Caribbean Connector: SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference

Thursday, July 17, 2008

SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference

Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN) Future Of Libraries Conference held on July 16 in Davie, Florida provided topics of interest for everyone. Here is a summary of two of the sessions I attended:

Keynote speaker Meredith Farkas (author of the blog Information Wants to be Free) focused on Riding the Shift: Organization 2.0 and the Future of Libraries, giving instructional advice to libraries wishing to ride the web 2.0 wave and build a 2.0 organization:

Know your users

Develop a learning culture

Question everything

Develop a risk-tolerant culture

Be agile

Give staff time for creative endeavors

Collect knowledge internally

Be transparent

Build networks

Acknowledge that good ideas can come from anyone and anywhere

Involve staff from all levels in planning

Nurture talent

George Pearson (Librarian, Florida International University) gave an insightful presentation on the future of the OPAC or as he noted in his introduction the alternate title: The OPAC Sucks. In a web 2.0 environment which allows Users Interaction, Collaboration, and Content Creation a revamped OPAC, readily attracting constant usage by a tech savvy clientele should have all of the following elements:

easy to use

interactive and fun

a place for one stop shopping for all of the libraries' resources (print, AV, electronic, digital)

Some ILS vendors have responded positively to the pressure to create these so called next generation OPACs with integrated web 2.0 functionalities. Pearson highlighted the implementation of the Endeca-driven OPAC prototype at the State University Libraries of Florida which has the following features: