Innovation, squeaky wheels, and Tom Sawyer

November 28, 2008 at 12:55 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, innovation, leadership, management, philosophizing, professional development)

Helene Blowers recently discussed ways to crush innovation at her blog. It’s a favorite theme of hers; mine, too. Innovation, that is. Not crushing it.

I appreciate the notion, articulated near the end of the post, that innovators should prepare for obstacles and have counterarguments in the hopper. I’d go one step further and argue that if you want to succeed as an innovator, you have to be able to understand the emotional perspective of the crushers, and address their fears and concerns.

So many articles talk about roadblocks to change, and many, if not most, of them cast the “crushers” in a perjorative light. The verb “crush” itself implies active opposition, as if there’s a shadowy cabal sitting around your director’s office, just waiting for you to have an idea so they can stomp it into the ground.

I would argue that nobody gets up in the morning and consciously says to themselves, “How can I crush innovation at my library today?” It seems to me, based on my own experience trying to be an innovator around here, that opposition to change is born of fear of the unknown. Many people need to feel safe before they move forward; this is, I think, both natural and normal. Also, the first wave of librarians 2.0 is just now starting to shore up the processes and templates for new technologies; can you blame the powers that be for wanting to see the roadmap before they start the trip? Perhaps, instead of outrage, what we really need is more compassion for our opponents’ pov.

“But, but, but,” I can hear you sputtering. “But we have to move forward!” And yes, we certainly do. I, however, would prefer to move forward with my peers. That is, after all, the whole point of moving: that we all go together. I like the other librarians. I like the managers. I like the administrators. They’ve all taught me a lot, and some of them sign my checks. Why would I want to leave them behind? Isn’t it my responsibility, as the innovator, to create the cogent argument that makes them want to come along with me?

So if that means writing a proposal, you write the proposal. Or form the committee. Get more details. Talk to whomever you’re asked to talk to. These are your opportunities to demonstrate good faith. Show your opponents what’s in it for them. Speak in language they understand, and really listen to their concerns, then take the time to form cogent counterarguments they will actually hear. And if you fail, try again, as often as you have to. Draw the map for your library. Make the trip sound inviting. Be the squeaky wheel, yes, but be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, not replaced. Seems to have worked out fine for me personally thus far (she said, knocking wood).

You know who could have been a great librarian 2.0? Tom Sawyer. When given the task of whitewashing a fence, Tom managed to wheedle his friends into it by making fence-whitewashing seem like the most attractive task in human history. Before the day was over, the fence was done, because Tom was able to convince his skeptical friends that it would be a worthwhile endeavor for everybody concerned (especially him, but let’s leave the chicanery aside for the moment). That sort of moxie can go a long way toward creating change. You have the interesting ideas, but do you have the moxie?

Feel free to discuss and disagree – it would be a boring biblioblogosphere if we all felt the same. Some people like drawing the map, some people like following the map, and some people say, “Heck with the map, let’s go off-roading, whee!” Which kind of person are you, and what works best for you when it come to change and innovation at your library?

Leave a Comment

Fast times, slow blogging.

November 25, 2008 at 6:49 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, blogging, humor, news, professional development)

Have been busy with matters Eleventh Stack related, including the impending move to the new server, which will happen any day now. Fingers crossed for a happy outcome, and I’ll keep you posted.

Also busy with other techno-magery, in conjunction with Ryan H., as we put together what we’re informally calling the “technology petting zoo” for Staff Development Day. It’s actually a series of hands-on activities that people can participate in, in any order, to playtest new technologies. I’m doing blogging, Wes R. will cover gaming, Sarah B. downloadable formats, etc. It’s also the informal introduction to the CLP version of 23 Things, which will happen at some point during the first quarter of next year – finer details are still being worked out, but Ryan and I have a good skeleton structure for the project.

That being said, not much time for professional blogging. But a recent dispatch from Irene Y. reassures me that the blogger tide is turning from quantity to quality. This new trend synchs up nicely with what Eleventh Stack has been trying to do all along: produce quality entries on a regular, but not frantic, timetable. This is easier to do with a group blog, admittedly, than with a personal blog. I’d like to think that all our pre-planning, plus a little luck, will help Eleventh Stack continue to flourish in ‘09. Well, that and the marketing blitz I’m currently trying to organize. It’s a two-front attack: a formal graphics request for support materials, and the expansion of our guerilla tactics into a social network to be named later. Stay tuned.

Leave a Comment

Book ‘em, Facebook! You too, MySpace.

November 18, 2008 at 7:38 pm (Facebook, Library 2.0, MySpace, collection development, news, traditional library services)

The fine folks at TechCrunch recently blogged about two tell-all books on social media. As the pop-culture collection developer, I put these on my Outlook calendar to remember for later. But it was the last paragraph of the article that raised my eyebrows.

Books about current events are starting to make less and less sense. By the time they’re finished the stories in them are usually old news. That’s certainly the case with Angwin’s MySpace book. Perhaps Kirkpatrick will write a little more quickly.

The implication here seems to be that unless a book on pop culture is hip, happening and with it, it’s of no use to anyone.  Given that all history was, at one point, “current events,” methinks somebody forgot that we’re also supposed to be preserving the Long Tail. Does Arrington think future generations won’t want to know what on earth we were thinking, way back in the Spring of Aught Nine?

At any rate, I did a quick catalog check to see what goodies we currently have to offer on these two popular social networks.  Most of our collection consists of practical user manuals or money-making guides, but one intriguing title appears from Connie Neal. What makes this guide interesting is that a) it’s published by Zondervan, which specializes in Christian books, and b) Neal has already served as a successful pop-culture apologist for another worldwide social phenomenon. Can she provide effective counterarguments to Andrew Keen’s pessimism? I think I’m going to have to order the book and find out!

Leave a Comment

King me, or, a stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met.

November 17, 2008 at 5:53 pm (Facebook, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, humor)

Cleaning up the newsreader after being away is always fun, especially when you’ve got stuff marked “keep as new,” to read later.  It’s always worth making time for, though.

Let’s take, for example, the phenomenon of “friending” on social media.  A recent series of posts on this topic made me smile and sigh with relief. You see, I was worried I was doing it all wrong because I wasn’t running around friending everybody on the planet and promoting my library.

[Truth be told, I'm surprised my Twitter feed has gained the modest measure of success it has. Steely MacBeam and WDVE friended me, but it's not like we've ever hung out on the South Side, or sipped a lovely beverage in Crazy Mocha together. Who knew the Steelers mascot and the kings of classic rock would find my refdesk updates intriguing? She said, tongue wedged firmly in cheek.]

In addition to the many excellent points King makes in his posts on friending and social media, I would argue that the old-fashioned art of being a good writer is the way to attract an audience. It’s not enough just to create content, I’m thinking. You’ve got to create interesting content. Otherwise, you’re just another voice in the crowd saying “look at me!” Given that Facebook status updates and Tweets are extremely short, it becomes something of a challenge–almost an art–to make them amusing and interesting, especially when you’re pinging in between transactions. Also, there are only so many ways to say “Handed someone the stapler,” no matter how gifted you are!

Just one librarian’s theory. Of course, the more I write, in any medium, the more I realize how much I have to learn about writing. That, however, is a post for a different blog at a different time.

Returning to the point at hand–how could CLP use social media for outreach–I suppose the first step would be to find out if our users Tweet or follow in the first place. Based on casual observation, I’d say most of the Ref. Services users are far more fond of MySpace. I would, however, like to see some empirical evidence to back that up.

Onward and downward!

Leave a Comment

Re-entry

November 14, 2008 at 5:46 pm (Library 2.0, blogging, databases, presentations, professional development, website redesign)

Back to work!  It’s been a busy 48.  Wednesday night’s presentation went well – the students asked VERY good questions, and based on their oral and written feedback, they got a lot out of what Richard and I had to share about our respective database experiences.

Other tasks and projects from this short week included:

  • Starting my formal PaLA report, for the intranet.
  • Collaborating with peers to choose what subtopics from the “Tools and Research” portion of the website should be featured more prominently.
  •  del.icio.us account maintenance
  • More database renewals, with the usual attendant related issues

I ended up cancelling the blog meeting because hardly anyone could make it on the day I’d picked.  Scheduling meetings is an art.  Come to think of it, running effective meetings is an art.  I think one of the reasons planning the blog was so painless was that we made a list of goals, assigned specific tasks, and then had people be accountable for those tasks at the next meeting.  A lot of the upcoming blog work falls squarely on me right now anyway:  have to finish the graphics request for the redesign, have to finish writing up the writers’ guidelines. 

In other words, once again I’m too busy working to justify blogging about it all that much!  Annual reviews are coming up, so depending on my boss’s assessment of how I currently spend my time, you may be hearing much more, or much less, from me in months to come.  Wish me luck!

Leave a Comment

PaLA Conference – Tuesday

November 11, 2008 at 7:58 pm (conferences, databases, innovation, leadership, nonfiction, philosophizing, presentations, professional development, reader's advisory, social justice)
Tags:

The day’s not quite over yet, but I wanted to ring in and give you the highlights. Right now I’m really excited and inspired about the library profession, in spite of the challenges ahead. Here’s why:

 

  1. A meeting of the Electronic Resources Roundtable, of which I am a member.  The outgoing chair is working with the incoming chair on ways the roundtable can be more active.  I volunteered for the planning board, which will do a lot of virtual work, and pitched an idea to one of the other attendees who, like me, likes to write!  So, stay tuned for updates and innovations from us…
  2. Nonfiction readers’ advisory.  Barry Trott’s session was excellent – I’ve had the privilege of seeing him before, but those who haven’t can at least get his handout here (scroll down to Tuesday).  Nota bene:  NO slideshow / powerpoint.  Nothing wrong with presentation software, it’s true, but it’s refreshing to hear a really good public speaker who can engage an audience sans props.
  3. The exhibits!  I am returning home with several leads on electronic resources, and just plain cool things, to share with the other librarians.  One of these is Generations Online, an extremely inexpensive way to help seniors learn to use the internet easily.  Given that service to seniors is a CLP priority, and the need is definitely there throughout the county, this could be huge!
  4. Norma Blake!  2008 Librarian of the Year, y’know.  She talked about the future of libraries, navigating change, and ways organizations can make that possible.  Good communication and transparency were chief among these.  She also declared that you can teach people job-specfic skills, but you can’t teach a good attitude.  Spot on!  I think the next step, though, is examining servant leadership, and ways libraries can bring out the best in their existing staff.
  5. The PaLA annual meeting.  Those of you who nodded off at the word “meeting” would have been impressed and inspired by what took place there.  Allegheny County was well represented by award-winners and office-holders.  Special props go to former classmate Colleen Miles, who is setting the world on fire at the Upper St. Clair Library!  For her efforts, she was named the 2008 Best New Librarian in PA, a well-deserved honor!
  6. I was also greatly moved by  the brief statement issued by Alexia Hudson, whom I had the pleasure of meeting earlier in the conference.  Alexia, a former Emerging Leader herself, spoke on behalf of Philadelphia’s libraries, and requested that discussion of the impending closures be put on the next PaLA board meeting agenda.  I did not know, and was distressed to hear, that the closures are targeted for areas that serve predominately minority populations and also do not have access to school libraries.  This, in my opinion, is unacceptable, and I applaud Alexia for taking the initiative in instigating further discussion and action.

And while we’re on the topic of leadership, I’d like to point out what might be obvious,  but never hurts to repeat:  we are the librarians we’ve been waiting for.  Colleen, Alexia, Erin, Kelley, Bonnie, Karen, Charity, Holly, and ALL the young PA librarians, including yours truly (though I suspect I am older than most of you!).  It falls to us to decide how library world is going to be.  We need the help and support of our more experienced colleagues, and belief in ourselves, to transform the obstacles ahead into opportunities.

And if you think that’s overly sunshiney, wait until you hear my other lofty goal:  all the librarians from Lackawanna county who received awards were extremely kind and supportive of each other, exchanging hugs, giving standing ovations, and applauding wildly.  I would like to see Allegheny County’s librarians showing each other that much love and support in our efforts.

See?  This is what happens when you send alchemists to professional conferences.  I’ll leave it to you to decide whether those funds were well-spent.

For now, though, I’ve got to get ready for the awards banquet, and get packing.  I’m taking an early flight home tomorrow so I can do some last-minute preparation for the talk I’m giving at the library school tomorrow night (my fabulous boss will be the co-presenter, and temper my post-conference zeal nicely, I imagine).  It’s for Barry C.’s Adult Resources and Services class.  The topic is databases, and I’m thrilled to be able to talk about what we do, as well as some of the changes coming over the horizon at CLP.

Until we meet again….

2 Comments

PaLA Conference – Monday

November 10, 2008 at 7:58 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, conferences, humor, innovation, leadership, nonfiction, philosophizing, professional development, reader's advisory, web resources)
Tags:

Day two of PaLA has been fun and educational! For my morning session, I attended What’s New in Library School, and was inspired by the presenters. It’s only been four years since my own library school experience, but there have been a lot of changes in a short time. Most useful here was the description of what it’s like to take classes online; most inspiring was the brief discussion of information ethics. Employers seeking librarians will have a talented, intelligent crop from which to pick!

Today’s poster sessions included one from fellow Emerging Leader Erin Dorney, who blogs at Library Scenester. Her library is a combination academic-public one, which is intruging, and her poster was about her efforts to promote her library in her capacity as Outreach Librarian. Very cool!

This afternoon’s pick was difficult: Bary Trott and reader’s advisory, or more Web 2.0? Given that there will be a second RA session tomorrow, specifically focusing on non-fiction, I opted for the Web 2.0 option (it’s okay to fangirl fellow librarians – stalking, however, is not cool. :) .

At any rate, Three Approaches to Web 2.0 Teaching sounded promising, and was. The evaluation of Web 2.0 tools for creating subject guides, in particular, was helpful for those of us just beginning to explore this area. Given that many of our own patrons require instruction, though, the entire session inspired me to think of different ways to design and teach courses that would help everyone in my service area, staff and patrons alike, develop some new skills.

I was especially intrigued that wikis trumped blogs at Cabrini College for instruction delivery. The presenter pointed out that their blog didn’t receive many comments, which only fuels my ongoing philosophical debate over whether blogs really facilitate conversations or provide entertainment / enlightenment. Is anyone studying this? Hm.

So, here I sit, contemplating dinner and thinking about all the great people I’ve met today, between sessions, and at lunch, etc. There are so many different ways to be of service as a librarian! Listening and gathering information will, I hope, help me be an effective contributor to the Emerging Leaders project to which I’ve been assigned: we’ll be continuing the work done by a prior year’s workgroup, revisiting the marketing plan for LibraryCareers.org. Given my track record for recruiting people to the profession (one more, and I think I get steak knives from Pitt), I think it’s a good project fit. People just don’t know how amazing and diverse librarians and library work really are. It might not be very “traditional,” but anything I can do to help ameliorate that definitely strikes me as worthwhile.

Tomorrow will be an early-start, action-packed session-fest, so stay tuned…

Leave a Comment

PaLA Conference – Sunday

November 9, 2008 at 10:02 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , ,

I thought it would be good to post a daily update from PaLA, while I’m here. The irony is not lost on me! But, since not everybody gets to go to conferences, we really should share. I’ll do summaries rather than liveblog sessions, though: I type like pianists play Rachmaninoff: loudly and passionately. Ask anyone who’s worked at the refdesk with me, and they will tell you!

At any rate, the first session started at 2 p.m. I opted for “60 Sites in 60 Minutes,” which was about free legal resources on the web, with an emphasis on PA sources. I learned a lot, and many of these sites will come in handy at the desk. You can click here for a copy of the presentation – I love that PaLA gave us the green option of posting handouts and whatnot this year!

My own presentation went well, I think – a peek at the evaluations revealed that people were either really taken with it, or really not. I was sort of surprised about that, and also at the level of basic instruction still needed. One questioner, for example, was not familiar with del.icio.us at all, and I’m glad she spoke up, so I could give a brief overview. Perhaps, though, a whole session on del.icio.us would’ve been more appropriate? It seems that there are two speeds of librarian: those faster than me, and those who still need me to explain things. And here I am in the middle, trying to facilitate between both sides – hm.

At any rate, strong opinions are good – you don’t want anybody saying, “Meh.” If I were to get a do-over, though, I would pick one innovation we tried in 2007 and focus on that, instead of trying to do justice to everything in an hour. You can judge for yourself from my slides, and you can, of course, download my handouts (all 8 of them) from the PaLA conference site link given above.

The “One Conference, One Format” dinner was great – I had volunteered to be a discussion leader for my table, but once we got started talking, the conversation just flowed naturally. It’s great to meet librarians from all over and hear about their projects and concerns! I’ll be telling you about a few of them, via more presentation descriptions, as the week goes on. In the meantime, enjoy your Sunday evening, and I’ll be back tomorrow night with an update.

2 Comments

November Update from Your Multitasking Alchemist

November 4, 2008 at 8:36 pm (Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, blogging, collection development, conferences, databases, humor, personal, philosophizing, presentations, professional development, web resources)

The leaves fall, the temperature drops, and the days between blogging pass like a dream.  It’s still very busy in my world, but I thought I’d take a few moments to briefly discuss what “busy” means this month.

It’s database renewal season, so I’m busy crafting an agenda for tomorrow’s meeting.  Quite a lot to discuss on a conceptual level too, as we’re considering expanding the committee’s charge to promotion and instruction.  If we’re really feeling ambitious, we might explore the possibility of having an e-resources committee that would cover e-audio and video formats, and expand membership to include stakeholders in those areas.  All up in the air, of course.

I’m currently at the refdesk.  Best question this evening so far, and a chance to practice explaining technology, involved blogging and live blogging.  The patron heard it discussed on TV, and called in because he didn’t know what those concepts meant.  This comforts me, that even in matters technological, some folks still turn to the library first.

Only one serious callback on the plate, but it’s a doozy.  The magazine writer who was impressed with our collective due diligence on the Robert Frost quote is back with more quotes.  Another Frost, a Vincent Lombardi, a random economist, etc.  Tracing quotation provenance is my favorite kind of question, but don’t tell the other librarians, or they’ll make me share.  Hee.

There are a lot of ordering tools on the table this week, so I think that will be tomorrow’s major endeavor.  There’s an Ingram Advance for next week, too, so I’d like to get a jump on that.  Friday is my next turn in the Eleventh Stack rotation, so I want to make sure that’s of the same high caliber our readers have come to expect.

In professional development news, I’m fussily revising my PaLA presentation and slides. Perfectionism can be a two-edged sword. Luckily, I really enjoy giving presentations and don’t get too nervous – after all, sharing with peers is good, and I appreciate the chance to talk about what my peers and I are trying over here. Tame the Web discussed presentations recently, and I found it a good, reassuring reminder of what’s important.

I’m also greedily devouring various bloggy dispatches from Internet Librarian via my newsreader. Since not everybody can go to every conference, the blogs and embedded presentations are invaluable. If I can ever make time to sit down and watch all that video, and read all that copy, I will gladly share the highlights!

Tweeting tonight’s shift, at intervals. I Tweet rarely, because there’s so much to do. There will always be more work to do, and I tend to work as if my hair is on fire. It is, however, a labor of love. There’s nothing like working in a public library. Nothing. Others might disagree, but then again, everyone has their niche in library world, which is what makes it great.

I think, to be a good public librarian, you have to love people, even when they are not very likeable. Last night I spent two hours on one transaction, and somewhere in the middle of that long conversation, I lost a contact lens. It was one of those moments that tries your soul, and makes you wonder if you really went to graduate school for this. I went home, put on my glasses, and briefly contemplated applying to the Peace Corps.

But the next day, when I came in, I learned that my colleagues had found my contact lens when I could not (being, after all, quite the blind). They rescued it, soaked it in their own saline, and stored it in an extra case they just happened to have handy. And one lovely, leafy printout from the color printer was on my desk, an extra left behind by that same patron I’d been helping. It’s a picture of a path leading into the woods, green and inviting, beckoning us on to goodness knows where.

And that, in a nutshell, is public library service: you make your way down the path as best you can, never knowing what will happen next, and sometimes tested by obstacles. But you are never alone on your journey, and there is always something lovely hidden around the next bend to remind you why you started off on the journey in the first place.

Until next month, probably, I remain….

LAV, library alchemist!

Leave a Comment