1. FUTURE LIBRARIES:
ROLES AND
INNOVATIONS

2. THANKS TO EVERYONE AT INFOCAMP SEATTLE
2010 WHO HELPED MAKE THIS EXPLORATION
MORE COMPLETE!
Hoby Van Hoose <hoby@ihoby.com>

3. FUTURE ROLES

4. PHYSICAL LOCATION
What draws people to places?
food, entertainment, stuff, people, necessity
Promotion in and outside the library to draw people in
funding vs marketing
PSAs, outlets within news to not incur cost
Commercial advertising is not cost effective
Internal library promotion is not effective promotion

5. INFO SOURCE OR
COMMUNITY CENTER?
Arts and entertainment
performance spaces
listening/viewing rooms
Human services/workshops
media literacy, health, parenting, employment
housing, public agency navigation
Collaboration spaces, computer/stations

6. GATEWAY FOR
COMMON GOOD
What people want vs what is good for society
Remaining a stabilizing forces against:
disinformation, privatization, corruption
Helping homeless, jobless, computerless, etc.
not just providing places to pass time

7. FOOD
Food and drinks vs book preservation
eating safe and no-food areas or times?
food carrying guidelines (covered containers, etc.)
being food purveyors (cafes, CSA hubs)
Why not to care as much anymore?
newer book quality is low
lowered preservation expectations of borrowed books
except for special collections

8. LICENSING
Could libraries be “publishers”?
Cooperation with Creative Commons licensing
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Good path for self publishing, small publishers
Digital-only publishing

9. GATHERING USAGE
INFO
Recording what people ask when they come in
low overhead methods
mobile device with quick-select buttons
limited but useful categories
research, entertainment, help,
child distraction, etc?
It can be difficult to do when it’s busy
Needs standardization between libraries
Quality of data is not often good with current attempts
Who looks at it afterwards?

10. DEALING WITH
FUNDING INSTABILITY
Furlough = Protest?
Partial closures (sections of the buildings)?
Close parts or functions that affect wealthily patrons first
Keep services for marginalized patrons open if possible
New revenue: cafes, charging for special events
What to do about theft, loss, etc.
Media - Books, CDs, DVDs, Tapes, Microfiche
Laptops, iPods, Kindles
Borrowing expensive things in-library only?
Requiring more verified info before lending

11. BORROWING TECH
What to do about theft, loss, etc.
Media - Books, CDs, DVDs, Tapes, Microfiche
Laptops, iPods, Kindles
Borrowing expensive things in-library only?
Requiring more verified info before lending

12. FUTURE
INNOVATIONS

13. ENHANCED SHELVES
“Search online via physical browsing”
“Peer into cyberspace by handling realspace”
RFID scanner and screen in shelves or at the end of isles
Hold one or several books/videos/cds up to scanner
multiple materials can expand or narrow search
the system then finds related media
books, journals, news, video, bibliography references
media previews (silent or with headphones)
ability to leave/read comments, ratings
link to worldwide network

14. ENHANCED SHELVES 2
View/suggest-to-edit category tags and keywords
Save scan results to account
reading later list
flag for ebook download
favorites lists (default, named)
to buy list, gifting?
finder's fee from publisher/seller?
share/suggest via goodreads, facebook, twitter, email

15. ENHANCED READING
STATIONS
Shelf capabilities plus OCR pen scanner
look up words or sections
meaning, history, fact-checking, current events
Social reading?
OLPC/SugarOS-like activity sharing
realtime and time delayed

16. INCREASED VIRTUAL
PRESENCE
Many “digital library” things are already happening
online access to in-library services
Catalog plus inside views via
amazon "look inside" and google books reading
Online access enhancement shelf tech
Library accounts linkable to goodreads, etc.
and exportable for personal offline list

17. OUR BEST DAYS ARE
AHEAD? MAKE IT SO.