Affirmation

Every once in a while it's good to remind myself how good my job is, and how important and valued is the business I'm in. It would be tempting to lose heart with the daily battles that aren't easily won because of inadequate funding or ill-informed news stories like the one in my previous post stating ". . . . libraries have slowly lost their place at the forefront."

Then a blast of sunlight cuts through the gloom, and I am re-energized. Such was the case this week, when I was asked to travel north to one of my communities to join community members in touring a potential new library site. In that town, the much loved branch library is crammed into a space one quarter the minimum size that it should be. While everyone has agreed that the library needs more space, it looked like it would not happen for a good long time.

Then a property went on the market and it appears to be a strong possibility for a new home for the library. So I joined the group of community movers and shakers that included the mayor, city council, library Friends and board, county commissioners, and city and county officials. Even a representative of the Congressman's office came and presented her personal check. We toured the facility and then sat down to talk about how to make this happen. It was one of those pinch-me-this-is-a-dream moments. While there were healthy questions and resolute plans to research potential pitfalls, the over-riding attitude was we can make this happen.

It was a wonderful afternoon. This town values their library and the role it plays in the community culture. I was reminded once again why we're there, and in every other community in our region.

Library plastic for a ride

Here's a great idea -- in Rapid City, South Dakota, you can get a ride to the Rapid City Public Library on the Rapid Ride bus by showing your library card. It started with a summer promotion, and has been extended through the end of 2007. article in Rapid City Journal

Rapid City card holders can also get a discount from several local businesses by showing their library card during September. wish I had a B& L Bagel right now

Happy Library Card Sign-up Month!

A view from the front lines

I've received lots of good wishes on the new job. Thought I'd share a photo of what we're facing here (a picture's worth a thousand words, right?)


and this is only one of 14 branches

We're in the midst of bringing a new integrated library system online. This is happening following a major system failure, caused by the perfect storm of circumstances that resulted in significant data losses (defined as re-cataloging bunches and bunches.) Hats off to one terrific cataloging team! . . . . as well as the entire dedicated, hard-working staff. This is a good place to be.

New perspective

A new job! What a humbling experience. As I accepted the master keys to virtually everything in the building from my administrative assistant, I felt the weight of the responsibility of my new position. On the other hand, shortly thereafter, on my way back from the bathroom I lost direction and momentarily forgot where my office was. That’s the kind of couple of days I’ve had this week, one moment answering questions about how I would like something done, the next being totally baffled by the most basic task, like how to listen to my voice mail.

Yesterday I started the next phase of my career as the Director of the East Central Regional Library, a consolidated library system comprised of 14 branches (15, counting the bookmobile) north of Minneapolis and St. Paul. While it’s been a long time in preparation, it seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. My interview with the hiring committee was July 20th, followed by the waiting, then the offer, then the deliberation and acceptance. Four weeks notice with my previous employer flew by, two weeks off filled with a family vacation, and all of a sudden – here I am!

Sunday I packed all the household goods I could into an SUV and headed north two hours from my home for over eight years. A “For Sale” sign now sits in the front lawn -- as friend AJ is fond of saying “good luck with that.”


For now, home is a very small basement apartment a new acquaintance was kind enough to rent to me on a month-to-month arrangement, in hopes that when the house sells, I will find a more permanent home.

Basement seems to be a recurring theme. In the morning I leave my basement apartment (well really, it’s the lower level of a walk-out rambler) to go to my office in the regional headquarters, which is in the basement of one of the libraries. My previous corner office had two huge windows. For the moment, my new office, which has no windows, is cheery with flowers sent by the predecessor director and his wife, the Friends group, and friend MB. Besides that, there is a coffee gift basket from my new staff. When the Board President came in today, he was quite impressed.


As if starting a new job isn’t stressful enough, I’ve walked into a library world in the midst of an automation system crisis. The libraries have resorted to pen and paper procedures after a system failure over two weeks ago. We’re bringing a new system up, through the Herculean efforts of an incredibly committed and hard-working staff and SirsiDynix. In fact, I spent the afternoon of my first day in training, learning the circulation system, along with many of the branch managers.

As I’ve talked with our leadership team, we’ve all agreed that it’s the beginning of a new era. And I’m sure will provide much inspiration for this Blog. Stay tuned ;^)

Booktalks 2.0

Just in time for back-to-school, Joyce Valenza, on NeverEndingSearch posts a list of podcasts and online booktalks for kids. What a great idea to get kids interested in reading - link this to your library website, and lead the kids to try it out. Hope the kids can find the books in libraries.

Even better, record podcasts for the new books added to your library! They'll think you're really cool.

Library is heart of Monowi

Watching CBS Sunday Morning today, my ears perked up when I heard the word "library." In this case, the library is in Monowi, a small town in Nebraska, about 100 miles west of Sioux City on route 12. Monowi has one resident. According to its Wikipedia entry, Monowi had 130 residents in its peak years in the 1930s. The CBS story originally aired last year.

The town's sole resident, Elsie Eiler, founded the 5,000 book library with the collection of her husband, Rudy, who died in 2004. There are pictures of the town and its library in the February 2005 Cave News blog piece.

Three things struck me about this little human interest piece: (1) The news story - whose inclusion of the library seems to validate the town's existence. In other words, that the concepts town and library are mutually dependent. (2) Comments following the Cave News piece contain offers from numerous people who want to donate books to the library, a common problem in all libraries - the dropping off of unwanted books. (hope Elsie has a good collection policy.) (3) Additionally, comments in the blog piece express an interest in moving to Monowi, as an idealic place to live. Interesting that no one seems to have carried through and expanded the town's population.

4th of July Reflections

Forgive me if I’m a little sentimental today. I always get this way on the 4th of July, as I have ever since my family lived in Berlin. It was in the years just before the Berlin Wall came down – not “fell” as is often said, but was torn down with picks and hammers and bare hands after border crossings were opened on November 9th, 1989.

During the time we were there, there were frequent hints that the way things were would not last forever. My husband and son were at the Brandenburg Gate when President Ronald Reagan said:
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I’ve always wished that I would have been at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987; but as a recent military award recipient, I was one of the lucky few to receive a ticket to the reception for President Reagan at a hangar at Tempelhof Airport, the Air Force base during the Cold War years. So, my family constantly reminds me that the speech they heard made history. The only thing I remember about the Tempelhof reception was a quip that President Reagan made when one of thousands of dropped balloons popped “you missed me that time.” (he had earlier in his term survived an assassination attempt.)

It was in the shadow of the Wall that we lived a pretty normal life, with frequent reminders that we were living the life of the privileged free, while a stone’s throw away, East Germans did not have the same privileges. I was a Cub Scout leader, and took the kids on hikes that followed the walking path at the foot of the Wall around the American sector. Once during a winter walk, a snowball hit the back of my legs, and as I turned around to reprimand my charges, I realized that the kids had entered into a snowball fight with the East German border guards from the watch towers above us. They were giving as good as they got, so we all smiled and waived as I hurried the Cubs on our way. It sure left me with a lump in my throat.

Every 4th of July, the Americans threw a huge celebration, and invited the other Occupation Forces (the Russians, the French, and the Brits) as well as all our German neighbors. We had food, and the Army Band playing all the best patriotic music, and fireworks that shone high above the Wall long into the night. What a rush!

I wrote my mother during that time, “I’m learning two things during this time of my life, how great America is sometimes not, but how great it is to be American.” She saved all my letters, and returned them to me as a chronicle of our family’s life in Berlin. I often resurrect that filter to take a step back and look at news items, as they would appear from afar. I think it enables me to be productively objective. Also, on a daily basis I marvel in the debates and challenges that occur in running America's public libraries that provide unfettered access to the information that equips citizens and communities to reach their full potential.

Happy July 4th!

Library service for military families

Minnesota National Guard troops will be home this summer, according to almost every news source in Minnesota. The Minnesota division has served almost 2 years, longer than any other state’s Guard division. As a former military librarian as well as a military spouse and mom (retired USAF), I feel the excitement with every one of those families.

While my family went through numerous deployments, we always lived on a military installation where the infrastructure provided lots of support and the families around us shared the same experiences as we did. Guard troops will return directly to Hometown Minnesota after a short demobilization period at Fort McCoy.

All troops don’t live near their Guard units and most hometown communities don’t have a very experienced long-term support structure to help military families. Most military families will attest to the fact that coming home is only the beginning of stressful family times, as they re-acclimate to life back together, sometimes more different than the same as it was before deployment.

Community libraries are well placed to function as an information source to military families to help them through the next period, reintegration. I encourage library staff members to familiarize themselves with the information on these two resources. You never know when you’re working the desk and can offer something of value to military families.

• Yellow Ribbon Resource - The Minnesota Department of Education has partnered with Governor Pawlenty’s Yellow Ribbon Task Force to provide resources for military families and educators.
• Family Programs: Association of the United States Army – Resources include a bibliography of books on military life, including children’s books.

Gulp - no Dewey?

As we strive to make libraries more relevant, some libraries are experimenting with arranging books, CDs, DVDs, etc. like they do in bookstores. A new library to open soon in Arizona claims to be the first in the nation to be arranged entirely independent of the Dewey Decimal System. The Perry Branch of the Maricopa County Library District in Gilbert will be organized in 50 sections, then subsections, from sports to cooking, gardening to mysteries, according to the Arizona Republic. Librarians are quoted as saying that people are defeated in their searching because "they don't know Dewey." The article further states that people want to search for books by subject. Hmmmm . . . . I thought Dewey was by subject.

The Perry Library is relatively small, 28,000 square feet, and will have 24,000 items. It is a joint use facility located in a school.

Several Minnesota libraries are experimenting with parts of their collections displayed as they are in Barnes and Noble. I have attended several conference programs on space arrangement and marketing, and whole-heartedly endorse the efforts to merchandise the materials in a more attractive manner than shelving everything so that all that is visible are long rows of dull-looking spines.

The article is unclear as to how the items will be arranged. What will happen when someone wants a specific book; is there a numbering or other classification system to assist in quick location? Are they using RFID? Certainly, library automation systems are capable of keeping track of just about any coding system they devise to designate location.

My most recent experience with finding something in my local Barnes and Noble bookstore ended in a fruitless search for a specific title. Even the salesclerk couldn't find it (even though the B & N computer said they had several copies). I finally came home and ordered the book online.

The Maricopa innovation will be interesting to watch. Maybe I should take a field-trip to Arizona to research it first hand. ***smile***

Phil, the Edge, and the Library

I don't usually watch commercials, unless it's the panorama of sales pitches during the Super Bowl. And then only so that I can give my unqualified opinion the next day of the best and worst offerings. But I recently heard the word "library" on TV and perked up my ears to find out that the Ford Edge is "library quiet" and that it "beat the Lexus RS 350 in a quiet test."

Edge is the crossover SUV that Ford built to appeal to its protype "Phil." Phil, as defined by Ford, is an "educated urban professional with tastes that are slightly avant-garde but not too much so. Phil and his wife pull in $85,000. Phil buys his clothes at Banana Republic and drinks Samuel Adams beer." (see CNN, Oct 22, 2006) And Phil is looking for "quiet."

Now a lot of librarians are trying to shed the "shhhh" image, and tout their library as a happening place, where you might even be lucky enough to see DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution for the uninitiated) in the teen room. So what's with the high value of quiet?

I think that the Phils of the word (as well as Phyllis) crave quiet. Phil/lys has enough of the noise and stress of the word and welcomes that embracing quiet of the library. Like the library where we went to study when the dormitory got too loud. I think there's a message here for libraries -- one I see many embracing. While the library is busy, and has lots going on, it's good to have a space where we safeguard quiet and maybe even put up a sign "this room, quiet please!"

A sad day for kids and school libraries

Today I learned that another school has eliminated their school media specialist. The budget is stretched to the max, and something has to go -- so it's the professional teacher librarian media specialist who teaches kids how to learn and where to find the information for successful learning. The teacher librarian is part of the curriculum teaching team that teaches kids the literacy skills to help them succeed in a world where being a lifelong learner is critical. Just as the student uses the school library to complete the assignments from the classroom, the graduated student will use information seeking behaviors learned from the teacher librarian to complete life's assignments.

I'm heartsick to think that the successful information literacy program this teacher has built has no value to the board who makes the decisions what to pay for and what to ax. Minnesota has no enforceable standards for students' access to instruction by a certified teacher librarian. Indeed, the opinion of a number of schools is that they will keep the library open with a (much cheaper) non-teacher to carry out technical tasks. I wonder, how do they expect their students to acquire the higher level literacy skills of research, critical thinking, and problem solving without the curricular involvement of a skilled and certified teacher librarian.

A long time ago, when my mother began her teaching career in a one-room school, her classroom library was a collection of several book shelves, each with books for a different reading and learning level. When I attended a 2-room rural school in Wisconsin, my classroom library was a low shelf of books under the window. That world of information was somewhat finite and manageable by the classroom teacher.

As the world of information increased through the latter part of the 20th century and exploded through the technology of the 21st century, the need for instruction by a skilled information professional has become critical. Children must learn to learn - and keep learning. While we cannot predict what they will need to know as adults, we can equip them to be lifelong learners using the network of the communities' libraries as their learning lab. Children who have not learned the information literacy skills critical to continuous learning from a teacher librarian will enter the adult work world with a fatal learning disability and handicap.

Stillwater Library is #1 on BB today

A Monday morning chuckle from the Pioneer Press Bulletin Board this morning.

Will The Library Let You Borrow That Book? It's 'TOO SOON TO TELL.'
Pioneer Press, Article Last Updated: 04/01/2007 08:24:35 PM CDT

I finally made it down to the new library in Stillwater yesterday. It's been open now for an embarrassingly long time, but I haven't been able to get there.

Anyway, after selecting a few books and chatting about the beautiful new library with an employee, I asked her if she could check my books out for me or if I needed to go downstairs to the main desk to do it. She pointed over to a do-it-yourself scanner and said: 'You can do it right over there. Let me know if you need any help.'

Being a woman of the '90s ... oops, I mean '00s ... I figured: 'I should be able to tackle this with no problem.' So I walked over and scanned my card. The machine said 'SWIPE YOUR FIRST BOOK,' or words to that effect (not to be confused, of course, with 'Steal This Book,' so popular in the '60s.)

After 'swiping' my book, the machine came back with a prompt that said 'TOO SOON TO TELL,' so I swiped it again, more slowly this time, and again saw 'TOO SOON TO TELL.' After trying a third time, and coming up with the same prompt, I looked down disgustedly at the machine, then at my book ... and felt my cheeks turning red as I noticed the title of my book was 'Too Soon to Tell,' by Calvin Trillin. . .