» The Radical Patron – extreme thoughts on public libraries

2011: reaching for new heights in library advocacy

RP — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:00:25 +0000

Hi – just a message to say I’m signing off here to pursue a new level of advocacy in 2011. This will be my last post. As anyone who has ever trekked through new territory knows, it’s important to step off the trail now and then to nourish yourself and check your compass. After nearly 2 years, it’s a good time for me to do so.

I began blogging in early 2009, uncertain of who might tune in and what might help the cause. So I put a range of material out there: posts about why I love libraries, reports of libraries in crisis, analyses and calls to action. I also read extensively and contacted people throughout the ecosystem to ask questions and share ideas. By year-end I’d recognized that library staff represented the blog’s small but steadily growing readership and also that much of my content was redundant; material in the “I Love Libraries” vein was plentiful as was surveillance of funding struggles.

So I changed things up for 2010. My research turned to the inner workings of the Institution, including its knowledge creation practices. This helped dissolve my ideological stance and mythological view of libraries and enhanced my ability to appreciate the challenges and opportunities before them. I crafted content for a library audience, made it more analytical and focused on topics and viewpoints that were not widely covered by other advocates or library bloggers. These were productive changes. Readership grew and communication with the library community became bi-directional; I continued to reach out and people began to contact me as well. Phone and email dialogue with library folk from around the country became more frequent. Library Journal solicited a few essays and asked me to be a panelist in their first virtual summit. I also received some speaking invitations and was able to attend the 3-day Reference Renaissance Conference in August.

I’m very pleased with the results this year. The blog content was better and has a longer shelf-life. Posts on participatory librarianship offer new ideas for how libraries can serve the public good in this age of information abundance. My proposal for a National Public Library Corporation is a feasible approach for reducing inefficiencies baked into our existing patchwork of library systems, making libraries more prominent in the public consciousness and alleviating some of the funding problems that threaten their viability. Most importantly, my work has seeded a new form of dialogue about our libraries – one that considers them nationally as well as locally and has greater porosity between the library community and the people it serves.

So why am I signing off if the results have been good? It’s mostly because the blog has served its purpose: to catalyze new conversations about libraries. If I published another 60 posts here in 2011, it’s hard to imagine they would have much impact on the health of our libraries. Also, plenty of library folk now know me as an advocate and new people find Radical Patron content every day via search, therefore additional posts would have diminishing returns as an outreach mechanism. So I’m changing things up again. Over the next year, I hope to deepen my relationships within the library community and would love to hear from folks about how I can help. I’ll also work to attract the public to dialogue about what we want from our libraries and how we can provide resources so they can deliver the services we’ve said are important.

The blog will remain accessible and people can reach me via the the contact form. I’ll also continue pointing to sources outside the library industry that may inform funding and practice via Twitter. And though I have no idea where this next leg of the journey will take me, I’m happy to send an update now and again. Sign-up for them via the form at the top of the sidebar if you’re interested. Your information will be kept private and used only for periodic messages about library advocacy.

I am excited by the prospect of reaching new heights in 2011 and sincerely hope our paths cross along the way. My best, Jean

What the heck is a library, anyway?

RP — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:00:28 +0000

I recently stumbled upon the work of Anthony Verdesca, Jr., of Warren Library, Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL. His faculty profile reveals one reason I’m drawn to his work:

[Mr. Verdesca's] interests lie in the nature of librarianship, its past, present and future. Of particular interest is the future of the library and the nature of the library of the future. That future, he believes, begins with constructive criticism of present practice.

The more persuasive reason is because his words are the most beautifully written, eloquent and erudite explication of libraries and librarianship I’ve had the pleasure of reading. They delineate the core functions of a library from its ancillaries as community center or employment office. Similarly, they distinguish librarians from teachers, or social workers, or web developers — though librarians may sometimes perform duties that constitute the primary work of these other professionals. For me, Verdesca’s essays speak about more than libraries. They describe the finer qualities of the human species; the root of my passion for libraries and my efforts to help them thrive and grow.

Some selections from this meaningful body of work:

A library is like a piano in its design, in its apparatus of catalog and call numbers, indexes and periodicals, back issues and bibliographies, indeed, in its sturdily bound, first-rate works of reference, out of which learning is wrenched and rendered (instead of copied and pasted) into one’s own. The beauty of a piano, as with a library, is that it has its limitations. That a piano
is limited to only 88 keys is no hindrance to becoming a virtuoso, and the “limitation” of a library is no hindrance to becoming a scholar. The student must begin somewhere. Outside of the home, outside of the classroom, the library becomes the place where students stand alone with their questions, and it is here novices begin their single-minded quest, their adventure in
learning. It takes discipline to learn how to make use of a library, just as it takes discipline to learn how to play the piano. A degree of expertise develops, after which the work (and the pleasure) of interpreting music—or literature—begins. “The roots of education are bitter,” said Aristotle, “but its fruit is sweet.”

Verdesca, Anthony F.. 2009. The Internet Is Not the Library. Journal of Access Services. 6(3):418-422.

Books cataloged and in their place are all that is required to serve the reader who, it must be said, is served not so much by the books in the library’s collection but precisely by those not in the collection. Definition and discrimination—what librarians call collection development—render a library serviceable. This bibliographic control is the behind-the-scenes side of the library the reader never sees nor need he, and is what differentiates a library from an attic.

Verdesca, Anthony F.. 2008. The Great Conversation. Journal of Access Services. 4(3):195-198.

An open book in the empath-librarian’s hand is a powerful image of human interaction. The provision of access, reference style, is more than mere access. It represents nurture. It represents care. It has been, up to now, the library’s good-faith attempt to personify democracy, extending a human hand to all comers, regardless of language, creed, color, or party. The provision of traditional access has represented hope and new beginnings, the American ideal, inspired and initiated in a prosaic little corner of the world called the Reference Desk.

Verdesca, Anthony F.. 2010. Does a Library Provide Access or Meaning? and Other Reference Questions . Journal of Access Services. 7(1):58-63.

** ADDITIONAL READING **

Verdesca, Anthony F.. August 2009. The Accidental Credential. This is a terrific essay on Anthony’s institutional web page regarding what a librarian is and does.

Library Photo Friday 57

RP — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:00:27 +0000

Welcome to photo Friday! Click on image to enlarge.
View or download the entire collection here.

Welcome Guest Artists

I’d love to broaden the gallery with more photos and other image types that exude a love of libraries and help reinforce the brand.

Are you a visual person? Please consider becoming a guest artist.

How much waste is mandated at your library?

RP — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:00:24 +0000

Last week I did data entry at my hometown library for stats reported to the Trustees and Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It’s been a while since I’ve helped with this task and it has become even more wasteful. There are more tally sheets with more tick marks to track transactions of every conceivable media type going back to 2001. This data collection is to comply with a state requirement and has no meaningful use for management of the library.

While my fingers busily keyed data, I pondered the impacts of these mandates. Excavating transactions from 10 years ago is hardly conducive to thinking creatively about how to service contemporary and future needs. And I shudder to think about the resources spent in library and state offices collecting, transcribing, transmitting and storing this useless data. Personally, I would find a requirement to make a tick mark for the activities I performed every day distracting and demoralizing — in fact, it didn’t take long before I grew irritable shuffling papers and keying data whose sole purpose is very likely to feed the patronage machine in our state government.

I worked through an afternoon on this nonsense. Why? Because the library staff are friends and I’m happy to take some gum off their shoes now and then. Also, the time I spend doing dumb work is time they can spend doing something that provides value to the public.

So, how much waste is mandated at your library?

Talking ’bout our library systems

RP — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:00:24 +0000

A few weeks ago, Library Journal published an essay I wrote highlighting systemic barriers to quality reference service. People from across the country responded and comments touched upon many aspects of library service delivery. I’m pleased the essay prompted an exchange that involved people within and (a few) outside the library community; went into detail about library services, operations and funding; and focused on the library as information resource — a function that hasn’t received much coverage in the past few years.

Here are selections from the comment stream (from the LJ site, except where noted):

Emilie Smart (via her blog): As the head of a reference division in a public library, I cringed as I read your post. And I live in fear that one day, a patron just like you will visit my staff and have a similar experience. But one point your post brought home to me was one I’ve been concerned about for awhile and am not sure how to address. Back in the day, when we used books (almost exclusively) to answer reference questions, we were answering more questions just like yours. The staff was familiar with that kind of question and was better armed to answer it — not because our resources were deeper then, but because the staff’s experience was. As I look over the questions we are asked today, I find very few that require the kind of knowledge of resources that yours did. In fact, I’m not sure how many of my staff would even know look for poetry explication sources to answer your question. I know that some of them would, but the younger/newer ones might not think of looking for an explication resource unless they had been lit majors. They may not even know the term to start looking for it. This isn’t entirely a matter of poor training — if it were, I wouldn’t be as worried about it. It’s a matter of using knowledge of resources plus acquiring more knowledge over time — and that’s just something that isn’t happening like it used to. I can train staff to use databases and books, but if they rarely have the need to use them after training, they lose what they learned. (Reference work ain’t like riding a bicycle.) I can also send out a tough weekly reference question as a training tool, but even that is only putting a tiny band-aid on an ever-growing sore. If our reference staffs don’t get constant reinforcement and regular challenges (the kind that can only be had by assisting patrons like you on a regular basis), they won’t grow into knowledgeable critical thinkers, and reference service will slowly atrophy into the the kind of service described in your post — a source of pleasant conversation and general information.
	Jean: Ms. Smart – thanks so much for your consideration of my essay. Your points are so well taken. I appreciate how out-of-the-ordinary the type of service I’m seeking is for the libraries in my area. Library work today strikes me as very challenging, particularly in the smaller public libraries that are staffed by a handful of individuals who must do everything from turning off the alarm systems in the morning to [name all traditional library services here], managing meeting rooms, programming, promotion, updating the website, and in the case of some directors also managing the facilities. There’s only so much that can be done given the way these libraries are currently conceived, structured and funded.
SJ: When libraries limit access to resources based on residing in a specific town or affiliation with a specific college, it is not because of “library culture and organization” rather it is due to the restrictions put on by the funders of these libraries. City taxes for example support local public libraries and the city sets the policy of who then is entitled to use the local services. Colleges are funded by districts or state governments and the these funding entities set who is entitled to free access. Let’s look at another example from the college sphere – tuition. If you live out of the district or state, you will pay a higher rate to take classes at those institutions. Likewise, a comparable example at the local level to public libraries is public schools. If you live in one city, you can’t send your children to public school in another.
	Jean: Hi SJ – I understand the library ecosystem reasonably well, and I’m suggesting we reconsider it. In my view, it’s an issue of vital national importance. The majority of funding mechanisms, jurisdiction, governance etc. were established at a time when information was scarce, people were significantly less educated and mobile. And of course we had no data technology. Particularly over the past 40 years, user needs have become more diverse and sophisticated, and libraries face competition from a range of for-profit and non-profit organizations. How can we expect them to evolve rapidly enough to stay viable if we place so many restrictions on them?
Karen: I have had this experience, too, esp when travelling. My husband and I are staying in a hotel, eating at local restaurants, visiting local museums, and are told we can’t use the library (to check our email via internet) because we’re not local residents (but we’re paying the onerous hotel tax). This has happened in Philly and other towns up & down the east coast. Whereas in Monterey, CA, where I used to work, we let everyone have 30 mins on the computer twice/day. It’s a big tourist town, so internet use at the library is just another aspect of being friendly to tourists. No, Monterey is not a wealthy library system–like many places in CA, it’s in trouble.
	Jean: Hi Karen – experiences like the ones you and I have described are the reason I’ve said our national library funding models are unsustainable. Chances are residents in the communities you’ve vacationed in also experience barriers and friction, as I do in my home area. What a downward spiral. Because we’re still using funding, organizational and service models that limit service levels, people like us stop thinking of libraries as resources and find alternatives. As library services become less useful and relevant for us (and because our home budgets are as tight as our municipal ones), we find it harder to support libraries at budget time. And the pattern repeats the next year. We need to break this pattern – and FAST. I believe we can do it with our existing human, material and capital resources … and would love to get a national dialogue going about it.
Nicolette: I am truly sorry for the experience that you had. I do believe that some of the experiences that you cite are functions of budgetary shortfalls, which we as a profession are trying to learn to address gracefully. The barrages of questions about your affiliation may fall into this category. We are advised as a profession, in order to justify funding, resource purchases, and, sometimes, our continued existence, to attempt to get information on the patrons we are serving, since, in most cases today, any purchase rules out some other potential purchase. Unfortunately, if a resource we are purchasing is primarily used by people outside our funding population, those dollars may need to be reallocated to a resource that might serve our core group of patrons better.
	Jean: Hi Nicolette – I know there are many restrictions placed on you and other library staff, which is why I ended my essay with the conclusion “it’s more than the system can provide”. The thrust of my advocacy is to disrupt the narrative about library funding and value. It’s true that funding levels are insufficient to support our existing library systems, however my argument is that those systems (which worked so well for half a century) are now woefully inefficient and often incapable of providing high-quality information service. What I call for is discussion about how we can use our resources to provide more service more effectively. We have the talent, money and technology to do it. All we need to begin is a change in perspective.
Tricia: I wish someone could have referred you to Gale’s Literature Resource Center. If you had come to my library, I wouldn’t have given up until you left with what you came for. Good, solid literary criticism is one of the hardest things to find, and frankly I was surpised to find it in LRC after you said it was unavailable in Lit Crit Online.
	Jean: Hi Trish – guess what? My consortia just added this resource in December. It wasn’t available to me or the people who tried to help me at the time I made my inquiry. What I also figured out based on the feedback here (and the nudge to look harder) is that the database web pages at most of the public libraries in my area aren’t up to date – so I’m going to bypass them from now on and go directly to the consortia page. There may have been more resources available to me than I (or perhaps also folks working in the libraries) perceived at the time.
SusanE: … I am an academic librarian, and I will echo that when I worked at a large, state university, I would often ask if the patron was a student or not. It’s not because I didn’t want to help our public patrons, but knowing whether they were working on an assignment as a student or simply seeking information would change how I conducted the reference interview. … If you were a student working on an assignment, I would have shown you how to use our databases, sat down with you and provided some preliminary searches for the information. Ultimately, though, I feel that it is up to the student to find and disseminate the information they need. For public patrons, I would most likely do most of the searching myself, and would leave less of the dissemination of the information to them. Basically, I feel like it is my responsibility and goal to help the student learn how to find information on their own and my responsibility to find it for the public patron.
	Jean: SusanE: Not sure how representative I am of the non-student users you support, but can share that even though the need for a specific piece of info brings me to the library, I seek the learning experience in most cases (though not all). Sometimes I just want the fish and don’t want to be taught to fish, but most often it’s the latter. I see it as my responsibility to let the library staff know what level of service I’m looking for and try to communicate that as part of my inquiry.
Marcie: I realize that by saying “I found your answer on the Internet,” I am not helping my own cause in keeping public libraries open and funded. The “other side” so to speak can always say, “But isn’t everything on Google? Why do we need librarians?” But my response would be, “Sometimes people need a little assistance in searching the Internet. Google seems so simple and intuitive, but the results may not be quite what a person is expecting. And you can’t always find magazine and newspaper articles for free, like you often can with subscription databases.” (Although I’ve been trying to refrain from such library language and not call them “databases.”) I think this may be what happened to you with your Dylan Thomas poem. I’m sure you could have searched Google yourself–and probably found the right level of criticism–but you wanted a little assistance with your search. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the librarian was ill-equipped to help.
	Jean: Marcie – Thanks for weighing in again, I just love having conversations like these about contemporary information needs and the enormous value librarians can deliver. I tried Google first, using a variety of search terms, and stumbled upon 3 types of unsatisfactory sources: loads of reprints of the poem itself, countless advertisements to purchase a term paper and a few articles written by poorly identified sources describing what they think the poem is about. That’s when I turned to libraries – and how I would have loved expert help from someone like you who could share a search strategy or tactic to help me mine info on the open web. And speaking of open web, I’ve recently argued that libraries and librarians are doing themselves a disservice by limiting their scope to resources within their own institutions or consortia. Here’s a link to some specific ideas I’ve shared about broad unmet needs librarians are uniquely suited to fill: (http://www.radicalpatron.com/category/participatory-librarianship/).
Erika: As an academic librarian, I feel the need to explain what may be going on w/ the librarians you speak to. When a patron comes to the desk, if it isn’t clear, I’ll ask them whether they’re a Univ. patron or not (in more politic terms than that)–not b/c I want to censure or shame them for coming in, but because that affects the resources I can offer them. It’s not a problem to show them the things we subscribe to, but if they’re not a Univ. staff/student/faculty, then I can’t offer to get something through ILL for them. However, other universities have different policies. We’re a state institution, so we can allow anyone to walk into one of our libraries and use our online resources. This isn’t without its problem–the database vendors hate this, and are always trying to get us to limit access. B/c we get public funding, we have a leg to stand on. But a private college/univ. may not be able to allow that sort of access, even though they may want to.
	Jean: Hi Erika – I worked part-time at an academic library from 2002-2005 and understand some of the limitations. I’ve also done loads of backoffice volunteer work for public libraries and that has also helped me interpret my experiences. I’d argue that our existing library governance and management systems are hurting patrons and libraries themselves. A far better approach, I think, are more open systems like the “OneCard” program pioneered by the Whatcom County Library System in Washington State that provides seamless access to area academic and public libraries. They describe it as an initiative “spearheaded by Whatcom Libraries Collaborate, a group of library directors and deans dedicated to expanding library access for better stewardship of resources and greater community impact.” I’d love to think about how fruitful my reference experiences might be if I could easily leverage the resources of the 26 libraries in my immediate area.

Library Photo Friday 56

RP — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:00:33 +0000

Welcome to photo Friday! Click on image to enlarge.
View or download the entire collection here.

Welcome Guest Artists

I’d love to broaden the gallery with more photos and other image types that exude a love of libraries and help reinforce the brand.

Are you a visual person? Please consider becoming a guest artist.

What makes a great library?

RP — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:00:41 +0000

It’s hard not to be wowed by the facilities at Anythink Libraries in Adams County, Colorado — but make no mistake — this would be a great library system even if it was located in a set of original Carnegie buildings.

Prompted by this month’s Library Journal cover story, I phoned Director Pam Sandlian Smith to better understand what makes this library exceptional. A key is her emphasis on the competencies and people needed to deliver outstanding service. When creating Anythink, a priority for Ms. Smith was to build a high-caliber management team and she recruited talent from within and outside the library world. Their priority was to analyze library work and then structure roles to support it. The team listed all the work and then organized it into buckets, she explained. Next, inspired by policies at Apple Computer, they crafted job descriptions that included competencies to reflect “the how as well as the what”. The competencies are vitally important, Smith said, for “they provide a language to discuss performance” whether it’s high or when it needs improvement.

Take a look at the job descriptions below; they’ll quickly convey what Anythink is about. Then consider your library. What are the focus and priorities of your work?

Library Assistant (Concierge)

You’re the essence of the customer’s experience at the library. You greet people with a smile and welcome them into our library. You enrich people’s lives through meaningful dialogue about our products and services. You earn trust by being knowledgeable about our products and making recommendations that connect with the customer. You help our library customers find the fuel and the spark to unlimited ideas and opportunities.

You warmly welcome customers into our library and ensure a great experience and a fond farewell.
Out on the floor and in the stacks, you provide an amazing library experience to each and every customer by helping them find the book they want or assisting them with self-checkout services.
You are an explorer of great conversations, talking to our library customers about the promotions, programs and services available at the library.
You take pride in our library, ensuring it is clean and tidy and the displays are refreshed and looking beautiful. View the full Concierge job description.

Librarian (Guide)

You create amazing experiences for our library customers. You are the person who connects the customer with information they seek. You develop and implement outstanding experience zone programs. You are a trainer and program coordinator at the branch. You are a natural leader, knowledgeable on all library operations and respected for your ability to have the customer leaving thrilled about the library.

You conduct presentations and workshops for our experience zones whether they be technology training, a children’s story time, a teen library program or a creative writing workshop.
You are a wizard at teaching our library customers how to use our online databases.
You make connections that enrich our library customer experience through developing online/paper bibliographies, adding content to the wikis, displays and creating transformational programming.
You do the right thing. Every decision you make and action you take is an opportunity to demonstrate our collective integrity. View the full Guide job description.

¹Images from Anythink’s You Say You Want A Revolution presentation.

Library Photo Friday 55

RP — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 12:00:43 +0000

Welcome to photo Friday! Click on image to enlarge.
View or download the entire collection here.

Welcome Guest Artists

I’d love to broaden the gallery with more photos and other image types that exude a love of libraries and help reinforce the brand.

Are you a visual person? Please consider becoming a guest artist.

Thankful for librarians

RP — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:00:04 +0000

In response to my essay, Why I Don’t Use Libraries for Reference Anymore, librarians from across the country have emailed me citations on Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. It’s extraordinary that so many people have taken the time to do research and outreach on my behalf.

This really affirms my faith and commitment to libraries and the profession. We have all the right stuff going for us — so let’s keep advocating for better systems to match users and library resources!

Library Photo Friday 54

RP — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:00:36 +0000

Welcome to photo Friday! Click on image to enlarge.
View or download the entire collection here.

Welcome Guest Artists

I’d love to broaden the gallery with more photos and other image types that exude a love of libraries and help reinforce the brand.

Are you a visual person? Please consider becoming a guest artist.