PVLD Director's Blog

Libraries and the Cognitive Surplus

I just spent an hour writing a post about this amazing video featuring Clay Shirky, and then lost it due to some mysterious glitch! Now I need to try to recreate my "brilliant" thoughts!

For some reason the video won't embed in my post, so here's the link to the DonorPower blog post where I found it.  Take a look...it's well worth the 15 minutes or so.

As I watched it I kept thinking about the implications for libraries.

Libraries originated as essentially repositories of content (think the great library at Alexandria or the monks preserving their manuscripts during the middle ages), and have evolved into institutions focused largely on content delivery.  Its interesting that some of our most "innovative" service models (and sources of heated debate) are largely about how we get better at delivering content. Think about the current debate about the limitations of the Dewey Decimal System, or the move towards "merchandising" our collections, or the often heated discussions about whether we should more heavily emphasize customer demand or professional judgement when selecting materials.  All are about more effectively connecting our customers with our collections....i.e. content delivery.

Now think about the world that Mr. Shirky describes in the video.  A world in which people expect to participate in the creation and sharing of content, not just to consume it.  A world in which an individual, using low cost technologies, can participate in the domain of content organization and delivery that has traditionally been the domain of libraries and well-capitalized businesses.  A world in which the 200 billion hours/year that has been spent watching television can be redirected to the creation and sharing of content.

I think this shift from passive consumption to participatory creation and sharing will render our current delivery-based library service models obsolete.  The challenge for librarians and library institutions is to transform ourselves so that we become active participants in this new world.

What does this mean?  Some thoughts -

Librarians need to shift from being organizers of and gatekeepers to information and content to designers of the systems that allow people to actively participate in the creation and sharing of content and the design of library services.

The boundary between the "library" and the community will become increasingly permeable.  Our staff will need to have the deep knowledge of the needs and aspirations of the communities we serve that only active engagement outside the four walls of the library can provide.  As a young library school graduate and job applicant I interviewed the other day put it - "We need to have the kind of community involvement that means that wherever we go in the community we meet people we know, and we need to develop services based on real understanding of community needs not what we pretend to know."

Our internal boundaries will also become more permeable as we rapidly reconfigure our organizations and services to adapt to changing community needs. 

Our library buildings will become just one service point in an array that spans the virtual world and the physical communities we serve.  Web-based services, cell-phone based services, widgets on the websites of others, "pop ups" at community events, micro-services at locations throughout the community (mini-collections? kiosks? book-dispensing machines?) will become the norm.

The library buildings themselves need to be redesigned to foster participation and engagement.  Service desks that have staff and customers working side by side to collaborate on solving the customer's problem? Replacement of the discreet and somewhat secretive suggestion box with white boards (physical or virtual) where customers can share their thoughts about library services and build on the ideas of others?  Spaces where staff and customers come together on a regular basis to discuss library and community issues?

Our catalogs need to move beyond inventory management systems to platforms for users to share information, make connections with people of similar interests,  and help one another find the resources that are most relevent for their needs in their particular contexts. (See my previous post on the Social Catalog and Bibliocommons)

We need to build deep and broad institutional knowledge of emerging technologies and business/service models and skill in the rapid deployment of new technologies and models.  Technology-based innovation can no longer be the sole responsibility of the IT staff.

We need to stop viewing volunteers as supplemental labor and find ways to engage the full array of talents, experiences, and knowledge that our volunteers bring to us (See Boomer Volunteers)

Most of all we need to build library cultures that encourage and respect the participation of our communities and organizational designs that foster experimentation and learning.

There is a huge store of intellectual capital waiting to be tapped - in our communities and within our institutions.  Let's tap it!

Those are some of my thoughts...what are yours?

Art and Libraries

This will be a quick post since I think that, while my body is here at work, my brain is still on its way home from Washington DC.  I certainly don't cope with time zone changes and long flights the way I used to!

I had a spare couple of hours before my shuttle to the airport yesterday afternoon, so I took the opportunity to take one of the public tours of the Library of Congress - what a testament to the commitment our forefathers had to ensuring access to knowledge and ideas for all citizens.

Tours of the main Library of Congress buidling are led by volunteer docents who undergo six weeks of training and a comprehensive exam.  My tour guide was a gentleman named Gene Rowe.  Gene not only was extraordinarily knowledgeable about the history of the Library and about the facilities, but he positively sparkled with enthusiasm as he described the artwork that decorates the building and the way in which that art reflects and reinforces the Library's mission of fostering the pursuit of knowledge.  He also managed to get the 1/2 dozen or so adolescents on the tour caught up in his enthusiasm.

PVLD has several beautiful pieces of public art commissioned with the same intent, and has worked in the past few years to further integrate art into our service and program offerings, so it was wonderful to see that we share this vision with the Library of Congress and even more wonderful to see Mr. Rowe exemplify how art can engage people's imaginations and enhance the mission of the library.

Truly an hour well-spent!

National Library Legislative Day

I'm writing this quick post during a break fron the Amercan Library Association National Library Legislative Day briefing.

I'm sure I'll have more to write as the next couple of days unfold,but I wanted to post briefly about how proud I feel to be part of a group of library supporters, many of whom came to Washington at their own expense and on their own time, who are committed to making sure our Federal Legislators understand the importance of libraries in a democratic society.

For public libraries the main source of Federal funding is through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which provides funds for grant programs administered by the State Libraries. This year PVLD is benefitting directly from LSTA funding in 3 areas -

1. The Early Literacy for Families (ELF) grant that is supporting enhanced services for families with young children and particularly for families of children with disabilities.

2. The Transforming Life After 50 grant that is supporting enhanced library services for the 39% of Peninsula residents who fall into theBaby Boom generation.

3. Scholarships to assist PVLD staff who are attending library school while working.

This morning we have already heard how challenging the Federal budget negotiations are, and how proposals currently on the table amount to a 2% spending increase (less than inflation) before any changes to programs such as No Child Left Behind.

It's pretty disheartening, especially when you realize that the total annual LSTA funding we are seeking amounts to less than 1/2 the amount we are spending DAILY on the war in Iraq (we are seeking $214.432 million in LSTA funding for next fiscal year while in April of this year the Washington Post reported that the Iraq war is costing $434 million/day)!

LSTA is only one of the issues we are addressing in Washington this week. Others include funding for school libraries, for federal libraries including the National Agriculture Library, and for the E-Rate telecommunications discounts that are made available to schoolsand public libraries including PVLD and PVPUSD.

The total annual funding being requested for all of these programs (including LSTA) adds up to less than 3 days funding for the Iraq war!

What does that say about our priorities ?

I screwed up!

I published a post last week that showed me at my worst and betrayed the trust of the PVLD staff in the process.

When I am tired and cranky I have to work harder than normal not to let my frustrations show....and last week I failed miserably and let one episode over a minor issue overshadow all of the truly good things that our staff have done and contuinue to do to make PVLD a great library and a great place to work.

We're heading into some very challenging times and I have been very stressed about things like the challenge of reaching agreement on a new MOU that treats employees fairly as we transition to a new compensation structure and at the same time does not create unsustainable financial liabilities for PVLD as our tax revenues flatten. I can't yet see a way to make everyone happy in this process and it has been really weighing on me. And that's just one of the tricky issues on my plate.

I'm normally pretty good about managing stress, but over the past couple of months my work commitments and personal "stuff" have made it harder to fit in my usual stress-relievers.

The result was a blog post written in haste and regretted at leisure. I would like to to think I'm a better person than that, but maybe not....

To the staff whose trust I betrayed, I am truly sorry.

The post has, of course. been removed.

Innovation

A firday afternoon tidbit from from one of my favorite blogs, Indexed

Here's to less inspection and more innovation.  Have a great weekend!

Eureka!

This past week I had the honor and pleasure of serving as a mentor for the first Eureka Leadership Institute - a weeklong, intensive leadership development program for emerging library leaders in California.

While my official role at the Institute was "mentor", I think I learned at least as much as the participants.  It is a rare gift to be able to spend a week thinking about leadership and what it means in a library context and I came away reinvigorated (despite the 12 hour days!) and with plenty of food for thought about both how to improve my own leadership abilities and how to lead PVLD towards the future.  I also came away with a whole new network of relationships with people I might otherwise never have had the opportunity to really get to know (or possibly even to meet) and with a renewed sense of optimism about the future of public libraries in California.

I'm looking forward to continued involvement through the Eureka blog, follow-up webinars and meetings, and reunions at ALA, CLA, etc.  I'm also looking forward to working with PVLD Department Managers Eve Wittenmyer and Jennifer Addington who participated in the Institute as they work on their leadership project over the next year or so.

It would ruin the experience for future participants if I write too much about the content of the Institute.  Suffice it to say that I will be encouraging more PVLD leaders to apply, and am hoping that I will have the opportunity to again serve as a mentor in future.

Now its back to the "real world"!