Category: Uncategorized

The Bookmobile left yesterday. No brass bands. No ceremonies — but more than a few tears and an imperceptible wave of the hand.

SELCO no longer provides the mobile library service that it has provided for over 30 years in southeastern Minnesota. After considerable study, the SELCO/SELS Board of Directors made the difficult decision to cease bookmobile service at the end of 2005 to communities where no public library exists. The recommendation from the Finance Committee came to the Board for approval on a black-bordered document.

The SELCO Executive Director wrote in a letter to the 7 affected counties currently receiving service:

SELCO’s decision is the result of escalating operational costs, in particular ever increasing fuel and maintenance expenses. While the seven counties currently receiving mobile service jointly support the operational expenses, SELCO has been underwriting this service and covering annual operational deficits ranging from $6,000 – $15,000 per year depending upon the nature of the unexpected repair work. In addition, the current vehicle is reaching the end of its lifespan with a projected replacement cost of $175,000. This capital amount is simply not available within the SELCO budget and given the financial challenges facing each of the seven counties, the SELCO Board recognized it could not tap its county partners for a significant contribution.

While it is true that there are 36 public libraries in the 11 counties of southeastern Minnesota, the absence of the bookmobile leaves some people unserved in communities that do not have public libraries. The last couple months were very difficult for staff and patrons. Thanks and tears and hugs were shared. A huge hole is in the hearts of the staff who have made their appointed rounds on rural roads when they were covered with snow and ice as well as when they wound through lush green valleys flooded with magnificent sunshine.

The bookmobile has a new home with the Plum Creek Library System in southwestern Minnesota. The books that filled the shelves are being given to other libraries. Most of the former bookmobile patrons have been offered a variety of alternative services.

Life goes on . . . but today the bookmobile garage is empty, and we have a lump in our collective throat.

The following was on the school E-list today (orange text because of the hot discussion it generated):

Having started out my career as a teacher — well, alright, a music teacher (but that’s another post) — I have a passion for schools. And as a multitype librarian, one of my four types of libraries is the school library media center. This proposal has left MEMO members (Minnesota Educational Media Organization) scratching their heads. We are left to assume that media centers are “pupil instructional support services” which leaves them competing with the football team for the remaining 30% funding.

It appears that where the media center lies (classroom expenditure or support service) depends on its position within the school budget. For those schools where the media center is another classroom where curricular learning activities take place, the media budget will be in far better stead than the media center where students go to give the classroom teacher release time and where nothing occurs directly related or enhancing classroom learning.

But then, where is the classroom? Is the classroom only the room behind the “Grade 4” (or whatever) sign? Or is the classroom wherever the student is involved in experiential hands-on experiences in a corrdinated learning atmosphere. This should be the goal of the entire educational team, which includes every person who impacts a child’s school day.

The SELCO regional integrated library system (ILS) is a multitype automation system. It was designed to be so, from its inception, when the first 3 online libraries were 2 public libraries and a high school At present, 41 school library media centers are members of the ILS. They are in 2 private high schools and 22 public school districts. 9 of the districts have all their schools’ media centers online with SELCO, in the others, just the high school and middle schools are regional ILS members. In my 6.5 year tenure at SELCO two schools have withdrawn from the SELCO ILS. 21 additional districts in the southeast region are not affiliated with the regional library automation system, but are members of the multitype region.

We met today with a school district contemplating membership in the regional integrated library consortium (ILS). Their estimated automation fees would be roughly 8 times what the raw cost of their current stand-alone software is (not considering technology services and support, training, online databases included in automation service package, or unfettered access to materials beyond their holdings through interlibrary loan.)

Their over-riding question was why was membership in a regional consortium worth the price? An equally troubling question was what data do we have to show increased circulation after a school media center becomes a regional online library.

I’m feeling very defensive, and don’t have good answers for either question. I think the answer lies in the school’s educational philosophy and the place of the school media center in the educational and curricular climate. If the media specialist is part of the teaching team, using the materials of the media center and the regional and statewide connectivity to inspire beyond the textbook research and learning, the price is part of the education of the children. The ILS is the doorway through which the student’s learning world is expanded beyond the school building.

If the library is the place where books are kept, and the automation system is an inventory control tool, then I suspect, to them, the automation system is a very expensive database. I also project that the media center is not a bustling place of learning, but a museum of print artifacts where the nerds may occasionally visit. Although, I suspect the nerds are buying books or using other libraries, if they are lucky enough to have or be able to travel to a public or academic library in their community. I will write more on the appropriateness of the place of those libraries in the education of children on another day.

Uncle got a book

Grandpa got a book

Best of all — I got a book!!!
and so did my brother

Aurora and I taught the first blogging class today. I started blogging after catching the bug at Internet Librarian over 2 years ago. I saw right away a tool that even technologically hesitant librarians could use to communicate news from their libraries to their web-savvy communities. In the next year, I taught 3 librarians to blog:
#1 — caught on fairly quickly, but was discouraged by connectivity challenges and gave up in frustration.
#2 — still has a blog, but has not caught the fever and posts infrequently (so far)
#3 — saw the potential. Posts regularly. Participated in a conference presentation extolling the fun of blogging.

Today’s class had 9 participants (maximum enrollment for our training lab). A high school media specialist even had her blog live by the end of class.

Wonder if the demonstrated success ration of 1 in 3 will hold with this group???

I love my job — really!

But there are days when I’m aching to be in public service . . . . on the ground where the action is, so to speak. Today is one of those days. I get one of these great ideas, I’m just dying to try . . . . but nowhere to try it.

Take this idea. Allow each patron to request 2 items from your library via a web-friendly request form. Doesn’t matter which one, your ILS’s request form, an E-mail. Just KISS (keep it short and simple). When your library staff gets the request, get the items to the patron as fast as possible . . . mail, drive-through will-call, home delivery.

The patron can keep the items as long as they like. No threats, no punitive action. Maybe a friendly reminder of how long they’ve had it. When they return the items, give them the next 2 on their request list. Oh, yeah! did I also say the library will establish a method of keeping a request list for each patron.

Sound like a familiar service? Do you think NetFlix will mind? Can I try this, please?

Another conference, my third this fall. First MLA, Minnesota Library Association. Then MEMO, Minnesota Educational Media Organization. And today, I returned from CODI, Customers of Dynix. In all 3 cases, I was fortunate to find something very inspiring – and that’s good.

Conferences are for a wide slice of an interest population. Those who attend are a wide spectrum and everything in between: much experience vs little; geek vs non-geek; management vs rank-and-file; even the willing vs the unwilling. Good conference planning offers up a broad buffet of choices to provide something for everyone.

Help us out conference presenters. In your presentation, here’s what I’d like to see in the conference program:
Title — not something cutesey, but informative
Presenters — name and accurate description/credentials

Then, when I attend a presentation, here’s what I hope for from the presenter:

• A well-prepared presentation
• Visuals — yes, I like PowerPoint. I have a wandering mind, it keeps me (and you) on target. But don’t read your PowerPoint. (else just tell me you’re reading your PP and you can just E-mail it to me, and I can go to something else).
• Don’t insult me with a lot of trivial ice-breaking jokes. Do tell me a little bit about where you’re coming from.
• Keep control of your environment. Don’t let someone drag you astray. Most times, I appreciate presenters who ask to have questions held until the end.
• Go back to Speech 101 — (1) tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em (2) tell ’em (3)tell ’em what you told ’em

Today I made a presentation to the Church Library Association. I had spoken with the president, Judy, some time ago with my ideas about the place church libraries could have. As the featured speaker for the fall meeting, I had a half hour for presentation, plus questions. I made the following points, which I invited them to consider as they look at their service population:

1. The Church Library is a special library (one of the four types of libraries). It occupies the same information center place in their parent organization as a library at Mayo Medical Center (sure to strike a chord here in the “Med City”).

2. The Church Library should have a mission, that expands on or fits into the mission of its church. The Church Library should also be part of the strategic plan of the church and be part of its budget. If it has no mission, no plan, and no budget, its existence is questionable.

3. The Church Library can occupy a special place in the neighborhood in which it resides by mimicing the typical programs of a public library: storytime, book clubs, popular fiction, internet connections, E-mail, homework helpers, or newspaper and magazine browsing areas.

4. The Church Library should not seek to compete with or replace the public library. It should seek to partner with the local public library and be yet another information access point. Church libraries can enhance the image of libraries to a mutually beneficial end for both the church library and the public library, since in the eyes of the public who use them, the positive image of a library anywhere leads to support of libraries everywhere. The Church Library can be open at complementing hours to the public library, during evenings of Christian Education or weekends.

5. The Church Library might seek to be an information center, offering its services to staff and members as a place to ask questions — even if the library serves as a conduit to the local public library, university library, or regional library.

6. The Church Library must have policies: collection development policy, gift policy, circulation policy — as a beginning.

7. The Church Library should seek to collect and disseminate information about the Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. The church is in a unique position to know where those services would be useful and facilitate the process for application.

Minnesota established multitype regions in statute — 7 regions. Minnesota also has 12 public library regions. I wasn’t here when library regions were formed, so have no first-hand knowledge about the climate surrounding their formation. The existence of library regions is preferable to the existence of no library regions — yet I wonder if more is necessarily better.

The structure of the library regions was difficult for me to get my head around. It’s far more difficult to explain to legislators and stake holders. One of the SELCO/SELS board members said it best during the SELCO and SELS 2000 strategic planning process. The planning committee had spent considerable time in meetings, collecting data and discussing the future of the organization(s). We were in a final meeting at which the goal was to set the direction of the plan, and he, like the child in the Emporer’s New Clothes, said he still didn’t get it. What was this multitype region? In truth, he was probably the one participant (of the many who were grappling with the question) who had enough bravado to raise the question. Those who know again explained the structure as it exists. An epiphany dawned, as he said “I get it”. He recapitulated his newly developed comprehension as a comparison between SELS and the “watering hole” in a primite culture where the residents share communication and information around that gathering place.

So, I planned to stay 3 years. Here I am 6 years and 3 months after my first day on June 14th, 1999. Why I am still here?

One thing I’ve learned. Multitype library services is a constantly moving target. My mother, a retired teacher (lower elementary) with a minor in library science does not understand how I have a library degree and no library. People ask me the same question I asked when I first took the job – “what do you do all day?” I tell them and myself, I go to work and do what needs to be done.

What keeps me doing this, is that it is never boring. We have 100+ multitype library members. Within that larger universe, we have a fairly substantial number who make up the subset of the Online Libraries. By far, our largest product line is the SELCO Integrated Library System, so a great amount of my time is spent in tasks related to library automation — albeit not actually running the automation system.

When I was hired at SELCO, my job title was “Regional Consultant for Multitype Services.” I immediately lobbied to change my moniker to some kind of “librarian” – and my job title was soon “Regional multitype librarian”.

Just trying to keep up with all that job title implies has kept me challenged, and time has truly flown quickly. During this time we have moved our headquarters offices to a new building, and last year we migrated our library automation system from a DRA classic system to epixtech Horizon. So maybe my original intent to only stay in my original job for 3 years was accurate, this has hardly been the same job for the last 5 years.