Another Luminary Leader Passes

July 7, 2009 at 3:59 pm (ethics, leadership, news, personal, philosophizing, social justice)

A colleague passed the word that E. J. Josey had left us, and everything else I was going to say seems a little insignificant.

That’s normal, I think. We pause for a moment out of respect for somebody who accomplished a great deal for the library profession. Please note that words used to describe Dr. Josey and his work include:

disrupted
noisily
activist
militant
challenged
angry

Those are words that have negative connotations, but the fact of the matter is, it’s how they’re applied that counts. Dr. Josey wasn’t angry, for example, for the sake of being angry, or to hurt anyone. He was angry about injustice, and he took his anger and used it to further the cause of what he felt was right. That’s what made him a leader.

Leaders do things. At the ALA level, they write resolutions and start roundtables. At other levels, they teach, or they manage, or staff the refdesk, or create budgets. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they speak, and when they do speak, it is both loudly and with passion. They aren’t afraid to make waves, and they certainly don’t care about popularity contests.

The kicker is, doing is hard. Talking is easy, and complaining is the subset of talking that’s easiest of all (right next to gossiping and backbiting). What kind of librarian do you want to be? The kind who complains a lot, and talks smack on other librarians? Or the kind who does things?

Rest in peace, Dr. Josey, and thank you for everything, from the written body of your work to the example you left behind.

Donations to The E.J. Josey Foundation for Justice and Peace can be sent to 526 West Second Street, Washington, NC 27889. Please consider making a contribution, if you can.

When next we speak, I’ll be writing from ALA, so it’s anyone’s guess what will capture my fancy, though I suspect it will be very EL-heavy.

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Another 23 Things ‘N @ Interlude

July 2, 2009 at 11:58 am (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, innovation, professional development)

This is too good not to share – this week the 23 Things ‘N @ crew is studying YouTube and Flickr. Once again, folks went above and beyond, and here’s the empirical proof: another summer reading video, this time from the Community Library of Allegheny Valley, Harrison:

Good Grieg!

Have a safe and happy Fourth, everyone. I’ll try to get back on track next week, before we launch once more into the ALA Chronicles…

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June Presentation I: Eleventh Stack

June 30, 2009 at 4:53 pm (blogging, philosophizing, presentations, professional development)

Part of the ongoing staff training at CLP consists of peer-to-peer info sessions in which various people give short talks on their areas of expertise, current projects, etc. I was asked to give one of these last Friday, on the Eleventh Stack project, and I was happy to do so. Here are my slides:

The bulk of the presentation was devoted to me tinkering around under the WordPress hood and showing people exactly how we write, post, and keep stats. However, the slides give more information about points I’ve been making since the beginning of this process, namely:

  • A lot of old-school planning went into this process, and HAS to, for such an endeavor to succeed.  This includes reading library research, and continuing to read it.
  • Everything has to go back to the library’s strategic plan, or some other supporting document.  You can’t have shiny for shiny’s sake.
  • The fact that this project does not “belong” to one department, and is not overseen by a manager, gives the team a greater sense of both ownership and accountability.

When I think about the blog’s future, I just keep getting more excited.  Why?

  • Even though our user stats are slightly down for summertime, we still have more than twice as many visits for May and June than we did this time last year.
  • We’ve just added two new writers to the regular rotation, which will increase diversity of appeal.
  • The Facebook possibilities are staggering.  Already we get more comments on the Facebook stream than we do on the actual page, and that’s just me streaming it into my private account.
  • Budgets being what they are, we have a real opportunity to do some grass-roots advocacy.  Congruent with the library’s message, of course.

If somebody were to ask me what I felt my greatest accomplishment as a librarian has been thus far, I’d have to say “organizing this project.”  Every time I log in to check stats and do maintenance, I’m humbled by what a team can create when you set up the proper conditions.  I didn’t want us to just have a blog–I wanted us to have a great blog, and I think we do.

I am, of course, more than a touch biased.  Hence the following poll, in which I hope you’ll participate.  Why do you read Eleventh Stack?

I want to leave this poll up for a while, to make sure I get adequate feedback.   Feel free to share this entry with those who might be interested.

When I return, I’ll talk about the other presentation I gave last Friday.  Yes, they had me back at the library school.  Yes, I was glad to go.  And yes, I plan to be more than a touch philosophical about it.

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Reading 2666

June 26, 2009 at 3:01 pm (personal, philosophizing, reviews, social justice, traditional library services, wikis)

If reading is like dating–and I rather think it is–then there are books you date casually, and books you marry.

Reader, I married 2666. We were only together for 9 1/2 weeks, but it was worth it, and I will never be the same.

I have to confess, though, I might not have picked up the book so soon if if fate hadn’t intervened. My reading list is very long, and I am still working on titles I jotted down in 2006. Very rarely do I “jump” titles, but after I overheard someone in a coffeeshop brag that he could skip the novel because he’d read the Wikipedia entry, I figured a jump was justified.

Clearly, I need to stop hanging out in coffeeshops! Bad for the literary heart.

The Wikipedia entry isn’t bad, for what it’s worth. But it’s certainly not the same as making the committment to reading the novel. Wikipedia will tell you what happened; the novel will show you. Wikipedia will explain who the major characters are, and what their signifcance is. The novel will gradually reveal these things to you, in a slow, sensual fashion, as if unwinding seven veils. Wikipedia will explain the relationship between “The Part About the Critics” and “The Part About Archimboldi”; The novel will unfurl, like a rose, so slowly that you almost can’t stand it, and by the time you get to the last 100 pages, you’ll be reading at breakneck speed to see how it could possibly end in a satisfactory manner.

This is not to say that it was an easy read. Wikipedia summarizes the violent aspects of the novel, but there’s a difference between being told something is violent and watching said violence play out. There were times I had to put the book aside and pick up a fluffy vampire novel, or cheerful romance, just for balance (a colleague reported a similar experience – he had to retreat into graphic novels for a bit while reading). Anyone who cares about the status of women in our world today will be moved by the plight of the women of Santa Teresa, literary stand-ins for the as-yet unsolved victims of the Ciudad Juarez serial killer(s?). Death after death after death, until the reader can barely stand it – a perfect literary representation of the sort of real-life violence that we often choose not to see, because our hearts cannot bear it. Likewise with the mesmerizingly-horrible scene in a diner, where a group of police officers crack joke after offensive joke about women. As you read, you can hardly believe what you’re reading. The text is visceral – it hurts. And yet, doesn’t that happen, somewhere, every day in America, and around the world?

What would happen to our world, I wonder, if there were no more novels to serve as mirrors and critics of the human condition? Could Wikipedia ever evoke our sympathies the way an author can? Somehow, I doubt it.

Be that as it may, you may not be inclined to engage with the darker aspects of human nature. Not every book is for every reader, after all, and the whole point of “the user experience” is that everybody reserves the right to design her/his own. But if you are willing to dance with dark themes, to luxuriate in long, sprawling sentences and langorous prose, to walk down a complicated, twisting road to discover who the mysterious Archimboldi is, and why he has come to Santa Teresa, well…you are in for a brain-bending treat, dear reader.

I racked up a dollar in overdue fines while reading 2666; it seemed a small price to pay for the expansion of my mind and the profound stirring of my soul.

So, there’s that.

My resolution not to give any more presentations this year crumbled in the face of invitations (and a request from management). Next week, I’ll be back with summaries and slides.

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Another Advocacy Interlude (This Time, It’s Personal)

June 23, 2009 at 4:34 pm (personal, philosophizing)

We’ll get to Bolano, I promise. But first, an advoacy update.

Yesterday morning, my library held a press conference on the front steps to announce the next phase of its advocacy efforts. In no uncertain terms, the reports and materials you’ll find in Sustaining Our Future make it pretty clear: the library system cannot continue providing the level of services it does without more community support.

As you might imagine, this makes me sad, both for our patrons, and for the staff. At the same time, it’s a relief to finally have it out in the open. Not being able to talk about it was starting to get to me, because you know I want to start filming a video gallery of library advocacy PSAs with those cunning little Flip cameras you can borrow from IT. Nothing like a crisis to bring out one’s inner Scorcese.

I joke, but it’s dark humor. The plus to all of this is that I really do believe there’s an opportunity in every crisis. So far my job has been all about trying new things and taking the library in new directions. If I can do that in a way that helps the organization achieve its advocacy goals, so much the better.

I’d also like to express solidarity to my fellow professionals in the great state next door, who are also facing appalling budget cuts. Their advocacy effort, Save Ohio Libraries, is an excellent example of using web 2.0 tools to get the word out and marshall support for library service.

I write about this as often as I do because libraries save lives. I know. Mine was one of them. That is, and is not, hyperbole. I grew up in Youngstown Ohio, which some of you may have heard of. If it hadn’t been for the staff, services, and materials available at the Campbell Branch of The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, I would not be the fine, upstanding individual who blogs for you today.

So, yeah. It’s more than a little bit personal. Somewhere in Pittsburgh, in Youngstown, in St. Louis, in Gary, in East L.A., is the next August Wilson, the next Georgia O’Keeffe, the next Audre Lorde, the next Billy Collins. Libraries level the playing field, and give genius that flowers in sometimes unkind soil a fighting chance to bloom. Heaven help us as a nation if we choose to let that genius die on the vine.

I’ll be back on Friday, maybe. Until then, keep the faith.

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Summer Reading 2.0

June 19, 2009 at 4:52 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, creativity, innovation)

I couldn’t leave us on the last post’s lugubrious note – not when there are so many cool things afoot.

For example, one of our 23 Things ‘N @ participants created an awesome video to show off her library’s summer reading activities. Observe:

Hurray for Scott Township!  And trust me: you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a Frownie.

So many things I want to blog about, so little time! What I really want to write about, though, is reading 2666. I’ve finally finished it, and I have some thoughts about the process of reading it, given that it’s a 900-page unfinished novel in a Web 2.0 world.

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Irony is not good for the librarian’s blood.

June 18, 2009 at 7:56 pm (ethics, personal, philosophizing, religion)

It seems to me that if you’re stealing a book on religion, you have completely missed the point of that religion, whatever it may be. No religions of which I am aware condone stealing.

Stealing library books in tough times? Not cool. And even the irony factor inherent in stealing a spiritual book is not enough to redeem said act.

This somewhat snarky comment on ethics brought to you by a long and challenging week. I recognize that people are not always going to behave the way I’d like them to, but I do reserve the right to feel tired and sad about it.

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10 Reasons to Apply for Emerging Leaders 2010

June 15, 2009 at 5:45 pm (Emerging Leaders 2009, humor, leadership, management, personal, philosophizing, professional development)

In that very long pause between entries, I’ve been sending out Mango care packages, trying to keep up with our 23 Things ‘N @ crew, and all sorts of other librarian tasks that keep me hopping. As promised though, here is my post about why my public library peers should consider applying for the 2010 Emerging Leaders cohort. Instead of the thoughtful, inspiring essay I had hoped to pen, you get this annotated list, which mixes the serious and the frivolous.

  1. There are not nearly enough public library folk in the program!  I have some theories as to why this might be so – chief among them is the way promotions are earned in various types of libraries.  We public folk don’t have to apply for tenure, nor do we have to do all sorts of publication-immersion things to beef up our vitae.  In fact, participating in programs like this is perceived by some as a waste of time.  Thus, by default, most programs of this sort become academe-centric.  Probably unintentional, but Not Good if we’re talking about future ALA leadership – everybody should have equal voice and vote.
  2. It is good to stretch out of your comfort zone.  You might not think you’re a leader.  You might be perfectly happy where you are, doing what you do.  But if you’re not scaring yourself a little with your professional development efforts, you’re probably not reaching far enough.  Take a risk!
  3. You will learn things about yourself and your capabilities.  Being part of the 2009 EL cohort has taught me a lot, and bolstered my confidence enough that I’ve been taking some other risks in both my professional and personal life.  These risks, I might add, have paid off in spades, and life is altogether more lovely and interesting than it was 12 months ago.  Wouldn’t you like to see if the same thing happens for you?
  4. You will network like crazy and love it.  Listen to the introvert when she tells you:  spending several days with a group of passionate, ambitious librarians was like drinking a pot of coffee all at once, and I can’t wait to see them again at Annual.
  5. You will work on an interesting project.  Yes, yes, I know: you’re up to your eyeballs in work already.  Me too.  But you will have the opportunity to choose a national-level project that interests you, and work on something that could affect the world outside your neighborhood.  And that’s really, really cool.
  6. You will learn, from the inside, a little more about how ALA works.  For most of us, ALA is that great mythical winged beast up in the sky that does things and says things and publishes things, and every other year or so, we visit it.  What ALA really is, though, is an organization made up of lots of cool people trying to accomplish cool things.  You should come meet some of them and see how they roll.
  7. Pittsburgh needs to represent.  There are some mighty talented new librarians in this county, and until we can get our collective heads together and design our own local leadership training program, we need to take advantage of every opportunity we can get to learn, grow, and show the rest of library world just how much we have to bring to the table.  It’s great about Lord Stanley’s Cup and all, but there’s more to this town than sports.  It’s time we got over our inferiority complex and showed off a little.
  8. You will get to give a poster session at ALA annual 2010.  Don’t let those poster-making and presentation skills from library school go to waste!  Seriously, do you know how hard it can be sometimes to be accepted to present at the national level?  Programs like EL make it a little easier to get you and your ideas out there.
  9. You’ll get the opportunity to serve on an ALA committee.  Now now, don’t roll your eyes.  You get to CHOOSE what kind of committee work you want to do, and believe me, there’s a lot to pick from.  You might even choose to serve on the committee that plans EL, to make it even better next time around.  No matter what you’re really interested in, there’s an ALA committee that tackles it, so you’ll have the freedom to pick something that would be meaningful and fun for you.
  10. Because it’s there.  Now, granted, I’m a little biased on this one, because I’m the kind of person who would rather do a thing and regret it later than not do a thing and always wonder why.  But honestly, life is short.  If an opportunity comes your way, why not try for it?  What do you have to lose, really?  Just don’t start singing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” or I’ll have to turn this blog around without a stop for ice cream. :)

You may have some questions, which I will gladly field.  To learn more, though, you should also look at the Emerging Leaders wiki, which has information about the program, the projects, and a link to the online application. You will need two letters of recommendation, and the deadline is 7/31/09, so start thinking about who can best sing your praises….

If I get anywhere near the blog for the rest of this week, we’ll be talking about ethics – woohoo! Don’t get too excited, though – you should see my desk…

Ah well. Take care, and hopefully we’ll talk soon!

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Marketing, Advocacy, and T.S. Eliot

June 9, 2009 at 5:19 pm (creativity, databases, philosophizing, professional development)

I’m usually not scheduled for the reference desk on Tuesdays (sniffle), so I spend my time catching up on committee work and other extended projects.  Today I’d set aside some time to read the EREC binder, because if I’m going to chair a countywide committee, I want to make sure I know the history (fairly reasonable, no?).

Among many other useful things, I found a copy of Rivkah Sass’s 2002 article, Marketing the Worth of Your Library.  As I read it, it struck me how the debates in library marketing have changed very little in nine years!  We are still talking about:

  • “Library as place” vs. “24/7 access”
  • Librarians as marketers (or not)
  • Databases trumping Google
  • The true costs of “free”

The one thing that perplexes me is why some librarians are still reluctant to be marketers, given that we live and move and have our being in an age where hordes of people choose to brand themselves via blogs, Tweets, Facebook, etc.  How can you put so much delight and glee into crafting a digital presence, and still be gun-shy about marketing?

Maybe it’s the word “marketing,” which still has icky connotations for many of us.  We became librarians because we didn’t want to buy, sell or process anything, and the notion of selling democratic access to information can definitely leave a sour taste in one’s mouth.  Marketers, for many of us, are those unscrupulous folks featured in the film The Corporation, who actually studied nagging patterns in order to more effectively market to small children. And we don’t want to be identified with Those People.

 Marketing sounds so much better when we call it “advocacy,” doesn’t it?  The definition of the two words are strikingly similar,  to be sure.  A quick trip to OneLook renders the following definitions:

marketing: the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service.

advocacy: active support, especially the act of pleading or arguing for something.

Note that the main difference between the two concepts is the absence of “filthy lucre” and the presence of pleading.

I am writing with tongue in cheek, of course, because such debates amuse me more than anything else. Rather than get upset or argue about it, why not just accept and get cracking? Whether we like it or not, we are the public faces of our libraries, so we might as well take every opportunity to promote our products and services.

Maybe I just feel that way because it comes naturally to me. I don’t see how I can talk to patrons and NOT recommend an applicable database, or take the opportunity to talk about the state budget. It’s easy to advocate when you’re in love you believe in the service you’re promoting. I’m open to the possibility that I could be wrong – however, I’ve come to believe that, when it comes to differences of opinion in library world, the best position to take is T.S. Eliot’s: “Teach us to care, and not to care.” We should care enough to go to bat for our libraries, but we could probably stop caring about what the proper name for it should be. That way lies madness. Madness, I say!

I think about this stuff a lot because 1st quarter database stats were way down from last year, and that scares me. I refuse to accept the argument that goes, “Well, people Google these days, so why bother?” We should bother because the content of the subscription databases is, quite simply, better than the free web, especially when it comes to full-text journal articles. There are a million print pieces available via PA POWER’s librarian-only website, and from the vendors themselves. Now I just have to make the time to write up a million graphics requests, so they can be personalized with the library’s logo…

On a happier note, I’m told that 6 boxes of promotional materials from Mango Languages are winging their way toward me as I speak, so, huzzah for the path of least resistance! Vendors are really bending over backwards these days to make their products promotable, which makes everyone’s lives just a little bit easier.

On an extremely happy note, all those hard-core advocates who deluged their senators with e-mail, phone calls, and letters will be happy to learn that a little victory was won yesterday in the PA House Appropriations Committee meeting. I did my part not only by e-mailing my representatives, but also, with the blessing of my boss and The Other Powers That Be, inserting language on the database page that draws users’ attention to the budget situation – you can see it here (scroll down past the subject headings to “Access PA POWER Library”).

Back to my graphics requests. I may or may not get to post later this week, but if I do, I want to talk specifically about why Allegheny County’s public librarians should put their hats in the ring for the Emerging Leaders program this year.

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My Alchemical Romance (Library Career Fangirling)

June 5, 2009 at 12:54 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, databases, personal, philosophizing)

Much of this week has been occupied with matters database-related.  Next week’s 23 Things ‘N @ module is dedicated to the role of databases in a 2.0 world – it’s a little more philosophical than some of the other activities, but what I’m hoping is that it will get a good conversation rolling, countywide, about these resources, and how we purchase, use, and promote them.

I’ve also been doing the negotiation dance to get Mango Languages up and running.  One of the challenges of working in teams and across departments is that you want to make sure all solutions are win-win, and that, if somebody has to “lose,” it shouldn’t be your patrons.  I have achieved my objectives, and Mango will go live countywide on Monday.  I am extremely grateful to everybody I get to work with for making this happen, and hope they’ll enjoy learning new languages, too.  I’m planning to start, myself, with Chinese, so that I can watch Firefly without subtitles. :)

So, yes, it’s been hectic this week.  However, the good feeling I get when I manage to accomplish objectives that will make our patrons happy is priceless, and worth any stress/drama it took to get there.  I’m literally sitting here, grinning like an idiot, because in how many professions do you get to work on things that are for the public good, and make people happy?   That’s really important to me as a librarian, and it’s one of the things that sustains me during the current tough economic times (the company and help of my sterling peers is another, of course).

In other words, being a librarian still knocks me out, all the darned time, no matter what.  I get this good feeling in my heart, like it’s growing and expanding, when a plan comes together.  I’m pretty sure I can’t be the only person in the profession who feels like that, but I wish I saw more of the sentiment in library blogs.  Or maybe I’m just reading the wrong library blogs.

Is anybody else still as much in love with the library profession as I am, despite the challenges?  If you’re moved to leave a comment, or write about this in your own blog, that would be fantastic.  If anybody starts singing “Kumbaya,” though, I will turn this meme around, and we will all go home with no ice cream. :)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and hoping you have a pleasant weekend.  I’ll be back next week to talk a little more about library marketing and advocacy, since those twin bees have been buzzing around my bonnet for ages and ages, and are directly related to various projects I’m working on.

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