As We Move Toward the Future, How Are We Doing?

1. As We Move Toward the Future, How Are We Doing? Convergence & Sustainability: Why Our Future Is Bright, Part 2 Jill Hurst-Wahl @jill_hw June 7, 2012
2. NYAC 2011  Convergence & Sustainability: Why Our Future is Bright, http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2011/06/think ing-20-years-into-future.html  In 2031:  Your organization still exists!  Your organization has built tight collaborations with other cultural and service institutions.  Your organization is co-located.  Your organization will deliver information and content to users wherever they are.
3. WHAT DID YOU NEED TO START DOING?  Expand your definition of "patron".  Take the limits off of your definition of "virtual".  Explore new and cutting edge way of delivering content.  Enter into collaborative arrangements and find those that will last.  Most importantly...start n-o-w!
4. SO WHAT ARE LIBRARIES DOING?
5. THRIVING…  By serving their communities in non-traditional ways.  By taking over services that others have provided.  By looking at literacy through many lenses.  By actively helping people be creators.  By getting out of their comfort zone.  They are becoming labs of experimentation.
6. NYLA & NYS PUBLIC LIBRARIES  http://diglitny.org/  NYS Office of Technology  “In New York State, almost 2.7 million households are not connected to the Internet."  In 2010, the US ranked 15th out of the top 31 countries in terms of broadband penetration.  Among the G7, the US ranks 5th in terms of broadband penetration.
7. COLUMBUS (OH) METROPOLITAN LIBRARY  Opened Job Help Centers  Served 44,000 people in 2010  “The library augments the program by bringing in partners with expertise in employment, entrepreneurship, and business development and promotes it to the community and other libraries through Job Help Week at Your Library.” (HuffPost)
8. ALACHUA COUNT Y LIBRARY DISTRICT (FL)  Created the Library Partnership  “…residents have access to health and legal services, rent and utility subsidies, tax assistance, counseling for substance or domestic abuse, and a host of other social services.”  The Partnership “also serves as a distribution point for book and clothing drives and runs a backpack program that provides weekend food for children in the free/reduced lunch program.” (HuffPost)
9. WEIPPE PUBLIC LIBRARY & DISCOVERY CENTER (IDAHO)  Brought high-speed Internet service to the town  Will be expanding the current library -centered cell phone service to serve the entire community.  Helps residents apply for jobs and unemployment assistance, and learn basic computer skills.
10. PRINT ON DEMAND ® (ESPRESSO BOOK MACHINE )  J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah  The Brooklyn Public Library  NYPL’s Science, Industry and Business Library  Darien Library (Connecticut)  Michigan State Univ. Library  Riverside County Library System (Calif.)  Sacramento Public Library
11. ACTIVE LEARNING  Makerspace, hackerspace, tool-lending library, FabLab, TechShop, art space, craft studio, digital darkroom, musical instrument lending library, video recording studio, teaching and demonstration kitchen.  Allen County Public Library (Indiana) - Hackerspace  Fayetteville Free Library (NY) - FabLab  Palmerston North City Library (NZ) – Recording studio  Wayne County Public Library (NC) – Community Garden  North Onondaga Public Library (NY) – Library Garden
12. WHERE ARE EXPERIMENTS HAPPENING?
13. HARVARD: THE LIBRARY TEST KITCHEN  http://www.librarytestkitchen.org/  Goal: “To design, build and deploy products, services & experiences that model the future of the Harvard Libraries.”  A collaboration between the Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Library.  A call for students to define new dimensions of the library experience.
14. HARVARD LIBRARY INNOVATION LABORATORY  http://librarylab.law.harvard.edu/blog /  Goal: To demonstrate how “the online world – and offline as well – can derive full benefit from all that libraries know and know how to do .”  a small group of librarians and technologists housed in the basement of the Law School Library.
15. HARVARD LIBRARY LAB  http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/liblab  Goal: “To create better services for students and faculty and to join with others in fashioning the information society of the future.”  “…the Lab offers opportunities for individuals to innovate, cooperate across projects, and make original contributions to the way libraries work.”
16. ALA: LIBRARY BOING BOING (LIBRARY BOING BOING M.I.B.)  http://connect.ala.org  Goals:  Help find and propose content about libraries that could be posted to Boing Boing  Provide active ways for Boing Boing readers to support and get involved with their local libraries (e.g., toolkits, best practices, ideas for local projects)  Create dynamic programming at library conferences that Boing Boingers can then take outside of the library community to promote libraries  Work together to help Boing Boingers advance our shared interests (e.g., copyright reform, net neutrality, etc.)  Coordinate an international community of librarians working with their own Boing Boing reader groups
17. LIBRARIES THRIVING  http://www.librariesthriving.org  Goals:  Help libraries realize their possibility for impact and to address challenges  Develop case studies of success that can be replicated  Resolve key technical issues that limit progress  “With low usage and shrinking budgets, libraries are challenged to justify resource investments now more than ever. At the same time, information users are ill prepared to navigate the amount and quality of content on the web. This creates a tremendous opportunity for libraries to show that they are well equipped to help users navigate information resources and for users to benefit from this guidance.”
18. ADDITIONAL READING
19. IS NOW THE TIME FOR LIBRARIANS?  Is Now the Time for Librarians? http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2012/05/is - now-time-for-librarians.html  Is Now the Time for Librarians? (Continued) http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-now- time-for-librarians-continued.html
20. HUFFINGTON POST: LIBRARIES IN CRISIS  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/libraries -in- crisis  Goal: “Like our public parks and museums, libraries are free, non-commercial gathering places for everyone, regardless of income. Yet our nation's public libraries appear to be under threat. This page is dedicated to understanding why this is the case, and following what people on all sides are doing about it.”