Employing Community Feedback, New Technologies, and Best Practices for Increased Viability and Relevance

Check out our latest journal article, "Employing Community Feedback, New Technologies, and Best Practices for Increased Viability and Relevance," published by the Journal of the Library Administration & Management Section (of the New York Library Association). 

Top 10 Benefits of Tough Times

Just a quick follow-up to the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. For all of you who attended Cathy Hakala-Ausperk's and my Pre-conference, thanks so much for participating. We had a great time and hope you did too (and hopefully you took away a few inspirational ideas while you were at it).

So, here again are the top 10 benefits of tough times:

10. Refresh Your Organization
9. Developing Staff Skills
8. Make New Friends
7. Finally Write That Grant
6. Say It Better (Improve Communications)
5. Kill Mission Creep
4. Enjoy Spring Cleaning (Leaner Facilities)
3. Weed’em and Reap
2. Meet New Needs and Create New Users
1. Adjust Your Attitude

For more details, check out the PLA Blog and P. Sweeney's post.

Here too is the .pdf copy of the presentation as well as the quotes from the beginning of the day. If there's anything else don't hesitate to contact me.

Also, for any of you who attended or missed the panel presentation "Consulting From Both Sides of the Fence: Why Libraries Hire Consultants, and How Consultants Get Jobs ," feel free to contact me with questions.

The Customer is Key!

As my cohorts (Rob, Laura, etc.) and I have been stating for years, customers are the key to successful library service. Since the early 90's I've been actively seeking out the ideas and feedback of library users and non-users and acting upon their suggestions -- always resulting in better libraries!

Over the past 10 years I've also been actively working to show library users (and non-users) the possibilities for their libraries through attention grabbing, informative, and often humorous presentations that grab their attention as well as educate them about what 21st century libraries can be. The mission of librarians needs to be to not only listen to their customers, but to show them the possibilities so they can react, provide feedback, and help create the vision for libraries today and in the future.

It's nice to see that others such as Steve Matthews are also supporting understanding the 21st Century customer. See his 1/26/11 posting "Customer is the Purpose" in his 21 Century Library blog. He states, "The absolute total purpose and focus of the 21st Century Library Model is the customer. Customer centered library services that meet the information needs of the 21st Century customer will result in any library remaining relevant to its community."

Libraries Rock in Indiana!

"Libraries Rock" was the theme of this year's 2010 Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference held this week in Indianapolis, IN. Rob and I were glad to be a part of it (and to be home)!

We presented our 21 Ideas for 21st Century Libraries CE session on Monday for over 50 people. We were pleased to see so many there to hear about new ideas and best practices--covering facilities, marketing, staffing, community collaborations, customer service, and technology--that will help libraries thrive in the 21st century. Our focus was on helping people learn how to manage and be a success in good times and in bad and how to incorporate innovative ideas in libraries of all sizes and budgets.

On Tuesday afternoon I did a mini session called What's Your Sign: Signage & Wayfinding in Libraries. I was amazed that we had a packed house -- over 65 people. Now, that's dedication, especially when it's late in the afternoon and we're talking about signage--typically, not the most exciting of topics ;-).

Just a quick reminder to everyone to download my Signage Planning Worksheet and to try out the "Beautiful>Ugly" graph developed by Aaron Schmidt. Read more on his blog Walking Paper. You can also print out a copy of the graph from the What's Your Sign presentation.

Also, here are some other helpful signage and wayfinding resources including some vendor information that was requested during the sessions:

Vinyl lettering resources (there are so many out there, but here are a few): Try Demco, Highsmith, Brodart. Also, FastSigns, Right on the Walls, Signazon, and many, many more...

Indiana-based pop-up banner companies: CustomBannerLab.com, Indy Displays, Matrix Imaging, and, once again, many, many more...

Libris Design's Wayfinding and Signage Document

San Jose Public Library's Signage Design Guidelines

Demco's Signage Planning

Don't forget to call if you need anything or have questions. Thanks everyone!

New York in Fall, More 21 Ideas, and Lawler Kang

Well, it proved to be another great New York Library Association (NYLA) conference this year. Saratoga Springs was beautiful (even with the rain). Rob and I were happy to see so many of our friends and colleagues at the exhibits and were extremely enthused by the turnout at our 21+ Ideas for 21st Century Libraries presentation.

We also had the pleasure to hear Lawler Kang speak at the Library Administration and Management Section luncheon. Check out his book Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life. Very inspirational.

New Library Technologies

In case you missed it, you need to check out the October 25 article in Wall Street Journal titled New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians. The article discusses new options for "express" libraries such as automated materials vending, locker systems, etc.

The article has an unfortunate title. I've been following the development of these products for quite some time and haven't viewed these solutions as options for "dispensing with" people. The overall idea has revolved around enhancing and extending library service and giving library customers options. And sure, sometimes it's about coming up with an economical and customer-oriented solution for those libraries who face cuts, closings, and losing staff. Why wouldn't this be a great idea? Automated service or no service?

Ultimately, my vision for technologies such as automated materials vending (e.g., Evanced's BranchAnywhere) is a full service station that checks out materials as well as connects people with other library services. For example, it would enable customers to view program offerings and happenings at various library locations and sign up online right then and there. It would also include real time interaction with a person (i.e., a librarian / library staff) via video, etc. The possibilities are endless, not to mention cost effective, convenient, and customer-service oriented.

For additional commentary, take a look at the Annoyed Librarian.

The Shift Age

Yesterday morning I attended a very inspiring presentation by futurist David Houle, author of The Shift Age. David spoke about the Information Age giving way to the Shift Age and how we are entering a time of transformation and change that offers both great risk and incredible opportunity. I just downloaded a copy of Shift Age to my Kindle and signed up for his free newsletter.

David is currently working on his next book on educational transformation and I can't wait to read it.

Really great stuff!

Library Grapples with Need to Change...

Like many libraries today, the Indianapolis-Marion County (IN) Public Library (IMCPL) is grappling with changing and evolving into a 21st century library while having to cut back at the same time. Take a look at this Indy Star article to find out how IMCPL is handling things.

A few interesting ideas that came from the article include:

IMCPL -- When administrators took note of the large homeless population using the Central Library, they partnered with the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention to set aside a quiet room for the group to conduct outreach. The group also visits the Central Library a few times a week to look for people they know are homeless and might need services.

Darien Public Library (CT) -- Many who were employed in the New York City financial market lost their jobs, so the library started an early-morning program called "Monday at Seven." Every week, when these professionals would normally be heading off to work, the library opens early and lets them gather there for coffee, bagels and networking.

Hall County (GA) -- The agricultural-based community voiced the need for a new farmers market, so one library branch donated a location and extra hands for setup. On days the market is open, that branch has seen door counts double, and administrators said library card sign-ups have increased.

Metropolitan Library System (IL)

I really enjoyed my time at the Metropolitan Library System talking about "Signage & Wayfinding" and "21 Ideas for 21st Century Libraries." Both workshops turned out to be great brainstorming sessions thanks to the participants. Thanks everyone!

So, without further delay, here are copies of the .pdfs of the presentations as well as the Signage Planning Worksheet. I apologize for the delay in posting this information. I had a few technical difficulties with my .pdf writer yesterday, but things seem to be functioning now.

What's Your Sign - Signage & Wayfinding in Public Libraries

21 Ideas for 21st Century Libraries

Sign Planning Worksheet

Also, just a reminder to try out the "Beautiful>Ugly" graph developed by Aaron Schmidt. It's a great tool. Read more on his blog Walking Paper. You can also print out a copy from the "What's Your Sign" presentation.

Don't forget about the other helpful signage and wayfinding resources including Libris Design's Wayfinding and Signage Document, San Jose Public Library's Signage Design Guidelines and Demco's Signage Planning.

Keep in touch.

Be a Good Boss

I'm on my way to the 2010 PLA National Conference in Portland, OR on Monday. In addition to helping my husband in the Evanced Solutions' booth #2133 (they're releasing their latest product BranchAnywhere, an automated library materials vending solution), I will also be presenting "Be a Good Boss: One Year to Success" on Friday, 3/26 (8:30 a.m.) with my friend and colleague Cathy Hakala-Ausperk.

Cathy and I are looking forward to the presentation and hope to leave everyone enthusiastic about being a better boss.

Click here for a copy of our presentation. We'd also like to share the Table of Contents and a Sample Workbook Outline from Cathy's upcoming book "Be a Great Boss" (to be published by ALA Editions in Late Summer / Early Fall 2010).

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at Kim@libraryexperience.com or Cathy at chakalaausperk@gmail.com

Library Cafe Report

A 60-page Survey of Library Cafes report was recently released by the Primary Research Group in July 2007. It presents useful data for planning and managing a library cafe including data from more than forty academic and
public libraries about their cafes and other food service operations. Sales volume, best selling products, impact on library maintenance costs, reasons for starting a cafe, affect on library traffic and many other issues regarding the decision to start and manage a library cafe are included.

For an overview of this report see: Survey of Library Cafes

Note: that there is a fee if you want to order the full report. This would be a good purchase for a system or consortium for libraries to share.

Managing Team Conflict

There is a great white paper posted on TechRepublic dealing with the topic of managers and effective management of team conflict. This skill should be a core competency for all managers. Discussion includes recognizing team conflict symptoms, determining how to address team conflict, and improving a manager's ability to build teams that can deal effectively with both healthy and unhealthy conflict.

Rob Cullin and I will also be addressing some of this in Talking without Jargon to be presented at the PLA 2008 National Conference in Minneapolis, March 25-29, 2008.

For the complete article, see Effectively Managing Team Conflict

More Shining Stars

At ALA Annual the PLA Small and Medium-Sized Libraries Committee sponsored a program entitled More Shining Stars: Award-Winning Programs from Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries . The program featured a panel of award winners from small and medium-sized public libraries. These libraries show a remarkable range of creativity in developing services and programs that can be replicated by other libraries. The award winners that were showcased have had success in developing collaboration with other libraries and partnerships with schools or other agencies and they have raised their visibility as community centers by developing award-winning programs which will be shared with attendees.

Speakers included Peggy Carlson, Adult Services Dept. Head, Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library; Abby Williams, Librarian, Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library; Linda Yoder, Director, Nappanee (IN) Public Library; Laurel Best, Director, Linebaugh (TN) Public Library.

As the new chair of the Small and Medium-Size Library Committee, I have been asked to post some of the presentations and handouts to share.

Nappanee Presentation

Bloomingdale Presentation

Bloomingdale Handout #1

Bloomingdale Handout #2

Rules for Brainstorming

No matter whether you're working to build staff relations and communications (e.g. Library/IT relationships) or conducting focus groups with the public, brainstorming is a great tool for improving communication and increasing collaboration. Sound easy? Not always. Brainstorming sessions can often turn into chaotic messes or unproductive shouting matches if not handled correctly. Below are a few tips for keeping things on the right track for communicating in an open, positive, and effective way.

1. Choose a topic
2. Assign someone to take notes
3. Go around the room – 1 idea per person
4. Think quantity, not quality
5. Say “pass” if no idea
6. Do not criticize or discuss ideas
7. Good natured laughter is okay
8. Exaggeration is encouraged!
9. Spend 20 – 30 minutes brainstorming

When you’re done brainstorming, move on to discussing the ideas that stood out during the brainstorming session. What ideas really work? What don’t? Decide what ideas to “act” on - the key word being "act."

Community Involvement - Teen Library Board Members

I've been talking a lot lately about new approaches for public libraries, especially in relation to community involvement. It's no secret that I am a huge proponent of getting feedback and input from the community in regard to library decision making. Many libraries have shown their openness to involving adult patrons (users and non-users) in this way using fairly traditional approaches such as conducting surveys, holding focus groups and/or information sessions, and/or including patrons on committees.

The next jump in library evolution includes active and ongoing teen participation and partnerships. Over the past 10 years, Teen Advisory Boards (TABs) have grown in popularity and number, in both public and school environments. This has been a big step in teen involvement. Over the past couple years, a few libraries have stepped up to the plate to include young adults in focus groups and committee work. What's really exciting is the forward leap that libraries like Multnomah County Library (OR) are taking -- they are changing the "rules" to include teen members on their Library Board.

Ellen Fader, Multnomah’s Youth Services Coordinator, felt it was an idea whose time had come and the director and chair of the Library Advisory Board (LAB) agreed. The LAB proposed changes to county code under which they were established. The Library Advisory Board proposes the following changes to Multnomah County Code:

• Increase the number of board members in (A) from "15" to "17"
• Add the following subsection: (D) Two of the board members shall be youth representatives. a) Youth board members shall be appointed by the County Chair, subject to Board approval, and shall be between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time of their appointment. Youth board members shall be users of the Multnomah County Library and be available to serve the entire tenure of his or her term. b) Youth board members shall serve for a term of two years, without the possibility of reappointment. The terms of the two youth board members shall be staggered by one year. To facilitate the staggering of terms, the initial appointment of a youth board member shall be for the term of one year. c) Other than the limitations placed herein, youth commissioners shall share equally in all other powers and responsibilities afforded members of the library board.

The motion passed unanimously! I am a big fan of Ellen, the Multnomah staff, their Director, and the chair of the Library Advisory Board (LAB). I applaud them for their willingness to move forward and include teenagers in decision-making for “their” library.

Visit Multnomah County Library at www.multcolib.org.