LITA Blog

LITA is offering a special student registration rate to the 2010 LITA National Forum to a limited number of graduate students enrolled in ALA accredited programs. The Forum will be held September 30 – October 3, 2010 at the Hilton City Downtown, Atlanta, GA. To learn more about the Forum, visit www.lita.org/forum

In exchange for the discounted registration, students will assist the LITA organizers and the Forum presenters with the on-site operations for the Forum. This year’s theme is “The Cloud & the Crowd.” We are anticipating an attendance of 400-500 decision makers and implementers of new information technologies in libraries.

The selected students will be expected to attend the full LITA National Forum, Friday noon through Sunday noon, but not the preconferences on Thursday and Friday. You will be assigned a variety of duties, but will be able to attend the Forum programs, which include 3 keynote sessions, approximately 30 concurrent sessions, and 12 poster presentations.

The student rate is $175 – half the regular registration rate for LITA members. This rate includes a Friday night reception at the hotel, continental breakfasts, and Saturday lunch.

To apply for the student registration rate, please provide the following information:

1) Complete contact information including email address,
2) The name of the school you are attending, and
3) 150 word (or less) statement on why you want to attend the LITA National Forum

Please send this information no later than September 10, 2010 to lita@ala.org, with LITA Forum Student Registration Request in the subject line.

Those selected for the student rate will be notified no later than September 15, 2010.

The early bird registration deadline is approaching for the 2010 LITA National Forum, “The Cloud & the Crowd,” to be held Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 at the Hilton Downtown in Atlanta, Ga. Now is your opportunity to realize excellent savings on registration for the forum. Prior to Aug. 15, the registration rates are $50 lower. Online registration is available, or you may fax or mail your completed registration form. Visit www.lita.org/forum to register the Forum.

Keynote sessions anchor the event and include speakers Amy Bruckman, Roy Tennant and Ross Singer. More than 30 concurrent sessions and 10 poster sessions provide a wealth of practical information on a wide range of topics. Two preconference workshops, “Redesigning a Website Using Information Architecture Principles,” presented by Jenny Emanuel of the University of Illinois, and “Virtualize IT: Laying the Foundation for the Library of the Future,” presented by Maurice York of North Carolina State University, are also available.

Corporate sponsors of the LITA Forum help to bring programming and networking opportunities to attendees. LITA gratefully acknowledges the support of Boopsie, OCLC, Ex Libris, Serials Solutions and Ristech. An opening reception will be held Friday night to showcase sponsors and provide great networking and camaraderie for attendees. Other networking opportunities include Saturday lunch, continental breakfasts and refreshment breaks, as well as Saturday evening no-host dinner groups organized by LITA leaders.

Registration is limited to 500. For more information, visit www.lita.org/forum.

Chapel Hill – Patrick Mullin, interim associate university librarian for collections and services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will retire July 30, after a professional career spanning 37 years.

Mullin joined the library staff in 1987 as systems librarian. He subsequently headed the Systems Department before becoming an associate university librarian with responsibility for systems, access services and systems, and then technical services and systems. Since March, he has served on an interim basis as associate university librarian for collections and services. During his tenure, he oversaw several comprehensive system migrations, as well as a complete reorganization of the library’s technical service operations in 2008.

Mullin has been especially active with association and consortial activities. He was president in 2005-06 of the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) of the American Library Association, and was a member of the LITA Board of Directors and its Executive Committee from 2003 to 2007. He chaired the LITA 2001 and 2002 National Forum Program planning committees and has held leadership positions with the Association of College & Research Libraries and the Data Research Users’ Group.

From 1988 to 1991, concurrent with his responsibilities at UNC, he was interim director of the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN), a collaborative organization of the libraries at UNC, Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University. For this service and numerous other contributions, he was recognized by TRLN in 2000 for his “extraordinary service and leadership and for outstanding contributions promoting cooperation among libraries.”

Mullin received a B.A. in history from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. in history from Purdue University. His M.L.S. is from the University of Kentucky. Mullin began his professional career as the special collections librarian at Marietta College, in Marietta, Ohio. He subsequently spent ten years in various positions with OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., in Dublin, Ohio, before coming to UNC.

http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/news/index.php/2010/07/pat-mullin-retirement/

Judith Panitch
Director of Library Communications
University Library
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Forum explores leading-edge technologies and their applications in all types of libraries while providing the networking benefits of a small conference. The 2010 LITA National Forum, “The Cloud and The Crowd,” will be held September 30 – October 3 at the Downtown Hilton in Atlanta.

Keynote Sessions include Amy Bruckman of the Georgia Institute of presenting How Wikipedia Really Works, and What This Means for the Nature of “Truth”, Roy Tennant of OCLC Research will present Using the Cloud to Please the Crowd, and Ross Singer of Talis Information will present The Linked Library Data Cloud: it’s time to stop thinking and start linking.

In addition to concurrent and poster sessions, two preconference workshops will be offered. Starting Thursday afternoon and concluding Friday morning, Jenny Emanuel of University of Illinois will present Redesigning a Website Using Information Architecture Principles. The workshop will focus on strategies systems staff and public services librarians can utilize to inform each other about information architecture practices in order to create and maintain a library web site. Additionally, Maurice York of North Carolina State University will present Virtualize IT: Laying the Foundation for the Library of the Future, exploring how to create a holistic virtualization strategy with a vision towards creating the library spaces and services of the future, including technology selection, cost, design, deployment, and support.

Corporate sponsors of the LITA Forum help bring programming and networking opportunities to attendees. We gratefully acknowledge the support of OCLC, Ex Libris, Boopsie, Serials Solutions and Ristech.

Registration is limited to 500 in order to preserve the advantages of a small conference. Networking opportunities, one of the small conference advantages, are an important part of the Forum. Take advantage of the Friday evening reception and sponsor showcase, Saturday evening networking dinners and meals and breaks throughout the Forum to get to know LITA leaders, Forum speakers, sponsors and peers.

Library Journal has just released a review of The Tech Set, co-published by Neal-Schuman and LITA. The Tech Set consists of ten practical guides to today’s hottest new technologies for information professionals:

1. Next Gen Library Catalogs by Marshall Breeding
2. Mobile Technology and Libraries by Jason Griffey
3. Microblogging and Lifestreaming in Libraries by Robin Hastings
4. Library Videos and Webcasts by Sean Robinson
5. Wikis for Libraries by Lauren Pressley
6. Technology Training in Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan
7. A Social Networking Primer for Libraries by Cliff Landis
8. Library Camps and Unconferences by Steve Lawson
9. Gaming in Libraries by Kelly Czarnecki
10. Effective Blogging for Libraries, by Connie Crosby

LITA members receive a discount on The Tech Set and all Neal-Schuman publications.

A new regional institute: “Writing for the Web,” presented by Brenda Reeb of the University of Rochester, is now available.

This full-day workshop presents best practices for writing for the web within the context of academic and public library websites. The format is lecture style, followed by critique sessions that examine how successful sites implement best practices. Participants will revise web copy and receive feedback on their work during the workshop and will leave the workshop with quick fixes they can apply to their site immediately as well as strategies for tackling long range projects that will enhance the quality of their library website. In this workshop, participants will learn how to critique current web content for immediate improvement, write quality web copy from scratch, identify content areas that require significant revision, assess the “findability” of important features or important library content and create a style guide so that content is uniform and meets standards across the site. The intended audience should be familiar with publishing content on library websites, either as a web designer or as a writer.

Brenda Reeb is director of the Business & Government Information Library at the University of Rochester, River Campus Libraries. In addition to her work as a business subject librarian, she began practicing usability testing methods in 2001 at the University of Rochester. Her usability experience includes developing web applications for academic and public libraries, commercial vendors and nonprofit organizations. She has worked with undergraduate students, adults and children. She speaks regionally and nationally on user-centered design and usability testing on library digital projects. She received a Master of Science degree from Simmons College in 1991.

LITA Regional Institutes are one-day workshops on technology-related topics. Taught by experts and presented throughout the country, they reach beyond ALA Conference locations to bring you high quality continuing education. LITA licenses institute to organizations and would like to hear from potential hosts. Please contact LITA if you would like more information.

Colleen Cuddy, interim director, New York University Health Sciences Libraries, NYU School of Medicine, is the newly elected vice-president/president-elect of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Her term, and that of newly elected LITA councilor and board members, began after the June 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Cuddy has served as a member of the LITA Board of Directors and the LITA Executive Committee. She has experience in programming, having served on the LITA National Forum Program Planning Committee, and in governance, having served as the Bylaws Committee chair and Board parliamentarian. “LITA members are innovators and leaders, and I feel very privileged to lead such a diverse group of librarians and library professionals. I look forward to developing methods to communicate the value of technology innovation for LITA members and for librarians at large. I will also work to cultivate LITA membership and create new opportunities for members’ professional growth,” said Cuddy.

This year LITA elected Adriene Lim, associate university librarian, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, as LITA Councilor for a three year term. Newly elected Board Directors, who also will serve for three years, are Cindi Trainor, coordinator, Research and Instructional Services, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky, and Jason Griffey, head of Library Information, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Lupton Library, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Behind the interfaces of the digital libraries and institutional repositories we see today are carefully-planned and proactive processes that ensure that the end user can easily find what s/he needs. With digital libraries and repositories becoming increasingly popular, it is important to know what strategies work well.

As a current MLIS student at the University of North Texas (and new LITA member) with a concentration in digital content management,  I had the privilege of attending the LITA session Developing a Sustainable Digital Workflow, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.  This session exhibited two very successful digital endeavors:  the digital collections at my very own UNT, and RUcore, the institutional repository at Rutger’s University. I chose this session because it is my goal to work in digital services/archives once I graduate (7 weeks left!!).  Below is a recap from each institution’s presentation on how they handle the management of digital content.

Dreanna Belden (Assistant Dean of External Relations and Head of IT Services) and Hannah Tarver (Metadata Librarian) from UNT Libraries brought the “mean green” to DC.  Although I am a distance student at UNT, it was a pleasure to meet some of the UNT librarians who work so hard to make the library such a great resource to both on and off-campus students.

Managing multiple digital projects simultaneously

Dreanna Belden presented a very organized approach as to how the UNT libraries managed digital projects that originated from within the school, as well as other institutions in the Texas area.  Using 14 full-time staff and student workers, much of the digitization processes and metadata creation are done in-house.  Each collection has its own directory on the server, and within each directory are folders that house digital files at each phase in the digitization process (i.e. raw images, images that have undergone quality control processing, and OCRed images ready for upload).

One process I found particularly interesting was their use of a project wiki to track modifications to the objects. This collaborative approach enables students and faculty to all have access to what is going on in the project. Furthermore, the wiki contains training guidelines, which streamline the training process for any new students who work in the digitization lab each semester.

How UNT Handles Metadata

Hannah Tarver discussed the metadata creation process. For each project, a metadata template is created. The template is also created with a built-in controlled vocabulary, which can be accessed through drop-down menus in the metadata entry interface, or through a browsable subject vocabulary for subject terms.  Furthermore, each digital object within a project has an XML template document associated with it so that metadata for each batch upload into the repository is easily searchable. By utilizing a uniform metadata template, common error patterns in the metadata can be found in one batch-proof, instead of having to go through each record individually. The team at UNT uses an open-source text editor called J-Edit, which color-codes the XML templates for readability.

Grace Agnew (University Librarian for Digital Systems) and Jane Otto (Head of E-Monographs and Multimedia Cataloging Section) from Rutger’s University Libraries presented on the innovative structure of RUcore. Like UNT, the digital services departments at Rutgers manage multiple projects for faculty, as well as grant-funded digital initiatives.

Data-Driven Design

Grace Agnew discussed the multi-faceted architecture and organization of RUcore, a repository built on Fedora. Collections are classified based on from where they originated (provenance). Agnew highlights that there is more to metadata than just the descriptive metadata; rights, provenance, and technical metadata have the potential to create richer, contextual relationships between digital objects.  An object consists of 2 facets: its description, and the events with which it is associated. She mentions one research project, The Video Mosaic Collaborative, which presents videos of mathematics teaching sessions that can be reused and analyzed to improve math education. Event metadata can be created to track a particular video through its use in other education research project, any changes or interventions made, etc.

Trends and Challenges

Jane Otto further expounded on the use of more than descriptive metadata, and underscored the repository’s ability to accept digital objects in a variety of formats. As the costs of storage space decrease, an increasing trend in digital repositories is the archival of video.  She discussed many emerging challenges that accompanied moving images, such as the choice of a metadata scheme that could handle both analog and digital videos; this is compounded by quickly changing standards as the profession moves into the digital realm.

In order to meet these challenges, the importance of cross-training the staff was emphasized. Cross-training not only increases efficiency, but ensures that each employee is well-rounded and flexible enough to respond to a rapidly changing landscape.

Summing it up

The digital departments at both universities took on projects not just from within the institution, but also sought grant-funding and collaboration with outside institutions as well. This underscores the importance of the library’s role in digitization efforts, which in turn provides global access to researchers and users everywhere.

The representatives from UNT presented an established workflow for handling multiple digital projects. Their presentation highlighted streamlining quality assurance, a step that can often become the most time-consuming in a digital project. The team from Rutgers presented utilizing an even richer metadata structure that incorporates more than just descriptive metadata, and presented fresh ways of looking at how objects can be linked in a repository.

It was interesting as a student to see what skills were required for working in digital content. Clearly, technical knowledge is important, especially regarding metadata standards and how they can best be applied to a collection. Yet there were also less concrete skills, such as the ability to envision a collection not just as a stand-alone island, but how it can be molded and integrated into other collections and ideas. Also, there was an importance in finding ways to constantly improve the workflow, and discover how new technologies and processes could make things more efficient.

Overall, this was a very informative session on how institutions are managing their digital content, as well as future developments and challenges to overcome. I wish everyone reading this a happy 4th of July weekend, and for those of you who attended the ALA conference in DC…get plenty of rest, stay cool, and enjoy the holiday!

For more information on the presenting institutions and their collections, please visit the links below:

Digital Collections at UNT

RUCore – Rutgers Community Repository (Developers Area)

LITA presented a panel at ALA’s 2010 Conference that posed the question, What is your library doing about emerging technologies?

Bohyun Kim, the Digital Access Librarian at Florida International University, moderated the discussion with the aid of slides that posed questions for four groups of panelists.

GROUP 1:

• Elisabeth Leonard, Associate Dean for Library Services, Western Carolina University
• Frank Cervone, Vice Chancellor for Information Services, Purdue University Calumet

I stepped into a packed room as Elisabeth Leonard tackled the question, “What are emerging technologies and how should they be adapted for libraries?”

Leonard suggested that as librarians we should “think through the eyes of our users.”  She argued that emerging technologies depend on the target user.  In other words, context matters.  Leonard stated that social networking sites (e.g., Twitter and Facebook) are not emerging technologies for today’s youth.  For them, social networking is a way of life.  Leonard paused for a moment and added that the reverse could be argued for another user group.

Frank Cerone stepped in and argued that social networking sites are not emerging technologies for any user group.  To discover emerging technologies, Cerone suggested that libraries look to the commercial realm for inspiration.

Kim opened the discussion up to a question from the audience, and someone asked, “You’ve been talking about emerging technologies and what they aren’t, so what exactly is an emerging technology?  What’s an example of one?”

“3-D television,” Cerone said.  He added that libraries could include 3-D TV in group study rooms.

“I consider 3-D a ‘leading edge technology’ rather than an emerging one,” argued Leonard.  Leonard proposed discovery systems as an example of her definition of an emerging technology.

GROUP 2:

• Amanda Margis, Web Services Children’s Librarian ,Warren-Newport Public Library
• Danielle Whren Johnson, Digital Access Librarian, Loyola/Notre Dame Library
• Darcy Del Bosque, Emerging Technologies Librarian, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Elisabeth Abarbanel, School Librarian, Brentwood School, Los Angeles
• Rebekah Kilzer, Emerging Technologies Librarian, Drexel University Libraries

The next group of panelists brought new insights to the panel as they addressed the question, “What are the daily tasks and skills required of emerging technologies librarians?”

Before answering this question, Amanda Margis explained that the idea of “emerging technologies” was not included in her job description.  Instead, she sought out emerging technologies because she saw a need, and a recent reorganization provided her with time to devote to this endeavor.

Meanwhile, Darcy Del Bosque explained that her job description has changed five times within a four-month time frame. Del Bosque said that her daily tasks and skills had changed with each revision, but her default role had become the fixer of “stuff that breaks.”

Elisabeth Abarbanel’s experience as a school librarian provided another perspective of emerging technologies in educational organizations.  Abarbanel explained that the librarians and teachers at Brentwood in Los Angeles work collaboratively to bring emerging technologies to the classroom.  She added that, for her users, an emerging technology might be RSS feeds.  For Abarbanel, an emerging technologies librarians should be flexible, involved, and have a knack for publicizing and promoting ideas.  “Do not be afraid to bring a new vocabulary to your institution,” advised Abarbanel–suggesting that librarians need to exude confidence in order to get others excited about new technologies.

Upon entering her role as the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Drexel University Libraries, Rebekah Kilzer performed an environmental scan of the library by taking note of technologies that had already been implemented.  She also talked with her colleagues about their expectations of and suggestions for emerging technologies at their libraries.

Kim posed the question, “How can librarians stay current when it comes to emerging technologies?”

Margis explained that librarians can stay up-to-date on technologies by listening to voices outside of the library.  Margis said that she subscribes to the tech feeds of Mashable, Lifehacker, and Wired.  She also recommended the blog In the Library with a Lead Pipe as a good place to look for tech tips.  Margis dropped a few more names, including ReadWriteWeb, Non-profit Tech Blog, and Museum 2.0.  Margis concluded, “If you want to stay up-to-date, play with the technology… Even if you don’t have it, just get your hands on it… Experiment, test, and reevaluate.”

Danielle Whren added to Margis’ comments, and said, “Go to conferences for non-library things to see what library is missing.”

It seemed to me that the entire panel was saying, “Think outside of the biblio-box!”

Kim asked, “How do u assess emerging technology projects?”

When it comes to assessment, Del Bosque said that you can’t spend your time looking at what other libraries are doing.  Look at your local population.  “How are u going to define your success?” she asked.  For example, some libraries might define success based on usage while others might be concerned with information retrieval.  “Try usability testing, surveys, and focus groups,” Del Bosque said.  These simple and low-cost research methods can help you define your project.   Upon implementing a new technology, Del Bosque asks, “Where do we fit in the life cycle of the project? When is someone else coming in?”

GROUP 3:

• Cynthia Johnson, Head of Reference, University of California, Irvine
• Jacquelyn Erdman, Web Services Librarian, East Carolina University
• Kathryn Munson, Assistant Access Services Librarian, Southeastern Louisiana University
• Marissa Ball, Emerging Technologies Librarian, Florida International University

Group 3 addressed management issues in their responses to the question, “How does your library organize the responsibilities of emerging technologies?”

Cynthia Johnson said that her emerging technologies position took on a consulting role, since UC-Irvine has a web services department and a team of developers.  Jacquelyn Erdman has the benefit of working with a full committee that has an ever-changing group of members.

As the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Florida International University, Marissa Ball explained her team-based approach of bringing new tech tools to the library.  Ball realized that if she got the early adopter types to test out new tech tools, then they would share their knowledge with others.  Through this method of peer-to-peer training, Ball’s team has found uses for tools like Jing and LibX for instruction and collection development.

Next, Kim asked, “How clear is your library’s vision on emerging technologies?”

Due to budget restraints, Erdman said that her team at East Carolina University decided to host an in-house conference that focused on emerging technologies.  Erdman and her colleagues shared tech tools and tips.  The conference gave library staff a new set of tools to increase productivity and communication.

In order to clearly state your library’s vision for emerging technologies, Kathryn Munson suggested a different type of strategic planning.  Munson said that you should document what you are doing, what you aren’t, and why.  She stressed the importance of keeping your timeline in mind throughout the implementation process.

Johnson said that her library’s vision on emerging technologies is clear, since it mirrors that of the mission and vision of the university.  Johnson combined forces with the educational technologies and web services departments at UC-Irvine in order to accomplish certain goals.

Additionally, Johnson explained how her expectations of user’s needs were far different than the reality.  After setting up the library’s Twitter account, Johnson watched as it evolved into a virtual suggestion box.  Johnson welcomed this unforeseen use of Twitter.  Despite the suggestion box that had lived at the library for years, user feedback flooded the library’s Twitter account.

You never can predict how emerging technologies will be used by others, said Erdman.  You need to consider users from the lowest to the highest level of ability and become friends with the person who is the worst or most resistant to new technology.

GROUP 4:

• David Ratledge, Associate Professor & Head, Library Technology Services, University of Tennessee
• Gwen Evans, Coordinator, Library Information and Emerging Technologies, Bowling Green State University
• Rebecca K. Miller, College Librarian for the Sciences, Virginia Tech

Group 4 responded to the question, “How should libraries assess and take risks?”

Gwen Evans works with Computer Science students at Bowling Green State University in order to develop her library’s technological offerings.  Over the years, Evans has devised a system of overlapping schedules–allowing seasoned students to teach the newbies.  Although, the CS students have developed some amazing technologies, Evans said that she maintains a conservative attitude about production.  Still, “failure has to be built in.”

Evans  stressed that libraries confirm that they have the resources to take on a new project.  Where is your team of librarians?  Or, developers?  Who is going to see the project through and offer support for its life cycle?

Rebecca Miller pointed out that librarians can suffer from a case of “technolust.”  Librarians can easily get wrapped up in the “tech arms race” and forget to think about the cost of project’s entire life cycle.  Miller said that when it came time to decide which social media elements to bring to her library, she took a survey of students at Virginia Tech.  She said the decision boiled down to the question, “What can we not afford to do?”

David Ratledge responded, “Your users might be on Facebook, but, do they want you–the library–on Facebook?”

At this point, I was nodding.  As a twenty-something who signed up with Facebook back in its college-kids-only days, I don’t think that Facebook is everybody’s platform.  In addition to asking their users about their favorite social network sites, libraries need to ask their users, Do you want us on your social network?  Why or why not?

Evans said that her team hosts brown bag technology lunches that allow staff to get their hands on new software and tech products.  The brown bags give Evans a chance to hear her colleagues’ thoughts on emerging technologies and their potential for Bowling Green’s libraries.  Such feedback also helps Evans better understand what her colleagues expect from her as the Emerging Technologies Librarian.

After a few last thoughts from the panelists, Kim wrapped up the session.

You can view the PowerPoint slides from this LITA presentation here.  If the author has made an error or omitted an essential piece of panel advice, please leave your feedback in the Comments.

Hi! I’m Andromeda Yelton, and I’ll be your conference blogger today, covering the LITA awards reception and President’s program.

LITA Awards Reception

Full disclosure: I’m one of the awardees, and utterly starstruck by the others.

The event opened with mingling and one of the best food spreads I saw at a program at Annual (cheese, fruit, cake); thank you, LITA, for knowing how to entertain.

The LITA/Library Hi Tech awardee was Marshall Breeding, whose Library Technology Guides site was indispensable to me during my library automation class; exciting to meet the man behind the data. Read the press release for more of his huge pile of accomplishments.

The Frederick G. Kilgour awardee was John Willinsky, whose Public Knowledge Project is doing some really interesting things with open access and scholarly communication. Read his press release, too. He told a charming anecdote about the library club in his school days, to general laughter.

And then me! I received the LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award for my paper, “Document Classification Using Wikipedia”. Thank you to Ex Libris for your generous sponsorship, and to the awards committee for letting me share a stage with such distinguished awardees.

Then three LITA scholarships were presented (to Katy Rebecca Mahraj, Sofia Becerra, and Julianna Barrera-Gomez); only one could be there, but Mahraj shared some nice thoughts on how this support from LITA makes those of us who are new to the profession feel like our input matters.

LITA President’s Program

Mary Madden from the Pew Research Center, aka (as she pointed out) “the Pew Center on What the Hell Teens are Doing All Day”, presented on “Four or More” — what can we learn from bleeding-edge power users with four or more networked devices?

For details, check out her slides.

The beginning of the talk covered some common (if not always true) assumptions about youth internet use; demographics of the online population; and background information about who uses privacy controls. (See the slides for specifics.) The meat of the talk, though, concerned this four-or-more population. What do we know about them?

• They’re younger, wealthier, and male-er than the US population as a whole…
• …but not whiter. Unlike most early-adopter groups, they are about as racially diverse as the population at large.
• They have near-universal adoption of desktop and laptop computers, cell phones, and iPods. Many have portable gaming devices. Only 13% have ereaders — but that’s four times the rate in the general population.
• Their devices are wireless.
• They are much more active users of social networking sites: more likely to be on those sites, to check them frequently, and to actively manage their online images.
• They are more likely to filter the flow of content, not just out, but in; they need tools for managing their connectedness.

So what are the implications?

• Question our assumptions about tech use.
• Be ready for patrons who use multiple access points for online content and expect cloud-supported apps.
• Expect that mobile users are social media users, but that a “limited capacity for engagement” means filtering tools are critical.
• Know that privacy and reputation management are huge concerns, but people often understand them poorly (and need guidance).

Audience questions afterward ranged all over the map, but many showed a real concern for privacy issues. For instance: people can get value out of exposing their personal information (for instance, to recommender services) — how should we approach that? (Madden noted “personal information has become a form of currency online”.) Or: do teens manage privacy more actively than adults because they care, or because they put up so much content that they need more after-the-fact response? (Madden: the research isn’t all there to answer this. It’s complicated.) Or: we’ve been talking about online presence and tech skills as they relate to our personal lives, but what about our work lives? (Per the talk, some workplace policies limit employee online presence — and some require it. Madden noted that there’s a Pew report on Networked Workers [pdf], but we still need data on college students.)

Other audience questions touched on potential convergence of technologies (is four-or-more a meaningful metric if we’re all heading toward multifunctional single devices?), educational technology implications at both the K-12 and the university level, including both faculty adoption & training and the expectations of the rising generation of students; the role of gaming; workplace implications; how people find, and trust, information online; and the issue of copyright, both youth expectations and publisher roles. (For myself, I wonder if this population is a leading indicator or an outlier, which have different implications for how libraries need to respond.)

Madden recommended some further reading (and what would a library blog be without reading suggestions!). I think these were what she was talking about:

• Measuring Broadband, a Pew report on broadband access;
• Let the Games Begin, a Pew report on gaming and college students;
• The Internet Goes to College [pdf], a Pew report on college students’ use of the internet, and its impact on them;
• Eszter Hargittai’s work on web use;
• and a MacArthur Foundation initiative on credibility in the digital environment.