Read this and you will see why my friend Genesis Hansen (2008 Eureka Fellow and 2010 Eureka mentor) is well down the road to being a powerhouse of a library leader.
Her comments on library education really resonated with me since I have long found the current distinction between "professional" and "paraprofessional" work to illogical...but her post really doesn't need my commentary - just read it!
I think I published an earlier version of this a year or more ago....it's been updated and I still find it a fascinating snapshot, so I thought I'd pass it along. There are definitely plenty of things for PVLD to think about as we evolve our services and work to improve how we communicate with and engage our community....
Last week I was introduced to the term "deformation professionelle" in a post by Hilary Davis on the always thought-provoking blog In the Library With The Lead Pipe. The post quotes the Wikipedia definition of the term -
Déformation professionnelle is a French phrase, meaning a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one’s own profession and forget a broader perspective. It is a pun on the expression “formation professionnelle,” meaning “professional training.” The implication is that all (or most) professional training results to some extent in a distortion of the way the professional views the world.
Now I can't get the term or the idea out of my mind! This past Sunday I read this opinion piece about the value of school libraries in the Los Angeles Times, and while one part of my brain was saying "right on!" another part of my brain was wondering "How much of this argument is grounded in objective fact, and how much in what we librarians want to be true? At a time when public schools are under intense budget pressure, is funding for school libraries more important than class size or access to textbooks?"
This internal debate brought to mind Seth Godin's terrific post on What every mass marketer needs to learn from Groucho Marx, where he writes about what happens when people no longer value your product or service the way they once did. I encourage your to read the whole post, but what really struck me was his description of how the response to a changing market is often to want to educate the market - to try to convince them of the value of what you are offering. His conclusion -
Fixing this is almost always a losing battle. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean the market cares any longer.
Ouch! What if that is the reality of the situation for school librarians today? If Seth Godin is right, they need to "find a market that will respect and pay for the work you can do".
Not an easy challenge....and one that will require them to step outside their deformation professionelle.
And I'm not picking on school librarians. The world of information and reading is changing rapidly, and public librarians also face the challenge of identifying what we can offer that our communities will value and support with their funding, and then doing it again and again as the environment and the "market" change.
Maybe, as was posited by StephenB of Deisgning Better Libraries in his post reflecting on the Seth Godin "Groucho Marx" post, the future is one of serving niche markets -
"Want to get help finding information from a skilled human – that’s the library’s niche. Want to get access to highly specialized information products – that’s the library’s niche. Want to build a relationship with someone who can recommend books and movies – that’s the library’s niche. Want to have a caring person read a story to your children – that’s the library’s niche."
...although I have to confess that when I went back and read Seth Godin's description of niche markets, which included the markets for bespoke laptop PCs and for vaudeville entertainment, I have to wonder how many niches we would have to fill to create a large enough total market to sustain our funding needs.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that the world around us and the expectations of the people we serve continue to change...and that we can't afford to let our vision be limited by our deformation professionelle.
And with that I'm off to the semi-annual Public Library Association conference in Portland, OR where despite the deformation professionelle (can you tell that I love that term?) that is sure to be omnipresent, I hope to get many ideas to help move our PVLD libraries into the future.
Late last year PVLD launched the Zerunyan Center for Business, Entrepreneurship and Community Development , intended to be the hub of our services for the business community. It is also PVLD's first foray into public/private partnerships, in this case between the Library District, local City Council Member Frank Zerunyan, and local corporate and individual sponsors.
The Center is still small, and we have had our share of growing pains as we work through all of the issues associated with bringing new partners with new perspectives (and in some cases a lack of understanding of what we already do) into "our" library world, integrating operation of the center with other library activities and programs, integrating fundraising for the Center with our other fundraising efforts, and identifying which programs and services are most needed by our local business community.
At the same time it has been very rewarding to see how the community, and particularly the business community, has responded. Apart from enabling the library to expand its services, the Center has also been a means of attracting new library supporters and donors who see (maybe for the first time) that the library is doing something that is directly relevant for them.
I have been wrestling with both how to work through the growing pains and capitalize on the opportunities that the Zerunyan Center presents, so I was excited to come across this Kiplinger article on how "Libraries Are Building Business Buzz" on Friday.
Apart from great ideas for services for business, it was interesting that the library examples in the article all seemed to be primarily publicly funded, albeit with support from donors. None of the business centers seemed to be the kind of comprehensive public/private partnership that we have envisioned...no wonder we are having growing pains!
Growing pains aside, I was pleased to see a national publication like Kiplinger's confirm that we are on the right track as we grow our services for business. In addition to the Zerunyan Center with its dedicated space, collection of business-related materials, and planned outreach programs we offer a variety of business-oreinted online databases; "quiet study" rooms that are used by local business people for small meetings; rent our larger conference and community rooms for use by businesses and business organizations as well as the non-profit community; Notary, scanning, copying and other services of interest to the business community; and are about to launch a new business networking website for our local community.
The article gave me renewed energy for tackling our Business Center issues and continuing to grow our business services...a shot in the arm at just the right time!
Last fall I had the privilege of serving as a mentor for the Eureka Leadership Program for emerging California library leaders. During the residential leadership institute that kicks off the program participants work in small teams to build leadership skills through action learning, exercises, and case studies. During one of the exercises the team that I was working with came up with an idea for a mobile library cart to enable library services to be delivered and promoted at locations throughout a community.
Today our Eureka team got an email from team member Thomas Vose, the Manager of the Lake Elsinore Public Library in the Riverside County Library System. Thomas had taken that idea of a mobile library cart and turned it into a reality -
This picture shows the cart at its debut at a local outlet mall. Thomas reported that people were able to sign up for library cards and check out materials, and that he plans to take the cart to the local Senior Center and park, and to an upcoming Children's Fair in the community.
Apart from being proud of Thomas for grabbing onto a good idea and making it a reality, I love that he was able to implement it at virtually no cost using equipment that the library already owned....a standard book cart and book bins, a laptop computer, and a simple signage stand. You can see how it could be expanded for a larger event just by adding more carts of library materials.
What a great way to expand the reach of the library and build community support - and all it took was some iniative and ingenuity. Now you know why Thomas is an emerging library leader!
Michael Stephens of Tame the Web posted this video from Down Under on his blog today. I found many aspects of it thought-provoking - most of all the assertion the definition of the "future" as 2015. Many of the concepts outlined in the video are things that PVLD (and many other libraries) have been evolving towards for some time, but it will require a significant increase in the pace of change to truly be the library of the future depicted in this video in five years!
I love the idea of creating an organization like the one portrayed (especially the "genius bar" model and the idea of having staff working virtually to provide services that are not tied to having our buildings open...), and am trying not to think about the challenges of changing organization structures and compensation systems that may be embedded in labor contracts; physical libraries that cannot easily/cheaply be reconfigured; the management skills needed for an organization of this kind; and all of the others things thay could slow our progress.
Food for thought, though!
E-books and e-book readers were a hot topic this holiday season - Barnes and Noble rolled out it's Nook e-reader; Amazon.com reported that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more e-books for its Kindle e-reader than bought physical books, and the blogosphere has been buzzing for months about Apple's rumored introduction of a "tablet" computer that will purportedly be to e-readers what the IPhone was to cell phones.
Earlier today our Digital Services and Marketing Manager, David Campbell, and I were talking about all of this. Our primary e-book supplier, Overdrive, is now compatible with Apple's ITunes, several Sony e-readers, and the Nook as well as the older MP3 format, and the Nook website is directing customers to check out the e-book offerings of their local public library.
In the near term David and I agree that we need to invest more heavily in e-books (both audio and text) for our collection, and more seamlessly integrate our e-book offerings with our website and online catalog. Longer term, though, I can't help but wonder what the implications are for libraries.
That's why I found this post from the Go To Hellman blog (thanks to George Needham of It's all good for sharing) so thought-provoking. His premise is that the shift from physical to digital collections will drive the consolidation of library systems as communities become less willing to invest in physical collections and large buildings to house them when access is available electronically, people become more accustomed to home delivery of physical items (a la Amazon.com and Netflix) and as larger library systems are more able to muster the financial and technical resources needed for these new delivery models.
As a follow on he predicts that while the number of library systems will shrink, the number of physical library locations will grow as small, conveniently located storefront branch libraries are set up to offer access to computers and terminals for accessing digital content/downloading e-books, etc as well as a convenient pick-up location to enable customers to collect pre-ordered physical items (Mr. Hellman doesn't say this, but I would add that these storefront libraries could also offer programs such as story times, book groups, gaming, etc. very much as PVLD's Annex does today).
Much of what Mr. Hellman predicts is consistent with the conversations we are having, and in some cases the actions we are taking, here at PVLD. While we have not contemplated merging PVLD with another library (and I confess that this idea is one I instinctively dislike) we are part of a cooperative library system that last year merged with two other regional cooperatives to enable greater sharing of resources across the Los Angeles, Orange, and parts of Ventura counties. Our Annex is a variation on the store front library model and we have had at least preliminary conversations about whether the concept could be deployed elsewhere in our community such as in the Miraleste village shopping area to relieve pressure on the overcrowded Miraleste Library. David Campbell has pushed the idea of delivering materials by mail for a couple of years now, and while we have yet to come up with a feasible economic model we have not given up on the idea. And we certainly are investing substantial time, money and energy in beefing up our digital collections and improving how the community can access them.
All of this makes me think that Mr. Hellman is on to something, but I'd love to know what you think!
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?
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.
Thank you to Helene Blower of LibraryBytes for pointing me to this thought-provoking video of social media educator Howard Rheingold talking about 21st century literacies. My past couple of blog posts talked about the challengethat people who don't have basic computer skills face in navigating our increasingly digital world. Mr. Rheingold talks about how the challenge goes beyond skills to literacies, which he defines as the coupling of skills with using them in a meaningful way within a community.
The video iteself is about 45 minutes long, but for those who are interested in this subject it is a worthwhile investment of time. In the library realm we have tended to focus on what we call "information literacy", and what Mr. Rheingold calls critical consumption or "crap detection", as the key 21st century literacy. This is certainly important, but I was intrigued by the other literacies identified in the video -
With regard to the "attention" literacy I was particularly struck by Mr. Rheingold's comment that the world of social media is "not a queue, it's a flow" - that unlike the world of email and other "point to point" messages which can be processed serially and need to be managed, the world of social media demands that we accept that we will not view or receive every message, and that we need to learn how to "sample" and perform a form of triage so that we get a feel for what is happening and respond to the important stuff without getting bogged down. This is definitely an area where I am only semi-literate!
Mr. Rheingold questions whether the traditional educational environment is, or even can be, the place for developing these literacies...which of course made me wonder whether/if libraries could play a role. Given that we struggle to be recognized even as a resource for the information literacy/critical consumption literacy that we see as core to our mission and have not yet come to grips with how to effectively help people build even basic computer skillsand comfort levels I'm not sure how - but its something I want to spend some time thinking about. It seems to me that starting with encouraging/helping our staff to gain these literacies is a starting point, though.
Anyway - here's the video (if it doesn't display click here for a link)
(and if you want to dive a little deeper into how to become an effective "crap detector" I recommend this article)
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