OK, this is another entry written for PLA on an ALA session. And though some may be instantly put off by the words “technical services” in a presentation title, I do encourage you to read the whole shebang here. It kept my rapt attention for the entire 2 hours.
…but one thing you won’t find in the PLA post – was the fabulous nugget that one of the presenters shared: The flickr user group “Stick Figures in Peril” Oh please, please – do yourself a favor and take a look.
Hello folks
I volunteered to blog the ALA conference for PLA and I quickly learned that I am NOT the type of person that spends 8am-5pm at the conference, then spends the evening hours blogging. I’ve been just too dern tired, honestly. But as I get the posts up on the PLA blog, I’ll link to them here – with little tempting nuggets that will make you want to read MORE!
A fabulous session I attended on Saturday, the title of which I’ve used for the title of this post here, had a great panel sharing practical (yet eye-opening for me) advice for introducing technology changes in your organization.
And here’s your nugget:
Learn only enough to get by. (What? We don’t have to learn it ALL…RIGHT NOW? I realize that this is simple common sense, but honestly I think we need to tell ourselves and our collegues this every day if necessary. Librarians are by nature “A” students, and in our attempt to be thorough and knowledgable, we are killing ourselves with unrealistic expectations.)
See the whole shebang at the PLA blog.
OK, I’ll flat out admit it: I often succumb to Library Envy. This is how I describe the feeling of longing, of yearning, the tugs at my heart and my mind when I see some of our greatest libraries in action. The wistful exhale of “oh…wow!” that I feel (and often verbalize) when I’m struck by innovative, progressive, beautiful libraries and the inspiring folks that work in them.
I suppose this always has existed for librarians, but as I delve into my past I realize that it began at a very early age for me. As I referenced in one of my first posts, my early childhood was formed and informed largely by my local library in La Palma, CA. This was a very small branch of the Orange County Library System, and it’s safe to say that our family (my two sisters and I – close in age) checked out nearly every board book, then chapter book that the library had to offer. Every month was like “Summer Reading” at our house, and books filled baskets, sat on tables, and formed piles next to our beds.
However, this wasn’t the only library our mom took us to. Just the next town over was Buena Park and even though they were geographically in Orange County, THEY had their OWN library – – and it was TWO STORIES HIGH! I loved this library because they had even MORE books to check out, and they regularly showed Disney Movies (on the lovely old projectors, yes) to the kids during the summer in their MEETING ROOM. Any time I think of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I’m transported back to that room — ice cold in the summertime, listening to the faint “topokata topokata topokata” of the projector. Bliss.
But wait folks, there’s MORE. Right next to La Palma, but in Los Angeles County is the city of Cerritos and it’s LARGER THAN LIFE library. You can visit it today and be blown away with the continuing innovations and services this library provides, but even in the 70s and 80s (prior to the wonders of technology) it was right impressive. It was HUGE compared to La Palma, and even made Buena Park look puny. I remembering going here more in high school, to work on homework projects. They had an ENORMOUS selection of periodicals, books, and other goodies, and a plethora of places to spread out and do work. We had to pay for our card here, because we didn’t pay Cerritos property taxes, but my book-centric family paid it gladly. Since my best friend lived in nearby Artesia, we often worked on assignments here together, checked out the GUYS that went to the public high school across the street (sigh! – We took anything we could get, going to an all girl’s school ourselves…)
As I’ve gotten older, I find that my envy takes on a different focus than my earlier days in that it’s so much easier now to “visit” a library, thanks to Mr. Internet. I envy libraries I’ve never even visited, and I plot ways to fool my husband about vacation destinations that are based upon library visits. Others are libraries that I’ve visited, and are served by people I’ve had the good fortune of meeting.
I realize that envy strictly defined tends to have a negative connotation, but you know what? I think my envy is good and natural and beneficial to me and the library I work for. Why? Because it proves my eyes are open to new ideas and perspectives. It allows me to see how new services and philosophies are just as valid as the ones I’m used to. I just need to get past the usual flame of frustration that OTHER libraries are doing cool things that we’re NOT DOING YET. Because you know what? I would be digging myself an early grave if I focused on all the things WE’RE NOT DOING YET. I applaud the exemplary efforts that other folks accomplish, and I try whenever I can to seek out people in the organizations that I wish to emulate. My envy turns into curiousity and gratitude pretty quickly. And I find out that no one, and no organization is perfect either (regardless of what it looks like from your side of the fence).
I know I’m not alone. I know many others suffer from Library Envy. So fess up. In the meantime, here’s just a sampling of the current libraries of my desire:
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County – Such a dynamic system led by dynamic and passionate leaders. They develop REALLY COOL STUFF, and consider the job not complete until they share the REALLY COOL STUFF with others. Hello Learning 2.0 2.1!
Hennepin County Public Library – Oh Hennepin County, how do love thee? Let me count the ways, with your tagging in the catalog and your fabulous BookSpace, and your lovely Minnesota wild rice… (it’s curly! my husband and I found out when we travelled through the great state of MN)
Durham County Library – You are in the process of COMPLETELY reinventing yourself for your community. Some folks would kill to be in a system at a pivotal time like this. How many libraries do you know have the opportunity to start completely fresh – with any and all options on the table?
OK – your turn. What are the objects of your Library Envy?
Reading Helene’s latest post entitled “Service vs. Experience” sparked a thought that’s been floating around in my noggin – namely that libraries really need to rethink what providing excellent customer service means. We’re not alone in this endeavor, nearly everyone who interacts with people physically or virtually is faced with the challenge of providing service that’s outstanding enough to get return visits and recommendations to potential customers. But my personal experience is with libraries, particularly public libraries – and so this is where I’m a comin’ from.
It’s all fine and good to use the phrase “excellent customer service” when writing out a mission statement or service goal document – but what does that really mean? I think for the majority of librarians that I’ve worked or spoken with it means treating everyone that walks in the door equally in terms of services and help provided (note I’m emphasizing “walks in the door”, here – I’ll get to that later). We then go about determining what these services are, as we see them. We create “rules”and “guidelines” that each new library staffer learns the first day on the job. And because it’s easier to follow orders than actively assess a situation and make an informed decision – we often get stuck and trapped by these “rules” and “guidelines”. They become our crutches when dealing with “difficult” customers, they are our “Pass the Buck” card when customers bristle at our inflexibility.
“But if we don’t have these rules, then people will take advantage of us!” OK, that may not be an exact quote but it’s the sentiment that many librarians convey. Being human, we focus on the exceptions rather than the vast majority of honest, good intentioned customers. Since we’re in the business of helping people reach their current aspirations – whether that be the 20 page report on the obscure topic due tomorrow, the basket full of picture books that will be used (perhaps in vain) to help keep a toddler occupied during a long trip, or confirming for someone that the unintelligible but scary sounding diagnosis they just received from the doctor is not life threatening – we are dealing with people’s lives and thus we’re exposed to all the emotions (good and bad) that come out of people.
Rules limit us, and they have the potential to damage our relationships with our customers. Why not use empowering rule of Radical Trust? Trust your employees to be fluid in their interactions with customers. Expose them to your library’s philosophy and allow each to interpret as they see fit with each individual they come in contact with. Everyone does NOT want to be treated the same. I’ll even go so far as to say that the whole “Treat others as you would want to be treated” idea is limiting because it assumes that your vision of good treatment is universal.
What does this mean in practical terms?
What else does this mean to you?
“When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it. ”
-Theodore Roosevelt
As my view of our library profession continues to expand, I find myself leaping to some amazing blogs (see the growing blogroll to the right…). Most of what I’m reading online are written by librarians in all types of settings, but a growing number are written by those outside of the library industry. Fellow blogger of “Library Revolution” echos this sentiment in her recent post, as she finds some real nuggets from the marketing industry.
And then there are the books, those wonderful books that keep my request queue humming. Most of what I’m absorbing from the written page about change, leadership, and creating environments for innovation hardly, if ever, mention libraries – or 2.0 technology for that matter. These books I take with me in my canvas bag du jour, these books that I overpack whenever travelling that force me to cough up the extra $50 for excess luggage weight. The volumes large and small that have usurped the role of a good Southern fiction writer as I wind down before falling asleep, that my house is cluttered with, and that I’ve only just started to catalog in LibraryThing. THOSE books lead me to as many personal “Aha!” moments and “Sweet Fancy Moses, this author is preaching to the choir of one (me)” revelations.
And so the latest book to win me is You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How anyone anywhere can make a positive difference. This short and sweet little number (just over 100 pages) is chock full of affirmations and action points, and it drives home the point (surprise surprise) that we all can do great things in our organizations, in our communities, and in our lives. What made it particularly gratifying for me to read was that it reaffirmed my newly found belief in myself and what I can do in our organization. I say “newly found” because I’ll be completely honest and fess up and say that until, oh gee, five or six months ago – I truly believed that I could “get more done” and be more effective in my organization if I just had a more important sounding title, and a position in our management structure. (boy, was I on the wrong track). It also reinforced my growing belief that change will come to our profession, but it won’t be a brilliant few who force the change – it will be all of us working together, cheering each other on, mentoring each other, paying heed to The Wisdom of Crowds aka “Our Customers” (yes, all of them).
Moreover it drove home the point that as the Manager of our Libraries IT Department, I am not THE “voice” of technology for our library system. The voice belongs to our new librarians coming on board straight out of library school – fresh with optimism and “off the wall” ideas. The voice belongs to our more “seasoned” librarians who may not get the whole 2.0 thing just yet, but realize that the potential to change and enhance the services we provide is pretty dern mind boggling. The voice belongs to our hard working paraprofessionals that choose to earn less money than they could earn in other jobs just because they love libraries (I’ll be honest and say I have a really big problem with that labelling by the way…to our customers, everyone that works in a library is a librarian…and me and my graduate school loans are just fine with that). The voice belongs to (gasp!) our customers today, tomorrow, and 5 years from now.
And really, it’s not one voice – it’s a chorus. It might not always sound pretty or “professional”, but that’s OK. It’s an honest attempt to make beautiful, meaningful music.
OK, OK, lest I be cast in the light of practicing ageism, or generationism, with the final wording in my last post let me assure you I most certainly am not. Though I’m firmly a GenX gal born in 1972, I have two compelling pieces of evidence. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Exhibits A and B: my parents, Don and Roseen Lynch. Dad will turn 77 in August, and mom wants to celebrate her 70th birthday next spring by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Yep, my parents are the same age as those of my collegues 20 years my senior. And no, I’m not a “happy surprise” child – my sisters are just 2 and 4 years older than I. My parents just got married later in life (something that’s becoming much more the norm now, but not so much in the mid 1960s…)
Anyway, I’m sure mom is dying that I’ve told the world her age (dad probably doesn’t care too much) – but I’ve done so to illustrate a few points. First of all, it’s thanks to my parents that my favorite TV channel is Turner Classic Movies, that my husband and I use phrases like “Hey Toot – Let’s Scoot” in our daily conversations, and that I think big band music is just swell (so is Johnny Mathis, mom). In short, I have a fairly good grasp on the fact that just cause it’s new doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better.
But just as important as the rich experiences I gained from my parent’s different point of view while growing up amidst a sea of “Boomer” children, is my relationship with them now. I see how my dad is positively enamored with all things Google, and it’s ability to connect him with everything and anything. Dad’s a “everyday is a fresh new learning experience” kinda guy, and his overflowing bookcase is evidence of this. I told him over the weekend about LibraryThing, how he could catalog his beloved books online and share his thoughts about them with others, and the man’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. And mom, despite her fairly advanced RA, has a burning desire to master the mouse and has attended her local library’s “Beginning Internet” class more than once to absorb all the info. After helping dad with LibraryThing this weekend, we’ll set her up a Gmail account, so that she can communicate with her daughters, other family, and friends without having to rely on my dad to check his account.
My parents are living proof that age is just a number. And more just like them are your library customers.
There are plenty of librarians that are excited and motivated by change and challenges. A great article in Library Journal highlights 5 women who are “Driving Library Technology”, and guess what? These librarians aren’t all young whipper snappers.
IT DOESN’T MATTER – their unbounded passion for our profession is inspiring for all ages.
Wow – cool blog alert! Emily Clasper’s Library Revolution: The Status Quo Must Go is a thoughtful and humorous collection of ideas that I’ve just happened upon. It’s one of those fabulously serendipitous things that occur when you allow your RSS feeds to lead you this way and that amongst the library blogosphere. As I read through her posts, I became more and more certain that we are sharing a brain cell, as so many of her thoughts could just have easily come out of my mouth (including her post on the constant disappointment I face when attending a conference full of librarians, and her confession that she is, indeed, a bad library patron). However, I’ll clearly state that her half of the brain cell is the half that can use appropriate grammer and punctuation, as well as engaging prose (and that ain’t modesty, that’s da truth!)
One recent post really hit home for me, and it underscored the nausea I feel when I’m faced with the ugly underbelly of the library profession: namely those folks happy with mediocrity and “more of the same”. My two questions for these folks are:
1) During what Presidential Administration did you stop caring about your profession? (Which is mostly just a curiosity question, I’ll consider taking a poll…)
And-
2) When will you retire?
No, this isn’t a post on the effects of food in the library, but I’d love a latte, thanks…
Few books have impacted me in the way that Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die has. It’s a book that I read just before my professional “metamorphosis” – when the blinders of “I have so much to do each day at work, I can’t possibly look beyond the immediate…” started to come off. I like many library folks (I imagine) was so caught up in the overwhelming world that was my job: too many demands, responsibilities, etc. – that I did a good job (in my mind) of playing the long suffering, sainted public servant. (“No, really – I’ll stay up and make that change to our ILS system at 11:59pm on a holiday…because it’s my job…sigh”)
And these work blinders were affixed to me fairly tightly, so their forced removal left me at first dazzled and discombobulated. A series of events over which I felt I had little control began to unfold; yet at the same time I began to reach out and meet some inspiring people who were preaching the gospel of Library 2.0. I was in completely new territory, and while the BIG thoughts and ideas of how our library profession could be transformed using 2.0 tools were shooting through my brain at light speed – I still couldn’t articulate in an intelligible manner just what the heck the big deal was!
That is, until I read Made to Stick. This was recommended to me by my boss’s boss in mid February – right smack in the middle of my professional crisis referenced above, and to be honest I wasn’t very receptive to his suggestion. I was angry, confused, and disallusioned, and so the LAST thing I wanted to hear was a little “Readers Advisory” suggestion. But I wrote the title down, and said I’d check it out.
And this was the beginning of my professional transformation. After reading a bit in one of our library’s copies, I realized that I needed my own copy to write notes in, highlight, and love. So two days later, my Amazon package arrived, which I enthusiastically ripped open and began to read, read, read.
I’ll allow you to draw your own enthusiastic conclusions about the book, but one concept that resonates with me is what the authors call: “The Curse of Knowledge”. In short, the problem I was having in sharing my ideas with those I felt needed to hear them, was directly due to my “expert” knowledge (or at least, my growing knowledge) of the subject.
When you are so entrenched in big ideas, you make assumptions about what others know about those big ideas too. Instead of using simple, concrete, examples of what you mean – you talk in big fluffy generalizations – with no simplicity or concreteness to be found. You, despite the best of intentions and enthusiasm, have becoming another talking head. And your ideas are never conveyed in a way that sticks with your audience.
So, this digested, I wanted to see if I could convey my message about the importance of a strong Library IT department – both in terms of resources allocated to it, and technology’s foundation role in all services that our library provides. I threw away my tired phrases, and created this:
I’ve left in all the detailed information about our library system, just so you can see the full thing. However, the most effective parts are the first statements in color. Anyone and everyone is welcome to use this – or use it as an inspiration for your own organizations. I got some really good feedback from our management on this, and it was shared with another county department that was also struggling to make their identity and value clear.
The best part of doing this was that it got me thinking – and it got people’s attention. I’m in no way a “sticky” expert, and I fail more often than I succeed. But the concepts are in my brain now, and I’ll continue to draw on them each day. Those ideas STUCK.
Wow – can one be both exhilarated and exhausted at the same time? Because that’s how I feel right about now after spending an inspiring day at the Durham County Library Staff Day. They are our library neighbors to the west, and are at the beginning of crafting an exciting and innovative overall library plan that actively seeks input from not only all library staff, but the entire community of Durham. Led by their new director, Skip Auld, this is a motivated group of people with a passion to make their library system the best in the county. But don’t take my word for it – check out their Strategic Plan Wiki, that is growing daily with enthusiastic new ideas.
I was asked to do a presentation focusing on “Best Practices” and our model of Customer Service at our library system. The complete slideshow is below. I haven’t even touched the surface on all the great things I want to share about the day, but my exhaustion is beating out the exhilaration – – but just temporarily.
The Leapin' Librarian 