Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Digital life is transforming the public’s expectations of libraries and archives. Is the internet making these institutions irrelevant? The “perfect storm” of reduced budgets, unprecedented increases in the amount and cost of information available, and the multiplicity of platforms at play call for new strategies for the future of libraries and archives. A lively glimpse into the crystal ball!

The Computers in Libraries 2015 exhibition will feature leading-edge companies offering vistors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, internet software tools, content suppliers, search services, and more. If you are looking for a particular product, evaluating competing systems, keeping up-to-date with new products and developments, the Computers in Libraries 2015 exhibition is a must-attend. 

Our information environment is rapidly changing. With the collection of large-scale datasets, the tools and methods related to large scale data are changing as well. While older technologies can be adapted for some purposes, new tools such as NoSQL databases, the Hadoop processing environment, and programming languages such as Pig are becoming important tools for the data and information analyst. In this session, learn what all the terminology means and what tools to use to begin to develop your Big Data and analytics environment.

Big Data is everywhere. In the first 6 months of 2014, there were more than 31,000 articles on Factiva mentioning the term. However, only 59 of these articles also mentioned librarians and information professionals. Similarly, when Tom Davenport wrote in Harvard Business Review that the “data scientist” is the “sexiest job of the 21st Century,” it wasn’t in the context of the information industry. These are new buzzwords, but they are not new concepts for info pros. We have been excellent at working with data all along! The challenge lies in demonstrating to our stakeholders that we can play integral roles in Big Data initiatives. Join Affelt for this session and learn how to leverage your unique abilities to find, analyze, and judge the quality of data in order to tell compelling stories and create imaginative deliverables. She suggests tools to use and ways to learn more through MOOCs (massive open online courses) and graduate LIS program options, especially for those who want to learn how to code (and it’s not as scary as it sounds to some!).

Cash concessions will be available in the Exhibit Hall for attendees to purchase lunch. Grab a bite and then visit with our extensive hall of exhibitors.

Many believe that the web’s influence on libraries is limited to social networking interaction and the design of discovery interfaces. However, the way the web now handles metadata is driving fundamental changes in our world, changes that will revolutionize the processes that underpin metadata management, sharing, and cataloguing. The symptoms have been visible for some time—linked data, web ad- dressable authority files, search engine knowledge graphs, BibFrame—but we are now starting to see the effects in moves toward the management of entities and away from cataloguing individual records. Wallis explores the issues and describes the impacts and benefits for library resource visibility on the web, and internal library workflows.

Librarians and a computer science professor at Ryerson University collaborated on a project to analyze the library’s EZProxy logs. Working with campus partners in the Registrar’s Office and Campus Computing Services, they matched IDs in the logs with demographic details about the user. This collaboration has enabled the library to take control of its data and, most importantly, answer these vital questions when evaluating electronic resources: What resources are used? How often? And, for the first time, by who? Stern looks at using Zotero and Outwit, both tools that capture and maintain repositories for libraries and for individual users. Zotero captures citations, full text, images, webpages, and sound files for full-text links and searching. Outwit captures URL links, associated files, and scrapes data from unstructured websites into personal or organizational repositories.

Make sure you head to the exhibit hall for your last chance to meet with our extensive hall of exhibitors and while you're there recharge with a cup of coffee, cold drink, and snacks.

This session provides a case study of how Big Data and informetrics were used to drive decision making and improve innovation and competitiveness in the U.K. The U.K.’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills commissioned Elsevier to assess the U.K.’s research performance compared with seven other research-intensive countries (Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S)., three fast growing nations (Brazil, India and Russia), and other international benchmarks. Using its Fingerprint Engine, Elsevier scanned text, such as a journal article abstract, patent, or awarded grants. Then using a variety of thesauri and natural language processing (NLP) tech- niques, EBSCO analyzed the information, identified and weighed the key concepts in the text, and presented them in a graphical representation, called the document finger- print. This technique allows sophisticated analysis of more granular subject areas when a journal-based classification is not granular enough and a keyword search is not good enough. Hear about the process and the results.

Your library website visitors are having a user experience (UX) on your website right now. Do you know if it’s a good experience? Have you ever asked? And how can you improve it? This presentation helps make your website UX rock by providing easy-to-implement tips and tools to improve the experience your customers have while using your library’s website.

Have you been longing for an interactive touchscreen like the ones you see at airports? How would you use one? What would patrons get out of it? Goodman introduces several methods for designing your own kiosk, discusses which features are most useful to patrons (maps, computer usage, browsing the catalog, etc.), and describes how to user-test your designs to make sure that they make sense for your building space. Interactive kiosks are a fun way to appeal to the “It’s a giant iPad” generation and for adults who appreciate interactive visuals.

Cash concessions will be available in the Exhibit Hall for attendees to purchase lunch. Grab a bite and then visit with our extensive hall of exhibitors.

Hear from a librarian at Springshare (the maker of Lib- Guides) about how to use its model for customer service in your library. Drawing inspiration from real-world examples, Richards shares practical tips, strategies, and implementation techniques that illustrate ways in which libraries can better integrate the user experience into their customer service model. She discusses best practices that have been extracted through successful interactions as well as those that resulted in giant fails. From email and phone calls to Twitter and Facebook, she provides actionable strategies that focus on the customer, customer experience, and a successful outcome for all.

EBSCO’s User Research team recently conducted an ethnography-style project focusing on the digital habits of public library members, how the habits are formed, and the needs that spark their searches. The team talk about the project, the research findings, how those findings impact how they think about public library users, and how the findings can help public libraries support their users’ evolving needs—reader, seeker, socialite, “informavore”!

Make sure you head to the exhibit hall for your last chance to meet with our extensive hall of exhibitors and while you're there recharge with a cup of coffee, cold drink, and snacks.

Librarians are constantly struggling with ways of providing access to nontextual collections and improving UX with those collections. The NGA library staff have many challenges when providing access to library materials through a geospatial lens. Discover how they overcame these challenges by creating robust metadata records for their special collections combined with a transition to an open source ILS that supports a visual search interface. Learn how they utilized metadata to enable cartographic visualization and manage change as well as user and Agency expectations, all to support the goal of placing the world at its patrons’ fingertips.

Hear from two of the information industry’s leading MOOC (massive open online classroom) creators and facilitators exactly what is involved in this process, how the students react, and more! Their successful MOOCs reaped many lessons which they share with the audience.

This session explores the potential of mobile tools for delivering library services. It uses the 23 things framework for structuring a learning experience for library staff and customers or members. Learn how to create your own community learning experience, delve into the mobile library world, share experiences with your colleagues and be energized to try new learning methods in your community.

Cash concessions will be available in the Exhibit Hall for attendees to purchase lunch. Grab a bite and then visit with our extensive hall of exhibitors.

Looking for a better way to jump-start learning opportunities at your library? Hear how the Skokie PL created the new Learning Experiences department tasked with reimagining spaces, experiences, and collections for all ages. This session focuses on its STEAM initiatives: the BOOMbox, pop-up programming, digital media labs, STEAM kits, maker master badging, and much more. Grab lots of easily actionable ideas to bring back to your library. Burruss looks at how, in the last 3 decades, learners have moved from the four walls of the classroom to the infinite possibilities of the internet and the breadth of online video in training resources using rich media from YouTube, Vimeo, open education resources, lecture-capture inside an LMS, and third-party rich media libraries. These resources are becoming fully integrated in the learning space and a matter of choice for the student. She discusses what has been discovered about how online video changes and enhances the way we learn. A great online video structures learning around meaning, presents the big picture of the subject matter, and supports it with granular details and steps. Learn “how we learn with video” and about the factors that affect learning.

Games are everywhere, and kids are playing games at home, in school, in libraries and public places. But releasing the potential of games and gaming for learning means knowing about trends in game designs, cultures, and genres, in the context of both educational games and commercial games, to better understand how they meet the pedagogical, curriculum, and individual needs of learners. D’Elia talks about alternate reality games (ARGs), interactive social games that transcend media and tell stories using multiple platforms. Players dive down the rabbit hole to interact with fictional characters, solve problems with other players, and, ultimately, unravel the mystery. Immersive ARGs have been described as “chaotic fiction,” but what if there is a method to all of this madness? This (highly) speculative talk asks: What can ARGs teach us about the future of elearning?

Make sure you head to the exhibit hall for your last chance to meet with our extensive hall of exhibitors and while you're there recharge with a cup of coffee, cold drink, and snacks.

The Library of Congress along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services has developed a postgraduate residency program in digital stewardship that aims to bridge the gap between classroom education and professional experience. The mission of the NDSR program is to build a dedicated community of professionals who will advance our capabilities in managing, preserving and making accessible the digital record of human achievement. Hear about the first pilot residency, additional programs planned in Boston and New York, as well as how the first cohort all accepted jobs and fellowships in the field of digital preservation. Includes lessons learned for the cultural heritage

The customer development framework is used by serial entrepreneurs to test, build, and scale new business ideas. While not typically tasked with generating revenue, libraries are expected to create value for patrons. The customer development framework teaches us how to identify real problems that our members face, how to validate our solutions to those problems, and how to make those solutions sustainable. Launch new services with confidence—with- out investing a lot of resources.

A successful and viable Maker program is more involved than simply buying a 3D printer. This session explores the issues that exist behind the scenes, such as staff training, partnership formation, deciding between a "camp" and a "space", and the many other issues that must be tackled when your library considers moving into the area of STEM outreach through Maker-style initiatives.  It also shares how the program engages the community and has an impact with many of its constituents!

Cash concessions will be available in the Exhibit Hall for attendees to purchase lunch. Grab a bite and then visit with our extensive hall of exhibitors.

A strong online community can help strengthen a library’s in-person community and contribute to community resilience in times of stress. But how do you develop this? The answer is as varied as there are kinds of libraries. This panel of experienced social media folks, from a variety of academic and public libraries, shares how they develop, run, and troubleshoot their libraries’ online communities.

Get plenty of tips and ideas from our three partnership experts! Baldwinsville PL has adopted this philosophy and built unique community partnerships as a result. Staff are facilitating audiobook clubs for Alzheimer’s patients who find reading frustrating, marketing and handling social media for the local organizations, offering “wildly popular” tech help drop-in and, yes, even weekly “vendors” at the local farmers’ market. As a result of their efforts, local organizations contact the library when they need a partner. The Chesapeake PL provides the means between partners and the community to offer programming that makes a difference. Learn about three very different types of educational opportunities the library has been able to organize and deliver to their surrounding area through the use of technology, all reinforcing the library’s core initiative of workforce development that has also opened doors to new partners, library outreach, and opportunities for library members. Irvine Valley College has a large veteran community seeking secondary degrees or certificates after serving their country. Meanwhile, research tools and resources have changed at such a rapid pace, many returning veteran students feel left behind, intimated, or confused by what’s expected of them for college research. Additionally, an increasing number of veterans are suffering from PTSD, learning, and/or physical disabilities that make sitting in traditional classrooms stressful, if not close to impossible. While the library has provided in-person workshops and orientations to help students with college research, it has now moved to the web. Staff work with the veterans to find out how and when they would most likely use the library; what prevents them from using the library or its online resources; and what they would find engaging in an online workshop. The goal is to provide library services where and when they are needed and in a format that is comfortable, easy to use, and meaningful to them (and not just to other librarians).

Make sure you head to the exhibit hall for your last chance to meet with our extensive hall of exhibitors and while you're there recharge with a cup of coffee, cold drink, and snacks.

Our experienced speaker shares how she and her team engaged their community with their makerspace & STEM projects, have become a community platform, and built partnerships with all sorts of experts and groups in their community. She also discusses the impact of the library and it's programs on the community.

In the summer of 2014, Georgetown Day School renovated the entire second floor of its high school campus, and the heart of the renovation was the library! It removed some stacks, added moveable walls, brought the IT department into the library, created an innovation lab/makerspace, and, of course, added beanbag chairs and genius bars. Is it a marriage made in heaven? Find out more at this session, where the speakers candidly share their experiences, from the planning process to the honeymoon period and beyond. Discussions range from the big, tangible issues of managing shared spaces to the more subtle ones of delineating respon- sibilities and services to the library users, be they students or teachers. The speakers provide a list of “do’s!” and “don’ts!” for those who are also thinking of remaking their libraries.

Ursula K. LeGuin reminded us that “there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” Explore how to use this universal feature of every country and every culture to connect people in meaningful ways. Cordell shares specific tools and techniques to help school community members—students, staff, parents, and other library users—find common truths as they share their unique stories.

Cash concessions will be available in the Exhibit Hall for attendees to purchase lunch. Grab a bite and then visit with our extensive hall of exhibitors.

With a greater number of students, parents, and teachers participating in the virtual world, where does the school library’s virtual presence land? Weimar and Perry share information regarding David Loertscher’s Virtual Learning Commons, along with examples of current practic- es among school libraries. Come hear suggestions and recommendations for how to improve the status of the school library’s virtual presence and discuss and share your own ideas and current practices. The takeaways from this presentation include school library and librarian advocacy; a vision for how the school library supports student learning and collaboration in the virtual environment; and ideas for implementing and improving your library’s virtual presence.

Online and offline life cannot really be distinguished anymore, as we and our students move between the two con- stantly. Successfully navigating the constant streams of information and data for understanding and communication is as critical as learning to read. At their school, Silverman and Piedmont co-teach a multisession high school foundations course that examines privacy, digital identity, search, intellectual rights and responsibilities, and media and visual literacy in the context of finding and communicating information. The pair share their curriculum and the changes they have seen in the upper grades as they have refined the course. Each year, they redesign in response to the changing world and their evolving understanding of these literacies. Call it library or technology, research or design, this is a curriculum that addresses the genuine needs of today’s students.

Make sure you head to the exhibit hall for your last chance to meet with our extensive hall of exhibitors and while you're there recharge with a cup of coffee, cold drink, and snacks.

Makerspaces are revolutionizing high school and public library spaces around the country. At their pre-K–8 school, our speakers challenged themselves to create an inviting, purposeful, and thought-provoking makerspace that would engage their youngest learners as well as their budding adolescents, offering a wide array of possibilities to explore, play and learn. They selected their library for the makerspace because it aligned with and extended the philosophy underlying the library as a place to explore and create knowledge; not “to get” but “to grow.” In this session, McLeod and Fleskes describes their rationale, their process, and the steps that they took to bring all school stakeholders on board to make this a reality. Attendees leave with a blueprint of their process that you can use to create a makerspace unique to your school community.

Libraries have experienced incredible change since the first small Computers in Libraries Conference thirty years ago. The realm of library technology likewise has seen dramatic transformation. Breeding, whose career has paralleled CIL, highlights some of the interesting, amusing, and important touchstones marked by this important annual conference. He offers tips on how to stay relevant over time through continual innovation! A panel then presents some technologies we need to be watching over the next few years!

gRaphael is one of several available JavaScript libraries for creating pie, bar, and other data charts. Combined with some additional scripting, these tools make it possible to add dynamic and animated charts to your website without relying on commercial software or the cloud. For Drupal websites, an integration module makes gRaphael especially easy to use. Get lots of tips and tricks!

Big Data and its transformative potential has exploded but what about changing the “culture” of research to facilitate greater collaboration. Researchers are increasingly being asked to preserve their datasets, and to adopt widely recognized best practices to encourage the re-use of data. Universities and their libraries are working hard to develop coordinated services that can ease the burdens—and raise the potential—of data management initiatives. Huwe provides an overview of some of the leading projects and their goals, new roles for librarians, and the challenge of bringing about the necessary cultural changes to make Big Data initiatives thrive. Listen to his intro and join Track A on Wed for lots more on the topic!

Our eagle eye industry watcher shares his top ten “must watch tech” for the coming year. Not to be missed!

The public library is advancing as a third room community platform for Reading - Learning - Inspiration - Creativity – Meetings. How does the library work digitally to support these changes? Are Twitter and Facebook enough? This cybertour discusses these themes and shows how libraries in Scandinavia and the world have started to cope with the digital world and the library’s future. It includes a look at the necessary structural and technical changes and tools for that future.

As more libraries are setting up digital collections, a number of digital asset management systems (DAMS) are emerging into what used to be a limited field. Islandora, CONTENTdm and Hydra are some of the frontrunners in what’s available. This cybertour discusses what digital asset management systems do, gives a brief demo of Islandora, and shares how it differs from ContentDM and Hydra, and touches on cost and skills.

Using Shoutbomb, the Vaughan Public Libraries (a soon-to-be-8-branch municipal public library in the suburbs outside Toronto) brought text-based notification services to their patrons. Hear about the difficulties, work-arounds, adaptations, and successes encountered on the route to texting patrons.