From Network Revolutions and Trends in Information to a National Public Policy Agendafor Libraries

Marc Gartler

Handouts: Agenda foreword

Handouts: Agenda exec. brief

Handouts: the whole Agenda

Handouts: Trends exec summary

A National Public Policy Agenda

Policy Challenges

Policy decision maker:

“I love libraries, and used to go there all the time. Before the internet. Loved them.”

Policy Challenges

IT manager: “As directed by the County Board, our fiber network will reach all public safety buildings by 2016.”

Citizen: “No libraries?”

IT manager: “No. Why would we run the network to the libraries?”

Policy Challenges

Librarian 1:“Libraries are essential to literacy”

Librarian 2:“Libraries really aren’t about books anymore”

Policy Challenges

School librarian: “We help kids learn”

Public librarian: “We help job seekers”

Academic librarian: “We facilitate innovation”

Policy maker: “Okay…good to know.”

So, what’s the best message…

•…for the next 5 years?•…given the political environment?•…where it’ll have an impact?

A scan outside the library sphere

• Implications for libraries and public access to information?

• opportunities and competitive advantages?• “Threats”? Emerging competitors?• Implications for policy advocacy for libraries

Not a handout today (91 pages)

Wheeler on network revolutions

1. Printing press = info explosion, spread of knowledge

2. Railroads = speed of transport3. Telegraph = instant communication

Wheeler on network revolutions

4. Digital = – “end of the tyranny of place”– acceleration of info use & transmission– Decentralization of economic & creative activity

Key tech trends

• Mobile– #1 economic impact– by 2025 will have twice the economic impact as #2

—automation of knowledge work• Big data– The quantified self: mood, blood pressure– Privacy: who should have access to my physical or

mental state?

Key tech trends

• Augmented reality– Increased desire to disconnect?– augmented reality may have a localizing force as

we can find out more about what’s here– Anticipatory (e.g. Google Now)

• VR– Google cardboard < $20

Key tech trends

• Internet of things– Increased ability to change the physical world via

remote interfaces– Physical world is an information system

• Customizable, free, simple digital products• Human computer interaction– Speech, biometric sensing, action detection

• AI

Big tech employment

• Google—55,000 employees – 30,000+ in Mountain View– 2,292 in 2004

• Apple—38,000 (excluding retail)– 14,800 in 2005

• Amazon—25,000 (Seattle only)– Building space for 71,500 in Seattle by 2019

Trouble ahead

• Digital overload• Digital divides• Continued job losses– Lawyers & radiologists perform data analysis…– Middle managers in knowledge work

• Security– A threat to the internet is a threat to everything

Implications for libraries

• Will providing access to computers/internet become an irrelevant library service?

• How will libraries continue to integrate new IT into their operations? At what point does integration stop and re-invention stop?

• How will libraries deal with threats that new IT poses to traditional library values such as privacy?

Implications for libraries

• How might developments in human computer interaction reshape library experience?

• Could aspects of librarians’ jobs be made obsolete?

• Will libraries remain relevant bridging future digital divides as we move increasingly from PCs to mobile devices?

Discussion of one implication

• How might libraries help with information overload?

Publishing trends• Who controls value in the book industry?• How will traditional relationships between

publishers, authors, distributors, retailers, and readers change?

• 11,000 books published in 1950• 328,000 books published in 2010• Average US nonfiction book selling < 250

copies/year

Publishing trends• Information access; business/revenue models;

new competitors; DRM & piracy

Global context• Global opportunities for some, unrest for

others• Climate change shortage, conflict, migration• 1-3 billion more people coming online• Global economy– 1990: 54% of trade betw. developed economies– 2012: 28% of trade betw. developed economies

Implications for libraries• Veterans• Refugees• Info role during epidemics • Facilitating open government and use of

public sector data

Other trends examined• Environmental • Demographics: bigger, older, more diverse• Rising inequality• Public sector budget shortfalls• Education: self-directed, lifelong, collaborative• Work: new skills, new structures

Back to our National Agenda

• From “nice to have” to “essential”• Speak with a common voice• Draft strategic communications plan went to

ALA Board recently• Rollout 2015-2016

Message development

•Education & Learning•Employment & Entrepreneurship•Health & Wellness•Government Information•Heritage & History

Message development

•Funding•Copyright & licensing•Digital content systems•Privacy•Broadband•Library functions in federal goverment•Information professionals

The E's of Libraries™

“Today's libraries, with the Expert assistance of library professionals, help facilitateEducation, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, and Engagement for Everyone, Everywhere”

http://www.ala.org/offices/oitp/Es_of_libraries

Marc Gartler

mgartler@madisonpubliclibrary.org

@gliblib