Michael Porter's "Keep Up!" Class

Today I attended Michael Porter's OCLC workshop "Keep Up! Practical Emerging Technology for You and Your Library" at the San Francisco Public Library.   Karen Schneider attended the same class yesterday, and has a write-up on Free Range Librarian.  The highlights according to me...

Michael gave a really good description of the long tail: tying it to libraries' roles in providing obscure materials through ILL, eBay and Amazon (for merchandise), and the possibility of a NetFlix model for materials delivery. The issue of fines and charging definitely come up wtih that model, but several participants noted that their libraries are discussing the development of a NetFlix-esque lending service for their libraries. Viva la Bay Area!

He discussed the convergence and buy-ups of the various technology companies (Bloglines purchased by Ask.com, Flickr purchased by Yahoo!, etc.) and how various sites and services are cooperating with each other, resulting in big time convergence. Everything is connected. The library? Not so much.

He described the Sony Reader, and described how it's much closer to the printed page due to the way the display works: it's not being continually refreshed, it's a static image on the screen, and therefore much easier on our eyes. He also mentioned ePaper, a flexible display that approximates the printed page.

He emphasized the future of voice recognition in human-computer interfaces. Then we got to watch the oh-so-fun EPIC/Googlezon video.

Michael encouraged attendees to use WebJunction to find technology, planning, and programming information for libraries. My own experience with WebJunction has always been that the information is there (I'm often stunned at the quantity), but it's hard to find. Searching doesn't work well, and browsing is often a ten step process. Oftentimes though, I find it is worth the time to get what's there.

He then discussed the importance of social communities online, like About.com, Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook. He emphasized the "sense of touch" factors with these sites--the real feeling that you're connected to a community--through photos, messaging, invitations, etc. We looked at some libraries' MySpace profiles for ideas of how to fold libraries in to this space (including Thomas Ford & Hennepin County).

Michael showed us Flickr, YouTube (hey--use this to post your library's promotional video content!), and Blogger as a very easy way for libraries to create a blog presence. Michael also highlighted library and librarian blogs including AADL's blogging frenzy, ALA TechSource, It's All Good, Shifted Librarian, Library Stuff, Stephen's Lighthouse, Libraryman (hey, that's Michael's!), librarian.net, Open Stacks, Tame the Web, and *blush* LibrarianInBlack. Michael announced to the class that he likes my blog because I "speak my mind" and am "very opinionated." Ya think? ;)

Michael showed us Bloglines, which wowed several of the partipants. There were some well-deserved audible "oohs" and "aahs. RSS is customized information delivery at its best, but suffers from a confusing name. I swear--the person who comes up with a better name for RSS (My Yahoo! doesn't count) will make a pretty penny...or at the very least get my personal thanks.

Michael showed us Open WorldCat, including the "Reviews" tab for each item where people can add their own reviews.  This feature isn't being used much yet, but it's available (which is more than we can say for most library catalogs).  He also suggested that to search the full Open WorldCat holdings, you should do a Google site-specific search like site:worldcatlibraries.org AUTHOR/TITLE as a better way to look for Open WorldCat books than just adding "Find in a Library" or "Open WorldCat" to your keyword search.

Michael discussed virtual reference options, including web-based chat (like QuestionPoint) and instant messaging (including aggregators like Trillian and Meebo).  He gave the class some practical tips on things to consider about virtual reference before implementation.

I have to leave a little bit early (like right now), but congratulations to Michael for an uber-fabulous class. If he's coming to a library near you, sign up!