Effect of What You Do

In the last two weeks, I have received some positive reinforcement for what I did years ago. It was nice. I am not naming names because neither of them gave me permission.

The first was someone who was in a library school class I spoke to back in my Connecticut days. I was a guest speaker (I did it many times) and talked about professional associations (ALA, CLA, NELA), about the cooperatives in the state, and what it was like to be a public library director. He now works in an academic library, but contacted me (and a number of others) to talk about some of the issues facing library administrators.

The second was someone I met when I interviewed for a job. As part of the casual conversation, I talked about how to get involved in ALA. It was fairly soon after I had served on the ALA Executive Board, and is something that I both care about, and know a little bit about. She took the advice and is now involved in several different parts of the Association.

You never know when you are in the process of "paying it forward." In both cases, they expressed their appreciation. It made for a great day!

Unintended Consequences/Emergency Preparations

I had an "A-HA!" moment recently.

I was at a mandatory training at MPOW where we were going over the procedures for evacuating the building. Always important to do this, and October is Fire Safety Month (or something like that) when a lot of fire drills take place.

One of the unintended consequences of loosing staff, is that there are fewer people in the building, and there may be parts of the building which used to have staff present, but no longer do. That happened at MPOW, so some of the evacuation plans have now been tweaked to make sure that we do get everyone safely out of the building.

Impacts of budget cuts

Seven years ago, at the behest of the Connecticut State Library, the four existing multi-type library organizations folded into one. I had some misgivings, but it actually has worked pretty well. I suspect that some miss the personal touch from a more local organization. [In the interest of full disclosure, I had been the executive director of one of those four networks until I left to return to being a public library director.]

Massachusetts is in the process of following this model. I will note, that the geography and the geo-politics of Massachusetts are very different than Connecticut. I grew up there. Massachusetts is very much more spread out than Connecticut. After all, you can drive diagonally across CT in a few hours, and in MA, the distance from the New York border to Boston is more than that, and then you have "the Cape."

One of my few "publications" is an article based on a talk I gave many years ago. The article talks about successful library cooperative networks. While I was a director of one, a network I admired incredibly was the North Suburban Library System, run by the incomparable (and former ALA President) Sarah Ann Long.

I recently received an email which had this in it:

Dear NSLS Members and Colleagues,

I have sad but significant news. Due to our budget situation, NSLS will be dramatically scaling back programs and services effective May 30, 2010.

From our recent Needs Assessment Survey, we know Van Delivery service is the most important service for the majority of members. We will take all necessary steps to preserve this service intact. But most other services and programs will be dramatically reduced, eliminated, or spun off. Many NSLS staffers will be laid off. I will be one of the people leaving. We are still working out the details but quick action is needed.

As you are aware, 80% of our funding comes from an annual grant from the Illinois General Assembly distributed through Sec. of State Jesse White's office. We have not received 42% of the money owed to us for the fiscal year ending June, 30. If we continue to operate without making any service or staffing changes, our money would run out at the end of July 2010. We had hoped to receive additional funding soon, but our latest intelligence tells us that we are not likely to receive any state payments until November 2010 at the earliest. We are told this is not a temporary problem. Rather, there is a trend in Illinois to continue to delay state payments, not just to library systems. This means that cash flow is going to be a continuing and growing problem for NSLS, as well as many other state funded agencies and organizations. Under these conditions, we cannot continue to offer our members the high level of service they expect and deserve.

As you can imagine, this was a very difficult decision to make. But I would not be fulfilling my responsibility as NSLS Executive Director or the System’s responsibility to our members as a whole if we did not take serious and immediate action to help preserve what is left of our budget.

To remind you how we got here, Illinois library systems have not had a budget increase in 20 years. On top of this flat funding, last August, we received a 16 ½% budget cut. Since we had just received our final payment from the previous fiscal year, we were already working under a deficit but at that time we did not recognize that cash flow would become more disabling than flat funding and budget reductions. Despite this bleak situation, we were determined to fight to ensure that systems did not receive any additional cuts. We initiated two statewide campaigns, one targeted at legislators and the other targeted at Governor Quinn and Comptroller Hynes. More recently, we initiated a campaign to inspire public library boards to contact Secretary of State, Jesse White, to ask for the release of the Live and Learn funds for regional library systems. I have also contacted our area legislators personally to see if they could do anything to help us. We achieved some results from these efforts, but it wasn’t enough.

I am confident that we have done everything possible to turn this situation around. Unfortunately, we have run out of options. Other Illinois library systems are on different time lines as to when they will run out of money, but they are also in trouble.

Many thanks to all who have participated in our campaigns, contacted legislators or offered help or solace during this crisis. I am very grateful for your support. We will keep you posted regarding the details of this change as well as additional changes to System services and staffing

Yours faithfully,
Sarah

It distresses me incredibly to get news like this.

Of all governmental agencies, libraries are the most cooperative across taxing district borders. We share a communicate with each other better than any other governmental unit! Each state has its own culture of how that cooperation happens. For most states, the cooperation between libraries should be a model of how other governmental units can cooperate to provide better service to taxpayers.

When a stellar example of cooperative service like NSLS is forced to curtail service in a time of increasing need, I am outraged!

I wish I knew that I could change/affect the decision.

Even more, I mourn the departure (however temporary) of a library leader like Sarah.

When she ran for ALA President, I did not know her well. Since then I have come to know, respect, like\ (and yeah, even love) her for the leadership she provides.

This is truly a sad day.

"Library Rockstars" and the "Great/Radical Middle"

Walt Crawford does the wonderful Cites and Insights on a regular basis (monthly with occasional special additional issues).

Among the things I appreciate about Cites and Insights is that Walt actually cares about how it looks on the page. This past year he changed typefaces, and in various places there were discussions about that. I found when I started a job which including newsletter production, that I care about how things look on a page. The Adobe PDF format is great for that, because the creator gets to really determine how it will look, and the user can't change it.

Before ALA Midwinter 2010, Walt produced a special issue ("Cites ON a Plane 2010"). I am sad that he will be taking it down, now that Midwinter is over, but do understand why. After all, it is a collection of items which have previously appeared in Cites and Insights. However, either I missed some of the issues (and I generally print out each issue and share it with colleagues), or I am now reading and reacting to them through a different lens. One of my insights in this compilation is how true Walt is to his word when he calls himself (in Walt at Random) "The library voice of the radical middle."

The "rockstar" article is from the June 2008 issue (pp. 13 - 20) [it is in html here].

Indeed, I started composing this before getting to the end of the Cites on a Plane issue, and find that the "On the Middle" article is equally engaging. Appropriately enough, this article is from the December 2007 issue (pp. 16-22) [it is in html here]. (Isn't December usually a time for reflecting back on the year? This article certainly has some cogent reflections which are still true two years later.)

Leadership and Candor

I picked up on a tweet from Amy Harmon who said: "We can handle the truth even if its bad. ... What our profession needs: a culture of candor." It had a link to this article from the Harvard Business Review.

There is a section towards the end which jumped out at me:

Leaders are far likelier to make mistakes when they act on too little information than when they wait to learn more. But Blake and Mouton went deeper, demonstrating that the pilots’ habitual style of interacting with their crews determined whether crew members would provide them with essential information during an in-air crisis. The pilots who’d made the right choices routinely had open exchanges with their crew members. The study also showed that crew members who had regularly worked with the “decisive” pilots were unwilling to intervene—even when they had information that might save the plane.

Wow...that is huge. I am pleased that I can say that my "boss," the State Librarian, here has been candid about the legislative issues related to funding for libraries in Louisiana. When I was a boss, I tried to act that way. I am now being reminded that it is easier to work for someone who acts that way, even when the news is bad.

Fortunately for libraries in Louisiana, while there have been some funding reductions, the State Library is not laying off any staff, and the other cuts are much less drastic than they are in many states (Ohio, California, and Connecticut come to my mind.)

Miscellaneous Library Links & comments

I haven't posted library stuff in a bit. With my new work schedule, I get up before dawn and drive through the dawn (actually, these days, dawn happens while I am still getting ready) to Baton Rouge, hitting the heavy in-bound traffic around 7:30. After a day at work (no blogging there, please) , I hit the road, and the traffic, at about 4:30. If I am lucky, I get back home by 6:15 or so. Then it is dinner and catching up, and bed fairly early -- 9 pm most nights. So, hence the lacunae.

I have been adding tabs to my Firefox windows both at home and work. It is time to clean them up in a miscellaneous post.

Four new search engines to keep an eye on.

ARRA funds for libraries This is an interesting post from Jeff Scott which focuses more on broadband funding in the Recovery Act. He has done some good work here.

Libraries need more Internet speed. Related to the link above, here is the ALA press release about the need for more speed.

Smartphones versus handsets. This is an interesting article on sales trends. I have a feeling reading articles like this that I am not making full use of what is available on my current device (which I HATE!)

Books born digital. Interesting LJ article about trends in book publishing and the trends that librarians need to follow.

Kindle2 and speech software. This is an interesting take on the Kindle debate and the Authors Guild' successful push to get Amazon to disable the speech abilities of the Kindle. If you know someone who is blind, but computer proficient you may well wonder, as I do, what the big deal is. Speech software is nowhere near the same as a book read by a person. (And since I am now a huge listener, I do know!)

For fun. This is from a local public library blog which has a link to a web site which has a video for each of the elements in the periodic table. I love it!

Library leadership and changes. Stephen Abram of Sirsi/Dynix picked this up on his travels. It is a great article which I suggest you click through and save the PDF. Stephen does a great job. The seven imperatives of library leadership may yet get a full post from me.

In library news:

Stupid Library Tricks. This is a great story of bureaucracy run amok! [Thanks again, Stephen.]

Bad news about salaries. I know that library administrators sometimes take a beating on salaries. This LJ article notes both the flatness of the library organization in Seattle, and our cost effectiveness compared with other departments.

The Law of Unintended Consequences, Oprah and KFC. My friend Jessamyn does a great summary here. Last Saturday (May 16, ten days after Jessamyn wrote), I was in a local KFC where they were STILL handing out rain checks for the grilled chicken. (I am glad I wasn't planning on eating grilled chicken!)

Twitter and Libraries. There is a great, link-rich post about how to effectively use Twitter.

Extreme Customer Service. Great article by David Lee King about a library that I knew fairly well in Connecticut. I haven't been there in a number of years, but the philosophy of extreme customer service is one that Library Director Louise Berry has espoused for many years.

Google Books Settlement. I forget where I picked up this link, and I have read a some about the settlement. This is an interesting article about Internet Archive and its view.

That's the wrap-up for now. [And I started this post two days ago, and it took until today to get it up.]

Cutting Hours or Cutting Materials

On PUBLIB today, there was a post which I am putting below. My comments will follow, and I'll post the link to my comments to PUBLIB. Of course, any and all are free to comment. Because I did not ask permission, I am not posting the name of the organization wrestling with this issue.

Hello out there,

I'm a new subscriber to the list, having just joined to post this question (although I was a subscriber many years ago). In these tough economic times, we're having to make some difficult choices. We are trying to find any data, anecdotal or otherwise, to support or refute a decision one way or another. We have been searching the literature but not doing too well - it's sort of a tough concept to put into search terms, due both to such common words and the many synonyms of them that appear in the journals.

Put briefly, is it better to cut hours/days of operation or acquisitions?

Or, the way it was phrased to us to look into:

XXX Library has been asked to consider cutting deeply into its Library Materials budget in order to fill personnel vacancies, which might allow some library branches to expand public hours. If you cut deeply into your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor statistics decrease? By maintaining or increasing public hours, despite cutting your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor
statistics increase?

Many thanks for any information you can share.

What is presented here is the proverbial rock and hard place question. Or when I was asked once at a City Council budget hearing "Which branch would you close?" I answered, "That is like asking me which is my favorite child, and I have three!"

There is no right answer!

When I first worked at the Bridgeport Public Library I was told that one of the reasons why that library had such a great collection was that during the Depression, the Library paid its workers with "scrip" which was honored at local stores to save its cash to purchase library materials. Even in the 1980's the result of the depth of the collection was evident.

I can say that as a business librarian, it really impressed me to walk into the [closed] stacks and see every single Moody's Manual ever published. And there are many more examples.

Unfortunately, in the 1990s, the City hit very bad financial times, and cut both staff and acquisitions, that began a death spiral for the reputation of the library. By the time I returned as City Librarian in 2000, my predecessor had done a yeoman's job of increasing both, but neither adequately to meet the needs of a city with so many economically disadvantaged. In my tenure, there was a constant battle to increase both, with only collection funds being increased more than the cost of living. We even reduced hours modestly once.

In the position I just left, the discussion is beginning for the Fiscal Year (January - December) 2009 budget. There will be some tough choices. In the last budget cutting cycle, that library was able to save collection resources by "being lucky" and having several long-term employees retire.

My ALA colleague (and dare I call him: friend?), Jim Casey, frequently argues on PUBLIB that cutting Sunday hours is punishing the public. And while I agree, I would also note that it is the very same public which pressures elected officials to reduce taxes, in nominal dollars, without thinking about the impact in real dollars or in services. The City of Eau Claire (Wisconsin), has used all possible options, and now is facing the prospect that the funding base (given the state-imposed "levy limits") will only support a city operation which is 2/3 the size of the current one. What will go?

I do not know the answer. I do know that cutting hours can send a strong message to the public, and *may* rally support (not will). As I told the staff at my last staff meeting, it is not a choice I like making, even if it sometimes in my job to make that choice!

Leadership Eau Claire and Humor

Today was the April day for Leadership Eau Claire. It was "Media Day." We visited the local newspaper plant, a local TV station, one of the local radio station groups, and heard from media experts at UWEC. Going from one to another, we went by school bus. To entertain us on the bus, one of the members of the class entertained us with his accordion. Here is a clip.




[Added 5/2/2008]

Look for photos on Flickr soon! [Done!!]

A Loss -- Personal and Professional

I have spent part of the last 24 hours or so reeling from the news which I received from a couple of my Connecticut friends/colleagues. The Business Manager for the Connecticut Library Consortium died on Sunday. Prior to that she was at the Southern Connecticut Library Council where I worked from 1995 - 2000. Her name was Jan Gluz. I know that when I started there, she and the rest of the staff were very nervous. Among other things, it was the first time that a man had worked there. Since my Connecticut library experience had all been in a different part of the state, I was also an unknown quantity.

The note which went out on the Connecticut lists (and which Executive Director Chris Bradley kindly sent to me) included some wonderful stories and comments about Jan, I am going to past Chris' words, and then add some of my own:

Jan was someone on whom so many of us in Connecticut's libraryland knew we could always depend. Jan started at the old film co-op in Seymour. … Then there came (and went!) the CLSUs, and Jan went to Hamden for two decades with SCLC, which is where I suspect she developed her signature phrase, "I'll give it a shot!" When CLC appeared from the merger of the CLSUs, Jan gave the job of office manager/bookkeeper a really good shot.

In Jan's office at CLC in Middletown sits a Mac, a PC, and a typewriter, and Jan used them all. (Although she never refused to give any new technology a shot, Jan knew enough not to go unarmed into the night!) She did betray her conservative Midwestern roots by voting Democratic, but Jan was always an old-school money manager, keeping the books and the money safe from the big-spenders like yours truly. People who did business with SCLC and CLC during the Jan years always got paid on time, could always count on their paperwork being correct, and had their inquiries answered not only competently and completely, but friendly-like.

Jan had edited SCLC's newsletter for years, and so quality control for CONNtext also fell to her.

It is the last which became part of Jan's and my enduring relationship. When I started at SCLC, I was scared to death about having to create (almost from scratch) a monthly newsletter. I doubted my writing skills, and had never used anything other than a word processing program to "lay out" a newsletter. Jan was "a doll" in getting me started. In addition, I had to transition from a DOS-based PC to a Mac! What fun we had over the five years of doing the newsletter, including two complete re-designs. We "fought" over commas and other punctuation marks, we discussed grammar at great length, we searched together for appropriate graphics and dingbats, and we talked about type size and fonts. In short, we worked really hard together on the newsletter, and had fun doing it. Jan was probably the best editor I have ever had, as well. She often had me re-write for clarity. I am an incredibly better writer for having had her edit me for five years.

Jan is one of the people who remind me why I do not like to use the term "professional" to designate librarians with degrees. Jan did not have an MLS. However, she was always the consummate professional. She treated members and vendors with equal charm. She made sure that the organization was on firm financial grounds and that the reports balanced to the penny! She was a true professional in every single thing that she did.

When I left, I know there was true sadness, and we saw each other frequently at library related events during the remainder of my time in Connecticut.

There is an obituary and information on the memorial service, which I cannot attend, alas. You can rest assured that on Saturday morning, she will be in my thoughts and prayers.

More on being a professional

Brian Matthews (The Ubiquitous Librarian) had a great post back in early January entitled: Be like Emeril: my response to Steven Bell.

It is so well written I can only say: READ IT!

I am a huge Emeril Lagasse fan, although I do not currently watch the show as much as I used to, it is on at a different time here than it was in the East. But Brian is correct about how the enthusiasm and charisma of Emeril brought The Food Network alive for many people. He set the stage in the same way that Julia Child did years and years ago on public television.

Why am I a Librarian

Well, Walt Crawford did not tag me, but I am going to take up both parts of his challenge. I will answer the question, and also, like my semi-hero Walt, not "tag" anyone. I am again behind in reading my feeds, but so far I have read the posts from Iris, Rikhei, and Steve Lawson.

My answer is short: Miss (Betty) Osborn and Mrs. Carson.

As a child I spent a lot of time at the library and reading. Miss Osborn was the children's librarian, and took an interest in me. She later became the Library Director, and hired me as a page/shelver. The longer I was there, the more responsibilities she gave me. She talked about professional association activities and was active in the New England Library Association. She went to the (now legendary) annual conferences at Wentworth-by-the-Sea.

Mrs. Carson was my supervisor at my financial aid provided job in the library at Brown. I started in the Biological Sciences Library which, in the December of my freshman year moved into a new building with the Physical Sciences Library -- the now Sciences Library. I guess because I was willing to work hard and work more, I got to be part of the team which helped get all the books on the right floors. (We were integrating the collections.)

As I stuck it out over the years, I was given more responsibility. By the end of my four years, I was often in charge of the service desks for the last couple of hours of operation. All my supervisors encouraged me. Mrs. Carson wrote a letter of recommendation when I was applying to schools and for the NELA scholarship (which I did *not* get). I had the opportunity a couple of times to go back and thank her for her support.

I started grad school one week to the day after my graduation from college. From there on it has been a straight shot. Although there were times when I thought about, and even explored, other options. But none of them felt as "right" as librarianship.

Once working in libraries, I knew I wanted to become a Library Director. I wondered why some decisions were made the way they were. I wanted to have some of that control. I also wanted to share why things are the way they are with my staff. So, back in 1985 when I had the opportunity, I jumped and became a director. It was a small enough library that during my tenure there I worked the circ desk to pitch in, and worked regular shifts on the reference desk.

I left that position and took one running a multi-type library organization. It is what has taken me away from direct public service, but that was an incredible learning experience about other types of libraries, and gave me the opportunity (and push) to become involved in professional associations. Since then, I have been the director of large enough libraries that I do not work the desk. Let's face it, while I still have the customer service skills, I no longer have the technical skills, and don't have the time to learn them.

I love being a director. It fits my personality and style. I get to be out in the community talking about the library and what we can do. I do advocacy on a daily basis, and love it. I cannot picture myself doing anything else -- except maybe teaching how to do this.

[Note: I could not get Walt's blog to come up...I got the address for the hot link from the cached version in Yahoo!]

ALA Presidential Candidate and Grassroots Advocacy

My friend Camila Alire is running for ALA President. (I know I posted about this here.)

Camila has been thinking about the issue of school libraries and librarians with the situation in Washington State uppermost in her mind. She recently posted some of her thoughts about the grassroots advocacy on her blog. However, they are important enough that I am going to (with her permission) reprint them here.

I use the term grassroots particularly when I refer to library advocacy. But, I never knew the origin of the term. I assumed, correctly, that it had to something to do with grass and its roots. That was about all the assumptions I could make. So, I went online to find more about the origins of the term. Voila, I found what I was looking for. On Answers.com, grassroots is described as getting beneath the grass and its soil to the roots which are vital in keeping the grass alive, thriving, and green.

This made perfectly good sense to me and fits into the whole concept of grassroots library advocacy. The grassroots effort goes beyond our organized political system. It starts back home. I call it back home advocacy. Case in point is the growing grassroots movement in Spokane, Washington, where three mothers refused to accept the cutting of certified school librarians from the school libraries in the Spokane school district due to budget cuts.

These three moms started the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology – WSLit (www.fundourfuturewashington.org ) They are the roots embedded in the soil of their children’s educational success. This group of women, joined by others, have lobbied their state legislators for the introduction of Senate Bill 6380 (House Bill 2773) which would provide Washington school districts with the funding for certified school librarians based on the size of the school districts as one of the components of legislation. Sound familiar? This is somewhat similar to the SKILLS Act that we in ALA have been lobbying for with our U.S. Congress. (The two bills also include allocating $12 per student for school library materials budget.)

This past Friday, the Coalition held a summit – the Washington School Library Media Program Summit – and rally in Olympia, Washington’s state capitol. ALA was well-represented by President Loriene Roy, AASL President, Sara Johns, and Julie Walker, AASL Executive Director, Julie Walker. The event was to garner more support for their grassroots efforts on behalf of school libraries.

As an ALA presidential candidate, I maintain that grassroots library advocacy goes hand-in-hand with back home advocacy. My back home advocacy has two purposes. The first is to engage library supporters at the grassroots level to raise the awareness level of the value of libraries and library employees. These roots include parents, patrons, trustees, students, faculty, frontline librarians/library staff, and library administrators. The second purpose is to implement a nationwide Back Home Advocacy Day at the local level in August when both our state and federal legislators are “back home” in their legislative districts.

Let the Washington Coalition’s roots spread to other states to get organized in efforts to put certified school librarians back in school libraries and to fund school library materials budgets more responsibly. As your ALA president, I would not only support the spreading of the roots for support of school libraries but I would also use this grassroots effort as an excellent model for organizing and implementing a systematic Back Home Advocacy Day.

Leadership

I have been posting infrequently lately (and no, I am also not the Annoyed Librarian), and was way behind on my blog reading. However, a quiet weekend has allowed me to get completely caught up on my Bloglines reading.

There were two posts by Helen Blowers which caught my eye and got me thinking. I am going to talk about them in the reverse order in which she posted them.

The first was about her motto on leadership. It is a great motto! Now, I know that at least one of my readers will not be able to see the photo with the handwritten note, so here it is transcribed:

To be a Leader: A Leader brings out the best in themselves by bringing out the best in others. [11-90]

For me, it is a fundamental truth in leadership.

The other post is about Jack Welch. It links to a page on the Stanford Graduate School of Business web site which quotes Jack from a visit there. The quote is a good one, and does have a lot to say about leadership. It got me to wondering about how much he really believes it.

I lived in Fairfield County Connecticut when Jack was the CEO of General Electric. GE's corporate headquarters are in the town of Fairfield, and if you drive the Merritt Parkway (which I did daily for almost a decade), you drive right past it. My first recollection of hearing about Jack was as "Neutron Jack Welch -- he leaves the building standing, but most of the employees are gone." Indeed, to check my memory, I went surfing and found this quote (yes, it is from Wikipedia) which matches my recollection:

During the early 1980s he was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (in reference to the neutron bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. In Jack: Straight From The Gut, Welch states that GE had 411,000 employees at the end of 1980, and 299,000 at the end of 1985. Of the 112,000 who left the payroll, 37,000 were in sold businesses, and 81,000 were reduced in continuing businesses.

It also notes:

Welch has also received criticism over the years for his lack of compassion for the middle class and working class. Welch has publicly stated that he is not concerned with the discrepancy between the salaries of top-paid CEOs and those of average workers.

I guess I worry that a true (good/moral) leader is going to show many of the qualities which Helene points to, but should also care about those s/he leads. That is the sign of an authentic leader.

Bad News from Boston

The latest edition of American Libraries Direct included what I consider bad news. Bernie Margolis, the President of the Boston Public Library [i.e. the library director there], is not having his contract renewed. On November 4, Boston.com (the online version of the Boston Globe) reported that the Board agenda included a discussion of not renewing his contract when it expires on June 30, 2008. Today's issue reports that one of the issues is about support for the branches.

While my current library has only one location, I have had experience with branches. One thing that annoys me about the article is the constant reference to the "main branch." That is an oxymoron! Either it is the "main" or "headquarters" or it is a "branch."

A key concept that people like the mayor of Boston clearly do not understand is that the health of a system is dependent on the main/headquarters location. While there are a few library systems without a "main" branch (Baltimore County comes to mind), for the vast majority, "main" is where the administration is, where technical services is located, where the historical archives, strongest and deepest collection, and most talented reference staff. If you do not support the central location, then the branches whither.

One analogy which occurred to me as I was stewing over this is to use that of the body. Part of what Bernie did with Boston was to do open heart surgery and made the Copley Square main library back into the key library it needs to be. What the mayor seems to want to do is to do major surgery on the arms and legs and leave the heart to disintegrate. (Yes, I may be over the top in the analogy, but I really believe that the mayor and library board do not understand this important relationship.

To me, it is sad because Bernie is such an articulate and thoughtful library leader. I know that he will land on his feet somewhere else. I have had a similar experience in the past and wound up in a much better place as a result.

What exactly does "Library 2.0" mean?

My friend Karen Schneider posted a comment on my recent ramblings on this topic. In it she says "I've commented on my blog, but basically I've concluded, well, you're wrong and I'm right. ;-)" Well, I went off to look at what she said, because Karen is not only a friend, but a great writer, and often makes me think enough to sometimes change my mind.

First, let me note that she only really comments on the second half of my post, the part about the Annoyed Librarian. I posted to her blog that I think we actually agree. Her comments about the "us/them" language are very compelling, and is a perspective about which I had not thought. She is correct in that using that kind of inflammatory language sets up the kind of false dichotomy that makes it harder to build any kind of team.

She also includes a great quote from a mutual friend, Sara Weissman [Sara and Karen are the co-moderators of the long running PUBLIB electronic discussion list]:

If you want an enterprise-wide initiative, if you want everyone to be involved, at some point, as leader, you have to accept a certain bumpy, uneven quality of work and just lead them through it to comfort and consistency.

I sure have thought about Sara's words, and even acted in that way at times without having had the ability to put the thought into words.

I still maintain, that while some focus the Library 2.0 discussion on "only" the technology aspects, libraries that are genuinely "2.0" libraries will address all of the customer service/user-centered issues. That is among the places where I think that Karen and I agree.

Giving up -- No, not that way

One of the non-library specific blogs I read is a Wisconsin-based blog I picked up on before I even moved here. Can't tell you where or when, because I don't remember. I just added it to my Bloglines account. The blog is: 800-CEO-READ.

Monday's post is great and is called "Ending." It quotes that wonderful book Up the Organization by Robert Townsend which was originally published in 1970, and has been recently re-published.

Here is the key quote they excerpted which could apply to almost every library, government, or non-profit organization:

It's about eleven times as easy to start something as it is to stop something. But ideas are good for a limited time--but not forever.

If only we all could learn to LIVE this rule, not just we who are administrators, but our customers (that's what we call them in Eau Claire), or users, or patrons. There *always* seems to be someone (and it is often only ONE) who objects to an organization stopping doing something that is no longer needed or no longer part of the core mission.

A New Adventure

I'm in a new city, and there is a lot to learn. Fortunately I was accepted into the Chamber of Commerce' program Leadership Eau Claire. I expect that it is similar to the program in Bridgeport called Leadership Greater Bridgeport, and the Eau Claire experience comes with high recommendations from those who have participated in the past.

The end of this month will see the two day retreat. Then it will be once a month through the fall, winter, and spring. I expect to get a lot out of the experience, and to learn a great deal more about my new hometown.

ALA's Call for Committee Volunteers

Have you ever wanted to serve on an ALA Committee? Well, now is the time to get your name in for committee appointments which begin after ALA Annual in Anaheim. Most member are appointments for two years, and chairs are appointed for one year as chair (and may or may not already be members of that committee).

So....what committees are included? Well ALA has a page listing all the association-wide committees. There are two kinds of committees: Council and Association. The only difference is who decides. The Committee on Committees (elected by Council from its membership) appoints to the Council committees. The Committee on Appointments appoints the other committees. The Committee on Appointments is made up of the President-Elect of each division. You can fill out one form for both committees at once, and it is now an interactive form. Here is the text of the email which has begun to make the rounds:

ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig is seeking applications and nominations for appointments to 2008-2009 ALA and Council committees.

He will fill slots on the following committees: Accreditation; American Libraries Advisory; Awards; Budget Analysis and Review; Chapter Relations; Conference; Constitution and Bylaws; Council Orientation; Diversity; Education; Election; Human Resource Development and Recruitment Advisory; Information Technology Policy Advisory; Intellectual Freedom; International Relations; Legislation; Literacy; Literacy and Outreach Services Advisory; Membership; Membership Meetings; Nominating (Deadline for Nominating Committee applications is September 1, 2007); Organization; Orientation, Training, and Leadership Development; Policy Monitoring (current Council members only); Professional Ethics; Public and Cultural Programs Advisory; Public Awareness; Publishing; Research and Statistics; Resolutions; Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds; Scholarships and Study Grants; Status of Women in Librarianship; Website Advisory; ALA-Children's Book Council (Joint); ALA-Association of American Publishers (Joint) and ALA-Society of American Archivists-American Association of Museums (Joint). Committee charges can be found in the ALA Handbook of Organization.

All applicants must complete and submit the electronic 2008-2009 ALA Committee Volunteer Form. The form is available on the ALA web site. The deadline for submission of committee volunteer applications and nominations is Monday, December 3, 2007, which the exception of the Nominating Committee, with is September 1, 2007.

Geographical location, type of library, gender, ethnicity, previous committee work (not necessarily with ALA), ALA and related experience, and other factors are considered when the committee slates are compiled in order to ensure broad representation and diversity on all committees. The ALA Committee on Committees and Committee on Appointments will assist ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig in making appointments. Committee appointees will receive appointment letters after the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Appointees will begin their committee service after the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

Questions concerning appointments can be directed to ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig at jrettig@richmond.edu or Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Council Secretariat, at lgregory@ala.org

Go for it. If you don't ask, you don't get!