Mashed-up library
From PLN
Mashed-up library
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- by Leslie Dillon, from Leader's Digest June 2008
I couldn't go to the 2008 ALA Annual Conference, so I'm missing a lot, including what sounds like the must-attend symposium from OCLC (my former employer). In case you missed it too, I've compiled a summary from excellent posts by some folks who were there.
Moderator Andrew Pace defined mashups as "a full fledged computing platform and on the verge of replacing the personal computer as the dominant tool.”
The keynote speaker was MIT Media Lab's Michael Schrage, who advises organizations on the economics of innovation, is the author of two books and is a columnist for Fortune and CIO. He said "libraries need to think about innovation, interoperability and competition. We need to: learn from our lead users; identify who we collaborate with to create value; invite users into our conversations about our biggest internal disagreements; and build 'libratories' to develop talent and inspire R&D that can be formalized into a product."
Panelists Susan Gibbons, Associate Dean, Public Services & Collection Development, University of Rochester (NY) River Campus Libraries, David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager, Topeka & Shawnee County (KS) Public Library and Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran, Librarian, University of Minnesota, Rochester, discussed mashups at their libraries.
Some of the key points:
Michael Schrage
Major theme: Managing the challenge of an institution – how to be innovative within an institution.
Innovation:
- Innovation is the conversion of novelty into value. E.g.,Twitter, began as a novelty, now has value for use with the library and in online classes.
- Innovation is a means to an end.
- Innovation forces the organization to address what it really does.
- Self-delusion is the biggest obstacle to innovation.
- Innovation isn’t what innovators offer; it’s what customers, clients & users adopt. E.g., only 10% of cell phone users use more than 50% of their features; those features aren’t innovative, they're wasteful.
- Start your innovation process by asking your users,“What’s the most innovative thing you think we do?”
Competition:
- Like innovation--it's a means to an end.
- Competition is about perceived value from choice.
- Movie theaters, used book stores and newspapers don’t know how to compete; reluctant to creatively compete.
Mashups:
- We’re focusing on the wrong aspects of mashups.
- Interoperability is the platform but it is not the data sets.
- Which vendors, people, etc., should libraries be interoperable with?
- The most important product of a network is the networker.
Libraries:
- What are the most important products of the library? Libraries as physical spaces that house books and artifacts? No competition. Libraries as information providers? Highly competitive space.
- Libraries are creatures of subsidy rather than market forces. Commit to competition or commit to subsidy.
- What institutional innovations and adaptations best boost your chances of getting there? (And who owns the keys?)
- Encourage patrons to produce content (reviews, tags, comments, etc.) so that the more the library is used, the better it gets.
Schrage’s four takeaways:
- Learning from our ‘lead users’ (Who are they? How do we know?)
- With whom do we want to collaborate to create value? Why?
- Nurturing our best internal arguments/disagreements. What is our defining disagreement? Publicize it! (Transparency is good)
- Establishing “Libratories” that attract talent and inspire hypotheses. (Libratories = library + laboratory)
Great quotes:
- “The content of the audience is more important than the content of the talk.”
- "The most important product of the network is the networker.”
- "Success comes not from taking the path of least resistance, but the path of maximum advantage."
- “A scholar is a library’s way of creating another library.” (Daniel Dennet)
Panelists
- Meebo (Instant messaging from anywhere): People on the public access computers use the Meebo widget to ask questions. Placed the widget at the “no results found” page.
- Patron-generated content: Patrons can add sticky notes to various library spaces--MySpace page, Flickr account, YouTube channel. Original content by patrons.
- Take the library message outside the library. (Bookmobile, go online.) Be where the people are; make sure you’re there when people ask questions. Set up shops in coffee shops, the mall, the State Fair. Be out of the building a lot more.
- Use 2.0 technology. Be there at hubs, mobile areas.
- Become a consultant to small businesses.
(Andrew/W's photostream, Jun. 27, 2008; misc.joy, Jun. 27, 2008; A passion for 'puters, Jun. 27, 2008; It's all good, Jun 27-28, 2008.)
- Editor's note: I wasn't there either--but it strikes me that subsidy is a needlessly negative term for public expenditures. Do we call police and fire departments "subsidized" operations? Recreation and parks? Streets? How about "commonly funded for the public good"--or is that insufficiently market-oriented? I note that one of the bloggers whose reports form the basis of this summary also took issue with the characterization, saying "Should libraries be a business or a public good?"
