PLA Blog

You can watch the video of Garrison Keillor’s (*overflowing*) session on the importance of public libraries on BookTV.com (requires RealPlayer installed to view). Just click on the Watch button above Garrison’s picture on the upper right to view the video, which is just under 1 hour.

Unfortunately, I don’t see an online video of the aforementioned PLA program that was broadcast on July 28.

However, you can watch another ALA 2007-related broadcast on Book TV on Sunday, August 12 at 9:40 am, when Craig O’Hara will discuss “the mission and publications of AK Press, a self-described ‘anarchist’ press.”

You might also be interested in the Book TV After Words and Encore Booknotes video archives.

On Sunday, June 24, I attended the program “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: Every BOY Ready to Read @ Your Library,” presented by Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. He explained the gender differences between boys and girls and how we could use this in our storytimes. A few highlights from his Powerpoint presentation:

•Gender gap
-Between 1980-2004, gender gap of leisure-time reading
-1 in 10 boys now reads for fun
-Gender gap has become a chasm (“…a marker of gender identity: girls read, boys don’t.” –Bauerlein & Stotsky 2005, Bauerlein 2007)

•Sex differences in brain development (Harriet Hanlon, et al. 1999)
-studied 224 girls, 284 boys, ages 2 months to 16 years
-fine motor skills and language : girls develop faster
-gross motor skills, spatial memory, visual targeting : boys develop faster

•Learning styles
-Boys listen better when they are standing (rather than sitting – “their brains shut off”)
-Most young girls learn better when sitting
-Does not mean there is a difference in rank (or abilities)
-Boys are taught to sit still in school like the girls (so then school = girly … why they hate it)
-Best temperature to learn: 60 degrees boys, 75 degrees girls (children and young adults for normal size) – 6 degrees of separation

•Extraneous noise (Colin, Elliot and assoc.)
-Bother girls and women at sound levels 10 to 40x lower than boys/,men
-Girls are aware of what’s going on around them
-90-92% of boys not bothered by noise

•Storytime
-Offer Noisy Time Story Time (and Quiet Time Story Time)
-Noisy:
-Turn the thermostat down
-Seats are optional (bean bag chairs?) – boys love to crouch
-Rule: No hitting, can’t disturb others
-Choose stories boys enjoy (Watch out for “demand characteristics” – what’s the right choice?)
-Allow buzzing/tapping/clicking

For more information, visit Dr. Sax’s website: www.boysadrift.com (same title as his new book, being published in August 2007)

ALA Session held Monday 1:30-3:30

OK, I’ll be honest and say that although I found the summary of this program enticing, I wasn’t sure if I’d spend the whole time at the session. It appeared to have an academic focus, and come on - it’s technical services and I am SO not a technical services kinda gal, so I staked out a seat close to the door so I could make a quick, unnoticed getaway if necessary.

It wasn’t necessary. This session grabbed my interest, piqued my interest, and held my interest for the duration. This was due to some great presenters -all of whom approached the topic differently, but with equal levels of engaging style. I’ve located copies of all slides used, and you can access them here.

The session began with Matt Barnes, a consultant with R2 consulting. He was throwing out ideas and applications left and right - and I was wishing I’d taken shorthand at some point in my life. Sure, he touched on the usual concepts like Wikis, tagging, and mashups - then followed these with more exotic (at least to me) things as the new “Geotagging” phenomenon, the Croquet Consortium, IBM’s Web Fountain and web outsourcing using the overwhelmingly amazing/cool/can’t really even get my head around how innovative Amazon Mechanical Turk Wow, wow, and wow. Other Matt nuggets:
- (re: OCLC OpenWorldcat) “Don’t get stuck thinking the only devide is the PC. Think cell phone, PDA, iPod, etc.
- 2.0 isn’t just about deploying new technology. Use Web 2.0 to solve problems based on your mission and goals
- There isn’t a final solution or correct answer - only continuous change. (Preach it, brother!)

Next up was Beth Picknally-Camden, who reported on the University of Pennsylvania’s successful “PennTags” program. The folks there created their own social bookmarking tool for their students and faculty to use. This allows them to tag catalog records and articles, and to create annotations. Beth said that in addition to the benefits of sharing and collaborating, she saw this as an excellent way to reinforce the “playing to learn” concept that is so important to web 2.0 tools (and is so undervalued in many of our organizations, I feel). She also learned very quickly that “people are watching” - meaning that she was encouraged to contribute because of the responses and connections her own contributions were making in others’ contributions. They use a tag cloud to highlight the popular tags. You need to have a “Pennkey” to contribute, but anyone can observe. Check it out at: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/

The final presenter was Elizabeth Winter, from Georgia Tech. She began her session with a slide that stated: PLAY v. PRODUCTIVITY. She then asked:

What if playing with new technologies was increasing our productivity? She also asserted that it’s OK to throw something out to “see if it sticks”. (Say it again, sister)
She then told us about their recent “see if it sticks” pilot - a GTJournals wiki. Using the easy and free pbwiki web tool, the folks at Georgia Tech set out to find a way to accomplish their goals of: cutting down on email volume, allowing all staff to share and get involved in a “common area”, track their progress, and avoid duplication of effort - relating to changes and cancellations of their many journals. They’ve locked it down, because they are including pricing and other sensitive informaiton, but you can see screen shots of their wiki in Elizabeth’s slide presentation here

An excellent presentation that sparked more than a few ideas in my “public librarian” head. Thanks academic folks!

This Sunday afternoon program was intended as a follow-up for individuals who had participated in Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach workshops. Although I was not one of those lucky few, I decided to attend the session to learn more about it, and I am very glad I did, as the information provided could be useful to any librarian who hopes to work in a diverse community.

Yolanda Cuesta presented the first segment of the program on marketing to Spanish speakers. Yolanda’s advice was practical and very useful:

- Work with community leaders to start the needs assessment for the community; try to create a personal connection so that you will come to be trusted in the community. It is very important in this community to establish personal relationships and rely more on personal contact via phone or in person, since email or mass mailings may not be as relevant in this culture.
- Develop the “library as a brand that is culturally relevant”; a place that provides services that the community needs and wants-a place for getting help, for entertainment and fun, for learning, and for family activities- vs. the traditional promotion of the library as a provider of books and information resources.
- In the first marketing stage, translate the library card application and basic brochures into Spanish. Jump right into marketing, without over thinking it: send press releases to Spanish media outlets and start to participate in community events, where you can hand out information about the library and meet more of the leaders.
- In the second stage, start to realize the differences within the community itself, including age, country of origin, degrees of acculturation, and marital status. These factors all have a great impact on the services you provide and how they should be marketed. Also during this stage, start adapting traditional library services, such as story hours or computer classes, for the Spanish speaking community, and begin to experiment with marketing at local gathering spots such as grocery stores or pharmacies. Additionally, you should never undervalue the importance of word-of-mouth marketing.
- The third marketing stage follows a more holistic approach, where you look at the entire library and the Hispanic community in more depth, deciding which specific segments of the community you would like to target. It is hard to make this decision, since selecting one segment means you will not reach everyone, but these are necessary (hard) choices that will help the services grow well and target the marketing more specifically. During this stage, the library should also try to increase its presence in the community by organizing community events such as Dia de los niños.
- Once you have completed this process, you can start over, targeting a different portion of the community: look and learn who makes up the community, determine their needs and develop a program. It is important to keep the process going and not neglect it after the first try, as continuity is an important factor for establishing trust in the community. As the projects progress, continue to make inroads with community leaders to get a better understanding and form partnerships.

The session continued with a few stories from individuals who had participated in the workshop and the way they applied the training to their libraries. John Tull from Wallens Ridge State Prison in Virginia described the progress he has made at his prison library, including the translation of signs and procedural documents into Spanish and collaboration with the ESOL classes. Previous program participants then broke up into discussion groups to brainstorm about their different outreach projects.

To learn more about the workshops and find materials about the topic, visit Webjunction’s Spanish Outreach page: http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=10555

(I came into this program a little bit late, so I missed the introduction and the first few stories)

I had read an article about this program from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in my Literacy for Special Population course last Fall at Simmons College, so I was curious to hear more and decided to attend this Sunday morning program.

Prime Time is a family literacy program comprised of 6 to 8 week sessions with reading, discussion and storytelling at public libraries and other locations. Each session involves the reading of a few books by a professional storyteller, followed by a discussion led by a “scholar” (usually a university professor). Librarians have the opportunity to market library resources to the program participants during each session. The books are selected for their multicultural representations and the opportunities they offer for discussions of humanities topics.

The program was started in Louisiana in 1991, but has since spread across many other states thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and support from ALA. Librarians who plan to implement Prime Time at their library participate in an intense training session in New Orleans several times a year.

During the conference session, we heard stories from a number of librarians who have planned Prime Time at their libraries. Sue Warner from Kalamzoo City Public Library and other librarians from across the U.S. shared their experiences, the ways they made the program work for their community, and their passion for this wonderful program. They all emphasized that this program requires a great deal of planning and is not cheap, but that the rewards are immeasurable.

Prime Time has applied for more funding for 2008 and hopes to support more libraries in the upcoming year both through training and through funding the first series of programming. Check out the ALA site in late August/early September for more information about available grants for Prime Time. For more information about the program see their web site: http://www.leh.org/html/primetime.html

This very informative program  on Saturday morning was sponsored by Reforma, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking.

Carrie Banks, director of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs discussed staff training for working with Spanish speakers with disabilities.

Issues to be aware of when working with Spanish speakers with disabilities include:
- The importance of both language competency (i.e. speaking the language of the patron) and cultural competency (i.e. being familiar with the patron’s culture).
- Problematic attitudes on the part of library staff are generally related to one of the following factors: fear (of contagion, the different, or the unknown), sympathy and pity, avoidance, repulsion, or over-protection. Some of these may be uncontrollable feelings, but you must never display them outwardly.
- In the Spanish speaking communities there are additional factors that greatly affect individuals with disabilities: the idea of “aguante” (in Spanish “getting through”), the centrality and dependence on the family, and certain religious beliefs (which may view a disability as either a blessing or a curse). Also, some disabilities are culturally more acceptable than others, including physical (such as loss of limbs) or blindness, while others, such as mental or emotional disabilities, are viewed more negatively.
- Many Spanish speaking adults have physical disabilities because of work accidents; unfortunately, Spanish-speaking adults with disabilities have the highest rate of unemployment and the least success with rehabilitation, mostly due to the lack of focus on the family as part of the rehabilitation process.
- Few Spanish speaking individuals with disabilities belong to organizations or support groups because of language barriers.
- Immigration status is another big issue, as many don’t ask for help or attend meetings because of fear of deportation.
- When speaking of people with disabilities in English, the person always comes first and the disability second (for example a man with a disability, not a disabled man). In Spanish it may different, depending on the country of origin. The terms “necesidades especiales” have generally been acceptable.
- When planning service for this population, look to partner with organizations that support the Spanish speaking community, since they already have the language and cultural competences, and help them to extend their services to individuals with disabilities.
- Market your services and do outreach through nontraditional organizations, including daycare, churches, pharmacies, hospitals, detention centers and shelters.

Loida Febo Garcia from the Queens Public Library spoke on the subject of collection development for this patron population. Unfortunately, there are limited printed resources, although there are currently a number of good web sites with Spanish language information produced by different non-profit and governmental organizations.

The basic guidelines for collection development for Spanish speakers with disabilities are:
- Look for the same materials in Spanish as those published in English, making sure that there is material available for different ages
- Facilitate access to information by purchasing materials in different formats like Braille, descriptive DVD’s, etc.; these materials should mirror the books in the regular collection
- Utilize Library of Congress’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to supplement collection.
Books for children with disabilities should follow the basic criteria for children’s literature, with a few additional points:
- no stereotypes
- no “special children” represented, but rather, normal children with a special trait
- no stories about overcoming disability
- disability portrayed as only one characteristic of child
- interactions between children with and without disabilities
- attempt to help change the attitudes of people without disabilities
- no sentimentality

To improve the situation and raise awareness of this patron population, librarians should push publishers to publish more and improve the choices available. One way to do this is to buy the materials that do currently exist. They also need to share information with the publishers regarding who are their users and what are their needs. Lastly, librarians should become more active and publish articles and blogs on the topic.

The last portion of the program was a presentation by students from the University of Puerto Rico’s Library and Information Science program at the Rio Piedras campus. Elizabeth Rivera and Cindy Jimenez described the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program’s Information Center, which although based on the University campus, provides resources and services to the general public. The goal of this center was to increase access to assistive technology, and it offers training, consultation, evaluation, and technical support to all. For more information about the center, see http://www.pratp.upr.edu

For the second year in a row I attended this great program organized by ALA ’s Office for Diversity. - “a celebration of the written and spoken word, lyrics, and song.” The premise is basic: bring together authors, poets, musicians, and dancers to provide a sampler of local talent and a range of perspectives about the town where the conference is held and other cultures. I found it to be the perfect start to the conference last year, and I early-on decided that I would not miss this year’s program. This time around the program was less politically charged than post-Katrina New Orleans, but there were still many unique voices:

-Program MC Jose Aponte, director of the San Diego County Library system, peppered the program with lively banter and library-related words of wisdom, emphasizing our duty as librarians to nurture and reconstruct our communities and make “our house”, the library, open to all ideas. He added that it is our role as librarians to support the next generation of writers, through “discipline, focus, legacy”.

-Da Grewp, a Washington DC band, played “Go-Go” music, D.C.’s version of funk.

- Nancy Garden read an abridged version of her contribution to the collection Hear Us Out! Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, which includes stories from different historical eras of the GLBT movement.

- Patrice Gaines described words as “magic” in her story, “In the Beginning There was a Word”, meant to encourage young people to read and explore the world of libraries.

-Anosh Irani brought a taste of India to the room with an excerpt from his new book The Song of Kahunsha.

- Reginald Harris painted a portrait of the “magic city” with his poems about Baltimore.

- C.M. Mayo read an excerpt from her collection of stories about her adventures in Baja California, the other Mexico.

- The Ishangi Family African Dancers performed their wonderful family dances to the playing of drums, reminding the audience that “life is life”, regardless of hardships or joys.

- E. Ethelbert Miller “informed, inspired, and entertained” (per Aponte) with his poems from Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth.

- Mary Kay Ricks read from her upcomng book Escape on the Pearl: the Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad.

- Tim Tingle told us to the beat of a drum that “words bring spirit to a place”. He recounted storiespassed down from grandparents, and reminded everyone to “keep our eyes on where we are going, and not on the bloody footprints of the past.”

- The talented young writers of DC WritersCorp read from pieces they had written with their interpretations of characters from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

I attended the Programming Not Just for Boomers: Programming and Services program on Saturday, June 23. The program was aimed at adult programs for patrons 70+ years old.

A few highlights:
•Take an “old” idea and put a new spin on it, such as…
oBasic computer training (introduction to internet)
oHow to buy tickets online
oHow to email kids and grandkids (and set up an email account)
oTrain seniors in new technology (blogs, etc.)
oHow to use digital photography
oGaming – Wii festival and tournaments
oSocial networking (Seniornet or Eons) (http://www.seniornet.org / http://www.eons.com/)

•Other ideas:
oFilm and book discussions
oMovement: basic exercise, dance
o2nd careers, resumes for 70+ group
oFinancial security, recently retired
oFilm program, e.g. A Miss Marple film theme
oConsumer health
oLocal history
oGenealogy- create a genealogy club, teach online resources
oNostalgia programming
oOld basics: creating writing (could also use with blogs), poetry (open house program @ library)
oBiggest draw: music!
oGrandparents raising grandkids
oPrograms on coping with loss
oOther ideas: http://www.libraryolderadults.blogspot.com/

•Programs should be:
oEngaging, interactive
oAllow people to share, discuss, reminisce (they like what’s familiar)
oGet people involved, use their mental capabilities (helps keep them young)
oServe refreshments (this works with people of all ages!)

•Programming needs a gender balance (not just for women)

•Marketing
otraditional (print, papers)
oreceipt printers
oflyers, calendars, newsletters in library
ochurch bulletins
othis is the last generation that is print-oriented

As promised!

This year PLA awarded nine public libraries with grants of $8,000 each (originally announced in February 2007) - to be distributed to staff members working to obtain a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science:

• Dallas (Texas) Public Library
• Palm Beach County (Fla.)Library System
• Chesterfield County (Va.) Public Library
• Hall County (Ga.) Library System
• Daviess County (Ky.) Public Library
• Northwest Regional Library (N.D.)
• Dunham (N.Y.) Public library
• Decorah (Iowa) Public library
• Upper Skagit (Wash.) Library District

Congratulations to all our winners!

Jed Moffitt of the King County LIbrary System began the PLA-sponsored Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog with family stories that somehow led to a disclosure that the topic of social software in libraries is not so cutting-edge as it was eighteen months ago when the topic was chosen for the American Library Association Summer 2007 conference. The topic has matured a bit. He thought it was still worth discussing. The overflow crowd agreed.

At this “late date” in social software, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County has already reached its second generation in training programs. Matt Gullett, the Emerging Technologies Librarian for PLCMC, described the library’s online tutorial series Learning 2.0. He invited all libraries to use what his library has created. PLCMC generally gave staff nine weeks to complete the tutorial in a voluntary program, but other libraries can take as long as they want. Gullett said the key is to be flexible and let staff learn at their pace.

The objectives behind the PLCMC effort are as follows, according to Gullett:

expose staff to tools
encourage them to play
empower individuals
expand their knowledge
eliminate their fears

PLCMC now has debuted its follow-up Learning 2.1, which is more self-directed learning. Gullett says that the results of staff training is a change in the work culture and the form of his library’s organization is changing. The new departments in the library are 1) community engagement, 2) library experiences, 3) organizational resources, and 4) research, innovation, and strategy.

Librarians in virtual worlds were the focus of Alliance Library System’s Tom Peters. Peters has been involved in Second Life for over a year. His avatar is based on his dog’s name (one of the references back to the title in this program).

Peters said that there are now at least 500 virtual worlds online. He said they are not games in the strictest sense of the term. They are alternate lives. Because many clients are going there, libraries should, too. Alliance Library System has created Info Island in Second Life and is providing services to participants in the virtual universe.

Peters thinks that libraries in a virtual world are great for answering reference inquiries, linking to digital collections, creating interesting exhibits, and running book discussions or other event programs. Libraries can design buildings that defy physics in their innovative service of clients in Second Life.

Transforming the online catalog for the Ann Arbor Public Library into social software is the trick for which John Blyberg won awards. With its tagging, reviews, ratings, and comments, the catalog has now become a community footprint and portal to the library. The catalog even has a tool for generating old catalog cards with comments written on them. So far the features have been most used by teens, as shown by the number of ratings for teen books.

Blyberg said the code for adding these features is free for other libraries to use, though it is not “plug and play.” He cautioned that libraries may want to find ways to “prime the pump” on the social features by getting a group of clients to use them to attract more general use.

In the little time that was left her, Meredith Farkas spoke about the use of wikis and blogs by public libraries. She found that wikis are well-designed for creating community knowledge bases. They foster contributions from individuals who join the community and are keyword searchable. She recommended that libraries go to Wiki Matrix to find comparisons of the competing software.

Farkas also showed examples of how libraries and businesses have used blogs to keep clients informed. In the case of Southwest Airlines, its public blog actually became an agent of service change, as clients expressed themselves through comments.

At the end of the formal presentation, the audience had many questions about applications of social software. The topic may not be so old-hat as Moffitt thought.