by Blane Dessy

Federal agencies are constantly looking to new models of how the business of government is conducted and making strides to improve techniques and practices at every level of service. To be future ready, Federal librarians will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission. To stay in the forefront of emerging trends, they will need to merge information from various groups and identify information available from external sources.

To define this future, FEDLINK completed an environmental scan of the external factors that may influence the information field. The scan included a review of materials from a variety of organizations including the Special Libraries Association, OCLC, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and Outsell, a noted research firm that focuses on issues relating to the information industry. FEDLINK also reviewed materials from the federal government on reforming information technology in the federal government, information on transparency in government and samples of resources making use of new technologies.

After a thorough analysis, the environmental scan identified seven major trends that define how Federal libraries can be future ready.

Trend number 1: Demonstrate returns on investment.
Libraries will need data on use and cost savings not just in financial terms, but also in terms of savings in staff efficiency. Librarians will need to use a variety of analytics to document costs and benefits.

Trend number 2: Establish mission critical programs.
Managers will more broadly define processes, standards and policies and explore a variety of options to insure viability.

Trend number 3: Integrate mobile devices, “apps” and dashboards into workflows.
Libraries will need to create tailored apps to access library resources and programs through mobile devices.

Trend number 4: Expand roles as analyst, educator and consultant.
Librarians will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques.

Trend number 5: Cultivate use of the Semantic Web, cloud computing and Web 3.0.
Library use of social collaboration and interactive responsibility will combine with Web 3.0 technologies to create a semantic Web that includes human intelligence combined with data management where content and technology are now one. With increasingly cloud-based sources and tools, librarians will serve as a bridge to share information and support projects that cross agency lines.

Trend number 6: Customize and personalize information to meet the needs of users.
With the proliferation of mobile technologies, the semantic web and other web searching technologies patrons will want information compiled so that it is immediately usable and tailored to meet a specific need.

Trend number 7: Collaborate via knowledge transfer and information sharing.
In tandem with the previous trends, libraries will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission.

Librarians also will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques. We must help to make the connections required for knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.

To respond to these future directions, FEDLINK released new competencies for federal librarians and uses them as a centerpiece for developing FEDLINK’s education programming. Our outreach efforts now combine the use of online learning systems, continued efforts on mentoring and the recent creation of NewFeds, a new working group that supports the development and advancement of early career professionals with less than five years of federal service. NewFeds is also concerned with building a sense of community among new FEDLINK members, advocating for new professionals, promoting careers in federal libraries and developing partnerships with other FEDLINK working groups and library professional associations.

With an eye toward trends and professional development, libraries and librarians can make their rich and valuable content compatible with current learning and researching patterns. In doing so, we set the trends and guide our users into the information future. Federal librarians want to be future ready, but just as importantly, they want to shape the future environment for their work.

Blane K. Dessy is the Executive Director of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee and the Federal Library Network at the Library of Congress. Prior to this, he had been Director of Libraries at the United States Department of Justice and the first Executive Director of the National Library of Education. He came to the Federal Government after working as a State Librarian (Alabama), Deputy State Librarian (Ohio), library consultant (Oklahoma), and public library director (Pennsylvania). He is currently also an adjunct instructor in Management and Federal Libraries at the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science.

Mr. Dessy received his MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 and subsequently attended advanced library management training at the School of Business Administration at Miami University (Ohio).

He is the recipient of two John Cotton Dana Awards for library public relations. While at the Department of Justice, he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the second highest honor in the Department of Justice.

The Division of Government Information is delighted to be posting on the Future Ready 365 blog this week. DGI is a diverse community of knowledgeable information professionals who share an interest in government information and government librarianship. Our posts this week come from librarians in a variety of government library environments including federal, military, and academic. These DGI blog contributors share their insights on navigating the complicated landscape that today’s information professional must travel — from getting that library job to staying on top in a rapidly changing field once you’re there. Maybe you’d like to join us on the journey! Come check out the Division of Government Information at:  http://govinfo.sla.org/.

The late Gilda Radner created a character for Saturday Night Live named Emily Litella who would speak out on various topics. Unfortunately, Miss Litella didn‘t hear things quite right so she was against the efforts to remove violins from television programs. She was corrected that the effort was to remove violence from television programs. As this new information would sink in she would realize that it was very different from what she had been thinking and she would end her spots with an apologetic, “Never mind.”

I wonder what Miss Litella would have thought of e-braries and e-books and e-journals and e-patrons and e-librarians and who knows what will be next.

It started with e-mail and as that caught on we all started living in an e-world. And to no one‘s surprise this didn‘t simplify our life in the least. We have to make distinctions between e-mail and postal mail (or the pejorative snail mail), and e-journals and print journals. Having been a cataloger I can appreciate the many challenges this created to the folks describing our collections.

From everything we read and experience we know that a lot of users will still prefer print resources, but more and more will want information made available in a variety of electronic formats ported to multiple devices. And we, being the service industry that we are, will strive to meet that need explaining to our budget folks that it doesn‘t mean it is cheaper nor that we will reduce the footprint of the library.

The January/February 2011 issue of Information Outlook was all about mobile applications. Coincidentally in my current job that has been the current push as well. The agency is rolling out mobile devices to about 1,000 research staff and we want to let them know what the Library can provide for them on their new tool.

As in other instances, this is not something the Library can do on its own. We need the help of our IT folks – the ones who control access to what is on the mobile devices – to open the gates for the Library content. We have to work with our vendors to find a good solution for subscriptions that will work in our total environment – desktop, physical collection, and mobile devices.

It is exciting when you find a partner for a project who understands the value of what we are trying to deliver to our end-users. Often we have to educate in many directions – and we have to learn. What devices is our agency buying? What information resources have mobile applications? What is the pricing structure for the access? What products will we make available?

The Oxford English Dictionary may have a mobile app, and it would be oh-so-cool to have it, but how many of us would actually push that out to our mobile end-users?

We need to keep up with the wave of e-information. The demand is there and if we don‘t do it, someone else will. Like all the other tools for information access this needs to be part of our expertise.

The same way we went from print to dial-up, to software and then to Internet – we need to help our end-users get their information on their mobile devices and keep up with what the next platform will be.

Once you find the IT and Communications folks who are managing the mobile devices work with them to develop the Library application – pointing to the Library resources that staff can access on a mobile device. Talk to your vendors to make sure you are licensed properly to give access to your users.

Review and refine your list. If you already have a page on your website listing online news resources you have a head start! Just as we had to rethink presentation and writing for the web – we have to be even more concise on a mobile device. A segmented list of resources on a website is easy to navigate – on a mobile device keep to the basics until users ask for more.

If you have been around the Internet since the early days then you‘ll remember those Under Construction pages that we used to put up and use. Those are long gone – everyone understands that the Internet is under continuous development and updating. It is the same with mobile devices. People will expect additional resources and upgraded applications. Let the vendors take care of upgrading the apps. But don‘t worry if you have a great news resource that you have finally been able to contract. Roll it out. If it is a significant resource, then roll it out right away. If you have a couple new resources in the works then roll them out together.

Two agencies I worked for had a lot of agents in the field who were then still using dial-up access for the Internet when they were on the road. For that reason we designed our pages with as little graphics as possible and did our best to avoid anything other than html.

This experience taught me something about our users. You need to take care of your biggest user group. By minimizing graphics we didn‘t hurt our onsite users with a fast connection. Our efforts helped them too. Government librarians are looking at a finite set of end users with mobile devices. Yes, they seem to breed like rabbits, but they are still expensive enough that not everyone in your organization will have one. So you don‘t want to license solely for the mobile devices. Even the mobile users will want to read the Wall Street Journal on their desktop or even in print. (Print? Remember that?)

To be good librarians we need to see what our patrons are doing and listen to their questions. We don‘t need to pounce on everything – but we need to be aware of trends so we can be ready to ride the wave and not get caught by the undertow.

So – there isn‘t an E in Library, but there is an E in Libraries and end-users and mobile devices. And there are two Es in people and those are the folks we are here to serve as librarians.

David has over 25 years of library experience having worked for federal banking agencies and other libraries. He earned his MLS from the University of Maryland in 2000 and has been a member of SLA since 1998. He has been active with the DC Chapter of SLA and the Government Information Division. He has worked in all aspects of librarianship – Reference, Cataloging, Web, Acquisitions and Electronic Resources. David started his blog – Library Buzz in 2004. He has written for the GovInfoPro Best Practices for Government Libraries and has been published in the One-Person Library Newsletter. In addition to working as a librarian, David plays trombone with DC’s Different Drummers.

Richard Kowalski, Consumer Electronics Association

I began my 2011 at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year. This was the fifth consecutive show that I have worked at, and again I was amazed by the advances in technology in just the past year. The show itself was a reminder to me that information professionals need to maintain their technology literacy in order to be Future Ready.

Keeping up to date on the latest gadgets can be challenging, but it is well worth it as an information professional. If you know what the newer devices are capable of, they can be more useful to you in both your personal and professional life. Your technology literacy can make you more efficient at what you do, and fostering technology literacy among your coworkers can help them become more productive as well.

As I see it, the devices to watch right now are e-readers, tablet PCs and smartphones. They are allowing us to do things we haven’t been able to do before. E-readers aren’t just for books. They are gaining popularity as an easier-on-the-eyes format on which we can read electronic documents of all sorts. Tablets and smartphones on 3G and 4G networks are allowing for information access in places and at speeds that we haven’t seen before, which is likely to heighten our colleagues’ expectations of information delivery from us and our services.  

These new devices are also bringing us into the world of apps. Although some apps simply provide information that could otherwise be found on the Internet, they usually allow for quicker access to that information than navigating through a mobile browser.  More importantly, many apps go beyond what a browser could offer by providing ways to manipulate information or by using information from your cell phone such as location data. Read Ryan Jones’ Bridging the Google Gap, with an App for more on the possibilities of apps.

I don’t see any of the new devices outright replacing computers, our traditional portals for Internet content. Instead, they are becoming part of a broad ecosystem of devices that we can use in the enterprise. A key thing to pay attention to will be the compatibility and portability of information among new types of devices. At the least, information professionals should stay aware of the useful software that is readily available on these devices. Some of us may find ourselves developing our own apps and services for these devices when the need arises.

How can you keep updated on tech? Educate yourself by asking people about their new smartphone or tablet PC. Talk to sales reps at electronics stores. At the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), we have a monthly show-and-tell lunch where we talk about our newest gadgets. Sites like CNET, gdgt, and PC Magazine can keep you up to date with reviews of new products. Tech bloggers like David Pogue, Walt Mossberg, and Rob Pegoraro provide useful insight into the ever-changing world of technology. For keeping updated on apps specifically, see Appolicious or browse the app stores themselves: iTunes App Store and Android Market.

Here’s to getting the most out of your gadgets in 2011!

Rick Kowalski is the librarian at the Consumer Electronics Association. He is a member of the Washington D.C. Chapter and Competitive Intelligence Division of SLA. 

by Ryan Jones, Pubget

Researchers are turning to free search engines over licensed databases because of familiarity, simplicity and access to free content. By starting there, though, they face a fragmented experience across free and paid resources that’s fraught with dead ends, different formats and broken user interfaces. They also may pass up a perfect resource because it doesn’t crop up on the first page of the many results on Google. These shortcomings make up the Google Gap.

The Google Gap (or PubMed Gap or Science Direct Gap, etc) has been well explored by the library community. Technologies like link resolvers and federated search have cropped up to bridge the gap—with limited success. Link resolvers often mean errors in holdings (subscription collections), confusing resource choices and more dead ends. Meanwhile, federated search solutions connect resources at too high a level to provide a satisfactory experience and ignore holdings, the quality of metadata and the format, and usability of content.

So if link resolvers and federated search won’t do, what can bridge the gap between closed and web-based data? The “what” has to be something with enough computing power to provide a simple experience, yet span the web, free and paid content.  It has to be something with a high understanding of all the content types that sit at the end of each search task. The answer, it turns out is not a website or database at all. 

It’s an app.

Apps, as you’ve come to experience them on your phone or desktop, host more purpose-built code and processing power than traditional websites (as Chris Anderson wrote in this excellent piece in Wired ). Apps can provide enough intelligence to overcome content fragmentation among the user, the web, and library resources to deliver the simple yet powerful experience users ask for. They connect content destinations in highly customized ways, with intelligence, and can thereby standardize user experience across disparate resources. Apps can perform tasks in the background, fetching resources or content in anticipation of users’ needs. Apps can present a familiar and simple interface to the user.

This extra intelligence benefits the library, too. Apps can provide comprehensive data from both users and platforms, which in turn means better content management and more efficient libraries.

At Pubget, we think more intelligence is needed in the way users, the web, and resources are connected. As Chris Anderson says, “The World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting.” At Pubget, we think there’s an app for that.

Ryan Jones is the President of Pubget, which provides full-text access to life sciences research. You can follow them on twitter.