my time at the Library Innovations Seminar

Hi everyone,
I thought I might share some of the issues we talked about at the seminar I attended yesterday at the State Library. Erik Boekesteijn an Jaap van de Geer from DOK, Delft Public Library gave an awesome presentation on their Shanachietour they have been running through the US, Jamaica and Australia. There is a website, I can't find the address right now, but when I do I'll add the details. But here is a bit of an overview of what we talked about:

Public Libraries in the 21st Century

Web 2.0

Young people of today are the long term library users of tomorrow. We need to grab their attention now, give them a positive experience now and let them know that we are up to date and can provide them with what they need and want.

There was a large emphasis on gaming through the seminar and the suggestion that we should not be snobbish toward games as content. In the same way that we are accepting graphic novels as a legitimate format of 'book', we could be thinking about (some) games as extensions of the film industry. A game is just another form of story. There are even career paths in the gaming industry and gaming in public spaces can be great social outlets.

Many public libraries are using gaming to attract young people and using events such as LAN nights and gaming days to get kids really engaged with the librarians and the library. They also use gaming events to promote the YA collection- graphic novels, books about gaming, anime etc.

Others are promoting blogging, myspace and youtube within the library and offering a place to learn about these technologies. As we know, SN sites are important networking tools, great for information exchange and even important for the career (ie LinkedIn). Librarians need to make use of these technologies to reach and capture this audience.

It was recognised at the seminar that whilst everyone in Library Land is talking about Web 2.0, no one is actually using it. Again, we can't be snobby about sources such as youtube, we really need to consider what is the best format for content. In some cases it will be a book, but in others digital media may supplement or even be more appropriate than a book. Youtube is actually a great place for instructional videos.

Using these technologies can create us a whole other 'branch' through our website. We can engage youth through things such as online partnerships with schools, blog or wiki based book clubs, a virtual reference librarian. We can invite library users to talk and blog about the books they are reading through the website, or even music and films. We all know how much people like telling us their opinion of the books they are returning, why not encourage them to tell each other?

The concluding points for us to consider in our future are:
• What can we do to understand the new world of unlimited information
• Remember there is more to text based information than books
• What are the personas of our library users and their learning styles, would they find it easier to read a book of instructions or watch a video?
• Are we answering the questions on reference desk or transferring our skills
• Why are we discriminating against new media?

Later in the day some of us gave presentations about innovations our library is running, where I gave a talk on the Living Library. Other topics were Book Clubs, Parents and kids learning info literacy together, Web 2.0 at work- which Manly has really embraced, eg, they ran a youth photography competition using Flickr; Attracting new users through targeted programming- This was Adam from Wyong library, a recent example of this is the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender collection they launched; and Partnerships and Collaborations- with other businesses and groups in the community starting with our own council!

All in all I had a great day, I met a whole lot of interesting librarians, got a few contact details for future projects and got super excited about how we at Gosford library could work toward becoming one of the leaders in 21st Century Libraries.

Enjoy,

Heather D.