Early April Links

Just after I posted about the Julie/Julia project, East Baton Rouge Parish Library posted about Julia's kitchen! [Note, their posts are frequent but usually short, and great promotion for some aspect of public library service.]

I don't remember where I picked up this great post on managing your Gmail account. (Now I just need to do it!)

Stephen Abram has done a series of posts accumulating the various studies on the economic value that libraries bring to an economy. The public library list is here.

Then there is the EBSCO dust-up.

1. Meredith Farkas asked Has EBSCO become the new evil empire?
2. Sarah Houghton-Jan [well respected as The Librarian in Black] reflected Unethical Library Vendors: A Call to Arms for Libraries to Fight Back
3. Meredith further noted A lot of Davids make one heck of a Goliath

Eric Hellman (and you have to love the name of his blog: Go To Hellman) wrote an interesting non-librarian post about cataloging and the library role in helping to identify and organize information. It is well worth a read.

Barbara Fister wrote a long post about the relationship between publishers and librarians. (While I did link to it, let me admit I have not read it. I expect it to appear in an upcoming issue of Library Journal. I hope to be able to read it more reflectively there.

At PLA last week (or the week before?), a company announced DRM-free, downloadable music for libraries. I will say, about time!

Peter Bromberg wrote up Five Tips for Successful Webinars which I picked up from iLibrarian.

Personal note: I will be off on vacation next week...a brief trip, out of the country, and will be completely "un-plugged." I know that part of that is good. I will admit that I am not looking forward to the electronic piles which await my return. Oh, well.

Links - Mid February

Here is the scariest news story I have seen lately: FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited

Almost as scary is this one about copyright of photographs in Britain. It is a long article, and I admit to not having either completely read it, or to understanding all the implications.

A friend of mine in Boston sent this link to an article praising librarians as "pioneers" in the digital age. (It even mentions Henriette Harriet Avram!) [Thanks to Sue Kamm for the first name correction! 2/26]

I found this brief article on assessment in academic libraries interesting.

This post from a doctoral student in language and literacy at the University of Georgia talks about the current rage for testing in schools and for tying the results of testing to teacher performance judgments. His/her name does not appear on the blog (even though there is a list of publications).

And now a series of "clipped" notes from my blog reader....

Michael Stephens noted in ALA TechSource that he has found a new "tribe" at Educause. I think it is important to have several different circles of friends. Talking only to the same people all the time creates the opportunity for groupthink, which will not lead to real progress.

The indomintable Dorothea Salvo has written a long-ish post about "pre-prints" and open access. (When I need to learn more about open access, it is to Dorothy to whom I turn.)

Current ALA Executive Board (EB) member Courtney Young posted some EB documents about the potential new ways of communicating within ALA.

Chad Haefele (Hidden Peanuts) has an interesting post about e-books, digital rights managment, and electronic publishing.

Sarah Houghton-Jan has a great post on using technology in your library to save money on technology.

A few years ago, I picked up on a blog dealing with technology and innovation for associations Principled Innovation. There is a great post on their blog with five important thoughts/trends for 2010.

There is a new blog in the library world, Quid est veritas? [I know who the author is, but have temporarily forgotten. However, it is in my blog reader now.] There is a great post on "Inputs and Outputs." The concepts of inputs and outputs, which is what we have traditionally measured, is very important as many organizations (like the Institute of Museum of Library Services [IMLS]) start to request outcomes as the measurement for grant services.

Amanda McNeil is a library school student in Boston. She writes a blog called Opinions of a Wolf which is a mix of thoughts on library school and the profession and book reviews. She wrote an interesting post "What public libraries should be."

Kim Leeder, of In the Library with a Lead Pipe, posted a year starting discussion of Learning Commons activities and rumination about the role of the library (in general). It is long but worth reading.

My final set of links is from Stephen Abram. With his recent change in employment, his blog Stephen's Lighthouse has moved. However there are seven posts to which I wish to point:

1. Social Media for Employees -- Rules? which indirectly follows up on some posts of mine. It consolidates some additional suggestions.
2. How many ways are there to visualize data? Visualization of data is something that Stephen pays attention to. I often get some great ideas thanks to his consolidation and re-posting.
3. Web searching skills recommendation is a longer article with comments from Stephen.
4. Florida Libraries Rock talks about the update to the Florida State Library's update of its ROI (Return on Investment) study. The new study shows that investment in libraries (i.e. tax support) returns $8.32 for every dollar invested.
5. 10 Fool-Proof Predictions for the Internet in 2020 reminds us some of the obvious trends.
6. Social Technology and Libraries includes a great chart showing the technologies, Sescription, stage of development, and impact.
7. 8 Things You Need to Know about Collaboration recaps a post on collaboration.
   

WAPL - Economic Impact of Wisconsin Public Libraries

This was the breakout session after the keynote. The state library will be posting the slides from the keynote. They also promised to publish the slide show this break-out session. [Links to be added when verified.]

David Ward talked about how to present the study on the economic impact of libraries. He started by talking about his company, as a background. They do a lot of work in regional economic studies. [I have heard his parts of his basic economics speech and on his business before. He spoke to the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce a while back.]

He talked about the "new economy" and the importance of regional organization and thinking. He talked about the New North, and other joint planning efforts including Momentum (which includes Eau Claire).

It is important to set the context by talking about the four economic trends highlighted in his main speech. He offered slides for use to libraries who are making the presentation.

There are so many things happening in the world today that people are confused.

His income gap slide (which shows family income by educational attainment) shows the critical role for libraries which support people's acquiring a better standard of living. From 1976 to 2000, real family income (that is adjusted for inflation) has decreased for those with less than high school education and only a high school education.

Economic multipliers are acquired from various sources some are often available locally.

Be careful to not overstate your case. Libraries are not an economic engine. First mission is to provide services. But....public libraries are in important part of the new economy.

One slide showed three key points:

1. ROI is $4.06 for every $1.00 of taxpayer investment
2. Overall (conservative) economic impact of $753 million
3. Library serves as a knowledge/information resource base

The last point may be the most important and includes not only the collections by the value of the people.

Messages to use:

1. Public libraries are a good and necessary investment in a rapidly changing economy.
2. Public libraries are a consistent source of information and technology. They won't be acquired closed down or moved offshore.
3. With an increasing gap in income levels, public libraries level the information and technology playing field.
4. A growing wave of retiring baby boomers will use libraries as a key part of their working and non-working lives.

He then went to questions.

There has not been a study done of Minnesota. The state economies of Wisconsin and Minnesota were equal in size in 1990, that is no longer true. Minnesota has half a million fewer people. Some think the brain drain is the reason, but that may not be true. However, Wisconsin does not attract "new brains" while Minnesota does. Financial risk-taking has always been greater in Minnesota than in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a manufacturing state with a guarded mind-set. Minnesota has had a broader vision, and companies like 3M encouraged spin-offs. There is change in Wisconsin, but it is slow.

It is important to use the ROI argument in print but verbalize the services argument. The economic multipliers come from the Implan Group in Minnesota (ironically).

WAPL -- Keynote Address: Economic Impact of Libraries

WAPL is the public library division of the Wisconsin Library Association. Each spring there is a meeting. For me it is a lot like going to the PLA National Conference because it is all programs!

The Keynote Speaker was David Ward of NorthStar Economics. About a year ago the state's LSTA Advisory Committee recommended an economic impact study. NorthStar Economics won the contract through a competitive bidding process.

He handed out both the slide show and the Executive Summary of the final report. The session was scheduled to be followed by a breakout session, which is scheduled to be repeated Friday morning. He started with one of his favorite jokes (I have heard him before). "An economist is someone who does not have enough personality to be an accountant."

He started with an overview of the current economic situation including the shift from agriculture to manufacturing and now to services. The second shift is in the nature of work. The proportion of work that is "nonroutine interactive" has increased dramatically while "nonroutine manual" has decreased. The analysis was done using the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the occurrence of skills required. The chart shows types of skills base-lined to 1960, and graphed them over time.

He gave the example of the new economy using Google which is about a decade old, and is already 6 times the market capitalization of Ford and General Motors. He showed the size of the US economy related to the size of other parts of the world. Total world population is 5.5 billion but the US population is only 0.3 billion. The world economy is $48 billion. The US is only $14 billion and the EU is $13 billion.

The four key economic trends:

1. The nature of the economy is shifting rapidly as economic sectors expand and decline.
2. The nature of work is shifting away from manual labor to higher level analytic and interactive skills.
3. The pace of econonmic change has accelerated.
4. The US is an important but shrinking share of the global economy.

He showed the change in family income based on education. He also told his "Rotary" story about using key states for comparison of data. People from Wisconsin always believe that Wisconsin is behind Illinois, but cannot accept that Wisconsin is behind Minnesota -- smaller in population, and has even worse weather! [I don't get the rivalry....] Wisconsin is in the upper part of the lower third of educational attainment. The comparison of per capita income shows that Wisconsin is about $4,000 behind Minnesota. (There is a huge potential impact on state revenue.)

This was a basic introduction to the study. He held up the USA Today which had economics based stories all over the front page.

The study started in October 2007, the report is essentially done, and the presentation was the formal unveiling. There were surveys and focus groups and they reviewed other studies of public library impact studies. He reviewed the basics of impact studies which calculate the amounts acquired from various sources and spent. The model takes the direct economic impact and use the economic multiplier and calculate the "total spending impact." In Wisconsin that is $326 million. This is spending that mostly affects "Main Street businesses." A second part is jobs: there are 3,222 jobs, but another 3,058 jobs are created by the spending from people in the first set of jobs for a total of 6,280 jobs.

They also looked at the market value of services provided by libraries. He presented a chart which I will need to analyze more before talking about it. However it is included in the full report. They assigned values to materials, the value of a reference transaction, computer and Internet access (which has been consistently undervalued in prior studies -- Kinkos charges $0.30 minute), and then for programs. The total was $750 million which he advocates saying is 3/4 of a billion dollars.

After discussing the preliminary results they added values for meeting rooms, career and job info, periodicals and subscriptions, electronic databases, specialized materials, and wi-fi access. The best way to present the data is to talk about things like economic impact per capita.

The key message on the ROI is that the annual return for each dollar of public tax support is $4.06.

After some further review of the report, he ended with some observations:

• The value of libraries is particularly evident in rural and low income areas.
• Library use is increasing by baby boomers who are recently retired. (A key demographic to stay on top of!)
• Libraries are a central community gathering place and are very valuable.
• Despite concerns, libraries are increasingly important in the Internet Age
• Availability of specialized knowledge is crucial
• Electronic access to library is critical (example of picking up requested items).
• Important to inform the public about the mission of the library
• Operating money and space are key issues
• Even in the Internet Age it is important to maintain the physical facilities and maintain a knowledgeable staff.

It was a great summary of a report which will play a huge role in promoting the value of libraries in Wisconsin.