I fell off the turnip truck in June of 2003, stumbling in the door to join the WebJunction project with little idea of what I was getting into. There are way more than five things I have learned since then, but here are the biggies:
1. It’s not about technology. WJ is successful because we have great people and we work with great people–and those people make great things happen. That is our not-so-secret weapon.
2. Hang in there. There are few virtues as valuable as persistence. There have always been and will always be tons of new and creative initiatives in libraryland: I think what sets us apart is that we just keep at it and keep at it and find ways to keep it stable and keep it going. I love that!
3. Take the middle path. It’s not content or community, it’s not big libraries or small libraries, it’s not folksonomy or taxonomy, it’s not top-down or bottom-up. Balancing seemingly irreconcilable opposites is one of the main keys to our character and our strength.
4. If it’s going to be difficult, it might as well be fun. Humor has saved us from ourselves over and over again. This is a high-stress business and it helps enormously to find and enjoy the absurdity of it all. I am so grateful for the amazing collection of funnybones that I’ve been privileged to work with.
5. We’ve only just begun. As our Seattle staff has grown from 3 to 30 and our network of partners has exploded exponentially, it’s become ever clearer that WebJunction has the potential to represent and support the consciousness and vitality of the library world in even greater ways than we have so far. Building on our considerable success so far to realize WJ’s potential as a comprehensive platform for library staff–that’s what keeps me excited and motivated and passionate about WJ.
OK, I am an old-timer so I will maunder on a bit more, as old-timers are wont to do. Here are a few select memories from my five years at the WJ:
2003. Writing my first Crossroads newsletter in June 2003 a few weeks after I started at WJ (Web-what?), and getting markup from Chrystie Hill on my copy, in which every instance of the word “you” was crossed out and replaced with the word “we”. The beginning of my online community education.
2004. Putting the one-year anniversary cupcake on the site in May 2004, one of our first custom home page graphics, I shudder to admit, but at least it was a small step toward the much more graphically dynamic site we have today.
2005. The first OCLC blog salon at ALA 2005 in Chicago, when it seemed like we really hit a new critical mass of awareness and interest. There were people who actually recognized what we had started writing on our baby-infant blog. (And I got inspired to write my very first parody song ever, “The Blog Party“.)
2006. Getting a fresh round of funding, validating the work we’ve done and propelling us into the future. “You mean we’re for real?” Boy that feels good.
2007. Presenting the Government Documents librarians workshop in Denver in spring 2007, and seeing the palpable excitement in a room of a whole new type of mostly non-WJ-savvy users about the possibilities for the site. Something clicks: hmm, maybe this really is real.
2008. Welcoming an influx of dedicated, professional, committed staff who see WebJunction as, yep, a real thing, not just an idea. This is great–they actually know what they’re doing AND they think WJ is a cool place to be? Wow, that is an accomplishment!
And the best is yet to come…
Each year in the Spring, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream runs a “free cone” promo at their stores. Kids (and parents) line up around the block—last year my two ice cream junkies waited 40 minutes—40 minutes on line and the cone was gone in five! Luckily, the goodies from Free Comic Book Day should last quite a bit longer (and could bring returns for years).
All you need to do is stop by a participating comic store and make your free pick from a selection of titles like Archie, Superman, Hellboy, World of Aspen, X-men, Tiny Titans and many more. Seriously. These are free. I know you are thinking: “What’s the catch?” Nothing is free, right?
I can’t believe it’s time again for the Question of the Week. Where do the days go?
This time we’re highlighting an issue near and dear to my heart as a borderline problem patron—online fine/fee payment options. True confession: we’ve got four high-powered library users in the family and well, we pay a lot of late fees.
Let me say I don’t begrudge the fines at all. In fact, I wish I could take care of them more quickly and conveniently—such as when I’m reserving and renewing materials online. That’s why I was so happy to see WebJunction member mckeogh bring up what I consider a very Library 2.0 topic:
“I was wondering if any library has instituted a system that allows patrons to pay their fees (i.e. overdue fees) online. Has anyone done this? If so, what have been the challenges? What system, software do you use?”
I thought I’d start out this week’s post with a little reminder about Question of the Week (QOTW), our regularly featured discussion topic. QOTW topics are chosen for a number of reasons—sometimes they are challenging, cutting edge, or interesting. Other times, a topic deserves a bit more attention.
We post the featured question here in the blog and on our community landing pages, hopeful that our WebJunction members will see topics from areas of the site they don’t normally frequent. The question is normally selected by WJ staffers, but please remember that this is your community and your input is always encouraged. If you’ve got a question you want to ask, or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic. (more…)
Make sure you swing over to our latest Member Spotlight. This month we’re learning a bit about Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran, the Community Information Librarian with SELCO — a regional multi-type library consortium in Rochester, Minnesota.
Like most WebJunction members, Mary Beth has her hands full. In this case, her SELCO responsibilities have her working with 119 academic, public, special, and school libraries across S.E. Minnesota on continuing education, ILL, advocacy, grant writing, and marketing/public relations. (more…)
Resolution # 7. Have a Plan
If all you have is an evacuation plan, that’s like a football team only having one play. Or in football, only one audible signal when there’s a blitz…no matter what side it’s coming from! There are various patron scenarios staff should be prepared for: Noise issues, violence issues, lost children, odd patrons, suspicious activity, orderly evacuation and lockdown procedures.
“Ignorance does not have a plan. Its characteristics include lack of forethought, no concern of consequences, and disregard of the past. It’s often scattered, disorganized. Anticipation, focus, and organization are its enemies. Employ these allies, and you will counter and overcome ignorance, establishing and maintaining a library of excellence.“ Castles Against Ingnorance, p.72
Regarding del.icio.us resources for planning links, I have 15 items, and the largest shared with other members is the OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report with 281 members, up from 248 users as of August ’07 (actually up to 286 one week after the webinar!). I can assure you that almost every one of them has library focused collections on del.icio.us!!!
If you’re not aware of it, the Perceptions report provides the findings and responses from a survey in an effort to learn more about:
•Library use by the public
•Awareness and use of library electronic resources
•The Internet search engine, the library and the librarian
•Free vs. for-fee information
•The “Library” brand
The findings indicate that “information consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through libraries. Even though information consumers make limited use of these resources, they continue to trust libraries as reliable sources of information.” (http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm)
Knowing how you’re perceived goes a long way in establishing service goals; that’s the beauty of this report. And thanks to the Web 2.0 powers of sharing, you can discover a universe of URL’s, all oriented towards libraries!
Another resource I mentioned in the webinar and have as a resource in my book is: NLG Project Planning: A Tutorial. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Access Date 25 Jan 06. <http://e-services.imls.gov/project_planning>.
Although designed to help secure funding for National Leadership Grants, this interactive tutorial can help in any project planning. Try it, it’s fun and practical.
Does anyone have any other online Planning suggestions? If so, please leave a comment above!
My Librarything account contains 15 books dealing with planning everything from library careers to crisis management, including Demonstrating Results: Using Outcome Measurement in Your Library by Rhea Joyce Rubin. In clicking on the members icon (the little heads), you’ll see that the Librarything recommendations list 10 other books on various aspects of library planning: Technology, weeding, children’s services, even how to create workshops!
Obviously a serious library book, currently 8 members share it. One of them is another “best practices” example of a user profile on LibraryThing, Jennifry’s.
Besides using specific tags for the 105 books in her collection, and a cool icon, she takes the time to describe the meaning of the tags in her collection in the “About My Library” section of her profile. This helps a fellow member understand her background and perspective as well as her taxonomy. Obviously well planned out!
Planning is also VERY closely related to Partnerships, tomorrow’s Resolution…
-Ed Rossman, Interim Branch Manager for the Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library and author of Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments
Click here to access an archive of Ed’s webinar and a PDF of the slides he used.
Resolution #6. Handle Conflict
As more “non-traditional” library users visit our facilities to only check out DVD’s, not books, or use the Internet, it can be a challenge to get them to buy into the standard library code of conduct, quiet behavior, civility. As I see it now, librarians had better learn to deal with the rowdy, uncivil, or mentally imbalanced people in society coming to the libraries to only use the internet. They’re fine as long as they’re non-disruptive to others. But oftentimes they aren’t. If not checked, they will drive out traditional library users.
The non-traditional library user today, who doesn’t care about books, reading, or learning, may be the traditional library user tomorrow, for those libraries still open.
Because as funding gets tighter, more and more citizens will refuse to fund public entities that spend taxpayer money offering internet access to people with no respect towards others, who’re disruptive, and who intimidate people from using services and space that all should be allowed to share peacefully.
If these patrons discourage “traditional” patrons from using the library, there can be some significant problems ahead. A New Years’ Resolution to stay compassionate, yet firm in dealing with people needs a good tool box of tactics.
In the webinar I briefly alluded to different methods of handling conflict.
We conducted a brief poll of “Friction Points” and although all 200+ attendees didn’t participate (I only gave about 30 seconds, and some folks were lagging due to their bandwidth problems), this is what we found:
In response to the question, How many of you have handled the following conflict situations?
There were about 114 participants in this question.
The results were:
One exercise I have in my book, Castles Against Ignorance is to examine how you handle conflict in Friction Point situations. In both Castles and in the “Common Grounds” web site I mentioned in the webinar, I emphasize the practicality of using different styles for different situations. Five tactical styles for conflict are examined:
1. Forcing conflict style: resolves conflict by getting your way. Assertive, uncooperative and autocratic. Useful for rambunctious children and immature adults.
2. Avoiding conflict style: ignores conflict rather than resolving it. Could be temporarily used when human resources are low. You could use Observation as a behavior suppression tactic and still be using an Avoiding style successfully, but this is only on a case by case basis.
3. Accommodating conflict style: resolves conflict by giving in. In other words, bending the rules.
4. Compromising conflict style: resolves conflict through giving and getting concessions. Using an “If I…then you…” approach will usually solve the problem, short term. Not to be encouraged because some patrons will view this as a game. However, useful when arbitrating between two bickering, but otherwise mature patrons.
5. Collaborating conflict style: An attempt to jointly resolve conflict with the best solution that is agreeable to all parties. This is the only style that creates a win-win situation. It can also take time that you don’t always have on the floor, but if it’s a long running situation that you know you’re going to be dealing with, it is worth the time working on a solution.
What conflict style do you… would you… could you…be using in the above Friction Point situations, to get the best possible outcome for your patrons or library?
Here are some of the other exercises and resources I use in Castles:
Exercises:
1. Visit 3 different library systems and compare and contrast what tools/policies they have to handle conflict. Guards? Written policies? Visible signage on conduct?
2. Review past incident reports to see how the situations were handled according to the 5 styles of conflict resolution.
3. Try finding your own conflict style by taking the quick quiz at http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/cgpartnership/profile/pprofile1.cfm
Selected Resources Of Interest:
Regarding building your own del.icio.us accounts, here’s a tip that can make it easier in the beginning. Every link has a “save this” link next to it. You need your own account established first. Create your account, then check out various links about libraries, confrontation or any other tag that interests you on my site, and with a click of a mouse, that site can be on yours!
But remember if you add a lot of random sites, they’ll appear random on your list because del.icio.us at this point only lists them in the order you add them, you can’t re-sequence them by alphabet or numbers like Librarything will let you do. If you want them grouped together in some way besides using similar tags, you have to practice Resolution #7: Have A Plan!
-Ed Rossman, Interim Branch Manager for the Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library and author of Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments
Click here to access an archive of Ed’s webinar and a PDF of the slides he used.
Our Library of the Month spotlight addresses an issue that many in the library world have faced: how can we continue to provide our services in the face of shrinking budgets? While none of us (normally) seek out organizational crises, the outcome of such pain can sometimes spark true innovation.
Bonnie McKewon, administrator of Northwest Iowa Library Services (NWILS) tells WebJunction how an ongoing slide in funding helped the organization to change how they delivered consultancy services. As budget and staffing shortfalls made clear the impossibility of their current model, they embraced an opportunity to develop an innovative, sustainable virtual-team/consulting model!
The spotlight provides insight into their successful program.
Bonnie is also presenting the WebJunction webinar this week on Thursday January 24, 2008 on the topic of Let’s Collaborate in 2008. She’ll provide suggestions on how to reinvigorate cooperation amongst libraries. Please join us for the webinar or stay tuned for the archive and associated resources.
edit: An archive of Bonnie’s webinar is now available for viewing at your convenience.
During the week of December 3-7, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) encourages managers and directors across organizations to recognize the importance of connecting learning with the achievement of organizational results during Employee Learning Week. While investing time in ongoing professional development can often be a challenge for library staff, ELW raises awareness for the importance of addressing skills gaps and improving performance in the workplace.
The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County is encouraging their library staff to Become Champions of Learning this week by participating in ELW. Proposed activities for the week include highlighting learning opportunities and tips for staff in daily email messages, surveying staff on training they would like to have available in the coming year and prizes for participants.
You don’t need to be a member of ASTD to participate in ELW. Even if your library is not taking part in ELW this year, there are plenty of occasions to provide year-round learning opportunities for staff. The following tips and resources can give you some ideas for planning your own ELW and making workplace learning a part of your ongoing staff development initiatives. We look forward to recognizing ELW again next year and sharing some of your stories.
If your library is participating in ELW this week, we encourage you to share your story by commenting to this post or on our Community Discussion Boards.
Resources for Getting Started with Employee Learning Week
Suggested Activities for ELW
Planning for Staff Training Initiatives
Resources for Year-Round Learning
Yesterday the SLO program hosted a webinar about Recruiting for Diversity. Guest speakers, Loida Garcia-Febo, Jerome Offord, Luis Chapparo, and Tracie Hall shared informative statistics, made the case for why libraries need to focus on diversity recruitment, and provided examples of programs that are working.
One the big take-aways for me was a story that guest speaker, Tracie Hall, told about growing up in a tough neighborhood in L.A. During the holidays, the police would drive down her street and toss out candy canes to the kids. They didn’t stop. They didn’t talk to the kids. They just sped through the neighborhood throwing candy out their squad car windows! Tracie pointed out that the police were missing out on a great opportunity to connect positively with kids and other residents and that this form of “drive-by” community outreach didn’t work.
Drive-by recruitment doesn’t work either. Libraries need to approach recruiting for diversity strategically with the long view in mind. Libraries also need to focus their efforts not only on recruitment but on keeping librarians from diverse backgrounds in the profession for the long-term.
For more information, check out the webinar archive and recommended resources. You can also join the discussion board topic we started on Recruiting for Diversity to pick up the conversation where the webinar left off.
Many libraries are struggling to make their workforce reflect the diverse population of patrons they serve. Diversity Counts, a report from the ALA Office for Diversity and the Office for Research and Statistics revealed that our diverse workforce is in crisis. We need to be able to strategically plan to recruit more professionals from various ethnic backgrounds. The severe decline of librarians of color demonstrates that the profession must unite forces so that would-be users in libraries and information centers see their information needs and themselves reflected.
Currently, Diversity Counts is the only report of its nature. The findings revealed that credentialed public librarians by race/ethnicity (2000) include:

• 89% White
• 4% African American
• 3% Asian and Pacific Islander
• 3% Latino
•1% Two or more races
• 0% Native American including Alaskan
This Tuesday, November 20, WebJunction is presenting a webinar aimed to tackle the recruitment issue. Join us on for this special ninety-minute webinar to learn about recruiting and building a multicultural workforce. The purpose of the webinar is to present Diversity Counts, the situation in the nation for libraries in all settings (academics, public, school, special), address the needs, and provide practical and feasible solutions and examples of what is currently being done by librarians and what could be done.
Guest speakers include:
•Tracy Hall, former Director of ALA Office for Diversity who co-developed Diversity Counts
•Jerome Offord, Director of Diversity Initiatives for the Association of Research Libraries.
•Luis Chaparro, REFORMA Vice-President/President Elect
•Myself, Loida Garcia-Febo from Queens Library and a REFORMA Executive Board member
For more information visit Spanish Outreach - In Depth where you’ll find instructions for joining the webinar. We hope you will participate in this important discussion! Feel free to post your thoughts, ideas, and comments here before or after the webinar.
Loida Garcia-Febo
One of the best things about my job is that I have my own librarian. Ok, she’s not ‘my’ librarian. Her name is Tam and she’s more OCLC’s librarian. But it still feels like I have my own personal librarian because I email her questions and she just, like, answers them. Rright away. It’s amazing! I’m such a happy patron right now.
Anyway, one of the projects I’m working on (with my colleagues here at the WJ, including ‘my’ librarian) is gathering some basic info about librarians in the US. Who are we? What do we do? Where do we work? How many of us are there? Frankly, though I don’t often come right out and say it, I’m generally not all that interested in numbers, but this project proved to be pretty interesting and so I thought I’d share some of our findings:
Two ideas emerge from these stats. First, if the bulk of retiring librarians is at the director level, who will the profession promote to those positions? Even if the post-MLIS force keeps up with retirees, will they be ready for the positions they’re asked to fill? Second, if MLIS students are increasingly moving into non-traditional environments instead of taking traditional positions in public, school, academic or other types of libraries, where does that leave us institutionally?
I’d like to append to these facts and figures with an impression that has developed for me through conversation with colleagues over the last several years. Some of my friends in LibraryLand, many of whom are extremely innovative, ambitious, and eager to contribute to the profession, are often struggling in their library jobs. They seem unsupported by their institutions, sometimes specifically by their library directors and senior colleagues. Age, along with tech savvy or advocacy and a shift towards community-based authority or expertise layers in additional divisive factors, sometimes widening the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’. I have personally benefited from relationships and mentoring with elders in our field - I won’t call them traditionalists! - as well as from very strong institutional support from my employer for my work. But I’m wondering if there’s a way to shift our culture as a profession so that my experiences along these lines are more of a norm, rather than an exception.
And so, how can we bridge these gaps in our daily work? Can we create inter-generational or inter-experiential dialog and (two-way) mentoring so that the library profession, and our institutions, can thrive (not just survive) in the midst of this particular change?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to approach this. At least two projects in the works so far! Stay tuned…
I know that competencies are a hot topic when 160 people show up for one of WJ’s Learning Webinars. If you missed Core Competencies for Library Staff, the archive is available for viewing. Launch the recording, type your name in the box and click Enter. (If the login window doesn’t pop up, click the “Participant Login” button.) If you’ve used Wimba on your computer before, there’s no need to run the wizard again; just use the “click here” link. The movable table of contents window allows you to jump forward and back through the slides.
Many thanks again to Sarah and Karen for sharing their expertise!
I noted over on the CE Buzz blog the recent sizzle over competencies for library staff. How timely that WebJunction’s Learning Webinar series is spotlighting competencies in this week’s presentation: Core Competencies for Library Staff. With guests Sarah Houghton-Jan, author of Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries, and Karen Strege, project director for Western Council of State Libraries, there should be a rich flow of information on the topic.
Follow the instructions for getting online. And I hope to see you Wednesday!
Keeping up with research in the library world and doing your own research for your library will help you keep up with trends.
Monitor what’s happening in the field and make decisions about how to move forward using available data.
Start at WebJunction?s Research and Statistics Page. Among the resources you will find there are:
Another study to peruse is Public Libraries and the Internet, recently published by the Information Use Management & Policy Institute of Florida State University Study
Begin doing your own research by:
For additional information about research check out Basic Research Methods for Librarians by Ronald R. Powell and Lynn Silipigni Connaway. Search for this item in a library near you with Worldcat.
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