PVLD Director's Blog

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!

Recharging my blogging batteries!

Its been a while since I've felt that I have written a really good, thought-provoking post on this blog.  I really could relate to this post from Logic+Emotion about the challenge of consistently writing really great posts.

I've got more than usual on my plate at work at the moment (budget challenges, union negotiations, issues with our major supplier of books that are resulting in bare shelves and customer complaints, plans for the renovation/expansion of both branches and the associated fundraising efforts, the usual Spring rush of community and legislative activities, negotiations over the proposed redevelopment of the property next to our main library with potentially big implications for us, etc. etc. etc.)

Combine that with lots of houseguests, a string of appliance failures and home maintenance issues, and the normal busy-ness of life and finding time to read and reflect (which for me is a pre-requisite to a good blog post) is a real challenge.

I've also noticed that while I still try to skim my normal complement of library and non-library blogs, they have not been the source of much inspiration lately.  My bet is that some of my fellow bloggers are feeling some of the same pressures I am, but I also think that ideas that seemed new and exciting to me a year ago are less so today.

This blog is important to me, so I'm going to keep at it...but I'm going to try posting a bit less often and putting more time and thought into the posts I do make.

Next week I'm going to be spending the week as a mentor at the Eureka Leadership Institute, a weeklong program for emerging library leaders in California.  I'm hopeful that even though I am there as a mentor and not a participant I will have a chance to reflect on my own leadership abilities and performance and also to recharge my batteries though being in a new environment with a group of energetic young professionals.  I don't expect to be posting much, though!

Hopefully when I get back to work in early May my batteries will be re-charged and you'll see an improvement in this blog....

Curiouser and Curiouser

I came across this gem of a video of Seth Godin talking about the importance of being curious on John Blyberg's blog today and I was struck by the role libraries can and do play in "priming the pump" of curiosity.

I was also reminded of a post I wrote back in February in which I quoted an impassioned email from one of our PVLD Librarians, Sylvia Richardson, about her perception that in their quest for relevence librarians are chasing numbers and growth and forgetting, as she puts it, that

"Our job as librarians is to engage people in growth throughout their lives, before, during and after "school" days, to be a beacon of free thought unencumbered by sales figures, which more often indicates mass market thinking than new and daring concepts; the sales curve always follows some distance behind the new concepts humans create.  (Was Van Gogh a bestselling artist in his lifetime???)  It is our job, as I see it, to include in our collections "items" that may be less than mainstream, but more important precisely because they are out of the main stream; new directions, offshoots, upstarts, wellsprings off the beaten path."

Sylvia's comments have been bouncing around in the back of my mind since she wrote them, and it was one of those interesting instances of synchronicity to first see the Seth Godin video and then, within an hour or two, to read John Berry's column in the April 15, 2008 issue of Library Journal in which he reminds his readers that libraries are more than gateways to information and librarians are more than "information professionals".  I'm sure Sylvia would agree with Berry's comment that while people do come to the library for information, they also

"... come to the library to do much more than that. Many are, of course, studying, searching, reading, seeking, and finding the recorded stuff. But many more are there enjoying, interacting, exploring, and, as old Jesse Shera once put it, engaging in “the quiet stir of thought” unrecorded, unmanaged, uncaptured."

I am a firm believer in the role libraries and librarians can play in exposing people to new authors, new thoughts, and new ideas and I'd be the last one to say that we should let the development of our collections and services be driven solely by giving people what is popular.

At the same time, I recognize that in order to expose people to Sylvia's "...."items" that may be less than mainstream, but more important precisely because they are out of the main stream; new directions, offshoots, upstarts, wellsprings off the beaten path."  We need to get them in the door (whether the physical door to our physical libraries or the virtual door to our virtual libraries), and they won't come (or won't come back) if we don't also give them what they are looking for.

Finding this balance between giving people what they want and providing them an opportunity to discover something that they will value but would not have asked for is to my mind one of the core responsibilities of the professional librarian.  It is particularly challenging given the always present limitations on money (do I buy another copy of the latest Michael Crichton or do I buy something by a little known but outstanding new author?), space (How many copies of this Sue Grafton do we need?  Should I keep our only copy of The Sun Also Rises even though it hasn't circulated in a year?) and staff capacity (do I offer another session of Clutterology, which practically runs itself and always gets a good turnout or do I take a chance on a speaker who might be a bit challenging and may only attract a dozen people?)

It occurred to me today that when making these decisions we could do worse than ask ourselves "How does this "prime the pump" of curiosity?"

Digital Generation Gap

The other day I was talking on the phone to my 16 year old niece in Canada, who was telling me about her new haircut.  I said "Sounds cute - email me a picture" to which she responded "Just look on my Facebook page"  Duh!

The conversation reminded me of a couple of articles that I came across a few weeks ago about parenting in this digital age.  The first, from the New York Times, talks about how text messaging is changing how parents and kids communicate.  The second, from the Washington Post, is about the perils and pitfalls of parents becoming "Facebook friends" with their kids.

Both articles make some interesting points about privacy.  I'd never though of cell phones and text messaging as enabling kids to have more privacy, but as the New York Times article points out its a lot harder for your parents to know what you are up to if you are accessing the Internet from your cell phone, or sending a text message to a friend rather than talking on the phone where your parent can hear at least one side of the conversation.

I also thought the Washington Post quote from Steve Jones, University of Illinois Professor and digital communications expert was interesting -

"What they want to keep most private is not something they wish to keep from strangers, it's the things they want to keep from people that know them," he said. "It's 'I don't care what someone who doesn't know me finds out. But I do care about what someone I know intimately [does].' "

On the one hand, a technology gives parents a much greater ability to stay in touch with their kids, but on the other hand that same technology allows kids to conduct a much greater portion of their lives in ways that are hidden from their parents.

Part of growing up is expanding the parts of your life that you want to keep private from your parents, so there is nothing new in that.  What is new I think is the extent to which technology is enabling that process to happen earlier and faster than ever before.

The articles also made me think that PVLD's policy of requiring parental permission for minors to access the Internet via library computers is of greater symbolic than practical value.  Kids who want to use technology to "hide" stuff from their parents will find a way to do it whether they use library computers or not, and kids like my niece who have little to hide will let even their aunts and uncles be their Facebook friends.  I hope we aren't creating a false sense of security.       

Investing in the Future

Seth Godin had an interesting post today called Managing Urgencies - basically about the human and organizational tendency to give our priority to fighting fires and "managing urgencies" at the expense of working towards long-term goals.

The post particularly resonated with me because we are working on our 2008/2009 budget and 2009/2010 forecast and things are looking pretty grim.  Over 85% of our revenue comes from property taxes, so the housing market downturn is having a real impact.  Add to that reductions in the little State funding we do get, recent cuts to passport processing fees, and rising costs for everything from databases to health insurance and we are facing some very challenging times.   Oh yeah, and we recently completed a Classification and Compensation study and would very much like to start implementing the results...but this will be expensive.

In this environment it's easy to focus on the short-term - where can we cut costs?  Do we really need to send people to conferences or training? Can we defer replacement of computers for another year?  How much can we cut the book budget without having a significant impact on the collection?

We're asking ourselves these questions and more, but we're also trying very hard to stay focused on the long-term.  This is definitely not easy!

For example, our Friends of the Library are embarking on a major capital campaign to raise funds for restoration of our historic Malaga Cove Library and expansion and remodeling of our Miraleste Library so that these libraries can meet the long-term needs of our community.  They are also starting to build an endowment that  will provide a long-term source of supplemental income to PVLD.  As they turn their attention to these long-term projects we are working with them to cut the amount of support they will give to PVLD in the coming fiscal year in half - a reduction from $278,000 to $135,000.  Will this really hurt in the current budget climate?  Absolutely!  Is it the right thing to do for the long-term?  Absolutely!

We are also looking closely at our budget for training, workshops, and conferences.  Will we be sending as many people to conferences as in previous years?  Probably not.  Will we still try to send at least some people?  Definitely.  Why?  Exposing our staff to new ideas, interacting with new people, and learning about new technologies and products is a short-term cost but an investment in the future.

Will we be replacing all of the computers we had hoped to, or adding as many new public computers as we would like? No.  Will we be making strategic investments in new technologies like IPhones and PDA phones for a few staff members?  Yes.  Why?  Because as the world around us moves toward the mobile delivery of information we need to understand those technologies and develop services for that new world.

Is it going to be a tough couple of years?  No doubt, but we're going to do our best to make sure we don't let the short-term pain tempt us into sacrificing our long-term vitality.   

Vacation is great, re-entry is rough!

I'm back from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of things at work.  Our trip was fabulous...snorkeling, watching whales breach offshore, drinking mai tais at sunset.  It went by much too quickly, though. 

I managed to stay on top of my emails by checking once a day (15 minutes max), and while that meant I wasn't faced with an overflowing inbox this morning, the re-entry has still been rough.  I don't know whether to blame the full moon last Friday, or the powers that be punishing me for my vacation, but it has just been one of those days.  Among the things needing to be dealt with -

• A phone call with the still-grieving stepson of one of our long-serving volunteers and library supporters who died recently
• Lingering issues from the implementation of our new Integrated Library System including a complaint from a regular library user about why items that were ordered several months ago have not yet been received by the library while they can be bought at Costco (this was the result of a combination of a hiatus on purchasing and receiving during the cut-over period and ongoing issues with the transmission of data between our book vendor and the new ILS) and the failure of online payments to show up in our bank account (resulting from an issue between our bank and the credit card processor)
• A complaint about the "sexually explicit" ads in the free newspaper the LA Weekly, which along with many other free publications (such as the local magazine Peninsula People, and newsletters advertising activities for children) is available in our library foyer, and the requst that it be removed from the library.  This turns out to be a more complicated issue than it sounds, and unfortunately our library policy is neither clear nor helpful.  I'll be getting legal advice and making policy recommendations to the Board.

With all of that it will take the rest of the week to get back on track with paperwork and other "normal" tasks....and by that time the month will be over and it will be time to put together another Board of Trustees agenda and packet.

I'll get back to writing more meaty library-related posts as soon as I get caught up!

What a difference a decade makes

Yesterday out of the blue I got a call from an executive recruiter asking if I was interested in being considered for the position of head of a large urban library system back east.  I was flattered (it is a big and high-profile position), but it took me about 30 seconds to realize that I had absolutely no interest.  As I have said before, I think I have one of the best Library Director positions in the country, my husband has a great job close to home, we are living where we want to live, and we have no interest in moving.

As I was walking the dog last night, I got to thinking about how different my response is than it would have been a decade ago.  Back then if a recruiter called (and they did) and the position represented a "step up" I would have pursued the opportunity just to prove I could do it.  Maybe its the difference between being in your early 30s and being in your 40s, the fact that I am no longer in a male-dominated and macho environment (10 years ago I was working at an underground coal mine in Central Queensland, Australia, and for a number of years before that I worked in aluminum smelting...both environments where women in anyhting other than secretarial roles definitely had to prove themselves), or maybe its the just the lessons learned over the intervening years but I no longer feel the need to pursue every opportunity just because I can.

That train of thought led me to reflect on how tremendously my life has changed over the past 10 years.

In March of 1998 my husband and I were living in Emerald, Queensland.  I was working in the aforementioned coal mine, which was making headline news across the country because we were at the leading edge of labor relations changes.  We lived in a company house, and because of the labor environment had armed guards living next door.   It sounds grim, but it was actually one of the most exciting and intellectually stimulating times in my career.

Emerald is a small rural (farming and mining) community about a 3 hour drive inland from the central Queensland coast.  It is the center of a large Shire (county) that stretches for hundreds of kilometers.  My husband was the Shire librarian, operating a small library in town, a tiny branch in an even smaller town nearby, and serving customers who often only made the trip into town only every month or two.

Recreational activities included hiking in nearby national parks where you rarely saw another person but could see plants that dated to pre-historic times; "fossicking" for sapphires in the nearby gemfields; swimming at the town's Olympic-sized pool; and lots of parties with a close-knot group of co-workers. 

March of 1998 was also the month we decided, due largely to my mother-in-law's failing health, that it was time to return to the States.  We came back to the U.S. on a combined vacation/job search that month, and through my professional network I was offered executive positions with two different aluminum companies, and ended up taking a position as Vice President Corporate System with Commonwealth Industries in Louisville, Kentucky.

We moved to Louisville in the summer of '98 and spent the next five years there.  We enjoyed Louisville (especially the restaurants!)and I had the opportunity to really build my management skills in new areas including finance, shareholder relations, internal audit, and compensation and benefits....but it wasn't home.

In 2003, after 15 years of marriage during which we lived in 7 places stretching from California to New Zealand to various places in Australia to Kentucky, we were ready to settle down.  I was also increasingly burned out by corporate life, aspects of which did not fit well with my personal values and was ready to make the change back to a position where I was more directly giving back to the community.

In the summer of 2003 we sold our house in Louisville, quit our jobs, and put the dogs in the car, and took a long road trip back home to California (where we already had purchased my grandparents home).  We had no idea where that adventure would lead - would we find jobs?  would living in Redondo Beach live up to our hopes and dreams?

I'm a fan of the kind of "non-Nashville" country music performed by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Guy Clark, and others of that ilk and one of my favorite Guy Clark songs is called The Cape...probably because my whole life has been marked by taking seemingly wild leaps of faith and finding that I landed just where I was meant to be at that time.

The move to California was definitely one of those leaps...and again my cape didn't fail.  Within 4 months both Don and I had found jobs in public libraries within a few miles of home, we'd established a routine of regular walks by the ocean, we'd re-connected with old friends and relatives, and we had turned my grandparents house into our home. 

Nearly five years later we are where we want to be.  Our work lives are fulfilling and (most days at least) they are also enjoyable.  Our home has become a place where family and friends visit often, and where we really feel many days as if we are on vacation.  We have made new friends through our work, and feel part of the South Bay community in a way when we knew we were short-timers in other communities.  Life's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

Looking back over what I just wrote I realize it doesn't have a lot to do with libraries, but it's what was on my mind on this beautiful Southern California Friday afternoon as I head off for a week of much-anticipated vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Any posts (if any) between now and March 24th will be from my Treo...and will probably have little to do with libraries and lots to do with sunsets and mai tais - or at least that's my hope!

I'll be back refreshed and ready to post on real library stuff in a week. 

Marketing vs. Doing

While I was battling the forces of chaos at work and at home last week I missed a couple of great posts by Jeff Brooks on the always insightful DonorPower blog.  Both make the point that it's what you do and how you do it, NOT how good you are at marketing that determines success.

In Advertising Can't Buy Me Love Jeff has a link to this post on Ron Shevlin's Marketing Whims blog, which makes the point that "You cannot advertise your way to greatness." 

In the library world you often hear people say that one of our problems is that we're just not very good at telling people what we do and why they should love us.  That's why I thought Jeff's comments were particularly relevent:

"It's a common delusion in brand advertising: That you can -- through superior creativity, some elbow grease, and a lot of media spending -- become loved and admired.

Maybe it used to be possible. Back when there weren't very many brands, there was no easy way to find out what other people beyond your immediate social circle were experiencing, and the average person had a pretty weak BS-filter. Now, people see right through your claims, and can find out the real truth in a few minutes online.

The only way to get people to love you is to be consistently lovable, and to do something worth talking about. And the only way to be "iconic" is to stay that way for a long time. Advertising hardly helps at all. And when it reeks of BS, it only makes things worse.

So take that creativity and money you might have spent on advertising, and use it to actually become great. Then you won't need advertising."

Jeff followed that post with another challenging the orthodoxy that "branding" is the key to success. He quotes a recent Harvard Business School blog posting by Umair Haque on The Shrinking Power of Brands about how in a web 2.0 economy "characterized by cheap, ubiquitous interaction... the very economic rationale for orthodox brands actually begins to implode: information about expected costs and benefits doesn't have to be compressed into logos, slogans, ad-spots or column-inches -- instead, consumers can debate and discuss expected costs and benefits in incredibly rich detail."

As Jeff points out on DonorPower - "If you want to have a powerful brand, you need to do something very cool, very useful, and very worth talking about."

Do libraries need to pay attention to the fundamental blocking and tackling of marketing and promotion - e.g. getting our events into the local papers, telling our story in the community, and making people aware of our services - of course we do.

The challenge for libraries is to do things that are, to re-quote Jeff, "very cool, very useful, and very worth talking about ".  Recent experiences here at PVLD would support this theory -

• Our Meebo instant messaging reference service was rolled out with no PR the day before thanksgiving and was immediately discovered and used
• The online homework help service has been largely promoted via flyers in the library and a few presentations to PTAs and school groups...and we now routinely exceed 300 tutoring sessions/month

If what we offer isn't cool, useful, and worth talking about then no amount of marketing will make it succeed.  If it is, it will succeed even if we don't market it well....

Taking a virtual break

I loved Mark Bittman's article I Need a Virtual Break in last Sunday's New York Times, although as a compulsive email-checker, blog-reader, and gadget-geek- I must confess that I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge of totally disconnecting.

This week, however, my email seems to have brought mostly bad news - from personnel issues to parking issues to a (rare) customer complaint to a request for a meeting during which an outstanding employee told me she was moving back east to take a job with the Queens Library and to be closer to family as she and her husband await the birth of their first child....I'm starting to dread that little envelope in the lower right corner of my screen.

Couple that with a house that is in chaos due to the unexpected opportunity to get our bedroom painted (we've been trying to find a painter for months...wouldn't you know that the first one willing to do a job that small happened to be free for two days right away!); a sore throat and splitting headache; a scheduling mix-up that took my husband and me to Culver City on the wrong day; and a desktop that is overflowing and I am ready to give Mr. Bittman's "secular Sabbath" a try.

I'm taking a day off on Friday, and a week off in mid-March and I'm going to do my best to get control of my technology addiction.  I can't promise I'll swear off email completely, but I'm going to try to confine my checking to defined times.

Who knows, if I get really good at managing my technology habit I might achieve Tim Ferriss' nirvana of a 4-Hour Work Week ...I checked the book out of the library, now I just have to find time to read it!

 

Powerpoint

This past Friday I was asked to speak to the "Surfwriters", a local writing group with a long and distinguished history of supporting the literary arts here in Palos Verdes.  I was asked to speak for 1/2 hour, without Powerpoint, about "Reading and Libraries in the 2st Century".  30 minutes?  Without Powerpoint?  Yikes!

I do a lot of public speaking, and a lot of community presentations, but when asked to speak for more than 5 minutes I almost always use Powerpoint.  After nearly 20 years in corporate management, several of them in Investor Relations, I find putting together a Powerpoint presentation the easiest way to organize and present information in public.

Preparing for the Surfwriters' talk I realized that easy is not always better!  The discipline of organizing my thoughts into a coherent whole when I didn't have the "crutch" of graphs, pictures, and dot points was much more challenging that I was expecting...but I think it also forced me to clarify my thinking in a way  that putting together a Powerpoint rarely does.

The result was a 14 page (double-spaced) essay on a topic that is important to me, as I think it is at the heart of the issue of the role libraries play.  It also is timely given recent studies on "reading in America", the debate about "libraries vs book stores", and the ways in which technology is changing the act of "reading".

I'll post my talk and more thoughts on these topics next week. since its a rainy Sunday morning, the library has sprung a leak, and  I need to get moving!

In the meantime, I always welcome YOUR thoughts and comments!