<div dir="ltr">Full disclosure, I'm on the reference desk right now and don't have access to the ELUNA repo, so I can't few the presentations. And I hate asking this question because I fear the tone/connotation is negative, but, what is the actual use case of this? <div><br></div><div>I remember years ago when the Apple Watch was debuting and folks on the Twitterverse / San Francisco typed a lot about how it might "revolutionize" the way people interact with digital services and resources in the same way that the advent of the iPhone ushered in a consumer-friendly* mobile web. But then... as near as I can tell, no one has bothered trying to adapt their site/resource/whatever to that screen and interface. I feel similarly when I think about incorporating voice into a discovery layer. </div><div><br></div><div>And not to be SUPER negative, but, ExL hasn't even nailed screen readers. If there's a scenario wherein a person says "Hey Google, what time does the EDCC library open today?", then Google would probably be better served by scraping the data from Google Maps, which is itself scraped from our hours widgets. There's already a level of authority there that will ensure that the data is readable by the voice/AI system, since reading static hours data on Google Maps is something that an AI can and should be able to do. But Primo is a piece of ultra-niche software that - still - hasn't hit the same web standards of accessibility and usability that we've come to expect from anything on the internet. </div><div><br></div><div>What about known title searches? Asking "Hey Google, does the Lynnwood public library have a copy of 1Q84?" could work, especially if the output is toned to something straightforward. "I found a few records: the library has two print copies of 1Q84 on the shelf, one copy checked out, and an audiobook copy available via Overdrive" would be a solid response. But could you imagine a research query using voice? It's like calling your insurance company and being met with some phone-robot with a menu tree with a bajillion branches. In those cases I just mash zero until I get a person. </grouchy old man></div><div><br></div><div>To conclude my early morning rant - talking to a computer with natural language and getting natural, actionable language back has been and remains a super rad thing ever since Star Trek, but I have to tell my Google Home a few times to turn off the lights at night and I wouldn't want to tell students they could trust asking an Alexa their Eng 101 research topic. </div><div><br></div><div>And semi-related, but Alexa skills are apparently a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/12/student-makes-10000-a-month-inventing-skills-for-amazon-alexa.html" target="_blank">massive untapped goldmine of secondary income</a>. </div><div><br></div><div>-Dan</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 9:27 AM Thomas, Kirsti <<a href="mailto:Kirsti.Thomas@seattlecolleges.edu" target="_blank">Kirsti.Thomas@seattlecolleges.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Greg Bem may chime in on this. He attended a presentation on this by one of the California schools and had things to say about the complete lack of concern for patron privacy on display there.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I attended a different presentation at Developers Day on this topic. The speaker was from one of the big research universities in Iowa. They were working on an “Alexa-like” or “Siri-like” voice controlled app. This school had very deliberately
decided *<b>not</b>* to use any of the commercially-available voice assistant AIs because of the laws governing student and patron privacy in their state. They had a stable of programmers and developers in their *<b>library</b>* IT department (
<span style="font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">😭</span> ) to write their own app. The app was limited in what it could do because of the privacy concerns—it didn’t provide personal information like “What things do I currently have checked out? Do I
have any fines on my account?”—but it was able to do things like report on library open hours, and perform searches via voice command and read back search results. It was pretty cool, but, like I said, they had their own group of programmers and devs in-house
( <span style="font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">😭</span> ) to do this work.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Kirsti S. Thomas<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Library Technical Service Manager<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Seattle Colleges<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:kirsti.thomas@seattlecolleges.edu" target="_blank">kirsti.thomas@seattlecolleges.edu</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Wactclc-primo <<a href="mailto:wactclc-primo-bounces@lists.ctc.edu" target="_blank">wactclc-primo-bounces@lists.ctc.edu</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Herman, Amy<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, June 29, 2019 09:11<br>
<b>To:</b> WACTCLC Alma Discussion <<a href="mailto:wactclc-alma@lists.ctc.edu" target="_blank">wactclc-alma@lists.ctc.edu</a>>; 'WACTCLC Primo discussions' <<a href="mailto:wactclc-primo@lists.ctc.edu" target="_blank">wactclc-primo@lists.ctc.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Wactclc-primo] [External] [Wactclc-alma] "Alexa, where is the movies section?"<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">This was also mentioned as an up and coming trend at Computers in Libraries, in March. I came back and looked into creating Alexa Skills but quickly realized it's
beyond my capacity :)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">Amy Herman, Library Faculty
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">Olympic College<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">Bremerton, WA
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">(360) 475-7256<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><a href="mailto:aherman@olympic.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">aherman@olympic.edu</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"> Wactclc-alma [<a href="mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces@lists.ctc.edu" target="_blank">wactclc-alma-bounces@lists.ctc.edu</a>]
on behalf of Guidry, Wade [<a href="mailto:WadeG@bigbend.edu" target="_blank">WadeG@bigbend.edu</a>]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, June 28, 2019 11:48 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'WACTCLC Alma Discussion'; 'WACTCLC Primo discussions'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [External] [Wactclc-alma] "Alexa, where is the movies section?"</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">One of the themes I saw in the ELUNA 2019 presentations, that I was going to mention on Tuesday but forgot, is the beginnings of AI use in
libraries.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Two presentations at ELUNA centered around the use of Alexa in the library.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">On a personal note, I recently bought an Amazon Firestick+, which is basically “smart TV” functionality on a small HDMI-connected computing
device.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Built into the Firestick is a cut-down version of Alexa. I hadn’t previously paid much attention to Alexa, Echo, Siri, etc. But after using
the Alexa functionality even briefly, I realized what game changer this stuff could be.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">At the same time, I saw these Alexa-oriented presentations, and did some quick searching on other library efforts around AI.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">This stuff is coming, and the potential use of these voice activated devices in libraries for reference, accessibility and even language
translation services is pretty intriguing. </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">I’ll probably be looking this summer, just out of personal interest, at how to program Alexa “skills”, which I believe are the building blocks
of enabling custom abilities into Alexa. Such as answering such questions as “where is the bathroom?”, “when does the library close?”, “where is the movies section?”.</span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span></span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Davis, Greg</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> (2019) </span><span style="color:black"><a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocuments.el-una.org%2F1927%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cee1a444e245b412ed0ee08d6fcac69cb%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C636974214770762379&sdata=cOMNKM7WKtj0YnVAjPLWM3AYRwgkNUH3x0O1SxzflXk%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,0,128);background:white">Connecting
Primo to Amazon Alexa.</span></em></a></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> In: ELUNA 2019 Annual Meeting, April 29-May 3, 2019, Atlanta, GA.</span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> </span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Shih, Win</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> and <span class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail-m_645853562417301066personname">Muraoka, Royd</span> (2019) </span><span style="color:black"><a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocuments.el-una.org%2F1812%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cee1a444e245b412ed0ee08d6fcac69cb%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C636974214770762379&sdata=7UYGGhmLcGftx5d%2Fk7pYqLa%2FQjRPCr90zDADGVFCuac%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,0,128);background:white">Say
Library: When Alexa Meets Primo.</span></em></a></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> In: ELUNA 2019 Annual Meeting, April 29-May 3, 2019, Atlanta, GA.</span><span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Wade Guidry<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">WACTCLC<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Library Consortium Services Manager<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><a href="mailto:wade@bigbend.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">wade@bigbend.edu</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wactclc.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cee1a444e245b412ed0ee08d6fcac69cb%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C636974214770772387&sdata=8XZcCR8PeeNrIly0rYTrQlVdgQpP2vm7Dy2LKzfOf8w%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">http://www.wactclc.org</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">509.760.4474<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_910938228586873385gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Regards,<div><br></div><div>Dan Moore</div><div>Systems and Collections Librarian</div><div>Edmonds Community College Library </div><div><a href="mailto:dan.moore@edcc.edu" target="_blank">dan.moore@edcc.edu</a> / <a href="mailto:daniel.moore@email.edcc.edu" target="_blank">daniel.moore@email.edcc.edu</a></div><div>(425) 640-1526</div></div></div>