Internet Librarian: Competing with Google: Library Strategies

Competing with Google: Library Strategies
Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix

Stephen Abram is always amazingly entertaining.  Abram began by pointing to the recent article: “Libraries: Standing at the Wrong Platform, Waiting for the Wrong Train.”  How do we get ourselves into the next century?  How do we admit that we love books but we need a 12 step program to admit that that is only a small percentage of what we’re about.  He gave us a fly-by tour of all the things that Google is offering…just the new things they’ve added this year were overwhelming.

Current questions: Who’s going to buy AOL?  How will Amazon alliances play out?  Google hired a GAIM developer...what does that mean?  What’s the next phase of OpenWorldCat?  What’s next with ILSes (OpenURL, federated search, etc.)? 

Abram noted the problem of Google Bombing, and how librarians specifically hate it as it alters the quality and accuracy of the information people find.

Stephen’s Top Ten Strategies for Competing with Google

#1: Know Your Market
We have an imperative to aggregate our data.  He pointed to the SirsiDynix and FSU Normative Data Project (http://www.libraryndp.info) as an example of this.  Let’s learn from each other, see what items circulate and what doesn’t. 
#2: Know Your Customers Better than Google
Understand users in terms of their needs, preferences, desires, goals, values, beliefs, expectations, assumptions, and tolerance for risk and change.  He points to the SirsiDynix Personas program as an example of this.  Know that young people (our beloved Millennials) are different…their needs and expectations are different.  Plan for their needs 5 years out.  We also need to pay attention to our other populations: seniors, the poor and the working class, the digital divide, ethnic differences, a non-homogenous population.  We need to understand the difference between usability and satisfaction, satisficing vs. meeting real needs, and transactions vs. transformations. 

#3: Be Where Our Customers Are
How much of our usage is in-person now?  Let’s be realistic about how much of our use is remote.  Stephen pointed to IM as a key example of this.  85% of people from 15-25 have at least one IM account.  Only 5% of over 30s do.  Add-ons of voice, co-browsing, etc.  He said what I’ve been saying for two years, which is that these huge web-based chat products need to suck it up and move into the IM environment.  Otherwise, they’re going to be out of a job mighty damn quick.

#4: Federated Searching
Federated Search should not look like Google.  We need to build compelling content…what’s current and what people care about. 

#5: Support Your Culture
The whole world is going from textheads to nextheads.  We need to pay attention to MP3s, streaming media, and voice search.  DVDs will die.  We need to be ready for the next format.  He also mentioned podcasting as “stuff we’re gonna have to do.”

#6: Position Libraries Where We Excel
Google does who, what, where, and when really well.  We can’t compete with that.  We’re good at why and how questions.  That’s where we can excel and build collections around why and how questions (how to stay healthy, how to build a marketing plan).  A library’s core competency is not delivering information.  It’s about improving the quality of the question in the first place (e.g. guided searches, “see also,” etc.).  On our websites we need to move beyond read/view environments into act on/discuss, argue/defend, present/teach environments.  It’s an information ocean, not a highway.

#7: Be Wireless
By the end of 2007, broadband wireless providers need to have secure networks.  We’re seeing low-power-consumption mobile devices.  Devices are getting smaller and are starting to know where you are.

#8: Get Visual
Visual representations of search results…bigger and more central to the display means it’s more popular.  Google News Map is one example of this.  He pointed to Grokker [Yay Grokker]  as another example of visually represented information.  Folksonomies and tagging play into this too.

#9: Integrate
Integrate ourselves into our communities.  There are five specific user communities: Learning, Culture/Entertainment, Research, Workplace, Neighborhood.  Understand these user communities and then build things like portals to reflect the needs of the community.

#10: For Pete’s Sake, Take a Risk!
Stephen wants us to sacrifice our fear of success…not to be afraid of a project doing too well.

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