Yezbick.com: If It's Weird, Flip It Over and Check, It Might Be a Yezbick

A really wonderful thing happened to me tonight. The cork in my wine bottle busted as it was retracting. BUT WAIT. THAT’S NOT ALL. I finally found myself applying knowledge gained from Lifehacker in REAL life – not just my techno life. I recalled a post about opening a bottle of wine with your shoe and immediately set to it. Being timid it took me about 10 knocks against the wooden door frame – but that little bitch of a cork popped – and I was extremely happy.

I also had two valid reference questions today that I totally rocked out. The one I’ll mention was from an education student at a local university who was looking for information on Resource Rooms in Special Education.

I have no idea what Resource Rooms in Special Education means – so I did a quick google search and fell onto the about.com web page that gave me a little bit of background. I knew pretty much off the bat that we weren’t going to have much in the public library on the topic, especially in our print materials. The student related that she had already been through WilsonSelect and ERIC without much success. She said she had found one article that she Interloaned from 2000, but it wasn’t enough, and that she wasn’t finding much at her University Library.

I did a quick keyword search for “resource room special education” in ERIC and came up with something from 2008. But she was right, this was gonna be a little bit narrow on the results. I’m not familiar enough with educational terms to do the whole synonym thing – so my next step was to head to Google Scholar with the author’s name as a search.

We found the original article and I pointed out how Google Scholar shows you who has cited the article – and how you can use that to kinda expand your search. (Forgive me, but I’ve forgotten the official citation search database I was using at WSU — somebody refresh my memory please.) Then – once she grabbed the journal names that the articles were in – she could likely use her University’s resources more wisely. Her professor had enlightened her to ERIC and WilsonSelect – but something was nagging at me that she had failed to mention the specific journals as opposed to the conglomerate databases.

The end result was that she walked out with what I’m going to take as a swing in her step – a little confidence – ready to do the business herself. It really saved MY day today – almost as much as my sole.

*edit* Oh. I almost forgot to mention Google Reader Play. There. I mentioned it.

Some days I feel like a superhero librarian. In fact, I’ve been wrestling with the idea of a series of posts that would focus on my technological superhero librarian utility belt – and hopefully getting into the groove of this post will get those juices flowing again and I’ll eventually get around to it.

But every superhero has their kryptonite, and the other day I ran into mine.

But every superhero overcomes their kryptonite – and this is how I overcame mine:

Sometimes it’s best to channel your angry into creativity.

I’d already posted this to twitter – but I thought I’d give the fam a taste of what I sometimes encounter in my daily life.

Sexy Senior programming at your library
- Outreach
- instead of grandparents bringing grandchildren to storytime – taking the storytime to the grandparents – or even just an assisted living facility
- younger parents take pleasure in this – their own parents live further away – and this is a way for them to introduce their children to older adults - Primetime Readers
- Two Part Program started for school age students – teens and tweens
- Reading
- Chapter books don’t work as well as single reads
- Old time radio scripts
- Activities
- Bingo
- Tie-ins to the Reading
- heroes
- collectibles
- New Technology
- Senior Mornings
- Senior specific computer classes
- Enjoy learning with their peers
- Mousercize / Mouserobics
- Gaming
- Wii
- Partnered with the Schools
- Wii bit of fun
- Bring an older friend
- Bowling Tournament
- Encouraged to dress as a team
- 150 people attended
- Families brought cookies
- 5th grader set up miis prior
- variety
- entire families attended
- asked about practicing
- everybody got a trophy – called the local bowling alley and asked for “bad pins” – received 100 pins
- Vblogging
- Bethelparkcheckitout.blogspot.com
- cable access
- google video / youtube
- presidential campaign – liberty and literacy for all slogan
- easy to do if you don’t mind public humiliation
- therapy dog and handler

- Laughter Club – 3 per month – 2.5 years
- idea came from senior
- folder with “laughter club” written on it
- Senior Residence
- What is a laughter club
- Improve health
- reduce stress
- feel more positive and optimistic
- what happens
- breathing
- stretching
- laughter exercising
- good-hearted living
- Unique features
- no jokes in laughter club
- sounds of laughter and motion create exercise
- simulated laughter stimulates laughter
- laughter exercises done in group setting
- led by a certified laugher leader
All you need is a willingness to laugh
- how do you become a laughter leader
- www.worldlaughtertour.com
- What does it cost?
- $400 for training workshop
- texts separately
- $75 annual registration
- $45 annual certification renewal
- can be run for free or a fee
- Why Laughter is Good for you
- reduces stress

Libraries Passion Prosper Purpose
- Hired research firm KRC
- Key Message Tagline
- Library card is the brand – Smartest Card – knowledge smarts

- Talking points
- partners for vibrant educated communities
- partners was chosen for a reason – toned down
- essential for a free people

Mayor R.T. Rybak couldn’t make it
Mike speaking for him
Urban Libraries Council
Making cities stronger
- Publication “How to start a business in Minneapolis”
- business plans
- working through the county
- 20 page document
- Strategic Plan Language of Closing the Gap
- Mayor’s speech to the city
- “Economic Opportunity in a City that Works”
- www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/mayor/speeches/speech_sotc2008.asp
- mayor outlined economic development of the city

- Build an investment strategy in youth
- Three part program to the Minneapolis Promise
- working closely with the libraries
- 1. Step up – at the university – interns – University of Minnesota
- effective feeder system for young persons of color
- 2. College and Career centers at every Minneapolis High School
- online
- 3. Free College
- 720 High School students went to school for free
- Founders free tuition program

Amy Ryan Director Hennepin County Library

- Strengthen Partnerships
- Foster non-traditional Partnerships

- Hennepin merged with City of Minneapolis
- Better governance
- streamline services

- Lifelong learning
- the people’s university
- the old model needs to be updated

- 21st century library with an interactive learning environment
- People are now looking for librarian’s to help them navigate the 6 billion hits on google
- Moving away from 1 to 1 reference and towards 1 to many
- in the community – online -

- Importance of early literacy
- Importance of online resources
- HCL’s award winning website
- Partnerships
- Head Start
- connect with 1500 families every year
- Read to me
- incarcerated parent records story – book sent to home
- upon release set up with early literacy materials
- Two Literacy Mobiles
- go to where your users are
- cultural fairs, school events
- Serving New Americans
- HCL’s website World Links
- specific resources that welcome new americans to the county
- Welcome Stranger
- Urban Libraries Council

- Business information
- grassroots
- Micro entrepreneur and Business Planning Building

- Library as Place
- for families
- free
- generator of economic development
- Henn. Co. Board of Commissioners approved expansion of library hours
- paid for with the overage of tax revenue from Ballpark
- Sunday hours – family time

- Marketing materials from HCL displayed
- New Central opened 2yrs ago
- teen section
- new american section

- Space Allocation 30/30/40
- 30% children, 30% teen, 40% adult

Carlos Manjarrez, Senior Research Associate – Urban Institute
- Return on Investment and Monetizing what Libraries Do
- Shared a story about his visit to the mall of america
- fulfilling certain needs in many different ways
- at end of search, transaction, walk away with what we needed
- obvious analogies to libraries
- Information Literacy
- Job seekers
- Libraries in business of building human and social capital
- Economic environment
- communities amenities
- workforce
- opportunities
- Conversations
- not framed in the typical manner
- difficult to monetize – and in some cases you don’t want to
- meeting specific needs
- really important needs in economic and private sphere
- example – memphis library move – physical placement of the library
- front door wasn’t facing well healed community or lower income community
- right in btwn the two – symbolic

Mike – Far more likely that someone (70%) will be trained for employment and retained than a business startup succeed — (29%) nature of the beast.
Amy, Director – Guys Read – very important that we quantify the impact of what we’re doing

Running the One Woman / Man Show

http://www.peabody.org/pla/resources.html

julie.edwards@umontana.edu

Overview
Why you should program
Tales from Peabody
- 55k people
Striking a Balance
Making peace with grant writing
Finding and creating programs

Program really for 3 groups of people

Programming librarians
- balance
- renew your energy
easy to get burned out

Aspiring program writers
- tools

Directors / Asst Directors / Board
- institutional ethic from the top down
- must become routine
- creative / play
- be supportive – hire librarians that want to program

Why you should program -

- “it’s the job and responsibility of the public library to be a part of the community” – the main ethic
- programming let’s you be visible and connect in your communities
- good for publicity – newspapers, cable, fliers in churches
- think carefully about branding – have a tag
- stay relevant
- circ stats are going down
- you need statistics for relevance
- change focus from circ stats to door count
- people want and expect entertainment
- why not give them what they want
- keep patrons happy
- entice new patrons who may become regulars
- programming begets programming
- people expect it to continue
- increase membership in friends and donations
- attracts people who WANT it to continue
- programming increases materials circulation
- set up a display
- programming creates library advocates
- gets people in the building and excited

Two reasons why programming works at Peabody
- aggressively program
- 1 or more programs a week
- book group
- YA dropin
- every day a craft / game
- the hook is the food
- really really encourage you to try it
- mission of library really tied into programming
- Support of the Director, Asst Director, Trustees
- Emotional
- even if their idea doesn’t sound that great — be supportive
- don’t say no, tweak it
- Show up at the program – once or twice – just by being there you will be giving your librarians moral support
- Encourage your library board members to do this as well
- they see what’s going on
- get a sense of your staff
- they can circulate the room
- Financial

Tales from Peabody

- Teen programs are big – 200 to 300 programs a year
- partner up Adult and Teen programming
- example – a fencing program / scrapbooking
- play around and see what you can combine – you may be surprised

- Primetime Peabody
- Active older adults
- $5,000 LSTA grant – 25 programs
- 539 attendees
- 433 unique sign-ups
- let them run themselves after a while
- writing workshop spun off into it’s on weekly group
- get the ball rolling, set up the room space
- Alternative Teen Fashion Show
- learn how to sew
- competition ups the ante
- really successful
- Annual Fall Concert series
- music very easy to do
- series of 5 concerts from August to December
- called the high school
- local college
- music students like to do this
- resume builder
- less than $150 per concert
- 35 to 60 people a concert
- gentleman wanted to sponsor
- now can pay musicians
- gratifying

Tips for success

- Change the philosophy
- make it a priority
- think of it as part of your job
- other duties as assigned
- Don’t be afraid to fail
- learn from the mistakes

Tips on making it a priority
- Balance your time
- the key is pushing something off the plate
- knowing your library’s cycle
- know when your library is really busy
- know when it is quieter
- summers – christmas
- know when things can wait
- you can always shelf read
- nobody is going to die if you don’t order books
- you can get to it – it’s ok – leave it for a week
- freedom to be creative
- multitasking in a library is a necessity
- don’t discourage work at the reference desk
- let your librarians run a book group during library time
- program when you’re actually working
- make friends / delegate

Grant Writing

- If you are going to do programming you have to write grants
- can take days / weeks
- Variety of grants
- ALA grants are a good way of getting your feet wet
- cast a wide net
- look locally, nationally, businesses
- budget the time
- learn about the process
- create some boilerplate information
- history of programming
- library mission
- have a hook
- catchy title / theme – work through grants
- collaborate with other librarians / businesses / community
- granting agencies like to see community process / program
- friends of the library

Finding and Creating Programs
- Use local talent
- be prepared for overanxious programmers
- keep you on file
- doesn’t fit in with programming cycle this year
- Surf the net
- Don’t do all the work yourself
- Volunteer instructors
- Wind up and Go Programs
- Creative writing workshop example
- Book Groups
- Use local networks
- local libraries
- librarians love to share information
- Know your community – Know what they want
- Advertise Advertise Advertise
- make a friend at the local paper
- Plan ahead
- room size
- food (refreshments will be served)
- Be Flexible
- sometimes stuff is not going to work
- you can’t judge one on another
- presenter may be late
- know how to improvise
- If you are programming – you become a public face
- put your best face forward even if you are over it
- Make it part of your day to day job, an institutional ethic
- plan 5 months out

We can be passive and wait for the community to come to us or we can be proactive and offer a series of programs that invite the communities in.

Q&A
Difficult to program with grants – bc if you don’t get the grant – you can’t run the program.
How do you learn your community?
calling local businesses
donate materials

Rx for RA

Rx for Small Libraries
Carmel Clay Public Library

3 desks – Reference / Technology / Reader’s Advisory
Not just RA – busy part of the library
Commitment is made to RA

Initial Training
- from manager
- 2 weeks
- bookmarks / displays
- pics of librarians with books with lists
- how to talk to readers

Genre study
- flexibility
- romance (chocolates)
- westerns (cowboy hats)

Reader’s Advisory for the Public Library – Joyce G. Saricks

Appeal Annotations

Library Journal Article 2007

Genre study
- core list of authors
- Homework
- CCPL Sample Annotation
- helps to think about the book

Joyce Saricks column – write a reader profile

Cross training
- useful books and websites – how to use
- return to the starting point – reread Saricks

Medium Sized Library

Web 2.0
Maney
Tucson Pima Library

Libraries are notorious for being behind the curve.
- meeting yesterday’s needs today
- we love databases but we hide them from our users

Web 2.0 Levels the playing field
- magic wand idea

Web 2.0 is
- social
- collaborative
- creative
- personal

Web 2.0 is about customization – individuality
It’s your library – we should make it your library with tools
- think about goals which drive services to your community

Aren’t they just going to ignore me? Maybe
What do I do? Experiment
- These technologies can’t be understood in the abstract
Designing for uncertainty – motto of the virtual library

Flickr slideshow wrapped in a website
LibraryThing – what engages your user
Teens made videos on YouTube – and the users are engaging

Online Summer Reading
- eVanced – 300 book reviews from teens – worked
- Teen Book & Poetry forum didn’t work
- threaded
- Don’t be thwarted by failure

2.0
- my life
- your life
- our life
- there is no failure

We use people
- you can’t do it all
- have a team
- focus

Don’t forget your staff

Wiki people
- Wetpaint private login
- 23 things program – over 200 libraries have done this
- using a wiki for the FAQ
- it’s not going away – you can’t ignore it

What have we learned?
- 2.0 website is moving towards conversation
- new way of interacting and connecting with your library

It’s all about you.

Michael Stephens

Where are we now
OCLC – library website use is down 20%

hometown library recently blocked access to facebook and myspace

Is a link to your library’s website in wikipedia

The Wii is hot

Business week found young adults are creators of content

How should the library evolve?
- Ask Here instead of Reference
- Nashville Public LIbrary teen page
- roving reference
- flickr

The Library is transparent
- we are told how the library is spending its money
- speak in a human voice “human conversations sound human” – Cluetrain Manifesto
- say yes
- Hennepin County Library has commenting inside their catalog
- throw out the culture of perfect “let’s look at this one more time before we send this upstairs”
- let the library play

The library is human

Please bring your heart with you to work

Control Fades

Meet the Mission
Convey the Vision
- if it fits in the mission – do it

3 things
- Learn to learn
- Adapt to Change
- Scan the Horizon

Blyberg
Keen on 2.0

Fundamental ideological splits
Andrew Keen – cult of the amateur

Getting a handle on what it means to us

Reasons why we shouldn’t be involved with Web 2.0
- The Great Seduction – Eleven Fashionable Thoughts about Digital Utopianism

- Blyberg: Web 2.0 is the practical application of a network coupled with….

“Writing has never been a democratic process.”

“Ambiguity and paradox are all part of the picture, and that’s ok.” We need to learn to accept it and move on.

Andrew Keen’s manifesto is a wonderful example of what can happen to us if we submit to fear.

Q&A
How do we balance the privacy vs access issues?
- Stephens - King said – if there is filtering in libraries – and somebody says let me in – they have to let you in
- Illinois had a state initiative to block social networking sites

- Blyberg - our notions of privacy are antiquated
- if you are online – at some point you need to submit information about yourself
- talk to our patrons candidly
- these are the risks – we would like to show you how to avoid them

- Stephens - We have a great opportunity to be guides
- especially with teens
- jenny levine – strategy guide

The Guys Read Preconference – divvied into a keynote and 5 panels.

My interest in Guys Read stems mainly from being a guybrarian. Our library has already initiated the program, but I was looking to gain a deeper understanding of the goals and issues that make-up the movement. As a member of the Adult Reference staff, I was a bit concerned about the relevance of my presence – especially considering our already sailing efforts. But I do serve the young adult population and I am the only guybrarian between the two branches – so I am reconciling my guilt and recognizing the generosity of my library in allowing me to attend. I’m leaving the preconference with fresh knowledge looking to be turned to wisdom. I will share what information I can here –

These are admittedly – very – very shorthand notes and observations. The preconference packet contained numerous handouts – which probably dissuaded me from taking stellar notes. Basically I’m just gonna capture the salient points from the day — those that stuck with me – because I’m a selfish prig. Perhaps not the best use of the word prig – but its use is what mattered to me in this moment. I’ll make separate posts for the different panels at some point later today – but for now just an incredibly brief mention of the keynote:

Jon Scieszka, children’s author and founder of Guys Read opened with some lighthearted but pointed commentary detailing the need for the program, spotted with points that would be reiterated throughout the day. Goals were identified – how to pitch it to your library, and how to get the funding. One benefit of libraries getting involved with the Guys Read program is that we aren’t tied down by curriculum or parenting – we are free to be the other – allowing the guys to read whatever they like, be it novels, graphic novels, magazines, and video game narratives. It’s the reading that’s important.

Brevity.

Me, my orange shirt, desk, and Sanford Berman.

Today is Friday. Many businesses have something they call "casual Fridays." The library is always pretty casual — but I like to have fun with ties and dress up and stuff. I like the feeling of both knowing and dressing as a professional…even if I don’t have to — and even if I’m still regarded as a "para" professional.

So, Ariel knows this about me — and over the holidays — so long ago now — she sent me a box of ties…[Thanks again Ariel!] There were three in particular that I REALLY liked — and this one I was sort of at a loss as to what to wear with it…

So [pt. 2] — On a day that saw me at the dentist and the eye doctor — during my "Spring Break 2006" and day off of work celebrations — I decided that since I was already in the mall to get the lenses — I might as well scout around for an orange shirt. Lo and behold — I found one…and the tie could be worn comfortably…

I gotta tell ya — the response was AMAZING. People loved talking about it — they shielded their eyes — they laughed – they smiled…EVERYONE. People felt more at ease approaching the reference desk to ask questions — and I must’ve had at least 20 compliments / comments on the shirt throughout the day. Everyone was just NICE — and it rocked. It made my day.

The "Joy of Cataloging" is a collection of works by Mr. Sanford Berman — whom I’ve turned into a librarian idol much like how I turned Jaques Derrida into an idol — or Alan Trammell — or John Lennon…

It’s a good read…You should click that link above and find out whether a library near you has it — or perhaps something else from this list.

Just sayin’ is all…

Most of this has already been covered here (first post, reverse chronological), here, and here.

Offical Symposium Weblog – the webcast should be available soon…I’ll post here when it is…

With the copious amounts of documentation available there, why should I even bother? Cause I’m pretty sure I have to write up a review of it anyways for the job – and this’ll probably bring my brain back around to it. These are notes I scratched down — and are not nearly as detailed as the above. A little personal flair, if you will.

To start with — a summary: Disruptive Technology > Change > Copyright. Those are probably the three biggest themes…with Collaboration just behind…and Library as Space…

There was also ample discussion concerning Wikipedia. It seemed nearly all speakers made a reference to it at some point.

I attended in person on Friday – but watched the webcast in my pj’s on Saturday — and the notes very much reflect that…

Read the rest of this entry »