Google Books, Apple Apps, and Gov Docs or "..you don't have to burn a book you just remove 'em"

Updated 5/24/2009, Apple reverses decision, allows Eucalyptus:

"Then early Sunday, Apple changed its position and accepted the app after discussions with Eucalyptus developer James Montgomerie, the developer wrote on his blog:

"Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store. "

Apple Says no to Project Gutenberg
"Apple has rejected Eucalyptus, an ebook reader that facilitates downloading public domain books from Project Gutenberg, because some Victorian books mention sex (many of these same books can be bought as ebooks through the iPhone Kindle reader or purchased as audiobooks from the iTunes store). It's amazing to think that in 2009 a phone manufacturer wants to dictate which literature its customers should be allowed to download and read on their devices. "

If Apple really thought about it, they would realize that there are other apps that can download Project Gutenberg books, many of which are explicit. There is a list of 1001 books you should read before you die that include many offensive and explicit books.

Image via Wikipedia

This argument is difficult since it is over access to a book that most people believe should be banned. What's the big deal?

If a private company can do that, they can do that to ANY book. They could ban the Grapes of Wrath. This isn't considered an offensive book, but some people didn't like the way they are portrayed, so they burned the books. However in this case, people who don't agree with the book, don't have to burn it, they can delete them or destroy a program that provides access.

This leads into the Google Books Settlement controversy. If Google controls the digital versions of books scanned from public universities and have complete control of the digital copy, the same thing that's happened in the App store can happen over at google books. Google seems to be altering the settlement agreement:

Google starts charm offensive, but not everyone's on board

"...it gives Michigan the right to the digitized version of any book in its collection, even if Google wound up scanning a copy held by a different library. Michigan will have the right to offer these digital versions through the equivalent of interlibrary loans, and the general public will apparently be allowed to purchase access to its collection, even if they have no association with the university—although this may just be through the online book retailing that will be part of Google's service. "

In particular, information provided by the Federal Government have been altered or deleted since the information provided made people nervous. They also do it in an underhanded way.

Homeland Security Agents Pull Ohio Libraries’ Haz-Mat Documents

"It all began March 26, when a woman came to the reference desk and asked Martha Lee of the Bluffton (Ohio) Public Library for the Allen County Hazardous Materials Emergency Plan. Lee told American Libraries that after receiving the appropriate binder, the woman declared, “You can’t have it back.” The patron removed the materials and substituted a letter stating that the haz-mat manual would be “available for public inspection” at Allen County’s Homeland Security Office, although “proper ID may be required” to access it. According to Lee, the woman also said, “Well, I have a whole list of libraries I have to visit.”

These kinds of actions were far worse post-September 11th. So much disappeared out of fear rather than out of need. This raid had to be performed in person, getting a physical document. However, items online can be deleted just like an Itunes Store App, a Google Book, or a Government Document.

It's no wonder that when private companies are involved with books that they would encourage censorship of materials, even ones are that in the public domain. They can cite guidelines and restrictions and user agreement, but in the end private companies (nor the Federal Government) have no obligation (and certainly no incentive) to provide access to materials that some people find offensive or dangerous. What does our future for information look like if these trends continue?

Taking Chances, being present, and a review of the past year

I thought I would include a little something of everything in this post. It’s a little long, but it covers almost everything this year.

New Year's Resolution
My New Year's Resolution last year was to become a better cook. I have been a notoriously terrible cook. I used to even mess up pasta. I didn’t cook because I was afraid to cook. I wasn’t very good at it and I didn’t want to try. When I stopped being afraid to make mistakes and just did it, I could improve. It wasn’t the end of the world if it didn't come out right. Cooking is a good metaphor for life. In which I was reminded by this post from the Smitten Kitchen:


“Why We’re Afraid to Cook
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/why-were-afraid-to-cook-salad-olivier/#more-523

1. Our mother or mother-in-law cooks it better: Whether it is out of respect, deference or certainty that your version will pale, it seems that there are many of you who don’t even want to touch dishes that are others’ signatures.
   
   
2. The Food Police scared us: They’ve struck an absurd amount of fear into our hearts, now our panic over undercooked chicken and eggs or imperfectly canned food is so great, we cannot approach either calmly or rationally. (Don’t worry, I’ll get to all of these in time.)



3. It went really badly the last time (or times) we made it: So you’ve responded by keeping your distance. Had I not been actually forced by the deadline of the wedding and my desire to make a specific frosting for the wedding cake, I would have taken a year to get back to Swiss buttercream. At least.



4. We jinx ourselves: Failure is so often a self-fulfilling prophesy, wherein we are so certain something is going to go wrong, we indeed make some futzy errors. (This would be me, with phyllo, every single time.)



5. It’s hard to get our head around the steps: I admit, I feel more confident when I can remember a recipe without even looking back at it, because it is simple, or proceeds in logical steps. I always forget that I’m only expected to do one thing at a time.



6. There’s a very specific deal breaker: It requires pig’s blood, will stink up your apartment or serve 24 people. Kim Severson discussed these in a funny article in the New York Times last month, and she’s absolutely right. It only takes one word of some of these for me to flip the page and call out “next!”



7. We’re afraid of wasting an expensive ingredient: Many of you mentioned this in reference to large cuts of meat and good fish, where the price of making an error seems so steep, a flop is that much more of a risk. I totally get it as when I blow it on a pricey dish, I feel that much more awful about it.



8. Our skills aren’t where we wish they were: Recipes that require poached eggs, when you’re terrible at poaching eggs, just seem easier to skip. So can instructions that demand a fine brunoise or long, thin juliennes if you haven’t taken a semester of knife skills, or have a natural finesse in the area (or a really good mandoline, at least in the case of juliennes).
   

I can look at this list and apply it to anything I tried that was new this year. Fear of failure, jinxing yourself, or things going badly sometimes can freeze us from doing anything. Getting over those issues can get you moving forward and getting better. My family prefers my cooking to eating out now. I am even planning a special dinner for New Year's.

I also choose to be a better cook because I wanted to make better meals for my family. I also wanted something to help me focus on home when I was home. I tend to get too distracted with work with the many issues of the day. Cooking connected to my other resolution, to be present. The thoughts about work end up spilling into your head when it should be focused at home.

Art of Mindful Living
There was a book I listened to at the end of last year, The Art of Mindful Living, that taught me to focus more on the present instead of being somewhere else. It allows you to give people all of yourself. If you are focused at work when you should be focused at home, you might as well be there.

Compassionate emptiness
Another one I read the middle of this year that taught me a lot about management was It’s Not About the Coffee. The greatest thing I learned from it was Compassionate Emptiness. (from the book)
SNIP
“Compassionate emptiness: A buddhist teaching Compassionate emptiness involves listening with compassion, but without pre-conceived notions. Compassionate emptiness asks us to be caring, but empty of opinions and advice. When we stop and wait for the meaning and emotions to unfold, we hear a message. This is communication with heart. “
END SNIP

EBooks have made me a faster reader (or is it just the more accessible books are, the more you read?)

I tried the 1001 book challenge this year. Over 400 of those books can be found online for free from various legal sites. Before I began the challenge, I read a book or two a month. Once I began the challenge I was averaging about six books per month. I was able to do this with my Sony Reader downloading books from Manybooks.net, downloading books from my library’s Overdrive collection, and downloading audio books from my library’s overdrive collection. I find that after reading an e-book on my Sony Reader, that I can read a print book much faster. It’s probably because I have a more restricted screen and have to be a more disciplined reader for an e-book. In one year, I read 50 books. On average, I would be lucky to get through 10 in one year. I think it is more availability than anything else. If you have access to good books, you will read more.

My Writing in other places

I had several guest posts at a variety of blogs. I had a few over at Teleread, which helped me break the story about the Sony Reader working with Overdrive, http://www.teleread.org/blog/category/jeff-scott/ . One at Leadership Turn (http://www.leadershipturn.com/bad-leaders-avoid-the-stove/)
, a few at MCLC Tech Talk (http://mclctechtalk.wordpress.com/author/jdscott50/) , although not as many as I would have liked. That’s a great blog if you don’t know about it. I was also highlighted by Walt Crawford over at PLN Leadership Network (http://pln.palinet.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Jeff_Scott) , which was a great honor and thrill to be included.

The library’s accomplishments

Live with Overdrive
Went live with Overdrive services and created promotions for the service. We were allowed to join the Greater Phoenix Digital Library Consortium. As a result, we can provide 40,000 more titles to our patrons at very little cost. We joined in 2007, but didn’t go live with promotions until January.

We had an mp3 player giveaway contest. Those who asked about the service at the front desk were entered into a raffle for a free mp3 player. We ran the promotion for about six weeks. We saw an uptick in usage and a great deal of excitement over the promotion. We ran the winner's picture in the paper each week getting the player.

I also ran several YouTube tutorials to download audio books. Then the Sony Reader upgraded their firmware in July 2008, I also wrote a story how it works with Overdrive. It was featured on Teleread. Overdrive also provides mp3s to download for your Ipods and Zunes. There will also be a portable version of the media console that will work on a smart phone. This means that you don’t have to download an audiobook to your computer and transfer, you can download an audiobook or ebook straight to your phone!

Calendar System
We switched from Google Calendar to E-vanced solutions which resulted in more self-reservations. I no longer have to field email requests for the room and do them myself. Now, people fill out the form, send in the reservation, and I say yes or no. Staff members are more aware of upcoming programs; the public can see them as well and make reservations for what is available.

Virtual Reference
Started up a virtual reference and tutoring services by going with Tutor.com. I debated virtual reference for some time and realized that we may not have the staff time to dedicate to it. Out-sourcing this has helped greatly. The problem with out-sourcing virtual reference is that it isn’t local. Patrons will ask specific information, mostly about their accounts, and the person would be unable to help them. However, even if we went with an alternative model, which would have been a consortium, we would have non-local librarians answering reference as well. A few funny things I noticed about virtual reference. Most of the questions are coming from inside the library. Patrons using our Catalog computers that are three steps from the front desk will click on the Live Assistance Now! Button rather than walk to the desk. I have placed the button on the sidebar throughout the catalog and particularly on the drop pages. Polaris is a little tricky so I couldn’t put it in the middle of the screen. However, even on the sidebar, it gets clicked on fairly often. We get about two questions on the service per day.

Disc Cleaner
We purchased a Disc Cleaner. It’s amazing how people treat DVDs. Are they using them as Frisbees? How did they get dents in the DVD? Luckily, the RTI Eco Cleaner can handle just about anything. However, we are constantly cleaning everything, particularly kids DVDs. On a similar note, we are noticing that some discs aren’t damaged, but they will simply not play on certain DVD players. For example, I have a JVC DVD/Vide player. It can record DVDs. Since it can do this, I cannot play any DVDs that have a strong copyright protection on it. I can’t watch anything produced by Sony Pictures. I couldn’t watch The Pursuit of Happyness because of it. However, when I put the movie on my cheap DVD player we use for car trips, it plays just fine. I don’t know what we can do to solve this problem. I feel like I have to do something since we put out DVDs.

Vocera
Vocera is a voice activated badge in which you can call anyone in the library immediately. You simply press the button, say Call Jeff, and you are immediately connected. Our library is three floors and 16,000 square feet. As a result, we are often on the floor helping patrons and away from a phone. This allows instant communication if we need to find someone or if we need assistance. It is great for security and great for customer service.

The mini-renovation
It seems like we do one of these every other year. In order to improve our services, we move collections, computers, and services around to create a better experience and to make things easier for our patrons. This year, we had to solve two problems. We had all of our computers downstairs which resulted in certain patrons getting a little rowdy. We also had many requests from our public for a quieter library. To solve this, we decided to move all of our computers upstairs to the main floor and move our non-fiction collection downstairs. When all the dust settled we had computers that we can monitor and provide quicker assistance for patrons as well as create a quiet study area downstairs with all of our non-fiction materials. Furthermore, with all the computers upstairs, it made the whole library much quieter.

The rubber hits the road
Like many other libraries, we had a huge increase in usage. Since July 2008, we had a 30% increase in circulation, 20% increase in walk-in business, a 33% increase in Information Transactions, a 10% increase in computer usage.

It’s exciting to look back on the last year and have accomplished so much.

Library directors can get obsessed with the numbers

I was reading an article that has been circulating through the library world, Hartford Public Library: a study in bad behavior. The article describes the various illegal acts that have been occurring in the library with total disregard from the library administration.

A troubling discovery is that the library director removed the security gates simply because they did not go with the new layout of the library. The gates were also not working properly, but that is no excuse to remove them completely. Furthermore, illegal acts have been routinely ignored. In fact, the article seems to indicate the library director encourages people to avoid calling the police. In the end she justifies her decisions based on the numbers. The library is getting heavy use, isn't that what we all want?

There are many statistical tricks for library directors to boost their numbers. One of them is to remove restrictions: removing barriers such as fines, security gates, and not having or not enforcing behavior guidelines in the library. No need to upset anyone and make your library look bad or provide someone with a bad experience at the cost of looking unfriendly. However, the long term costs are dramatic. People will not want to come into the library as they would perceive it as dangerous and out of control. Furthermore, books and materials that state "in" on the catalog are in fact not really there, leading to further frustration and lowered use. They say they have it, but they really don't. Nothing good is ever in, again, leading to a decline in usage. I've even worked in a library that didn't require ID in order to obtain a library card. You can imagine the non-return rates.

What troubles me the most is the lack of a behavior policy and the amount of illegal activity nobody does anything about. Library staff shouldn't have to engage with someone who is committing a criminal act. They shouldn't have to deal with overwhelming situations which they alone have to handle on a regular basis. It leads to low morale, and in worse situations, bodily harm. Police officers are trained to deal with these situations. If a situation suddenly changes, then a staff member must find a way to minimize the situation until the police arrive. Of course, they must do something. There is an obligation for staff to be proactive in preventing and stopping these types of issues, but not on their own, and not if the situation is overwhelming.

Stats go up because of good service, good collections, and fully functioning computers. That, plus marketing, will lead to an increase. It is not necesssary to remove all restrictions and rules to increase usage. We can't have an unsafe environment in which patrons and staff are afraid. We cannot hemorrhage money through lost collections. In the end, the short term gain only leads to a long term loss.

The Public Access Computer Problem

Since the 1990s, public libraries have provided computers with Internet access. The introduction of this new service has brought more people into the library and more people using all of the library's services. It is a great and vital service for communities around the world. One problem that libraries have is that they don't keep up with these machines, neither in replacing old machines, providing critical software, or providing adequate bandwidth. Bandwidth is something that I have written about extensively. Fast, reliable Internet is one of the most important services a library can provide. Furthermore, the web 2.0 revolution has resulted in more patrons using bandwidth hogging services like watching and uploading video and photos.

The Trouble with Computers
The main problem I have with public access computers is that we don't often look at what that service really provides. Late last year, our bandwidth was terrible. We knew from June forward that we had to expand the bandwidth and after some work in finalizing our e-rate appeal, we were able to secure funding to upgrade.

The other problem we discovered was that critical free programs were not being updated regularly. Flash, shockwave, and windows media player all needed to be updated. Patrons couldn't even watch the latest news videos because it was not upgraded. In some cases, it impacted videos for school work.

Internet Explorer needed to be upgraded to 7.0 as many services began to state that programs would not work properly without the upgrade.

We needed to upgrade Open Office and also try to provide Microsoft Office suite on all of the computers. I prefer to have both since patrons often have file formats that are not compatible with Word. A problem I discovered was that most people bring in files on Word Perfect, since most computers sold have Word Perfect already installed, but not Microsoft Word. It is possible to set Word Perfect to save as a Microsoft Word file, but most patrons don't realize the difference until they cannot open their file at the library.

Lastly, not all of the computers had the same drives in them. Some had floppy and some had Cds and some had both. Due to a snafu when we ordered the computers when we upgraded all of our computers, we received some that can only fit one drive at a time. To solve this, we began selling flash drives. Flash drives are as simple to use as a floppy with our computers, and they were a big hit and solved a big problem for us.

Before all of these changes:

• The bandwidth was so slow, patrons could barely check their email.
• They couldn't watch video effectively (due to both bandwidth and lack of updates)
• They couldn't fully utilize all critical programs
• They couldn't save their files to a disk in the same way.

What the Future Holds
The experience has taught me that public access computing is very difficult with most libraries. Many libraries are not even going this far in providing their service. The way I see it, we are competing with a home computer. If a patron gets fast, reliable Internet at home, they don't need to use your services. That's a good thing, but we should provide the equivalent at the library so that there is no disadvantage. My belief is that we should attempt to make the public access computer as close as possible to a personal computer. That's when I read this post from Swiss Army Librarian. They are switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox. In my technology plan, it was suggested to do this, but we were rebuffed for security reasons. Swiss Army Librarian posted their solution:
SNIP:
The reason we are switching is a simple one - Firefox is just cooler. It lets us have more control over how the browser functions, and lets us offer more tools integrated right into the browser. Better for us, better for patrons.

Here’s a list of the customizations we’re making:

Add-OnsPublic Fox - this is designed to make Firefox a public web browser, as opposed to being used and customized by a single, private person. We’re using it to lock down add-ons, preference, about:config, and a few other things, as well as control what file types can be downloaded

Menu Editor - also for the control freak in us, this one lets us remove menus from the tool bar (we’re getting rid of bookmarks, help and history)

Greasemonkey - one of my favorites, this lets us embed custom coding on webpages, such as a link from Amazon to our catalog, and helpful links on our catalog’s “no search results” page (more info on those on our Tech Tools page)

Add To Search Bar - this fun one lets us easily add our library catalog right to Firefox’s search bar. The other searches we chose to include are Google, Yahoo, Amazon, the Internet Movie Database, Answers.com, Wikipedia, and Merriam-Webster

IE Tab - For all of those “Best viewed in Internet Explorer” websites, this one lets you toggle back and forth between the Firefox and IE rendering engines, so IE-only pages and scripts will load in Firefox

Image Zoom - just like what it sounds, this adds zoom controls to the right-click menu, to make images bigger and smaller. This one is most useful to patrons who get emailed digital photos at 1024 x 768 resolution, which is too big for our screens. This lets them zoom out so they can see all of their grandchild’s face at the same time.
END SNIP
The top problems with firefox was the customizable nature of the program and pages that only work with IE. This solves both of those problems. There is more written, go read the entire post.
These are services we always need to assess to provide the best service. If you have your own IT, or work with a larger organization's IT, build a relationship with them so that you can start this conversation. I recently purchased 10 laptops through a grant program. We weren't going as far as to do the laptop check-out program that Alachua County Library is doing, but I wanted to make the laptops as close to a personal PC as possible. We set up an automatic log-in, we set up the user as a power use, and we even allowed programs to be downloaded and minor changes to be made. We still used the windows security toolkit and most of the usage will only be used under direct supervision (like our teen group or on the bookmobile with wireless Internet). In this way, we can provide a great service that is similar to someone's "at home" experience. ACLD does this with their laptop check-out:
SNIP
Although ALCD had installed the Fortres disk-protection program Clean Slate on hundreds of desktop machines, Fettes' staff decided that this application was too restrictive for the laptops, partially because Clean Slate does not allow users to update Flash or Java platforms. The staff were resolved to offer patrons wide open access to these powerful laptops, considering in particular the needs of gamers who download plug-ins to play resource-intensive programs.

To protect their investment, Fettes' staff began experimenting methods to restore a laptop to its original settings with partitioning software and the disk-imaging program Norton Ghost, ultimately arriving at a solution that was both fast, easy, and smart.

“They played around with it and found that they could actually create a ghost image, put it in a hidden partition, and using a flash drive with a run-time version of [Norton] Ghost on it, they could actually redo the C: drive within three to four minutes between each use,” said Fettes.
Fettes added that this restoration system not only helped protect patrons' privacy, but the ease of this solution allowed non-technical staffers the confidence to turn the machines over with little effort.

“All they had to do was basically insert the thumb drive and we set it up to boot off of USB,” Fettes said. “They essentially turned [the laptop] off, put in the thumb drive, turned it on, and [the C: drive] rewrote itself. And then it beeped at them when it was done.”
END SNIP

A Public Computer as a Personal Computer?
It wouldn't be as easy to do this on a public access computer. However, I think every library should try to make their computers as close as possible to a personal computer. In my opinion, there should be standards for libraries to follow so libraries have the same programs available on their computers and should be able to easily replace bad computers. Once there is a standard interface, the image can be ghosted and shared. Furthermore, libraries should provide back-up computers for when their computers break or are inoperable. We are attempting to have four always available with the same set-up ready to go. If one breaks beyond what we can do, we should be able to replace it until the heavy assessment and repair work performed by IT. We should have a relationship, a service level agreement like this one. We should have the ability to always assess that service and be able to have a plan to improve it with the fast-changing tide of technology for the ease of use and the betterment of our patrons.

Poor Career sites explain problems for job seekers or why librarians spend so much time helping job seekers

This article caught my eye. It certainly explains a great deal about why job seekers have so much difficulty applying for jobs at public libraries. This is something I have discussed in the past and last Summer Library Journal did a cover story on how public libraries are working for the Federal Government providing job and tax information. Apparently, we are also working for major employers that have passed on their job applications to online websites. Those sites, are failing:

Career Sites Fail Job Seekers - New York Times: "According to the research firm, more than 60% of 25- to 34-year-old job seekers rely on the Internet to find employment information, making career sites the second most common source of new hires for large companies. Forrester expects that popularity to increase as Generation X and Y employees begin to comprise a larger percentage of the total workforce. Yet the study showed that job seekers can expect poor performance from career sites across the board.
'Ten of the 12 sites reviewed scored below zero,' the report reads. A passing score on all 25 criteria Forrester examines would be a +25 or higher, with a score range of between -50 and +50. 'Yahoo! Hotjobs fared the best at +10, which is 15 points shy of a passing score; Merrill Lynch fared the worst at =18. The average score across all of the sites evaluated was -8.8,' Forrester reports.
Forrester evaluated American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and The Goldman Sachs Group in the financial services industry. For retailers, the research firm examined JCPenney, Kroger, Macy's and Rite Aid. And for job search Web sites, the research covered CareerBuilder.com, Dice, Monster and Yahoo! Hotjobs.
Common problems across all industries including missing content and functions, flawed navigation flows, illegible text and poor use of space, as well as poor error handling and missing privacy and security policies. According to Forrester, companies need to design career sites with the user in mind and begin revamping by first fixing problems that inhibit site usability."
END SNIP

If you can imagine applying for a job using a computer when the job doesn't even REQUIRE a computer, it easy to see how frustrating the process can be. Some would even suggest businesses do this not just to save money, but to weed out those who cannot use a computer. I can say this, library staff take a large portion of their time helping the public navigate career websites and finding jobs. If those sites were easier, it would be less of a burden on public resources.

Conversational Leadership, Poor Library Leadership, and What I Learned from Cesar Chavez and Carl Hayden

I recently attended one of the PLA trainings for the Certified Public Library Administrator certificate in Phoenix last week. We talked about strategic planning and building advocacy for libraries. The program was presented by George Needham and James Peak. It was a great discussion over the role of libraries today and how libraries need to change. More librarians need to take leadership roles in their communities. However, too many are reluctant and others don't seem to approach their advocacy efforts in the most effective means. This past week I listened to two great podcasts on leadership, one from Uncontrolled Vocabulary and the other from the infopeople podcasts, both of which were discussing the same issue on leadership. There is either a distinct lack of leadership or bad leadership and there are others afraid to take chances and lead their organization.

The Infopeople Podcast with George Needham and Joan Frye Williams discussed library leadership. Near the end of the podcast they discussed a training in which librarians agreed to change the way they do things and begin to lead. They talked about how they weren't going to be afraid to try new things. George when on to say that it is good to fall on your keister. However, no one wants to do that publicly (for example, you don't want to see your doctor do that.) One of the funniest parts of the discussion talked about how many librarians are "A" students in school, but that mindset leads to a perfection mindset. If a project or plan isn't perfect, it doesn't go forth. I was certainly not an "A" student in school and I don't mind making mistakes. I know that I cannot be perfect, so I don't try to be. What is better is to aim for something that is really good and be open to feedback and criticism. That way, a really good idea can come to fruition, but then I can adjust it to make it better. If I roll something out and declare its perfection, I won't be very receptive to making it better.

There have been many demonstrations of poor library leadership in the last few weeks. A lock-out in Victoria indicates that the library board doesn't care about the library. The demotion of several librarians to save money. The nepotism at many library systems where head librarians are being replaced by people close to the Mayor with no library experience. A Boston Public Library director is forced out and the mayor wants the library to submit all invoices to the city instead of providing a lump sum (essentially taking over the trust for the Boston Public Library).

All these moves were recently lamented by John Berry and Kathleen De la Cook the fact that libraries are changing into faceless community centers and by promoting automation and self-service we are losing our support base. Kathleen compared it to art and education and how it has been decimated in much the same way. She even laments this in her own library system.

The scary trends are the precise reason why librarians need to get involved in their communities (This isn't to suggest they aren't, but these are lessons to be learned.) We cannot just sit around and take what happens to us. We need to be proactive to our key community members and demonstrate library ubiquity. It takes a conversation with people one at a time. When I ran through my strategic plan, I was able to identify the key movers and shakers in the community and then demonstrate how the library can serve each of them. That continuous proactive conversation is key to sustain advocacy.

Reading about great leaders we can learn how, through overwhelming odds, people were able to succeed. These people saw a problem and moved to solve it. In one case, Cesar Chavez saw people taken advantage of and decided to do something about it. In another, Carl Hayden realized the problem in Arizona is lack of water and helped build the greatest water diversion project in the history of this country.

Leadership is very simple. It really just involves talking to people to get them motivated for a common cause. Once asked how he gathered so much support for his cause, Cesar Chavez said "I talk to one person, then I talk to another." The student asked again, "no really, how do you do it." To which the reply, "I talk to one person then I talk to another." Gaining library advocacy or getting a project going is the same. When it comes to leadership, people who lead don't have to be in any type of administrative role. They can get people motivated for a cause by persuasion. One doesn't need to be in administration to make that change if you talk to enough people. An open compelling conversation can be enough.

On the other end, conversation can also help diffuse a situation. You can never ignore something. If you don't talk about it or confront it, it will come back to haunt you. I picked up this little tip from Carl Hayden (This is from the book by Stephen Shaddegg: Arizona Politics: The struggle to end one party rule.) He was running for re-election in 1952, Stephen Shadegg was his campaign manager. He had two democratic contenders. They both did not have a chance to beat Hayden as he had been the Senator from Arizona for many years. (He would be the longest serving senator to ever serve, but Strom Thurmond broke that record.) Shadegg sent him on trips to keep him away from his two rivals, thinking that is what he wanted. However, without his knowledge, the Senator met with both gentleman much to the surprise of Shadegg. The reason:

"Never give your enemies any more reason than they already have to go on hating you."

People often get riled up for no reason and a conversation, often face to face, is the best one to have. It lets people know that you are human and sincere. Many people fall into this trap in their communities and online. If people knew more about you and who you are, they are less likely to be your enemy. In fact, the more they talk to you, the more the two of you will see eye to eye. It diffuses problems, but in a proactive setting, avoids them altogether.

I liked this article from PLN (you will need to register to read it), here is the snippet:
Citizens, engage! Jamie LaRue Speaks
SNIP

But civic engagement means more than politics and voting. It means taking actions, together, that result in a community worth living in, in which many can and do thrive.

That engagement will involve, on occasion, some conflict. There are competing visions of the future, and sometimes they have to be argued out.

The point, however, is not conflict. It is, finally, about cooperation, about processes of analysis and action to effect useful change.

What kind of community do you want to live in? And what will it take to craft that community, together? Isn't it time that you joined the conversation?

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I am not trying to improve my library, but the community through the library. When workforce development came up as a community need, I needed to find out who to talk to and set up meetings with them. It takes persistence to the right people and get their attention. In the Infopeople Podcast, Joan Frye Williams stated that leadership is the ability to galvanize people into a group. This is what I was able to do when I spoke with the local college, the chamber of commerce, the Department of Economic Security. They are all moving in the direction of doing something, but not coordinating with each other. All I did was speak to each of them, see what they were doing, and then talk to the other groups. They had no idea what the other was doing.

The same thing happened when I tackled adult literacy. I spoke with local businesses regarding problems with their employees and they each knew others I could speak to in order to tackle this problem. Over time, I became the contact person for both literacy and workforce development because I formed the groups and made the contact. Now I know who to contact to move to make things happen. I don't have to talk about libraries, I talk about the community need. This is the key way we advocate, by talking to our community members and creating a library that fits the need of the community. The more we do this, the less people will see libraries as just books, but as a service that can do virtually anything. Once that is accomplished, libraries will be valued and insulated from some of the things that are happening around the nation.

Viral marketing in libraries

Public libraries have always been information hubs. Before the internet, most people would agree that going to the local public library for information was a sure bet to get the answers. Today, the answer is not in the local library, or even the internet; the source for many is someone they know.

People will always trust their friends over an organization. A friend is someone they spend time with and trust. An organization is something that can be treated that way, but it is not the organization that is trusted, but rather the people who work there.

Over at the Church of the Customer Blog, they reflect on a recent Nielsen study that states 78% of people trust their friends over any other source for information.

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Despite an ever-expanding array of advertising platforms and sources, consumers around the world still place their highest levels of trust in other consumers, according to a recent global Nielsen Internet survey.
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As a library, or for any organization, every transaction with a customer has to be so fantastic that people will talk about it afterward. That is how a reputation is established. If your customer service is bad, everyone will know by asking their friends. If the service is fantastic, you will see a usage jump. A great marketing plan means nothing if people walk into the building and get terrible service. There is long term planning that goes into a successful marketing plan.

Training in Basic Competencies
All library staff should be able to handle 90% of questions and issues. If a patron walks into the library and staff don't have a clue how to serve, then they walk out of the building and then tell their friends how bad you are. Many librarians have experienced this and blogged about it.

Training in Customer Service
Library staff must be placed in the patrons' shoes. They have to understand what it is like to walk into the library for the first time and get what they need. This type of empathy is crucial to good customer service (and consequently management). In this area, advanced classes are often needed in dealing with the angry or dangerous patron. The angry patron training helps staff diffuse situations and pull back out of the circle of anger. This actually helps staff understand a person objectively and without getting personal or let their emotions get the better of them. Furthermore, if you have library staff who are perpetually cranky, a group class dealing in customer service brings across the point of what is expected. Get on board, fake it, or leave.

Training in Technology
Learning 2.0 is all the rage. It is important to cover the basics first. One thing about technology training is that the ones who want to learn have a desire to learn. It can be a personal desire, or a desire to be the best they can at their job. To be able to handle everything thrown at them. Technology training covers both of them. However, if the seed has been sown in basic training and customer service, there is a higher chance for everyone to be on board for training. The reason from management must be there (providing better service), and the desire from staff must be there (lifelong learner or wants to be the best).

There is one thing you may be thinking at this point, "I thought this was a post about marketing?" It is, but it is about viral and word of mouth marketing. If you give someone fantastic service, you are marketing. People will know that they can get friendly, helpful people that will work with them to get what they need and will actually feel bad if they don't achieve their goal. This is the best type of marketing one can do and provides groundwork to achieve bigger and better things.

A brief Story
When we created and enacted our strategic plan, we made the assumption that we need to create a new level of service with new programs and service. Then we can market those services. Sometimes these service market themselves. If the service is that good, and you are on target with a strategic plan, then the service will spread through word of mouth. That is what happened to us. Usage went through the roof almost immediately. New library cards doubled each month. Currently, 90% of our community owns a library card. Consequently, new library cards are flat or down since there are not many more people to get a library card. We were concerned about this since our strategic plan stated that we need to increase library card ownership by 10% by marketing. Now that 90% have a card, we won't hit that mark. However, our new plan is to advertise the fact that 90% of the population owns a library card. It will be something to the extent of "Don't be 1 in 10" with a statement that 90% of our community owns a library card. Then talk about all the great things the library does. We might make shirts or bags to promote this as part of our library card sign up campaign in January.

How to become ubiquitous:RSS Feeds
Now that the groundwork has been lain, the library can now begin expanding its realm and appear ubiquitous. The library can show up everywhere if you choose to do so and it doesn't take any staff time to do so. Just some set-up time. This can easily be done with rss feeds. Most Integrated Library Systems have or are starting to produce RSS feeds.

Why would you library want to do this? Imagine standing on a corner of a busy street. You have lots of books you want to sell. You stand there displaying your books, thinking everyone will just come to you because you are so fantastic. You don't get the traffic you anticipated.

Why? You are not shouting out what you have. You just let people pass by and rely on the fact that you are so fantastic to speak for itself. This is the wrong approach. RSS feeds (really simple syndication) shouts out your information. You may think at this point that not many people use News Readers to read these feeds, but you can produce an email distribution list from these feeds using Feedburner. Feedburner is not the only service that can transmit an rss feed into email. Everyone has email so by producing this feed in this way, everyone can sign up to get the latest books, music, and movies available.

I love these feeds because I am the first to find out when a new book is available. I can be the first in the library to grab a book off the shelf because only I know it is there. This of course helps internally with library staff as they are also aware of what is available as soon as it is available. I once had a patron come in and ask for United 93. We searched everywhere for it, but couldn't find it. We called upstairs to Technical Services and they had it. They stated, "I just put that in the system, how did you know I had it so fast?" She had only put the dvd in the system five minutes before. That's how fast someone can get an item.

These feeds can also be dumped anywhere, twitter, myspace, facebook, google homepage, the list goes on. Your library can be everyone online with rss feeds. You don't necessarily need a presence on all of these social networking sites. However, you can keep them updated with rss feeds that require no additional staff time.

It takes staff time to be everywhere with traditional marketing
It must be written into one or more job positions and time must be given for marketing. Currently, we have one librarian dedicating 20% of their time to marketing. They need to be allowed off desk time or whatever that needs to be done to do this. This involves creating a weekly news blast to the local newspaper, chamber of commerce, our email listserv, it goes on our website, it goes to a monthly magazine that is delivered to every household in the county, our friends newsletter, the county visitor's bureau, and anywhere else we can squeeze in. This takes a lot of time. In reality, all of the events are planned out six months in advance. So it mostly involves grabbing what is happening this week, adding library news (such as advertising our flash drives for sale, our food for fines, library closures, and other non-programming events) and adding our top ten list. Our top ten list is the top ten books our community is reading at any one time. For instance, we put in the top ten circulating books for fiction, non-fiction, juvenile, teens, and then pick different subject (like gardening or cooking for diabetics) or genre areas (like romance or mystery).

We also cheat a bit with the list. We don't just put out the most circulating items, we put out the hotlist. Most circulating will only provide older titles and give the impression the library only has old titles. We get a hotlist by subtracting the date entered from the date it was checked out. This then predicts what the circulation will be for one year. For instance, if a book was only in three days and was checked out, it would predicted it would be checked out every three days, giving it a circulation of over 100. So instead of the Da Vinci Code showing up at the top fiction books, A Thousand Splendid Suns shows up first instead. People reading the paper for library news may be surprised that we have the latest fiction. This helps promote that.

The actual viral piece/Our plan
To actually get viral, you must have a particular service or services that is so great people are always prompted to talk about it. As a library director once told me, people need to see their library like mecca, how do we connect today? Here are some things we have done and will be planning:

We gave away free gold bookmarks and canvas bags with the library's logo on it for a library card sign-up month. Not terribly exciting, but new cards went up.

We upgraded everyone's library card from a red piece of plastic, to a dual card with a wallet card and a keychain card with the library's picture, website, hours of operation, and phone number on the back. This prompted conversation because the picture was attractive, and anytime someone pulled out their keys, a conversation could occur. (hey what's that, this is my new library card, they are giving them away free at the library.)

We sell flash drives with the library's logo and website address. This has been the most successful viral campaign as we were able to penetrate the schools with it. If a teacher can fit you into their busy schedule, then you are truly successful. Read more here

We bought into the Greater Phoenix Digital Library consortium. We plan to wrap our library card campaign with marketing for this service. Our plan it to give away 2gb mp3 players and show people how to use them. The first 50 who sign up for the service will get a free player and instructions on how to download an audiobook or music to their player. All library staff will each get a player first so they can see how it works. We will also issue an fm transmitter with it so that it can be played in any car. This gets over several compatibility issues. The mp3 player can play everything, can be placed in any car, and has enough storage to play 40 hours of audiobook, which is the largest capacity of audio.

We plan to expand our bandwidth once our e-rate application is resolved. We will expand from 1.5 mbps to 6mbps. We plan to have a campaign to the extent of, be careful, speed this fast can be dangerous. We will probably have a video launch to demonstrate the speed.

We plan to renovate the library by replacing the dvd shelving with videostore shelving, replace the new bookshelving with clear face-out shelving, create a greeting desk, clean the front of the library, and put out a new security system that will enable more self-service. This will change the entire look of the library for very little cost. If all goes exactly, it will create an entirely different effect when one walks through the library. It is my hope that this will further get the public to talk about our library.

This should all result in increased traffic in all user points. We should see double digit jumps in circulation (with particular notice to how fast an item is checked out and particular higher marketed collections), computer usage, walk-in business.

This takes an incredible amount of back work, training, and planning. I have done this before with a renovation. It is why all of our service usage has increased the last two years. We are almost always looking to improve and change services to make them better. We want to be the best and that involves change.

Teens smart enough to stay safe online

Three good articles about how teens are smart enough to stay safe and how schools and educational organizations are using social networking to assist teens:

Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks by Pew Internet
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Privacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
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• 55 percent of online teens have profiles online; 45 percent of online teens do not have profiles online.
• Among the teens who have profiles, 66 percent of them say that their profile is not visible to all Internet users. They limit access to their profiles in some way.
• Among those whose profiles can be accessed by anyone online, 46 percent say they give at least a little and sometimes a good deal of false information on their profiles. Teens post fake information to protect themselves, but also to be playful or silly.
• Most teens are using the networks to stay in touch with people they already know, either friends that they see a lot (91 percent of social networking teens have done this) or friends that they rarely see in person (82 percent).
• 49 percent of social network users say they use the networks to make new friends.
• 32 percent of online teens have been contacted by strangers online -- this could be any kind of online contact, not necessarily contact through social network sites.
• 21 percent of teens who have been contacted by strangers have engaged an online stranger to find out more information about that person (that translates to 7 percent of all online teens).
• 23 percent of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the online encounter (that translates to 7 percent of all online teens).

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Usually the worst thing adults can do to teens is to treat them like they are not smart enough to figure things out on their own. They are also creative in how they protect themselves either blocking or giving misinformation. Most of them can spot a creep online too.
Don't Tell Your Parents: Schools Embrace MySpace Robert Andrews 04.19.07 (WIRED) http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/myspaceforschoolSNIP
Broadly, Elgg represents a shift from aging, top-down classroom technologies like Blackboard to what e-learning practitioners call personal learning environments -- mashup spaces comprising del.icio.us feeds, blog posts, podcast widgets -- whatever resources students need to document, consume or communicate their learning across disciplines.
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So a bottom up approach to learning seems to be more effective. It becomes a better learning environment because of the change in format depending on the students' desires.
Why MySpace Is SafeSpace (Forbes.com)
http://www.forbes.com/technology/security/2007/04/02/myspace-legislation-predators-tech-security-cx_ll_0403myspace.htmlLisa Lerer, 04.03.07
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How do you think parents should protect kids online?

We need to basically teach our kids proper online safety and proper online etiquette so that they learn to make smart decisions online. I use the analogy of how we've addressed other types of safety issues in the past through significant government campaigns or public private partnerships. We need that same campaign for online safety and instead we are burning millions of dollars in litigation campaigns. I prefer education not regulation, a strategy of talking to kids about these issues and getting them to understand proper online behavior.

END SNIP

And the original article:

Social Networking and Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions
by Adam Thierer∗
http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop14.5ageverification.pdf

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Moreover, what is almost completely overlooked in the current debate over social networking is that many social networking communities have developed effective self-policing strategies. Those self-policing strategies come in both formal and informal varieties. Many online communities adopt formal policies about how to report abusive or offensive behavior. Others allow site users to tag certain content or pages as inappropriate or offensive. Site administrators can then take appropriate action, including removing troublemakers from the site or even reporting them to law enforcement authorities. Site administrators have enormous reputational incentives to self-police their own networks because most social networking sites depend on advertising revenue, and they risk losing advertisers if they don’t maintain a positive standing.
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There is incentive to be safe, to protect others, and even from the organizations themselves there is incentive to create a safe environment.

It seems there is a great need to join the conversation. I know that the best way to talk to a lot of our teen computer users is to go on myspace. If we had a profile and all these users as our friends, we can bulletin them about library events. Just like with text messaging services like Twitter, we can talk to them on their cell phones, the major medium in which they communicate. If we don't start showing up in this arena, we just don't exist to this growing population.

Fix-it Fridays: A DVD in the Hand or I can't do it myself

This installment of Fix-it Fridays will focus on our problems regarding our self-check machine and our DVD collection.

As I have stated before, we are a small semi-rural library serving an ever growing population. This population has relied on agriculture for most of its existence and has only recently begun to get manufacturing jobs, retail, and other amenities that you would find in a larger community in the Phoenix area. As a result, we have to be careful in what types of technology we push on them.

I mentioned in last week's post about the dangers of putting everything on line without providing access to those materials. In a semi-rural community, the knowledge and availability of technology is very scarce. When we first purchased DVDs, we went very slowly since we figured they would not handle the technology or have access to it. Instead, we went to our local video stores and found that they had ditched almost all of their videotapes overnight and went almost entirely with DVDs. DVD players for sale popped up everywhere, some as cheap as $50. The technology, knowledge, and materials were all present. So here we were a library full of videocassettes in a world that was DVDs. After that, we made an assumption that the public would acquire the technology and knowledge they needed with our technology.

However, we encountered a problem during our Master Plan process. Some community members thought we were going to fast with technology particularly with our materials. We had purchased some on line databases in lieu of additional expensive reference resources. We eventually did get heavy use on the databases, but we took a lot of flak for getting rid of some of the materials. I remember when one of our pages was pulling an encyclopedia set getting grilled as to why we were getting rid of these materials. New technology and change is not always welcome. It becomes imperative that a library knows how to implement change and train patrons on how to use it. At this point, it was hard to tell at what technologies our patrons would learn, and which ones they would resist. So when the Friends of the Library proposed purchasing a $20,000 self-check machine, I was very happy to get the extra help, but I was concerned this system cause more problems than it solved.

After examining all problems that could exist with the self-check machine we took action. All of our books have the barcode in different places so we would have to re-barcode all of the books so that the patrons could find it in the same place (as well as speed up check-out for circulation). When we first rolled out the self-check, no one knew how to check out the book. Most people tried doing it on the ISBN since they could not find the library's barcode. We did provide instruction on how to use it, and the computer screen shows exactly how to do each step, but we do have a population that has trouble reading signs. This is evident by the amount of people who still walk out of the library where the emergency exit is. Even though the sign is big and red and at eye level, they still don't see. Needless to say, we ended up spending a lot of time educating users how to use the machine.

This summer, we held a big promotion and giveaways along with staff available to assist with the machine. Usage picked up; however, we discovered a new problem with our system. When we began purchasing DVDs we put security on the discs. We found that the security did not prevent patrons from walking out with DVDs, did not prevent them from jimmying open cases, or set off the security alarms. As a result, we took all the DVDs out of the cases and placed them in boxes with a corresponding number behind the desk. So a patron would pick up the empty case, bring it to the desk, and get the disk upon check-out. A great system and it was foolproof. A patron could not possibly steal a disc. Then when we received our self-check and ran our big promotion, we had a problem; we could not check-out DVDs.

This summer, we had a huge increase in circulation, more people than ever were using the self-check; we had an automated time management system for our public access computers and were handling the load of 20% more customers. However, we quickly found out that people stopped using the self-check because they could not check-out DVDs because it required a staff member to get it for them and desensitize it. We just have a primitive old block at our front desks and can’t afford a check-out or desensitizing machine, so all AV have to be handed around the other side of the desk, much like you would see in a video store. DVD circulation went through the roof with twice as much check-out as the same time last year. This ended up being a bad thing because they could not use the self-check. So we have all these systems to assist with the lack of staff, a self-check machine, automated telephony to notify patrons of holds and overdue items, a time management machine for our public access computers, but patrons can’t check out the most popular items in the collection themselves. In order to get the DVD problem solved we have to either implement a fool-proof security system, which may end up being RFID to the tune of $60,000, pay for new machines that can desensitize AV at the circulation desk to the tune of $24,000, or continue to have staff check out the DVDs and push the patron over to the self check for their other items.

I will say, the lesson that was learned about technology is that if it is candy, patrons will learn, if it is something they have to learn to get what they want, it will be proportionate to the difficulty in getting it to the desire of wanting it. If you have something they really want, they will learn the technology (like with our time management, quick learners to get on a computer), if you have something you want them to learn to make it easier for staff and not the patron, then they won’t want to use it.

Fix-it Fridays: Lack of Computers or Thin Clients Don’t Work

These days in order to apply for a job; you have to do it online. Safeway, Walmart, Home Depot and others all have this convenient computer kiosk to apply for a job, no more paper applications. Isn’t it great to be without paper? Until the computer breaks, then you head down to the library.

Libraries were blessed with Gates Grants many years ago that bridged the digital divide. A whole world of information was opened. Patrons began to rely on this technology, and then businesses did, then the Internal Revenue Service did, and then the Department of Economic Security did, and that is where problems began. In 1995, congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act. Essentially, the use of paper for communication was to be reduced and an electronic format, preferably the Internet, was the preferred choice to provide information. It was great. You could get information from anywhere just by having a computer and Internet access. Many businesses are providing services online as well. Again, this is great if you have a computer and Internet access. After several reports, such as Falling Through the Net, people began realizing that there was a digital divide by creating this access. Before, you would have to travel far to get forms or call people on the phone, but since everything was online, there were no more forms, or people to call. The reply always was, oh well you can get that online… what’s that, you don’t have a computer? Well, then I can’t help you, sorry.

As information providers, public libraries stepped in and began offering computer and Internet access to the public. This move was further bolstered by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which essentially placed computers in most libraries across the United States. Problems did not arise until three years later.

This is where my library comes in. We had our original 11 gates grant computers. However, we had to teach people how to use these computers. The way our library is situated, we ended up placing all of our computers into one room with the exception of one. This led to obvious problems, as when class was in session, there was no public computer access at the library except for one computer. So we could not really teach the public how to use the computers without denying access to the rest of the population. We then began our experiments.

We received some operating capital funds from the city to provide us with a way to manage our computers through an automated system and to increase access. After shopping around, we came to the realization that this was not enough money to provide access and pay for a time management system. We came up with three solutions, one provide wireless internet access through Polaris’s Wireless Access Manager, use an open source product to manage the computers, and use thin clients to save money since we did not need full workstations.

The wireless worked great, at first. After some touch and go problems and with the system being down for an entire month after being available only for one month, it seemed to work fine. This saved some of the computers since during the winter visitor season as many of our visitors have laptops with wireless cards.

The open source product was a bust. We spent hundreds of hours working with the system for over nine months, only to have it blow up on us. Overworked library staff, overworked IT staff, and angry patrons only had one person to blame… me.

The thin client solution was the worst for us. Our IT could not get them to work the way they said they could. What ended up happening is that we just let people on them and told them they could only get internet access…but only if you are not using yahoo or hotmail…and you can’t print… and you can’t save anything…and…..and again, staff and patrons were frustrated. There is nothing like offering crappy service to the public. They let you know they are not happy and so will staff, and rightly so. You cannot offer a substandard service to the public. They will simply refuse to use the service. Our poor staff members with clipboards in hand monitoring the public were left trying to manage additional computers on two floors with some computers doing one thing and some computers doing another. With all the computers over three years old, the constant ctrl-alt-delete was giving them carpal tunnel.

It is always important when implementing technology to make sure all of the technology is the same and that the service is sustainable. Different computers with different abilities will only lead to disgruntled patrons, staff, and the general public. I was only saved in this process by another round of Gates Grants and a City funded project, which allowed me to replace all the thin clients with full workstations and the existing crappy workstations with brand new sleek ones.

So the moral of the story is not to implement technology without the ability to be consistent, having adequate IT staff support, knowing what your level of services is going to be, sustainability, and simply just knowing what you are doing. Technology is tricky and you should only provide what you can sustain. Also, make sure you get as much information as possible in order to make the best decision about what types of computers, technology, and other items to provide the best service available for your library.