I recently read Nicholas Carr's article in the Atlantic - Is Google Making us Stupid? Despite the humorous connotation the article has also spawned a book that takes a very introspective look at the impact of the web on our brains. The premise is that the web is spawning a generation of knowledge surfers. Much like their channel surfing counterparts this has led to a level of diminished capacity for digesting knowledge beyond the cursory surface. Or so the premise goes.
The web has become a replacement for the complex information density traditionally found in books. Our flickering attention has been spread across a broad superficiality. In essence the web (and perhaps all modern media) has made it more difficult for us to read in a lengthy and contemplative way. We seem less able to concentrate, easily lose focus, and become fidgety (after only a few pages in my case).
This is a troubling trend for libraries. The expanding superficiality within our culture, first in news print, then on television, and now in the actual knowledge that we seek means less visitors to the library.
While the web provides a quick answer to any question it should represent only the beginning and not the end of the quest for knowledge. Unfortunately searching for real knowledge is not available so quickly or easily. Google Scholar is a great place to start (giving credit where credit is due) but is sadly incomplete. It can barely compare to even the smallest of public libraries as an information source. It is just sad to think, with all the potential resources available, that this is the only source for convenience sake that most students will ever use. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Where to Start
At the ULA Conference the prevailing wisdom was to build catalogs like Google; keyword-text, associative search engines. But you're competing with Google for user interest. In this more competitive environment you need to be unique. You need to innovate. Look beyond Google to more cutting edge systems like Aardvark, Mahalo, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg and others. Google certainly is.
So where do we begin to build a library app for your iPad or iPhone? Well, to start it should reflect the values of your local library. Values of community and participation, of openness and learning. The app must capture that partnership between the town, city or university and the community. In that sense it must be different than traditional search.
A library is so much more than just a building. It is also its people; librarians, volunteers, and patrons. From my personal experience librarians have always been able to provide a recommendation or even point me toward a new and unexpected discovery. A library app must preserve this richness. But how?
Winning Hearts and Minds
Rather than lose the insight, the personal experience of a librarian, the world of eBook search should preserve it, expand upon it, and in the best spirit of the democratic web allow all members to have a voice in it. Why not offer more than just MARC records. Allow users to provide feedback, comments and ratings. Allow them to become contributors of the service.
When you search Amazon you get the typical vertical search results. But when you click on a title it takes you to the books own page. Here you can find a great deal of information about the book. They use this page to "sell" you on the book. It has the typical catalog information - title, author, date published, number of pages, ISBN, etc - but it also has a detailed publisher description, user reviews, even ratings. I find the other reader reviews to be fascinating and often a key to whether or not I buy the book. Most reviews are thoughtful, insightful and provide that shared knowledge about the book that I [used to] love when I visited my local library (in some ways it is better). It is critical that this type of input and feedback still be available when I search for books.
Shouldn't a library app offer the same richness? Shouldn't every eBook have its own page? Simply adding user comments and a rating system to your current digital catalog is missing the point.
Look at Wikipedia. Who would have thought that tens of thousands of online volunteer users could work together to build and ultimately make obsolete the traditional encyclopedia? Microsoft’s Encarta made Britannica obsolete, and within a decade Wikipedia made Encarta obsolete. There is a lesson here about competing with Google. Your users don't want flat, one-dimensional platforms that are cold, impersonal, even authoritarian. That's a recipe for failure. A library app must be fun, open, and participatory.
The community, your community, must have input in the process, a stake in building the platform with you. Like Wikipedia it must embrace the example of self-governing user participation. Let the users "own" it in a sense. That's how we feel about our libraries. And a library app, which at its core is a search engine to find books, must capture the same spirit as Wikipedia. Present a partnership with the community to help build and curate the search engine, lovingly create each eBook page, keep it current and informative. Maybe even, dare I say it, cutting edge.
Anything Else?
Jumper embraces both taxonomies and folksonomies. And believe that both are inherently valuable in their own way. While Jumper does provide an extensive method for classification we are not a semantic web tool. At least not yet. The reality is that most users have no idea what the Semantic Web is. I have toyed with including the ability for users to provide RDF (or OWL) attributes in Jumper using pull down menus with standard terminology but in numerous tests it has been met only with confusion and questions.
Everyone, however, gets tagging. Anyone can understand and use Delicious. And there is a real power in open folksonomies, even in scholarly research. Jumper grew out of the life sciences industry and the simple reality was the knowledge managers were not scientists. They worked with scientists to create taxonomies but often the science evolved faster than they could agree on terms.
Taxonomies are by nature rigid and unforgiving. Folksonomies allowed scientists to organize information based on their research and this freedom was widely embraced. And for a library app that aims to engage a young audience this freedom will be hugely popular. My own kids certainly have their own way of thinking about things that to be honest is almost another language to me at times You risk losing this audience if you don't allow this self-organizing, self-governing freedom.
One Last Feature
The hardest aspect to capture is the power of new discovery. Often times a librarian could point me to new material that I would never have found otherwise. This power of discovery is perhaps the most important to maintain. Allowing information to be linked together directly based on informal associations.
Users can provide these links. Much like the Amazon feature that states "Users who bought this book also bought..." Ok so you are not selling books and these Amazon references were often way off base. Jumper instead relies on user experience. A user who reads a book often has an interest in the subject and has read many books on the subject. Tapping into this experience allows for the type of new and unexpected discovery that will keep a library app fresh and exciting. A library app must allow for users to input links directly to new material.
You’re Role
Of course the most important thing is the role of librarians in this new library app. No library, even a digital library, can exist without some level of real governance. And that is the importance of the editor role in the Jumper library app. Any user can be a contributor. You may decide that only registered users with a library card can be contributors. Or you may open it up more broadly and allow simple online registration.
However you choose to provide access none of these user comments, ratings, edits, links or other contributions get published into the system until they are approved by an editor. By you the librarians. Unlike Wikipedia which can be defaced openly and then editors come after the fact and clean it up Jumper is different. We control spam by forcing all contributions to be approved by an editor before being published. This places the librarian at the center of this new web 2.0 library app, as the keeper of the system you play a vital role in managing contributions to the system.
The Final Analysis
In the poignant words of the playwright Richard Foreman are we forever doomed to become “pancake people—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”
The reality is that the 'pounding on my head' of information overload is not going to end any time soon. Simply staying the course, following the well worn grooves of the past will not make it go away. We must take bolder steps to create the type of digital world that we want. We must demand a corner of the web we can call our own. That reflects our shared values and beliefs. An app that can search beyond that smooth surface and deep into the dense, cathedral-like structures of knowledge available in our libraries.
< Previously Read Part 1
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Part 1: Building a Library App
So they are closing down libraries in the UK. I guess that comes as no surprise, but still a sad story. Branches have been closing in many towns and cities in the States for years. The library was once the sole entity bringing open knowledge into these communities. With the growth of the web that role has rapidly diminished.
The real driver diminishing the need for libraries as we know them is the advent of eBooks. It is only a matter of time before all books are digitized. And so beyond a public space in the community to bring people together (a great value by itself) what is the role of libraries going forward? How do they redefine their niche?
It is essential that institutions remain to provide open access to books and knowledge. To lose this in the digital age would be a great tragedy. Just because the need for the four walls of a library disappear the concept of what a library represents certainly should not.
The Mission
Here are a few mission statements of local libraries:
- The Howland Public Library provides materials and services to help community residents obtain information meeting their personal, educational and professional needs. Special emphasis is placed on supplying adults with current reading materials; on providing reference services to students (at all academic levels).
- The Mission of the Beekman Library shall be to assure effective, expanding, free library service for the community of Beekman and to lead citizens in anticipating their future needs for library services.
- It is the mission of The Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library to provide access to the world of social and cultural ideas to the community by offering a wide variety of materials and programs. The Library has a special mission to young children and their parents to encourage a love of reading and learning.
The mission of the library is more important than ever in the modern web world. Web sites are rife with incomplete or worse completely misleading or slanted information. Is this the only type of information access we want to provide to our children?
Super Libraries
New super-libraries are not the answer. There are a number opening or planned to open in the UK such as the one in Birmingham. The description of the new library has a glass building wrapped in delicate metal filigree. Sounds more like a mall than a library. Should a library become more like a Borders or a Starbucks to survive? Maybe, until you realize that Borders is struggling and likely to go under. The victim of Amazon and the ever expanding online world.
As the world all around us changes why do we have such a hard time adapting our concepts from the past to this new world of the future. Why does a library have to have four walls at all?
Running a successful public library in the 21st century is tough. Foot traffic is down and book loans are massively down. In the UK only 14 of 151 local authorities have libraries that offer eBooks. Rather than investing in building these new monstrous libraries shouldn't the investment be geared toward digitizing libraries across the country and making them available online. Working with DRM providers to allow books to be checked out to an iPad or Netbook for three weeks before being removed. This serves all interested parties from publishers to libraries to readers. Libraries must "move with the times to stay part of the times" and if you care passionately about libraries and the mission of libraries then embracing the obvious future with a new goal and mission for libraries must strike a chord.
Digitizing Libraries
Many books today have been digitized. A significant portion of research is already digital. As the eBook initiative continues to build momentum in the scholarly community with the UPeC and UPSO it is only a matter of time before books are something we find in antique stores.
I am of a generation that loves the look and feel of books. But after watching my son lug 12 pounds of books in his backpack to school every day I am sure when the day comes he will not miss them one bit. I wait for the day when our local Charter school sends me the bill for a Kindle or iPad... The next generation simply has embraced an all digital world and lets face it there is really no looking back.
There is indeed an opportunity here. If the Birmingham library has 2.5M books stretching over seven floors at the disposal of residents all over the city imagine what a digital library could present. All the world’s libraries with billions of books available to every student on the globe with online access. Imagine putting that many books at the fingertips of every man, woman, and child in your community. If the goal of a library is to truly make knowledge available to the public then this new vision should be broadly embraced as rapidly as possible.
The Online Library
If we can contribute anything toward this inevitable revolution it should be how people use and interact with a digital library online. In a web 2.0 world this is a great opportunity to shape that future in a way that contributes to the knowledge of all participants. How will we search these vast repositories of digital libraries? How will we participate? That is the question we should really be asking ourselves.
Will advertising and commercial interests take over library research? Will pop-up ads for Halo become the norm when searching for books on Winston Churchill or more scholarly research for Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptors? I don't know about you but my kids are already exposed to enough. Commercialism and teaching are an uncomfortable mix. Access to the worlds libraries should remain unrestricted and commercial free. And Jumper can help you build a great app to find and share information resources without ceding more control over information access to ... (insert megalomaniacal privacy selling software company here). Whatever platform you choose a combination of open source tools published under the GPL would best serve the needs of research and public libraries as they strive to meet the digital challenge.
Computers are not the enemy of the library. They are its greatest opportunity. It seems only a matter of time before we move completely to an app driven world. The laptop, Windows, Web world we know today will be swept away. I already rely on apps for countless services instead of searching the web for this information. The Google portal will be the big sacrifice in this transition and with it a significant portion of their ad revenue. Don't weep for Google as they will be Apple's prime competitor with the Android platform.
If search becomes just another app then how will our use of search change? No doubt search will become increasingly specialized and segmented. Hmm a search app for each need and audience. OK so here is my pitch for a library app. Just because the need for the four walls of a library disappear the concept of what a library represents certainly should not. It is time to replace foot traffic with eyeballs just as the rest of the world is doing.
Read Part 2 Next >
The real driver diminishing the need for libraries as we know them is the advent of eBooks. It is only a matter of time before all books are digitized. And so beyond a public space in the community to bring people together (a great value by itself) what is the role of libraries going forward? How do they redefine their niche?
It is essential that institutions remain to provide open access to books and knowledge. To lose this in the digital age would be a great tragedy. Just because the need for the four walls of a library disappear the concept of what a library represents certainly should not.
The Mission
Here are a few mission statements of local libraries:
- The Howland Public Library provides materials and services to help community residents obtain information meeting their personal, educational and professional needs. Special emphasis is placed on supplying adults with current reading materials; on providing reference services to students (at all academic levels).
- The Mission of the Beekman Library shall be to assure effective, expanding, free library service for the community of Beekman and to lead citizens in anticipating their future needs for library services.
- It is the mission of The Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library to provide access to the world of social and cultural ideas to the community by offering a wide variety of materials and programs. The Library has a special mission to young children and their parents to encourage a love of reading and learning.
The mission of the library is more important than ever in the modern web world. Web sites are rife with incomplete or worse completely misleading or slanted information. Is this the only type of information access we want to provide to our children?
Super Libraries
New super-libraries are not the answer. There are a number opening or planned to open in the UK such as the one in Birmingham. The description of the new library has a glass building wrapped in delicate metal filigree. Sounds more like a mall than a library. Should a library become more like a Borders or a Starbucks to survive? Maybe, until you realize that Borders is struggling and likely to go under. The victim of Amazon and the ever expanding online world.
As the world all around us changes why do we have such a hard time adapting our concepts from the past to this new world of the future. Why does a library have to have four walls at all?
Running a successful public library in the 21st century is tough. Foot traffic is down and book loans are massively down. In the UK only 14 of 151 local authorities have libraries that offer eBooks. Rather than investing in building these new monstrous libraries shouldn't the investment be geared toward digitizing libraries across the country and making them available online. Working with DRM providers to allow books to be checked out to an iPad or Netbook for three weeks before being removed. This serves all interested parties from publishers to libraries to readers. Libraries must "move with the times to stay part of the times" and if you care passionately about libraries and the mission of libraries then embracing the obvious future with a new goal and mission for libraries must strike a chord.
Digitizing Libraries
Many books today have been digitized. A significant portion of research is already digital. As the eBook initiative continues to build momentum in the scholarly community with the UPeC and UPSO it is only a matter of time before books are something we find in antique stores.
I am of a generation that loves the look and feel of books. But after watching my son lug 12 pounds of books in his backpack to school every day I am sure when the day comes he will not miss them one bit. I wait for the day when our local Charter school sends me the bill for a Kindle or iPad... The next generation simply has embraced an all digital world and lets face it there is really no looking back.
There is indeed an opportunity here. If the Birmingham library has 2.5M books stretching over seven floors at the disposal of residents all over the city imagine what a digital library could present. All the world’s libraries with billions of books available to every student on the globe with online access. Imagine putting that many books at the fingertips of every man, woman, and child in your community. If the goal of a library is to truly make knowledge available to the public then this new vision should be broadly embraced as rapidly as possible.
The Online Library
If we can contribute anything toward this inevitable revolution it should be how people use and interact with a digital library online. In a web 2.0 world this is a great opportunity to shape that future in a way that contributes to the knowledge of all participants. How will we search these vast repositories of digital libraries? How will we participate? That is the question we should really be asking ourselves.
Will advertising and commercial interests take over library research? Will pop-up ads for Halo become the norm when searching for books on Winston Churchill or more scholarly research for Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptors? I don't know about you but my kids are already exposed to enough. Commercialism and teaching are an uncomfortable mix. Access to the worlds libraries should remain unrestricted and commercial free. And Jumper can help you build a great app to find and share information resources without ceding more control over information access to ... (insert megalomaniacal privacy selling software company here). Whatever platform you choose a combination of open source tools published under the GPL would best serve the needs of research and public libraries as they strive to meet the digital challenge.
Computers are not the enemy of the library. They are its greatest opportunity. It seems only a matter of time before we move completely to an app driven world. The laptop, Windows, Web world we know today will be swept away. I already rely on apps for countless services instead of searching the web for this information. The Google portal will be the big sacrifice in this transition and with it a significant portion of their ad revenue. Don't weep for Google as they will be Apple's prime competitor with the Android platform.
If search becomes just another app then how will our use of search change? No doubt search will become increasingly specialized and segmented. Hmm a search app for each need and audience. OK so here is my pitch for a library app. Just because the need for the four walls of a library disappear the concept of what a library represents certainly should not. It is time to replace foot traffic with eyeballs just as the rest of the world is doing.
Read Part 2 Next >
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