NUMBER 1000!! Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Again

This is my 1000th post! Amazing.

Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Again (based on a true story)
by Michael Stephens, Tame the Web blog, 8 April 2006, http://tametheweb.com/2006/04/ten_phrases_i_hope_i_never_hea.html

1. We’ve always done it this way.
I think it’s time to red flag any utterance of that phrase in our libraries and make sure it’s not just an excuse to avoid change. It may however, be the best way to do something... so if you say it, add “and we examined other ways, and this way is still the best!”
If you are hiding behind that phrase because you’ve had enough new things or just want to keep things the same, it might be time to move on. Is it anxiety that puts up barriers?

2. He/She is a roadblock for anything to get done.
This is a tough one. It usually comes in a whisper from an exasperated librarian who can’t seem to get anything done because someone on their team or up above stops everything in its tracks to think. What did Abram say...? "When librarians study something to death, we forget that death was not the original goal."
In this climate of rapid change, we can’t take 6 months, form a committee, write agendas, meet, transcribe the minutes, make more agendas, have more meetings and on and on. The best librarians in the future will make good, rapid decisions, based on evidence, experience and a view of the big picture.

3. The IT department won’t let us.
I know there are many reasons why some things simply can’t be done in some libraries, but after many workshops, talks and receptions talking to librarians, this seems to be the number one hit on the Librarian’s Frustration Hit Parade. Thank Goodness we have folks writing about it:

4. I don’t have time for (insert new social tool here).
Ouch. Here’s where a healthy dose of evidence will help. Print some copies of the Newsweek story, The New Wisdom of the Web (http://www.newsweek.com/id/45976), any of the Pew Reports that discuss uses and their online activities and some of the wonderful real life examples we have of librarians using social tools.

5. Our director doesn’t like technology.
Attention library directors! If you don’t like technology, there may be a problem! You do not have to be a tech genius, but you need people under you who aren’t afraid of change, can innovate and will help guide your decisions. And you have to be able to talk to them. Failure to implement technological change can hurt the reputation of a library. Failure to allow your librarians, techie or otherwise, to move forward with improvements and new services in this 2.0 world, will send them running away screaming. (And they will tell their colleagues at conferences all about it! Trust me.)

There’s a New Library Journal in Town

The first two issues of Collaborative Librarianship are available online. It looks to fill an overlooked niche in the library management field. From the site: “Now more than ever, libraries exist and thrive through collaboration and partnerships. Building on an impressive history of collaborative library experience, Collaborative Librarianship will add to the professional literature a wide scope of thought and writing that is: creative, evaluative, and scholarly.”

The journal is sponsored by the Colorado Academic Library Consortium, the Colorado Library Consortium, the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, Regis University, and the University of Denver. The editor is Ivan Gaetz [Dean of Libraries, Regis University, Denver, Colorado] and the editorial board includes, among others: Stephen Abram [SirsiDynix, Toronto, Ontario, Canada], Camila Alire [President Elect, American Library Association, Sedalia, Colorado], Christie Brandau [Kansas State Librarian, Topeka], and Jesús Lau [President-Elect, Mexican Library Association Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico].

If you register at the home page, you will receive the Table of Contents of each new issue by email. There is also an RSS feed.

Welcome, Collaborative Librarianship!

URL: http://www.collaborativelibrarianship.org/index.php/jocl

The Library Rebooted--Lessons for Library Leaders

Scott Corwin, Elisabeth Hartley, and Harry Hawkes of Booz & Company in New York have written very thoughtful article on the new library in the Google age. It appears in strategy+business, a publication of Booz. You have to register to read it, but it is free.

The best part are the seven imperatives for library leadership:

1. “Rethink the operating model. Many of the old assumptions about running a library—that the measure of a library’s quality is the size of its book collection, that there’s value in keeping even infrequently loaned books on the shelves, that library staffing questions shouldn’t be questioned—are outmoded and need to be set aside.”

2. “Understand and respond to user needs. Libraries have only the most general information about their users—how many of them there are, what they do when they are at the library, and what they borrow.” “Libraries should develop advanced capabilities to build aggregated profiles of users….”

3. “Embrace the concept of continuous innovation. …approach the innovation challenge with an entrepreneurial mind-set: test measure, refine.”

4. “Forge a digital identity. …some experimentation is in order.”

5. Connect with stakeholders in ways pure Internet companies cannot. …take advantage of [the libraries’] local strength and on the research library side share their service-oriented expertise in new ways and through new channels.”

6. “Expand the metrics. As they refine their mission, libraries will also have to change how they measure success. …online-specific metrics will have to be added.”

7. “Be courageous. The library’s underlying promise hasn’t changed…but the environment in which libraries operate has certainly shifted, and the challenge for those running them is to figure out the evolutionary path they should follow. There is no one answer…nothing at all is written in stone.”

URL: http://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb54_09108.pdf

AALL WIKI: TOOLS FOR SUCCESS IN TODAY’S ECONOMY

The American Association of Law Libraries unveiled its new Wiki of “resources to succeed in today’s economy.” Articles are divided into 4 categories. Career tools includes article on combating burnout, continuing professional education, job seekers, leadership training, networking and salary negotiation. Financial tools cover budgeting, general financial tools, funding, negotiation, and open access. Management tools include conflict resolution, customer service, hiring and recruiting law librarians, law firm library management, general management tools and managing, and promoting the law library. Finally, there is a section of public relations tools. Most so far are from Julia O’Donnell, AALL Director of Publications, but you can join the wiki and contributed items yourself.

URL: http://aallnet.pbwiki.com

BOOK REVIEW: THE SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARY SURVIVAL GUIDE

Landau, Herbert B., The Small Public Library Survival Guide: Thriving on Less, Chicago: ALA Editions, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8389-3575-0, US$38.00 (members: US$34.20).

Landau, Director of the Milanof-Schock Library in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, has written a small but useful book. There is not a whole lot new in this guide, but it brings together many ideas that he has used to keep his small library alive—and to help it to expand its offerings and services.

I especially like the first and last chapters. Why This Book is Necessary and Conclusion: Is It Worth All the Effort explore the role the public library can and should serve in small-town America in the twenty-first century. He rightly concludes that yes, it is worth the effort to afford the opportunity to access information by all—including the poor, the young, the rural, and the elderly—who may have no other option.

Except for those chapters, the book follows the usual management book arrangement with chapters on creating a strategic plan, funding the plan (with ideas specifically for the small library), marketing, programming, staffing, and purchasing. He provides some ideas not found in most such books, such as bake sales, taking passport applications (increasing both funding and traffic), and face-to-face marketing and soliciting of funds. There is a bibliography and index and eight appendixes: institutional sources of information, sample survey questions, sample direct mail solicitation letter, how to evaluate old and rare books, sample memorial gift form, sample research grant agreement, press release guidelines, and sample Friends of the Library bylaws.

If you run a small public library, you have already found out that the lofty ideas in most management or marketing books exceed your time and financial constraints. Your problem is solved by this book—it was written just for you!

(The fact that Landau recommends both my blog and one of my books had no effect on this review, although it does indicate that he is a man of good taste.)

URL: to order the book:
http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2&_pn=product_detail&_op=2573

DO YOU WORK WITH MILLENNIALS?

If you work with the millennial generation (or Gen Y), here is a book you absolutely must read. It is the best I've seen on the subject. The subtitle says it all: "how the millennial generation is shaking up the workplace."

Alsop, Ron [The Wall Street Journal], The Trophy Kids Grow Up, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-22954-5, US$24.95.

TWO TO READ: THE "ACCIDENTAL" LIBRARIAN AND CREATING YOUR LIBRARY BRAND

MacKellar, Pamela H., The Accidental Librarian, Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2008, ISBN 978-1-57387-338-3, US$29.50, foreword by Karen Strege [Director of the American Library Association Library Support Staff Certificate Program]

What is an “accidental” librarian? MacKellar, a library consultant who has mentored many “accidental” librarians in all types of libraries, writes, “Librarians without MLS degrees are essentially accidental librarians—increasingly being hired as frontline librarians of all kinds and sizes, performing duties that were formerly carried out exclusively by professional librarians, while MLS librarians can be found working behind the scenes in management and administrative positions, including technical services, marketing, systems administration, and personnel.” (9) She adds, “Accidental librarians may be more numerous—and important—than you think:” many research libraries hire non-librarians as directors; many library school deans do not have a MLS [including number-one ranked University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]; Librarians of Congress do not have to be degreed librarians (the first librarian was appointed in 1899 and the first degreed librarian was L. Quincy Mumford (1954-1974); the Council on Library and Information Resources doesn’t require its grant recipients to study LIS; and some states do not require the State Librarian to have a MLS.

The above doesn’t even take into account the myriad of non-librarians who staff small libraries in churches, corporations, and small public libraries. MacKellar reports that only about two-thirds of public librarians have a MLS (varying from 21 percent in Montana to nearly 100 percent in Hawaii and New Jersey). This is a deplorable situation, especially when more and more newly-graduated librarians cannot find professional positions. However, it is not a situation that is likely to change. Therefore, it is especially good that this book has been written—to give these “accidental” librarians the basics of librarianship in an easy-to-use and easy-to-implement form.

The book is divided into four parts: I. Basic Library Principles (what is a librarian? what are libraries? the people libraries serve, determining the needs of people libraries serve, letting your vision, mission, and plan be your guides); II. Basic Library Practice (developing the library’s collection, acquiring information for the library, organizing the library’s information, retrieving and disseminating information, library services, library policies, library management essentials, library marketing, removing barriers); III. Technology and the Library (public access computers, automated catalogs, online reference tools, library 2.0) and IV: Career Development (getting connected and finding support, librarian certification, continuing education, distance education, and degree programs). The text is supplemented by many sidebar interviews with successful accidental librarians and useful exercises at the end of each chapter. There are three appendices (sample library policies, LIS education resources, and library issues and legislation), a list of recommended reading, a list of websites, and an index.

While not as good as having a “real” librarian running every library, it is much better than having an uninformed amateur who is called a librarian providing poor service and giving the profession a bad name. What’s more, it can also serve as a good refresher course for anyone with a MLS who has been out of school for a while. A very worthwhile purchase.

Doucett, Elisabeth, Creating Your Library Brand: Communicating Your Relevance and Value to Your Patrons, Chicago: ALA Editions, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8389-0962-1, US$45.00.

This is a book designed not to be read front to back; it is designed so that you can read just those sections that apply to your own library’s situation. Doucett, director of the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine, has both a MSLIS and a MBA and has served as a project leader for branding programs. She even includes a sample project plan moving from what branding is through a brand audit to developing a brand and marketing plan. She begins differentiating marketing and branding and defines branding in one comprehensive sentence: “Branding is the process of defining a library’s story, distilling that into one short, appealing sentence that tells the whole story, and then visually conveying the story via the library’s logo and other branding elements.”

Next come chapters on why brand? who should be involved in branding: the ideal brand, the brand audit, the story: defining your message; the visuals: attention-grabbing support for your message; brand standards, brand advocates, and marketing; how to work with outside help; evaluating your brand: short-term and long-term; maintaining your brand; blogs and brands; and common pitfalls and false assumptions. In addition to exercises at the end of each chapter, there are two appendices consisting of three actual case studies and 113 words to describe your library and what makes it unique, a short glossary and an index. I can’t think of anything she has left out.

If you are considering creating a library brand—and every library, no matter how small, should have one—or updating your existing brand, this is the one book that you must read. (I would also recommend this classic: Ries, Al and Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, New York: Collins Business, 2007, ISBN (paper) 978-006000773-7, US$18.95.)

URLs:
The Accidental Librarian: http://www.accidentallibrarian.com
Creating Your Library Brand: http://www.ala.org/editions/extras/Doucett09621

HAVE YOU SEEN BNET?

BNET, short for Business Networking I guess, calls itself “the go-to place for management.” Their services include news feeds and analysis, special reports on specific business issues, “crash courses” on skills and business topics, podcasts, and executive summaries on trends and events. There is also a business library with “unlimited access” to white papers, tools and templates, and research articles. It is owned by US-based CBS Interactive, they have separate editors for the UK and Australia.
There is a limited (but ample) amount of information available without registration, but since registration is free, why not join and get all of this great stuff. If you’re working with management/business people (and who isn’t), you should at least look at BNET.

URL: http://www.bnet.com

RSS FEEDS FROM HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

You can now subscribe to feeds from leaders in management from the Harvard Business Review. Some of the luminaries are: Gary Hamel on The Future of Management, Tony Mayo on 21^st Century Leadership, Tom Davenport on The Next Big Thing, John Quelch on Marketing KnowHow, and, saving the best for last, Larry Prusak on books that you must read—Now Read This! What a great resource!

URL: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com

MANAGEMENT PORTAL

Value Based Management.net bills itself as “a management portal specifically aimed at the information needs of senior executives with an interest in value creation, managing for value and valuation.” It looks to have links to just about every management method, model, theory, or buzzword you could ever need. The list of links itself takes three pages to print out. You can browse alphabetically or by these categories: articles, books, glossary, leaders, and organizations. It is edited by Jaap de Jonge, a Dutch consultant.

URL: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net

KEEP UP WITH EMERALD MANAGEMENT JOURNALS

Emerald, a journal publisher, now provides RSS feeds for its approximately 180 individual titles, including many in the field of librarianship.

Some of the titles you may want to watch are: (bolded titles seem most interesting to me)

International Journal of Career Management, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Librarian Career Development, Strategy & Leadership, The Learning Organization, Women in Management Review, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Journal of Knowledge Management, Measuring Business Excellence, Journal of Health Organisation and Management, Journal of Management in Medicine, Leadership in Health Services, Aslib Proceedings, Campus-Wide Information Systems, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Information Management & Computer Security, International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, International Journal of Web Information Systems, Internet Research, Journal of Documentation, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, OCLC Systems & Services, Online Information Review, Records Management Journal, Electronic Resources Review, International Journal on Grey Literature, Reference Reviews, Reference Services Review, Library Management, Performance Measurement and Metrics, The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, The Electronic Library, Library Hi-Tech, Library Hi-Tech News, New Library World, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers.

You received weekly abstracts of the Table of Contents. You can’t see the articles online unless you have a subscription to the journal, but you can order them for approximately £20 each.

Thanks to Library Boy Michel-Adrien Sheppard [Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario] for pointing out this resource.

URLs:
Emerald Feeds: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/
JournalRSSFeeds.do#58
Library Boy: http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/

NEW BLOG--BY A HOSPITAL CEO

Running a Hospital is a new blog by Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. I just started following it, but it looks fascinating and provides a viewpoint not often seen in the blogosphere--management. I wonder if the Beth Israel librarian is blogging?

URL: http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/