Rebooting Libraries Back to Issue #1

Posted on by pcsweeney

I was just thinking about DC comics idea to reboot all of their comics back to Issue number one. As part of the news they are also reissuing all of the #52 comics in the reboot in digital format starting with Justice League. Now, I was a HUGE comic book fan when I was kid, and my super hero of choice was Firestorm (also by DC comics), so this whole idea got me thinking about this concept for libraries.

What you have to remember is that, while they are starting the comics at number 1, they are not republishing the first comics. They are retelling the stories in different ways. There will be new storylines, new ideas, and bigger and better concepts. Or, as DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio told USA Today;

“We really want to inject new life in our characters and line. This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.”

So basically, they are not doing away with the core of their product. They are not changing Superman’s powers, or the speed of The Flash, they are just re-examining the story that they are telling.

What if we could reboot libraries back to issue #1? What would we change about our story now? If we could rewrite our library’s stories for today’s audience and inject new life into our characters what would we say?

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Guitars at the Library? Its Gonna Be Freaking RAD!!

Posted on by pcsweeney

I thought I’d share an update on the whole Guitar Lending Library at my library. It’s been a long journey but I think we are almost there. A whole lot of awesome has happened since we started this back in October. If you want to read about the genesis of the project you can check out the link to it here.

The first thing that changed is that we decided to not get our guitars from Guitar Center. I’d like to say that I love Guitar Center, but they didn’t really give me that level of service I was looking for when I went and told them I wanted to buy 15 guitars. I mean, I’m buying 15 guitars! At least sound like you want me to buy them from you.

So… I went and bought them from a great local guitar shop called Gelb Music. They totally bent over backwards to help me out. They sold me great guitars at a great price and I couldn’t ask for better service. I purchased Hohner Classical guitars, with a gigbag, tuners, extra strings, wall hangers, and I’m going go back and buy some capos too. I’ll let you in on a little secret too… They gave me a better price than guitar center!

I took the guitars up to the central library office and our great cataloger Ida hooked me up with the item record, and loan rules and all that. The guitars check-out for 8 weeks, they have a five dollar a day fine up to $50.00, and can be renewed, but can’t be put on hold. There are various reasons for all this, and if you’re interested in the finer details, I’ll lay that all out in a later post. (If anyone cares)

In preparation of the guitars arrival, we had county maintenance install the hangers. When the guitars finally came in after all the processing (RFID, Barcodes, etc…) we hung them up to be ready for our first round of guitar group lessons.

Our group lessons are being taught through a great partnership with a member of a local band called Vintage Music Collective named Justin Phipps. This partnership came about after their band played at the library and we found out that Justin taught lessons in the local schools. Justin was also the one who recommended the Hohner guitars and Gelb Music since that’s who he gets his guitars through.

Overall, I’m pretty stoked about this project so far. We don’t start checking them out until June 15th and I’m leaving a lot of details out of this post. In a future post, I’m going show you our loan agreements, staff guitar training guides, and various other details of the project.

-This project was made possible through the Eureka! program and an LSTA grant

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Jane Yolen Wrote to LAUSD: reposted here

Posted on by pcsweeney

I received this in my ALA council email. I’m passing it on so people can see what is going on. FYI- this was posted from my phone and I have a lot to say but I don’t want to write it from here.

“I wrote this yesterday, posted it on my FaceBook page with permission to send it verywhere:

Letter to the administrator in charge of firing LA school librarians who had the Board of Ed’s lawyers take the librarians into the school basement and asked them to prove they were teachers with such questions as “Do you take attendance?”.

Dear Mr. Deasy:

As the author of 300 published books (yes, that is not a typo!), many of them winners of the highest awards given for children’s and adult books, I have to commend you for closing libraries. You are turning out the lights in children’s minds. It will make them much easier to recruit as cannon fodder, much easier to move them on conveyor belts, much easier to treat them as cattle.

Of all the people who work in a school, teachers and librarians are the heart and soul of the place. Not administrators. My late husband
was a professor and later on an administrator. You should have heard what he had to say about top-heavy administrations. I suggest you
take the administrators (yourself included) and ask them the same questions the lawyers are asking the librarians in the basement: do YOU take attendance? Do YOU teach in the classroom? Perhaps you should fire the administrators first. And the overpriced lawyers. And when you do, you will no doubt find you have the money to keep the librarians.

And the library.

The ones who turn on lights in children’s minds and guard the flame in their hearts. With or without taking attendance.

Yours very truly and to tell the truth angrily as well,

Jane Yolen

Today I got this letter in return. Blame the system, the budget, the unions. Not my fault. Etc. But who, I wonder, twisted his arm to send the lawyers down into
the basement to interrogate the librarians.

THIS just arrived in my email: Thank you for your email and sharing your thoughts. As you are most likely aware our school district, state, and nation are currently facing a serious budget shortfall. While librarians and library aides are extremely important, there is not an area in the school district that has not been cut. If all Unions agree with the Furlough Agreement, we may be able to rescind notifications.

Thank you,

Patricia Carranza on behalf of
Dr. John E. Deasy, Superintendent
Los Angeles Unified School District
213) 241-7000

Anything more I can do for ALA, just ask.

As ever,

Jane Yolen”

So just so folks know, there’s people
on out side.

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Seth Called Us Out On Our Bullshit And Folks Got Mad

Posted on by pcsweeney

Ok, yeah, I was going to just ignore this whole thing, but then a couple of other blog posts from librarians kinda got to me (Librarians I love and respect BTW). So, I’m going to throw my two cents at this whole debate since just about every other person in the library world has. And, I’m going to say this – Seth is Exactly Right!

The thing is that librarians are debating about how Seth perceives the library. Some librarians are making this statement;

“the article reinforces Godin’s belief in the stereotype of librarian as clerk, declaring that films are “a mere sideline that most librarians resented anyway”, exhorting us to stop “defending library as warehouse”, and arguing that”what we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper” – absolutely right Mr. Godin, but then this ceased to define a librarian many, many moons ago.”

Or this one;

“Godin then addresses access to information:

‘Wikipedia and the huge databanks of information have basically eliminated the library as the best resource for anyone doing amateur research (grade school, middle school, even undergrad). Is there any doubt that online resources will get better and cheaper as the years go by? Kids don’t schlep to the library to use an out of date encyclopedia to do a report on FDR.’

He’s right, they don’t schlep to the library to use an out-of-date encyclopedia. They schlep to the library to use a current, up-to-date online one, and databases to write that report on FDR. Online encyclopedias and databases that the library pays for.”

The problem is that the real root of this article, and the aspects these good folks are arguing against, are problems of perception. Of course, we all know that the library isn’t just a “warehouse of books” and we know some folks use our databases, and we all know that kids shouldn’t use Wikipedia. But unfortunately Seth’s statements are exactly what a HUGE percentage of the population believes. This is our fault. This is the brand that generations of librarians have been reinforcing for years. In fact, some of my favorite library marketing has been about the book brand of libraries. Seth is merely calling us out for not doing our jobs to ensure that we are adequately re-branding libraries.

In this sense I think Godin hit it just right. Seth is pointing out what a library is in the minds of the average public non-user. Maybe that’s what’s ruffling some feathers? Remember that this guy isn’t a librarian at all. He is library user and an advocate for libraries. He is exactly the kind of person who should be telling us what a library is. He is Joe Public and he has very Joe Public perceptions of the library.

What we need to do is listen to him, listen to what he says a library is, then talk to the public and see what they perceive the library to be. I bet you’ll get a lot of the same answers. I know that I get these answers when I talk to non-library users. When I talk to people who haven’t been to a library for a couple of years, I usually get the response “it’s a shame people don’t need libraries anymore, all the ebooks and Wikipedia have taken its place. I used to love the library when I was kid.”

So, to all the librarians who are arguing with Seth (who probably won’t read your blog anyway), I’m going to tell you to do something more productive and market your libraries better. Spend some kind of money on library marketing. I mean real marketing that sends the message about what libraries are in the 21st century. Because a lot of us are what Seth says a library should be. We’re already doing a lot of the things he says we should be doing. We just haven’t told anyone yet, and that’s our fault. Thanks for pointing that out Seth, kuddos to you good sir.

If you want to win some money by doing this marketing and telling folks what a modern library is…

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ALA Advocacy Flash Mob and Freeze #ala11 #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

Budget cuts, library closures, layoffs, what’s the good news? Well, in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina the American Library association was the first group to hold a conference in New Orleans. To this day, my friends and family who live there have made comments about how amazing librarians are for bringing some semblance of normality back to NOLA for just a brief weekend. As an organization we have made some great impact on the community of New Orleans. So, while most of the cleanup is done from Katrina, and much of cleanup is underway from the BP spill we can show our continued support for the residents of NOLA and hopefully they will see the need to support libraries and librarians like you.

This is the ALA Advocacy Freeze. Where we get out of the echo chamber of the conference and show that Libraries and Communities can and should continue to support each other. The plan is to have a large convergence of librarians at Jackson Square at 5:45 on Sunday. All participants should wear some kind of library related t-shirt, pose in some position, or bring something that identifies them as a librarian. All participants will converge on the park grounds at 5:45 for the mob and freeze from 5:50-5:53 to show our large presence at ALA and show that we care about the community of NOLA and that communities should care about Libraries. Afterwards we’re encouraging everyone to get out into the restaurants and bars and make a ruckus in NOLA! #partyhard

Andy Woodworth’s suggestion for creating your own t-shirts with facts about libraries is epic. You can buy a fabric pen and a T-shirt at any hobby store or even a Walmart or Target for next to nothing. Just write a great fact about libraries and their support for communities across the United States.

If you’re not a DIY kinda person, there are also many great shirts available online through stores like http://www.cafepress.com/Libraryadvocacy. Purchases from this store go to fund other library advocacy projects. If you know of other great online stores or good clothing/designs please post them below!!

If you’re not familiar with a Freeze mob you can see many examples on youtube but here is another good one.

This is an off the books kinda ALA event. ALA is not involved in the planning of this at all. This is a #MIH happen event brought to you by the ALA Think Tank.

Jackson Square info

Facebook Event page to sign up!

Don’t forget to tell you friends to come out too!

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A Video Tour of the EPA Seed Library.

Posted on by pcsweeney

This is an updated video of the EPA Seed library. In this version, Nicole Wires gives a tour of the library and explains how to use it. This video also includes interviews with the builder of the library case, a seed library patron, and Kris Jenson the executive director of Collective Roots. Collective Roots is the local gardening organization that the EPA library collaborated with to create this library.

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Deserts, Libraries, Boats… My life

Posted on by pcsweeney

I might not have become a librarian if it weren’t for my local library. I would also not have become a sailor. I grew up in Tucson Arizona in the middle of the desert. I would spend my afternoons walking to the library after school because the librarians were family friends and the library was halfway between my house and the school. I can’t imagine what they thought of this 8 year old kid who read just about every book about sailing while not living within 250 miles of a significant body of water capable of sailing on. I would dream of living on and around boats surrounded by the potential of vast oceans.

But that is the beauty of the library right? In a world without libraries I wouldn’t be a sailor, I obviously wouldn’t be a librarian. Now I live on the ocean on a sailboat. I couldn’t get any closer the where the library of my youth took me.

I think about this a lot while working at my library and watching the young kids that come in. I keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, one of these kids living next to the ocean is reading books about the desert, wishing that they could live in Tucson surrounded by cactus and the quiet vastness of the desert.

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Dear Anatomy of a Librarian – You forgot kicking ass and being awesome.

Posted on by pcsweeney

I always find these kinds of graphics interesting. Usually though, its because I’m interested in their design instead of the information. In this case, I think that this graphic brings to mind more questions than it answers but it’s still pretty.

Anatomy Of a Librarian
Anatomy Of a Librarian

1) The average librarian makes 60+ a year? I’m now wondering how they came up with that average. Obviously, they are taking full careers into consideration and not just the entry level positions. In which case, I wonder how many years an average librarian has to work to reach the average pay? And that makes me wonder, what is the average career span of a librarian? By this, do they mean only those working as a librarian or are they considering library manager, directors, and other higher management as well?

2) The highest largest amount of librarians are between 24 and 54? Are you freaking kidding me? So the average librarian is aged somewhere in the average age range for a person who has professional level career before retirement? I would be far more interested if this was broken down into at least 5 year increments since you need an MLIS to be a librarian and so few people get post graduate degrees before 24 anyway. People also begin to retire after 54 so this 30 year age range makes this data completely uninteresting. Basically they are saying that people in the average working age range have jobs.

3) The left and right brain stuff is kinda interesting, but what is more interesting is what the crap is written in all those little subsections of this girl’s cranium? I mean, there could be anything in there! I think, at least its my guess, that this is where the how to clean the toilet, dealing with unruly patrons watching porn, and changing lightbulbs is listed in the graphic because I don’t see that anywhere else. The big stuff on the outside is everything I thought librarianship was going to be, and the I’m guessing the stuff on the inside is all the other stuff nobody tells you about.

4) The where they work part is actually interesting, I liked this part.

5) Brief history? No kidding… Franklin to Dewey? What about Carnegie!? This crap is only 150 years long and at its most recent it’s 130 years out of date!! Libraries have been around since 350 BC and this is the crap they decided to show? WTF?

6/7) Gender and recreational activities are also fairly uninteresting because it’s exactly what you would expect. But I want to add a section. I think that overall, librarians most significant recreational activity is kicking ass and being awesome! So where is that catagory?

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Reference is Dead, Long Live the Enabler

Posted on by pcsweeney

At the time of writing this blog post, I’ve read two articles on the death of reference. The first was called “Is Reference Service Dead?” by Mathew Ciszek and the second was by Michael Stephens and it was called “Stuck in the Past.” Even I wrote a reference is dead blog post once many years and two other blogs ago. So, if reference is so dead, and it’s been written about as long as I can remember, why are we still talking about it? I think there are four choices.

1) It’s not dead
2) We haven’t come up with something better
3) Folks refuse to let it die
4) Students in Library School who think it’s something new to write about

Here is where I tell you which one of the four that I think is true. The truth is, I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that it’s a little of all four but my thought is that mostly its number two. I think there is something better than reference services and it ties into a future post that I’m working on. But, here is the reference version of that future blog post.

Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor Library District argues that armed with Google and an internet connection, the need for reference librarians has diminished. “Travel agents were outmoded because people felt they had better access to the information than they could get from the travel agents”, he said, and just as travel agents have become a thing of the past, so will the anachronistic reference librarian. With everything on Google, who needs them? (from Ciszek’s blog)

My thought is, he’s right! Who does need them? Lonely seniors and folks who can’t or don’t know how to access Google might need them but for the general public, the crap they dreg off the bottom of the information sewer on Google is good enough for them. Even though it might be wrong, or poorly written (like this blog), or out-of-date, or an ad for a guaranteed weight loss solution, they are satisfied with what they now “know.” Really, and I hate to break this to folks, but it’s all about perception. If the perceive that they have what they need, then that’s all it takes.

I’ll add in as a side note, that I do wholeheartedly disagree about the whole IT hiring frenzy thing though

But don’t worry; I’m not about complaining I’m about answers and solutions. So, here is my solution –

Reference is dead, long live the enabler.

Before I get more into my thoughts here, I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is for librarians to watch this video. So please, I’m begging you to watch it. I blogged about it once before, but here it is again.


So if we don’t have reference as a core service, then what do we have? We have the ability to enable people to live more fulfilled lives. We can do this by providing answers (some forms of reference), materials for better lives (more extensive collections like guitars, tools, seeds, gaming, augmented reality), a third place (a quiet work or relaxation place away from kids and husbands and wives), and a place to learn with the resources they need to learn (isn’t this really what we are about at the end of the day?). Hey Michael, notice I didn’t mention books?

What I’m saying here in a round and about way, is that we need to continue what libraries have always been, and that is to be enablers to those who want to learn and provide the resources that enable our communities to learn. It’s not reference, its enabling our patrons to live more fulfilling lives. After all… By answering reference questions wasn’t that the real goal anyway?

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Partnerships = Library Awesome!

Posted on by pcsweeney

I’ve been thinking about some of our libraries most successful programs and services that we offer. I realized that almost all of the most successful ones have come from partnerships that have been cultivated by the staff. These partnerships have led to larger program numbers, a wider array of programs, and increased services and collections. Even more importantly, we are being offered money and resources to provide some things that we wouldn’t have been able to provide before. The following list are some of the partnerships we have at EPA Library.

Literacy Fair
East Palo Alto is holding its first ever Literacy Fair called Reading Rainbow in the Park. This came about through a partnership with the Stanford Alumni Association. We were contacted by a liaison from this group who had the idea for a fair and came to us for help. We are providing many of the books and giveaways as well as some of the entertainment and they are providing the organizing of the event itself.

Health and Wellness Programs
We have a local community health organization that provides a lot of the medical services in the area and we offer them a space for community outreach and education about health issues. They especially do many programs for our seniors. My librarians work with this organization to bring those presentations to our library.

Guitar Lending Library
This partnership isn’t complete yet, but it bears mentioning. I received a grant to circulate guitars at the library and one of my librarians brought in a band called the Vintage Music Collective to perform. One of the members of this group teaches music lessons in EPA through their non-profit called Live in Peace and we will be providing the guitars while he provides the lessons.

Catered Events
One of my librarians works closely with an organization called Jobtrain that provides vocational training in the Culinary Arts. The community members who are involved in this program need somewhere to showcase their culinary skills and talents and we have events where food is always welcome. So, these students “get to” provide food and food services to some of our larger events.

Seed Library
This is one of the few ones that I was the one who approached a local organization for. Our Library offers a seed library to the public that was modeled after the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library. When I heard about the library in Richmond I looked around in our community and found the local gardening non-profit called Collective Roots that runs the Farmer’s Market. When I told them about the seed library they jumped at the chance and we now offer seeds for “check-out” from our library. We also have plans to expand to tools for gardening and they provide gardening programs from our library.

Poet Library
An organization called School After School for Successful Youth (SASSY) is an offshoot of the jobtrain organization. The students in this program create a large amount of art, literature, and poetry and they need a space to display their work within the community. We are simply giving them a wall to display the work of the community members. Eventually, (they don’t know this yet) I want to expand this partnership to bound and cataloged materials for circulation. Sort of, a local authors collection, but published and provided only by the library. I did something similar when I was an elementary school librarian and I think it would work well with this kind of partnership.

East Palo Alto History Project
We are working with Stanford students to create a history of EPA mural across the back wall of the library. This mural will show the history of East Palo Alto through the eyes of the library as it has moved and changed over the last 75 years. The movement and changes that occurred in the library parallel a lot of what has happened here and is very reflective of the changes in the community.

We have many more, but those are the ones that I am most excited about. Basically, I’ve figured out my job in this community is to find ways to say yes to as many things as I can then figure out how to make it work. While I might say “not yet,” I almost never say no to a community member unless the service they want to provide lies outside the scope of librarianship or community building.

What I want to know is-
1) What partnerships are you building in your community?
2) What would you say no to?
3) What are some of your dream partnerships?


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