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I attended three sessions on Saturday, June 28, 2008: Kids and Ever-Cool: Find Them Together at Your Library (1030-1200), Metadata Mashup: Creating and Publishing Application Profiles (1330-1430), and Science Fiction and Fantasy: Looking at Information Technology and the Information Rights of the Individual (1600-1730).

Kids and Ever-Cool: Find Them Together at Your Library

Gene Del Vecchio

The main speaker in this program was Gene Del Vecchio, author of such nonfiction works as Creating Ever-Cool: A Marketer’s Guide to a Kid’s Heart (1997), The Blockbuster Toy: How to Invent the Next Big Thing (2003), and young adult fiction like The Pearl of Anton (2004), and The Sword of Anton (2006). He has been in the business for 25 years, and his clients include such brands as Disney, Mattel, and Nestle. (“How many of you played with Barbie? I sold that to you!”)

The purpose of his lecture was to encourage children’s libraries to create a logo or brand that is as strong as McDonald’s golden arches or Target’s bulls-eye while making it cool and successfully fulfilling a basic emotional need. A formula for success at the library, Del Vecchio claims, is to satisfy a timeless emotional need and dress it up in a current trend or fad (while updating periodically). Here are some examples of brands that fulfill a basic emotional need:

• cereal that makes a child feel like a winner: Wheaties
• fashion doll stands for beauty: Barbie
• fashion doll stands for rebellion: Bratz
• yogurt that gives children control: Sprinkl’ins
• stuffed animal that gives children a sense of empowerment: Build-A-Bear
• candy that makes children feel brave: Warheads
• cereal that is about sensory gratification: Rice Krispies

One particularly striking part of his presentation involved his presentation of user needs survey results, wherein children provided their opinions on what would make a library better or cool. Some of those results were in the form of pictures, like one that had an ice cream stand, bean bag chairs, and music playing, with a very small corner of the room for books; another child had drawn a separate room for listening to music. Most of the children came to a general consensus: they wanted their libraries to adapt to what they were used to and expected. They wanted Barnes & Noble in their libraries. (more…)

My experience at last year’s ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, was guided by the 2 credit course I took with Scott Nicholson, IST 600: Leadership and Organizations. Scott gave us some tips and required us to meet with a leader in the field at the conference. I met with Sari Feldman, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library, who has since been elected PLA vice-president.

Another perk of having taken that course in preparation for the ALA Annual Conference was that hotel accommodations were included with participation in the course.

Friday, June 22

I got to the hotel later than expected. There was a mix up from either the university or the hotel, but all was well 20 minutes later. One thing I didn’t do, as others suggest as well, is to check hotel reservations prior to arriving.

When I arrived, I met my roommate, Dawn Cadogan, shortly after making it to my room. We went to the Washington Convention Center via the metro to get our badge holders (and Dawn’s badge).

Welcome to Washington, DC!

When we got there, we discovered that many, many, many people had the same idea. It was crowded, but the lines moved quickly. There must’ve been hundreds of people ahead of me, but it took less than 15 minutes to get to the head of the line. Once I got there, I was greeted warmly and taken care of quickly.

By that point, it was already late and we were hungry. We entertained the thought of going to the Film and Libraries program, but our hunger won out. Near the registration booths, Dawn, her coworker, and I found another booth we put to great use. ALA offered dining suggestions. We asked the lady behind the booth where we could find good food at decent prices, and we were directed towards Chinatown. (It was really helpful as none of us knew our way around DC.)

We went out to eat at Tony Cheng’s in Chinatown (right near the Convention Center), and by the time we were done, it was too late for the film program. We wandered around Chinatown for a while and then came back to our hotel. (more…)

Background

One early morning in mid-December 2007, Joe Osborn and I were inspired. I recently completed a course on human-computer interaction, and the gears in my mind were turning. How could we design a library game for children?

Our ideas quickly accumulated as we ate breakfast. The game would aim to:

• recommend media based on preferences (keywords, subjects, reading levels, previously borrowed materials, data-mining a la Amazon.com, etc.)
• easily guide the patrons to the physical locations of their desired materials
• present the library organization to children in their terms (through exciting technology)
• provide a means to take the library home, allowing access from remote locations

Privacy Concerns

During our conversation that morning, we discussed the potential threats to intellectual freedom. Especially in the time of the PATRIOT ACT, libraries should be, and are often, wary of collecting information about their patrons. However, there are ways in which the information can be stored via this game/service. The catalog should be online, in order to allow for more frequent updates and access to OCLC. As an online service, the site should be secure (https://) with encrypted data.

Goals

This service is still in the early planning stages, but it aims to provide support to a generation very different from the ones before it. Children today and tomorrow will be internet natives, used to, and expecting, flashy interfaces and ease-of-use. The library must work to prove itself valuable in the lives of these children, providing them with the easiest and most efficient access to all the appropriate materials available to them.

The catalog game must be:

• intuitive; easy to use
• highly interactive and fun!
• interesting through its dynamic elements
• useful in aiding children learn how to use the library
• in their terms, through the use of avatars and creative environment design