Archive for the ‘Change & Innovation’ Category

While I was at LegalTech on Monday, I had a chance to attend a session titled “Talking Tech to Lawyers” which could have easily been titled “Talking Tech to Faculty” or “Talking Tech to Library Decision Makers”. The panel was made up of three CIO’s at law firms who gave some pretty solid advice on ways to build relationships for support of IT initiatives. Bob Dolinsky of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Terry Pressley of Leonard Street and Deinard, and C. Kirk Scruggs from Bracewell & Giuliani LLP offered the following advice.

“You can’t build support sitting in your office”.

1. Have a service attitude.
2. Talk in terms of their businesses rather than the technology, in other words how will the technology help them solve their problems.
3. Express what’s involved in a technology rollout so that they are aware of how much needs to be coordinated in an initiative.
4. Don’t use technology terms.
5. Don’t argue with the attorneys.
6. Realize that the younger, more tech savvy attorneys will want to know more about the technology and it’s okay to talk with them about it.
7. Make yourself visible through periodic user group meetings, committee meetings, etc.
8. Be your own marketing department spinning positive accomplishments and letting people know what’s going on.
9. Start early in your communications if you have a rollout approaching, don’t catch people by surprise.
10. Always be prepared to answer these two questions…Why should they? and What’s in it for them?
11. Be knowledgeable about what other firms are doing with tech.
12. Be sure to align your initiatives with the firm’s core values.
13. Never say no to decision makers, always give them options.
14. Realize that early training is very important prior to a major implementation.
15. Have a decision maker, such as a managing partner send out the email announcement about a new tech rollout so that it won’t be ignored.
16. Manage expectations of decision makers, let them know what you’re doing, what the key steps are, the main issues or concerns, and when everything will happen.
17. Make your email communications visually appealing, succinct, and understandable with tech language in layman’s terms.
18. Work one on one with attorneys to build relationships.
19. Find out what decision makers’ pain points are and try to fix them.
20. Keep educated about what’s going on in your tech community by attending conferences, reading white papers, etc.

Andrea Fleck-Nisbet gives A Publisher’s Perspective on Ebooks in the latest issue of American Libraries. This is an insightful look at the digital revolution from the viewpoint of the publishing business.

“Although the possibilities for producing interactive ebooks and apps are now seemingly endless, resources for most publishers are limited and the market has been slow to keep pace with our enthusiasm for creating these new products. One of our biggest challenges today is deciding where to focus our time and energy as the digital landscape evolves and the consumer’s needs change. At Workman Publishing, we have always made it a priority to produce high-quality book content at retail prices that are friendly to readers. We must now figure out how to remain true to that mission while broadening our scope from creators of books to creators of content in multiple formats. This issue is only exacerbated from an operational perspective by constantly changing file formats and metadata specs, all of which need to be customized to some degree for each vendor.”

Alan S. Inouye writes for American Libraries about The Revolution Isn’t Just Digital. This thought-provoking piece talks about how libraries must reassess their missions, learn to share control, and start to take action to redefine old paradigms.

“The digital revolution in libraries is not exactly a secret. Every day we read about some upheaval in the ebook industry, a new development in digitization, or yet another service from Google. And the recent announcement of an ALA-wide initiative on digital content and libraries, while important and necessary, won’t exactly make media headlines.

It is natural enough to focus on digital content, whiz-bang technology, and how libraries should provide innovative services for our communities. Yet there is more going on than meets the digital eye.”

The folks at It’s Not About the Books write about the Return of the Coffeehouse: How to turn your library into an ideas factory. This is a thought-provoking article about yet another innovative role libraries can play today.

“Throughout history libraries have been highly effective as what we might call idea storehouses. Universities and schools have been highly effective as idea communicators. But, particularly at a time when many are questioning the relevance of libraries (thinking in terms of the ‘storehouse’ model), might we develop libraries further as idea factories? The place you go to generate ideas in the first place?”

Jon Kalish at NPR reports that Libraries Make Room For High-Tech ‘Hackerspaces’. This interesting article describes how some public libraries are creating cutting-edge technology spaces equipped with 3D printers and sophisticated, computer-controlled power tools as DIY techie spaces.

“As information becomes more digital, public libraries are striving to redefine their roles. A small number are working to create “hackerspaces,” where do-it-yourselfers share sophisticated tools and their expertise…

“We see the library as not being in the book business, but being in the learning business and the exploration business and the expand-your-mind business,” he says. “We feel this is really in that spirit, that we provide a resource to the community that individuals would not be able to have access to on their own.”"

Dan Messer at Not All Bits writes about Things To Do – Completely Transform the Library. This insightful post talks about the direction the field is taking in the digital age and how we can remain relevant as a profession.

“So transformation is not only desirable, but one hundred percent necessary. Now we come to the next question: Are we ready? Some ideas about what we could do to enhance our services and further that transformation came up in comments and through conversations. Here’s a short list…”

Not only was this article thought-provoking, but it had Star Trek: The Next Generation references included in it, which adds bonus points as far as I’m concerned, so be sure and check it out!

via AL Direct

Art: John Hersey

Carolyn Duffy Marsan at Network World discusses predictions from leading research labs which point to a future of talking machines, 3-D telepresence and real-world robotics in 25 ways IT will morph in the next 25 years.

“Imagine a world where the computers, networks and storage systems are all tens of thousands of times faster than they are today — and then think about the sci-fi type of applications that will be possible.”

According to Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, By 2015, More Than 50 Percent of Organizations That Manage Innovation Processes Will Gamify Those Processes. This is an exciting prediction that will be explored further at the upcoming Enterprise Architecture Summit 2011 in London and San Diego. The press release goes on to suggest that gamified services “for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon”.

“Gamification describes the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change,” said Brian Burke, an analyst at Gartner. “Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization.”

via Peter Alsbjer

Joshua Kim at Inside Higher Ed posits that Librarians Are the Future of Ed Tech. In this thought-provoking article, Kim suggests five reasons why the “future of campus computing belongs to the librarians and the libraries”.

1. Reason 1 – Service Orientation
2. Reason 2 – Strong Relationships
3. Reason 3 – Multilingualism
4. Reason 4 – Technology Experience
5. Reason 5 – Collegiality

The folks at the University of Phoenix Blog have gathered the Top 10 “Big Ideas” in Education. This succinct article discusses the most innovative trends having an impact on education today. Here are the ten ideas examined in the full post:

1. Teaching to Understand, Not Just to Memorize
2. Students Grading Teachers
3. Free Education
4. Supplemental Courses
5. Shifting Routines
6. Sleeping In
7. Educating the Individual
8. Studying Smarter
9. Considering Brain Function
10. Encouraging Creativity

Aliza Sherman at GigaOm raises some valid concerns in her recent article What’s Wrong With Facebook’s New Profiles. Are the new profile pages doing too much to blend the personal and the professional? Please share your thoughts in the comments! Here are some of the issues she discusses:

• Tagged photos take center stage.
• Work info gets pushed to the top.
• Educational info gets pushed to the top.
• “Send message” button is to the right.
• “Friends in common” is gone.

Facebook is introducing some major changes to user’s profile pages. Jon Swartz at USA TODAY reports that Facebook Makes Member Profiles More Personal. The new look, first rolled out to half a million users, was aired during a 60 Minutes feature yesterday on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

via Robin Fay

Dona Collins at Technorati writes about The Rise of Online Colleges and Online Education. This useful article discusses:

• Popularity of Online Degrees
• Online Colleges vs. Traditional Colleges
• The Benefits of Online Classes
• What to Expect From Online Classes

James Leynse for The New York Times
Martin K. Foys, a medievalist at Drew University in Madison, N.J., created a digital map of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Patricia Cohen at the New York Times writes about A Digital Key for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches. This engaging article explores how digital humanities scholars are using data and conducting research in the information age.

“Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism” and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have.”

via Gerry McKiernan

Image Credit: Matt McLoone for The Wall Street Journal

Conor Dougherty at the Wall Street Journal reports that New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians. This is an interesting article about innovative “express” libraries that deliver books and media to library patrons while reducing labor costs.

“HUGO, Minn.—In this suburb of St. Paul, the new library branch has no librarians, no card catalog and no comfortable chairs in which to curl up and read. Instead, the Library Express is a stack of metal lockers outside city hall. When patrons want a book or DVD, they order it online and pick it up from a digitally locked, glove-compartment- sized cubby a few days later. It’s a library as conceived by the Amazon.com generation.”