Digital strategy has changed, but has your library gotten the message? Ten years ago, digital strategy was mostly about peering far over the horizon to predict a hazy, distant future. But the future we saw then—a world of cheap ubiquitous technology, crowdsourcing, social networks, the cloud, and powerful mobile computing—has become the reality of the present. In this inspiring presentation, Michael Edson, the Smithsonian Institution’s Director of Web and New Media Strategy, will talk about how libraries of all types can adjust their planning and perspective to benefit—not from better vision of the future—but from a better understanding of what can be accomplished today.

Four different Maryland libraries took unique approaches to marketing ebooks/e-readers to their customers. Learn how each of the systems addressed their customer’s curiosity and information needs. Find an approach at this presentation that will work for your library.

This session looks at recent research to evaluate various electronic reading devices and software applications and results of a usability study, all aimed at preparing faculty, staff and students for the future of reading and scholarship in a digital world. Hear about the experience, insights, and further challenges!

Although we are calling them ebooks, electronic versions of works are quite unlike their print-based counterparts. To force an electronic resource to behave like a print resource is an exercise in frustration; does each have a role to play now and in the future? The way ebooks are sold by publishers and distributors, along with the terms of use of institutions serving the public, is getting lots of attention. Join the collaborative conversation around these issues and be a part of this interactive discussion to understand various points of view of publishers, distributors, libraries, and new organizations looking to find creative solutions!

This interactive session with a panel of rapporteurs, wraps up Computers in Libraries’ 2- day focus on libraries and ebooks by reviewing the highlights, pulling future actions to the forefront, noting areas for future research for discussion, and more.

This interactive session with a panel of rapporteurs, wraps up Computers in Libraries’ 2- day focus on libraries and ebooks by reviewing the highlights, pulling future actions to the forefront, noting areas for future research for discussion, and more.

When the CML faced several challenges with drastic state budget cuts and a levy on the November ballot, the library knew it needed to tell its story through numerous channels. It implemented a social media plan that built relationships with customers with amazing outcomes: From 3,500 Facebook “likes” to nearly 18,000 in a year, its Facebook ad generated 51 million impressions, its Facebook page was rated one of the top 10 within libraries, CML was ranked third among libraries on Twitter, Twittergrader provided @ColumbusLibrary a grade of 100%, and followers increased from 2,487 on Twitter to 5,788 in a year. Learn how CML achieved these results so you can replicate the plan for your library.

We’ve heard every reason in the book why your community doesn’t know what’s going on in your library. The challenge to promote the vital resources being offered is often too big for most libraries’ siloed, busy staff. Even if you know how to use the tools, promoting your programs and services takes precious time. More and more libraries have resigned themselves to being satisfied with just communicating the bare minimum to their customers. This presentation shows you how ingenuity, a bit of technology, and the belief that libraries matter to communities can conquer all the barriers stopping you from getting the word out about what your library is doing. Learn how one library is using social media to engage its community to help shape new programs and services — even during Hurricane Irene. Then, imagine a combination of professionally designed graphics for print materials with effective email and social media strategies to help libraries promote their services — you’ll get a sneak peek and a chance to voice your opinions of a new marketing tool that will do just that.

Where does the line between personal branding and library end? Is there a way to integrate you and your library’s brand? What about online advertising? Everyone says it’s cheap and easy but where do you start? QR codes are everywhere, but what really works? How can Skype engage teens? Join librarians from school, public, and special libraries as they share their successes and inspire you to find solutions for your library.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has been using geographic information systems (GIS) mapping and market segmentation for strategic planning and marketing since 2007. This library is gaining new customers using data, not perception, to make decisions and allocate resources. Learn about their strategies, implementation and see how you can use their roadmap to build a data driven direct strategy in your area.

Spreading the word about your awesome new library programs and services doesn’t have to cost money! Learn from three penny-pinching Maryland librarians how to spread the word without busting your budget. Their tools and ideas for marketing to both your current and potential customers include social media, print, traditional media, and more! These low-touch, high-impact practical tips can be implemented immediately.

What can bring your library back to life after these difficult times? How can you predict what customers will want? This thought-provoking session answers those questions, suggests strategies, and helps guide your thinking to a compelling future for your library. Dempsey talks about how libraries imagine their future by thinking about the Phoenix, that mythical bird that arises from the ashes. Jones describes how libraries have been “standing in the future” to create detailed visions that are much more than plaques on the wall. She shows cases of libraries that have successfully used this method to create and, most importantly, execute their strategic plans.

Many of the challenges facing libraries are similar to issues found in information technology. Drawing from the research of the CIO Executive Council and its members as well as from other evidence-based methods, this session provides examples and practical implementation advice on how library leaders can advance their agendas and be more effective fundraisers and advocates with a strategic external focus, business peer relationships, and lead organizations that are regarded as innovative rather than stagnant.

Results will be presented from Unisphere’s 2012 benchmark study of funding trends in academic, public, and special libraries. Attendees receive a copy of the presentation.

Using the quality management tool Six Sigma, libraries can gain significant process improvement and efficiency by eliminating defects and determining the root causes of process breakdown. Kucsak highlights how the Six Sigma concepts and methodology is helping UNF’s libraries implement change and increase performance.

Our first presentation begins by demonstrating how strategic planning and project management go hand-in-hand to ensure success for social media initiatives. Topics include: writing a flexible social media plan that meets the needs of both users and staff, communicating change, balancing projects, and using free or low-cost assessments to make user-centered decisions. The second presentation presents how information solution providers like SWETS are working with Brandeis University to offer new products to combine quantitative tools, such as COUNTER compliant usage statistics with cost, cost per use, combined with qualitative tools and impact factors, to give information specialists evidence-based decision-making tools to evaluate their collections.

A major renovation was Millersville’s opportunity to redefine the traditional just-in-case reference desk model. Motivated by the closing of the library building during renovation and the reality that students increasingly work in a digital world, staff developed a comprehensive, learner-centered, and distributed approach to providing students with research assistance. Moving beyond a single central physical location, this innovative, tiered model incorporates both physically and electronically embedded librarians as well as targeted face-to-face events that utilize a suite of digital technologies. The distributed nature of this model requires mobile, flexible, and “location-independent” technology solutions, including Google products for phone, text, and instant messaging; Jing for video; digital signage and touch-screen kiosks for way-finding; and iPads for engaging with students.

Library liaison activities create many opportunities to create greater connections between the library and students, faculty, and the curriculum. Harris offers recommendations for liaison involvement; tips for assisting faculty with designing more innovative, multipurpose assignments that integrate technology, research, and student creativity; and integrating student-driven research outcomes into “soft” assignments. To increase student success, retention, and information literacy, UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library unveiled a “Personal Librarian” initiative to new and returning students and faculty during fall 2010. This presentation addresses critical questions: What strategies are most successful in encouraging students and faculty to contact their assigned liaison librarians for library assistance? Does a student’s academic success and information literacy increase by working with a “personal librarian”?

May shares the exciting new programs and services from one of the country’s oldest and largest public libraries along with their strategies and processes which provide a roadmap for your library to cement it’s place in your community’s future. Douglas County Libraries has been investigating everything from using an Adobe Content Server to encode digital rights management and circulate titles to freemium business models, crowdsourcing, and OPDS and is becoming a lending library for the Internet Archive. They’ve also been collaborating to develop totally new programs. Together with a major database vendor, they collaborated with the local school system to meet the e-resource needs of the 55,000 students, increase their database use, and saved taxpayers $100,000 in the process. In this session, they share what they’re learning about new services, fostering a sense of community, and adding value beyond the walls of the library.

Fayetteville Free Library is creating and instituting the first Fab Lab in a public library, which includes a MakerBot 3D printer. A Fab Lab is, in essence, an evolution of a computer lab, providing the opportunity to develop and expand the community’s transliteracy skills. Queens Library is developing innovative ways to connect with patrons in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and English. From financial literacy sessions to free mammograms and Pap tests with free treatment to technology for job seekers, and sessions by lawyers and teachers discussing the Citizenship Exam, the library is using people, videos and websites to connect with and expand their patrons’ horizons. Blanton discusses the $ave Steve library program that helps patrons navigate, and in the process learn about, money management.

With recent studies indicating college students don’t really understand what libraries can do for them, these libraries are taking action to get first-year students using libraries for better grades. At Cornell University, the Get Started! campaign combines innovative print materials, modern webpage design, and directed multimedia. At Washburn University, librarians aren’t content for the libraries to be repositories, so are now the personal librarians of Washburn students and faculty, using technology to teach information literacy to first-year students. At Drake they created a course for first-year students to explore institutional specific resources (special collections/archives) and Drakeapedia, a wiki about, by, and for the Drake community.

Yes, there are mandates, but what other implications and opportunities does the focus on data have for academic, special, and public librarians? Where might you look for data sets to help local businesses or to inspire a high school science student? What data sets can the library share and where? How can you self-educate with data? This session is an introduction to swimming in data by a librarian who dove into the deep end.

In response to federal mandates for research data management, this large public research library established a Data Working Group to articulate the libraries’ role in the management and curation of research data campuswide. The group conducted exploratory activities to understand the campus research environment. Hear how they used interviews, focus groups, and conversations with faculty to identify local concerns and needs surrounding data management.

An institutional repository doesn’t need to be limited to faculty scholarship. The first presentation shares the experiences of academic law libraries expanding their repository’s collection to include diverse items (from press releases to photographs to videos), what worked, what failed, and future plans for new items. Blake discusses the experiences of her organization, their plans to implement some new technology for their repositories and how she is working with the DOE to build some collaboration with repository initiatives.

This session illustrates how a digital projects group found a balance between using stories and data analysis to assess the success of a repository and how success is defined. The cautionary tale warns that assessing data with various assessment tools can prove ineffective or disconnected without a context provided by a strong narrative. Get some tips and insights from our speaker.

Presenters address the challenges involved with making research data discoverable, describe the implementation experience, demonstrate Dataverse, and discuss future plans. Dataverse, developed by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, is an open source application for publishing, citing, and discovering research data.

In the age of the 21st-century learner, a school needs a guide to lead teachers to the best new online tools and resources. The librarian can be that indispensable guide, as is the case with the Tech Flex technology professional development program at Peters Township High School. Come to this presentation to learn how administration and the librarian can work together to facilitate teacher-led professional development opportunities for staff without violating the terms of a teacher contract. You’ll come away knowing how to create a similar program of no-cost professional development seminars using a free online tool such as Google Apps, as well as how to get your own administration on board with such a program. A big bonus for you is that this method of creating professional development opportunities encourages faculty to view the librarian as a resource for new technology.

This session provides a thorough overview of storytelling software that aids in drafting, note-taking, sharing, critiquing, editing and organizing outlines and multiple drafts. It looks at programs such as Macworld’s Eddy award-winning Scrivener, Microsoft Creative Writer, Storybook, and Storycraft. There’s Page Four, FinalDraft, Scripped, and Screenbuddy for screenwriters, and Manga Studio and Google Sketch Up for graphic novelists. Which software platform is best for your program? How will you design and promote tech workshops for your writers? A review of the pros and cons of each software type, teaching tips, and examples of young adult and adult use of software is offered.

Come hear quick, easily usable ideas for inserting painless, inquiry-based research into your instruction! Our goal is to demonstrate how “bursts” of research incorporated into lessons and activities your teachers are already teaching throughout the year can lead to more effective research units.

PBS is a fabulous source of educational media for students and teachers, at home and in schools. This session highlights how to integrate PBS LearningMedia, a new free media- on-demand service, into the classroom. The service brings this curated content collection together into one place, with easy access to classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted, multi-platform resources, including thousands of curriculum and professional development resources from more than 80 educational producers and programs. Content producers include American Experience, NATURE, NOVA, and partners such as the Library of Congress and National Archives.

With the rise in numbers of students owning smartphones and iPod touches, QR codes are a simple and fun way to capture students’ attention. This session demonstrates how QR codes can be incorporated into libraries; shows you some ideas and examples of using coding in book covers, reading lists, flyers, bulletin boards, and community correspondence; and shares how teachers across the curriculum have incorporated the same technology in their lessons.