Monday, October 28, 2013

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 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 kaleidoscopic and contrarian—with an argument that just may change the way you think.

This popular annual favorite features our super searcher who continues to surprise and impress with new strategies, techniques, and tips for getting the most out of web research. The host of Searchers Academy (where even more secrets are shared) provides an up-to-the minute and jam-packed-with-valuable-tools-and-tips talk that’s always a hit!

Search is changing. Google’s increased emphasis on its Knowledge Graph and predictive search along with hardware hopes is moving search in new directions at the same time that library databases are consolidating into discovery platforms and next-generation integrated library systems. Meanwhile, the diversity of devices and the proliferation of apps are leading to more and more different ways to search it all. Come hear the latest in how the search ecosystem is rapidly changing at all levels: from input to the results display and alternate forms of delivery.

What is your experience of searching in front of patrons? Do you hope they don’t look at your screen, or wish that you could explain to them why you make the choices you do? We find that people learn search and research skills most frequently by looking over someone else’s shoulder. Thus, it is the job of today’s librarian to explicitly model strong research processes and encourage patrons by recognizing their own search strengths. Join this interactive session to discuss today’s search strategies and practice actively reflecting upon what you actually do that makes search work for you. Find new ways to help learners make these strategies their own, and take away actionable methods you can use in your own environment.

This session focuses on how libraries can utilize website search logs to improve search results for users. The Pollak Library monitors all of the queries that users perform on both the library site wide search and on Xerxes, its customized Ebsco Discovery interface. Analyzing these queries provided insight into how the library’s users were interacting with its site and brought to light some common mistakes our users were making. This analysis allowed the library to design new methods to more efficiently route users to the information they are looking for and to correct searches that would otherwise fail or return zero results. By teaching the machine how users search for items, the library greatly increased the likelihood that searchers are connected with relevant information.

The realm of technologies helping libraries provide access to their collections and services through their web presence continues to evolve and innovate. Index-based, or “web-scale” discovery services have become a mainstay in academic libraries in helping their users find the materials they need among the vast resources available to them. Socially oriented discovery interfaces and portal products help public and other libraries bring together a variety of service and content offerings. Breeding gives an update on the realm of these public-facing technology products and services and takes a look into the trends going forward.

Have a web scale discovery tool? Thinking of getting one? Join this panel discussion about the state of the art in web scale discovery, and what's on the horizon. Are these products living up to their promise? How are they evolving? Hear experts weigh in on the current discovery landscape, talk about how these systems do or do not meet user needs and expectations, and what new features and functionalities are available to guide and support users in the information seeking process.

Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach that enables organizations to create a single website that “responds” to the users’ context, be it desktop, tablet, mobile or other, and dynamically reconfigures itself to provide an optimized experience. No more separate mobile and desktop sites! Wisniewski explores responsive site redesign from beginning to end. Learn the hows of planning, testing, and executing responsive design, and take away practical, real-world tips and techniques.

Foust discusses taking both a public and staff site from mess to success in a challenging environment with comments on new leadership, limited time, diverse staff in 10 locations, a library brand in flux, and a commitment to incorporating a full-scale social media integration. She shares tips on redesigns as well as lessons learned. In determining what the new virtual branch should include and how it should look, our next speakers asked, “Does pretty equal ‘good’”? They share victories and missteps in leading a web development project that focused on useful content before flashy design. They discuss how they employed usability testing and a comprehensive marketing plan to tie the launch into a year-long 40th anniversary celebration.

Hear tips and techniques from a number of different organizations: Snell shows how Bootstrap and Foundation, two CSS frameworks, can quickly aid in the development of responsive library websites and catalogs. Bullian and Ellison describe the challenges and considerations that factored into the decision-making and design processes for a website redesign including the flexibility and unique features of the LibGuides platform to serve a five-campus library system. The Isovera team discusses how Drupal embraces diverse data back ends and flexible front ends; focuses on the semantic; empowers librarians to represent, alter, and display their collections; and turns their sites into a RESTful API with minimal effort.

Is your library site all it could be? Far too often, library websites harbor major usability and design issues that prevent patrons from easily accessing the wealth of resources available to them. Speakers evaluate realworld library websites using authoritative guidelines and reveal the most common usability and accessibility sins being committed. Find out how your library website stacks up: Is it a sinner or a saint?

In the first presentation, learn how to support a multifaceted communication strategy by using a website content management system (CMS). See examples of how thoughtful content hierarchy, user-based relevancy, and targeted, precise workflow keep a website fresh and branding-consistent without exhausting staff. The second presentation discusses how the Popcorn.js framework works within HTML5 and offers tools to enhance audio and video files embedded within webpages. It shares initial efforts, trials, and tribulations in joining Popcorn.js with media files; the workflow process for media file selection, preparation, and coding; and the benefits of using Popcorn. js with digital collections. It demonstrates how enhanced media content was created within the website.

Vecchione shares the experience of the Web and Mobile Team at BSU Library using Google Analytics to help determine the usability and functionality of their website in addition to user testing. They used exit capture events through Google Analytics to see which parts of their website were used and how much. They were able to see a better flow and determine what web users value on their site. The Golden Gate University librarians embarked on a project to analyze four data sources to improve the user experience of their library website. They determined what objective data to use for web content analysis. Hear their results!

The transition from print to electronic collections is opening up tremendous opportunity for the library to engage with and build its community. From WordPress bootcamps, 24-hour hackathons, lockpicking workshops, Whiteboard walls, Students vs. Zombie events, to 3D printers, electronics and robotics toolkits and even wireless drone quadricopters, the presenters have stories to tell. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, startups, and other creative professionals from the surrounding community come together with students and faculty in events centered around common interest, with the library as the hub. During the course of a few years the DeLaMare library has realized a tenfold growth in usage—converting users into evangelists one connection at a time.

Two different ways to engage our communities! Librarians from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising take a look at how retailers are using technology to create a unique shopping experience and bring customers through the door. Hear what has worked and what hasn’t, what’s new for 2013, and what you might be able to adapt to your library to delight customers. Accelerated by technology, driven by intrinsic motivation, and facilitated by communities built around shared interest, Hamilton discusses and provides examples of connected learning in the second presentation. He describes the model and roadmap for libraries to develop and support lifelong learners.

How do you know if your communications are effective at raising awareness of your programs and services? How can you tell if library users are engaged with your messages? This session highlights a communications plan dashboard developed to track communications outcomes. It outlines the five communications objectives most libraries should have, illustrates how to use measurement tools at your disposal, and shares strategies for boosting the effectiveness of your engagement tools.

To connect and empower conversations with patrons who didn’t often come to the library physically, Plano PL grew its online presence from a blog 5 years ago into a multichannel community engagement experience that generates 10,000-plus views per month. It revolves around the promotion of books, reading, and the many services offered. Hear how the library used specialized blogs targeting specific demographic segments, as well as a Facebook page, Twitter feeds, Pinterest and Flickr postings, and a YouTube channel to engage the community and staff. McGough presents research that closely evaluated how undergraduate and graduate students use social media in the research process to collaborate with each other. The unique behaviors of undergraduates vs. graduate students, as well as the differences across disciplines, are reviewed.

This Pecha-Kucha-style session features four strategies for engaging the academic community. Luther staff discuss how a merged library-IT organization has recreated its social media persona. They share techniques, including Facebook photo strategies and social media monitoring techniques. Idaho State staff promote intellectual curiosity and discovery, as well as encourage the community to imagine, innovate and inspire with a mobile strategy using Quick Response (QR) codes in the stacks, expanding patrons’ experience in using ebooks. Rocci discusses strategies used to engage, connect, and build relationships with college students completing a credit course in information literacy and creating library supporters and advocates in a virtual environment. NCSU discusses using crowdsourcing to tell the story about NCSU’s new library with cutting-edge technology and inspiring spaces, a model of the library of the future.

Hear how one library is giving creative control through technological outlets to an underserved teen population and extending a lifeline to an older generation trying to catch and keep up. The new Digital Media Lab spawned a teen owned and operated summer reading program for 2013. TAG, the Teen Advisory Group, went to work using print and digital media to design the logos and illustrations for the program and later branched out to film several digital shorts used for clues and context in the summer murder-mystery. The Transliteracy program put power back into the hands, tablets, and desktop computers of the Boomer generation by helping them find vital information related to health and financial wellness. The Digital Literacy Workshop Series put power back into the hands, tablets, and desktop computers of the Boomer generation by helping them find vital information related to health and financial wellness. Beyond access, the series addresses a user's confidence in their ability to navigate computer systems and the internet. This largely rural community, with limited access to internet and technology, is increasing the availability of training and resources to a population out of the mainstream education continuum.

Are libraries “book warehouses” or “knowledge maker- spaces”? The nature of “things” patrons create with library tools has changed in recent years. However, this increasing complexity of tools has not changed the library’s central role of providing the space for information consumption, the training in support of various literacies, and support of knowledge creation in whatever form the researcher requires. The only thing that has really changed is the nature of the tools libraries support. Are we providing a broader array of tools needed to support multiple-media learning and literacy that enhance our rel- evancy to constituents—and to funding agencies? Join the discussion!

If you attended Jeff Wisniewski’s B101 session on Responsive Web Design, you will know the basics on planning, using, and testing RWD. Now here from another practitioner on the value in tearing down barriers to entry for digital patrons using RWD, experiences of users of the new website which bring a clean, elegant, unintimidating design that works on phone, tablet, and desktop seamlessly. Then discuss your experiences with web design with your colleagues.

This session looks at a model for info pros and libraries to enhance the education of the underserved by providing online educational opportunities. Currently initiated in a number of developing countries, the model includes developing online library learning centers, enhancing instruction and media literacy, and empowering communities. Our speaker looks at the factors impacting this new educational model such as partnerships, content, delivery, and sustainability, then opens the discussion up to the audience.

This session looks briefly at Big Data projects from the perspective of info pros—-organizations that undertook initiatives that worked well, those not yet using Big Data in the challenges they are facing, and the lessons learned from those that experienced Big Data project failures. Then, in an interactive format, it explores how info pros can get involved with Big Data projects—discussing challenges in the organization, the marketplace, and the world—and brainstorming about how info pros can find and analyze data to help our constituents creatively confront these issues head-on.

Join us for a lively panel and audience discussion about the challenges of gender differences in technology librarianship. The topics of fairness and bias with both genders have appeared in articles, blogs, etc and this panel of women and men who work in libraries and gender studies briefly share personal experiences, then engage the audience about experiences and how best to increase understanding between the genders specifically in the area of technology work in librarianship.

It’s always helpful to hear what libraries are thinking of doing next, as well as visions of the Next Big Thing. A small panel of big thinkers share brief thoughts on what the “big” things for libraries will be in the next few years, the participants’ share their institutions plans! Have your notepad or mobile device ready to jot down potential collaborators.

Want to learn how to kick-start collaboration, virtually share your information environment expertise, and create added value within your learning community via Google Docs? Midler presents a gallery of real-world examples that demonstrate how librarians can harness the power of Google Docs as a vehicle for embedding information- environment and research-strategy expertise at the point of need and as a collaboration and reflection platform.

What do you actually do that makes you an effective searcher? What do we do as successful searchers that we are not yet articulating in a useful way? Join former Google Search educator Bergson-Michelson to discuss common language and lessons around the research process, and explore effective ways to help searchers improve their practice. Come prepared to work together to identify these pivotal moments in the research process.

Teacher-librarians have long given book talks and other presentations to students in classrooms in order to promote books and foster a love of reading. Now, of course, there are lots of new mobile and cloud-based tools available: Skyping with an author, making video book trailers and podcasts, and using mobile library apps to bring all of the library resources into the classroom. In this session, you learn how to collaborate with colleagues in using these tools to set up activities that engage students in meaningful literacy tasks.

The 24/7 buzz about 21st-century skills turned into a deep institutional conversation at Katherine Delmar Burke School during the last three years, with Howland and Faust serving as the facilitators. Out of this grew a comprehensive and mission-driven, concise (one-page!) guide to teaching and learning in the 21st century: “How We Learn: A Model for the 21st Century.” Howland and Faust show how to connect theory (the model) with the real world, using authentic demonstrations of learning. In disciplines from art to zoology and at every grade level from kindergarten through eighth grade, students gain knowledge, skills, and understanding while they prepare to survive and thrive in a world of change.

In the STEM to STEAM move to include the arts and design disciplines, libraries can support connected learners in many ways: through collaborative projects, via maker spaces hosting DIY groups with varied interests, and by new approaches to research and publication. As libraries redesign their spaces and capitalize on their unique positions within schools and communities, they bring expertise in many arenas. This session maps out an approach through which libraries serving young people can provide ongoing support for both STEM to STEAM maker activities and literacy-based initiatives.

Are your fellow teachers still struggling with copyright and fair use issues? In this session, Snipes presents a variety of Web 2.0 tools created to explain and clarify copyright guidelines for classroom teachers. Tools are ready-made for use in K–12 in-services or professional development sessions. Web 2.0 tools used for developing instructional products on copyright issues include weebly, prezi, glogster, comic life, and others. Several “copyright creations” will be shared along with links to each.