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

The downside of self-checks?

In today's Post-Crescent, columnist Jim Olski wrote a piece:

Talk is cheap, so why does it keep disappearing?

After taking a copy of Charles Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" off the shelf, I headed to the checkout counter at the Appleton Public Library.

I placed my library card on the automatic checkout gizmo and placed the book on top of that. A piece of paper printed out and, by golly, the task was done.

"They've got this almost perfected," I thought ...

Gosh, sounds nice. But Olski is not writing to praise the library, but to deliver a jeremiad on the loss of conversation in an automated world. He goes on to say:

I mourn the passing of one more human interaction, the friendly chat while checking out a book.

Sure, it's a big library, and we must be efficient, but the inevitability of progress comes with a cost, and here's what I think it is: The niceties of civil discourse among nodding acquaintances tempered our conversation among strangers, so that we didn't always meet so angrily as My Side and The Other.

Add the librarian to the bank teller and the gas station attendant.

And I get it. The library is about building community, and that means creating opportunities for conversations -- among library users as well as between staff and patrons. Right now, about 25% of our checkouts go through our five self-check machines. Some studies of the library have called on us to increase that percentage number, in the name of added efficiency. We're recruiting volunteers to help teach people how to use the self-checks (and the volunteers will talk with people).

But in looking for more efficiency, its important that we keep that human interaction -- and we have. Olski's concerns notwithstanding, we keep our desk staffed, and no-one is required to use the self-check. Full service checkouts always available.

I responded:

Jim -

Interesting ideas, but two reactions:

1) There are always at least two people working the Appleton Library checkout, because computers are lousy at solving nonstandard problems and giving you human interaction. We agree: it's too important to lose!

2) If the budget and staff would increase as fast as the use, we might not need self-check machines. But they can't. Our circulation last month was up 68% over our circulation in Sept. 2000. Can you imagine your taxes supporting a 68% increase in library staff in 8 years? Efficiency is a mandate, not a choice.

But we still have people for you to talk with, if you're willing to wait in line, and the library works in lots of ways to increase community conversations.

I haven't read "Our Mutual Friend"; how was it?

Terry

I'm not necessarily a fan of automating things that can be done with personal service, but I am a fan of continuing to provide good library service to a growing community. Sometimes that means figuring out how to do more work without more staff.

"We're number 1...or number 50...or in the top 10% or" ?!?

The annual HAPLR rankings have been released, prompting a spate of local press coverage in communities where the libraries found enough HAPLR justification for bragging rights. I don't begrudge any library being able to show reasons why they're good. It's a challenge to find ways that quantify the positive impacts public libraries have in their communities. But we have to keep ranking systems in perspective. I sympathize with any librarian who may be criticized for having low rankings, since ranking systems have built in biases.

HAPLR, which is Hennen's American Public Library Rankings, has been published for years by Tom Hennen, the Director of the Waukesha County Federated Library System here in Wisconsin. I've told Tom since the start that I'm not a big fan of his rankings, which are based on national statistics gathered by the Public Library Statistics Cooperative. The reason I don't much like them is that I believe they emphasize circulation of popular materials and totally disregard library programming and electronic service delivery. I've written about this in the past ("Innovators suffer under HAPLR", Jan. 2007)

In the October issue of American Libraries magazine, Tom posts a spirited defense of his rankings. He makes a good case for why it's important to use input measures as well as output measures, and how weighting numerous factors in a complex formula helps paint a complex picture. The new Library Journal ranking system looks interesting, though it has not yet published rankings. The LJ system intends to include programming (a strength here at APL) and public workstation use -- just about the only objective technology measurement we've been able to agree on as a profession.

It's hard to predict whether APL will fare better or worse in the LJ rankings. I know that we have very few computer workstations relative to both population and demand. That doesn't matter to HAPLR, but it will in the LJ rankings. Most importantly, it matters t our patrons! Any ranking system will reflect some arbitrary choices by those designed it.

For the record, our library's scores in the latest HAPLR:

• raw score 762
• percentile 90%

Rank relative to other Wisconsin libraries:

• in our population class #1
• of all libraries #50 (of 381)
• of public library system resource libraries #7 (of 16)
  

% scores of libraries in the area

• Neenah 94%
  
• Menasha 96%
  
• Oshkosh 90%
  
• Appleton 90%
  
• Kaukauna 80%
  
• Kimberly/Little Chute 67%
  
• Brown County 81%
  

These are all pretty good scores, which is fine because these are all good libraries. Is Menasha the best library around here? Maybe -- it depends. Like a lot of statistics, I find the trend lines over time more interesting than a single year snapshot. The most important point is that measurements and rankings are arbitrary.

A few years ago, I visited a top-rated HAPLR library and I was expecting to be blown away by a paragon of library service. I found a relatively run-down and messy place and felt confused. But it had a lot of tourist use with a small permanent service population, driving up all the per capita outputs heavily weighted in HAPLR, and it had a lot of donated materials, substantially reducing the cost per circulation. Ya gotta love statistics.

Each community is the measure of its own library.

"Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

As the election season winds down, many of us are thinking about politics and the electoral process. As in so many things, public libraries have a role in helping people stay informed. This function may never be as popular as John Grisham novels, or the latest popular DVD, but it's one of the most important things we do.

As James Madison said:

A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Most of this happens indirectly: people read what they want, and it's our business to have books and periodicals that cover all sides of the issues. But here's a bit of what we're doing directly this year:

• Registering voters: library staff is deputized to do voter registrations, and we've hosted several visits from League of Women Voters registration teams
• An updated set of Quickref page of useful Internet links to election and political information -- our Reference staff has found some of the good stuff out there
  
• A bibliography on the Electoral College
  
• Library programs and community meetings, including
• Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (pictured), discussing "Impartial Judiciary" and concerns about judicial election campaigns [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters & the library]
• A candidate forum for Assembly candidates [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans]
  
• A debate between Wisconsin 57th Assembly district candidates [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters & the library]
• A presentation and podcast on the Electoral College by Lawrence University Professor Arnold Shober [sponsored by the library]

As Chief Justice Abrahamson noted in her presentation, it's up to us as voters to pay attention and check facts. That's one of the things impartial libraries are good for. We also have good stories, and Justice Abrahamson recommends John Grisham's The Appeal as a good illustration of the problems when politics intrude too far into judicial elections.

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

Oh, Commoncraft, you've done it again! More good instruction from the people who "make complex ideas easy to understand using short and simple videos." Thanks to Carpe Hootem for the tip.

"Connecting writers and readers" -- Book Festival to return

The book festival is coming back. Today's Post Crescent has the story:

Second Fox Cities Book Festival set for six-day run in April 2009
The sequel to Fox Cities Book Festival 2008 is due out this spring. [read full story]

The will be many needs and opportunities to donate or volunteer time. Our library is proud to participate, with other libraries, schools, organizations and individuals. Featured authors next year will include:

• Samantha Chang
• Sherman Alexie
• Michael Perry
• Sandra Kring
• David Giffels
• A. Manette Ansay
• Elizabeth Berg
• Philip Gulley
• Simon Armitage
• ...more to come...

Watch the Book Festival website for more information.

Banned Books Week: pornography or teachable moments?

I appreciate attention to Banned Books Week from our local media. Today's Post Crescent features the following story:

Appleton Public Library still faces challenges
It seems surreal now that the federal government tried in 1932 to stop U.S. publication of James Joyce's 'Ulysses.' ... [read the full article]

Reporter Susan Squires did a nice job with the story: we had a good conversation; she did her research, brought in the perspective of Family Friendly Libraries and even interviewed author Chris Crutcher. Thanks to the Gonzo YA Librarian for cluing me (and the Post Crescent) into Crutcher's passion on this issue.

Thanks also to two of our Library Trustees for helping me develop perspectives: Ron Dunlap for the importance of identifying "teachable moments" for parents and children, and Liz Truesdale Witek for how a video on a Brazil exemplifies this.

Banned Books Week: let's get cynical

The sometimes annoying Annoyed Librarian writes:

Yeah, it's hard for people to get hold of a Harry Potter book, and I'm pretty sure Catcher in the Rye isn't available , either. And forget Huckleberry Finn. You can't find that darn thing anywhere, because it's been "banned." They've all been "banned"! Banned books, indeed. Enter the alternative universe of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, where we are always on the verge of totalitarianism because some rube in Bumflap, GA doesn't like gay penguins. Be sure to check your intellect at the door, though. Otherwise it's hard to take this stuff.

and one of her commentors, the Chatty Librarian, responds:

I'm as cynical as anyone about stuff like this usually, but I'm now living and working in a library in Egypt, where our collection doesn't hold all these banned books because, well, they're banned.

It's not stuff like Huck Finn and Harry Potter that doesn't get through, but anything that appears to be critical of the president-for-life Hosni Mubarak or otherwise offends the Egyptian censors.

You certainly won't find Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses on our library's shelves either.

Exactly. Maybe the Banned Books Week organization overstates the case, and maybe not. Just because free access to most materials may common, it does not mean we can take it for granted. We're within a lifetime of James Joyce's Ulysses being banned in the U.S., and only admitted to this country after a landmark court case. It's worth remembering and discussing.

Banned Books Week: one author's story

Most challenges to materials in public libraries are not about restricting access to ideologies, per se. The more frequent rational for challenges has to do with protecting children. A case in point...

Chris Crutcher is a therapist and child protection advocate, a former teacher and popular young adult author. His books have won numerous awards, including:

• California Library Assn's 2005 St. Katharine Drexel Award
• Writer Magazine's 2004 Writers Who Make A Difference Award
• Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award
• NCTE's 1998 National Intellectual Freedom Award
• ALAN Award, 1993
  
• ALA has named eight of his books as “Best Books for Young Adults,”
• four of his books appeared on Booklist’s Best 100 Books of the 20^th Century, compiled in 2000 – more than any other single author on the list

But it's also true that his books have more than once been on the annual list of most challenged titles. On his website, Crutcher prints lengthy excerpts from his critics and challengers and his responses. It's all interesting reading, but I find two of his statements especially interesting:

I stand for the right of parents to forbid their children to read a particular book. Someone in my old line of work will make a hundred fifty dollars an hour when those children come as twenty and thirty year old adults trying to deal with the power struggles of their childhoods. I don’t like it, but I stand for that right. I don’t, however, stand for the right to decide what other people’s kids read.

I’m also not interested in entering into the free speech/intellectual freedom argument wherein one side says we have to keep our kids safe by censoring what they see and the other says it’s fine for any parent to censor what his/her own kids read, but not fine for them to make those decisions for all parents. We either believe in basic intellectual freedom or we don’t. We either believe in our own abilities as adults to help our kids process tough information or we don’t, and not many minds are going to change regurgitating those arguments.

As a public librarian, I believe in parents and families. As a parent, I did my best to help my kids with the tough issues, and I believe in supporting other parents. It's not my job as a librarian to pre-empt those family decisions.

Banned Books Week: what the heck are "banned books?"

"Banned Books" is somewhat of a misnomer, because what is generally meant by the term is actually "challenged books." Many books are challenged -- or asked to be withdrawn from libraries -- though few are actually banned. This is an area where type of library is significant, as the public library vs. the school media center vs. the school curriculum are all very different. Indeed, there is seldom a mention of banned books in university or corporate libraries.

The American Library Association's website notes the distinction between banned & challenged books, but also notes that they do not own the name. Banned Books Week is sponsored by a consortium. From the bannedbooksweek.org website:

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

ALA also notes there is no movement to change the name because "a challenge is an attempt to ban or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group." ALA maintains lists of frequently challenged materials, year by year. From 1991 to 2007, the following titles appeared on the most annual lists:

1. The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier (12)
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou (10)
   
3. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (10)
4. Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson (9)
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (8)
6. Alice Series - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (7)
7. Forever - Judy Blume (6)
8. Scary Stories Series - Alvin Schwartz (6)
9. Fallen Angels - Walter Dean Meyers (5)
10. Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling (5)
11. It’s Perfectly Normal - Robie Harris (5)
12. The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger (5)

You should be able to find all of these in our catalog and on our shelves.