I like to think of myself as a funny guy, but my wife has a differing opinion. She thinks that my jokes are “painful” in some way. Perhaps the fact that they are filled with both puns and sarcasm makes them difficult to bear. However, there is a saying that goes with a sharp wit and sometimes overactive sense of humor: “discretion shall preserve thee.” This statement has proven true over and over, and is especially true if you are in a leadership role. There’s a big difference between when the boss tells a joke and when it comes from a coworker. Here’s are some commonsense tips for using humor at work.

• Making fun of the current administration or pointing fingers at the mayor can not only cost you your position, but can paint the library in an unfavorable light. You don’t want that hanging over your head when the budget is being voted on.
• In addition remember the simple rule that making general statements about groups of people, whether that be religious, racial, related to sexual orientation, political party affiliation, or nearly any other group an individual might be a part of is wrong. You could say something derogatory about say, Star Wars fans. However, if that statement made it seem at all as if you might treat that group unfairly in your library, it can be seen as discriminatory and politically incorrect.
• Be careful with sarcasm. It can be, well, a bit biting from time to time. Sarcasm can also be misunderstood. Even when it seems unnecessary, make it clear to employees and others when what you are saying is a joke.
• While it may seem funny to make light of someone else’ mistake, the best policy is to avoid this kind of humor altogether at least in the workplace. Not only does it prevent you from slipping over the invisible line between funny and offensive, but it also sets the example for those around you. Peer to peer jokes of this nature can be just as offensive or damaging no matter how innocent they may seem on the surface. As a leader, you model what is acceptable and not acceptable in your workplace.
• While a little self-deprecation can be funny in the right situation, too much of it shows you lack confidence in your own abilities. This in turn can inspire doubt in your staff and those you lead every day.

Smart Brief on Leadership asked its readers if they would rather work with a leader with a good sense of humor or one without. Nearly half said it was more than just a desirable quality: it was an essential leadership trait. So how do you foster good, clean, safe humor in your library?

• Break the Tension: Let your employees know it is okay to laugh at work
• Spread Opportunities: Create times for lighthearted laughter and joking around as part of your workday.
• Be Human: You will make mistakes, that joke you thought was well timed will fail. Laugh at yourself. It humanizes you, and lets those around you know they don’t have to be perfect either.

Using humor opens people up to interact more freely with you, and makes them feel able to share more openly. As library leaders, we need to do better, be funnier, and use humor liberally especially when times are tough and things are hard. Your staff, and ultimately your patrons, will thank you for it.

References

1. Leading with Humor by Alison Beard, Harvard Business Review, May 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/05/leading-with-humor.

The post The Library Needs Laughter first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A side of Hemingway with that corn dog? Park-goers can get both in one place, and are encouraged to share pictures of themselves, the librarian, and their books (which are free, and they don’t even have to return) using the hashtag #PopUpLibrarian.  Here are some tips for replicating their success at your library:

Use Creative Outreach

The Wichita Library may be using a unique approach, so consider that a pop-up library may not work in your town or city. But there is definitely something you can do to reach patrons and draw them in. You must get creative, but you can even piggyback off the creativity of others.

• Pay attention to your community calendar and participate. Every community has events that offer vendor booths or other outreach opportunities. Be a constant part of them.
• Don’t be afraid to go outside. There are probably places within easy walking distance of your library where potential patrons are engaged in everyday activities. Whether they are visiting food trucks for lunch, picnicking in a park, or riding bicycles on a riverside trail. Go meet them, offer them books, and remind them the library is still alive and well.
• Give away what is given to you. Often libraries get donations of dozens of books they can’t put in their collection for various reasons, or maybe your library needs to weed books that have aged or been damaged. Giving them away at events activates the law of reciprocity — people who have been given books are more likely to return to the library.

Using creative methods of outreach and thinking outside the box and beyond the Internet and digital library offerings will bring in more library visitors. These visitor counts are usually vital to funding and community support.

Use Social Media to Spread the Word

Often, people are very willing to share their experiences on social media, tag you or your organization, and even use specific hashtags. But you have to put the request out there — complete with the hashtag you’d like them to use. You should also plan to follow up and thank them on social media. Social media is just that: social. If you never talk back to your patrons, they can’t tell that you appreciate them sharing what you are doing.

This means you must actively post and respond to messages, Tweets, hashtags, and other social media communication. This is a part of social listening, a technique used by many businesses to learn more about their customers. Libraries should be no different. This will also help you create and target events in the future.

Invite Patrons In

Librarians in Wichita can’t issue library cards in the park. They can, and do, invite patrons in to the main library branch that is easily in walking distance to obtain or renew cards.

The purpose of outreach is engagement and to bring more visitors into the library. If you have events or special programs going on, hand out flyers or bookmarks with the free books as a reminder. Those things are all good, but they are not enough. When at outreach events of any kind, extending a personal, warm invitation for the person to visit the library in person. Give them a reason to visit. In marketing, this is known as a “call to action” and you need to do the same. Outreach is marketing and advertising for your library, and though it is often neglected, libraries need advertising for the same reason other businesses do.

The Wichita librarians saw a unique outreach opportunity and also used the power of social media to ultimately invite patrons to visit the library. Let their ideas and innovation inspire you in your community as well.

Further Reading:

The Psychology of Sales – Why Reciprocity Matters

Eight Ways to Use Social Listening for Your Business

The post Pop-Up Libraries: Meeting Patrons Where They Are first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Suzzallo Library on the campus of University of Washington has partnered with Starbucks to provide students two things they need: information in a quiet study area and coffee. There is even more to the story.¹

The Starbucks team worked with the library to create a unique space. This isn’t just another coffee shop stuck into a library, but the design honors the rich history and legacy of the library itself, so library patrons don’t just get a cup of coffee, they get an experience. This ‘experience’ is why students and others have given up studying at the library, and opted for coffee shops instead. There are a few simple reasons:

• It’s more comfortable.
• There is food and drink available
• The Wi-Fi is better.

What can libraries learn from coffee shops, and how can they come back as the go-to studying and learning location?

Programs, Programs, Programs

This is not new information for libraries. PLOnline has covered the free graphic design instruction offered by AGI.² Libraries offer everything from free community education courses to maker spaces and CPR and first aid certification.³

Coffee shops have incentive to entice patrons as well. Apps reward regular customers, live music keeps them entertained, and some even offer community classes on a variety of topics and other ways for their patrons to interact and engage.

The library, much like the coffee shop, has become a community center. E-book lending means patrons don’t even have to visit the library, so program directors must give them reasons to do so. The good news is, libraries are doing this with great success. The Meridian Library District near Boise, Idaho has Ladies Nights, book clubs, and even recently held a Revenge of the Fifth Star Wars Party (on May 5, following Star Wars Day on May 4).

All these programs mean more patrons, which means a more compelling argument for funding, but it also makes the library an essential element of the community.

Comfort and Coffee

Quiet is something the library has that sets it apart from the average coffee shop. While background noise can work for some, others put on noise cancelling headphones or use other devices to isolate themselves from the noise of the environment around them. Why are they not at the library, where it is quieter in the first place? In some cases, the answer is as simple as comfort. Hard backed wooden chairs and tables vs. couches and lounge chairs isn’t that tough of a choice. And while some libraries are more lenient than others, many still have a no food and drink policy, one that makes sense in certain sections (like reference rooms or special collections) but not everywhere. In fact, you want patrons to want to stay, and you don’t have to give the coffee away, as the University of Washington and other college library projects prove. Your library can earn a cut of what patrons are going to spend anyway, and keep them in your space rather than down the road.

A study of British libraries, where many are slated for closure, stated bluntly: “The Wi-Fi connection should be delivered in a comfortable, retail-standard environment, with the usual amenities of coffee, sofas and toilets.”⁴ This doesn’t have to be the whole library, but it certainly should be a part of it. If libraries want patrons to stick around, they need to provide them with what they want and need to stay put.

Technology and Convenience

It’s about more than just WiFi. Those busy coffee shops filled with students that sit just down the street don’t have loaner laptops and iPads like many libraries do. They lack a research section and helpful librarians. Unfortunately, sometimes so do libraries.

The world of Google and Google scholar, online digital libraries, and even access to magazines, journals, and white papers online makes many research librarians feel underappreciated. However, there is no better resource than a friendly, knowledgeable librarian who can send you  in the direction of the right research, whether online or in person. In the same room with the technology needed to access that information? Priceless. However, on the flipped,  libraries may have sub-par WiFi, aging computer systems, and staff members that are more grumpy than helpful. Is it any wonder our patrons flee to the local coffee shop?

Integrating a Starbucks into your library may not be the right thing for you to do, but libraries must do something to keep patrons engaged and coming back.

References

¹http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/04/11/university-of-washington-and-starbucks-to-create-unique-coffeehouse-destination-at-suzzallo-library/

²https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2017/01/free-courses-offered-to-libraries-by-american-graphics-institute/

³http://www.onlinecprcertification.net/onlinecprcourseandcprclass.php

⁴http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/18/371650738/book-news-the-future-of-the-public-library-may-lie-in-the-coffee-shop

The post Retail Co-Location: Coffee at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The program is a pilot that started as a smaller pilot by John MacLeod of VAR Libraries, who started a small program on his own before ever interacting with Oculus. Once Oculus saw the interest in the program, they decided to partner with VAR Libraries, the California State Libraries, and Califa to expand the program into 100 California libraries.

Of course, even 100 libraries is a relatively small pilot program, as there are more than 1,100 libraries in the state, so coverage is less than 10 percent of California, but the idea is to allow this to be a testing ground to see how the program will work long term.

Education

“We’re early in our understanding of how VR works with education,” Cindy Ball, program manager for Oculus Education said on the phone Monday June 5. “The driver for VR has been so far, and will continue to be gaming. We want to focus on understanding how VR can also have a unique and positive impact on learning.”

This means that in addition to libraries, Oculus will soon be partnering with 30 research groups and nonprofits to test how VR really works. Essentially the researchers will take an existing science curriculum and that perhaps uses simulations and gaming, and “transform those programs using VR,” said Ball. “We would then compare the student outcomes in the programs with and without VR. These results will show us whether VR is a good at enhancing that area of learning or it wasn’t. We are approaching this with an open mind, understanding VR may not be the solution in every area.”

Research groups are focusing on several areas from STEM education to the arts and storytelling. “Our definition of learning is broad. Using VR for drug intervention and situational training is something we are very interested in,” she said

Operational Challenges

There is also the operational side of things to figure out, Ball said. “It is best that people not use these units alone, so staffing will be an issue. Hygiene and general safety are big concerns.” The hope is that the libraries experience with the first 100 devices will generate sufficient interest for the state to drive further expansion.

Califa, the California Library Association, is very active nationally. It is hoped that as they feel the positive effects for their patrons, they will evangelize the importance of VR in libraries in other states.

Washington State has already showed interest, and Oculus has already had discussions with Cindy Aden, the state librarian, about putting pilot programs into four to five libraries throughout the state hopefully by the end of 2017. Expansion in Washington would be demand-driven and involve well-educated decision making based on the success of the California program along with the pilot program in Washington.

“Oculus and Facebook both care about encouraging and attracting passionate technology talent,” Ball said. “Hopefully, this initiative inspires more people to consider taking part in our industry, helps them understand the many different skills and opportunities involved in creating VR experiences, and lets them envision being a part of that ecosystem.”

Project Goals

This project has three primary goals, which will help inform future Oculus Education projects. “The primary goal of the library project is to support equitable access to technology. Regardless of your gender, race, religion, or socioeconomic status, you are welcomed at the library and have free access to all the resources it provides,” Ball said. The program aims to get as many people as possible to give VR a try.

Many industries are starting to transform through AR/VR technologies, and as that increases, career opportunities will evolve. If everyone is going to have a shot at participating in those new VR-based roles and economies, it’s important that as many people as possible are exposed to VR and thereby inspired to participate in the industry.

Second the hope is that this program will help Oculus to understand the benefits and challenges of deploying a program like this at scale. For states and other organizations to scale large programs in the future, it’s important they understand what works well and what doesn’t.

And third, Oculus plans to encourage the layering of more educational content and experiences to add to the educational benefits. Collaborations with Facebook’s TechStart and inspirED programs, experiences developed through our educational research investments, as well as the educational content available through the Oculus Store will be just the start.

Libraries have a great opportunity to share technology with the communities they serve, and VR is just a small part of that. Oculus aims to help with that effort. California and now Washington will be the testing ground for this program, but it certainly won’t stop there as interest builds, and VR becomes an integral part of education and other areas of our lives.

“If I had magical powers, I would accelerate and expand the educational programming across libraries, Ball said. “The end-goal is for more people to be inspired, educated and empowered. We’ll get there—I just want to get there faster!”

The post Oculus Rift Pilot Brings Virtual Reality To California Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In the UK, the Open+ libraries project puts the keys in the hands of residents. When the library is unstaffed, users enter via a card reader and enter a pin to access material. Security cameras monitor the stacks, and the library even closes using an automated system.³

There are major concerns about this model, though. While projects like the one in Milwaukee provide automated 24 hour access, and other cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn, are looking to co-locate libraries in housing projects (to save money on facilities and serve the populations who most need their services), others like those in Washington State look at the staffless option.⁴  This seems like a great idea at first glance: saving money and letting patrons use technology to serve themselves. However there is a threat to security on many levels.

Physical Security

The concern about violence in libraries is real, along with concerns about drug use and other illegal activities. Staff in places like San Francisco and other jurisdictions are even receiving training about recognizing the signs of an overdose and administering first aid until emergency personnel can arrive.⁵

Without physical staff, some questions are raised: Who monitors the cameras? Who responds to such emergencies? What will the blind spots in the cameras be (like restrooms), and how will they be dealt with? The prevention of theft is a significant concern as well. Certainly a card system and cameras help, but cards and pins can be stolen and hacked, and identities can be hidden from cameras.

Cybersecurity

As for cyber threats, library systems have been looking for ways to protect themselves. Giving patrons access to the library when it is unstaffed means leaving computer systems open to even more attacks.⁶ If a person can access an internal terminal physically, he or she can also bypass encryption. They can also do so by obtaining valid administrative passwords using phishing emails or other software, thereby opening up the system to remote attack. Encryption is good, but if fraudsters have a password or physical access to the system, it is entirely ineffective.

The solutions are similar to the steps you would take to avoid personal credit card fraud: using two step authentications, strong passwords that are changed often, and reviewing privacy settings on both servers and public computer terminals. However, time has proven that none of these are foolproof.⁷

Libraries may look at what happened in St. Louis and think there is no way it will happen to them. However, libraries are targeted for the same reasons small businesses are, and face similar dangers; a well-timed and executed denial of service (DNS) or ransomware attack can nearly ruin a library system in a matter of days, if not hours. Recovery costs can be outrageous.⁸

Risk vs. Reward

When undertaking any library project, each district must evaluate for themselves the risks and rewards. While saving money with automated and staffless libraries may be a solution in some areas, it is clearly not the solution across the board.

There are risks to cutting staff. But the risks are greater than physical or cyber threats. The biggest risk is losing the humanity that makes a library a library. No one knows better the resources in a particular area, or how to dig up that obscure fact, than a reference librarian.

Automated checkout has its place. Computer databases and artificial intelligence make research even faster. Still, no automated system can offer a friendly smile, a helping hand, and an eye to security that provides an immediate response to problems as they occur.

References

¹http://www.citynews.ca/2017/03/18/staff-less-public-library-pilot-project-raising-concerns-safety/

²http://milwaukeenns.org/2014/10/09/new-express-library-at-westlawn-gardens-offers-residents-easy-access-to-books/

³http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2014/04/the-unstaffed-fully-self-service-library.html

⁴http://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/spotlight/washington-library-increases-service-by-giving-patrons-the-keys

⁵https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2016/10/just-say-no-keeping-your-library-drug-free-and-safe/

⁶https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2017/03/protecting-your-library-from-ransomware/

⁷https://www.fiscaltiger.com/crime-punishment-credit-card-fraud/

⁸https://findyourcontext.education/blog/articles/why-cybercriminals-target-small-businesses/

The post Checking Out Securely: The Challenge of Staffless Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Managing the Project

We’ve all seen the sign on someone’s desk reading “the buck stops here.” But how did that sign get there? Who made that person responsible? It comes down to project management and who is best at it. The Iowa newspaper collection is still owned by the State Historical Society of Iowa, but is loaned to Advantage to scan and digitize. The company bears the cost in exchange for potential profit. So who is in charge of the transfer of the papers and microfiche? Who trains the archivists in the handling of the information? And who is responsible if something gets damaged? The library has experts at archiving and preserving. Advantage has experts in scanning and digitization, along with the equipment to do so. Both organizations have project managers of varying skill levels, and even an untrained project manager can succeed with the right tools. The key is from the beginning, a project manager must be selected and given the final authority over decisions.

Managing the Resource

Once digital files have been created, they need to be stored in more than one place. The resources must also be cataloged and managed, keywords chosen and added, and some kind of database or other search portal created. This is something that can be done by Advantage, or by the library. Using a program called FileMaker, the library can manage the data and how much of it can be accessed through the cloud so that they do not have to manage a server onsite. All those pages of newspaper articles equals a lot of data, and migrating that much information to the cloud takes time, even if you do so incrementally. Making it easily searchable is another issue, requiring the creation of a proprietary program or modifying one that has already been created. If this were not problematic enough, there is the issue of security and access.

Managing Access

Passwords prevent casual or accidental access to data. Administrative passwords that allow data to be modified or even deleted must be extremely secure. Backing up data in several locations is essential to preservation: digital data is no more secure than the server or servers where it is held. It is essential to review the basics of security management when undertaking any project.

No matter how secure they make us feel, servers are just servers. There really is no cloud: the cloud is merely someone else’s computer. If you do not have the room or capability to maintain a large enough server onsite, there should still be a physical backup of the cloud data somewhere, perhaps including storing it on more than one cloud service. At the same time information that cannot be accessed is essentially useless. Users must be able to read and search the archives for the purposes of research, even if they must do so at a library rather than from home. In the Iowa instance, Advantage is struggling with this issue. Their business model was set up to provide access at the library location, and they made a web app almost as an afterthought. It easily handled smaller datasets, but is not designed at all for one this large. The decision of how to manage this tension between access and security will vary by product, but it will also vary by how you pay for it.

Paying for it All

The Iowa circumstances are unique. The archive is on loan to a company which shoulders the costs in exchange for what they hope will be future profits. This creates a tension for them: they must determine how to monetize the data they gain. It makes it easier on the Historical Society of Iowa, but the digitization process is just the beginning. The costs then turn to operations and maintenance, the daily, monthly, and yearly costs of keeping data secure, accessible, and adding to it over time. These costs can be enormous. While it is easy to get grants for an initial project, it is much more difficult to get them for day to day operations. With many library budgets shrinking, this means they must get creative with how they fund this type of project.

However, if the project is funded with a federal grant initially, often one of the caveats in the grant language is that archives must be open and accessible to the public online and free of charge. Many library and university collections are getting around this by allowing access, but charging for copies of files or downloads of pictures. Still, this is often not enough to pay daily costs. Archiving is an expensive process, and even maintaining a digital one is not cheap. Someone must bear that financial burden. In Iowa, being able to search 12 million pages of archives sounds like a dream come true. Until these obstacles can be fully overcome, it may remain just that: a dream.

The post Creating a Digital Archive: It’s Harder Than You Think first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A side effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution is that almost any institution, including the library, is vulnerable to cyber-attacks of one kind or another. A well-executed ransomware attack can bankrupt a business or a library system in a matter of days. What can you do to protect yourself? There are a number of simple steps you can take to protect your library.

Be Aware

A recent study shows that 69 percent of Americans feel that the threat of cyber-attacks is greater than it was five years ago. Yet when asked, “to what extent do you feel safe from hackers?” 55 percent said they felt safe, while only 45 percent did not. Of that 45 percent, only 17 percent felt very unsafe. While people seem aware of the rise of cyber-crime, they often assume it won’t happen to them. The attacks on the libraries in St. Louis show that, although most libraries feel safe, cyber criminals can (and will) attack almost any kind of institution or business that is vulnerable.

Demand Security

The worst passwords of 2016 are similar to those of 2015 despite the rise in cyber-crime. Top of the list for personal passwords is still “123456,” followed closely by “password.” These passwords are gateways to sensitive information. “[A password] is akin to locking the door on your house; it won’t stop a dedicated burglar, but it prevents casual theft,” says Shawn Surber, a cyber-security consultant. Encourage employees, especially those with access to the more vital parts of the computer systems, to have excellent passwords. A twelve-to-fourteen-character password with both capital and lowercase letters and at least one symbol or special character are best. Require employees to change passwords regularly and train them on how to keep their passwords secure.

Isolate Your Public Network

This is simple yet vital. If your public network is slowed for any reason, including high traffic, remind staff that under no circumstances is it okay to give out the administrative Wi-Fi password. The IT department typically will have constructed protections and firewalls to prevent hackers from accessing the network, but if an employee inadvertently gives out the key to the front door, so to speak, none of those defenses will be effective.

Have a professional check your system regularly. New virus updates, new methods of attack, and many other advances are emerging in both security and hacker practices. Using software that employs machine learning, a disruptive force in cyber security, enables your system to learn from each attempted attack.

Don’t Be Afraid

Ransomware attacks are on the rise, but you can make yourself less of a target by becoming more security-conscious. In the end, the St. Louis libraries restored services, and no ransom was paid. “An attempt to hold information and access to the world for ransom is deeply frightening and offensive to any public library, and we will make every effort to keep that world available to our patrons,” said Waller McGuire, executive director of St. Louis libraries. “The real victims of this criminal attack are the library’s patrons.”

When an institution is attacked, it is often a gut reaction to withdraw completely from the area where the security breach occurred. Avoid this reaction. Your patrons still need your services, and your job is still to provide them to the best of your ability. Hire cyber-security professionals, or utilize those employed by your city or county. The need for cyber-security professionals is far outpaced by the number available at all levels of government and the private sector, so they may be busy. Wait for them.

You will be vulnerable to attack—all public institutions and all businesses are, as long as we continue to operate connected to the Internet. Be aware, demand security, do what you can to isolate your private network.

The post Protecting Your Library from Ransomware first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Free Classes

Enter American Graphics Institute and its Library Partner Program. The program’s purpose is to help companies address the skills gap that many employers experience by helping the workforce obtain new skills or upgrade existing skills in creative, design, and marketing applications and technologies.

The company already offered design and digital marketing training free to Massachusetts based employees this past year through a grant program through the state. Available courses at no cost included Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, HTML, Google Analytics and WordPress and were available throughout 2016.

The courses address specific needs in fields like marketing where skill needs range from the creation and use of video to website and app design intended to make a company’s product stand out from the competition.

Marketing is far from the only field where visual design skills are useful. Those seeking work in manufacturing, product design, game development, and countless other career fields also benefit from design training.

More than fifty book titles are available to libraries at no cost, as well as supplemental video training and lesson files. These materials act as self-paced courses or allow readers to take individual lessons to learn a specific skill.

Qualifications for libraries to participate

All libraries in the United States, including individual branches and library systems are eligible. While the courses and books are free, libraries are responsible for promoting the course and books to their patrons.

How to Participate

Interested in participating? Fill out this form on the American Graphics Institute website. Once you have made your request, the company will contact you about joining the library partnership. It really is that simple.

The program is offered to any user who is working at your library. They do not have to sign-in or create an individual account to take the courses. According to the institute, “We will only contact them if specifically requested to do so, for example, to answer a technical question.”

Many times “free” programs like this come at a cost either to you or your patrons, even if it is just in requirements for them to sign up for a newsletter or emails from a company.

Whether this program is right for your library or not is something you will have to determine for yourself. It’s nice to know that it is available along with Massive Online Open Courses offered by major colleges and universities, and other free online learning opportunities for library patrons.

The post Free Courses Offered to Libraries by American Graphics Institute first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Digital Data

Retention Data: Once users sign up, how long do they continue to use your library app? For some, digital borrowing is simply a novelty, something they try a few times and discard. For many libraries, this information is vital to persuade decision makers to continue to invest in the digital side of libraries. Large retention numbers mean the library is reaching and keeping patrons engaged digitally.

Engagement: This data reveals how much a user engages with digital services and which ones. Want to prove the library should invest in digital audiobooks? This app data reveals those trends not in a general level, but specific to your library and patrons in your local area.

Frequency or Usage Interval: How often do patrons log into and use your library app? Are digital borrows overtaking physical ones, and by how much/how much does the library save in lost or stolen books and resources by checking them out digitally instead?

All  this data serves to provide a picture of digital usage of the library, but when a user logs in, they reveal more than this, and it holds more than just library interest.

Physical Data

When someone signs up for a library card, a great deal of personal information is gathered. Name, address, date of birth, and social security number are stored on library servers. Of course, this is done to protect library assets. Where will you go to find books that have not been returned? How will you file reports that will impact the individual’s credit report and keep them from doing the same to other libraries?

It’s a logical step. Add in automated or digital checkout services even in person in the library, and even the smallest city library holds a vast amount of user data, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by hackers and other identity thieves. This is illustrated by the data breach at the Arkansas Library Association in June.

Blended Data

The real interest comes from a blend of digital and physical data, and this is where the government’s interest comes in. Not long ago, a checkout of The Anarchist’s Bible would get you on a watch list. But in the age of digital checkouts and widely available information, there’s more activity that could get you noticed.

The election of Donald Trump and his call for surveillance of Muslims and other groups has libraries and other organizations even more concerned about privacy laws and exactly what information, if any, they have to share with the federal government if asked.

Think of this entirely fictional scenario: an individual becomes a person of interest for whatever reason to a national security agency. With a subpoena, they request library records and discover through app and physical data the person’s address, phone number, social security number, where they work, and even where they were when they checked out certain digital items.

In the past, libraries have carefully released only the data specifically named in court documents, but the potential exists for courts to authorize a much wider request. In the interest of retaining patrons and respect for their privacy, libraries are responding to the election by changing privacy policies and what data they store and keep. Many libraries, including the New York Public Library, have promised to retain data only as long as it is needed to continue checking out books and materials, and to destroy all other data as soon as possible. 

As useful as checkout data, frequency of use, and other data could be to libraries, it seems like if they are retained at all, they will be anonymized and used to track trends rather than personalizing library services to individuals. This is a partial loss to both libraries and patrons, as an Amazon-like experience that tailored what apps showed users according to their personal preferences and geographic location would be both convenient and informative.

But the cost to personal privacy and security, and what it might reveal if that data was subpoenaed or worse, stolen, is too great a risk. Where other businesses are gathering and using data to enhance user experience and provide better customer service, libraries will delete it.

Although this protects the public from large hacker data breaches such as those at eBay, Heartland, and Experian, the primary reason is to prevent government surveillance, something that should concern all of us, whether we fall into targeted groups or not.

The post Collecting and Destroying Data? Preventing Government Surveillance first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Libraries are different now than they were then. More than just books and a reference section filled with microfiche, magazines, and newspapers for research, they are community centers. Most offer Internet access and computers. Many offer makerspaces and other educational programs. Ideally, everyone would have access to a library close to home.

It’s happening in Chicago. Thanks to a partnership between the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), mixed income housing developments will house small libraries. “This is leadership and creativity at its best,” said Molly Sullivan, senior director of communications and media relations for the CHA. “We follow the lead of Mayor Emanuel on this. We will join a few other cities like Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Brooklyn [and] New York in [building] actual libraries that are co-located in publicly supported housing.”[1]

It’s a good financial decision, as building the libraries will be more affordable and they will be more accessible to patrons. The libraries will not just be mini-libraries filled with books either. They will all sponsor programs in their respective neighborhoods.

Social Workers

As part of the community outreach, social workers who specialize in providing social services for parents and children will conduct parental training and other workshops at the libraries. These workshops are designed to help patrons deal with everyday stresses associated with balancing work, children, and other family obligations. At the same time, libraries face other challenges. The same things that make them great leave them vulnerable, and keeping them safe and drug free can be a challenge. In this effort, social workers are often like first responders, helping detect issues and direct patrons to where they can get help.

Early Childhood Active Learning Spaces

Children will have access to great resources like makerspaces, technology, and the Teacher in the Library program. Undergraduate education students will assist children with their homework during after school hours. This not only provides children with more resources, but also develops a pipeline for “teachers in training” to gain hands-on teaching experiences. Libraries will work with local university teacher certification programs, as well as other programs which require students to acquire a certain number of  service learning hours. University of Illinois at Chicago was the first institution to participate in the program.

Teen and Adult Technology Support

The library will of course offer technology and teacher support to teens as well. Adult programs will also be offered including everything from financial counseling and job search support to writing resources, guides, and classes. Neighborhood artists and authors will be encouraged to showcase their work through events and workshops. Programs will on environmental responsibility also are planned.

Not only are these kinds of libraries good for the neighborhoods where they are located, but they are serving as a model for other library districts all over the country. The days of large central libraries may never be gone entirely, but small satellite branches in the neighborhoods where patrons live certainly seems like an affordable solution to making libraries readily accessible.

References

1. The Columbia Chronicle, “Mixed Income Housing To Be Co-located With Libraries.”

The post Bringing the Library Home: Mixed Income Housing and Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The number of opioids sold and the number of related deaths have quadrupled in the United States since 1999. A 2014 DEA study showed that 94% of those in treatment for opioid addiction turned to heroin because it was cheaper and easier to get than prescription painkillers.² The same things that make libraries a good place to study also make them a place where individuals feel they can get away with drug use. There are quiet corners, private study nooks, and large stacks where one can easily find some privacy. They’re free and open to everyone who walks in, and lingering is welcome.

However, many libraries now have makerspaces and computer labs which encourage more pedestrian traffic, making the library less of an anonymous space. They are also taking other initiatives to discourage drug use and even train librarians how to react if they do discover an overdose. These are things you can do in your own library.

Invite Your Police Department to do Routine Walk-Throughs

Most libraries have limited budgets and if anything those budgets are getting smaller, so hiring security might not be an option. However, encouraging your local police departments to do routine and random walk-throughs of the library, especially those out of the way areas and restrooms, is an excellent option. This discourages illegal activity and helps patrons and staff alike feel more secure. Utilizing police in combination with staff to make sure the building is clear before closing can prevent tragedies like the one in Chicago.

Partner with Social Workers

Counselors and social workers can play a large role in addiction recovery,³ creating an alliance with those who are addicted, encouraging them to seek recovery, and even helping them form a plan in case they relapse. At the Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan, social workers set up shop inside and help organize recovery support groups who meet there. This partnership enables them not only to intercept drug activity before it gets started but to offer professional services and guidance to patrons who are struggling.

Train your Staff and Volunteers

The American Library Association encourages librarians to get training on interacting with special populations, such as drug users and the homeless, but stresses the importance of partnering with groups such as police and social workers, Julie Todaro, the association’s president told CBS. Some librarians have taken this a step further. Boston’s libraries have needle drop boxes and have offered overdose prevention training for employees and residents. Health officials have provided some libraries in California with the overdose antidote Narcan,⁴ enabling library staff to save lives if they see an overdose happening. Many of those struggling with addiction to opioids are also struggling with other mental health issues that go hand in hand with dealing with chronic pain. These mental health issues can also affect other aspects of their physical health.⁵ The library is often somewhere they see as a safe place, a haven from their otherwise hectic and displaced lives. Libraries have to balance the need to be a public space available to everyone in the community with their very real responsibility to patrons to keep them safe. This can be done by partnering with police and social workers along with training employees and volunteers to recognize symptoms of heroin addiction you can make your library safe and drug-free.

References

¹http://www.cbsnews.com/news/libraries-becoming-popular-places-for-drug-users-to-shoot-up-heroin/

²https://www.dea.gov/resource-center/dir-ndta-unclass.pdf

³http://counseling.online.wfu.edu/resources/articles/the-role-of-the-counselor-in-addiction-recovery/

⁴http://stopoverdoseil.org/narcan.html

⁵http://onlinedegrees.bradley.edu/resources/articles/how-mental-health-affects-physical-health/

The post Just Say No: Keeping Your Library Drug-Free and Safe first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Amazon has caused major economic disruption, to the point where businesses call this the “Amazon Effect.” It’s not entirely a bad thing: the Amazon Marketplace offers a great opportunity for small businesses to reach a wider audience through an expanded distribution network. It’s not bad news for libraries either. Reading is reading, whether done on a screen or using paper. Map showing the Kingdom “Amazonia” courtesy Pepperdine University

Many question the motives of the retail giant, whether this new move is simple public relations or part of their larger strategy to gather more customer data and sell more products. After all, Amazon has always been about offering new value, which does not always mean a new product. Yet sometimes “new value is just a new perception,” says Dr. Charla Griffy-Brown of Pepperdine in a webinar on Innovation and Big Data. “New value can be charitable contributions that make a customer feel better about their purchase.”

No matter what the reason Amazon has for offering free Kindles and Ebooks, they are already working with the National PTA and other nonprofits to offer the Kindle Reading Fund to a wider variety of those in need. So how do libraries get involved?

Start a Program. One of the ways to be sure you get any kind of assistance or funding from any organization is to have a program already in place or ready to launch. Amazon, like other granting organizations, likes to see that their donations have a place to go and an efficient way to get there. Remember, at least a part of the motive of charitable giving is good publicity. Have a plan in place for publicizing your program and giving Amazon credit publicly for the donation, and they will be more likely to grant your request.

Have a Staffing Plan. With any program comes the need for staff to run the program, and while ebooks and Kindles may be free, the labor of your employees who run the program is not. While you may be able to do many things with volunteers, staff is still needed to supervise them. In the era of tight budgets, make sure you have room for this change.

Apply. Once you have a program and a staffing plan in place, apply to Amazon for assistance through the Kindle Reading Fund. Amazon has set up a webpage to make it easy to make a donation request. You can apply by clicking here.

No matter what you think of the retail king Amazon, and whether you attribute the demise of bookstores to them or other market forces (including the failure of said book stores to adapt to a new market), they have opened up several programs that are helpful to libraries. Although they offer paid subscription services, they are unlikely to replace libraries any time soon.

The Kindle Reading Fund is a great opportunity for your library to give to your community and inspire reading and learning in a digital generation. Being prepared with a program and a staffing plan will help your application succeed.

The post Amazon’s Kindle Reading Fund Donates Devices first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The E-Book and Right of Use

It used to work like this: the publisher (i.e. one of the Big Five or their subsidiaries) bought the author’s manuscript. The author signed a contract to collect a certain amount of royalties from each sale. Different sales yielded different royalties. Sales to a bookstore or a library resulted in different royalty amounts, with library sales earning less than bookstore sales. If a book was popular enough, libraries often bought books by the case, but that type of popularity was rare, and not every author saw their books in a library at all. Then came the e-book. No longer is it something that takes up shelf space. But at the same time, a library cannot just copy the file and let multiple people borrow a single copy at the same time. That would be a violation of copyright, just like it is with physical books.

However, the model was not even that simple. If it had worked like hard copies, a library could buy five e-copies and loan them out at will. But they don’t. Because they don’t own the e-copies. In fact, if you have a Kindle or other reading device, you don’t either. When you buy an e-book, you buy the right to use the content under the terms of the retailer.[1] When Barnes & Noble closed the Nook store in the UK, readers lost sometimes hundreds of books they had paid for.[2] Those books did not make the migration to Sainsbury’s, the replacement platform for Nook. The same holds true for many digital products like MP3 files, movies, and more. You purchase the right to use the content under certain conditions, but you don’t own it. Does the artist still get paid?

Self-Publishing and Small Press

Enter the self-publishing author or small press. They too can offer books to libraries through Overdrive and other services, and many libraries are implementing Self-E programs,[3] another way for authors to get discovered, recognized, and paid for their work. These self- and independently published books can include print and e-book titles. However many of these titles are not as popular as those released by major publishers, so will not be borrowed as frequently. In the case of print books, low circulation means wasted shelf space, and in the case of e-books, it means squandered money in the acquisitions budget. Of course, many self-published authors may donate their books to libraries, at least in the case of physical books. But then their earnings drop from the pennies they get from library sales to zero.

The Global Book Economy

Library books are not free. They are pre-paid, usually from some kind of tax base. Often there is an opposite effect to the need of the community: when the economy takes a downturn, the need for libraries grows just as budgets decrease. It is uncertain what effect Brexit will have on the British economy, but the tax base is sure to be affected in a country where libraries are already underfunded,[4] making getting books into libraries and paid for even more difficult for an author. The UK is just one example of this precarious state of libraries. Many libraries are reinventing themselves and thriving, while others are struggling with declining visits and borrows. This is tough news for authors as well.

Making a Living

Making a living as a writer is tough enough. Most writers have a day job of some sort, and while skills they gained from getting a liberal arts degree are in demand in any number of professions,[5] working full time at what they love is a true challenge for writers. An author can be as artsy about their book as they wish; however, the finished product must be marketed and distributed like any other product. Libraries offer authors two things. They can buy their books, which nets the author some royalties. They can also offer exposure, allowing the author to gain a new audience who might buy their books the next time rather than just borrowing them. For libraries to survive, authors must keep creating books. For them to keep creating books, they need to get paid. When libraries buy authors’ books, everyone comes out ahead.

References

[1] “Survey of Ebook Usage in U.S. Public Libraries” (fifth annual survey by Library Journal and School Library Journal, Place of Publication, 2014), 83–84.

[2] Stuart Lauchlan, “B&N nukes the NOOK with a 15 March deadline for customers to save content,” diginomica, March 7, 2016.

[3] “SELF-e: Connecting Self-Published Authors, Libraries, and Readers,” Library Journal, May 20, 2014.

[4] “The Global Political Implications of the June ‘Brexit’ Decision,” Master’s in Political Management Online, George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, July 26, 2016.

[5] “Why Liberal Arts Skills Are Important in Every Profession,” Marylhurst University, n.d.

The post Getting Paid: How Do Authors Make Money from Library Books? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Tell Powerful Stories

Regardless of who they are, people love stories. Think of it in the way a business does: How do they connect with customers? Marketing is just a series of stories. They tell inspiring stories about their company, its founders, and how they have made their passion their business. Then a business shares reviews and customer experiences, which are essentially stories about how customers have interacted with them. Twitter contains 140-character stories, Facebook contains short stories of what is happening or has happened, and a blog is filled with stories of a product’s relevance to readers.

What can libraries learn from this? The lesson taken from the marketing world can be broken into three simple parts:

1. Tell the story of the library itself and the people who work there. Much like being a teacher, a librarian pursued passion rather than money. Your community created a library for many reasons: preservation, public education, and establishing a community center. Share the “why” stories of your staff and organization.
2. Tell the stories of patrons. How have their lives been changed? Who found their love of reading through checking out books? What have they been inspired to do?
3. Tell the story of “now.” What is happening at your library? What are you doing that should excite patrons and make them want to be a part of it? This doesn’t just mean traditional news outlets, but also using social media to accomplish your communication goals.

It is not just the stories that reside in the books on the shelves, or the e-books digitally borrowed by patrons, but the real-world stories that will inspire your community.

Create New Stories

While some libraries struggle, New York Public Libraries are experiencing a resurgence of visitors.^[3] What are they doing differently?

“Nationally, public libraries are redefining their mission at a time when access to technology, and the ability to use it, is said to deepen class stratification, leaving many poor and disadvantaged communities behind,” says Winnie Hu of the New York Times. “Sari Feldman, president of the American Library Association, said library workers have shown people how to file online for welfare benefits and taught classes in science, technology, engineering, and math to children who could not afford to go to summer camps.” ^[4]

“All libraries are having a renaissance,” Feldman said. “We’re seeing that libraries have really stepped up to take on roles that are needed in a community.”^[5]

Successful libraries enable patrons to create their own stories with makerspaces, classes, job counseling, and community events. Various clubs allow them to share their stories with others and create new friendships. Libraries have become community centers, gathering places, and learning centers. They provide access to technology and information like no other institution can.

Most of all, though, libraries are still all about stories. Our stories, the stories our patrons have created, and the stories they will create with our help. As long as libraries do not lose sight of that fact, as long as they do not focus on the number of books borrowed or patrons they can attract, but instead on the power of words—whether they be printed, pixels of e-ink, spoken, or 3-D printed—they will continue to be a vital asset to our communities.

Resources

“Storytelling and Business: Finding Your Power Stories,” Intuit Quick Books

Webinar: Using Social Media to Accomplish Your Communications Goals, George Washington University: Master’s in Strategic Public Relations Online

References

[1] Michael Loh Toon Seng, “Focus on boosting reading, not book borrowing,” Straight Times (Singapore), July 1, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Winnie Hu, “Adding Classes and Content, Resurgent Libraries Turn a Whisper Into a Roar,” New York Times, July 4, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Sari Feldman, ibid.

The post Beyond Book Borrows: What’s Your Story? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

But there are immediate issues. Criminals immediately took advantage of the fact that players were revealing not only where they were, but where they were going.^[1] Privacy issues were also raised, and if you are playing you should check your privacy settings, although Niantic says they are working on a solution.^[2] Then Pokémon GO players immediately started showing up in some odd places to try to fill their Pokedex. The question rose: Where is it appropriate to capture Pokémon? Is anywhere fair game?

The Holocaust Museum says no and has asked visitors to stop hunting there.^[3] It seems like common sense would dictate the inappropriateness of this behavior, but it hasn’t. The drive to capture that last Meowth to fill a Pokedex is being used to excuse all kinds of inconsiderate behavior.

Some locations are embracing the trend. Rangers in the National Mall will even help visitors hunt Pokémon, but they have set some limitations. “There are some places in national parks, all over the country, but even here in D.C. on the National Mall, where it may not be appropriate to play Pokémon Go,” says one. “For instance, at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial—a place that is designed to be a site of solemn reflection….”^[4]

What about libraries? As they have increasingly transformed from places of quiet research and librarians shushing visitors into community centers with makerspaces, Wi-Fi access, and classes and events, should visitors GO there?

GO Can be Used to Teach

From elementary schools to colleges, games and the gamer mentality are being used to teach students. “Imagine that you’re now playing a game, that you’re exploring the Earth, exploring Mars, you’re searching for habitable planets; everything you’re doing in the game is based in physical reality, biological reality, and chemical reality,” says Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. “Students will be able to pass any of those tests in chemistry, physics, or biology, just taking that subject by playing the game.”^[5]

The reason the rangers are helping players on the National Mall? “Players come to catch a Pokémon, but are led around and then see all of the great historical things here.”^[6] Visitors might come for the Pokémon GO, but they stay for what they discover around them.

A similar strategy could be used at libraries. GO brings patrons in: the other offerings of the library inspire them to stay.

GO can be a Distraction

On the other side of things, GO can be a huge distraction to non-GO players. Imagine you are sitting doing research on a kiosk, and over your shoulder you see a person walking, eyes fixed intently on their screen. You ignore them, but a moment later you hear a loud cheer, even through your earbuds.

Coffee shops fill with Pokémon GO players, and some shops even post signs declaring Pokémon are for paying guests only. What should be good for business can instead be detrimental if spaces are filled with non-paying Pikachu seekers.

GO Hype Will Normalize (Maybe)

Pokedex will be filled. Those who have started playing out of curiosity will drop out of the game if they don’t become addicted or dedicated. The history of games like Angry Birds and others has proven this. We exist in a period of hype. Pokémon GO has drawn in users by the thousands, and to ignore the long lasting effects of that would be foolish.

Many businesses and other institutions are trying to cash in on the craze; some libraries have already joined them. Should yours? There is a balance to be struck, but if we can draw in more visitors without being disruptive, it may be time for us to GO. Libraries must decide if they have appropriate spaces and resources to manage the traffic that might come with allowing game play.

Now shhh. I am hunting a Dratini. I am pretty sure he is hiding in the Reference section.

Resource

Everything Librarians Need To Know About Pokemon Go!

References

[1] Rob Thubron, “Criminals use Pokémon Go to lure victims and rob them at gunpoint,” TechSpot, July 11, 2016.

[2] Joseph Bernstein, “You Should Probably Check Your Pokémon Go Privacy Settings,” BuzzFeed, July 11, 2016.

[3] Andrea Peterson, “Holocaust Museum to visitors: Please stop catching Pokémon here,” Washington Post, July 12, 2016.

[4] Paul Ollig, “National Park Rangers Will Help You Hunt Pokémon On The National Mall” by Chris Geidner, BuzzFeed, July 11, 2016.

[5] Michael Crow, “Dr. Michael Crow,” (keynote presentation, ASU GSV summit, San Diego, CA, April 18–20, 2016).

[6] Paul Ollig, “National Park Rangers Will Help You Hunt Pokémon On The National Mall” by Chris Geidner.

The post Don’t Go There: Are Libraries Appropriate Places to Catch Pokémon? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

All this can only come about if libraries adopt a form of change management. Change has become the norm for libraries as it has with many other businesses who wish to remain competitive. The rise in popularity of the e-book and digital libraries, the transformation to digital centers featuring computer and Wi-Fi access, and libraries as community meeting centers has challenged what used to be the norm, and replaced it with an ever evolving one instead.

Here are five emerging technology trends that will benefit both staff and patrons.

Tablet Loaner Programs

Desktops once lined the tables of library computer centers. It is certainly easier however, to read an e-book on a tablet or Chromebook instead. While fiction books were the first to make the transition, many nonfiction and reference books have made the move to e-format. So patrons can, instead of browsing the stacks, sit with a tablet or iPad and read the same materials, even printing parts they need for later reference.

Many magazines and newspapers have also digitized their archives, making them searchable. Special collections from libraries (such as this one from the University of Idaho) have at least part of their records available online. Local search engines housed on tablets or laptops may become a vital part of any research library.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is emerging as a new form of storytelling and educational gaming. Creating virtual reality spaces in libraries will provide patrons access to this content.

Virtual field trips conducted from libraries can be enhanced by directing patrons to other related content when the field trip has been completed. Educational games can become a regular part of children’s programs, and making documentaries and other films a part of the libraries digital collection will further enhance educational opportunities.

This will not only increase patron visits and engagement but also provide access to this technology to visitors who would not otherwise be able to utilize it.

3-D Printing

Maker stations are not new, but new uses for them are always emerging. Some libraries have managed to leverage this technology creatively. The following are examples from WebJunction:

• Fayetteville Free Library was able to locate its FabLab in a previously unused space, which was formerly (and appropriately) part of the Stickley Furniture factory, renowned makers in the Arts and Crafts movement.
• The Westport (CT) Public Library chose to locate its makerspace right in the middle of the library and now has an active event and activities calendar.
• The Arrowhead Library System (WI), has a mobile makerspace that is shared between seven libraries in southern Wisconsin.
• In the Netherlands, a mobile FabLab is bringing twenty-first-century making to primary and secondary schools in rural and remote communities.^[1]

3-D metal printing will be the next production method for many objects, as it is both less expensive and faster than conventional methods.^[2]

Libraries engaging adults as well as children in this activity are potentially helping prepare them for the future in many job markets.

Robotics

This is not the kind of robot that will replace the librarian; rather, this is the kind of robot that can, among other things, teach kids to write computer code. Some libraries are even acquiring robots that can be checked out by patrons, just like other library materials.

Maxine Bleiweiss, director of the Westport Library, which already has 3-D printers, says, “We believe robotics is the next disruptive technology that people need to know about.”^[3] The library was the first in the nation to acquire sophisticated humanoid robots made by the French robotics firm Aldebaran.

The robots don’t do anything they are not programmed to do, and so patrons learn the Python language to make them perform tasks from reading stories to children to dancing. The library is even talking about doing robot poetry slams, since the robots gesture when they talk just like humans do.

Drones

Much like robotics, this emerging field is being explored by libraries in a number of ways. Besides keeping patrons informed of FAA regulations regarding drones, including the need to register any drone that is over .55 pounds (8.8 ounces) when flight ready, some libraries are providing demonstrations and instruction as well.^[4]

The potential uses for drones extend far beyond demonstrations and patron education, including book drop offs and pickups for patrons unable to make it to the library, content creation, and research.

Drones will likely be a part of the technology resources offered by libraries. The library at the University of South Florida even experimented with lending drones to students.^[5]

These are just a few ways emerging technology can help both patrons and librarians going forward. The library is changing, and in the future they probably will not look much like they do today, but through change management and the embracing of new technology, libraries will continue to be the community centers they have always been.

References

[1] Betha Gutsche, “3D Printers: a revolution headed for your library,” WebJunction, November 9, 2015.

[2] “3D Metal Printing | 3D Printing Technologies,” YouTube video, 5:00, courtesy of Ex One, posted by “i.materialise,” December 10, 2010.

[3] Maxine Bleiweiss, “Beyond bookshelves: Meet your public library’s robots” by Mark Herz, Marketplace, October 10, 2014.

[4] Andrew Stengel, “Your Drone Christmas Gift Could Cost You $27,000 Or More: FAA Requires UAS Registration,” Huffington Post, January 4, 2016.

[5] Jareen Imam, “Check it out: Florida university library to lend drones to students,” CNN, June 23, 2014.

The post Emerging Tech Trends Require Change Management first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What about e-books? What if a student needs a study from a professor in the Washington State MBA program but attends Arizona State University? Can the library get it then? Ryan Litsey, an associate librarian who is head of Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery at Texas Tech and recipient of the Library Journal’s Mover and Shaker award for 2016, thought the answer should be yes. With his partner, Kenny Ketner, the library’s software development manager, he developed the first and only library developed method to loan e-books through an interlibrary loan program.

It’s called Occam’s Reader, and it’s being used by twenty-four libraries across the country by over 600,000 users (seventy more universities are projected to join the program by the end of the year). Occam’s Reader has access to collections from multiple publishers and universities, which equals millions of titles.

The name comes from the Occam’s razor principle: simplified, it says the simplest solution is usually the best. Litsey’s and Ketner’s goal was to develop the simplest system possible for libraries to share e-books with each other, and with the pilot program complete and version 2.0 ready to launch, that goal has been achieved.

“When students are doing their research and writing their papers and they come across a citation or want to look at a book that they want to use for a paper that we don’t have,” Litsey said, “they can now make a request for the electronic book through the Occam’s Reader program.”

This is great tool for the university libraries that use it. What about public libraries?

As libraries and publishers come to agreements and hopefully move toward an ownership model for e-books for preservation as well as library cost reduction, an electronic interlibrary loan program makes sense. Occam’s Reader provides a model that can be expanded to include non-academic libraries.

E-book Borrows are on the Rise

Why do we need this program? Because despite belief to the contrary, OverDrive numbers released in April of 2016 show several trends in relation to e-books.

• Checkouts through OverDrive are on track to grow 30–40 percent for 2016 over the record levels achieved for 2015.
• With a 30 percent increase in children’s digital books borrowed (Q1 2016 vs. Q1 2015), younger readers are increasingly embracing public library children’s and YA e-book collections.
• Borrowing of self-published e-books is increasing—with 40 percent more titles being borrowed (Q1 2016 vs. Q1 2015).
• Publishers are offering new access models that increase availability for readers.

As children and teens become more engaged with e-books, from enhanced digital copies that include audio and video links to comics that are now available electronically, digital borrows will continue to soar.

Loans Save Money

Library budgets in many areas are shrinking or staying static, while demands on libraries to provide public Internet, act as community centers, offer makerspaces, and still curate both physical and e-books and promote literacy acquisition of new titles is often challenging. The process must be very selective.

An interlibrary loan program allows that selection process to be even more specific. Libraries within the program could work together, especially in the area of academic and nonfiction publications, to offer a wider variety of titles without each library having to purchase its own copy.

How does this program benefit students and library patrons? Not only does an e-book interlibrary program save libraries money and expand what they can offer, but it benefits patrons in amazing ways.

E-Library Loans Enhance Distance Learning

In 2013, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCS) were thought to be the coming revolution in education. While they have been much maligned, the growth of online education and distance learning has been astounding.

One of the big advantages is the ability to take classes anywhere. Research can be done via the Internet, but what about obtaining specific books and academic sources? Let’s say a student enrolled in the already revolutionary Global Freshman Academy offered online by Arizona State University and needs to look at a white paper on the Drake equation from a professor at Texas Tech (Both universities are current participants in the program). Occam’s Reader offers distance learners access to such resources wherever they happen to be taking the course, from their couch to a corner table at Starbucks.

E-loans will not replace the in-person research that is sometimes necessary, but it will make more research possible from almost anywhere.

E-Library Loans Enable Teleworkers

Business is being transformed in a number of ways. Many people can work from home or nearly anywhere. One of the reasons is that more data is available faster.

More and more companies are hiring teleworkers and freelancers, allowing their employees to work remotely. E-library loans add to the data available remotely, making this kind of work possible for even more people.

Distance learning and telework are on the rise, and there is little question e-books are here to stay. They will continue be a growing and changing part of libraries. Occam’s Reader promises libraries can continue to work together to provide knowledge and education to their communities. Patrons will continue to count on libraries as a place to find that knowledge, and count on library staff to be able to help them find it.

In that simple solution, we are all winners.

The post Occam’s Reader: Interlibrary E-book Loans first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Is this possible through some kind of sophisticated body scan, or something that detects and reads the library card in his pocket? No. A simple computer program simply scans the faces of everyone who comes through the door and matches them with the library’s own database. How far away is this future? Really, it’s right around the corner.

Big data, or the huge piles of information much too vast for standard computers to catalog and analyze, is becoming more and more vital to nearly every industry. Most of this data is created by users of social media, the Internet, smartphones, and almost any app that is location enabled.  The White House has even become involved, with the creation of the Office of Data Science, and appointing the first chief data scientist in US history.[1]

Our faces are a part of big data. According to an article in The Atlantic titled “Who Owns Your Face?” the FBI has a facial recognition database with 52 million faces and up to one-third of Americans.[2] It’s easy to imagine facial recognition technology used against high-profile criminals: spies, fugitives, assassins. But we’re not legally far off from using facial recognition to catch people breaking ordinances and committing misdemeanors. Many  states, in fact, have already embraced this kind of enforcement.

With some libraries reporting patrons to the police who owe library fines, the above scenario could be closer than we think. And there are other possible benefits, too. What if facial recognition software let library staff know if a dangerous individual, such as a pedophile, has entered the building? This technology could make us more secure no matter where we were. But there are immediate legal and ethical concerns.

Legal consent: To run facial recognition on an individual, do you need their permission? According to most, security and law enforcement uses would be exempt from the consent issue. But where is the line drawn? What about non-law enforcement applications and consumers? Where would libraries fall? Many say a transparency clause such as a sign letting patrons know facial recognition is being used would be enough. But would it really?

Ethical conduct: Facial recognition is a part of the larger debate about the ethics of big data in general.[3] The simplified guidelines state:

• Collect minimal data: collect only the data absolutely needed
• Aggregate data: strip the data of personal information while still retaining its usefulness
• Identify and scrub sensitive data: know how to deal with sensitive personal data
• Let users opt out: allow users to deny use of the data you collect about them

The problems with facial recognition as big data?

• Your face is not minimal data. It is the only data in facial recognition.
• You face cannot be stripped of its attributes and aggregated.
• Your face identifies you, and so does other sensitive data.

Sure, people can opt out, in a sense. However, in a public institution where facial recognition is being used, such as a library, the only way to opt out is to not visit that place at all.

Accuracy: How accurate is the software anyway? Alarmingly and amazingly so. In a project entitled “Your face is big data,” Rodchenko Art School student Egor Tsvetkov began photographing about a hundred people who happened to sit across from him on the subway at some point.[4]

Using a simple facial recognition program called FindFace and the Russian social network VK, he found 60 to 70 percent of those aged 18–35. For older people, the experiment was a little less efficient, possibly due to lack of social media presence.

The Atlantic points to a study by Carnegie Mellon’s Professor Alessandro Acquisti that found about one-third of people walking around a college campus could be identified simply by using Facebook profile pictures as the data source. “In other words, 33 percent of people on any given street can be recognized by jury rigging a webcam, Facebook, and using Google’s reverse image search.”[5]

“From a technological perspective, the ability to successfully conduct mass-scale facial recognition in the wild seems inevitable,” Acquisti said. “Whether as a society we will accept that technology, however, is another story.”[6]

As big data gets larger, as facial recognition databases get more complete, and as the searching and analysis of them gets better, the uses of this technology will get broader, and libraries will be faced with choices about how and where to use it.

Your patrons’ faces belong to them. But they are not the only ones who consider and track those unique features that make them look like themselves. It is our responsibility not only to use this technology wisely and protect ourselves but also to protect the privacy of those who use our services. It’s a challenge we will face sooner rather than later.

References

[1] “The White House & The Booming Data Industry – Master of Information,” Rutgers Online, accessed May 16, 2016.

[2] Robinson Meyer, “Who Owns Your Face?” Atlantic, July 2, 2015.

[3] “The Ethics of Big Data,” Villanova University, 2016.

[4] Katherine Noyes, “‘Your face is big data:’ The title of this photographer’s experiment says it all,” PCWorld, April 13, 2016.

[5] Alessandro Acquisti, “Who Owns Your Face?” by Robinson Meyer, Atlantic, July 2, 2015.

[6] Ibid.

The post Facing Privacy Issues: Your Face as Big Data first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Data Based Decisions
Data-based decisions are increasingly becoming the norm for website owners, companies, and government agencies. Data gathered from online customers has driven the success of Amazon’s first physical bookstore, which I learned a lot about by paying them a visit. The data these decisions are based on is often known as big data, or sets of data too large to be handled effectively by humans or a computer with normal capabilities. In the library world, these decisions are similar to the data based decisions of other businesses as they involve inventory, product development and participation (like Self-E), human resource and hiring, and image management.

Do we stock more e-books for electronic check out? Do we opt into Overdrive and Self-E? How many digital librarians do we need to have, hire, or train? What is our library to the community? Are we a digital center, with maker labs and other activities, or are we an archive for paper books and nothing more? It is vital when making these decisions that we have all of the facts, not just those presented by certain portions of the publishing industry. Quarter after quarter, AAP reports that e-book sales are declining, while Amazon and other sites report they are on the rise. What’s the real story?

The Sources of the AAP Information
The AAP gets its sales figures from the 1,200 largest publishers, and continues to report declining e-book sales.[1] This sounds like a pretty impressive big data sample, and it is. It’s also much easier to examine that segment of the market rather than looking at a broader picture. The sales numbers come straight from the publishers, right? But those sales figures, limited to just the largest publishers, leave out most small presses and indie authors, and they also counts sales of physical books to bookstores rather than those sold to consumers. What’s the difference?

Well, if a book sits on the shelf too long at Barnes & Noble, for instance, it moves first to the bargain table. Why? Because it costs more to ship it back to the publisher than it does to sell it at a discount, since they only get a partial refund of the cover price. Even if it is returned to the publisher, or a distributor, those books are pulped and recycled rather than shelved in a warehouse for future sales that may never come. It’s just a cheaper option. So the number of physical books is somewhat artificially inflated, as not all of those books make it to the hands of readers. E-books, however, are a different story. Once ordered, they are immediately in the hands of the reader, or at least at their disposal on their device.

What They Left Out
The information they don’t have comes from sites who do not report e-book sales, and the hundreds of indie publishers, from small press to single authors, who also do not report sales numbers to the AAP. And that is a ton of books.

A website called Author Earnings, the brainchild of Hugh Howey and his partner, known simply as Data Guy, has been gathering sales data for well over a year now. In March, in a presentation at Digital Book World (DBW), their data and methods were presented in an eye-opening keynote address. The data offers a much broader picture of the industry.

Basically, there are five major retailers of e-books in the United States: Amazon, the largest; Apple Books; Barnes & Noble (Nook); Kobo US; and the now nearly obsolete Google Play Books. A large majority of the books sold on those sites are not reported to the AAP, as they are published through non-traditional (read: small press or indie author) methods. The share of the market these books have is growing all the time.

Fig. 1: 95% of US ebook sales go through only 5 major online retailers [2]

Pricing: In the pricing war between publishers and libraries, a more complete picture shows the prices of books actually selling, and can certainly give libraries leverage toward fairer pricing, and even toward moving to an ownership model.

Inventory: What genre are people reading and buying; i.e., what genre are they likely to borrow? This is important because the overall picture shows different trends than the partial picture the AAP numbers present.

Personnel: If e-books are indeed on the rise, and becoming the norm, more digital librarians are needed, or at least librarians who are tech-savvy. This seems logical anyway, as more libraries are becoming community gathering places, educational and making centers, and sources for Internet access for those who do not have it at home.

Image Management: My wife’s grandfather loves his local library. He most often visits it on his iPad. He’s reading e-books borrowed through their digital library system. The library fosters the image that is it more than just a physical building, but a place that extends to the Internet.

All of these things make an assumption: e-books are on the rise and here to stay. What about the APA numbers and the way they conflict with those of Amazon and other retailers?

Fig. 2: What does an incomplete picture of the market tell us about consumer spending by genre… [3]

Fig. 4: …versus what a complete image of the market says? [4]

This does not mean paper books are dead. Far from it. In nonfiction and reference, paper books still dominate the market. While e-textbooks are popular to some, the novelty has worn off in favor of note taking and highlighting in the margins, to the point where Barnes & Noble is closing its e-textbook division, Yuzu.[5]

What this Means to Libraries
The library will never be a solely digital space, yet it’s unlikely libraries will ever go back to being a solely physical place either. Both digital and physical collections are important, even though they make collections management much more complicated.

The key is to have a realistic view of the publishing world. Digital media experts often say “everything is a concept” and creative thinking and innovation are just as important to the library industry as knowledge and analysis. This intuitive and imaginative approach is critical in what Daniel Pink calls the “Conceptual Age” in his book, A Whole New Mind.[6]

Programs like Self-E, the Open eBooks app, and free digital libraries set up by different states will all have an impact on how and where the library spends its budget.

The key may be to realize that using simply traditional sources of information is what has become a clearly nontraditional industry may be a mistake, and looking at the whole picture offers benefits not otherwise available.

References:

[1] Association of American Publishers, “AAP StatShot: Publisher Net Revenue from Book Sales Declines 2.0% Through Third Quarter of 2015,” Association of American Publishers Newsroom [website], January 27, 2016.

[2] Data Guy, “Outside the Data Box: a fresh look at ebook sales” (2016 Digital Book World Keynote Presentation), March 11, 2016.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Michael Kozlowski, “Barnes and Noble Closes Digital Textbook Division,” Good E-Reader, March 8, 2016.

[6] Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (New York: Riverhead Books, 2005).

Resources:

Making Data-Based Decisions

Author Earnings

Digital Book World

Open eBooks

Further Reading:

E-book Trends Flattening, Paper Books Holding Their Own

A Visit to Amazon Books

The post The Myth of the E-book Plateau first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Times have changed. E-books, something many of us never thought were possible, are now commonplace, and many checkouts from the library never even involve a visit to the stacks.

Not everyone has access to them though, especially families who are poor and cannot afford to pay for content, even if they have a smartphone or computer. Checking out e-books from libraries is one option, but at the end of February, the White House released a new app: Open eBooks.

Getting started with the app is easy. Educators can sign up at openebooks.net and receive codes for their students. The students can then use those codes to download the app to a smartphone or tablet, and then they will have access to the e-book collection.

“Clearly, the Open eBooks program can provide another digital gateway for millions of children to develop a love of reading,” says Sari Feldman, President of the American Library Association, “and what smarter investment in our future could we make than getting books in front of kids?”

The White House has been slow to adapt, but is rapidly catching up in the digital realm. Some developments include the first Chief Data Scientist in US history leading the white house into the world of big data, as well as the Department of Education launching an initiative called #GoOpen and encouraging educators and their districts to use openly licensed educational resources (OERs).

Open eBooks is different from those programs in that it deals primarily with copyrighted material. It does, however, follow a similar pattern from the White House: gather data and make sure it is publically available, use OERs to enhance education, and make e-books free to those who cannot afford them.

The app involves partnerships with ten major publishers, who provide the texts, with the Digital Public Library of America, First Book, The New York Public Library, digital books distributor Baker & Taylor and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

What do you think? How will Open eBooks affect libraries and classrooms? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

The post Open eBooks: A Digital Gateway first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

But what, if any, is the future of virtual reality (VR) in the library? What kind of role does this technology play? Libraries have become much more community centers centered around education and experience as much as they are books. Patrons visit for free Wi-Fi and computer access, 3D printing labs, and other programs not directly related to the hundreds of volumes housed in the stacks.

Many patrons already check out books virtually and don’t visit the actual physical library too often, if at all. Are virtual reality labs, tours, and workshops the next step for libraries? The answer is a solid maybe as the technology develops and makes its way out of gaming and movies and into education and everyday experiences.

Facebook’s $2 billion purchase of Oculus tells us two things: first, VR is going to be a thing. It is here to stay. Second, it tells us that the social media of the future will be more than just a web page: it will be a world of its own. Status updates, news stories—all will be experienced rather than just read. Beyond social media, there are many more practical uses of Virtual Reality.

Virtual Travel and Experience Teaching children and adults about other places becomes easier if they can experience them firsthand. Flying over New York City and having the ability to look around while in the air is something few people can do in reality, but virtual reality can make such experiences accessible to many. Visiting museums and national landmarks, once such material is available, becomes quite simple. And since visiting the worlds created by popular authors is not possible, the learner can explore a place outside of our reality.

Virtual Gaming and New Skills Gamification in the classroom, at work, and elsewhere is already catching on. Combining such efforts with virtual reality not only will engage learners of all ages but can also be used to teach them new skills in an authentic context. This tends to motivate the students to replicate what they have done virtually in “the real world.”

Virtual Reality Levels the Playing Field No longer are height, weight, gender, or race a factor in acceptance in the virtual reality world, whether in gaming or any other virtual experience. If even for a little while, the absence of stigmas and even disabilities from virtual worlds is an important factor in child development.

How might some library programs use virtual reality? There are several exciting possibilities:

Storytelling One of the prime objectives of libraries still is to share and tell stories. With apps like vrse, inspiring readers to explore stories is a whole new way is made easy.

NASA Education Want to inspire your visitors to learn more about space and space exploration? NASA brings apps to Oculus that let users experience what it’s like to ride in many of its spacecraft. Using the same technology and adding an Xbox One Kinect, users can control a robot arm using their bodies.

Driver Safety Programs Want to offer something unique in your community? Toyota has also released a virtual reality driving simulator to instruct teens about the dangers of distracted driving. The simulation allows users to have the feel of driving, and attempts to distract them with simulated text messages and virtual friends in the back seat.

Field Trips Recently, Google released a beta version of Google Exhibitions Pioneer Program, What has been up to now a limited program where schools signed up, and then waited for a visit from the Google team is now available on Android. There is a little waiting involved, but you can sign up to be a beta tester here, and the process is faster than it once was.

But what does this cost the average library? Well, there are a couple affordable options that won’t break the bank. While the Oculus Rift, which provides an intense VR experience, is out of the range of most organizations and requires a fairly powerful PC to run, there are simpler, consumer-oriented systems that cost much less.

Samsung Gear VR Samsung offers a relatively affordable virtual reality system powered by your phone. The advantage it has over many others is that it was developed with Oculus, and uses apps available exclusively to that operating system. The clear disadvantage is that it works only with certain Samsung phones, at least so far.

Another option, the Zeis VR One, has trays compatible with iPhone or Samsung Devices. It is likely that, similar to other devices, templates will be created for other devices that can be 3D printed by the consumer—another opportunity for libraries with this type of lab to get patrons through the door.

Google Cardboard By far the simplest and most varied of devices; there are several variations of Google Cardboard on the market, and several templates available online that can be 3D printed. Working with the Google platform has other advantages as well. The company is already working with educators and libraries with apps and games designed for specifically for education, with some specifically for library use not far behind.

There are also templates for making your own Google Cardboard from, well, cardboard. The instructions are relatively simple and make a great craft project. As more apps and games are developed, there will be more and more uses of VR in libraries, and affordable options to implement programs.

A note on Augmented reality: While virtual stacks and tours of libraries are cool, Augmented or Altered reality may have more impact on libraries than simple Virtual reality. Using a camera in conjunction with the software, reality as the user sees it is altered in some way, while they can still move around freely. A user could use a virtual card catalog or indexed search, and a colored line could lead them through the stacks to their selection.

Sound like science fiction? Well, it all does, to a certain extent. However, rapid advances are making what once seemed far-fetched a reality. Like many things, libraries will have to adapt again to a new digital format. What role virtual and augmented reality will play in the library, if any, is still uncertain.

References:

¹ Jeff Peachey. “Virtual Reality in the Library,” jeff peachey [blog], January 19, 2016.

The post Virtual Reality in the Library: Creating a New Experience first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Courtesy of Troy Lambert

With a little searching, I was able to find a link to the same study on the American Society for Information Science and Technology^[1] website. Still it raised the question: what happened to the other article? And how did I have to structure my search to find it?

A simple Google search of “knowledge management” would not work. The article didn’t rank high enough according to Google to appear on the front page, and most users (including me) don’t look past page two, so I needed more information for my search string. Since I looked at the article recently, I knew what university and program the professor was affiliated with, and I remembered her last name. So a search of “knowledge management Rutgers Library McInerney” brought me to the information I was looking for, but the result was still on page two. This example highlights one of the many problems with proper preservation of digital content.

On November 20, 2015, Meredith Broussard of The Atlantic stated similar concerns in an article titled The Irony of Writing Online about Digital Preservation: “The Internet archive will allow you to find a needle in a haystack, but only if you know approximately where the needle is.”^[2]

Imagine me trying to find the same Rutgers article, only a year from now. I’m likely to have read hundreds of other articles by then, and probably won’t remember the university the professor was from, and certainly not her name; I’d just have a vague notion of an article about knowledge management I would like to reference, and maybe a loose timeframe of when I read it, which has no real world relation to the date the article was published.

Not to mention the haystack is constantly growing.^[3] The number of articles, like this one, regarding similar concerns over the preservation of knowledge, will be created and archived somewhere, maybe. That’s where the irony comes in. We are writing in a digital media about the difficulty of preserving digital data, and our thoughts themselves are challenging to preserve.

It’s a vicious circle, and an ongoing problem, one that libraries are ill-equipped to solve; however, these concerns have many sources and possible solutions.

Content Management

“The challenges of maintaining digital archives are as much social and institutional as technological,” said a National Science Foundation and Library of Congress study^[4] from 2003. “Even the most ideal technological solutions will require management and support from institutions that in time go through changes in direction, purpose, management, and funding.”

Each website is hosted on some kind of platform designed to manage how the content looks to an end user, and many have unique themes. These vary from Drupal (used by Time magazine) to WordPress (where the content on my website is hosted), and dozens of others, some custom created for large media organizations. Media outlets that also create print materials have yet another Content Management System (CMS) for print content. All of this should be easy to preserve, right?

Not as easy as you think. Large archival organizations like LexisNexis or EBSCO scoop up digital feeds, bundle the information in a database, and license those packages to libraries, who can then search them by title, author, keyword, where and when they were posted, depending on what the feed is able to gather. But comparing EBSCO searches with searches in Google reveals a stark difference in the quantity of articles indexed, revealing one of many data gaps.

Gone are the days of print material being converted to microfiche, but there is a hazard: organizations that switch CMS or have several, with decades of information to preserve (i.e. The New York Times), all of it in different formats, face huge challenges, all of which can be costly.

User Expectations

User expectations have changed as well: researchers expect nearly instant results and unlimited access to information. But putting and keeping it all on the web just isn’t practical, and experiments searching for specific articles show just how challenging that is.

Such searches also raise the question of how necessary such preservation is. Unless a user is looking for a specific quote by a specific person, the proliferation of material on any subject means similar information will be found in any search. In the example above, if I hadn’t been trying to find a specific article to prove it could be done more than anything else, I could have used other sources discovered in the search string discussing knowledge management containing nearly the same information.

Social Media Interactions

Not yet included in library based searches are Tweets, Facebook posts and comments, and other online interactions authors have with their audience. These are also a source for relevant quotes and information, but social feeds are difficult for libraries to capture, archive, and preserve, let alone make useful. The Library of Congress has made an effort with Twitter, but has no idea (yet) how they will make the huge amount of data they’ve collected available to the public.^[5]

The primary reason is cost, a constant issue with both preservation and public access. It’s not just about the hundreds of terabytes of storage, a number that grows daily, but about having servers fast enough to handle even the simplest search. Searching one term in a small portion of the tweets gathered, say from 2006 to 2011, would take twenty-four hours using the library’s current technology.

There are also privacy issues, even though technically each Tweet published or Facebook update posted is already in a certain portion of the public domain, depending on the user’s privacy settings. However, this is a different method of acquisition than anything libraries have done previously, and a system has to be in place to remove deleted Tweets and posts in order to comply with the same user agreements that make them public information.

Data Gaps

Even news sites struggle with shrinking budgets, migrating CRMs and changes in IT staff. A Newspaper Research Journal article reveals major data gaps.^[6] “Not one publication has a complete archive of their website,” the article states. “Most can go back no further than 2008.”

So when you look for this article in a few months, how easy will it be to find? Even if you save it to your Twitter or Facebook feed, will the link still work? For how long? Fast forward a year. Two. Will our concerns even be the same? If you can find the article, will it be relevant? How quickly will it be lost in the haystack of other articles about digital preservation?

I don’t know how this site is being archived, or when Public Libraries Online will switch content management systems. I can save this article on my computer, or even in the cloud, but while that protects my access, at least for now, it doesn’t preserve it anywhere else. It’s likely the article I write today on digital preservation will not be preserved beyond a couple of years, whether it is of scholarly interest or not.

But with a little searching, maybe someone will find this needle in the haystack of information. At least, if they have some idea of where it might have been in the first place…

Sources

[1] McInerney, Claire. “Knowledge Management – A Practice Still Defining Itself.” American Society for Information Science and Technology 28, no. 3 (February/March 2002).

[2] Broussard, Meredith. “The Irony of Writing Online About Digital Preservation.” The Atlantic, November 20, 2015. http://theatln.tc/1Qyguv2.

[3] Fridman, Alan. “3 Ways Big Data Has Changed the Digital Age.” Inc.com, July 19, 2015. http://bit.ly/1fgNYho.

[4] Hedstrom, Margaret. “It’s About Time Research: Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation.” Report presents to Workshop on Research Challenges an Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation, Washington, DC, April 12-13, 2002.

[5] LeFrance, Adrienne. “Library of Congress has archive of tweets, but no plan for its public display.” The Washington Post, January 13, 2013. http://wapo.st/1mTDBUJ.

[6] Hansen, Kathleen A., and Nora Paul. “Newspaper archives reveal major gaps in digital age.” Newspaper Research Journal 36, No. 3 (2015): 290–298. DOI: 10.1177/0739532915600745.

The post A Needle in a Haystack: Writing Digitally about Proper Digital Preservation first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Further complicating the issue is that many libraries don’t have their own system in place for storing and lending e-books, but rather have to depend on subscription services like Overdrive or the recently sold 3M system. Preservation issues aside this creates challenges for small press publishers, indie authors, and library staff who want to do the most good for the community as a whole.

There may be a couple of solutions from unlikely sources, and if they work, they could change the game entirely. A little competition and other paths to an e-book ownership type program might force the big publishers, or at least encourage them to cooperate. The only ones who think $90 e-books are reasonable are the number crunchers in big New York offices. The following are a few players who could help change their minds.

Amazon
The big retail giant? You bet. They have some distinct advantages in the publishing game, and have even opened a physical bookstore very similar to a library in atmosphere, although without the selection or the expert advice available from library staff.

• Amazon has already fought, and pretty much won, a battle over e-book pricing with publishers.
• Amazon has tons of big data to advise libraries on what to carry and what will be popular in their demographic. Provided they are willing to share that data, it could lower library costs in the long run.
• Amazon has access to titles and authors that can be the basis for an ownership type model for e-books. While they do not have ownership of every title, they could influence the industry to move that direction.

Will Amazon ever undertake such an effort as Amazon Library? It’s a good question, but there are several ways authors and Amazon itself would win if they did. They would profit from selling books to the library outright, authors would collect royalties easily, and authors could see an increase in discoverability. This increase in discoverability increases sales on Amazon, at least potentially benefitting everyone.

The library would get reasonably priced e-books, vetted and distributed by the largest book retailer in the world at the moment, and in some cases could actually own the content, and therefore be able to preserve them properly.

It seems like a win-win, but much like the rest of the industry, the game changer could be indie authors. How?

Self-E
Library Journal has come up with a great program: Self-E, which vets self-published works and makes them available to libraries. The program is designed to create robust local writing communities and keep libraries at the center of the Indie author movement. For authors, the program allows them to connect to local readers, a local community, and do what every author wants: increase discoverability.

But what does it do for pricing? Indie e-books are offered to libraries at a significantly reduced cost, even though they are not as popular as those released by the Big Five. Right now, that creates a problem for libraries. Popular books get more borrows, so indie books are not “competition” for Stephen King’s latest per se, at least not to an extent they will necessarily drive prices down.

“The latest news about the decline in e-book sales for the large publishers might be more cause for them to reconsider the pricing model,” says Cheri Rendler of the Meridian Library District near Boise, Idaho.  “We went through Self-e in order to provide an additional way for Idaho Indie authors to get exposure for their work, encourage writing, and for library patrons to discover the works of local and independent authors.”

Authors and libraries must opt in to participating in Self-E, but the more of both that do, the more likely patrons and publishers alike will be to pay attention.

eBooksareforever
The brainchild of indie author Joe Konrath and his business partner August Wainwright, this idea has been in development for a while. Developing a program like eBooksareforever comes with many obstacles.

First, due to the thousands of titles published every year—many of them poorly edited and marketed–there needs to be a system in place to vet titles and make sure they are worth a librarian’s time to seek out and add to the collection. There also needs to be a simple way for libraries to acquire, preserve, and lend the books that are available.

Second, there needs to be a simple way for authors and small presses to make their books available and discoverable. They also need to get paid. Many authors voice that they would be willing to forego royalties in exchange for the discoverability. Yet not charging for e-books does not solve any of the acquisition obstacles libraries face, and most librarians are not only fans of Indie authors, but also are in favor of sustainable author careers. Not paying for content doesn’t jive with that sentiment. Creating this system in a way that benefits both authors and libraries took time. Now that the platform has launched, it becomes up to both authors and libraries to explore this option and make it viable by spreading the word and expanding the number of titles offered.

Are any of these alone a solution? Not yet, but with efforts like the Digital Public Library of America and libraries who are developing their own applications to integrate e-books into their catalog searches, the likelihood of a breakthrough in pricing at least gets a little more hopeful.

The final outcome it seems will rest on publishers once again embracing the value of libraries, and seeing the advantage to placing e-books there, much as they have with print for years. Until then, the pricing battle will continue. We can only hope new programs will make that less of an uphill struggle.

The post Building a Bypass: Libraries, Amazon, and Indie Authors first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

But fifty years after my death, the world will likely be a different place, with different readers and much different devices. So how will my now largely digital content survive? It’s a real question, because there are many differences between the preservation of something physical and something digital. Back when computers were young, I saved my work in Word Perfect file formats to my hard drive, and backed it up on floppy disks. At first these disks were huge, and actually floppy. Then they got smaller, and had a hard casing. Easier to protect and longer lasting, we were assured. So we copied our files faithfully, counting on the media to be trustworthy.

I put many of those disks away where they would be safe. Why print those stories out and cart around a file cabinet full of paper? After all, they were stored safely forever in digital form. Except something happened. First, the file formats became obsolete, and newer programs could not properly read them. Sometimes I could retrieve my work, but the formatting would be horrible. Then computers moved on, and the disks themselves became obsolete. Very few computers had drives that would read them, and the disks (or at least those that I didn’t lose) deteriorated. Even a machine with the right drive could not retrieve the data. My stories were lost.

The Challenges

Data Migration
But things are different now, right? We have CDs, thumb drives, the cloud, and hard drives designed to last forever. Wrong. Amazon has already changed its primary format for Kindle. Older formats and different formats are supported, and while it is important to know the differences, there is no industry standard or guarantee about which formats will last and which ones will not. This issue, known as data migration, is critical to any repository of knowledge. Besides that, thumb drives fail, CDs get damaged, and “indestructible” hard drives fail. There also really isn’t a “cloud” where your data is stored. The cloud is just someone else’s computer. So without a solid preservation plan, no data is really secure.

No Printed Version
Not all books are produced in print. In fact, with edits done digitally, they may never be printed at all, even by the author. If there is no paper copy, are digital-only books really being preserved?

Ownership
The answer is no even when an individual buys e-books: they don’t own them, and neither do libraries. the content is only licensed for specific uses, and often libraries pay a premium for the “right” to lend them. So likely the only person with “real” copies of the file are the author and the publisher, if applicable since many authors are now self-publishing.

A recent article explains why it’s difficult for libraries to lend e-books. let alone preserve them. “It would plainly violate copyright law for publishers to put such restrictions on libraries for paperback or hardcover books. That is covered by the “first-sale” doctrine of copyright law, which says once somebody buys something, they’re free to do what they like with it—donate it, resell it, or in the case of libraries, lend it out. The thing about ebooks, though, is that libraries and consumers don’t buy them, instead paying for the aforementioned license—which isn’t covered by first-sale doctrine.”

The problem is further complicated by the way libraries acquire those licenses. They have a few choices for services, but they are restrictive and often expensive. They certainly can’t preserve the digital works in question, as they only have access to them as long as they keep paying their subscription fees.

Cheri Rendler, of the Public Library in Meridian Idaho, answered a few questions about how things work, or in many cases, don’t when it comes to libraries and e-books.

• Budget
  On the issue of money, she states: “Our collection budget remains flat, so we cannot increase the amount allocated to digital unless we take it from another collection line. We also need to consider platform fees for the digital services we carry.” In other words, without an increase in funding, the money available must be shifted. So if a library buys more e-books they will have less money for physical books or other products or programs.
• The Current Situation
  So is the preservation of digital content being handled well?  “No. Formats, platforms, ownership of content are all over the place and there are few if any uniform standards,” Cheri answered.. ”Currently publishers and vendors control the access, and libraries often have to ‘rebuy’ leased copies every year, or 26 checkouts, or similar models. There is no standard repository or funding to ensure it is updated as technology changes. While the HathiTrust is a start in preserving content, a lot of it is under copyright, so access is limited to the members of institutions who uploaded content, and it does not include works that have only been published digitally.”
• Solutions?
  “(We need to) continue to let publishers know we want an ownership model that allows for preservation of the digital content,”  Cheri stated. There appears to be little that can be done on a local level, but there are some national efforts, like the Digital Public Library of America. Still, there are many obstacles to overcome before they can be successful, including funding and standardized formats. The core issue of preservation will only be solved by a revision of the ownership/subscription model, and that can only be accomplished through negotiations with the publishers and other creators of content. Even then, the issues of migrating digital content to new formats will have to be factored into budgets, and measures will have to be taken to “ensure that the original content is not altered or access removed, and to preserve our literary culture,” says Cheri Rendler.

In the end one of the primary missions of libraries is to preserve knowledge and make it publicly available. Publishers, authors, and vendors alike need to recognize that mission, facilitate it, and make it happen

The post Is Digital Content Being Properly Preserved? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Photo Credit: Amazon

At the same time, the relationship between libraries and publishers has changed. A majority of libraries now have ebooks available. According to the American Libraries Association 2014 Report on the State of Libraries, by the end of 2013 all of the major publishers were offering e-books to libraries, whether directly or through distributors like Overdrive, Axis 360, and 3M .

The relationship is still troubled, as issues of pricing and availability remain, not to mention the ever present concern about digital preservation. This is understandable considering the current troubled state of the publishing industry. Authors, small presses, and the big publishers alike are concerned about earnings and profit, and instead of embracing libraries as partners, often see them as the enemy. They often assume every book borrowed from a library is one the borrower would have purchased otherwise, so is thus a lost sale. Instead, they should be  looking at the way libraries can help their bottom line.

As community centers, libraries also reach out to local writers. The rise of self-publishing has added a new dynamic, and blurred the lines of what constitutes a “real” author. However, programs like the Soon to Be Famous author program in Illinois seek to address these while still Spotlighting Self-Published Authors.

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What do book subscription services have to do with libraries? Well, in a Forbes article, Tim Worstall suggests we “close all of the libraries and buy everyone a Kindle Unlimited subscription.” Using his home country of the United Kingdom, the author argues such an action would benefit the public in the long run. Are subscription services library killers? Here are some simple reasons why not.

Costs

Libraries are publically funded, and therefore essentially free to the public. Even calculating in the costs of property tax levies and local sales taxes, libraries cost patrons much less (per capita) than the $120 dollars annually it would take to enroll each patron in Kindle Unlimited or one of the other subscription services.

Availability

Even though your local library might (only?) have 20,000 titles in stock–a small number when compared to those 600,000–the difference is in the titles themselves. For instance, many of the classics, including The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, books by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and countless others are not available on Kindle Unlimited or either of the other subscription services.

Where does Amazon get their astounding number of titles? From their pool of self-published and small press authors who offer them exclusive rights to their content for a certain amount of time. Many other factors affect whether a book is available for “borrowing.” Publishers deal with these services much like movie studios deal with services like Netflix or musicians deal with Spotify or Pandora.  Not every book (or movie or artist) is available because the vendor has not brokered a deal with them to offer licensing of their work.

So while libraries wrestle with publishers, subscription services face many similar obstacles. Not all content or even most of the content readers want will be available in digital format.

Photo Credit: Pew Research

Print

The other factor is print. In 2013 according to a survey conducted by Pew Research, 28% of adults had read an ebook in the last year, up from 23% in 2012. But 69% reported reading a print book, also up from 65% the previous year. More than 54% of adults visited the library for one reason or another the previous year.

So while e-reader use is on the rise, and ebooks are becoming more popular, a large number of readers prefer print.

Preservation

Preserving knowledge is a huge part of any library’s mission. While there is some controversy over whether or not digital preservation of ebooks is actually taking place, the preservation of print materials, and the digitization of other parts of library collections, is a constant priority.

Community Centers

Patrons count on libraries to do more than just lend books. They visit for free Wi-Fi or even computer use and research assistance from knowledgeable staff. Often such services include assistance with job searches, especially for those who do not have reliable internet service at home.

Many libraries around the world offer innovative ideas to get print books and technology into the hands of readers, from mobile libraries to delivery services. The New York Public Library even offers remote answers to simple research questions through their ASK-NYPL program.

Discoverability

For years, the Big Six (now Big Five) were the “gatekeepers” of the publishing world. For the most part, they kept the bad out and let the good in. Smaller presses offered some opportunity, but self-publishing was obscure, frowned upon, and often perceived as an exercise in vanity. However, with the rise of Apple iBooks, followed by Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, the number of books published tripled in a decade, and rises exponentially annually.

As a result, classification and quality screening become more critical than ever. A smaller, more selective ebook collection accompanied by competent staff and a collections management plan makes for a much better user experience.

Ebooks will not replace paperbacks entirely anytime soon. Subscription services will not replace libraries and the community resources they provide. Libraries win, even in the area of ebook lending, despite the challenges they face. But the challenge won’t likely come from any kind of subscription service, at least for now.

The post Why Libraries Win: Library Lending vs. E-book Subscription Services first appeared on Public Libraries Online.