This is another focus view of where our local library district could find itself in five to ten years. This is one scenario that could occur given events and decisions likely to play out over the next few years.
The library is as known for technology usage as it was for books twenty years ago. Residents and other users of the library, including students at local colleges and trade schools, preschoolers going to school in the district, and businessmen and women working in the district, have been able to use the library to review new and not-so-new technology, to take classes to learn new things, to use technology to better showcase their own creativity, and to participate in collaborations with others, such as electronic meeting rooms that host real-time book club discussions and bulletin boards.
Where libraries have traditionally focused on information in print, our library was also focused on providing meeting spaces for patrons. With technology, we have been able to have an impact on both. In the print world, we still see users demanding their traditional bound paper books and periodicals, and those are still provided, although we are seeing our mix shift to providing additional digital books, both e-books for readers as well as downloadable audio books. The library has been able to find vendors that can provide our patrons with almost immediate access to millions of books and periodicals through a subscription kept by the library, downloadable to their reader device. As there are still many of these in existence, an effort is made to support the top three or four devices with their proper formats, and the library has a technology policy in place to ensure that our patrons can make technology decisions and can count on us to provide content support for a specified period of time, much like a software vendor defines support for a version of a software package.
While patrons no longer need to visit the library building if they download content over the internet, they can come to the library to see new devices on display and be able to checked out new readers and players to try them out. This was accomplished in part through grants from some of the same companies that sell the readers and players, as a way to broaden their audience.
The library has taken a number of steps beyond the sharing platforms used exclusively by the book clubs to track meetings and readings, and now offers a software meeting place that can also handle live interaction between people discussing a book. This can be accomplished at any time using chat, but during the physical book club meeting, people can participate from remote locations, viewing a video and audio feed of the meetings. This same technology is made available to patrons to run their non-business meetings, and has been widely used by scouting groups, homeowners associations, interest clubs, etc. The library has partnered with software service vendors to make available web-based collaboration spaces that have tools that can be used to maintain typical small to medium scale local endevors, including governance capabilities, archiving of out-of-date information, group calendars, and live online meetings.
How was this progress possible? One move was tied to the realization that a single person charged with IT tends to be overwhelmed with operational issues and didn't have time for all of the planning issues involved with looking far ahead. By dividing the job into two, the operations IT side got the optimization that saved some budget -- including sunsetting applications when no longer useful or valuable. The planning side got a czar that could review the technology (hardware, software, services) that could be brought into the library, generate the grant requests to fund them, and manage the relationships with local colleges for technical help. The planning czar also is responsible for a local technology focus group that provides guidance for the future direction of the library. This group was developed as a superset of the city's technology planning commission.
One of the other focuses that has enabled a mid-size suburb to excel in the technology options they offer their patrons is the focus on the practical side of technology. This includes the adaption of limited sets of technology that was not in the mainstream but which had a specific use tied to the goals of the library and the community. For instance, while computers or iPad-type devices start at around $500, the library chose instead to focus on the use of small sub-$100 computers (think Chumby or mini iPad) to display library information at the library as well as community information at local businesses, hotels, restaurants, train stations, and government offices. Funded through a unique grant with the Chamber of Commerce and paid for in part through hotel taxes, the library was able to provide a platform to share community news and information provided by local media outlets, including the Tribune and AOL. Other "advances" that were not cutting edge included supporting cell phone device access to the catalog.
The library also began offering additional sources of local information. After a trial of a number of local information sources, patrons repsonded positively to having a fire and police radio broadcast over the internet. They also liked the video feeds of the library so they could see how busy the library was, including the seating areas and the computer availability. They also appreciated live videocasting of local events such as the French Market -- this allowed people to see what was being offered before they left their homes. The live broadcasts of local government meetings was not popular, but recorded sessions were heavily used.
Technology also played a role in other new offerings of the library, including video and audio production capabilities that patrons could use by checking out time on the systems. Students developed films and art projects and created documentaries for radio, including displays for our local history museums. Another offering was the support of a "maker space" in conjunction with local hobbiest groups -- a sort of meeting area for physical creation.
Future writeups are planned to discuss two additional focus areas, 1) the marketing of the library and 2) how the library fits in a broader political context, the library's "meta-place". I'm hoping I just coined that term...
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