|
|||||
|
Thanks to iLibrarian for pointing out the “CenturyLinkQuote.com exciting infographic illustratingThe Rise and Fall of Online Empires such as AOL, AltaVista, MySpace, Facebook, etc. ranging from 1991 to the present.” Every empire — from the Roman to the Facebook — rises, plateaus, and declines. Have a look:
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:
 Jeffrey Phillips at CIL 2012 The 27th annual Computers in Libraries is focusing on Creating Innovative Libraries. Author Jeffrey Phillips talked about relentless innovation and the need to change from BAU (business as usual) to” innovation business as usual”. He illustrated how we have been focusing on quality, efficiency, core competencies and being lean for the last 30 years and although they are good things, they have not been balanced with innovation as they were in the 1970′s. To accomplish innovation business as usual with more emphasis on innovation in organizations he discussed the need for: communication & commitment (demonstrating with words and actions), compensation (if you want people to be innovative you have to reward them for doing so), and culture (creating attitudes, perspectives, and ways of working that sees innovation as important). In addition, new skill sets have to be learned (focusing on customer needs, trend watching, managing innovation). He left the audience with his Fab Four imperatives: create clear innovation goals (& strategies) — he used P&G as an example; begin to define & sustain a process with language, methodologies, culture (understand how it works); rebalance with tools & skills; rework culture, incentives, rewards. If you want more, check out his book, Relentless Innovation, and his blog.
Fantastic! Spring is here — according to today’s Google Doodle, and the cherry blossoms that are now blooming in full force in DC, and the 27the Computers in Libraries which began with lots of workshops today. Later today the opening networking event, Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo, provides an opportunity to reconnect, meet, and greet colleagues as well as to try your hand at some fun games (and understand what the young folk love!) and also try out each others’ gadgets. Always a fun activity. Tomorrow brings our morning keynote, Jeffrey Phillips, VP OVO Innovate on Purpose, and author of Relentless Innovation: What Works, What Doesn’t — And What That Means for Your Business. If you aren’t registered for the conference but are in the DC area, you can take advantage of the free sessions, Cybertours, which are happening in the Exhibit Hall on Wednesday through Friday. If you aren’t able to join us this year in person in DC, follow the Twitter feed (#CILDC), conference blog (www.Libconf.com) which links to other conference bloggers, and watch for some live streaming with links from the blog! See you in person or online. 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: and Replace “designers” with “Librarians”, and you, too, will want to stand in that future. Imagine and dream big about your library
View more presentations from Rebecca Jones
Southern Ontario Library Service (SOLS) has been operating an innovative leadership program for the past four 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:
For more information about the APLL Institute, see the Training page of the SOLS website: www.sols.org.
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.
 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!):
Apps Libraries Need to Pay Attention to & Leap Frog From:
**patrons are deciding what’s a collection, not libraries**
 ShelvAR: app for shelf-reading & inventory management 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: 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.
Community-led engagement is a strategy for many public libraries. Halifax Public Library shared their strides forward and lessons learned at CLA in 2011: Asset Mapping A Tool for Discovering the Library’s Role in the Community. Ken Williment, Community Development Manager, has written a thorough outline in It Takes A Community To Raise a Library and From Project to Branch Integration and Sustainability: Community-Led Work at Halifax Public Library.
These library strategies aren’t about taking library programs out to community groups. They are about building relationships within the community, developing deep understandings, working together to benefit the community and recognizing mutual value and respect. They aren’t about librarians going to tell community groups what the library can do for them; they are about librarians having lunch, weekly, with community groups to talk about food, issues, and “things” to get to know each other. Thanks to Ken Williment for initially raising my awareness of what community engagement strategies actually entail, and to Pilar for her in-depth explanation of EPL’s journey along this positive-impact path.
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 I have to send those with their used, old laptops to MacDonalds for free wifi (and an affordable cup of coffee) to access the web for social services and job hunting. MacDonalds, unlike the public library, doesn’t demand ID or a permanent address. Sometimes the library’s policies speak louder than the mission statement.
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Dysart & Jones - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
