Apr 15th, 2009
What Are You Most Interested In At The Moment?
In doing presentations of the years, I’ve been really lucky to make friends and stay in touch with a few folks out there doing the real work in the libraries I visit. We’ll occasionally exchange emails and ideas and just keep track of each other. Today I got a message on facebook from one of those friends who is now preparing to teach a class in his library that will be somewhat similar to the session I presented to their lib a couple of years ago. How cool is that?! 
At any rate, this person asked if I had any suggestions or topics that are top of mind for me lately that they might be interested in using too. But of course! Here is the email I sent my friend. Maybe you’ll find it interesting too? Or perhaps you might have other/different ideas? We’d love to hear them here if you have any different ones to share!
Oh, and ______, if you want to do a conference presentation like this *with me* some time just say the word, k?
“Hey _______,
Always good to hear from you and glad we are keeping in touch as you keep things rolling with your library career. Super cool, man!
At the moment, I am especially keen on these things/concept. Not sure if they all fit your class, but they are all sparkly in my brain:
1. Ubiquitous computing
2. Mobile computing (not now but in 10-15 years)
3. Grooveshark.com (and its ilk like imeem.com)
4. freiendfeed as a model for the next iteration of social networking trends (this piggybacks on RSS in a way as I see aggregation being the thing will see this will all come together. I’ve been hollerin’ about aggregation being “it” for years, but until it get wrapped up in the right package it (and isnt called aggregation) it isnt gonna REALLY happen imo.
5. WebJunction, boyeee! lol
6. Acceptance of tools by wider society. It’s like the movies….before there were movies there was more live theater, right? The wider adoption of online tools is a similar sea change…but with serious implications for libraries in relation to:
7. Electronic content distribution and ACCESS. Media companies didn’t want libraries to circulate VHS tapes back in the day, right? Now they are finding and have found some ways (via hulu.com, netflix.com, amazon.com itunes, etc, etc) to effectively cut libraries out of the content distribution model on this “new” intwebs based platform. It is very disturbing and not being talked about or addressed sufficiently by our industry (and its something I hope to work on actually). Again, all my opinions here.
Hope that helps or at least sparks some thoughts. Always great to hear from you.
PS-I’m gonna blog this now. lol! :)”
Well Libraryman… our brains are in different places, but I’ll chime in here anyway. Since I resigned from editing Computers in Libraries, I’ve been a lot less concerned w/ technology. not that it’s not important! but I’ve now made more time to concentrate on my own library passion: marketing and promotion.
I try not to let folks forget that, no matter what your library has and how great it is, you need to tell people about it! you gotta communicate your lib’s greatness to different groups of people, always in ways that are appropriate to (that will be heard and digested by) each group. you know, target markets, communication channels, paying attention to customer needs, that whole thing.
I don’t know if this will fit into your friend’s work at all, but I hope so. We in libraryland have to give up the “If you build it, they will come” mindset, b/c it’s just not true. oh, sure, a few folks will always discover what you have, b/c they care and they’re looking for it. (or b/c you’ve done great SEO) but what of the thousands that don’t seek us out? It doesn’t do any good to spend thousands on value-added info and cool technology and brilliant info professionals if they are not all employed and enjoyed to their fullest potential. To achieve that, librarians need to pay a lot more attention to solid marketing practices and serious promotional work. (this is not only to draw in patrons, but to create advocates, to win or keep funding, to educate board members, etc.)
So that’s what I’m most interested in now; that’s what keeps me up at night. And (full disclosure:) that’s what I’ve just written a book about. The best library projects might still fail w/o good marketing. It is the Alpha and the Omega…
OK, not quite. now I’m just getting carried away. ;->
Wolfram | Alpha as a new reference source. This will be available in May and I can’t wait until I see this work.
For more on this:
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/ai/wolframalpha-searching-truth