I saw this article today in American Libraries about “Trend Tracking” for librarians http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/05112010/10-tips-tracking-trends . According to this article, tracking trends has become a business of itself. Apparently it is also called “Cool Hunting” http://coolhunting.com/ . 

The author of the article sets aside an hour each week to think about new trends and their applications for libraries. I think she’s an honorary SPLAT member, because we all do that, too! Elisabeth Doucett spends some time looking at current trends, then thinks about an idea. She writes down this idea in two-three words and does more searching on this. 

I do this all the time, but is this a concept worth exploring more? Step Six is great because it’s what SPLAT does, “When you identify the ideas that you want to pursue for your library, get together with some of your fellow librarians to help you review the ideas and find the good and bad about them.” Sound familiar?

Doucett identifies all the steps that innovators take when trying to add new services to their library. This is a hopeful and awesome article, and I am really happy to see these ideas being discussed.