Your Website: A Redesign in Action

Following this month’s library managers meeting you may have some questions about the redesign of your library’s website. You might be wondering:

• What are they doing?
• Why are they doing it?
• When will things be changing?

Over the last two months, myself, Beth Norris, and Marketing Intern Elisa Wonnacott have been planning the design of the new website. To create a cleaner, more user-friendly design we have analyzed other library websites and incorporated best practices in current website design. We have used plain language and ruthlessly edited library jargon while writing the website’s copy. We have spent countless hours thinking about how your patrons think.

The driving force behind this effort is our desire to have the future site seamlessly mesh with BiblioCommons’ layout. For more information on BiblioCommons, check out April’s Enews. Also, watch out in May’s Enews for my article on the research we conducted on our website.

At this time, we are only beginning to build the website. The actual website role-out will not occur until later this year. Throughout this process, I will attempt to keep you informed of our progress through this blog, the Enews, and at library manager meetings. However, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me @ bnorris@chinookarch.ca or (403) 380-1516.

Donations - curse or blessing?

Every library gets donations - some are good, like barely-read new fiction and some are bad, like dusty boxes of Reader's Digest.  So, how do you ensure that you don't receive those musty, moldy, decades old copies of National Geographic and ancient tomes of Encyclopedia Britannica?  Develop a donations policy and stick to it. In a recent article, entitled "Getting the Most From Donations" (Public Libraries, March/April 2010) Tom Cooper, Director of Webster Groves Public Library outlines how you can ensure that a box full of donations is a welcome site.
First of all, since taking in donations is a time-consuming process, recruit your Friends group or volunteers to sort out the good from the bad.  Second of all, this sorting process becomes much easier when you restrict what comes in in the first place.  The only real way to do this without hurting people's feelings is to include these 4 element in your donations policy:
1. What kinds of donations you do and do not accept.
2. What you will do with the donations.
3. When and how you will receive them.
4. How you will acknowledge them.
(a complete policy can be found in the article)
Having this spelled out in a policy ensures that all staff members know what to say when patrons phone or come in and ask, "Do you accept donations?"
While writing a donations policy is the easiest way to avoid the curse of the moldy donations (and a trip to the store for your allergy medication!) Cooper has a number of other suggestions that can help:

• close boxes of donations before you throw them in the dumpster to avoid hurt feelings;
• use packing tape to seal up the boxes - it's much cheaper than the book tape you may have on hand;
• rotate the items on your book sale table so that "new merchandise" is displayed on a regular basis;
• use your current collection policy when considering adding donations to the collection;
• don't take something just because you feel obligated - use your donations policy to dictate what you will and will not take
• make sure your patrons know not to bring in more than they can carry - unless you have a bunch of burly teenagers on hand to help unload!
• use common sense - if you think it will sell in the booksale or can be added to the collection, take it, if not, don't.

 Read the full article:
Tom Cooper, "Getting the Most From Donations," Public Libraries, March/April 2010.

The Value of Libraries

Do you ever find it difficult to convey the value of a library to someone who doesn't use it? Myself and the Consulting Services team recently asked some non-library users why they don't use the library. If my colleagues had the same experience I did, they found it frustrating to hear answers like "I don't read" or "it's inconvenient". We know there are many arguments to refute those reasons, but no matter how passionate we are about the subject it might help to have more than just our own convictions to convince some people.

A number of library value calculators and other studies are available to assist us in clearly articulating the real value of libraries - even to those who may not use them themselves. Stephen Abrams popular blog Stephen's Lighthouse, includes one post which lists the variety of tools available for 'calculating' the value of public libraries: http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/06/the-value-of-public-libraries/

These can be a great advocacy tool. Or even if you just want to prove to your cranky uncle that libraries ARE valuable, these resources are a great way to help you get your point across.

The Book Arts

This month, the Coaldale Public Library will be hosting The Book Arts, a travelling exhibition presented by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition program. The Book Arts "explores books as objects of beauty, personal expression and curiosity, and celebrates the imagination, inventiveness and skill of the artists who produce them. The exhibition is also intended to acknowledge public libraries for the important role they play as cultural centres in their communities." I went to see The Book Arts earlier this week and was very inspired by what I saw. Such amazing pieces of art all related to books! It truly is breathtaking and I would encourage my fellow book lovers to head out to Coaldale and take a look. You won't be disappointed!

Earth Day Approaching!

Thirteen more days until Earth Day on Thursday, April 22! For 40 years we earth-dwellers have taken these 24 hours to honour our world and consider how to lessen our impact on it. Make Earth Day a feature in your library by choosing environmentally themed reading materials and activities for that day! Here are some great resources to get you started:

Darien Public Library in Connecticut’s “Kids Caring for our Planet” booklist: http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog/search/tags/kids+caring+for+our+planet

Kaboose.com has a fantastic list of Earth Day crafts:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/earth-day/earth_day_crafts.html

Pierce County Library System in Washington's “Green Living” adult booklist: http://www.piercecountylibrary.org/booklist.aspx?id=0&list_id=243&list_set=0&type=list

Like our planet, don't let this holiday go to waste!

Alberta SPCA 2010 Video Contest

As many of you know, two of my many loves are my dogs. As such, I also tend to chose the Alberta SPCA as one of my favorite charities. This month, they are holding a video contest:

http://www.albertaspca.org/videocontest.asp

This made me think...many kids are animal lovers too...and also love to create things! Why not encourage kids in your area to get involved? Post a sign advertising the contest and display animal themed books. Have the kids create their video in your library and make a great program out of it. Even if the video doesn't win, you could screen the video at your library to the rest of your community and inspire community spirit. The deadline for submissions is April 23, so get started today!

The Book From Chinook Travels to Australia and Back!

In the fall of 2009, the Interlibrary Loan team at Chinook Arch received an email from the Busselton Library in Australia. They had one of our books! Crikey! It was found by one of their patrons at a local campground...likely left behind by a Southern Alberta traveler. The Busselton librarians mailed the book back to Chinook Arch along with some Australian goodies: Tim-Tams, postcards, booklets, etc. To thank the Busseloton librarians, our Interlibrary Loan Team sent back a Chinook Arch care package containing Chinook Arch swag and Maple cookies (after all, we are Canadian, eh?) Today, we received yet another package from the Shire of Busselton containing even more Tim-Tams, chocolate-carmel Koalas, and the Busselton Library Newsletter: Busselton Library - Paging All Readers! The newsletter featured a story called "The Book From Chinook" about our book's travels to Australia and back. It's funny how books can form friendships between people across such great distances! Hopefully we can continue this friendship that has been established by our wayward traveling book!

What I learned about customer service

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Public Library Association (PLA) conference in Portland, Oregon.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot - so, I thought I would share a bit of what I learned with you this morning.
All of the sessions I attended were great, but one in particular was extraordinary.  It was entitled: "You Want Me To Do What? Innovative Training for Soft People Skills."  Cheryl Gould, Molly Westmoreland and Mary Nacu from San Jose Public Library in California opened the session by saying, "Everyone, stand up."  With that, more than 300 librarians got to their feet for the first of four exercises designed to build people skills that could enhance customer service.  This was no longer just a conference session, but a fun learning environment.  These exercises are just part of the program that was carried out across the San Jose Library System to "redesign their staff."  A study done in their library determined that signs and layout were great, but patrons were still looking for (and not finding) library staff.  To do this, an experiential training model was used that allowed the trainees to practice "connecting behaviour" skills, such as eye contact, tone of voice, listening and body language.  
Here's an outline of the four exercises that we did during the session:
Try them with your staff - you might learn something!
1. Magic Refrigerator: With a partner (or a group of three) work together to tell a story about a magic refrigerator.  One participant starts the story and stops when the facilitator yells "switch!"  Continue the story where the first person left off until each person has had a few turns.  This is a really fun exercise and helps to teach listening skills.  Many people realized that they were thinking about what they would say next, rather than listening.  Are you a good listener?
2.  Hand Mirroring: This exercise is about fostering cooperation. Two partners standing face to face with palms toward one another pattycake style (but not touching), took turns leading one another through hand motions and then trying to share the leadership.  There is no talking allowed during this exercise - and without talking, the shared leadership task is very difficult.
3.  Eye contact vs. Sliding Away: This exercise makes people aware of their eye contact habits with strangers and can be very enlightening.  Using the same partners as the Mirroring exercise, take turns being the one that holds eye contact and the one that looks and then "slides away."  Next, practice the exercise with the strangers around you.  The feeling of someone looking at you and then looking away is really uncomfortable - imagine how your patrons feel if they get that in the library from staff.
4.  Voice Mirroring: This one is simple and is another one that works on developing listening skills.  One person speaks slowly and clearly and the other works on predicting their next word before they say it (speaking along with them).  
Try these out and see what you can learn from them - plus, they are really fun.
I've asked the presenters for the full training module, so I may be able to share more about this with you in the future.
You could even practice these with your families over the long weekend - see how well your husband, wife, daughter, etc. listens and cooperates. :)