What do you NOT want to learn?

At this year's LAA Conference, I had the privilege of attending Lauren DeBruin’s session “Willing Engagement: Overcoming Learner Resistance in Library Staff.” Some of you may remember Lauren from the Southern Alberta Library Conference, where she presented a session on the language learning software AuralLog. With her enthusiastic speaking style and thought-provoking topic, Lauren started me thinking about why we choose not to learn and my own resistance to learning.

In Lauren’s presentation she explained that learning is actually a crisis experience. People react to learning by going through the same steps associated with a large upheaval in their lives: destabilization, disorientation, and re-orientation. When a change (ie. learning) occurs our way of thinking or doing something is disrupted and, therefore, destabilized. We then become lost and yearn for the way things used to be as we wade through disorientation. Finally, when we have had some time to become comfortable with something, we accept the new material and, eventually, start to engage with it in the last stage - reorientation.

As a technology-focused librarian, I have struggled with learning new things many times. I was a late adopter of Facebook, have only recently started using SiteJot and Bloglines, and am still working up the courage to create my own blog. And why, might you ask? Because learning is scary – especially learning new technologies! Luckily, in my learning travels, I have also run across some amazing resources that have helped familiarize me with new technologies, especially in the area of social networking.

While at Oakville Public Library, I learned about 23 Things, a list created by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for their Learning 2.0 Program. The list includes challenges like set up your own blog, explore Flickr, and discover Del.icio.us. 23 Things is laid out in a 10 week program so you can gradually do each thing. Even if you have no idea what these things are, these easy-to-use guides will show how to begin playing with these tools, even if you choose not to us them indefinitely.

The other wonderful social networking resource I know of is Common Craft. Common Craft is a company that makes short videos about social networking tools and posts them to YouTube. They use paper cut outs to explain things in the simplest terms and the videos are super fun to watch! My favourite videos from them are:

• Social Networking in Plain English
• Wikis in Plain English
• Twitter in Plain English

So if you want, check it out! Even if you don’t end up signing on with one of these tools, you might learn enough about them that the next time you hear something new mentioned it won't be so scary. Now, to start writing my blog …

Better Together

A number of Chinook Arch staff were lucky enough to be able to attend the Alberta Library Conference last week in Jasper. As usual it was full of comraderie, food and good information. I learned about some new and upcoming books from the Dewey Divas (always a great session), Copyright Basics (which Lauren will be leading a session on May 31 at HQ) and building community partnerships. Brent Buechler and Jan Sahibzada, from Calgary Public Library, shared their experiences with building community partnerships in their session Better Together: Strategic Community Partnerships. I heard some great points at their session and thought I would share them here.

Brent started the session by sharing a great quote: 'When spiderwebs are woven together they can catch a lion'. What a great analogy for the power of partnerships.

So, why partner?
1. To reach more people; you might even create new library users
2. To find and better utilize resources
3. Funders (like granting agencies) like to see evidence of partnership
4. The community likes to see evidence of partnership for publicly funded institutions

Did you know that libraries make great partners? Why?
1. Because you already have established public trust and credibility
2. You have a wide customer reach - every age and every segment of the population uses the library
3. You have a wide geographic reach - especially libraries who are part of a System (or similar). You have the potential to reach a much larger audience than most local organizations.
4. Libraries are known for having knowledgeable and passionate staff who care about the community.

So, SELL YOURSELF as the ideal partner - because you are!

In partnering with other organizations, you will want to first determine what you want to achieve:

• Review your Plan of Service - what are your needs? Your areas of focus and opportunity?
• Identify how partnerships will deliver value. Why do you want to partner? What will you get out of it?
  
• Conduct an environmental scan - you don't want to compete with what's already being done in the community, you want to compliment it.

When selecting a possible partner, ask yourself:

• What is the purpose of the project/partnership and what resources are needed?
• Which organizations serve a similar clientele?
• How will both organizations benefit?
• Does the organization you are approaching have the capacity to meet your partnership needs/ambitions?

A good partnership requires management. Think of partnership management as:
1. Development of the partnership
2. Delivery of the resulting service/product
3. Evaluation
4. Celebration

The partnership process:
- Put it in writing. Partnerships are negotiated in good faith and confirmed in writing.
- Consider the 5 W's
1. Why - what community needs are you supporting?
2. Who - what are the roles and responsibilities of each partner
3. What - which organizational priorities (for your library) are you supporting?
4. When - determine timelines in regards to key activities
5. How - define the parameters for working together [okay, that isn't a W)
- Consider the risks involved; are there legal issues; will you need insurance?

Some things to consider about partnerships:

• Partnerships take time, clarity of focus, trust and a spirit of collaboration
• The partnership process is open, inclusive, accountable and consistent
  
• Both partners must have a mutual commitment to strategic results
• Common goals and open communication must exist
• Benefits to both parties must be clearly defined
• Decisions made should reflect all views and needs
• Each partner must retain its own identity and work towards its own goals
• There must be a commitment to ongoing review and evaluation
  

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!