Conference Calls

Internet Librarian 2010

2010-11-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

This year, two SPL staff attended Internet Librarian in Monterey, CA. For the first time, Sacramento Public was represented in the presentations, with Ann delivering part of a session about My Info Quest, the text reference service we've been participating in for the last year.

Read about the conference at The Digital Underground and at Annot8tions.

Presentations from most speakers are online at the Internet Librarian web site.

CLA 2009 - Save You’re A.S.S. (After School Sanity)

2009-11-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

Libraries should be welcoming environments for teens, but sometimes enforcing certain standards of behavior among your teen patrons can improve everyone’s experience. If you have trouble with crowd control after school in your library, here are some tips:

Present a united front. Agree on standards for noise, library usage, etc. ahead of time and enforce equally
When asking teens to comply with a rule, be unemotional and brief.
Also be factual and spell out consequences. i.e. This is a warning; next time you will have to leave for the day (or stop using computers, etc.)
Allow time for teens to comply
Don’t argue or debate.

If someone doesn’t comply, insist that the behavior was inappropriate and that they need to leave for the day.
Ensure teens leave when asked. Don’t bluff.
Have a signal among staff for getting help or intervention. Support and back-up your coworkers.
If staff is uncomfortable talking to disruptive patrons, try role playing at a staff meeting and have some sample scripts to use. (You don’t have to follow the script verbatim, but some people find suggestions for the kind of phrases to use helpful)

-Amy Calhoun

Screencasting Tips & Tricks

2009-10-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Paul Pival (University of Calgary) demonstrated several free web-based programs that can be used for creating screencasts, recording activity on a computer screen and saving them as movies. Some examples: Screencast-o-matic,
Screen Jelly, Screenr. Others, such as Jing, have free and "pro" versions that cost a small fee, or are desktop installations, like Camtasia and Captivate. The Camtasia demo showed how much post-production editing is possible to create a custom screencast.

Internet Librarian 2009

2009-10-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of years have passed since this blog was created as a way for staff to follow and participate in the experiences of those attending conferences. Since then, we've completed a successful 27 Things program for staff, and many now have their own blogs.

Four staff are attending Internet Librarian 2009 in Monterey next week, and their blogs are linked in the right sidebar. We hope you enjoy the posts, and we all encourage your comments and questions. Perhaps we'll be following you at a future conference. CLA, anyone?

Following blogs

2009-07-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

I've tried several ways of following blogs including Google Reader and using the RSS reader feature on Outlook. Gotta say that I like bloglines the best. Following blogs using outlook was more convenient considering that I spend half my life on email anyway, but it's way, way too slow. Each individual feed that you click on has to connect to the actual blog. If I can just find a really good knitting blog, I'll be in business!

The Future of Libraries

2008-11-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Wow! Getting to meet Stacey Aldrich and listen to her was a real highlight of the CLA conference for me. Here are some of her key points:
What are the challenges of creating an organization that is forward thinking and moving? 1) Sometimes our rule/policies from the past stop us; ask to see the rule. 2) Strategically, how do we spend our time? We need to get more efficient. 3) Find the professional futurists (I love this!) in the organization and send them out as scouts to focus on upcoming trends. 4) Need to have a strategic plan, organizational values (how we all work together), a customer service philosophy and a clarity of roles. All these work together to build TRUST, essential for an organization's success.
Check out her powerpoint from the conference on her blog, http://ideablah.blogspot.com especially her model called Foundations. Well worth the visit.
Vicki Rondeau

Daniel Pink, Continued...

2008-11-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

The session with Daniel Pink was certainly entertaining and fun. After he spoke, Joan Fry Williams led a lively discussion with library folks on how to put his theories and ideas into practical use inside our libraries. Pink named 6 things that matter most:

Design - How do we deliver things to people they didn't know they were missing? Ideas: 1) if you don't involve the user in the design decision, they should ignore you. 2) clutter is the enemy of design; moving clutter off the desk is the #1 improvement to customer service.
Story - We need anecdotes and transformative stories from the customers we serve in our community; helps in the relationship-building between library staff and our customers (brings them back).
Symphony - Pattern recognition, big picture thinking and looking for meaningful trends. Ideas: working together to create something meaningful. As librarians, we work with our customers to compile information, validate it as reliable information, help them to synthesize the information and finally, help them to derive meaning from the information within their own context. (Information Literacy!!)
Empathy - Valuable; cannot be outsourced. We need to make our signage more "emotionally intelligent". My favorite example of a Pink sign - 'WELCOME - Be Nice or Leave'. Another example - 'Don't Worry, this line moves very quickly'.
Play - Have fun! Suzy explained the Library Friday Happy Hour; let's go for it; why not?!
Meaning - Pink used the 20-10 example: If you had $20 million dollars in the bank with only 10 years to live, would you continue doing what you're doing now? Think about it......

Vicki Rondeau

VIVO, the future of talking computers

2008-11-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

Professor and futurist William Crossman gave a compelling talk about what he sees as the end of literacy by the middle of the 21st century. He argues that text is a 10,000-year-old technology which was great for what it was developed for, that is, recording information for later use. However, text, not only on paper, but on-screen as well is quickly being overtaken by advances in VIVO, or voice-in/voice-out technology. Despite the long history of text technology, only 20% of the world's population is, in his words, literate, resulting in a huge digital divide between those who are literate having access to information and those who aren't literate not having access. Thus, he says, the rise of VIVO technology will have a huge democratizing effect on access to information and is therefore a good thing to be celebrated, not feared. This would result in the return of cultures to oral traditions and storytellers replacing novelists. As an example of the VIVO future being here already, Dr. Crossman gave an example of a VIVO service currently offered by Google. This service allows users to speak a search question into their cell phones. The answer is then spoken back to them.

He proposes that text messaging, the preferred mode of communication for young adults and teens, is actually one step in the process of the de-evolution of text, and goes on to say that folks in their teens and twenties (and younger) are already rejecting text as a way to communicate and will increasingly do so as VIVO technologies continue to improve.

It's probably no surprise that this notion of the end of text was not warmly embraced at a library convention, but it is an intriguing notion with possibly huge implications for commerce, culture, education, and, of course, libraries.

A whole new mind

2008-11-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

By Suzy Murray

Daniel Pink, author of such books as A whole new mind and The adventures of Johnny Bunko, was one of the featured speakers at the CLA conference, November 14-17.

Pink argues that, for the past several decades, the path for Americans into the middle class was via a college education and ultimately in professional fields like medicine, law, accounting, etc. These fields, emphasizing numerical and analytical skills, are left-brain fields. The problem for our society, argues Pink, is that professions that are spent largely analyzing, following sets of rules to reach a finished product, etc., are prime targets to be automated and off-shored. For example, one million 2007 U.S. tax returns were processed in India. Perhaps more troubling for accountants, 25 million tax returns were completed using TurboTax software. X-rays are being sent overseas digitally and analyzed by radiologists in Asia.

Right-brain skills, however, such as creativity, big-picture thinking, emotional intelligence, etc., can't be automated and can't be outsourced. For libraries, this means that by providing an experience and helping our customers find meaning in a way they can't find in other places, we will make ourselves "necessary" in the eyes of our communities. He explained that while GDP in the U.S. has been rising steadily, Americans' report of life satisfaction have remained flat. Americans are looking for meaning in their lives, and libraries can help them find that meaning. Libraries can also provide experiences that can't be automated or outsourced. He gave an example of a library that hosts "Library Happy Hour" on Friday afternoons. The staff wears hawaiian shirts, has fine-free "Happy Hours" when customer fines are fogiven, and lead customers in conga lines out of the library at closing time.

A whole new mind, by Daniel Pink (Yep, SPL owns copies!)

Innovation

2008-10-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Helene Blowers, Director, Digital Strategy, Columbus Metropolitan Library

Helene Blowers from the Columbus Metropolitan Library gave us a pep talk about respecting our ideas and visions for the library, and setting healthy mindsets to guide us into implementing them effectively. Helene suggests when first propositioning our idea is to “not ask for permission, ask for support.” Learn to “sell your vision” so you can find the support and outside expertise if needed. One librarian expressed frustration from not getting any backing from upper management, and simply getting a pat on the back for trying. Helene admitted that implementing ideas takes courage and persistence, and when met with resistance, you will need to be creative in finding new ways of seeing the situation, and taking a different angle in your pursuit. There is always risk in putting yourself in the limelight with your idea. Helene reminded us to not be afraid of making mistakes, and to simply learn from the experience and get back on the saddle. She reminded us to have a sense of fun in the formulation of our ideas and with the process of implementing them. Lastly, explore life and keep notes, “find patterns and create connections” and stay curious to keep you inspired!

MySpace = YourSpace

2008-10-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

Danah Boyd's keynote about social networks on Wednesday morning should be exported as mandatory for all library staff and parents. I got a whole new "aha!" understanding of the role of social sites like MySpace and Facebook, and a new appreciation for the place it has in the culture of today's young people.

Kids today have decreased mobility, are not allowed outside like they used to be a generation ago, or are over-scheduled. Their hangouts are no longer the mall, the park, the roller rink - partly due to situations where both parents work and are not available for transportation, or it's not safe to be outside. In order to exist in peer groups, kids have to have an account with MySpace, or whatever social group their friends are using.

Characteristics of social networks are: a profile (compared to a "bedroom", which kids then "decorate" with digital artifacts), articulation of friends (most have 20-50 real friends, but may have hundreds of "friends" from groups like school, church, work, etc.), chat ("social grooming", important to the social ritual), status updates (peripheral awareness of what's going on around you and in your circle of friends.) Kids online are visiting friends, conversing, hanging out, flirting, just as if they were meeting face to face at the mall.

Some properties of online public spaces: persistence - what you say sticks around; replicability - content can be cut and pasted into different contexts, and you may not know if it's original or a copy, or whether it's been modified; scalability - the average blog is read by 6 people. What spreads? Why?; searchability - you can be found by those you don't want to associate with, but you can "hide" by finessing your profile; audience invisibility - public articulation of friends is an attempt to define your audience; collapsed contexts - you know how to behave at church, weddings, graduations, etc. This "scripted" behavior is absent online; public = private - the lines are blurred or nonexistent.

This represents a radical change in the way information is structured and spread. Tagging organizes information in new ways, and contributes to the creation of public knowledge. There is no longer a distinction between consumption and production.

You can take your friends with you, regardless of where you go.

Okay, I'm Finally Tired of Writing

2008-10-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

The theme of this year's Internet Librarian conference was "Beyond 2.0: User-Focused Tools and Practices." There were so many fun and forward-looking ideas for making libraries user-friendly, always available, in pictures, and networked - I can't begin to recapture it all. So here's a list of random thoughts and observations to wind up my conference report.

To attract teens, grab their interest with sex, drugs, and diseases. Present programs, prepare booklists, book clubs, displays around those themes - they will always be winners.
"Is there any kind of, like, video rental store, but for books?" If users are saying this, who is clueless: the kid or the library? People are willing to pay for flexible loan periods, and no late fees. Bookswim is one answer; should libraries take note?
To bring young people into the library, it's important to engage in conversations with those who are not already library users. Ask them why they haven't been visiting - do a little market research. The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties is developing an alternate-reality game. In order to compete, participants will need to come to the library to research the clues. They've found that the attention span of teens is 2 minutes. They will give up if they need to spend longer than that trying to navigate the library web site.
Ubiquitous computing - soon most items will have some kind of chip for rfid, geolocation, monitoring (stock market, home energy consumption, mood, weather). It is low-cost info-processing that makes computers invisible, unobtrusive, calming, context-aware, personalized, anticipatory, and adaptive. This Wikipedia article explains it pretty well and gives a few examples of its potential application. Applications in libraries could conceivably include location-based and anticipatory reference, emotion-mapping of the library.
Examples of using Twitter for library services: answering reference questions or collaborating on same, broadcasting library news or emergencies, program announcements, and the content is searchable via Twitter Search. Agencies using Twitter for these purposes include Ann Arbor District Library, Los Angeles Fire Department, NLC_Reference, and the Phoenix Mars Lander! See the slides.

Video on the Web

2008-10-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

David Lee King took 10 minutes at the beginning of his presentation to make a short video - just to show how easy it is. All you need is a camera, video editing software, and some time.

Still cameras with video modes work about as well as video cameras.
Editing software can be free (Windows Movie Maker - you probably have it on your PC and don't even know it; Jump-Cut), low-cost, or pricey.
Save in your selected format: mp3, flash, m4v (iPod), mov, etc.
Store online at blip-tv, YouTube, Internet Archive, etc.

It's important to plan: why make this video? Who is the audience? What is the take-away message (storyboard here)? Who will do it (who's not scared to be in front of the camera), who will hold the camera, and who gets to edit, and how to control ambient background noise.

Videos can share a message, train, change perceptions, give a tour. My first thought, of course, was to try a database tutorial, but someone cautioned that we may need the vendor's permission to show screen-shots of a product. Nevertheless, it could be a fun way to share messages with our public - holidays, friends book sales, new libraries ...

Fostering Creativity and Innovation In Your Staff

2008-10-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

The panel from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County included Frank Blair, Thomas Kozak, Tom Cole, and Paul DeVillo. This library is noted for its innovative work with teens and with media. The presentation outlined their Tech Scholars sabbatical program - and I could see that many in the audience were envious of the program and thinking of ways to do something like it at their libraries.

The idea is to take staff's innovative ideas and make them into realities by offering a 6 month scholarship opportunity. Successful projects answer needs like, "there should be a website that ..." or "there should be a database that ...". After an open application period, proposals are evaluated and awarded. Then successful staff candidates are given a 6 month hiatus from their current job requirements to design and implement their ideas.

Successful candidates question the status quo, tolerate risk, exhibit patience and persistance, trust the process (not all projects, once completed, will be adopted), and leverage resources (beg-borrow-steal) to stay within the budget, or lack thereof.

Last year, four staff received the opportunity to develop innovative services. Wouldn't it be a great opportunity for professional growth if SPL could start something like this?

Reference - What's Your Problem?

2008-10-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Kate Sheehan of Darien Library in Darien, CT gave us a preview of their plans for reference services in their new library building after it opens in a few weeks. The library's motto is "Extreme Public Service", and they will be implementing their new reference service model based on their perception of what the public needs and expects.

She mentioned that the traditional "gatekeeper" reference model has patrons approaching the desk, and the librarian pointing out resources that patrons then have to read, interpret, and apply by themselves to fill their information need. It was a relatively hands-off style of service. However, today, patrons just want fast information, and are accustomed to collaborative environments where people work together to find or produce the information needed. (Example: finding a neighborhood to move to that has private schools on a public transportation route.) If this information doesn't exist in a single traditional relocation source, then Darien staff will sit down with the patron and create an Excel spreadsheet with information from multiple sources.)

To help patrons get information fast, the new library will be set up with interfiled reference and circulating books, letting reference books circulate for some not-yet-defined short period: overnight, weekend. Like our own patrons, theirs were often looking for their circulating items in the reference stacks and not finding them. Staff will have cell phones and tablet PCs so they can perform reference service wherever they are in the building. There will be a kidney-shaped service point in the reading room where staff and user can collaborate on questions if that is needed.

Bottom line: the underlying philosophy is not to make staff lives easier, but to "connect humans".

Solving the Reference Desk Problem

2008-10-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Joe Murphy, from the Yale University Science Libraries, and Ellen Peterson, from Maui Community College Library, explained how their respective institutions are implementing "no reference desk" reference service from two very different perspective.

Yale riffed off the idea that most students are texting anyway, and since there is more and more mobile content being pushed to cell phones (library notices, news, updates, information). There seemed to be a gap between traditional reference and their users' lifestyles. So why not reference, too? The phone is the primary screen for many users. Mobile reference would always be available at the point of need, it would enhance traditional services and expand their reach, and staff is not limited by location. Most of the librarians already owned iPhones, so those that didn't were outfitted and trained.

MCC was forced to consider mobile reference when the library was closed for construction and library offices were moved to a room in a remote part of the campus. Ellen is using her personal cell phone, and has published her contact information on Ask Ellen!, a blog-that-is-not-a-blog. She also created many other entry points - you can see them on Ask Ellen! - so students will be able to find her in the spaces they frequent.

Best practices? Building traffic? Start early, make it as easy as possible, remove barriers, consider whether, if traffic increases, the service is scalable. Also, students respond better to an individual online, rather than an institution, so personalizing the service with a face makes it friendlier and more likely to be used.

How to handle the longer questions? "Let me work on that a little while and get back to you by e-mail."

Wednesday Keynote: What's Happening Out There?

2008-10-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Danny Sullivan returned to IL2008 with a look at the state of search enginry today. The top by far is Google, with almost 70% of the market in the US (more in Europe and parts of Asia). He said there is no "Google-killer" on the horizon at the moment, but demonstrated a dozen "Google Killerettes," niche search engines that find information within their niches better than Google can do it. They include blog and twitter searchers, those that can use cell towers to triangulate your position and feed you local information such as news and restaurants; ans those that search single items: people, gas prices, restaurants, travel, local events.

The challenge is that, when Google is so easy, it's hard to remember all the little search engines. Although Danny said he sees no big trends right now, he does see personal and social search engines becoming more important. Google, for example, now reshapes searches according to who you are (you must opt in for this), and will return results based on your whereabouts, your previous queries, and your web browsing history. Mobile (cell phone) and vertical tools (niche engines) are offering new possibilities for finding information.

Here are some of the "killerette" sites he mentioned:

Twitter Search - tweets
Digg- news, videos
Urbanspoon - restaurants near you (audio included if you have an iPhone.)
Eventful, Upcoming - local cultural events
Yelp - ratings
Trulia, Zillow - real estate
Kayak, Farecast - travel
Indeed - jobs
Pipl, Spock - people
Blinkx, VideoSurf - videos

Public Libraries and Web 2.0

2008-10-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Zeth Lietzan of Library Research Service announced the results of a study of the web sites of 600 public libraries that have implemented Web 2.0 technologies. Without going into all the details, they looked at a random selection of 100 public libraries in each of six service population categories, from less than 10,000 to over 500,000. They looked at the OPAC, My Library Account, blogs and RSS, virtual reference of any kind, wikis open for public contributions, social networking, and podcasting.

What they found: most libraries have web sites; but only 45% have online OPACs. More than 75% of libraries allow access to "my account", but less than 40% have online library card applications. The rest - fewer than 25% of libraries have made other Web 2.0 applications available to their users on the library web site.

What was most interesting was the following: the early adopters have more staff, more funding, larger audio and video collectons, and greater use per capita than libraries who have not implemented Web 2.0 technologies, regardless of the size of library and population served.

Here's the link to the presentation.

Other Monday Sessions

2008-10-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Monday sessions were a mixed bag for me. There were many new speakers and the presentations applied in varying degrees to what we're doing / able to do at SPL.

In Fast & Easy Web Site Tuneups, Jeff Wisniewski featured small and easy changes that will make a web site more credible (keep "last updated" and copyright dates current with scripts), placing important information outside the "blindness zone" (top of the screen and right sidebar), a catchy logo and professional-looking graphics, and other technical concerns like performance-testing and where to place the style sheets that control the "look" of the page. I attended to see if there was anything I could do to make the Telis TipSheet more friendly-looking, and did come away with a few things I'm going to try.

Search Gadgets and Widgets introduced the useful tools that can be created using Google's Gadgets Editor to create gadgets that will place functional bits of your home page or opac in other locations, like MySpace and Facebook. They can also be used to connect users from your pages to external sites you choose.

And we NEED one of these for Central: an animated, interactive building map!

Secrets of the Super Searchers

2008-10-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Mary Ellen Bates's Super Searcher sessions are so well-attended, she uses the same auditorium as the opening Keynote speaker. Links to the sites mentioned in her presentation are at http://BatesInfo.com/il2008.html.

Today, she highlighted some new and little-known features of our beloved Google and Yahoo, and introduced a handful of new search engines, some still very much in beta, with intriguing new functionalities. Here are my favorites.

Google Translated Search (http://google.com/translate_s)
This tool will take your English search query, translate it into another language, run your query against web sites in that language, return a list of results, and then translate the results into English. This dramatically expands the ability to search in a part of the web that is growing, but which we can't understand. The example was: after the recent earthquake that leveled schools in China, what was the Chinese press saying about the event?

Yahoo's Search Assist
On any Yahoo results page, look for a little tab with a down-arrow just above the list of results. If you click it, you will see suggestions for alternate search terms, concepts, and much more to help narrow down your list of results or refine your search.

Silobreaker.com (http://www.silobreaker.com)
This is one of the new "sense-making" search engine that aggregates news search results in a visual way, showing relationships between people, emerging industry trends, and unexpected relationships between events in the news. You can search by entering terms, or by selecting topics. A dynamic map identifies news "hot spots" in the world.

Opening Keynote

2008-10-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

The conference moderator began with the idea of "retronyms", a new name for an old technology. Telephones were telephones until touch-tone phones were introduced; then the retronym for older phones became "rotary phones." Similarly, television evolved into color tvs and black & white tvs. At last year's conference, a question arose about what you would call a librarian who is NOT an Internet librarian ("unemployed" was disallowed), and attendees were then challenged to come up with a retronym describing such librarians. Over the past year, the submissions were collected and sorted, and here are the top 10:
10. shelf-pointer librarian
9. analog Librarian
8. legacy librarian
7. unplugged librarian
6. 3x5 librarian
5. internot librarian
4. retrobrarian
3. [insert supervisor's name here] librarian
2. Wallenda librarian (flying high without the 'net)
and the winner of the challenge and a substantial prize:
1. Librarian 1.0

Howard Rheingold then gave his opening keynote speech with some thoughts about new ways of becoming and staying "literate" with todays technologies and the "digital natives" who are using them. Biology is war. To survive, you must win at all costs. Today, the competitive element is still there, but it is bundled with a new element, "communication-enabled collective action". Most people on earth will eventually be carrying communication devices thousands of times more powerful than anything we have today, and will be able to communicate in real time with their social peers using cooperative media like texting, twitter, wikis. He gave examples of such cooperation via cell phone and Internet after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and the tsunami in Thailand.

The common characteristics of such media are that they must be easy to use, enable connection, be open (no license needed to publish), group-forming, self-instructing, and must leverage self-interest.

Because things are changing so fast, his best advice is not to keep up with the technologies per se, but to keep up with the literacies needed to use them. Mere alphabetic literacy is no longer enough.

Internet Librarian 2008

2008-10-19T18:16:00.005-07:00

Okay, so we got up really early this morning to catch the Coast Starlight from Sacramento to Salinas, and then a connecting Amtrak mini-bus. Destination: Monterey, for the Internet Librarian 2008 conference. We checked in at our hotel around lunchtime, then walked to the Convention Center to pick up our registration materials and have lunch.

We're adding photos to Flickr, and you can see ours by clicking on the photo "badge" in the right sidebar. Other attendees may also be posting photos, so you can also search Flickr for photos tagged "IL2008" to see what others are doing.

Since neither TL nor I had signed up for any pre-conferences, we spent the afternoon on the Old Fisherman's Wharf, and took a glass-bottomed boat ride. Learned something: there's a "red tide" going on right now, which is a very dense algal bloom that turns the water dark red, so we couldn't actually see anything through the glass bottom! We did see a couple of sea otters, and lots of sea lions and seals and pelicans and cormorants and gulls and kelp.

Resurrecting Reference

2008-09-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Two months ago, I attended an InfoPeople webinar called Resurrecting Reference, and blogged it elsewhere. I was reviewing things today, and decided that it might be worth mentioning here, too - so here's the link to my post .

I'm sure those who attend other InfoPeople sessions, online classes, webinars and webcasts would find a ready audience for their thoughts if posted here, and encourage others to do the same. If you don't already have a login for Conference Calls, e-mail Ann Owens or Marge Wood requesting an "invitation".

All Together Now!

2008-07-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm commiting 15 minutes a day to participate in "All Together Now", the 23 Things program coordinated by SLJ. Right now, I'm the only California participant, and it's lonely! Feel free to play along... You can get to the All Together Now blog with a simple click...

Materials Handling Vendors

2008-07-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

Anne Marie, Linda Demmers and I met on Sunday afternoon with our two short-list proposers for the new Materials Handling and RFID project, Envisionware and Libramation. We set up a scheduled time with each of them to give us a detailed demonstration of their systems. Both systems are well-designed and quiet, and would fit well with our plans for Elk Grove, Valley Hi, North Natomas and Pocket.

It is amazing to see how much technology integration exists with these products, and how much impact the conversion to RFID tags could have on our daily operations. The information tie-in to the ILS is extensive, since the tags have extensive capabilities.

More info to come.

Ready to Read

2008-07-07T15:41:00.001-07:00

There were some great ideas on the “Ready to Read” early literacy front at the conference:

Share tips for caregivers with all staff via the intranet so that anyone can point out the advantages of reading with little ones.
Have playgroups at the library. (We’re having them at ARC and FAI this summer!)
Have programs that help families/caregivers create their own storytime materials.
Used discarded books to make pre-reader books.
Create how to read videos.
Have Dial-a-story videos on our website.
One library made paper “tent” signs with early literacy tips on them and placed them around town, even on gas pumps!

Cathy Brown

Youth Services Manager

Sacramento Public Library

Top Library Building Trends

2008-07-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

This Monday afternoon session had a top-flight panel of architects, consultants and library directors on hand to muse about the direction of library facilities and operations. The first speaker, architect Kevin Hughes, elicited gasps from the audience when he said we are in a library building renaissance that is fueled by a move away from books. His point was that libraries are becoming community centers, research facilities, entertainment venues, technology centers and, oh yeah, a place for books too.
He compared libraries of a century ago where the books were hidden away and most were accessible only by a Librarian. Then the books came out on the floor where the peeps were and became the dominant feature of every library. Now our stacks are shrinking in relation to the size of our buildings and interactive, noisy activities are taking their place. Libraries of the future will be built to accomodate these new activities.

Exhibits: Open Source Software and Other Stuff

2008-07-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of buzz around open source Integrated Library Systems. On the one hand, they're great. because you can code the system to work the way you want it to. On the other hand, they're incredibly expensive and time consuming, because you have to code the system to work the way you want it to. With that in mind, I visited the LibLime /Koha and the Equinox/Evergreen booths in the exhibit hall. They are both exciting products with lots of potential. Neither one of them is ready - yet - to be a full blown ILS replacement. Both vendors are still working on modules and functionality that our own ILS already has. I imagine that the open source ILS will be more of a contender in two years or so, when their systems are built out a bit more.

I also happened upon Mimio, a vendor that sells an attachment to turn any whiteboard into a wireless, interactive whiteboard. It was pretty impressive. I can't say that the library needs one, but it sure would be cool. They retail for under $1000.

Lexis-Nexis now offers Library Express, specifically tailored for public libraries. I miss having access to Lexis-Nexis.

Cool tidbits from OverDrive: This fall, OverDrive will begin offering direct to mobile downloads. That means our customers can download directly to their mobile device, instead of downloading to a PC and then transferring it. They are also beginning to offer iPod compatible titles.

Top Technology Trends (LITA)

2008-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Top Tech Trends panel, on Sunday, June 29, had some technological difficulties, as two members were attending virtually (from home, with a web cam and microphone). Trends that jumped out at me, in order of presentation:

The staff time it takes to maintain an online presence is underestimated. (Sarah Houghton-Jan)
We need to look at how we make decisions and encourage innovation (SHJ)
There will be a backlash against open source. We need to consider when it makes sense to use open source vs. when we are appealing to it to solve a problem we don't have a solution to.
Retooling for constant change: data, people and systems (Roy Tennant)

Data - We need to get good at extracting data, analyzing data, and transforming it
People - Constant learning. We need to take responsibility for our own learning. Supervisors need to support staff learning.
Systems - We need to either (1) Take complete control (go open source) OR (2) Get out of it (all control to the vendor)

Outsourcing of hardware
Library as content provider AND creator
Bibliographic control - It will be a giant mashup, available to all, and libraries will be left out of the process if we continue to hold onto current standards. With the ability to match on many different elements, we no longer have to do it all the same.
User-to-User interaction rather than institution to user

Some sites that were mentioned:
Your BIGWIG
Superpatron (The site is not ready for prime time. See the original Superpatron site.)

Some panelists blogged their Top Technology Trends on LITA's blog.

Toot Your Horn: Improving Your Image

2008-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm often content letting other people take credit for things, so on Monday, June 30, I attended Toot Your Own Horn to see if I could pick up some pointers. Donna Cardillo (www.dcardillo.com) talked about personal image, organizational image, and marketing. Since I attended for myself, most of what I noted apply to the individual.

SELF IMAGE

Dress, speech, body language, office space, car, etc.

Success is 25% knowing what you're doing and 75% looking like you know what you're doing.

Dress well
Speak assertively

Say main message in least amount of words and stop
Don't say "I'm sorry"
Remove qualifiers (e.g., "You won't like...", "You probably...")

Be aware of body language

Stand/sit up straight
Head up
Eye contact 3-5 seconds (longer than that is intimidating)

Learn how to take a compliment. Do NOT deflect.

Examples: "Thank you", "It was my pleasure", "Thank you for taking the time to tell me", "Let me know if I can help you with anything else"

Business card

Promote your academic credentials
Carry with you at ALL times

MEDIA

Be visible in your local community -- know names and faces
Talk to people in social situations. Add a sentence about what you do; don't just give your title.
Speak to schools, career fair, etc.

NETWORKING

Attend Chamber of Commerce, other non-library group meetings
Handshaking

It is a sign of respect (for Americans/United States)
It is a 3 pronged approach:

Grasp hand (2-3 pumps)
Make eye contact
Smile

Be more visible, accessible

VISIBILITY

Wear name badge with title and credentials
Put photos up in public places. It's important to distinguish, let people differentiate, between staff.

Stretching Existing Staff: New Service Delivery Models

2008-07-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I attended Stretching Existing Staff: New Service Delivery Models. Please note that neither of the speakers was looking for ways to get rid of staff - rather, they were looking for ways to extend/preserve/expand service within current budgets.

The first speaker was Ruth Barefoot, from San Jose Public Library. Her full powerpoint is available here, so I'll just give you the items that jumped out for me.

Circ is going up, and budgets are staying constant at best. The ratio of staff to circulation is decreasing, and that's not going to change.
Customers are our best allies in this situation - the vast majority of them want to do more - they want to be fishermen, not be given fish.
Solutions can be customer focused - they're about getting us away from tasks that can be done easily by the customer, or by technology, or centrally, and getting us to where we are helping the customer.
This is moving us from a transaction mode (across a desk, whether circ or ref) to a relationship mode.
Yes, this model counts on a marketplace aspect (the central, prime real estate that's marketed like crazy), but the deeper stacks, as well as more traditional library arrangements and services, are there too.

So how does this happen?

Think big - this kind of change could take forever if done piecemeal.
Start with the end in mind - what is the vision? Clear, transparent, easy to navigate marketplaces, with staff available on the fringes to assist.
Gather data - what are trends in circ? Funding?
Identify change agents - generate buy-in.
Tweak the model for your location - how can the model work best to your local specifications?
Communicate deeply and broadly- everyone doesn't have to agree, but they shouldn't be surprised.
Share successes.

Some key elements:

Self-directed service: Self check is the norm. Policies must be simplified, streamlined, and discarded where outdated. E-commerce is the norm. Merchandising makes it easy for people to find what they want. Basically, get the library and the staff out from between the customer and what they want.
Bookstore/Envirosell: The first 10 feet and 45 seconds a customer spends in the library should be the most productive. Returned materials in this express area should be grouped in rough sorts and then back on the floor - they should spend no time stuck in back, away from the customers.
Everyone does basic customer service: There is a defined set of basic customer service skills everyone is expected to have/utilize. All staff can show a customer how to use a catalog, how to place a hold, how to access a database, answer a simple reference question. All staff can show customers standardised "how to use your library" info available at all locations. All staff can assist a customer in using the self-check machines, sort out a fine, find a reserve book. All staff are empowered and expected to assist young people in the proper use of facilities and materials, not just youth services folks. In San Jose, "All Staff" includes Shelvers, Guides (like a Shelver+), Assistants, Aides, Librarians, etc.

Yes, resistance happens, but the best way to handle it is to recognise it and then to model the new way of doing things.
-----

The Link in Ballentine (Richland County Public Library, South Carolina) is a small rural library outlet that was built to replace a decrepit and unsafe bookmobile.

The bookmobile was driven to the site of the new service outlet (a former video store) and parked. It continued to provide service during the refitting of the interior of the space.

When the service outlet opened, they had only 3FTE (including 1 full time Librarian) to cover 6 days of service. In order to provide reference service to this remote community, they use a Tandberg self-contained videoconferencing unit. When a customer picks up the phone, they are automatically connected to a librarian at the Central Library who serves them as they would any walk-in customer. The customer sees the librarian, and the screen as the librarian performs the search (think picture-within-a-picture). The librarian can send any documents (electronic or copies of hardcopies) to the printer at the remote location, as well as to customer's e-mail. Staff see many of the things you'll see at most reference desks - kids translating for older adults, etc. They've also noticed some new behaviors - customers brushing their hair and refreshing their lipstick before starting a virtual session!

This is a relatively low-cost solution for extending the reach of a centralized reference collection - the hardware cost $17,000, there's a recurring cost of $2000 for a maintenance agreement. All other costs (T1 line, librarians at Central) are already in the budget.

Exhibits - or - these are a few of my favorite things!

2008-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

OK, I did go and learn lots at ALA (two more session reports are coming), but I also spent a decent chunk of time on the exhibit floor. I didn't have a real agenda (especially since I no longer select books, nor do I serve on any book award committees), so I was freed up to look for stuff that was just simply cool.

I found some wonderful stuff, particularly for kids. Here are two highlights - perhaps this will give you an idea of the range of stuff I was looking at...

Brodart is carrying a fun new submarine unit - can't you imagine this surrounded by some big stuffed starfish and a nice blue storytime rug? It's a greenplay product, which means it's environmentally friendly, though the vendor couldn't explain what that meant. But so cute!

Kiki Magazine (for girls with style and substance) is a project created by a mom of two pre-teen girls. At the booth, she explained to me they do "no sex, no drugs, no diets, no celebrities, no boys, and we do grooming, not makeup". But make no mistake, this is still a fabulous fashion magazine - one that emphasizes girls as creators, rather than simply consumers. They incorporate a fashion design curriculum, and incorporate related disciplines like finance, graphics, and marketing. All this and it's advertising free!

ULC FastForward Part III

2008-07-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Joseph Janes asked "what is a library?"

Answer:

stuff
help
place
values
interaction

Stuff now includes tools for creation and learning. This is in addition to more traditional content (and our all-imporant brand, books).
Help is the skills and training to facilitate the use of the ablove. Attracting, fostering and recruiting people able to do that helping is important. Providing service to new members of the community (the young, folks just moving to the area, the newly literate, new English speakers) is a good place to focus.

Place/space implies presences (plural) - being where the people are, in the real world and the virtual. Where are libraries in the virtual neighborhood? No longer the center of the universe, how are we a part of that world?

Values - we no longer exist in a world of scarcity, but our world of abundance is crippled, patrtial, and unevenly distributed. So what are our values? Tried and True (and perhaps somewhat unique to us): Quality, authority, depth; equality of access; intellectual freedom and privacy. New (and somewhat challenging): Collaboration, participation, interaction; creativity, play; connectivity; openness. Return of the classics (in new guises, perhaps): Civic engagement; reflecting/uplifting the community.

Interaction is easier if we (libraries) remain recognisable. "Library" is a very powerful word/brand, and we need to leverage that.

Patrons Gone Wild!

2008-06-29T15:13:00.003-07:00

One of the ALA programs that I attended yesterday was called Education of Trustees: Patrons Gone Wild presented by a Larry Neal, the Library Director of the Clinton-Macomb township library in Michigan and Kathy Lawhun of the San Francisco Public Library.

Although the very clever name was a bit of a draw to this program, the real draw was that the speakers talked about how to deal with library patrons who have broken policies and/or are creating an unsafe environment in the libraries. I think we can all relate!

First and foremost, both speakers were very clear about the importance of having very clean and clear policies and procedures written for library staff to have on hand and for the public to view (the public would view the policies only, not the procedures). With strong policies and procedures in place, staff who worked with the public could confidentally enforce the policies with consistency among branches. SFPL has policies that are very specific, and many of them were written in response to various incidents. Examples of some policies include: patrons may not spit on other patrons or library materials; bathrooms may not be used for bathing, brushing teeth, clogging drains... (These policies are not being repeated verbatim, but you get the general idea). Many of the policies were rather comical, but both speakers agreed that policies need to be very direct and specific in order to eliminate ambiguity so staff can feel comfident enforcing them and so patrons do not feel that they have been discriminated against because a vague policy was loosely interpreted.

This program also discussed partnering with community organizations so the library can be proactive in helping patrons who have broken a policy fix the problem so they may return to the library. The example that was used was that of a patron who is asked to leave the library because his or her bodily odor is offensive to other library users. Instead of simply telling the patron that they must leave the library, one could tell the patron that they have just as much a right as any other individual to use the library and its resources, but first they must clean themselves so everyone can enjoy the library equally. Then, the employee could hand them the name and address of a homeless shelter or other community organization that will allow the patron to clean themselves before returning to the library. (This made me think of the concept of "getting to yes" without bending the rules to get there.)

ULC Fast Forward Part II

2008-06-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

After lunch, a corporate rep from Sony Reader told us that they've debuted a "proof of concept" (so an idea, not a prototype, but they're working on it) for a download station, placed in a library, that people could use to download e-books on to their readers. They're partnering with a library for this, but I missed the info on who that partner was.

Omar Wasow provided some alternatives to the vision of the morning's speaker. He pointed out that there are areas where only 40% of student graduate high-school, let alone getting to those colleges where they spend so much time on their computers. So rather than talking about "new literacy" (digital literacy) we need to worry about mastering old literacy first.
Curiosity is what moves you from consumer to creator, and technology can't imbue people with curiosity.

While social learning is effective, but it can't cultivate expertise. Expertise requires uninterrupted solo (or didactic) time for practice.

Innovation may therefore be less about adopting new technology, rather adapting new technology.

Further reading on education: Mindset, Carol Dweck; "Secret to raising smart kids"; "A star is raised"; "Genius" (video, Malcolm Gladwell)
-----

JC Herz talked about her library use as a child; she used to look at all the names on the cards in the back of the books and think about the aura or "tan" the books gained from being looked at by so many people. What 2.0 technologies can offier is enabling social activity around the content. Also, provides a context for the content.

So we've got networks local to people, but what is the network local to the title? To the item? How can we use 2.0 tech to enable this network [Sarah's note here - we can do this, it's called LibraryThing, and now it's available for libraries as LibraryThing for Libraries].

2.0 will also allow us to map the cognative landscape - What are we (Sacramentans, Cooledge vs. Isleton users, etc) reading? What about most-borrowed, like a local best-sellers list?

[Note - this is where I started getting really excited, so some of this is me and some of this is her, and I'm not sure which is which]

The library conducts/carries the group value of reading and literacy, and can connect a community to itself both by maintaining a collection and by collecting context around a collection (so user-provided commentary, discussion, based in or linked to/from the catalog). Is this kind of connectivity, online and in real life, be the focus for the library? This connectivity can be hyper-local (one reader to one book), to local (branch programming, one city one book, what is most borrowed in the Delta), to the world (of the internet) and back to the individual.
------

[Then Wasow and Herz were to do a panel discussion, though it was mostly them riffing off of each other. I grabbed some quotes and ideas:]

Literacy is like malaria. We think the problem has been solved, but it hasn't.
Reading incentives like reading miles - get kids competing - 50 books gets you a silver card, 100 gets you gold. Leader boards! Expert levels! Not just during SRP, but as an ongoing "thing" at the library.
Social learning is sometimes (often?) about avoiding humiliation - people need to have some shared level of know-how to make the experience useful for all.
"painting with data" - using info gleaned from catalog, circ system to illustrate psychic landscape of the community.
Concept of ReadSpace, for sharing what you're reading with others [basically LibraryThing]

ULC Fast Forward Part I

2008-06-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an exciting and invigorating day. A bunch of SPL staffers got together with about 200 other library workers and industry folks to spend a day talking about the future, and how we'll respond to it. For a "just the facts, ma'am" take on the day, take a look at the reports on Librarian In Black (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

I found all of the speakers very exciting, and there were plenty of times when I was spinning ideas faster than I could write them down (a good sign for a conference, I think).

The focus of the day was looking at the future of learning as it relates to Urban Public Libraries, and how libraries do/don't/could/should/might be a part of that.

John Seely Brown (Author, The Social Life of Information)

Opened with this video, which inspired anxiety and recognition for many participants.
He went on to explain how education/learning is changing, moving away from a top-down, Cartesian model, where knowledge is a concrete object that is given from one person (an "expert") to another (a "student"). The model we're moving to is more social, where understanding, rather than knowledge is the goal, and this understanding is constructed through a social activity (in his examples, self-created study groups and interactive classroom experiences).
So the question is, how do we use 2.0 technologies to support social learning? Especially when we realize that the upcoming generation, sometimes called "digital natives", are in fact digitally illiterate (and, more problematically, they don't even know they're digitally illiterate). How can we make the tools available, and how can we move them toward better use of the tools?
Brown then went in to a conversation about tinkering, how we used to tinker with our cars, but then we stopped, and there was no tinkering until the open source movement, which encourages "thinkering". Also, he said, "thinkering" is gender neutral.
[OK, editorial comment - it was pointed out later in the day that there was plenty of t(h)inkering between cars and open source - all the people who built computers out of kits and tricked them out, for example. And I don't buy that it's gender neutral out there in cyberspace - there may be equal representation in terms of the gender of participants, but that doesn't mean spaces and interactions aren't gendered.)]
Brown then showed us the WorldWide Telescope, a kind of 3-d virtual universe wiki. Totally amazing, and what a way to learn astronomy! Unfortunately, if you're at the library, you won't be able to see it, as it requires a download. But do try it at home!
This led to a discussion of the notion of authority and control - as with Wikipedia, it's scary for librarians (and teachers) to inhabit a world where people can build their own meanings in to these public sources. But there is some amount of self-regulation, and isn't part of the work of librarians and teachers to teach/explain/enable/allow students' critical thinking skills so that they can make those calls for themselves?
Pulling this all back to books, what is it that each reader adds to books? Would you be interested in what other readers had to say about the books you're reading? Do you read marginalia? Would a book by expert x be of more use/worth more to you if it came with annotations by expert y? How do books get better the more they're read?

This was followed by some table discussion (during which time I was talking, so I have no notes), centered mostly on issues of authority, control, and fear of losing said authority and control, as well as how it would be great to have more user-generated content in our catalogs.

At Last! Bilingual Subject Access to World Language Materials.

2008-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

Bilingual Subject Access for the 21st Century

Speakers:
Yuan Shang Hsi -Coordinator of Cataloging, Queens Library
Carmen Rivera - Library and Trade Sales Manager, Lectorum Publications, Inc.
Mary C. Little - Director of Technical Services Department, Queens Library
Michael Kreyche - Systems Librarian, Kent State University
Phyllis S. Alpert - Assistant Director, Miami-Dade Public Library System

As libraries add self-help resources to support and empower the world language members of their communities, there is a growing need for libraries to provide subject access to world language materials.

When Queens Library implemented the Spanish language interface on their OPAC, they realized the need to provide subject access to material in the language of the members of the community. Queens Public Library catalogers used an open source MARC Perl software to translate their LC English subject headings into the languages used by their customers. As a time saving process, technical services batch loaded the language subject headings into their existing MARC bibliographic records. They found it was not cost effective to update bibliographic records one at a time. The final step in the project was to submit the world language headings to the Library of Congress for approval. LC approved the source and issued the qlspl source code, which now appears in all OCLC world language authority records contributed by Queens Borough Public Library. With world language subject headings in place, Queens staff are excited to see customers placing reserves on world language materials.

When Michael Kreyche, from Kent State University recognized there was no good resource for freely sharing Spanish language subject headings, he developed a Spanish-English / English-Spanish subject heading database. Located at http://lcsh-es.org/ the database contains Spanish language headings from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Queens Borough Public Library and the San Francisco Public Library. The database has been reviewed and most of the errors in matching were removed manually. However, Michael advises catalogers to use the database with caution and as a supplement. He also encourages folks to send him feedback as the database and the web interface is a work in progress. mkreyche@kent.edu

For more information:

Spanish Language Subject Headings Resource Guide
PLA 2008 "Bilingual Subject Access for the 21st Century"

Bilindex Online = Bilindex en linea : Bilindex-General, Bilindex--High-Tech, and Bilindex-Medicus. Updated monthly, in PDF. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA. Available through annual subscription: http://www.bilindex.com/

Bilindex – general 2007: A List of Spanish-English Bilingual Subject Heading Equivalents to Library of Congress Subject Heading List. 2007 ed., CD-ROM in PDF. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA Available from: http://www.floricantopress.com/

Bilindex – High Tech 2007: A Spanish-English Subject Heading List in the fields of computer, information, communication sciences. 2007 ed., CD-ROM in PDF. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA Available from: http://www.floricantopress.com/

Bilindex – Medicus & of Biotechnology 2007: A List of Spanish-English Bilingual Subject Heading Equivalents to the National Library of Medicine Subject Heading List and the Biotechnology Industry 2007: A Spanish-English Subject Heading List in the fields of computer, information, communication sciences. 2007 ed., CD-ROM in PDF. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA Available from: http://www.floricantopress.com/

Calimano, Iván E. and García, Ageo editors. (2008). Sears lista de encabezamientos de materia : nueva traducción y adaptación de la Lista Sears. H.W. Wilson, New York.

Crowley, Danelle, edited by Salbador Güereño. (2000). Use of the Spanish Language in Organizing Library Materials for Latinos. Library Services to Latinos: An Anthology. McFarland, Jefferson, N.C.

Kreyche, Michael, webmaster/compiler. LC Subject Headings in Spanish = Encabezamientos de materia LC en español. Kent State University, Kent Ohio. Available at: http://lcsh-es.org/

Martínez Arellano, Filiberto Felipe. (2004) Development of a Spanish subject headings list. World Library and Information Congress : 70th IFLA General Conference and Council: Buenos Aires, Argentina, 22-27 August 2004. Available at: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/039e-Arellano.pdf

On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, (January 9, 2008). Available at: http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/news/lcwg-ontherecord-jan08-final.pdf

Pisani, Steven. (June 25, 2006). Acceso a Información: Providing Bibliographic Access in Spanish. Available at: http://www.barron.uwc.edu/library/Outreach/Pisani.ppt

Quijano-Solís, Alvaro, Pilar María Moreno-Jiménex, Reynaldo Figueroa-Servín. (2000). Automated Authority Files of Spanish-Language Subject Headings. The LCSH Century: One Hundred Years with the Library of Congress Subject Headings System. p. 209-223, Haworth Press, Binghamton, N.Y.

Salsa de Tópicos = Subjects in Salsa: Spanish and Latin American Subject Access. (2007). ALCTS Papers on Library Technical Services & Collections #14. American Library Association, Chicago.

Spero, Simon. Fred 2.0: Cosmos, Taxis, and the Future of Bibliographic Control. Available at: http://www.ibiblio.org/fred2.0/wordpress/

Summers, Edward Hugh, programmer (2005), MARC-SubjectMap-0.9 (Perl module). Available for download at: http://search.cpan.org/~esummers/MARC-SubjectMap-0.9/

Task Force on Non-English Access, Report. (September 18, 2006; Revised March 16, 2007). Available at: http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/divisiongroups/taskforcesdiv/noneng/steering.cfm

Wow! Minneapolis Central Library & Marketing Campaign

2008-04-16T16:16:00.001-07:00

Wow! The almost new $115m Minneapolis Central Library is an architectural showstopper. For the small group of SPL staff who attended this year’s PLA (Public Library Association) conference, a behind the scenes tour of the building was arranged by Nina Biddle, who manages our Central Library. (Nina was involved in helping to develop that project when she was on staff at MPL).

Being able to hear the how and why certain design features were included in the facility was extremely educational; unique lighting choices; use of sophisticated signage and way- finding systems; unusual layout of the collections for maximum functionality (compact shelving which can be accessed by the public); a children’s room which is surely one of the most innovative in the country; a teen space that could be the envy of almost any library in the country; and an automated materials handling system which totally alters the way libraries will handle this type of operation, in the future. Given that SPL will be designing and building four new library branches over the next two to three years, plus remodeling and expanding several library branches, the information we heard, the latest furniture and equipment we saw, will affect our planning efforts on many fronts, i.e. Public Services, Facilities, Youth Services, IT, Marketing, etc.

At one of the conference sessions, Building the Buzz, the lead partner for the Minneapolis advertising firm that managed the media campaign to generate funding support for the new Central Library, described the challenges they encountered, not the least of which was major library budget cuts and a 30% layoff of staff! Among the campaign goals: to reposition the library as a vital and relevant institution; impact the public’s perception that the library is an “essential” institution; raise general public awareness about all the services the library offered; and raise private funding support for enhanced amenities. The campaign strategies included: development of key messages; use of targeted radio; web directives; billboards; newspaper ads; blogs; and an aggressive effort to include the media, in all phases of the campaign. Interestingly, however, the ad agency stumbled when, among several recognizable personalities, they used a “tongue in check” image of Mao in the library media campaign, which resulted in a very negative public response. Eventually, the Mao promotional materials had to be removed from use in the campaign.

Lesson learned about the advisability of pre-testing public sensitivity to the use provocative images and messages; no matter how clever! The final word from the presenter was, “Even though controversial, the campaign certainly got the attention of the public.”

Mary Mijares

Marketing Manager

PLA - 21st Century Library Design

2008-04-16T13:04:00.001-07:00

User-centered services have to be the focus for creating the inviting 21^st century library. Make your library all about “them” not us. The people who will use the library know what they want for their community – partner with them and involve them in the planning even choosing colors, furniture, tables and chairs. Look at the community age demographics and proportion the floor space accordingly.

Key points: *create a community center – living room with furniture, color, comfort, adaptable, multi-functional and inviting; *comfortable spaces – ergonomic furniture, lounge chairs, age appropriate furniture; * spaces for meetings, group study, quiet reading, flexible spaces: *food service – profits go to charity, part of the comfortable space that customers want; * multi-functional children’s and teens spaces; *technology – listening posts and sound domes; *great way finding signage – not in library jargon, large signs, major areas only, too much is visual clutter, only where they need information not everywhere, make it fun and unique to be “seen” not blend in to the overall space.

My take away from this seminar – Shopping lists for the branches. An online catalog of fun, approved, library quality furniture like teen chairs, meeting room tables, toddler and ottomans that can be ordered by branch staff to create special spaces for their branch. I have contacted the Kent District Library speaker to get the details on how they set up their Furniture, Fixture, and Equipment Catalog process. Reality for SPL – I hope so.

Lois

Children's Spaces, Family Places: Developing Interactive Early Literacy Environments in Your Library

2008-04-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

This was a preconference meeting on Tuesday, March 25, that was full of interesting information and ideas about how public libraries, in particular, are being created or re-created to include environments rich in learning and discovery for nurturing pre-literacy skills in children based on the latest research in the field of child development. Eight professionals presented information and ideas through slide/show, tabletop and sample presentations of how public library administrators, staff, and community can create a space of "playful," energizing "Play and Learn Spots" in places both large and small.

The moderator of the event was Saroj Ghoting, Early Childhood Literacy Consultant who,with many years experience as a children's librarian in Maryland, is an author and the consultant for the PLA/ALSC Every Child Ready to Read @ your Library project. Saroj Ghoting quicklydescribed the six recognized pre-literacy skills which are summarized in the Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library progect: print motivation-a child's interest in books and reading whether the child be a baby who "bites" boardbooks or a preschooler who opens a book to see what is inside; phonological awareness-hearing and playing with rhymes, for example, and the smaller sounds within words which can include the babble of a six-month-old baby as well as a four-year-old's awareness of beginning sounds; vocabulary-knowing the names of things and the importance of adults' use of many different descriptive words spoken slowly and clearly around children; narrative skills-the expressive part of language in which babies are allowed to "talk" to adults and young children are given the opportunity to retell a story in sequence; print awareness-the understanding of how to turn pages in a book or having one's attention drawn to print; and letter knowledge-the idea that letters are related to sound and that things have names as well as the understanding that letters have specific shapes which can be found in blocks and other toys as well as in pictures, books, and everywhere.

Nina Ebbighausen, senior associate of Architectural Alliance & Adjunct Professor, U of MN, zeroed in on the latest research of how the physical environment can foster early literacy skills in children. She described the idea that additional playtime may reduce hypersensitivity in children with ADHD: play helps "prune" the pattern of neural connections which translates into the concept that unstructured play promotes literacy activity.

Kim van der Veen, principal of Burgeon Group, LLC, a company which designs furnishings for libraries which are artful, playful, and promote interactive learning spaces, showed examples of work which defined areas of joyful play. Her company, which has produced wonderful examples of interactive spaces comfortable for both adults and young children, featured several newly created or remodeled children's areas in a series of slides that included a "Book Factory," a "Bookmobile," and several smaller pieces that could be added to existing children's areas. I took the above and following pictures of the Burgeon Group's work, which generally is created in either wood, acrylic, or metal at the exhibit on Thursday afternoon.

In the first picture at the top of the page on the wall between Kim van der Veen and an editor of Library Journal are other examples of the group's work. Here are further examples of this company's furnishings to be used in an interactive pre-literacy children's space.

Dana Bjerke and Joanna Redman, Youth Services Librarians of Hennepin County Library, along with Kelly Wussow, Early Literacy Coordinator also of Hennepin County Library, discussed kits that were developed by a team of librarians which were passed around every month to all branches: these kits included items easily transported in oversized plastic ziploc containers which enabled every branch to create tabletop "Play and Learn Spots." These items could be easily assembled by every branch in order to provide monthly early literacy tabletop areas which even the smallest branches could use.

Who Uses the Public Library .. and Why?

2008-04-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Statistics! OMG! too many to write down. Some of the slides are available here and here on the PLA web site. Take a look if you need to see the numbers.

Generally - public library visits are up; visits to library web sites are up. The Internet is nibbling at use of the library for obtaining information. The length of time people have been using the Internet is significant - among those who have used the Internet for more than 6 years, visits to the library for information have decreased by half. Use of the library by mainstream citizens is down; but use by students, African Americans, urban, and low-income people is up.

Computer use and demand for online services is up - and libraries have to use these stats as a basis for evaluating their current services, and for planning future services. Media is in demand; training staff and public in online resources will become mandatory; as commercial and nonprofit organizations use the Internet more aggressively, libraries should become collectors and publishers of online info too.

Library service is local and needs to meet local needs. If use of the library for information is declining, what should we be doing? If use of online services is increasing, what should we be doing? If most people are going online for information, do we even need library buildings? (This is where you need to have your ducks in a row, if your local political leaders start talking about cutting library funding.

"What I really Meant Was ..."

2008-04-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Gail Johnson and Pam Parr, of Face to Face Communications and Training, presented a witty and fast-paced presentation with both presenters front and center and playing off each other to illustrate examples of miscommunication. The bottom line is that miscommunication occurs when information fails to get from your head to another person's head exactly as you meant it. Distractions, "hot buttons", non-verbal communication, words that mean several things, "filters" developed because of life experiences ... all these things are barriers to communicating information exactly.

The best way to communicate effectively is to know your communication style and the style of the person to whom you're talking, and to use the following techniques to clarify:

Use "I" statements: I feel ___ when you ____ because I think you ____.

Avoid shortcuts (like acronyms) and assumptions (people are always like me).

Clarify by using key phrases: "Help me to understand ...", "What I heard you say was ...", "What I really meant was ..."

Also, it's important to recognize this is an adjustment you have to make. It ups the odds of getting your info across clearly, decreases mistakes and misunderstandings, and makes you more credible, trustworthy, and promotable! We took a communication-style assessment as part of the session, and I discovered I am an "analytical"/"expressive" hybrid. What does that mean? I get stuck in the details, then tell everyone how I feel about it. Here's their slide show.

Saturday

2008-03-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

I went to an 8:30 AM program on world language collections, presented by San Francisco PL. It was a very short presention (finished in about 35 minutes), and presented nothing particularly useful. If you have 3 full-time Chinese-language catalogers, then you can get those materials out in a timely fashion. They have more world-language catalogers than SPL has catalogers. If you can send staff to Guadalajara, Barcelona, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Beijing, then you can look at the latest world-language materials in person. They send staff to all of those book fairs. I guess I didn't need someone to tell me you can do a lot with an insane amount of resources! I don't know that I think all of that is the best way to use resources, either. They did remind me that Califa has a cooperative cataloging program, so I made a note to check that out (but that didn't help all the people in the room who weren't from California).

The one thing I did like about the presentation was that on their "branches" page of the web site, for each branch there's a notation "languages other than English spoken by staff at this branch are:". Not every branch has other than English speakers, but that's a nice way to let the public know where they can find someone if they need library help in other than English. Which leads to a "cool" thing from Thursday's Exhibits time - Polytalk. It's a cooperative system that puts library service in world languages a phone call away. It was part of an LSTA grant to the Lincoln Trails Library System in Illinois & now they're trying to spread it to the US, increasing the available times and languages.

Since I missed breakfast, because the skywalk being closed threw off my timing, and I would have had an hour to kill before a program that I thought would be more fun than educational (I was going to the librarians in literature workshop & would be interested to hear if anyone went), I decided that was the end of my conference. Found a Starbucks, read the Mineapolis newspaper, checked out of the hotel, & had an hour or so free to visit the Minneapolis PL. Light and bright and busy on a Saturday morning. They, too, are struggling with budget cuts. I had lunch with a colleague who is a deputy in the new combined Minneapolis/Hennepin County library & she said the Central library is a Tues-Sat operation. Sad.

Library Conflict Management for Consenting Adults

2008-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

This program was innovative, humorous, and the best of the bunch I attended. The presenter, Pat Wagner, of Pattern Research, Inc., was great fun while giving the audience tools to effectively deal with conflict in the workplace. “This educational conflict management program is based on the idea that it is possible to learn how to create workplaces where the goals are improving productivity, making it easy for other people to say "yes" and eliciting the best from other people.” This is not a program for “management,” but is, rather, a program for everyone who works in a library setting! Her steps for conflict management utilize three areas: Behavioral Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and General Semantic Theory. Take heart in that I am not going to give you a tutorial, but, if you are interested, you can learn all about this great approach to resolving conflict…and no workplace is without conflict, right?

Folks, you can link to the handout to get a good overview of this wonderful program.

AND, you can view an archive of this presentation (search using the keyword “conflict.”) You can also listen to a variety of her programs as podcasts! ( Now I know that I simply must get an iPod!)

Pat Wagner creates and conducts programs on personnel, management, and leadership, and she also works with the University of North Texas and its LE@D Staff Development Solutions. LE@D offers Internet-based courses for only $10 per course geared to virtually all classifications of library staff as well as volunteers and Friends!

- Christine Donnelly

The Final Day: Stories, Access, and Resilience

2008-03-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

This morning I walked out of a presentation for the first time. They say, at large conferences where there are many good sessions competing for your attendance, if one doesn't meet your expectations, don't waste your time - walk out and get quickly to another one.

Creating New Stories and Investigating New Literacies with Virtual Worlds, Interactive Media, and Games, billed as "programs that push the profession with new literacies", sounded exciting - something that would inspire me to spend more time in a gaming or virtual world, with examples for integrating same into library programming. However, after 30 minutes of "hooray for me, the speaker" while the second presenter dozed, plus a video interview of the speaker after that, I decided to seek more interesting fare.

My "plan B" program was No Grant Needed! Cheap and easy Accommodations for People with Disabilities. The three speakers were all from California: Marti Goddard (San Francisco Public Library), Jane Berliss-Vincent, (Center for Accessible Technology, Berkeley), and Lynne Cutler (Oakland Public Library). Because I missed the first half of the program, I missed the introductions. However, the part I caught was interesting. Some low-cost adaptations included

signage, handouts, guides (persons)
modifying policies and procedures, like longer checkout periods (using p-types), more computer time, and delivering materials to those who can't come to the library.
partnering with local agencies: government, ADA coordinators, police
educating staff (admin, public, volunteers and security) about services you offer

Many useful web sites are on the Handouts.

The final conference session started slowly and had technical difficulties halfway through when the laptop lost its connection to the projector, but finished strongly. Building Your Resilient Career outlined steps for making that LIS career transferable to other jobs, both within and outside the library field. Speaker, Kim Dority, author of "Rethinking Information Work", summarized with this analogy:

Everything I know I learned bodysurfing in southern California:

Anticipate the waves [of opportunity].
Position yourself.
Paddle like crazy.
Enjoy the ride, but know it will end.
Don't take the sand in your suit personally.
Know that a new wave is always on the way.

I'm inspired! I enjoyed this conference ride, but now I'm looking forward to going home, dumping the sand, and looking for ways to include things I've learned into my work at SPL.

What's the big Idea; The Idea Store and the future of Public Libraries

2008-03-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Idea Store was a a gamble which combined traditional library services with community outreach. The pilot project started in several lower income but diverse London communities. The traditional library in one community in 1998 when the idea for the Idea Store was in it's infancy was old stodgy and used by only 20% of the population as compared to a normal 55% usage in the rest of Britain. So the old library was replaced by a shiny open well lighted Idea Store. Following real estate principles of location, location, location the first store was next to a supermarket and and a busy outdoor street market. Customers entered into a cafe.

The researchers borrowed from marketing and retail and installed lots of glass. The Idea Store from the outside looks more like the outside of The Sharper Image than the traditional library. Staff is trained like retail staff and wear uniforms for easy identification and walk the floor assisting customers. The Idea Store stays open 71 hours a week, unlike the traditional library which had been open 41 hours and shares space with other retailers who are more than happy to have a non-competitive partner bringing in customers.

The Idea Store also is about innovative activities, liberal policies and coffee and food anywhere. Customers are in control and lifelong learning is a central goal. To this end the Idea Store partners with the British government and complements courses and learning experiences offered by educational institutions. The list of available courses is amazing and includes: making kits, garden design, food hygiene, foreign languages, flower arranging, massage for babies, aromatherapy, reiki computing for the terrified, sleepovers , fashion and textitles and speed dating. Some of these classes are paid but they are highly subsidized by the government.

There are now at least seven Idea Stores in great Britain and the concept is being explored in Denmark, Holland and Germany. For more ideas about the Idea Store go to http://www.ideastore.co.uk/

Millie
Torrance

The New Face of News

2008-03-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

I attended this NewsBank breakfast and information session. I was too tired to blog it twice, so just click the link to see my notes on GrandCENTRAL.

Additional stuff for staff that I didn't share with our consituents:
NewsBank is rolling out an archive of Hispanic newspapers, a 19th Century newspaper archive, and a database of historic newspapers of particular use for family history researchers. We will consider adding one or another of them when we evaluate our roster of databases in the fall.

Handling Upset Patrons

2008-03-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

There were three sessions competing for my attendance this morning, and I decided to attend this one for all the front-line staff who have to deal face-to-face with our more colorful patrons. The speaker, Warren Graham, is a 27-year veteran of public library security, describing himself not as a "security expert", but as a "reality-impaired specialist." He now is a security consultant with his own company, and has written a how-to book for library staff, Black Belt Librarians (not in our collection, but it ought to be.)

Mr. Graham is intimately familiar with the shenanigans that go on in public libraries. He described some of our patrons; and he entertained the audience with screamingly hysterical examples of behavior he has encountered in his career. His advice is to handle incidents immediately, firmly, and courteously before they escalate into "bonfires," banning disruptive people - permanently, if warranted - in order to make the library safe for other users and library staff.

He explained his system of assessing the patron's emotional state by using the acronym "ABCC"

Anxiety - complaining - which can be handled by listening and sympathizing, saying, "I know we can work it out."
Belligerance - shouting, creating a scene - which we should defuse by saying, "Sir, I am ready to help you, but I'm not going to let you yell like that." (or something similar.)
Control (as in "out of control") - cussing, threatening, assaulting - handle by calling 911. Rehearse this situation, and be sure that staff that observe the out of control behavior knows to call 911 if you're not near a phone. Tell the bad-actor, "We're calling the police. You need to leave."
Calm - they start out "normal" but something sets them off and they become belligerant quickly - don't be caught by surprise - handle according to the behavior shown by the patron. All these behaviors can be exhibited by a single person - not necessarily in any particular order.

Knowing and understanding these strategies will give you the confidence to implement them. One warning: be sure the library staff isn't the one with the behavior problem! A little self-knowledge will help you handle problems better. Ask yourself,

Am I passive or aggressive?
Am I emotional or logical?
Am I introverted or extroverted?
Do I like people?
Do I like my job?

I would recommend him highly as a speaker for our next staff training day!

the day of the activist, part 2

2008-03-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just had the amazing experience of sitting down with about 10 other people and having an intimate and lively q and a with Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, the co-founders of Cuba's independent library movement. In 1998, Fidel Castro said, "There are no books prohibited in Cuba. There is just not enough money to buy them." However, a crack-down in 2003 by the Cuban government led to the arrest of 75 people, 23 who opened independent libraries. Twelve to 17 of these people are currently serving 18 to 25 year prison sentences. The controversy in the United States in the profession is: why isn't ALA doing anything to support the cause of intellectual freedom and violation of human rights in Cuba? Several organizations have joined together to call for release of the Cuban library workers and other 2003 prisoners of conscience including: Amnesty International, Council of the European Union, Library Association of Latvia, Organization of American States, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; however, ALA gives only expressions of "deep concerns," which politically falls short of a call for release. At one point, a member of the profession got up hysterically and screeched, "I can't listen to this anymore, it's a total conspiracy" and righteously fled from the room. I displayed my ignorance nicely when after the talk I spoke with a legislative coordinator with Amnesty International, USA. "Perhaps the ALA doesn't support Cuba because the United States has an embargo on them and its just taking the cautionary political stance." Yeah, duh, how profound. (Politics obviously isn't my strong point.) But, then someone, I know not who, took my picture with Ramon Colas and Berta Mexidor, which was really exciting to me although it probably ruins my chances of ever going into library politics. jt

Ah, Friday!

2008-03-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

I got to "be" Anne Marie for an hour this morning, taking her place in a presentation with Group4 Architects and Carmen Martinez, director of the Oakland PL. We were talking about facility planning, and it was a pretty full house - must have been a couple hundred people. I liked the panel format, so each of us were responsible for a slide here & there throughout the presentation. Hopefully easier on the audience than listening to one person go on for a while. It was a little stretch for me, but if you don't find a way to stretch sometimes, it's easy to get bogged down in the everyday.

Program highlight of the day was a program by Brooklyn PL on partnerships to improve technical services delivery time. Some of it we already do (Midwest Tapes processes our feature films - all we do is catalog them). Baker & Taylor catalog and process all their fiction, which is something for us to consider. That lets catalogers concentrate on non-fiction, languages, media . . . .. There's a lot to consider, but the idea will be explored! Also at Brooklyn PL, the selector decides if the material gets any genre label & what it will be. That info is passed along with the order - I'll be getting feedback on that idea, too.

Everyone is getting crabbier was just plain fun. Sandra Nelson, a consultant from TN, talked on stress management. She could do a whole staff training day, as far as I'm concerned. She was fun & full of info, and had the audience with her the whole way. Her two best lines (paraphrases, of course): 1. Implementing a big change a little at a time so staff won't get stressed makes as much sense as amputating a leg an inch at a time. Every cut or change is traumatic.
2. Think more about effectiveness than efficiency. It's no good to streamline something you don't need to be doing in the first place!

Columbus Metropolitan Library did a program on how they managed to change a 17-day turnaround time from receipt to branch delivery of materials into a 48-hour turnaround (or less). This was not accomplished by outsourcing; they used their same staff, benchmarked everything they were doing & then figured out to tighten up. When you're passing more than 400,000 items through your department, even saving a few seconds per item adds up.

Gaming and Gamers

2008-03-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today was a no-nonsense day of convention going. Well, except for one of my not-so-unusual slapstick routines this morning. In a rush to get to Gamers in the Stacks at 8:30 I did a shot of lobby coffee, mixed another one to use as a hand warmer on the walk to the Convention Center, and carefully wrapped up some delicious grapes to munch on whilst doing the crossword and waiting for the presentation to begin. Well, I could tell this whole story, but suffice to say, the coffee didn’t survive the walk and the juice from the grapes will soon begin fermenting, making my pocket smell nice and winey. Good thing it isn’t cold in Sacramento, because my winter coat will be making a trip to the dry cleaners, pronto. So, that nonsense out of the way early, I saw two excellent presentations on my last day of convention going.

I did see one dud this afternoon—but I want to end on a positive note, so I’ll dispense with that one first. My last presentation of the day was Making Space for Teens in Libraries—Case Studies of Three California Libraries. The talk was given by Anthony Bernier of San Jose University and two architects that he has been working with in designing teen areas for libraries. Perhaps it was the too often repeated emphasis on fun seating, but this presentation was remarkably uninspiring considering the subject. As Bernier pointed out, there has, as of yet, been no systematic research on designing teen areas in libraries. No one will be using this session as a jumping off point either, unless the title of their paper is something like: Sit ‘em down and make ‘em read: using funky chairs to revolutionize library space. I did, however, spend a good twenty minutes sketching out a revamped Teen Corner for the Arcade library and plotting ways to get our TAG group excited about redecorating (on the cheap, cheap, cheap) this summer. One of the architects did mention a Google tool called SketchUp (www.sketchup.com) which allows you to “build, view, and edit” 3D models for free. My wretched mock-ups will be input in that program once I go back to work and get the tape measure out. So, not a total loss, all in all; but, now, on to the really good stuff.

Gamers in the Stacks. I’ll begin with some numbers: the average gamer age is 33; 24% of people over 50 play videogames in one form or another; 38% of gamers are female; last year gamers spent 7.4 billion dollars on videogames. Beth Gallaway, currently an independent library consultant and gamer, built a convincing portrait of videogames as culturally relevant media that should be incorporated, not just into our programming (and not just into our teen programming), but into our library collections as well. Since this is a subject I have been researching myself lately, she didn’t have to work hard to convince me. I, however, am going to contact her and request her powerpoint so I can bring it home and try very hard to convince all of you that we need to add console games to the collection of the Sacramento Public Library. I am all too well aware of budget constraints that might limit the development of a new collection at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t begin the process of providing for such a collection in the (near) future. At least three people (kids, teens, and adults) a week ask me if we have videogames. I want to be able to say yes. We spend a lot of time talking about embracing new technologies (remember All-Staff Training Day?)—Pong is 33 years-old, we need to get on this. So there.

On that high, busy writing up proposals in my head (I lead a healthy mental life), I scooted around the exhibits pocketing swag (I plan on making a list when I get home if any of you’d like me to share the wealth of galleys) and then went to the similarly themed The Game Studio: 21st Century Technologies for 21st Century Teens. I had an inkling this one would be good when I saw that three members of the panel were real live teenagers. What a concept! The presentation focused on a multifaceted program called Scratch, developed at MIT.

“Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.”
http://scratch.mit.edu/about

While Scratch seems fascinating, and is something I will monkey with once I get tired of joost and SketchUp, what was more fascinating was the program the Minneapolis Public Library has developed to teach young people how to use Scratch. Keith Braafladt, Director of Learning Technologies at the Science Museum of Minnesota (who looks remarkably like Hodgins from Bones, by the by) brought the Scratch program to the library with a little bit of leftover funding. He knew this money wouldn’t last long, however, so he and the library worked together to train and employ teenagers to teach other teens and children how to run this software. The Teen Tech Squad is staffed by teens 14-18 who make $8.16 per hour to teach Scratch workshops a couple of times a month. Three members of the Squad spoke (with varying degrees of eloquence) about the challenges of running library programs and teaching teenagers (getting them to show up and then pay attention). One of the teens was a better speaker than any of the other presenters (librarians and scientists included), and will no doubt soon be ruling the world. A fantastic day.

My blogging has been a little breezy, but I have gathered great lists of websites I will eventually compile, and every program has offered something of value--this has been fabulous.

the day of the activist

2008-03-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

My day started with the realization that the AskNow virtual users group meeting that I had planned to attend this morning actually happened yesterday. So, I instead wandered into Into the Traditon: The Legacy of Culture Messengers from Langston Hughes to Tupac Shakur presented by the eloquent Andrew P. Jackson, executive director of the Queens Library Langston Hughes cultural space. One foot in the door of the large dimmed room, and I knew I was in the right place. A powerful black man in traditional African garb stood at the podium while the words and music of Gill Scott Heron and Brian Jackson spilled through the sound system. Mr. Jackson's message to children today is clear: the black experience is a profound historical one that did not begin with hip-hop in the 1980's. Since the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, poetry, music, the arts in general have always provided for a proper response to the questions of injustice and conditional freedom. They form a bridge between cultural rejection and cultural identity when you tire of the answers that label you as "the problems," thus justifying that you have no right to ask such questions. James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Gil Scott Heron, Tupac Shakur are examples of the voices that represent each generation's experience. They are cultural icons and messengers. They are activists. Mr. Jackson spoke about the misuse of the n-word. You've all heard it... the group of young adults throwing the word back and forth in a brotherly kind of fashion, regardless of their ethnicity. I asked him if he had any practical suggestions on confronting youth at the library when this happens, and he suggested that I be honest. Next time I hear the n-word at the internet terminals, rather than tell the offending teens that it's not allowed, I'm going to tell them why not- it minimizes the seriousness of where we came from, it minimizes the strides we've made to be where we are, it minimizes the lessons we've learned from black history, obliterates the origins of that word, and erodes the profound social messages that our cultural icons have imparted to us. jt

Catching up on Thursday

2008-03-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Lori wrote about the weeding program, so 'nuff said on that one.

Went to How to improve your chances of getting that library director position. Very practical advice that could be used for those interested in any library position - like pay attention to how long the interview is and how many questions will be asked. I've experienced people who wasted 40 minutes on the first question, even though told we had 50 minutes and 8 questions to cover. The only surprising piece of advice was to Google yourself, because your potential employer probably will & you'll want to know what's there.

Someone also wrote about the Why people with Internet access at home use the library. These were the results of surveys, one of which (although it wasn't addressed directly in the program) SPL participated in back in April or May 2005. One positive comment was that between the telephone surveys conducted in 2000 and then in 2005, the percentage of people who had Internet access at home and still used libraries remained pretty constant. They had surmised it might change with more households getting high-speed access at home, but it dropped by less than .5%.

Potentially exciting exhibitor news - Overdrive, starting this summer, will be offering "DRM-free audio books". That means audio books that will download to iPods. It is a separate product (like adding music, so an addition to our current platform) and I don't know if we're talking hot new titles or public domain, but will be excited to hear more!

Update to Libraries DO Build Communities!

2008-03-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

In the comments of my earlier Libraries DO Build Communities! post, Jami suggested that the employment assistance kiosk at Hennepin County's Central Library might be one example of something we could do to move toward taking part in the economic development of Sacramento. She also suggested someone might take some photos of it while we're in town; great ideas both, Jami!

So, in between sessions today, I hiked back to the library and checked out the kiosk (they call it the Job View, I think). It was very cool and seemed really easy to use as you can see from the close-ups of the screen. The job seeker can find jobs in a variety of fields and actually apply for them via e-mail (in English and Spanish!) right from the same machine. What a great concept! And a reference librarian told me that the machine gets a great deal of use, too.

I have to say, I really like this idea. I feel that playing a more active role in enhancing the economic development of our community can only lead to good things for us! Imagine this: we have a location somewhere in the community but outside any of our branches where we locate a kiosk like this one along with an OPAC, some printed information about finding job seeking and other small business-related materials in our catalog, and some book lockers where materials requested from the OPAC could be delivered. Who thinks this sounds like a good idea?

And be sure to click on the photos above so you can clearly see all the information available at the fingertips of the customer!

It'll Never Work...

2008-03-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Has anybody ever heard someone say that? Don't you just hate it? Because I'm the kind of person that enjoys proving others wrong when they tell me why "it'll never work", I was excited to attend the Dangerous Ideas: What if Libraries... program today. And clearly I'm not the only one who feels that way because this program was booked in the convention center's Main Auditorium!

So there we were, hundreds of change-crazy library-types, packed into the auditorium; a slide show of cool, go-for-it quotes cascaded across the big screen (my favorite by far was: "Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"), and the Beatles' Revolution 1 playing over the sound system. I have to admit, though, that it wasn't until the third time the song started over that the light bulb went off over my head: "Oh! I get it: revolution!" Duh.

Anyway, the underlying concept of the program was that the presenters (including Deputy California State Librarian Stacey Aldrich) would present us with ten "dangerous questions", we would be shocked and then discuss with those seated around us, and then we would be invited to ask some of our own dangerous questions for the rest of the audience. Overall, it was an entertaining and thought-provoking exercise that revealed how narrow the vision of the library world can be. The questions really aren't all that dangerous, after all. Examples include:

What if we stopped cataloging? (i.e. let users' create a more useful folksonomy for our collections)
What if librarians invested in open source software?
What if we required all library staff to have expertise using technology? (much applause here)

The small group discussions were lively; I met a couple of folks from the Howard County (MD) system who seemed as excited about change as myself. However, my favorite dangerous question came from the audience (in fact from Jan Sanders, 2008 President of PLA). She prefaced her question by reminding the presenters that they had earlier pointed out the ubiquity of information. She then asked what would happen if libraries stopped allocating tremendous amounts of money on costly reference materials and databases that are rarely used even though we bend over backwards to convince customers to use them. After all, she pointed out, we use Google and Wikipedia all the time! Let's forget these services that have such little return and focus on what people want us for: books (and our expert knowledge of them) and access to the Internet (so they can look things up themselves)! I loved it!

Now, did I just suggest every branch of SPL toss out every reference item they have on the shelf? No; don't get all riled up! Remember these "dangerous questions" are exercises (Stacey Aldrich suggested we all have a Dangerous Question Day at our branches each week) to make us really look at what we're doing and how we can change what we do to align our efforts and our money with the wants of the customers.

The Weeding Song

2008-03-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

All right, so where was I when I suddenly had to go to bed at 9:45 last night? (Yeah, I’m really livin’ it up—Midwest style.) I was about to type at you about Weeders Attract More Readers, but was afraid I’d forever mark myself as an unpleasantly negative person, and if you can’t say anything nice...just go to bed and wait till tomorrow to spread it out, at least. Well, Weeders wasn’t horrible, but neither was the program ground-shaking in any way. Weed on condition, accuracy, and relevance to the collection—stunning, original. I think the presenter, Belinda Boon, probably does an excellent job visiting individual libraries to get everyone all in a bother about weeding, but it didn’t translate well to a presentation for a large audience. I ducked out before having to sing the weeding song—thereby saving my sanity and making sure I didn’t hurt anyone within earshot of my exquisite singing voice.
I phoned Barbera and we met up to trek round the exhibits for a bit looking at furniture, me going about asking all the manufacturers “is it green, is it recycled?” I got lots of yeses, but was beginning to sound tedious even to myself, so we decided to head over to the Hennepin County Library. Other bloggers have covered that experience far better than I could—so...if you do have anything nice to say, but other people have already blogged it more eloquently (and posted photos, thanks Chris), don’t blog anything at all. I know I'm being obnoxious and using the word blog too much, but my version of Word doesn’t recognize it and I find that refreshing.
More later about Gamers in the Stacks (excellent) and The Game Studio: 21st Century Technologies for 21st Century Teens (also excellent, and featuring a fourteen year old charmer employed by Hennepin as one of its Teen Tech Squad). I'm about to head back to the convention to hear my last presentation: Making Space for Teens in Libraries. Should be good. I'll also be grabbing any free books I can get my hot little hands on.

BOOKS SPACES AND PLACES IN MINNEAPOLIS

2008-03-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

Books, spaces and places in Minneapolis
The Minneapolis Public Library system which has just merged with Hennepin County system because of budget constraints now embraces over 40 branches. Thanks to Nina Biddle and her connections we were lucky enough to tour 3 branches including the new 133 million renovated Central Library. One of the outstanding features of this library system is its connection with the community. For example with your library card you can get free passes to the Walker Museum, the Zoo and other cultural events. Admission to the Walker without the pass would be $10.00 a person and the Zoo $14.00. A customer can get one such coupon with the library card each week. What a great partnership. The Central library’s teen area had input from a teen council before it was put in place. It is completely separate from the other areas and adults can enter only if accompanied by a teen. The walls are red, the furniture funky and comfy and the natural light incredible. There are multiple computers and paid tutors every afternoon. Again partnering with the community the staff has done a job fair which 1,100 kids attended. At the Making Cities stronger program Amy Ryan again emphasized the importance of the library’s role in preparing young kids and teens not just with literacy but with job readiness. One of Library goals is to make themselves an essential element in the community by offering programs for New Americans. Not just the Central Library but the branches we visited had business centers with special computers and help for the many people wanting to start up their own small business. Jobs seekers can also get help through the special computers and there are community folks available to help with job searches, resume writing etc. The library has become a welcoming space for business and Chamber of commerce meetings. One interesting renovation in one of the branches was to reduce the meeting room space because there were 3 or 4 other spaces available for community use very close to this branch library. Using friendly language the Self –Checkout computers are only referred to as Express Checkout and staff assures customers that by using the Express Check-out they are freeing staff to help them in other more essential ways. .Friendly electronic signs indicating hours and programs and location maps make it easy for customers to self navigate especially in the new Central Library. And again back to early education and the community, the Central Library’s children’s section is a dream come true for the lucky kids of this community. There is an interactive old fashioned wheel in the entry way and flying huge birds over head. In the toddler area where story time takes place there is a crawling room for toddlers, a spinning wheel and a rug which looks like something like the game shoots and ladders so the kids can and do make up there own games. The puppet stage is also designed so that kids can create their own stories. No wonder some of the design was done by folks who design children’s museums.We heard about the concept used in some branches of no central desk and roving assistance, and Book Bug featuring Nancy Pearl and a panel of publishers created excitement both for the books of many new authors as well as the excitement of promoting more book discussion groups in the library. All of this and spring time weather here. That is if you agree with the folks from Minneapolis who think 36 degrees is time to bring out the flip-flops.

Millie Torrance

PLA in "A City That Works"

2008-03-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Despite the chill of the Minneapolis “spring,” this is a beautiful and sophisticated city that loves its Library.

On my first day here, I was treated to a personalized tour of the Minneapolis Central Library. Nina arranged the tour, which also included a branch of the Ramsey County system and a newly-renovated branch of the Hennepin County Library. Minneapolis Public Library merged with Hennepin County to become a system of over 40 branches in addition to the new Central Library, and what a beautiful library it is!

The Central Library, 125+ million dollar library, is a dream. Read all about Hennepin County Libraries at: http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/. I was particularly impressed with the Children’s area and their Teen Central. Hennepin County Library has also partnered with various organizations such as the Walker Center and the Minneapolis zoo, offering free passes to library card holders. Instead of “self-check machines,” the Library dubbed them Express Check, because it was felt that is was psychologically empowering library customers by offering speedy services.

One program I attended was “Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl,” which was a presentation by Nancy Pearl and representatives from other publishers, including the Minneapolis-based Milkweed. Each speaker ran through a number of newly or yet-to-be-released titles, enticing and tempting the audience. I want to read everything mentioned!

There are several wonderful newsletters available for signup giving updates on “hot titles, hot happenings, contests, and more” at http://www.randonhouse.com/library or Nancy Pearl’s own website of course, at http://www.nancypearl.com/, featuring Nancy’s Pearl’s Book Lust newsletter.

Another program of note was “Making Cities Stronger.” Hennepin Country Library Director, Amy Ryan, gave a fabulous presentation outlining the movements in Hennepin County to serve a growing and sophisticated population. The Hennepin County Library’s role in the community is huge.

Their immigrant resources, aimed at serving “New Americans,” (a term she used that is very inviting!), have many offerings. The library’s homepage is offered in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali as well as English. 13 branches will be extending Sunday hours because of a baseball tax! Storytime is conjunction with local school curriculum “in the same language as in the schools,” and there is a strong partnership with Head Start programs.

Although not a PLA event, Millie Torrance and attended a wonderful musical experience at Minneapolis’ Dakota Jazz Club Tuesday night featuring New Orleans’ own Irvin Mayfield. Irvin spoke several times about libraries in general and about the New Orleans Public Library Foundation Rebuilding Campaign, which is working towards raising 650 million dollars to build and improve libraries in my hometown. He praised libraries, and he donated all proceeds of his CD offered for sale during his tour to the NOPL.
- Christine Donnelly

Who Uses the Public Library? Who Doesn't?

2008-03-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Factually dense, this session presented by Christopher Brown-Syed, who substituted for George D'Elia, highlighted the results of a study of library. Admittedly incomplete and probably biased because it was a phone survey (some citizens block telemarketing calls, and others have no land-lines), the results were nevertheless startling.

Compared with five years ago, use of libraries' web sites is up. In-person use of the library is down. Patrons call the library less. The Internet is nibbling away at use of "traditional" library resources for finding information. The length of time people have had access to the Internet has a significant and inverse effect: the longer people have used the Internet, the less they use their library for information - it decreased library use by half!

Compared with five years ago, the total number of library visitors has decreased. Use of the library by students has increased. Use by African Americans, urban users, and low income families has increased. Use by Hispanics has not significantly changed.

What brings people to the library? Newspapers and magazines, career information, computer classes, and literacy.

The second speaker, Don King, Distinguished Research Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, looked at library use from the library standpoint.

75% of Internet users uvisit the library, but only 47% of non-Internet users do. 90% of those who have Internet at home visit the library's web site and/or use the library's online resources remotely. The study also found that both circulation reference transactions are up from 5 years ago, and the people are using the library more for recreation than for research.

Of those who use the Internet in libraries, 23% do not have Internet at home. Users are ok with library hours, but don't like the length of the Internet time-slots - they want a longer time at the terminals.

The bottom line - the Internet and remote access to libraries' electronic services and resources is saving users 790 million hours per year!

The final speaker was Susan Kent, who was an award-winning library director in California, Minnesota, and New York, and is now a consultant based in Los Angeles. She spoke based on empirical observations.

Library users overwhelmingly are looking for access to the library's collection, and placing holds. The second most common use of the library's e-resources is online exhibits and the e-collection. Use of library licensed databases is minimal.

A brief audience survey confirmed her feeling that reference services are decreasing - which should affect librares' choice of service model, allocation of funds, planning of new facilities, collection management, and database leasing.

Information seekers want it NOW - can't wait for physical delivery of items. This should lead us to promote our online services, collections, and databases.

Library service is local and needs to meet local needs. If information-seeking is declining, what should we do? If online services are in greater demand, what should we do? If more information is online, do we even need library buildings? This last bit needs to be considered with the tenor of local politics and funding.

Commercial and nonprofit organications are using the Internet aggressively: news stations and PBS invite viewers to seek additional information - sometimes a wealth of information - on their web sites. What does that say to libraries? We should also be collectors and publishers of online information.

I wish I could continue with more of the facts and perceptions shared - there was a very interesting Q&A session after the presentations. Lots to think about.

If anyone else attended, please add/correct my notes if you like. The speakers presented so many numbers, it was impossible to adequately capture the analysis.

More Conference Blogs

2008-03-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks must go to Sarah Dentan for plugging "Conference Calls" to the libraries in her area. She also mentioned the PLA Conference Blog, where you can get additional insights and impressions from the greater pool of conference-goers, as well as posting and commenting on others' posts. I'm sure others are also blogging the conference as well - finding and reading their posts would be like having conversations with colleagues all across the country.

Merchandising and Microsoft

2008-03-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today began with a long line at the Caribou Coffee shop. But long lines aren’t so bad when a) you’ve already defeated the vicious morning monster using the free hotel coffee elixir (I've been playing Zelda again) and b) the other people in line are having an hilarious conversation about a year’s stint as Arctic librarians. Dog training books were pretty important, evidently. They made it sound like Road to Utopia or Northern Exposure. Still, much as I love Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and situational comedy—Caribou Coffee is about as far north as I want to get.

Anyway, after coffee I headed out for the first conference of the day—Trading Spaces: Everyday Transformations to Maintain Merchandising Momentum @ your library which, it turns out, had been moved to a different room than the one posted in the schedule. I half-thought this was some over clever pun on the conference name, but at least I got to meet a lovely woman from Illinois during the hunt for the proper room. We chatted about Summer Reading (they aren’t doing the bugs, they are doing the Olympics—an all international focus-- clever I thought) and after I mentioned the Book Bingo cards she said, “that idea makes it worth coming today”—so, way to go, Summer Reading Committee. The talk itself was quite exciting—that is, if you’re the sort of person who can say “making the library more like a bookstore” without feeling queasy. Luckily, I don’t require Dramamine to embrace the concept of merchandising so the tips from the Mount Laurel, NJ librarians were actually exciting to me. They have daily briefings before opening to go over the schedule and point out areas that need maintaining. Everyone takes a turn on the floor as a “greeter” (they did admit this term had unpleasant blue-vest connotations). All staff members spend an hour per day merchandising. Books are faced out on the shelves. Displays galore. 20% increase in circulation. Huzzah! Check out www.sjrlc.org/tradingspaces for more on the project. After the presentation, I high-tailed it over to the exhibit hall to look at new shelving whilst composing little pep talks to the shelvers in my head...“it may make the pick-list harder but if we all work together...”

After chatting up Demco representatives for a while, it was time for Technozoo. Now, like Book Buzz! (alliteration and exclamation--horrors) and anything with “@ your library” in the title, the I find the name Technozoo a trifle off-putting. I’m glad that my snobbery didn’t stop me from going, however, because I actually learned about things I had never heard of before—the whole idea behind tech programs. I’m no great techie, but these cutting edge technology programs for librarians tend to be about digg and del.icio.us and Second Life—excellent sites, but already old hat, and this from a Generation X-er, not even one of you young Ys. So, when Leonard Souza (whose qualifications beyond tech-head I’ve already forgotten) uttered the dread words, “the Internet is changing everything,” I cringed and got ready to hear a bit more about social software. But surprise, surprise, he starts off talking about joost (pronounced juiced)—a peer-to-peer site allowing the download of commercial TV (I’m installing it on my ancient laptop as I write this blog so I’ll tell you tomorrow how it works). Joost is free and by the makers of skype (an old favorite of mine—I’ve been on skype for years now but discovered two weeks ago that you can now use your cell phone to call skype and then skype will call your skype friends using your account—all of which means I can use my cell to phone the UK for .02 a minute—brilliant). Souza talked up a number of really exciting technologies—my favorite being the Microsoft Surface. A couple of months ago I remember hearing Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or maybe just reading a Yahoo! headline about the imminent death of the keyboard and thinking, “Pshaw.” Well, now I believe it. You will, too, once you watch the videos at www.microsoft.com/surface. The iPhone on crack—Souza called it. I just watched the commericals again and it has suddenly made me weary of typing (such a passé communication tool)—so tomorrow I’ll weigh in on Weeders Attract More Readers and the Hennepin County Library.

12 steps to reinventing your library, or Libraries Anonymous

2008-03-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Karen Hyman, presenter for Reinventing 5: The Library Test- 12 Steps to Reinvention, was fabulously engaging. In conclusion, I would say that it turned into a motivational speech, and a successful one at that. One of her main points: as soon as your satisfied with the status quoa it's all over! (And here all along I thought contentment was the key to life.) This is at least the second time this theme has come to me during this conference... the only way to grow is to push your comfort level. This applies to individuals, businesses, and libraries. We settle into a routine as soon as we forget what we are doing and why we are doing it. Then we begin to resist change. So, ask yourself on a personal and professional level: How many things am I doing the same way that I did 5 years ago?

Libraries DO Build Communities!!!

2008-03-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

This morning, I attended two conference program sessions. First, Caught in the Middle: Immigration Controversy and Library Services and then Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Economic Development. Both sessions were great and, surprisingly, I found some important common ground between the two programs.

Caught in the Middle focused on the difficulty that many libraries are experiencing in providing first-rate library services to immigrant communities due to the fact that there have been hundreds of pieces of local legislation across the country that essentially make it illegal to provide government services (i.e. public library service) to undocumented immigrants. Along with this sad story, the presenters underscored the real value libraries represent for new residents in our country as they try to make their way here..

Making Cities Stronger, on the other hand, focused on how public libraries contribute to the economic development of the communities they serve. One of the presenters explained that a shift is occurring wherein economic development is not viewed primarily in terms of traditional capital improvements in a community but is becoming more focused on quality of life improvements in the community. Obviously, this is an area where public libraries are well positioned to become more influential community organizations. The message was that libraries do a fantastic (though difficult to measure) job of building human and social capital; in turn, the community benefits from these outcomes.

Some examples of the indicators one might use to quantifiably measure the growth in human or social capital include tracking changes in the local unemployment rate (libraries are great at providing employment and career resources), tracking changes in local small business start-ups and government revenue growth through sales tax (most urban libraries have a small business collection), tracking changes in literacy rates (enough said), and tracking changes in high school graduation rates (anybody ever hear of the library homework center and tutoring services?). The real trick is to demonstrate the causality between the library's programs and positive changes in the aforementioned indicators. However, while it may be difficult, proving our positive impact on vital community-related statistics such as these is exactly what we have to do in order to increase our leverage with our governing boards and parent governments.

Now here is where I saw the overlap from the two sessions. The link between a strong public library, growth in human and social capital, and the community's economic development is well known. For this reason, libraries should be making certain that their policies related to access of materials and programs are geared specifically toward facilitating library use by immigrant communities. Why? We know that communities comprised of recently arrived and potentially undocumented immigrants often experience a much lower level of economic development than the larger community in which they live.

Enhancing library use in immigrant communities, then, is something libraries can do to fulfill their social mission of improving the overall community they serve. Of course, this shouldn't be a new or novel idea since libraries have long been champions of freedom to information; however, library policies intended specifically to facilitate library use by immigrants is vulnerable to criticism from members of the community opposed to immigrants' rights.

Because of the potential resistance from some sectors of the community and also because of the widespread distrust of government agencies (even libraries) on the part of immigrants, we have a difficult task. In addition to making certain that library policies related to access are friendly and non-restrictive for immigrants, education is a key component. And this educational effort is really two tasks in one. First, libraries need to work to gain the trust of the immigrants they serve so that these communities understand the benefits to be gained by becoming regular library users. Secondly, we need to be certain that anytime there is a challenge to our efforts of enhancing library use by immigrants, a significant piece of our response is related to educating those concerned people how they stand to benefit from regular library use by our immigrant communities.

Specifically, this educational message ought to be focused on how making a concerted effort at serving the immigrant communities actually will improve the overall community through, for example, lower unemployment, more new business, more local revenue generated, higher literacy rates, and higher high school graduation rates. And all of these lead to one thing: a more developed and more qualified workforce. Do local business owners understand the role that libraries play in workforce development? It's our responsibility to make sure that they do and that the link between serving the immigrant community specifically leads to a greater economic development for everyone.

Reference in the age of Google

2008-03-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not in Minneapolis, but I'm attending the PLA Virtual Conference, from here at my desk in the basement of Central. I love having access to the ideas, speakers and chat (over 750 folks logged in to the virtual conference right now!), but it's challenging to stay focused while I'm also answering the phone, responding to urgent e-mails, and thinking about time cards.

The first full session I "attended" was titled "What does it take to be good at Reference in the age of Google", presented by Joe Janes of the University of Washington. He covered what Google is (free, quick, easy, and good enough), and what it isn't (a resource that can deliver depth, accuracy, evaluation, or selection/gathering).

So what does one do? Janes says be a reference librarian, but not the same reference librarian you were 10 years ago, except a little, sometimes, when you need to be. We need to be thinking about the old things in new ways. So:
- Reference interviews are still important, regardless of the medium in which they occur.
- Build tools to help people - pathfinders and research guides can make life easier, especially when presented in accessible ways.

We need to play to our strengths - we will never beat Google at quick or easy, and if people want good enough, we can't change their minds. What we can do is focus on what makes us different:
- quality
- depth
- instruction
- literacy
- reader's advisory
- community/clientele orientation

Reference librarians are made for more than ready-reference. Focus on the bigger questions, the "chewy" ones, the 15-, 30-, 60-minute questions. Since you can't make people care, take time for, or be fascinated by information resources (despite years of library marketing to try), better to bring those skills to bear when it is important to them.
- Witness the success of "book a librarian", wherein you schedule half an hour with a librarian. Makes us look professional, advertises we can do more than show you to a computer.

What about print? In the short run, it's a secret weapon, but in the long run will continue to decrease in importance.

Walk-in customers have already made a commitment. Because our on-line customers have so many other alternatives at their fingertips, we need to be better on-line than we are in person.

In terms of in-person service, Janes is a fan of roving reference (though acknowledges it's awkward and hard to get used to at first), but is not ready to abandon the reference desk, as the desk provides a focal point for customers, and provides a the librarian something to cling to at times. Another idea is for a "consultation area", which is used for those more in-depth questions (and furthers the sense of the professionalism of the librarian).

A very interesting session, all in all. It is challenging to split my focus between the office and the conference, and this will certainly never replace the experience of actually attending the conference, this is certainly good enough.

Old Home Week

2008-03-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to the ever-resourceful Ann, who had the great idea to set up a conference blog.

It is wonderful to be back in Minneapolis, despite the cold. Yesterday I heard on the radio that there are 3 seasons in MN--Winter, Late Winter, and Still Winter. I hadn't heard that one before but this is definitely the time of year when everyone is aching for Spring.

There is a lot of energy in downtown Minneapolis with the PLA Conference going on, and the convention center is really abuzz. I've spent a lot of time at the Central Library reconnecting with friends and former colleagues. It's very interesting to hear each individual's take on the merger of the 2 library systems--Hennepin County and Minneapolis, which became effective in January. It's been a challenge for everyone, but I think-- in time--the combination will make for one of the strongest and most vibrant library systems in the country.

The Central Library was totally rebuilt on the same site as the previous building, and had its grand opening in May of 2006. It's really amazing to me to see how the renovation restored so much life to the library. The building is so beautiful; it's hard to capture in photos. But its essence is light. This is a community that truly values library services, and I'm pleased that they have a Central Library that they deserve.

An Optimistic Reminder About Learning and Libraries

2008-03-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

The highlight of Wednesday's opening General Session was the keynote address by John Wood, founder and CEO of the Room to Read Foundation. http://www.roomtoread.org/index.html

John is also the author of the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children. (HarperCollins, 2006). www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com Check it out. There are 6 copies in the SPL catalog all “On Shelf” as of 5 p.m. this afternoon.

During today’s program, Woods led the audience on his life changing journey from a remote village in Nepal to a foundation that is building schools and libraries, training librarians, and educating boys and more importantly girls in east African, Indian, and Southeast Asian countries.

I was especially impressed by Woods' business model. He believes education drives economic growth and education improves lives. His goal is to build “cheap and cheerful” schools, to produce books in the local languages of the children he serves, and to give long term scholarships, pre-school through secondary school, to girls. In underdeveloped countries, families often only have the funds to educate one child, the eldest boy.

The business model, for Room to Read, is based on the following principles:
• Hire a strong entrepreneurial local team of employees. The local team knows the government, the community and the parents.
• Engage the community. Given the opportunity, parents will provide labor and resources to foster the education of their children.
• Invest in human training. 80% of the librarians in the Room to Read program are training other librarians.
• Monitor and evaluate the programs. How many books are in the library? Is there an efficient checkout system? Are librarians developing cultural programs beyond reading to engage and educate the children?
• Measure the results. Wood's statistical models are impressive. Last year Starbucks opened 1,000 new stores. Room to Read opened 1,600 new libraries.
• Make efficient use of donor dollars. Room to Read is able to put money directly into programs by maintaining low overhead. For example, materials are transported via Zak the yak or moped, instead of via Land Rovers.
• Establish fund raising chapters around the world. Is there one in Sacramento? Last year, Oprah Winfred raised 1 million dollars for Room to Read from viewers after John Woods’ appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
• Dream big dreams. This principle is based on something John Woods learned while working at Microsoft where employees are encouraged to “Dream big or go home.”
• Remain optimistic. That's exactly how I felt at the end of the presentation - a feeling I will carry home and share with colleagues, family and friends.

Maximum Ride

2008-03-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Everyone got the first 2 of James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" books in their registration bags. The marketing with the books say that schools are adding the series to required reading lists. The envelope also included a discussion guide with 6 or 7 discussion points for each book. Tonight I read my first Maximum Ride book and wonder if anyone familiar with the books would share their thoughts about this book. I'm finding it a remarkably fast read (300 pages so far and I did other things this evening), and I can see how it would really hold a teen's - or even an older child's - interest, but it's also the kind of book I'd have read voraciously on my own as a kid. I remember reading some pretty boring stories in Junior High School that I later appreciated as literature. But if I hadn't been a reader in the first place, I may never have gotten through the forgiveness chapter from "Les Miserable" that changed Jean Valjean's life, or the "Gift of the Magi", telling of the sacrifices of love and teaching the meaning of irony. Does Maximum Ride replace those tales? OK, first lesson of blogging - I probably shouldn't do it at bedtime! I'm just interested in your thoughts. Thanks

PreConference: Where Books Go Readers Follow

2008-03-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

PLA described this pre-conference as "[focusing] on Readers Advisory for adult audio books." I somehow expected it to emphasize downloadable audio books (my e-resources bias is showing), but that was not really the case. We heard presentations from a panel of experts who shared different aspects of evaluating recorded books in all formats.

Our moderator, Kaite Mediatore Stover is head of Readers Services for Kansas City Public Library (MO). She had entertaining and wittily-crafted introductions for all the panelists.

The stellar panel included Joyce Saricks, columnist and audio book reviewer for Booklist, Mary K. Chelton, PhD, an audio book consumer and "advocate for various neglected and stigmatized categories of library services", Judy Napier, 10-year member of the PLA AV Committee, and Sue-Ellen Beauregard, media editor of Booklist. All were entertaining and brought their own love of the audio format to their presentations.

Scott Brick, 2007 Narrator of the Year, was the celebrity guest. He demonstrated how he prepares for a recording session: throat-coat tea to soothe the vocal cords, water to keep them hydrated, chapstick and breath-freshener spray to to prevent the "pops and whistles" that occur when your mouth is dry. He told how he reads the books, researches the characteristics of speech during different time periods by watching old movies, and performed several exerpts from books he's recorded - along with insider anecdotes. SPL audio books read by Scott Brick

Made me see audio books in a whole new light! And each member of the audience received a lunchbox (metal, with a handle and latch - just like the one on the table next to Scott in the photo) containing an audio book!

Telling Tales

2008-03-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I attended a preconference titled "Telling Tales for Early Literacy" with a focus on early literacy skills gained through the tradition of oral storytelling. The narrative skill, the ability to describe something, is the most obvious one imparted in this tradition. When two groups of children were asked to retell a story after hearing it, the group members who listened to it while focusing only on the storyteller and his/her words and actions were able to recount more of the story than those who were shown the picture book during the reading. Children's imaginations soar when they are allowed to visualize the characters and the scenes on their own- this personal association helps them to absorb more of the story.

Jumping ahead a few years, I checked out the much talked about Teen Central at the Minneapolis Public main branch. Awesome!! The teen meeting room is covered with silver wallpaper that the kids can write all over, beanbag chairs form a huge pile in a corner of the room with floor to ceiling windows. Such a positive and light area where teens might even dispel some of their transitional angst while looking out over the city. jt

Adventures in Polka

2008-03-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

So the highlight of my day, and definitely the most unexpected event of my trip thus far, happened while I waited amongst the crowd of librarians waiting to enter the conference exhibit hall this afternoon. I had been enjoying (really!) the performance of the live polka band that was entertaining us while we waited when suddenly I was grabbed by a member of the band who wanted me and two other conference goers to "play" toy accordions along with the band for the next song! What could I do? I took my toy accordion and jammed in front of the hundreds of librarians waiting in the lobby with me. Embarrassed? Yeah, a little; but certainly something I won't forget!

That memorable moment aside, Wednesday was a great day in Minneapolis. I visited the Hennepin County Central Library and just loved the place. Like Jami said in her post, the Teen Central area was awesome!

I really loved the light fixtures and that shelving was just so interesting, too. If an interior designer had proposed that to me, I would have been skeptical, but seeing it in person, it really worked and looked beautiful. Just goes to show you that taking chances is a good thing!

The children’s area at HCL is also incredible. I loved the colors and especially the dragonflies.

After visiting the library, I walked over to the convention center to visit the conference exhibits. As I’ve already said, that was an interesting event! I was truly hoping nobody else from SPL was in the crowd watching me jam with the polka band! Once we finally got into the Exhibit Hall, though, it was great. I could see that times are definitely changing; there were at least four automated materials handling system vendors set up doing demos and RFID vendors were everywhere. The more traditional stuff was in place too, though; lots of giveaway bags, galley proofs, pens, and sticky pads.

Now I’m going to rest up and prepare for Thursday and Friday when the real conferencing starts. I’m planning on four workshops tomorrow and at least three more on Friday!

Thursday's doings....

2008-03-26T17:41:00.001-07:00

Another action packed day in the City of Lakes. A side note before I dive in. Walking through the maze of vendors I ran into former SPL'er Marjorie Schreiber. What a pleasant surprise that was. She will soon be an ex-Californian; Colorado will be her new home in a month or so. Anyone who worked with her remembers her fondly.
My first event this morning was "Why do we Dewey?" Staff from the Topeka & Shawnee County P.L. discussed their Neighborhoods idea. Travel, for example, has its' own space on their shelf. It consists of phrase books, roadside geology, and travel. Their trick to pulling this off is keeping the Dewey system in tact. To do so they have updated call numbers, modified them slightly, or dropped some classifications altogether. They plan on expanding their "neighborhoods" to include lawn and garden, home improvement, weddings, careers/job training, and health. Next up was "Everyone is Getting Crabbier." One of the most important points the presenter mentioned was living in the moment and not making your life a series of wishes. By that she meant avoid the thinking that the next time a situation is faced things will be better or once 'X' happens I'll be happier. Often those opportunities never arrive or you handle them just as poorly as you did the last time. Life is too short for that. Instead of the typical reactions to stress and change, she added, try saying no at times, manage your time better, and don't work yourself into the ground.
Next, "Data is not a 4 Letter Word" discussed tools you can use to take the emotion out of solutions and get "buy-in" from staff through hard data. They used PLA's "Planning for Results" series http://www.ala.org/ala/pla/plapubs/publicationslist/publications.cfm to come up with measurable tasks and outcomes to cope with decreasing money and continued service expectations. By using these tools their processing of new items was reduced substantially. The presenters kindly offer templates of their spreadheets at http://salsblog.sals.edu/librarydata.xls.
Finally, I attended "Making the Yellow Brick Road." King County (WA) and San Jose P.L. folks showed examples of wayfinding, i.e. getting people to where they want to go without them needing to ask. The ways this is accomplished include:
a) colors given to each "zone"
b) choice reads/media in the Million Dollar Table (borrowed from retail)--furniture near the entrance that can't be missed
c) endcaps in solid colors; fiction would be in all caps running vertically down the colorful column

I will flush this out in more detail once I'm home--someone else needs the PC! Ciao for now.

A few more tidbits

2008-03-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems the last to the computer has some hard acts to follow. Diane covered the Early Literacy preconference well. I would add how enthusiastic you become when the workshop concludes. We forget how fun it is to be a little kid, and how critical adults are in their development. Kids are pros at playing and we can direct that enthusiasm through furniture, programs, and creative applications of the ALA "Every Child Ready to Read" principles. In particular, Burgeon Group's interactive furniture made possibilities of an amazing kids' space seem within grasp. I can't wait to start rethinking my space to make it fun-cational! (I just made that up).

Book Buzz (handy and practical) and John Wood (beyond inspirational!) were terrific. First, it seems 2008 will be the year of famous offspring novels. Peter Leonard (Elmore) and Alafair Burke (James Lee) are putting out their first books. Also, I found out that Madeline Wickham is Sophie Kinsella. Good to know.

For those of you already doing your Travel list I took a look at the National Geographic titles. The content has many of the same travel info (maps, hotel prices, etc...) but the difference between this series and Fodor's, Frommer's, Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, and the like is the color photography (stunning--not a black and white picture anywhere) and the emphasis more on cultural events, places, and milestones of the country. The sales rep confirmed this was their main departure from other travel guides.

Stay tuned.....Wish you were here!

Book Buzz! with Nancy Pearl

2008-03-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

This year’s PLA is the first time I’ve attended a conference as an actual librarian, rather than as a humble student, or even more humble (read desperate) job seeker. I wondered before arriving whether my six whole months as a librarian would make the experience any less surreal—and I’m finding the answer is no. There is just something unshakably disconcerting about being amongst a large group of people who share the same interests—and often the same hairstyle—that you do. You overhear conversations about OPACs and ILL. You see a disproportionate number of people wearing distinctive eyeglasses. You turn to the right and see someone who looks like you in 10 years, and to the left—20 years on (this assuming I don’t get a different haircut, ever). The Twilight Zone turns out to be in Minneapolis.
So, when I attended my first conference event, Book Buzz! with Nancy Pearl, it took me a little while to relax (and stop worrying about that me-in-20-years sitting two aisles down) and get past the frivolous observations and into the spirit of the thing. Of course, that wasn’t hard when the program began, because it was all about books, and led by librarian Nancy Pearl, who is charming, and a rockstar. The woman has her own action figure, and she’s a librarian—they don’t make them any cooler (that I believe this is one of the reasons I am a librarian and not a rockstar, clearly). After proposing a contest to come up with a word for the fear-of-being-stuck-somewhere-with-nothing-to-read that strikes us all at one time or another (I think it should sound vaguely German), Nancy turned the show over to representatives from Milkweed, Random House, Macmillan, and HarperCollins. They proceeded to book-talk (with varying degrees of success) for the next hour or so. Rather than list every title I’m going to whittle it down to a few I found particularly exciting (I’d call it Lori’s Picks but I think I’ve already sufficiently proven my self-absorption for one blog entry) and also list some of the websites that might most appeal.

Milkweed: www.milkweed.org

Rock Island Line and Driftless by David Rhodes
Rhodes is, as I understand it, a sort of “rediscovered” author from the sixties (one of the big-brained Iowa set) who dropped off the map for awhile but is now being republished, so there’s the Salinger fascination in there and the assurance from Milkweed’s representative that he writes beautifully.

Random House:

Tuna: A Love Story by Richard Ellis
Think Cod, I need say no more.

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson
I picked up a galley of this one, because it sounds appealingly melodramatic. A book of 17th century embroidery patterns hides the diary of an Englishwoman kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Morocco; researching the diary leads a modern day woman to Morocco and true love. Yeah, I’m a sucker—but I know a lot of you are too so you can borrow it when I get back.

Macmillan:

Nick of Time: An Adventure Through Time by Ted Bell
Really bad title, especially because...well, three guesses on the main character’s name. But! It is a middle reader, it has time travel and pirates and Nazis and Admiral Nelson and claims to be swashbuckling. I’ll read anything that claims to be swashbuckling. And really, don’t we all need to read more boy books?

HarperCollins:

Golden Grove by Francine Prose
See, I do read literary fiction...sometimes. Promises to be less sarcastic than the usual Prose but I’ll believe that when I read it.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The HarperCollins representative didn’t do a fantastic job of booktalking this one (even had Stephenson’s first named misspelled on the slide)—but what I got was: new stand-alone from Stephenson (for those of us who can’t make it through another Baroque Cycle), has something to do with monks and saving the world. I loved Cryptonomicon and since knowing how Stephenson spells his first name ups my geek cred, I’ll definitely be reading this one when it comes out in September.

Websites:
www.bookclubgirl.com
Umm, my notes say: about book clubs.
www.earlyword.com
New site for collection development and RA.
www.youtube.com/oliveTV
HarperCollins author interviews.

Wednesday PLA Impressions

2008-03-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Any day that starts with Nancy Pearl is bound to be a good one! She emcee'd a session of publishers talking about their hot new books. Selectors (and anyone else interested) check out www.earlyword.com - a site for early advanced word about hot forthcoming titles. For those of you who can't get enough of author interviews, HarperCollins has www.youtube.com/olivetv - which is just that - author interviews. The best publisher rep to listen to was from Milkweed press. Because it's a local Minnesota press, I got to hear about a few titles that may not hit the mainstream, but still sound interesting.

Lunch was preceeded by a visit to the Medical Arts Building, where I rode the elevator to the 20th floor (top floor) in homage to my Mom. She was an elevator operator there in the late '50's and early 60's when the elevators were operated by lever, not button. It was a surprise that the elevator framework & doors still match my childhood memory.

Innovative had a IUG at PLA program - a lot of it was overview of what the Innovative User's Group does, and what's new with Innovative. One concept I was taken with is a portable self-check station that can be wheeled to where there's a library program. I can envision a portable shelf of materials related to the program with the self-check right there beside it.

Innovative is also planning to start some webinar training in the next couple months. These will be 2-hour sessions focused on one narrow topic - like "everything about holds" in one session. Specific information will be available at the User's Group conference in late May & I'm sure Sarah Smith will be keeping an eye on the listserv for more information, too.

The opening general session was John Wood and the "Room to Read" program. His book is "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World." I checked the catalog & we do have it; listening to his presentation makes me think this might be a good companion book to "Three Cups of Tea". It's exciting to think there is so much action out there to help children have hope in life where there hasn't traditionally been much of a future to consider.

I got caught up in the crowd waiting for the exhibit hall to open & that was it for me (I don't do crowds well). I've blocked out a couple of times for exhibits over the next couple days - better than the madhouse that tonight will be. Maybe someone will blog how much fun it was!!

A Full Slate!

2008-03-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

There are so many programs going on at PLA it's hard to choose what to attend! I've been narrowing down my list, though, and I think I've decided on most time slots. Here is a list of what I'm planning to attend so, if any of these programs sound interesting to you, check back later for my impressions on how they went.

Thursday

Caught in the Middle: Immigration Controversy and Library Services
This program is sponsored by the PLA committee of which I'm a member, the Metropolitan Libraries committee. I'll be attending to help out with logistics (e.g. handing out and collecting program evaluations).

Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Library Development
Based on the study done by the Urban Libraries Council, this program will be a great summary of how public libraries are a vital community resource in the personal development of our citizens and how that development acts as an economic stimulus on the local economy. And I think we all know how important a strong local economy is, right?

So What? Using Outcome Measurement to Assess the Impact of Library Programs
As SPL gears up to develop our new strategic plan, I'm excited to learn more about how the user-centered approach to planning, measuring actual outcomes of library use instead of traditional output measures (e.g. circulation statistics), can guide our future.

Reinventing 5 - The Library Test: Questions from Your Customers in 2008
One goal of this program, according to the published description, is that I'll learn how to see library staff and library policies as viewed by the customer. This is important because, as much as we all want to provide great service to our customers, it is easy to forget that their perspective can be vastly different from our own. In recognizing that, we can use that new perspective to change those policies and actions that don't really align with SPL's Service Philosophy.

Friday

Building the Library's Future - Facility Master Planning
Co-presented by Anne Marie Gold, this program will be a great overview of the facility master planning process and the benefits such a process delivers to public library systems. I'm interested in this program because, even though SPL currently has an excellent FMP in place, all long-range plans need to be revisited and refined; so, when it's time to revise our own, I'll be ready!

The 10:30 slot on Friday has at least three programs all of which I'd love to attend. I guess I'll just have to wait until the moment strikes before I decide in which one I'll take part!

What's the Big Idea? The Idea Store and the Future of Public Libraries
Developed in the UK, the Idea Store concept is described as a state-of-the-art, "retail inspired extreme makeover" for public libraries. What can I say other than this just sounds exciting and I want to check it out!

Saturday

Library Conflict Management for Consenting Adults
Learning how "to elicit the best from other people" and improve productivity in the library is certainly something I'd like to work on myself; hopefully this program will deliver what it promises.

So, you can see that this year's PLA is absolutely filled with great programming; what I've listed here isn't even a quarter of what's going on at the conference. I just hope I can remember everything I learn here when I get back!

And, if you want to read more detailed descriptions about the programs you can do so at PLA's online conference Programming Schedule. Also, since PLA is trying to make this conference "paperless" (at least in terms of their own use of paper), most conference presenters have posted their program handouts online, too; so it's easy for you to get more information about any conference programs that are of interest to you!

Doing it Differently @ East Lake

2008-03-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Continuing the library tours ... the second library we visited was East Lake Community Library. The building is new - it's only been open about a year - and it has attracted a great deal of community interest. The library had expanded its area by about a third, but had no increase in staff. In order to accommodate the extra business, they divided the library into service "zones", each with an intended audience and function.

In the Express Zone, patrons can see new books, pick up holds, and check out materials. Staff says 95% of all checkouts are done at the self-check machines. They favor the use of the term "express" over "self-checkout", and it seems to have had the intended effect expediting patrons' use of routine services.

In the Business Zone, patrons have access to computers with local job listings, business plan software, and other materials useful for small businesses and job-seekers. There are regular programs using local partners like SCORE - so it ends up something like our "Small Business in a Box" grant, only permanent. I thought the clocks showing world times was a nice atmospheric touch.

The reason for our tour, though, was their single service point model. There is no sit-down reference desk; instead, there is a small stand-up desk with two PCs where both circ and ref staff handle services for the public. Staff are assigned to rove, and shelvers and library assistants have been empowered to answer questions and otherwise assist borrowers. For the most part, this works for them - but there are some wrinkles. The kids' area is separated from the main reading room, and parents are reluctant to leave kids alone to go seek help. One solution being considered it to put a second service point nearer the kids' area and staff it when kids are in the library. Another issue is the lack of staff computers - if the two computers at the service desk are in use, then roving staff have no staff-imaged computers to check patron accounts. To solve that issue, a couple of staff-imaged PCs have been placed in the public Internet areas. It's not perfect yet, but clearly has improved public service for this branch.

3M/PLA Leadership Institute, take 2

2008-03-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like Chris beat me to it (I guess that's why he's a manager). Anyway, yes, the 12 1/2 hour day was a long one considering my already sleep-deprived-on-CA-time-didn't- get- to- sleep- until- 1- mode. I concur with everything Chris has to say about the day, and here are a couple of more things that I found interesting.

Leadership is not management- they are two different skill sets. Impressive is 3Ms training and development models. 3M management is very into training people how to be good leaders.

The corporate model (at least of 3M) is much like a public library model- Practical and ingenuous products that help our customers succeed; innovation, quality, trust and leadership.

We were a group of 100 and were asked to brain-storm what library leadership will look like in 2015. Common opinions are:

less hierarchical, more horizontal management structure.
more collaboration with community orgs. libraries need to go out into the community (okay, this idea isn't exactly new, but we could do better!)
masters of technoloy

Public libraries in general ARE following these trends....

This morning I associated 3M with tattle-tape and self-check-out. Now, I see them as a large, dynamic, internationl company with 65 businesses (I'm getting ready to go corporate (or at least buy 3M stock). 3M is in the habit of moving its employees around. I think this is great.... once you are very comfortable in one job it is time to move on to new challenges. This benefits the growth of the individual and also brings fresh ideas into new departments (library branches). The resumes of the 3M execs show that they are never in one job for longer than, say, 3 years...

And, finally, it was so much fun talking to librarians from all over the U.S.- the demographics of their libraries, the size, etc. That's it for now... good night... jt

Doing it Differently @ Maplewood

2008-03-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Nina Biddle arranged tours of three libraries for today. I visited two of them before my afternoon preconference, and the photos in this post are of one of them - the Maplewood Library, a branch of the Ramsey County Public Library. The flying maple "wings" are in their Children's area.

This library was selected because of its AMH (automated materials handling) system. Patrons return items one by one through either the internal or external bookdrop slot, and the system scans the barcode and automatically selects the correct bin. Staff likes it because it reduces the number of times an item has to be handled and sorted, so materials get re-shelved faster.

In addition to Nina, Christine Donnelly, Millie Torrance, Lois Ross, Mary Mijares, and I, Ann Owens visited the libraries.

3M/PLA Leadership Institute

2008-03-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! That was a long day but well worth it! In order to attend today's 3M/PLA Leadership Institute as part of the PLA Conference, I, and everyone else attending, had to board a bus at 6:45am for a 30 minute ride to 3M's Innovation Center in St. Paul and we didn't get back to our hotels until 7 this evening!

The Innovation Center itself was a great place with signage I'd love to have in all of our libraries; check out this cool flat panel display (look for my reflection with the camera in the lower right corner):

By the way, did you notice the temperature on that sign? Something must be wrong because this sure looks like a frozen pond just outside the center to me!

Anyway, like I said, the Institute was well worth my time. The president of PLA, Jan Sanders, made a brief introduction and, gearing us up for what lay ahead, invited us all to spend the day thinking "about something we've never thought about before": namely, the nature of leadership in general and how the concepts of learning circles and action learning can be applied in library settings to help improve the efficiency and efficacy of team-based decision-making. We spent the day in various sessions; some were presentations by veteran leaders of the 3M corporation while other sessions were breakout groups where we put into practice the action learning model of problem solving. As an aside, "action learning" in a nutshell, seemed to me a slightly more structured version of traditional group brainstorming. Each small group (about six people) throw out "answers" to the question or problem at hand and, afterward, the group democratically comes to a decision as to which suggestions from the brainstorming session best answer the question.

The first issue that was posed to us in the breakout sessions was: "how do library leaders meet the needs of a changing customer base"? My group, after a fun discussion, narrowed down our suggestions to the following:

Be where your community is (as opposed to expecting them to come to you).
Embrace a culture of change.
Listen to your customers, act on what they tell you, and repeat as necessary!

My question to all of you at SPL is this: what steps can we take in our library to put into play the recommendations above? I'd love to hear any suggestions from all of you! Talk to you soon!

Chris

My First PLA Conference

2008-03-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

First, thanks to Ann Owens for setting up this blog; what a great idea! I'm excited about blogging my experiences while I'm here (for my first PLA conference ever!) starting with tomorrow's 3M/PLA Leadership Institute. I only wish I didn't have to catch a bus at 6:45 am in order to get to the Institute tomorrow!

Anyway, thanks again to Ann for making it so easy for all SPL conference-goers to share their experiences; I hope everyone takes advantage of this opportunity!

LJ Aisle-by-Aisle Guide

2008-03-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

LJ has made a list of all the vendors available. Click through to any of them to see the conference specials and coupons they are offering.

How-To-Blog Refresher

2008-03-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Blog authors may post in several easy ways. If you need a reminder while at the conference, just use the search box in the very upper left of the blog and type "howto" (or any of the other tags used to label this post,) or click the How-To-Blog Refresher link in the right sidebar.

Post using the Blogger interface:

Log in to Blogger with the username and password you created when you accepted the invitation.
Click the "New Post" link and begin typing, using the word-processing tools within Blogger.
Create hyperlinks by using the little "chain & world" icon in the toolbar of the editing screen.
Upload photos and videos, if you have any. These are optional, and will give the blog some visual interest.
Tag your post by adding labels, separating each with a comma. If you always include "pla" as one of your tags, then finding the notes from this conference will be easier as more conferences are blogged.
Preview, edit, and publish your post.

Post by e-mail:

Add the following address to your “contacts” list in Outlook: askus3.concalls@blogger.com . This is where you will send your blog posts.
The subject line will become the title of your post, and the body will become the text.
If you use a signature file, you may want to edit or delete it before publishing.
When you “send” the e-mail, your post will be published.

Add a comment to an existing post:

Click the “comment” link at the end of the post – it’s usually right next to the author’s name.
Complete the comment form.
Select your identity.
Click the “Publish Your Comment” button. Your comment is now appended to the blog post.

How can we access this in MN?

2008-03-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Y'all:

Here goes my first attempt at a blog. Aside from going to the library and using their Internet to post conference news, is anyone bringing a SPL-owned or personal e-mail ready device (Blackberry, etc.) to MN that they can share?

Creating a Blog Entry by E-mail

2008-03-18T10:50:00.001-07:00

Submitting blog entry by e-mail is easy - just address your mail to askus3.concalls@blogger.com, use the subject line as the title of the post, and the body of the e-mail as the text. If you use a signature file, you may want to edit it.

Ann S. Owens
Electronic Resources Librarian
Sacramento Public Library
828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
aowens@saclibrary.org

Purposefully Yours

2008-03-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

This blog was created today so that Sacramento Public Library staff attending conferences and workshops can post their notes for the benefit of staff at "home". Staff attending PLA in Minneapolis, March 24-28, 2008, will be the first to contribute.