APL Book Brigade in competition

At yesterday's statewide book-cart drill team competition, APL's Bookcart Brigade scored an Honorable Mention. Some of us thought they deserved better for their excellent performance, but we might possibly be biased. Nevertheless, they collected a lot of cheers, won a gift certificate from sponsor Demco, and had some fun. We're very proud!

Book Cart Brigade on parade!

photos from the parade, taken by Michael Kenney:

Cure for the Summertime Blues (part 3)

Appleton is proud of having the nation's oldest and longest flag day parade, but today I was especially proud of our library's Book Cart Brigade. After a couple decades' absence from the parade, the library returned with the first appearance of our book cart drill team.

The team was a huge success, drawing applause from crowds along the parade route, and comments on Facebook and in emails. Big BIG thanks to the hard-working team members, led by Ellen Jepson and including Ashley, Autumn, Charisse, Doris, Joann, Kathleen W., Katie, Lynnette, & Vicki B.

Additional support came from banner carriers Meg & Elizabeth, as well as support walkers Elaine, Jared & Colleen. Paul lent a touch of class with his Model A chase & support car. Maintenance staff secured the cart wheels for street use, Marvelous Marketin' Michael made sure we had good shirts, signs & decorations for carts, car and marchers, and was on hand to document, decorate and make sure everything went smoothly. The Library Foundation picked up the tab for out of pocket costs via a marketing grant. Truly, a great piece of teamwork!

The team executes a weave -- photo by Barb Kelly

Public opinions:

• "so entertaining ... What a stitch! I hope they do that every year. I loved it!"
• "the best unit in the parade"
• "You guys were great!"
• "the highlight of the parade!"
• "It looked really great!"
• "Go, Book Cart Brigade!!"

Cure for the Summertime Blues (part 1)

We just had the busiest single day our library has ever seen:

• 2,969 people through the doors
• 8,601 items checked out
• 6,608 items checked in

We checked out, on average: one item every five seconds for twelve hours straight! Over 15,000 things moved through our circulation process in one day. When Colleen Rortvedt, our Assistant Director, heard the news, she promptly (and properly) ordered a cake and invited the staff to an impromptu celebration.

We've got a lot of people, staff and volunteers, working hard to make good things happen here. It's important to acknowledge their hard work and celebrate milestone achievements.

This all happened on the first weekday after public schools were out for the year, so a lot of the business was families starting our summer programs. Summer is just beginning: June and July are our busiest months. We're going to work hard -- and have fun!

Best Careers 2009: Librarian

USA Today magazine's list of the 30 best careers includes librarian, noting:

Librarianship is an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons solve their problems and, in the process, learning new things. ...

That effort to land a job will be well worth it if you're well suited to the profession: love the idea of helping people dig up information, are committed to being objective—helping people gain multiple perspectives on issues—and will remain inspired by the awareness that librarians are among our society's most empowering people.

Thanks to Jessamyn West.

Job posting: leaping tall buildings optional

I am sorry (and a bit envious) that my colleague and friend, our Assistant Library Director Barbara Kelly, will be retiring in January. Barb has been here for 27 years, starting as a volunteer and working her way up to Assistant Director. Along the way, she has accomplished many terrific things, and has provided considerable professional leadership not only to our community, but to all of Wisconsin. In retirement, she will continue that professional involvement and intends to stay active with the Wisconsin Library Association, the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation, and Fox Cities Online. We'll miss her ongoing involvement here.

But that also means we're hiring. Job posting follows...

Assistant (Deputy) Director

Appleton Public Library, an award-winning library with a reputation as a leader and innovator in library services and technology, a member of a strong public library system, is seeking a creative, experienced professional to help take us to the next generation of library service. The City of Appleton is located in the Fox Cities of East Central Wisconsin and is frequently listed among best and safest cities to live. The library’s city budget is supplemented by a foundation endowment and supported by a strong friends group. The library is developing a new website and in the early stages of a planned building expansion or relocation. This position coordinates library operations, services, technology and human resources and offers competitive salary and benefits. This position requires considerable experience in professional library work, including at least five years of supervisory management experience, a masters degree in Library Science from an ALA accredited library school, or any equivalent combination of experience and training. If you are interested in applying for this position, please fill out an application at the address below or obtain an application on-line at www.appleton.org; for full job description and requirements see www.apl.org/jobs.html. Applications accepted until December 31st, however initial review of applications will occur on November 13, 2008.

Human Resources Department/6th Floor
100 N. Appleton Street
Appleton, WI 54911
Phone: 920-832-6458
Fax: 920-832-5845
Email: humanresources@appleton.org
Equal Opportunity Employer

...or we could be dynamic...

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

National Library Week: Library Workers Day

Since 2003, the Tuesday of National Library Week has been used to recognize the contributions of library workers. Good idea!

While we depend on a lot of community support, volunteers, and donations, the backbone of what we do is provided by our library staff. Here at the Appleton Public Library, we have 114 people on the payroll -- most of them part-time and non-benefited.

Sure, it's a job and they're working for the money. But we also know that they're working for the rightful pride in their accomplishments, in what the library does. Many could be making more money working elsewhere: the job market says libraries don't pay as well as other sectors of the economy.

But they do a heck of a job for our community and our patrons. All the truisms about the value of libraries, that we:

• change lives
• build communities
• promote economic development
• build family literacy
• connect people to ideas
• enable lifelong learning

are true because library workers make them happen. We have an amazing team here, and it takes the whole team, every person, every position, to make it happen. I'm profoundly grateful to be part of such a team and to work with such people.

So we'll put a "National Library Workers Day" poster in the front door, and we'll hand out small acknowledgments to the staff. But I hope some of our users take time to say thanks to any of our workers: they all deserve it -- and spoken or unspoken, I believe the appreciation is there.

To all my co-workers: thank you.

Marathon County again

Oops, I'm making trouble. Without even trying.

The Wausau Herald reports that the husband of one of the librarians whose position was demoted attended a library board meeting and:

stood to read a post from the Wausau Daily Herald’s Web site on the matter, in spite of the fact that the agenda does not allow for public comment.

The post was by Appleton Public Library director Terry Dawson. In it he said the public deserves better information ahead of board decisions. He also criticizes a Daily Herald editorial for stating that fewer people rely on high-level librarians for research because of the Internet.

Board chairwoman Gina Cornell adjourned the meeting when Furrer refused to stop.

Deputy County Administrator Brad Karger said it’s up to the board chairperson whether to allow time for public comment on a meeting agenda, and that traditionally the library board has not.

Cornell said that in the case of the library board, the appropriate way for the public to contribute is through a board member.

OK ... for the record, I don't know that much about what's happening in Wausau. I wasn't there, but I would surely understand the Board not wanting to enter into a debate with family members of employees.

Nonetheless, I think it's a good idea to allow public comments -- this is the general practice for City of Appleton Council committees, and our Library Board includes "public participation" on the agenda of every full Board meeting. Public bodies need to provide reasonable assurance for opportunity for public input. Obviously this wouldn't work in Congress, but even our state legislature regularly holds public hearings on issues. On the scale of a local library board, it's a good idea -- public statements can be reasonably limited in time and relevance to the agenda. Not providing a venue for public comments to public bodies can increase frustration and confrontation.

And I'll stand by my original points:

• library boards should be advocates not only for taxpayers but for libraries and the profession
• library boards should make their decisions in an open way so that the public understands the alternatives and why any given choice -- especially the tough ones -- are the best for library service and the community

What is happening in Marathon County is not clear from media accounts and emails, but I hope the public and library staff can have confidence that their board and administration are doing the best they can do.

BlogJunction: 10 Ways to Make Your Library Great

I've been enjoying BlogJunction's series of ten postings following up on the "10 Ways to Make Your Library Great in 2008" webinar. The postings and original presentation are from Ed Rossman, Interim Branch Manager for the Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library and author of Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments. Good ideas, some tips on 2.0 tools -- worth reading and discussing.

Resolutions:

1. Use Technology
   
2. Continuously Train
   
3. Polish Your Comportment
   
4. Reduce Clutter (yeah, I know)
   
5. Handle Noise
   
6. Handle Conflict - a good follow-up to our recent "Black Belt Librarians" discussion
   
7. Have a Plan
   
8. Develop Partnerships
   
9. Create Great Programming
   
10. Build Staff Camaraderie
    

Black Belt Librarians

Thanks to OWLS, our library system, and an LSTA grant, we’re having two days of Black Belt Librarian training with Warren Graham, the author and library security consultant. An unsolicited endorsement: he gives a terrific presentation, entertaining, full of common sense wisdom and useful ideas. Feedback from dozens of staff is uniformly enthusiastic.

Graham describes library security in broad contexts: library staff and users are human, with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses. He teaches us to approach problems by understanding ourselves, being self-affirming not self-defeating, and responding than reacting. He teaches good communication techniques and ways to keep improving. He shares good ideas about using our organizational structure to make our organizations and our libraries better places to be. He teaches how to be "all about communication, rather than confrontation".

Listening to Warren talk, I had to think about pros and cons of current practice at our library.

Things we’re doing right:

• We have a security policy and procedures -- developed with staff input
  
• We have communication mechanisms, we document problems
• We use progressive discipline and ban people from the library when we need to
• We orient new staff to security concerns, policies & procedures and specifically tell them:
• There’s nothing more important than the safety of users and staff
• Anyone on staff is authorized to call the police any time – you won’t be wrong
• Anyone on staff is authorized to throw people out of the library
• Every one of us is responsible for maintaining the library environment

Things we might improve:

• Some of our procedures are a bit black and white. But in a gray world, our rules will never cover every problem, so maybe we should have fewer rules
• Some staff areas need locking doors, and it’s possible we need to do some construction work to build a doorway or two
• We need to keep talking about the security gate / book alarm and how we respond. Much of this is driven by our space design and how materials are processed in other libraries before we get them. Nonetheless, more talk is in order.
• We should talk about visibility and mirrors in out of the way corners.
• We should have a security review process – we’ve done this with Police and we’ve done it with staff, but we need to plan to keep doing it.

To people not in our area, I strongly recommend getting Warren Graham to do a presentation. This would make a great preconference program for a state association. Or at least read his book

To APL staff, trustees, friends, whether or not you made it to Warren’s program – let me know what you think – comment here or drop me an email. A program like this does not resolve issues – it helps start new conversations.

Acknowledging our staff

Steppin' out: 2008 honorees Elizabeth, Kathleen, Kay, Jeanette, Pat

Once a year, we have a small get-together for staff and honor those who reached milestone anniversaries the year before. For my part, I wish we could do more every day to express appreciation for the caring hard-working folks that make up the library.

Lots more people go to libraries than go to professional sports events -- though we sell fewer ads. The people that provide service in our building are touching many hundreds of lives every day: inspiring children, helping businesses, providing resources for life-long learners, and giving access to an incredible range of cultural and information resources. Whether working at a service desk or a story hour, checking out, shelving, cleaning bathrooms, or slogging though committee meetings, our people make up a team that makes a difference.

So every year, we have some cake and hand out thanks and gift certificates to those who hit those service milestones (5, 10, 15, etc. years as benefited staff). Our "Kudos & Kares" and "Staff Development" committees do a good job of putting on a nice event. It's a humbling experience and a privilege to be part of this company.

Thank you!