Faces in Libraries

The Amex commercial that highlights faces found in everyday object and places, has got me inspired to see if I can look at my every day surroundings at work and in the library and see faces as well. Here’s an example that I discovered in the Faces In Places pool on Flickr:

Photo by Knoton

Got any from your surroundings to add?

The attention economy, streams and information flow

Looking for a good 18 minute talk to challenge your thinking about marketing strategies in the network era? Then check out dana boyd’s recent talk from the Web 2.0 Expo. For me it starts getting really interesting around 06:17 “Shifting from a model of distribution to a model of attention is inherently disruptive, but it is not inherently democratized ..."



If you’re not into listening (she does talk fast ) then read the paper:
Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media

Sharing... Responding ... Engaging

A comparison of these three charts from ShareThis is very interesting ...








Read ShareThis' The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement

Mag+ concept video

This concept video by Bonnier Research & Development offers up a preview of how the magazines reading experience could be transformed through mobile networked devices.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Check out their beta lab blog and also the discussion in the comments.

The UI interface that Bonnier is exploring really blows the lid off the functionality of the current crop of ereader/ebook devices. And personally, I can't wait to see what Apple unveils when they finally officially jump into this race. Things are definitely going get interesting.

All about E's

I’ve often thought (and even publicly said) that it’s a shame that the word “library” isn’t spelled with “e’s” (libraree) for when you really look to find words that exemplify the impact and describe libraries, the ‘e’ words clearly reign.

Just this week, I was again reminded of this thought, while reading through Seth Godin’s latest free digital download (82 pg ebook), What Matters Most, when I turned the page to 20 and discovered Tom Peters’ contribution to the anthology of great thoughts:


Click to enlarge

Here’s my related thoughts on “E’s”:

Putting the “e” in library
Social Media E..E..Edge (aka all about e’s) presentation

A ‘nook’ of initial thoughts

So the nook arrived last Friday afternoon and although my weekend was far too busy with holiday shopping, parties and preparation, I finally did get around to playing around with the device yesterday. My initial reactions are a lot like the criticisms hailed by the NY Times last week, but even so I’ve got to say that I think the device, once refined a bit more, has a lot of potential. Here’s my take on the good and the bad:4

Navigation Screen: (the small full color strip along the bottom)

The Good -- I really like the layout, navigation and user friendliness of the small color touch screen. Unlike the 1st generation of the Kindle, whose clunky roller navigation functionality took me some time to get use to, the nook’s first attempt at navigation is very initiative and easy to use.

The Bad -- The screen’s responsiveness to touch is a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it works great, other times, there seems to be no response at all. Exiting backwards seems to help if things get stuck. But overall the touch screen responsiveness is slow.

Reader Screen:

The Good -- The size of the screen is fine and the e-ink text is easy to read.

The Bad -- between every page refresh, the screen seems to have to flash to reverse (black) before refreshing to new text – I find this very distracting to my eyes.

Functionality:

The Good --I found downloading a title very easy to do and it also seemed very quick to me. I was able to download a full 220 pg book in just over minute. The screen prompts are simple and easy to follow. Also page forward and backward on found on both sides of the screen, making it easy for one-handed reading & page turning.

The Bad -- Text font sizes. According to survey’s the average Kindle purchaser is over 50. In conversations I’ve had with Kindle owners, I’ve come to learn that a big part of the appeal is the ability to be able to read books in large print type without having to carry around a bulky large-print book. The text size on the nook seems to come in three standard sizes and to me the “large” still seems a little small. (I keep thinking of my grandfather, an avid reader, being able to read from the nook without the additional use of a magnifying glass –I can’t).

Lend Me:

Although I wasn’t able to try out this functionality completely - haven’t run into another nook owner yet) I did find access to it very easy. This new functionality for an ereader really intrigues me and as this type of functionality matures, I’m beginning to imagine library customers becoming transformed as some type of library circulation agents lending titles that they have downloaded from our collections to family and friends.

Anyway, there’s still a lot that I haven’t played with fully on the nook (digital audio books and the ability to upload music files for example) and since the OS in Android, Google’s mobile operating system, I’m also curious to see what apps may be developed and exploited to work on the nook, making it potentially more than the just an ereader.

So anyway, that’s my early and initial reactions. I’ll post more later when I can. In the meantime, I believe I’m now off the ‘nook’ on getting this post done. :)

The Bookends Scenerios

A few months back, I noted that the State Library of New South Wales was working with the folks at NowAndNext to develop a set of future scenarios to help guide conversation and strategic planning among public libraries.

Well today, the full 64 page report has been released and while I haven't been able to digest the information contained in all four scenarios completely, my quick scanning tells me that's there lots of good food for thought here.

Bookends Scenarios: Alternative Futures for the Public Library Network of NSW in 2030 (pdf)

image: pg 63

Things that make you go Hmmm

In libraries we tend to take the security of library card account information pretty seriously often going to extreme means to protect the privacy of customers account numbers and data. This is good thing, I think, but when I was recently checking out the sign-up terms of AOL free email service, I was kind of struck by their choice in security questions.



Seems your library card number is thought of differently by AOL. Rather than being something to protect, it’s seen as a great gatekeeper question to protecting your email account access. Hmmm… I wonder how common it is to use library card # as a security question?

Friday's Thought - On Leadership

Today’s Friday thought comes from a source very close to home. :)

OU Athens Talk

I'm heading out tomorrow for my second Athens talk in 30 days. The first one required a cramped 10 hour plane ride, so I'm really looking forward to the second one because it's only a 2 hour car drive - which also means I'll be home for movie night. :)

For those of you attending my talk tomorrow at Alden Library on the OU Athens campus, here's a link to my slides.

Rethinking Bubbles & other thoughts on the future of libraries

PS: Just realized that this is actually my third "Athens" talk this year. I also did a talk in Athens, GA in July. Think I might need to chalk 2009 up as the year of the Athens hat trick. :)

Do you Poken?

I was first introduced to these tech gadgets last April at the UGame, ULearn conference in Delft. At the time, pokens weren't really accessible in the US. However, it seems times are changing. Here's a recent report from WSJ's MarketWatch.



Check out the website: Poken.com

BTW. Every participant at the conference got a poken. What a great way to encourage people to network and the best part was that when I got home I and logged my poken on, I easily had contact with everyone I met. FTR my poken is the bee.