They can’t survive as community-funded repositories for books that individuals don’t want to own (or for reference books we can’t afford to own.) More librarians are telling me (unhappily) that the number one thing they deliver to their patrons is free DVD rentals. That’s not a long-term strategy, nor is it particularly an uplifting use of our tax dollars.

Here’s my proposal: train people to take intellectual initiative.

Once again, the net turns things upside down. The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books. What we need to spend the money on are leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others.

I thnk @itsjustkate sums my reaction to this rather eloquently:

so, wait… we *should* be helping ppl learn to find and contextualize info? Oh! *smacks forehead*

Gee thanks, Seth. All this time we’ve been pottering about in our workspaces, dusting and shushing the entire time, with our hair in buns and cats in our pockets. All we need to do to reinvent ourselves is to espouse the core belief behind our profession.

But rather than get too worked up about this, it may be better to consider the big picture. If Godin is seeing our industry this way, then we definitely have a problem. And while the biblioblogosphere/twitterverse/Friendfeed spaces help maintain an active flow of ideas, it’s still an inside-baseball echo chamber. Granted, that’s a feature rather than a bug, but it’s a reminder of how rarely our efforts are recognized on the larger scale.

So I’m hoping Mr. Godin will read this and give someone from the library world the opportunity to demonstrate just how well and how often we help people (in Godin’s parlance) scale otherwise insurmountable intellectual heights.

There are dozens of librarians out there who could do this. Jessamyn West. Buffy Hamilton. Brian Herzog. Bobbi Newman. Jason Griffey. The Darien coterie. Richard Kong*. And that’s just a small sampling – any attempt to list everyone would be a futile effort. I’m inspired by my colleagues every day, and it gives me such hope to see so many people being awesome in public.

To librarians who don’t see this as their raison d’etre, please don’t let the door to the profession hit you on the ass on your way out.

And to Seth, how about it? Why not use your considerable megaphone to let us demonstrate what we’ve accomplished, and how much more we’re capable of?

*full disclosure: I work with Richard, along with a host of other awesome people.

You know who you are.

Thanks for a great conference, those of you I met in-person finally, and those I got to talk to on the datastream. Let’s do what we can to continue the conversation, and make great things happen.

“This is an unconference. We can do whatever we want.”

–Mark Beatty

So I’ve traveled deep into the belly of the beast (the OCLC conference center in Dublin, OH) for the inaugural LITA unconfrence. Working under the theme of “The Everywhere Library,” we’ve assembled to share what we know and (hopefully) push the state of library technology forward. I’ll be posting my notes here over the next couple of days, with additional bits of context and commentary as events warrant. If you have any questions, or anything you’d like me to ask about, please post a comment here.

You can keep track of #litacamp09 activities on Twitter, and also check out the Camp wiki for more information.

The way libraries in general approach the future is not sustainable.

– John Blyberg

Trust is the watchword at Darien Library. All the new, supposedly radical innovations they’ve launched hinge on a highly cultivated sense of trust with their public. Bear in mind that I’m not saying this to be dismissive. These things are “supposedly radical” because they seem to take much of what we claim to offer as libraries/public institutions/community organizations and push them to a level that actually makes patrons feel trusted. The “trust” embodied by more traditional library structures feels downright perfunctory by comparison.

To illustrate: would you consider loaning out (ETA: for in-library use only, as I discovered upon asking Blyberg)  a “Creation Station” for children – a media creation kit consisting of a digital still camera, a Flip video camera, a digital audio recorder, and a MacBook? And loaning out to kids in your youth department? Would you put out game hardware in your teen area for kids to use freely and largely unsupervised after school?

I’m hugely impressed at how much they’ve been able to accomplish simply by seeing how much they can let go. Anything else I could say would just be redundant.

Raw notes (with more examples) after the jump. My annotations are in italics.

Innovation, Services & Practices at the Darien Library

John Blyberg, Gretchen Hams, Sarah Ludwig, and Kate Sheehan

JB: The Darien Library roadshow

“We do a lot of thinking about the future at Darien Library”

The way libraries in general approach the future is not sustainable.

- our expectations are misaligned with those of our users

being mindful of customer service, empowerment

Allow innovation to guide change (not always pertaining to technology)

If you build change and innovation into your culture, your staff and users will come to expect it.

Delete reference desk, delete circulation desk – present materials that actually make sense at each level

Give yourselves the opportunity to fail

Failure as an opportunity to adapt and retool – agility is v.v. important

Even though we’re small, we can still have a big impact.

Stars aligning: money, board support, staff expertise, supportive public

Development of UX department – see things from 40k feet. (a reminder that staff are the library’s biggest users.)

Eye toward aesthetics, community, usability

Users do not see drastic change, they see org responding to our needs.

SOPAC: library-as-portal, leads to sustained social digital presence

- follow other reviewers

- Feeds of other reviews

- summer reading guided by SOPAC

GH: youth services at DL

Traditionally children’s departments work as islands unto themselves – need to bring them into the process, and help develop future of library

“Guess what? Children don’t come to the library to themselves.”

High circ, high program attendance

Assumed knowledge – Section headings

Library as third place – drawn to picture book area

Picture books as format – didn’t include nonfiction, etc.

Who is it for? What is it about?

New DL does not have a picture book area – items are classified according to what they are about. (Microsubjects, tagging of items)- first 5 years of growth and behavior/subject areas

Simple in concept, incredibly difficult in practice.

Each book had to be handled individually, to determine proper placement

Items also colorcoded for youth connection

Huge response: “The library is nolonger a disapproving mother, but a place that wants to reach out to us”

Using connection to adults to help them make decisions for their children

Connecting to library as third place

MS Surface as device for learning. Fascinating to watch people come up with new ways to use it

“Libraries should not be a one-way conversation” – experience should invite participation

Video production – Creation Station: MacBook, Flip camera, audio recorder, dig cam

Not barcoded, kids take ownership of item

Playing to the new generation of families – digital natives now having kids

SL, Head of Teen and Technology Services

DL never had a teen section before the new library

New space for teens

Space is theirs, but possible to monitor

SoHo – small office/home office – kinko’s type material

Teen liasions

Teens are our Beta users. Put the tech in their hands and see how comfortable they get with it.

Teen space: iMacs

big screens encourage group activity

Furniture is easy to move

gaming: is a big duh

Days after school: Set up the games and just walk away.

Most people get involved through Facebook

Using Facebook to drive programs – create a professional account and only friend teens

Teens + tech programs: Oral history project for 1book1community

Working to provide MP3s to students

KS: Reference is dead, long live reference

All roving, no desk, non-standard arrangement

too large to go BISAC

Long-term: more collaborative model

Developing 1-on-1 research assistance (book a librarian)

document this stuff – encourage people to show off their library-aided efforts!

Meet people at their point of need without being invasive

IM gateway at OPAC site?

Tiny eee PCs used to walk around Wireless (cordless) phones

Certain sections – non-Dewey arrangements

“Personal finance” – 300 stuff plue 650 stuff – combined into section called “Work”

Tools that are free and tools that cost money:

Cost: laptops, phones

Name tags are super-important

Why we make mistakes

Growing pains: Meebo – new website has caused IM reference to skyrocket

With a roving reference model, Meebo doesnt work on the small computer

Moving to Library H3lp

“Reorganizing your collection is a really great bonding experience”

it’s OK for things not to work if you use it right

People who aren’t happy aren’t going to tell you they’re unhappy. They’re just not going to show up.

“What we’re giving away more of is not just information, but ourselves.”

Practicalities: more standing

More thinking like a cataloger

More mindful of signage

Maintaining a genuineness

Can we hybridize our reference desk to be more friendly to roving and decrease the intimidation factor?

Fascinating keynote by Marc Prensky, author and educator. There’s a metric ton of stuff to process here, but the primary concept I think is worth extracting is that gamer behavior comprises an increasingly larger part of contemporary culture. It’s shaping the way people think, and developing skills that translate incredibly well in the real world. Skills that traditional educational models have always valued – critical thinking, team building and management – are being better served by games.

In another word: people are learning without even realizing they’re learning. When we try to use the tried-and-true methods, we meet up with a lot of resistance. Because games are reflecting their own culture back to them (especially because the gamers have more tools than ever to create and respond to these media), the traditional lecture-and-test models are not gaining the proper response. This is interpreted on the part of the student as being “boring.”

As librarians, we can pick up the slack when other eudcational structures fall short. The best part is that it ties into our core mission of interacting with our base communities and reflecting those cultural products back to them. In doing so, we can mediate with the more “traditional” educational structures, and help both sides learn more about the way of the world.

Clearly, very heady stuff.

Notes posted after the jump.

Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning
Marc Prensky, www.marcprensky.com
marc@games2train.com

We’re his favorite people!

The future of libraries – introducing games into libraries

How do we reconcile both behaviors

Need for new merchandising – library branding

A Really Radical Suggestion: Let’s change our name!

from the library to the future

student quote: “my passion is my future”
target destination for the young.
What do you do in the future? Play games!

The engaging educational system
Gaming is preparing kids for 21st century success

Games creating the new mental maps and shaping understanding
What’s the positive side?

Diversification of media – books, GNs

Complexity matters in games
It’s that complexity is causing games to matter more
as evidenced in these old-style games being noted as “mini-” or “casual” games
(most popular gamer demo: 40-something women who play casual games – think Bejeweled)

Complex games: typically 8-100 hours
require significant investment of experience
require new patterns of understanding
create rich body of shared experience (where were you when Aerith died?)

Runs contrary to what the alarmist press, who perpetuates the belief that Games Are Evil. (Seduction of the Innocent all over again)

Truth: Games produce LEARNING WITH ENGAGEMENT

Many people reaching adulthood have now grown up entirely with gaming, and it’s played a crucial role in their development
Gamers are better execs: MMPORPGs developing team-based and leadership behavior
People managing 300-person guilds = running a company

Dr. Butch Rosser: Using games to teach laparoscopic surgery
Hand-eye coordination of gamers makes them better with laparoscopic controllers
(was the controller itself inspired by gamepads?)

Ashley Lipson, Esq.
Game he made called Objection!
Twitch-speed – critical thinking
Played in law schools, played as warmup for court

Sports games becoming far more robust and realistic
Owner mode: Management sims – be GM of <your team here>
Coach mode
Franchise mode
Superstar mode – develop a player from the ground up

Beck and Wade, Got Game: Gamers amass 1000s of hours analyzing new situations
teaching risk-reward behavior
team-building
leadership
critical thinking

In spite of all this, why are games still seen as trivial?

RPGs teaching morality and ethics
GTA example: just because you can hit someone over the head with a bat, should you?
Same choices offered IRL

Libraries and educators have a job to understand and mediate these experiences

If you don’t have the chops to play the newest controversial game:
You can have a knee-jerk reaction
Or you can engage other gamers to determine what they’re getting from it

Creates a venue where The Kids can be their own experts
get a leg up on the adults

Example: the Bible
give someone the Bible without any context: what would they extract?
“God killed everyone’s firstborn, so I can use that to exact my revenge”
It was in the Bible, so it must be true… right?

What are the quid pro quos – how can we recognize gamers as legitimate experts and share information with them?

Gamers make better roller coaster designers (Roller Coaster Tycoon)
Gaming makes simulation part more fun
What’s the differnece between games adn simulations?
Sim focuses on the thing
Game focuses on the experience

Sim – work
game – fun, competition

Blurring the line: siumlation games

People play not (just) because they’re games, but bec ause they’re the most engaging intellectual thing we have

Not nec. as deep as books – yet
shaping interaction
creating new kinds of puzzles and focusing thinking

Level-ups are awesome!

PopCap: Timed mode – you won’t be able to finish
Untimed mode: learn how to play, work through the levels
Go back to timed mode – you learn to play the game

Will Wright: Games as problems
Give you a task, and force you to find a solution
Learning is the real reason people play games

Much is learned from complex games:
cooperate/collaborate/work in teams
Make effective decisions under stress
take prudent risks in pursuit of objectives
make ethical/moral decisiions
employ sci deduction
master/apply new skills N info
think laterally logically
persist and solve difficult problems
understand and deal with foreign environments & cultures
manage business and people

Creates a system that’s a big part of the learning process
(Rules of Play, people. Trust me on this.)
Develops vast network of support
Gamefaqs
message boards
youtube

Conclustion: games are good for our kids’ education
Good news: supply of games that could be considered educational is way up
minigames (all over the web, many student-created, cover all subjects)
Need our efforts to catalog them
Branded games: Discovery, National Geographic, BBC, Nobel, etc.

Commercial games getting more complex, and require deeper understanding of history/science/economics/your subject here
Civ IV
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Typing of the Dead (Dreamcast RIP)

Complex custom educational games
Designed for specific academic courses
managmeent
current affairs (Darfur is dying)
Food force
Peacemaker
Monkey Wrench COnspiracy
Ethnography – Real Lives
Making History
Mods of current games – Neverwinter Nights modded into Revolution
Games for Health
America’a Army v. Under Siege
Aids Prevention games – Catch the Sperm, Super Shagland
Spore
Planning: SimCity
Economics: Tycoon Games

Competitions building games – make game-building a game in itself
Tools
Grants
Models

Supply is not a problem

Demand also going up (this conference’s raison d’etre)

Kids 6-12 say: games make it easier to understand difficult concepts
Games make us more engaged
Games help people learn more
Games make it more interest to practice problems
(This is a whole new language we can use to our advantage)

Why else games? They’re bored with everything else!

Games letting students create : 2-way street of engaging with content and each other

Tech is programmable

Edutopia article: key tool and literacy
Gmes let students have fun as they learn
stealth learning

http://www.edutopia.org/programming-the-new-literacy

Games not just most interesting, but will help them (and they know it will help them)
They know this despite our best efforts to convince them otherwise

Our role as barrier-busters!
or side-step them
b/c this stuff isn’t happening (mostly) in schools

Bifurcation of kid’s education
(Twain: never let school get in the way of our education)
Schools at risk of becoming irrelevant in wake of new learning styles
Libs can help redirect curriculum
“Don’t suck the fun out,” quoth the kids

How to make the case:
Not about games
not about sims
about engagement
about 21st century learning:
about change
we’re only at the start of the upward curve. watch the slope get steeper
life of digital natives (Born Digital)

Mobile phone wallets
Mind-machine interfaces
wetware
tech a billion times more powerful than now
sentient machines?
posthumanism
(What would Warren Ellis Say?)

people require 21st century tools
Libraries are a tool. Remember that.

Engagement: can’t just give them stuff
Have to have the conversations
Invite them to participate – level the playing field

Not just what we’re going to do for kids
What we’re going to do with kids

Technology is anything that happened after one was born

The future is coming! Libraries = the future!

Rainbow’s End: Vernor Vinge

Interactive web shaping the way we communicate

Large-scale gaming tournaments: wave of the future

Let’s get playing!

Questions: are kids bored with trad models of eduction, or are they bored with the external world
A: bored with the way they’re being taught, because it ignores so much of what they’re capable of.

Not an issue of Digital Immigrants v. Digital Natives
rather, what can we learn from one another?
Are libns digital translators? digital tour guides? digital mediators?

So, how was your weekend?

I got into work this morning to find out that MPOW was chosen for a National Medal for Museum and Library Service, as presented by IMLS.

Okay, so I didn’t find it out this morning. But I found out I could finally talk about it! It’s all very exciting, as our director is traveling to D.C. next week to receive the award at the White House.

As you might imagine, we’re all thrilled to receive the award. But we couldn’t have done with without such a supportive group of patrons. If you’re a library regular, we can’t thank you enough.

I just got back from the ILA conference last week, so I’ll hopefully have updates on that soon. In the meantime, celebrate!

It’s finally here! The skies have opened up, the chorus of angels have begun to sing, and Firefox 3 has descended from the heavens to make our Inter-lives that much easier.

Help Mozilla set a Guinness world record for most single-day downloads by visiting the official Spread Firefox website. And don’t forget to spread the word!

Take this weekend, for example. I went to New York to see my sister’s college graduation. As part of our touristic duty, we went to visit the Statue of Liberty. My parents were concerned about getting in an early group for their flight home the next day. Without means to an Internet station for several hours, they ran the risk of being relegated to the dreaded Boarding Group 4.

I figured there had to be a way to check-in over the phone. Even talking to an operator could be an option, right? My Dad promptly pulled out his Treo, and, lo and behold:

They got their place in line, right at the base of Miss Liberty. If libraries can capitalize on this, good things are in store.