Lee Rainie provided the opening keynote for CIL 2008. Took me a while to get my computer set up, so I’ll just recap the end of his talk. It’s worth noting, though, that he included quite a number of facts and figures from a soon-to-be-published Pew survey, which focused on how people attempt to locate information to solve problems that involve government information (but which includes a great amount of information about where libraries fit into that picture).  More on that later, if I get a chance.

Lee’s summary points for librarians included:

• People need to be more aware of how you’ve changed, what you provide, etc.
• Those who think they don’t need or want the internet may not know what they’re missing. Awareness is an inhibitor to internet use, and may be an inhibitor for library use as well.
• Tell library success stories success stories.
• Use user-generated content to have patrons tell their library success story. Make those tools available.
• Continue to do the job we’re supposed to do… stay on task.  Meet expectations so that users find what they seek (reliable information) at the library.
• Those who aren’t library users yet are “primed to think of us”. People know we’re out there, but we’re not yet the go-to source.  We need to:
  • 1) build awareness
  • 2) offer a comfortable environment. (personable, and physical)
  • 3) mentoring skills. tech support/hand holding/etc.
• This is the era of social networks. People are relying on other people for information. Networks are for learning, recommendations, etc. Networks are for problem solving.
• Ask ourselves:  “How can we be a node on someone’s social network?”

I enjoyed Lee’s talk quite a bit.  He has a casual and humorous way of presenting statistical information, and of making the implications clear.  There were some surprising statistics, but overall, I think the message is one we know (and continue to work with).  We need to be evangelists for our services.  We need to build trust with young patrons, and create life-long library users.  We need to be where users are looking for information (online), and tap into the methods of information seeking with which they’re familiar (social networks).  And we need to remember that while we may need to provide internet, games, tech support, etc in order to get people involved, we need to remain true to our mission of making reliable information available to patrons (regardless of the delivery medium).