2006

OCLC Symposium – Part 3

Patricia Martin – Marketing Libraries: Defending the Brand Libraries are in the best of times. Disruptive competition drives innovation. Behold the rise of the second renaissance generation – the RenGen. They live in a knowledge economy. There is a formal delivery system for the knowledge of culture and there is also an informal system that is growing faster than libraries. The RenGen ignore the formal system on a daily basis. They have created their own information system. They are generation that does not see libraries as essential. The preference for learning is visual and narrative for the RenGen and they do not get these things from libraries. In 2003, 23% of all mall shoppers browsed compared to 37% in 2002 – PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE TO BROWSE. For some people being well informed is social currency and libraries can give this to them. Do we have something special for them?…

2006

OCLC Symposium – Part 2

Jennifer Rice is the owner of a marketing company and she focuses on the 6 major consumer trends that effect everyone. A brand is reputation, an idea formed in the minds of your constituents. What you say is marketing and what you do, reputation, is brand What can you do that people desire that is deliverable and distinctive? Convenience – too many choices and not enough time brands include 7-11, Netflix, Goole, Amazon, Southwest Airlines Libraries should be concerned about Netflix, because they are teaching people that they do not have to wait, they can keep things as long as they want, and they can get it delivered to their door. The expectation level is going up. Community – grassroots economy The most effective brands hit somewhere on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Libraries should view ourselves less as a provider and more as a host. You could offer comfortable seating,…

2006

OCLC Symposium – Extreme Makeover: Rebranding an Industry Part 1

I took about 6 pages of notes during the presentation, so this is a highly condensed version of a very wonderful session. To make it readable, I am going to post it in four parts, separated by speakers. The title implies that this session will be about libraries as industry, as business, and from the beginning, Cathy De Rosa makes it clear that this is the intent. I like that they do not shy away from discussing libraries as business. Omar Wasow – Library 2.0? “Libraries must both inform and transform.” There is a break in perceptions from what librarians think and what our users think. The brand “library” stands for books, but our facilities are high on the list of what users think about. They are unhappy with the surroundings of the library: parking, signage, building rude staff, etc. The library is not just about technology; it is about…

2006

The LITA Town Meeting

Well, first of all, if you were at the conference and not at the Town Meeting, you missed a great food spread. There was real food, folks — breakfast tacos, yogurt, fruit, bagels, pastries, AND a variety of juices. While we ate, we got to view a photo montage of past involved LITA members who hadn’t ponied up when the LITA Office offered to destroy all negatives. Pat Mullin, LITA President, addressed a filled room (we know the value of free food) to note the launch of the LITA 40th Anniversary Celebration and to present a plaque to Pat Harris in recognition of her long stint of excellent service at NISO. She’s retiring after 20 years, and those of us who have worked with her can hardly imagine information standards work without her. I bet she has no trouble imagining it at all. Bonnie Postlethwaite, President-Elect, took over to provide…

2006

Top Tech Trends: The Trends

Sunday, January 22, 8am-10am, Marriott Rivercenter, Conference Room 3/4 (This runs a bit long, so it’s been broken into two parts: the business meeting dealing with the TTT events and the Top Technology Trends discussion.) With a little bit of time left after the business meeting, the discussion moved to the juicer topic: Top Technology Trends. Here’s a quick overview of what was discussed: 1. It’s nice to experiment with high tech, but low tech can be good, too. Simple answers are good. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. (Okay, that really came from the discussion of the event, but it played into some of the TTT discussion as well.) 2. Is the promise of FRBR going to flesh out? Are we going to start seeing it for our libraries soon? The discussion pointed out that FRBR assumes that records have been prepared for FRBR. OCLC does have an…

2006

Top Tech Trends: The Business End

Sunday, January 22, 8am-10am, Marriott Rivercenter, Conference Room 3/4 (This runs a bit long, so it’s been broken into two parts: the business meeting dealing with the TTT events and the Top Technology Trends discussion.) The agenda for the Top Tech Trends meeting this midwinter was “more of a traditional business meeting than a discussion of trends.” The Top Tech Trends committee members and experts (or “Trendsters” as they came to be called) discussed the exciting increase in participation in the TTT events over the last few years, and evaluated how to make sure these events don’t lose due to their size. Karen Schneider posted some of her take-away points from the meeting, and I’m doing the same here. Top Technology Trends events (for those, like me, who haven’t been able to make them) have centered around experts who identify some trends to examine, discuss, and then they open the…