Straight Talk Panel at CLA 2012 #calibconf

Straight Talk: The Directors Speak featured five prominent directors whose contributions to our profession are quite substantial. The program was sponsored by the Management Interest Group, and was presented at the California Library Association Annual Conference in San Jose. I was honored to moderate the panel, and excited to assist in providing such a valuable program. It’s inspiring to gather a group of some of the best minds in the library world to hear them talk about their experience as directors and their views on where we are headed as a profession. As busy as this group is, I was amazed that they so readily agreed to serve on this panel. The panel members are Librarian of the Year winners, library management school instructors, and Eureka program mentors, in addition to being inspiring library directors.

Luis Herrera, San Francisco Public Library Director; Rivkah Sass, Sacramento Public Library Director; Patty Wong, Yolo County Library Director; Brian Reynolds, San Luis Obispo County Library Director; and Robert Karatsu, Rancho Cucamonga Library Director, sat down with me to talk shop. The California Library Association Management Interest Group and I gathered questions to ask. The responses were insightful, inspiring, and surprising. It takes a lot to be a library director, and even more to be an inspiration to others.

I asked them five questions:

1. What made you choose the path to become a director?

2. What has surprised you about being a director?

3. If you could give someone just coming out of library school one piece of advice what would it be? Keeping in mind that this might affect the path they choose to take.

4. Given the current trends in technology and funding, where do you think libraries will be in 5 years?

5. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned as a director?

The Responses
No blog post could possibly compare with having been a member of the audience. For those of you who were not able to attend, here are some of the notes that I gathered as they were speaking. Some of it of course may have been shortened and/or paraphrased. Organized by speaker, from left to right.

Luis Herrera, San Francisco Public Library Director

Organizational citizenship behavior: you are an ambassador to the organization. You contribute to the health of the organization. It's about creating a stronger and healthier organization. You are responsible beyond your job. If we are going to thrive, we need to blur our organizational lines. 

We can identify trends to prepare us for the future. The publishing industry will be a big impact on libraries. It also hinges on the consumer. We need to be part of that trend to be part of the future. Staff need to plan programs. Not just what has happened, but something entirely new. E-learning is a great idea working with vendors. Lifelong learning: libraries will be people's university. We are facilitators of learning. Collection management is going to be our one biggest concern. How do we balance media vs. print. We need to be storytellers. 

Political nature of the job- once you accept that you will do a much better job. 60% of the job is dealing with politics. You can broaden the political environment if you do not personalize it. Don't take it personal. You want to be liked, but it is part of a process to believe in what you are doing. You will not please everyone. High tolerance for change. Tolerance for ambiguity. Top down library management is out. Need a bottom up approach. Suggestions coming from the staff can be more accepted than it came from top down. Culture of engagement.

Brian Reynolds, San Luis Obispo County Library Director

You become a really big pebble. What you do or don't do matters. It affects everyone. Need to be compassionate and common-sensical. People are relying on you to be steady. Do you have what it takes to deal with difficult people and stay sane? You have to have that. 

We serve too small of a community. We only serve a small part very well. Need to convince half of the population that we matter. Not to look at just libraries, but also look towards the community.

Acquire and attain good staff. Create working additions that provide that environment. Don't let people know you are doing that. It is a political minefield over time. To improve morale, better to go after the bad staff rather than praise the high achiever. You have to be willing to fix it. 

Rivkah Sass, Sacramento Public Library Director

It's okay to make mistakes. We'll only get better if we make mistakes and own up to them. When you make a mistake, know how to fix it. Admit your mistakes. There are people who will not like you.  She used the Winston Churchill quote, "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

Directors need to be optimistic about libraries. Well-educated community members over 50 are coming in running our programs as volunteers. Embedded community inside our libraries helping us solve community problems. Libraries that will thrive will not be wallpaper. Use our community in ways we never thought of before. It's the talent and skills that our community will give to us. Eureka program is a great harvester of our future. Convergence of community technology and people, with the library as the nexus. The library is the place that will help them learn what they want to learn.

Everyone has a set of strengths. Don't be afraid to hire someone with a skill set that you don't have. Different skill sets make a whole.


Patty Wong, Yolo County Library Director
The Director job is very unstructured. Need to go beyond the MLS. Getting it and being done is not ok. You need to be continually learning. Continue to grow. Need to make connections outside of libraries. Build community through others. You are responsible for your own growth. Go make the world a better place.

Need to be relevant with our own funding. Can't rely on the same resources that we have always relied upon. Find new sources of revenue and new partnerships. Work with local government organizations. Need to be stronger advocates for our diversity in funding. We can influence policy as a neutral organization. Access to information cannot be just through the smart phone. Internet Access is not as universal as we think it is. Libraries need to be at the forefront. Abundance thinking, not scarcity thinking. 

Directors can have same level of importance as politicians and other government officials. You are that important. It's important to know where your money comes from. Leave your ego at the door. You need to have partnering skills. Surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Team building support is necessary. You just need one more person to stand next to you and you have a team. Bridge builders! 

Robert Karatsu, Rancho Cucamonga Library Director
You are ultimately responsible for everything.
Be creative, do new things. Start a program and then let others borrow.   
We can't get in front of the technology. We can't predict the future. Find the right path. 

Libraries are not silos. We need to create relationships. There are always opportunities to partner with other organizations. As Library Director, he is part of the Emergency Operations Center because librarians have those crisis skill sets. 

Librarians Rebooted: ALA 2012

One of the greatest benefits of attending a conference is the encouragement received from other librarians. Currently, most libraries are likely  under so many budget cuts and restrictions that the answer to any new idea is probably "No." Over time, it begins to not only wear on a person, but it discourages innovation. The obvious problem is that we need new innovative ideas now more than ever. We don’t provide better services by cutting; we only do that by innovating.

photo courtesy of Jazzy Wright 

I've spoken at the California Library Association and at Internet Librarian, but it was a special thrill to speak at the American Library Association's Annual Conference. I spoke about our "Job in a Box" program for E-Government in Action - Matching People with Jobs. This is part of our concept "Your Library in More Places" proving that our library can indeed be everywhere, when and where you need it. 




We've been expanding our book machine program for some time. We recently purchased two more machines: the first to be deployed at one of our branch libraries, making it a 24/7 library, and another one near a school, much like our Cutler machine. Because our purchase of the machine was so close to ALA, PIK Inc. asked if they could display our machine in the exhibit hall. It has a new fun design on the side that will hopefully catch the attention of patrons.

Additionally, I participated in the ALA Outreach and Diversity fair for the California State Library's Literacy and Outreach programs. They also highlighted our book machines and other programs to help connect patrons with jobs. 

The opportunity to participate in committee work is another benefit of attending a national conference. I currently serve on the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) for the Leadership Skills Committee and now also the Human Resources Management Committee. LLAMA is at the forefront of providing programs that will help librarians step into management and leadership roles. To further this goal, LLAMA recently revamped the mentoring program.

National and state conferences contribute to the vitality and development of our profession. Participating in these conferences is beneficial to the individual librarian, but also to the home library and community. This work is invigorating, but one of the keys to maintaining that passion is to find ways to replenish it. Conference is a great way to do that and come charging back with fresh energy! 

A Future of Reading: The Barnes and Noble Nook Check-out Project

We recently launched an e-reader project at our library with great success. Barnes and Noble currently has a program that offers support for libraries thinking about circulating Nooks. I wasn’t aware of this project until last Fall during the California Library Association Conference, at which time I was approached by a Barnes and Noble representative about the program.

The Origin: Sacramento Public Library

I first learned about the Sacramento Public Library’s Nook project as part of the "Great in the State" presentation highlighting ideas that libraries could adopt. I was part of the panel there discussing our "Job in a Box" project and book machines. They were circulating the Barnes and Noble Nook to patrons, pre-loaded with books.

A Different Approach to Circulating E-Readers

Over the past several years, libraries have experimented with checking out e-readers, so the concept itself isn’t new, but having the blessing of the organization certainly is. I remember the “wink, wink” approach from other vendors suggesting that libraries could do that and they won’t say anything, but they won’t offer support.

A surprising aspect of Sacramento's presentation was that they brought their own Barnes and Noble representative and she worked with them every step of the way on their project. I was even more surprised to discover that the rep was looking for me at the conference.

Doing More with Less

We aren’t the wealthiest of libraries, but we do have a very healthy and robust e-book collection. Through her research, the rep found that we had the most e-books per capita, per expenditure in the state of California. In short, even though we didn’t have a lot of money, we still thought e-books were important. And they certainly are. Since the e-reader Christmas of 2010, the demand for e-books in libraries has sky-rocketed. We only launched our collection in June of 2011, but the demand was already there. Heavy promotion of our collection, as well as the Kindle compatibility announcement from Overdrive, led to a significant financial contribution to expand our collection. We are in tune with community demand and therefore, we were in a perfect position to take the next step.

Sacramento has done an excellent job promoting its program. I saw them at CLA, the Edgy Librarian, and more than a few webinars. They have also done an extensive job documenting their project (http://www.saclibrary.org/?pageId=1465) For a library with our resources, we planned to do the stripped down version.

Our Version of Circulating Nooks

We purchased 30 Simple Nook Touches at around $100 each. We also purchased the Nook satchels that Barnes and Noble sells. The complete check-out kit includes: the Nook, a cover for the Nook, a usb cord, power connection, instructions, all placed in the satchel.

The rules for transferring titles to devices is six devices per book. Therefore, we performed the math- 30 Nooks, five genres, six books per Nook. We distributed the project among the collection development librarians responsible for the genre including:  fiction bestsellers, non-fiction bestsellers, romance, mystery, and young adult. The books would have a normal check-out rate with late fee charges and replacement charges consistent with how we check-out similar materials. Those who check-out the Nooks must sign a form stating that they will accept the replacement charge if they break, damage, or lose the device and any of the parts. The project in general cost around $4,000 to run with 30 Nooks. 

Great Press Coverage, Great Success

We plan to expand the program based on its recent success. We also received heavy press attention for the venture. The local ABC News covered the program and we received great coverage in the local paper:

Visalia's Library to offer e-book readers

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20120517/NEWS01/205170320/Visalia-s-library-offer-e-book-readers?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage

The Nooks are coming to Tulare County Library

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20120516/ENTERTAINMENT06/205190308/1040/ENTERTAINMENT

The extensive coverage resulted in all of the Nooks being checked out in the first two days of the program. We announced the open-house program to check-out Nooks for Friday at 2PM. We actually had people lined up as soon as we opened at noon, waiting to get one of our new Nooks! In the first five minutes, all of our Fiction Bestsellers were checked-out and most of our Non-fiction. Saturday morning, all the Nooks were checked-out, a marvelous success. Our next steps will be an assessment from patrons to see if they liked the format, the titles, and how we can improve the program. The general idea for this kind of program is to introduce our community to the future of reading. They have the opportunity to look at the device and see how it works. It also helps us promote our Overdrive e-book service. In utilizing a relatively cheap and easy to use device, a patron can have access to their reading material 24/7, all provided by their local library!

Some brief notes about the Digital Public Library of America West Program #dplawest

 Digital Public Library of America is a vast program attempting to encompass everything from rare archival information to the modern best sellers- all through a single interface that will enfold all human knowledge. A rather ambitious endeavor. A great deal of this is born out of the wreckage of the Google Digitization project that was shut down by the courts due to copyright issues. In order to restart the program, the steering committee is rebooting the program on its own.

There is a good overview of what they want to do in the LA Times Opinion Page:


A universal digital library is within reach
"But the dream of a universal digital library lives on. Now a coalition of libraries and archives has come together to create a Digital Public Library of America to fulfill the original vision of a digital library for all. It could well be that an effort without commerce in the mix will have an easier time of it."

There is also far more thorough overview by Peter Brantley in Publisher's Weekly:
At West Coast Meeting, Digital Public Library of America Begins to Take Shape 



My initial observations after attending DPLA West last week:

The plan is to include everything, even the obscure paper that existed for a few years in a tiny rural community- a problem of unique, but obscure content. Negotiating the copyright to include the big newspapers, as well as modern popular authors, is a legal hurdle.

I was generally heartened about the support for rural libraries. A big problem that I see is that we are not moving fast enough. A lot of private companies want to digitize library content (especially newspapers), with quick and dirty techniques. Using simple OCR techniques is not enough; the text can be found, but the context is lost. We need the metadata and that is what Harvard just recently released.

Coordination strategy is important, but formal process even at the state level is too slow. They don't have the staff or the funds, and neither do local libraries. If we don't get the funds and the staff then how are we going to digitize anything?

If this gets off the ground, we would really have an accurate view of cultural content. Look up a topic and find everything- from web pages and images, to books, archival newspapers, and oral histories. Research that encompasses everything in one search, rather than using different websites for each type of research.

Digitize older books or negotiate for books in copyright; both take time and money. Which one will take priority? New books are sexier, but history is just as essential.

Program had a tough time with the ebook lending aspect. What is available and how is it getting distributed? We do need to get ahead as an organization, otherwise a private group will develop one and we will again be a bottom priority. We need movement on this issue.

This ambitious program faces the chasm and the wall. There is a chasm that represents the lack of digitization of archival materials. Libraries all across the country have such rich cultural collections that need to be scanned and preserved, but there isn't the funds, staff, or equipment to make it happen. There is a wall that represents the big publishers and authors. If we cannot gain the rights for distribution of this content, then not only will this project stall, but it places libraries in jeopardy. There is obviously a lot at stake here. It is an encouraging project despite these facts. DPLA is on the right track and with the right moves it can unleash the kind of service libraries have only dreamed about.