The Net Gen Meets Melvil Dewey or We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

transcript

The Net Gen Meets Melvil Dewey

or We’re Not in

Kansas Anymore

Toronto Public Library: Information Services ConferenceInformation Service in the 21st Century

November 23, 2005

Re-Imaging the Library

Michael RidleyChief Information Officer & Chief

LibrarianUniversity of Guelph

The Net Generation is different.

They think differently, they act differently, and they want libraries to behave differently.

The Bottom Line......

Who are these people?What are we going to do?

Melvil and Dorothy

I’m an academic librarian.

Worse than that, I’m now a University administrator.

However......

Disclaimer

The Disconnect

“Today’s students are no longer the people

our educational system was designed to teach.” ...Marc Prensky

Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

“Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language

(that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach

a population that speaks an entirely new language.” ...Marc Prensky

“When simple change becomes transformational

change, the desire for continuity becomes a dysfunctional mirage.”

The Mirage of Continuity (1999) Hawkins & Battin

“The library of the future will combine …

… with a managed digital space.”

... a managed place …

StewardshipDemocracy

ServiceRationalism

PrivacyEquity of Access

Intellectual FreedomLiteracy and Learning

Our Enduring Values

Product of the Environment

Video games

Computers

GenerationGenerationXX

The Web

Mobile devices

Online communities

Net GenNet GenBaby Baby BoomersBoomers

TV generationTypewritersMemos

Media Exposure

50005000

1000010000

1500015000

2000020000

2500025000

E-mailsE-mails

VideoVideo

GamesGames

ReadingReading

TelevisionTelevision

CellCell PhonePhone

Teen’s Web Use

100% use the Internet to seek information on colleges, careers and jobs

74% of teens use IM as a major communication vehicle vs. 44% of online adults

54% of students (grades 7-12) know more IM screen names than home phone numbers

What They Want from the Net

New & exciting

0 80604020

Learnmore/better

Community

Show otherswhat I can do

Be heard

Multitasking While Online

Listen to music while online

Watch TV while online

Talk on phone while online

Visit a site mentioned by someone on the phone

Send an IM to person you’re talking to

Visit website seen on TV

Visit website mentioned on radio

0 40 60 80

Age vs. Online Preferences

Mature

63% Boomer

55%Gen X

Net Gen26%

Students who were satisfied by

web-based learning

Students Compared to Faculty

Multitasking Single or limited tasks

Engaging DisciplinedSpontaneous Deliberate

Pictures, sound, video TextRandom access Linear, logical, sequentialInteractive & networked Independent & individual

Students Faculty

Learning Preferences

• Teams, peer-to-peer

• Structure

• Engagement & experience

• Visual & kinesthetic

• Things that matter

Towards the Digital Library

Three Key Transformations

Database/Repository

toEnvironment

(Managed Digital Space)

Seamless(fully integrated with

digital learningand research; beyond?)

Community(resources, people, interaction, process, activities, services)

Omnipresent(it will be wherever the users are)

Dynamic & Organic(the users will construct it as much as we will)

Information Management

Knowledge Management

Explicit & Tacit Knowledge(beyond recorded information)

Coherence & Sense Making(value added outcomes

and benefits)

People Centric(a focus on understanding not just data)

Trusted Information Systems(status, reputation, influence, impact)

Wireless Communication(whenever, wherever, right now)

People Finding Information

Information Finding People

Intelligent AgentsPersonal Information Systems(discovery, assistance, utility)

Smart Information(telemetry, propagation)

Managing People’s Interests(trusted information systems)

Control(users not systems)

Web 2.0

Syndication (RSS)

Tagging

Social Networking

Web 2.0: Implications

The ILS is Dead

Interoperability / Standards

“We’re in Control.” Say What!?

Living on the Bleeding Edge

Lib 2.0

Paul SaffoInstitute for the Future

“The future belongs to neither the conduit or content players, but to those who control the filtering, searching and sense-making tools we will rely on to navigate through the expanses of cyberspace.”

Blogs@Guelph

• Support and encourage blogging for all faculty, students and staff.

• Enable discourse, reading/writing, engagement, reflection.

• Learn the dynamics and the culture.

• Expect excitement, yawns .... and some fireworks.

Learning Commons

Learning CommonsNot

Information Commons

Strategic Directions

Research-intensive

Learner-centred

University of Guelph

The University of Guelph is determined to put the learner at the

centre of all it does, recognizing that a great university is a community of scholars, that research and teaching

are intimately linked, and that learning is a life-long commitment.

Learner Centred

• a consolidation of services to support student learning, writing, research & technology

• a common, convenient and accessible location with extended hours of operation

• a vehicle for new collaborative opportunities

Learning Commons

Learning

WritingResearch

NumeracyInformationTechnology

Five Pillars

Embedded Services

Supplemental Services

Integrated Services

Generic skills; resources; information & awareness

Specially designed sessions & workshops

Collaborations with faculty & TAs embedded in the learning experience

Frameworkfor

Design & Delivery

Integrated Desks

Peer Helpers

Service & LearningParadigms

Food, Drink & Noise

Wireless & Laptop Loans

Five Interesting Things....

• Increased use of all resources• Higher student achievement• Integration of services (synergy) • Understanding of student/faculty needs• Integrated planning & budgeting• Engagement & motivation• Student satisfaction

Measures of Success

Post Literacy

The Premise.....

Just as the powerful capabilities of literacy effectively displaced

primary orality, so too is it not only likely but inevitable that literacy will

be displaced by a more powerful tool, capability or capacity.

Post literacy is not

a decline from literacy

The Corollary.....

• 1st year seminar course

• vehicle for student learning in a small group setting

• multidisciplinary focus

• provocative ideas & active learning

• research program model

UNIV1200Beyond Literacy: Are Reading and Writing

Doomed?

stories and song words and texts

communication was formalized around speakers (poets) and

audience

communication was formalized around objects and readers

memory & performance logic & composition

active, external, temporal, physical (body)

passive, internal, persistent, physical (object)

“magical” “rational”

Orality Literacy

• clarity & precision• expressive & nuanced • persistent; overcome time & space • individual & group; create community & enable individual identity • active & passive• advantageous

Characteristics of Post Literacy

Disruption

Suspicion & Distrust

Unsophisticated

Early adopters

Elitism & Power

Mainstream

Transition

The Impact.....

Bio-Computing

Unused Capacity of the Brain

Telepathy / Collective Unconscious

Genetic Memory

Post Humans

The Candidates.....

Neurally interfaced ICT complementing

natural telepathysupported by

genetic memory.

The Conclusion.....

Candidates for Post Literacy

Aliens

William Burroughs

“Language is a virus

from outer space.”

David Penniman

School of

InformaticsUniversity at Buffalo

“To remain what it is, the library must change . . .

. . . if it does not change, it will not remain what it is.”

DavidPennimanUniversityat Buffalo