Category: Carrie’s Musings    

In PA, District Library Centers work directly with the public libraries to find ways to serve the population most efficiently. A District Library Center is not only a strong resource library that any person can use, it is also a major source for basic services that library users rely on.

But what is reality for District Library Centers today with the PA budget 15 days past due?
We wonder what level of service we can continue to provide.
As July ticks away, 1/12 of our budget for basic services (and the staff to provide them) will be spent. Should we stop providing some services now, knowing that our budgets could be cut anywhere from 2.3%-53%? Should we continue to provide services as we are knowing that the money will run out January 1 if a 50% cut comes. (Note: 48% of the signed 09/10 negotiated district budget is staff costs.)

Can district agreements change without changing minimum standards and reducing customer and library expectations? What are libraries and their customers most willing to sacrifice? What builds the best future for libraries and their communities?

Here’s one blog viewpoint of what’s happening with the PA state budget: One update

Take a gander at this article and tell me what you think:
Bailout for Publishing Industry

What is the purpose of your local public library?
Is the book itself important, or only the information content it provides?
What content does your library provide and which providers do you allow to sell you content?
Do libraries continue to contribute to the creation of an educated populace to preserve democracy?

If anyone comments here…I’ll share a diatribe of my own.

Are you considering how to handle the upcoming budget year?
Do you want to make smart moves to handle decreasing incomes and increasing expenses?

Here’s a link to a Harvard Business Review case study that addresses planning for possible cuts as food for thought: Link to Case Study in HBR Use your POWERLibrary login to read the article.

Use your access to POWERLibrary to read this Case Study and the four different responses. What ideas does it give you? What do you think? Feel free to post comments here or use the case study to start the conversation with your board and staff.

Register for the meeting at HER from 9-12:30.
Register online right here
Notes from Nov. meeting at KL
District Library Meeting Agenda HER2.10

2009 District Statistics Summary

Agenda topics include:
-Office of Commonwealth Libraries Update from Anne Kruger’s notes:
• OCL new website: take a look around, allow time to find things if you haven’t visited yet. CCommonwealth Libraries
Lots of downloadable resources: Library Resources
• Web Junction: PA is a participating partner. Sign up and use the items and collaborative workspace: webjunction.org
• 2010 One Book, Every Young Child distributions coming soon. Jane Hillenbrand, a Kindergarten teacher from Ohio and her husband Will Hillenbrand wrote the book. Attend the kick-off Tuesday, April 13, 2010 in the Capitol Rotunda followed by the Early Learning Forum the next day. The speaker will be announced at a later date.
• Summer Reader (Evanced) still provided.
• LSTA for 2010 or 2011?

-Annual Report Updates: Due dates, statistics for e-resources and other district services

-Training Ideas for 2010

Here’s an interesting read, Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and the Tipping Point, had a quote about libraries. Read the full article at NY Magazine

But here’s the library part: Gladwell is a young person’s idea of an old person’s idea of a young person. Beneath the crazy hair, the slobby-chic clothes, and the buzzword-filled vocabulary is an old-fashioned guy who grew up among Mennonites in rural Ontario, didn’t have a TV until he was 23, and still prefers to do most of his research at the NYU library. Google is something of a personal hobbyhorse: “Google is the answer to the problem we didn’t have. It doesn’t tell you what’s interesting or what’s important. There’s still more in the library than there is on Google.”

What does that tell you about how libraries are perceived by young and old? Our libraries will continue to keep the brilliant minds coming in the doors as long as we continue to provide them with access to worlds beyond their own.

Feel free to post comments.

Check out this article from the NYT: Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias

For better or worse, it looks like the printed encyclopedia is soon to be on it’s way out. Many other print publications will or already have followed suit. Our profession will likely always have some debate of print content versus online format and content, but libraries can’t hide from the fact that the printed encyclopedia and maybe even someday, the printed book as we know it will be fading away in times of technology.
What role must public libraries play to ensure that the gap between the computer literate customer with high speed internet access at home and the person visiting the library, seeking only simple answers, doesn’t swallow us whole?
How might you keep your library relevant in a future world of expensive and personalized reading devices in the hands of those who have and very little in the hands of those who have not?
Finding that balance in serving our populations will be a dilemma. Is it time to refocus our mission to have the greatest impact on those who need it most?

First came the web, then web 2.0, now articles are beginning to discuss Web 3.0. This article in Newsweek discusses that Web 3.0 will bring back mediated content and may shun user created content.
Revenge of the Experts [Newsweek]
What do you think? Let’s start some district discussion.
What does Library 3.0 look like to you?
What do you think the role of staff would be?
How does this change the future education of librarians?
What is the role of the librarian in a 3.0 world?

In my spare time, I recently came across a website that I found very interesting: http://www.edge.org/.   The site is primarily aimed at scientists, but since librarians are really jacks of all trades with our abilities to navigate information, I spent a bit of time looking at the site and its premise.  Each year, the group asks one question and then compiles the list of responses…

 Since I am a librarian, and this is a library blog, I wanted to pose the same question to us, as professionals in the library world, so I’m limiting the freedom and changing the spirit of Edge’s activity enough so as not interfere with copyright. 

Feel free to respond on the blog.  Anyone with a login can post comments and their own thoughtful response to this:

Since you first started working in libraries, what have you changed your mind about and why? 

I’m always looking for new and interesting ideas to share with libraries.  Recently I read an article in Harvard Business Review (check it out on EBSCO Host, POWER Library if you’re in PA) called Performing a Project Premortem.  The article gave an idea for better project management: in the planning phases of a new project work with your team backwards.  1.  Start out with a basic idea of your plan. 2.  Then with other team  members, imagine the project failed.  3.  Each should make a list of possible reasons why the project failed.   

As everyone shares the potential reasons in a round robin fashion, it gives teams a chance to discuss and plan for potential failures.  It helps the team to discuss risks in an environment where not as much is invested.  Everyone is able to share their ideas in an open forum that can head off problems before they start.  As a benefit, when the project is executed, team members will also be keenly aware of areas of danger and will be careful in their evaluation steps.   

Sometimes we all need some help to plan a project.  Trying this perspective, from the business world, not necessarily the not-for-profit library world, is a new tool to try.