Stephen Abram, keynote:
Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Markets for Cengage Learning
Slides available at Stephen's Lighthouse blog
Reading is up, we're selling more books than ever, we are smarter than ever in history....It's the best time to be libraries. We have done some pretty awesome stuff. This “crap” is actually want we want.
Times are changing, but are we ready for the future? Yes! We DO change. We make the change happen. I want kids to learn more, I want society to be better, but I want it all to be balanced. How do we make this all work? He said yesterday they announced the end of CD-rom at the end of 2013. Are we ready for this? Basically, all the phone companies are moving to smart phones. All this stuff.....is what we want!
A lot of it comes down to Strategic Choice. Are there too many choices? We are at the point where can adapt and what we have to adapt to. We need to do it in a way where we have to seduce people into what we do.
He showed a picture of Chanel No. 5. Do we describe is as “smelly yellow liquid” or “sex appeal.” What do we pay the $100 a bottle for? He asked why we aren't telling the good stories where libraries change lives? Why are we telling the story of the crappy customer? We never know the little things we do, or talk to the kid who doesn't have anyone else.
Tell stories of transformations, not transactions.
What do WE add in value when all the books are out there? We need to look at the user experience and decide the difference we make in people's lives. We need the foundation, but we are selling the DIFFERENCE we make in people's lives. How do we make that gap?
What is the experience you seek to create in your library?
Academic libraries: There are 295 ways to do citations and we're not going to tell you what professor likes what. What experience do students need??
The internet and technology have now progressed to their infancy. How do we influence the shift that is happening? We have this gift with the way the search engines work....are we teaching patrons to use the right tools? The internet is not regulated, so the companies can say whatever they want (using SEO).
The Who, What, Where, When questions for Google are fine. Google answers all questions in a half hour that librarians take 25 years to answer. We need to answer, “Why should I write a strategic marketing plan.”
A reference question for divorce between a sixth-grade kid and 32-year old woman should have different answers
7 Gifts to Libraries, Publishers and Book sellers:
The book isn't dead or dying. It is evolving.
Evolution of Amazon. What is Amazon giving our patrons that we are not?
Booksprung, Bookish (hasn't launched yet), Pottermore (15 billion franchise)
We need to address the why of people read.
Tablets and lights change the reading experience.
Why do we not know how to download books to devices? And while we are doing that, why aren't we telling them how awesome we are?
Our customers/users are improving. They don't know what they don't know....that's where we come in. They aren't using them safely or crafting the right question. Our core thing is not search. Our core thing is finding, and we want them to find the right answer.
Technology is going social and can support social acts.
What are your top 10-20 questions? What is the service portfolio model that goes with those?
What are our cookbooks and who are our chefs? Health, career transitions, jobs, hobbies?
The PC isn't dead, but it's evolving and more mobile. This stuff is social and aligned with what we do. We are social !! What are we doing virtually if people are at our libraries virtually?
We know more about our customers than ever before. Are we using all the library 2.0 tools?
Talent, Insight, Community have social value.
Opportunities exist in times of change.
He doesn't care HOW people are reading, but they are reading. Nine times more people have library cards than driver's licenses. We have to project the awesome things going on. Color blocking works, so why aren't we doing it? It works for “The Gap,” so why can't it work for us? Too many of us aren't doing the right thing and are cost-free.
We play a vital role in building the critical connection between information, knowledge and learning. As we go through this recession in this world of information and knowledge, we play a role there. If we find our mouths and voices, we could play a vital role in the next 50 years!
We need to get out of the worry tank! He thinks this is exciting. We have an opportunity and we can be magnets in our communities and change them. We might not have a department store, but we have libraries. Libraries are to get people there, not just the book vault!
Attract attention and be proud of what we are, because we are awesome.
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