PLA Blog

It’s 4 in the a.m. and while the body is tired my mind won’t quit. Others were still running later than I was as there are blogs to read from after my posting – did some of us get too highly recharged? Do I really only need 5 hrs rest?

As per the title – Jan suggested in her welcome at the New Members Reception that we jot down one or two ideas each day to share with our colleagues who were not so fortunate to be here. Could we share them here? Anyone can send a comment here and I’d really like to hear some ideas inspired by sessions I just can’t fit in.

From PreC. Who said “Management Can’t Be Fun?”

• When you are a manager it is more important to be respected than liked.
• The ‘tent’ of management can hold up if it is missing some of its poles but the one that will take it down is lack of open communication 
• We all will meet some of life’s clowns!!!!! 
• We tend to hire for skills and fire for lack of characteristics – so start looking for the characteristics you want and teach the skills to the people who fit your organization and have the personality suited to give service to others – all others! 
• Reading is a solitary endeavor but librarians are people who serve the information needs of others. 
• Information is the gateway to empowerment - John Wood showed us just how empowered people can be with a little help along the way.

Help - I found the insert picture icon now how do I give my image a URL?

The last of my “tour” of ALA discussion groups was the Reference Performance discussion group. Here’s a snapshot of some of the issues and questions that were brought up at the group. Feel free to comment on these!!

• What ARE the expectations of a librarian? The group agreed that it’s not enough to only be good at “reference”–it goes further than that. Even in an academic setting, librarians can no longer be strong in only one arena of librarianship.
• Librarians should take leadership roles within the school/community they serve. In turn, this makes the library’s role (as well as the librarian’s role) in the community more visible and potentially viewed as valuable.
• What is a “bar” for librarians to meet or exceed? Should there be such a thing? This brought about some lively discussion.
• Attitude–can it be quantified? Does it have to be? Attitude was mentioned as a way of evaluating librarians.
• What are ways in which librarians can be evaluated? Peer, “secret shoppers”, supervisor only, written evaluations, self-evaluations were all mentioned as possibilities.
• We discussed a couple ways to get buy-in on new technological advances: Use early-adopters of technology to be the prophet to the rest of a (jaded?) staff; put nay-sayers on committees with early-adopters.
• How do paraprofessionals come into play? What is the break-point between what a para can answer vs. what a professional can answer? This is an age-old question that still has some librarians disagreeing.
• Is mandatory involvement the way to go, in terms of getting staff to contribute to new technologies, new ideas, etc.?

On Saturday, January 12, I attended the “Best Practices in Cooperative Reference: Reference and Social Networking” session presented by QuestionPoint, with panel speakers Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College), Beth Evans (Brooklyn College) and David Lankes (Syracuse University). While the panel seemed targeted at academic librarians, I actually found a great deal that would be of interest to public librarians. (more…)

Monday morning I attended Social Media Breakfast 4 in Boston, the brainchild of Bryan Person, a local new media and networking rock star. Social Media Breakfasts are a chance for local media folks (fans, PR people, users, programmers, librarians, the audience is diverse) to get together over some morning nosh and talk about what’s new and hip. The last two Breakfasts have included speakers who talk briefly, and really end up being discussion facilitators, which is very cool. The first NYC Social Media Breakfast just happened in NYC last week, so if you’re interested in attending one, or *starting* one, check out the Social Media Breakfast site for details.

Monday morning’s speaker was Geoff Livingston, co-author of the book Now is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs, and contributor to the blog of the same name, carrying on the conversation started by the book. This morning’s breakfast was a discussion of the differences between audiences, communities, and stakeholders, and how using social media varies from types of user bases. Geoff posted a sort of preface to the Breakfast on his blog, which bloomed into quite a discussion online, and translated to a discussion at the event, which was very, very cool to watch.

What I realized after attending the Social Media Breakfast, as I munched on my bagel and lox, is that for quite some time the PLA Blog definitely has an Audience, a group of people consuming the content. The discussions that came from posting the Service Responses (Stakeholder-oriented feedback), and the comments we receive during conferences are the closest we’ve come to being Community. However, what hasn’t happened here is an all-out Community effect, a full-duplex give-and-take of discussion, ideas, whatever floats your boat as the reader.

So my question is this: In your opinion, what would encourage the growth of community interaction here on the PLA Blog? What would get you posting comments, submitting stories, case studies, questions, and pictures from your libraries, and just generally make the blog more interactive? Do you see this blog as a potential for Community, or is it strictly straight information for you? Is your idea of public librarian Community elsewhere?

I’m very interested in your responses to these questions, whether it’s in the form of comments here on this post, response posts on other blogs, or in email, and I’d like to try to incorporate these responses somehow in planning for the blog going forward. Let us know what you think!

Your public library can grow its own librarians with a little help from PLA’s pilot program, the “Grow Your Own @ your library” Institutional Scholarship.

PLA will award nine public libraries with a lump sum of $8,000 each to be distributed to as many of their employees as they choose for the purpose of working toward obtaining an MLS– $6,500 is to be used directly for payment of tuition at an ALA-accredited library school; $1,500 is to be used to support attendance for one or more of the selected scholarship recipients to attend a PLA-sponsored continuing education event such as the 2009 PLA Spring Symposium.

One library from each of the nine PLDS size categories will be selected. The categories are:

• Group 1 Service population of 1 million and over
• Group 2 Service population of 500,000-999,999
• Group 3 Service population of 250,000-499,999
• Group 4 Service population of 100,000-249,999
• Group 5 Service population of 50,000-99,999
• Group 6 Service population of 25,000-49,999
• Group 7 Service population of 10,000-24,999
• Group 8 Service population of 5,000-9,999
• Group 9 Service population under 5,000

The deadline for applications is December 3, 2007 at 5:00 CST. All applications must be submitted through an online application form available at www.pla.org.

It’s that time of year again! Borders Educators Savings week is coming, September 26 to October 2, and librarians (current and retired) are included in the 25% discount offer on books, CDs, DVDs, and cafe (some restrictions do apply, see the site for details). These books can be for your library, or just for you (call it “professional development,” if you like). Simply show proof of “educator status,” and in my past experience, usually a business card or a letter on letterhead from your library is proof enough.

Borders will be honoring educators with a $50,000 donation to First Book, an organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

Inquire at your local Borders about their special reception celebrating the week on September 28 from 4:00 - 8:00 pm. If you call far enough in advance, perhaps your local store and your library can work out some collaborative programming!

My coworker and I came yesterday and had a great experience so far! Checkin was very smooth at both the hotel, JW Marriott, and also at the conference. I had not received my ticket to the Scholarship Bash in advance and needed to go to the will call desk, and that was no problem at all.

The Hollywood Librarian was great last night. Really enjoyed some of the old movie clips and interviews that were included. I’m proud to be a librarian!

We learned the Metro system yesterday - seems very easy like most systems in other big cities. We’re going to try the bus this morning to get over to the Conference Center and see the scenery from the street level.

Hope this beautiful weather holds! We’re really enjoying our visit so far.

The world premiere screening of The Hollywood Librarian: A look at librarians through film, left me with very mixed feelings. The film does an excellent job of using clips from movies like Desk Set, The Music Man, Love Story, Party Girl, and others, to juxtapose the image of librarians in film against the realities of librarianship, including clips from an awesome black-and-white vocational film, as well as interviews with myriad librarians from all corners of librarianship, many of whom were brought on stage after the screening to be recognized. The movie obviously moved the audience and instilled a sense of vindication, with good reason, and I believe that the film does have the potential to give new and different perspective to “civilians” who don’t really understand the library world.

After the screening, writer and director Ann Seidl explained her interesting distribution method for the film. The film has been moved into the finals for an independent film festival (if you know the name of the festival, please comment here and let me know, I can’t find it), so it will get some exposure. But, rather than sell the film to a distributor, Ann would like to grant rides to show the distribution DVD, as well as a package of comprehensive marketing and discussion materials, so that interested public libraries can show screenings themselves.

What she asks in return is that libraries charge money for the screenings, with 1/3 of the fee going to her production company, 1/3 of the fee covering distribution costs, and 1/3 of the fee going to the library showing the movie. Her idea is to use the library, which, according to the movie, provides more points of service than McDonald’s, to get the word out about the movie and its message. Sign ups for this distribution program begin tomorrow at Booth #4207 in the Exhibit Hall, where you can ask questions and give your feedback about the film.

For those who missed the film, you can watch the recently-released trailer:

I received this via the Massachusetts Library Association listserv, and thought I’d share:

WGBH/Boston, a leading producer of quality children’s programming and award-winning resources for educators, is pleased to offer librarians a FREE Peep and the Big Wide World Event Kit. The kit has resources for organizing 3 different hands-on science events for preschoolers.

This free kit is available as part of the educational outreach linked to the WGBH-produced, EmmyR Award-winning series, Peep and the Big Wide World. The goal of the series and its outreach is to nurture young children’s interest in science play and discovery.

The kit includes informative Leader’s Guides that outline how to set-up and run the 3 separate events, which focus on the themes of Shadows, Structures, and Ramps. Related reproducible materials for families attending the events are also provided.

To get your free kit, contact by September 30th (one Event Kit is available per library branch while supplies last). You can also download components of the kit and other resources from the site.

For details on the television program, visit the PEEP and the Big Wide World site.

Zeke Killbride, a librarian at the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, NY, wrote to us about a digital collection recently posted to the library’s site:

I’m writing to suggest a library link for your blog. I’m a librarian at the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Rockland County, New York, north of New York City. One of our patrons and her mother donated her late father’s drawings to our library and we have made them available online.

[Link to the collection]

It’s an interesting story. David Friedman was a Holocaust survivor. Friedman documented his agony and torment during the Holocaust through a powerful series, “Because…They Were Jews!” While he was working on this series he found comfort by visiting local libraries and sketching the people he saw. Timeframe: 1962-72.

Friedman’s words: “I needed to forget about the concentration camps and the horror that was there. So it was a pleasure to go to the library.” There’s a poignant human interest story here; showing libraries as a place of relaxation and sanctuary.

I would argue that this is more than a lovely human interest story. This is an example of librarians telling a story, something that Karen Hyman so often speaks about, a low-tech option for offering digital photos (fast-loading HTML, thumbnails for quick viewing, an HTML slideshow that simply refreshes the page and doesn’t require a special plug-in), and definitely taking content from the community and presenting it to the rest of the community in a new and interesting way. It’s providing context for content and communing with patrons. That’s Library 2.0 if I’ve ever seen it.