ARSL Conference Notes

ARSL Conference - September 2014

Here's more from the ARSL conference I attended in September.

Delivering Excellent Customer Service -Break-out Session – Lisa Lewis

This session included tips and ideas on how to ensure that our patrons have a wonderful experience at the library through great customer service. (I’m listing these tips and ideas here, but some may go against your own library policy, so you’d need to check.)

Signs and Displays

• What is the first sign a patron sees when entering the library? Does this sign say “NO . . .”?  If it does, we should consider changing the wording. Negative wording hurts business and puts people on the defensive.
  Some examples:
  If the sign says No food and drink, change to something like “We love food, just not in the library.”
  No cell phones – Try “Thank you for not using your cell phone in the library.”
  Instead of No Loud Noise (etc.), try “Thank you for conversing in soft tones.”
• How many signs/posters do we have? Less is more, so use as few as possible.
• Weeding is important! Don’t overcrowd the shelves.
• Wipe off dust jackets when the books come in. Replace damaged ones.
• Change displays often.
• Using a digital frame at the circulation desk is a good idea. Add events to the display along with the photos.
• Suggestion: Set up maker-space tables with arts/crafts books and a craft for peopleto do.
• Suggestion: Display a table of cookbooks and add cracker and cheese, etc. (I’m not sure how this would work if we don’t allow food in the main part of the library, though.)

How We Assist Patrons

• Show people where things are.
• Be courteous on the phone.
• Don’t ever say:
  Are you sure?
  Wait, you’re confusing me.
  You’re wrong.
  Well, no one else has had that problem.
  Who told you that?
  Well, you’re gonna have to . . .
  It’s library policy. (Instead, explain why we have this policy.)

Fines and Fees

• Ease up and give staff the authority to forgive a fine.
• Chill out, loosen up, break the rules, compromise.

Tablet Slinging Librarians – Break-out Session – Leah Kulikowski

This session focused on practical and creative ways to use tablet technology to stay on the leading edge of customer service. A number of libraries are using tablets for:

• Children’s programs (Storytime apps like Peter Rabbit pop-up book App)
• Roving reference
•  Checking out books (with a Bluetooth barcode scanner)
• Credit card payment of fines
•  Music during programs
• Inventory (with a Bluetooth barcode scanner)

Leah said that her library uses an iPad as a Look-up Catalog Tablet mounted to the wall in the Children’s area. She also said that they took tablets to the park and signed up children for Summer Reading Club.

I thought these were innovative ways to bring tablet technology into the library.

Easy Patron Surveys

Easy Patron Surveys from Library Juice Academy

Instructor:  Jennifer Sweeney

Course overview

Surveys are one of the most useful and least expensive ways to gather information about your patrons! This course will orient participants on basic survey procedures, techniques, tips, and tricks. Topics will include sampling and response rate, question/response design, interpreting results, and ethical questions. The course provides readings, hands-on exercises, example survey questions and response patterns, discussion, and up-to-date online resources. Participants will finish the course prepared to collect and analyze survey data from library users on a number of different topics.

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Select and reach the most respondents for typical survey topics
• Design relevant questions and useful response categories
• Use a spreadsheet to analyze survey results
• Understand basic ethical principles in survey design and use, such as protecting respondent privacy.

My summary

This course ran over four weeks. Each week covered a different topic: Overview of Survey Research, Sampling, Question Design, and Analysis and Reporting. I found the course to be a good balance between theory and practice.  This is a huge subject, and it is easy to spend a lot of time gathering information that isn’t really what you were looking for. Since I had done some patron surveys in the past, I think I was able to get even more from the class. I especially appreciated the methodology presented to assist in analysis (I was a math major after all).

How it fits in the big picture

I am interested in finding ways to measure the impact of the public library on its community beyond statistics and anecdotes.  This course has helped me start small, by developing surveys we can use after patrons attend classes or programs. I was also made aware of LibQUAL +, a suite of services libraries use ”to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality.” Perhaps it will be worth the investment at some point for WCFL to engage LibQUAL+ in order to focus and improve our services.

ARSL Conference Notes – September 2014 

On September 3 – 6, I attended the ARSL (Association for Rural and Small Libraries) Conference in Tacoma, Washington and found it to be a very worthwhile experience. Well organized and complete with good food and a great setting, the conference offered a number of break-out sessions helpful to small/rural libraries. 

On Thursday and Friday, we had breakfast and lunch speakers and 3 breakout sessions each day. On Saturday, Clancy Pool (Library Journal Para-librarian of the Year) gave a dynamic presentation – From Farm Wife to Cover Girl - about bringing a new spirit and library to her small town of about 500 people in Washington State’s Whitman County. While all the speakers gave interesting addresses, Clancy’s was a great one with which to conclude the conference. 

A few points I noted from her talk include: 

• People like to donate to specific things. 
• Look for resources to improve your library. 
• Find a mentor and be a mentor. 

Here’s a link to the Library Journal story about Clancy. It's worth reading.

Uniquely Connected: Expanding Community in 21st Libraries (Speaker Karen Archer Perry at Thursday's Breakfast)

Karen stressed that libraries sit at the junction of knowledge, service, and communities, and that she thinks “librarian super powers will save the world.” These powers, or tools for change, include trust, knowledge, technology, and place. 

Points I noted:

• If you want to get people into your library, get out into the community and meet people where they are. 
• Only 23% of the public says they really know what’s going on at their library. 
• People love the core services that libraries offer. 
• People need help navigating to things of meaning to them, and librarians can do this. 
• Librarians are America’s digital literacy corps. 
• eReader tablet growth is significant, yet 62% said they didn’t know libraries loaned eBooks. 
• Create an experience, not a product. (This was a prominent theme throughout the sessions I attended. My take on this concept is that we focus on service, and the product follows.) 

I have more notes to add from other sessions, so I will continue to post.

Black Eyed Susan Tapestry

On Sat., Sept. 13, I attended a program in Westminster MD about the 2014 Black Eyed Susan Award books.  We had to read about 15 books in advance in three different age categories and come prepared to discuss them with other children's public library specialists in Maryland.  The books I read were in the categories of picture books, gr. 4-6 books, and gr. 6-9 books. Pat Goff, who is the chairperson for the Black Eyed Susan Award committee gave a brief introduction. We each attended three one hour sessions.  There were about 10 librarians discussing the books in the various categories in each session.  The discussions were led by a moderator who had participants summarize the books and speak to their salient points.  I enjoyed talking about the literature and made notes on a few books that I may need to order for our collection.  Mary Amato, a children's author who lives in the Washington D.C. area was the keynote speaker for the day and talked about the influence of music on her books as well as how her own life is reflected in some of the stories she writes. After Mary's program, there were  presentations on the best middle grade and picture books of 2014.  Over all, I enjoyed the day very much.  I don't get to have discussions about topics in children's literature very much, and it was nice to see some of the other professionals in the field and ask them about their programs and collections.

Staying on Top of Technology Trends

I also took part in the InfoPeople course, Staying on Top of Technology Trends. What I appreciated the most from this course was that the instructor provided examples of how to keep up with general technology changes and how to keep up with the changes specific to libraries as well. The course material was extremely helpful to begin a trendwatching experience, by providing a plethora of updated sites and blogs which all discuss changing technology.

Keeping up with trendwatching blogs was definitely the key described in this course. Though I had been familiar with sites such as trendwatching.com, I had always been intimidated by the pure amount of information on developing technology available online, and so had been ignoring most of the sites. The best way to help keep up and organize the information is to use an RSS reader. While this may seem like old hat to most tech-savvy gurus, I personally cannot express how much easier it is to peruse internet articles with an RSS reader. I had been reluctant to use one, but at the advice of the instructor, I created a Feedly account and there was no turning back for me. Even though I only follow a few blogs, it really makes it easier to sift through the new information and preview articles before reading them.

The other helpful information I found in this course was the lists of suggested websites and librarian blogs which specialize in library technology, or even general technology. At the end, a Resource File was provided which concisely lists these blogs for convenience. I included the link to the resource file because I believe everyone can benefit from following even a few of these sites.

One of the key trends mentioned in the course was the use of cloud technology in library systems. I am not very knowledgeable about what uses we have here in Western Maryland for cloud computing at the library (outside of ILS storage), but I think it is definitely a direction we should look into.

Staying on Top of Technology Trends

I just finished a class called Staying on Top of Technology Trends. It was offered by Infopeople and was a four week webinar. Because I am part of WMRL's Technology Interest Group, WMRL was kind enough to foot the bill for the course.
 I learned where to go to find out the latest and greatest in the technology, specifically for libraries.  If I choose trend watchers wisely, I won't have to weed through dozens of sites sending me information.
One thing that particularly interested me was the concept of Makerspaces.  They sound like a great idea.  We have trouble getting teenagers to come to the library, and if we had some makerspaces, I think we could attract more of them.  The only problems would be finding space and money!
I also thought the idea of '23 things' was interesting.  This is a program developed by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.  The staff was given a list of 23 technologies they should be aware of such as RSS feeds and blogs.  I think this is a good idea.  I know our system would benefit from having all staff competent in basic technology skills.
I hope I can use some of the ideas I learned about in this course to help bring staff in Allegany County up to date on technology trends.

ALA Annual Conference - June 2014

This was my first time at an ALA conference, and it was a bit overwhelming.  There seemed to be at least 3 different sessions that I wanted to attend in each time slot, but I managed to get to around 10 of them.  Here are a few highlights.

Collaborate to Innovate - presented by staff from Chicago Public Library

CPL has a lot of different programs in partnership with local organizations.  They use different models of collaboration depending on the circumstances and the library's goals.  For example:

• "Friends with benefits," where the partnership is ongoing but not formal, and revolves around one specific topic or activity. This is exemplified by their work with a company that manufactures 3D printers - the company supplies equipment and tech support at a discount to the library, and receives good publicity, plus useful feedback from library users.
•  "Helping hands," where an external organization provides expertise that the library needs; Allstate corporation (headquartered in Chicago) has a program where it "lends" staff to local nonprofits who can benefit from expertise from the corporate world.  The staff person can work for up to 3 months, and continues to get their regular Allstate salary, but devotes full time to their project with the nonprofit.  Through this program, the library was able to get an expert in planning and project management to help with its technology plan.
•  "Full partnership," where the outside organization and the library create an ongoing program together - for example, at CPL a group called Kids Who Program uses the library's facilities for regular workshops on computer programming for kids.

Building Gorgeous Responsive Websites Fast - presented by Andromeda Yelton

Andromeda Yelton, a library tech consultant, led a hands-on workshop about Bootstrap, a web authoring tool originally developed by Twitter.  Bootstrap (getbootstrap.com) is very impressive - it really does allow non-coders to create well-designed, responsive (that is, useable on all devices) websites.  And it's free - classic open source software.  This session also persuaded me that LITA (the Library and Information Technology Assoc. within ALA) is an organization I'd like to get more involved with.

Data Driven Collections - presented by San Francisco, Palos Verdes, and Marin County librarians

This session focused on CollectionHQ, a commercial software package that analyzes data from the library's ILS to help the library make better decisions about the collection - what to buy, what should go to which branches, how to publicize it, how to best allocate budget dollars, etc.  CollectionHQ (which WCFL and WMRL are considering purchasing) is very powerful, and these librarians are using it in creative ways.  For example, based on circulation patterns of Vietnamese language materials, the SF Public Library determined that Vietnamese speakers were using a particular branch more heavily than expected and were able to shift materials to accommodate that.  In Marin County, the library tracks statistics on the popularity of particular authors to more accurately predict demand, and then purchases "read-alike" authors as well.

Leading with Ebooks - presented by Total Boox, with a panel of publishers, librarians, and ALA staff

This session examined alternatives to the current library ebook model of permanently purchasing single-user licenses.  In particular, Total Boox is developing a completely different business model, where the library (or the individual) pays only for the number of pages of the book that a patron has actually read.  It's an intriguing model, which makes sense from a financial point of view, but I'm not sure it's practical for libraries because of the big privacy issues.  A patron would have to agree to let Total Boox track exactly what pages he or she had read, and then charge the library for them.  Although the founder of Total Boox assured us that their security was excellent, I think this sacrifice of privacy would be a deal-breaker for libraries.


That's a few of the highlights.  If you're thinking about attending ALA, I would recommend it.  It's huge and chaotic and overwhelming, but the quality of the programs makes it worthwhile.  Please contact me (wtaylor@washcolibrary.org) if you have any questions.