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

I liked this May 21, 2012 article by Paul Fattig in the Mail Tribune (Southern Oregon’s News Source) that discusses the importance of early literacy. As noted in the article, “the Jackson County Library Foundation as part of its Baby’s First Book program, provides complimentary literary packets to mothers who deliver babies at local hospitals. The books are available in either English or Spanish. Each new mother receives a baby book, a parent’s reading guide, information on the importance of early childhood literacy and a summary of programs for babies and toddlers available in local Jackson County libraries. In addition to the library foundation, the program is sponsored by Providence Medford Medical Center and Mercedes-Benz of Medford. The packets will be distributed at both Providence and Rogue Valley Medical Center.”

See http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120521/NEWS/205210325 for more details.

Here is an article in the Baltimore Sun by Mary Carole McCauley (dated May 31, 2012)  concerning the decision by the Harford County (Maryland) public library to not stock the book 50 Shades of Grey and its sequels.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-banned-book-20120530,0,1653381.story?page=1

A few weeks back I caught a short segment on the Baltimore metro area evening television news about Baltimore Raven, Michael Oher, and his book entitled I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond. It turns out that Oher made a personal visit to Severna Park High School in April 2012 to participate in a discussion about his book with students and faculty.

My hat is off to librarian Marianne Fitzgerald who selected the book to be part of the school’s 2012 “1 Book 1 School 1 Star” initiative and who helped facilitate the book club discussion.

See http://www.aacps.org/admin/anmviewer.asp?a=1478&z=62 for details.

I hope that public libraries in the Baltimore area are taking note of this and would consider holding book discussions about I Beat the Odds. Perhaps they could even invite Oher to make a visit to their libraries to help hold the discussion. I believe that such an effort would be a great way to get patrons excited about their local library system.

April has rapidly been passing by and I wanted to write one final reflection on the PLA Conference. One of the things that I heard at the conference was the need to have library staff perform story times and the basic duties of a children’s librarian. Apparently library managers are finding that not enough people are ready, willing, and able to handle those duties. Some libraries have having their staff wear multiple hats with one of them being a children’s librarian. I would imagine that the babies in bloom and other story times are very popular in most branches so the need to have staff that can perform those duties is important. I believe that these story times are important because they are examples of popular programming. You cannot digitize a program like story time so those programs will probably form the foundation of successful public libraries in the future. In one conference I was in there was discussion about a librarian who did not perform story times, but at least supported the story time by creating a bag full of story time materials such as puppets, felt birds, song sheets, etc.

One of the issues that was presented at the PLA conference was what the leaders in the field are doing to fight budget problems. Linda Mielke (director of the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System and the James Prendergast Library Association. Jamestown, New York)  noted that it best to keep the library’s stats up, keep the circulations up, keep the programming up, keep the doors open, and to buy the materials that people want. Closing the library doors means that circulation stats and other statistics will go down. In 2011, closing on Wednesday nights and Sundays meant a 36% drop in circulation in her library’s system. Mielke believes that a diminishing business in the form of circulation/ door counts makes it more difficult to point to the library as a vital resource that needs an increase in funding.

Jose Aponte (director of the San Diego County library) discussed the role of the air game (dealing with those external to the library system) and the ground game (dealing with those within the library system). The air game involved telling stories to convey what a library is to grab the attention of politicians. Usually the stories are inspirational examples of how the library is making a positive direct impact on the lives of those who use the library’s services within the community. In addition it is also wise (in the context of the air game) if the library director participates in a leadership role within the community (outside of just being a library director). For example, Aponte noted that he is on the board of the Greater San Diego Arts Task Force.

The library director must also be skilled in the vocabulary and operations of government leaders. In order to keep up to date Aponte reads magazines like American City/County government in addition to Library Journal.

Within the library system the ground game takes place. Some simple practices to increase staff morale were noted. For example, Aponte noted that he informs the staff about the library’s budget and tries to make sure everyone stays together on the same page as to what is happening with the budget. Also, he makes an effort to visit two libraries a month and to say hello to all members of the staff. In addition it is important to smile as appearances do matter. Aponte also makes sure that the library is hosting programs that are vital to the community. For example, 17% of the library’s programs are focused on health care. This is important as health care is an issue that is a concern to all segments of society. In addition there is a housing opportunities clinic in which attorneys come once a month to the library to offer mortgage counseling. According to Aponte, people build libraries and libraries build communities.

Last week I went to a Public Library Association conference session and saw that the Orange County (Florida) Public Library has an awesome way that they advocate for their library. They actually record videos of patrons who have had great experiences using their library. The videos are then uploaded onto You Tube. The library system uses these videos to make everyone aware as to how their library system is making a positive impact on the community. See the link http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAE3F28BCB39B5682&feature=plcp. Some of the videos discuss how some of the patrons utilized the library to find a job, which is quite important.

I will post another reflection on what I learned at the PLA Conference in the near future.

While I was walking around the area outside of the Philadelphia Convention Center during the Public Library Association conference last week I was able to get the newspaper One Step Away for one dollar. The One Step Away newspaper is a type of publication I have never read before. The paper is almost entirely produced and sold by the homeless. See http://www.osaphilly.org/.

This is Philadelphia’s first newspaper produced “By those without homes for those with homes.” I do not even know if this type of endeavor is being replicated in other cities. I think it is a splendid idea. I had never linked homelessness with the publishing business before so I was impressed with the newspaper immediately.

I especially liked the article on page 8 of the paper’s March 2012 edition. In this article KT Terry discusses Philadelphia’s efforts to celebrate the lives of Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius this past February 13.

I also liked in the March 2012 edition the article on page 12 by Erik Younge in which remembers Whitney Houston. He writes, “Whitney had that gift of breaking down barriers between people, bringing us all together just by the beauty and love heard in her crystal-clear singing.” Later on he ends with the line from one of her songs, “No matter what they take from me, they can’t take away my dignity.”

The other day Ben Tracy of CBS News interviewed San Jose mayor Chuck Reed about the pension issues in the city. The interview takes place in a beautiful but empty library. See http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57392812/calif-city-seeks-to-escape-soaring-pension-costs/. I am hoping that the library system will get back on its feet. The city has a new library, but needs funding to get it operating. Hopefully some creative thinking and hard work will get things moving again. I am thinking positively and I am hoping that things turn around. I wonder if some outside funding from the private sector could be found to return the four libraries to operating status.

I like Nate Hill’s discussion on the PLA Blog of Library You. See http://plablog.org/. The interview with Donna Federn, Digital Services Manager of Escondido Public Library, is great. As Federn states, “The LibraryYOU site hosts How To videos created by community members that they have either created themselves or made in our library’s new recording studio. It’s also a place to get tips about making your own multimedia web content. Libraries have always supported literacy and people communicating through the printed word. We now want to help our communities communicate through video and audio formats, which are just other ways to convey information.”

I encourage folks to go on to the site http://libraryyou.escondido.org/home.aspx. It looks like there are a number of cool videos that touch on a variety of topics.

There is a nice story from the NY Daily News by Jennifer Cunningham that showed up on the Library Journal Twitter Feed in late February. I have been thinking about this article and thought I would post it on the blog. Basically the NYC public library main branch is going to offer food/drink as well as seating at two kiosks. This is a one year pilot program so we will have to see what happens after the year is up. The link to the story is http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/york-public-library-main-branch-offering-beverages-snacks-article-1.1030282