That sentence caught our attention at lunch this afternoon! A group of librarians introduced themselves around our luncheon table and Cathy Ryne was trying to describe where her library is located. She referred to a landmark, the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, an unforgettable landmark about 1.5 hours from the Sierra Madre Public Library.
Since my last post was so late in the day, that will likely make this post a bit shorter than previous ones. I just finished up my last session of the day, The RA Toolkit III, and it was pretty much everything I hoped it would be. It never hurts to have not one, but three excellent presenters, but when that is coupled with a huge amount of information that I know will be very useful to me, it is undoubtably a case of having your cake and eating it too. If there is any drawback to this type of presentation, it’s the realization of how much work I’ve got waiting for me when I return home to San Antonio. But I’m glad I’ll have the opportunity to share my newly gained information, and besides, nobody said being a librarian would be easy. Well actually a lot of people said that, but they were wrong!
My evening wrapped up with one last vendor event, a lovely laid back affair sponsered by Bowker/Syndetics. For once I wasn’t a total recluse, thanks largely to those sitting at the table, who were extremely social, as were the Bowker people. Thank you all for nice little osasis in the middle of my adventure.
Since I don’t have much to report otherewise, it seems like a good time to do a little reflecting. I love the paperless conference…whoever came up with that idea needs a big raise. Not only is a lot of paper being saved, but the PLA people, through the support of one of the vendors, has created a wonderful onsite printing set up where you can get the printouts you want and it prints in duplex too. So even if you do want to go the paper route, you’re still using almost half as much paper as you might normally use. I think that deserves a big round of applause and I hope it’s a system that other library conferences will adopt.
I think I should also mention that even though I’m not the most gregarious of people, I’ve had some wonderful conversations with other librarians while just waiting in line, waiting for programs to start, or just answering “directionals” (yeah, I’m one of those people that other people tend to ask for directions…even though I usually don’t have a clue where I actually am). No, it’s not really networking, but it a nice affirmation that I and my library system, are not alone. We all face shared problems and even if we’re not finding our solutions here at PLA, just knowing there are others out there does make a big difference. So a big thank you to everyone I’ve met so far and those I meet in the next couple of days.
And finally, a little tech note, and my question for the rest of the bloggers out there. How are you physically blogging PLA? Do you do so throughout the day (even if you only post once a day)? Are you doing it on a lap top, at the internet cafe, or back in the hotel? Me? I’m using a tiny little Nokia internet tablet, and for the most part the free WiFi here at the Conference Center (my hotel’s wireless system has left a lot to be desired). Largely I’m trying to do them as the moments present themselves (between sessions, etc), while things are still relatively fresh in my mind. Thanks to a little foldaway bluetooth keyboard, I’m not having to hunt and peck out my messages. Otherwise you’d be seeing a lot more spelling errors and a lot fewer words. Its not the best solution, but it is small and very portable, and with all the running around I’ve been doing, I’ve appreciated that aspect quite a bit. So, how do you blog?
So that’s it for tonight. Once I finish off this delicious Steamed Chocolate Nirvana at Dunn Brothers (yup, my hotel’s wireless has failed me once more) it is off to some much needed sleep. All this fun and excitement is definitley starting to take it’s toll.
If you want to see more of my time at PLA than I have posted here, you can check out my flickr photo set for more pictures and snippets!
I was a bit leery when I read the course description for this workshop. I just didn’t believe there was any way to get the children at my library off the computer and excited about reading. I thought I had tried it all.
I’m happy to say, I think I was wrong. The Global Reading Challenge is another of those “infectiously inspiring” nuggets that this conference seems to be full of this year. Who would have ever thought you could turn reading into a sport? Not me, that’s for sure! But that is exactly what the Global Reading Challenge has done.
Working within a core set of rules, but infinitely malleable, the Global Reading Challenge gives teams of children a set of books to read and then pits them against each other to answer questions pertaining to the stories. The highest scoring teams advance, culminating in a tournament for the Global Reading Challenge trophy. And there is always cookies and juice.
I was gobsmacked by the videos of children clamoring to be involved. One presenter even said that Global Reading Challenge was more popular than Summer Reading Program! Many schools have even incorporated the Challenge into their curriculum — reading one or more of the selections in the classroom.
I’m extremely excited to get home and try and figure out how this program could work for us. We are small, but we are mighty and I’m always up for a good game!
It would have been a standing room crowd at 21st Century Library Design today if the rules allowed standing around the walls of the room in the Minneapolis Conference Center. Because of the municipal rules, dozens of people were asked to leave. They missed a program on library space utilization that included many good and challenging ideas.
Kimberly Bolan of Kimberly Bolan and Associates and Marc Ciccarelli of Studio Techne Architects began the session with a discussion of trends. Ciccarelli said changing needs in society pressures libraries to remodel their public space. It is space that people love because it remains uncommercialized in a very branded society. Bolan said the space often needs a makeover based on customer needs. She then proceeded to discuss Ten Things About What People Want:
Bolan said libraries should consider swapping reference and teen spaces. She also said that libraries need several children’s spaces, as what serves preschool children does not serve third graders well.
Pamela Vander-Ploeg and Michelle Boisvenue-Fox of Kent District Library, Michigan (you need a compound name to work at KDL) told about the extensive remodeling of their systems branch libraries. Much of their portion of the program was show and tell and included some interesting ideas:
Cathy Hakala-Ausperk of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, Ohio (even the library has a compound name) was the last speaker. She told what her library did with its expanded 40,000 square feet (it connected to a YMCA that it took over). (I hope I got the size right - it was humongous.) It is beyond what most public libraries have even considered:
This was a very thought provoking program. I know I want us to get neon signs. I have to think about some of the rest of this.
Please pardon my lack of posting yesterday; I couldn’t get my login to work. I promise to make up for it tonight with a series of posts about my first two days at PLA. I have to say, that I’m definitely filling the “way too excited about everything” niche.
Wednesday, after our Party Bus arrived, I stood amongst the other librarians milling about, wondering what I could expect and what anyone could possibly want to talk to me about for two and a half hours. Once we were finally allowed to funnel into the dark hall — why was it so dark, anyway? No house lights? — I began to feel flutters of anticipation, but I still had no idea what inspiration there was in store.
“He had me at hello” was made for men like Jon Wood. I swear, 5 minutes in to his presentation, I was all teary. And then I figured out why the room was so dark — so people like me could hide and not feel quite so goofy about the premature tears.
Room to Read is one of those monumental efforts that could be daunting, but is, instead, exhilarating. It was only 10 minutes in when I dug through my bag, searching for a notebook and pen. I wrote down two things: the url for the Room to Read website, and “What can I do to help?” Because Mr. Wood shows you just how easy it can be.
Every year during Summer Reading Program, we have our children work on a service project to see the importance of giving back. It wasn’t 15 minutes before I knew that Room to Read would be our project this year. We have a wishing well that the children can put their pocket money in and I’m going to approach a few local businesses about matching the childrens’ donations. At $1 a book, I think even my small town can make an impact.
I attended this preconference on Tuesday and absolutely LOVED most of the ideas presented. It was well organized and the day seemed to fly by! This presentation gave me bunches of ideas for use in my library. I work for the Henderson Public Libraries in Henderson, NV as a Youth Services Librarian. Next year we will be opening a branch and my current building is possibly moving to a new building, so there will be lots of chances to integrate these ideas into the new buildings.
If you have money to spend, the ideas presented by Kim van der Veen from Burgeon Group or Peg Sullivan from Highsmith, were very intriguing. In fact, most of them made me think, I want that! I know when I get back to work, I’ll be chattering the ear off of my co-workers.
I am however not going to wait, there were plenty of ideas presented by Dana Bjerke, Joanna Redmann, and Kelly Wussow that were simple, low cost, and non-permanent. I have pictures of some of the ideas.
Way to go ladies, lots of great information!
Rachel
The title of this post is definitely the line of the conference so far, and it came from the mouth of Queens Library (NY) marketing director James Keller, while he was giving his presentation on branding.
Keller is a former consumer goods ad man, having come to the library world after a career with Proctor & Gamble, and boy is he a dynamic speaker. Walking around the entire room as he spoke without any notes, he walked the audience through the basics of stakeholder identifications, targeted audiences, strategic positioning statements, marketing plans, and maximizing resources. A lot of this stuff was a little old hat to me, since in my pre-library life, I worked in marketing communications for a pair of ad agencies and for a publisher, but Keller did a great job of making it all feel within the realm of possibility.
Two nice concrete ideas he gave us:
Very nice!
Overall, Keller glossed over some of the practical difficulties involved (but then again, he’s a real go-getter, can-do, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer type of guy), but on the whole this was a really nice intro to branding and marketing.
I wasn’t expecting to update until this evening, as my schedule was pretty packed, but thanks to my unfortunate talent at writing down number incorrectly, I ended up showing up for a meeting that was actually held yesterday. And so go those fabled plans of mice and men (and people with poor date writing skills). Fortunately, having paid attention at the New Member Reception (thank you Madame President), I had a plan B, and ultimately it makes the whole day just a tiny bit less hectic.
My second day at PLA started early with a breakfast courtsey of H. W. Wilson. Along with some excellent food, I got a further look at the new products coming out Wilson this year. Even in my short 9 year career as a librarian it’s impressive to see these companies adapting to the changing times and especially impressive when it comes from a company celebrating it’s 110th year. And to cap off the morning, the Wilson team supllied me with one of those “ah ha” moments when they mentioned that their new CX designator was literaly the roman numerals for 110. Yes it is the simple things in life that make me happy.
After breakfast I got to attend my first PLA program, “Why Do We Dewey?” In a word, “fascinating” and it certainly left me with a lot of food for thought. I particularly like the way the TSCPL are taking a system already in use (Dewey) and finding ways to legitimately bend it to the more “modern” needs of their patrons. The concept of a browsable nonfiction section has recently been on the minds of many of my fellow librarians at work, and I’m happy now that I can provide them a concrete example of how one system is working to achieve that goal.
And speaking of my fellow workers, my next stop was to check in with some of them in the Placement Services room. Okay, shameless plug alert. If you’re interested in checking out what San Antonio Public Library has to offer in the way of jobs, stop by the booth in the Placement Services room (101 I-J).
Since I had about an hour before my next appointment, I made another run through the exhibit hall. I stopped at a variety of places, but in particular I had a very nice converstation with one of the people at Evergreen. I’m a big fan of Open Source and it’s great to see how these groups are coming along and how polished their products are looking.
After my 2nd tour of the exhibit hall it was time for lunch and yet again (are you detecting a trend here), I managed to combine business with pleasure by attending the Gale luncheon for their new Books and Authors database. It was big treat having a nice lunch, a polished presentation, and an amazing view (the luncheon was held on the 50th floor of the Marquette Hotel). Readers Advisory is kind of my thing and it has been exciting to see so many online developments in this field. From what I saw of Books and Authors, it will be a fine addition in the arsenal of tools that Readers’ Advisors can use.
After lunch, and thanks to my “date mistake” I managed to start this post, but did not actually manage to finished it. I was interrupted by the need to decend to the lower levels of the conference center in order to attend one of the first afternoon sessions. Originally I thought I would be attending something about taking online services to the next level, but the room I arrived at turned out to be the encore presentation of Technozoo. Not exactly what I was looking for, but great fun nonetheless. Mr. Souza was an energetic and amusing speaker and even though I consider myself quite the geek, even I saw some stuff that I wasn’t at all familar with. In additional, as is often the case with a topic you think you “know,” hearing it come from an admitted “non-librarian” gave me some pause for thought and raised some issues that hadn’t occurred to be before. A mixed blessing to be sure, but I don’t think I will ever complain about having new things to think about.
Down to one last session for the day. I’m off to Readers’ Advisory Took Kit III. I think I already know what I’m not going to like about it…the fact that I didn’t get to see RA Tool Kits I and II. 
Unlike a lot of conferences, PLA has a nice long lunch break so you’re not racing to stuff your face. After lunch my friend and I walked the exhibit floor. Talked to the Playaway guys about how to deal with headphones and batteries. At our branch these things don’t circulate at all, but others seem to love them. Also talked to the Overdrive folks, and learned some very exciting news. They are beta-testing a Macintosh version of their Media Console, and hope to roll it out mid-summer. Now that audiobook publishers are agreeing to ditch the stupid DRM, patrons will now finally be able to use library downloadable audio books on their iPods! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told people about our downloadables only to see their excitement fade when I lamely tell them that it doesn’t work with iPods…
Next up “How Branding Can Increase the Relevancy of Your Library” with Queens PL’s James Keller. (I was thinking about the “Weeders Attract More Readers” program, but last summer I did a big research project looking at the weeding in my system, and the handout for the program looked like it rehashed stuff I’d already studied.)
BTW, if you’re wondering about the weird timing of these posts, that’s because I’m writing them in a notepad, and then throwing them in the blog as my battery and wireless access allows.
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