Posts tagged ‘futures conference’
Back to the Future
The follow-up meeting for those who attended the Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference takes place tomorrow morning at the Princeton Public Library. I’m really looking forward to it and I’m really excited about it. No doubt Pete, myself and others will have much to say!
You can finally check out the hand-outs and materials, etc. from the conference here!
World Cafe Power Point
At The Futures Conference, Peggy Cadigan and Barbara Cole stayed up all night working up this great powerpoint to capture all the great thoughts and comments that came out of the World Cafe that took place after a great day of presentations!
Take a look here!
(Great use of SlideShare.net too!)
The World Cafe was a chance for everyone to socialize and talk about what we had experienced throughout the day. We were in small groups and talked aabout a question that was posed something like, “If you die 100 years from now what will be different about the world you leave compared to the one you came into?” And one other one I can’t recall right now – help me out someone!
FYI if you look at the pictures, the World Cafe pics are the ones that show lots of glitter and stuff on the tables and tables named after books and/or movies, and all those newsprint papers hanging up with all our doodling, drawing and brainstorming on them! It was fantastic and excellently created, organized and run by Peggy and Barbara! Kudos!
NJ State Library is ‘On the Train!’
I’ve just come back from the HRLC Annual Meeting up at the lovely Parsippany-Troy Hills library (I really like the library’s “opening doors to the world” logo and mission). I went as an employee of an HRLC member library, and as the Chair of the HRLC Technology Committee, and also as a representative from the NJLA Member Services Committee. This is the first year I’ve been able to attend the annual meeting and I have to say it was great!
Norma Blake, the State Librarian, was there sharing about the State Library and what it’s up to and where it’s going. I just want to quickly share that everything that Norma talked about was very exciting and really “on track” from my perspective of what libraries in NJ need.
(Apologies if I’ve gotten anything incorrect here or misrepresent anything – please put me straight anyone if so!)
This presentation was similar (though much shorter) to the one presented at NJLA last month by the State Library and seemed very focused and more specific. It was also clearly influenced by the Futures Conference which was what I was so excited to see!
I heard things that came directly out of the conference such as the fact that they will have a position for Urban and Adult services – they already have teen services and now they want to focus on the needs of urban libraries and of the needs of the increasingly older population – Norma specifically said they will be working with Americans for Libraries Council which was what Mary Catherine Bateson spoke about when she did her presentation on “active wisdom,” and the importance of the relationships and value that the older generations bring, and their worth and place in society. It was also what the demography program showed us – the boomers are getting older (sorry guys!) and they are a large population! Clearly, the State Library is paying attention and responding!
Norma shared that they are “reworking” some positions – since they can’t afford to just create and hire new people. For example, Peggy Cadigan’s role is going to evolve into an “Innovations” position where she will be a member of a futures group and attend conferences and meetings about the future that are held by not just libraries and librarians, but by other fields too so that we will know what’s ahead “down the pike” not just for us, but in other areas – areas and things that will certainly impact upon us! VERY exciting – for Peggy and for NJ libraries and librarians!
They are also going to have a Technologies position and want to create a help desk and have assistance available for libraries. This is all of course in addition to the great marketing and pr work they are doing, the other initiatives and efforts they are pursuing. This is by no means a comprehensive list!
I also think the idea of creating pilot projects in each region to demonstrate the value for the constituents is great – the pilot projects also aim to attract new users.
I spoke to Norma during the break to tell her that I am very excited by everything she talked about – she even has a plan for how to proceed following the Futures Conference! The New Jersians who attended the conference will be meeting up for an “After the Futures” meeting to continue to talk about what we heard and saw and brainstorm how specifically to proceed in NJ. From this brainstorming meeting we will see what ideas shake out and then we will invite input from all and develop some plans around the ones that get the most support.
I am really excited (did I say that already?) to see ACTIONS coming out of the Futures Conference – after all, it was called Imagination to Transformation, and transforming requires action! I am really happy to see the State Library taking a strong, specific leadership role for the future of library service in New Jersey!
There was more of course, and the Strategic Plan for the Highlands Regional Library Cooperative was shared and voted on – awards were given out and food was had! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take any photos what with manning the Member Services station and attending the meeting, but I left there feeling very energized! Hopefully we will find out more about all of these things soon!
P.S. You can now blog and read about reactions to the Futures Conference on that blog and there is a new flickr page for the photos! I also see a video posted with Peggy in it but I haven’t viewed it yet! Still looking around for those slides from the presentations though ….
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!]
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