kindle, etc.
 Learning Management System: Blackboard /
WebCT, D2L, Moodle, Sakai, etc.
 Purchasing (Amazon, B&N, Chegg, CengageBrain,
Apple Store, University Textbook Store, etc.)

88. Should we tie users and students to a
specific and proprietary device or
operating system?

89. This era will see a Fundamental
Reimagining the Book
For the present there will be those who
resist and the resisters will be the
majority.

90. Reimagine Service
Reference and Research

91. Consider the differences . . .
 Computer Commons
 Mall
 Service Commons
 Information Commons
 Knowledge Commons
 Learning Commons
 Science Commons
 Centre or Central?
 Physical / Virtual Hybrid

92. Mobility

93. A 1965 iPhone

97.  This is an evolution not a revolution
 The REAL revolution was the Internet and the Web.
 The hybrid ecology is winning in the near term for
operating systems and content formats.
 This is good since competition drives innovation.
 Engage in critical thinking not raw criticism. Be
constructive.
 Critical thinking is not part of dogma or religious fervor
or fan boy behavior.

98.  This is an evolution not a revolution
 Perfectionism will not move us forward at this
juncture.
 Really understand the digital divide and remove your
economic and social class blinkers
 Get over library obsession with statistics and
comprehensiveness.
 Get excellent at real measurements, sampling and
understanding impact and satisfaction.
(Analytics, Foresee, Pew)

99.  This is an evolution not a revolution
 We need to revisit the concept of
preservation, archives, repositories, and
conservation.
 Check out new publishing models like
Flipboard.
 Watch for emerging book enhancements and
other features that will challenge library
metadata, selection policies, and collection
development.

100. What Would You Attempt If
You Knew You Would Not
Fail?

102. A Third Path

105. Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

106. Considering the Whole Experience

108. 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, Pinterest: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: @sabram
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