News & Views,April 2011 (mp3 file; 6.25 MB; 6:40 min.)Perceptions of Libraries; National Poetry Month; "Funny Bunnies" Storytime Kit
OCLC’s “Perceptions of Libraries 2010” is a follow-up to their 2005 “Perceptions of Libraries and Information Services” and it has some things to tell us about our users, and the world in which they live, work, and play. You’ll want to read the entire report, which you can download for free; the link is on the blog post.
Sometimes I hear librarians talk about young people as the technology and social networking consumers, but they aren’t alone. You’ve heard often enough that my 90 year old father is a huge technology (if not social networking) consumer but OCLC reports that 90% of boomers use e-mail and search engines, and more than 50% use social networking sites. Now, while I don’t consider us boomers to be old, neither do I think we can call ourselves teens and twenty-somethings. The teens and twenty-somethings don’t use e-mail, they use text, and that’s even becoming passe.
Here are some statistics to give us pause--we sort of know that the numbers using technology and social networking are high, but they’re higher than we might realize:
- Facebook enjoyed a 1300% increase in monthly unique visits between 2005 and 2010
- Mobile access to the Internet doubled to 11% (And I’d be willing to bet that that is climbing at a pretty fast rate.)
- 93% of Americans own cell phones, and 23% own smartphones (Again, I’m betting that that is climbing ever higher, even as we speak.)
- According to the report, Morgan Stanley research predicts that shipment of smart phones will exceed shipments of PCs in 2012.
- In March 2010, Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited site in the U.S.
You all have been rising to the challenge of Internet access--in many of your communities, the library is the only source of public Internet access, and most of you offer free wi fi access. You keep computers as updated as your budget allows, most offer help with the computers when you can, and some of you offer classes. It’s hard to keep up with the changes, yet they’re coming at us faster all the time. How to know what to do, or even what to ask about?
You have limited time to keep up with what you should be thinking about for services for your patrons, but I’m going to suggest that you choose just one or two blogs that you check regularly--once or twice a week. Find one that has the information you want. If I could choose just one for technology and libraries, I think it might be ALA Tech Source. (If you are on Twitter you can follow them there, too.) You’ll read what other libraries are doing, what’s on the horizon, and some ideas for how you can meet the new trends and services that we’ll all be seeing in the near future.
For now, I’m thinking a lot about mobile services, for all those people who have smartphones and iPads and iPhones and iPod Touches. How can we begin to serve them where they’re at, when they need our services. Be watching for some workshops this spring, on mobile websites, QR codes, and using social media sites to tell the library story and get the word out.
Hang in there--you’re doing great work!
Links from today's podcast:
OCLC's Perceptions of Libraries, 2010
ALA TechSource blog
Academy of American Poets (sponsors of "Poem in your pocket day")
SWILSA's Events page: National Poetry Month (incl Poem in Your Pocket mini-poster)
