Archive | April, 2009
April 1, 2009 

More Kudos for the Hyatt

Hyatt in Crystal City Cares for CIL Community

Hyatt in Crystal City Cares for CIL Community

Even though a number of attendees at CIL were disappointed that the Lobby Bar was not open earlier in the day and that it ran out of beer on tap last night, I have always liked this hotel.  Every venue has pluses and minuses, just like all of us (yes you have to admit it!).  I love the fact that the Hyatt enables our CIL community, provides the infrastructure for our discussions and conversations, as it did when I started to program the conference 14 years ago after Information Today purchased the event from Mecklermedia.  We, the CIL community, are everywhere in this hotel — the main ballroom floor, the conference registration and exhibit hall level. rooms on the third floor for Internet @ Schools and one of the CIL tracks, the restaurants on the 2nd and top floor (have you seen the fabulous view of the Capitol from there?), and of course, the Lobby bar and conversation area.  It’s basically just us here in this hotel, I love that.  And I love that the people who work here really care about us and our experience in their house.

The other day I wrote about a woman who was the recipient of the Hyatt’s care and today another woman told me about her extraordinary care from the Hyatt.  She got the flu on Monday and spent 8 hours being very ill.  When she called room service for some gingerale they were very concerned, provided lots of chicken soup on the house, offered other food which this lady couldn’t even imagine eating but appreciated the offer.  Security called her to see if she wanted to go to the hospital and contintued to check in with her, the cleaning staff were extremely kind.  She felt as if they wanted to feel her foread and nurture her.   Our CIL attendee really felt the love.  So I know that if I have heard several great stories, there many others out there.  Thanks to Hyatt staff for taking care of the CIL community.  We’ll see you here next year, April 12-14, 2010, for our 25th annual Computers in Libraries.

Jane Dysart, Conference Program Chair

April 1, 2009 

Mobile Practices and Search

Megan Fox

Megan Fox

Megan Fox, a well-known expert on mobile platforms, looked at trends in mobile information and how it affects trends in library services.  The Pew Internet & American Life project predicts that the mobile device will  be the primary connection tool to the  Internet for most people in the world by 2020,  so it is critical for libraries to recognize this and move aggressively to develop services for mobile platforms.  About half of the traffic comes from iPhones, and many of today’s new devices mimic the iPhone.  The corporate world was an early adopter of the BlackBerry, giving it a large market share, so it is important for libraries to develop services for BlackBerries.  The BlackBerry has the advantage that it is carrier-neutral, in contrast to the iPhone.

Some of Today's Mobile Devices

Some of Today's Mobile Devices

Increasingly, keyboard input is being augmented by other input modes (wow!):

  • “Extelligence” is a new feature of some mobile devices.  Just snap a photo of a barcode or an item, and the SnapTell service will give you links to Amazon, Google, eBay, etc.  Cool!
  • Tellme uses audio input to return information.
  • Librarian for iPhones monitors noise levels and if they exceed a set level, it says “Shhh”.
  • Many devices come with GPS interfaces that know where you are and deliver maps and location information.
  • Gesture interactures can be measured by built-in accelerometers, so you can switch from portrait to landscape when the device is rotated.  One new phone can even gauge the amount of air moving across it–blow someone a kiss through your mobile device!  In the Google Map  operation, some phones can change the view based on its motion.

New mobile browsers from nearly all providers will enhance Web interactions.  Lots of content is being created specifically for mobile devices;  this is called the “mobile  web”.  There is even a new .mobi domain for mobile devices, and some libraries have developed web sites.  There is a large industry optimizing regular web content for mobile platforms–this is called the “transcoded” mobile web.  So users could be getting 3 different types of websites on their mobile devices:  regular web pages, transcoded pages, and pages developed especially for mobile devices.  If you are creating mobile versions of content, there are many sites that will check your site for suitability.

Many mobile websites are called the “Snack Web“: a small amount of the web browsed between desktop visits.  What is needed most for mobile users?  Location information or directions (“find a store”), dictionaries, directories, latest news, quick snippets, and similar content are especially important.  Here are some interesting applications available:

  • Many libraries are starting to develop mobile sites that describe their traditional content, hours, branches, etc.  Some of them have implemented AirPAC allowing mobile users to search their catalogs. 
  • See Suzanne Chapman’s Flickr pages collecting images of library websites for mobile devices. 
  • The iPhone app store contains over 2,400 books–the 3rd most popular after games and entertainment. 
  • TravelingClassics reads books aloud to the user, and the Kindle iPhone app can synchronize a book to the farthest page. 
  • The International Children’s Digital Library has beautiful children’s books.

Many more examples of mobile applications and upcoming trends such as texting, SMS input, library applications of texting , services for children (as young as 3!) and voice input are available on Megan’s website which contains all her slides.

What’s next?  Flexible touch screens, device that can project screen images, solar powered touchscreen phones made from recycled plastic bottles, faster connections, longer battery life, and cheaper devices.  Stay tuned!

Mobile devices have come  a long way in a short time.   I guess I should hurry up and upgrade my ancient first-generation phone!

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information  Today and CIL  2009 Blog Coordinator

April 1, 2009 

Trends Analysis at National Geographic

This talk is a scaled-down version of a pre-conference workshop (4 hours) that National Geographic Society (NGS) librarians give at SLA annual conference. Presenting today are Barbara Ferry and Maggie Turqman. Trends analysis is about the competition, it’s not about you. First, identify the issues that affect your organization. The trends affecting NGS include technology, economics, social, market, demographics, retiring workforce, and first mover advantage. Some of these are good, some bad. Retirees have more time to read National Geographic, but NGS has been slow out of the gate for starting a television channel (Discovery Channel beat them to it).

SWOT Analysis: Strength=brand awareness, Opportunity=consumer interest in environment/global warning, Weakness=perception as older brand for younger consumers, Threat=consumers moving to digital platform but print is NG’s biggest profit source.

After you’ve gained knowledge, then start tracking. Who’s reading what, what’s being discussed at conferences, and social media coverage. News filtering: They use Google News, NewsGator, Factiva Alerts Module, LexisNexis Publisher. They showed a screenshot from NewsEdge but say they don’t use it. Searching capabilities on Google News are rather limited, but sources can be different from Factiva. Search strategy construction much more sophisticated on Factiva. Comparison chart shows price, ease of use, coverage, and data delivery options.

Identify “vanguard publications”, those that are at the forefront of an industry. Look at email newsletters because they’re very timely. Some blogs show up in Nexis and in Factiva. Also use NewsGator to track blogs and Bloglines to search blogs. Factiva Insight Reputation monitors 6000 news sources from 11,000 sources, but NGS can’t afford it. Marketimpact from LexisNexis is another reputation monitoring service. Need to tweak what terms are considered positive and which ones are negative.

 Market research reports can be found by searching marketresearch.com, asking what your execs read, find out what other departments are buying. Use multiple sources. Reports are expensive. Library can help broker the deal internally. Library profile is raised through negotiation, training, and tracking what others are buying.

Information sharing. They started tracking who goes to what conference then asks attendees to give presentation on what they learned there.

They’ve put together customizable reports for departments. They’re now spotting trends, doing daily and monthly reports, and branding the library as the central place for trends analysis. They look for lone signals, landmark events, etc. They write special reports (15 to 20 pages). NGS hired their own business analysts to write these reports, so librarians aren’t doing so many now. NGS set up cross-departmental trends analysis group.

Barbara is encouraging audience to take on the role of trends analysts.  

Marydee

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals

April 1, 2009 

Unlocking Knowledge to Empower Minds

Michael Edson

Michael Edson

Today’s keynote was delivered by Michael Edson, who’s director of web & new media strategy, office of the CIO, at The Smithsonian Institution. As he began speaking, he emphasized that what he was about to share were his own thoughts, not those of his institution. I wondered why he needed the caveat … but the reasons soon become evident.

Edson’s keynote centered around the idea of “knowledge commons,” which to him means finding ways to make public knowledge available to everyone. (It’s part of what a democracy is supposed to be like; it’s what many of the US founding fathers had in mind, he said.) Given the enormity of The Smithsonian Institute, with its 29 individual arms that cover all of the universes and everything in them, sharing it is no small thing.

Edson is dreaming of SI being able to share its collected wisdom as easily as other orgs do on powerful, usable, popular platflorms and sites that people search every day. This is not happening yet … and his laments about that made it clear why his comments were personal rather than institutional. Because of the barriers that SI has in place for knowledge sharing, their rich resources are not being discovered online — at least, not via SI channels. However, much of what the Institution does post is picked up by other sites (Flickr, YouTube, etc.), where it’s searched, found, used, and enjoyed. How frustrating, tho, that it’s not happening via the venerable Institution itself.

Creating an SI Knowledge Commons would make SI more relevant. Its brand is weak, a fact  proven by BattleBrands.com, which shows SI’s brand ranking around ones like TGI Fridays. (which org is more important?) Edson wants SI to start “reshaping our digital identity” immediately, if not sooner.

He cites MIT as an amazing example. The school has been giving away lectures free online. Faculty volunteer their lectures, tape them, and post them for anyone who’s interested. This Open Courseware (OCW) model has made “genuine superstars” of some of the lecturers and has also brought more attention and respect to MIT. OCW’s tagline, “Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds. No Registration Required” sums up the idea and value of the knowledge commons that Edson would like to see SI and other orgs adopt.

Thankfully, this dynamic (and very sharing!) speaker is putting all of his slides — plus the text of his speech — even his footnotes — not only up on the conference website but also on SlideShare.

Participating in commons means giving away knowledge, and it also brings rich rewards. What a world it would be if more of us shared for the common good. Going back to the founding fathers again, Edson left the crowd with the thought that it’s not just how much you accumulate — but rather how much you share — that is the measure of your worth.

~Kathy Dempsey, editor of Marketing Library Services newsletter

April 1, 2009 

Support A Good Cause

Go Africa sales display

Let's Go Africa sales display

African hand crafted items for sale by Go Africa

African hand crafted items for sale by Let's Go Africa

Near the registration desks, you will find a display of African hand crafted items on sale from the Let’s Go Africa Foundation.  The sales  revenue supports disadvantaged children in Ghana, South Africa, and other African countries.  It’s a worthy cause.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

April 1, 2009 

Last Chance to Save $100

Conference Media Sales Desk

Conference Media Sales Desk

Reminder:

Today is the last day to buy your conference CD-ROMs.  The full set is $119.00, which is a savings of $100 over the regular price.  The CD-ROM sales desk is on the lower level, not far from the breakfast.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

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