Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Rainie shares new research about where libraries fit into the burgeoning education ecosystem of formal and informal learning. The Pew Research Center is doing a national survey of American adults to explore the lifelong learning needs of Americans and their sense of how different kinds of educational organizations and informal DIY learning can serve their needs. The research places special emphasis on workforce development issues and how libraries are viewed as part of community learning systems.

The ability to surface actionable usage data on demand for decision making is an unequivocal necessity-but there are a seemingly end- less set of requirements. Some need website traffic data; others, a list of most popular resources; still others, raw data for trend analysis. Serving each request individually is a workflow sinkhole. The Qualcomm Library analytics team gives an in-depth look into its Self-Serve analytics model that empowers users to pull and analyze their usage data through a customized business intelligence dashboard, enabling libraries and information professionals to leverage organizational data for optimal use. See how the team designed the interactive Self-Serve data dashboard, trained teams in data retrieval, and built the culture.

Having entered libraries as an IT professional, Hargrove viewed librarians through an IT lens, and Hunt viewed IT through a librarian's lens. Together, they share challenges, wins, and strategies to bring complementary strengths from both views that result in moving libraries forward faster and stronger.

Librarians and managers of information centers don't always see themselves as (mini) business owners. Two information consultants re-vision info services as an intrapreneur and provide tools for information professionals to think like a strategic internal entrepreneur, communicate value effectively, stay customer-driven, and still have fun in today's interconnected world. Our third consultant discusses using training as a librarian for new opportunities, transforming your education into a corporate asset!

With 69% of library patrons using mobile apps to access information, a mobile strategy has never been more important for libraries. But if not done correctly, going mobile can take an enormous toll on library staff, budgets, and the user experience. Come to discuss the best mobile library practices and lessons learned from Boopsie's 4,000-plus library locations around the globe. Using case studies such as Washington State, which found that 85.5% of patrons in libraries throughout the state access their library through the new Library Now mobile app, the session provides trends and insights useful for libraries of all sizes as they develop, refine, and implement mobile strategies.

Sno-Isle Libraries' habit of pushing boundaries and raising the bar needed to be managed and has resulted in many shifts to its services. Werle begins by looking at its implementation of an idea management system in 2014 as part of a cultural change encouraging innovation. Beck then looks at how the library rebuilt information services to have community-level impact with librarians off the desk and into the community. After extensive surveying of its customer base and consulting with human resources and other departments, the library mapped out areas of information service and levels of staff required to service customers in 21 locations, transforming librarians' roles.

To understand the future of the library, we must look beyond its walls to the tools and contexts-both physical and digital-where learning takes place. In school, where the disruptive innovations of open access and online courses are changing the architecture of education, the "embedded librarian" and the "single search box" aren't just nice ideas: They're mission-critical. And, in a society where citizens don't know how to search, who to trust, or what to believe, our failure to advance information literacy threatens the very fabric of civilization. Morville connects the dots from ebooks to ecosystems, framing the library as both a cultural keystone and a courageous act of inspiration architecture. This is a story that's colorful-both kalei- doscopic and contrarian-with an argument that just may change the way you think.

This session shares one library's study of an interactive, touch-based wayfinding screen in order to determine what specific content needs users desire in digital wayfinding services and, if those content needs are broad, whether a more full-feature experience with access to all library web content would be preferred. The three-phase study included analysis of click analytics data, observations of user interactions, and questionnaires targeting user experiences and expectations. It built on research at other libraries around point-of-need wayfinding signage and usability of digital information. Phase 1 involved capturing anonymous click analytics of user interactions, during a 30-day period. Phase 2 measured wayfinding usage against door counts. Phase 3 involved user interviews. Results from this study found that user expectations and needs are varied, and that the current content was too limited. It also demonstrated that these needs and expectations are not so broad as to warrant a full-feature experience of all library web content.

Do you know how to write for the modern, mobile, and interactive web? Our expert, King, discusses how to create a content strategy, how to write for the mobile web, and how to write content that makes customers respond. Blakiston talks about how to write more effectively for the digital user experience without jargon, overcomplicated instructions, and walls of unnecessary text. She highlights why good web writing matters, how users read online, how to define your audience and primary messages, and how to create good web writing by focusing on essential messages, creating a logical structure and format, using active voice, and cutting out what isn't necessary. Meyer discusses strategies to help make your library's website content easier for patrons to get the information they need faster, and easier for library staff to manage.

A complete redesign of Emory University's business library website incorporated virtually all of the enhancements that student and alumni usability tests indicated were necessary for a successful user experience. The business library team was thrilled with the new interface, but were the users? They had indicated what they came to the website to find, but did the new site make their "seek and find" process more successful? Google Analytics has been key to providing the library with ongoing insights as to precisely what its users look for and how they translate their information need into a search or browse action. An analysis of more than 15,000 unique keyword searches, conducted during the first 12 months of the new site, provided detailed insight for what the users expect to find on the library's website. Closely analyzing the specific words they searched for revealed valuable insights as to their assumptions on a more granular level than the usability studies and enabled the library to enhance the metadata to facilitate successful searches. Two key issues quickly rose to the surface: close-enough searches for database names and common journal titles held within databases needed to return successful search results. Hear more about the new insights this analysis is yielding.

A strong online community can help strengthen a library's in-person community, and contribute to community resilience in times of stress. But how do you develop this? And how can you coordinate with other library staff members in doing so? Includes a personal case study, lessons learned, and audience participation.

In the past few years, the Kaiser Permanente Libraries (kpLibraries) have responded to the changing healthcare landscape by re-envisioning and updating services, resources, and roles, as well as fostering an online platform for virtual collaboration among the kpLibrarians and library users. The librarians have pushed the boundaries of their services to meet users' information needs, as well as enhanced in- formation sharing with one another and the users. Selected changes in work format and process include using a shared knowledgebase and chat service to provide virtual reference services across multiple regions; performing cross-departmental collaboration by acting as library liaisons and creating online resource guides with input from organizational stakeholders; developing multiple online points of contact for users in different physical locations and virtual spaces; and contributing to the launching of new organizational initiatives through research and collocation of online tools. Speakers describe the strategies for updating the kpLibrarians' roles and services and offer recommendations for other organizations.

The MITRE Corporation is a private, not-for-profit corporation that op- erates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs.) FFRDCs serve as long-term strategic partners to the U.S. government, providing objective guidance in an environment free of conflicts of interest. MITRE works in the fields of aerospace, defense, health and human services, federal agency modernization, homeland security, cybersecurity and more. Knowledge Stewardship (KS) Service was established to provide a planned approach to maintaining con- tent across multiple platforms so that it is findable, actionable, and maintains a high value throughout the information life cycle. The KS Service has a combined staff with expertise in taxonomy creation and maintenance; content organization; information life cycle man- agement; and forming and maintaining strong partnerships across all of MITRE's work programs. Hear how the KS Team fills a significant information gap, how its stewardship fulfills the goal of maintaining healthy information, and ensures that "gold source" information is accessible. Also get tips and techniques for replicating its processes and practices within your organization.

This panel provides real-life examples of how they digitized materials to reinvent and expand library and archives services and heightened their perceived value to their constituents. Bicknell talks about how digitized content has been integrated into information services at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Santos-Ong discusses the advantages of digital library services for the Philippine legal system which is a unique combination of civil (Roman), common (Anglo-American), Muslim (Islamic), and indigenous peoples' law. Digitization of this information has facilitated legal research and has improved library services by providing easy and accurate access to the information at the exact time it is needed. He also talks about the available open source and commercial Philippine legal databases and touches on preservation of both digital and hard copy of all of this for future applications.

Government mandates, institutional requirements, and library requests combine to create a perceived burden for researchers. What can librarians do to build the researcher carrot? What tools, services, and outreach can be put in place to encourage scholarly best practices? Magnoni shares technology developments and service options at Los Alamos National Laboratory and discusses the external landscape of current and emerging practices.

ResearchViews are weekly, industry-focused research briefs authored by the Qualcomm Library's research and analysis team. The team knows it created a valuable product, but how do they share it with the company? To ensure these reports gain the widest audience, and are both timely and targeted toward users' preferences, the team has evolved a process in which patterns of usage are regularly examined in order to refine topics and delivery formats. Final deliverables are text or data files, accessible in both desktop and mobile versions, and include a 2-minute video summary of the report. Learn how the team creates and markets this research as a brand, tracks usage at the announcement and document levels, produces videos to present the information in a visual format, and constantly reevaluates their results and adapt them to user needs.

As Jamie LeRue of the Douglas County Colorado Libraries commented in a 2013 National Public Radio series, "With a digital platform in place, libraries can not only distribute ebooks: they can publish them." This statement highlights the dynamic shift underway with libraries emerging as content creators and, even more recently, as maker- spaces. The maker movement is rapidly revolutionizing the ways in which libraries around the country interact with and deliver value to their communities. As part of this shift, the Sunnyvale Public Library currently offers 3D printing services as well as a series of adult crafting programs. The idea for the Bay Area Library ePublishers (BALE) project developed as a direct response to these maker programs, seeking to provide this same level of support and artistic space for local writers. Founded by a group of like-minded librarians, BALE's committee of professional writing experts and dedicated librarians read and reviewed dozens of manuscripts received in response to a public call for submissions of short stories and poetry set in the Bay Area. Given this unique approach to redefine the library's role within the publishing world and to redefine how libraries connect with local writers, the program was able to receive a modest grant from the California State Library to further its development. This idea of libraries emerging as publishers and content creators, rather than merely content consumers and distributors, holds broad implications for libraries. Get a blueprint for your own publishing/ebook program and platform.

The IDB is the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean and a large producer of knowledge. The library has evolved greatly during the last few years from the traditional reference-based service to an embedded librarian model, most recently it is adding new services related to data. Recently the IDB has begun opening their data, and the library is a full partner in this process. It designed a new interactive open data platform that pulls data from three existing data bases, allowing everyone to compare indicators across sectors for the first time. The library is working with IDB specialists and researchers to upload its data into our Open Data catalog, which not only centralizes all of this valuable knowledge, but allows for use, reuse, and visualization by everyone. Get tips and best practices for engaging with researchers to share data.

As more libraries are setting up digital collections, a number of digital asset management systems (DAMS) are emerging into what used to be a limited field. Islandora, CONTENTdm, and Hydra are a few of the major players in this space. This session compares these three systems in terms of cost, skills required, and customizability and leaves time for questions.

This interview highlights digital making in UK and European Libraries. Our interviewee, Katie Pekacar, works in library innovation in England, focusing on new technologies and new literacies and is currently working with the Society of Chief Librarians in England to develop their Universal Learning Offer, which will launch on the 5th November 2015. Join us to hear more!

In April of 2015, the California State Library and Fresno State convened a meeting of major map collections in the state to discuss map and aerial photography collections overlap, digitization efforts, discovery tool development, rights management, online hosting, and digital preservation efforts occurring at public and academic libraries and state agencies. Our speakers summarize survey data of major map collections in the state, discuss the impetus for changing the way maps are found, preview different map discovery systems, highlight important tools, look at new directions for map collections, state library funding of map visualization, and share projects in California.

Explore methods for rethinking and redesigning a library space to better meet the needs of patrons. Learn strategies for gathering input, see examples of library design, and find out inspiring resources for rethinking your library space.

Ursula K. LeGuin reminded us "there have been no societies that did not tell stories." Explore how to use this universal feature of every country and every culture to connect people in meaningful ways. Cordell shares specific tools and techniques to help our school community members-students, staff, parents, and other library users-find common truths as they share their unique stories.

A recent study by EBSCO ties college success to research skills that students develop in grade 9. Students who develop digital research skills early go on to enjoy the confidence to conduct research at a college level. What's more-to the surprise of no librarian-students are most likely to develop the required skills when paired with a librarian. But how does the library make the case for using its resources in a world that's "all Google"? In this session panelists address how librarians can effectively empower students to develop the research skills critical for college success. Panelists showcase how students gain access to vetted information that improves research outcomes. They look at how technology can contribute to teaching research skills and students' ability to learn. And they examine how librarians, educators, and vendors can work together to develop effective library programs.

Starting a makerspace in a school library can be daunting. Physical space, resources, scheduling conflicts, and student and staff partic- ipation are all key issues that must be addressed in order to have a successful makerspace. Hear ideas from teacher-librarian Amy Armstrong on how to start a space, where to find money, what resources have been popular, and how to tie these activities into the school curriculum. Starting a program from scratch has lots of obstacles along the way, and attending this session can help you find the right balance for your library.

Is your school considering becoming a 1:1 school, or has it recently begun the journey? Many libraries are struggling to define their roles as students' information seeking behaviors rapidly change in a new 1:1 environment. You, as librarians and providers of information, must not only keep up but embrace this paradigm shift and become leaders in its implementation. Aptaker discusses three strategies she has used to successfully innovate and re-imagine the school library and its role on a 1:1 campus.

As our libraries and information services are morphing with changing roles and directions, how much do you know about the innovation, transformation, and practices of other libraries? Especially those libraries in different countries? Join our world traveler and storyteller for a look at some exciting spaces, programs and practices in European libraries. Test your knowledge at the challenging audience-interactive quiz included with this event! Join us for this fun learning experience filled with tips and tricks to apply in your library.