Check out his slideshare and turn your speakers on. (Set aside 1:24:00)

Future of Library User Experience

ULC Webinar.com

Check out the #ULCTalk on Twitter for particpant comments.

Three pieces of good advice:

1. Watch three people use your site. (Don't ask them anything until they're done.)
2. Draw or build one webpage. (Outside your current architecture. Use WordPress)
3. Play with a free open tool. (FreeBase, Google Squared, Open Library, Google Wave Preview)
It's all good.

Stephen

I had a fun time doing a creativity workshop at SLA where we explored ways to embrace and encourage our own creativity through play and working the less used portions of our brains and consciousness.

I loved this posting from The Heart of Innovation Blog.

100 Ways to Be More Creative on the Job

Print it out and post it over your desk. Try each one at least once over three months and see if you're more creative at the end. I think you will be.

I have a lot of deliverables like speeches, presentations, white papers, workshops, columns, blog postings, and articles. All of these require that I rise above writer's block and feeling uninspired to get done. I do find that my creativity is unblocked by the following:

a. Touring an art gallery
b. Visiting a museum
c. Sitting in a garden in bloom
d. Walking through a neighbourhood
e. Listening to my iPod
f. Talking to kids
g. Listening to seniors' stories
h. Write a blog posting
i. Play with the cat (or dog)
j. Read a poem (I like haiku since I have a short attention span)
k. Watch a short YouTube video
l. Call a friend I haven't talked to in a while
m. Go to a play
n. Go to a concert
o. Ask youself how your issue is like an alligator, rose or skunk.

Some of this stuff is just about being balanced. Maybe balance is a prerequisite to creativity.

What works for you?

Stephen

Blogging as a Special Librarian

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(MS Word format)

Stephen

Download file

He explains it here in his posting: Blogs are Out of Beta, But Bloggers Should Always Be in Beta this way:

"The image above is one of the most important graphics I have ever seen. In fact I stare at it every day on my desktop to remind me that a) there will always be shifts in media and b) one format never supersedes another."

I know that the entertainment industry is much larger than it was when I was a kid and very much larger than when my parents were little and paying nickels to go to the movies. Every new format added rather than replaced - even if video killed the radio star!

Then again you can feel free to shut down your Archie, Veronica and Gopher servers. And try selling that old 8Track player on eBay.

Stephen

Quite a few people are pointing to this video and I think it's a good investment of two minutes.

What is the future of the library? from Guy Adam Ailion

Quite a few good concepts packed into two minutes.

What is the future of the library?

Everywhere is here.

Stephen

Preparing for the New Media Literacies

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Stephen

Here's my April/May Information Outlook column:

The New Normal

Download file

Stephen

If you want to be Canadian for a day, watch this fantastic video and you'll be trained:

So you want to be Canadian . . .

Of course, you'll need to like getting your milk in bags, eat poutine, apologize for Celine Dion, tear up at Canadian Tire commercials, and more.

Have a great day, eh.

Stephen

IMLS Publishes FY 2007 Public Libraries Survey Report

"The report includes a number of key findings to assist the library community, and policymakers, at the local, state, and national level, in making decisions to better their communities.

- The growth in per capita circulation from FY 2006 to FY 2007 was a continuation of the steady growth that has occurred since FY 2000. Per capita circulation grew from 6.4 materials per person to 7.4 materials per person from FY 2000 to FY 2007, an increase of 16 percent.
- Nationwide, visits to public libraries totaled 1.4 billion, or 4.9 library visits per capita, a small increase from the 4.8 visits per capita that were made during FY 2006. As in the case of per capita circulation, this is a continuation of a larger, longer upward trend. Per capita visitation increased from 4.2 to 4.9 between FY 1998 and FY 2007, an overall increase of 17 percent (Figure 1).
- In FY 2007, total nationwide circulation of public library materials was 2.2 billion, or 7.4 materials circulated per capita; these were slight increases from the 2.1 billion total materials and 7.3 materials per capita that were circulated during FY 2006.
- Internet terminals available for public use in public libraries nationwide numbered 208,000, or 3.6 per 5,000 people. These were increases from the previous year’s figures of 196,000 total terminals and 3.4 terminals per 5,000 people.
- Nationwide circulation of children’s materials was 739.7 million, or 34 percent of total circulation during FY 2007. Attendance at children’s programs was 59.0 million in FY 2007, up from 57.6 million the prior year.

The FY 2007 survey is the 20th in the series. On October 1, 2007 responsibility for the PLS was transferred from to IMLS from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), along with the State Library Agencies Survey. The U.S. Census Bureau collects the data under a contract with IMLS. The survey’s extraordinary response rate results from the cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, IMLS, and the Census Bureau."

For more information on library statistics, visit http://www.imls.gov/statistics.

The report is available in PDF format. http://harvester.census.gov/imls/pubs/pls/index.asp

Stephen

Apparently they're doing much the same as the rest of us - except possibly it's the rest of us who caught up to the early adopters.

Here are some of the US teen things reported by Nielsen:

1. Social networks play an increasingly important roles in the lives of teens

2. Teens consume a lot of non-connected media too, such as TV, radio and even newspapers. Of course, watching the kids I know, this might be all doe at the same time!

3. "According to Nielsen, teenagers are far from abandoning TV for so-called new media. In fact, television viewing rates among U.S. teens have actually gone up 6% in the last five years. Sure, they browse the Web a lot, but far less than you do. The average time spent browsing for an adult person in the United States comes down to about 29 hours and 15 minutes per month. While I reach that average almost on a daily basis, teens are said to browse the Web a lot less than that: 11 hours and 32 minutes per month on average."

TechCrunch asked why teens spend less time online than adults. I'd suggest that the disconnected state of high school classrooms and the connected nature of most adult jobs easily accounts for this.

4. "if you’re between 25 and 34 years old, you watch online videos about 35% more than teens do (and they don’t have to go to the office every weekday)

5. Teenagers enjoy video games, but they don’t necessarily carry a particular interest in ones that are violent of nature

6. Teens who recall advertising are 44% more likely to say they liked the ads than adults (ok now I’m scared)

7. 1 out of 4 teens reads newspapers daily

8. one last takeaway from the report is that teens evidently have their favorite TV shows, websites and genre preferences … only they’re almost exactly the same as their parents."

You can download the report over at NielsenWire, or consult the embedded file at the bottom of the TechCrunch post.

I think the Nielsen report shows that it's no longer about teens and the new normal is fully here. What's next?

For a start I'd watch for:

a. Significantly more mobile search in North America (the Jackson death created a huge mobile search spike).

b. Extra special features being added to the social networks to take them to the next level.

c. Interactive TV now that the TV broadcast system is totally digital and able to accept two-way communication. Watch for the Fall network sweeps weeks to be interactivity on steroids. I don't just mean reality TV or the dancing and singing competitin shows. In a couple of years we'll be choosing plotlines.

Next station arriving on the web. No one can get off this time.

Stephen

Stephen

ALA is there for everyone again.

U.S. Public Libraries and E-Government Services [PDF] is a new issue brief from the American Libraries Association (ALA). From the press release announcement:

Roles of public library technology in supporting E-government highlighted in new issues brief

“Public libraries often are the only organizations within a community that can help individuals interact with government agencies and access e-government services,” said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. “As more and more government information and services are becoming only available online, there is an urgent need for governments to collaborate with public libraries to provide e-government services that best meet community needs.”

Stephen

They're often the perfect mix of conversations with family, close friends, new friends and acquaintances.

Read this Bivings posting first:

Demystifying the Social Medianess – Unselfish Communication

What makes us social?

Bivings suggests that when we are social, we talk, communicate, share ideas, give advice, help, listen, swap recipes, share sports scores, tell stories, etc.

Now think about your social presence on the digital world and your identity there. Is there any relationship at all? I find mine is pretty close. My friends in real life are often friends on my social sites. My family is there, mostly. And there are quite a few colleagues and other acquaintances.

Anyway, I always enjoy the Summer long weekends. It's fun to see how things are moving closer together.

What are you sharing at the Summer BBQ that your share around the water cooler and also online?

Has it changed over the last five years with the emergence of social networking sites? At least Facebook doesn't remember your toilet training disasters or high school disappontments like family does! My advice, try to hide the family pictures before they show up there... (grin).

Have a great weekend.

Stephen

"The George Lucas Educational Foundation recently launched an exciting new website -- Digital Generation -- which offers a wealth of videos which will be relevant to anyone who wants to better understand the new media literacies, participatory culture, and young people's online lives, themes which recur here with great frequency."

Digital Generation

Watch the videos. I was enthralled.

Cool researcher interviews like the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning initiatives, including Katie Salen, Howard Gardner, Sasha Barab, John Palfrey, James Paul Gee, Henry Jenkins, and Mimi Ito.

Then there are the kids - It's like watching a focus group behind the two-way mirror. Voyeuristic research.

Stephen

Anyway, some library systems do annual reports and there have been some great innovations there too. However, ALS has gone one step further and published the ALS Trends Report. It's on their website and they've done a presentation to their boards and funders.

2009 ALS Trends Report Released

"Annually, the Alliance staff write a report highlighting the main socioeconomic and demographic trends that impact libraries. It includes the major trends, changes in the Illinois’ demography and the very popular Watch List that points to the 26 most interesting libraries in North America."

(29 page PDF)

I recommend reading it for the content as well as an example of something that educates your communities about the role and challenges facing libraries today.

Congratulations on a great report to Kitty Pope and her team. Thanks for sharing.

Stephen

Here's the PowerPoints:

Innovation in Libraries: NOW more than ever

I had some great conversations with SirsiDynix clients and others about our mutual future.

Stephen