Monday, October 27, 2014

Our broadcast-trained, data-driven investigative journalist, social media enthusiast, and Fortune 500 agency digital/content strategist has won a stack of awards for his branded content work in editorial and digital. He is passionate about libraries and how they impact their communities. Howley’s certain that libraries aren’t telling their stories compellingly enough because no one understands how stories spread and sustain—and how data informs story and story informs data. Come and hear his strategies and suggestions for how libraries can truly drive their community’s destiny!

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! Bates tells us she takes 2 days to research this session—take advantage of her knowledge and gather tips and tools to share with others!

With search engines giving ever-more-personalized results, come and hear how to maximize the potential for personalization for some searches and how to avoid it on others. Our expert searcher covers the best techniques for searching social networks and geographic search techniques. Explore the latest and greatest search tips for maximizing value with Google, Bing, and many other alternatives.

With more than a billion apps available, it’s difficult to tell which ones are good. Our eagle-eyed industry watcher shares 30 apps for library customers, info pros, and newbies. For Android and Apple devices, these apps will change the way you search, discover, access, and view information in and beyond the library walls.

Breeding describes the general landscape of library resource discovery products, the trend toward web-scale, index-based services, and some of the issues that sparked this initiative to bring increased transparency and other improvements to the ecosystem involving libraries, content providers, and discovery service creators. As co-chair of the NISO Open Discovery Initiative, he summarizes the recommended practices that it developed.

The first speakers discuss the state of open access in the academy, the degree to which industry players have adapted to the shift in publishing practices, the ways open and social tools such as Mendeley are becoming significant players in discovery, and why profit in academic publishing is shifting to the discovery platform and away from the content. Then hear about the Multnomah County Library which recently won a national award for its new, responsive website, which officially launched in 2013 along with the BiblioCommons discovery layer. Learn about the goals and successes (and lessons learned) of the redesign, including the implementation of an integrated search experience using Apachs Solr and the BiblioCommons API; providing a responsive patron experience; aligning the discovery layer and Drupal website; using Drupal taxonomies for discovery and organization; and streamlining content creation and editing.

Discovery services for libraries, whether vendor supplied or free tools such as Google Scholar, have proliferated. Users can easily get millions of results returned from a single search with little effort, but little has been done to improve linking to content once discovered. For users, linking remains the single biggest point of failure in the research process as libraries are largely reliant on OpenURL linking technologies which are notoriously error prone when getting to the desired items. This panel discussion features several e-resource librarians discussing how linking is really the most critical aspect of the discovery process for libraries, but it is often the most overlooked and taken for granted. In an era where discovery of content is relatively easy, libraries need to be aware that linking—the process of fulfillment and delivery of desired content—is still hard. When links fail, users think the library has failed and go elsewhere. This panel discusses the latest advances in linking technology, strategies that have improved their library’s access to discovered content, and new technologies being introduced to improve linking. They share experiences with usability tests, real world feedback centered around linking to content as well as results of adopting specific technologies/strategies.

Website design as a field is still changing rapidly as new technologies and new design ideas are created to make websites more beautiful, functional, and user-friendly. King takes you through the newest web design trends for optimizing user experience; illustrates with examples; and lets you know what to incorporate, what to watch for, and what to ignore.

How can we change the library culture which loves collecting facts and figures to be more in alignment with today’s trends? Marketing expert Marc Gobe’s groundbreaking book Emotional Branding states that successful emotional branding “brings a new level of credibility and personality to a brand by connecting powerfully with people at a personal and holistic level.” When a consumer feels emotionally connected with the brand, it builds a bridge of trust between the brand and the consumer. What is emotional branding? Norlin discusses how to align both traditional and social marketing together to create a consistent and repetitive message that helps customers form a lasting connection to the library brand.

Most redesigns involve exhaustive plans, dense reports, and thorough documentation of site requirements. When the website is perfected, this brand-new site is rolled out to users. This is often a lengthy process. The principals of Agile development champion interactions over processes, working software over comprehensive documentation and responding to change over following a plan. These methods encourage small, iterative changes on a rapid development and delivery cycle. This allows developers to respond to needs more quickly and decreases the cognitive load on users while allowing them to more easily adapt to change. Get tips for making a case for library websites to adopt Agile practices —small improvements through iterative changes allow users to adapt and increase user satisfaction.

Details matter. Each of these presentations share tips and advice on getting the interactions and content on your website right for your users. MacEwan librarians look at how micro-interactions, the moments when we delight our users by refining the way we offer services, lead to macro-results. Get concrete recommendations for designing positive micro-interactions with library users in mind. Speakers use their own experience designing a new institutional repository to outline steps to identify, refine, and test micro-interactions with users, and highlight the impact of their strategy on the overall user experience. Farney describes how to take a user-centered approach to weeding the library website. Removing old or irrelevant webpages from the library website does not have to be controversial. Take the drama out of the process by implementing a systematic approach to weeding website content by including your actual community of website users in the decision making. Learn how to identify web- pages ready for the recycle bin and how to use a mixture of digital analytics and usability tactics to involve library users in determining when content should be revived or put out to pasture. Learn when to weed, what to weed, and the best strategies for weeding content with minimum inconvenience to all.

Redesigning a website takes strategy, planning, experience, and staff buy-in. Figuring out whether or not you have created a successful website takes careful monitoring of analytics and being willing to let go of your preconceived notions of what makes a “Good Library Website.” Speakers show you some tools and explain how to use them in order to identify and analyze opportunities to capture and drive conversions. They discuss usability testing methodologies and help you plan and pave a path to Website Awesome Town.

Keeping your “users” login/account information safe is a “must” on the to-do list of any library. SJSU speakers look at the challenges of keeping user data safe and their online activity private. Encryption provides basic security for website visitors, and most sites use HTTPS, an encrypted form of HTTP, to protect sensitive content such as passwords and e-commerce transactions. But it is not enough. Attack kits such as Firesheep and sslstrip have demonstrated just how easy it is to exploit gaps in encryption and compromise user privacy not just on social media sites, but on any web application, including library websites and OPACs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others urge us to use HTTPS all the time, on every page, for all content. Get the knowledge and tools you need to identify and plug the HTTPS gaps in library websites, OPACs, blogs, and other web applications so you can better safeguard the online privacy of your patrons and instill a strong sense of trust in the digital services your organization provides. Take away tips and best practices for HTTPS implementation and a list of free online tools you can use to test your website. Hoeppner explains how libraries can use Shibboleth to improve access to e-resources and protect an individual’s privacy. For most libraries, Shibboleth remains a mysterious, little-known alternative to EZ Proxy and IP recognition for authentication and access to e-resources. At first glance, the steep learning curve, unknown administrative requirements, and uncertain advantages can be daunting. Follow Hoeppner’s footsteps as she learned Shibboleth basics and jargon, took implementation steps for librarians and for IT, and reached out to users, and grab her lessons learned and options for expressing the value of the effort to administrators.

There are several reasons for libraries to reduce and de-accession their collections: space issues, collective borrowing agreements among consortia, duplicate copies, preservation, and digitization of monographs and serials. As libraries gain more digital collections, they are reducing their physical collections through weeding. If libraries want to recoup their losses from discards, they can sell discarded/ withdrawn library books on Amazon and use the money to finance technology initiatives. Hear about one library’s experiment to see how much money could be raised by selling books on Amazon. This session discusses the processes to choose, evaluate, and post books to Amazon; the ways of selling on Amazon; how to create an Amazon seller account; and discovering that some of the books that are being discarded are more than 100 years old, others are out-of-print and/ or rare, but some buyers on Amazon want the content of the books and don’t necessarily care about condition.

Using Google’s powerful Fusion Tables tool, you can turn a run-of-the mill CONTENTdm collection into something remarkable. Fusion Tables makes it simple to use geographic information such as addresses from a collection to create an interactive, engaging map that can be embedded in a website, LibGuide, or CONTENTdm collection. Best of all, the process is completely free and doesn’t require any programming ability! See how a simple collection of historic photos was transformed into an exciting visual representation of a city’s past. Even if your library doesn’t use CONTENTdm, you’ll still learn about the process of geocoding and see how easy it is with Fusion Tables.

Digitization of an historical 16mm film of the re-opening of an excavation site at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is one of many examples of content items driving the importance and visibility of the library and archives for a museum’s digital presence. This is being done through the California Audio Visual Preservation Project, which is focused on capturing, preserving, and making accessible the fast deteriorating audiovisual resources in research institutions’ collections. With funding from a number of sources, including IMLS and the California State Library, a variety of research institutions in academia, museums, and archives are participating in this project. Hear the strategies, challenges, and successes as the project pushes for the final product being online in the Internet Archive.

Gone are the days of “vanity press.” Today we are ushering in a new era in reading where self-published, serialized fiction is becoming an increasingly popular way to consume stories. JukePop gives self-published authors the platform to easily distribute their “live” ebooks one chapter at a time to libraries. JukePop uses community reading behavior data (i.e., crowdsourcing) to quantitatively determine story quality and demographic appeal, at no cost to either author or reader. Libraries then apply their own set of selection criteria to curate a smaller and more applicable set of ebooks for their communities. This helps libraries deal with the growing number of self-published authors while being able to bring fresh ebooks quickly to their community. Hear how one library teamed up to offer librarian-curated JukePop stories on its website. Speakers discuss their partnership and future plans to include librarian reviews of JukePop content on the JukePop website.

Digital repositories most often collect traditional materials, such as theses, articles and images that do not require unique workflows or practices. The first talk discusses how his library dealt with nontraditional materials such as 3D models, embeddable media, student exhibits, and other unique works. Whether due to new file formats, visual effects, or certain aspects of performance art, there are certain items that require unique expertise and innovative design. Get tips and tricks from our speaker for doing this in your environment. The need for providing information concerning copyright permissions should be part of any academic library’s instructional suite of services. The second presentation discusses curating images for visual research. It describes an image management system with Fedora which provides students and faculty with a comprehensive secured as well as open access approach to still and moving images.

This session shows what’s new with mashups, how they can be used and shares examples from libraries around the world. Hear about easy-to-use tools to mash up library data with content from the web to reach more patrons. Examples include using maps to enhance library data, using IFTTT to curate and publish content and creating library websites with data from several information sources.

This session shares studies showing that brains are being rewired like never before and discusses how the new rewired brain and the population variation of multi-level Digital Natives mixed with digital immigrants are affecting how librarians need to contend, teach, and offer new ways of presenting and offering information literacy, resources, and even reinventing the physical library space. Gamification, “info-trainment,” touchability, selfies, interactivity, and visuals abound. See how libraries and librarians can integrate these new demands for the rewired, yet help fill areas where that rewired brain is getting “weakened.” Learn why traditional and nondigital librarianship from your “momma’s library” is still important to integrate in this new digital library ecosystem.

With the advent of new technologies and digital content, user experiences (UX) from companies such as Netflix and Amazon have diverged from those offered by cultural institutions. The consumer media world has radically changed expectations of the baseline digital UX, and libraries are exploring ways to become consumer media distributors. As media becomes increasingly more mobile, questions about the future of libraries arise: What is at risk if libraries cannot deliver the “Amazon experience”? How do cultural institutions “fit” as publishers and curators? The disjointed environment of the library’s digital experience has made one thing clear: Libraries must adapt to Darwinian principles and evolve. Public and private partnerships are producing stunning digital experiences for library patrons that rival those delivered by the top consumer media companies. Those same collaborative efforts offer cultural institutions the opportunity to control editorial decisions while leveraging software companies to deliver a UX that meets modern consumer expectations and is future-proofed against a quickly changing mobile landscape. The presence of the library implies an inherent trust, a desire to provide information and access without bias—an area in which consumer media often falls short. This session explores the way BiblioBoard has addressed the importance of mobile customer UX, working with leading cultural institutions and libraries worldwide, and the changing nature of the cultural institution as publisher and curator.

How do startups think? Come learn the fundamentals of “startup thinking” and see how this can be put into practice in your library. This active learning session focuses on key lean startup concepts such as customer development, the business model canvas, the value proposition, the build-measure-learn cycle, and minimum viable product. It also shares the results of the world’s first Start Up Weekend for Libraries held earlier this year. You’ll be surprised at the process and thinking from that event which developed interesting new library services and products at that event!

Libraries are positioned in their communities to excel, and many have extended their leadership beyond the library. Hear from a number of librarians who have taken their skills beyond the library into community management. They share their experience in building community-wide websites, managing art and culture as well as convention centers, and they relate how they influence their communities’ digital destiny!

Stephens explores the experiences and insights of LIS professionals who participated in “The Hyperlinked Library MOOC” offered by SJSU School of Library and Information Science in 2013. He shares highlights from an ongoing research project to evaluate and refine the MOOC. The research demonstrates large scale professional development on a global level is a distinct possibility. Even before the popularity of the massive open online course (MOOC) format our second presenter’s organization offered online classes through a Moodle based online learning system; they just weren’t very popular. As the popularity of MOOCs took off, so did the interest in a newly updated, self-paced class on basic online searching. Hear about its experience with a MOOC aimed at librarians interested in enhancing their search skills, strategies used to make the class self-paced and self-grading, as well as methods to help participants reach their digital destiny by keeping them engaged and active in the online format.

In 2013, The Royal Society of Canada established an Expert Panel on the Future of Libraries and Archives. Composed of eight Canadians, two Europeans, and one American, the panel’s final report is being released this fall. Hear from a panel member about their exhaustive process with hundreds of submissions and open hearings across the country. Roberts shares the key messages and recommendations that are applicable to libraries and archives anywhere. The panel hopes its report unites the stratified, silo-oriented world of librarianship and archives around a renewed understanding of our role and importance to a strong and productive citizenry.

Tired of seeing your students sit in front of a computer while your library’s books collect dust on the shelves? Turn their fondness for the online world to your advantage by highlighting your library’s offerings with the latest technological tools. Discover and explore the Reading 2.0 Wiki (readingtech.wikispaces.com/) with one of its creators.

Now that you have selected an ebook platform(s) and have a collection in the works, it’s time to get the word out to students and teachers about how to access and use these wonderful resources. At Greenhill School, staff have utilized their library website, Twitter account, blogs, QR codes, class instruction, weekly newsletters, and their library app to promote the ebook collection. For the most part, these are free resources that are easy to use and implement in any school setting.

School libraries are in a constant state of change. Learn how to lead the change by involving constituents in creative brainstorming activities that can help guide your strategic planning process and lead your library in new directions based on student, teacher, parent, and administrator input. Participants in this active session can discover creative brainstorming techniques and thinking exercises to put into practice in a variety of situations.

How does a school library serve its community in the quest to implement Common Core Standards? Arriaga and Simons explore this question through the lens of its own library and learning commons’ efforts, which include tailoring professional development programs, rethinking collection development, and adding a makerspace to their learning commons. They will also discuss publishers’ strategies to address Common Core Standards and supportive online resources.

From Google’s Ngram Viewer to Twitter Trends, from the World Bank to Google Public Data Explorer, the prevalence of (and its analysis and collection) is a brave new world for school librarians to understand and use. With Big Data becoming increasingly ubiquitous and easy to use, there is a role for librarians to teach their students how to access and manipulate “raw” data for their work as well as how to understand the basics of how the world around them is using Big Data. In addition to highlighting how Big Data can enrich their research, librarians are also crucial in reminding students about its potential pitfalls. Finally, the increasing ease of access of data collection tools (from SurveyMonkey to Google Forms) means that data analysis (done right!) is a good teachable skill that librarians can introduce to students for both school work and everyday life.

In its 20th year, the Lee’s Summit North library is evolving from a 20th-century LMC into a mobile learning center for the future. The presenters detail how librarians re-envisioned a space to better meet current and future technologies on a limited budget, highlight a number of presentation and ebook products currently used to increase student learning and motivation, and discuss plans to keep the library relevant during the next 20 years.