News Archive for September 2010    

What follows is a transcript of things I wrote down during the Pat Wagner workshop. It’s good to review the ideas that matter sometimes when you are planning projects and taking next steps rapidly.

It hurts your library when your public expects more than you can deliver on half the budget.

What is the core of your business?

We are forced to innovate. What innovative policy can we place into Resource Sharing to make it most effective?

Truths I believe:
Local district loan is cheap collection sharing.
When time isn’t a factor, we can get most things customers want.
Format shouldn’t matter as much as content
When libraries share all clients benefit.

Stick with the choices you make.

Have the guts to enforce the plan or you let them steal money and time.

Perfectionism is like standing outside your building ripping up $100 bills.

What should the ratio be between items loaned and items borrowed?

Local library loans + district loans + Interlibrary Loans from Access + Interlibrary loans from OCLC = Items borrowed?

Total Items loaned outside our library cannot exceed : ________ (insert number here: what would you base it on?)

People procrastinate on stuff they don’t have to do or stuff without immediate consequences. Who stops you from procrastinating? How does knowledge of fear, policy, evaluation, and humanity help those consequences?

Tip: If you’re trying to explain something, make a graphic equation. Examples:
customer needs + library resouces = better community
Library Resources – Community Needs = Remaining Community Needs
Hours open (Physical Space) / Staff Hours or Staff Costs (How does that look by county or by circulation?)

Who makes the decision so we can get the work done?

How do you know you were successful?

Statistics are the perfect picture of whatever you counted yesterday.

What are the signs you see in a community that show it is prosperous? Be specific about things you see…

Try this exercise: Write a press release or an essay. What 5 things do you give your community?
Try to use concrete evidence, think Law & Order.

Libraries say: Even if we can’t fill your request, we treat you with respect and might offer an alternative.

What are the steps in triage? While we’re not in a critical care unit, how could these help us think about doing effective public library work?

Agreed: Humans misunderstand, make mistakes, and disagree.

Should everybody learn to think like a manager? (depend on who your managers are…)

Keep staff informed of major checkpoints on the way to benchmarks. How do they know they are getting there…?

Scenario for Staff:
1000 people are standing at the desk waving a piece of paper with a request. What do you do?

If you could only fill 100 of them, how would you decide? (With the economy, this reminds me of the scene from It’s a Wonderful Life where George Bailey uses his honeymoon money to help everyone get by until the bank reopened, saving the Bailey Building & Loan. What would happen today?)

How do you communicate to those with needs you cannot meet? (Side story: I was offered money this week to do a job for a patron when I was helping out a customer in a district library while the director answered the phone during our meeting regarding grant funding…Did I want to help the man, yes, but I couldn’t take the time to help him forever, I could only do so much. See, he’d bought a service to make money through a website and he didn’t have an email address. He wanted me to find a way to make his money making scheme work, and to be honest, the sales person who sent him the Priority Mail envelop about his service should have been ashamed of taking someone’s money who couldn’t use the service really, but that’s a whole other story. I couldn’t do it for him, and I didn’t have a friend I could recommend to help, except, well, there’s self education online, programs in community centers, and the director printed contact info on where to register a business complaint because the company was no longer returning phone calls. The one-on0one customer interaction is a difficulty for reference librarians to limit.)

Best tip of the Day for Time Management: Figure out how much time you have before you decide what you will do. (align your expectations!)

For project managers, bad news is good information. It’s GREAT if staff tell you what doesn’t look good, what doesn’t work, and what bumps they hit along the way. This means you are a trusted project manager and that you’re working well together.

Beware of project drift…

There’s no room for grammar in project management, however, you need to DEFINE concrete expectations and milestones.

What’s the ratio between Fast, speed of service; Cheap/Cost/Commodities used or traded ; and Quality/Effectiveness at meeting goals
Quality Metric / Cost = Effective Service Delivery to meet need
Quality + Time = 10
Quality (aka Impact) / cost (aka Resources) = 10 (but 9 is okay too)

What “timing” matters in District Loan/ILL?

How can employees gauge how much time they should spend on a customer request?
Can we write a procedure to enforce common sense?

If your library got a bequest of $1,000,000 and offered to split the ownership of the results of an investment between all the staff and board, how many of your staff would support that idea?
Now…think this: Which programs or services would staff rather sell and split the profits from rather than continue? You’ll see which ones aren’t making an impact.

Something has to be more important than something else. Will you flip a coin to make your decision?

If you can hold a gun to someone’s head and they can complete a task, it is not a training issue.

Define Goals and constraints. Explain the how. (Page 23 of Pat Wagner handouts see here: Project Management and Priorities Sheets by Pat Wagner 2010will be a structure for a few district project outlines I am working on)

Truths of the Capital Resource Sharing Team:
-Local district loan is effective collection sharing.
-When time isn’t a factor, we can get most things customers want through sharing with other library collections through ILL processes.
-Format shouldn’t matter as much as content when considering the value of filling a request.
-When libraries share all clients benefit.
-There must be limits to what requests we will fill for customers. Libraries do not have time to waste.

Which of these statements do you agree with?
Which do you disagree with?
What truths would you add?
Suggestions?

This week I attended a workshop with Pat Wagner offered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries.
Posted here, find the handouts with many brilliant tips for good Project Management and Setting Priorities: Project Management and Priorities Sheets by Pat Wagner 2010

Library workshops are sometimes especially valuable for the networking opportunities brought by in person communication and time given to reflect on library ideals in the presence of others.
Below are some random musings I had at and just after the workshop.

What Do Libraries have in Common?:
-Library staff want people to use our organizations and valuable information resources to improve their lives and communities.
-Libraries think that literacy and good citizenship is important.
-Libraries value education for everyone who is interested.
-Libraries are asked to meet minimum service standards to receive funding.
-Libraries receive some combination of funding from government and donations. Most are not-for-profit, or are not charged sales tax.
-Libraries employ human beings and use technology to some level.
-Libraries all have collections of things we loan to people who want to borrow them.

What’s Different?
-Programs we choose to do
-Populations we choose to prioritize
-Items we decide to buy
-Marketing messages we send
-The politics of our local operation
-Local community needs we choose to meet
-How much money we spend
-Who pays for the services
-How long you have to wait in line
-How much space we have available and how well we maintain our facilities
-How we plan

In summary, librarians want people to use our organizations and valuable information resources to improve their lives and communities. We all have different specific ways we do it, but we believe in basic service standards that we aim to meet.

Don’t let money get in the way of serving people with a genuine need for library services. Focus on the positive, instead of on the budget changes. What can you try to reinvent? (See this handout from the DLC Leadership Workshop–Jonelle and Linda attended from our district): Destroy and Rebuild Your Business Model

Together we can demonstrate the value of resource sharing and collaboration in our library community, at the local library, system, district, region, state, and national level. Cooperation often trumps competition when we share the same core mission ideals of meeting literacy needs.

Feel free to continue the conversation below. What are your thoughts on libraries, cooperation, and resource sharing?

8 Common Marketing Communications Mistakes and How to Avoid Them with Gail S. Bower, President, Bower & Co. Consulting LLC will be presented in Harrisburg on Thursday, October 14, 2010 from 1:00-4:00 PM at the PANO Building, 777 East Park Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17111.

How much do your marketing communications mistakes cost??

Unrestricted income for your operating expenses, such as marketing communications, is harder to come by these days. Can you afford to waste those dollars?
Wasting is exactly what you’re doing if your efforts don’t yield the results you expect, results such as:
• more constituents
• more donors
• more event attendees
• new members
• greater influence with your stakeholders
• greater visibility
• enhanced repute
• persuasion that your cause is worth funding or supporting in a particular way.

Marketing, event, and sponsorship specialist Gail Bower will offer a workshop next month, entitled 8 Marketing Communications Mistakes & How to Avoid Them, in Harrisburg to help you and your staff improve your marketing communications efforts so instead of draining your resources, your efforts generate new resources.

“The amount of information we each process every day is overwhelming,” said Bower. “Getting a clear, compelling message across to the right audiences to generate the kinds of responses we need can be a challenge, but one every organization must face.”

In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn more about common mistakes Gail sees, how to steer clear of them, and what you can do to create a more powerful communications effort. Attendees who want to get the most out of their investments and time with Gail will bring samples of their marketing materials – collateral materials, invitations, newsletters, ads, promotions, press releases, annual reports, web pages, eblasts, Facebook pages, Tweets, and other sample social media messages – to critique with colleagues. You’ll leave with new ideas, new tools, and a new understanding about ways to improve your organization’s communications efforts.

To register for this workshop, go to:
DynamicPage.aspx?Site=PANO&WebCode=EventDetail&evt_key=a75f638c-97e5-4aca-a931-54dd028bdba6&msm=3a4cb83d-ab2a-4ed7-ae05-7756bb753600&cst=c37f1646-47c2-4da8-b5a2-a320168267ae&ent=3be055f7-ab08-45c4-a8e9-af82294898b9

The Board of the Butler County Federated Library System is seeking candidates for the position of Library System Administrator. In order to fill the position quickly, the Board will be accepting resumes and references by e-mail through September 20,2010. The work involves a flexible schedule of 4-5 days per week, 37.5 hours per week. The starting salary is $35,000 – $40,000.

BCFLS Administrator reports to Butler County Federated Library System Board of Trustees. Under the direction of the BCFLS Board, this position is directly responsible for the administration and management of the Butler County Federated Library System. For more information about the library system go to: www.butlerlibrary.info

Qualifications: Masters Degree in Library Science from an American Library Association-accredited program, with at least 3 years experience in a public library in an administrative or supervisory capacity.

Supervises: All BCFLS Staff (sometimes through other supervisory personnel)

Essential Functions and Responsibilities include:

Oversees and evaluates the operation of the multi-site library system
Develops library policies, procedures, and practices, and implements and administers them upon approval of the BCFLS Board.
Formulates library goals and objectives in conjunction with the BCFLS Board and plans library services designed to meet them.
Prepares an annual budget for approval by the BCFLS Board and administers and monitors the expenditure of funds.
Leads, directs, and supervises the staff of the Butler County Federated Library System, directly and through other supervisory personnel.
Develops and implements effective administrative programs and procedures in collaboration with the Library Directors, District and State Library personnel.
Promotes staff development at all levels.
Implements Board personnel policies, including recruiting, interviewing, hiring, orienting, and overseeing training of new employees, reviewing, evaluating performance, and termination decisions.
Maintains confidentiality of all patron records and transactions.
Solicits quotes for services and purchases, presenting all contracts and recommendations to the BCFLS Board.
Oversees the preparation of timely reports on usage, financials, circulation, services and programs for the BCFLS Board, state library, and other governmental units.
Responsible for professional collection development and maintenance.
Develops and oversees library technology and automation while balancing new and traditional formats and services.
Serves as a spokesperson and advocate for the library system throughout the county.
Oversees fundraising activities for the library system.
Represents and maintains active involvement by BCFLS within the New Castle District and Commonwealth Libraries.
Coordinates system services with those of the district, state library, school districts, and other nearby systems.
Represents the Library at meetings and conferences of professional library associations.
Insures that all member libraries are aware of and adhere to state mandated requirements of service.
Approves all purchases for payment.
Implements regular library staff meetings.
Attends all BCFLS Board of Trustees meetings and is available for Board meeting for each member library if needed.
Additional duties/responsibilities as required or assigned by the BCFLS Board

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Extensive knowledge of current principles, methods, and practices of a public library.
Knowledge of community needs and interest levels.
Knowledge of print, electronic, audiovisual and information formats, technologies, and resources.
Ability to plan, analyze, evaluate, supervise, and direct library needs and services.
Interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills necessary to establish and maintain effective working relationships with community leaders, public officials, professional groups, library employees, and the general public.
Knowledge of hardware and software systems necessary for the operation of the library and management of its resources.
Ability to use electronic means of communication and information transfer.
Ability to make decisions and take appropriate action to assure implementation.
Proven ability in public relations and marketing library service to the community.
Experience with capital fundraising campaigns and grant writing.

Physical and Mental Requirements:

Ability to meet certain physical requirements successfully to perform the essential functions of the job. Functions include (but are not necessarily limited to):
Occasional lifting or carrying objects weighing up to 25 pounds for short distances.
Reaching, including overhead reaching.
Mobility.
Ability to use a computer keyboard and mouse.
Ability to exchange information in person or on the telephone.
For distribution to the search committee, resumes with references should be sent to:
sbrown@dcfls.org

ALA Washington Office Webinar: Libraries and the Elections, How You Can be Involved and Make a Difference

You may have heard that there’s a midterm election coming up in November. In this ALA Washington office webinar we’ll look at what library supporters can legally, ethically and effectively do to get involved. Ensuring that candidates understand the importance of libraries is one of the most important ways to have our voices heard, whether at the local, state or federal level. Join us to learn 10 specific techniques for being engaged in democracy at its most basic level — through the electoral process!

Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:843991994

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Library Daze at MVL is Awesome. Stop by to see what it’s all about.

It includes…
*A Big Yard Sale
*The Best Book Sale ever
*Games for Kids
*Crafts for Kids
*A car wash (run by Jake our karate guru)
*Face Painting (done by a library director with artistic flair)
*AND Lots of Yummy Food!

Preservation Workshop (Harrisburg) FREE
September 16, 2010
Hear from a panel of world renowned experts in preservation and learn about new environmental standards for the preservation of paper based collections. You will also learn about the energy efficiencies within the Rare Collections Library design that your library can replicate at a surprisingly affordable cost. These energy saving measures are applicable beyond special collections and can save energy throughout the library. This is a workshop you can’t afford to miss as there is so much rich Pennsylvania history in our libraries we can’t afford to lose. A tour of the Rare Collections Library is included.
For additional information and registration, contact Tom Clareson, LYRASIS, 800.999.8558 or fill out the registration form you can download from this site and FAX it to 404.892.7879.

Do you think your library will not meet one or more of the Standards for being a library that receives state aid? See the current Standards in an easy-to-checklist format here: State Aid Standards Tables Revised 02-2010

Below are some tips for writing a “Request for Waiver of Standards”:

TIPS TO WRITING A GOOD REQUEST for a Waiver of Standards:
-Seek input and guidance from the district library consultant in your district and the Office of Commonwealth Libraries advisors.
-Involve the Library Board. According to Section 103 of the Library Code, “The application for a waiver shall be adopted by a resolution of the board of directors at a regularly scheduled meeting of the board. Prior to the board of directors adopting policies or procedures for which a waiver is being sought, approval of the department (i.e. Office of Commonwealth Libraries) shall be required.”
-Clearly state what standard(s) the request is for.
-Include as much data and documentation as possible to support your request.
-Date your letter.
-Allow sufficient time for your request to be received, processed and responded to by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries.
-Each library’s situation is unique and is taken into account when requests are reviewed.

Here is an example of Waiver Documentation. You can do anything you want in your letter, but the headings suggested in this listing are good to keep your request organized and clear so it can be reviewed effectively.

________ (Library Name applying for Waiver)

Waiver(s) needed:
1. Weekly hours open
2. Collection Expenditures
3. Director’s education level
4. Decrease in LFE

Measures taken to produce needed revenue:
1 . A board member attends meeting of municipality to outline the services
provided by the library and the funds needed.
2 . Have held 3 fund raising events in 2009 and will probably do more in 2010.
3.

Financial distress:
1 . Income from ______ was cut by ____ (amount or percent) on _____ (effective date.)
2 . State Aid for 2010 dropped by ______ (percent) for total loss of _________ (amount).
3 . Income from Endowment fund has dropped noticeably plus gifts & donations are about _____% less than 2008.
4.
5.

Reduction in proportion to financial deficit:
1. Financial losses are over $______ while the budget was cut $_______
2.

Steps to meet library needs of community with reduced services:
1. Hours cut were based on documented library usage
2. Library continues to be open evenings and weekends for students and those who work.
3.

Reduction of library support by county, school district or local municipality is proportional over all programs and/or departments funded by that source:
1. All departments funded by ____ Borough/County were cut by 10%.

Check out the full posting here: I Love My Librarian 2010

Here’s a clip of some text from the page:
“Nominate your librarian for the third year of the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!
Nominations for 2010 stay open through September 20.
Nominate a librarian in a:
School Library
Public Library
College, Community College, University Library

There are nearly 123,000 libraries nationwide, and librarians touch the lives of the people they serve every day. The award encourages library users like you to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians. We want to hear how you think your librarian is improving the lives of the people in your school, campus or community.
Up to ten winners will be selected this year and receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and $500 travel stipend to attend an awards reception in New York hosted by The New York Times. In addition, a plaque will be given to each award winner’s library.
The award is administered by the American Library Association with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times.”

Share the word with the public and other library staff!
Let’s recognize all the great library impact work happening in our district!

The County of Berks is seeking an experienced professional for the position of Library System Administrator. This position is responsible for directing, supervising, and coordinating the various components of the Library System to ensure that quality and equitable library service is provided throughout the County. This position works in consultation with the County Commissioners and the Library System Board to advise member libraries on issues related to library development and improvement, and provides recommendations regarding countywide library strategies, policies and funding. This position is responsible for planning, developing and implementing a comprehensive annual budget, directing the development of grant applications, and making recommendations for allocation of state and county funds to member libraries. Qualified candidates will possess MS degree in Library Science from a program accredited by the American Library Association and 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in the public library system, including 3 years management experience. Candidate must possess certification as a Professional Librarian from the PA Dept of Education. Salary based on qualifications/experience & is accompanied by an excellent benefits package including retirement plans and tuition reimbursement. Interested candidates should submit an application and confidential resume w/ salary requirement to: County of Berks HR Dept, 633 Court St., 8th Floor, Reading, PA 19601, ATTN: Library System Administrator.
Applications are available at: default.asp Resumes submitted without an application will be considered incomplete and will be returned for resubmission with an application. E.O.E. M/F/D/V