Library Closures hit Canada

An article from CTV News states that nearly half of all the public libraries in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador will be closed. The provincial budget included a million dollars less for public libraries than in the previous year resulting in mass closures of branches.

So I will leave you with these two quotes to be used alternately:

“When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian.” 
― Joan Bauer

...unless you live in Newfoundland unfortunately.

OR

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” 
― Walter Cronkite

And that is the real danger.

A dream to leave behind

When I was in library school, I always thought it would be a great experience to work in a library in England. I suppose it will have to remain a thought exercise now. British public libraries have closed at an astonishing rate over the past few years. 343 libraries closed since 2010! Not only that, but in many more areas, paid staff are being replaced with volunteers, open hours are reduced, materials budgets slashed, and maintenance to facilities put off. The state of British public libraries is discussed in this Newsweek article and elsewhere as the true state of affairs is coming to light.

"Taxes are Evil"

I apologize in advance for the wall of text. I assure you though, that this is important.

The chickens are coming home to roost in Kansas. What enjoyed great popularity some 30-odd years ago, "Reaganomics" or "Supply-side Economics" is seeing something more than a resurgence in Kansas. Really, it's a doubling down on an idea that has demonstrably failed to do what its proponents claimed. In fact, it didn't work very well when Herbert Hoover tried it in 1932 in response to the Great Depression with his Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Whatever you want to call it, this theory of economics, coupled with a now ingrained mantra that taxes are evil have led Kansas to where it is today. For all intents and purposes, the state is bankrupt. The old way of doing things, a balanced, moderate, common-sense mix of property, income, and sales tax has been cast to the wind.

In its place we have no income tax for a certain group of "job creators", a movement to limit property taxes, and a rise in sales tax. Maybe the old system wasn't always fair. Maybe from time to time some taxes were disproportionately high. But now, the no income tax group who are supposed to now be generating more jobs aren't doing so; the loss of revenue is forcing local governments to look at increasing property taxes; while the high sales taxes are punishing the working class and causing Kansans to even cross state lines to buy basic goods like groceries!

Kansas is in a downward spiral because "taxes are evil". We want a business-friendly environment to make Kansas an attractive place to start or relocate a business and increase employment. But that will never happen in a place that can't govern itself properly. This legislator gets it. No one wants to pay taxes. But grown-ups understand that in order to have good safe roads to carry individual AND business traffic, you have to pay for them. Grown-ups also understand that if you are moving your business someplace, that business will be looking for an educated, motivated workforce and guess what - you have to pay for that by funding public education. Grown-ups also understand that while taxes are unpleasant, the rewards of properly funded, prudently managed public services make everyone's lives better. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, I would wager few want to pave their own potholes, fix their own water mains, all the while home-schooling their children, having to buy all the books and database access they need for that, and simultaneously hoping no one in the family gets sick and has to travel across counties to go to a hospital.

Yes, taxes are a boor. Taxes suck. But taxes are not evil. Not in a modern society that cares for the common good. Just as an example, I gladly pay taxes for public schools. Yes, I have school-age children. But I pay them for the other families and children as well. I don't want to live in a society of illiterate, low-skilled citizens. Lack of education leads to lack of opportunity which in turn leads to higher rates of incarceration.

Let's get back to the the days where fiscal conservatives, social reformers, moderate what-evers, social conservatives, the left and the right or whatever you label yourself agreed to disagree, but worked together for the common good. I don't understand why everyone seems to think that success is winning EVERYTHING. Success is getting on with it. Shutting the hell up (ironic, right :-) ) when you are being non-productive, stopping and listening to the other side, and finding common ground to advance the common good.

All this to say:

I hope my colleagues who drove to the State Capitol on Monday were successful in explaining to our legislators on the Committee on Taxation that their bill to defund regional library systems in Kansas is a dumb, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot idea. Thank you fellow librarians for your action.

This is where we are as public libraries...

The long, painful dismantling of the USA's social safety net is hitting still-functioning public institutions like public libraries right in the gut. This Washington Post article shows us what the end result of our war on poor people is going to look like.

Public libraries are not public health care providers. Public libraries are not homeless shelters. Public libraries exist for an entirely different sort of public service for all - life-long learning and entertainment.

I am strongly in favor of access to library services for ALL - rich or poor; old or young; homeless or gated-community dwelling. However, libraries are not set up for, designed to handle, or in any way truly capable of handling what they are increasingly being forced to deal with. Libraries on the whole are not always even funded to a level to effectively perform their main function. Asking libraries to be medical facilities, mental health providers, and more is the sign of, in my not-so-humble opinion, a nation that has given up and given in to stingy, hard-hearted sentiment.

The Post article states that the solution many of these not-lavishly-funded libraries came up with is to hire social workers, nurses, etc. This is a ridiculous diversion from the mission of public libraries. At least in Hutchinson Kansas we have organizations like New Beginnings to help people in housing crisis and the Salvation Army and many other groups to help with homelessness.

So, what is the role of public libraries in this crisis of poverty? I think it is to be in the second tier of support - helping people find jobs through providing access to resume help, application help, and providing access to training and coaching. Libraries should be places for moving forward. Forward movement can only be achieved once the basic needs of housing, food, and health are met.

Should libraries not be part of this process of change? Of course we should be active participants in this vital conversation, but we should not allow ourselves to be substituted for other institutions and services. We are being taken advantage of because of our collective urge to help people. We should never give up our desire to help people but we should also stop letting ourselves be used as a convenient rug under which bigger societal problems can be swept.

Building Improvements

Plans are shaping up for making some much needed improvements and refurbishment to our building!

Using funds saved back in our Capital Improvement fund, in 2016 we will be working on both entrances, the children's library restrooms, and the children's story time room.

The west entrance will be first up this spring. We will be changing the HVAC systems in that area to try to improve the comfort level. This phase of the project shouldn't be too disruptive, but there will be times when the entrance will have to be closed for safety reasons.

Once the West entrance has been finished up, we will make a fairly major change to the Main Street entrance. That side will get a larger foyer area, better HVAC and new doors. We will add some seating for people waiting for rides and more.

Tied to the Main Street entrance refurbishment will be a renovation of the old computer lab area on the second floor (directly above the Main entrance). This area will get some windows, comfortable seating, and the AV collection. This will make for a nice quiet reading and study area with a view of Main Street.

Once that area is finished, we should be past the 2016 Summer Reading Program and the refurbishment process will move back over to the Children's Department. The restrooms in that area will be totally redone from the plumbing up. During this time, the story time room will also receive a much-needed face lift that will include new flooring, paint, storage and craft time clean-up facilities.

These projects will be done with funds the library has set aside over a few years by being frugal with our tax dollars. The capital improvement fund was created specifically to help entities like the library save up for needed repairs and improvements to our building. This means that no new taxes are needed nor will any debt be incurred for these projects!

Libraries, tradition, and the "modern" world

This is a great opinion column from the New York Times. The author concisely states the dilemma faced by libraries today: How to remain libraries, remain relevant, and attempt to fill the gaps in social services all while budgets have been shrunk. This is the crux of the problem:

Librarians today are forced to take on a variety of functions that their society is too miserly or contemptuous to fulfill, and the use of their scant resources to meet those essential social obligations diminishes their funds for buying new books and other materials. But a library is not a homeless shelter (at the St. Agnes library in New York, I witnessed a librarian explaining to a customer why she could not sleep on the floor), a nursery or a fun fair (the Seneca East Public Library in Attica, Ohio, offers pajama parties), or a prime provider of social support and medical care (which American librarians today nonetheless routinely give).

The columnist goes on to say that while these are important societal functions, they will require more, not less funding in order to let us (the libraries) reinvent ourselves.

With this I totally agree. IF libraries are to become the social centers of our communities, libraries need to be funded to meet those demands. But we should also think consciously, deliberately about what the "modern" library should be. There is no sense in throwing money into services that could be better delivered by another entity.

So, let's as a society take a pause, decide what we should have available to people "societally", if you will, and do that well. We will all be better off for not wasting money but using it effectively to create a just, fair, and compassionate world in which to live. Plus, it will help libraries tremendously so that we can do what we do best - curate knowledge and foster new knowledge.

Building Upgrades at Hutchinson Public Library

It's been a long time since any major remodeling or expansion has taken place at the Hutchinson Public Library. Of course we have had "maintenance" types of work done and I suppose you could consider things like a new roof "major work". But you never notice a roof until it leaks.

What we are planning now is a series of upgrades to the usable spaces in the library.

First, we are moving the public computers out of the poorly ventilated second floor space it now occupies. The computers will move to the first floor in the area below the mezzanine. IT staff will still be available to help but computers will be in more of a walk-up situation, out in the open.

That move frees up the space the lab currently occupies, which brings me to the second project: Remodeling the Main Street entrance. We are going to extend the foyer eastward to create a larger air-lock to help with heat gain/loss when the automatic doors are all open. Simultaneously, we will be adding some windows and a reading area in the old lab space which is directly above the Main Street entrance. In the end, we hope to have a better entry AND a nice new (quieter) reading area overlooking Main street.

Our third major upgrade is sorely needed. We will be remodeling the children's area bathrooms. These are the oldest bathrooms in the building and boy, do they show it! They will get a top-to-bottom redo.

For the more distant future, we have in the works an upgraded and enlarged young adult area and a remodel of the auditorium.

It may not always seem like it, but we are working hard to bring you new services and now updated spaces!

Do you ever have that sinking feeling?

You know, where you just feel leaden, you are treading water, but just barely? Well, here at HPL we seem to be having a month-long marathon of water-treading.

Not only are we still recovering from the storms of early August, we seem to be running on to new little twists of the dagger that just make the recovery that much more painful. But some good things are on the horizon. For one, our lightning-damaged wireless system ended up dying after all. How is that good? Although it bumped a planned change up to a fire-alarm style immediate change, we will have a new, robust system installed by the end of this week.

OOO - swirly!

There have been many other problems, large and small, to come out of those soggy, electrically-charged rainy weeks, but those are being slowly resolved. Sometimes, it the sheer number of them seem to swallow up any other progress being made. Our new telephone system with building-wide emergency paging is finally coming online as well. Progress is being made on improving our collection security, organization, and staff efficiency by adding RFID to the building.

Don't worry though, the RFID tags will not store your personal information. The tags store information about the book to which they are affixed and will help us with inventory and help you with speedy, accurate check-out. Library cards and patron information will stay private.

New furnishings will fill the space left when we moved the 900s non-fiction collection upstairs. By the end of this month there will be a variety of new, comfortable chairs to use for study and computing.

Last, but definitely not least, HPL has subscribed to a crowd-source fundraising site called WishList. This will go live for us in the next week or so and will allow patrons to purchase memorial and "in honor of" books online, contribute toward large projects, browse volunteer opportunities at the library and join the Friends of the Library group, among many other things. I'm really excited about this! It will be awesome - I just hope I haven't drowned before it goes live!

Library as Publisher?

This is a great idea. I don't know how to make it happen here in Hutchinson, Kansas, but I'm keen to try and figure it out. Library as publisher.

Libraries continue to experience high use but with ever-shrinking revenue streams. How can we continue to fulfill our mission to build life-long learners if we don't have resources to purchase books and materials to support that mission?

I wonder if it isn't in the way of the ancient idea of "library". Libraries were once not only collectors of knowledge, they fostered it by sponsoring the creators of new ideas. That is what is proposed in this article from ALA about the library discovering new authors and helping them to blossom.

I doubt very much that HPL could muster the resources in equipment and staff to make this happen on our own, but there might be a possibility for a consortium of libraries to pool resources and help turn the explosion of self-published ebooks become an explosion of really high-quality ebooks.
(Thanks for the link Sandra!)

This is how we CAN have nice things

For all of the "smaller government" and "taxes are too high" talk that we all hear, day-in and day-out, there are actually good reasons for having robust, smart government:  Government that coordinates; government that practices efficiency (yes I went there); government that gets the job done.

Why do I think this?  Because there are lots of things in our daily lives that we take for granted AND that no one else is willing to do.  What things immediately come to mind that everyone wants and that government provides?  Familiar things like fire service, policing, trash removal, running water / sewer, and road repair.  Then there are more esoteric services (if you can call them that) that have made and continue to make modern civilization possible.  Things like a public education system, support for sciences, art, and higher education; and even libraries.  What's an efficient, coordinated way state government can help each and every public library in Kansas?

This is a quote from the State Librarian's budget presentation yesterday:

Last year the State Library asked one of the database vendors – Gale CENGAGE – to compile the cost for individual subscriptions, in short, what would be the cost if every library subscribed on its own.  That figure was $24,767,699 – nearly $25 M.  The statewide contract with this vendor is $632,000 so cost avoidance is over $24M.

The numbers are so wildly disparate, they almost don't make sense, do they?  The State - the STATE GOVERNMENT - can save taxpayers $24,000,000 by spending a mere 3% of that sum instead of pretending to be fiscally responsible by eliminating programs they perceive as being frivolous or unneeded.


Will all libraries in the state subscribe to Gale CENGAGE online resources with individual contracts?  Of course not.  Many simply will never be able to afford such tools.  But it wouldn't take many individual contracts to start bumping up against that $632k.  The State of Kansas can provide every library and by extension, every citizen these tools for a bargain price.  Funding for the State Library has been cut by an appalling 30.6% over the past 5 years.  Funding for the statewide databases will disappear entirely in the next year if a decision is not made.  I hope our legislators understand the tremendous economy of scale that can be achieved in this instance and decide to do the right thing by funding the State Library at a proper level.

The Revolution is Here!

A colleague who happens also to be a board member here at HPL forwarded this article from the journal American Libraries.  It is definitely worth a read.  Here's why I think it is relevant to us here in lil' ol' Hutchinson:  We are looking inward and examining our mission and role in the community right now.  The gist of the article is that essentially, the revolution in libraries is not just one of adapting to new digital formats, it is one of challenges to the very core of our (the public library world) identity and mission.

According to the article, major shifts in areas libraries once controlled are taking place.  Here are the major challenges:  Shifts in collection development - publishers are wresting this away from librarians by refusing to offer econtent to libraries; Access - license agreements dictate length of checkout and even number of checkouts before an item must be "discarded"; Preservation - this is a scary one because no one really "collects" content that isn't in an analog (paper) format because no one "owns" the items in a digital world; and finally, Privacy - librarians have long been the guardians of patron's privacy and in the digital realm that is simply no longer the case.

So what is a poor, meek librarian to do?  First off, fight to shed the poor, meek stereotype.  I think ALA would do well to hire a Madison Avenue ad agency and change our collective image.  Afterall, image is everything and perception is reality.

The article linked earlier finishes up though with a great suggestion:  That libraries should embrace the core of a report by Roger Levien written in June 2011 for ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy Confronting the Future: Strategic Visions for 21^st-Century Public Libraries (PDF file).  The core idea is this:

 

The Six Ps

• People. Librarians provide unbiased services and advice based on expertise and professional norms.
• Place. Libraries are physical spaces conducive to individual or group contemplative work.
• Price. Library services are generally provided at no charge to the user, and access is available regardless of individual ability to pay.
• Principles. Library services are provided under the rubric of intellectual freedom, privacy, and trust.
• Pride. An excellent library is an indicator of a community with quality public services and high quality of life.
• Package. Libraries provide successful integration of information services across disparate functions.

This seems like a great starting place for a library's statement of core principles, don't you think?  I still believe that libraries can save for everyone our embattled national ideals.  Libraries are unique places offering some of the most cost-effective services a government can fund (hint, hint Kansas Legislature) and librarians, at least here in Hutchinson Kansas, are willing to adapt.  But we can't do it alone, we need the support of our elected leaders and the input of our most precious resource - the communities we serve.  So how about it Hutchinson - what service would be the most helpful / cool / cost-effective for you?

Snapshot Day Success!

We had a great day this past Tuesday finding out the "who, what, when, and how" of the patrons who frequent our library.  HPL participated in this project which is sponsored by the Kansas State Library, the Kansas Library Association, and the Kansas Association of School Libraries.

The goal is to show just how important libraries are to their communities.  Sometimes, people take institutions such public libraries for granted, assuming that they will always be there.  However, funding for many libraries is being reduced in ways that will threaten their very existence.  It might be possible to absorb a reduction in State funding for a year, or one at the local level, or to do without a federal grant for one round.  But many of the reductions being made to library budgets will last longer and are combined in ways that will overwhelm already drastically-reduced operating budgets.  So, the idea of showing what libraries do for their communities in just one day out of the year, Snapshot Day was born.

Here's HPL's snapshot:

• 879 people came through the doors
• 204 questions were answered.  Of the questions recorded at the Reference Desk, 54% were 0-4 mins (ready reference-type) and 46% were 5-15+ mins (reference)
• 1,278 circulation transactions were made
• 150+ computer lab users came in
• 272 people filled out the questionnaire

From the questionnaire group, a sampling of answer totals:

• 136 checked out items,
• 44 were job hunting,
• 84 used research tools/services,
• 27 attended meetings,
• 26 were here for tutoring/homework,
• 150 for computer use,
• 23 for wireless use,
• 37 for online library resources,
• 17 to get a library card.

 That's a day in the life of a public library.  We have some pictures on the library's Facebook page.

All-in-all, I am amazed at all the good things that get done in just one day at a library.  The one thing that isn't mentioned here though, or that is hard to see through the numbers, is that all that good is done by a wonderful and hard-working group of people.  I am extremely thankful we have such a great staff here at HPL and if you use this library, you should be too!  Please give them a "thank you" next time you get the chance!

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]

Kansas and Libraries

***WARNING - RANT AHEAD***

I attended a focus group last week, the purpose of which was to help form a list of what is essential in a database package for Kansas.  Sound pretty dry, right?

It was.  But there was an interesting side to it that really wasn't talked about until the very end.  The question on everyone's mind was, "How are we going to pay for this?"  And the answer was, "We don't know, the money has all gone."

So how did this happen?  Well, first off the economy went in the tank a couple of years ago.  So, cost cutting became even more of a mantra in the legislature.  And the cutting was done with a sword rather than a scalpel.  So far, from a library perspective everything REALLY useful has been cut to the bone.  Not only was state aid reduced (direct aid to libraries) for what I think was the 4th year in a row, several statewide programs were massacred.  So this year, Kan-Ed had its funding slashed.  This is basically because big telecoms don't want the downward price pressure on their services.  You see, Kan-Ed provides low- or no-cost T-1 connections to public entities like libraries that can't otherwise afford "high speed" Internet.  Now, I take issue with the definition of "high speed" Internet as our providers use it, but that's a rant for another day.  Unfortunately, by slashing Kan-Ed's funding, over 50% of the funds for statewide databases - these tools provided here - disappeared.  And in the next budget year, they are gone all together - nearly $1 million.

Now, bear in mind that all of the cutting, I was told directly, was to reduce the "government footprint".  And, that ,"We're not looking to increase your [the library's] costs or reduce access..."

So, can you guess what happened?  EXACTLY.  Our direct costs, because we lost the power of purchasing in a state-wide contract, have increased and our ability to provide access to information has already and will continue to be drastically reduced over this year and next.

Lest you think that nothing was done to enlighten our state government as to the results of these actions, librarians and others across the state wrote, emailed, talked directly to, and testified in the state house about these matters.  Only, instead of listening to feedback from knowledgeable sources, no provisions were made to transfer funds from Kan-Ed to the State Library to administer state-wide tools and services.  Instead, contracts will lapse, work will have to be repeated, and much more struggle for funds will have to be made in order to even BEGIN negotiating new contracts - and worst of all, library service and credibility will be damaged.

You may not know this, but the Kan-Ed funds I have mentioned so often are actually "Kansas Universal Service Fund" (KUSF) monies.  They are collected by the Kansas Corporation Commission and WILL CONTINUE to be collected at the same rate as before.  The legislature merely choose to not allocate them to Kan-Ed.  Taxes (or in this case service fees) are not any lower because of this action.

What can you do?  Contact your legislator and ask her or him to allocate to the State Library KUSF funds not given to Kan-Ed to provide for state-wide library services.  Kan-Ed funding went from $10 million per year to $6 million.  That means there are $4 million available - even a quarter of that amount would allow us to restore lost services and take pressure off the State Library so that they might be able to stave off further cuts to direct aid or other services.

[Wipes spittle from corner of mouth]

Save the Libraries

chirp! chirp!

There is a tremendous lack of understanding these day of, well...of many things actually; but within the scope of this blog, the value of libraries.  I think the true value of public libraries is that they provide common ground.  This is reflected to me in two related ways.   I have a quote that I've collected recently from a UK article on libraries that articulates it one way:

"The libraries' most powerful asset is the conversation they provide – between books and readers, between children and parents, between individuals and the collective world. Take them away and those voices turn inwards or vanish. Turns out that libraries have nothing at all to do with silence." - Bella Bathurst, writer for The Observer [newspaper]

Libraries facilitate an intellectual conversation, no matter the format of the conversation or the materials on the shelves, readers, or digital devices.  This largely has to do with the training, skill, and actual practice of the job known as "librarianship".  The people that work in a library make sure by their very work that the conversations listed in the quote above can flourish.

A second way that this thing called a "library" acts as a societal leveler, is as a place where people from all walks of life can experience a certain level of equality and equitable treatment.  The physical space makes it unique in the modern world in that anyone can use it for meeting and exchange of ideas, largely free of any out-of-pocket expense.

Public libraries continue to provide free access to information in the form of books, digital files, Internet access, and government publications, all the while being dismantled bit-by-bit in the name of "lowering taxes" and "trimming the fat".  I contend that libraries, especially public and school libraries, give the most bang for the tax dollar that you can get.  HPL will be here for a while, I think.  We have benefited from the gifts of many fine residents in our town.  But Kansas libraries as a whole are being picked apart.  From elimination of funding for cheap high-speed Internet connectivity (this has already happened - funding was slashed), to statewide accessible databases of information (this funding has also been eliminated), to school libraries at every level, our State Legislature and Governor seem to be doing their best to demolish educational support of any sort.

Lastly, I am not advocating support of this project - you can make your own decisions about it, but I think it is a great idea.  Photographer Robert Dawson is touring 22 states, photographing public libraries as a commons, one of "...the things that we share as a nation - our environment, our infrastructure, our culture - the things that keep our society civil and working."

Here's the link from the comments section below:  Karin Slaughter Writes Story to Help Save Libraries

Wow! That is loud!

We are in the process of having our roof replaced at HPL.  This is a much-needed maintenance project as we have been suffering through leak after leak for the past 18-24 months.  However, by delaying a re-roof and making do with patches over that time, we were able to set aside enough money to pay for the project out right.  I am not a big fan of borrowing money, in my personal finances or at the library.

The point of my mentioning it though is that the new roof is "mechanically fastened".  Intellectually, I understood what that meant - hammer-drilling fasteners into the concrete deck to hold down the new backing.  In practice though...yikes!  It sounds sort of like some one running a jack hammer in a culvert pipe.  My apologies if you come in over the next week to ten days hoping for peace and quiet!

However, when we are done, we'll have a PVC [edit: TPO] membrane roof that looks something like this:

This type of roof has some benefits (besides keeping the rain out).  It is supposed to reflect heat from the sun to reduce heat radiating into the building.  Supposedly we will save some money on our utility bills, which after seeing the last bill for May/early June will be a blessing!  There are lots of options for flat-roofed structures, I found out as we went through this process.  I hope we picked the right one.

Continuing Education

I've just returned from attending the annual conference of the Kansas Library Association.  This is an opportunity to get some new ideas and keep abreast of what is happening in the profession.  Perhaps the most valuable part of the experience is the opportunity to meet face-to-face with colleagues to trade stories and advice.  In fact, I know this is the most important part part of the experience.

One of the most interesting sessions was the keynote address by Jamie LaRue, the head of the Douglas County (CO) Libraries.  He has developed an advocacy program aimed at changing mid-sets.  The impetus for the creation of this program was a pair of defeats for library bond issues.  Despite thorough and successful awareness and use campaigns for the Douglas County Libraries, Mr. LaRue found that library use DOES NOT equal library support.  In fact, a study by OCLC and the Gates Foundation showed the same thing.  Based on this study, Mr. LaRue's approach was to create a script and recruit passionate library supporters who were NOT library staff or board members to deliver the speech to groups each of those people are involved with.  The main goal is to change the mindset from "tax burden requires tax relief" to value of services for money spent.  Show the value of libraries with real-world stories.  It's really great and I'm already thinking about who I might approach to try this in Hutchinson.

Civic Duty...

Important, but really, really disruptive.  Having just spent a week and a day with a dozen of my peers sitting on a jury, I have a renewed appreciation for our justice system.  It is truly a fascinating process.  Sometimes tedious, sometimes baffling, but orderly, fair, and based utterly (from a juror's perspective) on weighing facts presented against the law as explained by the judge.  However fascinating though, it put me behind at work to a degree that will take me weeks to pull back even.

Back in the library world though, one of my fears for ebooks seems to be coming true.  The publisher HarperCollins has decided that they want to pretend that ebooks are the same as paper books - but only in very specific ways.  These specific ways are tied directly to their financial bottom line to the harm of us all.  Am I being melodramatic?  Possibly.  But I think that my fear that publishers were trying to steer the written word toward the licensing model used for software is coming true.

You see, HarperCollins has just discovered a key fundamental difference between paper books and ebooks and realized that , "Woah, this could hit us in the wallet!", though I have doubts about the wallet part.  HarperCollins has realized that ebooks have the potential to last forever.  Therefore, they have changed their DRM scheme so that ebooks purchased by libraries "wear out" after 26 checkouts.

In practice, that means a service like OverDrive, a service to which we subscribe, will charge us every time we have a 27th borrower wanting to download an ebook.  That means every time a patron downloads a book but decides it's not for them and deletes it from their reader, the library has lost 1/26th of the use of that book, even though it was never read.  What if a patron downloads it and never even transfers it to their reader?  Still a lost 1/26th of the book for the library.

Consider the number of times you have been to a library, checked out a number of books and returned a few because after browsing them or attempting to read them, for one reason or another you decided it wasn't the book for you. Is it reasonable to assume that those unread or partly read books have had 1/26th of their useful life consumed?  I don't think so.  In fact, I think that the majority of our paper books, even with the crummy bindings that pass for "library binding" these days last longer than 26 circulations.  I looked up a random copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and looked at its use statistics.  It was added to the collection in 2005 and has since circulated 46 times.  Under HarperCollins new model we would be looking at purchasing a third copy in the very near future if it were an ebook.

In my opinion, this is the final step in turning the "book" into purely a commodity where previously it was a medium to store the accumulated wisdom of civilization as a whole.  Still too melodramatic?  Perhaps.

Libraries on life-support

I know that librarians do a poor job of explaining their worth to just about everyone.  I know that I am equally culpable in not making a better effort to advocate, extol, and generally proselytize the virtues of what is often viewed as a prim-and-proper relic of the past - the public library.  I promise to do better.  I am going to increase my campaigning, awareness-raising, interest-garnering activities this year, and I am starting here.

I also know that I have been ranting with increasing frequency these days at the lack of thought and foresight employed by our nation's leadership.  So part of my righteous indignation (intelligible or not) will be directed at some of the dangerously short-sighted foolishness our leaders are proposing as "prudent".

Three different articles and/or calls to action came to my attention just this morning.  The first is a great opinion piece by the author Scott Turow published on that bastion of "lefty"-ness, the Huffington Post.  Don't, however, discount the power of the article simply because of the medium.  Read it - Mr. Turow hits the nail on the head regarding the attitudes of today that are quite literally destroying the egalitarian basis of our nation.

The next article is a blog post presenting 10 "misperceptions" about public libraries.  The post is a somewhat humorous look at ways we librarians are perceived.  I think most of them are fairly commonly held and I think the list could be expanded quite easily.

The third thing that I read this morning was a call to action on a piece of federal legislation - the FY2011 Continuing Resolution.  It would seem that a Representative, Mr. Scott Garrett - R-NJ, would like to eliminate all funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) including Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).  Not only would this be disastrous for libraries, it is monumentally, colossally stupid.  Money from LSTA funds lots of library related things.  In Kansas, some federal funds provide access to databases.  Databases offered at public libraries like "Learning Express" provide practice tests for all sorts of degrees and certifications.  People who have lost their jobs often come to public libraries to get help finding new jobs.  Yet we want to cut the funding for these tools?

So, do people really still use libraries?  The answer is "yes".  My post about Kansas' State Librarian testifying before the legislature shows that.  The really sad thing is that in the grand scheme of things, libraries are cheap.  The root of all this funding nonsense gets back to the idea that librarians are terrible at letting everyone else know how many people they serve for how little.  Two rants in one week - I'd better go check my blood pressure.