The document discusses the future of human-computer interaction and its impact on library services, emphasizing the needs of digital natives who expect personalization, instant gratification, and immersive experiences. It highlights the importance of adapting library services for mobile usage and suggests integrating intelligent software agents for more efficient information retrieval. Additionally, it points out changes in research behaviors among millennials, who often bypass traditional research processes and face new frustrations stemming from easy access to digital content.

1. Matt Hamilton Emporia State University School of Library and Information Management The Future of Human-Computer Interaction and its Implications for Library Services

2. Digital Natives NOT “Digital Immigrants” Expect more choices and selectivity Want more personalization Expect instant gratification and are impatient Value education and training Are achievement-oriented Enjoy gaming and media Expect nomadic, anytime, anywhere communications Learn experientially and continuously (favor Constructivist learning)

3. Game-like An immersive experience, one can experience full 3-d environments One example is Second Life, libraries already creating a presence and offering “virtual” services

4. “ Computers should begin conforming to us, rather than we having to conform to them” One example: Jeff Han’s Multi-Touch Interface

5. Steam Café at MIT is a spatial experiment, both physical and virtual, that serves up great food and community interaction. A feature of the café is a large plasma monitor in the center-- a Web access point. The idea was to create a place for public discussions about Web content-an alternative to the tendency for individuals to huddle around tiny screens or, more commonly, to work in isolation when online. The café provided the opportunity to turn the Web into a public space beyond the virtual.

6. Related to changes in Interface and Ubiquitous Computing More and more users accessing web services with portable devices, trend only likely to continue Libraries must optimize web sites and services for Mobile use – Reference via Instant Message, OPAC optimized for PDA screens

7. Building a collective knowledge base Profiles can be viewed as broadcasting an Information Need Brian Matthews suggests “Ubiquitous Reference” – watching student blogs and social networks for information needs and volunteering our services

8. Currently web content is understandable to humans, but not computers (Machine doesn’t know that “fatfeline.com” is a cat-related web site) Standards are being developed for machine-readable content descriptors or “meta-data” Web will act more like a database, each content field understood in relation to others Next step is an intelligent software agent capable of performing searches and retrieving answers far faster than humans "What we're trying to do with the Semantic Web is build a digital Aristotle…We want to take the Web and make it more like a database, make it a system that can answer questions, not just get a pile of documents that might hold an answer.”

9. In 2003 Holliday and Li conducted a study to determine whether the ISP model held up for a new generation of students, the Millennials, who have extensive experience with the web and technology. The study questioned whether the students’ thoughts, feelings, and actions during the research process changed because of their experience with the web. Millennials expect research to be easy and feel they can be independent in the process. They do not seek help from librarians and only occasionally from professors or peers. When they can’t find what they need, they give up and assume that the information cannot be found. This leads to a new feeling of frustration in the ISP model. Some students skip steps in the process, especially focus formulation. Students often stop after their initial searches thinking they have completed the research process and fail to choose a particular focus. Access to full text articles seems to have changed students’ cognitive behavior. Instead of having to read through material at the library, they can now download material at their desks. They do not have to take notes or read through them to develop themes and ideas, an activity central to a focused research project. Electronic articles enable cutting and pasting, possibly leading to increased plagiarism.

10. Gaming characteristics have a profound affect upon the behaviors and expectations of players Gaming implies that you can learn by making mistakes Provides instant feedback and interactivity Requires analytic thinking By comparison, library searching today is a mostly solitary activity, text-based, with little to no interaction

11. Catalogs will allow for tagging, recommendations, standards such as FRBR will allow relational exploration A search from a library web site may initiate a software agent that will search numerous databases and the Net, suggest alternate search terms and sources, provide past user (and librarian) recommended sources Libraries will allow access from PCs, cell phones, PDAs, etc. to allow real-time collaboration between “in-house” users and remote users seamlessly