PLA Blog

It is hard to believe it’s only Wednesday. This boot camp is so intense that I feel like it can’t possibly only have been three days since we started. I’m learning so much and trying to put together some initial thoughts about what I’ll want to propose when I get back to my library.

Sandra and June had more great things to share with us today, many of which really got me thinking.

• Community needs lead to library priorities which lead to goals which lead to objectives which lead to activities
• Goals do not say “the library will,” they say “children will” (etc.) - it’s about them not about us in goals
• Objectives tell you how you’re going to measure progress toward your goals
• A strategic plans should last 3-5 years if the goals remain valid and there are no major demographic shifts in your community
• It is difficult to manage a library with more than 6 priorities. Libraries that excel are driven by priorities rather than than staff skills and interests
• Most people trust librarians equally with the web/Google. We really want to give them reference, but they really want popular materials and storytime
• Roughly half the people in this room fear for the future of libraries. Why?
• What are some reasons libraries will stay viable? We bring people together, we have the option to stay relevant, the library remains the great equalizer in society, we have the option to let go of the gloom and doom, we have the option to listen to our patrons rather than our staff when we make choices about what to do
• Stop allocating resources to proactive activities for non-selected service responses, make these reactive instead (upon request). The stuff we need to change to reactive includes a LOT of staff time and a LOT of collection dollars
• When you eliminate activities, you are going to make staff unhappy, so you may as well make the most effective choice. You are going to have to develop some backbone if you’re going to be even remotely successful
• As managers we talk a lot about how our staff have so much resistance to change, but we are a shining example of this resistance in our reluctance/refusal to stand up to staff for the good of the organization
• Sacred cows are called sacred cows because somebody knows that they are stupid
• Consistently staffed reference desks (we’ve got 4 of ‘em at my library, plus a reception desk and a check-out desk, all in 22,000 square feet on one level) require a huge commitment just in terms of paying someone to schedule them (usually a manager who costs the library a relative lot per hour), let alone the salary cost of staffing them with degreed librarians. Is the bang for the buck worth it? (I have serious doubts)
• A lot of what we’re learning is about the precision of how we use language. David McCullough spoke about the importance of having a good vocabulary and ability to use language, and that notion translates directly to what we’re learning about here: We need to understand this planning vocabulary well enough that we can go back and help our staff understand it
• There is less likelihood of building walls around turf if the turf rotates. This is true for managers as well as front-line staff
• Many library workers have such difficulty with change (as do many other humans, clearly). Are we all so focused on self-preservation above all else? If I had to change my job today do something different within the library, I would be okay with that. I would greet it as a challenge and would recognize that it wouldn’t be easy and I might be sad about letting go of some things, but I would look to what I could do to be awesome in my new role. I think I could be quite happy being a manager in any other department in my library. Is this weird?

I feel like my notes are less cohesive today, but I think it’s because I’m expending more mental energy putting things together now that we’re so deep in the boot camp material. I have that exciting feeling of being on the cusp of a new project.

Well, we’ve passed the halfway point in Boot Camp as Day 3 comes to a close. Once again thanks need to go out - thank you Holly Carroll and the Cleveland Public Library staff. They invited all of us to the main library downtown for a tour and a reception. I think we can all agree that when we are in different towns we love to visit other libraries! We love to see the buildings themselves - especially the architecture of buildings such as these two (the Main Library and the Louis Stokes Wing) as well as the inner workings of the libraries (including the handouts that I myself picked up and spied quite a few others doing the same!). Thanks also to Security Officer Otto for helping some of us to meet up with our group on the 10th floor - we’ll just say we had some elevator issues! Thank you too Linda Bostrom at PLA for doing a wonderful job organizing everything for the Boot Camp - compliments all the way around!

Yesterday afternoon we began talking about activities and continued the conversation today. Evaluation and of course resource allocation were a large part of our discussion today. To take from Nelson and Garcia’s Implementing for Results Tasks and Steps:

1. Set the Stage
2. Communicate Effectively
3. Identify Activities
4. Merge and Organize Activities
5. Evaluate Activities
6. Establish the Priority of Effective Activities
7. Identify Activities that Do Not Support the Library’s Goals
8. Identify Inefficient Activities and Steps
9. Decide How to Address Inefficient and Ineffective Activities
10. Assess Existing Resources
11. Identify Needed Resources
12. Select and Implement Activities
13. Monitor Implementation
14. Make Change the Norm

Hmm, sounds a little to me like Collection Development. We know it is not just selection and adding materials - collection development is just as much evaluating and weeding as buying new materials. We do not have an infinite amount of shelf space - we have to get rid of books to add books (the same thing my dad says about shirts in his closet!). Whether we want to admit it or not - we have to get rid of some activities in order to add new activities - sometimes we just have to pull the band-aid off!

Many thanks to Cuyahoga County Public Library and everyone involved in not only bringing David McCullough to Cleveland, but allowing us the privilege of attending. What a great night cap to another wonderful day of boot camp. As others have written about, yesterday was quite interesting. Another day chalked full of new information and a lot of notes! Many of us discussed how exhausted we were already - of course, exhausted in a good way! It’s not only the amount of information that we are absorbing, it’s the processing of that information and trying to figure out what we’re going to do when we get home. I always appreciate when folks remind me (thanks Sandra and June!) that we don’t have to do everything all at one time. I think so many of us want to implement everything we learn all at one time - we’re so energized after conferences and workshops that we want to do it all as soon as possible. David McCullough mentioned Ralph Waldo Emerson last night and the “ambition to excel”. I thought it was a very appropriate thought for the group attending boot camp this week - but I think we also have to remember, even in that quest to excel, we still have to take things one step at a time.

Today was a high-energy day for all of us attending Boot Camp. First on the easel was the question: How old can you be to get a library card without a parent’s signature? Out of 44 libraries polled, six said ages 12 or under, eighteen said ages 13-17, and twenty said 18 and over. I actually feel it should be under 18. If you are trying to provide an inviting place for teens, but don’t let them get a library card while they are there, that isn’t very inviting. However, to play the devil’s advocate, if my teen checked out a bunch of books and/or CDs, lost them, and I ended up being responsible (which I would be, of course) I wouldn’t be a happy camper. I’m sure libraries all over have gone around and around about this, and I’m pretty sure our system will not go below the magical age of 18, so I’ll move on….

Libraries that thrive in today’s world have strong leaders, have effective managers and supervisors, understand the difference between effectiveness and efficiency*, make data-based decisions, are market-driven, are early adaptors, and support and reward risk-takers.

*So what is the difference between effectiveness and efficiency you ask? You are asking, right? Well, effectiveness is “doing the right thing,” and efficiency is “doing the thing right.” This brings us to Sandra Nelson’s definition of the day: “Irrelevant Excellence: doing something very well that is unnecessary.”

Quote of the day: “We must have a user-oriented focus. This is not a choose-your-own-adventure profession!” (S. Nelson)

Timely website recommendation: www.pollster.com.

More later,

Reeba

One quick thing:

Earlier today, June Garcia mentioned a library director in Maryland who makes little wallet sized laminated cards with a visually clever diagram of important library statistics. Sort of like a stats ready reference or a cheat sheet. This director gives those cards to members of the board of trustees, so they always have them ready and available. I know that I thought this was brilliant, I thoguht I heard some other oooos and ahhhhs but I can’t find the note where I wrote this person’s name down. Maybe someone can help?

The blog post isn’t about me being disorganized though…. instead, I wanted to share with everyone one of my favorite free resources, Many Eyes. Its democratized data-visualizations so simple that a monkey can do it! (no offense meant to monkeys). Have a look, its a great tool for making confusing, grid style statistics more intuitive. Fun times.

I just returned from an exceptional talk given by David McCullough
at the Ohio Theater Playhouse Square. Thank you to Cuyahoga County
Public Library Foundation, The Plain Dealer, and all of the sponsors,
parties and partners involved. The attendees of the PLA Results
BootCamp were privileged to attend.

Nanette’s post does a great job of summing up the past couple of days
at BootCamp. There’s no question that all of us here are coming to
understand the growing pains that will be associated with creating a
strategic plan at our libraries. We were warned that there will be an
ugly side to it, and we got a sneak preview today when we debated and
beat to death one particular entrenched idea. It was a difficult,
gut-wrenching, and humorous argument.

All that aside, the one thing that I found my group and myself
struggling with today was using and understanding the new vocabulary
presented in Nelson and Garcia’s method. It is tricky: we are using
common words but redefining them with mathematical precision. To plan
properly, understanding the definition of and relationship between
steps, activities, objectives, and goals is crucial. As a group I
think we all finally ironed out those definitions and relationships
today. Coincidentally, McCullogh spoke about vocabulary tonight as
well, and, well, it got me to thinking….

McCullogh offered a wonderful anecdote about the vigor with which his
granddaughter devoured the Harry Potter books. He told us how one day
his granddaughter went out to the driveway and planted herself in the
seat of the family car because it was the only place where she could
find the necessary silence to read her book. How great is that?
“Forget all the gloom and doom talk about children not wanting to read
books any more”, said McCullogh. “Harry Potter proved that to be
untrue, and Harry Potter is NOT light reading. There are some big
words in there!”

McCullough’s point was that children want to be challenged as they
develop, and that new vocabulary words challenge their minds.
Development is all about pushing forward, trying to move ahead, to be
more, to be better, to be smarter. How many times have you seen a
little kid who wants to be younger than they are? It doesn’t happen!
This is why we call teens ‘young adults’. Try calling them ‘old
children’ and see how well that works out. If you hang up an ‘old
children’ sign in your library that space is more likely to fill with
toddlers than teens.

Understanding and embracing the vocabulary associated with developing
a strategic plan is analogous to the developmental process a child
goes through when they challenge themselves with difficult new reading
material. Planning is a big ol’ growth spurt for managers, directors,
and institutions willing to develop a type of organizational literacy.
Those who plan recognize that their libraries must strive to be
efficient in order to survive. All of our minds at BootCamp are ready
for the tough new definitions we are learning; we are all anxious to
grow and to teach when we return to our libraries. A shame we won’t
have the opportunity to do our learning in a quiet place, like
McCullough’s granddaughter.

More coming!

I don’t think I ever introduced myself…so here goes. My name is Nanette Donohue, and I’m the Technical Services Manager at the Champaign Public Library in Champaign, IL. I’m thrilled to be here in Cleveland at the Results Boot Camp, and even more thrilled to be blogging the event for PLA.

I’ve been in middle management for a little over five years now, and I’ve been through the strategic planning process once–when I was in my first year of employment. I have a reasonable handle on the basics, but am spending this week learning more about the details.

One thing I think that all librarians in libraries of all types can agree on is that we exist in an environment of constant change–technological, social, economic, you name it. Planning gives us an anchor in a world of constant and continual change, and a framework for responding to the changes we face. If that anchor is the difference between staying afloat and sinking into the shark-infested ocean, the choice is pretty clear!

Strategic planning is a user- and community-centered process. Our overarching goal is to focus our activities and services on the needs of people who use our libraries, not on what we as library staff feel like providing them. We may have to let go of some activities that don’t fit with our users’ needs, and that can be extremely uncomfortable. One of my tasks as a manager is to help my department understand the hows and whys behind the changes that will take place in our department once the plan is complete. We may not do things the way we’ve always done things–unless the way we’ve always done things is effectively helping the library meet its goals and objectives. Will this be difficult? Heck yeah, but that’s why I get paid the big bucks for being a manager.

The sheer discomfort and terror that some people experience when a change to the status quo is presented was illustrated beautifully by a group activity that we completed this afternoon. The scenario was simple: we were presented with a goal (Preschool children will develop a love of reading), three objectives to help us reach the goal (presenting programs, increasing circulation, and increasing satisfaction with the programs), and several activities that were currently in place in the department. Our job was to determine which of the activities that library staff were spending time on was directly related to the goal and objectives. (The point being: the strategic plan, and its goals and objectives, should guide the activities in an effective organization.)

The result of the activity: a lot of people with very deeply-entrenched ideas about what is important and what is not got very uncomfortable. Chaos ensued. I had no idea that so many people were so passionate about handcrafted puppets!

Lesson learned: if this is what a group of managers who presumably understand that library staff activities should support the goals and objectives of a strategic plan do with a hypothetical situation, working staff–some of whom are very entrenched in the status quo in the real world–through this process may be very, very difficult! Though the back-and-forth haggling over minor (and seemingly irrelevant details) about the necessity of handcrafted puppets quickly drove me batty (batty enough to create a Lolcat about it, actually), at least I know what danger lurks around the corner when I guide my department through the process of evaluating our current activities with brutal, vicious honesty.

One of the best things about an event like Boot Camp is the opportunity to meet people from other libraries. I’m a social animal (don’t believe the stereotypes about catalogers, at least not in my case!) and I enjoy talking to others. I have especially had a good time with Nate, Anne, and Claire, three of the other folks blogging this event. I think Nate has mentioned this already, but several of us are Twittering away during the event–recording Sandra’s bons mots, sharing our quickie opinions, and conducting informal chats. To follow the conversation on Twitter, search for #placamp08.

It’s been an eventful, exciting, and enlightening two days, and I’m looking forward to three more.

P.S. I want to be Sandra Nelson when I grow up. Planning is awesome. The thought of helping libraries with the strategic planning process–and writing books about it, too–fills me with glee.

Sandra Nelson’s no-bullshit approach is so refreshing. She is opinionated and is not shy about sharing. Whether I agree with everything she says or not, I dig the fact that someone in libraries is not afraid to say “this is the way it is” without an “if that’s okay with you” type of caveat.

When Sandra and June do this process as consultants, they do staff orientation before the process starts so that they can clearly communicate to staff that this process is about change, that when we’re done, your job will be different. You can choose to participate throughout the process or not, but your job will still be different when we’re done. If you participate, you will have a much better experience and some degree of input toward the change that is guaranteed to happen. In some libraries, staff morale is horrible and you can hardly make it worse. Regardless of your staff morale, if you worry more about the staff than the public, you have already failed.

Sandra was full of useful tips and pithy statements today:

• Your plan should sit in front of you every day and every decision you make, every thing you do, should be tied to the plan. It is the blueprint that drives what you’re doing. This isn’t that easy to achieve!
• To increase circulation, buy more of what people want and get rid of the crap!
• Efficiency is doing the thing right, effectiveness is doing the right thing. Effectiveness is more important.
• Building accountability into the organizational culture is essential. People can be held accountable in ANY environment. It may take work, sometimes a lot of it, but it is doable. If we can’t hold our staff accountable, we may as well just go shopping.
• Wherever you are in the organization/process, move the discussion from us to them (from the library to those we serve).
  
• Many of the organizational competencies apply to departments as well as the library as a whole and can be useful in departmental planning.
• We don’t get to do what we want to do, that’s why they call it work! This is not a choose your own adventure profession.
• It is our job as library staff to present a positive face to the public. If someone does not, they need to be written up and called on it every time you see the unacceptable behavior. Be unhappy on your own time - on the library’s time, we all smile.

People: if you are here in Cleveland and are attending the PLA Results BootCamp 4 and you have a unique story or a thought that HAS to be blogged about you can email nathanielhill at gmail dot com and I’ll do my best to edit it (so that it fits the PLA blog guidelines) and post it.  You are strongly encouraged to fit your thoughts into the comments part of any existing posts as well.

Also, you may have noticed a bunch of us frantically typing away during the event.  That is because we are on Twitter, talking, taking notes and making jokes as we go.  Follow all event Tweets by searching Twitter for the hashtag #placamp08, or click here for a link to the search.  Join in the fun!

Today was the first day of our boot camp and wows! It was intense from the get-go. They don’t call it boot camp for nothin’!

Sandra Nelson and June Garcia kicked things off by introducing themselves and providing some background information so we could get to know them a little better. Sandra is a trainer and likes clear-cut examples that are easy for people to learn from. June is an administrator and likes fuzzy examples that mimic real-life situations. They hope that they bring complementary viewpoints and set up a structured framework which will allow us to think clearly about our experiences and what we’re learning.

Attendees here represent 18 different states, are from small and large libraries, are directors and middle managers and front-line staff. About a third of us have been managers for less than five years, another third for more than fifteen years (I fit into the middle third). There are many people here from libraries that are in the midst of or about to undertake the strategic planning process. A number of these libraries are struggling with the effects of the economic downturn, with increased use and static space, and across the board, with change.

Sandra recommends looking at the data from the latest OCLC report (From Awareness to to Funding: A study of library support in America) which includes crucial information, such as that there is no correlation between heavy library use and library support (which means that some of our strongest supporters are not heavy library users). Supporters see us as transformational not transactional; they see our stories, not our statistics.

In many instances what your community wants and what your staff want to deliver are two different things and if the organization is being run for staff, there is a problem. We need to put our focus (and staff need to be on board here) on what our taxpayers want us to do for them. Planning has to start by engaging community leaders, not by creating a laundry list of what staff want to do. Ask library users what they want and they will say, “more,” which is not helpful in determining priorities. How do we get more useful direction? Take the discussion out of the library’s bubble and into the community. Talk about what the community needs and how the library fits in, how the library can be a partner. How do we fit into the bigger picture?

People who choose to work in libraries tend to value order, organization, structure, tradition, the printed word, knowledge, hardcover vs paperback, non-fiction vs fiction. Younger librarians are more technology-oriented but still have these same values. Librarians also tend not to be risk-takers. We must be willing to take risks in order to succeed.

In the future, organizations that do not excel will be crushed by the increasingly competitive environment - that includes libraries! Identify priorities, make choices, and do the things that you can do well. Look at the things you’re doing so-so and ask yourself if they should be continued (and if so what needs to happen to make them awesome?).

A lot of staff see a strategic plan as a project that once completed can be put on the shelf and forgotten about. That mindset will not work. They believe that after it’s complete, they can get back to their “real jobs” but making the strategic plan a reality IS our job. We need to use our framework (the strategic plan) to determine what we do. There is room for creativity and spontaneity IF it fits into the library’s priorities. As managers we should channel creativity in the directions we want to go, as defined by our strategic plan.

If you know what your priorities are (which you do when you have a plan), you can deal with good times and bad. You can look at new technologies and see if/how they fit in and how you can use them. The tools will change but the outcome must be your focus - it’s about end user services. Being responsive to the people who pay the bills is the key. Support your priorities with your resources; do not determine your priorities based on your resources. The power of the status quo can be overwhelming but waiting to do something new until new money arrives essentially means nothing new will happen. The strategic plan should drive the budget.

Sandra and June have a very no-nonsense approach that I think is crucial to an effective (and not insanity-inducing) strategic planning process. Every library and community is different and, as Sandra said, “the choices you make are your own.” The process they’re teaching us about will hopefully give us the framework to make those choices. Library strategic planning is not about the library, it’s about a vision for the community. The library is not the end, it’s the means to an end.

What Sandra and June had to say today fits right in with my philosophy of the library as a place for people, and I feel very lucky to be here learning about how to translate that philosophy into reality. I’m can’t wait to see what we learn about tomorrow.