Nancy R. John
Digital Publishing Librarian and Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago
Many industries are customizing services and information for their clienteles. From the customized advertising of search engines to preference for seating on airplanes, there are hundreds of ways that our world is responding to our explicit and implicit preferences. While librarians need to worry about important issues, such as user privacy, these concerns may ultimately result in us designing a less useful and less used set of services — customized services that do not need to compromise privacy. What can libraries learn (or borrow) from other industries? This session explores a dozen major trends in the technology world that may have potential for creating library services and programs tailored to the individual. Attendees will be able to respond to these ideas and to brainstorm additional approaches that may offer similar potential.
