Umbrella 2011: Developing your Library Presence Online

Umbrella 2011

Developing your Library Presence Online: Working beyond Web 2.0

Somewhat shorter notes here of Nick Stopforth’s session as lots of lights down to watch and listen to video clips and I was flagging!

Whither the future…

This was a brisk canter through a public-library orientated list of technological developments that may, some sooner than others, be things we need to consider and allow for in service development in terms of user expectation.

There was discussion of the problem of two-tier society between the internet-enabled and those who are not with a widening gap as technology rapidly increases making the learning curve ever increase needed to catch up.

There was discussion of the hope cycle. That not everything is as shiny as it first appears, some things are more practically useful than others, but important to maintain awareness of new developments and try things out so if they are going to cross over to mainstream usage you know about them or if things are overtaken by newer creations you can transfer quickly.

Technologies

Ten technologies were discussed, often with video clips to illustrate and references to good blogs to follow

1. RFID developments – e.g. wearable RFID that can speak stock management information to visually impaired users.
2. Online  - From ‘The Internet of Things’ – internet as a central nervous system of interconnections to the physical world and objects within it – to things like Enterprise Search and collaborative search engines.
3. Context-aware computing – Gadgets more like personal companions that can react to moods, likes, dislikes.
4. Location-based data – e.g. proximity marketing e.g. sending GPS signals to mobiles to give specific information
5. Social media – Whether business would use in a new way making it more corporate, social networks overload, the new Google+
6. Tablets – Expectation for public libraries to have and use?  Lots of players in market but Apple is dominant
7. Open Source Data – Low-cost innovative way to produce services? Already being used in public libraries
8. Mobile technology – 4G, apps, user-contextualised services
9. Augmented reality – using devices to point and get additional information sent to device, used in tourism
10. QR codes

Thoughts….

This is not my main area of activity or knowledge, I tend to read what others say about things briefly but wait till things cross over to the mainstream before I spend time on them, and I was flagging a bit by this point! So it was interesting horizon scanning, it’s useful to be able to go and just hear quick run-down’s of lots of things consolidated together by someone else and be able to pick and choose which of them you investigate further.