Post on 09-May-2015
EXPECT MORE: The Library Story
Thursday May 15, 2014Los Angeles Public LibraryStephen Abram, MLS
Stop the Insanity
Tech is a toolTech is an opportunityInnovation involves riskThe biggest risk is not taking any.
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Stop Having and Engaging in BS Discussions
• Libraries are more relevant than ever• We have no good reason to be on the defence• Reading is UP• E-Books aren’t replacing p-Books - the dynamic is a new hybrid
marketplace• E-Books have benefits that p-Books don’t• Librarians are being hired and doing well• Change is our tradition• This new normal requires specialized professionals like us.
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Comprehensive Digital Strategies: More than just Content!
Digital is more complicated than Print.
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Biggest Issue: Getting Lost in the Reeds
Understand the difference between Search and Find
• Roy Tennant and I have been saying for years: “Users want to find not search”. • Librarians enjoy the challenge of search and try to create mini-librarians.• Information literacy is different than contextual information fluency.•The user experience is mostly “elsewhere”.• Learning, research and decision-making processes trump search.
Understand the difference between the roles of discovery services and native search
• Search is the identification of potential objects to read or view in either a known item retrieval scenario or – more importantly – an immersion environment where choices are made.• Until recently, we handled immersion environments in the context of defined subsets of content (a single database or small group).• Discovery services are one step before search – the identification and discovery of the resources (databases) that are worth searching.
The Field Mapping Failure
And the Algorithm Understanding Failure
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The power of algorithm is in the target user needs, the institutional needs, and the behavioral history
. . . Not the underlying content
Are there any real national initiatives to understand and differentiate library end user behaviors from Google commercial constructs? (yes but …)
Get the naming and labeling right
• Vendors must develop unique names and brands for their services to meet positioning, marketing and sales needs to you.• There is no need for you to fall in line and pass through these names – or worse try to train end users to know hundreds of them!• Can anyone defend using these titles to be the single most important label for end users? MLA, Scopus, Compendex, ABI/Inform . . .?• Honestly! The needs of trademark law don’t match the needs of users to identify resources.
Are you using numbers strategically?
• Statistics versus measurements• Satisfaction and Impact • Visual versus data• Stories build on data springboards• Are your numbers showing customer satisfaction or just activity?• Do you trust your numbers (It’s easy to mess with an interface
and increase hits or whatever statistics you’re using.)• How can the vendor help your numbers issues and insights?
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Talking Money
• Price• Cost• Billing• Value• Deals• TCO• Value of Your Time• Value of Their Time
Until lions learn to write their own story, the story will always be from the perspective
of the hunter not the hunted.
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Library Advocacy: The Lion's Story
• Are you framing your library's story well? • Are you sharing measurements about your impact, or still beating the
drum of raw statistics that show funders where to cut? • Are you using great gift of social media to engage and get your
message out. • Has your library's marketing and communication plan stepped up to
the 21st Century? • Are we ready for advanced data mining of our websites, circulation
and membership records? • Are you ready for the reach beyond outreach? • What are the skills and competencies that library teams need?
First . . .
Let’s stop using the word advocacy
Let’s discuss influence and being influential . . .
Second . . . Let’s start using verbs to describe ourselves in the context(s) of our members, audiences and communities.
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SmellyYellowLiquid
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OrSex
Appeal?
Third . . . Learn and use the language of benefits – not features, functions and processes.
Fourth . . . Let’s build on our legacy of trust and respect and our foundation of collections and places to shine
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Foundations
Fifth . . .Let’s emphasize the humans that make the magic happen . . . Library staff
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Librarian and Staff Magic Should Not be Invisible
Grocery Stores
Grocery Stores
Grocery Stores
Cookbooks, Chefs . . .
Cookbooks, Chefs . . .
Meals
Sixth . . . Let’s focus on VALUE, IMPACT, and POSITIONING (VIP)
What’s the music and magic you hear? Play? Do?
Are you locked into library financial mindsets?
What about value and impact?
Or shall we stick with this?
It’s the stories that happen inside your library that matter . . . Not just the ones you have on the shelves.
Tell those storiesEncourage the heart . . .Better yet . . . Collect the stories in your users’ voices
The signs . . . There’s always another view…
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Sustaining RelevanceBeing RelevantCommunicating VIPReal relationshipsBeing a ‘real’ professional
Personal and Institutional Impact: Strategies and Tactics
Let’s talk . . .
Why is the staff invisible on your virtual presence?
Are we a culture of poverty?
Do You Feel Poor?
RISK
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Important Strategic Questions for Priority Setting
1. What are your top questions?2. What does your community need?3. Who are your engaged users?4. Who isn’t using the library who should?5. Why do we read? Why do we ask questions? What’s the
impact of learning?6. What are the key success factors (KSF) of your library?
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Important Strategic Issues
1. Investing for success2. Strategic budgeting3. Developing a culture of controlled risk4. Learning to de-invest, sacrifice, stop, and grow.5. “A library is a growing organism.”
Recreational Reading
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Story Hours
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Record your Story HoursYouTube Your Story HoursTie in to collection• Parenting• Children’s Health• Continuing EducationMoms and Caregivers Social Glue Teddy Bears, PJ’s, Pets, ToysHow do you find kids’ books?
Your Website
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Learning
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Maker
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3D is 4DSTEM vs. STEAMCreativeEntrepreneursChanging Life ArcsAnd so much more…
BakerSpaces
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Authorship & Writing
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Douglas County and Colorado ModelsLulu, Amazon Singles, Self-publishingFifty Shades of GreyThis is an economic activity
Events and Programs
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Hand-knitting Sweaters or an Industrial Revolution for librariesConsider scalability and replicabilityCooperation on a massive scaleMobility of programmingThinking big – over 1000 attendees or 30?Mobile MakerspacesMobile staff talent
Hobbies
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Photography & Video
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Green WallsVideo editingRepositoriesContestsGenealogyTourism
Learning or Education or Homework
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Top Questions PatternCommon Core Curriculum
Promotion and Social Media
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Websites and e-mailFacebookPinterestTwitterTumblrVimeo / YouTube / VineInstagramEtc.
Engagement
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Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLAConsultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Consulting
Cel: 416-669-4855stephen.abram@gmail.comStephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.comFacebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn: Stephen AbramTwitter: @sabram
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