PLA Blog

Hi! My name is Steve Butzel, and I am head of the reference department and the library webmaster at the Nashua Public Library in Nashua, NH. I am also the coordinator of our library’s reference desk blog. This is my first time attending ALA Midwinter, and all I can say is that I have been completely overwhelmed. Actually, I am glad to say that after floundering for the past few days I am beginning to feel like a competent conference attendee after all.

I’ve been attending a mixture of different events, some PLA-related and others not. When attending a non-PLA event, I am consistently greeted with great enthusiasm when the librarians discover that I work at a public library and am interested in getting involved. Perhaps some of us public librarians should think about expanding our reach beyond PLA groups. Just a thought from a newbie.

Some of the meetings I’ve been to include the “Podcast U” pre-conference, the newly formed LITA technology for public libraries interest group and the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) meeting today on the topic of working with millenials. By the way, I joined some of the LIRT officers yesterday for lunch and had a great time. I highly recommend taking advantage of such structured/pre-planned opportunities to meet new colleagues. It takes a lot of the discomfort out of meeting new people.

More thoughts later…

I had the opportunity to conduct a delightful, insightful, and entertaining interview this afternoon with David Pogue, New York Times columnist and blogger, Emmy-winning CBS news correspondent, and author of Windows Vista: The Missing Manual. My many thanks to David for taking the time to speak with me, and to his publicist Sara Peyton with O’Reilly Media for helping to arrange for the interview.

This was, hands down, the most interesting, humorous, and problem-laden interview I’ve done thus far, party funny ha-ha, part funny uh-oh. At first, it seemed that technology was conspiring against us. The battery in the digital voice recorder, that was fine earlier, was now dead. The microphone, that worked when tested, wouldn’t budge. Can’t do an interview without recording, right? But that’s OK, we can totally figure it out alright!

And then even further hilarity ensued, resulting in David’s funny jab at the interview as the “podcast from hell,” even though fun was had by all. ;D

Not to be thwarted by cranky technology, we tried recording directly through my laptop, but I think I’m still missing a few drivers (I’m rebuilding my computer from factory defaults, long, *painful* story), and the mic was still unhappy, so that didn’t work well.

David, one of the most patient and cooperative interviewees ever, offers up his Mac, which can run both Windows Vista Ultimate and Mac OS X (separately, not at the same time), for our recording needs. He tried Windows Vista, but the mic wouldn’t work, so he tried his mic, and that wouldn’t work either. Then he tried the Mac OS, and neither mic would work, so we ended up talking directly into the built-in mic just above the screen. Talk about cooperative, creative problem solving!

Near the beginning and middle of the interview, you will notice a very strange sound in the background. This was the world taking a turn at trying to thwart us with the sound of baloons being inflated with helium, making it sound like David has some sort of breathing problems.

At around 3pm, ended the interview with just in time for David to get to the Hilton for his presentation, and for me to post the podcast before hitting his session about 4pm. However, when I went to upload the file and post, it appeared that the site was down (we know now it wasn’t, and are trying to resolve the issue). My many apologies to Sara and David for the delay in posting, and for missing the 4pm session, I was so looking forward to it!

However, in the end, we triumphed over adversity. Enjoy this podcast, chock-full of information about the positive and negative aspects of Windows Vista, a small bit on the new iPhone, and so much more. Thank you again to Kathleen Hughes and Sara Peyton, as well as to the wonderul and funny David Pogue for such a good time!

 

 PLA Blog: Interview with David Pogue [21:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1085)

So you may notice that the blog has been conspicuously empty today. That’s because all of us here at the conference thought the server was down because we couldn’t access it. Turns out, it seems like the conference center firewall is blocking all sorts of LISHost stuff (I’m using hotel wifi at the Westin Seattle)”, which is decidedly not good. I’ll inquire about it with ALA staff tomorrow, but in the meantime, we apologize for the “radio silence,” and will return you to your regularly-scheduled crazy conference readings until it’s all better again.

My sister gave me the lowdown: Her company [*] has been, on occasion, a vendor at A.L.A. national meetings, and because she’s cute and blonde and can really throw down the charm, she gets the job of manning their booth.

Smile! Smile! Smile!

And have a hook.

Well, I didn’t bring the stuff I take to street fairs and high schools: the face-painting kit, the temporary tattoos, the “custom” badge-maker, but I did bring a WIFI-enabled laptop. The day before I’d spent my kid’s [*] naptime yesterday studying the A.L.A. Midwinter Wiki, focusing on vendor locations, events, local stuff…

Hey there Sailor Library Conference Attendee! Looking for a good information source!

I’d be Library Lass: the Info-Booth Babe! (I also brought double-dark chocolate brownies because, hello? Librarians.)

Or yanno: Not. Because you’ve got to pay the extra tarif to get the “access the ‘net from your booth” and ah. We didn’t. Whoops! Soooo disappointing, but these are the Big Leagues, and you get what you pay for. Shoulda-oughta read the fine print.

Bad booth librarian. No bikkie.

Anyhoo, the idea here is to “blog the booth,” not gab on about my geek-gal aspirations (Batgirl, anyone?)

I relieved Elizabeth Iukee (Washington State Library) and Elena Bianco (Shoreline Community College) who had the first shift of the day, and they brought me up to speed. What we had to share, how busy it got (not terribly). Don Willis (Seattle Public) was my partner for the 11am to 1pm slot.

Right off the bat, we got the “why we should have a booth at A.L.A. Midwinter” poster child: a young man considering working here in the Pacific Northwest. He loves Seattle, had heard good things about our progressive and vibrant libraries (Yeah. Yeah. I know. But cynicism is over-rated and my grandma always told me: send your flowers to the living while they can enjoy ‘em). He wanted to know what the job opportunities were like and how we could help him with his professional growth. He took literature, not schwag.

And then, of course, the next half-dozen people were our fellow booth-staffers, checking to be sure they could actually find the booth. Wise move: Our number block is split three ways; embedded in the North, South and middle alley of the exhibitor’s space.

I also met Jim Agee, who gave me permission to tell folks about his new Wordpress blog, EditThis! If you’re an editor of a State Library Association Journal, as Mr. Agee is of Colorado Libraries, or Margaret Thomas is of W.L.A.’s Alki, drop him a line at jimageee (at) unco (dot) edu.

More local librarians dropped by the booth to chat, and Don and I used the time to square away things a bit (Note: I am conspicuously not mentioning any of our give-aways even though that means I cannot explain why there’s a guy out there who can say, “I’m not a David, but I play one on Library Promotional Materials.” But I digress.) including Tim Mallory of Timberland Regional Library, who got our hopes up by asking for informational materials by the boat-load and then fell about laughing. Psych!

On the other hand, Mr. Mallory did stay to chat about his plans to work the exhibits: Drumming up vendor participants for the 2007 W.L.A. Conference in the Tri-Cities area. An amusing guy: He reminded me that I could be using my booth time to recruit for the Society Gaius Julius Solinus v. Washingtonius which meets annually at the W.L.A. convention.

But I chickened out: It’s tough enough being CheerfulBob EnthusiasmPants. In the end, I only pestered my fellow-booth-babe about his paper. Had he got one ready to present? Of course not (neither do I). Of course, being such an ancient and prestigious institution, Solinus only accepts papers no later than five minutes prior to the Call to Order. So no worries…

Another customer–? No, just someone willing to risk the vendor-spiel to smile at us. This is kind of fun, even if I can’t wear my Library Lass Cape.

Part two: Avoiding Eye Contact 101: Blogging the Booth, Noon to 1 pm, tomorrow!

Because hey. This is A-friggin-L-A national convention and there’s a lot to do besides sitting in the Internet Cafe blogging!

* * * *

[*] No. I cannot tell you what company that is. P.L.A. is v. specific about that kind of conflict-of-interest thing. But! And! If you suspect that you’ll wonder ’til it drives you mad, contact me as Joe Private Citizen (carbonelle (at) juno (dot) com) and I’ll bend your ear about the wonderfulness of my kid sister and her Super Swell Company.

I can also go on at length about my toddler, if you’re into that kind of thing. With cute pictures even!

From the ALA Washington Office Update —

While we know from our local elections and the national news that there is a new Congress, the speaker, D’Arcy Philps from Van Scoyoc Associates, assured us that there really is new sense of determination in Washington. The House met their first 100-hour commitment passing six high profile pieces of legislation. If you count the actual floor hours that it took, then they accomplished their work in 47 hours!

Attention on the 2008 presidential election is building. There is an urgency to get things accomplished because any work that has not been concluded by October will probably be left undone as the field of presidential candidates grows and campaigning begins in earnest for all the House seats and 1/3 of the Senate.

The previous Congress never completed the appropriation 2007 bill. They are seriously considering just using 2006 budget amounts to quickly complete a ‘07 budget. Any agency with proposed cuts will be happy but it will not good for LSTA. As library supporters were successful in lobbying Congress for a proposed increase in what was the unsuccessful 2007 budget, this will be lost if the amounts really do roll back to the 2006 levels.

Proposed changes to No Child Left Behind have an emphasis on strengthening school library media centers. There are a lot of opponents of NCLB. If quick action is not successful to reform NCLB, then this too will fall by the wayside as we move into the ’08 presidential election cycle.

The study of Library Networks, Cooperatives, and Consortia (LNCC), an ASCLA research project, hopes to establish baseline information from around the country on the structure and purpose of library cooperatives. During ALA’s Midwinter Conference, the project research specialists shared a very preliminary report based on survey responses. Some of the results were expected. For example: public libraries constitute the greatest percentage of consortium members around the country, with resource sharing being the most basic service. Other responses, at least at this time, raised eyebrows and will need additional investigation.

As library staff continue to seek effective partnering arrangements with other community libraries, the final report of this IMLS funded study should prove useful in suggesting alternative approaches to future ventures. Back at home in Minnesota, a number of library organizations are undertaking in-depth structure studies. The LNCC study and the supporting research will be very valuable as work progresses.

Before I begin my post on The Complex Edifice I’d like to briefly introduce myself.  My name is Beth and I am the Public Affairs Officer at the Detroit Public Library.  I work with administration on system-wide projects and community outreach.
William Sannwald presented a great pre-conference on building library buildings.  He provided excellent information about determining if a building project is needed, the process of building a library, managing the project and working with architects and designers.  While too much information was presented to post here there were a few ideas that sparked my interest.

One constant theme was integrating current technology and preparing for the technology of the future.  Many libraries struggle with adding technology to libraries built 20, 50, and even 70 years ago, including many of the libraries in my system in Detroit.  Libraries can be built to hide wires under floors and in walls but are they being built to prepare for the wireless world?  Will plugs be needed in the future or will power become wireless too.  Joe Agati, of Agati Furniture brought up this idea in terms of furniture.  While plugs imbedded in tables and desks are helpful for today’s users will they become unnecessary in 20 years?

Collaborative spaces are a newer focus in library design.  For many users flexible spaces add great value to the library.  Flexible spaces with moveable furniture and large computer tables meant for groups are moving the library away from the traditional model of quiet, solitary study and embracing new work styles.  This strikes me as particularly important for academic libraries and libraries with large teen populations.

Finally, the idea of library as place ran throughout the workshop.  Building inviting, friendly spaces is a key to a successful building project.  William made the point that the library knows a building project was successful if the building is well used and loved by the community a year later.

Hi y’all! I’m Anne, a children’s/teen librarian with Jacksonville (FL) Public Library. I came in yesterday afternoon after my long flight cross-country. I’ve never been to the West Coast before, and I’m still getting used to the 3-hour time difference! Today my roommate Jen Cella and I toured Seattle. We went on the Ride the Ducks tour - a fun land/sea tour. I highly recommend it, just dress warmly! We also went to the Pike Place Market; we watched the fish tossing and had coffee at the first Starbucks.

Tomorrow the conference begins, so I’ll be writing about my PLA committee meeting and other relevant events.

Library Strategies is a new consulting service formed under the auspices of The Friends of the St. Paul Library. A December 28 press release announced the new service and ALA members will enjoy a Midwinter Conference introduction at a reception on Saturday, January 20, 6-8 pm at the Hilton Seattle, Suite 2615. Library Hotline carried a front-page article in the January 8 issue including comments from Sue Hall, Library Strategies Coordinator, and FOLUSA Executive Director, Sally Reed.

Drawing from diverse skills and background, the Library Strategies’ consultants will assist public libraries, as well as libraries of all types in exploring and expanding purposeful future endeavors. Core services include:

• Advocacy Training
• Board & Leadership Development
• Executive Search
• Friends & Foundation Relationships
• Fundraising
• Market Research & Needs Assessment
• Marketing & Public Relations
• Organizational Development
• Publications & Graphic Design
• Strategic Planning
• Technology Planning

Initially posted on SELCO Librarian

We have a crew of bloggers all set to blog the ALA Midwinter 2007 meeting in Seattle, Washington starting sometime today.  If you have requests for coverage, leave  comment on this post, and we’ll see what we can do.

While we do have an intrepid volunteer who has agreed to blog the LAMA Midwinter Institute “The Complex Edifice,” we are still in search of other bloggers to cover the other institutes on Friday.  If you would like to share your brief notes on a session after the conference is over, send us and email by Wednesday, January 24, and we can arrange to post a selection of notes from the different institutes.

Also of interest to physical and virtual conference attendees will be the PLA Service Responses Discussion on Sunday, January 22 from 1:30 - 3:30pm PT in Room 608-609 of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.  If you are attending this session, we encourage you to visit the blog afterwards and post your comments on specific service response drafts here on the blog.  For a full list of the current new drafts, visit the PLA Service Responses Discussion Index, and take a look at the Round 2 section.

There’s already so much to talk about, and we haven’t even gotten there yet!  Perhaps during my layover on the way to Seattle (my flight departs Boston at 6a ET) I can squeeze in a post or two…