…. If you think what they are already doing is very good, tell them so…then ask them whether they would like to do it differently…

This afternoon, after just two hours or so of sleep, I met with the Management Group of the State Library of Queensland to lead a discussion about Emerging Technologies. I was a little daunted, as this is one of the most innovative libraries in Australia. What could I tell them?

I started with what I really liked about their services and gave them my outsider’s impression of their library. I think that even people who are getting it right sometimes need to be told so. Their beautiful building looks like someone removed the front edifice to open it out to the river. It is a building that must remind the staff daily that their organisation serves their users in non-traditional and creative ways.

The library has as its Mission:

Creatively linking Queenslanders to information, knowledge and each other.

…. and has this as a Key Direction:

…New Technologies – the rapid development of internet services and internet technology provides us with an enhanced ability to deliver library services to a wider audience and to make global and local knowledge more accessible

It is very easy to see how social media fits into this vision – connecting people and information and allowing global interaction.

I covered the elements of Web 2.0 and why I think staff should engage with  Emerging Technologies. I also gave them a few ideas of possible ways to speed up staff engagement with new technologies.

I threw in a bit about the tools that I thought their staff should know about already. If you work to connect information and people, there is no excuse to still not know about:

•  Blogs
• Wikis
• RSS
• Screencasting
• Online Virtual worlds
• Podcasting
• Photo and image sharing
• Folksomies
• Social bookmarking
• Cloud computing
• Gaming and libraries

I also listed My Favourite Things – tools and trends I am watching eagerly to see how they develop and affect our libraries. On my list are:

• Microblogging – twitter, plurk, jaiku, identi.ca
• Lifestreaming – Friendfeed
• Webcams – Vodcasting, Seesmic, 12 Seconds TV
• Mobile Devices – iPhones, PDAs, NetPCs, XO laptops, bluetooth, Kindles
• Sharing – sharing data, sharing effort, APIs, Mesh networks, location sensitivity
• Avatars – MUVEs like Second Life, video animations, voice animations like voki, voice avatars, identity is going to get weird
• Authentication – OpenID and OpenAuth
• Social Operating Systems – social relationships organise information, not subject relationships
• Semantic Web – Information organised by computer so that a natural language enquiry retrieves what you mean, not what you say

I also talked a bit about GeoffreyMoore’s  ideas around the Diffusion of Innovations. This is bubbling about in my brain still, and I hope to write a post with more about this.

I enjoyed the conversation, but that stays in the meeting room. 🙂

Tomorrow I return to talk to State Library of Queensland staff about what I am doing in my job at Murdoch. I’m truly unprepared for this, as they asked me to do it just before I went on holiday. It will be real “fake it till you make it” stuff – interesting and scary because I am usually very well rehearsed.