As I mentioned in one of my previous posts on the conference, I was particularly intrigued by what Chip Nilges of the Online Computer Library Center had to say. His talk was very interesting on a couple of levels. On the one hand, libraries are more networked and web-enabled than I realized (and apparently becoming more so all the time.) My question to Chip had to do with how individual libraries can drive web traffic to their sites based not on individual pieces of content -- everybody has a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls -- but on types of content, content that makes a particular library particularly interesting. (This isn't as big a problem for academic libraries as public libraries. Tools that Chip described such as Google Scholar will drive readers to a particular academic library based on content type.)

My example: I suggested that the Atlantic City Public Library probably has more resources on the Monopoly board game than most -- maybe more than any other. If a web browser is looking not for a particular book or article about Monopoly, but rather general information, that library should be one of the top resources that comes up in a Google search. But if you do a Google search on Monopoly, you won't find that library -- at least not anywhere near the top. And Chip admitted that the tools he described don't allow for that kind of granularity. I think if libraries are going to continue as individual entities -- both online and in their bricks-and-mortar edifices -- this is going to have to change.

Librarians see themselves as being competitive with services like Google and other search engines because they both claim the same primary value proposition -- they both want to be the Gateway to All Knowledge. I think Librarians get to keep that role with the patrons who walk into the library. As Joan Williams pointed out in the conference's concluding session, librarians can add value to a search by helping to filter through the noise and irrelevance that typically comes up in a web search. That's great. But Libraries can't compete on the web as the Gateway to All Knowledge. There are too many of them, and there's way too much overlap. Individual libraries need to draw traffic based on their individual characteristics. Right now, the only individual characteristic that leads a web search to a particular library is location.

As far as web presence is concerned, these libraries need to grow a personality.

But that's just the beginning. Working together, I think libraries in general should start working on being the source of information on particular topics. (I realize this cuts against the grain. How can we talk about being the source for a particular topic when we're the Gateway to All Knowledge?) By running web campaigns on particular topics, libraries can work together to raise their overall profiles on the web. Plus, once those links are there, they tend to persist.

Do a Google Search on Death Sucks and see who comes up. But I don't think that guy has published anything new on that subject for some time. Still, that blog entry continues to drive traffic to this site.

So maybe libraries should work together this year to promote themselves on the web as particularly good resources for, say, nutritional information; then those links will still be in place and will still be driving people to their websites next year when they promote themselves as sources of information on alternative energy sources.

Another good topic for this kind of promotion -- the future. After the conference, I'm starting to think that libraries have a particular role to play in helping to create awareness about the future. Maybe the Gateway to All Knowledge can evolve into the Gateway to the Future.