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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Via Library Bytes (among others) I came across this article on the “economy of free.”

The long and short of it is that businesses are figuring out that in a technology-driven world, “Just because products are free doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, isn’t making huge gobs of money.” And they’re starting to capitalize on this notion. Read the article - it outlines an emerging business model that turns the rules of traditional buyer/seller models upside-down.

What does this all mean for libraries, who have long depended on their unique position as a provider of “free” services?

As I’ve said before, free might not be enough of a selling point for libraries any more. Our services are “free” to our users? So what? So are a lot of other services and products. “Free” is just not that special any more… especially when what we are “selling” is access to information.

So what do we have that is special?  Or what can we do in the future to fit the changing needs of our communities? When price is out of the equation, what is it that we offer that makes choosing our services the logical choice for our customers? What other values can we appeal to? And how do we communicate this with our communities so that potential users are aware of the benefits we have to offer them? How do we convince them to choose libraries?

I can’t wait to pick up FREE, Chris Anderson’s forthcoming follow up to The Long Tail. This may be one of the biggest issues libraries will need to deal with as we struggle to define ourselves in the economy emerging around us.

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Library Staff Member: “Those ‘Bonus Feature’ DVDs? We usually don’t have the right cases to hold them and the movie… especially if the movie is more than one disc, or if it’s one of those TV shows. So we just throw them out. Nobody really wants that stuff, right?”

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Via Library Techie: Check out this cool feature on CNN.com where children’s books are reviewed by children.

(I had forgotten about how CNN does this… it’s how I originally found one of my son’s favorite books, Scaredy Squirrel. This epic saga was reviewed by 6 year old Andrew Oglesby back in June of 2006. The rest, ,at least at my house, is history. Or legend.)

I love the suggestion that libraries could do something like this on their Web pages. It seems like a natural thing to do…

I can just imagine what my son, Robert, would say if asked to review some of his favorite books:

Goodnight Moon - “bunny. BUNNY!!! Shhhhhh!!! mouse mouse mouse up up clock clock mouse. Shhh. Bunny.”

Truck Duck - “DuckDuck QUACK! Truck. Car. Bug…EEEEEWWWWW! DUCK! Bobo. Monkey EEE EEE EEE. Duck!”

Yummy Yucky - “EEEEWWWWW! mommy… mommy… cookie!!!! cookie!!!! EEEEWWW! cheese. pizza. Meeeow! Bug. Sock stinky sock. EEEEWWWW!!!”

Give him a break. He’s only two.

But really, wouldn’t it be cool to share some of what the kids visiting your library have to say about the books they’ve read?

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Question: Is there a changing table in your library’s public men’s room?

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Take a peek at this post from LibrarianInBlack. Sarah Houghton-Jan shares some very astute comments about the library “tech trends” she predicts for 2008, including tough budgetary times, an increasing awareness of the growing (and changing) digital divide, and my favorite: that librarians will have to get off of their high horse about technology and “stop being so bossy.”

“…we have taken on that holier-than-thou role when it comes to online services, where we are telling people repeatedly that we know the right way to behave online. We know what is safe. We know what is appropriate. We know what is cool. No…we…don’t. The mere fact that we put ourselves in to that patronizing role informs our users that we do not know what we’re talking about.”

Great predictions. The only thing I might add is something about library services becoming more mobile… but that is a thought for separate post…

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From the “things I wanted to blog when I first read them but never quite got around to it until now” file.

As my son, Robert, approaches his second birthday, I can’t get over how incredible it is to watch his development. Not only is it fascinating to watch him learn to put words, concepts, and actions together, it is also amazing to see the ways in which his experiences are shaping him in ways that would never have been possible when I was a child. In short, it’s really cool to watch a true “digital native” develop.

He is just now learning that a mouse (”Mowwwwws”) can also mean a small furry creature that causes Mommy to call the exterminator. He thinks Mommy’s laptop is cool… until he touches the screen and nothing happens (unlike his cousin’s Nintendo DS.) Lame. Anything long and skinny (yarn, the dog leash, a belt) is a cord and must be plugged in somewhere. Cameras must be handed to him each time a picture is taken so that he can see the “Bay-beeeee.” Cameras are not held up to the eye, but are used at arm’s length. I have received text messages from my son… mostly reading “44444444″. Elmo lives in the TV and can be brought up at any time. He also vacations in the computer, where specific songs can be viewed at will. His cousin’s Webkinz live next to the computer. You can call Pop-Pop from anywhere at any time. A glimpse of ear buds causes wild dancing.

Robert is an avid “EYEbrarrrr” user already, looking forward to visits to the place where books, “PUZZZ-ulllls” and computer games “clik! clik! beeeeep!” are available for his use. My hope is that his attachment will grow in the next few years of his life (although I hope he outgrows the tantrums as we leave…)

Anyway, to get to the point…

A while back Marketing Prof’s Daily Fix listed a number of things that marketers can learn from a 10-year old. To summarize, marketers should consider the upcoming generation and observe their values and how they operate a little. The basic findings:

1- Kids know a lot more about what’s happening online that you may think.

2- Kids do social networking naturally.

3- Being boring is the cardinal sin.

4- Kids like multi-media experiences.

5- Kids ignore online ads.

6 - Do not underestimate young people.

7 - Kids rock.

Maybe I just don’t have that much experience with kids. But I thought this was a great post… and I can really see this beginning to be the case with my little Digital Native. (The article even describes an incident where the 10-year old in question does a little tech trouble shooting to solve his Runescape problem!)

So let me throw something out there for discussion. I was told by a Children’s librarian a few months ago that while Adult services have been changed dramatically by technological advancements and social networking, Children’s services have basically not changed, and she didn’t see the central goals and missions of Children’s librarianship changing much in the near future. This was a very excellent, experienced and well-respected librarian who I admire very much. But I had to wonder about this…

Maybe this post is a little random, but it’s a question that interest me as a parent and as a librarian…

What do folks think?

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A wonderful colleague of mine said something very interesting (and very true!) over lunch a few weeks ago: “Librarians like to provide services for the people that they know.” She said this with a sigh, going on to point out that this is all fine and good, but that sometimes it leads us to neglect services for other segments of the population we serve just because they’re not already coming in the door.

Please read David Lee King’s excellent post about the dilemma this puts us in.

In one sentence: “Stop ignoring your library’s rapidly-growing digital community.”

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From the great blog Customers are Always, here is a terrific article about using a blog as a sort of a newfangled, interactive version of a F.A.Q. page. I really think that libraries could put this suggestion for corporate blog use to work for them in very effective ways.

The article comes at it from the perspective that companies can use a blog to communicate with their customers with the answers to the questions they are always being asked… in a way that invites participation, promotes that idea of “corporate transparency”, and will also serve as another line of advertising as the blog gets crawled and linked to on the Internet.

And all of that is fine and good for libraries. On a FAQ blog, we could start by answering questions about our hours, our facilities, our loan policies. I’d actually be pretty interested to see any comments our customers might leave regarding these topics… call it an online suggestion box. Then start answering questions about the library as they come in and watch the resource grow into something that patrons and staff alike can refer to.

But that doesn’t have to be the end of this idea… After all, we’re in the business of answering questions.

With the proliferation of library blogs, I’m always surprised to see how few libraries blog their reference questions… especially the common ones. Instead of a library blog consisting of a list of library events or books to read, why not show the world what we really have to offer?

A common theme I keep hearing lately from the public library Reference librarians I know is that they are getting fewer “easy” ready-reference type questions nowadays… and more really tough, time consuming, reasearch intensive ones. Which, in the words of one of my colleagues, means “More of the interesting stuff.”

Why not keep an ongoing blog where your reference staff can contribute some of the common, interesting, or downright bizarre questions they have worked on recently – with the answers and links to the resources that finally answered the questions? I think this would make another great, valuable resource for patrons to consult, Web surfers to trip over, and librarians to look to when faced with a similar tough question. And it’s one situation where I think comments would really work – conversation enriching the content of the post as folks share additional resources, tips, and feedback.

I can really see this sort of a blog becoming a real resource adding a lot of value to the library Web site. Posts that include actual information that people (or at least one person!) really want? This kind of content has value. And value attracts readers, comments, and customers.

Are we concerned with patron privacy on this one? I think there needs to be some judgment used when deciding what questions to include and how to phrase it – you obviously don’t want to share any personal information that the customer might not want “out there.” But I can’t imagine that this would be too hard to overcome, if even in conversation with the patron: “This is such an interesting question! Do you mind if I write about it on our library blog?” and with some internal policy about how and when (if ever) patrons are identified or discussed.

All too often, I don’t think that the public really knows much about the wonderful set of professional skills we librarians have to offer. Sharing the questions, the process, and the fruits of our efforts in a public forum like a blog would be great advertising for what we have to offer at the library: skills and information, not just books!

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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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