PLA Blog

Great session this afternoon on being cutting edge.  Here’s what I learned.

The session I went to this morning was on Library 2.0. Oh, I know what you’re thinking, “we have Helene ( Blowers with us now in Columbus, Ohio, we don’t need to hear other folks talk about this.” Not true! It’s not going to be a reality for CML unless we all hop on that same train, my friends!

Points I gleaned:

• Design for uncertainty - you never know what is going to happen, and you should be ready to shift if needed to better serve the customers
• Keep experimenting! There is no right or wrong, there is just experimentation - if it works do it more, if it doesn’t work, try the next idea.
• In Boston they have Youtube vids of teens booktalking - on their website!
• Learning 2.0 is amazing (GO HELENE!)
• Web-based activity (i.e. on a teen website the library runs) is higher when it’s associated with a program.
• “Reminder me later” feature on their events calendar. They can program themselves to get a reminder 3 days before the event is going to take place.
• Michael Stephens is really as much fun in person as his blog would indicate.
• Speak in a human voice - remember that your customers will respond to this better than to another lecture.
• Circ staff is blogging about books for customers - and they’re sending circ staff to Book
• Expo to help them! They’re our front line - if they don’t know about the books, and they’re the ones who are known, we’re losing and opportunity.
• The library should be transparent, meaning we should allow comment in the catalog, etc.
• Throw out the culture of being perfect.
• Aim to satisfy the hearts of your customers.
• Learn to learn.
• Adapt to change.
• Scan the horizon.

Ideas I had while listening:

• Start a FlickR site where kids and adults and staff can post pictures of library events.
• Start a “1000 readers” project where we get a series of photos of people - maybe all reading the same book? Maybe each reading their fave. Why not even maybe use those things for our promotions? Our customers using the library!
• Stop worrying about controling the content of library blogs, and just let it go.
• If you haven’t read it yet, go read Tame the Web’s post on the library that disallows MySpace and Facebook. Pay particular attention to the comments - there is a good discussion going.

Think Outside the Book seemed like two totally different presentations. I found the latter part, after a portion of the audience had disappeared, most addressed my library’s teen issues. (The presentation was in much too large a room anyway.)

Sarah Cofer, the Teen Librarian at Worthington Libraries, Ohio, told about how she and the other teen librarian have used a blogfusion blog to market the library to teens. Their colorful website is called Worthingteens and is worth a look. They promote books, announce programs, conduct polls, and point to cool websites.

A key point was that they increased the visibility of their website greatly by starting MySpace and FaceBook accounts, which they maintain mostly to attract viewers to their library site. They do use the popular social sites for some communications, as well. They have set up the sites so that an update on their website automatically updates the other sites.

Cofer also said that a Meebo widget showing when she was available to chat was much more effective than one showing that an unnamed person at the library was available to chat.

Cofer advised librarians trying to attract teens develop their websites slowly, in stage. Do not overwhelm the teens or burn out the librarians with many offering. Add features one at a time so they are noticed.

Barry Trott of the Williamsburg Regional Library began the program When the Story is True by reading comments about the book Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle (2004). From the use of phrases about well-drawn characters, tense settings, and compelling story, he said that many readers might assume that the book was a novel. It happens instead to be narrative nonfiction, otherwise known as “literary journalism” or “creative nonfiction.”

Trott contends that readers’ advisory librarians of our time have only recently recognized the nonfiction reader’s needs. It makes sense to broaden the RA service to promote nonfiction for these reasons:

• Nonfiction will attract new readers, especially men.
• A large portion of our collections is nonfiction.
• It will help move books that have been lingering in the stacks to push nonfiction.
• Nonfiction has genres just like fiction.
• Many readers just want good books, and it does not matter whether the stories are true or not.

Trott turned to an article by Sandra Lamb called “Narrative Nonfiction,” in Writer, 117 (May 2004): 45-46. He said the author asks six questions of authors wanting to write narrative nonfiction:

• Is the story compelling?
• Is there emotional architecture?
• Who is the audience?
• Are there recognizable characters?
• Why are you qualified to write this book?
• Why is this a good time for this book

He said the RA librarian needs to ask similar questions when suggesting books to nonfiction readers. Then he followed by describing the appeal factors of setting, subject matter, author’s voice, characters, story line, and pacing.

Kaite Mediatore Stover of Kansas City Public Library followed with ideas for developing an understanding of a nonfiction genre. She suggested that librarians beginning study with genres of which they already have an interest. Her steps include the following:

• Read histories of the subject or topic.
• Scan how-to books to get a practical understanding.
• Identify biographies to learn the major names.
• Find humorous books, which often address the major issues in a subject area.
• Discover what the media emphasizes about a subject area.
• Identify awards in the field and for writers about the field.
• Find good websites on the topic.

Her steps became a bit clearer when she began applying them to the genre of sports books, which of course have many appeal factors: characters, settings, stories, etc. Through study of sports writing, the librarian learns the genre and identifies authors and titles. She suggested that sports books are about more than games. They include themes of overcoming adversity, contest, betrayal, redemption, and tragedy. They are books about journeys and the enduring human spirit.

In the question period at the end, both Trott and Stover suggested looking at reader comments at Amazon to get a sense of reader reactions to books and identify further reading.

My brain hurts (and make sure you say that in your best Monty Python “Gumby” voice to get the full effect). Three days have passed and my energy level is low — and there is still half a day to go. It’s going to be a close run thing, and I’m betting that I’ll be doing some serious sleeping on the flight back home tomorrow. Whew!

I’m doublely grateful for the “slow” start this morning because the afternoon sessions were quite involving, but well worth the effort. First up at 2:00 pm was “Rx for Ra - Training Library Staff in Fiction and Nonfiction.” And to be honest, this for me, was the main event and I was not disappointed. I really like they way they set it up. Three presenter, each representing a different size library system (Deanna Street, small system, Lucy Lockley, medium system, and Katie Mediator Stover, large system) outlined how they approached providing RA training for their staff. Each of their systems had simularities and differences, emphasising their seperate needs for training and the needs in supporting their systems. Their stories were just the kind of things I really needed to hear; practical outlines about how to go about getting staff trained. Will any of these work at my system? The ideas are certainly there, it’s just a question of finding the right mix. But can I accomplish what they have done? I don’t know, but I’m feeling very inspired to try right now. I just hope I can hold on to that feeling.

I think that program is what took the most out of me today. I was not only focused on what they were saying but also mentally trying to work out a plan of my own as well. I was definitely into “overthink” mode and I came out of there feeling pretty drained. Between sessions, I helped (well, stood around an chatted mostly) take down the San Antonio Public Library booth in the Placement Center, and that symbolic winding down, left me feeling even more worn. I then had a choice to make for the last session of the day: something practical or something a little more fun. Yeah, I went with fun. How’d you guess?

I didn’t realize how much fun it was going to be, though, until after it started. The session? “What’s Love Got to Do With It;” a panel discussion with 3 romance authors and one “paranormal” romance author. I went knowing that even in the already female dominated world of librarianship I would be even more in the minority than usual there. But hey, I got nothing against romances. I’ve read (and enjoyed) quite a few, I do advisory for it, and the only reason I don’t read more of them is that I’m afraid I might get addicted to them. A good story is a good story in my book (pardon the horrible pun) and it seemed like a good opportunity to further my knowledge a little bit more, but in a more lighthearted manner.

Before I go futher, let me introduce the panel; Nita Abrams, Connie Brockway, Susan Kay Law, and Kim Harrison — all names I recongized, and if you’re a romance reader, you probably recognize as well. The format was question and answer, with some questions for particular authors and others for the whole panel. After some set questions, audiences questions were entertained. Sounds like fun, no? Fun doens’t cover it. The panel consisted of four intelligent, witty, and very open authors and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much at a “training” session before. As a group, they seemed the perfect mix, playing off each other like they’d rehearsed before hand, and I can’t think of a better way to end my 3rd day at PLA. I was I could recount some of their stories and jokes, but truly you just had to be there. Thank you ladies for a very good time.

And now it is confession time. I wimped out and skipped the All Member Reception. I was just too tired. This post, in fact, is courtesy of a large cup of coffee, something I ususally avoid in the evening. But I wanted to post and there is still packing to be done. The conference is winding to a close (though 2 sessions and the closing remain) but I’m definitely feeling that desire to shut down a bit and I’ve begun to yearn for a return to my home turf. This has been a great experience and hopefully tomorrow, before I head to the airport, I’ll have a little time to make my final report and try and sum what this whole adventure has meant to me. Until then….

Nearly 200 people are registered to attend the PLA 2008 Virtual Conference (everyone who attends the PLA 2008 conference in Minneapolis can also log in now to participate, or later to gain access to the archives), and so far, everyone seems to be really happy with it. I was recruited to “host” the conference, which really means a cheerful welcome message at the beginning of the day and chatting with the attendees during the “Virtual Happy Hour” at the end of the day (sans cocktails, sadly). It’s been a hoot so far. The Learning Times crew has been doing an excellent job of keeping everything together and moving!

The Adobe Connect interface that the attendees see isn’t much different from the interface that the presenters see (click on the screenshots for a larger view complete with interface notes):

Here you mostly see the areas for slides and chat, but normally you could also see a floating list of attendees. Live, on-the-fly polling, white boards, co-browsing and desktop sharing is possible with the interface, so it really adds to the interactivity of the experience. So far, getting the presenters ready for their sessions has been really easy: put on the headsets, show them the interfaces, and off they go. We’ve had a few problems with streaming audio and video simultaneously, but I think that might actually be an internet connection problem in this case.

Speaking of interactivity, one of the best examples is the Inside the Author’s Studio sessions. Yesterday, Nancy Pearl donned a headset and spoke directly with Virtual Conference attendees for a full hour, taking questions directly from the audience and answering them.

Since the Adobe Connect interface can be altered on the fly to meet the needs of the presenter, Learning Times set her up with a a “Questions for Nancy Pearl” chat box that was separate from the General Chat. That way, attendees could still talk amongst themselves, and Learning Times could pass along links related to Nancy’s comments — for example, she mentions an author, they go out and find the URL of the author’s site, and post it to the chat — and Nancy could focus directly on what people were asking her.

It’s really a nice setup.

Today’s session was especially interesting, because we experienced a typical conference problem: a presenter who doesn’t/can’t show. I still haven’t heard what happened with those presenters, or what the plan is, but in a pinch they needed someone to fill a slot. Since I had mentioned the PLA 2008 Twitter experiment to the Virtual Conferencees, hoping they would also share their thoughts using the #pla08 hashtag, and there were many librarians who instantly had questions, I was called in to pinch hit with an impromptu presentation about Twitter. Overall it was really interesting, and I think most attendees got something out of it. I know I got about 12 new Followers on Twitter for my time :). It also led to a really interesting chat discussion about using Twitter and Meebo for reference, the idea of roving reference, single service points, and more, and I’m glad we recorded all of it for the archive. Who knows, maybe you’ll all see me as a future PLA presenter at some point.

Virtual Conference attendees: be sure to sound off in the comments here!

Stupid, stupid me.  I forgot to send myself the e-mail that included all of the login information, and I can no longer access my work e-mail remotely because IT has dinked around and installed a new firewall to keep us safe.  And inaccessible.  So I’m writing this on my own blog, and then pasting it in to the PLA blog later.

Technology: 1, Katie: 0

Thursday morning I bussed to the conference again (so very convenient) and attended Bridging the Gap: Library Services to Latinos at 8:30.  This ties in nicely with the pre-conference I attended Tuesday.  Since this is part of what I’m supposed to be doing at my library, it makes sense for me to get as much information as I can.

The session was great-it was presented by staff of the Pinewoods Library and Learning Center.  Part of what made this session so good was that it was presented as a success story, rather than as a general toolkit of things you can do.  General toolkits are great, don’t get me wrong, but it can be both helpful and heartening to hear from actual librarians who actually implemented this sort of a thing successfully at their actual library.

Some of the things they said had been mentioned at the pre-conference (you must go out into the community, they won’t come to you; family is important; consulates are fabulous resources so get in contact with yours), and it was good to see that reiteration.  Some of the things they did were unique to their location, like partnering with the Lyndon House Arts Center.  The importance of applying for grants was also stressed, and this is certainly something I need to investigate; grants weren’t really addressed all that much at the pre-conference.

I am glad I attended this session, and I certainly have lots of things to think about now, in regards to my own library.

[interlude for vendors and lunch]

I know I’m not supposed to talk about the vendors, but I must say this: I got a galley of the new book by my very favorite author!  Joy!!

In the afternoon, I attended Pain in the Brain, which explains why teens do the things they do.  Short answer: they don’t do it to get our collective goats, but because of how their brains are developing.  (Of course, there are always patrons who are bad on purpose, but those are the exception, rather than the rule.)  Some of what was presented we already do at my library, but some of it might be good for us to start doing.  Lots to think about, and I’m looking forward to taking a crack at our teens.

The final session of the day was Creating Dynamic Library Atmospheres, which was basically a library makeover presentation, and therefore totally awesome.  Again, lots of great ideas. I’m not sure how much I can actually implement at my library because 1) we are part of a county system, and there are county-wide standards that have to be adhered to and 2) we *just* got remodeled.  But again, lots of good things think about, and I’ll certainly bring up some of the ideas with my branch manager.  The worst that can happen is that the answer is no, right?

I’ll be back at PLA on Saturday to volunteer.  No idea what I’ll be doing.

The last session I went to on Thursday was “Dewey or Don’t We,” which was a presentation by the fine folks at Maricopa County Library about their experience testing out a “deweyless” organizing system at a new branch. This became a very controversial topic in public library circles, so most of you probably have read stories in print or online about it. I was more interested in the practicalities of it all, since I think the concept makes a lot of sense. The presentation was pretty basic, the key takeaways for me were the need to get vendor cooperation and support (in their case from Polaris and Brodart), the use of the BISAC subject headings, and the critical importance of signage. There are one or two other presentations on this topic elsewhere at the conference, and I suspect that heralds a groundswell of support for the concept within the field.

The Friday morning sessions weren’t super-compelling. I went to “How to Work Positively in a Unionized Environment” because my system is unionized, and I’ve heard many many comments about how that is one of the big obstacles to change. However, the presentation was a little disorganized (there were seven people talking!) and the talking points were pretty general and obvious. (Respect, Trust, Understanding, Openness, Courage, etc.) There was also some roleplay to illustrate the difference between “traditional” positional bargaining and “interest-based bargaining” which is supposed to lead to win-win results. Of course, every single alternative negotiation methodology makes the same claim, so I’d take that with a grain of salt. Ultimately, I didn’t take much away from the session.

The other session I went to was “Optimizing Space For Results,” which interested me because the branch I work out is a big open building where the distribution of furniture, shelving, “zones”, etc. hasn’t been that well thought out. I was hoping to learn some specifics about how to reimagine or redesign the space, but the presentation was a little more general than that, along with a lot of visual examples of how various libraries have tackled certain challenges. It was all fine, but I had a hard time identifying any real takeaways.

Heading to lunch now.

OK, that probably got your attention… The title of this post was something a friend overheard yesterday, and it leads me to a few quick observations about the crowd at PLA:

• Basically, the quote above is kinda true. I’m kinda shocked at how overwhelmingly white the attendees are. I’ve only seen a handful of Asians, and very few African-Americans. Maybe the Midwestern conference location has something to do with that? I dunno. I work in a city that’s majority black, but based on my unscientific sampling, the majority of librarians in the system are white, so maybe it’s reflective of a larger imbalance.
• The crowd is also somewhat older than I expected. There are “young” librarians here, but less than I expected based on going to ALA last year.
• In terms of gender, as I sit in a session writing this, in my line of sight are 4 men and 43 women. I took a similar “line of sight” poll in a session yesterday and counted 6 men and 57 women. Which helps to explain the bathroom shortage problem I mentioned in a previous post.
• Finally, I have yet to see campaign or political button of any stripe. That also kinda of shocks me, since at ALA last year, the ground was thick with young hipster librarians whose bags and lapels were full of little badges and slogans. The closest I’ve seen was a young woman carrying a bag with a keychain attached: it was red and shaped like a stop sign, and said “End Discrimination.”  Fighting hate one keychain at a time…

Thursday was an ambitious day for me, I set out to accomplish a lot.  Here’s a few things I did and a few thoughts those things provoked.

From 8:30-9:45 I went to the “Why we Borrow” presentation, based on Paco Underhill’s “Why we Buy” book.  It was a decent presentation, but I found myself sitting there (actually standing, the joint was packed) wondering why libraries find it necessary to get big name consultants to tell us stuff we already know.  At no point in time did the speaker say anything about library patron behavior that surprised me or any other librarian in the room.  What they did do was provide some nice metrics and visuals: the best way to dress up and validate any mundane findings.  Nice showmanship Envirosell.  I bought in on the “dot-density” map.  Librarians, lets get better at measuring things and displaying the results well, then we won’t have to hire these guys, we can just read their books.

Next I headed over to the 21st Century Library Design program, and I was looking fwd to hearing Kimberly Bolan speak but guess what:  I got kicked out cause the room was at capacity!!! I did my best to nestle in on the floor real close to a row of librarians with lots of bags and packages, but alas I was discovered and ejected from the game.  Booooooo.

Lunch was awesome because friends and I went back over to the cafe at the Walker Art Center for a killer sandwich.

In the afternoon I went to hear James Keller, the marketing mastermind from Queens Public Library.  Yeah, I come all the way to Minneapolis from Brooklyn so that I can hear a guy who lives next door to me speak.  Whatever.  Anyways, he was good, but it was a little alarming in some ways.  Librarians, we have to remember that these marketing bigwigs work for us- not the other way around.  When Keller started talking about how to create a marketing plan it sounded frighteningly like the overall strategic plan an executive director might want to come up with for their library system.  Marketing and communications departments exist to help public service folks do their jobs.  Don’t be fooled by glossy flyers or hot air balloons with logos on them.  We run the show, not them.

Later on I went to a web design for rural libraries talk that  had to leave early because i felt like I was actually un-learning eveything I had learned about good web design and information architecture.

The evening got fun: went to the Library Journal “Best Small Library in America” dinner.  Chelsea MI won the honor, and everyone was in good spirits because of the free good spirits being offered.  hahaha.  My colleagues and I actually drove past Chelsea MI on the way to Minnesota.  After the LJ party we went to some bar where the Hold Steady were rocking the place.  There were librarians all up on the stage getting crazy.  Good stuff.

OK.  Enough yammer, time to go experience Friday.

As the day wound down, attendance at the Readers’ Advisory Tool Kit III was a bit down, though still very decent. Those who lasted the full day of PLA got to hear three well-known librarians suggest more ways to get books into the hands of readers.

With her section “Promoting the Backlist,” Georgine Olson of Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library and Regional Center in Fairbanks, Alaska (is the library stationary in landscape to fit the letterhead?), spoke to something that concerns me. How do you get all the great old books off the shelves and to readers? Many just sit as readers do not make it past the displays and into the stacks. She pointed out that every library has these books that have dropped from the public eye, and they should be our strength. We often have them and book stores do not. How do we move them?

Part of the answer is that we actually do have to move them - put them on the displays that are catching the readers’ eyes. They can be mixed with like titles that are new, put in theme displays, collected into author highlight displays, and more.

Booklists are another way to draw attention to older books. Many of the same rules as for displays apply, especially mixing old and new. One idea that I liked was making lists of hot new authors’ favorite authors or old books, the title’s that made them want to write. Many current authors have websites on which they list these books.

Olson also told her rules for making Read-a-Like lists. For a hot new author, choose four old authors that are similar. Likewise, for an old author, choose four new authors to suggest.

Joyce Saricks (described on the PLA website as “author, retired” which is hard to fathom for the active librarian) followed with her section “The Sane Librarian’s Guide to Genre Studies.” Sarrcks has been involved in many genre studies for both fiction and nonfiction. Her study groups within the library or in area groups like the Reading Roundtable read books in a genre, identify appeal factors, and record their findings for use at RA desks. She said that once we are aware of the characteristics of a genre, we are able to identify the new titles and how they change the genres, and we can find books for our readers whom we know. (I will testify that Joyce has suggested books for my reading and she is usually right on.)

Saricks regrets that she has not kept notes on every book she has ever read. Those she thought unnecessary to describe in the past are some of the titles she now wishes she could remember.

She urges libraries to open up RA training to everyone in the library. The circulation desk is often the real front line for helping readers. If the circulation staff have been made aware of the issues, they are more likely to be able to offer some help to readers or remember to connect them to the RA librarians.

Neal Wyatt, Readers’ Advisory Specialist of Richmond, Virginia, ended the afternoon with her discussion “Scuba Gear for RA.” Her concern was how how do we stay ahead of the book buzz. She described her own frustrations of seeing books she has not ordered hitting bestsellers’ lists. She consoled us that it happens to everyone and that we have to forgive ourselves and move on. She also offered websites to watch to lessen the frustration.

The problem, however, is that there are far too many websites competing for our attention. She recommended picking a few really good ones and sticking with them, scheduling when you read them weekly. She pointed out a few she likes:

• Barnes & Noble Coming Soon (which has a week by week arrangement)
• Booksense Picks of the Month
• Baker & Taylor Fast Facts
• Kirkus Reviews Special Issues (I had trouble linking to this)

She also recommended Cindy Orr’s RA Rundown at Reader’s Advisor Online for a recap of a week’s book news and Elegant Variation for its blogroll.

A new website to watch it Early Word, which is designed specifically to help libraries know what important books are forthcoming.

Nearly at the end, she recommended having books by authors who win the Alex Awards, named as Notable Books from PLA, and the new Reading List Award.

The three RA librarians celebrated the end of the program by giving away books to those who could most quickly answer questions about titles mentioned in the presentation.