Update: I agree with the assessment (shared in msbosh’s comment, below) that I wrote this post in Computer Klingon without enough emphasis on more fundamental technology issues. I’m adding some clarification.
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I’m cautiously opening comments on this post, and will watch the resources on the evaluation server Dreamhost has parked me on. You’d do me a great favor by throwing in your 2 cents!
At the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago I am once again on a panel where in theory I am touting my “expertise” about top technology trends, fortunately surrounded by folks such as Sarah Houghton, Eric Lease Morgan, and Roy Tennant who really do have a clue. In January I was able to get by with a little help from my friends–you folks, actually, who told me what is going on in the world beyond My Place Of Work.
I’d love to hear from you again. I have been so busy with work, writing, and helping establish the LITA blog that I haven’t wrapped my brain around top tech trends, let alone middling trends or even anti-trends. Which are really trends, if you think about it. (On PUBLIB we had a post recently from a library that was looking for arguments to migrate from a card catalog, and I thought… for real? In 2005?)
I promise to quote freely from your posts when I summarize the trends on the LITA blog this Wednesday before I grow wings and fly to Chicago, even though Tony, my new hairdresser, did such a bad job with my hair I considered staying home. Or doing the Sinead O’Connor thing. Nice highlights… I just look like a dandelion.
Anyway. Would you say these trends/issues are still fresh? What’s in your trend wallet?
RFID and “life beyond the barcode”
DRM–Digital Resource Management–I felt this one when I couldn’t load an Overdrive audiobook on my Treo because it only plays on Windows-approved PDAs (Overdrive, you’re welcome to respond–we won’t bite!)
Instant Messaging as a cheaper/lightweight tool for virtual reference
Ubiquitous computing/nomadicity: is that a Treo in your pocket, or are you just glad to surf me?
Cheap storage: I have four flash drives (keychain drives)–what do you see your patrons bringing in?
Convergence: Tools that do many things, e.g. my Treo has a waffle iron in it! Though they are VERY small waffles… hard to get the butter in those nooks and crannies.
Externality: I admit, I copied this in as someone else’s suggestion. What the heck does this mean? (I wear my Treo hanging from my belt loop, like those Stanford nerds I see on University Avenue? No way!)
Open source (I would add, and enterprise open source–managed by vendors who provide paid support)
Wi-fi: a lot more libraries offering it, 95% of all laptops come wifi ready. Plus people are buying more laptops than desktops (that nomadicity thing again).
Attribute-based authentication and access: Yup, the egghead who wrote this on my blog will have to explain.
Downloadable audio: Sarah’s comment, below, gets into that and adds video
Broadband (coming soon to a rural area near you!): Are the rural areas that need broadband finally getting it?
Acceptance of group-edited data, e.g. Wikipedia (not by me, however)
Google-a-go-go
I continue to ponder and worry to what extent libraries are perceived as playing a role as technology leaders, how well library resources are understood by people outside libraries, and where we will be in a decade. Not to mention where to find a new hairdresser in Silicon Valley.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Nick Carr and Google and GPS - 2008
- Britannica, Sirens, and Sexism - 2007
- ALA and the Cone of Confusion - 2007
- Top Technology Trends: Speak to me, oh FRL Readers - 2006
- Jenny and Andrew: Change is Good - 2006
- Resolutions at ALA: Never Mind - 2006
- Volunteers to Take Pix/Film John Iliff's Memorial Resolution? - 2006
- Yes, "A Terrible Title" - 2006
- Treo 600: Schneider's Review - 2004
I’d prefer the term “downloading centers” as opposed to just “downloading audio”. Library-licensing of downloadable music and video files should be on display by at least one vendor at ALA, and I can see this a trend that can really take off.
Carolyn Santo @ Hamilton House Salon, 518 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, (650) 326-4853. She’s the best!
As one of the Top Tech Trends people who can’t actually get to ALA (&*$% library budgets), I’m happy for the chance to throw in my two cents. Thanks Karen 🙂
I concur with Jerry’s generalization of downloadability. I expect to see more vendors (ones whose names don’t rhyme with “Doverglide”) coming out with downloadable video as well.
I would also add, to expand on the IM topic, the issue of lighter-weight virtual reference solutions. This may mean IM, or it may mean a hybrid product like Jybe that offers most of the features of a heavy-weight virtual reference product without the technical problems and disconnects.
Finally, I would add “Opening up Library Computers.” Most libraries, including mine, have our public use computers locked down for security reasons. This could mean having certain drives locked, disabling downloading and installations, having very limited software, or disabling ports. While we claim that our public use computers help to bridge the digital divide (which they do by providing internet access & perhaps word processing), we need to do more. I think that over the next 3-5 years, libraries are going to wake up to this and realize that there are ways to keep your computers secure while at the same time providing the computer-disadvantaged public with the software and hardware capabilities they need to compete in this ever-expanding information age.
“I continue to ponder and worry to what extent libraries are perceived as playing a role as technology leaders.”
Yikes! Can’t be much of a “leader” if I’m not even familiar with all of your listed trends. I (sort of) understand most of them (thanks to my occasional surfing of LITA’s and similar sites), but DRM, convergence, externality, and attribute-based authentication are not yet in my lexicon. How about promoting an emerging trend of more reader-friendly tech termonology (and fewer acrynyms)?
I’d also like to see heavy-duty library advocacy for community-based (and therefore lower cost and equitable) broadband, before the corporate honchos outlaw it nationwide. I can’t believe states would even CONSIDER going along with this greedy grab on the part of a few powerful Internet vendors. Other nations with more democratized (public) broadband are light years ahead of the US in reducing the digital divide.
Really good points, as noted above! Entry expanded.
Presence: Getting libraries and librarians OUT into the world via technology as well as good ole fashioned rethinking of services. When I think presence, I think IM, toolbars, feeds of library info on other web sites, librarians taking an active VISIBLE role in virtual communities and finding ways to serve users that might involve other locales: community centers, the student union etc. That said, presence might also mean the building of the next wave of techno-savvy information hubs (libraries) that draw people in for services and interaction.
Just .02 from MS at TTW…
PS: After reading “The Future of Music,” I’d ask: How will ubiquitous information and entertainment raining down down via wifi networks (“music like water”) change library services. In the book, the word library is mentioned ONCE…
Wow! Thanks for the quick response to my comments. This is better service than Maytag (Were you a WalMart greeter in a previous life?)
Love your term definitions, especially the one for convergence (what’s not to like about tiny waffles?)
Now I’m gonna go do a Google search to learn more about Treos …
One thing that has cropped up on the Library Journal’s TechBlog recently is the concept of mesh computing. I’ve been seeing lots of articles about whole cities offering *cheap* wifi access that way – and other implementations include being able to listen in on another commuters playlist while stuck in your car because the cars are both wired for sending and receiving wireless signals. That sort of ubiquitous access to the ‘net is going to affect how people access pretty much anything – including libraries.
How about the visual display of information. If Google or Amazon or Yahoo or another big player decides to start displaying their information more like this:
http://nsdl.org/collection/ataglance/browseBySubject.html
then library catalogs are going to look very out of date very fast.
Broadband:
I wish it was coming soon to rural areas but I don’t see that. I live ina rural area and the only broadband available to us is very expensive satellight. We live a mile beyond where the TV cable ends and there is no DSL in our area yet (when will we get it, Verizon?) and not for the near future. New York State is way behind in this area.
Something I’m seeing more of is collaborative projects — and not just the physical spaces for groups in which to work, but digital spaces in which to collaborate. Academic libraries can take advantage of Blackboard and similar tools that already exist on campuses, but these are rarely available in public libraries.
I think more participatory, open computing in library resources. Free tagging in the OPAC and journal databases (see Freetag), reviews, recommendation systems, etc. Also, the information will be more out there. Open WorldCat, library toolbars, APIs, and RSS feeds for example. Our databases will no longer be a ghetto and we will no longer have a ghetto-mentality.
VoIP. Voice over IP gives us the ability to connect to our users in a new and cost-effective way. The academic and special libraries have a phone number to provide services for distant users. The public library can now provide a toll-free number for their patrons outside their calling zone.
The education folks have been constructing learning objects. These need cataloging and links to library resources, at the least. Huge number of these resources and lack of control make this a large task. Something to populate a digital library and use those tools to control? Take a look at what is going on within a Blackboard or WebCT site for examples.
Mmmm. Waffles.
Visual search, in some form. The NSDL link blew me away–thanks, Cindy O. Put me in mind of Grokster, as well. Interfaces that don’t depend on text, or not as heavily.
I read in The World Is Flat about the nice, calm voice assisting Wal-Mart forklift drivers. Couldn’t we find a voice like that? Appeal to different learning styles as well.
Are libraries flattening–a la Friedman? Ties in with Open WorldCat, Google, broadband, wireless, etc. Or are we being flattened?
Please don’t stop pushing information as conversation. That’s a meme I don’t want to see get lost–and applies to much of what you have.
BTW, my clerical workers were all excited by a recent newspaper article about rhymes-with-Doverglide in a neighboring state. They’re not big on checking their work email, but they want to download those audiobooks!
As you may have seen, the LA Times recently tried posting an editorial and allowing comments, wiki-style. In less than 48 hours, they had to take it down, due to “vandalism.” See http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wiki21jun21,1,5888239.story?coll=la-headlines-nation and stories around the net.