hi-fi sci-fi library

David Lee King, Michael Porter and a slew of Libraryland folks from around the world sing about today and tomorrow in your library.

More info at libraryman.com and davidleeking.com

Thanks to Beth Carpenter for the heads-up!

Governing: "Revolution in the Stacks"

Retiring Guy (aka Middleton Public Library Director Paul Nelson) points out a great article in this month's issue of Governing magazine. "Revolution in the Stacks" emphasizes the need for public libraries to serve a teen clientèle, but along the way, it touches on a lot of issues. Certainly many of them are relevant for our community:

• increasing library use
• changes brought about by technology
• the continuing digital divide
• opportunities for shared media production facilities
  
• changes in library design, including models from retail
  
• public libraries as "the third place"
• library 2.0 as a means of developing interactive, client-centered services.

This is familiar stuff to readers of this blog and to those who have followed the reports from our library facility consultants. Sounds like our consulting team is right on the money, with respect to national trends and best practices.

The Governing article is worth reading for librarians & trustees -- the municipal officials in the magazines may already be reading it, so it's an opportunity.

Revolution in Seattle

Crosscut.com has a great article about the departure of the Seattle library director and her legacy in their library building. The story highlights some of the tensions in modern library design and things communities should consider about library facilities.

A few relevant quotes from the article:

architects must do more than create a visually spectacular structure. They must also make sure the building “works.” Is it efficient, comfortable, and able to do the job for which it was intended?

Libraries today are less about the real estate necessary for storing books, and much more about being a public forum — a space for meetings, performances, gatherings, and centers for community communication.

the public is choosing the atmosphere of the new bookstores over public libraries. ... public librarians must create an environment that will attract young children and keep them coming. ... bookstores could empty public libraries if they don't become more inviting and convenient to match the public's busy lifestyles.

...libraries need to respond to changes, not just build to the old models.... libraries offer hope and guidance to new immigrants and provide a place of acceptance in a world that disenfranchises many people.... if we are to attract children of all ethnic origins and their families into new concepts of citizenship as well as the joys of reading, libraries are the place to start.

Libraries today are spaces for meetings, performances, gatherings, and centers for community communication. Future librarians will be pied pipers, organizers of events that expand horizons and arouse curiosity in books and reading.

...or we could be dynamic...

Thanks to the Librarian in Black (and a bunch of others) -- can't be said too often (alas)!

Innovate or die?

An article in yesterday's Times demonstrates again that public library concerns are similar worldwide.

Culture Secretary Margaret Hodge addressed the Association of London Chief Librarians with a number of well-received suggestions for innovative services and marketing. Hodge said:

“And yet another thing I know is that keeping centre stage with an increasingly discerning and demanding population might require some innovative customer measures.”

The challenge, as in the U.S., is to increase use, become more cost-effective, but not dumb down services nor lose the essential qualities that make libraries and the library profession valuable to communities.

Dumbing down?

I'm probably the last blogger around to comment on John Berry's Feb. 15 Library Journal column "The Vanishing Librarians", but it's become timely because of this week's controversies here in Wisconsin about staffing changes at the Marathon County Public Library and in a job opening at the Mequon/Thiensville Public Library.

In the case of Marathon County, four professional positions were recently reclassified/demoted with a $10,000 annual salary reduction.

Berry writes:

It looks like the “transformation” we seek for libraries and librarianship may turn out to be more of a “deskilling” of library jobs than an enhancement of the profession. More and more working librarians are “managed” by a new breed of library leader. Their model for the new public library is that dehumanized supermarket or the chaotic disorganization of the largest Barnes & Noble.

While the Marathon County Library Board President says:

the reduced amount of work requiring a master's degree is a direct result of increased electronic access to information they previously provided. ... This seems to be a trend based on increasing access to the Internet. This movement is taking place all over the country, causing many libraries to re-examine and restructure how information services are being provided by library staff.

Which would have been more palatable had she not tarred us all with the same Internet brush: Marathon County may have seen a significant drop in the number and complexity of reference questions, but not all of us have. Had she only said: "the money was gone and we had to make difficult choices", there would be more sympathy.

For my part, I consider this to be completely separate question from the value of the MLS degree. There are people at all levels, with and without degrees, in libraries large and small, doing good professional work. But we are increasingly challenged to demonstrate the value of that work to decision makers.

The Annoyed Librarian has posted about this in some detail. For my part, I don't know feel I enough about Marathon County to join the new Facebook group: Marathon County Public Libraries Demotion of Librarians Stinks OH SO BAD!, but I understand where they're coming from.

In the case of Mequon/Thiensville, state librarians and library educators are warning that in a high income community, the librarian salary is well below standards that are several years old. Clearly another case where library professionalism is under-valued.

Buildings and future libraries

A good discussion point for libraries and architects: Slashdot reports on a slideshow on Slate addressing the question: "What sort of public library does the 'digital world' of Google, Wikipedia, and Kindle require?"

The very title of the article calls us to remember that libraries live partially in a digital world, but also in a world of story hours, face-to-face discussions, Brownie troops, senior citizens, parents and children. We live in community. Slate notes:

Ross Dawson, a business consultant who tracks different customs, devices, and institutions on what he calls an Extinction Timeline, predicts that libraries will disappear in 2019. He's probably right as far as the function of the library as a civic monument, or as a public repository for books, is concerned. On the other hand, in its mutating role as urban hangout, meeting place, and arbiter of information, the public library seems far from spent. This has less to do with the digital world—or the digital word—than with the age-old need for human contact.

Ross Dawson is no relation that I would claim... I, for one, have hardly an interest in our being a monument, and not much interest in being a warehouse. I'm very interested in community development, child development, economic development, in education, information, sharing stories and propagating culture. In 2019, libraries will continue to be vital, though possibly types of libraries (public, academic and special) may become more divergent via technology adoption and relationships to their several communities. I haven't seen Google, Wikipedia, and Kindle reduce public library effectiveness in these spheres. On the contrary, we can use them to do the things we need to do.

Well, maybe not the Kindle...

Web 3.0? Not so fast, there!

Some of my favorite bloggers are sounding cautionary notes. Amid recent concerns about Library 2.0 from folks like John Blyberg, Jeff Scott and Rochelle Hartman, there are new concerns from Tasha Saecker and growing affirmations of slow reading and slow library.

Blyberg notes that Library 2.0 "represents technology that is inherently disruptive on many levels" and that it can "undermine notions of authority and control." These concerns were discussed here recently. Hey, in a 2.0 world. we can read lots of reviews on Amazon -- let's cancel that Booklist subscription. And Tasha's concern about the personalized web 3.0 is right on:

...perhaps our strength is that instead of having a faceless computer ... making suggestions, we have REAL LIVE PEOPLE who can do it. And do it well.

Honestly, let's use our technology knowledge to blog, tweet, post, comment, shout that we already do this. Let's offer the service online to make it shiny and new, but let's not forget that LIBRARIANS RULE in this arena already. And let's keep on making sure that we are the human face of information, of recommendations. "

I dearly love InfoSoup, our consortial catalog, as a great library tool. I want to continue developing our online resources in an interactive 2.0 way. But I'm concerned if patrons identify more strongly with online resources than with the physical library. Call me old-fashioned (maybe just old), but I think we need to mindfully maintain high touch as well as high tech. That means library as place and librarians as face-to-face. It means marketing the value of our staff expertise and our reference services as well as library programs.

I remember my colleague Barbara Kelly, twenty years ago having an argument in correspondence with Alfred Glossbrenner, author of How to Look It Up Online. At that time Barbara and I were the apostles of online service at our library, but in the emerging Internet, we were already concerned with the downside of disintermediation which Glossbrenner was touting. Yes, you can look it up for yourself, but the information you find will be presented without authority -- or with anonymous authority. Is it surprising that not long ago, I found myself in a meeting where a community was debating building a library and a high school teacher publicly declared that the Internet had made libraries obsolete? We hear that misperception too often, but we need to be careful how we feed it. As Tasha notes, our role as mediators has value.

In a self-check, instant message world where people google for information, we need to think about how we build connections and community, how we turn information into education, and why people should pay taxes to ensure we keep doing it. If the library is a growing organism, we need to promote growth for our users and communities -- in a balanced way, online and in person. We need to connect. Or we could turn into Amazon and Netflix.

The Librarian Song: don't sit there with your mouth open...

Singer Joe Uveges thinks librarians are so fine.

On not sucking

I was happy to see in this month's issue of Wired, with a cover story of "Why Things Suck", that public libraries made their short list of "things that don't suck."

Thanks to Jeff Scott of Gather No Dust, I found out even more. In his blog posting, Jeff talks about why we don't suck. He also links to a Wired online copy of the "don't suck" list. This includes interactive ratings and according to people that have voted, we're doing pretty well.

"I am curious -- library"

A video of business author Seth Godin, found on John Blyberg's blog -- under the posting "Let's be curious with our users."

We certainly rely on users being curious with us.

Survey: Generation Y Biggest Users of Libraries

(Reuters News Service, 12/30/07)

More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday. Of the 53 percent of adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said. "These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results. "Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.

Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey. More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library. Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources. Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.

The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72. "We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future. "Scroll forward 10 years and their younger brothers and sisters are now the most avid library users," Rainie said.

The survey of 2,796 Americans was conducted by telephone from late June through early September and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It was funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that offers federal support for U.S. libraries and museums.

Our local paper reads the state's reports

Posted November 23, 2007

Appleton, Neenah libraries see big circulation increases
By Ben Jones
Post-Crescent Madison bureau chief

MADISON — A slow economy could be the catalyst of a boom at some Fox Valley libraries.

Circulation at the Appleton Public Library rose more than 10 percent last year to 1.3 million items circulated, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

Terry Dawson, the library's director, said there are probably many factors contributing to the increase, but a slightly slowing economy could explain part of the increase.

"People use libraries rather than buying books (and) people that can't afford to buy books are more reliant on the library for books and other media," Dawson said.

Dawson said other factors also could be driving circulation. He said the publishing business is booming and, locally, people pick up books while they are in the library for other events and meetings.

Dawson said circulation is up among different types of materials.

"It's not just adult materials, not just children's materials, we've seen increases in both of those," he said. "It's not just media, although it is rising quickly, it's also books, we are circulating more books than ever before."

Dawson said that in general, Fox Valley libraries are doing well. Circulation varies among area Fox Valley libraries, although state statistics show Kaukauna, New London and Oshkosh libraries saw small circulation declines.

In Neenah, the public library's circulation grew by more than 8 percent last year and is up another 8 percent this year, Director Stephen Proces said.

"We have at least 750 people a day in here," he said. "It's a good cross-section of the community."

Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the Community Shelter of the Fox Valley, said libraries mean more to low-income people than people with greater means.

"If you are making $100,000 a year, you are probably still going to Barnes & Noble," she said.

Dawson said circulation increases are good news for libraries. "It's the first law of library science," he said. "Books are for use.

With all due respect to Debra Cronmiller, who does wonderful work with the homeless in our community, if you're making $100,00 a year and going to Barnes & Noble, you're probably still going to the library. There's no doubt that poor people have fewer choices and are thus in some ways more dependent on public libraries. But there's lots of stuff that even people of means will not find in a bookstore or online.

YouTube marketing

"London Public Library: it's time to take another look!" is an interesting YouTube video from the London Ontario Public Library. I like the fact that while they're promoting their new website and cover a lot of 2.0 stuff, they also emphasize plenty of traditional services.

Read about this on John Miedema's blog -- which has been in my Bloglines list for quite awhile. John's new blog emphasizes the Slow Reading movement, and is worth viewing as a balance to all the 2.0 influences of the biblioblogosphere.

Reading at the intersection

In a Nov. 5 New Yorker article, "Future Reading: Digitization and its discontents", Anthony Grafton looks at Google Book Search and the Google Library Project, balancing their claims and promise with a look at how we read and process information and ideas.

He has some conclusions which should hearten, but not surprise us in the trade:

For now and for the foreseeable future, any serious reader will have to know how to travel down two very different roads simultaneously. ... Sit in your local coffee shop, and your laptop can tell you a lot. If you want deeper, more local knowledge, you will have to take the narrower path that leads between the lions and up the stairs. ... The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books.

It is not coincidental that we're hearing about the slow reading idea and Walt Crawford's Balanced Libraries. Even as we undertake exciting changes that help us become more interactive, deliver service with new tools and remind our patrons of our relevance in a digital world, our core values and services are essentially unchanged.

In marketing terms, reading is our brand. OK, but contrast with the public image of library stodginess. The trick here is to show off the new and glitzy without abandoning -- or ever appearing to abandon -- that core. Nor try to be all things to all people.

Heroes boost & disparage libraries

Ya gotta love irony. I'm rather fond of the show Heroes, but they are quick to reflect common library prejudice.

Two things in the same week:

1. a new ALA graphics catalog shows up with a cover photo of a "Read" poster featuring Sendhil Ramamurthy of the NBC series Heroes.
2. in the latest episode of "Heroes" (10/15/07), as reported on the Library Geek Woes blog

   Teenage Claire wanted to sneak out of the house to meet her boyfriend, so at the dinner table announced that she had to go to the library that evening to work on a research project. Her brother responds, "Duh, Claire, haven't you ever heard of the Internet?" To which she replies, "Well, duh, that's why I'm going to the library. My paper is on how the library is obsolete!"

The depressing thing, of course, is that her family buys this as reasonable and sensible. Presumably viewers are meant to see it that way as well. Perhaps Professor Mohinder Suresh should have a little chat with Cheerleader Claire on the value of libraries! That's more likely to happen than the mainstrema media buying a clue about what we do.