Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

Librarians Aren't The Only Ones Thinking Ahead About Library Services.

In response to my post last week about libraries circulating videos to PDAs and smartphones, Ryan Greene ran with it and offered the following thoughts:

"Now we have the opportunity for your local library to stream a file to you, wirelessly, wherever you are in the range of their WiFi network*. Imagine if you could 'check out' public domain recordings that are streamed to you, allowing you to listen to music, read books that are from Project Gutenberg, watch movies, or access the internet, all from your home, and all because instead of a library card, you've got a NEXiO that the library lends out to users, allowing them to get all kinds of information that they have on hand.

Instead of giving kids full blown laptops, give them NEXiOs (or OQOs) and then they have something small enough to be carried easily, but so useful that they will not soon forget it. Get the school or library to use a P2P network like a customized version of The Circle for file sharing, or better yet Frontier so that the kids can upload/download their homework, check their grades via a Flash based digital dash, and keep an eye on their schedules (Userland, have you considered this market?) Parents can keep track of their kids performance, as well as keeping an eye on their schedule from wherever they might be.

Now imagine that the library/school/town has an IMbot that retrieves information for you, just the basics for now (Library hours, is a particular title available), but later it could be programmed to do an information request interview (Forgive me Jenny, for forgetting the proper term) to help you get the info you need, either from home, on the road, or via the NEXiO.

So how do labels fit into all of this? They should be using local libraries as a means of distributing music files, either as a donation to the libraries, or by helping to convert their existing music banks to MP3 in order to share the music with local users. By providing the hardware and training to do so, they would then help the communities to get a leg up technology wise, and get some local good will going.

*I've been reading about WiFi networks that are getting a 20km range through a combination of directional antenna arrays and masts. A new use for the town clock tower, water tower, or co-locate with a hidden cellular tower? regardless, this would more than cover most towns, if not some smaller cities."

Ryan is on the right track overall, and he proposes some great ideas that help illustrate why public libraries need to get over their fears about public WiFi access. Ryan is the type of patron we need to be thinking more about - how are we going to get digital content to him?

However, one way or another, libraries won't be in the hardware business for too much longer, which will be a good thing because librarians really aren't trained to be technical support helpdesks, and it doesn't make the best use of our strengths (such as "reference interviews" ;-)  ). We'll be caught in the middle until these groups (ebook, recording industry, MPAA, etc.) get their acts together and standardize on formats, digital rights management (DRM) software (the content-loving kind, not the lock-it-down-so-I-can't-take-it-where-I'd-use-it kind), and pricing. Either we'll be able to circulate the digital content itself to patron-owned devices, or we won't be able to circulate digital content at all (because the embedded DRM software won't let us). Why do libraries circulate CDs? Because they play in every CD player (well, until recently they did). Let's get this show on the road already and see some progress (instead of regress) and extend the market for ebooks, MP3s, etc.

The overall problem is access to the content, since as publishers these groups want to cut libraries out of the loop altogether and sell directly to consumers. Libraries need to start working with publishers to figure out how to circulate digital content to people that already have the devices because in the near future, most folks will have their own smartphone and they're not going to want to carry around a second device just for library-retrieved content. Content is what libraries have always been about - it's just that it was mostly in print media (books, newspapers, magazines) until recently.

Remember when I higlighted the Westminster Libraries partnership with Classical.com to offer streaming music for its patrons? It's a great idea but for now, you have to be physically in one of the Libraries to authenticate and hear the music. How crazy is that? I love my local library, but I don't have time to go there to listen to music. It totally defeats how I use music. We need to start working together now to fix these problems and overcome these barriers - before we've been cut out of the loop. Because there are folks out there like Ryan who "get it" and already want this type of service from us.

To get back to Ryan's post, I love the idea of the student P2P network with a digital dashboard front end. I might have to develop that one further in my head for next year's grant cycle. I definitely want to investigate the IMbots, too, as I do believe these would be in demand now if they were available.

[The Shifted Librarian]
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