Montana ALA News

ALA 2010 wrap up

2010-07-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

I focused mostly on Technical Services related programs and sessions to attend, so that is my angle on all of them. Here is a brief synopsis of each of the programs that I attended.

If you’d like to know more about any of them, please contact me: megan.dazey@umontana.edu

OCLC Enhance sharing Session

Jay Weitz gave his usual thoughtful News from OCLC presentation. The new WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities policy will be effective August 1, 2010. OCLC is adding records to WorldCat for digitized books from Google Books and the HathiTrust Digital Library. Ebsco has acquired NetLibrary from OCLC. OCLC has now implemented most of the MARC 21 format changes for initial support of RDA. The RDA toolkit is free until the end of August 2010. Success and problems with the new duplicate detection system (DDR) were also discussed, please report any incorrect merges to OCLC, still report duplicate records, and provider neutral records are being accounted for in the DDR. Connexion 2.3.0 is to be released end 2010/beginning 2011 and will have the new fixed fields present. The number of institutions participating in the Expert Community continues to rise, keep updating the records.

This was an informative discussion about OCLC products, it was nice to have the ability to directly ask Jay certain questions.

OCLC Symposium

This symposium brought together Catherine Mitchell and Andrew pate to discuss “The Future of Publishing : Libraries and the changing role of consumers and creators.” It was very interesting to hear about how new publishing platforms (Amazon, iPad & The Espresso Book Machine ) are changing academic publishing. My biggest takeaway are that IR’s should not be used just for deposit of materials, but for dissemination of the same material, and that low circulation numbers are fine for a University Press, as long as the Press is still profitable.

NMRT- Conference 101

This was my first ALA Annual meeting, so I went to the Conference 101 sponsored by NMRT. They gave a good overview of what to expect from the conference and how to navigate around the different venues and how to choose what programs you want to attend. This would have been better as a webinar prior to the conference. The very large number of attendees made it a little hard to meet new people. If you have never attended a conference of any type before, then this would be a program that you should definitely attend.

ALCTS 101

This was an introduction to the structure of ALCTS and an introduction to most of their Sections and a few of the Interest Groups. It was a great chance to meet people, network and eat cake. Being new to ALA this year, it was a great way to meet people with similar technical services interests on a fairly small scale (less than 50 people were at the meeting). I would recommended attending this meeting if you are unfamiliar with ALCTS or just want to meet more people with a tech services background.

Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group

This discussion was divided up with a different tech services related topic at each table. I sat with the table discussing “Collaboration of Technical Services with IT Services.” At the table were Tech services heads from a wide variety of libraries, from a department of 4 people, to a department of 25+ people. It was incredibly interesting to see how every tech services department seemed to have a different relationship with both Library IT and Campus IT. Almost everyone at the table worked with the Voyager system. It was great to get ideas on how to incorporate IT more into the tech services department to better utilize their skills about the Voyager backend. My take away from this discussion is that my library currently has a good set up, but with a few little tweaks it could be better. We are currently working on getting batch loading more integrated into the department workflows, and having other basic searches done within tech services, rather than in IT.

Poster Sessions- Session 1 : the collectors : posters on acquisitions, cataloging and classification, collection development and management, history, serials, and special collections.

After finally finding where the poster sessions were hiding in the Exhibits Hall I was pleased to find that they also had a small booklet with the abstracts and contact information for all of the posters being presented at the conference available.

During this portion of the poster sessions, I was most interested to see the posters about
“Transforming Special Collections: a Lib Guide to Innovation” and “Keeping the baby, throwing out the bathwater : adopting a homegrown catalog interface”

Ebsco Publishing Academic Librarian Luncheon

This was, of course, a sales pitch, but it came with a free lunch! The Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS) was shown, which was interesting to see after having only heard about it. My library is using Serials Solutions Summon product, so it was interesting to see the comparison. Other Ebsco products were also shown, but I found the EDS to be the most interesting of their products at the moment.

Salman Rushdie

Sir Salman Rushdie spoke eloquently about how all writers should be able to write any type of book, especially kids books. He told stories about his first kid’s book “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” and about his upcoming children’s book “Luka and the Fire of Life.” He also spoke about his life in the years after he wrote and published “Satanic Verses.” It was very interesting to hear the stories behind the news headlines.

Cooperative Collection Development

A panel of presenters spoke about cooperative and collaborative collection development to help with an individual library’s budget concerns. Some of the takeaways from this program included : Be sure to brand items and your catalog so that patrons know where the money is coming from for the information. Any cost saving benefits considered must outweigh the barriers encountered when implementing the idea. Keep things simple and have something in it for everyone (cooperative agreements). It is easiest to target one specific area for cooperation rather than every format and every item in the libraries.

Cataloging and Beyond : the year of cataloging Research

This was a disappointing panel discussion. I had expected to hear about actual research projects being conducted in libraries. Instead the speakers spoke about why we needed to conduct cataloging research. Maybe next year research will have taken place and the presenters can then talk about what has been learned from the research.

Top Technology trends

A panel consisting of : John Blyberg, Lorcan Dempsey, Jason Griffey, Monique Sendze, Cindi Trainor and Joan Frye Williams, moderated by Gregg Silvis discusses about the current tech trends in libraries, trends within a year and trends in 5 years. My top take aways from this panel discussion are that we are moving towards touch based interfaces and our interaction with objects will be changing on a rapid scale (also, we can’t forget about the lighting differences between what is needed for touch based screens vs. a desktop screen). Libraries need to embed IT in day to day work with staff across the library. The lines are blurring between information about a thing and a thing (this was probably the most conceptual concept in which to wrap my mind around, but can also lead to some interesting discussions within a library context). The discussion was to continue on the LITA blog after the conference, http://litablog.org/category/top-technology-trends/

Collection Evaluation During the Economic Crisis: Case Studies in Academia

Three presenters from Academic libraries across the country spoke about how their libraries are dealing with the economic downturn and the loss of library funding. Many libraries have already cut their materials budgets pretty deep but have to continue to do so. Even consortia deals aren’t safe in today’s climate as some of the big deals are being broken as libraries continue to try to save money. Some of the specifics in each of the libraries was interesting, but again each library is facing its own sets of needs and user expectations, so cut must really be considered on an institution by institution basis.

Heads of Cataloging Interest Group

Christopher Cronin and Shawne Miksa both gave presentations about “RDA: What Cataloging Managers Need to Know.” Some basic takeaways from both of these presentations: No RDA records will be in OCLC before Oct 1, 2010. Begin using RDA jargon in everyday conversations now. Use and test the RDA Toolkit now while it is free.

Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group

A discussion between a large academic library, a smaller academic library and a book jobber took place. It was interesting to see the different sides to the same problem. The main part of the discussion that interested me was the move from traditional cataloging to more metadata. Many places are now ordering the eBook by default and ordering paper as a last resort, this naturally changes the work that is being done in a tech services department. We should all focus more on the unique items the library owns and purchases and rely more on the publishers and jobbers to create correct and in depth MARC records.

I found this group to be so interesting that I volunteered to become the next co-chair.

Stress and Depression in the workplace: effective methods for preventing and/or treating emotional challenges

This session did not turn out to be what I was expecting. I was expecting to learn ways to deal with an over stressed or emotional staff, but instead the presenters focused almost exclusively on your individual stress and overall body’s well being. The two speakers were by far the best presenters that I saw at the conference, of course they weren’t librarians, so that might have had something to do with it. The crowd learned that individual changes to your lifestyle can affect your overall work life as well as your individual health.

Closing Session featuring Amy Sedaris

Amy mostly took questions from the audience in a humorous manner.

Legislative Day 2010

2010-07-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Suzanne for the invitation to join the blog! I thought I'd share with you some thoughts from the rally and visit to our legislators on the last day of the conference this year. It was a great experience!

Attending the rally and representing Montana were Matt Beckstrom and Judy Hart from Lewis & Clark Library in Helena, Kate Zoellner from UM-Missoula, Sheila Bonnand from MSU-Bozeman, me, Darlene Staffeldt, our state librarian, Karen Gonzales from Missoula Public, Sarah Daviau from Lincoln County Library in Libby (not pictured), and Cindy Christin from Bozeman Public (not pictured). Thanks to Kate for the picture!

There were about 1600 people in attendance at the rally at Capitol Hill. We heard from author Lauren Myracle, ALA President Camila Alire, Congressional library supporters U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI-3), and Keith Michael Fiels from ALA. The heat was a bit oppressive but the speakers were inspiring. It was great to have such a large contingent from Montana!

Our next stop was the building where Denny Rehberg's office was located, where we had a nice lunch in the deli and met with our Representative. He spent about 30 minutes talking with us about libraries in Montana and we shared our concerns regarding funding and support for our activities. After our visit, we proceeded on to the Hart Senate Building where we met with Will Sehestedt at Max Baucus' office and then spoke with Senator Jon Tester for a few minutes.

Thanks again to Kate Zoellner for the picture! And here you can see Cindy and Sarah.

For me it was very exciting to meet with the legislators--definitely a new experience for me to attend an Advocacy Day and one that was worthwhile. Thanks to ALA for giving us this opportunity and to Judy and Darlene for arranging the meetings and getting us organized!

ALA 2010 - Washington, DC

2010-06-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Poetry as a Community Builder: Expanding Community Outreach through Poetry

Poetry Foundation has a lot of great resources for librarians and teachers on their website: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Not mentioned during the session but a fun find nonetheless, the Poetry Foundation has a poetry app for iPhone.

Library Websites:

Loudon County Public Library has been featuring poetry in a year long program: http://library.loudoun.gov/ (click on Try Poetry)
Greensboro Public Library with their Poetry GSO festival
http://www.poetrygso.org/

Some of the interesting programs mentioned were:

Poet in Residence - get a local poet to serve as poet in residence for the library, doing readings, hosting writing workshops, etc.
Book in a Day - Poet Kwame Alexander started working with students to put together and publish books of their poetry during day long workshops. When the poetry books arrive, there can be readings programs along with book signings.
http://bookinaday.org/

Other recommended poetry resources:

Teen Ink - http://www.teenink.com/
Poets.org (Academy of American Poets) - http://poets.org/
Poets House - http://poetshouse.org/libraries.htm. Their Poetry in the Branches program provides poetry resources to public librarians.

I Need a Mentor Quick! -- Mentoring Options in Rural Public Libraries

They talked about both formal and informal mentoring programs.

LLAMA (Library Leadership and Management Association) has a formal mentoring program. There's information about it on their wiki:
http://lama.ala.org/lamawiki/index.php?title=LLAMA_Mentoring_Committee

But there was also some good advice from more informal mentoring relationships, which I think are probably more common in rural Montana.

Mentee should drive the relationship with their questions
Mentor should introduce the mentee to his/her network
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
Help with advice such as how to do a conference on a shoestring.
Match like with like: example of Hawkeye and Frank from MASH (totally lost on younger attendees btw).

Broadband Adoption and the Role of the Public Library: Issues and Solutions and E-rate Task Force Meeting

The National Broadband Plan is one of those extremely long documents that I couldn't get through so it's helpful that ALA has and has spelled out its positions on various items within the plan:
American Library Association outlines positions on National Broadband Plan
We also heard from Mark Lloyd from the FCC.
One of the things libraries need to pay attention to are proposed changes to the E-rate program. ALA is currently formulating its official comments. It looks like there may finally be some much needed simplification. I'll try to stay on top of it and keep Montana libraries informed of changes and ways to have input.

Top Technology Trends
posted to the Montana Bibliotechies blog
http://mtbibliotechie.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-technology-trends-2010.html

Libraries Wanted: Dead or Alive

This was the President's Program with Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer. I really wish it had been recorded so I could share it with you. Very thought provoking presentation. I did find a talk he gave at TEDxRotterdam. It's shorter and partially in Dutch but, hopefully, you can get the gist of his message.

Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer - TEDxRotterdam 2010 from TEDxRotterdam on Vimeo.

Privacy, Libraries and the Law (somewhat ironically was filmed with Flip video camera).

Some discussion upfront about what is privacy and ALA's Choose Privacy Week. Here's the video promoting privacy. I had some problems with streaming this video. I'd recommend turning HD off:

Choose Privacy Week Video from 20K Films on Vimeo.

Two organizations were represented. Their websites provide a lot of information on privacy and are worth checking out and following by RSS, Facebook, Twitter...

EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) http://epic.org/
CDT (Center for Democracy & Technology) http://www.cdt.org/

Some notes from the session:

Privacy is controlling who, what, when and why others may access information about ourselves.
Data mining is a challenge to privacy. Over-collection and overuse of information

Legal context

No baseline legal provisions for online consumer privacy.
Left to self-regulation.
Americans are worried about privacy.
Wide divergence between what people want and expect RE: privacy and what is provided and supported by law.
Location-based information – very weak laws on use and protection.
Cloud providers move information around so you don't know legal jurisdiction.
Different protections for info stored on your computer and elsewhere.
Under current law there is no requirement for warrant to access this data on another's computer.
Lobby providers for better privacy controls. Educate users as to how to control access to their data.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Symbiotic web as danger to privacy.
Librarians can help shift focus back to privacy
Four Images -

Black box – taxes, monitoring cars. Also what's going on on the web. Free web services paid for somehow. Information is being monetized.
Old Hammock – law has gaps you can fall through. So can black box
Cave – video about living a private life in a cave. Once you've shared information, no warrant is necessary - 3rd Party Doctrine.
Flag – Choose Privacy Week
-Advocate for lawmakers to choose protections. How can we make good choices about our privacy when we don't understand the black box?
-Update and strengthen library privacy policies. Opt in vs. opt out. Make more opt ins.
-Keep info only for as long as is necessary
-Work with vendors
-Educate staff about non-judgmental library services.
-Confidentiality laws mean we can wait for process before we divulge information.

Some helpful apps/sites

Better privacy – an add-on for Firefox that gets rid of cookies, browsing history https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/
Beef Taco (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out) - another Firefox add-on
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/180650/

Open Source Software: Free Beer or Free Puppy

This intrigued me largely because of the all-star lineup: Stephen Abram, Marshall Breeding and Karen Schneider with Roy Tennant as moderator.

As expected the "ultimate debate" didn't really resolve anything. The open source software referred to was largely limited to ILS (Integrated Library Systems) or the new term seems to be "discovery systems." And, not a big surprise, it turns out you can do pretty much anything you need or want to in this area with open source or proprietary systems. What did surprise me a little was the almost religious fervor attached to open source. That somehow this was what libraries were meant to do - promote open source systems. Hmmm? So I appreciated Stephen Abram's perspective that it seemed a bit odd that librarians were willing to fight almost to the death over backend systems dealing with library work. He thought we should be focusing on the user experience instead.

Some Fun Stuff

Dave Isay - Story Corps http://storycorps.org/
Natalie Merchant performed several songs from her new CD Leave Your Sleep. It's a collection of children's poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries set to music. Wonderful! http://www.nataliemerchant.com/p/leave-your-sleep

Suzanne's Anaheim events

2008-07-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things about ALA is going to some of the events in additions to programs and workshops. So I thought I'd use a blog posting to talk a bit about some of the fun stuff.

WebJunction Member Reception - Lauren's and my flight from Salt Lake City to Anaheim was cancelled so we spent 7 1/2 hours in the Salt Lake City airport and missed the reception. Am I bitter? I'm just upset that I missed out on the feather boas. There are photos of the event on Flickr.

One of the interesting events at ALA this year was a Big Game - California Dreaming. You signed up, joined a team and then answered trivia questions posted around the conference center and/or at the Marriott or Hilton and/or picked up items like in a scavenger hunt and earned points for your team. I knew none of the California trivia questions but I can scavenge so I got the only 75 points scored by the Special Librarians team. Here's a photo of the winners. The Library Society of the World.The photo is by ALA on Flickr. The Big Game concept is kind of interesting and might be an activity to consider for a future MLA conference, perhaps as a Sheila Cates fundraiser. There's more information about it on the ALA conference wiki.

I did make it to Disneyland for the Spectrum Scholarship Bash.
I didn't take any photos. This one is by Squid from Flickr. The Disneyland adventure was a bit disappointing. I was expecting some kind of special treatment like the bash a few years earlier at Universal Studios in Orlando. Instead it was us librarians and several hundred thousand other Disneyland enthusiasts. So, I only saw one person I knew the whole night. I did go on a few rides - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. I refused to wait in line for 45 minutes for some of the other rides. And I did manage to find some better food than I had anticipated - gumbo. And there is certainly no shortage of shopping opportunities. We got to "enjoy" the Disneyland fireworks every night while we were there. I thought this would get really old really fast if I lived nearby.

Book Cart Drill Team Championship - I finally made it to one. Of course, I got there late and it was standing room only.Costumes, music, choreography. This I believe was the winning team. They did a zombie dance number to "Thriller."

Another photo is from ALA on Flickr. And they have lots more book cart drill team photos as well.

And, last but certainly not least was the AILA American Indian Youth Literature Awards reception.

This photo was taken by Karen Gonzales of the winners:

Picture Book:
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom
by Tim Tingle.

Middle School Award Winner:
Counting Coup: Becoming A Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond
by Montana’s own Joseph Medicine Crow.

Young Adult Award Winner:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie.

There was food, story telling, music and dancing. I got to hang out with Mary Anne Hansen and Karen Gonzales. And, as Karen pointed out, with 3 calendar girls, how could it not be fun? Carlene Engstrom was a member of the awards committee. Nice job, Carlene! And I got another book signed and took this photo for Karen of her with Sherman Alexie.

Finally, on the last day, one of the last events was an interview with Kite Runner author, Khaled Hosseini. He talked a bit about his life and the writing of and reactions to The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. One of the bits I particularly enjoyed was the difficulty some readers had in accepting the book as fiction. He recounted one woman asking what has happened to the boy (I can't remember his name). He replied, you know the book is fiction? She said yes, and asked again. So, he gave in and said he's fine.

2008-07-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

I very much enjoyed attending my first ALA conference. From my point of view, it was incredibly well organized. Over 20,000 people and things seem to run without a hitch.

I attended several interesting sessions and meetings. An interview session with Joshua Ferraro, of LibLime and Koha fame, included questions about consortia and open source ILS, long term support and very interestingly, the recent collaboration between Relais and LibLime. Watch for an open source Interlibrary Loan tool in the future.

Another intriguing session was "Size Does Make a Difference: Library Networks, Cooperatives and Consortia in the 21st Century". A panel discussed ongoing efforts through surveys to identify issues with existing statewide cooperative efforts.

OCLC is encouraging more communication between states in the Pacific Northwest that have group service contracts (such as Montana). ALA was a second opportunity for this new group to meet and I attended that meeting the second day I was at ALA. We're learning a great deal just from being able to get together and toss around ideas about what we all need from OCLC to make group services successful. Montana continues to be hailed as a model.

I was happy to present the Montana Memory Project during an OCLC session on CONTENTdm, Connexion Digital Import and WorldCat.org. There were plenty of questions about the MMP and where we're headed as a collaborative.

These are just a few highlights in three full days in Anaheim. ALA is truly amazing and I valued the experience whole heartedly.

Lauren at ALA

2008-07-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

This was my first opportunity to attend the ALA Conference and I have never been to such a large convention before – there were 22,000 librarians! It was a great experience and I hope I’ll be able to do it again sometime.

The focus of my trip was professional development and networking with training/CE colleagues, so I built my agenda around ALA-CLENE (Continuing Library Education Network Exchange) events and anything else that smacked of training or CE. Also, as chairperson of the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee I wanted to attend some IFC events. It was good to have a basic purpose because the array of available session topics is amazing and I wouldn’t have had any idea where to start…

My three days at conference included several visits to the Exhibit Hall as well as the following sessions:

Saturday:

AASL President’s Program – Intellectual Freedom: a Core Value – (American Association of School Librarians) – excellent panel discussion
ACRL Learning Virtually: Online Professional Development for Library Workers with Tight Budgets (Association of College and Research Libraries) – panel discussion and examination of online learning systems
ACRL Learning Virtually Poster Session – an opportunity to meet and discuss online learning projects with designer/developers
ALSC Stories for a Saturday Evening (Association for Library Service to Children) – I’ve never heard professional storytellers before and this was really fantastic. I got to hear two of the performers – a very funny lady telling stories about family life and her Puerto Rican grandmother and an older black gentleman (and library school professor) sharing African fables and stories.

Sunday:

ACRL-ANSS The Lady, the Tramp & the Lion King: Mixed Messages about Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Disney’s Magic Kingdom (Anthropology and Sociology Section of ACRL) – I slipped into this session to kill some time before my next scheduled event and this was very interesting! In a nutshell: Disney has come a long way in representing ethnic and racial diversity but when it comes to gender and class they’re still back in the ‘50s where they started.
ALA-LIRT Energize Your Instruction: Keep the Magic Alive for You and Your Audience (ALA Library Instruction Round Table) – lively presentation from a witty and charismatic speaker. Not what I expected, but very good. If I had this guy’s talents I would always have the enthusiastic attention of an audience – but I’m not the same Myers-Briggs type!
ALA-CLENE Training Showcase – An opportunity to meet training/continuing education colleagues and learn about training/CE projects going on in library systems around the nation.
ALA-IFC IFC/FTRF Issues Briefing (Intellectual Freedom Committee/ Freedom to Read Foundation) – Review of challenges to library materials that have taken place around the nation during the past year.

Monday:

OCLC WebJunction MAC Brainstorm – discussion of Member’s Advisory Council and upcoming changes to the WJ website
ALA Public Programs Let’s Talk About It: Love and Forgiveness – This year’s ”Let’s Talk About It” program has a very nicely developed theme. This panel discussion included the scholar who created the program, a representative of the foundation who is co-sponsoring, a librarian who has successfully run the “Let’s Talk...” program, and the director of ALA Public Programs. 30 libraries nationwide will be selected for the grant, but even without the grant you can use the resources to run a program at your library.
CLENERT Training and Staff Development Discussion – Roundtable discussion with library trainers and CE coordinators from many systems in many states.
ALSC Poetry Blast – Wow! Authors of children’s picture books that are written in verse reading from their books.

I hope I can bring the benefits of my ALA conference experience to Montana libraries. Let me know if there is anything you would like to hear more about. And I recommend that if you ever get an opportunity to attend this conference - grab it!

Suzanne's Anaheim programs

2008-07-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

These are the sessions I attended with brief descriptions. I'll add links to presentations as they become available.

Saturday

Sustainable Libraries: Shades of Green. After listening to a couple of the presentations, (Ohio Township and Santa Monica) I got the picture. There was a lot of repetition. Conserving water, using natural light...
Building and Supporting Koha, an Open-Source ILS - this was an interview of Joshua Ferraro, CEO of LibLime by John Houser of PALINET. It included some demos of the Koha system along with information on support provided by LibLime. There were a number of true believers there.
Summary from LITA blog
Social Software Showcase - I couldn't get into this one so I spent the afternoon in the exhibit hall. Luckily, a lot of the information is available from a Social Software wiki.

Sunday

OCLC Update Breakfast - got there a little late but did get the updates and talked a bit about Worldcat
Library 2.0 and Children's Services -
Top Technology Trends - partly because I was coming down with a cold and partly because I'm getting old and less and less able to multi-task, but I found this presentation incredibly distracting and hard to follow. They had two remote presenters via webcam, a local panel and opened up a Meebo chat room so attendees and panelists could chat during the presentation. So, you could read the chat on one topic on a big screen while the panelists might have been talking about something entirely different.
Library Journal's summary
Audio available from LITA blog
Sarah Houghton-Jan's presentation from LITA blog
Eric Lease Morgan's Top Tech Trends from LITA blog

Monday

WebJunction Advisory Committee planning meeting
This is Your Brain on DOPA: Grassroots Organizing and Social Networking
Summary and links to presentations from YALSA blog
Top Library Building Trends

Bridgett's ALA experiences

2007-08-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

ALA 2007 Annual Conference Experiences by Bridgett Johnson with many thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Webjunction and the Montana State Library for making it a reality.

Arrived at BWI rode to Hilton Washington in a black Town Parke limo- like car and treated like royalty. The trees along the freeway were amazing.

We stayed at the Hilton Washington and had a view of the city, the pool, blooming magnolias and streets from the 4th floor. Thursday was spent getting orientated around Dupont Circle, the Metro.

Friday, we figured out buses and went to The Rural Sustainability Forum.

The Forum was very well done and gave us some very helpful strategies for conducting our own meeting environments. I wrote on my evaluation though, that the introduction part was good but it would have been better before the actual work part of the Forum. It could have started earlier so there would have been enough time for it.

The world café strategy is going to be a very useful one to work with the staff, board, community groups and commissions. We will be getting on board with the MaintainIT project, their cookbook will be fun to try.

I also suggested that the Forum like this should take place the day before the conference started. Like on Thursday in this example. There seemed to be a lot of sessions on Friday that would have been interesting to go to.

Tech Atlas has given us a great tool in our computer management and it is really useful. I used to rely on our commercial tech person to help decide what and when we should update our technology. With TechAtlas, I am getting better at making those decisions on a regular basis for our library.

The evening get together was fun too. Networking with others from the Forum was a lot of fun.

Saturday: I went to Books and Babies session, the information gained there will help us to develop an early literacy program for our library.

Bringing in the Boys session was rewarding in the concepts and directions that it sent us.

The next session I went to was Word of Mouth Marketing is Everybody’s Job. The speakers were great, their ideas workable and relevant . One really good idea I took away is to get information to realtors and apartment managers about your library.

Then I went to Getting What you’re Worth Salary Workshop. It included the results of the ALA-APA survey of rural library workers and the interesting work that the Vermont public libraries did to improve their salaries.

Trit trot to Washington: The Whys and Hows of Using Rhymes, Songs and books for Early Literacy programs was a lot of fun.

At the Opening General Session Senator William Bradley spoke and I am so glad that I was able to listen to him. I was floored by the things he said in a good way a wake up call as to what is really going on in our government and policies.

Sunday: Started out very early with Breakfast with YA Authors. I met with some notables authors and had about 15 minutes discussion with about ten of them. It was a great breakfast.

The Prime Time Family Reading Time sounds so great. We are going to try to get a Vista Volunteer this next budget year so that we can try out this program and the Read to Me program.

I really wanted to listen to Judy Blume but I went to Libraries Prosper with Passion, Purpose, Persuasion: A PLA toolkit. It was a good session but unfortunately the toolkit wasn’t available yet but it was important to get it on our radar.

Robert F Kennedy really transformed me. I had never heard anyone ever speak up about the administration and what games the government and media are playing in our world. It was a real eye opener. There were too many good sessions in this time block but it was worth listening to Mr. Kennedy.

At 6 I attended the 2007 Newbery/Caldecott/Wildrer Banquet. Wow was I impressed. The calibur of people that are writing excellent literature for young people is amazing.

Monday started bright and early with Raising Readers again giving us more ideas on enticing reluctant readers with great books and authors. This had several award winning authors who were terrific and very open about why they wrote what they wrote. I even won a book to read which was very good, “The Schwa”. But I missed the Forum ending session but this was a worthwhile session for me.

Julie Andrews was an inspirational speaker. There was a little too much on her past efforts and there could have been more time for her to speak.

Raising More Money: Sustainable Funding for Your Library had a terrific speaker, Terry Axelrod, and I would like to see Montana get her to talk to us. She represents the Benevon Company for nonprofit fundraising strategies.

Tuesday, my family and I took part in the Libraries Build Communities project. We went to the Marting Luther King JR Library and cleaned very old illustrated works of literature. We discovered number 31 of a limited print of Caldecott’s Illustrations as well as many other first editions. We didn’t actually get to see the vault where they were stored but our group cleaned about 1,000 rare and valuable books. It was a great experience.

Besides getting to fit in all the exhibits with great new ideas for libraries, the networking with all the librarians and publishers and authors was amazing. It was a very busy conference. I feel so fortunate that I was able to go and I hope that the ideas and information I gleaned from the conference will help Montana in planning some great programs that will help us to grow and make our best better.

Renee M.'s fourth (and final) report

2007-08-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Another excellent session that I attended was on improving library salaries. The Vermont State Library developed a study with recommendations for minimum starting salaries, steps (percentage increases based on how long an employee had been working at the library), cost of living adjustments, and merit increases. I used this model to develop a plan that I proposed to our library board to create a fairer system of compensation for our library staff. The board has formed a finance committee to examine this and other issues, which will report its recommendations at our August board meeting.

I didn’t have time to do any sightseeing, but did attend several vendor receptions and shared meals with colleagues at some nice restaurants. My mother attended the conference with me to serve as a “nanny” for my infant daughter (who is still breastfeeding). I am very grateful to the Gates Foundation, the Montana State Library, and everyone who made my attendance at this conference possible. What a wonderful opportunity!

the saga continues

2007-08-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Third check-in from Renee M:

Another session I attended was on “Transforming Your Space.” Not all of the information in this session was directly relevant to a small, rural, public library, but one library that was featured on the panel used several strategies that could be adapted to work at my library:

Using wall shelving to created displays using books on the walls above bookshelves
Bright colored paint to give the library a lively feel
Using bookshelves as “cubicle” walls to create functional spaces in the library
Purchasing “disposable” retail furniture that is less expensive and eye-catching, even if it needs to be replaced more often than traditional “institutional” furniture
Putting shelving (and displays) on a diagonal to catch patrons’ attention, particularly in the entryway of the library

I also learned about a state library that hosted a “trading spaces” style library remodel project in which a library was awarded a $45,000 budget to revamp their space using retail techniques. They then served as a model for other libraries that wanted to improve their merchandising skills.

Perhaps the most important thing I took away from this session, however, was a tiny detail about a library logo. The Princeton (University) Library logo, is simply the word “princeton” with the traditional library icon (of a head holding a book in front of it) in place of the “o” in the town’s name. Since my library had been toying with the idea of creating a logo using a compass (to reflect on the “North” Valley in our name), I adapted this idea to use a compass as the “o” in North Valley, resulting in the following logo which my library board approved at their last meeting:

more bits and pieces

2007-08-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

The first actual conference session that I attended was a “dud.” The topic was financial planning for the future, which I assumed to mean the library’s future, when, in fact, it was a session on planning for individual retirement. Taking advice from one of the preconference speakers, I left that session when I realized it wouldn’t be useful to me, and spent the time exploring exhibits. I focused particularly on vendors of book trucks, library cards, and book drops – all things that my library will be purchasing within the next year (or sooner).

I attended an excellent session on Library board/Friends/staff roles with a panel of speakers who described various models of board/director relationships and strategies to encourage the Friends of the Library to work more effectively with the library board and staff. Some ideas that I took back from this session included:

Redoing a trustee training session every time a new board member is hired (so that all will be on the same page about the role of board members versus the library director and staff)
Looking into state laws on term limits for board members (and discussing the possibility of term limits with my board members)
Proposing the idea of a board evaluation (to be conducted by the board or by members of the community in accordance with ALTA publication on this topic)
Liaisons from our two school districts providing representation on the library board
Written job descriptions for library trustees
Circulating library journals to trustees to keep them in the loop about library issues.

Renee McGrath
North Valley Public Library
208 Main St.
Stevensville MT 59870
reneemcgrath@northvalleylibrary.org

Finally a real report

2007-08-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Wow was ALA fun!

The WebJunction day was informative. Meeting others with small libraries was good - and there are people with more rural libraries then mine. We shared a table with Idaho and hope to arrange a follow up with them soon.

The ALA sessions were also educational. I went to one on courier systems and met with the presenters and some vendors afterwards. Since I have spent the last year submerged in the courier world, it was neat to talk to people I had read about and read articles from. We swapped information, opinions and thoughts.

And then there was Judy Blume. Ahhhhhh..... is all I have to say. She was just great. Julie Andrews was good but I must say I'd rank Judy Blume's presentation above hers.

The exhibits were fun. It was great to walk by tables and recognize authors who were busy signing. I also had a chance to look at and play with products I had only read about like Playaways and Overdrive. Of course it makes me mourn our tiny budget even more. But if that sack of money appears on our doorstep I know what I want to buy.

finally blogging in

2007-08-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well, since our report was due to Sue Jackson today, I finally got around to writing about my experience at ALA!

To avoid overloading you with all of the details at once, I'll break my report up into separate segments for the blog.

One thing I forgot to mention (but remembered when I read Renee's comments about Julie Andrews) was that I got to hear Judy Blume speak, but wasn't allowed to enter the auditorium because of my fussy baby! So I sat outside and listened to the whole speech on a speaker being projected into the hall!

Here's the beginning of my report:

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the Rural Library Sustainability Forum and American Library Association conference in Washington DC this June. While I had attended ALA conferences in the past, I had never done so as a small, rural library director, and was surprised at how much I learned when I approached the conference from this perspective.

The Rural Library Sustainability Forum itself was conducted fairly informally, with nearly half of the day devoted to introductions of participants from various states.

An introduction to the conference was provided, followed by a lunch, which provided time for informal networking with rural library colleagues from other states. From these conversations, I got an idea about checking out thumb drives for patrons to use to bring data from the library’s computers to their home.

All participants in the forum were presented with a technology “cookbook” (which I look forward to looking through after my library goes live on the Montana Shared Catalog).

The next part of the forum allowed for more networking through a “rural café” in which participants cycled from table to table discussing the same theme with different people. This was surprisingly useful and provided more food for thought.

Jana Ponce of the Parker Public Library in Arizona was the featured speaker for the afternoon, and she shared her experience rising through the ranks to library director (without a master’s degree) and using innovative techniques for fundraising and marketing the library (through placemat advertising and putting brochures in hotel lobbies and other tourist locations). She also offered the idea of a “talent search” – which is a database that her staff created to connect people in the community with others who had similar interests or areas of expertise. We’re now thinking about creating something like this in Stevensville.

More tomorrow!

Renee Vaillancourt McGrath

2007-07-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog - ever! Thanks Suzanne for setting this up for us to tell about the fabulous time at ALA in DC. I loved reading Renee G's statement about Julie Andrews - definately a highlight of the conference. I can vouch that Renee was on the edge of her seat; even mouthing the words of the songs during the video clip of past performances! A highlight for me was visiting with authors at the YALSA Breakfast and meeting Lois Lowry. Bridgett Johnson and I nearly dined with Nikki Grimes at the Caldecott/Newbery Banquet...until the table hosts ever so diplomatically informed us we were at the table reserved for Penguin Publishing! We discreetly took our white wine to another table! The event itself was like the Emmy's - fancy gowns & tuxedoes. The recipients gave such nice acceptance speeches too. Thank goodness for experienced travelers! Renee McGrath and her darling Cara got me through the airport to DC and Sami helped me navigate the Metro - suitcase and all! The 5 Montanans had a great time with the gals from Idaho and plan to continue our Rural Forum sometime soon. I couldn't believe the humidity but needed a jacket when I arrived back home. - Jodi Oberweiser

The Hills Are Alive......Tra La La!

2007-07-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

The hills are alive with the sound of music....right away you thought Julie Andrews, right! Well, I think my most favorite time at ALA was getting to be at an author presentation by Julie Andrews. Wishing I hadn't forgotten my camera, but so glad Jodi Oberweiser hadn't. The cheering and clapping was thunderous as she walked on to the stage. Then after viewing some famous movie clips of her(one being the Sound of Music), Julie Andrews spoke about how she had come to be a writer, starting very young with her tutor. She doesn't like to be known as a celebrity author as she reminded us that she had written The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles over thirty years ago and has a trunk full of pictures drawn from that book and sent to her. Writing, for her, is an extension of her acting and singing. She shared her growing up years and how she had used libraries and how much books and stories mean to her. Now Julie Andrews writes with her daughter and together they have the Julie Andrew Collection---Words. Wisdom. Wonder. The really terrific news is that she announced that the ALA president had asked her to be next year's spokeperson for National Library Week and she said, "YES"!

Just a brief note for now

2007-07-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

I am still trying to unbury myself from being gone. But I just wanted to say that I had a great time at ALA. Learned lots and would go again in a heartbeat. I will post more later. But I am still waiting for my boxes to arrive that I had to send home because I collected way too many goodies at the exhibit booths.

ala or bust

2007-07-03T16:03:00.001-07:00

I just love this photo that Renee G. posted to WebJunction so I thought I'd give it a wider audience.