Tasha Talks Tech @ FVLC

Our good neighbor Tasha Saecker, Director the the Menasha PL, did a presentation on libraries and technology at a recent Fox Valley Library Council meeting. For those of us who couldn't make the meeting, she posted her PowerPoint on her Sites & Soundbytes blog -- thanks, Tasha!

Technology And Libraries

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Project Play @ WLA

I'm missing the state library conference -- durn it. But I'm glad to be able to follow some things on the WLA Blog. One presentation I would've enjoyed was the one about Project Play. Not surprisingly, however, Beth Carpenter has nicely blogged the presentation. The whole thing's worth reading as a nice summary of the program, but the slideshow and video are great for a quick overview.


Check out the full post -- lots of great links. Thanks again to Beth, Joy and Stef!

Taking time to plant the roses

I've been reading a number of blog responses to Meredith Farkas' legit concerns on how our profession penalizes people who present at conferences. The entire discussion is a sad comment about how little we, as a profession, support continuing education. There are several aspects, including state associations that can't afford to provide incentives for their own members who make presentations, and libraries not paying conference expenses for their staff. As a library manager, I'm more concerned about the latter.

It's a challenge for staff and managers (and governing bodies) because there are always pressing needs. So we face hard choices that shouldn't be "either/or", like getting training or buying books. But if we're going to do a good job buying books next year, we need to keep up our skills this year. Libraries are educational organizations: respecting the training needs of our own staff should be part and parcel of operations.

It's a matter of thinking in the long term. There are always urgent problems demanding attention. But sometimes we have to step back and pay attention to the important things, even if they aren't urgent.

The main thing is not to get discouraged, and keep on creatively seeking resources to do what we need to do. Education is an investment in the future. Runner & author George Sheehan wrote:

Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit.

and he's right. The little voice that wants you to quit is the little voice that tells you it's pointless to try, the little voice that says it's not worth it, the little voice that says you can't do it. We're never going "win" against all the people that want to cut funding, that don't believe in libraries. We'll never convince everyone, and resources will always be tight. While we need to honestly deal with questions, we have to believe in ourselves and what we're doing. We need to believe in the future more than we believe in naysayers and seeds of doubt.

We have to believe in what we do; we have to invest in ourselves and our future. So we don't give up on training, even with tight budgets. Professional associations should look at incentives to encourage, not punish, speakers -- and libraries in particular should look at training opportunities and incentives for staff. We can keep doing good work and grow our own future.

WAPL Conference Notes: an index to blog entries

The 2008 Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Conference was held in Stevens Point on April 30th-May 2nd. Several members of WAPL and the WLA Media and Technology Section (MATS) have blogged the conference, reporting on many individual programs. These included Joy Schwarz, Michael Golrick and myself on the WLA Blog, Tasha Saecker on Sites & Soundbytes, and Nichole Fromm on nichole's auxiliary storage . Michael has also posted on his Thoughts from a Library Administrator.

See also the Post Conference Resources page for handouts, etc. -- includes some great PowerPoints!

Sessions blogged:

• Keynote: The Economic Impact of Wisconsin Public Libraries (Saecker)
• Keynote: The Economic Impact of Wisconsin Public Libraries (Golrick)
• Investment Returns: Using the Public Library Economic Impact Study Results in Your Library (Saecker)
• Investment Returns: Using the Public Library Economic Impact Study Results in Your Library (Golrick)
• Digitization of Local History Materials: LSTA Success Stories (Fromm)
• Imagine That: Intergenerational Storytelling with People with Dementia (Dawson)
  
• Unintended Consequences: Traditional Library Practices as Barriers (Saecker)
• Where Are We Going? Strategic Planning for Results (Golrick)
• "One Book, One Community" Programs: the Do's and Don'ts (Dawson)
• Jay Rath: The Writer's Real Life, or Be Your Own Boss! Work at Home and Pray for Universal Coverage (Saecker)
• Jay Rath: The Writer's Real Life, or Be Your Own Boss! Work at Home and Pray for Universal Coverage (Golrick)
• Continuing Education in Your Pajamas-New Technologies Bring New Opportunities (Golrick)
  
• Continuing Education in Your Pajamas-New Technologies Bring New Opportunities (Dawson)
• MySpace - Don’t Be Intimidated By It! Can It Work For Your Library? (Schwarz)
  
• MySpace - Don’t Be Intimidated By It! Can It Work For Your Library? (Saecker)
• Have You Heard About... (Golrick) & the del.icio.us page of resources
• Have You Heard & Be the Boss of Your Browser (Saecker)
  
• Notable Genre Book Discussion (and bonus Have You Heard...) (Fromm)
• Dick Bennett: "The Rule Rather Than the Exception" (Golrick)
  

Library staff "play more, learn more, fear less."

Project Play has come to its planned end. Even as I heard library leaders at the PLA conference encouraging more places to emulate the "23 things" library curriculum, a big chunk of Wisconsin was doing it and wrapping up this eight month effort. Part of what I learned is a model for an effective online training program for staff -- one that works even for part-time people who have trouble fitting regular classes into their schedules. Two groups I want to thank and acknowledge:

• Project Play leaders from three library systems, OWLS, South Central, & Winnefox. All three of these systems devoted a lot of time and effort to helping member library staff learn. A special thanks to our fearless leaders: Beth Carpenter, Jean Anderson, Stef Morrill & Joy Schwarz. They seriously rock!
  
• All the staff hare at Appleton Public Library who got involved. Most finished both semesters, though some, like me, did only part -- due to limited enrollments and other time commitments. I loved it that people from all parts of the library, and at all pay grades, participated. Big kudos to everyone who worked at it, including:
• Judy Abitz
• Kathy Beck
• Kathy Berholtz
• Carole DeJardin
• Kathy Dreyer
• Elizabeth Eisen
• Melody Hanson
• Sharon Harp
  
• Ellen Jepson
• Barbara Kelly
  
• Brian Kopetsky
• Sue Kempf
  
• Vicki Lenz
• Katie Scullion
• Kay Shearier
  
• Meg Shriver
• Lisa Smith
  
• Maureen Ward
• Julie Weyenberg
  
• Kristie Wilson

I know it's not always easy to take time out of our way-too-busy schedules to learn, especially new and intimidating things. But the Project Play leaders broke it up into bite-size pieces and offered hand-holding -- and the many participants explored fearlessly and learned. Way to go!

PLA pix

Photos from the PLA conference in Minneapolis, including many pictures of the Minneapolis Public Library.

PLA: "If you're not comfortable with experimenting, get over it!"

I really enjoyed the Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis last week. Six days away from home, but it was worth the time. There were many highlights for me, and I'll write about some of the sessions in detail. Things I liked:

• excellent program -- too many good choices for sessions
• a fine reception at the very cool Open Book in Minneapolis -- "Minnesota's enter for reading, writing and the book arts"
  
• online resources -- downloadable handouts and PowerPoints make a lot of information accessible even for non-attendees
  
• talking with many vendors
• meeting people and comparing notes on the programs, vendors and our jobs -- including face-to-face meetings with people I've only known online
• spending time with my daughter, Gillian, as professional colleagues; color me proud
  

One of the most inspirational and empowering programs was "The Cutting Edge: the latest on Web 2.0." Speakers included Jen Maney (Pima County Public Library), Michael Stephens (Tame the Web & the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University) and John Blyberg (formerly AADL, now the Darien Library). The entire presentation is online as an .MP3 file; I recommend listening while reading along on the handouts.

Jen Maney noted that 2.0 levels the playing field and is not a technological phenomenon, but a sociological one. She said "if you're not comfortable with experimenting, get over it!" She encouraged us to play, to know that we can't do it all and to pick and choose -- her motto is "Designing for Uncertainty".

Michael Stephens had a lengthy and detailed PowerPoint (large .pdf version) with lots of good examples and reminded us that though we talk about and use technology, it's not about technology. 2.0 is "not a shiny new toy, but a carefully planned response to a changing world."

John Blyberg humorously and beautifully deconstructed Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur and defended the virtues of Web 2.0 with this PowerPoint. He noted we need to "encourage the heart." Thanks for lifting those lingering twopointopian guilt trips.

Nobody was lifting up 2.0 or any technology as a panacea or bandwagon, but talking about interesting new ways to implement our enduring values.

Librarians past and future

Meredith Farkas has posted an interesting and provocative piece on "Building 21st century librarians AND libraries", discussing about "the growing necessity to have tech-savvy people in public services positions." While her focus is on large academic libraries, many of her thoughts are useful here in a medium-sized public library.

Among her points:

• difficult for public services staff to implement new technologies
• people in public services don’t have skills to implement their ideas
  
• organizational structures create barriers

Part of this is skill-related, and while one aspect of this relates to academic preparation, another is the challenge of developing and funding effective continuing education for current staff. Farkas has also posted a useful list of "Skills for the 21st Century Librarian". These include:

• Basic Tech Competencies
  • Ability to embrace change
  • Comfort in the online medium
  • Ability to troubleshoot new technologies
  • Ability to easily learn new technologies
  • Ability to keep up with new ideas in technology and librarianship (enthusiasm for learning)
• Higher Level Competencies
  • Project management skills:
  • Ability to question and evaluate library services
  • Ability to evaluate the needs of all stakeholders
  • Vision to translate traditional library services into the online medium
  • Critical of technologies and ability to compare technologies
  • Ability to sell ideas/library services

Encouraging participation in Project Play (Wisconsin's "23 things") is one way we're addressing these concerns, giving all staff members the opportunity to become exposed a variety of technologies, play with them, discuss and write critically about opportunities. A complementary effort is our staff technology task force, the plan they developed, and the work to support tech competencies for a large and diverse staff.

But organizational structure issues can be thornier and more political. It's essential for libraries to retain authority over their own technology decisions, but easy to lose this authority to external IT decision-makers. We sometimes pay in availability of resources for the privilege of retaining authority. The challenge extends to giving staff the ability to implement service ideas; management prerogatives shouldn't stand in the way of service, but budgets often do. Managers need to keep listening and finding ways to empower staff to grow, learn and implement their good ideas.

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.

We be playing!

No, wait -- this is serious business. We're answerable to the taxpayers -- we shouldn't be playing!

Horsefeathers.

Sure we're serious and accountable, but that doesn't preclude fun. Playfulness has come into our library workplace in several respects, and in a very mindful way. We're trying some new things; we'll keep what's valuable and let go of what isn't, but I'm glad we're not afraid to try. We're "playing" in several respects:

1. Adult programming - a recent local newspaper article was titled "Board games bring families together" and it's true. But they bring other people together as well -- you don't have to be family to enjoy playing games. Consistent with the library's role in recreation and as a place for people to gather, we're having a board game session for adults. It will probably be mostly Monopoly and Scrabble, but if it takes off, I may have to bring in Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne -- the favorites at my house.
   
2. Young adult programming - with video-games. Like many other libraries, we're trying video games for YA programming. Though controversial in some quarters, there's considerable evidence about the value of gaming for learning and socialization. We're fortunate that our system, OWLS, has purchased some game systems for member libraries to try, so we can test this for our community without capitalizing the equipment. Of course, the staff had to try it out -- tennis on the Wii is great exercise, and I actually won a few games (before younger, fitter, librarians learned the hardware and trounced me) -- w00t! Will we try the games with the adults? Maybe not guitar hero...
   
3. Project Play - is Wisconsin's multi-system implementation of the widespread "Learning 2.0" curriculum. Several of our staff participated in the first semester, which I missed as the registration rolls were filled, but I've been reading along for the last several months and was able to join the second semester. As I pick up some 2.0 pointers, I'll discuss them here, but I like the motto: "Play more. Learn more. Fear less."

I won't think we're too playful until we start throwing books around -- it's not like throwing fish, after all.

Top ten of 2007 ... at APL

This is the time of year for looking back and reflecting. Here's one take on the top ten items for our library:

1. Our Long Range Plan was a lynch-pin for many other activities throughout the year, and right from the start featured involvement by the Outagamie Waupaca Library System, engagement by staff and road representation of community stakeholders. The process that gave us some clear direction and energy.
   
2. Increasing community support was manifested in many ways: increases in circulation, volunteer hours, donations to our Foundation, and the political support from the Mayor, Council, media and citizens in our recent budget process.
3. Project Promise was a wonderful collaboration with many agencies, companies and individuals to take a multifaceted look at poverty in our community. I'm proud of the key role our library was able to play, hosting and sponsoring events and providing information supporting citizens and partners.
4. Library staff involvement in decisions: broad active participation in our staff policy task force and staff long range planning committee proved extremely valuable. These groups both gave vital input to administration and the Library Board. A staff survey brought out many productive ideas for updating our Intranet. Later in the year, there was good involvement in revising our technology plan. And other staff groups continue ongoing good work including the Training Task Force and Kudos & Kares.
5. Library 2.0 activities & collaborations were many, including this blog, the OWLS-sponsored Project Play and several other staff blogs, blog feeds in the Intranet, wikis for planning and task force projects, del.icio.us for a tag cloud of links on our teen page, SurveyMonkey for staff and public surveys and lots of meetings set via Doodle.
   
6. All-staff training was a key recommendation of our long range plan. For the first time, we developed a mandatory training curriculum that included everyone. Broad involvement in establishing the priorities and presenting material was critical -- this was not just a top-down exercise, but a real effort to give everyone useful information. It was a success and we learned things to make it better next year.
   
7. We're going forward with a Building Study, after asking for several years. An RFP has been sent out to consulting firms, and we expect the study to be as much a focus of 2008 as our long range plan was in 2007.
   
8. Fox Cities Reads was a first, after a successful "Appleton Reads" a couple years ago. We worked with several other public libraries and had a wonderful author visit from Barbara Ehrenreich, enjoying good media attention and synergy from Project Promise. This paved the way for future community reads beyond our own boundaries.
   
9. Increased budget for materials, training after years of flat materials budgets and decreasing training budgets. The long range plan and community support helped us clarify these priorities and get them supported through the city budget process. Library staff found ways of trimming in other areas to achieve these increases while keeping the bottom line small.
   
10. Patron pick-up of holds & increased use of self-checks - along with volunteers helping with the shelving, this has helped us keep our heads above water despite unrelenting increases in circulation and holds.
    

1 conference, 4 blogs, 8 bloggers, 36 posts

We had a great Wisconsin Library Association Conference in Green Bay last week, thanks to a lot of good work by many people. I put a post in the blog partway through the week, but there are a lot of postings in four different blogs that I know of. If I'm missing some, please post a comment / link! Thanks to all the bloggers for sharing their experiences:

Michael Golrick / Thoughts of a Library Administrator:

• The 411 on Mashups
• Wisconsin Public Library Standards and Certification
• Non-Profit Marketing
• Flash! The Future of the talking book
• Learning Games and Simulations
• Applying Survey Methodology in the Real World
• Keynote by David Maraniss
  

Tasha Saecker / Sites & Soundbytes:

• Poets as Peacemakers, Poets as Healers
• Palm Program
• The New Media Ecology
• Leadership and Resilience
• Tasha's Library 2.0 Presentation Slides
• Podcasting as a Library Tool
• Intellectual Freedom Issues with Judith Krug of ALA
• Preconference - Living Your Life on Purpose with Joan Gilman

Leslie Farrell / Posterhead

• New Media Ecology presentation by Lee Rainie
• Managing Your Library for Great Customer Service with Jefferey Russell

The WLA Blog - with bloggers Beth Carpenter, Joy Schwarz, Pete Gilbert, Nanette Bulebosh, & Amanda Werhane

• The 411 on Mashups (Joy)
• The 411 on Mashups (Beth)
• Tracing Your Ancestors Through Genealogy Tips and Tricks (Joy)
• WisconsinEye.com (Amanda)
• Non-Profit Marketing: What I Should Know about Marketing That My Mother Wouldn't Tell Me (Amanda)
• Taking the "Non" Out of Non-User (Beth)
• UW-Madison Libraries/Google Partnership (Joy)
• The New Media Ecology (Joy)
• The New Media Ecology (Beth)
• Those Who Can, Teach: Becoming a More Effective "One Shot" Trainer (and Explainer) (Joy)
• Tasha explains Library 2.0 for you (Nanette)
• Library Conference Planning 101: Backs to the WAAL (Amanda)
• David Maraniss keynote (Amanda)
• Real World RSS: Developing a Current Awareness Service for Your Patrons (Joy)
• Web 2.0 (Beth)
• Podcasting as a Library Tool (Beth)
• Lutie Stearns and Her Library Legacy - Stuart Stotts (Pete)
• Putting Library Services Where Our Users Live and Work: Future of the OPAC (Joy)
• Applying Survey Methodology in the Real World (Joy)

Thank you all --Wisconsin library folks rock!

WLA - learning in person & online

We're in the midst of the Wisconsin Library Association annual conference in Green Bay. It's great to rub elbows with colleagues, meet vendors, have lots of conversations -- some quick, some in-depth -- and of course, go to programs. The conference team and WLA staff are doing a great job as usual.

Thanks to some good bloggers and the WLA website, there are opportunities to learn and talk about the programs even for those who were not able to get here. The WLA blog has extensive notes on many of the programs. Worth watching and following as the website become richer with links to presentations and online resources.

Library Links 2: the QuickRef Library Page

I love QuickRef, and I probably don't say it often enough to our Reference staff.

Time was everybody maintained link lists, often annotated. Shortly after our library set up our web site, we added a list of useful links. Managed for years by Reference Librarian (& poet) Harriet Tippet, the page was known as "Harriet's Hot Links." Harriet is gone, alas, but our link list transmogrified into a great tool to help our librarians answer questions. It soon proved popular with other libraries and patrons.

That tool is QuickRef, and it contains separate pages on a variety of topics, each page with a categorized list of links. Part of what I like is the clean and easy-to-use design, but mostly I just like that it's useful and handy. Pages include: Books & Lit. Business , Education , Ready Reference, and many others -- but for this discussion I'll focus on the Library Page.

Categories, each of which includes from four to fifteen links, are:

• Indexes
• Libraries
• Full Text Indexes *
• Wisconsin Libraries (statewide resources)
• WI Public Libraries & catalogs
• WI Academic Libraries & catalogs
• Other Wis. Libraries & Associations
• Prof. Resources
• Listservs

Needless to say, having the most useful links gathered beats the heck out of imperfect Googling. We'll have to see what the future brings -- will del.icio.us replace separately maintained link lists altogether? Some thoughts and examples of library links in the 2.0 environment in forthcoming part 3.

Library Links 1: L4L

How do we find what we need to know? Librarians know that just typing something into a Google search has some severe limitations. There are advantages to finding the good stuff, consulting experts and beginning with some of the research that's already been done to identify useful sources.

There are a lot of places that put together useful links of websites to help librarians do their jobs. One of the most useful for me is the L4L site (Links for Libraries) maintained by the folks at the Outagamie Waupaca Library System (OWLS).

L4L is handy because its designed to help the system member libraries with their professional concerns. Some of these concerns might be specific for libraries in Wisconsin, but much of it would be useful anywhere. Topics are kept up-to-date and represent a broad range of library services and concerns -- political, professional and technical:

• Acronym Lists
• Associations & Organizations
• Blog Use in Libraries
• Book-Related Info (awards, bestsellers, etc.)
• Buildings
• Caring for Materials
• Certification
• Children's Services
• Collection Development
• Continuing Education
• Copyright
• County Planning & Funding
• Discussion Lists
• DPI/DLTCL Info
• Employment
• Endowment Funds
• Filtering [ALA Filters & Filtering]
• Foundations
• Fundraising
• Health & Safety
• IM use in libraries
• Latino Links
• Legislation and Advocacy
• Library Law
• Marketing & Promotion
• Meetings
• Online Publications
• Personnel
• Planning
• Podcasting
• Policies
• Privacy and the USA Patriot Act
• Readers' Advisory
• Reference
• Special Needs
• Technical Services
• Technology & Trends
• Trustees
• Volunteers and Friends
• Webmeisters
• WI Library System Web Sites
• WI Public Library Standards
• Young Adult Services

Libraries and lewdness

A report in the Columbus Dispatch talks about increasing problems posed by lewd behavior in libraries. "Based on the reports, no community appears to be immune." Many public libraries, including ours, have seen inappropriate or lewd behaviors, including Internet porn, masturbation, public sex, people exposing themselves. and people who stalk.

Where does this rash of lewd incidents come from? A few thoughts...

• Societal problems have marginalized more people and weakened social pressures and opportunities for normative behavior. Examples:
  
• the growth of poverty
• the reduction of social services
• untreated alcohol and other drug abuse
  
• a lack of mental health care
• the increasing criminalization of America
  
• Even among healthy affluent people, changing norms and a growing acceptance of lewd & licentious behaviors in context means that "socially acceptable" has changed. By enforcing standards, we're bucking a social trend:
  
• the "seven words you can't say on TV" are now down to three or four, but on many cable channels, zero
• the NY Times reports that in ruling against the FCC, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York has noted: "If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can blurt out vulgar language, then the government cannot punish broadcast television stations for broadcasting the same words." Our conservative leaders are not helping the cause here.
  
• porn on demand is available in many, if not most, motel rooms
  
• the AP reported on June 3 that 'more than a third of the U.S. Internet audience visited sites that fit into the online "adult" category' this year
  
• Paris Hilton? Britney Spears? Need we say more?
• Public library Internet access for those without other means of accessing creates a small but disproportionate group of library users with "special concerns." Some use the library only to use the Internet, and some of these use the Internet less for research or for communication than to indulge the sociopathic or obsessive behaviors that some websites pander to. While the vast majority of public access Internet is entirely appropriate, the temptations available online provide a focal point for lewdness. We have to be tolerant of difference, but give some thought to what crosses the line and how to enforce standards.
  

One perspective is that libraries -- and other public places -- have always had some level of "lewd behavior" problem, and the above factors have accentuated frequency and visibility, helped by media eager to sensationalize. As long as we're a public place, and open to everyone, these problems will continue. We had problems with inappropriate sexuality, fetishism and harassment in libraries where I worked 35 years ago. No surprise that in the current climate we still have these problems.

Since almost all human beings are sexual but not all are well-socialized or possess self-control, we can expect more of the same. This does not make our libraries dangerous, but it does mean we need to be vigilant to enforce standards and maintain a good environment to work in and visit. The really dangerous behaviors -- such as stalking, flashing, etc. -- require us to nip them in the bud.

We can also be careful about how we position ourselves. I was recently taken to task by a patron for not having the HBO series Cathouse in our collection. As far as I'm concerned, they can keep waiting. We may be a popular materials library, but that's no reason to spend tax money on soft-core porn in the guide of documentaries. A reputable study of brothels? OK. But customer reviews of Cathouse on Amazon.com are telling:

This is one Hot show. ... If hookers, sex, nudity, and documentaries interest you..then this no doubt is an entertaining look ... A place like that will put strip clubs out of business.

It's not too surprising to me that few libraries stock this title. We should carry demanded quality titles even if they are edgy and not for all tastes. thus we carry the HBO series Deadwood and feature films like Eyes Wide Shut. Nor is it surprising that some public libraries filter the Internet so their staff doesn't have to deal with so much porn. Most of us don't need security guards, thank goodness. But we do need to keep our values and our wits. And keep our eyes wide open.

Management, innovation & budget

David Lee King's blog is generally worth reading; I check it at least weekly. But I'm concerned about the tenor of a recent discussion. Writing about barriers to new tech and 2.0 in Four Things to Consider When Changing the Unchangeable, David asked about:

• Steps to take to convince administrators that the library world is different than it was in the 1970’s?
• How to convince administrators that constant change and innovation is good, and that it’s also a necessity in our new millenial world?
• How can we become change agents in a field that’s apparently not used to changing?

and posed the following response:

Looks like there are approximately four things to consider when hoping to implement new technology (at least, these four things came out of your comments). They are:

1. Management problems
2. Finding champions
3. Creating a Vision
4. training Administrators

1. Management Problems: You guys mentioned some interesting problems, including budget constraints, no follow-through on an already-created strategic plan, the organization being slow to adapt to anything, and the “too much work too little time” mantra.

I see these problems as poor management. The “too much work too little time” thing can be dealt with by changing job descriptions, responsibilities, etc. But this needs to be done in conjunction with a new direction (see Creating a Vision below).

Same with budget constraints - most emerging technology doesn’t cost any actual money (just time and staff resources), so budget isn’t really an issue.

At least one respondent said these all boil down to management problems. Where there's a lack of management will, interest and follow through, you might justly call it poor management. But it's altogether too simplistic to characterize all budget problems as poor management. To say that it take "just time and staff resources" ignores the fact that time and staff resources comprise more than 75% of the budget and they're all devoted to providing services.

Many Massachusetts libraries are closing or curtailing service like Internet access and children's story hours. You can say this is poor management if you include statewide political processes as part of management. Here in Wisconsin, TABORlike law has meant that municipalities cannot raise budgets even at inflationary rates, though utility and health insurance costs grow rapidly. Thus our library has cuts in staff despite double digit increases in circ & other output.

In this environment, the staff is hard-pressed to shelve the books, answer reference questions, maintain computers and keep the same library hours. So when administrators encourage them to go to conferences, play with 2.0 resources online, and develop innovative proposals, staff is understandably skeptical. You can't arbitrarily change job descriptions, you have to change service priorities, and management skills can only go so far in the political arena, where boards and elected officials can be recalcitrant.

And while some staff may chafe at lack of management support, there’s also some management that may chafe at lack of staff interest in seeking new solutions. Either way, managers should provide leadership & opportunity, but need to respect staff professionalism and participation in decisions. So I take issue with the statement "constant change and innovation is good" as overly broad. Management needs to recognize that the environment is constantly changing, but that doesn't mean pursuing change for its own sake. There are limits to staff capacity to absorb changes. It's tempting to say "it's just time -- try it, and if it doesn't work, we'll do something else", but you can really only say that about your own time.

We need to keep pursuing the mix of public and private funding to stay afloat, while pressing governing authorities like library boards and mayors to make the tough choices. We need to innovate, but it's an uphill fight. Yes, management is responsible, but management authority is limited -- for better or worse --by real-world constraints.

General Reference Wiki

Great introductory training on wiki collaboration for library staff.

The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians

Todd Gilman, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, has written a nifty essay on being effective as librarians. The whole is worth reading, but in summary, the four habits are:

1. Openness
2. Responsiveness
3. Collaboration
4. Communication

While it's surely possible to get a lot done without these traits, our jobs would be much better, and we'd frustrate other less, the more we develop these habits. Not coincendentally, this dovetails with three other things I've been thinking about lately:

1. Tasha Saecker's excellent Library Director 2.0 essay, which emphasizes some of the same concepts.
2. Recommendations from our staff planning task force, which in looking at issues affecting our library, did not recommend that we take up or abandon any services, but that we should work harder organizationally to exhibit some of these habits. They had a lot of other good and specific recommendations, but these traits encapsulate many grass-roots concerns.
3. "Radical transparency", as in the cover story in the March issue of Wired, is surely the trait/habit/virtue of openness. This good article in the Long Tail blog covers some of the same ground.