New Technologies in Libraries

1
New Technologies in Libraries
Library 2.0

• What This Stuff Is and How You Can Use It

2
What Were Going to Cover

• All These Strange Words
• Better Professional Development
• New Services for New Customers

3
Social Software Vocabulary

• Library 2.0
• Libraries will become an interactive experience
• Blog
• Online syndicated column
• RSS
• Like a very condensed online magazine
  subscription
• Podcasting
• RSS for people who talk instead of type
• Wikis
• Websites that are easy for multiple people to edit

4
Thats Very Nice, and I Should Care Why?

• Users have come to expect information to be
  convenient they will trade off quality for
  convenience
• Younger users expect to be able to customize and
  help create the services and products that they
  use
• While younger users are comfortable using new
  technologies, they usually dont have a clue how
  these technologies work or how to judge the
  quality of what they get from them

From the Pew Internet Survey
5
Okay, but What Can My Library Do with It?

• Blogs
• Cheaper than Dirt
• Easy to disseminate large amounts of information
  quickly and often
• Not technically demanding for you or IT
• Very customizable
• Requirements
• Must have things to disseminate
• Must be very organized
• Content can be time consuming
• Best Ways to Use Blogs
• Promote programs and services
• More teacher-student than peer to peer unless
  you let your patrons help run the blog!

6
Blogging with a Captive Audience

• RSS Feeds
• Like a magazine subscription to a blog
• Users dont have to remember to look at your
  website for new content, they just get it
• Also easy to set up and very customizable
• Requirements
• If you have a blog, you can have a feed
• Best Uses
• Keeping up with your own professional development
• Anything you would want to say in a blog

7
For Those of Us Who Cant Shut Up

• Podcasting
• Easy!
• Despite the name no iPod required!
• Can be done very, very cheaply
• Uses
• Poetry readings
• Oral book reviews by your users
• Storytelling
• News

8
They Can be Good or Bad

• Wikis
• Avoid the bureaucracy of getting IT to change
  your site
• Can be dangerous if too many people can edit the
  wiki
• Uses
• Librarian edited wikis for quick web updates for
  the public

9
Gaming Vocabulary

• MMOG
• Massive Multiplayer Online Game
• Modding
• Changing the Game or Your Computer Yourself
• Machinima
• Game-based Cinema
• LAN Party
• Local Area Network Party
• Easter Egg
• Game Powerup

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Social Importance

• Whats the average game players age?
• 30
• What percentage of people over the age of 50 play
  video games?
• 21
• Who is a bigger part of the game playing
  population women over 18 or boys between 6 and
  17?
• Women over 18 (28)
• Boys are 21

Numbers from the Entertainment Software
Associations 2005 Sale, Usage and Data Survey
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Significance of MMOGs

• Huge community 6,000,000 players of the three
  most popular MMOGs
• Lineage II would have the 77th largest GDP in the
  real world between Russia and Bulgaria
• Lineages Money trades higher than the Yen and
  the Lira
• From The Gaming Generation and Libraries
  Intersections by Constance Steinkuehler

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One View of Lineage
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WOWC in Play
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Cinematic View
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Educational Value of Games

• MMOGs are intellectually rich environments
• Games arent in place of literary activities
  they are a reading and writing activity
• Promotes a variety of career skills
• Modding
• Teaching
• Positive social interaction

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Using Games to Teach

• Games are a good Way to Teach both Customers and
  Staff
• Lets them work at their own pace
• Makes Learning More fun
• Students with Certain Learning Styles will retain
  the information better

17
Waterloo
18
Waterloo
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Even More Waterloo
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Some of the Things Other Libraries Are Doing

• DDR Competitions
• Competitions with family friendly Nintendo and
  Playstation games (Mario or Madden)
• A Computer Club which includes learning how to
  write games and graphic design
• Role-playing Games
• Readers Advisory Based on Games

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Why Should I Care?

• Games are another form of media just like books,
  movies or audio
• They are an incredibly popular media
• They draw in non-traditional library users
• The argument for and against games in libraries
  today is very similar to the argument for and
  against carrying movies in the seventies

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In Conclusion

• Users expect convenient, interactive services
• Think about new services you could provide that
  incorporate these ideas
• Ask your customers what they want and do your
  best to give it to them

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For More Information

• Look at Those Handouts!
• Contact me if you need help or want more
  information
• Kathy
• kmakens_at_browardlibrary.org