Transitions

It is now public and official. I will be leaving the L E Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire as of July 5. There has been a breakdown in the relationship between me and the Library Board.

This is not new news to the folks in Eau Claire (thanks to the newspaper) or to my children and family.

There is a limit to what I can say. I am leaving here with my head held high. This is a great community, and I have received incredible support from my staff here and from many members of the community.

Where I will go next is still up in the air. I have a number of irons in the fire. I will have interviews at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. Where my personal adventure takes me next, I don't know.

I will continue to live in Eau Claire for the time being. After all, it is relatively cheap to live here. In early July, I will retrieve the last of my personal belongings from Connecticut and have all of my "stuff" in one city -- Eau Claire. It is sort of half-way between the coasts, even if it is further north than the mid-point.

Rest assured that this blog will not disappear, and I will even promise to blog some or all of my adventures in Anaheim.

Stay tuned!

On the Road

Ever since I have been here, I have been talking about going "On the Road with Bob." Bob is the LEPMPL staff member who, five days a week, drives and collects the materials returned to the eight book drop locations around Eau Claire. [Update, 5/25/2014 - There are now 10 locations.] Take a look at the map, and you will soon realize what an incredible service this is to the community. Library staff empty the drops six days a week (Monday through Saturday). Monday through Friday, Bob does it. Bob is a retired library custodian who has been doing this now for about 4 and a half years. It is a great fit, he gets some part time work, and would normally be up at that hour. He is incredibly reliable, and committed to doing a great job.

I got to the Library at 5:15 or so, and went to my office. It was still quite dark out! I then headed to the office where Bob hangs out. We headed off in the van. My Flickr account shows all the photos I took, and the notes are a narrative of some of the morning.

Our first stop was at the supermarket right by my apartment. We then visited each of the book drops in a giant "anti-clockwise" circle around the City. (Look at the map, and you will see why I describe it that way.

One advantage of riding shotgun was that I was actually able to sit and look at what we were passing. It is rare that I am a passenger in the town, and when driving, I try to pay more attention to the traffic than the passing scene.

I have a few final comments on my adventure today....

I still find it incredibly wild how many book drop locations we have. People in this community do not have any idea how unique that is. Second, even though we get a good volume of returns through these book drops, people still have to come downtown to actually get their items, so it has not really affected our circulation, but I think it has helped reduce our loss rate. Third, the fit between a person and a job is critical. For this job, Bob is a great choice. He has all the right qualities and enjoys it! That is very important.

Added challenge to my non-Eau Claire readers: Is there any other public library which has as many off-site places to return library materials? Remember, the eight locations in Eau Claire are at convenience stores and grocery stores, not at branches or even other government offices. I contend that Eau Claire is unique and has more off-site places to return materials than any other public library.

Snow and Cold

Well, it has been winter.

Today, for about the third time in this decade, I made the decision to close the Library early. It was an interesting process, but for those not paying close attention to the weather here, the City Director of Public Works included this in his email on snow clean-up operations:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
1053 AM CST TUE JAN 29 2008

IN COMBINATION WITH THE SNOW AND WINDS...BITTERLY
COLD AIR CONTINUES TO FLOOD INTO THE REGION. WIND
CHILLS OF 25 TO 40 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED THIS
AFTERNOON WEST OF INTERSTATE 35 IN MINNESOTA. THESE
WIND CHILLS WILL SPREAD ACROSS THE ENTIRE
REGION TONIGHT AND LAST THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING.
THEREFORE A WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT TONIGHT
AND WEDNESDAY MORNING.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND
STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS.
THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA
IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE
OUTDOORS...MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.

When the Mall closed, it was easier to make the decision since that was the standard which my predecessor used.

Closing for weather is tough. Actually, any unexpected closing is always fraught with possible public relations faux pas.

I hate closing the library, but the safety of staff comes first.

An Anniversary

It has been a year (today) since I started work in Wisconsin. It has been an interesting year with challenges related to the fund raising as well as to the "new culture" of the upper Midwest.

One year ago today it was snowing in Eau Claire. It is snowing now. We had 6 inches of snow (which ended as sleet/rain) on Saturday night. The public works department has done a great job of clean-up. I'm guessing we are in for a spell of snow. One to three inches are predicted for today, and more on Saturday. One weather forecaster confidently predicted a white Christmas since he does not expect the temperatures to get above freezing this month.

I am glad I bought snow shoes, I think I see some adventures on snow in my future!

Fahrenheit 451 - Eau Claire Big Read

I was asked to speak at the Friends of the LEMPL Annual meeting. In addition to introducing myself, I was asked to speak about Fahrenheit 451, the Big Read book for Eau Claire. Afterwards several people (including several Library Trustees) suggested I post the full text of my remarks. So, here is the text I used to talk about the topic.

Friends of LEMPL

Annual Meeting 2007

I was born in a log cabin….no, wait that’s not true. I was born in Westchester County New York and grew up in Central Massachusetts as the eldest of eight children. I graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies. I went directly to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (I actually registered for classes one week after the graduation ceremony). From there I moved to Tucson Arizona. I worked for the Diocese of Tucson and in the Central Reference Department at the University of Arizona. I went back to school and earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Arizona. By the time I finished that last degree, I had gotten a job at the Tucson Public Library as a Young Adult Librarian. I was quickly moved to be the Business Librarian at the Main Library, where I remained for the next two and one-half years.

When I was offered the position as the Head of Technology and Business Department of the Bridgeport Public Library, I leapt at the chance to be closer to my siblings. I worked at Bridgeport Public for two years before becoming the Library Director at the Wilton Library. The Wilton Library is one of the public libraries in Connecticut which is an “association library.” While it provides public library service to the town, it is not a town department but is a separate non-profit organization. In my time, the town provided only about 78% of the budget, the rest needed to be raised through various fund raising activities. I was there for almost 10 years.

I then became the Executive Director of the Southern Connecticut Library Council, an organization serving the 300 plus academic, school, special, and public libraries in the 38 towns of Greater New Haven. It was a great ride for just over 5 years.

However, when the job as City Librarian in my adopted home town was advertised, I applied and I got the job! For just over 6 years, I served as the City Librarian. One of my most important accomplishments as City Librarian was the establishment of a Friends group. Twice before, Friends groups had been established, and each time they eventually folded. In beginning the new group, I carefully looked at what had not worked in the past. I am pleased to say that the group has just celebrated its 4^th anniversary and is going strong after its first major change in leadership.

So, congratulations to the Friends of the L E Phillips Memorial Public Library on a successful twenty years. It is my goal to celebrate many more of these anniversaries with you!

I now have been in Eau Claire for four and a half months, and am having the time of my life! Thank you to all who have welcomed me.

But you did not come to hear my life story. You came to hear more about Fahrenheit 451.

Why is Eau Claire reading this book? It is part of a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. It was inspired, in part, by their 2004 study called Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. That report indicated a dramatic drop in reading by the American public. Having read the study, I am concerned that the narrow definitions used in the survey done in 2002 do not accurately reflect the amount of reading which we all do. However, I am pleased that they are sponsoring programs which emphasize not just reading, but also discussion of the important ideas included in some of the great works of American literature.

But why was I so excited about Eau Claire’s participation in the Big Read? Well, Bridgeport in conjunction with some of the surrounding communities is also participating in the Big Read this spring. The Library played an active role in preparing the application. One of the requirements is that the book must be selected from a list, and included in the application. I really wanted people in Bridgeport to read Fahrenheit 451. I argued strenuously that this was a critical time to talk about the ideas Bradbury presents. However, I was out-voted, and Bridgeport is reading To Kill a Mockingbird, a great book, but not Fahrenheit 451. When I arrived Bess Arneson told me that Eau Claire had received the grant, and that the book was Fahrenheit 451. I don’t remember what I exclaimed, but it sure made an impression!

Fahrenheit 451 and I share one thing in common. For the last six months whenever someone has asked me how old I am, I have answered “My age and birth year are the same.” I usually pause, and wait for the blank look…So for those of you who are still puzzling, the answer is 53. And 1953 is the year when this book was first published.

So what would make a teenaged boy in the late 1960s pick up a book like Fahrenheit 451? Well, I had started working in the public library, thanks to the wonderful Library Director, Miss Betty Osborn, and started reading all the mysteries and science fiction – alphabetically by author, of course, since that is how they were arranged on the shelves. Through high school, I continued on this path, and pretty much finished the science fiction. Well, on the shelf next to the Martian Chronicles was Fahrenheit 451. So I read it. I also re-read it this past winter in preparation for these events.

There are lots of visual images which spring from this incredible work. The first thing that struck me is the twist which Bradbury gives to the term “fireman.” Certainly, when I first read the book, I knew of “firemen” (and I am sorry to say that in those days they were all men). The fire house was across the town green from the Library. You could see the fire house from the back entrance to the Library, the entrance to the Children’s Room. These were the guys who were there to put out fires. They certainly did so for the fire which had occurred next door to my home when I was about 10. Bradbury took this and turned it on its head…firemen did not put out fires, they start them.

Another striking image which I did not perceive in my first reading, was Bradbury’s foreshadowing. Think about Mildred’s parlor with three walls of screens, and all she wants is the fourth wall. Now go look at some place like Best Buy where you can get a 60 inch or larger flat panel screen. Fifty-three years later, we are almost there. And what is on those screens? “The Family.” Aunts, uncles, cousins, living a life, or, actually letting people watch them living a life. Isn’t that reality TV. Then there are the “seashells.” Aren’t those iPods, the successor to the walkman? And then look at Bluetooth technology where all you see is this curved item sticking out of someone’s ear as the appear to talk to themselves. Both of these are well presented in the movie (which I will mention again later).

Later in the novel, there is the chase scene of the mechanical hound chasing our hero Guy Montag. For me, reading that today reminded me of the helicopter scenes of the white Bronco driving slowly down the freeways of Los Angeles. One crucial difference is related to the control of information. The ending was scripted by the authorities. It was both final, and untrue.

In the opening of the novel, Clarisse appears. She sets Guy Montag on his new course. One of the images which struck me was the description of the houses. The houses so close together, yet so far apart. Clarissa and her family actually sat on the porch and talked, how often do we see that today? How often do you see a house porch being used? Certainly, in urban areas today, you rarely see that, even in the neighborhoods which have older homes with wonderful porches.

Fire itself has a hook – I remember the days of burning raked leaves in the back yard. It always draws a crowd. Certainly my camping experience with both boy scouts and girl scouts is that the fire always attracts us. I have spent many happy hours sitting around the fire on a chilly or cold evening, enjoying the warmth of first the fire and then the embers, and sitting having wide ranging conversations. In this novel, fire destroys, and tries to destroy ideas.

Fire Chief Beatty is an interesting character. He has a collection of books, and clearly has read them. He is familiar with the ideas, but has been turned off to the power of books. He is an example of political correctness taken to the ultimate and I have an example of this happening in our society now. Just this past week, a friend of mine went to look at an art exhibit at her University. She had submitted a piece for the show which was sponsored by the University’s Women’s Commission. She was shocked to find that her work was incomplete. It had been censored. Why? Well the University has ruled that exhibits in public spaces cannot offend anyone. So instead of asking her first, the curator censored the work so that no one would be offended. Why are books banned (or destroyed)? Because they offend someone or, worse yet, make someone think.

I’m not sure how many of you are aware of the controversy this winter surrounding the latest Newbery Medal winner. This is the greatest honor in the children’s publishing world, and is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. This year’s winner is The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (a librarian for Los Angeles Public Library). The controversy is or was because on the first page of the book the word scrotum appears. It is part of a story that Lucky, a young girl and the protagonist, overhears. It is part of a story where the dog of the narrator is bitten on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. Not horrible language, but what a firestorm it created in some circles. Those who want to censor, think that using appropriate anatomical terms and improving the vocabulary of readers is a problem. I don’t!

But, let’s return to our novel. The last part of the novel has the impending war as a background theme. The book was written during the Cold War years, and certainly for much of the 1950s and into the 1960s there was a certain fear of possible atomic or nuclear destruction. While we no longer worry excessively about nuclear destruction of the planet, certainly the specter of war hangs over us today.

Bradbury has created a bleak world. That bleakness is very much reflected in Truffalt’s 1966 film version. While the movie is not completely true to the book, the bleakness and deadness in society is clearly represented by this renowned filmmaker. Some of Truffalt’s presentations conflict with my mental images from the book, but the combination of the actors, setting, and especially the music leave a haunting impression.

How bleak will we let our world become?

In 2001, I was working less than 75 miles from New York City one of the sites of the terrorist attacks on September 11. In the aftermath of those atrocities, Congress passed legislation called the USA PATRIOT Act – war was used as an excuse to take away liberties.

Among the provisions of that law, is the expanded use of something called National Security Letters (NSLs). As a leader in state and regional associations, I began speaking out against the law immediately after its incredibly rapid passage. In 2003, I was elected to serve on the ALA Executive Board.

Let me talk a moment about the National Security Letters. NSLs include, among their provisions a gag order that means that once served, you can never talk about any of the information included in the NSL. This is a permanent gag order, with no right of appeal, and no review by a judge.

In the Spring of 2005, an NSL was served in Connecticut on a librarian (actually a group of librarians). In August, the lawsuit “John Doe v. Ashcroft” was filed in Federal Court to challenge the legality of the NSL and the gag order provisions. When it was announced that the case would be heard, it was to be heard at the Federal Court House in Bridgeport. Since I could see that building from my office, many people jumped to the conclusion that I was “John Doe.” For the next 18 months, or so, I spent a large amount of time trying to convince people that I was not. After all, if I were, I could not have said anything. [Just for the record, there are three federal court houses in Connecticut. When cases are assigned, they are assigned in rotation, and for this case, it just happened to be the turn of Janet Hall, who “sits” in Bridgeport. It just as easily could have been heard in New Haven or Hartford.]

I am proud of my colleagues George Christianson, Peter Chase, Barbara Bailey, and Janet Nocek and their willingness to take a stand. Judge Janet Hall heard the case on August 31, and issued a ruling on September 9. The federal government appealed, and the case, now called “John Doe v. Gonzales” was heard by the second Circuit Court in New York in early November. I attended that hearing and was not impressed with the US Attorney’s case. I am distressed to have to report that ALA and the ACLU were unsuccessful in getting the Supreme Court to hear the case on an expedited basis (Justice Ginsberg declined to hear the arguments), and that before the 2^nd Circuit Court ruled, the Federal Government withdrew its appeal and allowed the John Does to speak. Unfortunately this means that the legality of the gag order has yet to be decided by a court. Isn’t this reminiscent of the world which Bradbury showed us

So, what lessons can we draw from Fahrenheit 451? I would draw several. First is that while you can squash the product, can’t squash the ideas. You can burn books, but people will keep the ideas alive. At the end of the novel, Montag and Granger and the other outcasts have gathered to remember different works.

Second is that the reason why the firemen were successful was that society structured to keep people apart, because when people gather, people talk. When people talk, people share ideas. When people share ideas, people go against the rules.

My third moral comes from an interview about the writing of Fahrenheit 451, where Bradbury said, “My educator… is the library ... and the library is in danger.” I don’t think that the Library is in danger in Eau Claire; I think that with support of groups like the Friends, we will find the Ray Bradbury of the next generation. Remember that “Imaginative books are dangerous books.”

Finally I suppose that the greatest irony of all is that Bradbury has stressed the importance of the oral tradition by putting it on paper.

Thank you for your welcome, and thank you for listening to my thoughts on this, one of the great books of the 20^th Century.

Yes, I am alive

If you look at the pictures from Flickr, you will see what I did for St. Patrick's Day. That was a fund raiser and PR event for the Library's Capital Campaign.

I also finally found the photos from my November visit (lining up a place to live, setting up bank accounts, etc.) Frankly, I thought that they may have been lost in the transition from the old work laptop to my new one and the external hard drive. I finally had the "A-ha!" moment needed to find them. Of course, I should be spending more time re-organizing my files at home, and de-duping them so that I don't have three or four copies of the same files. I should also be taking the ones I don't need off my laptop, and looking through the box of disks to organize that electronic stuff.

Work has been hectic. If life goes well, I will post about the Organizational Wellness Audit which has taken an important part of my work life time lately.

Words are important

The Library here is part of a shared cataloging system. This week's update included this interesting paragraph on a cataloging issue;

Pigs is a children's heading that we don't use. We use the LC heading Swine, with |vJuvenile fiction (or |vJuvenile literature) after it. All the pigs have been eradicated from the database; please help in keeping them out.

I laughed out loud when I got to the last sentence because I had a mental image of building a fence to keep the pigs out.

Organizational Wellness Audit - Scary (and is it Library 2.0?)

At the all staff meeting this morning, I introduced Richard Fields who will be conducting a special project for the Library over the next month or so. Dick works for the Eau Claire School District and over the past several years has conducted over 30 "organizational wellness audits" for schools and other organizations.

The audit is a intended to look at the organization's culture, communication and decision-making processes, and learning. It will look at what is working in the organization. Dick has a group of folks who will individually interview each of the library staff as well as Library Board members and some focus groups of the Friends.

In late March there will be another all staff meeting to report what the "auditors" heard from the staff, and after staff have an opportunity to react to what has been heard, I will get a report on what currently works and where there are opportunities to change.

In a way, it is putting my radical trust into play. I am trusting this staff, which I do not know very well, to not only tell the truth about what currently works and doesn't, but to give me the opportunity to change the organization. Not only that, but I know that a number of them (and a number of my Board members) read this blog.

It will be an interesting process, and I am both excited about the possibility and scared about the prospect. I have, over the years, learned that the collective knowledge and vision of a staff is so often correct, that I am willing to trust this group of relative strangers with a great deal of my future with this staff.

A great deal of the conversation about Library 2.0 is about members of the public (we call them "customers" here) having an ability to influence what the library does. I have to believe that empowering staff is a critical part as well. That's why I'm labelling this with "Library 2.0." A part of the reason I took this job is that the staff interview panel not only included a 'Desk Clerk' but also a Library Page. How many Library Directors have been interviewed by a group that included a Library Page? My guess is not many. At the same time, one of my meetings today was with the other public library directors in the county. It was a revelation about the role that this library plays in the County and the region. I have been underestimating that role.

Reports will follow, but probably not for a month or more.

Famous for a Day

Saturday morning's Leader-Telegram (the Eau Claire daily paper) includes a story about me and the Library's new "Big Penny Campaign."

It is slightly scary to pick up the paper and see a color photo of yourself on the front page! On the other hand, it is good for the Library.