Searching & the Online Journey - John Horrigan, Pew Internet Life Project

showed various Pew statistics for broadband subscriptions, internet use, and online searching

41% of *all* online users conduct a search on the average day (September 2005)
54% of high-speed internet users search on an average day
for "high-powered" internet users, 91% do an internet search on an average day

50% of searchers could go back to their old way of finding information
...but 32% say they can't live without search

searching is part of an online environment that:
- reduces uncertainty for users (particularly in regards to medical information)
- empowers them with more information
- serves as an outlet and source for creativity (50% of users have posted some kind of content to the internet)
- helps them make every day decisions
- helps them maintain and cultivate social networks

internet is a "Swiss Army knife" information tool
- particularly for young users
- the long tail
- does the long tail thicken the leading edge?

internet will increasingly be embedded in things (RFID, ubiquitous broadband internet)
attention will become a scarce commodity in the digital world
- trusted helpers to connect people to what they want

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Who's Out There and What Are They Doing? - Roy Tennant

Generations:
millennials & gen Xers are:
- not you
- not homogeneous
- they share a lot of your core values (not sure who "your" refers to)
- communication power users, very connected
- big collectors (tunes, videos, links, photos)
- big sharers (tunes, videos, links, photos)
- content creators
- serious multitaskers

typical 18-year old:
- has never known a time without the internet
- never purchased a record
- thinks the president must be named clinton or bush
- can't understand why anyone would want a landline phone

typical 12-year old
- was born after the web
- has never known a time when the U.S. was at peace with Iraq
- believes a cell phone to be a God-given right
- has never purchased a cassette tape
- doesn't understand why we say "dial" a phone number

what are they doing?
- instant messaging (in a year or two, it will be all of us); the channel matters... if someone wants to connect with us this way, we need to be there
- MySpace; really like sharing about themselves; showed his Flickr account; his own unalog; showed his last.fm account
- reviews
- tagging
- YouTube

they're doing all of this on cell phones
we have to get really good at delivering content to cell phones

showed his Google Analytics account, which tells him what terms people are searching in Google to get to his sites
libraries need to monitor this for their sites and use this information more efficiently

showed various statistics from the OCLC Perceptions report

how can we attract and support these users?
they shouldn't have to darken your door to use your services

- use what they use, e.g. MySpace
- benefits: know more about where they're coming from, figure out new opportunities, get new ideas for positioning your services and collections; let them choose the channel that floats their boat

- be where they are
- online (web, IM, etc.)
- available by phone
- mall outlets
- bookmobiles
- community events
- physical as well as electronic; wherever our nonusers are

- be discoverable
- make sure you are crawled by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, etc.
- pay attention to the titles of your documents and use descriptive words
- make it easy for people to link directly to what they want
- make sure sites that should link to your site do

- be usable
- only 15% of respondents said libraries are easy to use; 85% said online searching is easy to use
- do a needs assessment
- build collections and services that align with your customer base
- do usability testing

what to do: summary
- start and end with your clientele
- learn the technologies available to you that are appropriate to your mission
- imaginatively apply those technologies to serve the unique needs of your users
- provide easy access to what they want, how and when they want it
- market those services well
- rinse and repeat (forever, for the rest of our professional lives)

in the end...
- it's always been about the user, but we seem to have forgotten how to focus on their needs
- it doesn't matter what you think they should do, they will do what they want
- work to give them what they should have in a way they want to have it
- never stop learning, thinking, striving to do better
- if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right

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