Emerging Technologies : A Primer for Librarians

Here’s a one-stop snapshot of emerging technologies every librarian should know about and examples that illustrate how the technologies are being used in libraries today! The e-book includes videos of interviews with librarians that are using them. The videos are available on a web site for people who purchase the print book.

The first four chapters―Audio & Video, Self- and Micro-Publishing, Mobile Technology, and Crowdfunding―all look at older technologies reinvented and reimagined through significant advances in quality, scale, or hardware. Many libraries were already using these technologies in some way, and are now able to change and adapt those uses to meet current needs and take advantage of the latest improvements.

The two next chapters look at new technologies: wearable technologies and the Internet of Things (simple but powerful computers that can be embedded into everyday objects and connected to controllers or data aggregation tools). The last two chapters―Privacy & Security and Keeping Up With Technology―are all-purpose topics that will continue to be affected by new developments in technology.

Each of these chapters offers a brief overview of background information and current events, followed by a list of advantages and challenges to using these technologies in a library setting. The authors highlight the most useful or most well-known tools and devices, then specify how these technologies might be used in a library setting. Finally, they look at a variety of current examples from libraries in the United States and around the globe.

Jennifer Koerber is the Public Instruction Curriculum Development Coordinator for the Boston Public Library and an independent trainer and speaker on emerging technologies and the social web. She is a self-hacked tech librarian, and has observed how people interact with technology for more than fifteen years as a children’s librarian, reference librarian, library branch manager, web services librarian, and now trainer. She earned her MSLIS from Simmons College in 1998. She has written several articles on library innovation and self-publishing at libraries for Library Journal and The Digital Shift, and has been training the public in technology and online life for twelve years. Visit www.jenniferkoerber.com for a full list of her presentations and publications.

Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs Web sites for authors and historical societies, takes many, many photos, and is usually "currently reading" five or six books at a time.