Review of Handheld Librarian Online Conference VI
Posted on February 10, 2012 by Amy Chatfield | 2 Comments
Contributed by Stephanie Ballard, M.L.I.S., M.Ed.
Did you give or receive an iPad or Kindle as a holiday gift in December? If so, you’re in good company. Ownership of tablet computers and e-book readers almost doubled during last winter’s gift-giving season–from 10% to 19% of American adults. So this year’s Handheld Librarian conference was especially timely as we strive to provide even more services to library users on the go and on smaller screens. Lisa Marks hosted a remote broadcast at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where six attendees arrived early to share an educational and networking experience.
The conference featured an impressive group of information professionals and trend spotters who introduced an array of mobile applications and devices. The favored tablet overall seemed to be the iPad with Android running close behind. Librarians from Wayne State University shared their experience with roving reference using iPads. Presenters ran through lists of their pet productivity apps, most free for the download, for example, BlueFire was recommended as an e-reader app for iOS and Android. QR codes are still hot and several sessions focused on creative uses for it as well as its prettier cousin, the Microsoft color barcode. Because images are starting to eclipse text, included were photo-sharing sites such as Pinterest, a virtual pinboard or online archive.
One session I found especially intriguing was about Near Field Communication (NFC), presented by University of Scranton librarians. NFC is a 2-way RFID form of close-range wireless connection that lends itself to many uses. Instead of or in addition to QR codes, smart tags are embedded into smart posters for remote access to electronic advertisements–simply by holding a smartphone nearby–no clicking required. NFC customers can make contactless payment (including library fines) via apps like Google Wallet. A smartphone can serve as both personal identification and a virtual keycard. Users can share files, play games, and become Facebook friends by gently “bumping” their devices together. Mind-blowing stuff.
The boom in mobile devices underscores the need to “mobilize” our websites. In a session on WordPress, it was claimed there are 168 mobile plugins available to enhance basic websites, most of them open source. MobilePress was recommended highly for blogs as it provides analytics to track usage. But we were cautioned to select plugins judiciously and bypass flash that can be problematic for mobile devices. “Avoid bloated code!” is the watchword of the day.
Two keynote addresses helped us put all this technology in a larger context. Dr. Michael Stephens of San Jose State SLIS discussed realities of “continuous computing” and “connected classrooms”. He urged librarians to get onboard the check-in trend using social media (Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter) to curate the growing body of geospatial information generated and accessed by handheld users. Presumably this will keep us relevant to our always-connected clients who are blurring the lines between educational and personal internet use. My favorite slide in Dr. Stephens’ presentation was of a fetus holding a cell phone to its tiny ear in utero. In the second keynote, Steve Abram of Gale/Cengage offered up the goal of “frictionless access” to online content. Facilitating this for library users requires “staff upskilling” – perhaps a luxury with today’s shrunken professional development budgets. But I suppose that is the appeal of online conferences such as Handheld Librarian. The take-away from Abram’s presentation, a quote I imagine may attendees recorded, was “Play is a precursor to understanding.” Sounds like something over-worked librarians can get behind.
Keeping up with the fast-changing landscape of mobile communication requires more than a one-day annual conference. For current research reports, attendees were steered toward two websites: the Pew Internet and the Horizon Project from New Media Consortium. There are important issues about the internet’s long-term impact which were not addressed during the conference and that was my primary disappointment with it. I waited in vain for someone to mention the growing evidence that social media is rewiring our brains, shortening our attention spans and making it tougher to persevere through an entire monograph. Reading books is being replaced with browsing tweets and status updates. Information is being reduced to paragraph-length abstracts and bullet-point lists. Some observers believe the internet is making us stupid; others are resigned to the futility of trying to stem this tide. It would have been nice to hear a more balanced and critical view from the keynote speakers. Of the technologies discussed at this conference, it is probably social media that is of greatest interest to our users. Fortuitously, I checked my Facebook feed while writing this article and saw a relevant image I would like to share. It outlines some uses of various social media tools, coincidentally using Instagram, a photo-sharing application we learned about. Have a peek: http://instagr.am/p/nm695/
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February 10th, 2012 @ 3:13 pm
Great summary, Stephanie…I very much enjoyed it, and benefited as well!
February 11th, 2012 @ 4:06 pm
Stephanie,
From someone who didn’t go to the conference, thanks for letting me in on a bit of what you found most useful and memorable.