It's happening!

Robots will be replacing us in libraries! Sure, this article says the intention is to relieve librarians of "menial" tasks but that's only to get their foot in the door. We all know that our robot overlords are just biding their time, gradually insinuating themselves into our everyday lives. Before you know it, we'll all be scurrying around like rats in the rubble of our meat-bag civilization as the robots take over.

OK, maybe I'm getting a bit carried away. This is actually a really interesting technology. The robot could search the stacks at night, and help us humans find mis-shelved and lost items in our stacks. The Hutchinson Public Library has well over 250,000 physical items. It takes a considerable amount of time to keep the shelves in order. It is also very time consuming to look for items that didn't get checked in properly.

I'm looking forward to this step towards Skynet myself.

The Hero-Librarian

No, I'm not talking about Noah Wylie and that sometimes entertaining but very silly  movie and TV series "The Librarian". I'm talking about a librarian in the real-life struggle of preserving cultural heritage and artifacts from the very real barbarians attacking countries all over north Africa and the Middle East.

Read about Abdel Kader Haidara, a Malian book-seller and librarian from the ancient African city of Timbuktu. This guy is an example of a regular person going about his life, finding himself in an extraordinarily bad situation, and choosing to do something about it. His actions undoubtedly saved an irreplaceable collection of work from the clutches of the barbarians that had invaded his city.

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.

I am on a ranting roll!

I have spent my entire working career so far as a public servant. I never expected to get rich doing what I'm doing. I am not a leech. I do not collect a paycheck off of "your" taxes and sit on my duff. I try to make the world a better place for all of HPL's patrons through prudent and responsible use of tax dollars to provide services that individuals could never afford on their own.

However, these past few years have made me reconsider. They have made me look around and seriously consider the private sector or a less contentious, out-of-the-fray profession. You see, after a while you just get tired. You get tired of always defending what you do. You get tired of explaining over and over that libraries are not obsolete, they haven't been replaced by Google, we have expertise you can't afford to buy on your own, we have access to tools far too expensive for the individual, and on and on.

What are we at HPL? We are champions of literacy - we want every single child and adult who wants to to be able to read, use a computer, and ultimately to have a good life. We are navigators - we can guide you through the flood of information and lead you to the bits you actually need. We provide a safe place to think and to connect. We want to be a hub for civic and cultural participation.

Yes, we have books. Yes, we have a copy machine. And yes, we have ebooks, downloadable music, audiobooks, and even a teaching tool for you to learn 100s of new marketable skills online - even from home.

And finally, yes, people do use the library. 41,872 people hold HPL cards (and have used them at least once in the last 3 years); our door counters registered 271, 247 entries in to the building last year; and our staff answered 47, 112 research questions last year. Oh, and our WiFi access points recorded 42, 350 connections in 2015 transferring many terabytes of data. 17,722 people of all ages attended programs in 2015.

/end rant

An Excellent Choice

For the first time in about 30 years, the Library of Congress COULD be headed by an actual <GASP!> librarian! Though her appointment is far from certain in our current Idiocracy, President Obama has nominated Carla Hayden for the position of Librarian of Congress. I think she is an excellent choice for a number of reasons. First, she is a librarian. Not just a run-of-the-mill librarian like me, but one who has made her career standing up for her ideals.

You might not remember, but Dr. Hayden was a vocal opponent of the Patriot Act in those frantic and frightened months after the 9/11 attacks. By publicly butting heads with the then Attorney General John Ashcroft, she made sure that the citizens of our country knew the dangers of that pernicious and long-lived erosion of our constitutional rights. The Patriot Act truly is the defeat of American ideals that the terrorists were looking for.

More recently, as head of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Dr. Hayden kept the library open during the rioting and strife that city experienced. EPFL remained open as a safe haven for the community in a time of danger and fear.

The Library of Congress has, in my humble opinion, fallen behind in the world of national libraries. Specifically, digital access to collections has been slow in coming. In order to lead in the world, again in my humble opinion, the US must lead in knowledge creation. We have a mighty engine of collection and organization for that knowledge that could regain preeminence in the library world under the leadership of a skilled librarian.

Mining the Archives

In my previous post, I highlighted the State Library's government information blog. That is a neat tool and a great place to find interesting tidbits about Kansas history.

Did you know that the Hutchinson Public Library has something similar? One of our great reference staff members created "Mining the Archives", a blog dedicated to history in general and all the interesting things you can find poking around the archives of our library.

It's been a while...

In years past, I tried hard to promote the KGI (Kansas Government Information) blog. Not because they need my help, but because they provide fascinating reading. The KGI blog is chock-full of the sort of useful information that good librarians collect. The current post is about a mysterious explosion in Coffeeville, KS.

The KGI blog showcases state documents housed in the state library collection and current information that affects us regular citizens in our daily lives. I would suggest a look - it can be really fascinating!

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.

Obsolete?

Cool! I think this is probably an indication that librarians are NOT obsolete:

newsworks article

Is it the same job Ida Day had when she was here at HPL in the 1940s and 1950s? Nope. And thank goodness!

As that article states, Google hasn't made us obsolete so much as it has off-loaded some of the more routine questions (what we used to call "ready reference") and allowed us to focus on the more in depth questions. We can help match people with tools that will get them straight down their research paths rather than possibly wandering around on a digital snipe hunt.

I have high hopes for the future of my younger colleagues. I may be one of the old, stodgy library administrator crowd now, but I haven't lost (I hope!) my inquisitiveness, my love of the hunt for the next cool thing, or my ability to recognize a good idea when I or one of our staff sees one.

Book Challenges - What tops the list?

 ISO 3864-1 prohibition sign via wikipedia

Public libraries are places for contemplative study, for entertainment, for meeting and sharing of ideas. Not just some ideas, not just some points of view, but as many of each as possible. Public libraries are meant to represent the views of ALL people in their communities and therefore any individual using one may run into ideas that are in opposition to his or her own.

This is NOT a bad thing. This is a good thing. Libraries are "safe" venues to be exposed to other view points and other ways of thinking. What's harsh, crass, or offensive to one person may be matter of routine to another. To "not be offended" is a dangerous and increasingly common reason for blocking, censoring, and otherwise trying to suppress ideas that run contrary to one's own. It is generally attempted and justified in the name of sparing the "innocent" from a perceived harm if an idea is shared.

Here's a good summary of a portion of this years American Library Association "State of America's Libraries Report" concerning works that are challenged most often:

http://boingboing.net/2015/04/14/ya-graphic-novels-books-by-p.html

In some ways this might not be a surprising list, but it is a never ending battle that librarians fight on your behalf. Bottom line is that we believe you know best what is appropriate for you and your children. This is why we, as librarians, encourage learning with , reading with, and visiting the library with your children.

Prepare for your Robot Overlords

Some people know that I have a tongue-in-cheek "obsession" with Skynet, the computer network from the Terminator movie series that becomes self-aware and concludes that humankind are not necessary. It's a bit of science fiction that hopefully will not become reality, but that makes for a great action movie premise.

To (again tongue-in-cheek) help this future become a reality, HPL has deployed a new RFID system from Bibliotheca to help us cut down on the amount of tedious, repetitive work and focus more on customer service.

Our new check-in shelves help our staff AND you in several ways:

• You can now see in real-time that the items you've returned are actually checked in.
• We can see right away when an item "on hold" has been returned, so we can process it right away.
• By placing items on shelves instead of dumping them in a bin, we all save wear-and-tear on the materials.
• The items you return are immediately available for another patron to use, simply by browsing the return shelves.

Our new self-check kiosks are similar in ways to many others we have had over the last 10-15 years. The new ones do have a couple of enhancements:

• We have added extra security - you must enter a password (PIN) to check out items.
• Multiple items check out simultaneously.

What does this new equipment mean for us in terms of saving time? Here is one example involving the process to check in an item. The old process (once you dropped it off in a bin) went as follows:

1. Staff waited until bin was reasonably full (this meant digging if we needed to find an item to check in early, such as when a patron had reached the limit for certain types of, like DVDs)
2. A staff member rolled the filled bin to a separate check-in space.
3. The staff member checked in each item one at a time
4. The staff member sorted, printed holds slips, etc. one at a time
5. The items were loaded back on a cart and rolled to reshleving areas
6. Items were ordered on the carts and reshelved.

The new process eliminates steps 2,3, and 4 and shortens steps 1 and 5. The end result being that staff members have more time to help patrons use the library to its full potential.

I think anything we can do to focus more of our time on actually serving the public rather than performing tedious, repetitive tasks is a good thing. Our investment in this system may be "buying in to" whiz-bang technology, but the goal has nothing to do with getting the latest-greatest thing and everything to do with being available for our users.

National Library Week, April 13-19

Lots of cool things will be going on at libraries across the country this week. One of the cool things being done by a company is being done by Oxford University Press. For the week, all of their online resources (Think Oxford English dictionary, for example) will be free to use.

Here is the link to the announcement.

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!)

Authors and Ebooks

A movement is afoot with authors on the side of libraries in the current struggle to find a happy medium in the ebook world.

Give the site a look: Authors for Library Ebooks

We want to provide as many digitally accessible books as we can, but at current prices to libraries we have to be VERY selective. Plus the variety that are offered to libraries for "purchase" is severely limited compared to what can be obtained by consumers individually. I think the four bullet points in the link cited above pretty much cover what I and many other librarians know to be true. I think many patrons know them to be true as well.

Why do we have public libraries?

Some (most, probably) will think I'm a little slow-witted asking this question.  The "educated" technophile might say public libraries are an anachronism and that everything needed research-wise or recreational reading-wise can be obtained online or through Amazon.  The hard-line libertarians would most assuredly say that the money spent on them would be better utilized by the individual to choose to spend on their own education if she/he so desired.  The cynic might say that we (society) have to provide SOME place for the homeless and disturbed to hang out.  Yet other people never even think about the library as a useful tool at their disposal, having had at some point in their lives a bad experience with fines or fees or even SHHHHHH! ... librarians.

There are some days where I can at least see the reasoning for some of these stances.  I have to remember that I have a vested interest in this whole concept.  And yet...

Many of the same social conditions that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and that were the impetus for creating free public libraries, exist today.  In fact, poor educational level, poverty, sub-par work skills and the accompanying lack of upward mobility have intensified since I became a librarian in the mid-1990s.

Back to the title of this article: Why do we need public libraries?  Early childhood literacy.  If I could say nothing else about them, if I could answer in only one way, this is a role public libraries fill and succeed in like no other "free" public institution.  Study after study has shown that the single most important factor to success in school is mastery of basic math and reading skills by Kindergarten.  Public libraries have been working diligently at this for decades.  Bring your child to story time, check out some books to read with her at home and BAM!  You've received a huge ROI on your tax dollar because your child is positioned to succeed in school and ultimately in life.

Honestly, we need as many avenues to literacy, competency, life skills and work skills as we can possibly manage in our current world.  The gap between the rich and poor has grown once again to an enormous chasm.  While libraries need to remain relevant by adapting to new media, they must continue to focus on their strengths.  First, the librarians and specialists that can instill the love of reading and learning at a young age and provide support and training throughout the lives of our patrons. Second, the power of being free to all who want our services.  Third, the willingness to explore those new tools as they come around and to bend them to our will - helping our patrons grow and learn.

Youth and Libraries

Courtesy of Vancouver Public Library/Creative Commons License

The Pew Research Center has published a study about the reading and library use habits of people between the ages of 16 and 29.  It might surprise many people who DON'T use the library to find out that this 16-29 age group DOES use the library!  For those of us who work in public libraries however, this should not be a great surprise.

Walk around the Hutchinson Public Library in the afternoons and you will see many teens and young adults using our library.  We often have a variety of home school students and community college students using our resources.  If you stop to think about it though, it makes sense.  I think many of the folks who "marvel" at the opportunities provided by the Internet, e-content, smartphones and tablets are people who didn't grow up with them.  Those younger people who have grown up in an Internet world see the library / physical materials / librarians as a few of the tools among many options, but tools that are of value nonetheless.

Libraries must evolve to provide the services and resources that people find useful.  I think that is happening and I think that the Pew Center study gives us an indication that we are on the right track.

Health Care Reform Resources

If you want to learn the facts about something, ask a librarian.

Case in point is this week's Kansas Government Information blog, one of my favorite librarian-produced blogs on the Internet.  Follow this link to the KGI blog and a tremendous list of information about how the Affordable Care Act will affect you, your business, your health, and your finances.

2012 Kansas Library Association meeting

Go check out this ad campaign - it will open your eyes!

Every once in a while, it's good to get together with a group of people who do the same general things you do and talk about it.  You find out new things, get new perspectives on old problems, and sometimes you find that the things you are doing are ahead of every one else!

I spent a couple of days last week in Wichita at just such an event, the 2012 KLA conference.  This is a gathering of Kansas librarians from all walks of the profession - public to college to special libraries.  Of course, the best thing about these events is the time you get to spend talking with colleagues.  Sure, the sessions impart information, the keynote speakers inspire you to new heights, etc.  But the real value in putting forth all the work necessary to hold a professional conference is the face-to-face communication.

I will say that the keynote speaker, R. David Lankes was quite interesting.  His whole talk was about how libraries have slowly shifted focus over the centuries and how we need to look back and consider reviving some ancient practices.  Take for example the great library at Alexandria.  Over two thousand years ago, some very wise people started collecting not "things" per se, but thinkers - people.  They invited great scholars to come there and create.  The knowledge created was then cataloged and stored in the library there.  Wouldn't that be a cool thing for modern libraries to do?  We could make it easier, more conducive, and desirable to come to the library to collaborate, think and create.  And here's a crazy idea:  We could tell people that's what we're doing!  It made me feel very good about the future directions of the Hutchinson Public Library and what we are planning with our re-imagined library technology center.

Well, off I go, back to my daily routine.  But I have some new ideas to work into the regular flow of "stuff" that happens every day.  I think that if some of my HPL colleagues were as inspired to make changes as I was, you'll see some cool new stuff here soon!

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!