FrankenLibraries or Librarytopia: Our Choice discusses the strategic choices libraries must make regarding their future and whether they will be "future ready." It notes that disagreements about the future could freeze the process. The document discusses the seduction of technology and asks what experience libraries seek to create. It also addresses how libraries can focus on learning, discovery, research, and community to stay relevant in a changing environment.

1. FrankenLibraries or Librarytopia:
Our Choice
Stephen Abram, MLS
Wisconsin Library Association
Milwaukee, WI
These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog Nov. 2, 2011

2. Change: Are libraries
Future Ready?
Reducing Suspense:
And the answer is . . . . MAYBE

3. Strategic Choice
Are there too many choices?
Will disagreements about the
future freeze the process?

4. se·duc·tion (s-dkshn) n.
1. a. The act of seducing.
b. The condition of being seduced.
2. Something that seduces or has the
qualities to seduce; an enticement.
[Latin sducti, sductin-, from sductus, past
participle of sdcere, to lead astray : s-, apart;
see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots + dcere, to
lead; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.]

5. Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

6. It’s the Whole Experience

8. What is the experience you seek to
create in your library?

9. News Flash
“The Internet and technology have
now progressed to their infancy”

10. 7 Gifts to Libraries, Publishers & Booksellers
1. The book isn’t dead or dying. It is evolving.
2. Our users/customers are improving.
3. Technology is going social and can support social
acts.
4. The PC isn’t dead, but, again, it’s evolving and more
mobile.
5. We know more about our customers than ever
before.
6. Talent, Insight, Community, have social value.
7. Opportunities always exist more in times of change

17. Change can happen very fast

18. Gift #1

19. The Evolution
of Books

22. GBS

23. Launched in US on June 30th

25. Expected Launch Fall 2011
Back Office: Baker & Taylor

26. Launched July 2011
$15 Billion Franchise

27. Amazon eBook Subscriptions

28. Can we frame the e-book issue so
that it can be addressed rationally?

29. Why do people read?

30. Why do people read?
1. To learn
2. To engage in hearing other’s opinions (to agree or disagree or understand)
3. To develop more knowledge about myself and develop as a whole person
4. To be entertained and laugh, to engage and interact
5. To address boredom and the inexorable progress of time
6. To research and keep up-to-date
7. To participate well in civil society (everything from news to voting)
8. To be informed (and maybe smarter)
9. To understand others (individually and culturally)
10. To escape our day-to-day lives
11. To stimulate the imagination and be inspired or spiritual
12. To write and communicate better through reading others
13. To teach
14. To have something to talk about
15. To connect with like-minded people

31. Fiction

32. Non-Fiction

35. Kobo, B&N Nook, Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Playbook, Fire, Sony Reader, etc. . . .

38. Gift #2

39. Content Spam

40. Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills
 Reading literacy  News literacy
 Numeracy  Technology literacy
 Critical literacy  Information literacy
 Social literacy  Media literacy
 Computer literacy  Adaptive literacy
 Web literacy  Research literacy
 Content literacy  Academic literacy
 Written literacy  Reputation, Etc.

42. List of content farms and general spammy
user generated content sites:
 All Experts (allexperts.com)  Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com)
 Answers (answers.com)  eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
 Answer Bag (answerbag.com)  Find Articles (findarticles.com)
 Articles Base (articlesbase.com)  FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com)
 Ask (ask.com)  Hub Pages (hubpages.com)
 Associated Content (associatedcontent.com)  InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com)
 BizRate (bizrate.com)  Livestrong (livestrong.com)
 Buzle (buzzle.com)  Mahalo (mahalo.com)
 Brothersoft (brothersoft.com)  Mail Archive (mail-archive.com)
 Bytes (bytes.com)  Question Hub (questionhub.com)
 ChaCha (chacha.com)  Squidoo (squidoo.com)
 eFreedom (efreedom.com)  Suite101 (suite101.com)
 eHow (ehow.com)  Twenga (twenga.com)
 Essortment (essortment.com)  WiseGeek (wisegeek.com)
 Examiner (examiner.com)  Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com)
 Expert Village (expertvillage.com)  Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com)
 )  Xomba (xomba.com)

46. The nasty facts
about Google &
Bing and
consumer search:
SEO / SMO
Content Farms
Advertiser-driven
Geotagging
Whack-a-Mole:
Farmer
Panda
Panda Silver

47. Gift #3

48. The Evolution
of Answers

49. Sensemaking: Too much choice

50. Why do people ask questions?

51. What are your top 10-20 questions?
What is the service portfolio model
that goes with those?

52. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

53. Driving the Knowledge Portal
alignment with User Behaviour

55. What does all this mean?
 The Article level universe
 The Chapter and Paragraph Universe
 Integrated with Visuals – graphics and charts
 Integrated with ‘video’
 Integrated with Sound and Speech
 Integrated with social web
 Integrated with interaction and not just interactivity
 How would you enhance a book?
 How do Libraries play the game?

56. What Are Libraries Really For?
• Community
• Learning
• Discovery
• Progress
• Research (Applied and Theoretical)
• Cultural & Knowledge Custody / Conservation
• Economic Impact
• Sooooooo . . . . Focus on Programs

57. Questions for Libraries & Publishers Today:
1. Are our priorities right?
2. Are learning, research, discovery changing
materially and what is actually changing?
3. Books. Meh.
4. What is the role of information and
recreational reading in the real future (that is
not an extension of the past)?
5. Are we for the 21st Century world that will be
or the 20th Century one that was?

58. Grocery Stores

59. Grocery Stores

60. Grocery Stores

61. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

62. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

63. Meals

64. Gift #4

65. Mobility: Where
the Patron Is

66. Mobility

68. Gift #5

69. Libraries are
Social Institutions

71. The New Social Skills
 Credulity (tricks, SEO, SMO, spam, phish, farms)
 Transparent distrust and radical intellect
 The Filter Bubble
 Finding black hole data (like non-digital)
 Networking with a Closed Circle
 Beyond search to find/discover, choose/use,
understand/internalize and FORGET.
 Tagging and organizing – offline remembering
 Information ethics and creation
 Curation

72. How would this look?
 Top Reference and Research Questions
 Do you know them? Or do you know retail
sales numbers or circulation numbers better?
 Health . . .
 Career Advice and Job Finding
 Genealogy
 Homework
 Etc.

73. Chefs, counsellors, teachers, magicians
Librarians, Publishers and Booksellers play a
vital role in building the critical connections
between information , knowledge & learning.

75. Libraries
Are Social
Institutions

78. Summary
 End User Psychographic Centricity
 Focus on the Questions (Needs, CRM)
 Build or Buy Knowledge Portals (Meals)
 Emphasize Content Quality (not books)
 Expand Social Media Programs on Information
Literacy
 Advocate and Align with the Listener
Tell Stories, Have users tell stories
 Invest in Strategic Analytics – Measurements of
Impact, ROI and Value
 Collaborate vs. socialize

79. News Flash
News Flash
Shift Happens

80. Focus on the Shifts
And Innovate THERE
The biggest shift from the internet and the
web has been the social web.

84. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook or Google+: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1