Library Revolution

I am moving to Denmark.

This video, sent to me by Sidsel Bech-Petersen of the Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark is just that cool. It looks at the Transformation Lab project done to explore new possibilities for the library’s physical space. Awesome.

My favorite part (of many favorite parts!) is the comment: “The users like to become involved, providing it is not too much trouble and there is an instant result.”

There will be a presentation about this at the 17th Halmstead conference in Aarhus this year. The program is called Elevations, and it looks awesome. Maybe some of the European folks who stop by this blog would be interested!

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I’m far too tired to write much tonight, but I did want to pass on one thing before I hit the hay.

So far this conference, I keep hearing the same phrase over and over:

Partner with your patrons.

It’s simple. It’s elegant. And it works on so many levels. 

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Check out the Innovative Interfaces IUG 2007 photostream on Flickr.

I have to find the person with the camera so that I, too can be famous…

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This is a blog about my profession, not my job. So I won’t bore anyone with accounts of the sessions I have attended at this conference regarding “job” stuff.

What I do want to talk about, though, is the opening session/keynote address given by Bob Cringely. Other bloggers have done a great job of summarizing, so I won’t “re-invent the wheel,” as so many librarians seem to like to say. Here’s Terry Ballard’s take on what happened, and Bill Topritzhofer’s account.

Bob touched on a few points in his speech that I’d like to address.

1. The disappearance of the physical manifestations of knowledge in libraries. In short, libraries are not going to be all about books. If you ask me, I’d say this is already true, but will become even more so in the future. And that’s OK, all you shocked book lovers out there. I’ve long felt that the role of the “library of the future” has more to do with education and the interpretation of information than with books. Which leads me to another of his points.

2. Librarians will be of value because of their expertise in handling knowledge. Here is how we stay relevant. Of course, that means that it has to be true that librarians are experts in finding, organizing, and interpreting information, no matter what the format of that info is. Which in turn means keeping up with the technological changes that will continue to accelerate. If you don’t want to keep current now, that’s fine. But don’t expect to be able to make a valuable contribution to your profession or your patrons in the radically different library environment of twenty years from now.

3. We tend to overestimate change in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. To me, this was a real AHA statement. It seems like many librarians (me too!) love to try and jump on the new interesting stuff that is out there, but then get disappointed when the new technologies, etc aren’t adopted by the general public right away. Then the efforts get abandoned as “failures.” How discouraging. It’s even more discouraging when things catch on later and become part of mainstream culture, but we seem like we “missed the boat” because our abandoned efforts were ahead of their time. Bob mentioned ebooks as a great example… remember when ebooks were all the rage in libraries… but nowhere else? Well, they’re coming back eventually, once the planets of social and economic forces have properly aligned, of course. Will we be ready? I sure hope so. I also hope that all of the great Web 2.0 initiatives that may or may not be a little ahead of their time will not be abandoned by discouraged librarians who don’t see enough ROI on their projects right away. I hope that we can all be patient with this… it’s coming, and it’s coming BIG TIME.

Overall, I really liked the keynote speech. It was engaging and fun, and the speaker made some great points about the future of libraries. And I think his message was received well, although I did sense some ruffled feathers when he talked about the disappearance of the book.

The world is going to be very different in 10, 15, 20 years. The baby boomers will have become our elderly population, Gen X and Y types like myself will be sending their kids off to college, and those kids (like my one year old, who already knows how to use a mouse) will be entering adulthood with a whole new set of expectations. Libraries and library professionals will need to adapt in order to remain relevant in that new world.

Where will your library be in 2027? Or should I say, Who will it be?

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And now to make some people mad.

I’m getting a little tired of hearing librarians complain about the profession having a bad image and librarians not being taken seriously as professionals. How often do I hear folks complaining about the “bad rap” we get - being perceived and portrayed as dowdy old ladies.  I overheard several such comments today at the conference I’m attending.

Well, cry me a river. Or, as my grandmother would say, “I just want to say this about that.”

If you’re so concerned about the perception the public has of librarians and libraries, then stop proving it true. I you don’t want to be seen as a dowdy old lady, then don’t dress like one. Especially when you are out representing yourself, your organization, and your profession at a professional function.

As I walked around the conference today, I was struck (once again!) by the severity of the fashion violations that were everywhere. I half expected that the convention center was about to be ambushed by the What Not To Wear fashion police. No such luck.

Hey librarians! You are at a professional conference. You are not about to dig around in your garden. You are not on your way to the beach. You are not going on safari, the gym, prospecting for gold, or moving west in a covered wagon. This is not a ski trip, and you are not in your living room.

I’m not saying you have to blow your paycheck on expensive clothes and Armani suits. But a professional function, such as a conference, should mean professional attire. If you are cold, leave the hoodie sweatshirt alone and get a blazer, or even a nice sweater (and I said nice, not some old moth eaten thing my grandmother would be embarrassed to wear). Feet hurt? That doesn’t mean you have to go straight for your ratty old sneakers or comfortable sandals that have seen better days. And for God’s sake - the hotel provides an iron in every room.

Am I just being superficial? No, I don’t think so. You are the face of your organization and of your profession whenever you attend a conference. In this case, the people of San Jose, your colleagues and counterparts from other libraries, as well as your vendor are all looking at you. (Actually, three different people asked me today if I worked for Innovative. I took that as a compliment, as the representatives from that company were all quite put together.)

You are a professional. Take some pride in your profession and represent it and yourself in an appropriate manner. If you don’t then you have no right to complain about librarians having a bad image. The next time I see something like the ubiquitous March of the Librarians, don’t make me cringe.

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Here I am in beautiful San Jose, and I can see San Jose State from my hotel room window. How appropriate, then, that I saw this video today!

I have had very mixed feelings on Second Life in LibraryWorld… but I must admit this looks like a really great effort. And I love the video itself.

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Tomorrow I’ll be up bright and early (OK, maybe not so bright.) to catch a flight to San Jose. There, I’ll attend the Innovative Users Group Conference to see what is new and exciting with our automation vendor. Looks like it will be an interesting conference this year!

It makes for a little bit of a bittersweet Mother’s Day for me, though. This will be the first time I’ll be away from Robert, and the first time Chris will be alone with him for a whole week! So here are some pictures I can look at while I’m away Library-ing.

The second one is to remind me of what Chris and Robert looked like PRE spending a whole week on their own. That is to say pre-pizza for every meal.

Good luck, honey! I hope you like tantrums!

ETA: Chris was mad that I mentioned him but didn’t link to his very excellent blog. FINE.

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I saw this post the other day, written by Steve Bertrand, Assistant Director of the Kankakee Public Library. Check it out - it’s from a library blog I really love: She Said/He Said:Kankakee Public Library Blog. I always read what Steve and Director Cindy Fuerst have to say. It’s a great example of a library blog where the contributors talk about real library issues in n open, honest, and interesting way. 

This articular post is one I can definitely identify with.  Steve talks about how he isn’t really much of a reader… and neither am I. Sure, I like to read, but I really don’t love it. At least not in the way that a lot of librarians seem to. I mean, so many librarians are really book obsessed! And there isn’t anything wrong with that at all. In fact, it’s a trait I admire and sometimes wish I had more of. And maybe if I had more time, I’d read more voraciously. But probably not.

In using about his similar feeling towards books and reading, Steve poses an interesting question: how do libraries handle dealing with parts of their community who are really not readers? What kinds of services do we offer non-readers, and what are our strategies for reaching out to this segment of our population. (Sorry for the paraphrase, Steve!) He says:

“For centuries, most Libraries’ only strategy for confronting the non-reader was to devise ways to seduce them to start reading. Those who refused were marked up as “lost souls” and ignored… Libraries must understand that non-readers are a tax paying part of our service group who deserve some kind return on their dollar, without having librarians look down there nose at them. As scary as it may sound, people do have a right NOT to read.”

Great comments!  This is a question really worth considering!

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I have no time to deal with your programs.

Sure, I have lots of interests that may or may not be covered by library programming. But I don’t know about them because I live in a zip code that gets blanketed with the newsletters of three libraries - only one of which I can go to for programs. So they all go into the trash with the rest of the junk mail as soon as they get to my house. And since that seems to be the only way to find out about programs, I have no idea they’re going on.

Sure, I have a son who would love to go to something at the library. But it’s way easier for me to pay for him to go to music classes run by a private company. Using them, I can find class schedules months in advance, sign up online, pay online, reschedule makeup classes online, and (most important of all) schedule classes on Saturdays when I don’t have to work.

Sure, I work with libraries all the time and should support them. But I have no time to deal with coming in in person for signups (or calling– but only after a certain hour on a particular day. WTF.), figuring out cryptic rules about what I can and cannot sign myself or my son up for (what do you mean I can’t sign him up for the toddler program if he’s already signed up for that particular storytime? Wha??), or battling other community members for precious openings in the popular programs.

I have no interest in participating in such a mess. Who has the time?

Tell you what. Have some programs I’m interested in. Have them at a time that I can come. Find new, effective ways to let me know about them. Dump all of the stupid rules. Make signing up and attending easier (put it all online!!!!!). And once you get me there, make me want to come back. It’s that simple. And don’t worry so much about the cost of doing this. If it’s worth it, I totally don’t mind paying.

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As became obvious with my Cookie Monster post, After 25 years away from it, Sesame Street has once again become an extremely important part of my life. (Go ahead. Ask me what Elmo was thinking about today. I will know. )

As I watch it each morning, I find that after all these years I’m still impressed by what I can learn from the show. The lessons may be simple, but they are important, and sometimes we can all be reminded of the simple, important lessons in life.

Here’s one example of a SS sketch that conveys a simple, but important message… one that libraries could really think about.

Maybe I’m just too library-obsessed, but when I see this, I think about the way some libraries operate when it comes to listening. I’ve seen banana-ear syndrome affecting library staff who can’t seem to hear what one another are saying. I’ve seen it with librarians not really listening to colleagues in their field. And most of all, I see this all the time with libraries who just can’t seem to hear what their patrons are saying.

Library customers and potential library customers everywhere are talking to you. They have something important to say. Are you listening??

I mean really listening and hearing what they have to say about your library, the services they are getting, the services they want, and their lives and interests. And if you’re listening, are you taking that next step and doing something about it? And I don’t mean making a change based on a complaint from an obnoxious patron.

When was the last time your library reexamined policies and procedures in order to address general rumblings from the patrons rather than to quiet specific screaming rants? When was the last time you picked a patron’s brain about what they want from your library? When was the last time you spoke to a non-user and listened to the reasons why they don’t use the library… rather than trying to convince them to do so? When was the last time you went out into the community to find out what matters to the people you serve outside of LibraryWorld?

If you’re not sure, maybe it’s time to take the banana out of your ear.

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