PLA Blog

On Friday, March 2, 2007, about 55 people delayed the consumption of a well-earned dinner after a long day of learnin’ to attend my presentation on wikis and the PLWiki project. You can listen to the podcast of that presentation, attached to this post. You can also download the Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file of the presentation, “The Wikipedia of Public Libraries: A quickie wiki primer, the PLWiki Project, and You,” and follow along (requires Adobe Reader).

At the presentation, I promised I would post a link to the original post, A wiki for public libraries: your feedback requested (posted 1/29/2007), which includes the original idea for the project and links to wikis librarians should know about, plus the 4 big questions we have for everyone:

• As a public librarian, a graduate student, a patron, an administrator, a friend of the library, or even just an onlooker, seeking information specifically about public libraries and librarians, what would you be looking for in an encyclopedia/almanac/pathfinder/ of public librarianship?
• What kind of information about public libraries and librarianship would you seek that you can’t readily get your hands on right now?
• What about Wikipedia, which is powered by the MediaWiki software, do you like or dislike? Is it easy or hard to use? What do you think would be better?
• What about Wikipedia, as an editable encyclopedia where you can search, navigate, and edit content, do you like or dislike? We’re looking for comments on the layout and usability, and not a discussion of judgments about Wikipedia itself.

We still need your feedback! Please feel free to post your answers (and anything else you want to share about the project) as a comment on this post, or email us with your thoughts. We’ll keep you posted as the project progresses!

 

 Standard Podcast [55:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (435)

Many thanks to Po Bronson for giving us the permission to podcast his presentation at the 2007 PLA Spring Symposium Author Luncheon!

After a brief introduction from PLA president Susan Hildreth. The author of What Should I Do With My Life? and Why Do I Love These People? spoke about recent research in child learning and self esteem (you can read more about it in his New York Times article and on his blog) and how it pertains to librarians, inspirational stories from his childhood and his travels, his family’s 45 books per month library habit, and so much more.

Have a listen, and feel free to add your feedback about the presentation by posting a comment here.

 

 PLA Blog: Po Bronson, 2007 Spring Symposium Author Luncheon [56:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (253)

I am attending Karen Hyman’s morning session on customer service and the customer-centered library. She is a fantastic presenter full of deadpan humor and insight. Everyone here she pointed out is an expert on customer service because everyone is a customer. THINK LIKE CUSTOMERS! It is so natural to look at other models and so far Karen has pointed out doctor’s offices, airlines, emergency rooms, the insurance industry… So step one in becoming the customer-centered library is caring, however, caring is not easy. Administrators need to offer support and rewards for caring. Like laughing- even when we fake caring- we get the same endorphins as the real thing. Curiosity is the touchstone. “Wouldn’t it be great if we…?” We can’t out-guess the customer either. We cannot continue to think we know better.

“The muffin isn’t moldy… It just looks moldy.” Karen told us the story of buying a muffin at Gloria Jean’s in the Philadelphia airport. She complained because the muffin looked moldy- apparently this was a common complaint, because batter was mixed in the same bowl as the blueberry batter and created the unusual green palour. As a frequent complaint- why didn’t Gloria Jean’s change the product? A conference participant behind me called out, “we’d make a brochue to explain it!” The room erupted in laughter, but clearly we try to change the cusotmer more often than we change our service or approach.
Like brochures, sign pollution means no one reads signs. “You pay a price for every sign.” is one of Karen’s rules. Signs should be respectful not negative and disrespectful- will it even work?

“Get a grip.” Leaving the victimized librarian attitude behind, own the things that bother you. Finish the following sentence: “My problem is that I…” Among Karen’s examples, try moving services, install skateboard storage, and allow eating in the library. No decision is without consequences, but we should put about customer service first.