Top Tech Trends - 2017 Annual

Program Date & Time

 Time, Sunday, June 25, 2017, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
 Location: McCormick Place - West, Room W192
 Twitter hashtag - #ALATTT

Panelists
 Margaret Heller (Moderator) @margaret_heller
 Emily A. Almond @libalmondtech
 Marshall Breeding @mbreeding
 Tara Radniecki @tmradniecki
 Vanessa Hannesschläger
 Veronda Pitchford @vjpitch

Summary of Trends
Distance Charging

 Inductive wireless charging built-in to devices built for charging. Will automatically charge
 It’s expensive but it’s low tech with a big impact
 Alternatives include charging spots (wireless charging furniture) compatible with iPhone, Android,
and Windows phones.
 Solves the problem of mobile programming

Cloud Computing

 The perfect technology for the demonstration of economy of scale

 Example: Georgia public library had 7500 public access computers around Georgia that were 5-7
years old. When replacing, went with google chrome box and net books.
 Worked with Google engineers and LibData (3rd party vendor) to incorporate time and print
management into the Chrome OS
 1500 machines (cloud computing), hosted from a desktop from an IT office
 Typically $125 a piece
 Barrier to adoption is low

Open source disruption

 Libraries spend 1.8 billion dollars world wide in technology.

 Open source movement in the US, now there are about 12% of US public libraries using open
source and 4% of academic libraries.
 Uneven access to technology
 Even in the richest countries in the world, there are hundreds of libraries who don’t have
automation systems and have websites from the mid-90’s.
Makerspaces in Libraries

 Should meet the needs of patrons and built around the budget and staff
 Experiential learning happening in the library
 It’s really easy to see how these technologies support entrepreneurship. Prototypes can be
created with the same quality of a manufacturer.
 Space is as valuable to users as they know how to learn to use it.
 Makerspaces can include but are not limited to:
o Embroidery machines, sergers, sewing machines.
o Multi-media makerspace speakers, 360 video creation, virtual reality content creation.
o Traditional fabrication tools (glue guns, Laser cutting, sauntering bar, sewing machine bar
o Lending 3d printers, circuit scribe
o SLS (Selective laser centering) 3D printers - Box comes with box of dust (metals, other
particles) you can melt with a laser
o SLA printers - uses light to solidify resin. Flexible resins, castable resins, tough resins
o Laser cutter can facilitate prototype … paper cardboard plywood (dirt cheap $3)
o PCP Milling machine - carves up circuit boards.

Social Media Outreach - Reaching out for Input

 You can use social media to reach your communities and show them what you have to offer. You
can use your social media community to collect information on what your communities actually
want from you.
 Social Media is designed to have a 2-way conversation with your community. React, respond!
 It’s crucial to have separate content models for all mediums you are using.
 Consider social media as ad hoc communication to engage communities, interact with them to
have conversations with in your communities.
 An “asleep” social media account can be harmful to your library.
 When you engage, don’t be afraid to show personality.
 Keep it alive.

Open Licensing - Library Data all over the Globe

 Great benefits of open licensing come from classical as well as digital content. Open means open
access as well as open data; don't only make your "typical" library content available open access
where you can, but also license any library data you can provide. This will enable and facilitate
research with your data, especially in the digital humanities.
 Many countries don’t have fair use clauses, that’s where open licensing comes in so that you can
facilitate people from other countries to use what you have to offer.
 Key to success for use and reuse of your resources is the popularity of the license (creative
commons). Use the best known things. The license is only useful to potential users if they can
recognize it at first glance: That is the key to successful licensing because no one reads legal text
(NO ONE).
 Awareness of the importance of licensing alone will not get your content licensed. You need to
dedicate staff to taking care of licensing, or it won't happen.
 In the digital age, your data open licensing is your treasure.

Ebook innovations
  Example: http://popuppicks.com - geolocated ebook platform - eliminate friction with
authentication by IP addresses. Pop up picks reaches people where they are by bringing the
library to them through geolocation. Also attracts new users to the library.
 To date we have had print solutions for digital problems for ebooks with the one copy/one user
model which creates long holds for titles in libraries. This frustrates the patron and sends them to
the seamless access of the retail model and away from libraries. The Pop Up Picks collection
easily delivers titles to users when they open up the app.
 Libraries know what people read and need. We need to leverage our expertise in this area to
create a unique value proposition for the public to attract more users to libraries.
 Pop Up Picks is a partnership across different industries between a library consortium (the
Reaching Across Illinois Library System), the largest distributor of independent publishers
(Independent Publishers Group) and a tech company (BiblioLabs). It is a cutting edge
collaboration to cultivate lifelong readers. This is our common goal across these industries: to
create lifelong readers.
 Collaborate for innovation: Libraries -distributors-publishers-authors-bookstores-ebook platform
vendors.
 Reaching readers where they are (on the go, set for commuters, read things on the train).

Panelists Bios

Margaret Heller (Moderator)

Digital Services Librarian, Loyola University Chicago
@margaret_heller

Margaret Heller is the Digital Services Librarian at Loyola University Chicago. Margaret works on web
development, scholarly communications, discovery systems, and digital preservation at Loyola. She
researches and writes about those topics as well as community-driven projects and issues for working
parents. She serves on the board of the Read/Write Library Chicago, is the LITA Committee Chair
Coordinator, and serves on the LITA Communications and Marketing Committee.

Emily A. Almond
Director of IT, Georgia Public Library Service
@libalmondtech

Emily started her career at CNN as an “Information Wrangler.” Yes, that was the real title. And it was apt,
because that’s what she’s been doing ever since. After CNN, she worked at Emory University as a
systems librarian and then at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an archive manager and a project
manager for ajc.com. She started at the Georgia Public Library Service as a Software Development
Project Manager and is currently the Director of IT. While in these roles, she has experienced the ways in
which good project management can transform an organization and further, the ways in which smart,
quality leadership can apply project management principles to achieve strategic goals.

Marshall Breeding
Independent Consultant and Founder, Library Technology Guides
@mbreeding

Marshall Breeding is an independent consultant, speaker, and author. He is the creator and editor of
Library Technology Guides and the libraries.org online directory of libraries on the Web. His monthly
column Systems Librarian appears in Computers in Libraries; he is the Editor for Smart Libraries
Newsletter published by the American Library Association, and has authored the annual Library Systems
Report published by American Libraries since 2014. American Library Association, Library Journal from
2002-2013 and by He has authored nine issues of ALA’s Library Technology Reports, and has written
many other articles and book chapters. Marshall has edited or authored eight books and regularly
teaches workshops and gives presentations at library conferences on a wide range of topics.

Vanessa Hannesschläger
Researcher, Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities/Austrian Academy of Sciences

Vanessa is a literature and digital humanities scholar working at the Austrian Centre for Digital
Humanities of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Previously, she worked at the Literary Archives of the
Austrian National Library on the project Ernst Jandl Online (http://jandl.onb.ac.at/). Her research
interests include the transformation of archives in digital space, data curation and modelling, content
management, legal and licensing issues, and outreach. Her e-book on “A change of perspective in digital
projects of literary archives” is to be published in late spring 2017 by Ripperger & Kremers, Berlin. Learn
more about Vanessa at https://vanessahannesschlaeger.wordpress.com/

Veronda Pitchford
Director of Membership and Resource Sharing, Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS)
@vjpitch
Veronda J. Pitchford is the Director of Membership and Resource Sharing for the Reaching Across Illinois
Library System (RAILS). She manages the eRead Illinois Axis 360 shared ebook collection that serves
over 400 libraries across Illinois and the regularly curated PopUp Picks program which lives on a
statewide geolocated frictionless platform called Biblioboard. She works nationally with library consortia,
vendors and publishers to position libraries as the rock stars of econtent in the communities they serve.
Along with her Power of Libraries consortial posse, Veronda is committed to experimentation, innovation
and advocacy for libraries in the econtent world. She was named an LJ Mover and Shaker in 2005. She is
a die-hard library chick.

Tara Radniecki
Engineering Librarian, University of Nevada, Reno
@tmradniecki

Tara Radniecki is the Engineering Librarian at the DeLaMare Science & Engineering Library on the
University of Nevada, Reno campus. She’s developed and continues to help manage various services in
the library makerspace, including 3D printing and other large prototyping equipment, a lending technology
collection, and innovative consultation services to teach users skills needed to fully utilize the
makerspace. Her current research interests are in maker literacies and how academic libraries can
support innovation and entrepreneurship.

Contact the TTT Committee

 We would love to here from you!
 Send us suggestions via:
o Twitter - @ALA_LITA
o Email/Website - LITA Top Tech Trends Committee page
o LinkedIn - LITA: Top Technology Trends Group

http://www.ala.org/lita/ttt
The Librarian in 2020 | Reinventing Libraries
By Stacey A. Aldrich and Jarrid P. Keller on October 10, 2013

This is part three of LJ’s series of excerpts from Library 2020: Today’s Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow’s
Library (Scarecrow), edited by Joseph Janes. The essays are reprinted as part of the run-up to LJ’s virtual event, The
Digital Shift: Reinventing Libraries, to be held on October 16.

From Joseph Janes, editor of Library 2020:

Students often ask about the job market—how it’s going, what they can expect, where they might be
able to do the work they want, and what sorts of jobs they should seek. This triggers flashbacks to my
own days in library school, in the early 1980s, when I thought I would likely either run my hometown
public library or be a subject bibliographer in an academic library.
“Subject bibliographer.” If you’ve been around long enough to remember those, you know that there was
a certain solidity back then, in terms of what a position was and what the people in them did. Not to
mention how you would prepare for them; the sorts of courses, experiences, and backgrounds needed to
be a serials cataloger or a systems librarian were well understood. We all knew what was expected of us
and, largely, what to expect.

Joseph Janes
And we were right—for a while. Over the last couple of decades, and with increasing velocity,
professional roles and responsibilities have been moving, shifting, dropping away, and expanding. The
job titles and descriptions we see today reflect that. There are positions now that include things that would
have been entirely foreign 30 years ago, and no doubt vice versa. I just did a quick look at a few sites and
found ads for Digital Initiatives Librarian, Search Analyst, Geospatial Data Curator, Metadata Specialist,
User Services Specialist, and Director of Digital Strategy and Technological Integration. Whew. That’s
part of the reason I was so intrigued by the approach that Stacey Aldrich and Jarrid Keller took with their
essay for Library 2020.
They decided to explore the future through imagined job descriptions. As you read them, you can see
fragments of things that look familiar, intermingled with novel and even surprising elements. See if you
agree with their premises, and reflect on how your career path has taken you places you might never
have expected, and where we’re going from here.
I hope readers have gotten from these excerpts a taste of the range and breadth of vision of these
essays. They cover issues from the mundane to the universal, express hopes and fears, warnings and
exhortations, and almost certainly raise more questions than they answer. What will the stuff of our
collections become? What will our places and spaces need to be like? How will our communities evolve,
and how can we serve them most effectively? What sort of leadership and vision will be required to carry
all this out? And, perhaps most centrally, who shall we become as a profession?
There’s never been—nor are we ever likely to get—a road map for what comes next. I asked my
contributors to begin their essays by filling in this sentence: “The library in 2020 will be…,” and they did
splendidly. That’s a fun game to play, so feel free to join in. But—even more important—I urge you to fill
in this blank: “My library in 2020 will be…,” with your preferred future, tweet it at #mylibraryin2020, and
then work like the dickens to make it happen. Read on!
 When we began to think about the future of libraries, we thought it might be interesting to approach the
future from the types of jobs that could be in libraries in the next ten years, basing our future descriptions
on the following trends: (1) information everywhere, (2) continuing increase in use of mobile and
embedded technology, (3) rise of social knowledge, (4) longer living and the emergence of lifestyle
design, and (5) integration of robotics into the world.
We invite you to join “Phyllis,” the human-connection expert for northern California, as she reviews five
job descriptions. As you read with Phyllis, what picture of the library forms in your mind from the job
descriptions? What assumptions are being made about the future? Do you already do some of this work?
What is the same? Different?
Phyllis is responsible for mapping the needs of each community to the right people. Her biggest challenge
is balancing the robotic and human elements of staffing and public service.
This morning, Phyllis met with a library director to go over some of the latest job descriptions for four open
positions. As Phyllis begins to review the job descriptions, she is amused at how similar but different they
are from just ten years ago.
POSITION TITLE: EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN
Importance The embedded librarian is responsible for physically and virtually traveling around all
communities to catalog all pieces of the environment to be added to the Global Brain Library (GBL). This
position is vital for ensuring that all people can use embedded or wearable technology to get instant
information about everything in their surroundings. This position also provides network and information
assistance to the public while in the field.
Projects The first year of this position will focus on three areas: trees in historic parks, monuments, and
government buildings. This position will be expected to identify other gaps in the GBL for future
cataloging.
Skills This position requires the ability to:
 Work outside, in an open environment, and remotely
 Work virtually in a 3-D environment using avatar to engage colleagues
 Communicate effectively to gather information and images
 Use the latest hardware and software for the GBL
 Implement the latest GBL cataloging and metadata standards
 Provide network and information assistance to the public
 Be flexible and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.
POSITION TITLE: CONTENT PACKAGING LIBRARIAN
Importance The content packaging librarian is responsible for making dynamic connections among
library and community information so that users can easily find data that relates to particular topics and
can lead to other beneficial information.
Projects The first year of this position will focus on building social knowledge by packaging community
information and creating processes for farming all information in all formats as it relates to governmental
meetings. This is a new area and will require close work with the GBL.
Skills This position requires the ability to:
 Use all formats of information, physical and digital
 Communicate effectively with all stakeholders and obtain appropriate permissions for using all information
 Make dynamic connections among all kinds of information as it relates to a topic
 Use the latest GBL cataloging and metadata standards
 Obtain feedback from users to determine if content packages are complete
 Recruit and coordinate content-packaging community volunteers
 Be flexible and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.
POSITION TITLE: ROBOTIC MAINTENANCE ENGINEER
Importance The robotic maintenance engineer is responsible for ensuring that all public-assistant and
stack robots are in good working order. The public assistant robots must have the latest syntax and 3-D
 holographic avatar software to help patrons. The stack robots must be able to find and retrieve materials
to provide to patrons upon request.
Projects The first year of this position will be responsible for daily maintenance and support of all robots
and will be required to examine the current models and software to create a draft plan for future upgrades
and management.
Skills This position requires the ability to:
 Manage the hardware and software of first-generation public-assistant and stack robots
 Communicate effectively with staff and patrons
 Evaluate and create project plans
 Manage and train staff working with robots
 Be flexible and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.
POSITION TITLE: LIFESTYLE DESIGN LIBRARIAN
Importance The lifestyle design librarian is responsible for leading a team of librarians who specialize
in individualized and customized assistance for public members navigating learning, career transitions,
health, and other specific needs. This position provides the human touch to help connect people to the
exact resources needed to be successful.
Projects The first year of this position will focus on the systems of delivery of service to the public.
Recent surveys indicate that patrons would like more physical meetings to begin their lifestyle design
plans. This position will also work with the World Education Network to facilitate connections to personal
education plans and build blended-learning opportunities for the community to meet at the library for
human connection.
Skills This position requires the ability to:
 Facilitate and lead a dynamic team of lifestyle design staff
 Communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders
 Create supportive communication with patrons
 Evaluate services and provide continuous improvement
 Be flexible and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.
POSITION TITLE: GBL CLOUD ENGINEER
Importance The GBL cloud engineer is responsible for providing system requirements for the
development of application protocol interface (API) web-service protocols, which allow the GBL to
interface with other cloud-based brain library’s data warehouses worldwide, increasing capacity and
accessibility of information for the public.
Projects The first year of this position will require the GBL cloud engineer to define API web-service
requirements based on the GBL’s collection. This will ensure successful interface and exchange of cloud-
based data, including geocoding all library data sets for easier discovery and correlation of data to serve
the needs of the public better.
Skills This position requires the ability to:
 Understand API web services and geocoding standards
 Demonstrate extensive knowledge of GPL cloud holdings
 Communicate effectively with all stakeholders and obtain appropriate permissions for using all information
 Use the latest GBL cataloging and metadata standards
 Be flexible and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Phyllis was comfortable with these job descriptions and felt confident that she knew the perfect robotic
maintenance engineer, someone who’d started out as a librarian, then added robotic care to his skill set.
For the other positions she would create info for the Jobstream and other channels.
Joseph Janes is Associate Professor and Chair of the MLIS Program at the University of Washington
Information School, Seattle, and creator of “Documents That Changed the World,” a podcast series
available on iTunes. Stacey A. Aldrich is Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Education,
Office of Commonwealth Libraries. Jarrid P. Keller is Acting Deputy State Librarian of California.
 This article was published in Library Journal's October 1, 2013 issue. Subscribe today and save
up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.
Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Digital Resources, Future of Libraries, Library Services, LJ in
PrintTagged With: Library2020, LJ_2013_Oct_1

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online course, you’ll hear directly from expert keynote speakers doing inspiring work that you
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relevant making and how to assess your community’s needs, mobile maker spaces, multi-
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Comments

1. Hamish says:

October 13, 2013 at 11:51 pm

I love this creative exploration of work developments for libraries, you did a wonderful job of projecting
forward and seeing how we can provide all sorts of new value in helping people to navigate the evolving
 world of information. I would add some jobs for people who ellicit creativity from their community and
facilitate engagement with culture and cultural works, like how about a remix/mash facilitator for example

2. sofia says:

October 31, 2013 at 12:34 am

Wearable developers, technologists, designers, telecom and hardware providers are set to attend
Wearable Computing Conference 2013 in New York next November 7, the biggest forum on wearable
technologies on the East Coast.

3. john doe says:

December 26, 2013 at 11:33 pm

I would bet no matter how fast the library systems say they are moving…they will simply be left in the
digital dust of the 21st century…Libraries tend to be highly structured & like most institutions, generally
proceed at a snails pace…That just won’t cut it in the digital age…It might be likened to running to catch
a Japanese bullet train that has pulled out of the station…It just ain’t gonna happen…I like my coffee
black. and my information unscreened & unfiltered …So I have decided I will have to do it myself via the
Web…You really leave me no other choice.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/10/future-of-libraries/the-librarian-in-2020-reinventing-libraries/
10 Ways The Library Of The Future Will
Be Different
by TeachThought Staff || 5 years ago || Literacy
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Libraries have acted as community cornerstones for millennia, and every April marks
School Library Month, celebrating how they promote education and awareness in an
open, nurturing space.

What makes them such lasting institutions, though, isn’t the mere act of preserving books
and promoting knowledge. Rather, it’s the almost uncanny ability to consistently adapt to
the changing demands of the local populace and emerging technology alike. The library
system probably won’t disappear anytime soon, but rather, see itself blossoming into
something new and exciting in congruence with today’s myriad informational demands.

1. More technology

Probably the most obvious direction libraries will trend involves more seamless
integration of technologies at a faster, more sophisticated pace than even now. With
so many exciting new gadgets and concepts such as ebook readers, tablet PCs, open
source, and more, they have plenty of resources on hand to meet community
demands. Books, sadly, do not hold the same collective appeal as the shiny and new
gadgets, but enterprising librarians know they can still bring literature to the masses
by utilizing its lust for technology.

2. Sensory story times

As awareness of the needs of autism spectrum and developmentally disabled

children swells, more and more libraries are scheduling sensory story times making
sure they get to enjoy literature in a manner most comfortable to them. Many
libraries who have developed such programming recommend visual schedules so
kids know what’s coming up next, carpet tiles or cushions for sitting, and hands-on
activities. Even mainstream children can enjoy these events, so all members of the
community benefit from creating a more inclusive space.

3. Better outreach to ESOL and ESL adults and children

New York’s public library system, in an effort to make sure as many patrons take
advantage of their offerings as possible, has put forth the time, money, and energy to
improve upon its ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) and ESL (English
as a second language) programming. Increasing globalization means more
multilingual cities, and because libraries stand as integral pillars of the community,
they make for excellent introductions to what new neighbors might come to expect.
And greater engagement means greater communication and closer relationships.

4. Automation

If the automated system at the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library at University of
Chicago catches on, readers might say, “Sayonara!” to stacks. Not only are almost
all of its holdings available for online retrieval, visitors can also access them in
person without having to navigate the often baffling academic library cataloging
system. Instead, they input their desired read and a complicated system of machinery
burrows 50 feet underground to fetch and deliver it. No browsing required. Because
 of the expense however, it will probably be quite a while before full automation
catches on in libraries worldwide.

5. Emphasizing community space

Placing more stock in technologies obviously frees up quite a bit of library space,
and leaders at the Anoka County Library in Minneapolis know just how to put it to
good use. More room means they can start offering a wider range of programming,
serving as a community center focused on learning rather than just literature. Some
of their plans include genealogy classes targeting seniors wanting to know more
about their family histories and giant letter blocks for children. Libraries probably
won’t disappear to digitization, but their shape will likely change over time.

6. More social media savvy

As with the latest in literary gadgetry creeping into libraries, social media has
already started ingraining itself as integral to the experience. It offers greater
community outreach, promoting and answering questions about events, and provides
a forum in which to share cool book news. Social media also makes it easier than
ever for libraries to receive feedback about what sort of programming the
community wants most, suggestions about how to improve offerings, and talks about
what books need to make their way to the shelves. Hosting online discussions
certainly holds its merits as well!

7. Digital media labs

In an effort to lure in more teenagers, Chicago Public Library hybridized the

traditional system with a digital media lab dubbed YOUmedia. There, they can take
advantage of the video recording and editing equipment, computers, recording studio
(complete with keyboards and turntables!), and classes on graphic design,
podcasting, and photography. YOUmedia also hosts an Internet-based literary
magazine. With so many seriously amazing offerings, high school kids can learn
even more about the potential career paths that interest them most; seeing as how
libraries are all about education, these offerings don’t stray from their core values.

8. Electronic outposts

Similar to the satellite system already in place for county libraries in larger towns
and cities, futurist Thomas Frey thinks that – over time, of course – they might start
the same thing with a more digital bent. Rather than acting as an extension of a
central library’s physical holdings, they would work as almost a “cyber cafe” where
patrons go to access digital archives. Many of the holdings would revolve around
 preserving the history of the surrounding communities, adding a more personalized
dimension to the experience.

9. Crowdsourcing

New Jersey’s Madison Public Library is one of many libraries who understand that
their survival depends on how well they interface with the neighborhoods that
support them. So they’ve turned towards crowdsourcing their future, hosting focus
groups and opening up to suggestions from professionals, patrons, and professional
patrons alike. Much of what the people had to say of course involved technology,
like training reference librarians in resources like YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, and
more. They also wanted to see more programming aimed at engaging the growing
Latin American community. All these responses help MPL better provide exactly
what their visitors needs for a well-rounded educational experience.

10. More active librarians

Once again, the precedent has already been set here, with most libraries around the
world asking their staff to pull double duty as event planners and class leaders. Seth
Godin thinks the librarians of the future will almost universally be tasked with
tutoring students on their homework, teaching patrons computer basics, and other
responsibilities putting them at the front lines. But this transition is a positive one, as
it nurtures a heightened sense of community and destigmatizes the librarian
profession, painting them as neighborly mentors instead of silencing book police.

10 Ways The Library Of The Future Will Be Different is a cross-post

from onlineuniversities.com; Image attribution flickr user cosmicautumn

Related Posts:

 TeachThought Library: 10 Learning Models & Frameworks

 2017 Library Of Congress Literacy Awards Announced
 New York Public Library’s Digital Resources Are Now Free For Everyone
https://www.teachthought.com/literacy/10-ways-the-library-of-the-future-will-be-different/
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/03/01/library-trend-thinking/

Trend Thinking in Libraries

Center for the Future of Libraries helps librarians look
ahead for improving spaces and services
By Miguel Figueroa | March 1, 2016

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A New Adults Advisory Board at the Kingston Frontenac (Ontario) Public Library brings

together patrons ages 18–30 to offer insights for better serving this category of library

user. Students at Furman University Library in Greenville, South Carolina, were invited

to unplug and recharge during finals week in a quiet “Zen zone” with meditation pillows

and coloring books. The new Brooke Point High School Library in Stafford, Virginia,
recently introduced a makerspace, but it’s the comfortable and flexible seating that has
transformed the library into a vibrant place for work, study, hanging out, and relaxing.

These changes, as subtle or significant as they may be, represent libraries’ continuing
alignment with new trends and user needs. Whether it’s emerging adulthood, the
unplugged and maker movements, or the growing influence of fast casual restaurants,
libraries are taking advantage of trends in the larger environment and putting them to
work in their spaces, collections, and services.

Clockwise from top right, Georgie Donovan, Ruth Frasur,

Loida Garcia-Febo, and Vicki Rakowski

This thinking has helped ALA’s Center for the Future of Libraries focus its work on
providing library professionals and community leaders with information resources and
tools that will help them understand the trends reshaping their libraries and
communities.

Thinking about trends helps library professionals make sense of the changes that are
happening in their environments, align their work to users’ current needs and
expectations, and innovate services and programs so that libraries remain integral to the
future of their communities.
At the center’s website, a growing collection of trends helps library professionals quickly
identify some key issues, how they are developing, and why they might matter for
libraries. Over the past year, thousands of librarians have reviewed new trend entries on
badging, fandom, gamification, haptic technology, resilience, and more.

This focus on trends is an obvious fit for library strategic planning, and there has been
some very positive feedback about the center’s value for those working in this area.
Maureen Sullivan, an ALA past president and a consultant who frequently works on
strategic planning for libraries, said, “The trends from ALA’s Center for the Future of
Libraries are an excellent resource for understanding the variety of societal and
technological forces that need to be considered in planning the future of libraries. It is
one of the first resources that I suggest for library leaders who are engaged in strategic
planning. In working with libraries, the trends proved to be a very useful means for
helping the staff and leadership understand more about the various forces to be
considered when determining a set of focus areas for new strategic plans.”

Interested in Trends but Overwhelmed by Your News Feed?

Scanning through a seemingly endless news feed to find information about the next trends affecting
libraries can be a time-consuming process. But it’s what the center does each week.

Read for Later, the center’s weekly e-newsletter (you can sign up
at ala.org/transforminglibraries/future), digests the week’s news and teases out some of the most
interesting articles about the future of cities, education, artificial intelligence, media, and work. Read
for Later can help library professionals keep an eye on the news that will shape their future work.

Beyond strategic planning, however, library professionals use the center’s resources and
trends in some interesting and inspiring ways. Collected below are highlights from a
conversation with four librarians, each working in a unique setting and pursuing
different goals, but using trends as a way to help envision their futures.

How have you incorporated some of the center’s trends and trend thinking into your work?

Georgie Donovan, associate dean for collections and content services, College of
William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia:
Given the day-to-day work that envelops many of us in academic libraries, it’s virtually
impossible to seize upon every new opportunity and put it to work in our libraries’
systems and cultures. That’s one reason I genuinely appreciate having the Center for the
Future of Libraries site tracking trends related to our people, our clients, our faculty,
and students.

I’ve gone through the Harwood Institute training with several colleagues as part of the
Libraries Transforming Communities initiative, and the ideas and strategies I learned
there were so important to me, but they have a unique application on a college campus
where the student community changes over every four years. The center’s trends really
complement the Harwood “turning outward” approach and help me keep current with
what communities might be thinking even as they quickly change.

Ruth Frasur, director of Historic Hagerstown–Jefferson Township (Ind.) Library:

As a library director, one of my jobs is to think the big thoughts and make long-term
plans for my institution. At the same time, working in a small rural library, I often find
myself weighed down by day-to-day operations. The center’s trends have helped me get
back into the mindset of “big thinking,” have a controlled vocabulary when speaking to
and working with groups and individuals outside the library, and have reference
resources at my fingertips. In our institution, this focus on trends has produced a
mindset that envisions the library’s mission in a broader context and establishes our
place in the community conversation as a leader of innovation and progress.

Loida Garcia-Febo, president, Information New Wave:

I have used the center’s trends to inform the trainings and lectures I offer and have
shared this resource with colleagues around the world. I often look up the trends before
I teach because they help keep me informed of societal and library trends and changes
that we need to share. I convey to other librarians how important it is for us to reflect on
what new trends are bringing with them and what they represent for us. In my view,
librarians and information specialists serve academic, public, and school communities
that are being impacted by many trends. We must stay up to date with these changes to
make sure we are providing what the communities need. By being aware of trends,
engaging in conversations about how they impact our work, and working together to
make things happen in our cities, we can change lives.

Vicki Rakowski, youth services department head, La Grange (Ill.) Public Library:

At La Grange Public Library, we have looked at the trends as a management team, and
then I have also discussed them with my staff. In both instances, we looked at the trends
overall, but everybody chose a few that particularly interested them. Then we shared the
concepts a little more in depth with each other and discussed how we saw those trends
coming to life in both the community and library world. This has really helped staff
think of ways to make the library more dynamic—for example, considering ways to
develop programming and patron education about data’s growing importance in our
world or exploring the gamification of our summer reading program.

How has thinking about trends helped you to think about libraries differently or to inspire others
to think differently?

Rakowski:

The way trends from the outside world come into the library world is the whole crux of
the matter for me, and why the Center for the Future of Libraries has been particularly
galvanizing. No organization is an island—our world is more connected than ever, and
libraries have to think of themselves as a part of that world. Does every trend impact
every library and its community? Perhaps not in an obvious way, but educating
ourselves on these trends means we’re prepared to be a part of the conversation in our
communities as we move forward in a more strategic, integrated way.

Garcia-Febo:

I recently spoke at a regional international conference where I included the center and
its featured trends along with International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions trends in my talk to spark a conversation about how the attendees saw
trends impacting library services in their countries. We had a very good and insightful
conversation, with colleagues coming up with potential ways of reimagining services to
reflect the impact of the trends in their communities. The conversations continued for
the duration of the conference. It was inspiring to see how those colleagues were
motivated to try new things and move outside their comfort zone once they understood
some of the larger trends in our world and the importance of meeting the needs of their
communities.

Frasur:

The biggest difference that has occurred through incorporating trends into our planning
has been to focus less on the “what” (what programs will we do? what books will we
buy? what will our URL be?) and “how” (how will we staff that program? how will we
afford that equipment? how will we maintain our social media presence?) and really
focus on the “why.” Why do we do what we do? After we ask the “why” questions, then
we can look at the “what” and “how.” With cutting-edge and emerging research as well
as some institutional soul searching, we are able to answer “why.”

Looking at emerging trends has also helped me to expand my library thoughts beyond
the here and now. This has begun to drive a very purposeful evolution of our library
away from the stereotypical book warehouse and even the de facto literacy hub to a
place that champions informal learning as a real and powerful activity throughout the
lives of our users.

Donovan:

Academic libraries are often ahead of their campus colleagues in adapting to trends. In
libraries where I work and visit, we have makerspaces, we’ve used badging as a way of
accomplishing staff training goals, we’ve embraced gamification as a legitimate learning
style, and we’ve tried to accommodate unplugged spaces (recently including large
coloring posters in our commons). We discuss “digital natives” and flipped classrooms
when we re-engineer our information literacy programs and goals. So these trends
aren’t foreign to us, but it will take extra effort and thoughtfulness to bring the concepts
in from the periphery of what we do to the center of how we operate. Letting these
trends fundamentally change our work and the way we approach our goals and systems
and planning is hard and controversial—institutions of higher education can be very
conservative about implementing change. Therefore, the more research and advice we
can share across libraries, the stronger we can feel when making changes and trying to
do things in a new light in our home institutions.

It’s not that people clearly say, “We’ve always done it this way”; instead, you hear it in
the arguments that faculty and students really need instruction the way we want to give
it, services the way we want to provide them, websites the way we want to design them,
and collaboration when and how we want to collaborate. Recognizing the trends as
fundamental shifts in the architecture of our society and not just temporary glitches in
behavior is important if we want to make bigger, more structural changes to the way we
meet the needs of our campus communities.

As you’ve focused more attention on trends, what do you think is a new or next trend in libraries
or society?

Donovan:

I definitely see a return to the career of artisan. A lot of people, especially young people,
want a craft—and to be stellar at that craft. We see graduates who open up a bakery to
make authentic French bread, or start a farm, or desire to be an excellent butcher. I see
people focusing on honing a craft in new and authentic ways—shoemaking, letterpress
printing, blacksmith work, sewing, leather-working. Something in us knows that these
skills are important and have enduring value. This can be something really different
from what we normally think is pursued in an academic setting, but it can fit well with
the role of an academic library that works to develop a well-rounded individual who can
find the information and resources needed for any pursuit.

Frasur:

I keep thinking about the duality of libraries both as “place makers” and as “place
agnostic.” In this, I mean that libraries will continue to offer an inspirational and
innovative physical presence for their users and communities. At the same time, services
and even collections will increasingly be independent of that physical presence. This
duality has existed for a long time, but has not yet been framed in such a manner. I
think that we will see a concerted effort to reconcile those two ideas that seem to be at
odds with one another.
Garcia-Febo:

A trend I’ve been watching for the last two years is the growth of online communities
developed by and for librarians. Librarians in different regions of the world have created
spaces where they are crowdsourcing publications and resources, and in many cases the
first publication of students and new librarians. This creates a great opportunity for
those seeking to publish because, as we know, publishing may take a bit of time. So,
having these websites available is an excellent way to further librarianship. Other
communities are providing free continuing education to those who may not be able to
receive it otherwise. I am watching these efforts with interest as the webinars are
reaching thousands of librarians and information professionals globally.

This internal trend also makes me wonder if it is happening in the larger world. Are
other groups or professions doing similar things, and what does that mean for libraries
interested in supporting their efforts or connecting users to their resources?

Rakowski:

I think activism and advocacy are going to become even more important. We’re
witnessing the power and reach of everyday people recording incidents that are
occurring in their communities, including between police and citizens. We’re seeing
young people more empowered and better able to put their activist ideas into practice
without a lot of overhead or parental involvement. I think these are really powerful
things. For libraries, I think we want to consider helping people stay nimble with
technology that helps them advocate for themselves and their communities. We may
also want to think about how this new wave of activism and advocacy might involve us
or how we can manage our institutions’ responsibilities in the face of these changes.

MIGUEL FIGUEROA is director of ALA’s Center for the Future of Libraries.