Change and Growth – Amendment
Immediately after I posted that bit about “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional,” right before the Futures Conference, I realized it needed an amendment. It needed me to add that I am such a hypocrite!
I am a huge advocate of using “2.0” things for libraries – blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc… and not being AFRAID of CHANGE and of doing some different things. And here I am, NOT blogging really! I posted that post and then went off to take a shower and it was there that I realized that I have to admit and face up to MY fears and issues if I am going to be talking to others about CHANGE – FEAR – GROWTH and their issues.
My fear is of not being perfect; not being good enough – liked – accepted; etc…. That is why I have been avoiding blogging. This is a true soul-baring admission. I want to blog. I often think of things to blog. Yet, I allow my fears to hold me back.
Well, no more! I am realizing my fears, admitting them, and challenging them. Just as I want to be able to challenge everyone else to do! So, as I go forth and blog and challenge you (hopefully) you can know that I do so with a clear conscious having admitted this and having started to face my own fears!
At the conference Robert said to me that people appreciate honesty and that’s what is most important. Well, consider yourselves warned . . .
[Thanks to Robert and Pete for discussions surrounding this topic at the conference! It helped a lot!]
Library Futures Conference – some resources
Wow! How will I get the TIME to deal with all that happened at the Futures Conference? Time was one of the major themes throughout the conference: Time is “speeding up,” we have a “distorted sense” of time; etc…
Some of the other themes were:
Change (of course)
People – we need to focus on, not just books, information, etc.
Reflection – people need space/time to reflect on all the amazing experiences that new technologies allow us to have – the library could be the perfect place for that!
(I’ll add more later)
I am eager to get some of my notes and thoughts out there – I think Pete’s first post did a great job of capturing the “library spaces” program and I hope he’ll share more of his notes!
For now, here are a few resources, b/c I am eagerly awaiting the posting of all the presentations, podcasts, information etc. from the conference:
Ray Kurzweil’s site
Bob Treadway’s site
Joan Frye William’s site
Mary Catherine Bateson’s site
Those are the only ones I can put up quickly – I really can’t wait until all the materials are made available so that they may be shared as widely as possible with those who were not able to attend.
I also really love when different things start to “come together.” I found these things last night and they really relate to the conference:
Pushing Through The Dip and this via Helene Blowers on flickr
Google’s trend watch
Learning 2.0 Throughout the World and
Spring into Learning 2.0
Actually, I think all of those resulted originally from me looking at Helene Blowers’ flickr site!
I have already had to create a “futures” folder for myself for all the things that have been flying around today already as a result of the conference! That is probably one mark of an excellent conference!
In Memory of Shel Silverstein
In 1999, I was working as a Surveyor. My coworkers were gruff men who enjoyed using their machetes to hack down site lines for their instruments. Sum’bitch was a popular word to use as both an adjective and noun. So, it was a bit suprising when, on May 10th, my crew chief took the morning paper, rolled it up, and told not to open it until I got home… he actually forced me to leave work and paid me for the day. When I got home, I opened the newspaper he gave me and saw that Shel Silverstein passed away the night before, I’d lost my favorite childhood writer. My chief knew that too and I guess he figured that news was enough work for one day. So I took the day off and wrote this song:
I’ll never forget that day May 10th, 1999
When I opened up the paper and saw my favorite writer
a mentor had died.
Now there’s no more kids in the tub
and the channels on the TV have become
boring and dumb.
Then I called up my best friend
and said “I think we finally found out where
the sidewalk ends.”
A Light in the Attic
can tell me how people
dream to get by.
I’d climb the highest mountain
to meet Baba Fatts
and find his perfect high.
But lesson number one,
I’ll never try to cheat the devil
like Billy Markham.
I guess what they say is true
People’d rather waste their life on dope
then hear the truth.
Well, someday, I’ll write a book
and it will be successful
overnight.
It will be called
“How the Giving Tree
Came to Change My Life.”
I’ve read it since I was four
and to a thousand other children when I was
a camp counselor.
And I laughed a lot
but not as much as I cried
the day that my mentor Shel Silverstein died.
Library Futures Conference Roundup, pt 1
I had the mind-blowing pleasure of attending Imagination to Transformation, the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference, on Monday and Tuesday. I have lots of notes notes notes, a swirl of ideas, and a pile of inspiration. In the interest of sharing the goodies, I’m posting my notes in a fairly raw form with limited commentary. Get it right or get it written, right?
Before I get into my notes, a big thank you to the New Jersey State Library (esp. Peggy Cadigan) , Palinet (Catherine Wilt, Ann Yurcaba, Diana Bitting), and all of the organizers for all their hard work and for doing a fantastic job! Great speakers, great space, great conference!
For those of you following along at home, conference materials and handouts will be posted on either the conference website and/or the conference blog.
OK, here are my notes from:
LIBRARY SPACE: IS IT THE LAST FRONTIER OF THE DIGITAL AGE
Jeffrey Scherer of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.
(BTW, this is a highly filtered report. Scherer talked a lot about lighting, about environmentally friendly building design, and many other fascinating topics. I highly recommend you take a look at his whole presentation when it’s posted to the conference website.)
- The library in 2030 will be as different from today’s library as today’s library is from the library of 1930.
- The library as a central place is the only single political agent that can affect change at all levels. Our neutrality is an important tool for us to think about.
- The library is an agent of these four elements of our lives: live, work, play, learn.
- We are a service profession that delivers great content, struggles with technology and frets over cash. The real decisions are made around cash. If you reflect on the fact that Americans spend as much on Halloween candy as they do on library books, you see that the $$ is there.
- We need to stop focusing on what is not possible, and focus on what is possible. It’s important to be optimistic. If you focus energy on what’s not possible, you’ll never create the possible.
Quotes:
- “Our eyes connect our emotions.”
- “Love is probably the central focus of great libraries”
Guiding principle: We need to create space for spontaneity and socializing: the library as 3rd place (agora)
Carleton college did a survey of alumni: 40% of graduates married other Carleton students; 40% of those people met in the library. Why? Because they were in a different social space than if they had met at a football game. Being in a library raises our commonality; transcends our boundaries.
Applying the lessons: How to create a 3rd space:
- Reading nooks with back to wall (people love to curl up)
- Daylight and views
- Computer tables (missed some of what he said on this)
- Offer a variety of options
- Self-controlled lighting
- Daylight and good views
- Gossip corners that don’t interfere with others
- Homelike features; fireplace, natural flooring
- Group seating that can work with one to three people
- Privacy (acoustic and visual): people want to get information in private
- Visibility of service points and collection
- Come out from behind the desk and greet patrons. There has to be a transformation in this area!
Other key points
- “I want to do it myself” Trend to self service is huge.
- “Help is on the way” but only if you need it. (Point of need service delivery)
The Future’s So Bright . . .
Robert’s here!
Pete’s here!
Lots of friendly, happy, familiar NJ librarians are here! And lots of happy, friendly and not-yet-familiar out-of-state librarians are here!
The wireless here in The Borgata seems to be great in some places and not-so-great in others, despite the promise of free wi-fi all over the hotel! Tomorrow I have to conduct a webinar from here and I have finally secured a location but now need to confirm decent Internet access (more on that later).
The first session here was already inspiring – I went to Salvador Avila’s presentation (I believe many presentations and even podcasts and information is to be made available on the Palinet site) and already, from that session, I was invited to take part in some “brainstorming” for a project – however, I had previously arranged a brainstorming lunch with Pete so I’ll have to be brought up to speed on their brainstorms later on!
There’s tons of brainpower here! I started that post this morning at 9am and couldn’t get enough good online time to justify running my battery on the laptop down, so I took hand-written notes and will post those tomorrow – it’s 12:35am! – so that is today, I guess! I would have done it earlier tonight but I was very good and attended my online class from 7-9pm!
I have already posted my first set of photos on flickr – I’m exhausted though so more from my notes tomorrow!
[Note to Pete and self – we forgot to talk specifically about CLENE!]
Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone who is going at The Futures Conference Monday and Tuesday!
I’m really excited that NJ is participating in this conference. To me it is a strong indication that librarians in NJ want to be at the forefront of things as time goes by. For too long we have been playing catch-up and have been behind. Thankfully, there are many librarians who have been stepping up to get up to speed and then sharing what they know with others, but we will all need to prepare ourselves as much as possible so that libraries and library services, and librarians, will hold their places of great value and importance in their communities and to society.
Things will continue to change and progress – of that we can be sure.
I think we should all just admit that change is scary and difficult – share the fears we have and understand that just because we may be afraid of something, that doesn’t make it bad or wrong or dangerous. Admit it and talk about it. Face it head-on and in the open – help each other to deal with the anxieties and concerns it can bring. Pretending change and fear and anxiety don’t exist can result in unnecessarily overly negative reactions to new ideas and suggestions.
In fact, of course, things have already changed and we have been behind the curve. I’m so glad we’re catching up now and having a futures conference is a great way to be more forward-thinking rather than backward-looking. I’m very eager to listen, think and talk about what will be happening in the future, not just in libraries, but in all areas, and how these things will impact us as librarians.
I’m looking forward to all the conversations that will result.
Free Comic Book Day–Highlighting "Super Librarian" Comic in NJ!
The third phase of the Super Librarian campaign begins today, May 5, 2007, in conjunction with North America’s 6th Free Comic Book Day, a single day when participating comic book stores (find one near you) give away comic books for free to anyone who comes into their stores. It usually coincides with the release of a well-known superhero movie–and this year, it is Spider-Man 3 (can’t wait to see it myself later today–and yes, I got my tickets earlier this week!).
Well, as much as I am interested in seeing Spider-Man 3, I am just as interested to visit my local library as the brand-new Super Librarian comic book will be proudly given out at over 200 New Jersey libraries. Why is this important? Nancy Dowd from the NJ State Library explains the history behind it at her blog–here’s an excerpt:
“…the target audience from the general population to the tweens and teens. We had run a contest having teens write a backstory and from there two very talented librarians (David Lisa and Manny Rosca– Miracle) stepped forward to write the comic itself.The comic was drawn by a professional graphic designer. Appealing to the YA librarians just made sense. The next big step was finding a way to launch. Partnering with Diamond Comics for their Free Comic Book Day gave us a national event to join AND gave our libraries an added incentive to join up. Sure enough the new strategies worked… we have over 200 libraries signed up. Those libraries close to a comic book store are partnering with them and will hopefully create some great synergies. Those that don’t have a comic book store nearby will be getting free comics from Diamond. Everyone gets the Super Librarian comics.”
So, come on into your local library today and see what’s happening–that’s what I am going to do in an hour. Check out the graphic novel section and if you are in NJ, get a free Super Librarian comic book. Invite a tween, teen, or an interested adult to go with you. Then you have my permission to go see Spider-Man 3!
Technorati Tags: libraries, LibraryGarden, New Jersey, Super Librarian, Free Comic Book Day
CIL2007 Photos Finally on Flickr
Life has been in overdrive lately and I have good intentions of going back to edit the post with my CIL slides (maybe tomorrow is what I keep saying, so don’t hold your breath). My big accomplishment for the day is that it took me less than a month to find time to download and upload my CIL photos and organize them in a set on my flickr account. I took a whole lot less pictures than I normally do at conferences — I was too busy learning and having fun (which is a good thing). Thanks for the memories everyone, I had a blast.
WJ’s Technology Competencies for Public Access Computing
WebJunction recently published a very thorough and detailed set of technology competencies that will be useful to libraries of all types and sizes. I have been meaning to post about this for a few weeks, but conferences and a bit of vacation time got in the way.
This is a project that I and several others have been working on with WebJunction for a few years and it is so wonderful to see it finally published and available for free download!
Congratulations to Betha Gutsche for her ability to see this project through to completion after many changes, debates, iterations and struggles. The final layout is extremely easy to read and hopefully this document will be the jumping point for many libraries to start assessing the skill levels of the staff who work with the public and need to assist patrons with computers (which should be just about everybody who works at a public desk).
On a side note, my involvement on this project was also my introduction to using a wiki for a collaborative project. The work of the original “MPAC Technology Competencies Expert Group” was done primarily through a wiki that was hosted at WebJunction. We had occasional conference calls, but most of the editing of the first drafts of this was done via the wiki and also on a discussion forum.
As I was writing this post I got curious as I was unsure about how long this project has been brewing at WJ , so I just double-checked our super-secret forum for this project and it was November 2005 that we began the discussions… wow, nearly 18 months in the making, but oh so worth the wait! Download the complete Technology Competencies for Public Access Computing in PDF and start assessing!
Speaking of technology competencies, I am still patiently awaiting the arrival of Sarah Houghton-Jan’s recently published Library Technology Report, Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries — I think it will be the perfect companion to the work done by WJ.
Library Garden 