Thing 10: Future trends

 My very last "thing" to blog about and then I am done! It's been a great learning experience...

If I could predict the future and know exactly what libraries will be like in 2020, I'd be a very rich person. Since I don't have special powers to look into the future, I can only offer my best guess. I have to disagree with the idea of libraries going by the wayside. My thoughts and observations are based on an academic library. I am sure public libraries and high school (K-12) libraries have their own unique set of challenges. I think one thing all libraries have in common is that every library user expects Internet connection whether it be to read e-mail, do research, do homework, and connect with online social communities (facebook, twitter, youtube, etc.).

As a library worker, I have the perfect opportunity to observe our library patrons and what their needs are. Each spring, our library conducts an online survey. One of the questions is how do you use the library. The results are split betweeen in person and remotely. I have seen students come in to the library very early in the morning to finish up their papers and use the printing services. I have seen them come in groups to use the group study rooms. I have seen them come in to read the articles that their professors have put on reserve. Our statistics show that the number of people going in and out of the library has increased over the years. I think in the future, there will still be a need for study space, and computers. For those students using the library remotely, there will be a greater need for them to be able to connect to our databases and online resources. With technology changing rapidly, there will also be a greater need for library workers to be able to adapt to changing technologies. Librarians and library staff will have to be constantly updating and improving their skills and knowledge base in order to assist patrons with the new technologies.

One example of a new technology that I think will take off is e-books, and streaming videos. As a cataloger, I prefer having a book in my hand, and matching the title, author, ISBN, publisher, publication date, number of pages, etc. I have also cataloged e-books and I can say that they are more complicated. We purchase them from the vendor in batches. We have also purchased a collection streaming videos and I am told we may be getting more. I think the number of available e-books and streaming videos will be endless. To complicate things, our e-books can only be downloaded onto certain devices. By the year 2020, I hope all the details will be straightened out. We have to start now to plan for the future. I recently bought an e-reader not because I want to read e-books, but because I want to be able to see for myself how to search for an e-book in our collection, how to download it onto the e-reader, and how to read it. Who knows, maybe someday in the near future, this will come in handy.

I am constantly amazed at the new technologies that are available. I am not sure if our library patrons will expect us to provide all those extra services. If so, the way libraries are on very tight budgets, I don't think we will be able to deliver all those services. I am hoping that the basic services will still be important: circulation, reference, academic reserves, information literacy, and printing. For me personally, I hope and pray that books will still be available. What would a library be without books?

Thing 9: e-books

Just trying to catch up and I’m so glad I’ve made it this far...

I feel really deprived because I don’t own an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Smart phone, Kindle, Nook or any kind of “cool device” where I can read a book on a screen. If I won an iPad, I would be in heaven! But since I never win anything, the eReader that I would like to get if I ever decided to get one would be a Nook. I don’t know why I would go for that instead of a Kindle because I haven’t even held a Nook in my hands. My brother-in-law and his wife recently came to visit and he was showing off his Kindle. He let me press the button to turn the page, showed me how to download a book, put a book in archive (basically putting a book on the shelf for later reading), and read the bestseller reviews. I can’t say I was terribly impressed. Sure, when you’re going on vacation, it’s much more convenient to pack a Kindle than packing a suitcase full of books. My husband likes to read a lot and he has his own room in the house that he calls the library. We have had many discussions on the subject and I don’t think he will ever switch to e-books. I also don’t think he will be heartbroken if he doesn’t get a Kindle for Father’s Day, haha.  Personally, I like the feel of books in my hand; I like flipping through the pages; I like looking at the photographs in art books; I even like the smell of books (weird, I know!). Having said that, I do feel like I need to try to adapt to the changing technology, both personally and professionally.

I have a special fondness for books because I get to catalog them and I’m paid to do something that is fun. We recently purchased 10,000 NetLibrary e-books, and cataloging them wasn’t at all fun. There was something wrong with the first batch that we received. First I had to move the old records to discard, then remove them from the catalog before I could load the new set of MARC records. These e-books are different from the kind that you purchase from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Apparently there are many different formats of e-books. I recently found out through research on my own that these can only be downloaded onto specific devices, and Kindle is not one of them. Our library has purchased 2 Sony Readers and we’re still in the testing phase. I am really looking forward to the June 9^th workshop on e-books sponsored by CDLC because I hope to gain a better understanding on how e-books will change what we deliver to our students.

Thing 8: Video

Here's a video I created and posted on YouTube about a year ago. Each year during Poetry Blitz Week, the library sponsors a poetry reading. Faculty and students come to the library to read a favorite poem, or a poem that they've written themselves. As you can see, they sometimes bring props (see the hedgehog).

Another video is of Kingsley Greene, our library director, and Susan Scrimshaw, president of The Sage Colleges. The video was taken during the dedication of the library café, known as Hazel's Café, which was named after an alumna, Hazel Bode, who bequeathed money to the college for library renovations. I used iMovie to create the video, complete with music, slide transitions, and special effects. I had fun creating this even though it's just an amateur video. I am sure there are lots of events in the library that I could record and post on YouTube.

Thing #7

Productivity and Collaboration Tools

The two productivity tools I ended up exploring were Google Calendar and Google Docs.

First, Google Calendar because I think it would be great to have calendars for both of our library campuses in one location. We have a library staff calendar for vacations, meetings, etc. on CampusCruiser, our college e-mail system, but I don’t think it has all the features that Google Calendar offers. I am thinking we could create calendars for the reference desk schedule, and student circulation assistants’ schedule. For the media room reservations, we have a binder that we keep at the circulation desk to jot down the reservations. Faculty or students call in or walk up to the desk if they wish to reserve a room. Sharing the calendars would be easy because anyone with the link could view the calendar online to see if there’s an available time slot even before making the phone call. An easier option is if you want to make all of your calendar information (including event details) available to the world, all you would do so click the “Make this calendar public” button. For sharing with specific people, you would just add each person’s e-mail address and choose their permissions settings—whether or not you want them to edit the calendar or just be able to view it.  The calendar help menu is a good place to start in getting started on how to create, customize, organize, and share calendars.

Google Docs: I have been playing with the idea of creating an online form for librarians to submit their book orders. This is a really good tool that I could use in acquisitions because each librarian has his or her own way of submitting book orders. I created a form a couple of years ago, but it never really took off. The idea was for librarians to use the online form to submit their book orders (title, author, ISBN, publisher, publication date, edition, campus, shelving location, fund ID, price, and any special notes). Using the responses that would be saved in a spreadsheet, I could then go ahead and create the order information in our catalog. Google provides lots of templates to choose from, so reinventing the wheel is not necessary. For security, I can specify that the form be available only to anyone with the link. This is still a work in progress, but it’s a lot of fun customizing the form, and doing test runs. Documentation on Google Docs can be found here: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/search/label/forms/

Thing 6 : Online Meetings

Diving into Digital Books: Adding eReaders to Your Library, May 2^nd, 2011.

I attended this archived webinar and found it to be as convenient as attending a live webinar.  Many thanks to Polly who sent me the archived link; I was able to download and install the Elluminate Live! Software on my

MacBook Pro while lying in bed and my laptop on my lap—where else? The process was very easy and seamless. The audio was good, and there were no sound issues. At one point, I was able to pause the program for a short break and continue where I left off. It was and hour-long webinar with a brief answer and question session at the end.  There were 135 participants and a little pop-up window kept appearing every time a participant joined the webinar. On the left panel of the screen, there was a little window where you could view chat sessions and comments from the participants. In the middle of the screen were slides that corresponded to the presenter’s topic. They were very engaging and kept my attention throughout the program. Even though this was an archived webinar, it's as if I was attending it live. The only disadvantage was that if I had any questions, I wasn't able to ask them.

Compared to attending an in-person meeting, I think this is very good. If you don’t have the funds for travel, or cannot attend due to scheduling problems, an archived webinar is the next best alternative. I have attended webinars before, and I think I will continue to attend as many free ones as time allows in order to keep up with my library skills.

Thing #5: Reflection & Catch Up Week

So far, so good. I don't think there's been an assignment that was too difficult to complete. I am now totally addicted to Google Reader and I would never have known about it until the assignment on RSS feeds. I am going to make an effort to visit and comment on other participants' blogs. I think if we all do this, we can learn a lot from each other.

Thing 4 : Online Communities

Well, I finally have a moment to complete this assignment. Our library is pretty much connected to the whole social networking scene. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and we have a Flickr pro account. Unfortunately, our web librarian recently rearranged our library homepage and removed the icons for Facebook and Twitter. Our Facebook page is pretty static, and there's not much content. However, our Twitter account is active with over 200 followers. With all the changes lately, I think it will be a lot easier to update all the social networking sites in one fell swoop. You could possibly load pictures of events in Flickr, blog about it, and then send the link to Facebook! If patrons are interested in our library services, they can always go to our website, or call the reference desk.

On a personal level, I am on Facebook and Goodreads. I also have a LinkedIn account and recently joined Twitter. I know, I said I had no interest in joining Twitter, but I gave in and joined. I'm currently following 15 tweeters. I don't see how it would be useful to me. It seems like information overload. I can see how valuable it would be to follow the news or the latest Amazon deals. I also resisted joining Facebook for a long time. I used to post updates, but lately have fallen off the grid. I have friends who are on there constantly. I only use it to see what my kids are up to and to keep in touch with family and friends who are out of state and out of the country.