The conference opened on Monday morning in the beautiful First Nations Longhouse on the University of British Columbia campus - a very open conference building with huge log beams and Native Pacific totem carvings. 
After Leonora Crema, M-Libraries Committee Co-Chair, welcomed the crowd of about 130 delegates from several countries, she introduced Lorcan Dempsey for the opening keynote.
Lorcan Dempsey, Concentration, Connection, Diffusion: Mobilizing Library Services
As always, Lorcan gave an insightful overview of the cultural shifts in our patrons and their expectations of our services. The expectations of faculty, staff and students in their interactions with our libraries online presence are greatly increased due to advancements in how they interact with online retailers. People no longer look to the Academy for technology advancements, but instead to the technological advancements of the consumer market. There is greater investment and innovation in consumer/retail space than in the education/work space. Our patrons have become used to having best of breed applications to enhance their online experience. Lorcan referenced this article on mobile communication and society.
Mobile communication is the fastest growing technology in the world. This growth has greatly impacted our users in multiple ways, social networking and mobile communication reinforces their collective identity. Our youth find in mobile communication an adequate form of expression and reinforcement and a safe autonomy.
Mobile devices are changing our patterns of sociability whereby selective construction of peer groups is supported by accessibility and microcoordination (incremental social contact) - it's much easier to stay in touch when your friends are only a mobile phone call, facebook message, or a tweet away.
How do we mesh...
• multiple connection points?
• multiple grades of experience (desktop cell phone, xbox, wii, gps system, smartphone, netbook)?
• different purposes/uses?
It makes things very difficult when trying to optimize for all of the different devices and their uses.
Moving to the cloud...
• is a natural accompaniment of a mesh of connection points
• offers the ability to access content from multiple access points
This means that the exclusive focus on an institutional web site as the delivery mechanism and the browser as the primary consumption environment is increasingly irrelevant.
Lorcan talked about the BBC site where all of the content is dynamically generated and syndicable through rss, atom, and xml. The American Idol site does many of the same things and breaks down their information into snippets, action items, tags and reviews.
This is a changing model that is:
• shifting from a content economy
• providing ranking, relating, recommending
• specialized (ex to a course)
• location aware
Our users want to:
• get to relevance quickly and have information available at the point of need
• reduce the time spent finding what they want
The online presence is becoming increasingly action oriented.
• find out
• get pay
• vote, rank relate
• share with selected social networks.
Our users are also changing how they coordinate resources to achieve their goals.
Timeshifting
People have spaces of time so they wanted the material (lectures) when they are convenient for them to watch. (Gave example of Bristol university survey where students asked for more video of lectures available)
Use of Space
The way people use space is changing. Semi-public spaces can be informally appropriated into ad hoc workspaces - Knowledge Commons!
Behavior Fragmentation
There are online or network "residents" who see their network presence as an important part of their identity and visitors who will use the services when they need it. There are multiple grades of experience (phones, desktop), preferred communication channels (FB, twitter, texting). So how can we actually be confident that we are reaching a particular population i.e. our users. This becomes a critical issue for Libraries.
It used to be that Libraries' collection, space, expertise, systems and services, were vertically integrated around collections. Now, these areas are moving apart as more of the collections become digital. We need to think about our collections, expertise, systems and services in different ways. They are no longer as tightly bound as they used to be.
Use of Space in the Libraries
We need to think about the opportunity cost of using all of our space for (outdated) collections when the changes in social and academic aspects of learning require collaborative and open working spaces (knowledge commons). Many students prefer to use chat reference even if they are in the library. Things are changing in the social and academic aspects of learning. This is all a part of the shift in the behavior of networking. If we are not using the spaces in the old ways, we need to make sure that our libraries' space is used in the new ways people are behaving.
The challenge facing the libraries is to make themselves invisible- patrons don't want "intrusiveness". We need to make things seamless for our users - easy searching, findability of resources and services. But libraries must also demonstrate their value and be more visible to users as the providers of amazing resources and services.
Increasingly, PEOPLE are becoming entry points to resources and services via twitter, delicious etc. People are followed because they are sources of excellent info.
Lorcan stressed the importance of a greater focus on marketing and assessment of our Libraries.
• physical presence
• interact with research and learning practices
• available when the work is happening
• a "signed" network presence (ex subject guides with the names/photos/contact info of the Librarians who authored them)
Library web sites hide people. Why should our talented resources be anonymous? People do not want to interact with a person they don't know. What we should do is to show our users that we are the experts.
Some takeaways:
• photos on "ask a librarian"
• top recommended resources by your Librarian, based on user profile
When we think about services, we must think about services in a much richer environment.
The second speaker was Ken Banks, founder of kiwanji.net and frontline sms, on Where Books Are few: The Role of Mobile Phones in the Developing World. His focus is on trying to help grass roots non profits where the internet doesn't reach but mobile does. His story is inspiring and his presentation was fantastic. He focused on the change in quality of life possible due to mobile technology.
Third up was Carie Page, Program Coordinator for the Educause Learning Initiative, with her talk entitled, Anytime, Anywhere: Reaching the Always-On Generation Through Mobility.
Students are exposed to technology at an increasingly younger age. The difference isn't necessarily that they are using technology but how they are using technology.
K-12
• communications (email teachers, classmates)
• collaborate (want to bring mobile devices into class to do so)
• access their projects anywhere
Students learn technology by doing, not by reading a manual.
What can we provide?
• delicious, zotero,
• collaborative spaces on line where students can create groups, share info
• personal learning environment - but students want to set it up themselves
• create a flow of info to students?
• sms alerts when books are overdue (students def want it to be opt in)
• facebook pages
• pushing info out to places students are already subscribed to
• mobile access to search
• mobile page for library - allow comments on mobile page
• widgets that students can put on the iphone
• providing access to mobile devices, ipods and flip cameras
How do we use mobile technology to bring students into the library?
• qr codes- scan a code from a book for related info, additional locations for books
• learning the stacks
• augmented reality games
• voki
• smartphones
• audio tour
On every campus there is a wide spectrum of students. With every technology initiative, you need to think of those that are not as familiar with technology as well as those who are. Try to engage students and make them be your advocates and be involved in the planning process.
How can we use the techniques we are good at to help students learn more about what they are not good at?
Joan Lippincott spoke next on Why M-Libraries? Making the Case for Innovation, an excellent follow-up to the keynote she gave at the Penn State University Libraries during our Services for the Future Retreat.
Does your library provide...?
• content
• services
• promotion of the above
There is a change in the use of mobile devices from communication devices to information devices and a resulting change in the habits of people. They are reading more text and watching video on smaller mobile screens.
66% of students own an internet-capable phone, but don't always use it because of the cost. There will be a tipping point in the use of cell phones when the cell phone billing structure changes. When the cost for mobile data plans decreases, this will revolutionize the desire and interest of our users in the US.
Joan cited Char Booth's Ohio U User Survey. How and where do we begin? We need to understand our own user population to see where we might go first in development. There are more and more scholarly resources becoming available for devices (iphones, kindles sony readers). We will see new services emerge.
Arizona State University - qr codes
Western Illinois - text me services - made a video and put it on you tube
Quinnepac University - mobile information resources on smartphones
Questions to ask ourselves as we move forward:
• Platforms
• What devices are required
• Who makes the decision
• who will provide tech support
• who will select license, fund content
• will this give your institution a competitive advantage?
Mobile Technologies Mobile Users, Joan Lippincott