Where Business, Entrepreneurship, The Humanities, Librarianship, and Technology Meet
Two stories in March that are worth referencing:
Ashley Winchester’s article in the New York Times on public libraries establishing a library presence in airports. See http://nyti.ms/1oznDye.
(Photo of the airport library in Philadelphia is from the New York Times)
Also librarians will want to read through the report from YALSA entitled “The Future of Library Services: For and With Teens: A Call to Action.” See http://www.ala.org/yaforum/project-report
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Daniel Pink’s book To Sell is Human offers practical advice for any workplace professional including librarians. I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a book discussion webinar where librarians discussed Pink’s work.
There are a number of concepts Pink writes about that are worth noting and were brought up in the book discussion.
1) Attunement- What Pink calls bringing oneself into harmony with individuals, groups, and contexts. I enjoyed reading about the Ambivert Advantage. Ambiverts are neither extreme introverts or extraverts. Pinks argues that ambiverts are the best equipped to find a balance in the way that they interact with people. As Pink notes, “They know when to speak up and when to shut up.”
2) Buoyancy- This enables one to keep their spirits during adversity and rejection. The use of interrogative self-talk is important here as it can motivate us to overcome challenges. The example Pink uses is Bob the Builder who asks the question, “Can we fix it?” When we ask a question of ourselves Pink asserts that we find that we will start to come up with answers and strategies to handle those problems. Another tactic that the book references to deal with adversity is to send yourself a rejection letter. This is good humorous therapy.
3) Clarity- The key point here is that Pink encourages us to be problem finders not problem solvers. Years ago those in sales excelled by providing access to information. However, now they need to be skilled at curating the information. Curating refers to organizing and shifting through large amounts of data to present to others a snapshot of what the essential information really is. In the past gifted salespeople were those that answered questions, but now the best ones are those that ask questions. On page 132 Pink notes that in a survey of private employers the top ranked ability that is most important in today’s workforce is “problem identification.”
4) Pitch- Pink walks the reader through the six different pitches which are the one-word pitch, the question pitch, the rhyming pitch, the subject line pitch, the Twitter pitch, and the Pixar pitch. There is a great example of the Twitter Pitch on page170. In 2011 the Tippie Business School at the University of Iowa asked prospective students, “What makes you an exceptional Tippie full-time M.B.A. candidate and future M.B.A hire?” However applicants had to respond with a tweet of 140 or less characters to answer the question starting in 2011. The winner John Yates wrote a haiku.
Globally minded
Innovative and drive
Tippie can sharpen
5) Improvise- Hearing Offers and Saying “Yes and” were key here. Hearing offers for me meant that you can select the positive out of a negative response and focus on the future. The example given concerned asking your brother in law for $200 to help with a charity. If the brother in law says he cannot give $200 that would be an offer since he can possibly donate a smaller amount. If the brother in law cannot give right now that is an offer in that it is possible the brother in law can donate at a later time. Saying “Yes and” is important in that it allows you to think of ways to deal with any potential difficulties in getting to your goal. An example was the idea of having a high school reunion in Las Vegas and the concern was that it would be too expensive for a lot of people. Using the “Yes and” strategy you may come up with this statement to address the expense issue. “Yes and if it’s too expensive for some people we can raise money or organize road trips.”
6) Serve- Pink notes the need to make a message personal and purposeful for positive action to be taken. One example on the personal level was the study of radiologists who normally work in an environment without much contact with other people. There was concern that the effectiveness of their work would be impacted as the work became too impersonal. In this study a photograph of a patient accompanied each file that the radiologist had to examine. When the photograph was missing from the file it was discovered that “80% of incidental findings were not reported” (see page 211). Making our messages purposeful can also be effective. A study performed on hospital staff found far greater sanitary measures were taken when a sign read “Hand Hygiene Prevents Patients From Catching Diseases” (see page 216). Another sign created to deal with dog excrement read “Children play here. Pick Up After Your Dog”.
There is a great interview in Library Journal (from February 11, 2014 authored by Ian Chant) featuring Ashley Eklof , who is the librarian in charge of the BiblioTech which the first all-digital library in the United States. See http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/02/technology/who-needs-books-a-qa-with-the-bookless-library-head-librarian/ for details. BiblioTech is located in Bexar County near San Antonio, Texas.
A couple of points are worth noting here:
1) Although this is an all-digital library the library still needs human librarians to provide customer service and technical support to patrons. In other words there is still a need to have a human presence within the library as technology alone is not able to provide patrons with all the services they are looking for. In reading through the interview it is clear that the major obstacle in using the digital services is getting started with using the technology and patrons prefer to seek out human assistance to learn how to use the technology. As technology constantly innovates and evolves the learning experience will most likely not diminish in complexity. Eklof indicates in the interview that her staffs are keeping busy meeting the demand.
2) There is patron demand out there for this type of all-digital library, as Eklof notes that 300 people a day visit the library.
3) The digital library in fact does allow for a reduction of traditional library work in terms of eliminating the need to physically monitor the collection by continuously weeding or checking the ILS (integrated library system) for physical materials that are missing from the collection. As Eklof states digital library materials are either checked in or checked out, they are never lost or missing. Another advantage here is the fact that items are automatically returned on time so there are no late fees. The advantage of this is that the librarians can spend their energy/time to assist patrons and to create/market programming. No longer do they have to spend a lot of time doing collection oriented work. A possible disadvantage is that librarians may not become as familiar with the interests of their patrons by the sheer fact that they cannot physically see the actual print books that are going out or coming in. Another possible disadvantage is that there would have to be a new approach to marketing the library collection. No longer would a nice display of actual print books or physical items be possible.
4) The creation of a digital library has allowed there to be other digital library services made available to the public. Consider the kiosk that BiblioTech opened at the Bexar County courthouse. The 500 people entering the courthouse each day for jury related duties can have access to digital library services. This is a rather ingenious idea in that it allows for a broad collection of library materials/services to be made available to a large patron constituency without taking up the large space to house a traditional print collection.
My own thoughts are that this model of library service may very well be replicated nationwide. However, I would imagine that this type of library would be a specialized type of library (similar to library services established solely for incarcerated or homebound patrons) within the traditional public library branch structure. In other words each public library system would have one or two library branches created entirely for digital only services while the rest of the library branches would remain concentrated on the current blend of traditional as well electronic library services.
A great online article “Homegrown Fundraising” on the Library Journal website (dated January 14, 2014) by Denice Rovira Hazlett is well worth taking a look at. See http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/01/budgets-funding/homegrown-fundraising/.
The piece discusses the efforts made by the Holmes County District Public Library (Ohio) under Bill Martino to garner stakeholder support for the library system. Within Holmes County resides a large Amish/Mennonite community and I found encouraging the efforts taken by the library system to practice what the article calls, “cross-cultural cooperation”. This partnership plays a key role in supporting the library system.
What are the main takeaways I found in the article?
1) Find leaders from within the community you serve and put them in a position to provide major support to the library. Until Martino arrived there had never been an Amish member on the library board. In order to clearly understand, communicate, and garner support from the Amish community it was important that the Amish community be represented. After a year’s work of searching Martino tapped Jerry Schlabach to be the first Amish member of the library board.
2) Rethink how you gather support for the library. If the traditional political structure does not work for you, go directly to the people. In the case of Holmes County many Amish do not vote or participate in the traditional political process unless the issue directly impacts them. However, the library was able to partner with a local Amish style restaurant to serve meals to support the library. In this partnership the library staff (including the library director, library employees, and library board members) serves meals with a percentage of sales and all tips going to support a library branch.
3) Look for grants to get funding to do the things your library needs to do. An Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant concerning a Targeted Populations project, piqued Martino’s Interest in 2012. In September of that year the library was awarded nearly $40,000 for its Amish outreach Program. The grant primarily went towards placing book drops around the county and to purchasing a cargo van to collect items from the drops.
Great findings coming out of the Pew Research Center on the value Americans place on their public libraries. The results were posted earlier in the month. See http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/12/11/libraries-in-communities/ for details.
Consider some of the results.
I thought that one of the more interesting library stories from November 2013 was the story concerning the Texas library situation. See Edgar Walters November 7, 2013 article in the Texas Tribune. http://www.texastribune.org/2013/11/07/texas-libraries-face-federal-funding-cuts/. It appears that the federal funding for Texas libraries will be curtailed unless Texas state funding is placed back at an acceptable level. Federal funds are meant to supplement not replace state funding. Read the story for more information.
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A great book out there for those who want to take a crash course in personal finance is, More Money Please: The Financial Secrets You Never Learned in School by Scott Gamm. Right from the beginning in the introduction Gamm highlights a sad reality in U.S. society in that only four states require students to take a personal finance class in high school. In part to remedy this reality Gamm writes a how to manual of personal finance for young adults. While I found the book to be mainly geared toward the 18-35 year old age bracket, anyone can benefit from the book’s content.
The book starts out with sound advice for creating our financial goals, budgets, and automating savings. Then it goes into discussing the finer points of banking. I was unaware that prepaid debit cards were a problem and that a bank’s overdraft protection is not worth getting before I read what Gamm had to say on the matters. I had also never heard of laddering a CD, but Gamm explains how to invest equal amounts of money in CDs of varying lengths and interest rates. The third chapter goes into how to save money by discussing couponing, the purchase of discounted gift cards, and the use of promotional codes. Gamm’s advice for getting emails from stores is to unsubscribe, as these advertisements entice us to buy things we don’t need. Also it is best not to use contactless pay as it forces us to buy more. Negotiation of prices is discussed in an entire chapter. Sometimes the only thing we need to do is ask nicely if we are able to get a discount on the selling price. As Gamm notes the only bad thing that could happen is that we are told no.
The book talks a lot about credit. One fact that I did not realize is that the only trusted website to use to check your credit score is AnnualCreditReport.com. The details of how our FICO score is assigned are also discussed in the book. Other topics that are addressed are paying for college, applying for a job, using credit cards, dealing with debt, and retirement.
Gamm has plenty of insights to share with the reader. Throughout the book he encourages us to pay our credit cards on time and in full. Another sound piece of advice is to open up a ROTH IRA account as soon as possible.
I highly recommend the book as it teaches key concepts of personal finance in plain English.
Just as I thought September would end without further interesting library news stories I was wrong. Here are some library news stories that are worth taking a look at.
1) The Tampa Tribune had a great piece on September 24, 2013 by Ken Detzner, Florida Secretary of State, in which he advocated for libraries. The title of the piece is “Libraries are Florida’s Lifeline-don’t harm it with budget cuts”. See http://bit.ly/1fyb5jD.
2) The Asheville Citizen Times ran a story on September 24, 2013 about the Randolph County Board of Education revisiting its decision to ban Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” from school libraries. See http://avlne.ws/18T3I58 for details.
3) Hector Tobar’s October 1, 2013 article in the Los Angeles Times is entitled “Three memoirs that prove libraries and books save lives.” See http://lat.ms/19foOLa. The article discusses three writers (Reyna Grande, MK Asante, and Jesmyn Ward) and how teachers/librarians helped steer them in the right direction. Especially noticeable is the part of the article where Grande talks about how the librarian at the Arroyo Seco branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library introduced Grande to books that opened another world for her.
Three library news stories that have taken place this month that I think are worth looking at are:
1) The Fairfax County, VA library discard situation. See http://wapo.st/1865sHL for the Washington Post article
2) A controversial move on the part of a school to rescind an invitation to have author Meg Medina speak. See http://bit.ly/13SdOiQ for the news story
3) Lawsuits filed by Tea Party members in Kentucky to challenge tax raising by library districts. See the article in USA TODAY at http://usat.ly/1epfQ0O
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I really enjoyed reading King Peggy by Peggieline Bartels and Eleanor Herman. The book was selected as the One Maryland One Book for 2013. See http://www.mdhc.org/programs/one-maryland-one-book/ for details.
The book chronicles the rise of Peggy Bartels, who holds both Ghanian and United Stats citizenship, to kingship in Otuam, Ghana. A receptionist at the Ghanian embassy in Washington DC who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, Peggy’s life changes drastically in August of 2008 when her cousin, Kwame Lumpopo, telephones to inform her that she has been selected Otuam’s new king. It turns out that Otuam’s previous king, Peggy’s Uncle Joseph, has died and Peggy has been picked by the elders and the ancestors to be the new king.
I enjoyed learning about the discrepancies between Peggy’s African roots and her U.S. background. For instance Peggy (on pages 60- 61) talks about the difference between the warmth of African family/friends and the cold isolated existence she sometimes feels in the U.S. As Peggy notes, “In the United States, she did her job and came home to her condo. Sometimes she feared that if she died in her condo or had a stroke, no one would find her for weeks. That would be impossible in Ghana. There would always be relatives calling to see how you were, banging on your door, bringing you plates of fish and rice, inviting you to church and family events.”
Another discrepancy hinted at in the book is Peggy’s observation of the U.S. diet/ sedentary lifestyle as being a source of impotency. When one of Peggy’s town elders, 77 year old Tsiami, tells everyone that he is going to have a quickie with a girlfriend, Peggy reflects (pages 198 to 199). “In the United States, some men in their forties had to use Viagra because all the stress and preservatives had turned their private parts to mashed potatoes. But in Otuam, eighty-year-olds walked around with an eternal hard-on. Peggy thought it was the food they ate- fresh fish, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit with no chemicals- and they were always walking miles and miles every day because they had no cars, or were hauling in heavy nets of fish, or working in the fields.”
Peggy’s commentary on U.S. lifestyles versus African lifestyles is also worth noting. Pages 158 and 159 reveal Peggy’s thoughts, on the role of technology that has inhibited healthy human interaction in the U.S., are contrasted with her observations of African social life. “Many Africans saw America as a promised land because it was rich in conveniences and gadgets. Americans could make hot air cool and cold air warm. They almost all had running water. They could send men to the moon and cure many cancers. But many of them couldn’t loosen their grip on their remote controls enough to sit on a breezy porch with friends and family, talking about nothing in particular, or sitting in contented silence listening to the birds. If some of them were sitting here now on the porch, she thought, with birds singing and children playing and sunshine slanting through the trees, they would nervously whip a remote control out of their pockets and start pushing buttons.”
Peggy herself affirms that she is both African and American. While Peggy notes that certain aspects of African culture are perhaps far healthier than U.S. culture, she does reveal an admiration for the advancement of women in U.S. society. Peggy notes that she has found African women to be far too timid to stand up for themselves especially when being taken advantage of by a man. On page 14 Peggy notes, “Sometimes Peggy wondered how on earth she could be an African woman. She was much more like an American woman, always had been. When talking to a man she fixed her eyes on him with an unblinking stare, and the moment he disrespected her she let him have it with her big mouth.”
Another positive aspect of U.S. culture that Peggy brings to her kingship is the American belief in changing unjust societies to better serve the people. When Peggy gets into an argument with her corrupt council of elders she invokes some of her American identity on page 209. “Change has come to America, and I have come from America to bring change to Otuam! I am the Obama of this place!”
Ultimately, Peggy’s kingship is the tale of her confrontation with a corrupt group of town elders, who seek to live lavishly both off of the town of Otuam and off of Peggy herself. In order to secure clean drinking water, basic medical services, educational improvements, and a habitable town palace Peggy finds herself on a collision course with the town elders. Theft and lies abound within the town’s leadership. Peggy finds some unlikely allies in Africa and the U.S. that help her to get Otuam on the right track. This reviewer encourages others to read the book for a full appreciation of what King Peggy had to accomplish. Readers will be held captive by what takes place when Peggy has the previous king buried. This is a great book that is well worth reading. Many public libraries in Maryland will be discussing the book so readers should consult their local public library to participate in a book discussion