Author: Barbara

Who ya gonna call?

Ghostbusters? Or . . . .who does the library, information source for communities, call when they need assistance? The (paraphrased) mission of our regional library is to “. . . foster a seamless network of library services, promote cooperation among members, . . . and to foster collaboration and communication among the members.” As I review my calendar of regional activities for the last couple of weeks, I see an illustration of the mission statement in action and the value of our regional library system. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing with libraries in the region:

  • Jennah, the media specialist at Goodhue School, asked for advice for her summer project, remodeling and re-arranging the media center. We introduced her to a seasoned media specialist from another region, who is well-experienced to offer consulting advice. Additionally we coordinated the collection of advice from other libraries in our region about moving shelves and installing new carpeting.
  • In Northfield, Lynne, the public library director, and I met with the staff at the Northfield History Center and invited them to become a regional library member, thereby facilitating collaborative ventures with their local counterparts as well as other historical archives in the region.
  • At Albert Lea Public Library, Peggy and Sarah discussed and demonstrated their use of reading program and blogging software and other library programs. I will be able to relate what I learned from their experiences to other libraries with similar needs.
  • The Minnesota Digital Library Annual Meeting was informative and inspiring as we are considering implementation of a project to assist libraries and history archives to digitize historical newspapers and documents.
  • At the brand new Rochester branch of Minnesota Business College I met with Rachel and Lee. They are eager to join the regional library to network with other libraries in the area and participate in training. We also discussed options for them to participate in delivery service for resource sharing.
  • Erin from the University of Minnesota Experiment in Rural Cooperation called and invited me to meet with her. They have a collection of books they have gathered to support their project and would like us to facilitate their sharing the books with libraries in the region.
  • At Spring Grove Public Library I assisted the library director, Millie, with problems she was having with her brand new blog. Then I got to help senior citizens attending a Senior Techie class, part of an LSTA funded regional training project.

Wow! It’s been a busy couple weeks full of very rewarding visits with libraries. But really, this is what regional libraries do all the time – just another day at the office ;^)

In the mosh pit of The Generous Web

Web 2.0 is reality because humanity does not want to be alone, and ideas and thoughts are meant to be shared. There may be no new ideas under the sun, but when we share our ideas we find a new level of understanding and new paths of interaction. I believe that I am at my best productivity level when I spend myself sharing time and thoughts with others who are thinking and working on similar efforts. Sometimes those others don’t even have to be thinking about the same subjects, but pursuing parallel courses in the universe of knowledge.

I read 2 posts this evening about this subject:

Kathy Sierra in Creating Passionate Users talks about “knowledge sharers” and “knowledge hoarders.” She talks about the synthesizing of ideas derived on the work of others and the resulting creative leaps of innovation. There is a great chart comparing linear movement on “progress on the ‘shoulders of giants’” to distributed knowledge producing innovation through the “wisdom of crowds” and “progress in the ‘Mosh Pit’”

I then followed Kathy’s link to Bill Kinnon’s Achieving Ends. He talks about “The Generous Web” and a “sea of people generously sharing.” He references the term “A-list bloggers” and says that he has found them “open and accessible . . . which is partly why they are as successful as they are.” He quotes David Freeman’s difference between Arrogance and Pride – “Arrogance is ‘I’m valuable, you’re nothing.’ Pride, or dignity is ‘I’m valuable, you’re valuable.'”

When I entered the biblioblogosphere it was scary. I wrote and wrote, just as I have for most of my life, first of all in a pink mini-keyed diary and later in spiral-bound journals. I started blogging (very privately) after my return from Internet Librarian in 2003. But, I guarded my URL and even put the (perhaps ineffective) meta tag in the header: meta content=”NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW” name=”ROBOTS”.

I blogged for over 2 years before I made my big ta-da into the blogosophere. Well it wasn’t long before I was carrying on exciting electronic conversations with librarians and information professionals from the A, B, and C list of bloggers. I now regularly share ideas with people I previously idoled from afar on stages at conferences or in columns in professional journals. I’m honored when others ask me questions and I’m enlighted when they answer mine. As Kathy says “Issac Newton said, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.’ That was just fine in a world where knowledge doubled in half-centuries, not mere months. To make progress today, it’s more like, ‘If I have seen further, it is by being thrown up by the mosh pit of my peers.’ And we all get a turn.”

Education to strengthen neighborhoods

A newspaper reported last week that the Homework Center is closing in a neighborhood where many at-risk kids live. The help center was a partnership between the housing authority and school district, who somehow managed to run this service, which was open 2 days a week, on $13,000 a year. The news story told about the end-of-year party that marked the end of this one-room place which has become a neighborhood center for children to come to for the past 13 years. One young man, an immigrant from Laos, started coming to the Center when he was 4 years old. He got help with his homework, became a tutor, and is now graduating from high school.

Another help center in the city closed 6 months ago. According to the article, the closings are due to lack of funding. A tutor at the center was quoted: “”It’s really sad, if you want to know the truth. It’s very sad. It’s become a community center for this housing area, actually.”

The story has haunted me for the past 5 days since I read it. What will become of the kids who got help with their homework there? Without the caring tutoring of the Homework Center, how many will ultimately fail and drop out of school – possibly ending up in trouble and incarcerated. The $13,000 a year pales in comparison to the cost of lost lives, not to mention the cost of incarceration. According to a Bureau of Justice report on State Prison Expenditures 2001, Minnesota spent $37,000 per year for each of the 6,514 inmates in state prisons in that year. And the number of persons in confinement has increased, as evidenced by recent reports of counties who are building new, larger jails. Jurisdictions who are unable to house all their prisoners are paying anywhere from $55 to $85 a day to other counties or states who so far have beds available in their jails or correctional facilities. Seems to me that funding the Homework Center is a bargain at twice this year’s cost.

I hope that our city will find a way to continue these neighborhood education centers – by providing adequate funds to organizations who are well positioned to work in neighborhoods. What a great place for an expanded community center partnership that might include a satellite library in these neighborhoods where at-risk kids and their families live. If we want to keep any child from being left behind we need after school programs, pre-K literacy, and homework help in the neighborhood where the kid lives.

Library fines? or not

via It’s All Good, Vote Early Vote Often (George Needham)

Looks like The Christian Science Monitor has once again raised the perennial question of library fines – or late fees. They even have a survey, asking the opinion of readers: “Should library fines be abolished?” As of this writing, out of 238 votes, 168 said “No. Fines help to keep borrowers in line and can be a needed source of income for small towns.” And 70 said “Yes. Late fees are more trouble than they’re worth, and they cast libraries in a negative light.”

While I realize that some libraries believe they receive considerable income from the fines collected (csmonitor.com cites the Chicago Public Library having brought in $1.1 million in revenue last year from fines, even without using a collection agency), the article proposes that the cost of good will may be higher, not to mention the undefined labor costs of cash collecting and management.

I previously worked for the Air Force Library Service, where we did not collect fines. Our ultimate threat was collecting for unreturned materials after a generous period of time. Recently, several of our library directors have shared that they are considering or experimenting with elimination of fines. Our Online Schools do not, indeed under state law cannot, charge overdue fees. From anecdotal evidence, it doesn’t appear that there is significant difference in number of lost materials between those libraries that assess fines and those that do not.

The real questions for libraries to ask are: Why is the fine in place? What is the cost of the whole process? What would be the cost of eliminating the fine process? What could be gained in good will if fines were eliminated? or even . . . . How much might library usage be increased if citizens didn’t fear past or future fines?

Anyway, as George says: “Vote early, vote often.” (hurry, poll closes 30 days from start of survey, according to csmonitor.com)

And in the meantime, can we at least call them late fees instead of fines?

Newspaper finds librarian a curiosity

Our local paper, the Post Bulletin has a weekly column called “Your Style” which features someone who has been nominated by someone else for their personal style. Tonight’s column features fine Mayo Medical Librarian, Kelly Arp. The reporter who wrote the piece was obviously hung up on a librarian stereotype which is as unrealistic as a male cigar-smoking reporter with a drink in hand. In the interview, 4 of the 7 questions asked try to measure Kelly’s style against what the reporter thinks she should look like. I suggest that the reporter get rid of her tired cliches and walk across the street to get acquainted with some real librarians. Her questions:

Q: Your nominator said that although you’re a librarian you don’t fit the stereotype. What do you wear that makes you stand out?
Q: What do you switch it up with?
Q: Is there anything in your wardrobe that would fit the classic librarian look?
Q: How would you categorize your style?
Q: Librarians are known for finding information fast. Does that translate to shopping as well?
Q: Where do you shop?
Q: Is your closet organized like the Dewey Decimal System?

Librarians “sainted” for “vast knowledge”

While enjoying my morning coffee and paper I was thrilled to find librarians “Sainted” in the weekly Pioneer Press’s “Sainted and Tainted” column – of course the librarians were the sainted ones!

Sainted: The Ramsey County Library on Beam Avenue in Maplewood. Not for any one specific act but for their consistent willingness to help no matter what is asked of them, friendly service, vast knowledge and overall good service. As a regular patron, I think their good job performance should be recognized.

Knowing and working with as many library folks as I do, I wasn’t surprised. Our librarians across the 11 counties of southeastern Minnesota are just as willing to help and provide good service as those in Ramsey County. The words that jumped off the page at me were the ones where the nominator cited librarians’ “vast knowledge.”

I’ve thought about this aspect (having vast knowledge – aka being the resident smart person) of the librarian persona a lot lately after having started the week with Michael Stephens as he began his whirlwind Tame the Web Northern Tour. Following the Monday session, one of my rural librarians came to me and said, “Y’know, Barb this is all very interesting, but I don’t see that it has a lot of relevance for me in my farming community. They don’t use computers, and we don’t have a need for blogs and wikis, and podcasts.”

We talked for a while (I talked, she nodded) until she agreed to come to our next blogging class and consider writing a blog for her library web presence, as a number of our members have. However, I think there is an element of truth in what she said. And therein lies the value for her (or any librarian) to become Library 2.0 literate. Communities have lots of utilities: the fire people, the power people, the water people, the roads people, and the smart people — that’s where libraries fit in. Who else can assume the responsibility for being the resident knowledge expert? Indeed, who else is there to do it? The majority of the library’s community might not be ready today to participate in wikis, or hear podcasts, but they sure as heck are hearing about them in the media. And who else is there to explain to them what’s going on? The library, as the utility for lifelong learning, has the opportunity to inform their communities about Library/Web/World 2.0. And who knows, pretty soon (if not already) there will be a use for a blog, or a wiki, or maybe even a podcast.