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.

New Job Search Tool!

The Hutchinson Public Library has added a new search tool to its arsenal of job search and business information offerings. A to Z databases is a great resource for jobs (a quick search turned up over 20,000 jobs listed in Kansas). If you are an HPL library card holder you can access this tool from anywhere. If not, and you are in our building you can still access the tool through one of our computers.

It has 10s of millions of business listings, resident listings and even a cell phone # database besides the job bank.

Warning: Education Rant Ahead!

Ordinarily, I try to not stray far from the areas of reading, libraries, the effects of technology on libraries, and activities at HPL here on this blog. But today I am going to stray off topic and into the realm of education, migration, and the economy. With that in mind, the following are my opinions, not my library's, and I am expressing them to blow off steam...

First, education: Our great state of Kansas has long struggled with providing public education. Wide-open spaces, few people, and a great divide between the rich and the poor have long caused strife and acrimony. Mostly, we've ended up in court because we can't decide how to solve the problem ourselves as citizens and law-makers.

This past go-round has been different. The courts ruled that the legislature needed to better-fund schools. The legislature though, caught up in the lunacy that is "all taxes are bad, no taxes would be Nirvana", are on the verge of crippling our state by failing to provide any real solutions to the education issue. The group to suffer? Maybe you think I'm going to say the poor or disadvantaged. Of course, they always end up with the raw deal. No, the people who are going to suffer most are all of us. There are so many things wrong with the current funding proposals, I am not at all sure where to start.

Lawmakers in Kansas seem fixated on destroying public schooling. They hate Common Core (you can read the standards yourself at that link). Whatever. I hated No Child Left Behind because of its good intentions but unintended outcome of forcing teachers to teach the test so that they didn't lose their jobs. After reading about it, I can't imagine Common Core will be worse. What I find outrageous about the funding bill are the attempts to eliminate more taxes while supposedly fulfilling the funding obligations of the State. For example, Kansas lawmakers have tied tax breaks for corporations to private schooling in the education funding bill. What? If the schools are broken, we'll give you money to go elsewhere RATHER THAN SPEND THAT MONEY TO FIX THE SCHOOLS? What happened to providing for the common good? I am a tax payer with children in public school and in no way do I want to support an "opt out" philosophy. Well, hey, at least we're not embarrassing ourselves debating evolution or something.

The real problem though is my second and third gripes;  Kansas lawmakers keep cutting taxes to businesses saying that it's the only way to grow the economy. Information has come out that shows Kansas, despite gutting its revenue streams lags all states around us in economic growth post-recession. The State collects less in taxes, but has shifted much of the burden to counties and municipalities. The economy is still sluggish. That leads to more people moving away. Of course, that has been a topic of worry since I was in school some 30 years ago. Youth leave and never come back. Interestingly, the trend of folks (not just youth, but all ages) leaving the state at a faster rate than before has accelerated.

Here's my theory: people want to live in a place with a sense of responsibility. A place where corporate interest is balanced by responsible taxation. No one wants to move to a state where you can (theoretically, 'cause it ain't happenin' here!) get a great job, but have terrible, under-funded schools in towns that have to charge high property taxes just to keep the doors open. Would we all like to pay zero taxes? Of course! But reality intrudes into that simplistic desire. We want good education to build smart, capable young workers, to attract business...to grow.

OK, rant over. If you've stuck it out this long, here's a picture of Batman riding an elephant as your prize:

Most Engaged Library Users? Also the Most Tech-Savvy!

Another study indicates something counter-intuitive (at least upon first glance) about libraries and technology. It turns out that the most engaged library users are at the same time heavy users of technology. This might not surprise librarians, but it should be a surprise to so many in news media that have been trumpeting the end of or obsolescence of libraries. A recent Pew Internet study indicates 2/3rds of Americans are engaged library users. The core of the report (for me) is this:

“A key theme in these survey findings is that many people see acquiring information as a highly social process in which trusted helpers matter,” Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project and a main author of the report said.

And many find that librarians have access to networks of information and information sources that complement the research tech-savvy adults can do on their own. I might live to see the day when my opinion is held as truth: That the librarians - the actual people - are any library's most valuable asset. Read the survey results here.

Bravo my fellow librarians! Carry on!

Reading - A Conundrum

The United States has an obsession with reading - and not in a good way. It's really an obsession with who is reading, what those people are reading and for how long. I have the feeling that it is one of those things with which we have become overly concerned. We are focusing on it so intently and picking at it like an itchy scab that it is never going to be fixed.

These are some curious ideas: How Public Libraries Are Solving America's Reading Problem. There is a lot of talk about merchandising and displays, dumping the Dewey Decimal System, etc. I say the ideas are curious because none of these ideas are new. This discussion has been worked over for more than a decade; the article is mostly about merchandising books rather than warehousing them.

HPL is decidedly a warehouse - mainly out of necessity. We have so many items in our collection that we have to use every shelf, every corner and every nook that we can to store them. Heck, we even have an overflow area for items with seasonal interest!

Many of the ideas in the Forbes article linked above would require radical shifts were HPL to try them. Would you be more likely to search for your next great read in a bookstore-like atmosphere rather than our VERY library-like library?

Would you be interested in using a building that had fewer items out for immediate access, but displayed in bookstore-style "subject areas"?

The fact of the matter is that the use of our library has flattened out both in terms of people walking through the door (-3%) and circulation overall (-2%) in 2013. The question is open though as to whether people are reading less, or just reading differently than the ways they used to read. How can the library best serve you in helping to promote reading?

Compelling Arguments

In the ongoing transformation of libraries from information storehouses to community hubs (or whatever other speculative "end result" at which you might want to try and guess), the great fear expressed by many has been that libraries will disappear altogether.

My personal opinion is that public libraries will continue to evolve as they have for the past 180+ years in the United States. Libraries have always been a place to find information. Likewise, they have been a refuge for the resource-poor patron, the self-motivated scholar, the curious and the beginning reader( of all ages). I think libraries will continue to fill these roles even as they add services to cater to the technological whims of the day.

One day the eBook world will settle down and the walled collections of eMaterials that publishers have built will be opened for sharing in some fair and equitable way. I really think that there is a place where consumers, creators, and publishers can all find common ground and be fairly compensated and well-served.

All this rambling and digression to point your attention to this well-written article from the IT trends blog at a company called Laserfiche. To summarize, it presents the argument that paperless should not mean libraryless.. I think this quote is key and is something we're trying to work toward at HPL:"Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era - the language of technology."

We'll see how well HPL can adjust, but we will continue to grapple with our transformation into a place where patrons can come to get answers to whatever questions they may have. Specifically a place they can come to get answers not found simply in a book or other resource but that may require learning a new tool or building a new skill through interaction with a friendly, knowledgeable staff member.

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

 

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

Talk20

Six minutes and forty seconds is quite a challenge - but I think it will be fun. What am I talking about? We're supporting an idea here at the library that involves... sharing ideas! Here's a link to a better description of what the program is about. This isn't a one-time deal, but it won't be offered all the time either. It is something that will hopefully get the community talking and learning about the things in which our neighbors are involved.

I like the idea of a library as a place here not only is knowledge collected, organized and stored; but a place where knowledge is created.