The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a really interesting tool available on their website (http://personas.media.mit.edu/).  This particular tool scrapes information from your web image/presence and then organizes it into a visual persona.  Very cool indeed.  It is really more fun to watch the process, but the end results can be interesting as well.  Here is an example using my name . . . as I watched, I discovered that it was gleaning information from the web from 15 “Tom Rink” sources.  Of these 15 sources, only 8 of them were actually me.  Enjoy!  Find out your persona and see how it compares to your self image.   Thank you Stephen Abram for turning me on to this site!  When I re-ran the search using the name ”Thomas Rink,” the results were totally different and NONE of the sources were actually me.  Quite surprising.  I have obviously adopted my less formal name for all of my web and social networking activities.

SLA 2009 Conference Round-up

Too often we get wrapped up in work and forget the joy of work. Stephen Abram challenged a group of librarians to incorporate playing into our work day at the conference session, “Play: Creative Tools for the Technical Librarian.” He said that he was almost 50 years old before he gave himself permission to unstructured play time at work. I was awed during the icebreaker, when the participants were each asked how they play or were creative in their lives. Some people had intriguing hobbies and interests, like writing poetry and playing music. Many people gave examples of playing with technology at work. Abram also had a show and tell of Dilbert dolls that he used during meetings to discuss difficult cross-departmental issues. Using a doll distances the speaker from sounding too confrontational, and frees the speaker’s voice to speak honestly.

We remembered how good recess was. Just 15 minutes of play and time to break free. Our session was interactive as groups had to break out and to describe a library with Lego pieces then build in a few minutes time. Some groups dropped to the floor right away! Others incorporated a colour into their concept. Abram was interested in both our outcomes, as well as the process of playing. Unlocking the positive energy did admittedly feel good.

In an individual exercises we also had crayons to storyboard or draw a comic about an positive interaction at work. Being librarians with a bias for words, some of the comics turned out to be a few stick men with many balloons clouds depicting conversation…more text-based than graphically oriented. I did not expect such an interactive session but, armed Play Dough and crayons, I left with a relaxed and refreshed attitude to incorporate unstructured free time to just let the creativity flow in my work life.

Update:

I love lists and here is both the shortened version of 100 Ways to be More Creative at Work July 3 post and the full version on The Heart of Innovation blog. Some tips are easy to incorporate into our daily busy lives, and can be used to unblock creative energy. We all have the potential to be creative within ourselves but we are too constrained by social norms to be mature.

- Brenda

People need real help!

Where to turn???  Things keep getting worse.

Example: The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania has climbed to 6.7 percent  from 4.9 percent a year ago. The state has processed an average of 46,000 initial claims a week since Jan. 1, a 52 percent increase over last year.

As the struggling economy continues to cause the loss of thousands of more jobs each month, public libraries have become the essential provider of  resources, advice clinics, access to online job search and online social service applications for those seeking employment and help in this time of need.

Public libraries around the country are partnering with profit and non-profit groups to create advice clinics, counseling sessions and additional resources for topics like: employment and career, home foreclosure and access to social services. Norman Oder at Library Journal Online has these examples:

NYPL Session Helping Laid-Off Professionals Draws Crowd 

At San Diego County Library, Foreclosure Clinics Draw a Crowd

The computer access that public libraries provide for internet service for the online completion of job applications and social services is critical to those who have no access or have discontinued their personal online web access due to a lack of funds.  From E-government to E-job-hunting

Now you may ask, how can libraries continue to expand their services and resources for their struggling communities?  The answer lies in an expanded effort to better partner with community groups and your funding partners. See the advice here from Stephen Abram on Funding resources for libraries.

During difficult times – great libraries work smarter, get more creative, develop new partnerships and most importantly – stay focused on the specific needs of their communities. 

Courtesy of Stephen Abram (Stephen’s Lighthouse blog).  Very cool!

Global trends in 2009 and beyond.

Print yourself a bigger PDF version here.

It continues the big picture trends map based on the London tube map. (See it here.)

(Picked up from lonewolflibrarian.)

I picked this one up from Stephen Abram’s blog today.

2009 Trend Map

Global trends in 2009 and beyond.

Print yourself a bigger PDF version here.

It continues the big picture trends map based on the London tube map. (See it here.)

(Picked up from lonewolflibrarian.)

Posted by Tom R.

Thanks to Stephen Abram (among others) for posting this to his blog, here’s a satellite view of the “mall” during the inauguration from over 400 miles up . . . way cool!

So, I read Stephen’s Lighthouse, Stephen Abram’s blog and he recently used the clip below to show how far information management  has come over the years.   I think I also saw this film when I was at IFLA in August. 

P.S. if you ever get the chance to hear Abram’s speak, I highly suggest it.  I am a fan of a professional who curses.  Just sayin.  Cursing to make an impact, works for me

From now on I’ll write my blog in English. I’ve got some complaints…

In this post you’ll find a link to a column of Stephen Abram on Multimedia and Internet @ Schools, Tips 2.0: What’s Hot? How Do I Learn That?
A fine list of things interesting for library teachers, information specialists, and other library colleagues, and other people who are not so familiar with Web 2.0.
Here are a few:
- reports of Educause on e.g. Ning, Flickr, Skype, Twitter, Wikipedia, and more.
- Commoncraft: Explanations in Plane English offers video’s on subjects, e.g. Blogs, Social Networking, Social Networking.

For more information, read the whole text on Sirsidynix!

“In each case, it was the teamwork that made the day and not the contribution of a single person. I’ve learned a lot and feel proud of our accomplishments.”

Naar een idee van Stephen Abram.

Geciteerd uit Out front with Stephen Abram / Judith A. Siess and Jonathan Lorig. Dit boek lag enigszins toevallig op mijn bureau(-;

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence – either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don’t look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

Pecha Kucha – 20 slides 20 seconds a piece on a single topic

Rebecca Jones - I didn’t get good notes, sorry

Stephen Abram – trendspotting
is television affecting our world, Kennedy vs Nixon debate, then Obama vs McCain, blinking
youtube video of Palin saying she can see Russia from porch
visual popular – twitter
Olympics yahoo trumps NBC
webkinz – when your stuffed animals have a social life online
club penguin – Disney kids on social crack,
soccer mom is average gamer
geocaching
portability
mainly mobile focus – phone not laptops, we’re old with our laptops in front of us

David Lee King
the librarian is the product
libraries have a lot of products magazines, books, databases, websites, search engines, reference we can answer your questions on the phone, at the desk, im, blog comments,
all this lets us show our personality, makes lib more human
what product should we be selling?
Books amazon does it better
info Google does it better
staff? Maybe we should be selling ourselves so the librarian is the product
we need to promote ourselves, our stuff is just stuff, the value added is the ppl

Nancy Dowd
Google answers the question we improve the question
what do we call the ppl who come in? members guests patrons customers – name them
be transparent in marketing
I will not longer support the silence of silos
I will support innovation – pic of Helene Blowers on screen
I will make demands on my vendors
I will make friends with my long tails
I will honor all choices of communication
I will embrace diversity
I will ACT green, no more just thinking green, why are you print brochures? Print on demand
I will find the ‘me’ in my library – pic of Michael Stephens on screen
I will measure the right stuff – measure according to your goal
I will market to voters – the ppl who support our libraries are not coming into our libraries but they want to know that we are transforming lives
I will tell stories so that when ppl think of transformation they will think of the library
multi media story about Sean

Greg Schwartz is going to make us vote for a favorite – looks like Nancy won

questions -
how do staff behind the scenes market themselves? Remind ppl what you are doing and why you’re doing it
you have to identify who your client is, if yo are behind the scenes you client is the front line

question about Nancy’s video – in new jersey they are teaching librarians to tell stories, simple it was voice over still photo

PUBLIC LECTURE

Stephen Abram, Vice President Innovation, SirsiDynix – Tasmanian address

Stephen Abram will roller-coast the audience through the changes that are being wrought by Googlers, the Millenials and Information 3.0 – what will the next generation of the web bring? Stephen is a leading lighthouse thinker and trend forecaster in the world of libraries and information. His visit to Tasmania is a joint initiative of UTAS Library and the State Library of Tasmania.

Time: 5.30 – 6.30pm
Venue: Stanley Burbury Theatre, University Centre, Sandy Bay campus

Further Information: Morris Miller Librarian, 6226 2395

 What will the next generation of the web bring?

Stephen Abram, Vice President Innovation, SirsiDynix USA, is a leading lighthouse thinker and trend forecaster in the world of libraries and information.

Stephen will be giving a free public address:

 Monday 8 September

5:30 to 6:30 pm

Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania.

Stephen is a dynamic and inspiring speaker. Some of the questions he will address are:

Right now we’re talking about Web 2.0.  But what comes next?

What should we be doing and planning for now to be prepared for a world that is changing faster than ever and users who are entering a world that is a paradox of excitement and challenge.

A socially driven web is coming fast and its transformational potential is huge.

Stephen will also run us though the changes that are being wrought by Googlers, the Millennials and information 3.0.

Further information: Morris Miller Librarian (03) 6226 2395

I just started a new Twitter account called @ACPLLibraryCamp to publicize Library Camp 2008. I started adding people by going to a famous person’s Twitter account, looking at their followers, and following their followers. Within about 30 minutes, three more famous people were following ACPLLibraryCamp. That’s pretty darn quick! I am hoping to use Twitter as one way to publicize our Library Camp. I also sent e-mails to a bunch of people I don’t know, but that was tough because in most cases I had to dig for them. Twitter is so much quicker!

For the record, @sabram gets the prize for the first person to respond as a follower. Now, what should the prize be?

An interesting thing (for me) happened while attending a workshop titled, “It’s the Millennium: Do you know where your users are?” Offered by the California Clearinghouse for Library Instruction, it was a forum for three professionals in the field to present their findings and experience with their interaction with this specific user group. Dr. Alison J. Head, the Roy and Patricia Disney Visiting Professor in New Media Communications at Saint Mary’s College discussed the results of her recent study of junior and senior undergraduates and their approach to academic research assignments (procrastination is borne out of a place of confusion and the unknown, not social distraction as common belief asserts).

Michelle Leigh Jacobs, Emerging Technologies and Web Coordinator of College Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, shared her experience and discussed how libraries and librarians must re-evaluate their methods of providing services in order to meet the information needs of this new generation using the library (using communication tools like: instant messaging; text messaging; online chat, and email, reference services increased; while in-person reference interviews continue to lag).

And finally, Stephen Abram, current Special Library Association president and Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for SyrsiDinix Institute, shared his insight on the challenges the professional field faces, and how librarians and libraries can utilize current and emerging technolgies (open source; pilot programs; social graph platforms; and of course, Google, My Space, and Facebook) to continue being “present” in the minds of the library user when navigating the explosion of information.

The workshop was absolutely inspiring and provided much food for thought. I hope that others felt the same!

I’ll close with a link to a video created by Dr. Michael Wesch, Digital Ethnography professor at Kansas State University, “A Vision of Students Today.” Linda Smith, one of the facilitators of this workshop, opened the session with this video. It set the tone, not only for the workshop, but for the field as it faces the challenges of remaining a presence in the minds of the millennial student.

Join Stephen Abram, Joe Janes, Karen Schneider, and Roy Tennant as they debate and discuss the latest and most contentious issues in Libraryland. As our library community takes up the challenge of Transforming Texas Libraries, this general session will be like no other: entertaining, enlightening, energizing, and (most importantly) all about the future of libraries and what we, as a professional community, need to do to control our destiny.
Stephen Abram, president, Special Libraries Association, and vice president of innovation, SirsiDynix; Joseph Janes, associate professor, Information School, University of Washington (Seattle); Karen Schneider, research and development consultant, College Center for Automation (Tallahassee, FL); and Roy Tennant, senior program officer, OCLC.

The session was designed as a conversation between the panelists with Roy Tennant as the moderator. He threw out a few provocative questions to start things off.

What keeps you awake at night? It could be a major challenge, something that worries you or a real opportunity that you get excited about.

Karen talked about the reemergence of reference. The kind of reference where you walk to the desk and ask for the population of Alaska is gone, but reference is becoming a specialized tool. Students won’t go to the library as the first place, but they do when they have a specialized need or when they get stumped.

Joe said that the “what’s the capital of Bolivia” ready reference kind of stuff is not over, but it’s such a small fraction of what they’ll turn to us for. If that’s what you convey to people that’s what you specialize in then they won’t come to you when they get stuck. [Excellent point!]

Your expertise is far better used when people get stuck, when they’re spending 45 minutes and getting nowhere, when they’re trying to accomplish something important. He would rather see us positioned as a conduit to the much larger institutions that we represent.

What keeps him awake is that we seem to love to fight about what is a librarian, how do we prepare people, who is, who isn’t. It has to be addressed because it’s always changing, so he’s ok with the conversation, but the temperature of that conversation has risen, and people want to lock that down. The worst time to do that is when everything is up in the air. Absolutely we have to keep having the conversation, and keep doing the same things, but it’s damaging to our profession that we’re crapping on the new graduates. We’re building a wonderful wealth of dinosaur literature. [Dinosaur in the sense that the dinosaurs didn't die from climate change, they died from failing to adapt.]

Abram worries whether our colleagues are capable of making the changes that are coming. There are tons of people who don’t have a Facebook account but have very strong opinions about it. [They made the argument that how can you have an opinion if you don't try it for yourself. I would offer that that isn't the best argument. A glaring example might be heavy drug use. I'm pretty sure not very many people are going to tell me I can't have an opinion on that without first trying it myself. But a much tamer example might be collection development. We select materials all the time based on what others have said about the item without reading every page ourselves. I personally think having a Facebook page is kind of like putting up a flyer at a local coffee shop - it certainly can't hurt, but if none of your constituents go to that coffee shop, maybe your library doesn't need to be doing that. You can certainly make an informed decision without signing up for an account.]

Karen said we are not an evidence driven profession. Someone will say “Our users don’t use Facebook, oh but we block it.” There’s a dogma about tools, about what people do and don’t do, but most of it is not evidence based. [I definitely agree that I would like to see more user surveys - even of the most informal nature.]

Abram – “You were so successful at getting kids not to smoke and drink by banning it.” [I could be wrong, but I don't think most places are blocking Facebook because they think it's bad for kids. They're blocking it because people are hogging the computers. There may be other/better ways to handle the problem, but I think this was a misrepresentation of what's going on.]

Janes said that when teachers say you can’t use Wikipedia we need to take those teachers aside in the faculty lounge. It’s about how to learn how to use the tool. [Yes! I'm huge on using the bottom of the page in Wikipedia to find articles and websites.]

If you don’t like Wikipedia, fix it. “Like my dad says – if you don’t vote you can’t bitch.”

Karen thinks Wikipedia should have been ours for the taking. Janes agreed, there’s more of us than there are of them.

[I think this argument gives librarians a little too much credit. Wikipedia is not something that can be "fixed." It is what it is and as such is constantly evolving. Librarians taking over as stewards won't change the fact that Colbert can ask people to change the numbers on the population of elephants and they'll do it en mass. Librarian involvement would not change any of the inherent "flaws" of the tool. And there are more of them than there are of us. And they're much more technologically savvy.]

The next discussion question was: If you could change one thing what would it be?

Abram would change the big picture confidence of our colleagues, give them the confidence to think way bigger, advocacy skills in a much more coordinated manner.

Karen would put a software developer in every library, or every country, or every state. We would be able to write our own software, have incredibly great applications. [I'm a huge fan of Karen's but I'm thinking she doesn't really know what all goes in to software development if she thinks putting one in each state is the way to go. (See the comments - she assumed collaboration while I was assuming silos.) At the very least it usually involves teams of people... I'll take the sentiment behind it though and say that I am so in love with the fact that many talented librarians seem to be embracing open source and excellent things are being developed.]

Abram asked, “Can we develop a user experience?” He also kept talking about how we need more meat in the game, which I think sometimes meant more substance and other times meant more people? But it was an odd turn of phrase and particularly kept turning my non-meat eating stomach.

Janes would like to be able to go into the collective mind of the profession and flip the little default switch from no to yes. [What a lovely way to phrase that!]

Karen said someone will bring up user tagging and the next person will ask how can we control that?

Abram would like to see intergenerational mentoring – young and old know equal amount of stuff that’s different. [I felt this was based on an assumption that all young librarians are tech savvy and that's just not true.]

Janes said the directors are trying to innovate, the youngns are trying to innovate, but the people in the middle are sitting there with their arms crossed and it’s so disheartening.

Janes tells his grads that there are people who are going to beat you down, you need to figure out how to work together.

They mentioned a Wilson Bulletin from the 50’s saying not to use phone reference – if they’re too lazy to come in they don’t deserve our help. So it’s not a new thing.

Where they start is up to them, where they finish is up to you. [I agree very much with the sentiment that we should provide as many ways to contact us as possible. We can always continue the communication using a more appropriate method.]

Another topic was the idea of risk mitigated by small trials. Janes said for those of you who want to try stuff – the most important thing you can do is fail – then tell us all about it. Maricopa used bisac instead of dewey and the profession was not supportive of the trial. If they had failed it would have “proved” to everyone, but things happen iteratively. We need a few more celebrated failures in this profession. [Oh how I agree with this!!]

Federated search is going to be messy for years. Having all this stuff digital is going to be hard and a mess. Google books the search engine is going to take time to get where we want it to be. It’s going to be very difficult to predict what people are going to want these for and what they’ll do with it.

There’s a different kind of scholarship, authorship, readership, creativity. Movies, podcasts, recordings are all valid formats.

Karen said this is an exciting opportunity for us to become curators – think beyond the books. We have to see it and seize it.

There are 2 sides – designing infrastructure and putting people out there. We have so much to contribute. “Free the authorities.” Show our candy.

The idea of embedded – that everyone is part of a community. Librarians posted comments on local community blogs, engage people where they are. [I think this is a great idea for communities that have that type of public forum or local bloggers!]

Karen said it’s not the user who’s remote, we are. We need to reach out and close that gap. It can be as simple as commenting on someone’s blog. [Though there is the question of how many small rural Texas communities have anyone blogging? But we can take the idea without the methodology - comment in the local paper, local PTA meeting, wherever would be relevant for your community.]

When we see something awesome at a library, why isn’t it in 50 other by 6 months? [Good point.]

Abram suggests reorganization of structure – from hierarchical to team based. Karen doesn’t think it’s the structure. She has been in team based structures are awful and hierarchical that are very nimble. It’s the people that need to change.

Abram asked – how do we do that?

Karen said some of that is teaching the young people how to go in there and not get frustrated.

Janes said that the new people are different and they’re different in interesting ways. They’re different in the way they think, more steeped in the technology. In many important ways they’re the same. They want to do good in the world, fight for access, do reference, tell stories, it’s just that they go about it in a slightly different way.

There is hope for the younger folks.

There was a nice defense of some of the feet draggers – think about their position – they entered the profession in 70s or 80s with a perception about the world – a world and profession that wasn’t going to change very much. But their world and perspective was knocked out from under them and they find themselves in a profession they did not sign up for. It’s not a surprise that some people decide this is all bad. But some decide, “I can be a better librarian.” That’s the way to engage these people. [Here here!]

The tools are better now, so you can do what you signed up for better.

They mentioned vodcasts from Cornell about how to do research. [I would strongly recommend though that if you're going to have some form of media giving information that you have it in text too - remembering our learning styles - just because we can do video now does not mean that it's the way that everyone prefers to learn.]

There was a joke about forming a 12 step program for librarians.

There’s the frustration from young librarians, “Why are they treating me like a child instead of a new colleague?”

There was talk that we need to be dong the policy work – the advocacy book. People are in denial about reaching supervisory/management. Janes said that part of it is making that attractive. What people come in wanting to do is this profession, why should they want to do the administrative – they’re not trained for that. How do we recruit people into the field that have this breadth of interests and background and experience? [There was a mention that 65% of incoming librarians don't want to go into management. My question to that is, not everyone can be a manager, so what % do we need to be interested?]

Karen said that we have some really interesting development going on. We need to know more about them and celebrate them a little better.

The final question was – what one thing would you want to know more about?

Abram wants to know how information becomes knowledge. How do we get better at creating those educational items? What behaviors do we want? If we understood the dynamics of learning, society would be better.

Karen wants to know where Google will be in 20 years. If they’re like most technology companies they’ll rise and they’ll fall. When will their time pass? The Google antitrust is coming.

Janes wants to know what happens. There’s a lot going on and a lot of ways this could go. He can imagine a vibrant future or a very different future where we lose. This moment is incredibly fraught and could go either way.

Abram thinks we can do it.

Karen wants to know how we get through the transition from paper to digital. There will come a time when we make that transition. [I disagree that paper will be gone forever, but I agree that more and more is online and dealing with that transition is important. Providing information digitally removes some of the physical cues about what makes something an encyclopedia article or a journal article for example.]

How willing are we to embrace a world where we don’t own what we curate?

Janes said the library isn’t the building – its every time a person engages. The idea of the library has always been bigger than the building. As the stuff becomes increasingly non physical now its just much easier to do that.

We have to be better online. The kinds of services we offer online have to be better.

The idea of bricks, clicks and tricks:

The people we see in the library are different from the ones coming in online. We need to send the message that we improve access to resources – we’ve got the tricks – like an accountant or a doctor. We can all add and subtract, but we go to the accountant for the big things. We do basic nutrition but still go to the doctor for his medical expertise.

Final thoughts:

Karen said she goes to a lot of technology conferences, librarians have enormous respect and trust – we need to tap into and take advantage of that.

Janes encouraged us to talk to library school faculty work with each other, take internship students, recruit for us.

Abram urged us to develop a new culture of openness. Librarians need to learn when we study something to death that death was not our original goal.

I thought this ended on a wonderful note and had many wonderful notes throughout, but did tend to be repeatedly disparaging. There was a running joke about presenting a session on how libraries should go back to the good old days and then locking those people in that room and getting rid of them. There was also the overall vibe of “ugh, why aren’t we all doing this already!” and “can you believe these idiots we all have to work with?”

I’m going to quote myself here because this session brought up a lot of the same emotions for me as the future of the catalog session did.

My parting thought on this session is my general personal unease with the antagonistic approach that I frequently see when proposing important changes. I think that this session was well received, but I worry they were preaching to the converted. There’s something to be said for firing up the choir, but in terms of getting new recruits I wonder if we might not catch more flies with honey. “Look at all the wonderful options we can offer our constituents!” rather than “Get with the times or die!” I will readily admit that I’m probably more sensitive than most people, but I don’t see the need to be so disparaging toward what’s come before. Librarians did the best they could with what they had and now we have some great new tools in front of us that will take some time to learn how to use. This is an exciting opportunity! Let’s share that enthusiasm and optimism and try to put aside the negativity as much as possible.

Edited to add: Starr types much faster than I do, so for more on what the panelists said, see her notes.

Stephen Abram is always ahead of the curve.  Here he lists 20 Things to Watch for that may affect the library world.

I have added my own #21 at the very end. The ones that interest me the most from his list are:

• #1  Mobile – I think this one actually is the most critical space to watch. The I-phone is beginning to change the way that all media types are being delivered. Ease of use, access to voice, email, photos, music and video in a powerful, portable device. This changes everything. It isn’t the book reader, but it is the “information” reader and communicator. If your library isn’t plugged into this channel, only bad things can happen. Mobile as a “platform”. How will you be there?

• #4  Tagging – with our customers and students so used to personally ranking and ranked material, we have to figure out a way to get this integrated into our catalog listings and our programming.

• #9  Social networking – our libraries have a tremendous oportunity to link like minded groups of customers or students together. Then help link those individualzed groups to customized information, stories and learning.

• #11  E-books – like it or not, the world is moving to digitized content. Libraries better figure out how to collect and share this digitized content or we will be passed by and move on toward extinction. If you don’t think this is important - check out the digital phone fiction genre that has been created in Japan. “Cellular Storytelling”  

• #20  E-Learning – this is another revolutionary paradigm shift. Based on a customer focused, lifelong learning model, we can all continue to grow and learn. Based on the exponentially changing world we face – we better keep adapting and learning new skills. I believe the E-learning model will create customized methods of learning with customized programs of learning. How about a “digital information specialist degree with a minor in international politics or environmental economics”. I expect the learning combinations will be fascinating. Will your library find a way to be a part of this. Start experimenting now.

Now I would like to add my own entry.

• #21 – Localized content – I believe that school and public libraries will start collecting, tagging and sharing the content that is created locally by the members of the community they serve. These are the stories, biographies, local history, photos, music, video, artwork(stored digitally) and more. This tapestry of content will be the fabric that binds our communities and generations together. There truly are compelling, inspirational, and exceeding valuable reflections, ideas, art and stories that will enrich our lives and our communities. Libraries will be at the heart of this.

What do you think are the most interesting and important trends to watch for over the next 2-5 years?

The 2008 SLA Board of Directors hit the ground running at the Louisville Leadership Summit. The three-day meeting was the first meeting of the new association year and is also the first time the new board members elected in 2007 officially joined the sitting board as full voting members.  2008 SLA President Stephen Abram MLS, took office, and challenged the 2008 Board to focus on innovation for the association over the coming year, declaring his theme for the year, “Innovate in 2008.” 

“SLA has made great strides in recent years, especially with Click University, Annual Conference and Leadership Summit.  It was the spirit of innovation that has brought us to where we are today and in order for SLA to promote continuous innovation, SLA members need to be empowered to educate themselves in as many ways as possible,” said Abram. “To that end we’re launching some new initiatives in 2008 to complement our dynamic and traditional learning opportunities at Annual Conference, SLA Chapter and Division events, and through Click University. SLA needs to continually grow as an advanced learning organization in the best sense of our vision. To me that vision includes all members looking first to SLA as a place to learn and grow both professionally and personally.”  

To read the entire press release (and a reference to my position on the Board), visit: http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/pressroom/pressrelease/08pr/pr2804.cfm

About SLA
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves more than 11,000 members in 75 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic, and government information specialists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives. For more information, visit us on the Web at www.sla.org

 Posted by Tom Rink

Stephen Abram, the V.P. of Innovation for Sirsi Dynix created a list of 30 predictions that may affect the public library world in 2008.  A few that I think are important are:

• #6.  Open Source software will grow – especially in the user experience space where it will do very well.
• #12.  The Google Docs suite will make real inroads into the enterprise space. It will be very hot in high school and college/academic spaces too.
• #14.  Gaming, RSS and Blogs are totally normal in 2008. Not to be using them is to be well behind the curve of your average user.
• #18.  “Local” will take off – watch for local ads, local search, GPS, GIS, Maps, and more. It will become increasingly personal and creepy. It will also affect browser settings, social sites and tools.
• #22.  2008 will be the beginning of the end for DVD (Blu Ray is a distraction) as streaming media is adopted by Hollywood and the (dying) major networks on a much larger scale – dwarfing YouTube as it exists today. New licensing models will emerge for libraries in ‘08.
• #24.  eBooks will go mainstream in the business and professional space. Standards issues won’t be solved in 2008 and that’s sad for everyone, including libraries.
• # 27.  Better identification and classification of user-generated content will give usage of that a bump in 2008. Can libraries play in that space locally?
• # 29.  Hosted solutions / Software as a Service, Mashups and API’s will be very hot in 2008. This will address the consortia scalability and staffing issues in libraries.

I know, I know, I nearly copied his entire list. I believe Stephen Abram is a legitimate visionary and is a key leader in the library world.

If he is right about continued corporate mergers and acquisitions – the change of ownership and a potential elimination of products will leave some libraries scrambling for some vital technical services and products. Will libraries be ready for this?

I also believe he is right about the impending death, not only of Blockbuster, but the neighborhood DVD movie rental business. If libraries have used DVD’s to boost circulation numbers over the last few years, what happens when DVD’s go away? Are libraries ready for the streaming media business model?