The 80/20 Librarian: Focusing on the 20% that matters

(Photo from Danny Ghitis for the Wall Street Journal)

October 11 is the opening day for the humanoid robots at the Westport, Connecticut library. On September 29 the Wall Street Journal’s Loretta Waldman wrote an article on the robots. See http://online.wsj.com/articles/coming-soon-to-the-library-humanoid-robots-1412015687. The article and the accompanying video are well worth watching.

The robots featured in Westport are from the French company Aldebaran. The cost of these Aldebaran robots is roughly $8,000 a piece, while Google’s Finch robots sell for $99. Please note that WSJ did not mention the Dash & Dot robots that I learned about in Entrepreneur magazine, those robots are from Wonder Workshop (formerly known as Play-i). The pricing at Wonder Workshop is a little higher than Google’s, but if you just buy Dot it only costs about $60. I don’t believe that price is the full story as functionality in terms of what the robots can do varies among these three robotics providers. It could be a case of the more money you spend the more functionality your robot has.

Anybody out there in library land want to comment?

(Image from https://newschallenge.org/challenge/libraries/brief.html)

On September 30 the Knight News Challenge for Libraries came to a close. The main question: How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities?

Winners will be announced in January 2015 and could win a share of $2.5 million. About 680 entries were submitted. See the above link for all the interesting project ideas that were submitted. It is interesting to note that you did not have to be a librarian to submit an idea. The Knight News Challenge was very open to seeing what the larger community thinks.

If any of the blog viewers has submitted an entry, please let us know. I welcome your comments.

(Image From Amazon.com)

Not that long ago I met with a couple librarians to talk about Carmine Gallo’s book Talk Like TED. Coincidentally the national library community is showing signs of supporting TED (Technology, Education, and Design) like talks. See http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blog/ala-first-timer-tedx-program-empowers and http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blog/bringing-tedx-library.

Why is this book important? It’s important because it provides wonderful guidance to give great presentations. Gallo notes on page 8 that presentations should be emotional to touch our hearts, novel to teach us something new, and memorable in that they present content in ways we never forget.

What are some key takeaways from the book?

• Keep your message short. Think in terms of a Twitter friendly headline. As Gallo says, “If you can’t explain your big idea in 140 characters or less keep working on your message. (page 130)” Gallo notes that Google’s main message is, “Google provides access to the world’s information in one click. (page 123)”
• You’ll want to have data to support your message. This can come in the form of statistics and other evidence.
• However, remember to put this data in story form. Stories are “Data with a Soul”. Present the information in ways that are visual, interesting, and entertaining. Pictures, videos, and props can and should be used here.
• Good stories to use in presentations are personal stories, stories about other people, and stories about brand success.
• Appeal to the audience with your credibility, persuasion through logic/data/statistics, and appeal to them with emotions
• Watch your body language! Hands that hand below the navel show a lack of confidence. Take your hands out of your pockets. Work the room and walk around.
• Use humor to help your talk. Read the book for the dos and don’ts on this.
• Be aware of the speed with which you speak, the volume of your speech, your pitch (high or low inflections), and the right use of pauses.
• Believe in what you are saying!
• 18 minutes is a good presentation length
• Presentation can be everything. As Dr. Jill Taylor noted, “I wasn’t winning the awards at Harvard because my science was better than anyone else’s. I was winning the awards because I could tell a story that was more interesting and fascinating and it was mine, down to the detail. (page 33)”

Librarians should be paying attention to the October 2014 edition of Entrepreneur Magazine, see http://www.entrepreneur.com/. You can find the October 2014 edition either at the library or at newsstands, but check out the magazine’s website for subscription and other information.

In the article entitled “Get Schooled” (p.119) J.D. Roth noted how he used the resources at the public library to learn how to invest and save. He then created a website to share what he learned. Within five years he built a booming business from the site.

In the article “Play Pals” (p. 122) Michelle Goodman discusses the arrival of Play-I (now named Wonder Workshop) which is a company that has built robots for children ages 5 to 12 to help them learn how to code. See https://www.makewonder.com/. I have a feeling that we will be seeing these robots at an American Library Association Conference Exhibit Hall in the future. What are your thoughts?

(Image of Dash & Dot Robots from https://www.makewonder.com/)

(Image from http://www.soarwithreading.com/)

I was at the airport recently and stumbled upon Soar With Reading, a joint project between jetBlue and Magic Tree House. Take a look at http://www.soarwithreading.com/ for details. One of the key goals of the project is to get “$500,000 worth of books into the hands of children everywhere.”

I think it is great to see a partnership emerge to promote literacy. What are your thoughts on this partnership?

A must read article for librarians came out on August 12 in the Wall Street Journal by Geoffrey A. Fowler.

See http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-the-public-library-beats-amazonfor-now-1407863714.

The article is titled: Why the Public Library Beats Amazon- For Now.

So the central question is who is better at providing ebooks Amazon, Oyster, Scribd, or the public library? The surprising answer is the public library! I would have thought that WSJ would have been in the corner of private enterprise here, but when the focus came to who provides the most to the customer the public library came out ahead.

A few takeaways from the article:

The public library has a wider selection of the ebooks that most people want to read. This was supported by Fowler’s use of ebook collections in the San Francisco Public Library and the Richland County (South Carolina) Public Library. Readers will want to take a look at Fowler’s chart which shows how these two public libraries faired when matched up against the private ebook vendors. You’ll be surprised at who has the better collections.

The tension between Amazon and major publishers has limited the amount of ebooks provided to Amazon for distribution.

There is a far better relationship among publishers and public libraries. According to Fowler, the Internet has put an end to many bookstores, so this has left the library as a prime showroom for “discovering books”. Therefore publishers see the library as a revenue source and a marketing venue. In the future it might be the only place that can perform both functions for the publisher.

The one drawback of the public library is that there is a wait list factor for the more popular and new ebooks. On the other hand the ebook services that the public library provides are free.

The article hints that the current library advantage with regards to ebooks may not always last. This could be due to publishers resolving their issues with Amazon or paid subscriptions services becoming more main stream.

My take:

It is impressive that the library has been able proactively provide access to ebooks that the public wants to read. We should not always assume that private enterprise will always be the best source to meet customer demand. On the other hand, we should be mindful of Fowler’s final thoughts that the library is more than just a book or ebook provider. The library holds a vast array of programs that are valuable to the community, assists with patron instruction of which technological training plays a role, provides space to those seeking a quiet place to study or to those that want to hold group meeting, and advocates for privacy considerations. These are just a few of the things that the library does in addition to providing ebook access.

Great Article in the Chicago Tribune on July 25 by Erinn Hutkin called “Google can’t compete with a skilled librarian steeped in information technology”.  See http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-201407250000–tms–careercarer-b20140725-20140725-story.html.

A few takeaways from the article:

• The profession has gone beyond being book focused (Any surprises there?)
• The articles seeks to inform the public about the variety of places where librarians work: Law firms, corporations, medical libraries, etc.
• The article also describes the variety of work that librarians take on such as teaching patrons about library resources, organizing library materials, planning programs, choosing equipment, and preparing budgets
• You have to like Skokie Public Librarian Mikael Jacobsen’s quote, “We are facilitating learning and creating community.”
• The public is in need of librarian instruction on special technologies
• The most common undergraduate majors prior to getting an MLS are education, English, history, and fine arts.
• 90 percent of the 2011 graduates from the MLS program at Dominican University were employed within a year
• Employment of librarians is predicted to be 7% by 2022

(Book Cover Image From Amazon.Com)

“Things a little bird told me: Confessions of a Creative Mind” by Twitter cofounder Biz Stone discusses a variety of work related concepts that librarians should be aware of. One of the important concepts was making sure that organizational culture matches an employee’s values. This is evident in the book in that Biz Stone decided to stop working at Google (even though he was well compensated), because he found the work to no longer be intellectually engaging and he also felt that Google placed technology ahead of people. In addition Biz Stone and another co-founder of Twitter decided not to continue serious negotiations with Facebook after visiting Facebook’s founder and Facebook’s offices. Biz Stone writes that, “We were as alien to him (Mark Zuckerberg) as he was to us.” In addition the book discusses creativity, team work, and risk tasking.

One take away from the book was the ability to provide high quality customer service even in the face of extreme customer dissatisfaction. At times the Twitter service would crash on a frequent basis, and nasty compliant email messages would be sent to Biz Stone. Instead of responding harshly, Biz would write back, “Dear Joe, thank you so much for your feedback. I’m frustrated as you are when the service goes down. I’m so glad you sent me this note. Here’s what the guys are doing. Please let me know if it doesn’t work for you in four hours.” Once Biz wrote back a nice reply, he often got a note back from the customer stating that they only wrote a mean email because they really liked the service/staff. Biz noted that the loudest complainers were often the biggest fans of Twitter since they were the most passionate about the service. By responding personally, honestly, and in a caring fashion Twitter put a personal touch on its customer service. In addition the assumptions for Twitter employees focus on a need to practice good internal customer service (i.e. co-workers). The Twitter belief is that “Our coworkers are smart and they have good intentions.”

I really loved Biz’s take on creativity. In high school he wanted to play a sport, but he could not make any of the teams. What did Biz Stone do? He decided that he wanted to find a sport he could not find available at his high school (in this case lacrosse) and he formed a lacrosse team at his high school. This teaches me that you have to be prepared to create your own path instead of just relying on choosing options from a predetermined template of choices. Also, I really enjoyed Biz Stone’s take on risk taking. “In order to succeed spectacularly, you must be ready to fail spectacularly.” Risk taking is something that Biz Stone is really good at. He got one of his first professional jobs designing book covers by taking a risk. He was moving boxes for the publisher Little, Brown, and Company when one day the entire art department went to lunch. Biz went into the art department’s office and actually designed a book cover. Two days later the art director gave him a full time job on the spot.

There is a great article in the June 2014 Library Journal called “Remotely Convenient” by Matt Enis, see http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/06/public-services/remotely-convenient-outreach/.

The discussion centers on making the library collection available to patrons at a remote lending facility located outside of a traditional library branch building.  The remote lending facilities discussed are the Envisionware 24 hour library (see http://www.envisionware.com/24h-library-features) and the Bibliotheca smartlocker (see http://www.bibliotheca.com/1/index.php/us/our-products/dispensing-collection/smartlocker).

The logic behind using these facilities is that it is a middle path to take when a much needed new library branch cannot be built in the foreseeable future. Patrons can use these remote facilities to have routine library account matters taken care of in lieu of coming to a library branch. The units can also relieve library branches that struggle with crowded stacks and space constraints. They may also be a helpful resource if a branch is being renovated and you want to make a library collection available to patrons during the interim.

The Envisionware 24 hour library can handle a variety of tasks (check in, check out, returns, item renewals, sorting, holds pick up, stack browsing, program information, reserve selection, OPAC browsing, and fine payment/Wifi access are optional). The price tag on this equipment is $200,000. California’s Fresno County Public Library is the fourth library system in the country to utilize the Envisionware 24 hour library technology.

The Bibliotheca smartlocker needs patrons to make requests in advance either using the library website or the smartlocker itself in order to have the requested item made available to the patron for pickup. However, it has a far lower price of $25,000 to $30,000. The Topkea and Shawnee County Public Library needed to reach a number of different locations in its county so it opted for buying multiple smartlockers in lieu of one big 24 hour library.

The article ends by citing that it is important to have library staff involved in helping/ instructing patrons how to use the equipment and their presence can be considered a type of outreach program. Such was the experience at Contra Costa County Library which launched a remote lending venture in 2008. Fresno County Public Library’s Laurel Prysiazny thinks that unstaffed lending is not going to replace libraries. In addition to staff available for instruction/outreach we need to consider that staff need to be available to deliver/retrieve materials from these units as well as to provide basic maintenance on them.

While the remote lending units provide a basic level of library collection access to patrons, they are not going to offer study room space, programming, and the general library environment experience many crave. However, it is important to know that these technologies are available as an aid to libraries.

During May I learned of the New York Public Library’s video (entitled “Libraries Now-A Day in the Life”) which articulates the variety of work that the library is engaged in and calls for additional library funding. To see the video go to http://www.nypl.org/speakout/librariesnow.