Library Revolution

I heard such a great story on NPR this evening as I raced to pick my son up at daycare. It seems that the long-standing rule against encores at the Metropolitan Opera was broken Monday night when the Met general manager, Peter Gelb, responded to the audience’s reaction to Juan Diego Florez’s incredible performance of the aria “Ah, Mes Amis” by greenlighting the first encore in 14 years.

For years, the practice of performing an encore at the Met has been forbidden. As Gelb said in the interview I heard today,

“In the ’20s and ’30s and ’40s, there was wording in the program books admonishing the audience with words saying ‘positively no encores allowed,’ kind of like no-smoking signs.”

But the audience went wild on Monday night after Florez’s rendition of the aria, and Gelb wanted to give them what they wanted- even if in doing so he had to break the rules.

“For me, and for the audience at the Met,” Gelb says, “it’s very important that opera be a theatrically satisfying and thrilling experience, and if the audience has a great time with a singer singing an aria like this, with an incredible run of nine high C’s, and they want to hear more of it, why not?”

Way to listen to customer feedback and act on it! Way to break down a barrier to customer satisfaction!

I think we should think of this in our libraries… what are our audiences clamoring for? What rules could we re-examine, re-write, or downright break in order to give our customers what they want?

Oh, and be sure to take a few minutes to listen to the encore - I can totally see why the crowd went wild!

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One point that kept coming up at Computers in Libraries is the importance of not asking for feedback unless you actually intend on doing something with it.

In this age when “transparency,” “collaboration” and “feedback” are the hot buzzwords everyone is trying to capitalize on, there is no faster way to wreck your credibility than saying you want to hear what your users or staff have to say, only to blow off the comments. That’s a sure-fire recipe for squashing any creativity or collaborative spirit faster than you can say “totalitarian regime.”

I think that we can really learn from a recent experience of the New York Mets on this one. See, the Mets organization asked fans to vote online for a new theme song to play during games, and they totally got rickrolled. Yes, indeed. An online viral campaign ensured that when the five million or so votes finally were tallied, the winner was Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

The results were obviously the result of a prank, but the Mets organization did something I can really respect. While they didn’t go so far as to actually declare the song the official winner for the season, they did play it at a game… where it was soundly booed. They were prepared to follow through based on the feedback they received, even if it was in a tongue-in cheek sort of way.

When you ask your staff, users, and colleagues for feedback, are you prepared to do something with that feedback? Do you have a mechanism in place for handling suggestions in a productive way? Are you ready to encourage the development of the ideas offered up, constructively criticize, and put forth the effort necessary to transform raw ideas into effective, creative, and innovative efforts? How do you prove that the suggestions you’re asking for will be taken seriously… even if they involve bad 80’s dance-pop one hit wonders?

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It usually means that your toddler has been feeding him PlayDoh. (Again.)

He doesn’t have a rare and incurable intestinal disorder. He hasn’t been abducted by aliens and replaced with an extraterrestrial canine. Don’t call your local news station, the federal government, or try to sell the poop on eBay as a unique natural phenomenon. The explanation is so much simpler than that.

I find that this is usually the case when dealing with our libraries, as well. Good old Occam… the simplest explanation is usually right, and the simplest solution will generally do the trick. This rings especially true when working with the ILS. Whenever I’m troubleshooting with library staff members, I start with the simplest solutions - and most of the time, that’s as far as we need to go.

For example:

• When your search doesn’t work, the first thing to do is to check the search you put in. I can’t be the only person out there who has made a mistake!
• None of the overdues generated today!! Is it one month after a holiday or other library closing?
• Patrons find it difficult to select the correct item in the OPAC because the edition statement doesn’t display on the browse screen? OK, so let’s turn that on.
• We had an item that’s supposed to check out for two weeks go out for three days! Maybe, just maybe, is one of the codes in the record incorrect?
• Our patron go a bill for 9 million dollars for a paperback novel!! Hmmmm…. Maybe someone scanned a barcode into the item’s price field?

My point is that I encounter people every day who want to all out the dogs over some “emergency” or other phenomena related to their ILS, when all it really takes to explain the situation or correct the issue is a bit of common sense and some perspective.

Don’t worry, for the other, more serious problems that can’t be dealt with so easily I’m more than willing to raise some hell. But that’s not every problem. Nor should it be. Sometimes you really do need to check the simple things before escalating an issue to full blown emergency status.

You’ll usually find that the dog’s poop stops being blue when your toddler runs out of blue PlayDoh. Next week it will be orange.

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Read this blog post about the “Death of the Library.”

Can’t say that I agree… but it’s always good to read opposing viewpoints, especially when they may reflect what a good portion of the “non-library” population is thinking.

How can libraries use the knowledge that these arguments are floating around and becoming widespread among our potential users in a constructive way?

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For years, I have heard library professionals lament how much libraries “suck at marketing.” And I can’t disagree with that. We need to do a much better job in this area, which is, of course, much easier said than done.

It occurs to me, though, that one of the major obstacles that we may be facing is a widespread confusion among library professionals about the difference between marketing and advertising. Whenever I have a conversation about marketing with a librarian, it always ends up being a discussion of advertising.

Here’s the thing, though. Advertising is a component of marketing, but it is far from the whole enchilada. To quote a concise summary of the topic,

“The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy.”

Library marketing is not solely about advertising. It is also is not only about branding. Or PR. Or “Outreach.” Or social networking. Those are only parts of what should be an overall strategy for communicating with our customers and using that communication cycle to reach our ultimate organizational goals.

If we’re really going to get serious about library marketing, we need to forget advertising for a minute and think of the bigger picture.

What is your library’s marketing strategy?

Graphic via

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One thing people ask me pretty often id how I find the time to “do it all.” Well, the short answer is that I don’t. None of us do. But I do put a lot of effort into making time for the important things. Which means prioritizing.

So during these last few weeks, I haven’t posted much… there were just too many other important things to take care of. Hopefully things wills start to calm down a little, now, though, and I’ll get to put blogging back on my “things to get done” list without going completely crazy.

To summarize what’s been going on with me, here are a few of the highlights of the last two weeks for me:

Long Island Economic Trends Forums: OK, so speaker Martin Cantor was a bit of a blatant name dropper (it was pretty funny, actually). But he gave a very interesting talk about the economic trends he sees on Long Island’s horizon. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, either. And the really important part, I think was that it was real food for thought in terms of where we can imagine libraries fitting in with the economic landscape of this area. Some of the reports he referenced can be found here.

Suffolk County YA Librarians meeting: This was the first time I’ve attended a YA librarian’s meeting (as I’m not a YA librarian), and it was so much fun! It was considerably more spirited than the meetings I’m accustomed to, including salsa music and mango chutney (thanks, Barbara!) I was there to do a presentation about some of the new and exciting OPAC features that are going to be introduced for the county soon (shhh… it’s top secret!). The feedback I got from this group was so positive and constructive, which made it such a pleasure. Plus, I’ve since heard from a number of the people who were at the meeting that day – folks who sought me out to work on other projects or ask questions they might otherwise not have asked. One of the great things about my job is that I get opportunities like this to connect with the folks out in our libraries. It’s fun when I get a chance to do that with new groups and people I didn’t know before!

Helene Blowers: Helene came to visit SCLS last week and gave two excellent presentations to the staff and directors of our libraries. I can not even begin to say how awesome it was to hear her speak… and even more awesome to hear the buzz that has resulted from those talks. Most awesome of all was the chance to meet Helene… I hope our paths cross again soon!

Sharon Cates-Williams: I also got a chance to hear the Suffolk County CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology speak about the WiFi Long Island project. I have to say I’ve been really skeptical about the whole project, both in terms of feasibility and sustainability. But her presentation sure did sound convincing. Maybe too good to be true… or is that just me being a cynic? Hey, if they can make it work, make it affordable, and keep it going, then I’m all for the idea.

Feedback: I love getting feedback on the projects I work on, and these last few weeks have been really great for that. Thanks to everyone who has been so great about giving me positive, constructive commentary, especially on the OPAC design I’ve been working so hard on. I love the feeling of getting somewhere… and often the best way to make progress is to get involved in a good feedback cycle.

Facebook app: After much playing around and with great thanks to everyone who helped me out on this one (especially Lou at SCLS and Graham at Reyerson University), the Suffolk County Catalog Search application for Facebook is now available. With over 43,000 members belonging to the Suffolk County network (not to mention all of the other networks Suffolk residents belong to!), I thought it would be a real shame not to have an app. So now we do, and folks are starting to add it to their profiles…

So that’s some of the stuff I’ve been doing. And, of course, there’s work. You know, the regular day-to day stuff that you do all the time, so it doesn’t seem to count… but it has to because it takes up all of your time. And there’s the whole sick toddler screaming his lungs out because his ear hurts and he wants to play with the toaster and I’m the meanest Mommy ever and where is Daddy??? And of course, the Holidays, which means shopping, errands and ten million office parties. Plus that whole birthday thing.

Well, hopefully things will calm down a little in the next few weeks, and my priorities will get another chance to shift. I’m well overdue for a good rant.

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Last week, I was home sick for a few days, which means a couple of things:

1. My son now has several new knit caps that he can refuse to wear this winter.
2. I’ve been rotting my brain with a lot of daytime TV (OMG is Sami really going to marry EJ?)

But watching daytime TV last week wasn’t TOTALLY brain-numbing (only mostly). This was due in large part to last week’s “Green is Universal” themed programming on NBC. I actually learned a lot of things about being more environmentally conscious from the “green” themed shows I watched. It was pretty interesting, and I thought many of the tips might translate nicely into Library World.

Two recycling tips I thought particularly suited to a library environment:

1. Recycling “techno trash”: Dell, HP, Apple, Gateway, and Toshiba all have programs for recycling old computer components. That’s pretty convenient! Clean out that old closet full of cables, monitors, keyboards, handheld devices, etc that you (or your tech department) kept “just in case.” Let’s face it. Most of it won’t ever see the light of day again. Keep what you might ACTUALLY use. Recycle the rest and enjoy your new storage space. More info here and here.

2. Recycling old VHS/DVDs: Most libraries I visit just junk VHS and DVDs when they’re discarded. Look Here! I had no idea that they could be recycled. I think this is an especially helpful tip for all those libraries out there that are phasing out (or just downright getting rid of) their VHS tapes. Forget paying for a dumpster. Get a recycling box instead. And to take it a step further, maybe put one of these out for your patrons? Depending on how you present it, it might be a good way to deal with unwanted donations, or for taking stuff off the patron’s hands that they don’t want. Plus, you get a chance to show the community how environmentally friendly you are.

Here are some links to online resources that give some more really good tips for creating “greener” small businesses - really good stuff for libraries.

About business tips

Greenbiz toolbox/primer

General principles followed by Greenbiz

eHow: series of 8 articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

I’m not much of a gung-ho environmentalist, I must admit. But after seeing all of the good tips for saving energy, etc. this week on TV, I have to agree that it could be a really great idea for libraries. Besides the obvious altruistic motivations for using more environmentally sound practices at the library, there are also three other practical reasons for thinking about starting a library “greening” project:

1. It’s good PR. Here we are, public libraries, telling everyone that we are an important, beneficial part of the community and that we care about our patrons’ education and well being. A “green” campaign fits right into that message in an overt way that your patrons can understand and even perhaps participate in.
2. It’s on your customer’s minds. “Going Green” is the hot thing these days, and if NBC is any indication, it’s something that is on your patron’s minds. We can learn a lot about our patrons and what is on their minds, I think, by looking at what they watch on TV all day. Since their research and marketing departments make the big bucks, I’d venture to say that they know what they’re talking about when it comes to topics that appeal to the general public. You can bet your life that if Ann Curry is going to the South Pole to learn about global warming, it’s because folk out there are interested. Or at least, they are now. Let’s bring that into the library!

3. Saving energy=saving money. Does it get simpler than that?

It think it’s a great idea to tap into the interest a campaign like NBC’s “Green is Universal” generates among the general public, and join in. I know that I, for one, found myself looking for more information about some of the topics I saw covered this week, such as the pollution associated with cotton production and the benefits of purchasing organic produce. I’d love it if I walked into the library this evening to find a display of resources associated with these topics. Or if my library’s blog published some links to online tips for making my life a little “greener.”

This whole “going Green” thing could be a good way to engage your customers. But it’s also something your library could go a step or two further with: Engage in a campaign to make your library “Greener”.

What tips and ideas do you have for making your library a “greener” place, letting your public know about it, and engaging them to be active participants in the project?

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Can I even say how much I love the PLVD Director’s Blog?

What a thought provoking post (one of many great ones!) about the astounding changes we’re seeing in the information world and they way libraries fit in.

“Many librarians will argue that understanding and adapting to changing customer needs has always been a core part of what we do, and to some extent I agree. I also believe, however, that the shift in the relationship between people and information that is being driven by digital technologies is analogous not to the introduction of video cassettes but to the development of the printing press and the accompanying explosion in the availability of the written word. I’d hate to see librarians as the scribes of our day….”

I love seeing a library director sort of “thinking out loud” like this for all of her community to hear and possibly join the discussion.

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Michael Stephens blogged recently about librarians being timid, a theme Michael Casey wrote on in The Transparent Library.

To quote the article,

…getting new initiatives off the ground sometimes seems to need an act of God, simply because new services mean change. For some librarians, change represents the potential to fail. For others, it’s a fear of success, that a new service might be too popular and draw too many people.

This is something I struggle with all the time when working with librarians on new initiatives, so it really struck a nerve with me.

Actually, it really gave me one of those “AHA!” moments. He’s right. Most of the librarians I work with and have trouble motivating to try anything new aren’t afraid of failure at all. It’s success that scares them to death.

Then I saw this commercial during the Mets braodcast:

I think that this is exactly what we are like a lot of the time.

Oh my God, if we succeed in this new project, we’ll have to deal with the consequences! We’ll have to make decisions, set new priorities, and (gasp!) make some changes!

I don’t mean to belittle the feeling. It’s potentially overwhelming. Especially if we start succeeding all the time.

But as the guy in the commercial sums it up, “Isn’t that kind of the idea?”

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