The Horizon Report 2007 lists the technologies that your university or school library should watch in the next 5 years or so. It is a joint publication of the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE learning initiative – both are groups of universities, museums and corporations concerned with using Information Technology for better education.

Even if your library is not in the education sector, it is worth reading to understand the trends affecting the lives of many of your clients.

The executive summary identifies Key Trends (eg. Information literacy increasingly should not be considered a given) and Critical Challenges (eg.While progress is being made, issues of intellectural property and copyright continue to affect how scholarly work is done).

It includes overviews of each technology, how they might be used and references to projects in place and further reading.

The trends identified are:

Time-to-Adoption:One year or less

• User created content – Tagging on sites like del.icio.us, wikis, machinima, photostreams. Audience is no longer only listening, but creating
• Social Networking – Contributing, sharing, communicating and collaborating via social networks

Time to Adoption:Two to Three years

• Mobile phones – As a gateway to digital lives
• Virtual Worlds – Customised settings allowing collaboration, exploration and role-playing in a safe but compelling way

Time to Adoption: Four to Five years

• The New Scholarship and emerging forms of publication -New tools and new ways to create, critique and publish
• Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming – Open source gaming engines allowing educational bodies to create purpose built game environments

found via HeyJude