Wednesday, October 17, 2018

We think we’re creating programs, services, and software. But we’re not. We are agents of change. Our systems shape belief and behavior at scale. Experience isn’t enough. Methods, metrics, culture, and governance are shifting. As we strive to make sense of artificial intelligence, digital strategy, and the Internet of Things, it’s never been more vital to think expansively about how we organize the future. In this spirited talk about the design of paths and goals, Peter Morville builds upon his famous “polar bear book” to reframe vision, strategy, process, and the information architecture of time; and draws from his latest book, Planning for Everything, to reveal four principles and six practices essential for shaping the future.

Many organizations do not have any sort of system for managing internal information enterprise-wide. Our experienced content manager discusses five aspects to consider when starting a content management (CM) program. Content has a value to an organization in the same way that software or cash does. If employees in organizations cannot find the information or content they need to complete mission-critical tasks, what is that lack of findability costing the organization? If people have to redo work because they can’t find a template or model, what is the cost of that hidden content? One expert suggests that if 15 minutes per day could be saved in more organized information, $625,000 per 1,000 employees would be saved. Can you streamline and save money in your organization?

Kopecky describes one college library’s efforts to begin digitizing a family estate archive that was gifted to the college from its namesake family. Staff began from scratch to learn about how to best organize and begin the process of converting to digital. Along the way, they researched best practices and sought local and far-away partners. The process is ongoing, but they want to share their experiences, learnings and excitement for where it will go. In the second presentation, Sarnowski agrees that pushing local videos to YouTube is great for discovery and display, but what are you doing to maintain them over time? He discusses archiving for YouTubers and looks into multimedia formats, metadata and preservation tips. He shares tips, knowledge, and software to keep important materials properly archived.

This experienced panel of practitioners explores the why and how of providing access to web archives. After an overview of the options and technical components for providing access, our speakers discuss why and how their institutions provide access to web archive content, and who their core audience is. In the process, they delve into their specific case studies including their decision-making process and workflows.

Weiss looks at the intersection of the world of big data and libraries, with a special emphasis on user privacy. The impetus for tracking and assessing students and users is the promise of better service. But what are the limitations of big data itself? What are the implications and limitations of assessing student performance in the library through big data tracking techniques? What negative impact to patron privacy occurs in the era of big data, and how do libraries protect it? What changes must be made to library privacy policies to better accommodate privacy and surveillance concerns? These and other issues are discussed.

A chance conversation with a grad student in 2017 led to a partnership in building a digital archive of video interviews, transcripts, and still images designed to fill an important gap in military policy research. The team started small, and a willing librarian quickly found himself in deep waters, tasked with designing a full project plan, including ingestion workflows, a metadata schema, and an Omeka exhibit. This presentation maps the project from its inception to the present and highlights valuable resources collected from far-flung sources to provide a template for librarians interested in facilitating similar digital humanities projects.

Technology has changed the face of libraries and is continuing to change how we work and how we deliver services to our library customers. This session focuses on personal strategies you can follow to keep up with emerging technology trends and provides you with suggestions for how you can incorporate these trends into your library. King explores four major areas: why you should stay on top of technology trends, the trend watchers you should follow and how to follow them, practical ways to incorporate new technology trends into your library, and how to prepare for and know when not to pursue current trends. The goal is to help you become better prepared for technology changes now and in the future.

Drawing from his latest surveys and reports, Breeding shares librarians’ impressions of their integrated library systems and associated vendors, the systems currently in use by libraries to manage their collections and automate their operations, the shape of the industry due to mergers and acquisitions, and the development of new models of management and discovery systems. Always a highlight, this session brings you up-to-date with what’s happening in the library tech industry!

Get an introduction to the microservices architecture and how it differs from the monolithic style of software development. Microservices have emerged as the preferred approach for complex business applications deployed at massive scale. This architecture has increasingly been incorporated into new applications for libraries. Breeding provides perspective on how this style of software development and deployment will increasingly enter the library sphere.

Libraries are just beginning to explore blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. But the opportunities for libraries go beyond digital money. Blockchain is being explored as the backbone of a more free and open internet, as well as a means for authentication and for privacy and security. This mini-workshop discusses the possibilities for blockchain technology, including smart contracts, illustrates various ways the technology is being used today, and explores how libraries might apply blockchain to deal with intellectual property, scholarly publishing, and copying as well as managing users, ensuring patron privacy, expanding collections beyond our walls, and even helping to build the internet of the future.

Microsoft has gone through one of the greatest corporate transformations in history. Find out how the Microsoft Library team’s commitment to community, data, and trust has evolved the 35-year-old library and developed habits to experiment, fail fast, and learn fast. Get lots of ideas, strategies, and tips for evolving your library!

After looking into altmetrics a few years ago in an effort to assess and increase the reach of AARP’s research efforts, but unable to get buy-in from upper management, a change in leadership enabled moving ahead. They compared Plum Analytics and Altmetric from demos and landed with Altmetric. Spinner and Rasmussen wrestled with all the work required to be able to use the service: they needed DOIs on their research, which were new to them, and needed infrastructure in place on the pages as well. They identified hundreds of past reports to track and retrospectively add the necessary components for Altmetric. Now, a year into AARP’s relationship with Altmetric, they are up and running and watching their Altmetric attention scores rise. Senior leadership is thrilled with the story Altmetric tells about who engages with their research and how, and they plan to monitor attention scores in relation to social media campaigns and other media efforts to see effectiveness.

As trusted advisors, information professionals use research and relationship-building expertise to shape and develop their customers’ projects from inception to completion. After a review of the relationship pyramid model and key concepts from last year’s Trusted Advisor session, this year’s presentation takes the conversation a step further. How do you create a personal strategic plan to keep your partnerships growing? How do you create and manage embedded partnerships? How do you retain and deepen your existing partnerships while cultivating new ones? How do you rebuild when partnerships fall apart? Using personal experience and case studies, Barrows addresses how to stay agile as a trusted advisor, addressing the shifting nature of partner relationships and organizational needs. As the director of library services, Ford has grown the department from simply a legal research team, to a group that works on proposals, strategic plans, merger/growth targets, and as direct client advisors. Given the unique position of librarians and researchers as advisors and data analysts and their ability to use knowledge management tools to gather and analyze large amounts of data and trends, they can add value by advising our internal clients. Get tips and ideas!

This session shares lessons learned by the NASA Goddard Library in offering a new bibliometrics program for researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The library, which is under contract to the Cadence Group and Zimmerman Associates, Inc., has been recently renovated and reinvented, and awarded the 2016 FEDLINK Large Library of the Year. The bibliometrics program included training and research support, and required a significant amount of outreach and education; however, no additional staff was added to meet the demands of the new program. A customer’s small research project, creating comprehensive research portfolios for eight researchers, presented a prime opportunity to identify the scale and scope of offering bibliometrics as a library service. Get tips and insights from the piloting of a new library service focused on research assessment and learn how it might work in your environment.

In today’s environment of budget cuts and constraints, librarians need to continuously demonstrate the value of resources and services. While great for tracking metrics, spreadsheets don’t always capture the full picture of an organization’s offerings. MITRE’s InfoServices turned to Tableau visualization software to take a more in-depth look at its services. MITRE’s ability to tell a story, share metrics, and gain insight into its customer base has increased dramatically since using Tableau. Tableau has reduced the manual chore of developing information in a flat format, replacing it with dynamically generated content that can be filtered on-the-fly as MITRE looks at trends over time and across our services. Tableau enables MITRE to answer questions such as what research is being done, who is doing it, who is it done for and how often, is the whole company being reached or only parts of it, and are MITRE staff using all departments’ services or just one? MITRE’s use of Tableau has improved the communication of its value to customers, stakeholders, and senior management.

Thirty years ago, libraries dominated the information landscape. If you had a question, chances are you went to a library to find the answer. Fast-forward to today, and libraries are a small player in a crowded landscape, fighting for resources and funding, and in direct competition with a myriad of other players for that most precious of resources: people’s time. Join us to learn about models and tools we can use to refine our business model, improve our services and collections, and remain a viable source of information and support for our communities and stakeholders.

Research has shown that “making life better” is the No. 1 predictor of loyalty to a company, brand, or product, with rental companies as a hot growth vertical. We don’t own our music, movies, or formalwear anymore, yet libraries are the original lenders. How do we reclaim our territory? What strategies can we borrow from super-successful, cuttingedge companies that either trounce their competition or completely dominate because there is no one else like them? What would libraries have to do to make municipalities fight for them in a “Hunger Games” competition such as Amazon’s, where more than 230 cities tried to land their second headquarters location? We take look at the secret sauces of Amazon, Stitch Fix, 23andme, Rent the Runway, and others to see how libraries can learn from not only their triumphs but also their missteps. Then, we brainstorm about holes that need to be filled and how libraries can partner with innovators to assume those roles.

Working in a library can be tough, rewarding, and inspiring. We all need a little reminder of our impact and value every now and then to help us keep moving forward with our good work. In anticipation of their new book, It’s All About the Story, please join our popular and experienced speakers in an interactive storytelling session about the impact libraries have on the lives of the people we serve. They share stories from their book and invite you to share your inspirational library stories as well.

Whatever you call them, we can learn a lot from them!  Our speaker heads an organization focused on accessible online training.  He shares what he has learned from customers across thousands of libraries by watching over a million video tutorials. Get lots of tips and ideas for engaging your community and having a strong impact on their learning and improve their digital future.

Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools available to an internet librarian. But few of us have the time to master the advanced features while balancing other responsibilities. Learn the most important features of Google Analytics for libraries from an expert in digital marketing, then set goals and assign values to track ROI, identify and troubleshoot confusing pages on your website, use tags to evaluate marketing and outreach efforts, and consolidate database usage into a single dashboard. Buono discusses Google My Business, a free Google services that controls the business listing that appears on the right of a Google search. He shares best practices for creating and managing this listing, covers the basics of setting up the listing, and highlights the features every library must use and why it is important.

Your library is filled with stories of learning, of discovery, of exploration and of human connection. It’s time to start telling those stories. To that end, Jakes explores the importance of creating a messaging and storytelling program for your library. Learn how to create compelling videos that capture the role that the library plays in learning and in the lives of students. Learn proven storytelling techniques and have the opportunity to explore the very best technologies that are available to do this work. We also discuss how to use these capacities to support a more capable student video creation experience. Ramp up your storytelling and video creation skills in a single hour to become a teacher-librarianstoryteller-videographer!

Too often, students have little voice in the design of our libraries. How can we get input into our space design from our patrons, and what are they trying to tell us? Explore strategies and tech tools for gathering student input, and see the results of surveys and student impact.

A high school library went to the 1:1 model, increased student readership and enthusiasm about books, then underwent a renovation to create a flexible learning environment to support the new technology and methods of teaching. This session shares tips, best practices, successes and failures of 1:1, as well as how to merge the old library mission with new tech.

Digital citizenship education typically covers topics such as staying safe online, fighting cyberbullying, and copyright law awareness. Notably, many popular digital citizenship curricula are either created or funded by Silicon Valley companies. Engaged citizenship requires more than following rules and avoiding conflict—it means having the knowledge and agency to make society better. In order to be impactful citizens, our students need to understand the major forces that continue to reshape our society, economy, and information landscape. How can we prepare our students to tackle discriminatory algorithms, online harassment, the sharing economy, and digital threats to our democracy? Join us for an open-ended discussion about how we can rethink digital citizenship to prepare students to be change makers rather than just consumers.

The web now is far more than text. The volume of audio, video, and other types of multimedia is incredible. There are lots of new tools to search the masses of multimedia available. Our experienced and popular speaker shares the best tools for faster and easier access to the vast resources out there!

Artificial intelligence (AI) helps the learning curve for machines. Curiosity and knowing the location of endless resources support librarians. Get some facts in a fun atmosphere, see some interesting demos, watch the competition, and vote for the smartest! See Amazon Echo & Echo Dot Kids–Alexa, iPhone Siri, Google Home, and Dewey (Palo Alto City Library Robot) pitted against library industry stars! Bring your smart phone/computer too!