Interesting NYT article

This article about public libraries illustrates the resilience of our type of library and our type of librarian.

The article is focused on libraries in and around New York City, but it could easily be describing public libraries across the country. Public libraries have shifted their focus from being warehouses and custodians of things to being places that focus on the users and their goals.

The flexibility and innovation shown by public libraries may surprise people, but we've been doing this for decades - adapting to the times. It doesn't always happen all at once, nor does it happen in equal measures everywhere across the country, but it happens. Most importantly, a good public library adapts and changes for the betterment of its community!

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 New Brand - A New Image!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity at the Hutchinson Public Library! We have been working for some time on a fresh new image for the library.

Every once in a while all organizations need to pause and take a look at HOW they look. What does a patron experience when she visits the organization's website? What does the app or apps look like? What does the physical space look like?

Hutchinson Public Library's image was what it has been for many, many, MANY years. It wasn't bad by any stretch, but it wasn't inspiring. It wasn't current. It didn't let people know what our amazing staff had to offer or what tools we had hidden.

So we went big with color, we set our sights high on what we want to say to our users. We want to be the place where patrons can explore an idea or a subject. We want to be the place where patrons can discover a solution, a new passion, or a new course in life. We want to be the place where patrons can connect with one another, with other entities in the community, and with ideas from around the world.

Our new face has a name - Seemore. He will help you (and us) see more of what's around locally and far away. I'm excited to with where the Hutchinson Public Library is going. You will be seeing more of our bright new colors and our smiling helpful nature in the weeks and months to come.

If you haven't visited us recently, stop by virtually or in person and we'll be glad to help you with that next great discovery!

Eating at the library?

Of course. Everyone does it. Walk through the library on any given day and you will see patrons snacking on packaged things like a candy bar or peanut butter crackers. Often, library staff will have an event in their breakroom or a celebration, like our volunteer luncheon, in the auditorium. Food is part of the library. Heck, we even had a coffee bar in here for many years that served cookies, muffins, and sandwiches!

So why not take two of the typical functions of a library - book clubs and food and combine them? This article from the Columbus Dispatch talks about an Ohio library that has done just that. They have a cookbook club that taste-tests recipes from the library's cookbook collection!

What do you think?

Maker spaces should be more than 3D printers

The idea of a "maker space" is very appealing. For me it conjures a vision of walls of tools and cluttered work benches. For others it seems to simply be a 3D printer. Don't get me wrong, I think 3D printers are pretty amazing tools. But when I let my mind wander though and think about what people want to do compared to what tools they can acquire themselves, I see a more wide-ranging maker space. I see a sound lab for recording and editing music or the spoken word, such as collecting local oral histories. I see a video recording studio. I see a place with tools not easily afforded by the individual citizen. I see a place to connect with an editor for one's literary work and even a place to print a book. I see the library becoming a place where knowledge is created in many ways along with the creation of actual "things".

These spaces are being created in libraries all over the country. In this article about Oregon libraries, you can read about what some libraries there are doing. It's happening in larger places all over, but I think it could happen in the middle of Kansas as well.

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

Hutchinson Public Library needs to do this

I think a partnership with USD308 and USD313 at minimum such as the one described in this article would be fantastic! Making student IDs a substitute for library cards? Why not? Our goal as a library is not to be a substitute for schools, but a resource to draw upon. Specifically, we want to be a resource for the individual student.

Sometimes, a barrier for kids is not getting to the library, but having their own cards. "But that's subverting parental rights!" you say. This could be true. But notifications could be sent, benefits of the idea could be shouted from the roof tops so that parents are aware of what's going on. And no other effort would have to be made on the part of the parents.

And what would be going on is reading. My goal would be that HPL could be the place where a student gets connected with her or his passion. That passion might be something that leads to a career or that feeds a life-long hobby. It might simply an escape from the day-to-day "work" of studying and school that can sometimes (I can attest personally to this) takes the joy out of reading.

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.

Talk20 time!

It's coming soon - January 22nd here at the Hutchinson Public Library. We'll close the library to regular business at 6pm and then re-open at 6:30pm.

Read all about Talk20 on their website. We love having this event here at HPL even though sometimes we run out of seats and people have to stand!

Thank you Patsy and Kari for all the hard work! And thank you to the presenters who are putting their stories out there and sharing with their community. 6 minutes and 40 seconds goes by so quickly, but the preparation time doesn't, I'm sure!

It's the same all over

Only in some places the scale of the problem seems massive relative to one's own issues. Take for example the City of Birmingham's (UK) problem with overdue books. They currently have 145,671 overdues! Now, of course Birmingham is a large city and the library system there holds well over 1.9 million items. Just in raw numbers though, that's a huge bunch of books. But my reading of the article linked below makes it sound like that 145k number is a snapshot; in other words a total from a specific day but looking back over a ten-year period.

You can read about their predicament in this BBC report.

To put it in perspective, the Hutchinson Public Library holds a total of about 260,000 physical items. We currently average (this is a guesstimate based on number of notices we send out per day) about 300 items overdue. Also, we consider items that are "overdue" for a long time, say a year, not "overdue" but "lost".

Another Interesting Circulating Item

Four Pennsylvania libraries will be circulating ukuleles! This is the start of a project created by a group of ukulele enthusiasts that has a goal of reaching 32 libraries.

Apparently, the ukuleles even come with some training for staff in the basics of ukulele playing. I imagine the staff thinking the same things about this that they do when any new service or tool is introduced at their library - "People are going to ask me how it works!" So I think it is fantastic that the ukulele afficinados responsible for the project are thinking big picture and making sure they have advocates in the libraries.

I saw this and was thinking that this is what really might be the biggest problem for the "Library of Things" post I made about the Sacramento Public Library a few weeks back. I wonder how they deal with patrons who come in and want to check out, say, a sewing machine and then want to have a staff member show them how to load the bobbin? If you had a library of things, you would want to have a library of experts, or at least knowledgeable staff, I would think. Although, I suppose you could just adopt the position that the library of things is there for patrons who already know how to use the "thing" they are checking out, rather than a hands-on learning collection.

Does the public library matter to you?

Maybe the Hutchinson Public Library or some other public has had an effect on your life. Perhaps you just needed a place to sit and relax, perhaps you needed a source to finish a paper for school, or perhaps you needed to search for a job or needed instructions to repair your car.

Maybe you haven't been in a public library since you left school. You may not feel like something seemingly so "old school" could possibly be useful in a time of smartphones and streaming everything. If you can get all you need information and entertainment-wise by paying for it, you probably can't see the utility in such a "populist" institution as the public library. But there are millions of Americans who cannot afford or even purchase if they wanted, good, high-speed Internet access. Public libraries can help with that - some even lend WiFi hot spots for you to take home!

This is a great article from the magazine The Nation about the value of public libraries. I'd recommend a read.

Computers are moving!

We are changing the way we provide public computing here at Hutchinson Public Library. We are moving to the open space on the first floor under the mezzanine area! This does mean some upset and limited or no access during the move, but we'll be back up as soon as we can make it happen.

For years and years we have had a computer lab tucked away on the second floor of the building that served all our public-access computing needs. This was a great way for us to handle a large computing demand and provide some level of assistance in computer use.

We had 21 computers in the area plus a scanner and printing capabilities. There was a staff desk which was manned at all times when the lab was open.

The down sides to this method of computing were how tied the staff member was to the service desk, limiting their ability to help in some cases. Also, because the computers were in such a small space, there was no way to effectively "sit down and teach" a new skill when the lab was even moderately full. The real down side was the fact that the room itself could never be temperature regulated. Way too hot in summer and if the wind blew hard out of the northeast, way too cold in the winter. And let's face it, in the summer the space just smelled bad.

So, the new area is out in the open. This means that our staff (we'll still have a manned IT desk) will be able to get up and have space to help learn new skills. We'll have time-keeping and printing software to take that tracking burden off of the staff members. The computers will be wireless, thus easily movable. The climate will be under control. Basically, we hope that this move will be an improvement.

Those of you with a long memory know that the computers used to be on the first floor. I file this kind of change under the category "what's old is new again" in this case!

I hope you come in to see the changes!

Very much looking forward to this...

I have always been a history reader. Definitely not a historian, but an avid reader mostly of ancient history, and also modern history especially around the World Wars. A couple of years back I read and was amazed by Antony Beevor's account of the D-Day invasion, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. The book was not an easy read, but it was amazingly insightful and very well written.

Now, Mr. Beevor has a new book coming out that I am anxiously awaiting. It is titled Ardennes: 1944 and is an account of Hitler's last big offensive, the long-shot gamble for Germany to break out in the west and split the allies. The review from The Guardian linked above is quite complimentary, so I'm now even more excited! Hurry up, publisher!

Storytime resurgance

An interesting article from the New York Times about the growing popularity of story times in public libraries. This phenomenon is due, I think, to the focus (not everywhere, unfortunately) on the importance of early childhood literacy. Educators and policy makers have been pushing development of pre-k programs to make sure that young children are familiar with the basics of letters, numbers, and the like by the time they hit kindergarten. I thought this quote from a nanny in NYC was telling:

“It used to be, ‘What do you do when the child cries?’” she said. “Nowadays, they’re like, “We would like to have library time.’”

Of course, I'm giddy that people are finding value in a service that all public libraries provide! We are earnest in our collective desire to help children grow up to be the best adults they can be and we think that we have skills and services that are extremely valuable and in many cases quite under utilized.

Here in Kansas we have a Six-by-Six program emphasizing six skills that all children should have by age six. Besides pre-k, toddler, and soon baby story times, the Hutchinson Public Library has created the E.L.F (Early Literacy Fun) area in the Children's Department to support early literacy. This area contains hands-on activities for children based on general topics. The intention is for parents to work with their young children in the area. This activity strengthens bonds and better prepares these little people for the challenges of school.

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.

Public library for getting work done?

So, the author of this lifehacker article wants to get people to think of their public library instead of a coffee shop as a place to get work done (I assume when on the road or if you don't have an official "office").

I think that traditionally, people think of libraries as places for studying but not for conducting business. There are good reasons for this. If you read the comments after the article, they are filled with opinions that range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Valid (IMO) is the idea that conducting business sometimes means making noise, such as by talking on a cell phone and that might not be the most considerate thing to do at a library. Valid too is the idea that a library COULD be a great temporary office, but the facilities need to be there. Any library with small study or meeting rooms for reservation would be perfect. You could make some noise in the enclosed space without disturbing others. Likewise, you could avoid noise if that's your need.

Is this sort of activity possible at the Hutchinson Public Library? Frankly, yes and no. We really aren't set up very well to serve this sort of patron need. A row of 2-3 person study rooms would be ideal, but we don't have that here. we do have larger conference rooms for public use, but those get used for group meetings quite a lot and might not be available if someone wanted a work space on a drop-in basis.

What are your thoughts? Do you mind a conversational volume level of talking in a library? What could HPL do to make itself attractive as a place for the business person to work while not disturbing traditional library services? If you are a business person, are there services or "things" the library could provide to make it an attractive place to do a little work?

The "Rich Guy" and "Those People"

It's no secret, I'm sure, that expectations for public behavior seem to be at a low ebb. People that work for public institutions and tend public spaces deal with daily behavior that 20 or 30 years ago would have been cause for calling authorities.

Today there is a much larger percentage of people whose sense of entitlement leads them to believe they can let their children (or themselves) run rough-shod over the rules. We at the library try to be there for all - young, old, rich, and poor. We try to create rules that make use of our library available to all. It's a balancing act.

Behavior and our expectations for how people should act in public occupy a lot of our time at the library. But there is a deeper issue at work.

When you combine an educational system that won't allow or acknowledge the failure of a student, an economic system that has bred chronic un- and under-employment, and a culturally embedded feeling that laying blame is preferable to taking responsibility you end up with people who don't know how or don't care to behave well in public.

I don't know how to cure society-wide ills like this, except through education. Unfortunately, public education is under such unwarranted pressure that that solution seems less certain now than in the past. I do know that most of what we are changing here at the library are attempts to contain undesirable individual behavior.

So, what do we do about behavior in the library? We continue to encourage good behavior, try to enlist the cooperation of our patrons, and ask that people be considerate of others, by pointing out unacceptable behavior before asking people to leave.

Sometimes this involves moving things around. For example, we're moving the smoking area on the West side of the building. Many people entering the building have complained, not necessarily about the smoking in the area, but the attendant bad language near where children enter.

We have moved an adult reading area from right next to the E.L.F. family area. Many adults have an expectation of quiet that we just can't provide near our children's library.

The behavior for which I have no answer has come in this form: "I don't go to the library any more because there are homeless people there." When I first heard that there are folks in our community who won't use their public library because "there are homeless people there", I was more than taken aback. I was hurt, and then curious (with a tinge of paranoia). Who do they say this to, and why?

Is it a surprise that those in need might make use of what few public services there are? Society at large has failed to end joblessness and homelessness and has failed to treat mental illness and drug abuse. I am not sure I can change a well-to-do person's assumption that homelessness=criminality or a well-to-do person's desire to avoid being uncomfortable when confronted by the reality of our local economy.

Now I'm just mad. Mad at the selfish, hard-hearted attitude. Mad and disappointed in an influential person in my community. The public library is THE place in a community where everyone should feel on equal footing. We will work hard to make sure that everyone is welcome here and that everyone is safe here. We will encourage good behavior and will not tolerate behavior that takes away from others' experience at the library. You are safe here, rich guy. I'm sorry if you have to see a homeless person (not really, I actually think it's good for you). But I can almost guarantee that it isn't the homeless person you need fear, it's your attitude and the behavior it breeds. HPL has a dizzying array of tools for everyone and for virtually every educational, inspirational, and even entertainment need. It is a place that can offer hope to anyone who comes in. The library is not a religious institution - no need "convert" or "confess" to get help. The concept of the public library is a societal good. A gift to us made possible by a compassionate, forward-thinking society that valued education and wanted it available to anyone. And if there is no where else to go, the "good" the library does for a person might simply be to let her or him warm up, sit, and maybe, just maybe pick up something to read.

Talk20 Hutchinson

A parrot? In the library? With 275 people...after the regular library hours?

Indeed that was part of the program this July 24th when Talk20 Hutch once again took over the Library and enthralled the audience with a variety (10 to be exact) of stories. All from people (and parrots) who live right here in our Reno County communities.

This is one of the programs here at HPL that I absolutely love. We do nothing but provide the space and you, our community have provided us with now 40 snapshots of awesomeness.

If you would like to see the presentations, they are archived at the official Talk20 Hutch website. Just click on the Talk20 Hutch videos link and watch away!

If you would like to come and see what all the fun is about, your next opportunity will be January 22, 2016.

If you would like to tell your story at the next or some future Talk20, click here and fill out the form. Talk20 is always looking for unique stories!

Summer 2015

Summer Reading Program - a ritual so ingrained in our staff member minds that it's jarring when you run in to people who don't know what it is or how to participate in it. This was the case with our State Governor a few years back when he created a program for children to continue to read throughout the summer. Apparently, no one on his staff told him that practically every public library in the nation, let alone Kansas, has a summer reading program.

Our theme this year was "Every Hero Has a Story", and we had visits by heros ranging from firemen and policemen to the Batman!

This year, Hutchinson Public Library had:

1037 children sign up for the program with 601 reading 10 books/10 hours or more! That means in a period of about 10 weeks, over 6,000 books were read!

103 young adults signed up with 65 turning in 5 or more completion forms! There were a grand total of 1035 completion forms turned in (these represent either 1 hour of reading or 1 book read)

 More than 550 children came to the Summer Reading kick-off Celebration, 1136 children attended summer story times, 238 people participated in family time programs, and 395 children came to July craft days.