|
|||||
|
Computers in Libraries 2012 hosted its first Battledecks, “Innovate…..or else.” Thanks to all those involved — Judges Darlene Fichter, Marshall Breeding, Maurice Coleman, Amanda Etches, Julie Strange and Rebecca; Battlers Stephen Abram, Joe Murphy, Gary Price, Andromeda Yelton, Amy Buckland and Sarah Houghton, and especially to Janie Hermann for her incredible facilitation & control of the event! Wow — I’m amazed by the Battlers courage and ability to articulate concepts with humour. Phew! It was stressful just to watch and listen to them as those mystery slides appeared for them to address. Congrats & thanks to all! Thanks Lia Friedman @piebrarian for this photo: battledecks! #cildc twitter.com/piebrarian/sta… — lia friedman (@piebrarian) March 22, 2012 Kathy Dempsey, marketing maven of Libraries are Essential, and I are presenting at Computers in Libraries 2012 on ways to “Imagine and Dream Big About Your Library.“ Creating a vision is an action. It is not sitting at tables wordsmithing a slogan. It is about envisioning the future that you, the Board, staff, and senior management want the library to have; it is really no different than envisioning your home – your meal – your career – your life. Yes, things happen, and that’s no excuse not to envision or design your future. Kathy and I will discuss important and successful it is for libraries to get off their chairs, charge their imaginations, don their dreams and stand in the future they want their library — their communities — their campuses — their organizations — to experience. Here’s my slides. Oh – and here’s one of my favourite quotes about the importance of positive futures – and standing in that future. Richard Seymour, one of the world’s foremost designers of seymourpowell says: “We make the future; it doesn’t just happen. If you stand in the future and, then, draw the present towards you in a series of stepping stones, then, you’re liberated to a view of what’s going to happen that nobody else has got.” and “Designers cannot be, by definition, pessimists. It just doesn’t go with the job. We’re supposed to be defining the future, aren’t we? [...] If we can’t see the world as a better Continue reading Visioning: Stand in that Future Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) has been operating an innovative leadership program for the past four years. Spearheaded by Anne Marie Madziak, The APLL Institute (pronounced “apple”, this stands for Advancing Public Library Leadership) is specifically designed for those who aren’t yet in senior management positions. Running over 24 months, participants only need to travel to on-site classroom setting twice – once at the beginning of the program and then at the close. During the intervening months they participate in 12 online courses and discussions. I’m delighted to be a part of this program as instructor of the Planning course. Anne Marie and I are in the midst of reviewing and redesigning this course. To inform our review Anne Marie contacted graduates of the first 2 programs. What she heard not only informs this leadership program, but has implications for other management and leadership learning events. Here’s Anne Marie’s comments: As coordinator of APLL, I’m keen to understand what the lasting benefits of the program are two years after graduation. Are there courses that continue to be of relevance? The 9 APLL leadership practices that frame the program are: Inspire and hold the vision Reach for exemplary service Make intelligent decisions Embrace strategic and purposeful change Create a learning environment Cultivate relationships Develop individuals Sustain a healthy workplace Navigate municipal and community connectedness Are these leadership practices still useful or long forgotten? Are there particular skills, knowledge or competencies attributed to the program? With a new cohort beginning the program Continue reading APLL Leadership Program This is a follow-up to “EPL: Extraordinary Public Libraries” describing how Edmonton and Halifax Public Libraries are integrating library services into communities. Thanks Ken Williment for alerting me to an article he & Pilar Martinez recently published in the Swedish BIS: bibliotek i samhalle. Ken, Community Development Manager @ Halifax Public Libraries and Pilar, Executive Director Public Services @ Edmonton, wrote Canadian Libraries: Innovating & Creating Inclusive Services. It details the development of their respective community-led services and Halifax’ asset mapping. At a time when many North American public libraries are touring Europe to learn from the innovative libraries there, it’s great to see a European profiling Canadian innovation. On the one hand, I’m still a bit amazed — ok, a lot amazed — that it has taken us this long to grasp the fact that “community-led” services should be the heart of libraries’ service portfolios. It’s one of those smack-my-forehead-this-is-so-obvious moments for us as a profession and for the library sector. On the other hand, I’m relieved and delighted that we are on the right track — and that Edmonton, Halifax, Vancouver, Regina & other public libraries are leading and willingly helping public libraries along that track to transition their services from librarian-led to community-led. Edmonton Public Library's Community-Led Toolkit – available for all Jeff Wisniewski of University of Pittsburg updated the crowd at NYPL’s “Engaging Communitities, Promoting Learning” conferenceon the current state of mobile, and encouraged them to consider the implications for libraries. I adore Jeff – he is intelligent, knowledgeable, articulate, incredibly funny, and a fantastic speaker. Plus – he’s just a great guy. Here’s his main points, which every library needs to consider (and I know if I didn’t get things right, he’ll correct me!): Jeff, Ruth Kneale (left) & Amy Buckland (right) at Internet Librarian 2011main points, which every library needs to consider (and I know if I didn't get things right, he'll correct me!):
mobile is moving beyond being a utility for connecting people to the library to being a place for integrating content into workflows and processes for people; this integration allows mobile to be a place in which people engage, innovate and build communities; apps no longer just allow libraries to contact people, but now to bring content alive for people new superphones are merging tablets & phones with 5″ screens (imagine the possibilities for libraries) Library Journal’s Patron Profiles are incredibly informative. Among other things, these Profiles tell us that: library users who prefer e-books are more “active library patrons” who visit the library more and read more books 23% of patrons couldn’t get e-books because of technical difficulty, and 44% couldn’t get e-book titles they wanted Apps Libraries Need to Pay Attention to & Leap Frog From: TeenBookFinder - produced by Young Adults ALA & to be Continue reading Mobile Apps: Implications for Libraries Actually, EPL.ca is Edmonton Public Library. I’ve referred to it as both “Extraordinary Public Library” and “Engaging Public Library” for its work in truly embedding itself into its communities to do what public libraries are meant to do: make a positive difference for the people in the community. While this is the mission of many public libraries, EPL takes deliberate steps to actually live its mission: “Our mission is simple. We share! We share with our city, our community, our customers and ourselves. We share stories, ideas and experiences. We share our space! We are Edmonton’s largest lender of all kinds of information and entertainment. Our greatest passion is creating connections that help, grow, inspire and change.” Last week at New York Public Library’s “Engaging Communities, Promoting Learning” conference developed by Information Today Inc., Pilar Martinez, Executive Director of Public Services for EPL spoke on a panel about EPL’s experiences and then delivered a powerful, packed workshop on the Roadmap for Reaching Out to & Working With Communities. EPL’s Community-Led Service Philosophy Toolkit (revised July 2011) is available on their website. Just by making this rich resource available EPL is demonstrating that they reach out to all communities, including the library community or, for that matter, the social service and public service communities; this Toolkit can and should be used by any organization focused on positive impacts within a neighbourhood or constituency. The excitement was palpable in the room that attendees could freely access this incredible tool after the workshop. Continue reading EPL.ca: Engaging Public Library Last August I wrote about a “WTH?” moment at a public library that doesn’t allow people to use library computers on Sundays. (I figure that “wth” isn’t as offensive as “wtf”, but you get my drift.) The saga continues. For those of you with family or friends battling mental illness, you know how often those individuals are without identification or a “permanent” address. ID is lost, stolen, left in a knapsack at a shelter – whatever. You also know that most social services are accessible only through the web. Many of these individuals don’t have phones and a payphone is hard to find these days, as is are the coins or phone cards to make them work. So, quite often we equip our family members with an old laptop for them to use at the public library to access social services, email, etc. Elated to have the laptop so that they are not “kicked off” the public library computer after their allotted time, the individual attempts to access the public library wifi. Alas — no identification of a permanent address? Well then, no wifi. WTH? Many public libraries have updated their policies regarding this, and to those libraries I say “congratulations and thank you for recognizing your role in making a positive difference in someone’s life.” To those public libraries that still require identification of permanent address to access your library’s wifi I say “wifi is a tool with which to access resources; it can’t be stolen or damaged.” How sad that Continue reading “WTH” Moments Continue: Policies vs. Mission I plan to keep this infographic by my desk — a good reminder when writing blog posts, reports and, most importantly, promotional materials. Now THIS is exciting. Yeah yeah, they are announcing a new iPad 3 today – which many people can’t afford. That’s exciting to some people, but what’s REALLY exciting is this: Online Newstand Project: an application that brings the incredible content in those databases for which public libraries pay hundreds (ok, thousands) of dollars to the surface for people to “see”. As we know, most people don’t understand what the heck a database is and as soon as we tell them there are “100′s of journals” in that “paid-for website a.k.a. ‘database”, their eyes glaze over. Thanks to “Steve Butzel, a website and database developer whose real job is serving as the assistant director at the Portsmouth Public Library in Portsmouth” for developing this tool to provide “easy, enjoyable access to popular and scholarly magazine articles by providing dynamically generated persistent links to feature length articles in each of the magazines included in the Newsstand. To read an article, all a patron has to do is click on the article they want, login at the next screen with their library barcode or student ID, and bam, they are connected directly to the article. Patrons don’t have to know what a database is or how to search one.” Eureka!! Have a look at this – and imagine the possibilities. No, better yet, enable people to “see” the possibilities!
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Dysart & Jones - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
