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I missed the second session in order to have more time to review for our presentation this afternoon. I don’t know that you ever feel totally ready to give a presentation to strangers, but I’m as ready as I can be. Here are the notes I took from the third session, “Libraries and the Changing Research Environment” from Lorcan Dempsey , OCLC.

  • Finding that once the information was online, but now we go online to get things done.
  • Growing amount of activity online around specific tasks (flickr, meebo, facebook, remember the milk, etc).
  • But still prefabricated CMS style websites.
  • Digital identity is spread out over network.
  • Again, pointing out Hennepin County. They have a search box bit of html that can be pasted into MySpace, etc.
  • Again, pointed out the University of Minnesota undergrad page (which, again, is really great!)
  • Discussing integrating library services into Course Management Systems. However, I can’t help but wonder how much longer the CMS will last.
  • NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship) is the realization of this for specific subject area.
  • Creates a set of tools to help people get things done.
  • Discussed commonality of social sites that many have personal side, but also social side. Move between the two.
  • Then: user built workflow around the library, Now: library must build its services around user workflow.
  • If you want to bypass on-site navigation:
    • Must optimize for search engine: how to get people to find your stuff?
    • Must optimize for link resolvers.
    • Must use RSS
  • Then: resources scarce/attention abundant, Now: attention scarce/resources abundant
  • Brand is the online version of real estate. Building brand draws people in.
  • Obligatory discussion of the long tail.
  • Put your material in the hubs: special collection links in Wikipedia, images in large image engines, etc. There are observable increases in use.
  • Put your information into people’s workflow. Then when people stumble across it, they’ll come to your page.
  • Unified search with low transaction cost (like OhioLINK)
  • Get information into:
    • Institutional workflow (portals, CMS, IR)
    • Personal workflow (toolbars, RSS)
    • Network level workflow (Google, OhioLINK)
    • Integrated experience.