Libraries - Mobile, Local and Social

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a September 2011 statement that he saw the future of technology as mobile, local and social.  I think these could also be seen as important issues for the future of libraries.  So, I've put together some of my thoughts on mobile, local and social and how they might pertain to libraries.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Libraries of the past could have easily been viewed as static.  The focus was on the building with collections and staff that pretty much stayed put.  Anyone who wanted to make use of their resources had to come to them.  And then, you could only have access to that book or article for a limited time.  It really needed to stay in the building.  Collections started getting more mobile with the increasing use of ILLs.  But now that materials are actually staying in borrowing libraries until they're demanded someplace else, they are truly becoming mobile.  Library staff are getting out from behind desks and circulating around the library to find and help people at their point of need.  Some libraries are placing books and magazines for checkout and return at subway stations, grocery stores, etc.  In short, they're taking them to where people are instead of expecting people to come to them.  And let's not forget the increasing availability and use of downloadable audio and e-books.  While DRM and publisher concerns make the current implementation challenging, it really does help solve the problem of how to move resources from place to place.

So, I think that librarians have come a long way in making their resources and services more mobile.  But there's another side of mobile that seems to be more difficult for us, and that's making our resources and services more accessible to people using mobile devices.  Smart phone usage has increased dramatically over the past several years yet many libraries don't offer mobile web sites.  Mobile users are forced to try to navigate through complicated drop down menu structures to find simple information like location and contact info.  And heaven help anyone who actually wants to search our databases from a mobile device.  These are essentially desktop solutions for an increasingly mobile world.  Even when there are database apps, they're rarely intuitive and our innate librarian desire to give complete results is not appreciated when you're trying to weed through results on a 4 inch touch screen.  And few libraries offer what should be a rather obvious service such as text reference.  In short, we seem to have a long way to go to make and keep ourselves relevant to mobile patrons.

Local may be something that we've lost sight of in our rush to find digital solutions.  Of course, it makes sense to form consortia for purchasing and maintaining ILS.  It also makes sense to pool resources for database and other electronic resource purchases.  But as a recent OCLC report From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America points out, most public library funding is local.  Librarians really need to be able to make their case locally for why their libraries are essential to their communities.  While I think these tools are valuable to our overall mission of providing information resources, we might want to ask ourselves whether they are going to help make the case for the essential role of libraries in most locales.  Do people associate them with their local library or are they just seen as part of the amorphous Internet?

So what does make the difference?  The OCLC report states that a librarian who's seen as a passionate advocate for his/her library makes a great deal of difference in local receptiveness to funding.  We also know that a library that's seen as receptive to the needs of the community is viewed as a more important resource.  I've done a lot of strategic planning over the past ten years with public libraries.  We know what community members want from these libraries.  But we haven't always given it to them.  What we've given them are the elaborate ILS and database tools they have to learn to use to get at what they want.  I think we've often deluded ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is build it and they'll come.  But what we've missed is that most people don't want to learn how to use our tools, they just want the results.  So, why not give them the results they want?  Why not focus on our people resources and make sure that local librarians can do the searches and highlight the books and articles of interest to their community?  In this way, they can both satisfy local needs and add local value and branding to the tools.  It's just a matter of changing the focus from tools to needs, from technology to personal.  We'll never beat Google at the search game but we can provide a human alternative who can tailor results to our interests.

Libraries have been serving social functions for quite some time.  They frequently host programs, book groups, classes, etc.  And many librarians have tried to get their libraries involved in social media like Twitter and Facebook. I think that's all good but I wonder how we're doing with fostering the kind of conversations that create knowledge and improve society.  These are threads from R. David Lankes' The Atlas of New Librarianship.  Conversations require openness while libraries have often been seen as promoting the more closed veil of privacy.  Don't get me wrong, I believe that the library profession's protection of privacy rights is important.  I just feel that we've backed ourselves into a corner where the privacy concerns of the few may be imposed on many who would prefer a more open and sharing environment.  Consequently, it's very difficult for us to allow those who may choose to to opt out of some of that privacy to do so in the interest of fostering conversation.  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo all have features where you can share highlights and notes about books you're reading on their devices.  While some of these highlights and notes can be shared via common social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, the majority of the conversations will be limited to other Amazon, B&N or Kobo customers.  This is a place where libraries would be useful to bridge the gap between vendors.  Besides I'm much more interested in having a conversation about the book I'm reading with someone I know or might come to know locally than with a stranger.  And wouldn't it be nice to get reviews and recommendations from people in your community about books/articles you might find interesting?  It's a way of building community ties that's currently closed to us because we're not even allowed to opt in to such a social option.  I think that's a disservice to our users and our communities.  We need to start looking at ways to balance privacy and social discourse.

Will Amazon E-Book lending be the end of libraries?

The social media world is abuzz with Amazon's official announcement of their e-book lending program for Amazon Prime members.

I find Amazon's business strategy intriguing. For one thing, as Beth pointed out on Wired-MT, they offer free Prime memberships to students. How many students, I wonder, are going to like the 2 day shipping, video streaming, and ebook lending and be willing to pay for it after they graduate? And with new devices like the Kindle Fire coming out that will presumably allow really easy use of these services...

I don't think that Amazon is going after library users so much as they're trying to create a really easy and pleasant environment for their customers that will keep them tied to the Amazon marketplace.

A book a month may be enough for their users at least as a start. What they're offering that libraries are unable to is no wait and you can keep it for as long as you want. I've heard a lot of complaints about our two week checkout. And if Kindle customers decide that one book is not enough to sate their reading appetites, they can always buy as many additional titles as they want from the Kindle store.

I think rather than be threatened by this, libraries should watch and learn. We need to be thinking seriously about repurposing our libraries. Seeing our present and future roles as primarily book repositories and lenders digital or otherwise may not continue to be the best strategy.

New Trends in E-books

If you have an iPad, you have a number of choices of where to get e-book content. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google, etc. all offer iPad apps whereby you can buy their content and read it on your iPad. These apps also work on iPhones and iPod Touch devices as well as Android, Blackberry, etc. Apple recently changed the rules and demanded a cut from in-app purchases. The booksellers responded by removing in-app purchases thus making it a bit more difficult to purchase their content. But the intent remains to make content available across multiple platforms.

Contrary to this, is a trend among some publishers to make e-book apps specific to the iOS platform and sell them as apps via the Apple app store. This may be a trend to be concerned about in and of itself. Will it interfere with competition if a student needs to buy an iPad because content that s/he needs is only available on that platform?

But for now, I'm more interested in the potential and the use of technology to convey more information than is available within traditional books.

Initially, we saw it in kids book apps like PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Not only could you have the story read to you but there were images that could be manipulated to make the characters move and make noises. Much like a traditional popup book but with audio included.

Then came books that were really more like movies with text included. Among my favorites in this genre are the Moving Tales books including This Too Shall Pass. These books include a 3D movie that goes along with the story. Reportedly this movie changes each time you watch it but I haven't read any of them enough to say whether or the changes are noticeable and/or alter the story considerably. You can also choose to replace the voice of the narrator with your own. So, the stories can be personalized.

From there we move to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. This is not only a movie but one with interactive elements. You can make objects spin and fly. And the character ends up running a library, so what's not to like?

For students, there is an app version of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. It includes performances of the poem, perspectives, facsimiles of the manuscript. I wish I'd had apps like this when I was taking English classes, it would have made some works of literature so much more understandable, accessible and relevant.

The final e-book app, I'd like to bring to your attention is Our Choice. This is a quote from the description in iTunes:

Al Gore's Our Choice will change the way we read books. And quite possibly change the world. In this interactive app, Al Gore surveys the causes of global warming and presents groundbreaking insights and solutions already under study and underway that can help stop the unfolding disaster of global warming.

Our Choice melds the vice president's narrative with photography, interactive graphics, animations, and more than an hour of engrossing documentary footage. A new, groundbreaking interface allows you to experience that content seamlessly. Pick up and explore anything you see in the book; zoom out to the visual table of contents and quickly browse though the chapters; reach in and explore data-rich interactive graphics.

It really is an interactive multimedia experience.

So, what does all this mean for libraries? I think that apps like these are fundamentally changing people's expectations about how information is presented. It's no longer enough to just present it but children are being taught that they can interact with a story and change it.

For older students and adults, we're able to customize and personalize our content and our experiences with it. Plus, the entire app store is geared toward instant gratification. You read or hear about a new book, search for it in the app store, purchase and download it to your iPad or iPhone. The entire process takes only a few minutes. And there's the potential for continuous updates and revisions.

Whenever anyone brings up the topic of e-books, there will always be someone who attempts to cut short the conversation by asserting that s/he likes books. I don't think that position has any validity any more for the library community. We have to ask ourselves, what is a book nowadays? And what is our responsibility in providing content? If e-books are moving to multimedia and interactive formats, how do we provide that experience for our users?

The Apple Store Model

I heard Om Malik talking on TWiT a couple of weeks ago about the Apple stores as models for what Amazon should do in retail. We don't have any Apple stores in Montana but I have visited a few on my travels. And what stands out in particular for me, are their combination of expertise and discovery.

I don't know about Amazon but that seems like a fairly good description of libraries. I started to think about how libraries could plan for the future using this model.

Apple stores have what they call the Genius Bar where you can go for help with and advice on Apple products. Isn't that a lot like our Reference Desks? But I think Genius Bar is a lot catchier and possibly more descriptive of what people want and what we can provide. I don't think most people want to be referred anywhere, they just want answers. And that is what we want them to get. Okay, perhaps we would feel a bit uncomfortable referring to ourselves as geniuses. Maybe we could have an Answer Bar.

The other striking service Apple stores provide is discovery. You can go in there and play around with computers, gadgets, software. I think quite often that's something people want from libraries as well. They want to know what's new and probably even more, what's worth reading, watching or listening to. We do have New Books sections. And if they ask, we can help them with reader's advisory, but what about staff recommendations? Or recommendations from other library users?

I'd also like to see us offer more discovery of new tools and devices. We tend to get caught up in issues like whether or not we should check out e-readers. I think we could do a real service in just allowing people to handle and use them in the library. We need to keep finding ways to connect with current and potential users letting them know about new services available in the library. For those libraries on OverDrive, how many of your non-regular patrons do you think know that you have audio and e-books available that they can check out and download from home?

There is, of course, a big difference between Apple stores and libraries in that they have a limited amount of merchandise they need to promote and be experts on, while ours is much larger. But I think we tend to focus too much on the whole world of information, and thus intimidate many of our users who are looking for answers to much smaller questions.