The Hutchinson Public Library is in the midst of quite a big transition. You wouldn't know it necessarily, unless you tried to put a book on hold in the past few days, or tried to renew an item on line.
What we are doing is changing what has become the very foundation for every modern library, our "automation system" or from the user's perspective I suppose, the "computer catalog". This is the computerized system that allows us to do everything from keeping track of our new book orders to cataloging, finding, and checking them out to you, our users.
Our trusty old system called "Horizon" had fallen prey to the same situation as Microsoft's Windows XP - it was no longer slated for improvement, rather it was slated for replacement. The new system we have chosen is called Polaris. Polaris offers many searching improvements and a strong staff-use component and is backed by a company committed to serving public libraries specifically.
We hope that you will like the new Polaris system. I hope you will bear with us while we switch over. After March 5th, please ask any of our staff members for a "tour" of the new system or just give it a try, Polaris is quite user friendly!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Libraries in The News
A very good article about library use in hard economic times appeared in the Hutchinson News on Monday. Kathy Hanks spoke to several librarians, myself included, about what they were seeing on the “front lines”. While HPL was only briefly mentioned, we are seeing some of the same effects here in Hutchinson.
Instead of dwelling on the bad times and worrying about the future in this post, I am going to share some of the current goings-on at HPL. These are things that we do all the time.
Kids can come to the library and “Read to Rover” once a month. (March 12 from 6-7 will be the next opportunity). Your child can select a favorite book and share it with a canine friend from the Hutchinson Kennel Club’s group of therapy dogs.
Teens and young adults can game in the library, everything from board games to Wii and PS3, at our next gaming day on March 7 from 12-4 pm.
Right now, the Hutchinson Public Library is at the start of its spring adult reading program, details here. This is something we do every year to promote reading, good economy or bad!
We also participate in a cool program put on by the Kansas Humanities Council. With the TALK About Literature in Kansas program, participating libraries pick a genre and then hold book discussions led by Kansans with some expertise either in the genre or the particular title for which they lead the book talk. This spring we have “The Best of the West”. The details are on our website.
One of our favorite things to do at HPL is to have authors visit and talk about writing, getting published, or simply tell us about what their latest project might be. In March – the 22nd and 23rd – the author Nancy Pickard will be at HPL to give both a writer’s workshop AND an author talk.
If you are trying to save money or simply looking for something relaxing and different to do, stop by, get a cup of tea or coffee at our coffee bar, “The Reader’s Cup”, and browse the stacks, view the art on display in the auditorium, or attend one of our many programs. Find info about everything I’ve mentioned on our website, or give us a call.
Maybe I am biased, but public libraries are great uses of public money. And librarians, because they often have to work with tight budgets, try to make that money really work for you.
Instead of dwelling on the bad times and worrying about the future in this post, I am going to share some of the current goings-on at HPL. These are things that we do all the time.
Kids can come to the library and “Read to Rover” once a month. (March 12 from 6-7 will be the next opportunity). Your child can select a favorite book and share it with a canine friend from the Hutchinson Kennel Club’s group of therapy dogs.
Teens and young adults can game in the library, everything from board games to Wii and PS3, at our next gaming day on March 7 from 12-4 pm.
Right now, the Hutchinson Public Library is at the start of its spring adult reading program, details here. This is something we do every year to promote reading, good economy or bad!
We also participate in a cool program put on by the Kansas Humanities Council. With the TALK About Literature in Kansas program, participating libraries pick a genre and then hold book discussions led by Kansans with some expertise either in the genre or the particular title for which they lead the book talk. This spring we have “The Best of the West”. The details are on our website.
One of our favorite things to do at HPL is to have authors visit and talk about writing, getting published, or simply tell us about what their latest project might be. In March – the 22nd and 23rd – the author Nancy Pickard will be at HPL to give both a writer’s workshop AND an author talk.
If you are trying to save money or simply looking for something relaxing and different to do, stop by, get a cup of tea or coffee at our coffee bar, “The Reader’s Cup”, and browse the stacks, view the art on display in the auditorium, or attend one of our many programs. Find info about everything I’ve mentioned on our website, or give us a call.
Maybe I am biased, but public libraries are great uses of public money. And librarians, because they often have to work with tight budgets, try to make that money really work for you.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Government Works...
...in strange but not so mysterious ways. Our Board chairperson and I spent the day today in Topeka talking with as many of our local legislators as possible. In fact, librarians from all over the state were there for the same purpose at the Kansas Library Association's annual legislative day. I traveled there knowing full well that large cuts to state funding for libraries are in the works. Times are truly dire and cuts are in the offing for just about everything the State does this year and, unfortunately, in 2010.
Nevertheless, I tried to impress on our government representatives the importance of libraries in hard economic times. When the economy is bad, people turn to their public library to help fill the gap. Yet ironically, libraries are often among the first places to receive reductions in funding. The Hutchinson Public Library has seen some of this increased use in the past few months. I shared with our elected officials some of our data showing increased circulation of books and DVDs and anecdotes from staff regarding increases in computer use for things like job hunting, resume writing, and applying for assistance.
I also reminded them that while funding cuts might be unavoidable now, they should not forget libraries when the economy, as it hopefully will, turns around. Another part of the information I shared with them was a return on investment summary for the Hutchinson Public Library. The calculator I used to create the summary takes average costs of library materials, factors in cost for equivalent services like research or computers and printing, and facilities like meeting room space. When you add in the tax dollar amounts to support these things, the calculator gives you a dollar amount for the value of all this to the library's users. In the case of the Hutchinson Public Library, the return our community receives for every $1 it invests in the library is $5.67. In my view, that's a good investment any time, but especially when money is tight.
We will see what happens to the state budget in the next few weeks. The library, like most everyone else, will tighten its belt in anticipation of lean times. All of us at the library will also continue to provide the best service we can. Speaker O'Neal, Senator Bruce, and Representative Seiwert were very generous with their time on Thursday, and for that I am very grateful and say, "Thank you!" I do not envy them their task trying to balance the state budget. After my visit though, I was heartened by seeing first hand that those folks we have sent to do this work are looking at the big picture. It is up to us to make sure that they do not forget that institutions like public libraries help keep communities going while we all wait for that big picture to be realized.
Nevertheless, I tried to impress on our government representatives the importance of libraries in hard economic times. When the economy is bad, people turn to their public library to help fill the gap. Yet ironically, libraries are often among the first places to receive reductions in funding. The Hutchinson Public Library has seen some of this increased use in the past few months. I shared with our elected officials some of our data showing increased circulation of books and DVDs and anecdotes from staff regarding increases in computer use for things like job hunting, resume writing, and applying for assistance.
I also reminded them that while funding cuts might be unavoidable now, they should not forget libraries when the economy, as it hopefully will, turns around. Another part of the information I shared with them was a return on investment summary for the Hutchinson Public Library. The calculator I used to create the summary takes average costs of library materials, factors in cost for equivalent services like research or computers and printing, and facilities like meeting room space. When you add in the tax dollar amounts to support these things, the calculator gives you a dollar amount for the value of all this to the library's users. In the case of the Hutchinson Public Library, the return our community receives for every $1 it invests in the library is $5.67. In my view, that's a good investment any time, but especially when money is tight.
We will see what happens to the state budget in the next few weeks. The library, like most everyone else, will tighten its belt in anticipation of lean times. All of us at the library will also continue to provide the best service we can. Speaker O'Neal, Senator Bruce, and Representative Seiwert were very generous with their time on Thursday, and for that I am very grateful and say, "Thank you!" I do not envy them their task trying to balance the state budget. After my visit though, I was heartened by seeing first hand that those folks we have sent to do this work are looking at the big picture. It is up to us to make sure that they do not forget that institutions like public libraries help keep communities going while we all wait for that big picture to be realized.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
It's a start...
Libraries are curious places. Often, they are at the forefront of technological change. Librarians are, as a group, surprisingly adventurous when it comes to discovering and using new tools to communicate information. The Hutchinson Public Library has had an electronic catalog since the 1980’s and has had the ability to answer research questions through chat, email and online databases for years, here. Heck, you can even play games at the library on our periodic gaming days.
Paradoxically, libraries are also sometimes slow to make institutional change. Take this blog for example. It represents a years-old method to communicate with ones constituents and yet the Hutchinson Public Library directors, past and up to this point, have not used one. Administrators sit in an office and have people and doors and walls between them and their customers, right?
We are interested in useful change here at HPL. There are many exciting new things going on at the library that, I hope, will be embraced by you, the people we serve. My intent for this blog is to post information about new things we are trying and provide a way to start a dialog.
In this first post, I want to present to you a few things we have begun over the past year or so. A major addition to HPL has been our new Children’s Outreach Coordinator. This wonderful person has taken our little idea of reaching out to daycares through rotating book collections and occasional storytimes and turned it into a fantastic program that has DOUBLED the number of children HPL reaches with books and stories.
We have also reorganized two departments in order to provide improved in-house storytime and children’s programming.
We have a coffee shop now, The Reader’s Cup – come in and try it out.
For several months, we have been working to create a computer training lab separate from our public computer area. This new lab will allow us to expand our free class offerings, provide a place for qualified groups from the community to come and do their own training, and provide greater access to our public computers.
Finally, to tie back in to the paradox I mentioned at the beginning, we are changing our catalog system at the beginning of March. HPL has used the Dynix/Horizon system for many years, but that company rested on its laurels, didn’t recognize the need to innovate and has now fallen into disarray. Our new system has some great features which I will delve into in the upcoming days and weeks.
For now, I would like to hear from you, the users of the library. Tell me what you think and tell me what you would like to know about libraries in general and the Hutchinson Public Library specifically.
-gregg
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