Overcoming Your Fear of Geneologists - MLA pre-conference 2013

Since spending time at the warehouse during our renovation, I am woefully out of practice helping genealogy researchers.  I decided that this seminar, given my Mary Mannix at FCPL, would help ease me back into familiarity with genealogy resources in preparation for our move back to Potomac Street.

The biggest thing I took away from this pre-conference session was that genealogy researchers are more than happy to take referrals, so it is most important to know where to find information and resources -- most will not expect us to do their genealogy research for them.

Free online resources for genealogy research:

• Cyndi's List -- metasite for genealogy information
• familysearch.org

Libraries that offer interlibrary loan of genealogy materials

• St. Louis PL, Missouri -- home of the Nat'l Genealogical Society
• Mid Continent PL, Utah -- owns a small circulating collection
• Enoch Pratt holds duplicates and triplicates of local Maryland history and genealogy materials
• Some academic libraries have hidden gems that were donated to their collections and circulate via ILL, check worldcat.org
• Researchers can view LDS holdings at their local family history centers for a fee

Useful resources:

• The Source: A guidebook to American Genealogy
• Federal Census (available through Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest databases)

Other tips:

• Newbie genealogists should start with what they know and fill out a family tree 
• They should then write down everything they know, and think they know about their family
• After that, talk to relatives and write down everything they know and think they know
• Use the resources available to prove or disprove what is written down
• Always start with the most recent (yourself or most recently deceased) and work backwards
• Census records
• 1790-1940 available on Ancestry and HeritageQuest
• Prior to 1850, only heads of households were listed by name in the census
• The majority of the 1890 census was lost in a fire
• Not every census has been indexed
• There are a lot of discrepancies in the census, so spellings may not be correct
• Primary sources are best though indexes, abstracts and transcriptions are helpful
• Some primary sources: mortality, slave, agricultural schedules; vital records (birth, death); obituaries; church records (marriage, christening, death, cemetery surveys); wills and estate documents

This was a great crash course in genealogy research, and it definitely helped me get over the fear of going back to Central and having genealogy questions again :)

~Liz Jones (WCFL reference)~

Brain-storming Exercises from R Squared (R2P3)

So, this is the final installment in the R Squared Blog Posting Series and it's going to introduce three different variations on brainstorming that we actually practiced during the conference. Do you know of other variations? Please share them in the comments!

Role Storming

Premise: You brainstorm as if you're someone else, usually someone famous - either fiction or non-fiction. In the exercise we did at the conference the question we were brainstorming answers for was, "what would you do to increase library use?"

I brainstormed as if I were Willie Wonka. Also present at my table were Oprah, Mary Poppins, Genghis Khan, Pippi Longstockings, and at least 4 others I cannot remember. Here are some solutions we came up with:

• Make everything in the library edible; preferably chocolatey and sweet.
• Paint with bright, vibrant colors
• Induce horror and fear into the patrons
• Hold a kite festival
• Launch a golden ticket campaign
• Employe multi-purpose Oompa Loopas (Ghengis says to make them into cheap slave laobr)
• Create a library sports team and then sell out and make money on them
• Create a chocolate river that flows from one town to another making transportation to the library easier and tastier
• Use the Angel Network to advertise the library and the staff and all the good they do
• Bully people into using the library, harass them
• Brainwash people into using the library through forced CCTV viewing
• Offer a "Flying High with Mary Poppins" workshop to teach people how to travel by umbrella.
• Host a retail store - where we sell community-made goods that the community made in the library's makerspace
• Have a library reality TV show
• Conquor other libraries and bookstores so there is no competition

 The Opposite

Premise: When we usually brainstorm, we usually brainstorm logical solutions but the point of this exercise is to brainstorm the opposite of logical solutions. For example, if we wanted to brainstorm ideas for getting people to return their items on time or early we might impose late fees. Well, we used this exercise with the same question as in the role storming exercise. So, here are some opposite ideas for how to get more people to use the library:

• Pay the patrons when they're late
• Do not charge late fees at all
• Tell them they they can't come to the library  (ala Eric Cartman)
• Take the library to them
• Make raw advertising content like the $1 Shave Club guy
• Have no due dates
• Have "adult" material for check out
• Have no organizational system
• Provide questions, not answers at the service desks
• Provide pop-up libraries instead of fixed brick and mortar libraries

The Long List
 
Premise: With typical brainstorming sessions, lists end up being in the 30s, 40s, maybe 50s but the point of this exercise is to go beyond that and to really tap into the creativity of the brainstormer. The notion is that once you get the usual ideas out on the paper and you force yourself to keep going, then that's where the game-changing ideas live. So, for the long list, the goal is to brainstorm 200 solutions/ideas etc for whatever it is you're trying to resolve.

Creativity and Culture (R2P2)

So, this post is all about R Squared Part 2 (R2P2) - or the bookend post, as I like to think of it. This is all about the inspiration gleaned Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon.

Josh Linkner
Monday morning kicked off with a keynote presentation by author and entrepreneur, Josh Linkner. Below are some of the golden nuggets of information that made me go, "wow..."

Pike Syndrome: I summarize this as letting invisible barriers keep us from success. Josh was much more eloquent in his explanation describing the scientific expeirment that lead to the coining of the syndrome. 

"Scientists conducted an experiment where they put a pike in a tank with many other smaller fish that they pike would ordinarily devour. Instead of the normal feeding frenzy, the scientists separated the pike from the smaller fish by inserting a layer of glass which prevented the pike from reaching its dinner.

The hungry pike continuously smashed itself against the glass trying to get a good meal. As much as it tried, however, it was unsuccessful in breaking through the barrier. After many attempts, the pike become discouraged. It stopped trying to break through the barrier and eventually sank to the bottom of the tank and just laid there. At this point, the scientists removed the barrier allowing the pike to feast.

What happened next was surprising to everyone. The pike continued to ignore the smaller fish, even when they were swimming right next to the pike. The predator remained at the bottom of the tank, and ended up dying of starvation even with plenty of tasty fish easily within his reach." [from Josh's blog]

DollarShaveClub.com: Josh presented DollarShaveClub.com as an example of how even the largest, most successful holders of market's share can have their foundations shaken (not stirred) by small businesses. All it takes is creativity, risk, humor, humanity, and just a little bit of money - not a lot. Watch the YouTube video if you don't believe me.

Creativity is 85% learned behavior: yes, you read that right. 85% of our creativity can be developed through practice. It's just like exercising any other muscle. If you don't work it then it's gonna turn to flab. Fortunately, there are plenty of creativity 'gyms' out there to help you get pumped up. Start by downloading Josh's Guide to Creativity - for free!

How to unleash curiosity

1. Get curious. Ask why, what if, why not at least 5x. Pretend you're a 2 year old, like in this segment of Louie CK's routine - the 5 Whys bit starts at 2:38. 
1. Also, take a look at littlemismatched.com. This business competes on originality, not price.
2.  Encourage courage. Failures are our portals to discovery.
3. Challenge assumptions. Josh told the story of a little girl who was helping her mom make meatloaf and before putting it into the over, the mom cut the ends off. The little girl asked, "why do we cut the ends off the meatloaf?" Mom says, "well, I don't know. I guess I've always done it because that's how my mom did it. Let's call grandma to find out." So, they call Grandma and ask her the same question. Grandma gives the same response. So, they call Great Grandma and ask her the same question. Great Grandma laughs and says, "Well, I have no idea why you're cutting the ends off of your meatloaf but I had to do it because it wouldn't fit into my pan." LOL Get it?
4. Think small. Like a start-up.
5. Shatter conventional wisdom.

 There is going to have to be a R2P3 because this post is getting a little lengthy. Stay tuned to learn about 3 exercises that help put some zip into your brainstorming sessions!
 

Marbles, and Mazes, and Mines, Oh My!

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the Risk and Rewards Conference in Telluride, Colorado, September 9th - 11th. As part of the registration I had to choose an Experience (aka Track). So, I chose the Culture Track. This will be a 2-part blog post.

Here's a little bit more about the Culture Track:

"Staff culture is at the heart of any organization, and core values influence an organization's culture, including internal processes and community perception. The Culture Experience will help attendees understand the key concepts of what builds a vibrant, creative, risk-positive organizational culture and how employees at all levels can influence and support it.

We believe work should be fun. This experience-based learning adventure will take attendees out of their comfort zones and into Telluride's gorgeous Mountain Village to discover ways they can foster courage, collaboration and communication in their libraries."

So, what did this look like in practice? Well, first we were randomly assigned to groups of about 10-12, each identified by different colored bandanas. We had to come up with a name for our team and assign a team captain. I'm not quite sure how it happened but we ended up being the Aqua Butts and our captain was a summer camp counselor in a former life so she always had fun cadences for us to yell as we moved from each of the 8 challenge stations we faced that afternoon.

Everywhere we go!

                               Everywhere we go!

People wanna know!

                              People wanna know!

Who we are!

                             Who we are!

So we tell them!

                             So we tell them!

 We are the Butts!

                             We are the Butts!

          The Mighty Mighty Aqua Butts!

                             The Mighty Mighty Aqua Butts!

What were the 8 challenge stations? 

Sherpa Challenge
We were asked to pretend we were mountain climbers on an expedition up Mount Everest and we needed to assemble a climbing team made up of our other teammates. Each of us was randomly given a card which was tucked into our bandanas so we could not see but so our teammates could. Our value as a mountain climber was determined by the card on hour forehead. Aces high all the way down to the lowly 2 (suit made no difference). We were asked to treat each other based on our cards so that we could guess which card we had. This exercise helped us identify ways our libraries explicitly and inexplicitly place value on employees and which qualities/positions appear to have more or less value.

Body Spelling
As you might guess, this was an exercise in non-verbal communication and teamwork. Working together without talking we had to spell words out with our bodies. We successfully spelled three words: Risk, Aqua, Butt. 

Obstacle Course
I like to call this one the Bouncy Castle Maze challenge. Working as a team we had to go through a huge (at least 50 meters long) inflatable obstacle course. In the center of the course was a large piece of paper with a hangman-type code written on it. There were 10 words written in symbols (triangles, arrows, astrological signs, etc). We had to come up with a strategy for memorizing them and then bring them back to the start of the course, write them down, and then decode them to find out what the hidden message was. The hidden message was, "Be the change you want to see in the world." 


Disc Golf
We had to play disc golf as a team. There were three 'holes," 2 were fairly close and one was further away. Each team member had to get one disc into one of the closest holes. Two team members had to get one disc into the furthest hole. Each hole made was awarded with a puzzle card. If no one got a disc in the furthest hole the team could instead opt to do 2 alternative challenges like playing a round of charades or creating a 30 second synchronized swimming routine sans water (both of which we did). Then, using the puzzle cards, we had to assemble a 3D version of the puzzle using wooden geometric blocks. Did I mention all of this was timed? Yeah, we had 5 minutes to do the disc golf portion and then we were trying to complete the puzzle in the shortest amount of time. We completed it in 2 min 20 sec, doubling the shortest time on record - we celebrated our failure with gusto as that was one of our core values (celebrate every failure).


Rock Climbing
Yes, we each had a chance to climb an indoor rock wall. Two of the team members had to put on harnesses and make it all the way to the top. The rest of us has to climb sideways from one side to the other. Two of us made it to the top. None of us made it all the way from side to side. Rock climbing is really difficult!!


Fear Factor
So, this challenge was one of two indoor activities. We walked into the room and on a long table were 4 terrariums. The first one had about 3 inches of yucky smelling earthworms and mulch. The second one had 5 field mice sitting atop a bed of cedar shavings. The third one had a huge tarantula sitting atop a similar bed of cedar shavings. The fourth one was tall and all black so we didn't know what was inside it. Then there was a large cardboard box on the floor that barely contained the 15lb boa constrictor that was inside it. Our challenge was to pick a card, the image on which would tell us which terrarium we and our partner would be pawing our way through to find our Aqua Butt blue-colored poker chip. I drew the snake card (see the very top right image of this blog post). However, since gently nudging the cute Boa (her name was Zoe) wasn't too much of a challenge for me I asked to hold the tarantula since that was a huge challenge. I have a very strong aversion to spiders and they seem to be everywhere outside my house this time of year. Anyway, here's proof that I could hold a more-than-palm-sized arachnid and not be scarred for life:

 
Minesweeper 
For this challenge we paired up to take turns guiding each other through a duct-tape mine field. There was more than one person working their way through the mine at one time and our partners had to stand at the far end of the mine field so, with our blindfolds on, we really had to listen for our partner's voice. Most of the time, if we were the ones giving directions, we'd preface everything with our partner's name and that seemed to help. If our partner touched a mine we had to start all over. 


Marble Race
Our last challenge of the day was the marble race. There was a route marked by little red flags out in the grass and around some trees. Through this route we had to pass a marble from one person to the other using about 18" of PVC pipe cut in half length-wise. The only rules were: you can't move your feet if you're holding the marble in your PVC pipe, your body can't touch the marble in any way, if you drop the marble you have to start over, and you have to complete the race in less than 3 minutes. So, each of us had our own length of pipe and we lined up shoulder to shoulder passing this marble to each other. We dropped the marble 3 times but on the 4th time we successfully completed the race in less than 2 minutes!


In part 2 of my R Squared blog post I'll share what we did Monday Morning and Tuesday afternoon when all attendees were together in one room! Stay tuned...

eBooks: Benefits, Challenges, and the Future

Thanks to the folks at the Southeast Florida Library Information Network, a virtual conference is coming your way on September 21st!

You can read all about it and register by visiting the conference's site directly. 

Big Talk From Small Libraries

All conference presentations were recorded and will be made available for your viewing pleasure on this site: http://nlcblogs.nebraska.gov/bigtalk/presentations/
Maryland library staff in Allegany, Garrett and Washington counties can earn 1 CEU per archived presentation viewed so long as you write a blog post about them.

If you're on Twitter you can see tweets about the event at #BTSL.

The Nebraska Library Commission organized and hosted a free, all-day online conference yesterday, Big Talk From Small Libraries. Each of the seven presentations focused on topics familiar to libraries of all shapes and sizes but the presenters brought a small library point of view to each issue. Rather than commenting on each presentation specifically, I'm going to reflect on the one I found most poignant.

It's might not come as a surprise that I found Jessamyn West's presentation the best organized and most interesting; Jessamyn is a veteran librarian, writer, and presenter. Her presentation, Magic Tricks and Maintenance: Helping the Public Learn Technology, didn't blow my mind but she did bring awareness to some habits I am guilty of from time to time like:

• Don't grab the mouse away from whomever you're helping no matter how much he or she is struggling to maneuver; use reassuring, non-condescending language and tone to help them ease into whatever it is they're trying to accomplish.
  
• Translate technical mumbo-jumbo into language everyone can appreciate or leave it out completely (does the individual really need to know that the computer is running OSX? Or that it has an Intel Celeron Processor? What does that even mean?)
  
• Avoid the soapboxes - even if a person asks you your preference on which browser or piece of software to use. Sure, tell them your opinion but leave it at that.
• Avoid expressing your disgust when someone tells you they prefer IE9. Be accepting of what works for each individual and work with it the best you can without expressing bias. Unless they ask for your opinion, it is best not to encourage them to you a superior browser like FireFox.

What's your sign...I mean, style?

This is the first of many installments on the MLA 2010 Annual Conference that the western Maryland library staff (this means you!) will be posting to our learning journal and I am definitely excited to hear about all the adventures everyone had in Ocean City.

The first learning adventure that I'm going to share with you is the preconference I attended on Wednesday, April 21 entitled, "What's Your Style? 9 Paths to Personal and Professional Development" with facilitators Peter and Suzanne Bromberg.

This workshop centered around The Enneagram (pronounced ANY-a-gram), a personality inventory that describes one's primary motivations, outlook on life, and how and to where energy and attention are focused. There are 9 Enneagram styles:

1. Style One, aka: perfectionist, reformer, principled teacher
2. Style Two, aka: helper, giver, pleaser, caretaker, mentor
   
3. Style Three, aka: achiever, performer, motivator, producer
   
4. Style Four, aka: individualist, romantic, creator, artist, poet
   
5. Style Five, aka: investigator, observer, thinker, scholar, sage
6. Style Six, aka: questioner, loyal skeptic, troubleshooter
7. Style Seven, aka: adventurer, enthusiast, fun lover, cheerer
   
8. Style Eight, aka: challenger, leader, boss, confronter
   
9. Style Nine, aka: peacemaker, mediator, acceptor, connector

I am a Seven and my core motivation is to experience life to its fullest. But knowing which characteristics I borrow from other styles during periods of stress is actually the most beneficial piece of information I took away from the preconference. Each style is fluid and in times of stress and in times of security will morph into other styles. For example, when a Seven is feeling secure and stable she morphs into a Five and becomes more thoughtful, deep, and serious about ideas. Under stress however, a Seven starts to take on qualities of a One and becomes rigid, angry and controlling. Knowing this will help me become more aware of my energy and if I see myself becoming angry all the time I will know that I'm showing my One side and that I need to stop, take a deep breath, and reevaluate my situation.

Whew! It's a good thing we have some stress management programs scheduled in May!

On the other side however, if I notice my Five qualities starting to show I can take advantage of them as well, but for good instead of evil.

This is a topic that I'm very interested in and could probably blog all day about but, I won't, and instead I'll share one last take away.

In the afternoon we split up into groups by style to answer some questions about ourselves like:

• What do we like about being Sevens?
• What annoys or stresses Sevens?
• Sevens are needed in our library because we...

But even that wasn't the most eye-opening part. The eye-openers came from listening to the other groups of styles share their answers to these same questions and making the connections between things they said and real examples from my own life (i.e. John Doe might be a Three because in meetings he's always saying, "get to the point" or "just spit it out.") which will help me modify my behaviors in the future in order to foster better relationships because I realize now that certain behaviors like in the John Doe example, are linked to core motivations and that they shouldn't be taken personally. If John Doe is a Three then it's important to him to be efficient and me spending time to give him background that I think he needs is just slowing him down so, in the future I can always let him know (after I've gotten to the point) that I have background information available and if he wants it he can ask me for it.

If anyone is interested in learning more about The Enneagram just let me know. The Bromberg's said it was OK to share their materials with anyone who's interested. In the meantime, you can take the brief, free version of The Enneagram inventory and learn more about your style at The Enneagram Institute's web site.