Netspeed

I thought this presentation was funtastic. Truely inspiring. I am new to the library profession and am finding plenty of people who scared of change and fearful of what the future holds for them. Great to have some positive thoughts to look at and share.

Cheers Jo

Alvin:
It’s just a trend I noticed when I was reviewing clients’ Google Analytics and other virtual transactions and compared that to gate count and circulation in addition at a few libraries, to our data on database searches and Foresee library user satisfaction data. (We have built a few thousand library websites for no charge for customers.)
When we count all library website sessions / hits / and unique users and add that to virtual references events and online searches, it’s larger than circulation by a big factor. (And that doesn’t include the database searches from other vendors or Facebook and Twitter hits.)
All libraries will possibly be different given how much they indulge in virtual services but I’m pretty sure that virtual use trumps physical use in most.
From the Pew data (multiple studies but including the ALA B&M Gates Foundation stuff) we can also note that the virtual user, broadband internet at home people, are quite different than what we’re seeing in person for library help. They generally have higher incomes, more likely to be employed, more balanced demographically by gender and age, etc.
That’s usually the point I’m trying to make. Don’t build your strategies on who you’re seeing alone. Study your virtual users too or you’ll start to think every library cardholder is as needy as the ones who ask for help in person and build strategies for a subset of users.
Stephen