by David Lee King on January 28, 2009
Check out Generations Online in 2009, the newest Pew Internet report. Go read it – there’s alot of good stuff in it.
Here are some tidbits that I found interesting:
“Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email…”
Wow. Interesting tidbit from page 2: “The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 can be seen in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online.” – Did you see that? What a HUGE jump – now, almost HALF of 70-75 year olds are online. Amazing.
“… email remains the most popular online activity, particularly among older internet users. Fully 74% of internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making email the most popular online activity for this age group.” (see my post about email reference and think about how you can update that service).
How’s your health info online (and at your reference desk)? – “In particular, older internet users are significantly more likely than younger generations to look online for health information.”
And etc… good stuff (9 pages worth).
Pic by fran**
Tagged as:
baby boomers,
boomers,
Email,
gen x,
gen y,
generations,
internet,
pew internet,
silent generation
by David Lee King on November 21, 2006
I have a Yahoo email account (honestly I don’t check it too often). But Trillian (IM client) sends little “reminder” messages to me once in awhile that I have mail in the inbox of my Yahoo account. So I decided to go clean it out today.
When I did, I was greeted with a chance to try the beta version of their new email app. It’s very nice – lots of Ajaxy goodness, like dragging and dropping emails into folders, single click/double click things, etc – it pretty much works like the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook.
But when I chose to use the beta product, I was immediately dropped into a brief training session. And that’s what I’m really blogging about today. ‘Cause they did a great job in the training session!
Take a peek at the screenshot to the left. They provided a little animated guy that guided me through the training session, complete with easy-to-do tasks (ie., dragging and dropping email to a folder) that quickly taught me what I needed to know about the beta product.
There was also a bar at the bottom of the screen that showed me how far along I was in the training session (presumably there so I could see that I was almost finished), and the animated guy was nice – he “said” encouraging things as I moved along in the tutorial.
And then, when I completed the tutorial, the animated guy did a little dance, and confetti fell! Seriously (take a peek at the pic). How cool is that?
I think libraries could learn a few things from this little moment in my life:
- Make training fun! – The Yahoo session provided training, but did it in a light, fun way. Can our library training sessions and our online training sessions and tipsheets be fun, too? I think so
- Celebrate success – Yahoo encouraged me by telling me I was doing a good job during the session, and celebrated (by dancing and confetti) after the session. Not sure our bibliographic instruction librarians should start dancing after a training session… but I think we CAN make our materials and our teaching moments positive. We can be encouraging – in person, on paper, and online.
- Offer Proactive training – This Yahoo session popped up before I entered the new email app. We need to make sure we offer training on a new product BEFORE it’s released! That goes for OPAC upgrades, new blogs, or even offering RSS feeds for the first time. Make sure to train both your staff and your public, so they know what to do with the new product or service.
- Offer help when needed – Yahoo figured some people would need a little more guidance, so they created a way to offer that guidance – when it was needed. They also provide a Help link if I need more help later on. Again, I think libraries can do this, too.
- Provide “just enough” teaching – This training session lasted 2-5 minutes, and provided just enough information so that I could read and manage my email. They didn’t include the history of Yahoo, show me changes to Yahoo email over time, etc. They gave me just what I needed and nothing more. Library training can do much the same thing – for example, why not create a quick, 5-minute screencast on how to do a basic search in the catalog – and then provide pointers to further instruction if needed? That way, everyone gets just what they need to do a search, and they’re given the option to get more help if/when needed.
Just some thoughts (mainly caused by that little dancing dude from Yahoo… 
by David Lee King on February 11, 2005
Like everyone else with a gmail account, I have 50 Gmail invites to give away. So if someone wants a gmail email account, email me (davidleeking [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com).
