Connecting Librarian

Today, Monday 26th July, 2010 was Round 5 in the Library Day in the Life, where librarians around the globe write about what they did. Its a snapshot in the working life of librarians and builds an amazing picture of the wider ranging work that librarian’s do.

So anyway, here’s my contribution to the big picture.

Speaking of which, let me set the scene first. I am currently Acting Branch Manager at a large public library, which is part of a regional service in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. On a Monday, I have about 12 staff working at our branch and we have a weekend’s backlog to recover from.  So here goes….

8.45am – Arrived at work and noticed one of our emergency exit lights was annoyingly on the blink. As I needed to log a maintenance call to get it fixed, I did a quick review and noted other lights that needed fixing/replacing, before placing said call.

9.00am – Touched base with staff arriving for work and with some managers who were meeting with another staff before meeting with me.

9.05am – Made sure that all people who worked the weekend turned up and were paid appropriately. Very happy that this process is all computerised now and very straightforward. Last time I did this (many moons ago), it was all paper based.

9.25am – Adjusted our daily roster to accommodate changes arriving from the absence of one staff member and the addition of extra hours for another.

9.35am – Meet with our Customer Services Manager and our Adult Collections Manager to do a quick wander around our adult collections, to discuss needs, over stocking and collection maintenance. Our users will be happy to know that one of the immediate impacts will be that we will be getting more romances.

10.30am – More rostering and report completion.

10.40am – Assessing donations, dealing with duplicates discovered on our collection review.

11.15am – Started work on next week’s rosters as I realised I was going to be away on training the next two days. This involved compiling the weekend roster for two weekends ahead and beginning the desk roster for next week.  Got the first draft done, to be completed when I get back to the branch on Thursday.

12 noon – Lunch.

1.00pm – Short staffed over lunch, so spent the next hour trying to make an impact on the 33 boxes that arrived from our headquarters and other branches in our region. Along with one of our branch staff, we managed to get through about half of those boxes. Left the work in the capable hands of other library staff.

2.00pm – Dealt with stock rotation items that had appeared on the courier run. Assessed, made decisions on which titles I wanted for our branch, added them to our collection and sent the others on.

2.15pm – Did some website updating and created one of our e-newsletters – this one on suggested reading on the topic of Mind and Body Fitness.

2.50pm – Answered the email enquiries that had come in over the weekend. Queries ranged from “I returned that item” to “Can I do this…..”

3.00pm – Posted a staff created book review on our adult reading blog.

3.10pm – Briefed one of our librarians on what’s happened whilst she has been on holidays and what might be happening during the two days that I am away.

3.20pm – Added a range of CD’s from another branch to our collection and spent time accommodating them on our shelves.

4.15pm – Dealt with a couple of user issues – including payment for a damaged DVD and a disputed return of an item.

4.30pm – Spent the last of my day on desk which was uber-busy and involved a circulation desk overflowing with returned stock. Our process has been significantly slowed by the RFID tagging process, so an extra hand was very much required.

5.15pm – Finally headed home once I realised two things – one, that the staff could handle it and two, that if I didn’t leave, I could be there all night.

So that’s been my day. Not entirely typical, but not atypical either.

Hope your day was interesting, I look forward to reading of all you have been up to as well.

Its Day 11 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and as promised, here’s my notes from yesterday’s seminar.

Insight into Victorian Public Library Experience with Downloadables – Thursday 10th June 2010 101m-4pm

Kenneth Harris – Port Phillip Library

They have recently implemented Wave Sound eaudio downloads.

Not many choices in terms of vendors.

They use IP addresses for inhouse downloading. External was organised through referring URL, with authentication provided by the library itself.  Clunky but it works.

Raised awareness through high level links in the catalogue, which link back to the referrer page. Unfortunately you have to login to the catalogue first to get authenticated, so it then has a quick link to the ebooks from the account page.

Once you have logged in, you have to create a Clipper account. Once that is done, you don’t need to authenticate a second time.

Marc records are part of the sub. Links are displayed to everyone – so they needed to be changed to the link to ebooks info.

Took a while to upload the records (588) – took some fiddling and lots of discussion to get it right.

Stats can be retrieved on use, including popular titles, users, checkouts and renewals, activity by subject and more.

Have a 10 item limit for users.

In 6 weeks, they have had 245 accesses 197 checkouts ad 48 renewals.  95 User accounts have been created.

What they’ve learnt so far:
- not much they didn’t already know
- problems with DRM – macs cant play wma files (1/3 of files are wma)
- public PCs can’t  download the wma files due to an issue with DRM and PC deployment
- WMA files wont play on your car stereo
- users find it difficult to locate files they can download
- if it takes more than couple of minutes, people give up
- needs to be improvement in catalogue and subscription integration
- authentication should be done by the vendor, done off the library catalogue login (not by the library)

Marketing – didn’t tell people it was coming. When it came, they used a screensaver on their catalogue PCs, Wavesound provided brochures and posters and want to come and talk to users and staff about the product. Have to promote more – difficult at this time due to RFID project in process.

Authentication: after initial authentication with library card, and setup Clipper account, they can go to straight in to the Clipper page. When they setup, it refers to Port Phillip, so that’s where the account is based and Port Phillip’s limits etc apply.

EZ Proxy authentication is available, but only if it is done by the library. Don’t offer SIP2. However, they may be able to connect using WebFeat, which is what Port Phillip has – but will still be adding extra steps.

Stats don’t show where people come from to get there – whether its from the catalogue or direct from the website (once the account has been created).

Knowing what they know now, they still believe that they made the right choice. A major reason for going with them was that there were no extra software requirements. Works on a yearly contract – they start with a base library and get an extra supply of titles each month. You can opt to choose titles or let them be chosen for you. You have the option to change titles.

Loan period is 3 weeks and can be renewed. Up to 10 titles at a time. Files disappear at the end of the loan period. Can’t return early.

Its a totally separate loan system to the LMS. All statistics are kept separately. Could happen in the future if we get SIP2 connections with our ebook providers.

All the products run using an online store model like Amazon.

No limit on simultaneous users. Fees based on population.

Wavesound has both ebook and eaudio, but Port Phillip only has eaudio.

As login is based on username and password, can’t tell age, where joined etc, etc.

Jennifer Khan, Greg Evans and Tony Brooks from Melbourne Library Service
Melbourne has had Overdrive eaudio books for 12 months.

Have introduced downloadable audio first not ebooks – due to degree of uncertainty in ebook market. Used a staged approach. As there are a limited field of vendors, decided to go with Overdrive because of their proven track record and a good market share. Overdrive provide professional and free marketing support and a very slick product.

Once they signed up, they sorted out policy definitions such as circulation, connection and IP issues, membership exceptions and different card types, which was all pretty straightforward with good technical vendor support. Got access to a development site for testing.

Support from local rep was not good, so dealt mainly with the US via email and teleconferences (6pm there to 9am here).

Greg had already introduced it at ACT, so had great experience to begin with.

Collection management:  never handed it over to Overdrive but eaudio content has been limited. Shifting market makes things very difficult as titles can change with changing publishers agreements.  However, users have taken to them with great enthusiasm.

Overdrive have a number of specialists – Collections, IT and marketing and the support is fantastic. Did a user survey to gauge interest and find out what they would be interested in. Got a lot of people provide email addresses and become their testers and feedbackers.

Marketing – lots of support from Overdrive. Library branding throughout. Got media engagement. Day after it was written up in the Green guide, everything went out. Had to buy more titles. Have about 400 titles now.

Have concluded that they will need to use more eaudio vendors. Next challenge is how to create a seamless interface to all the content being provided by these different vendors.

Vendor training to staff user group was very complex – consisting of a teleconference from the US which was very thorough but over the top. Too much information delivered. Had a overarching marketing emphasis however, rather than technical/user experience. Once completed, they played with the product some more.

Cascading information to general staff was simplified to customer needs and
was compulsory for all staff. They quickly learned what issues may be encountered in a real environment, the key features and bugs and then
redesigned the training again for the public.

Training public was easier as they were all keyed up and ready to go by the time they launched, the integration with LMS was seamless. Public sessions were very well attended – running 2-3 sessions a day for 2 weeks – many people brought own laptops. They also did some individual follow up with special need users and they are getting constant feedback and making minor changes as they go.

Needed a lot of patience throughout the launch process, to help get people on board. Overdrive provides a help service, where individual issues can be addressed – has a 4 hour turn around.

Interface is seamless with the Melbourne website. Although the Overdrive site is external, it looks like the Melbourne website. Overdrive has 2 to 1 WMA to MP3 format. WMA files can be downloaded to a PC however and then transferred to an iPod, during which it gets reformatted to a iPod readable.

However, you do need to download an Overdrive media console to access the content.

Future:
ebooks next – would be easy to go with Overdrive as DRM is less problematic and they have a great range of titles, a nice interface and great support. Checked out different options and have gone with Overdrive.

Issues for ebooks included limited reader functionality and availability, in a market where there is a huge range of devices. Sony ebook readers and Nooks will play the content, but not available here yet.

However, users are fascinated with mobile devices and readers. May yet lend some of the older generation ebook readers that they own, with pre-loaded content. They area also considering the options of bookstores vs vendors and online sellers. iPhone app is also now available for Overdrive. Have been advised to go with ePub format with ebooks.

Issues: format issues – ie WMA vs MP3, licensing vs ownership – different models and some vendors let you own the book, DRM and access to content and limited Oz content. Overdrive is licensing, Bolinda is ownership.

Check out BLIO? – downloads the software with the content and can be played on any device. May be major DRM issues so getting content from publishers may be difficult.

Success factors: critical mass strategy, group of early adopters, DRM minimal vendor, concurrent users, Marc records, ease of circulation, availability of stats, review and user group.

Lot of success due to holistic approach – collections, IT and marketing working together with staff. Staff are enthusiastic and the service has had great use and feedback from users.

Overdrive – one copy one user model. If you want more users, then have to purchase more copies.

Authentication – user is presented with a login screen – uses SIP2 to library system. Overdrive manages the user account, SIP2 is only used to verify that it is a valid user. If you login to catalogue, you still have to login to Overdrive.

Offer optional load periods – one or two weeks. Items cant be checked in, you have to wait for it to expire. Some titles are available in a single file – many titles are in multiple files to download (like CD based audio books). Can download progressively over your loan period.

User stats – have not done much as yet.  Will now look at it now that they are 12 months down the track.

User Experience panel

I was then on a panel of three committee members, who used the Overdrive and Wavesound services as brand new users, using a PC, a Mac and an iPhone (that was me). We are still compiling experiences and hope to add more. If you are interested in the report thus far, let me know and I’ll get a copy out.

Vendor presentations

The early part of the afternoon was taken up with presentations from Wave Sound, NetLibrary – newly purchased by Ebsco, and Bolinda. The first and last only offer eaudio at this time, NetLibrary does both. Overdrive does not have an Australian based rep at this time. Each vendor gave a short marketing spiel and then demonstrated the user interface and answered questions relating to the IT structure of their product.

Vendor panel

We finished the day with a panel involving the vendors answering questions from the attendees. They were:

Will you be offering streaming content now or in the future?  Not yet, but its on the radar for all of them.

Can you see a future where all content is device neutral?  Yes, but no timeline though, everything is changing so fast and at different rates. Eaudio market is much more mature than the ebook market, which is why its much more device adaptable.

What do you mean by fully accessible?  Bolinda downloads can be used by all – including screen readers. Files can be played on most devices – they are all MP3. All titles are remastered into chapters with logical breaks.

What do you mean by exclusive rights?  Why exclusivity?  Lots of money is involved in purchasing rights and publishers aim to get the best possible deals for their content. There are licences for print, audio and downloadable. Not all arrangements are exclusive.  Rights are for a certain length of time, somewhere between 5 and 10 years.  Also depends on the model – purchase model means you have it forever, subscription model means you only have it whilst you have the sub and the vendor has the rights.

Will we end up getting this content from multiple vendors? Yes, the issue then becomes how to make the whole process seamless so that the users experience one process. Library processes are changing. Moving from print to digital including how we join and access collections. Is getting to the point where the whole interaction that users have with the library will be totally digital. Collections offered are different, but so are our users. So we will have to pick and choose from vendors.

Is reciprocal borrowing available? It is through Overdrive in the US, where you can borrow between different libraries. Publishers much prefer consortium purchase, rather than reciprocal borrowing.  Ebsco does consortial arrangements, as does Wavesound. Bolinda does not do consortia, because they believe they are affordable and give each library service flexibility.

Do you have plans to intergrate with LMS’s? Definitely on Ebsco’s radar. Libraries would like to have all their account information in one location, so they can check all their holds, all their loans etc, in the one setup. Bolinda says it can be done because the technology is available.  Importing this data back into our circulation modules for statistical purposes is a lot more problematic. Bolinda has established Web Services with Aurora and SirsiDynix LMSs. In discussions with other vendors, but have confirmed that they will be establishing a SIP2 connection with Civica. This will also require an extra software install at both ends to help improve security.

Do you have any thoughts on offering other media for download?  eg. Film, games, media etc. Bolinda is already looking to do this. Not Wavesound, but Ebsco will look at this as well.

Are there any plans to integrate back into social media platforms? Ebscohost has a module EIT – which has an array of tools with widgets etc, that can be inserted into a range of tools. Bolinda is looking at it. Wavesound works on Ebsco’s platform so they have access to the same tools as Net Library, through Ebsco.

Summary

The day was well received and well attended with about 50 people coming from over half of Victoria’s public library services, most for the whole day and some from quite a distance away. As an organiser and attendee I was very pleased, not only with how the day ran, but from what I got out of it. I feel much better prepared for when we venture into the world of downloadable eaudio, which will be soon.

Today, 25th January, was Round 4 of the Library Day in the Life Project. The aim of the project is for librarian’s to document what they do in a day, for others to discover.  So here’s mine.

To give context, I am an Information Librarian working for the Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation – a public library service serving 300,000+ people in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.  We have 7 branch libraries and a mobile library.  My main area of responsibility is our online services, but I also work at our biggest branch.  I work half-time – Mondays, Thursdays and alternate Tuesdays.  Monday I work at HQ on online services – all day.

So here’s today.

8.30am – Arrived at work at our Regional HQ, which I do every Monday. Spent the next 30 minutes checking email, printing off articles for later reading, catching up on memos, bookmarking sites of interest, returning and renewing my loans and a brief moment catching up with the Finance Manager on the progress of our intranet development.

9.00am – Checked for updates to Drupal modules for our website and downloaded, then uploaded the only one required.  Also took the opportunity to delete old versions of modules that were no longer required, both locally and on our IPS’s server.

Discussed adding information about our mobile library’s forthcoming renovation to the website.

Posted a review received from one of our local teens via our website, to our teen review blog.  Added an image and a catalogue linking before publishing it and then refreshed the feed on our website so it would appear there too.

Updated a post on our Staff training blog, with information emailed me by the reviewing staff member. Made some minor additional changes to that post of my own as well.

9.30am – Posted information on our website in several places, about the Mobile Library renovations.

Being the day before a public holiday, we were very quiet at HQ as many staff took the opportunity to enjoy a long weekend. So I spent some time filling in urgent requests for stationery etc that were phoned in from the branches.

Worked on the agenda for our forthcoming Information Services team meeting that is on the week I return from leave.

10.00am – Lots more bits and pieces (did I mention that there were lots of people taking a long weekend).

Chatted briefly with my boss, who was seconded to help out at one  of our branches, which resulted in me taking on the answering of email questions for the day. Quickly cleared up a few procedural queries, started the process on a claims returned and sought further information on an inter-library loan request from a staff member at one of our local Councils.  Was quite pleased that I found the article he requested, even with minimal information and so was he when I emailed him both the full citation and a link to the full article not long afterwards.

11.00am – Morning tea done after successfully completing that information request, it was now onto a new blog post for our library news blog. Spent some time looking for inspiration and accidently came across links on our catalogue that I hadn’t noticed before. Ended up blogging about the public holiday tomorrow instead, as one of our libraries will be open to support the Book Sale that their Friends’ group is running.

11.30am – Did a backup of our email newsletter subscribers lists. Not very exciting, but very necessary. Then investigated further the new catalogue features and with the assistance of a colleague, figured out exactly how they worked and started thinking about how they could be taken advantage of by our users.  That’s another blog post in the making – but not today.

12.00noon – Received an information request from the mobile library on behalf of one of their users (via email). Rang the mobile to clarify the request and the context and within the half hour I had a emailed a list of websites and book titles to be passed onto to the user.

12.30pm – Lunchtime and I escaped the building for a short time. Normally I would go out to lunch with my HQ partners in crime, but they were either on leave or elsewhere.

1.30pm – Played with ideas and images for a new slide for our website’s events slideshow. Gave up on it afer a time – software kept crashing and I couldn’t find the inspiration to make the slide more than bland.  Will get back to it on Thursday.

2.00pm – Had a quick revisit of Event Brite. We are trialling it for online booking of library events, for a seminar we are holding in February. Chatted again with my boss to catch up on the day’s happenings and the week ahead.

Spent most of the rest of the time trying to work out how to get an imported Javascript working in Drupal. Lots of cutting, pasting, saving, trialling and repeating the process all over again. Got it working, but with lots of extraneous information, which when I remove it, kills the operation of the form. Its working for now, so will look at it again on Thursday.

4.00pm – Checked my Google alerts and Twitter searches for mentions of our libraries and service in those areas. Twitter mentions are growing slowly and we always get plenty of mentions on Google.

Began reviewing our brochures on online resources. Started considering how I could get the content of two to three brochures down into one.

Created three new book cover images and associated information to use in our books slide show on our library homepage.  Uploaded these and then deleted the three oldest ones – we have a 4 weekly cycle on these.

Filled it out with other bits and pieces (did I mention there were many people away) and then called it a day just after 5pm.

So that was my day – never realised how busy it was and how much territory I covered until I documented it.  Hope you find it interesting.

See you next Library Day in the Life Day!

Tesco Supermarket,Northampton UK

My local supermarket has just added an extension to its store and done some renovations to the rest of the store.  One of those renovations was to change the express checkout area, increasing it from 2 to 4 checkouts.  However, with the increase, came a change in how they were accessed.  The new system required you to line up at one of the open checkouts, which depending on time of day etc, was usually between 2 and 4.

However, this new process was not accepted with delight by either staff or customers.  The majority of people were well aware of the potential unfairness of the situation, in that you could be served slower if you happened to choose the wrong queue.  It happened fairly quickly that customers started going to back to a single queue, ignoring the signage and stepping up to be served as a checkout operator became available.

Staff, on behalf of the customers and the numerous comment they had already received, approached management about the issue, asking them to change it to a single queue, for fairer service.  The response was that such a change would cause unacceptable blockages of aisle space. (I don’t know if they were ignoring or were unaware that 4 queues were doing the same sort of thing anyway).

That could have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.  I’m not privy to what happened behind closed doors, I just know what I gleaned from the girls behind the counter.  Anyway, those wonderful girls started taking a survey of customers, asking their opinion of the new setup and what their preference would be for the arrangement. From what I saw when they asked me the questions, the overwhelming response was that customers didn’t like the new setup and would prefer single queue access.

A few weeks later, I walk into the supermarket and there is now a barrier and guide, for one queue leading into the express checkout area.

Customer Service on Day 357

This hit me on so many levels. Firstly, the whole idea of fairness that both the staff and customers determined needed to be achieved.  Just reminded me that we live in a world with a vast majority of decent people and that moment I was happy to be a part of that larger community.

Second was that the supermarket staff knew their customers and were listening to what they were saying and tried to do something about it.  They took those concerns to management.  Unfortunately at that time, management weren’t listening.  So the staff went away and got the information they needed to support their claims for change.  I am both proud and amazed that someone would stand up for customer interests, which includes my own, like that. It may seem trivial, but it was important enough that staff took it to management, not once but twice.

Third was that management took note of this extra effort and the evidence they were given (even if it was on the second attempt) and took the action necessary to make both staff and customers happy.  I spoke to one staff after the change, who was both suprised, but also very pleased that they had listened and acted – very quickly once the decision was made.

So how does this translate to libraries?  Quite easily, as we are both about customer service.

Do we know our users well enough to know what they don’t like about our libraries or what they would like to happen in our libraries?  Is it more than just guessing at what we think they want? If we don’t know them well enough, why don’t we – we serve them every day?  Also if we don’t know, are we asking them and if not, why not?

If we know, are we telling our management and coming up with ideas for change?  If not, why not?  If we do tell and they don’t seem to be listening are we letting it go, giving lame excuses or are we going to find the information that will help change their minds? I know that there have been times that I have made those lame excuses, when instead I should be fighting for what I know our users want or don’t want. My local supermarket has taught me that it can work.

It can be trivial or it can be major.  But if we are not listening to our customers and what they want and doing what we can to provide it, then we are not really serving them, are we? I know I’ll be trying to do better in future and really keeping my ears and eyes open to what our users want, then communicating it to the people who can make the difference.

If you have any, I would love to hear your stories of where staff have won through to change things in your library, because it was what your users wanted.

Re-imagining library services: a new collaborative vision by Alan Smith – NSLA

NSLA comprises the Australian state, territory, national libraries and the national library of New Zealand. They are working to build the next stage of libraries for our users. The 4 key points and 10 projects are making way and getting librarians out of the way.

One library, transforming our culture and accessible content are the core of what they are trying to achieve. 5 year plan with a central office to help push it forward.

Do it now – SLV – opening up services
Access now – NLA and NLNZ – one library card
Virtual reference – SLV – next generation of online reference – not looking at the next version of Ask Now
Delivery – SLWA – being able to deliver content into peoples hands, wherever they are
Community created content – SLQ and NLNZ – communities of geographic and interest, being able to create their own digital libraries
Creating culture – SLSA – organising and storing
Collaborative collections – SLNSW and SLQ – trying to limit duplication and improve resource sharing – consortial arrangements
Flexible cataloguing – improving access to content – reengineering cataloguing
Scaling up digitisation – industrialise it, working on business case for significant national investment
Connecting and discovering content – NLA – improve coverage and quality of data, partnerships to improve discovery – a common catalogue interface and a national metadata store.

We would if we could but its not in the Budget… success stories in third-party funding for public library programs – Jack L Goodman Tutoring Australasia

Why public libraries need partnerships- maintaining relevance requires innovation, which needs resources – which means money. Public libraries have many users, tight budgets, have little state support and no commonwealth funding. But just in case……

Why are partnerships possible – Public libraries have a unique position in their communities where we leverage the corporate social responsibility trend. We can partner with businesses, education, not for profits, clubs and more.

Example – Fairfield City Library Service – first Your Tutor customer in 2003, begun with local club funding. Demand grew so it was incorporated into the Council budget into 2004. In 2007 they partnered with the UWS to broaden access beyond what the library could provide.

The UWS has a Community Engagement Strategy – which aims to build a relationship with councils and to support local students. Most universities have such a strategy. For Fairfield it meant expansion of the program, marketing support from UWS and deeper institutional ties with them.

Example – Mornington Peninsula – Babies love books too. MP saw a program in a similar area, partnered with the library, put in an application to the Telstra Foundation and got $20,000 over 3 years follow up funding from BHP and Hillview. Now its in the library budget.

Example – Connected City Library and Melbourne City Mission.
Targeted learning support for at risk of becoming homeless children.

Example – Mobile Library Wireless Broadband
Upper Murray Regional Library Service – 3 mobile libraries. Got funding from 2 State Libraries and the Federal Government.

These were the only publicly visible examples. Need more like them. Critical skills required to make this happen – a desire to innovate: there is risk, which isnt a welcome option – need to be creative; brainstorming, teams, ownership – commercial sensibility: leveraging the librarys assets, outlining who benefits and how.

Making it happen:
1. Choose an appropriate project
2. Assemble your team – identify an owner, provide support
3. Think strategically – what are your librarys strengths – your users, your facilities, your role, your relationships
4. Identify a short list of potential partners – including businesses, associations, clubs, sporting groups, universities
5. Prepare your pitch – background, your assets, clear description of the opportunity
6. Hold a launch event – give them public recognition, raise the library profile, generates interest in the project and good media coverage
7. Follow through – objective is a long term relationship, maintain communication channels, acquit regularly and thoroughly and share success stories.

Corporate social responsibility – growing trend which includes community engagement policies an establish deep and meaningful partnerships. Need to take advantage of this.

Think big – ask for more rather than less, dont be put off by initial responses, remember your strengths and the needs of your partners.

Libraries on the agenda – advocacy experiences from IFLA and Library Associations – Claudia Lux – IFLA President an Director General of the Berlin Library

IFLA i an independent, non-government not for profit organisation represent library staff, libraries and the communities we serve. IFLA supports membership in library associations, so ALIA members are therefore IFLA members. However, IFLA also has institutional members and personal and student associates.

Former ALIA Executive Director Jennefer Nicholson starts as IFLA Secretary General on September 5th. The previous president was Australian Alex Byrne.

IFLAs purpose is to promote libraries. Claudias agenda as president is Libraries on the Agenda. It aims to strenghten advocacy work internationally and to advocate for libraries sustainability.

IFLAs own advocacy activities include working with UNESCO (Library Manifestos), WIPO, MLAS (IFLA Management of Library Associations) and WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society).

WSIS Action Lines and Libraries is highlighting access to information and knowledge covering inclusion and cultural diversity; and ICT applications including local content, the ethical dimension of ICT and the Internet Governance Forum. These were issues that UNESCO had not considered.

IFLA has launched a Libraries Success Stories Database, in English, French, Spanish and more. Shows small stories from around the world. Claudia encouraged us to add our library success stories. Check it out at www.ifla.org

Politicians and libraries – they always consider us to be involved in culture and education. However, we also have a role to play in town planning, family policy, health, economy and administration. We are invisible in these areas, but we have to make ourselves visible and get money from these departments as we support the work they do.

Challenges:
Why does the world need libraries?
Why is the internet not able to replace libraries?
Why do libraries need the newest technology?
Why are books and other media in the library like bread and butter for the minds of people?

We need to have ready answers to these questions.

Goals of the advocacy initiative is to prepare clear and common arguments, show the libraries potential, market the impact of services use international success stories database, strengthen a new image and influence policy before it is set.

How to advocate – clarify your position – when do people speak up for us? Are Libraries our thing? – When do we speak up for ourselves? Coordinate your work, create a focal point include staff, colleagues, friends, civil initiatives and administration. keeping all partners informed and being consistent in the focal points. Have a clear message, focus on the main practical points, look for professional and emotional arguments, train how to advocate in practise, prepare background material including general information, statistics, best practise and a description of the future impact. Analyse who supports your goals and why, analyse the wider influence on a person or group, find which activities of support could they take on, make contacts and build a contact list etc.

Short menu of advocacy work – never talk badly about others, focus positively on your goals, present success stories, use statistics but believe in more, create pictures in the mind, be patient, be stubborn an always stay controlled.

Start now and promote knowlege on advocacy. When on stage, personality is the key talk clearly and concisely, ask questions, add humour, smile and thank.

Question: how do we advocate to present the work we do behind the scenes, the exciting/cutting edge we do? No one answer to this, we have to behave different, we have to go to our budgeters, be prepared with recognition and then bring the good things the library does. Find good things about the library that will speak to them.

Its been a while since I did a meme and I don’t have anything else ready to post yet, so why not.  This one has been doing the rounds a bit and has been interesting to read, with Kathryn Greenhill being the one who tipped me over to do this, with her Meme: What’s a librarian’s day like? So its all your fault Kathryn!

Background to my Thursdays – I work on virtual services in an office in the workroom of our largest branch, which is at Narre Warren.   I do a desk shift for an hour over lunch, between 1 and 2pm and again over dinner break between 5 and 6pm.  So here’s my Thursday, not totally typical, but not far off it either.

Arrive at 9.30am for a 10am start – as usual.  Clock in, start my computer, check with staff getting branch ready for opening at 10am, return my due books etc, etc.

Login to my email and to the information email for any email enquiries.  Spend the next half hour answering these queries and sorting out my own email.

Before morning tea do some quick website updates and check if staff still doing Learning 2.0 have posted anything on their blogs since Monday – nada.

Fred Camino

After morning tea, help out on desk so that other staff can have theirs.  Didn’t plan this, just went out to the shelves to check on a book I found on a catalogue search and stepped in to help.

Back to my desk where I listened to last weeks Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast whilst I create an online book list of the 50 titles in the Books Alive 2008 campaign, with live links to our catalogue.  Update our social software logins list and post an entry from our CEO on developments in the new building for one of our branches on the library blog.  Test the links and upload the booklist.  Make a note of 2 blog posts to do in the next week.

Go on desk to cover the lunch shift.  Usual catching up with returns, clearing the courier delivery from some of our other branches and serving the people in front of us.

Lunch – shopping and eating.

After lunch, I help one of the librarians to post an entry on our teen blog.  Write a quick note on behalf of a colleague , all the while checking on and responding to email on 2 accounts.

Use an old version of Cam Studio to record, edit and create three screencasts on our library catalogue, on the topics of changing your PIN, changing your address and submitting a suggestion for purchase – the last on our series of what you can do online through the catalogue.   The last ones to do, all finished now.  Phew! Stop for a late afternoon tea.

After tea, upload the screencasts and add them to our catalogue help page.  Write a memo for staff, letting them know about these new resources and make a note to do a new blog post on them next week. (I don’t work Fridays).

Tidy up some loose ends, write some notes for this blog post and for other things I will chase up at home (because I always take work home – after all I love what I do!).  Head back to do the 5-6pm desk shift where I help more people, do more tidying, enter memberships and more.

6.05pm – clock out and head home.

So that’s a nearly typical Thursday for me.  Not always screencasts in the afternoon, but usually some type of project.  Its been screencasts for a month or so.  Thursdays are very different to my Mondays and alternate Tuesdays.  One day I might post about them too.

Morgan at Exploded Library got me thinking about this more fully with his recent blog post “Living with myself as a law librarian“. He pondered his dilemma – “what happens if I am indirectly helping a client do things which conflict with my personal values?” He also ponders whether “these questions are a lot easier for people who work in public libraries or school or academic libraries”.  Check out the blog post to find out what he has discovered.

As a long serving public librarian, I think we have the same sorts of issues, but maybe with a slightly different view. I have concerns about teenage girls taking out items on astrology and witchcraft, but that is a personal issue which I have kept out of my professional work. New age and Feng Shui are not for me neither, but if that is what a user wants, I am professionally obliged to help them find it and I do. I would love to see people read more good fiction or non-fiction, but if they want graphic novels and paperback romances, I am happy to provide them with those – they are still reading.

I don’t like all of the books, DVDs, CDs, magazines etc that we purchase for our collections, but I can’t censor those collections based on my preferences, because not everyone likes the same things that I do. My job as a librarian is to try to meet our users’ needs, not mine. As a librarian colleague once joked, if it was up to her, she would just run a mobile library service with only paperback romances and Where’s Wally (Waldo for US readers) and the circulation stats would go through the roof! But on the otherhand, our membership would be reduced by 90%, but they would be awesome borrowers!

On the other side of the ethical question, we had a borrower this week, who almost accused us of stealing some money that had been left in a returned library book. When she realised and the book was traced, the money was not there. I was one of the staff members working on the day this allegedly happened and was surprised and indignant. Not only would neither I or any of the staff think of taking any money found in a book, but we would usually be so shocked that we had found it that we would announce it to all and sundry, so it would not be able to be kept secret. Most librarians I know are honest and committed to their work and the community they serve and doing such a thing would never cross their minds for a second.

Library staff can be highly ethical creatures and will do much to serve our users and to protect their interests (including potentially lost property, however insignificant to us). That doesn’t mean we are perfect, maybe its more a case of library work drawing those who are community minded, etc. That’s who we are, both personally and at work. I work with a fantastic group of people, both librarians and library officers and I have yet to discover in my 23 years in public libraries, of one instance where someone I know or work with has been unethical in any way.

So that’s my public librarian’s view of the ethical question. I would love to hear if your views as a public librarian are similar or not, or what sorts of ethical issues you have to deal with as a school, academic or special librarian.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite a couple of months, probably since I started getting queries from other librarians about virtual services after doing my study tour. Its been further churning away in the back of my mind since not long before the VALA conference, as besides the showcase session I did there, I have another 3 presentations coming up on Libraries and Web 2.0 – one of them a day long workshop!

So how did I come to get these ‘gigs’ – what makes me the expert?

In my case its a combination of things. First off, I know a bit about Web 2.0 and libraries. After all, I have been reading about, immersing myself in it and blogging about it for over 2 years. Which is more than most people in libraries. So my expert status comes from having a degree more knowledge than my audience.

But there are many librarians who know more than me on this subject, so what else is there? Another important consideration is geography. Two of the upcoming presentations are in Melbourne, the city I live in. Always easier to get a local – cheaper too.

However, the workshop I am doing is in Sydney – so that limits geography a little. I say a little, because there are some great Library 2.0 experts in the US – I read their blogs regularly – but again there are limits to what people and organisations will spend, especially if expertise can be found more locally. (and Sydney is only an hour’s flight away).

So, I know a little more than my potential audience, I have geography on my side – the more local the better. Then there is another issue altogether. Availability. The Sydney thing again – I was not the first person asked. From what I can gather, I was at least the fifth person asked (if not further down the list than that). So even considering all that’s come before, you have to be willing and available to be that expert.

Now that’s a personal decision. I don’t know why the others asked before me didn’t take up the invitation – could be many reasons: time, priorities, not interested, etc, etc – it doesn’t matter really. The opportunity came to me and I decided to take it – which makes me the expert in this particular situation, regardless of how far down the list I was.

And how did my name come up to be asked (even down the list) – somebody was kind enough to recommend me. I don’t know who, but I thank them for this opportunity.

Its been an interesting journey already this year for me, as I have never considered myself to be a public speaker – in fact the only other presentation I did before all this was at a conference in 1999 and I was so nervous – got through it by will alone I’m sure. But I have done 2 presentations since my study tour, (and 1 before) with 3 still to go and I am getting more confident each time. Maybe its because I am older, know my stuff a bit better, know myself a lot better and have a real passion for the subject. Maybe I’m just a late bloomer.

Whatever it is, I think it finds its roots in something that Kathryn at Librarians Matter blogged on not long ago in “My raucous week of putting my meat in the game” – its about putting yourself out there. I have been blogging about these things for going on 3 years, have been initiating them in my library and have been encouraging others to look at them for their libraries. I haven’t been worried about putting my name to any of this, but neither have I been seeking anything, except the chance to share my experience.

So what makes an expert? Someone who has learnt more than most about a subject dear to them (its easier when you have a passion for it), in a good location, who’s available, recommended and putting themselves out there.

But an expert is not what I planned to be – all I planned to be was a librarian loving what she is doing – which happens to be Web 2.0 and Libraries. If people want to hear what I have to say – then I am happy to go and share that with them – not for my benefit, but for theirs. I have learnt a lot from other people’s experiences, so its only fair that others may be able to learn from mine.