Thursday, October 18, 2018

After seeing the potential for libraries as an agent of change at the Computers in Libraries 2018 conference, this experienced industry leader provides strategies for how we can create greater impact in the communities we serve. After leading marketing and sales for Fortune 500 companies as well as non-profits, Schramm now consults with organizations to create tangible outcomes during times of change. She provides pragmatic approaches to help tightly align new strategies with your marketing efforts to speed impact. Using a customer centric approach, she helps organizations clarify their messages, navigate stakeholder communities, and engage employees, customers, and partners to move them to action. Get strategies, insights, and practical methods to increase confidence and impact in your community, whether you are part of an academic campus, a city or town, a government department, hospital or a business!

Palo Alto City Library is taking the lead in exploring how nascent robot technologies can be applied in library programs. The effort started from last year’s Pacific Library Partnership Innovation Grant. The library is experimenting with a humanoid robot named Dewey. Dewey is coded to tell stories, carry out dance routines, take photos, send emails, strike smart conversations with third-party APIs, and do many more things. Dewey has performed in various programs and events, such as story times, introductory coding classes, and community conversations. Our experience has shown that robots and libraries are a great match, with customers from a wide range of age groups enjoying the opportunities to engage with a robot. Get the basics of how to start similar robot-embedded programs at libraries, and hear lessons learned in advocating coding and robot technologies to the public.

From their internal drone flying obstacle course and their musical stairs to their historical augmented reality overlays and innovative organization of knowledge, and their extreme focus on equitable access, robots, distributed community, and knowledge creation, the Dedham Public Library is a leader in developing best practices with an eye to the 22nd century. Come learn what the library is up to and leave with plenty of ideas to bring back to your community and libraries.

Reference has long been the hallmark of library services, and while at a distance, it has served us well, the bucket was too full. Armed with a strategic plan and university approval, Walden Library leadership altered and transformed its one-to-one services in 2017. The first talk describes the service models used and the transformation of the library highlighting renewed staff engagement and shares innovative models for high-level research services and outreach to doctoral students and faculty as well as other students. Our second speaker asks: Given carte blanche, how would you design digital services for your library? She offers examples of how one academic library is developing a new suite of digital library services by investing in librarian skill sets and capitalizing on existing university-community and librarian-faculty relationships. Examples offered include technologically retooling a former access services and instruction librarian, pursuing an environmental scan of student and faculty research activities, and considering data partners such as the National Park Service and newly hired faculty working in digital scholarship. Hear lessons learned and get recommendations based on size, service population, and scalability.

In 2016, RHPL needed to replace 22 OPAC computer stations. Although OPAC stations are used frequently by the customers, user sessions were brief due to the nature of its function. Increasing use of personal devices to access the online catalog and the introduction of a mobile app for catalog searching diminished the need of catalog-searchingonly-stations. In addition, OPAC stations took significant footprint in highly used spaces in the library. Considering these challenges, the library turned them into opportunities by creating a project to convert OPAC stations to Discovery stations. Discovery kiosks strategically located throughout the building encourage interaction. Touchscreen kiosks have welcome screens to discover library services including the online catalog, programs and events, floor plans, and FAQs. When users are not interacting with the kiosk, the screen displays images, video, and flyers functioning like promotional digital signage. Launched earlier this year, the project anticipates an increase in the number of OPAC sessions searching library materials, enrichment of customer choices with more options to find library resources and services, and the creation of intuitive and interactive customer experience. Come hear the results!

Whether you already have a makerspace or are ready to start developing one, this mini-workshop is filled with ideas and strategies to move forward. Filled with tips and techniques, our experienced speakers give you all you need to get started with a makerspace in your area and to move it into becoming a solve space! They share challenges such as dealing with tech and funding, present real-world examples, and inspire you with the impact of their initiatives.

The first talk discusses an interdisciplinary faculty team from the library and industrial technology departments at Allan Hancock College who successfully applied for and won a $350,000 grant to build a makerspace from the ground up, courtesy of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. Without a dedicated space, but with great drive, the team began from scratch, reaching out to the community, arranging paid student internships, working collaboratively across the disciplines (from the library to industrial tech to fine arts, electronics to culinary arts to graphics, and more). It is an ongoing collaborative venture and is starting to catch the attention of the larger community. The second presentation focuses on the Creative Media Studio at CSUN’s Oviatt Library, which like other makerspaces, has been a success doing work outside of its walls in exploring and building the maker culture around campus. From events and workshops to classes that explore interdisciplinary learning, maker culture is not, and should not be, restricted to the walls of a makerspace. Presenters not only focus on why having a makerspace is an important step in fomenting innovation, but also on how academic libraries can embrace other strategies to support and encourage campus innovation. Get insights and ideas to develop similar programs on your campus or within your community.

As libraries continue to evolve, what is after makerspaces? What can we learn from others (CES, SXSW, etc)? What should libraries be looking toward in the future? Should they focus on the collection of information, building community repositories, educating and training communities of skills? This session covers ideas to help take your library to a new level. If you are a forward thinker, want to take a few risks, and really expand what a library can do, this is an interactive for you. Let’s brainstorm and build the library of tomorrow.

Harden and Price were inspired by two sessions at the 2017 Internet Librarian conference to adopt new strategies that demonstrate the value of the library as a contributor to student learning and success. Their story begins with a simple email to the vice provost requesting his approval to transfer dedicated monograph acquisition funds to purchase textbooks as library reserves. This email not only rekindled an initiative to reduce student textbook costs, but also led to invitations to speak at Deans’ Council, Faculty Council, and then to the faculty as a whole. Realizing the door was now open, and with the encouraged support of new administrators, they established new priorities: 1) illuminate hidden pathways for faculty as they explore options to find more affordable learning resources for students; 2) create information literacy portals that introduce library resources and services into all modes of delivery; and 3) eliminate barriers to deeper assessment that help frame the library’s connection to student success. Hear how they partnered with faculty to expand textbook reserves, maximize the use of existing library resources, and help faculty identify, adopt, adapt, and create open educational resources (OER); how they collaborated with faculty to incorporate info lit modules into traditional, online, and competency-based course curricula; and how they work with campus partners to expose hidden learning analytics. Full of tips on getting librarian’s roles and expertise recognized and marketing/re-educating administrators and faculty on the value librarians add to teaching and research.

Every service a library offers, and every task staff perform is an investment for the library. A library’s service and content portfolios must be managed in the same way that a healthy financial portfolio is managed: Divest in one area to invest in another. Jones describes a simple “portfolio management tool” that can help libraries identify what services, tasks, and content purchases can be stopped, started, or continued, and how public and academic libraries have stopped doing things to make way for higher-valued efforts. Soto-Barra presents the incredible changes and achievements for NPR’s RAD since RAD stopped doing “this” to turn their attention to “that.”

Imagine having a Google-Analytics-style dashboard for your library building: number of visits, what patrons browsed, what parts of the library were busy during which parts of the day, and more. Measure the Future, with a Knight Foundation grant, is working to make that happen by using open hardware-based sensors that can collect data about building usage that is now invisible. Making these invisible occurrences explicit will allow librarians to make strategic decisions that create more efficient and effective experiences for their patrons. Hear more from the librarian behind this initiative!

Thanks to the recent emphasis on evaluation, measurement and ROI, many libraries have successfully integrated evaluation practices into workflows. Unfortunately, many have been focusing on metrics that don’t inform their practice or make libraries better. Metrics such as circulation, program attendance, and technology use give us data about library activities, but don’t tell us anything about why people visited the library, if they accomplished their goals during their visit, or what would have improved the experience. Moving beyond counting activities to establishing new, meaningful metrics demonstrates how we are improving the organization, our culture, and the community and communicates and educates these values to stakeholders. Explore how meaningful metrics that are connected to the strategic plan can be implemented to measure social impact, and subsequently tell stakeholders about library value.

This session shares insights gained from planning and creating content for a large-scale, immersive digital video screen in Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library. Constructed in 2017 in tandem with a new, technology-rich digital commons space, the video wall is a 28-foot-wide, high-definition video screen located in a previously empty and disused area. A dramatic and prominent centerpiece to the library’s atrium, it is immediately visible to the many people who pass through the library every day. Librarians from the newly formed DCT were tasked with crafting a content strategy for the video wall, planning and producing original content, and curating content from a range of sources, including digital artists and filmmakers. Working from a guiding vision of a visual experience that emulates the serendipity of browsing a bookshelf in a library, DCT librarians sought to establish the video wall as a space for immersive digital storytelling and minimizing its use for more conventional promotion of library programs and services. To the greatest extent possible, the DCT has sought to tell a compelling visual story that feels relevant to the general viewer. As the wall approaches its first anniversary, the DCT plans to commission work from emerging artists, including interactive and generative works, and to focus on the development of the video wall as a premier venue for the display of digital art in Los Angeles. In addition to sharing the DCT’s approach to content for their video wall, this session discusses the significance of this being a librarian-directed effort and explores more broadly the rapidly expanding world of immersive displays, digital signage, and narrative architectural lighting as a potential site for librarianship.

Digital content curation alongside print can provide new avenues of user experience. When the U of T’s Rare Book Library was launching an exhibition featuring the largest collection of Allen Ginsberg photographs in the world, the challenge was to display as many of the photos it could within its physical space. This case study discusses the process of adding touchscreen kiosk technology to an exhibition space. Incorporating iPads allows curators the flexibility to offer an enhanced user experience: from additional images of books and archival material, to multimedia. A library team collaborated with IT services, along with facilities management and conservation staff, to implement four iPads into an exhibition that featured over 80 photographs. Triumphs, and unexpected barriers, are shared. Helpful tips and a roadmap for those planning their own iPad integration projects is included.

This mini-workshop focuses on the use of video to connect with customers (students, patrons, teens). King explores the emerging and easy-to-use live streaming tools available to today’s librarian. He examines and suggests uses for Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and live streaming on Instagram, and Periscope, which allows you to go live on Twitter. Norlin focuses on consistent digital video creation for libraries since more than 1.5 billion people visit YouTube every month and spend more than an hour a day watching YouTube on their mobile devices alone. Creating consistent video content continues to bring a great opportunity to increase loyal fans. Norlin discusses the nuts and bolts of creating content and walks through each stage of the process with tips to keep things budget friendly: demystifying video editing to make life easier to produce more content.; YouTube channel optimization, including four crucial checklist items that gets your video noticed; how to increase “call to action” to get more view, likes and subscribers; and which “venues” get the top views on YouTube and how you can tailor videos to match research trends. Our JoVE speaker focuses on visualizing complex scientific methods with video, helping students learn faster and retain the knowledge longer. An independent study showed that students who watched just 5 minutes of a video before their lab classes scored up to two times better on quizzes than peers who just used text preparation materials. Hear more about the study, get tips and best practices for implementing video as supplemental curriculum material, and get a glimpse of new, video-based technologies that could continue to change the way science is taught. Nelson discusses the development, application and evaluation of a patron-centric video creation space which is a powerful teaching tool and means by which patrons can develop a major skill set for 21st-century personal and career success. Learn how to budget, purchase, create, and manage a patron-centric video creation space and how that space and program can be used for mutually beneficial purposes. Highlights include samples of patron-created videos such as short information literacy and digital social responsibility public services announcements as well as video-based readers’ reviews and advisories.

The Smart City phenomenon has gained momentum in regions, cities, and neighborhoods all over the world. Public and private entities are working together and navigating emerging opportunities that are now available with increased technological capabilities, hoping to make their communities both safe and efficient for citizens and the environment. Hear how two public libraries are part of their City’s Smart City initiatives, how one academic library is designing a smart campus, and how the Smart City agenda is an opportunity for libraries to add value and raise their profile as leaders in digital inclusion and digital literacy.

Hear from the first Canadian public library to launch a second ebook platform offering only popular titles, no holds, and a 7-day loan period. Abbott and Hoffman share the project’s goals, implementation, customer service implications and lessons learned from managing two curated ebook collections. The cost of licensing ebooks continues to be a significant challenge for libraries, so looking at innovative ways to increase access to ebooks, foster competition in the ebook marketplace and improve fiscal sustainability is critical! MacKinnon discusses SimplyE, an IMLS-funded opensource e-reading app developed by libraries for libraries. It simplifies the library user experience in finding, borrowing and reading the ebooks libraries purchase from multiple vendors by streaming all library ebooks—from Overdrive, Bibliotheca, Axis360, enki Library, RBdigital, Odilo, and more—into a single app. Developed by New York Public Library and made available to California libraries through Califa, come hear about the libraries that have deployed SimplyE and the benefits they are seeing for library patrons, acquisitions and ebook circulation!

Public libraries play critical roles in many areas, two of which are helping people with digital literacy skills and helping people access and use quality health information. This session explores how public libraries are working in partnership with other community organizations to meet these important challenges. Case studies and key learnings from libraries nationwide offer examples and strategies you can use in your own digital literacy, consumer health, or other programming. Speakers from the Public Library Association and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine show how working with community partners can leverage new assets and strengthen the library’s programs, from planning and marketing through execution and evaluation. Along the way, attendees also learn about valuable resources for teaching digital literacy, offering health reference, and conducting health-related programs.

Connecting with our communities, looking ahead, taking advantage of partnerships, understanding demographics. As Internet librarians and and information professionals, what are our biggest challenges and opportunities for the future? Our panel from different communities share their thoughts and ideas and hopefully spark some insights for experimenting and trying something new in your community.