At a meeting last week, I had another opportunity to hear Stephen Abrams speak. He said two things that really struck me:

1. Kids in high school now are 40%-60% of the parents bringing their kids to the public library in 10 years.

Wow. Are we serving those high school kids now? How many of them? If they aren’t using us now, will be they bring their kids in 10 years? Can we serve these new parents and kids? Can we communicate with them using the comminication methods that prefer?

2. Consider the Simpsons. We, as librarians, might identify more with Lisa, the brainy, library-loving Simpson; but our users are Bart and we need to design services to meet Bart’s needs.

Do we? Can Bart find the information he needs by using our catalog? What draws Bart to the library? What keeps him there and wanting to return for more?