PVLD Director's Blog

Broadband - a right or a luxury?

Just after I wrote my last post trying to explain braodband and why it is important, I came across this post from the Publicola blog (thanks to Stephen Abram for sharing it) comparing broadband Internet access to access to electrical power in the early part of the 20th century. 

In the U.S. and around the world electricity quickly became seen as an essential prerequisite to "modern" life, enabling everything from industrial development to the spread of public education.  In the first half of the 20th century governments, including our own, invested huge amounts in electrification projects like those of the Tennessee Valley Authority and today developing nations like China continue to invest in rural electrification through projects like the "Three Gorges" project.

It's hard for me to see how the same will not be true of broadband Internet access.   In a world where the Interent is the primarly repository for up-to-date information on everything from crop prices to the weather to the latest scientific and technical news; an increasingly important telecommunications medium; and a means of delivering education and medical services access to the Internet is already dividing the "haves" and "have nots" much as access to electricity has done for the past one hundred years.

Advanced nations in Asia and Europe are already making huge investments in broadband, and the U.S. is beginning to lag far behind.  Delivering affordable high capacity broadband to every household in the nation may not be practical or affordable, but surely we should be making sure every community has access to broadband Internet...and what better place than at the public library?

In my view access to broadband is not only a right, it is vital to the future of our nation...but what do you think?

Celebrating 80 Years of Magic at the Holiday Parade

It was truly a magical evening when PVLD won the Mayor's Trophy at the 2009 Rolling Hills Estates Holiday parade!  With a rabbit coming out of a top hat, a wizard and a fairy godmother, and more magicians than you can shake a wand at library staff members outdid themselves creating an amazing parade entry on a shoestring.  

A great big thank you to Dori Medina for her leadership and costume sewing skills; Laszlo Latkoczy, Louise Beebe, Brenda Sibert and the Facilities staff who conjured up the top hat and created the float; Merna Marshall for organizing a fabulous taco dinner for participants and guests; Kaitlin Waldron for being such a fabulous magician's rabbit; Charles Crouse for being a good sport and agreeing to play a wizard at the last minute; Charles and James Davis for carrying the banner; and to everyone (staff, Trustees, volunteers, partners, kids, grandkids and friends who drove, rode, marched or cheered us on!

Enjoy the slideshow - and the brief video at the end - and look for us to be the float to beat next year!

It's about the people

A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's Community Arts Committee, a group of arts teachers, school administrators, and community partners that meets periodically to discuss how to improve arts education in the school district.

One of the teachers said something that really struck a chord with me.  I don't remember his exact words, but they were something along the lines of "It's not the art project you made in 6th grade that you remember years later, it's the teacher whose skill and passion turned you on to art."  In short, it's about the people not the art.

Ever since I've been thinking about how that might just as well be said of school librarians.  Forty years ago when I was a shy kid in elementary school my elementary school librarian, Charlotte DeFirmian, was my hero.

 Mrs. DeFirmian introduced me to authors who became lifelong favorites, challenged me to read beyond my comfort zone, and by appointing me an unoffical library assistant made the library a refuge from tormenting peers and a troubling family situation.  In fact, Mrs. DeFirmian is probably the reason I am a librarian today.

We live in an era when California ranks near the bottom of the nation in funding for school libraries, when at the elementary and middle school levels most libraries are staffed by low-paid clerical employees who may or may not have the knowledge of children's literature and talent and skill for connecting kids with books that Mrs. DeFirmian had, and when many school are closing their school libraries or relying on volunteers to keep them open.  

It seems to me that we are at at the bottom of a downward spiral that started when we downgraded the school librarian from someone with the skill and training  to really engage kids with reading to a clerical or volunteer position focused on checking the books in and out...and that what the schools have saved in staffing costs has been more than offset in the loss to students.   It's not about the books, it's about the people...and I hope our schools will come to realize this.

Aloha from the Malaga Cove Library

The islands came to Malaga Cove Library today. A great crowd enjoyed slack key guitar, hula lessons, lei making, Hawaiian BBQ, shave ice, and hawasian culture and stories. Thank you Mitch Chang, Jennifer Addington, and Jennifer Chaffey for organizing the event - hope we can do it again next year!

Congratulations to our new State Librarian Stacey Aldrich!

I just heard that my friend and colleague Stacey Aldrich has been appointed the new State Librarian of California.  Stacey has been in the acting State Librarian since her predecessor, Susan Hildreth, left to become the Director of the Seattle Public Library last spring.  I'm thrilled!

Stacey, at the relatively young age of 39, has nearly 20 years of library experience as well as training and experience as a professional Futurist. 

I've had the pleasure of getting to know Stacey as a fellow mentor on the Eureka Leadership program and through working together on several taskforces.  She is energetic, smart, politically astute, and a lot of fun.

Her passion for exploring the further horizons of the future and trying to understand what it means for libraries, her commitment to nurturing the next generation of library leaders, and her commitment to finding ways to unite libraries across this large and diverse state are just what California needs right now and I am looking forward to working with her as she takes on this challenging task.

Congratulations Stacey!

""Netflix"-style library fees

Some of the staff members at PVLD have been tossing around the idea of a Netflix-style book delivery service for some time, but have found it is more complicated than it seems both in terms of the back-end software, the staffing required, and the logistics of a large-scale mailing operation.

This article about the Hayward Public Library tells of a somewhat different approach - adopting the Netflix pre-payment financial model, but not the mail delivery service.  Essentially the Hayward Library plans to offer people the option of paying a flat monthly fee for the ability to have a fixed number of items checked out at one time for as long as they want to keep them without further overdue fees.  The Hayward Library Director indicates that they think this service will significantly increase their fee revenue while offering a convenience to customers.

Interesting!

I think Hayward uses the same back-end Integrated Library System that we do, so if they can make it work we could too.

If we offered an option like this would you use it?

Germany's Open Air Library - A model for the future?

Made out of beer cans, open 24 hours, integrated with a reading cafe and open air stage, no library card required, books taken and returned on the honor system...this article from Fast Company describes the new library in Magdeburg, Germany.  A somewhat more detailed description can be found in this article.

Community generated and operated, it offers a low-cost model of what many of us believe the 21st century library is about - open access, a focus on books and reading, community engagement, and a gathering space.

Reading between the lines it also seems to be missing many of the things we librarians hold dear -professional collection development, a catalog, a website, reference services, library cards and circulation systems...

It is also not clear what, if any, involvement there has been by professional librarians. 

It's a fascinating model of what a community library could be...exciting and energizing, but also a bit scary!

I'd love to know what you think.

More on bridging the digital divide

My two last blog posts about our increasingly digital world, and the challenge of serving both "digital natives" and people who may have limited ability and/or interest in carrying out their affairs digitally seems to have struck a chord judging by the thoughtful comments on the blog, the emails from colleagues both within and outside PVLD, and the verbal comments I have received.

I got a long and thoughtful email from Genesis Hansen of the Newport Beach Public Library (which in many ways is the California library most like PVLD) outlining the ways they have tried to meet the challenge of serving their less computer-savvy customers, including re-introducing "snail mail" notifications when they abandoned their telephone notification system.

Genesis concludes her email with the following -

"...Which brings me back to the idea that for many of our customers, it might be better to offer a service that is geared towards “let me help you accomplish a specific task” rather than “let me teach you how to do it yourself.” There’s a significant portion of our user base for whom the second option is just not a realistic goal. And I think you are right that this type of help or training doesn’t require an MLS – I don’t think that’s the best use of our resources. Our local senior center has a computer club, and I’m thinking of ways that we can connect them with some of our customers who need a lot of hand-holding – I think it’s actually really possible that we could make this work on a volunteer basis, where we provide the facilities and schedule the appointments, but the actual training is done by tech-savvy volunteers. It’s one possibility, anyway…

And on a lighter note, my 89-year-old grandfather is on Facebook – he hasn’t really taken to it the way he took to email, but I love his attitude and willingness to try new things. He plays around on his computer and gets himself stuck sometimes, but it doesn’t stop him from trying to learn. He and his golf buddies go online to set up their tee-times, send each other dirty jokes and track their stock portfolios. He’s found a way to use the computer and internet to enhance his life and make it easier to accomplish some things he’d be doing anyway, and I think that’s so cool!"

Over the weekend I also saw a couple of newspaper articles that made it clear that libraries are not the only organizations struggling with how to take advantage of the efficiencies and benefits of the digital era offers without alienating customers who are not comfortable in this new world.

Sunday's New York Times had this article about T-Mobile's aborted attempt to charge customers more to receive paper rather than online bills; while Monday's LA Times ran this story about a move by some grocery stores to stop accepting paper checks.  Both highlight the difficulties inherent in asking people to put their faith in digital processes.

Plenty of food for thought, although I keep coming back to the Sacramento Bee article about the 98-year old Facebook user and to Genesis' description of how her grandfather uses Facebook.  My own grandmother has been dead for nearly 10 years, but a few months before she died at age 80 she got her first computer and learned to use email.  She was delighted by this new way of keeping in touch with people, and I know she would have loved Facebook.

I also think about how digital technology has enriched my relationships.  Whether its getting glimpses into the lives of my nieces and nephew via their Facebook pages, hearing from Friends about what is new in their lives via Twitter, or playing games online with my sister in Canada I am connected to far-flung family and friends in ways that feel more like living near them than the letters bearing old news or phone calls that were limited by time zone differences and cost of my years in Canada and Australia.

I wonder if part of the solution to encouraging those who are reluctant to enter the digital realm is to help them discover these "soft" benefits.  it won't work for all, and I keep coming back to the idea that one-on-one coaching would be most effective, but it seems to me that being able to play games with distant grandkids, or as one of my friends does, play online bridge with far-flung siblings while videoconferencing on Skype (which she describes as being just like sitting around a table together) would be a real draw.

Keep those comments coming!

Imagine a community without a library

"What would our community be like if there were no public library?"  That is a question we have been asking community members as part of a Strategic Plan-driven project to understand community perceptions of the library and use this input to better position our services, programs, and messages.

Thankfully here in Palos Verdes it is a hypothetical question, but I was appalled to learn that for the citizens of Philadelphia it may soon become a reality, according to the website of the Philadelphia Free Library System.

I loved Cory Doctorow's post expressing his dismay over at BoingBoing.  What a great articulation of what public libraries offer communities and society as a whole, and what a tragedy that some communities are willing to give this up....

Who says librarians don't rock!

Thanks to my Facebook friends Paula and Eileen for sharing this!  Very appropriate for me to see it on a day when a birthday is looming.  Also, sometimes working in a library sure feels like being in a roller derby and this is turning out to be one of those weeks!