The power of public libraries

BOO!

In a statement to Congress Danielle Milam, who is the Development Director for the LasVegas-Clark County Library District, very clearly articulated the value of public libraries to their communities.  Nevada as a whole and the Las Vegas metro area have been among the hardest hit areas after the 2009 recession.  Huge unemployment rates and a massive drop in tax revenue (she states a 30% reduction) cause the dual problems of an extremely tight budget and soaring use of the public library.

How did they help?  By doing what libraries have done all over the country with perhaps more effectiveness than any other public organization designed to help in an economic crisis - they provided information, entertainment, and that VITAL resource in the digital age, an Internet connection.

The LV-CC Library District's usage statistics are staggering.  You can read them in the link to her statement above, but two of her statements really stuck out for me:

Today’s public libraries are models for digital skill diffusion and workforce development. Every day over 300,000 Americans get job-seeking help in public libraries. The number of libraries with free public WiFi outnumbers and augments the access provided by private enterprises, like Starbucks.

We are reducing the digital divide. Our Library District is one of 5,400 libraries nationally that offer free technology classes for those who need to retool quickly with new digital skills.

The Hutchinson Public Library is one of those many public libraries offering the only Internet link many people have.  The LV-CC Library District has done an exemplary job in helping its constituents get back to work.  Setting a standard that we and many other libraries should strive toward.  But this statement is what our legislators, not only in Washington, but in Kansas should be looking at:

Today’s situation is urgent. It is time to consider new workforce development models that are scalable to the high levels of unemployment, that can quickly mobilize resources to those in need, where they are, fueled by their inspirations and inquiries.

The motto of many libraries today is “Start Here. Go Anywhere.” It reflects the free choice way people use library resources in times of transitions. We urge you to include public library roles and resources in the design of strategies to get many people to work, quickly, with relevant and current workforce skills.

Libraries help people.  Provide the resources and a public library can do amazing work.  Just like Ms. Milam says, public libraries are already built, staffed, and connected, ready to partner with their communities and get their economies growing again

KGI blog finds you a job

OK, so they didn't actually find you a job, but today's post is chock-full of great places to look for job training, re-training and assistance sources to help you if you are out of work.  KGI blog entries are always packed with useful information.  I have recommended it before, but I'll risk repeating myself - follow it for a while to give it a try.

[steps up on soapbox]
The KGI blog is another one of those great tools created by librarians.  Concise, full of useful information, and worth every penny of the tax dollars expended on it.  The old "penny wise, pound foolish" chestnut applies to the situation school, public, and indeed any library finds itself in these days.  As political leaders scramble to close enormous gaps in budgets, we librarians have been caught flat-footed at times in justifying our existences.  Excellent tools like the KGI blog are exactly the kinds of things librarians can create for you - the taxpayer.  We all need to remember to help our political leaders make wise decisions when times are tough.  Librarians and libraries are worth the expense.
[steps down from soapbox]

eBook workshops

I spent the better part of my day yesterday in Derby Kansas at the lovely new Derby Public Library.  The reason for this was the semi-annual meeting of our regional library system, SCKLS.  Also, because SCKLS provided two great programs following the business meeting.

The first was a presentation by Kevin Honeycutt, a guy as passionate about education as you would want every one of your child's teachers to be.  Really great stuff, and I highly recommend his free tools page - there is enough there to run your entire organization on free/shareware!

The afternoon was taken up by demos of ereaders of all sorts presented by SCKLS staff.  I think we learned a couple of tricks and answers to at least one key question that had been preventing us from circulating eReaders.

So, COMING SOON - an experiment with ebooks and filling holds for high-demand items!

Kansas and ebooks

[UPDATE added below]

There was a nice editorial in the Hutchinson News the other day about ebooks in libraries.  Specifically, the travails of the State Library of Kansas and their struggle with the digital media vendor OverDrive.

Here is an article that sums up the whole situation quite nicely.  That article summarizes the Kansas vs. OverDrive fight in a bit more detail and provides more information about what's coming.  Here at HPL, we have had our own separate contract with OverDrive for many, many years.  We signed on with them originally to provide downloadable audiobooks and we have amassed quite a "collection".  As we look for a more permanent, more elegant, and hopefully more economical method of collecting and distributing ebooks, we will, in the meantime add some ebook titles to our OverDrive collection.  Right now, the collection is rather tiny.

I think there will be other solutions, but as the "Librarian in Black" says, (and I paraphrase) the licensing (rather than purchase) of digital material destroys the cultural role of libraries in their communities.  With a license model, no longer will libraries preserve the cultural heritage of civilization.

[UPDATE]  It would appear that in the planned statewide 3M Cloud Library it will be possible to integrate a local library's catalog with the statewide ebook library.  This would mean that patrons would use his/her local library card (rather than the Kansas Library Card) to access the state ebook collection.  It looks like it might be a bit pricey, but it would definitely give us some statistical feedback regarding usage of the service by HPL patrons.

Marilyn June Coffey visit a success!

Thank you to everyone who came to the author visit last evening!  There were scores of people in attendance and plenty of good feedback about the program.  Ms. Coffey is currently touring in the area in support of her book.  Our Friends of the Library group has always been very supportive in helping us to bring authors to Hutchinson.

So, now who would you like to see here in Hutchinson?

Friends of the Library

HPL has been blessed with a wonderful and strong Friends of the Library group.  They have worked tirelessly for many years with one goal in mind - to get books into the hands of people.  And they have been incredibly successful!  They do this by selling donated books from their shop in the library.  Those $0.10 and $0.25 books have amounted to enough money to help us expand our collections, bring authors here from far-away places, make the summer reading program a success for children, and even build spaces such as this in our library:

These are all things that would not have happened without donated books.  If you have a stack of paperbacks you've read and no longer want, bring them in.  That blockbuster thriller you read once and is now gathering dust - bring it too!  Our Friends of the Library will take them and return the fruits to us all in the form of a better library.

Library as "Technology Center"

I have been preoccupied with ebooks of late as I look back over the postings here.  But that isn't all that we are working on here at HPL.  As a child of the Cold War era, a regular theme for me when thinking about modern library service is "proliferation".  Proliferation of formats, proliferation of technology, and proliferation of confusion and need for training in both areas.  Not only do the library staff need constant updates to skills and knowledge, but patrons come in with a huge variety of questions about technology.  How are we going to deal with the enormous variety of new "things"?  How will we as a public library remain relevant and not only relevant, but maybe even become indispensable?

Right now we do a ... fair job.  Our problem is that since the situation arose incrementally, it was addressed incrementally.  'Incremental" in this case means "haphazard".  So now we have one department checking out laptops, another dealing with public computers, another dealing with faxes and copies, and everyone dealing in their own fashion with tech gadget questions.  The result is that from the patron's side, one gets hit-or-miss service.  This is no one's fault, it is just how it has evolved.

I think one way that we can overcome this is that we could become not just an information place, but a technology center.  If you Google "library technology center" you get results from library websites talking mostly about public-use computers.  The computers you use at the library to check your email, your Facebook, or to play games or even sometimes do some research.  But that's not the only function needed.  In fact, it's probably not even the most important function needed any more, though it remains essential.

This is what "Technology Center" is to most libraries.

What is needed, I think, is a one-stop place where a patron can come and get any library-oriented tech-related issue addressed.  The whole gamut from faxing a document to downloading an ebook; from searching and applying for a job to whiling away an hour or two on a flash game.

The concept is much broader than just a "computer lab".  It would be a place in the library where the services and "things" the library offers could be matched with the  patron needs or with the "things" owned by the patrons who come here seeking whatever it is they seek.

It would be a place staffed with people expert in the use of electronic library services.  Not quite a public "help desk", but close.  Not a place to have your equipment repaired, rather a place to get answers for technical questions regarding your favorite technology tools as they relate to what the library offers, be it as simple as WiFi or as in-depth as a specialized research database.

Can it be done?  I see no reason why not.  Now is the time to plan.  We have the tools scattered all about.  We have the people and we have the need.