Statement for TLA Secretary election

The last decade has witnessed dramatic upheaval in the creation, publication, and dissemination of information. These changes have occurred  during a particularly difficult fiscal climate for libraries of every size and type. The escalated need to keep up to date and the reductions in available resources have collided with the library’s natural resistance to change. As a result libraries today face increasing difficulty providing patrons with the content they want in the form that they desire. The path forward for libraries is via professional training, addressing fiscal problems, and opening ourselves to a culture of change.

Keeping up with changes to existing systems can be difficult enough, then add widely accepted advances in consumer technology and libraries find patrons asking questions about devices, operating systems, and applications that may be only hours old. On top of recent changes in patron attitudes and expectations, add vendor mergers that have resulted in changes to widely used products such as NetLibrary, and libraries are constantly reacting to forces outside the library. Continual training is a concern.

This decade has also seen near-universal cuts to library funding as new technologies and products have become widely available and accessible. These new technologies are altering business models for content creators, who are increasingly finding that their best option is to charge libraries exponentially higher fees to access content in new formats. Budget cuts and price increases have forced libraries to make tough choices about providing content. The answer for libraries is often providing content in fewer available formats for the first time. Fiscal issues caused by reduced income and new needs are a concern.

Several years ago I attended a small conference on change in a specialized field of librarianship. I was very surprised that the conference drew attendees from all over the country. When I said this to a small group, they mentioned that there were many more potential participants but those who did not want to accept the coming changes simply did not show up. I was shocked that professionals would not attend a conference directly related to important changes in their daily work simply because it meant accepting that change was coming. Addressing change is a concern.

Tennessee libraries know these issues all too well, but are positioned to made great advances on the path forward. I am honored to be nominated for TLA Recording Secretary and, if elected, I look forward to working with the Executive Committee and the membership for Tennessee libraries.

New approach to service: is it all in a name?

The best quote from Elliot Felix's piece in the new Journal of Learning Spaces is in his second piece "Learning Space Service Design"

"...we’re moving from a culture of ownership to one of membership." 

This is not at all what the focus is for the rest of the article, but I think it is where non-academic librarians need to pay the most attention. For once here I am not talking about ownership of library items either! I take this statement as applied to libraries to mean we need to pay attention to our attitude toward our patron's and their expectations of society and the library within our greater society.

Public libraries already operate more closely to a Co-op than nearly any other organization. People meet certain criteria and we let the join the library. They get a card to prove their membership, and that card is used to borrow items. Besides the special membership dues we are already acting a lot like some of the groups Elliot Felix mentions: Netflix, Zipcar, Netjets, etc. That is why I find it so off-putting to call everyone who comes in customers or visitors or patrons (yes this list is in ascending order of how the phrase irks me).

I worked at a library once that used a library card that looked very similar to the CostCo Executive Card. This was not done for any other reason than using only a few colors was cheaper than a full color card. Most people when given their card for the first time always reacted like they had actually joined something unique and interesting. Even retirees who had library cards for decades in other communities had a reaction similar to that of a child excited at getting their first library card. When we asked people it was because the card looked like something they could proudly place in their wallet to let people know that they had a library card. The act of simply changing the look of the card and the reaction that evoked  always surprised me. Just imagine how your approach might change if everyone who came in was a member rather than just a statistic.

There is a lot more to this, though, than simply changing library cards. When we have members instead of patrons or visitors we would tend to treat them more equally. Another simple change is to alter how we think of our interactions. Instead of phrases like "reference transactions" how about a phrase that Elliot uses to describe what we do with our members: consultation? A consultation--which is really what is already happening in libraries--can involve everything from computer help to eReader purchase suggestions to printer unjamming. It is much more meaningful, too, to tell stakeholders we provided 1,000 consultations rather than answered 1,000 questions. 

Our members are changing their expectations of their world, and I applaud libraries that are working proactively to meet the expectations of our society. Simple steps like changing a library card can go a long way toward changing perceptions, but we need to go deeper and rethink many of the small ways that we approach our relationship with customers.

Librarian's Rules Doughnut

The idea from this comes partly from the Medicare Part D prescription coverage "doughnut hole" 
In short this is a problem many seniors find themselves in when they lose drug coverage because they've met a coverage limit. However, if their need is serious enough coverage will start again, thus a doughnut hole description.

How this relates to library rules:
I often hear or read or am told about rules in a library that make no sense at all. Sometimes there are rules that say things like, "No Stealing in the Library." My reaction to these is always something along the lines of, "Really, you mean otherwise it was perfectly legal to actually steal in the library?" Other times these might be rules that when I ask around for a reason the response is something like, "What the #@!* does that even mean?" If you want a few good examples of this go see Warren Graham or read his books the Black Belt Librarians.

Now for how this is a doughnut:

I hope this makes sense, but many libraries currently have a situation where there is a "doughnut hole" in that what is permissible to do in the library is caged within the rules of what one is not allowed to do at the library. This means that sometimes we have to tell patrons what they are allowed to do since we have created an artificial set of rules and expectations that do not exist in the normal sphere of what is allowed in public. This is partly what causes confusion and anger with patrons over what we understand to be basic library rules.

I understand fully that this is partly an issue with library culture, but I think a good visual always helps show the obvious shortcomings of our approach. What we need is to change our thinking from the doughnut to simply the doughnut hole. We need to think about the fewest number of rules that are needed for the library. Not only does this help staff better assist patrons, but we would have fewer run-ins with our patrons too. I know that there will always be people willing to push the limit, but why create rules and regulations to deal with those few.

Dude, where's my ebook server?...or a suggestion for a new ebook distribution model

In my reader this morning there was an item pointing to a post about the conversion of movie theater projectors from 35 mm to digital...I'll wait if you want to take 10 to go read it:

Obersvations on Film: Pandora's digital box
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2011/12/01/pandoras-digital-box-in-the-multiplex/

OK, glad you're back. What'd you think? A method of kick-starting the digital conversion of movie theaters and making everyone happy at the bank (which I hope you noticed were at the top of the pyramid in the money flowchart). The Virtual Print Fee (VPF) and third-party integrators sounds similar to an idea I've seen batted around related to ebooks for a while now. I know that there are big differences between how movies are shown in theaters and how libraries lend books (one-to-many versus a one-to-one). What really got me is the model. If you missed it here it is: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/vpf-reframed-325.jpg

So to put this in a library context we replace studios with publishers, exhibitors with libraries, and movies with ebooks. I would propose, however, that instead of the equipment perhaps being reading devices that it be servers. This could be servers with existing hardware and specification or even newly developed standards that the publishing houses would trust to be housed within libraries.

The post mentioned too that the actual files are currently delivered on hardrives via FedEx or UPS. Libraries already have experience much like the theaters with handling large volumes of physical manifestations of information objects. Libraries, however, have the advantage in that we already have staff well-versed in the technical side of uploading files to servers and authentication.

Publishers, such as Penguin (see: Overdrive, removing of books from) at this stage of the game are concerned about pirates and security to the point of cutting off an entire market. The important question for this plan is whether or not they would trust libraries to house their ebooks behind our own firewalls? So far publishers are generally more interested in creating their own systems or partnering with one of the big players like EBSCO or Gale to hop on existing systems. This new system would force any creator selling content to take the risk that the library can keep content safe. The movie studio-theater model already has a rigorous, highly-detailed specification for security that most likely addresses many publisher's concerns.

Being able to bring the data in-house has incredible advantages too for collection development and patron services. For the first time librarians would have access to the kind of ebook usage data that some have complained is available to Overdrive or Amazon but not to libraries. Think of the power of knowing which books or genres are not just checked out but for how long and to which devices!

I am sure that this won't solve every problem with ebook distribution, and there is also a significant way to go until publishers will entrust their content directly to libraries. A good, long discussion and equal treatment between publishers and librarians, though, could go a long way.

I'd really like to know what you think. Leave a comment or shoot me a message @libgroves

Tenn-Share Datafest

I had the chance to attend the Tenn-Share DataFest a few weeks ago.

The main thing I got from Datafest is that the ebook market is currently kind of like the wild west. Each vendor and publisher is trying to figure out how to not only make money, but how to just plain survive the changes caused by ebooks. The large vendors like Ingram and Ebsco are trying to get the best of all possible options by selling ebooks but also providing subscription services with a number of concurrent use-multiple download-always available options. More academic-specific vendors like MUSE and JSTOR and just now venturing into the ebook market, but they are working with publishers to make available backlist titles and possibly offer ILL for ebooks. I was also intrigued by an entirely different model called Freeding being offer by the company that created Freegal . This new service gives each patron a number of "tokens" to spend on ebooks each month so copies of everything are always available to everyone for a price.

Need a HERO or be a HERO

This is the first of some more belated blogging of my notes and observations from TLA..that would be the Tennessee Library Association conference.

First this was one of the better programs at TLA because it was equally geared towards those who want to achieve as well as those looking to encourage achievement within the library.

The session began with this video:


This session was about building HEROes/leaders from within the library. The emphasis, luckily, was not only on how to bring people up to a more professional level, but also how to do it yourself if you work in an environment where there is no established method for growing and improving yourself professionally.

As a supervisor/manager:
H-hire forward thinkers
E-encourage training
R-reach out (network)
O-organize training

What this comes down to is pick good people and continue to push them once they are on board. Push them by finding training through established routes and bringing in people you know who can teach a certain skill or provide guidance on an issue that you would like to grow within staff.


As an employee:
H-honor training
E-educate “higher-ups”
R-reach out
O-overcome obstacles

We can be heroes ourselves pretty much by trying and taking it all seriously. So when sent to training realize that it is because it is a skill that managers above you believe you need or believe can benefit the library. The self-directed hero also needs to be sure to tell those higher on the ladder that you have an interest/desire/opportunity to learn a new skill that will improve your job performance. We need to be sure to share what we learn and let others know that we've learned something, rather than keeping our skills & ideas to ourselves. Overcoming obstacles means that there might be something you really want to learn or a conference/workshop you really want to attend, but work won't send you or pay for it...well then you need to take the day off or pay for it yourself if it is really that important.

Some other take-away ideas for the self-directed hero:
Always send a thank you to the person who arranged for you to go to a training event

Apply for scholarships and grants

Remember to invest in yourself

Giving the Tin Man some oil

OK...so I said I was going to get started again. I guess that means actually sharing something. Right now I feel like I'm the Tin Man standing on the side of the road with clenched jaw asking for oil. In this case, though, I need to add my own oil. I'll get started in the coming days/weeks by sharing some of the things I've found recently and also sharing some notes from the TLA (Tennessee Library Association) conference I attended last week.

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The first thing here is am image that I took off a site (I think Harvard Business Review) a few months ago. I know it is a bit small, but if you look at the image in a new tab or window you'll be able to read what it says. The title is "The 12 Elements of Great Managing"



After reading this again I think it is something that I should print and post right next to my computer screen. As a manager am I working toward each of these 12 elements every day? Sadly, the answer is no. Am I working toward each of the 12 elements at some point in my interaction with those up and down the chain? I hope so. I think just a rewording of these 12 elements would be a wonderful self evaluation for any manager. It goes so far past the traditional library measures of performance, however, that I can see few libraries using such an evaluation tool. That reminds me that I need to find my notes from the training all of us attended on employee evaluations last fall...