Personally, I really enjoyed the PLA Virtual Conference, and that’s not just because we were sponsors! I think there’s a definite online conference need for those in our library community who can’t (budget? staffing?) or won’t (environmental issues?) travel to a national conference venue.

The technology infrastructure and bandwidth is almost there, and the virtual production values are pretty darn smooth—the next step is to find a programming model that works for the genre. I’m not sure what that is, but I can tell you we may do more harm than good by trying to cling to our physical format in a virtual sphere.

One thing is for sure, a Virtual Happy Hour has none of the redeeming characteristics of its physical world cousin! I’m hopeful though, and am excited to see tons of online conference innovation in the coming years.

One equalizing connection layer between physical and virtual attendees is the huge increase in online sharing that we’ve seen this year. Between Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and Flickr, I almost feel like I was in the Twin Cities.

Betha’s post about the new Minneapolis library drove this home to me. As I physically sat in Seattle, virtually experiencing Nancy Pearl explain how she preferred the modern warmth of Minneapolis library over cold sleekness of the new Seattle library, I had no idea that a timely, serendipitous blog post with photos would illustrate her points perfectly.

That’s just one example where the collective sharing of the PLA community has come through for me. Even though the conference is done, the wealth of online resources means you have plenty of opportunity reap some sharing benefits of your own.

I’d recommend starting, of course, with our BlogJunction PLA2008 post category to check out what the WebJunction team was up to. From there, you’ll find no shortage of great content. The following are a few of my favorites:

• WebJunction Flickr Stream
• Flickr Photos tagged with PLA2008 (1605 at this count!)
• PLA2008 on the PLA Blog
• Twitter Hashtags explained on the PLA Blog (You can see the hashtag feed on the blog main page)
• Mix It Up: Using Blended Learning for Staff Training
• E-learning and Blended Learning at Cuyahoga County Public Library
• Mixing It Up at the State Library of Iowa
• From Hype to Help: Making a Difference with New Technologies
• PLA Conference Handouts
• PLA WebJunction Fact Sheet
• Library Looney on the PLA Hype to Help Session
• Video: Backstage at the Virtual Conference

These should get you started, but I’m sure there’s much more we haven’t seen. If you find a great link please let us know via the comments. For that matter, if you have a question, comment, complaint or insight about PLA 2008, let’s hear that too!

At a Friday luncheon, I heard Nan Kari speak about her work with the Jane Addams School for Democracy, a civic engagement and democratic education initiative for immigrant families and college students located in St. Paul’s multi-cultural West Side neighborhood. Kudos to hosts Libraries for the Future and Diantha Schull for continuing to draw libraries into thinking about Library Placemaking and the development of libraries as vital civic places.

Have you engaged your civic skills lately?

Nan Kari began her eloquent presentation with observations about a shift in American civil life. She notes that the values of the market place have permeated the ways we choose to prioritize our time and resources, and as a result our civic skills have begun to atrophy. We have become more accustomed to experiencing public life at the mall (an interesting juxtaposition considering the appearance of library branches in a number of suburban malls) than in the democratic process. There are many ambiguities and dynamics surrounding this shift (including some positive impacts, on youth—seen in the numbers in this year’s caucuses and primaries—and increases in entrepreneurial civic engagement), but ultimately, there has been a shift away from inquiry and engagement around our authority as citizens.

Before Nan detailed the School’s advocacy for community engagement, she defined citizenship in 3 ways, acknowledging that they overlap and co-mingle in the real world:

1. A civics view of citizenship in which democracy is mainly reflective of government.
2. A “communitarian” view where civil society is manifested in shared values and strong community.
3. And one in which citizens are public problem solvers and co-creators of the community commons. Here authorship resides among citizens and democracy is an unfinished work that needs to be taken up by all citizens.

Case for Community Commons

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I was nearly leaping off my chair by this point, very excited to hear more especially about how to apply these precepts to our work. As Nan began to share about her work with the Jane Addams School, she spoke of the opportunities for us to develop libraries as “democratic spaces” (both social and physical) where a diverse mix of people interact, engage in dialogue, solve problems and exercise civic engagement that builds and sustains public goods and resources. She used the new Minneapolis Public Library (where we met) as a way to talk about democratic spaces being shaped by physical elements and the need for civic imagery, accessibility and flexibility. Working with an online community, I recognize these as parallel principles of web design (UI, IA, flexible tools etc.) but certainly see how these apply to physical spaces in libraries, especially those with meeting rooms and other public gathering spaces which can be opened up to serve needs identified via the community commons. But whether we’re looking to present our libraries as core to civic engagement in virtual or f2f communities, I think this next bit hit me the hardest.

Deprogram the space

In libraryland we are busy working to design programming and services that meet the needs of our users. In order to provide a truly democratic experience for their diverse community, the Jane Addams School chose a different approach, in order to “pull the circle open.” The tendency to fill up spaces with programming and services can leave little or no room for civic engagement. They found that when you stop programming all the spaces, the “tapestry of lived experiences” are welcomed into the community, bringing their cultural learning into an environment where everyone is considered both a teacher and a learner. The Jane Addams School “facilitates” the use of the spaces, but the participants organize themselves into “learning circles” based on their interests and objectives. Nan admits that this is not a clean process, quite messy in fact, but they all recognize that the learning that comes from the experience is expansive and not just academic. Participants become part of the “Crossing Borders Leadership Team,” a citizen-based committee which further facilitates the creative engagement.

Changes can happen when people work together

I know there’s a lot in here, even without the fantastic pictures (check out their site!) and details that Nan shared from her work but the message is certainly timely. While we need to continue doing all that we do to provide information, resources, services, and programming, we need to be equally accountable to our communities as space facilitators ensuring platforms for collaborative inquiry and public creation. I can’t think of a more fitting mandate for all of us in this, the community that is WebJunction, as we move through this year. We are in the process of developing a number of exciting enhancements to the site, all part of our ongoing goal to facilitate a highly engaged online community for library staff. We’ll continue to look to you, the WebJunction community, for your participation and leadership in the co-creation of a “community commons”—as we refine and sustain the tools for facilitation and as you continue to share your strategies that ensure libraries remain core to civic engagement. So yes Paula, we are meeting about change.

A prime example of a thriving library.

Your own community supporters will expand far beyond our group. They probably include foundations, government agencies, schools, churches, hospitals, businesses and dedicated volunteers. I’m also betting that your relationships with each of these institutions vary depending on your resources, community, and vision for your library. But no matter where you and your partner are, there are some key concepts that can help foster your community relationships. Here’s what I learned from our session:

1. Identify each others goals for the partnerships: this will allow you to identify shared values and make sure each partner is getting their needs met.
2. Communicate often: provide regular updates to keep everyone on the same page and recognize successes.
3. Show appreciation: spread your enthusiasm for the work and your partners’ valuable contributions.

The best synopsis of this material came from a fellow participant: Partnerships are between PEOPLE—not institutions.

I hope our Member Reception provided another opportunity to build relationships with one another. The relationships we build with each other makes us stronger and better able to articulate our value as we move outside the library to seek new partnerships.

As Darwin discovered, it’s not necessarily the swiftest or strongest or largest species that survive; it is those most adaptable to change. The dangerous ideas conversation is all about adaptation and change. It begins with the question “What if …?”

What if librarians would promote and participate in the development of Wikipedia?
What if we made decisions that are not based on scarcity?
What if libraries large and small invest together to adopt open source solutions?
What if teens in the library were our partners instead of our problem?
What if we learned to advertise the allure of libraries as successfully as soft drinks and junk food?

(This is just a sampling of the provocative questions raised.)

Half of the “what ifs” above came from the audience as a result of the refreshing level of interactivity. (What if all conference sessions stimulated participation from the audience?) Questioning assumptions is contagious and uncomfortable. There was anxiety and reaction mixed with excitement. In the atmosphere of brainstorming “unthinkable thoughts,” the point is to confront the discomfort, find the opportunities, and then move forward with actions.

One audience member suggested that the next PLA (2010) should be totally focused on “what if?” Someone else said we can’t wait that long—that the next PLA should be one grand discussion of the results of two years of action.

Catch the fever at whatiflibs.wetpaint.com.

*Presenters: Deirdre Routt/Omaha PL, Stacey Aldrich/California State Library, Brian Auger/Howard County Library, Amy de Groff/Howard County Library, Rivkah Sass/Omaha PL