http://www.against-the-grain.com/2015/06/comparing-college-student-and-instructor-perceptions-on-libraries-and-research/ Stephen

Providing Excellent Customer Service by Jane Dysart On our newest Symposium at the University of Toronto iSchool Providing excellent customer service and delighting the customer is the top of mind for me lately.  At Computers in Libraries 2015 keynote speakers emphasized delighting the customer.  You can read more about their presentations & see the videos: Steve Denning, Author, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management Blog Post: http://www.libconf.com/2015/04/27/continuous-innovation-and-transformation-the-opening-keynote/ Video (you can skip the promo at the beginning!):http://www.libconf.com/2015/04/27/continuous-innovation-and-transformation-the-opening-keynote/ John Palfrey, Head of School, Phillips Academy, Board President of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) & Author, BiblioTECH: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google Blog Post: http://www.libconf.com/2015/04/28/creating-a-new-nostalgia-the-tuesday-keynote/ Video: http://computersinlibraries.infotoday.com/2015/Video.aspx But why is customer service or delighting the customer so important?  Customer service fosters a good relationship between customers and the organization and leads to keeping or engaging those customers.  Without customers there is no business or support in the case of non-profits like libraries.  Reducing a customer’s stress, giving them a pleasant customer experience, and providing information that can solve their problem is all important to keep positive customer satisfaction (the overall contentment with a customer interaction).  Excellent customer service involves providing outstanding service that meets (or exceeds) the customer’s expectations — it delights the customer.  Excellent customer service also includes having a great attitude and being people centered or customers focused.  So in addition to knowing your customer really well, and understanding their true expectations (making no assumptions), what do you need for good customer service? Develop the skills to be successful Assess the current level of customer service (customer satisfaction surveys, secret shoppers for example) Empower empl0yees to make decisions to benefit customers Use technology & current information systems to provide excellent customer service Continuous examination of individual & organization performance — self-awareness! Libraries have a leg up with customer service as they are known as credible institutions, but one bad customer experience can change that perception and encourage that customer to tell others.  How often have you told your network about bad customer experiences you have had?  How often have you told a positive customer experience story? I’m very excited that the University of Toronto iSchool is hosting a symposium on Customer Service For Libraries: Upping Our Game! on Thursday & Friday July 16 & 17.  It will be covering the importance of customer service, how to listen to and understand the customer and their expectations, how to start customer service initiatives, the new technology that helps improve customer service, as well experiences of libraries with successful customer service programs and their impact. Stephen

Video: Webinar by Authors of the New Book "Library Linked Data in the Cloud" Via Gary Price at LJ InfoDocket http://www.infodocket.com/2015/06/20/video-webinar-by-authors-of-the-new-book-library-linked-data-in-the-cloud/ "Here’s a webinar by three members of the OCLC Research team and and the authors of a the new book, Library Linked Data in the Cloud: OCLC’s Experiments with New Models of Resource Description. The webinar was recorded on May 21, 2015 and made available on YouTube yesterday. It runs about one hour. About the Book (via OCLC) Written by OCLC Research staff members Carol Jean Godby, Shenghui Wang and Jeffrey K. Mixter, the book focuses on the conceptual and technical challenges involved in publishing linked data derived from traditional library metadata. This transformation is urgent, the book maintains, because it is common knowledge that most searches for information start not in a library, or even in a Web-accessible library catalog, but elsewhere on the Internet. Modeling data in a form that the broader Web understands may help keep libraries relevant in the network environment. In the book, the authors explain how the new Web is a growing "cloud" of interconnected resources that identify the people, places, things and concepts that people want to know about when they approach the Internet with an information need. They also explain why linked data is an appropriate architecture for the description of library resources. "This work represents significant contributions OCLC is making with library linked data," said Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC Vice President, Research and Chief Strategist. "Our researchers are participating in the development of Web standards for machine-understandable data, contributing to the debate on how the key values of librarianship are represented in linked data techniques, and publishing some of the most widely used linked data enabled authoritative hubs in the library community." Library Linked Data in the Cloud: OCLC’s Experiments with New Models of Resource Description http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/2015/oclcresearch-library-linked-data-in-the-cloud.html by Carol Jean Godby, Shenghui Wang and Jeffrey K. Mixter "This book describes OCLC’s efforts to help increase the visibility of library collections on the Web through the creation of library linked data—moving from a web of documents to a web of data. It focuses on the conceptual and technical challenges involved in publishing linked data derived from traditional library metadata and aims to achieve a balanced treatment of theory, technical detail, and practical application." Stephen

The Best-Sellers Lists Explained (video) http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/06/13/the-best-sellers-lists-explained-video/ "Did you ever wonder why certain titles got on to the various best sellers lists? If you suspected that there was an evil cabal secretly manipulating the list then you would be correct. As Studio C explains, books are added to the list not due to merit or sales but by a committee that is acting to its own ends. Mwahaha."   Stephen

Global Wearable Device Market Share http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-6-billion-fitbit-really-needs-to-worry-about-2015-6 Stephen  

Fortune: 9 things you can do every day to be more productive http://fortune.com/2015/06/13/ryan-harwood-productivity-tips/ "Skip the meetings Meetings are great for brainstorming and face-to-face interaction, except when they’re not. Go to the meetings you need to go to (and be present, don’t look at your phone). But skip the ones where a trusted colleague can easily speak or take notes on your behalf. Take a break outside It sounds counterintuitive when your day is jam-packed, but try to make time to get outside at least once during your workday, even if the weather is bad, or if it’s only for five minutes. It’s like hitting the "reset" button on your brain. A brisk walk around the block (sans email or texting) can instantly refresh your perspective and creativity. For instance, I schedulewalking meetings with our editor-in-chief, which have spurred some of our best ideas for the business. Keep a tidy desktop By this I mean both your computer’s desktop and youractual desktop. If you know where things are, you won’t waste valuable time searching for them. A tidy desk means a tidy mind, and a tidy mind is better prepared to handle the chaos of a busy day. Start your day early Get into work early and schedule one to two hours with zero interruptions. This gives you a set time to get through emails and complete outstanding to-dos. In return, this will open up time during the day for meetings, and other unplanned requests. Never be a bottleneck Your team’s productivity is reflective of your own. Always make sure you’re giving them what they need to get their work done, before focusing on your own projects. Always over communicate Whether you are asking if you can skip a meeting or what the highest priorityy on your to-do list should be, asking rather than assuming helps avoid wasting time that could have been spent elsewhere. Turn your phone on silent Oh, the horror! You will survive—I promise. I keep my phone on silent all day (except for actual phone calls in case of an emergency) and only look to answer texts and social media requests when I have free time. If you are constantly being distracted by the buzz and ping of alerts, you’re not going to get anything done. Live and breathe by your calendar Find a calendar app that you love and use it to schedule just about anything. This way, you’ll always know the amount of time you have throughout the day to work on projects, attend meetings, etc. One of our editors swears by the app, Sunrise because it also syncs with a bunch of other apps, like Foursquare, LinkedIn LNKD -0.44% and Facebook FB -1.32% . Limit your direct reports Too many direct reports, actually leads to no direct reports. Meaning, you won’t have time for any of them if you’re trying to make time for all of them. I try to limit my direct reports to five, so I have ample time to fit in one-on-ones and understand the challenges across the business." Stephen

How to Exponentially Increase Your Influence "Leaders frequently make miscalculations in trying to influence change. Too often, they bet on a single source of influence rather than tap into a diverse arsenal of strategies. Our research shows that the main variable in success or failure is not which sources of influence leaders choose. By far, the more important factor is how many." Read more at http://www.business2community.com/leadership/exponentially-increase-influence-01254554#fUCJ4OWtj6f3MP25.99 Stephen

Which Popular Twitter Type Are You: Curator, Promoter or Social Butterfly? http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/which-popular-twitter-type-are-you-curator-promoter-or-social-butterfly/622188 "With 302 million monthly active users sending half a billion tweets per day, you can bet that there are personalities of all types on Twitter. Some, however, are more popular than others, as people tend to group together in how they tweet. So which one of these three popular Twitter types are you?" 1. Curator 2. Promoter 3. Social Butterfly Stephen

7 Steps To A Truly Effective Leadership Style https://princecornwall.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/7-steps-to-a-truly-effective-leadership-style/ By Rebecca Hourston "If you’ve ever been led by a Mushroom (everyone’s in the dark), a Seagull (swoops in, squawks and dumps), or a Kipper (two-faced and gutless), you’ll be all too aware of the leadership style you don’t want to be known for." Style and Substance The substance of what you do—the result you deliver—is pretty fundamental in today’s economy. But working on the way that you do it is what will launch you into a different sphere of success altogether—even if you already count yourself as pretty successful. The leadership style you choose to use (and yes, to a great extent, it is an active choice you can make) has a direct impact on the result you achieve. It is what makes you memorable to others and fulfilled within yourself. Redefining What’s "Best" So what can you do to develop your own leadership style into one that will be highly prized? Here are seven steps to selecting the best leadership style, with tips for putting those steps into action. 1. Be Bold 2. Be Strengths-Savvy 3. Stretch Your Leadership Style 4. Be "Going Somewhere" 5. Be Follower-Focused 6. Be Balanced 7. Be True to You Read the rest: https://princecornwall.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/7-steps-to-a-truly-effective-leadership-style/ Stephen

College Students and Instructors on Library Use: Infographic http://blog.cengage.com/college-students-and-instructors-on-library-use-infographic/ Stephen

How Public Libraries Help Development Earlier this year IFLA asked its Sections to look closer on how their profession furthers development and how the work they do supports the principles set out in the Lyon Declaration. The responses received clearly show the essential role libraries play in furthering development on every level. These are now available on the IFLA web site. In our response the Public Libraries Section drew on examples from 11 countries across 5 continents to demonstrate the role that public libraries play in supporting development through access to information. Take the time to look at our response and those of other IFLA Sections and stay abreast of this important conversation.

How Long It Takes Kids to Read Popular Books http://www.personalcreations.com/blog/how-long-it-takes-kids-to-read-popular-books "Reading with your kids is proven to build healthier relationships, improve basic reading skills and entrench them in imaginary experiences. Not to mention, it’s a great way to share in the enjoyment of your favorite childhood books. But when your child comes home with a reading assignment or grabs a new favorite book at the library, have you ever wondered how long it’ll take for them to finish? Taking the average reading speed based on the grade level appropriate for each book, we calculated how long it would take kids to tackle more than 50 popular children’s books. From literary classics like The Velveteen Rabbit and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to 21st century favorites like Harry Potter, use this to help you figure out how long storytime needs to be. Is your kid not yet in the fourth grade? Scroll to the bottom of this graphic to see the average words per minute for all elementary school grades based on academic fluency standards." "What about my seven year old? Wondering where your child falls in this list? Follow the fluency standards for elementary grades 1 - 6 below and you can quickly calculate how long it’ll take your eager reader. This doesn’t account for reading comprehension, only speed, so remember to ask questions and encourage your child to enjoy what they’re reading. Grade 1: 50 words per minute (wpm) Grade 2: 70 wpm Grade 3: 100 wpm Grade 4: 130 wpm Grade 5: 140 wpm Grade 6: 160 wpm After picking out the reading nook, get your kids excited about reading by gifting them their own personalized storybook." Stephen

This Graphic Teaches You the Basic Elements of Good Design http://lifehacker.com/this-graphic-teaches-you-the-basic-elements-of-good-des-1712495703 10 Basic Elements of Design | Creative Market Stephen

Public libraries have needed this website and app for a long time.   Your library supports a lot of online gaming but most have a whole lot of other board games that don’t require a computer - from chess to Monopoly through Dungeons and Dragons any strategy game your heart desires.  Sometimes it for the teens and other times it supports adult programs.  Choosing which games to buy and support is difficult and this website isn’t supported by paid recommendations but by the honest and professional reviews and perspectives of a board game enthusiast.  It was tested with years of experience at one of Toronto’s amazing Board Game coffee houses, Snakes and Lattes.  They know their stuff! So, check it out and learn more about board games and dream about events at your library. (I’ll let you in on a secret (shhh).  The developer is an avid board game enthusiast and amazing expert who comes by this service development honestly. His dad developed games and his mom is a celebrated Canadian librarian!) Here’s his press release. Your Board Game Sommelier Has Arrived June 29, 2015 Toronto, ON - As tabletop games continue to grow in popularity, more and more board game cafés are opening to cater to demand. The best ones have specialized staff who can make personal recommendations for you. These game sommeliers don’t just pull titles randomly from a list of the "best" games or select an arbitrary category like "party games" or "strategy games." They listen to their guests, and use what they hear to figure out what’s going to work for them. Which leaves everyone else out in the cold if they can’t get to a place like that… except now there’s an app for it. One of the game experts at a beloved Toronto game café has spent years developing an online board game recommendation service. The web app at www.pick-a-game.com has just launched, and it’s probably the closest thing you can get to that sommelier experience without going there yourself. For a quick recommendation with as little fuss as possible, the app’s "quick pick" is what you want. If you’re willing to go a little deeper, you can take a quiz and get more accurate picks, along with some psychological insight via games. Or you can also just say "I like Scrabble and Scattergories," and get recommendations based on that. Veteran players can use it to find games to introduce to their neophyte friends, and the neophytes can confidently explore beyond the games they know from childhood. The web app is free, and it gives a better experience than you’re likely to find at many game stores. A mobile-optimized version is in development, and there’s video content coming soon as well. About the creators The web app was created by a father-and-son team. Jonathan Moriarity has spent the last five years as a game guru at Snakes & Lattes, Toronto’s celebrated board game café. He’s also been a game designer, developer, art director, rules writer, and retailer. His father Michael Moriarity has been designing and implementing software since the ancient times before the IBM PC. He lives in Hamilton. Contact To find out more about Pick-A-Game, visit www.pick-a-game.com or write to jmoriarity@gmail.com   Stephen

Educate to Innovate: Factors That Influence Innovation: Based on Input from Innovators and Stakeholders (2015) Via Gary Price at Full Text Reports http://fulltextreports.com/2015/06/28/educate-to-innovate-factors-that-influence-innovation-based-on-input-from-innovators-and-stakeholders-2015/  Educate to Innovate: Factors That Influence Innovation: Based on Input from Innovators and Stakeholders (2015) Source: National Academy of Engineering "Robust innovation in the United States is key to a strong and competitive industry and workforce. Efforts to improve the capacity of individuals and organizations to innovate must be a high national priority to ensure that the United States remains a leader in the global economy. How is the United States preparing its students and workers to innovate and excel? What skills and attributes need to be nurtured? The aim of the Educate to Innovate project is to expand and improve the innovative capacity of individuals and organizations by identifying critical skills, attributes, and best practices - indeed, cultures - for nurturing them. The project findings will enable educators in industry and at all levels of academia to cultivate the next generation of American innovators and thus ensure that the U.S. workforce remains highly competitive in the face of rapid technological changes. Educate to Innovate summarizes the keynote and plenary presentations from a workshop convened in October 2013. The workshop brought together innovators and leaders from various fields to share insights on innovation and its education. This report continues on to describe the specific skills, experiences, and environments that contribute to the success of innovators, and suggests next steps based on discussion from the workshop." Stephen

NMC AND COSN RELEASE THE NMC HORIZON REPORT > 2015 K-12 EDITION http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc-and-cosn-release-the-nmc-horizon-report-2015-k-12-edition/ "The NMC and CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 K-12 Edition in a special session at the annual ISTE Conference. This edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in K-12 education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving school leaders, educational technologists, and teachers a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The format of the report provides in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice. "The NMC Horizon Report > 2-15 K-12 Edition stimulates crucial conversations about what trends and challenges are influencing the adoption of forward-thinking strategies in schools throughout the world," says Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the NMC. "In this year’s edition, we found that an increasing number of schools are incorporating online learning through blended learning models, allowing learners to accelerate at their own pace. Creativity and the integration of making are also key themes that have recently come to the forefront in K-12 learning." "This year’s report is the result of a rewarding long-term effort between CoSN and the NMC to keep the discussion regarding technology in schools accurate and flourishing," notes Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. "At CoSN, we tackle some of the greatest challenges facing schools today. The NMC Horizon Report has become a fundamental reference for us as we decipher the trends that are shaping the complex landscape of K-12 education." Key Trends Accelerating K-12 Education Technology Adoption The NMC Horizon Report > 2015 K-12 Edition identifies the "Increasing Use of Blended Learning" and "Rise of STEAM Learning" as short-term impact trends accelerating the adoption of educational technology in K-12 education over the next one to two years. The "Increasing Use of Collaborative Learning Approaches" and the "Shift from Students as Consumers to Creators" are mid-term impact trends expected to drive technology use in the next three to five years; meanwhile, "Rethinking How Schools Work" and "Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches" are long-term trends, anticipated to impact institutions for the next five years or more. Significant Challenges Impeding K-12 Technology Adoption A number of challenges are acknowledged as barriers to the mainstream use of technology in schools. "Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities" and "Integrating Technology in Teacher Education" are perceived as solvable challenges — those which we both understand and know how to solve. "Rethinking the Roles of Teachers" and "Personalizing Learning" are considered difficult challenges, which are defined and well understood but with solutions that are elusive. Described as wicked challenges are "Scaling Teaching Innovations" and "Teaching Complex Thinking," which are complex to define, much less to address. Important Developments in Educational Technology for K-12 Education Additionally, the report identifies bring your own device (BYOD) and makerspaces as digital strategies and technologies expected to enter mainstream use in the near-term horizon of one year or less. 3D printing and adaptive learning technologies are seen in the mid-term horizon of two to three years; digital badges and wearable technology are seen emerging in the far-term horizon of four to five years. The subject matter in this report was identified through a qualitative research process designed and conducted by the NMC that engaged an international body of experts in K-12 schools, technology, business, and other fields around a set of research questions designed to surface significant trends and challenges and to identify emerging technologies with a strong likelihood of adoption in K-12 education. The NMC Horizon Report > 2015 K-12 Edition details the areas in which these experts were in strong agreement. The NMC Horizon Report > 2015 K-12 Edition is available online, free of charge, and is released under a Creative Commons license to facilitate its widespread use, easy duplication, and broad distribution. > Download the Report (PDF)" Stephen

The top trends shaping the face of cloud services by 2020 "A Gartner analyst claims many firms will lose their market positions through digital incompetence in the next few years - but understanding the future of technology will swing this around." http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-top-trends-shaping-the-face-of-cloud-services-by-2020/#ftag=RSSbaffb68 "1. Cloud has become the platform for the next transition 2. By 2017, 75 percent of IT organizations will have a bimodel capability — and half will make a mess trying to maintain this balance 3. Digital business incompetence will cause a quarter of organizations to lose their market position by 2017 4. The Internet of Things (IoT) will be the driving force behind business and technological change for the foreseeable future 5. The most important, disruptive thing in the cloud market today is not actually technology — but rather the customer" Stephen

How Users Search and Discover: User Scenarios By Christine Stohn, Senior Product Manager, Discovery & Delivery, Ex Libris http://initiatives.exlibrisgroup.com/2015/06/how-users-search-and-discover-user.html "Last time, you will recall, I described how Ex Libris user studies were designed to provide a better understanding of users’ discovery needs, by placing their search scenarios in their real-world context.  During the collection and analysis of a wide range of user case studies, three core discovery concepts repeatedly appeared in our user scenarios: Search and find Exploration Learning Personalization In this post, I’m looking at these concepts in the context of two different scenarios that I see as fairly representative of various classes of users." Stephen

How to Motivate Yourself to Do Virtually Anything [Article] - See more at: http://www.99smartideas.com/blog/how-to-motivate-yourself#sthash.kLOA89C3.dpuf Stephen

Reading Research Infographic Our friends at CBC Books helped us turn our research into this handy, shareable infographic. http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca/research/reading-research-infographic/   Stephen

Cloud Computing [July/August 2015] http://www.kmworld.com/Archives/WhitePaperPreviewIssue.aspx?IssueID=5403 Download PDF   "Grasping For The Cloud The cloud is gathering. There have been several baby steps leading up to now. ASPs (application service providers) opened the door to off-site, provided service that allowed organizations to off-board certain IT functions to a data center somewhere off site. Typically, the organization owned the licenses for the applications; the data center simply stored and maintained them and provided a grade-of-service that was usually negotiated in advance . . . . Top Three Differences between Enterprise and Consumer Clouds The cloud has been a boon to people and businesses that enjoy its convenience, agility and flexibility. But increasingly, corporate users are choosing the cloud applications they use without involving IT, and often without understanding the issues that can result when critical corporate information is shared through consumer cloud applications. . . . Why KM in the Cloud May Be Right for You Why KM in the Cloud May Be Right for You Deploying knowledge management (KM) in the cloud might be the right strategy if your organization is looking to further expand into digital services for customer engagement. It might also be the best strategy if your current system is three versions behind and you are concerned about the high upgrade costs. But, how do you know for sure? Let’s take a look at some of the business benefits of cloud KM. A few distinct advantages are unique to deploying cloud KM . . . ." Stephen

Infographic: The History of Science Fiction http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/06/29/infographic-the-history-of-science-fiction/ You can buy this as a print. At 40″ by 22″ it is not a large poster, but it is an expensive one.  It costs $44.   click to embiggen

COMMUNITY-LED WORK IN PRACTICE https://clacommunityled.wordpress.com/2015/06/29/series-roundup-community-led-work-in-practice/ "One of the CLA Community-Led Library Service Network’s goals for 2014-2015 was to create a series of posts exploring aspects of community-led work, providing an opportunity to share information about the work being done in Canadian libraries and offering useful information and ideas to others in an accessible and readable format. To date, Network members have contributed eight posts as part of our Community-Led Work in Practice: Experiences from Canadian Libraries series. Laura Young wrote about Edmonton Public Libraries’ epl2go, a mobile service providing communities with library services when access to a traditional library branch is limited. In Let the Community Lead, Andrea Cecchetto and Leah Rucchetto shared Markham Public Library’s experience using a community-led approach in developing their strategic plan. Rejuvenating library service in a rural community through community engagement was the focus of a post by Amanda Fullerton and Sara Gillis of Halifax Public Libraries. John Pateman of Thunder Bay Public Library contributed a series of posts on developing a community led strategy, staff and service structures, systems, and service culture. PDF versions of these posts, and a lengthy list of other community-led resources, are available on the Network website’s Resources page." https://clacommunityled.wordpress.com/resources/ Stephen

2015 Internet Trends Report - Simplified & Designed http://www.slideshare.net/TimG1/internettrends-final?ref=https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/49889255 KPCB 2015 Internet Trends Report - Simplified & Designed. from Stinson   Stephen