In creating innovative libraries, we have to understand the key success factors and practices that will enable libraries to excel. Our experienced speaker, author, and respected blogger on the topic of innovation, shares a framework, practical tips and techniques, as well as working examples of innovative organizations. Gain some great insights from the business world and be inspired to implement innovative practices in your organization and community.

As mobile establishes its place in the information environment, information professionals are thinking strategically about implementations. Speakers discuss how to select an appropriate mobile approach for your library’s content and services; examine how to strategically invest and intelligently investigate opportunities for mobile information in the enterprise using a strategic perspective in identifying stakeholders and prioritizing key issues and content; and share experiences with agile methodology to efficiently make hard decisions on what and how to represent mobile in library websites with a cross departmental collaboration with IT.

Two of the major trends in mobile experience are designing for mobile engagement as a priority instead of just an add-on and the concept of physical locations serving as access points.Wisniewski explains that there are important mobile design conventions and practices that can improve the user experience for your desktop users as well. Hart & McGee explain how the Virginia Beach Public Library is strategically using augmented reality technology to bridge gaps between the library’s collections and real-world experience by layering digital information onto the physical world.

This session details how more and more libraries are developing a mobile presence. Mairn discusses creating web apps that resemble native apps with jQTouch and creating mobile apps using Android’s App Inventor. Dahl explores the major mobile frameworks available for simplifying the development process. The next presentation discusses an app that integrates a mobile library catalog, account notification, hours, directions, and scanning bar codes to check availability of books at the local library. Tibbetts shares how his public library built an app that integrates with OverDrive and has the ability to check items out. He explains how the library migrated its website to the cloud and circulated iPads among the library staff.

Heidemann shares how management takes the lead in mobile innovation at KPL in Denmark with strategic objectives for mobile innovation, dedicated budget, and staff time. In meeting the assumption that library staff must be educated in using mobile technology in order to be part of the growing mobile culture, all employees have received a smartphone and have completed a comprehensive mobile literacy program as they develop new mobile services. Dover Town Library staff share their case study for transforming a public library to meet the digital age and managing the politics of change with practical examples for shifting toward mobile service models.

QR codes leverage the power of smartphones to connect digital data to real-world surfaces. The first presentation demonstrates the simple steps needed to make QR codes and explains how university libraries have used QR codes to collocate disparate collections and shed light on unique items while generating usage statistics. The second presentation shares case studies of how libraries can engage patrons and bridge the gap between print and electronic materials via QR codes. Bloechle provides tips and best practices to help libraries market their valuable electronic resources using QR codes.

Ever had that feeling there was something missing on your website, or something not quite right ... but you couldn’t put your finger on it? King does just that in this presentation. He describes the seven essential elements to a library website, which aren’t what you think! Leave with ideas to improve your library’s website!

Becker presents the findings of a usability study conducted throughout the process of building a new academic library website. She talks about the guiding principles of web usability testing that served as a framework for the redesign of the new site, and shares the results of website and mobile testing. DeMars focuses on how libraries utilize website search logs to improve search results for users. He delves into how his library monitors all of the queries that users perform on both the library site-wide search and on Xerxes, a customized EBSCO Discovery interface. He shares insights about how users interact with their site, common mistakes they were making, how analysis impacted the redesign, and more.

Have you made the leap to embrace an open source content management system (CMS) for your website project? In most cases,WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are the top three names tossed out as viable options. Sanzo discusses what makes Drupal a truly robust and flexible solution and how it compares to WordPress and Joomla. He shares what organizations are using Drupal and key decisions that need to be made before starting. Heise discusses using free and low-cost add-ons to build a CMS-driven website that meets users’ and librarians’ needs. Library websites often have components from many CMS tools. Drew Library taps into a university-wide WordPress CMS, Confluence Wiki, Moodle e-Learning, and SIRSI WebCat software. Using Delicious bookmark management, LibraryH3lp online chat, EzProxy remote access, some small WordPress customizations via the University webmaster, a gifted SIRSI system administrator, and (sometimes) the fallback of a departmental Apache server, user-driven design tools (user observation testing, Google Analytics) were used to create and analyze a blended website that is easy for staff to maintain and patrons to use. Get tips on user observation testing and Google Analytics to create a site that is easy to maintain and use.

Discover the new features HTML5 has to offer. Find out why sites like Boing Boing and others are switching to HTML5 and what advantages it has to offer. Library webmasters are walking a tightrope between browser support for HTML, Flash, JavaScript, and an explosion of different devices with different capabilities and screen sizes from smart- phones to tablets, netbooks, ebook readers, and desktops. Are we back to 2003 and building multiple sites for different browser/platforms or can library webmasters use the accessibility features and responsive design techniques to find a middle ground? Clark provides a guide through the maze of options and provides examples of HTML5 and CSS3 in action.

Engard shares examples of must-have open source software applications for libraries and provides examples of libraries using the software to improve services at little or no cost. She supplies a toolbox of applications that can be downloaded and used immediately. Alcorn and Burns share free and cheap tools currently available and showcase how these tools are being used in libraries of all sizes.

What does technology in libraries look like in 2025? How can we support digital content creation by the community? What technology are we excited about? What technology would make your life easier? How do we connect our customers with the information they need? In this session, Abeyta talks about the DPL’s TIGgers group, which meets after hours in a low-key setting over beverages and food to dream big about technology and answer such questions. Clark discusses the emerging tech think tank in his library, ranging from brown-bag discussions to dedicated working groups, to drive new services and create beta projects. Both speakers share successes, failures, learnings, and more.

Through the TULibrary Experience blog, library staff are encouraged to write down feedback they received from patrons, observations they made about how people are using the library’s space and resources, and reports of anything that is broken or problematic. The goal of the Capture an Idea project is to make sure staff’s ideas about how to improve the library are not lost. This presentation looks at TULibrary’s approach to capturing ideas at their earliest stages, the channels used to relay these ideas to colleagues, and how having a platform for idea sharing has effected change in the library.

Creating and maintaining a continuously fruitful innovation pipeline can be hampered by resources and time. Scanning other industries for innovative ideas is one approach, not new, but who takes the time to do industry scans consistently looking for innovative products and initiatives? Olson explores current ideas and trends in other service industries that hold the potential for sparking change in library, information and knowledge management services. National Geographic’s Library lost nine of its 26 staff positions and 40% of its budget in the economic downturn. Moving forward under these difficult conditions required the inspiration and engagement of every person on staff. They sought to maximize their value by exploring new opportunities to support the organization. Ferry shares their innovation successes — and some frustrations — in this journey.

A coalition of thirteen organizations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Library Association, the Urban Libraries Council, the International City/County Management Associations, state libraries, and the University of Washington and University of Maryland, have been developing a set of benchmarks for measuring the success of and encouraging excellence in public access technology services in public libraries across the country. The benchmarks dovetail with the IMLS Framework for Digitally Inclusive Communities to identify the critical elements needed to support digital inclusion so all people have access to technology and digital information. Learn how the pilot libraries are using the benchmarks and how you can take advantage of this to ensure that your public library provides the best possible technology services in your community and gains sustainable support to provide public technology from funders and partners.

When we need to take on strategic projects that pave the way to a more innovative future, we may or may not have all the skills to tackle these projects in-house. Making sure that staff continue to develop the skills to innovate is critical, but so is the need to complete a quality project, which may require a consultant. This panel addresses the competing challenges of needing to reinforce our own competencies to innovate with those of consultants. How should one decide which projects to source with consultants? How do consultants decide which projects to accept? What makes a successful client/consultant partnership? What’s the best recipe for innovation?

With the explosion of tablet and handheld browsers, the browser space is heating up. Internet Explorer (IE) beat out Mozilla to win the browser wars of yore, but now IE and Firefox are seeing increased competition from Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and a plethora of new browsers for smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Meanwhile, IE and Firefox have launched new versions with significant changes. Come explore these web browser changes, unique features, search options, privacy issues, and more. Learn the impact for both users and web designers.

One of our most popular session presenters returns to share the latest secrets and strategies for successful web research.Well-known super searcher and host of Searchers Academy, Bates provides an updated-to-the-minute and jam-packed-with-valuable-tips-and-tools talk about searching the web more effectively. You don’t need to be an expert to use these tips and techniques, but even long-time researchers will learn something new.

Notess reports on current pros and cons of discovery engines and Breeding discusses the new generation of discovery products emerging to replace older-generation library catalogs. The genre of discovery products continues to advance, with ever more powerful capabilities. Many now include the ability to rapidly search not only the content of traditional library catalogs, but to also offer much deeper search capabilities including the individual articles represented in a library’s subscriptions. These products continue to expand indexing and full-text coverage of both articles and books. Come hear the latest news about developments in search and content delivery products.

Web-scale discovery is the next generation of access to electronic materials. But what is the reality of implementing such a service like? Learn from our two experienced panelists what is really involved in making a web-scale discovery service work in the real world. Based on experiences using Serial Solutions’ Summon and Ex Libris’ Primo, at the end of this session, you’ll leave understanding the benefits, pitfalls, and things to look out for as you implement this service in your library.

New beta releases of interest to info pros and library users continuously become available from well-known providers as well as new technology providers. Since it can be very time-consuming to learn about new beta releases, determine how to use them, and evaluate them, Price discusses some of the latest beta releases and shares some of the tools and techniques he uses to locate these resources. This popular speaker never disappoints in highlighting insights and tools anyone can use!

Today’s librarians are faced with an increasingly complex operational environment. There are more than 1.4 million scientific journal articles per year for scientists and researchers to comb through when trying to find a piece of information, and librarians have the daunting task of helping them with this search. To make matters more complicated, the content itself is also on the verge of a revolution. Not only has the explosion in digital content changed the way a typical library visitor searches, but it has changed the role of librarians as well. Kravetz explains how the traditional scientific article is evolving and what librarians must know in order to direct researchers, including the format and functionality, and highlights how current technology allows the information contained in articles to be better linked and contextualized. Murphy outlines other major disruptions in publishing and accessing electronic content that are changing the landscape for 2012. He discusses the trends to watch along with the technologies and industry changes likely to occur.

RDA is here for testing and the LCSH is in RDF on the web with links to SKOS. It seems that libraries are getting their bibliographic data ready for the semantic web. Since the semantic web is still a new concept for most librarians, Yang explains in simple terms what it is using demos, and covers semantic web technologies such as RDF (Resource Description Framework), URI (Uniform Resource identifier), SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), ontologies, and SPARSQL. This is a great session for anyone who wants to understand the semantic web and its potential for library applications.

Managing content requires attention to the entire content life-cycle. Retention and care for organizations’ intellectual capital increasingly means developing new skills and expertise in digital archiving and preservation. This panel discusses strategies, practices, and tools and includes a look forward to the future needs of researchers, libraries, and all types of organizations.

OCLC developers and clients have revolutionized libraries and their approach to data by sharing infrastructure and development solutions in addition to bibliographic data. This panel illustrates their use of OCLC’s platform to manage existing collections and workflows and showcases the innovative apps that have been created. They share data and observations about efficiencies gained.

The web has matured, social media is burgeoning, content management is in flux, and the marketplace is changing faster than ever. What do these trends suggest to digital librarians? Opportunity! Libraries can now craft effective digital publishing programs that go beyond the libraries’ own content to include host organizations and partners as clients. Huwe profiles two special libraries located at UC–Berkeley, the Institute for Governmental Studies and Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Libraries, which assumed responsibility for their parent organizations’ full range of digital publishing. He discusses the challenges and potential of adding the role of digital publisher to the library’s portfolio, and shares three forecasts on emerging trends that are shaping the universities of the future—and the mandates for libraries that are involved in digital content creation.

The power of the crowd can be applied to any group with the need to self-organize or self-educate. Unleash the potential in your own library or organization to become an innovator when it comes to the training and the education of your staff and your community. In a time when few libraries and organizations can afford to train staff, this session illustrates using audience participation how to encourage your own crowds to train themselves. It demonstrates how to nurture an innovative learning environment in which the content is created by the community for the community and discusses many different applications of the unconference learning environment, facilitation styles for different learning needs and groups, technology that can enhance the growth of your learning environment, obstacles to this type of learning and how to overcome them, and how to maintain this type of learning for a self-sustainable community.

This session focuses on the new and emerging topics, technologies and issues coming to the fore early in 2012. It will approach each topic from a variety of discussion entry points related to libraries, not just a single perspective. Feel free to suggest topics you’d like to discuss!

The No. 1 issue for libraries planning their future is engaging staff in future planning and changing the way they view their jobs. Many library staff fear that future changes will result in their jobs being eliminated or require new skills they may have difficulty learning. Yet if everyone in the library reframes or looks through the new “frame” together to see the future, these shifts to roles, skills, and ways of working become clearer,much less frightening, and much more exciting. Join this reframing exercise and see what strategies and techniques you can come up with!

Sometimes, it can be most helpful just to hear what libraries are thinking of doing next, as well as visions of the next BIG thing. A small panel of BIG thinkers share brief thoughts on what the BIG things for libraries will be in the next few years, then participants share their institutions’ plans for next week, next month, and next year. Have your notepad or mobile device of choice ready to jot down potential collaborators.

Here’s a chance to ask a roomful of savvy colleagues anything that’s on your mind: questions seeking answers (short or long), requests for things (hardware, software, skills, or help), or offers of things. This fast-paced (yes it’s on a tight clock) session might lead to more conversations at the opening exhibit hall reception following the session. Come with questions and we’ll go through as many as we can. Questions via Twitter will also join the queue.