And that’s the end of IL 2012.  It was a great conference, and Monterey was as beautiful as ever.  There were lots more presentations than I was able to report on here, but the slides from most of them are on the IL website.

And don’t forget to save the date NOW for IL 2013.

Have a great year!

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

In keeping with the general theme of Transformation at IL 2012, the closing keynote session featured a panel on Reinventing Spaces and Places.  Panel members were Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer (also known as The Shanachies), both from the Delft Public Library; Paul Pivel, University of Calgary; and Jeff Wisniewski, University of Pittsburgh.

Closing Keynote Panel (L-R): Erik Boekesteijn, Paul Pival, Jaap van de Geer, Jeff Wisniewski

The panel was asked to address the following questions and issues:

• Do we let our spaces work hard enough for us?
• What are successful spaces doing?
• But I don’t have any space!
• Keys to success:  involving users, flexibility, and more flexibility.

The answers all center on major themes: flexibility, creation, collaboration, and maybe tradition.  Here is a brief transcript of their conversation.

Jaap: We cannot save libraries by doing more of what we have done before because the outcome will be the same.  We are heading for a great future in libraries, and media consumption is shifting away from books.  We are moving toward creation, but we need a new business model because the world is changing.

What can we tell you that you haven’t already heard before?  Don’t work for money, see if you can let money work for you.  Do the same for space.  Do we let our spaces work hard enough for us?  Are we using the full potential of our buildings?  Use our local insights to drive marketing, sales, and results.  A relentless focus on the user is important.

Erik:  What are successful spaces doing?  The Library of 100 Talents (in the north of Holland) invited a group of teens to talk to the architect and interior decorators of their planned new building to get their input on the design.

Paul:  At TFDL, we built creation spaces into the library.  We have 26 collaborative workrooms with collaborative software.

Jeff:  Westport CT put maker space in the middle of their library.

This is an example of learning outside the classroom–providing spaces where students can share ideas in public locations promotes peer learning.  At McMaster University a gaming room supports a curriculum on gaming.  Collaborative spaces can be in open areas and have multiple uses.

Jaap:  The Assen Public Library in Holland built a TV studio in the library.  They have their own crew to record shows with students, but when the studio is not being used, they rent it out to commercial companies.

Erik:  Keys to success:  Involve the community and make them part of the community.  At DOK, (one of the 25 most modern libraries in the world) there is a video wall with 32 stories running.  People can come and record their own stories.

Changes happening:  libraries are not only about books; they are about storytelling.  All types of media can be mixed to invest in the education of the people of the city.  In Arhus, Denmark, they are building a new library that is not for books but for people.  It will be a place for dialog, knowledge, ideas and exhibition.  We must force users to dismiss the book as a library brand.  We need to rethink the library and have a fusion between the physical and virtual.  The new role is to facilitate the user’s needs.

What do users say?  They like a quiet space at times and space for collaboration at other times.  Different spaces are necessary and should not be mixed.

Market Your Space

Jeff:  We don’t know what the future will look like.  We must design with flexibility in mind.  2 important ingredients are flexible libraries/spaces and flexible teams.  We must have people willing to support creation spaces and not just people who manage a collection.  Have flexible furniture that lets you create spaces on the fly–with wheels so it can be moved.

Paul:  Have more Wi-Fi than you possibly imagine you would need.  Provide power and network access everywhere, regardless of where the furniture ends up.  Raised flooring is one way to do this.

Jeff:  Users want networking and power.  If we don’t do anything else, they will be thrilled.

Paul:  Agile walls let you create and change space quickly.

Jeff:  North Shore Public Library replaced all their desktop computers with iPads so that the gaming area can be anywhere.  Now there are kiosks that will dispense iPads with a swipe of a library card.  No mediation is required.  Market your space as a product and service, not a facility. Reclaim space from things that are not working   Get rid of things that aren’t used, and share space with other libraries.

Erik:  Build your library in other places, like the Amsterdam Airport, bus stations, museums.

Jaap:  We don’t work for books, we let the stories and visitors work for us!

Erik:  Singapore is collecting stories from people and bringing them into the library.  History is happening–we must capture who we are.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

Jennifer Koerber

Our work is usually very serious, and we tend to take ourselves seriously, but it is sometimes advantageous to take some risks and lighten the atmosphere, which will help keep us sane and relieve the tension.  Some people may be very funny outside of work, but they are quite different in the work environment.  Jennifer Koerber, Web Services Librarian at the Boston Public Library, gave a very entertaining and informative presentation that showed some of the ways that humor can be advantageously used in libraries.

There is a line when we talk about humor.  If you come down on the far side of it, people will come after you, but if you are too close, you will just look lame.  Don’t be lame, and take risks.   If you can handle complaints, you can handle people not getting the joke.  Work with what is appropriate for your constituency and your neighborhood.  Don’t scare people off, invite them in using humor.  And if you’re going to do a joke, have a plan and be able to respond if you get feedback.

Here are some examples of humorous signs used by the Hillsdale NJ library.

You can pull the humor from context and from what happens at the moment. For example, Hillsdale had a flood and made a sign about it. (See Ben Bizzle’s earlier presentation for other examples.)  Here are other examples..

Your Smartphone is the best tool ever for bringing humor into libraries.  As you are out in the world, have your phone with you and take photos of things that strike you.  We hate writing signs that say no, so bring a bit of humor to the message.

In the digital world, we have April Fools Day website hacks.  Are we too scared to do one for libraries?  There don’t seem to be any examples available.  Outside the library, here are examples from WholeFoods, free-ebooks.net, Groupon (wrote a patent for April Fools Day), Kodak (print your own live kittens), Webex (Angry Birds to invade meetings).  Google turned all its maps, even Street View, into an 8-bit arcade option (most of us do not have the money to do this!).

404 error pages are also very appropriate for humor.

You can have fun with website pages, and it doesn’t take much effort.  See the Lawrence University library pages on Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19).  They took it all the way by just changing the text,

and even provided a translator for many of the common phrases used in the library!

You can do video hacks.  For example, the Craighead County/Jonesboro Library has a whole series of hacks done as a comedy show set in the library.

Make sure you can laugh at yourself too.  Get used to being the center of attention.  Take a risk and put yourself out there, like Jennifer has done on occasion:

Congratulations, Jennifer, on a wonderful presentation!

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

Jeremy Kemp

The subject of Jeremy Kemp’s dissertation at San Jose State University was student adoption of avatars for learning. He found that students are willing to accept a virtual environment as a learning system, but avatars are more appealing to women in the middle of their careers.

Benjamin Franklin was America’s first new media maker.  3D scanners and the internet of things are on their way up on the Gartner Hype Cycle.  3D printing is at its peak, and virtual worlds are largely past.  How will we define Web 3.0?  Here are some possibilities.

We are entering a maker environment.  The Espresso Book Machine is moving books to atoms, and the Internet of Things is emerging.  In the library, touch screens and scanners now allow users to check out their own books.  How do non-digital users become aware of e-books?  A voice could be triggered at the return slot advising the user about them.

Popular smart objects include QR codes, RFID, near-field communication, and augmented reality.  A community of people is out there trading objects.  Sifteo cubes are tiny computers that can be connected to a laptop to communicate and used for games, mainly for kids.  The cubes are the controls.  The littleBits toy consists of parts for a controller that can be assembled by kids.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software that can be used to create interactive objects and environments.  It was used in a library to create a book with embedded micro-controlled circuits driving interactive illustrations. Microcontrollers use open source electronics to sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can control lights, motors, and other actuators.  The software, developed by MIT, is flexible and easy to use.  Using conductive thread, controllers can be sewn into clothes.  The Arduino programming language is based on Java.  Sparkfun Electronics sells a kit that lets users code a variety of applications.

3D printing takes digital things and makes them physical.  Google 3D Warehouse provides the content.  The printer extrudes plastic in various shapes to produce objects. Laser cutters are used to remove material from a block of plastic.  Using this, Kemp produced embroidery of a QR code on a piece of fabric.  One application of this technology in libraries would be to create physical representations of spaces in the design process.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

Cybertours, short tutorials in the exhibit hall, were very popular and often attracted standing room only crowds.  Topics included Smart Investing @ the Library, Creative Visualizations of Library Data, Free and Easy to Use Web 2.0 Resources, Marketing Your Library With QR Codes, and Tips For Improving Web Page Design.

Here is Greg Notess presenting the first Cybertour on Tools For Teaching.

Greg Notess giving a Cybertour on Tools For Teaching

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

Ben Bizzle and Melloney Dunlap

Ben Bizzle and Melloney Dunlap from the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library in Jonesboro, AR showed how they have developed innovative and aggressive marketing programs, which has been a process that has been developing over the last few years.

Your website is your virtual presence and reflects the impression you want to give people.  This was the library’s first website.

You need to be able to justify what you are doing, so the staff told the board that they wanted to be perceived as an information gateway or portal.  Some of the metrics needed to be changed–counting people coming through the door is not necessarily indicative.  One of the biggest challenges libraries face is barriers to entry.  They set up a goal of reaching any information on the website with 3 clicks or less.  Here is the website they designed to bring the library into peoples’ homes.

To appeal to people age 16 to 40, a video series of marketing messages for a fictional library was created:

The videos were a great success; library users and staff often ask if they can be in the them.

The next stage was to go mobile.  Why would somebody reach into their pocket and access the library?  They want to know the address, hours, etc., and then look at the collection.  An app called the “Pocket Library–Your Library, Everywhere You Are”, was developed.  People liked having that access.

All this marketing made the library realize they needed a PR and arts department.  They used interns from the local college, but they finish their studies and move on, which meant there was no stability or permanence in their branding.  So they hired Melloney Dunlap, an intern, when she finished her education.  She developed a new logo as a brand which is used on everything.

It is important to design with less to create effective promotional material.  Here are some guidelines.

If you don’t have a graphic designer, there are lots of tutorials, stock images, and fonts as well as programs available on the Internet.  Check out TechSoup for free or low cost programs especially for libraries.

The library leased some billboards in town and signed 6-month contracts.  Sometimes the ads stayed up longer because the billboard company would rather have something on the billboard than nothing.  A creative team was created to develop some humorous messages for billboards.  Here are some of them.  One of them went viral and made the front page of sites like Reddit and SomethingAwful.

Besides billboards, Facebook covers, and e-cards were also designed.  Posters for events were distributed around town and put up in store windows.  This opened new markets to the library.  In the current election season, a library sign among all the campaign signs drew lots of attention.

Here are some of the results of the marketing campaign.

The results show that the library is getting attention in the community.  Some of the philosophies of the marketing campaign are these:

We want people to start thinking about the library.  They will decide for themselves what is useful.  People want to be entertained and don’t want to see the library as a boring place.  Word of mouth is the best advertising, but you must stimulate that word.  You can change things in your community if you are willing to take a risk.  Don’t be afraid to fail; pick up and go forward.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

We are no longer simply consumers of information–we have become creators.  Library users create information every day; how can we incorporate that into our services? Technology has changed the way we interact with each other and our environments.  We need to expand our definition of literacy to incorporate these changes and support a read-write culture as opposed to read-only.  The Fayetteville, NY Public Library (FPL) has launched some makerspace activities.  Sue Considine, Executive Director, and Lauren Britton, Transliteracy Development Director, described some of their activities in this area.

Moe Hosseini-Ara (moderator) and Sue Considine. Not shown: Lauren Britton (she attended virtually via Skype)

Makerspaces developed out a do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and are areas where people can share technology and create things.  A new book, Makers, by Chris Anderson describes makerspaces, which give people tools to create, hack, and remake their world for the better.  What could happen if librarians could facilitate bringing their creations to light?

Why would a library get involved in makerspaces?  They give everyone an opportunity to view the world differently.  We can provide a platform where people can collaborate, (this is different from education).  Community members are at the heart of makerspaces; the library facilitates the process by providing access, training, and permission.  Experts in the community can be recruited to help people.

It is important that culture is fluid enough to support disruptive changes.  We are in a culture of innovation, where risk taking is encouraged, ambiguity is acceptable, and failure is expected.  We need to stop proving our relevancy and just be relevant.

Take risks on behalf of the community.  Staff support and enthusiasm for this new environment is necessary.  They must not feel that this is “just one more thing I have to learn”.  Innovative librarians understand that their ideas of a library’s role need to be flexible.

Barriers to innovation are:

• Funding.  Why would it be appropriate to develop new services in a time of diminished resources?  We need to figure out what we should stop doing to get funding for new ventures. There is often support in the community for things to improve the library.
• Decision makers.  You must understand the agendas of your board and know the issues they are pushing, and then align your sales pitch to their agenda.
• Space.  A common misconception is maker activities require lots of space.  They can be located in a relatively small space, and they can even be made portable and  brought to where people are.
• Safety/liability.  This is an administrative issue.  All of us work with insurance vendors. Work with the experts and don’t be fearful of this.  Provide hands-on training on how to use the equipment.

Here are some tools and technologies that you can use.

Many free online resources will supply program ideas.  Here are some.

Joe Murphy

FPL is Joe Murphy’s local library.  Murphy, Tehnology Trendspotter, LibraryFuture, noticed how people began talking about the library after the makerspace program began, showing that it was well received by the community and indicating that the next stage in the evolving role of libraries is a shift toward creation.  3D printing is an appropriate technology to put in libraries. It can be reactive to time-sensitive hardware need, and we can solve problems with it or produce products we need.  Thus, the power of the consumer can be expanded.  The library can play a role in this by providing the enabling technology.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

Steve Coffman

Wednesday’s keynote session featured Steve Coffman, VP, Library Support Services, LSSI; and Roy Tennant, Sr. Program Officer, Research, OCLC, reviewing some of the history of librarianship and speculating on where we are going.  Coffman is the author of a widely read article in Searcher entitled, “The Decline and Fall of the Library Empire.”  He noted that libraries are at a crossroads, and they have been for about 50 years.  We had an opportunity to play a significant role in the digital era. Library 2.0 did not work out because libraries do not have the critical mass of users that companies like Amazon do.

Many of our roles have been superseded by the appearance of new technologies.  For example, web interfaces for databases have changed or eliminated the role of professional searchers.  Public access computers have done the same thing; people are now accessing information on their Smartphones or tablets.  E-books are also eliminating the library.

The digital library we all dreamed of is here.  We helped to make it, but it is not ours.  Books are available through Google, Amazon, and Apple.  Searching can be done on Google and the Web.  Library 2.0 functions are available on GoodReads, LibraryThing, and many others.  And the Smartphone, Kindle, and iPad are providing access to it all.

So where do we go from here?  We need to transform the roles we played in the library into valuable services we can offer our communities when they no longer need our books; for example, maker spaces, community convenors, gadget gurus, or publishers.  In the Atlas of New Librarianship, David Lankes said that we can “help improve society by facilitating the creation of knowledge in our communities.”

We are no longer associated with books.  Librarianship has become a function.  But our libraries are still associated with books and buildings.  If that is removed, we become just one more face in a huge crowd of skilled people.  What makes a library unique?  What value do we add?  Why would people go to the library rather than Amazon, Apple, or other service providers?  The contribution we have is associated with the materials we work with, so instead of running away from what makes unique, let’s focus on it–books, especially print books.  Studies constantly reveal that the first thing people think of when they think of the library is books.  There are 2 billion books in libraries in the US, 20,000 buildings to house them, and 1.6 billion people walking through the doors to get them (and this number continues to grow).  In 2011, 347,000 titles are published by traditional publishers.  Books are still a major going concern, and there is no reason to count print out yet.  The uptake of e-books is 50% of what it was last year.  The longer people have their e-readers, the more they read in print.  Books are an antidote to the frantic elements of an overly digital life.  Coffman predicts a backlash against constantly being online.

If we are going to focus on books, we must stop apologizing for them.  Enter “more than just books” into Google and see how many library sites come up.  We must focus on our resources: budget, staff, programs.  We need to fix our inefficient distribution system.  The average public library only spends 12 cents/budget $ on content.  The rest is spent on staff, buildings, etc.  New technologies make it possible to improve that balance sheet.  Why are we still paying for catalog records?  Amazon pays nothing for them because they get them from the publishers.  Why can’t we ship ILL books directly to the readers and then have them return them to the library?  We need to take advantage of similar new opportunities, such as adding book sales to library services.

Can the empire be transformed?  Yes it can, but the real question is who is going to do it.

If we are not up to these tasks, others will do them for us.

Roy Tennant

Roy Tennant pointed to another Searcher article entitled “The World’s Largest Library”.  W face many challenges and opportunities in our fast changing world.  Do we have what it takes to make a difference?  YES we do!  Tennant believes in us!  We need to look at where we have come from to be able to see where we are going in the future.

One advantage we have is our flexibility.  We were one of the fastest to get on the Internet.  It was not that long ago that we were using 300 baud modems to access online searching systems.  Then Mosaic browsers changed our access.  Now we can stream records from a large database.  We are able to adapt to new technologies and are willing to throw away old ones.

We have the following advantages:

• We have collaboration, beginning with catalog records.  Collaboration is how nonprofits prosper.
• Our gender matters.  We are overwhelmingly female.  This is significant because women tend to collaborate better than men.
• Our principles.  We believe in making sure that everyone has access to information, not just the people who have money to buy books.  We should be able to read whatever we want.  We have a right to privacy, and we believe everyone has a right to it.  Showing people how to control their own privacy is important.  Public service is a deep principle that we bring to our work.
• Our people.  We bring the best people to this profession.  We have all fallen into it and love it.  We therefore want to be here and are all very diverse.  People are our greatest asset.
• Imaginations help us find new ways to provide services.  See Patrick Sweeney’s “The Story Sailboat“.  He leaves books in public places for people to find.  Libraries are experimenting with maker spaces.  Failure at various things is not reason not to succeed.
• Engagement.  The R Squared conference (risk and reward) was to help librarians take risks and engage with our communities.  We are engaged in things not only among ourselves but out in our communities.  The ALA Think Tank is a group that make things happen.

The half-life of our information professional skills is only about 5 years.  So we need to be reinventing ourselves all the time.  This panel of information professionals was composed of:

• Marshall Breeding, formerly of Vanderbilt University, and author, Next-Gen Library Catalogs,
• Nicole Engard, author, The Accidental Systems Librarian,
• Scott Brown, Social Information Group and author, Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Advantages,
• Cecily Walker, Web Services Librarian, Vancouver Public Library, and
• Renee Chalut, Assistant Manager, Information Services & Training, Vancouver Public Library.

Tuesday Evening Panel (L-R) Renee Chalut, Cecily Walker, Nicole Engard, Scott Brown, Marshall Breeding

Donna Scheeder

Each of the panelists gave a brief outline of their career path.  Marshall Breeding said that he started in an interesting computing time–the first computer he worked on was a PDP-11.  He worked on information technology as computers were coming into libraries and grew with them.  Then he moved to CD-ROM networks, which eventually died.  He built his career based on a technology niche.  He never had a class in library science or computing, but had 30 years of on the job training.

Scott Brown started by pursuing a B.S. in creative writing and worked at several positions in the Santa Cruz Public Library, then moved into the corporate world and found he could ask for money to do things.  After getting his degree from San Jose State University, he was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years, then started his independent business which focuses on social media systems.

Nicole Engard went to college to be a writer and never thought about libraries.  She went to a liberal arts college and took computer science and got a B.S. in literature and programming. Then she joined a law library as a web designer.  When she came to IL 2005, she found about blogging and started one, went to library school, and joined the Princeton Theological Seminary and became the metadata librarian.  She is now a systems librarian.  People now call her and ask her to apply for jobs because she started her blog.

Cecily Walker was terrified when a tornado came through Atlanta, ran to find her brother, and a librarian pulled her inside and saved her life.  She got a degree in literature and was working on a M.S. degree in African-American Studies, but found after she moved to Vancouver that there were not many opportunities.  She got a degree in library and information studies and got her first job as a user experience architect.  She learned a lot, then moved to a software development company and moved to Vancouver Public Library as a Web Services Librarian. She has always been involved in helping people make sense of the information in front of them.

Renee Chalut has worked in a library for a long time.  She went to library school because she wanted to do what Google does, then worked in library branches.  She took a position coordinating provincial chat services and helping librarians working with them and worked on building and information commons and studied new ways of doing computer training and has now gone back to her original job of going out to the community.

Many of the panelists spoke of traditional and non-traditional library work.  Is there a difference?  Some people may think that if you are involved with technological work, you are not a “real” librarian.  Nicole thinks that the distinction gets in the way and can cause a rift–everything we do is to better the library, so we are librarians.  Marshall said that there are a myriad of career paths toward doing library-type work.  A lot of people assume that if you do not work in a public library, you are not a librarian.

Are library schools changing?  Do they teach the skills needed to cope with constant change?  See the book What Else You Can Do With a Library Degree for opinions on this topic.  The trend in many public libraries today is to put everybody on the reference desk at some time, which makes people with a library degree feel undervalued.

Personal skills are highly important; there are jobs for people with library-type skills regardless of whether they have a library degree or not.  We need to distinguish between professional and personal skills and market ourselves.  This is not limited to the library world.

What do you think we will be doing differently 3 years from today?  What changes are driving what you do today?  We are a very courageous group–who knows what will happen in 3 years?  We must pick up all the new technologies, and we are doing it in a very public way.  Curiosity and a desire to keep learning are critical.

You need to figure out what your niche is, what you can do well, and what you are passionate about to succeed in this environment.  You need to be constantly aware of what is going on around you and keep up with your subject skills.  Be your own greatest advocate.  Get familiar with how to market your skills online.  We are tremendously skilled people.

The panel offered these summarizing points.

• In the job you have now, do what you must for your organization, but also do more for your profession.
• Your career is not your job.
• We are training people for jobs that don’t exist.  What can we do about that?
• If you can make your job your passion and your career, find a way to do it.
• Look at your career and skills every day and you will see something new.
• Do a “23 Things” self-evaluation.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator

One of the unintended consequences of the e-reader program was a complaint filed against the library in October 2011 by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) saying that the Nook devices were not accessible and demanding that the library cease and desist using them and return them all to Barnes & Noble.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) worked with the library to reach an agreement with the NFB.  Although the library will not be required to return the Nooks, they cannot acquire more or replace them for 3 years.  The 18 iPod Touch devices must be reserved for uses who are blind.  The library’s website has the text of the entire agreement.

The library considered acquiring the Kindle Fire or Nook tablets but found that they had limitations, so devices running iOS were used.  All the books use text to speech technology for blind users.  The iPod Touch filled the library’s needs and accommodates gesture-based computing.

Pilot groups are being held now.  In November the staff will be trained on the iPods using a curriculum approved by the DOJ , and the hearing e-book service will be launched in February 2013.

Some users are frustrated by the iPod, and the library cannot afford to acquire 18 iPads (the DOJ’s suggested device).  The librarians feel they are being held hostage because they cannot offer a broad spectrum of services.  They were adamant that the term of the agreement was 3 years because that is the life span of the Nook, and new technology will likely be available then.

Andrew Youngkin from the University of Maryland at Baltimore discussed accessible social media and how social networking can be used to reach all users.  Disabled users of social networking sites encounter usability barriers, but there are techniques that can help make social content more accessible.  There are about 50 million disabled users in the U.S., and as the population ages, the number of them will grow.

Accessibility law includes a wide spectrum of areas, such as access to buildings, telephones, and restrooms.  The 1998 Rehabilitation Act mandates accessibility to electronic media.  It lacks specific guidance for social media, but the guidelines in the Act provide useful starting points for social media.

Here are some uses of social media in libraries.

Disabled users have been shown to use social media less because of the barriers it poses, some of which are shown here.

What can we do?

• Provide captions and descriptions for images.  YouTube offers closed captioning services options for videos.  Add descriptions to photos so that information will be read by screen readers.  Caption videos with YouTube prior to sharing on Facebook or Twitter. (Captioning is not possible in Facebook.)
• Suggest 3rd party sites or apps to users, such as Facebook’s Mobile Sites, Twitterific, Tweetero, Easy Chirp for Twitter, Facely for Facebook, and keyboard-friendly interfaces to YouTube.
• Seek FAQs, help, and tutorials.  YouTube has an Accessibility section, Twitter help provides tutorials on using its features.  Facebook has an Accessibility Help page.
• Make content accessible in other forms and other places.
• Advertise suggested tools that help disabled users access your social networking content.
• Avoid social networking sites if the detriments of accessibility barriers outweigh the benefits.

Android apps include the IDEAL Web Reader and the Eyes-Free Shell

Two systems in development include SpeeG, a multimodal speech and gesture-based recognition program, and CopyCat, which allows the use of  a computer via a gesture-based language.  The Boise State University Albertsons Library and University of Mary Washington have been active in lending iPads for disabled people.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today, and
IL 2012 Blog Coordinator