ISBN: 9780801018947
    Author: Jeffress, Robert, 1955-

    ISBN: 9780374712174
    Author: McDermott, Alice

    ISBN: 9780316273978
    Author: Patterson, James, 1947-

    ISBN: 9780525497141
    Author: Follett, Ken

    ISBN: 9781508238546
    Author: Mills, Kyle,

(September 19, 2017). Bernards Township School District in Basking Ridge, N.J., capped an extensive two-year search by selecting Follett's Aspen for its new student information system. The PreK-12 district implemented Aspen in time for the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

(September 19, 2017). The Library Corporation announced that the William F. Laman Public Library has chosen the Library.Solution integrated library system to deliver premier library management software and services for its patrons and staff. Laman Public Library will go live with Library.Solution on September 20, 2017.

(September 19, 2017). Prosegue a livello globale la forte tendenza verso l'adozione di Alma, che diventa la piattaforma bibliotecaria con la più rapida crescita al mondo. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, ha il piacere di annunciare che Ex Libris Alma, la soluzione in cloud per la gestione delle risorse della biblioteca, è ora il sistema preferito da un migliaio di clienti. La millesima istituzione che ha optato per Alma è l'Università Carnegie Mellon che, come le altre 999 istituzioni, potrà beneficiare dei flussi di lavoro ottimizzati offerti dalla soluzione SaaS per la gestione unificata delle risorse.

(September 19, 2017). Treasure State Academic Information and Library Services, a consortium of 24 colleges and universities throughout Montana, has chosen ProQuest Academic Complete and College Complete ebook collection subscriptions to provide high-quality content and a powerful, intuitive user experience to its thousands of students, faculty and researchers.

(September 19, 2017). Ex Libris announced that the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Montpellier (BIU, or Interuniversity Library of Montpellier) has chosen the Ex Libris Alma library services platform and the Primo discovery and delivery solution to optimize library management and discovery. Alma and Primo will replace the Aleph integrated library system.

Grounded, but with one eye on the horizon

“When you press the pause button on a machine, it stops. But when you press the pause button on human beings they start… You start to reflect, you start to rethink your assumptions, you start to reimagine what is possible…”

 

And it is not just knowledge that is improved by pausing. So too, is the ability to build trust, “to form deeper and better connections, not just fast ones, with other human beings.”

– Thomas Friedman (2017, pp 3-4), quoting Dov Seidman

I just finished reading two thought-provoking books, made all the more interesting because I read them back-to-back and in the context of the last few weeks’ class readings, on similar themes: Thomas Friedman’s Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations (and isn’t that an interesting and provocative subtitle!) and David Sax’s The Revenge of the Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter (likewise!)

Friedman’s premise, building on his previous work: everything is flattening, everything is accelerating, everything is moving to the cloud, everyone has the opportunity to adapt to and thrive in this perpetual whitewater, but not everyone will.

Sax’s premise: everything Friedman says is true, but there’s a also parallel countertrend, shaping and shaped by the digitization and acceleration of everything. An intentional slowing down, a revaluing of the tangible.

 

Refining algorithms refine. It’s what they do; it’s their purpose and function. Aggregate data aggregates. Passive surveillance surveys. And smart systems get smarter, more granular, more responsive, more connected, more versatile. And this is good: smart, efficient systems are less wasteful, more sustainable, and the world needs that.

But the unintended consequence of that is: as predictive analytics get better and better about solving our problems before we’re aware of them and predicting what we want to buy, consume, and interact with, as push technologies deliver (deliver what? everything!) with ever more smooth facility, there’s less room for inefficiencies. But inefficiency is where the magic happens. And we need that. Human beings need tangible, imperfect, serendipitous, complex interactions and connections, for building mental maps of the social world, which is, in essence what makes us human in the first place.

(And sometimes it is the physicality of processes at human scales that’s more efficient, in ways that are fundamentally different from machine-efficiency, directly because of that serendipity and imperfection: designers have rediscovered the power of sketching in rapid prototyping, a small print run magazine can still be sold for more than it costs to produce, and physical film and sound recordings capture expressive content that ever-increasingly complex and expensive digital postproduction software still struggles to imitate.)

How do we enable “luck”?
How do we establish communities
that thrive on the unexpected?

– IFLA Trends Report

Both the Horizon Report and the IFLA Trends Report (which explicitly references the principle of perpetual whitewater) deal with the idea of balancing change management and core library principles: planning for open access and new media, integrating user-centered design and horizontal organization, are essential, but they’re the how, not the what. The what hasn’t changed: literacy, information navigation, and equitable access; conceptual and physical spaces for learning, self-actualization, and community-building. The environment in which libraries operate has changed and is in a state of constant change and adaptation and redefinition, and the prospect of keeping ahead of that can be daunting and exhausting, but when I look closely at all of these trends – both the accelerating, flattening, automating trends and the human-centered, collaborative, engaging, analog trends – what I find is the commonalities between them articulating and clarifying our purpose and our role.

Photo credit: Rangeview Library District, https://www.anythinklibraries.org/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/Anythink_Staff_Manifesto.pdf via https://www.anythinklibraries.org/anythinktank

And that’s basically always been true, hasn’t it? We continually move our own goalpost; we create our own  challenges; and with each iteration of professional practice, the better we understand what is at the center of what we do, the better we get at it. We’re still figuring out that “all people” means “all people,” and we have a tremendous amount of work to do, but we have a clearer understanding than we did in 1993 or 1961. We’re still testing the limits and possibilities of what it means to be a physical space in an information environment, we’re experimenting creatively, including embracing the ability to fail. We’re realizing that if we are serious about connecting people to knowledge, it also has to be skill-based and experience-based and community-based knowledge,  and we’re making those connections in creative and innovative ways. We’re accepting that we can’t be institutions that support and advocate for our patrons’ individual agency without being workplaces that do the same for our staff, and we’re rising to that challenge.

All of these things are obvious when we center fundamental professional values; what gets in the way is just noise. 

References

ALA (1996). Library Bill of Rights.

ALA (1993). Access to Library Resources and Services Regardless of Sex, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sexual Orientation: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.

ALA (1993). Economic Barriers to Information Access: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.

23 Mobile Things

Anythink Tank (Clearinghouse of Internal Documents)

Anythink Staff Manifesto

Deloitte (2016).How do today’s students use mobiles? [UK Study].

Lamb, A. (2016). History of Libraries: Contemporary Libraries, 1960s.

Enis, M. (2015). Meet the tabletarians: Mobile services.

Friedman, T. L. (2016). Thank you for being late: An optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) (2016). IFLA Trends Report.

Holmquist, Jan (2016). Open Libraries.

Hood, G. (2014). 5 Ways Colorado Libraries Are Going Beyond Books.

Lipsey, R. F. & Madera, F. (2015). 100 Great Ideas for the Future of Libraries.

New Media Consortium. (2017). NMC Horizon Report > 2017 Library Edition.

Raine, L. (2016). Puzzles Librarians need to Solve.

S., M. (2014). Come see what’s cooking: Announcing our new Culinary Literacy Center!

Sax, D. (2016). The revenge of analog: Real things and why they matter. New York : PublicAffairs, 2016.

Weinberger, D. (2014). Let the Future Go.

Wickner, A. (2015). Designing Library Spaces.

* * * * *

Beth Harper is a public services paralibrarian living in historic central Denver and working in the western foothills under the shadow of the Front Range, and an MLIS student at San Jose State University. As Elizabeth Biehl, she writes on SF/F literature and community, art and culture, and occasionally librarianship at www.edgeofcenter.com.

    ISBN: 9780735216228
    Author: Bredesen, Dale E.

(September 16, 2017). The Institute of Museum and Library Services released two key information products: the latest data from its annual Public Libraries Survey and a new report on the previous year's data. The Public Libraries Survey examines key indicators of public library use, financial health, staffing, and resources. Explore the FY 2015 data and the FY 2014 report.

(September 15, 2017). New insights gained through the use of Unearth will fuel internal collaborative strategic discussions to direct the editorial development of crucial peacebuilding reports. USIP has updated its suite of analytic tools. In addition to gaining an increased understanding of user behavior through the use of a variety of standard and nonstandard analytics, USIP has chosen to use Yewno Unearth to explore and understand the content of its publications on a deeper level.

(September 15, 2017). Innovative Interfaces launched the newest release of the Sierra integrated library system with new options to improve processes at the library. Sierra Release 3.2 includes three new API endpoints and integration for PCI-compliant credit card payments at Express Lane self-service stations. Sierra is a powerful, modern integrated library system (ILS) that combines complete functionality with the power and scale of an open services platform.

To outsiders it may appear that I have risen very quickly to my current role as an administrative director in my academic library, but for me it has seemed a much slower process filled with many failures and personal lessons.  Some of these failures were visible to others, but many were only internally known.  In reading TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke’s Tales From the Library Trenches Part 4: Within You Without You article in the September 2017 issue of Information Today, I felt an instant connection to him, although I’ve never personally met Justin.  So much of this article resonates with me and I really appreciate the vulnerability Justin expresses about his “rockstar” focused period of time.

I fell into the muddy quicksand of believing that I was a library rock star between 2011 and 2013. I was more concerned with presenting at conferences and workshops, as well as diving into the wild, weird worlds that are library professional organizations and cliques. My focus changed from serving those who needed me to serving myself and the library profession. It was a terribly miserable experience, and I wish I could time travel and change almost everything that happened in those years. As a librarian, I was more interested in listening to what others had said about my past accomplishments, rather than focusing on what was in front of me and the nitty-gritty work that needed to be done. Awards and professional recognition are great, but once they start taking your attention away from the community you serve, you’ve lost your way, and it’s time to get it back. – Justin Hoenke, Executive Director of the Benson Memorial Library (Hoenke, 2017)

Failure Bows

There is something beautiful in taking a failure bow (what my former colleague and friend Sarah Faye Cohen frequently says and now a phrase I’ve adopted) as a leader to create space in your organization for growth.  We grow from our mistakes, and leaders showing this vulnerability to others allows others to recognize they are capable too of becoming a leader and challenges are what make you who you are now.  It is difficult to have this vulnerability when you are focused on becoming a rockstar, as Justin admits, and I can also admit to.

Failure leads to success

I often have moments when I get caught up in where my “rank” on my campus is and how close I am to the “top”.  Whenever I begin to have those moments, I like to think the universe sends me a reality check by placing me in uncomfortable situations where I feel very out of my comfort zone.  But there is a beauty in these moments because I feel vulnerable.  It is in these moments I am reminded of why I do what I do, and from that the library benefits as I turn my attention back to my staff and the library users.  These moments Justin shares in his article are what keep us grounded in the work we do as library directors.  I chose libraries because I love libraries as a user too.  While I felt I could be personally successful in a career in libraries, I am not here only for my own success, but for the success of every library staff member and library user I serve.  Justin includes a quote from TTW’s Michael Stephens on this balance between personal success and library success:

 

It’s a delicate balance between being engaged and visible in the community we serve and not letting it all go to our heads. I’ve long been of the mind to say ‘check your ego at the door.’ A director who also gets the spotlight in various circles near and far should be a constant cheerleader for the staff back home and for everyone who works in our field. Don’t be the library director that needs to hear how wonderful they are before they can engage. Be humble. Listen. The director who deals with every situation with an open mind and open heart is the one who leads—in every sense of the word. – Dr. Michael Stephens, Associate Professor in the School of Information at San Jose State University (Hoenke, 2017)

success is in our peoples successes

As library leaders, we must remember that the work we do is not our own, but a team effort.  When I come to work, I am not only leading my team, but they lead me.  My team may depend on me to provide them support around the things that are out of their own comfort zones (policy enforcement, employee relations, financial projections, etc.), but I depend on them to support the library users and our campus community directly.

A great library director has an open mind, a kind heart, and an ego in check. And directors must constantly remind themselves that their first priority is to do work that best benefits their community and their staffers. -Justin Hoenke, Executive Director of the Benson Memorial Library (Hoenke, 2017)

Teamwork is the key to success

My position doesn’t exist without my team, the library doesn’t serve users without my team, and if my focus strays from supporting them, we all suffer.  This is the one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in becoming a library leader and one that is valuable for all library leaders to heed.

References

Hoenke, J. (2017, September). Tales From the Library Trenches Part 4: Within You Without You. Information Today. 37(7), 1. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/it/sep17/Hoenke–Tales-From-the-Library-Trenches-Part-4-Within-You-Without-You.shtml

_______________________________

Cheryl May

Cheryl May is the Director of Access, Operations, and Administrative Services at the Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a graduate student at San Jose State University in the School of Information, where she is currently blogging about the Hyperlinked Library.  She lives in Baywood Park, CA with her husband, son, and numerous pets.  In her free time she reads anything she can get her hands on, hikes around SLO County, and gets crafty.  She is also passionate about health and wellness, and is a certified Les Mills BodyPump and BodyCombat group fitness instructor whom eats a plant-based diet.

(September 14, 2017). Follett announced its popular Rewards program is returning, allowing customers to accrue points on purchases and redeem them for valuable products. Customers will earn points on all textbook, consumable and buyback transactions, including any qualifying purchases made on or after April 1.

(September 14, 2017). Ingram announced associate promotions and new associates to the group. Matthew Dickie has joined the Ingram Publisher Services international sales team as a new European Sales Manager. Philippa Malicka has been promoted from Key Account Sales Manager to Business Development Manager for Lightning Source UK Ltd. Nick Singh has been promoted from Account Representative to Key Account Sales Manager for Lightning Source's IngramSpark in the UK. Tyler Montgomery has been promoted from Inside Sales Representative to Content Manager for Ingram Book Group LLC.

(September 14, 2017). Innovative Interface announced the DeKalb County Public Library in Decatur, GA selected the Polaris Web Application to support 22 branches across the county.

(September 14, 2017). HTC Global Services, Inc. introduced SoteriaAMS, a new asset management solution for high-capacity library storage facilities that enables real-time cloud-based management to increase staff productivity and patron satisfaction.