Several sleepless nights agonizing over lack of class meeting space in my new library. Two sets of low shelves allowed only three tables in area with view of projector screen. Was warned in advance that no projectors or other electrical or technology items could be moved.
How would I be able to invite classes into library? Many options crossed my mind, got measured and reviewed and eliminated. Nothing would work without moving projector and screen. Nothing would work . . .
And then inspiration hit! I was in the building by 6:45am. I had measured and committed by 7:15 and was working up a sweat before 8am. By ten I had every cart and most of the tables covered with books and the shelf units moved into new position. My plan was going to work!!!
How many times have I created a plan in my head and discovered after hours of labor that I did not have enough shelf space in one area or another to accomodate needs? (Many, I assure you!) NOT THIS TIME!!!! Everything went back into new configuration better than it came out!! Ok, I eliminated some stuff, but I, who hate to get rid of anything, had no problem with this purge.
It looks great!!! I created an area to highlight and spread out my graphic novels making room for more purchases this year. I moved both biographies and short stories to more accessible areas. I achieved my primary goal of space in front of projector screen with comfortable room for six tables. As a bonus I was able to maintain a barrier between this and the front of the library to allow additional students to work even with a class in progress.
Principal walked in as I was finishing up (shortly after noon). Had to be reminded of previous layout but very complementary once he realized what I had accomplished. Patting myself on back now, while I can. I know it all gets harder once the teachers and then students get into building. Looking forward to it though. Can't wait to use my new class space!!
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2013
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tactile, physical, real and beautiful
Can you really imagine our world without books?
Check out this amazing video, made by booklovers at a bookstore in Toronto. It explains what the books do at night . . . . .
Check out this amazing video, made by booklovers at a bookstore in Toronto. It explains what the books do at night . . . . .
"After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973).
"Grayson Matthews (http://www.graysonmatthews.com/) generously composed the beautiful, custom music."
Friday, April 1, 2011
And another one gone, and another one gone
In a sign of the times, Newport Beach is considering closing the city's original library and replacing it with a community center that would offer all the same features — except for the books.
Instead of a reference librarian, patrons would be greeted by a kiosk equipped with video-calling software that would allow them to speak with employees elsewhere. And books — when ordered — would be dropped off at a locker for pickup.
Tomes' time might be up at Newport Beach libraryAre we numb to these stories? Locally the town of Greece, NY has announced the perceived necessity to eliminate half of its budget for libraries going into next year. The superintendent of Rochester city schools announced yesterday that his proposed budget eliminates 900 teaching positions.
Aside from the fact that I am in search of a job as a school librarian and enjoy my occasional service as a substitute at the public library, and aside from my role as the son and grandson of teachers and father of students, and aside from the fact that I now work as a technology assistant in a school library and visit our public library regularly with my children, aside from these facts, I am trying to figure out how I really feel about library closures and school program elimination.
In other words, how do these cuts affect citizens and students who may not have the love of books, knowledge, technology, collaboration and academic discussion, that I have? How do these cuts affect my neighbors who do not realize the opportunity they are passing up to read books and magazines and use computers for free?
Will it matter to them that there are 30 students or more in a class instead of 25. Will it matter that elementary students do not have stand-alone art or music lessons or a chance to enjoy reading without pressure in the library? Will it matter to them that elective classes at the secondary level are shaved to the bare minimum or eliminated. Will the lack of sports and club activities and related activity buses cause them frustration?
I believe in America and the ideals our country was founded upon. I believe that American pride, ingenuity, influence and strength to affect change still exists. I believe, however, that it can only be disturbed as we feel great pain as a national (or at least regional or local) community. I believe that we have within us the power to reverse this economic and social landslide but not unless the pain becomes unbearable and the urge to ease the pain unavoidable.
So, have we become numb to stories of cuts and eliminations of programs and facilities? I guess I am not sure. Are we sheep who will follow our leaders wherever they take us and agree to whatever cuts they impose? Are we, as a population, comfortable with our leaders and in agreement with most of the decisions they make? Or do we have the fortitude to cause our leaders to alter decisions to our will and to choose leaders who support our will?
The article quoted above ends:
Past attempts to change the traditional library model have not always worked out.In 2008 these citizens noticed, disagreed, and prevailed. What happens now?
In 2008, Long Beach considered turning its main library into a depot of sorts that would fill book orders for neighborhood branch libraries. But residents rallied to save the stacks and the proposal was shelved.
What happens in Long Beach California? What happens in Greece, NY? What happens in the city of Rochester? What happens in cities and communities coast to coast to our schools and our libraries, and tangentially speaking, our healthcare and our infrastructure and our economy and society as a whole?
In a special, off-season, election to choose a new mayor for the city of Rochester, 26% of eligible voters showed up at the polls yesterday. This was up from 20% in 2009 but down from almost 40% in a hotly contested 2005 election. Fifty six percent of eligible voters participated in our last national election, the highest in any election since 1968. As the country has simmered during this presidency, 40.9% of voters turned out to shake up our legislative branches (highest off-year turn-out since 1970).
Do these statistics matter? I guess I can only answer, "I hope so."
Will the voters focus on the cuts to education and to library services? What is the future of education and of library service in our country in the near and long-term future? Sadly it is not the teachers or the librarians who will answer that question. It is our neighbors, our students, parents and patrons, and the large unknown masses who have forgotten or who never understood the value of programs, services and education that we offer.
The time to save your school or your library, your teacher or your librarian, or your job if you are in the profession is NOT after cuts have been announced or are being discussed. The time is NOW! Usage statistics, evidence of success, patron and student growth and satisfaction with services and teaching, and community support in advance of budget discussions are critical to continued funding. Converting a non-library user every day and developing strategies to remain relevant in our communities and schools into the 21st century should be among our many goals.
I apologize for blending the lines between school and library budgets in this discussion and know the answers and even the questions are not the same for each and yet they do share many commonalities. I know of no consolidated resource that identifies cuts to education, but want to share and ask all lovers of libraries to help keep your town off of these maps.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Quality service = Priority one
"Why can't librarians learn to serve?" OK, maybe I shouldn't try to re-write My Fair Lady, "Why can't the English learn to speak," and maybe I shouldn't judge librarians before I technically am one, but with budget cuts and the pressure to compete against book stores, the Internet, television, and more, I believe that as individuals and as a group, when we are faced with an opportunity we need to step up.
In the last several weeks I have observed some exceptional librarians: ones who can answer multiple requests simultaneously and who can often predict upcoming questions; who in many cases have prepared pathfinders and brochures to answer them before they are even asked. I have seen librarians doing three different things at once with ten successful results and am in awe of how they do what they do!
Sadly though, not all librarians are as talented or as committed. I have seen school librarians create atmospheres that cause teachers and students to stay away; whose strategy seems not to be to collaborate but to hibernate. I am frustrated each time I see a school where the library seems "off-limits" and the librarian unreachable, but I am just as frustrated each time I visit a community library where patrons are not offered the best service possible.
A couple interactions I witnessed at a larger, local public library recently are representative of the type of failure that I find most irritating. I was aware of complaints regarding the service at this library but was truly frustrated to witness the lack of motivation firsthand. I was trained in retail with a customer first mentality and I believe, as did my reference professor who works as the head of reference at a local university, that librarians should be pro-active, often in front of the desk, in their approach to library service.
Contrary to this approach is the lack of service I saw offered during a one hour visit last week. In one instance, a young adult patron asked where the Stephanie Meyer books were located. The YA librarian, as indicated by a badge she was wearing, who was building a rather pathetic display, answered, "They'd be under MEY in the next aisle, but they're all on waiting lists right now because they are so popular." With this she ended the conversation. She made no effort to offer this student the option to join the waiting list and, in my opinion, more importantly, she made no effort to conduct a readers advisory interview and suggest possible alternative books.
In another case, just a few minutes later, a patron approached the reference desk while I was seated nearby. This patron asked if the library could get copies of a rather obscure television program from the 1970's that he had already discovered was owned by another branch. The librarian checked and told him the tape was checked out and not available. Again she did not offer a hold or any other alternative and was in the process of turning the patron away.
In both cases I took it upon myself to help the patrons, the first one without the librarian's knowledge, and the second right in front of the librarian at the reference desk before she had time to dismiss him altogether. The first patron, a veteran of Harry Potter and Eldest series', left the library with the first two books in the series by Rick Riordan beginning with The Lightning Thief. (I have not read them but my son has and says they are very good.) I suggested to the librarian and the second patron as he was leaving the desk, that all 24 episodes of the TV series he was looking for were available on Hulu.com and showed him, on library computer I was using, how to access the site.
Both patrons, and a third that I assisted before leaving the library, thanked me. The reference librarian (working the desk) also thanked me, claiming she had never thought to search Hulu, but sadly, she never thought to search anywhere. She and the other librarians at this branch and, sadly, many others are willing to put forth minimal effort and the easy answer without regard for the true, often underlying needs of our patrons. If our patrons can't get more from us than they can from their own search online or poring through the stacks themselves, what good do we serve, and what right do we have to be employed in this "non-essential" service position?
Part of what we learn as librarians and what good salespeople and retailers and even doctors, lawyers, and therapists learn is that customers, patrons and patients do not always know how to ask for what they want or need. It is the job of the professional to discover and to satisfy the true want or need. If we do not step up, as individuals and as a group, to make this satisfaction a priority, we will, as individuals and as a group, be out of a job.
Putting our current economy aside for a moment but not putting aside the reality of our modern, techno-savvy environment and communities, it is my opinion that library services and hours are not usually cut because of lack of need, but because of lack of perceived value. It is our job as professionals to prove our worthiness every day through the benefits that we return to our patrons and community. If we do not offer these services and benefits, the perceived need for the library and the librarian plummets and it becomes our own fault that jobs are lost.
In the last several weeks I have observed some exceptional librarians: ones who can answer multiple requests simultaneously and who can often predict upcoming questions; who in many cases have prepared pathfinders and brochures to answer them before they are even asked. I have seen librarians doing three different things at once with ten successful results and am in awe of how they do what they do!
Sadly though, not all librarians are as talented or as committed. I have seen school librarians create atmospheres that cause teachers and students to stay away; whose strategy seems not to be to collaborate but to hibernate. I am frustrated each time I see a school where the library seems "off-limits" and the librarian unreachable, but I am just as frustrated each time I visit a community library where patrons are not offered the best service possible.
A couple interactions I witnessed at a larger, local public library recently are representative of the type of failure that I find most irritating. I was aware of complaints regarding the service at this library but was truly frustrated to witness the lack of motivation firsthand. I was trained in retail with a customer first mentality and I believe, as did my reference professor who works as the head of reference at a local university, that librarians should be pro-active, often in front of the desk, in their approach to library service.
Contrary to this approach is the lack of service I saw offered during a one hour visit last week. In one instance, a young adult patron asked where the Stephanie Meyer books were located. The YA librarian, as indicated by a badge she was wearing, who was building a rather pathetic display, answered, "They'd be under MEY in the next aisle, but they're all on waiting lists right now because they are so popular." With this she ended the conversation. She made no effort to offer this student the option to join the waiting list and, in my opinion, more importantly, she made no effort to conduct a readers advisory interview and suggest possible alternative books.
In another case, just a few minutes later, a patron approached the reference desk while I was seated nearby. This patron asked if the library could get copies of a rather obscure television program from the 1970's that he had already discovered was owned by another branch. The librarian checked and told him the tape was checked out and not available. Again she did not offer a hold or any other alternative and was in the process of turning the patron away.
In both cases I took it upon myself to help the patrons, the first one without the librarian's knowledge, and the second right in front of the librarian at the reference desk before she had time to dismiss him altogether. The first patron, a veteran of Harry Potter and Eldest series', left the library with the first two books in the series by Rick Riordan beginning with The Lightning Thief. (I have not read them but my son has and says they are very good.) I suggested to the librarian and the second patron as he was leaving the desk, that all 24 episodes of the TV series he was looking for were available on Hulu.com and showed him, on library computer I was using, how to access the site.
Both patrons, and a third that I assisted before leaving the library, thanked me. The reference librarian (working the desk) also thanked me, claiming she had never thought to search Hulu, but sadly, she never thought to search anywhere. She and the other librarians at this branch and, sadly, many others are willing to put forth minimal effort and the easy answer without regard for the true, often underlying needs of our patrons. If our patrons can't get more from us than they can from their own search online or poring through the stacks themselves, what good do we serve, and what right do we have to be employed in this "non-essential" service position?
Part of what we learn as librarians and what good salespeople and retailers and even doctors, lawyers, and therapists learn is that customers, patrons and patients do not always know how to ask for what they want or need. It is the job of the professional to discover and to satisfy the true want or need. If we do not step up, as individuals and as a group, to make this satisfaction a priority, we will, as individuals and as a group, be out of a job.
Putting our current economy aside for a moment but not putting aside the reality of our modern, techno-savvy environment and communities, it is my opinion that library services and hours are not usually cut because of lack of need, but because of lack of perceived value. It is our job as professionals to prove our worthiness every day through the benefits that we return to our patrons and community. If we do not offer these services and benefits, the perceived need for the library and the librarian plummets and it becomes our own fault that jobs are lost.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The "Ideal" OPAC (Today's version)
This week we collaborated to design the perfect OPAC, read articles about the Google Game (Watkins & Elder, 2006. SLJ.; Watkins, 2008. SLJ.), and researched use of databaes in some of our local schools. While it is obvious that the currently available OPAC's do not meet current user expectations or needs, it is similarly obvious that the "perfect" search engine may never exist any mre than the perfect house or automobile. Personal preference, user ability, information needs and other factors will lead designers and users in, similar perhaps, but different directions.
With an ever changing landscape, one can not predict the far future. The ideal library search engine today, in my opinion can be defined through four components: the appearance of search page, appearance of output pages, search characteristics and / or tools, and the scope of search output. The ideal search engine for high school and public libraries could be very similar.
The search page should be sparse and clean. Links should be limited; advanced search, FAQ answers, clear and concise Boolean search instructions, an explanation of keyword and tag searching and how the search process works, live reference and homework help, and a link to a more informational and colorful library splash page.
Output pages should also have clean lines and be easy to read. At top should be a synopsis of results from all available sources and links to these results. Results should also be available simply by scrolling. Results should be accompanied by image of book cover, journal article or Web page. Every result should include a brief summary, list of subject headings and tag cloud, and links to reviews if available from reputable sources. Multiple sort and limiting options should be available to refine search.
User tagging and tag searching should be employed by a "smart" system that suggests spelling, more popular tag choices, title and author names, and subject headings as user is entering search. Initial tagging may be suggested by publishers and librarians but users must be the focal point adding tags and building the system. In addition to this suggestion or funneling system, a list of expanded, related, and narrowed searches should be displayed as a sidebar on results page.
Most importantly to the success of the library search engine or OPAC and of literacy education will be the scope of the search. Searches should include the library book collection, WorldCat, or if preferred by schools, SchoolCat, archived journals or magazines, all leased or publicly available preferred databases, library selected websites, and Google. These returns with summaries should be displayed to any user on any computer anywhere. If certain database articles are available only with a password or from computers inside the library, this note should be made. The available summary, cover image, and tags will assist user in assessing value of the source.
By including Google results along with database and book results, users will have the opportunity to choose the level of information needed and may potentially access a wide variety of sources. If the Wikipedia article can be compared directly to Britannica and to the latest literature or government reports, users will begin to make informed decisions regarding quality of sources. If by narrowing and refining search (The Google Game) to get best possible results, they learn that databases often win, the users themselves will win.
At the public library users looking for a great fiction book will be delighted by the included summaries, subject headings, tag clouds, and reviews. They will be further delighted upon choosing a book that is not on the shelf that they can quickly identify if it is available at another nearby library (WorldCat) or if a used copy can be purchased inexpensively (Amazon) all in the same search.
(Note: Search libraries around the world by location or by OPAC platform used - http://www.libdex.com/ )
With an ever changing landscape, one can not predict the far future. The ideal library search engine today, in my opinion can be defined through four components: the appearance of search page, appearance of output pages, search characteristics and / or tools, and the scope of search output. The ideal search engine for high school and public libraries could be very similar.
The search page should be sparse and clean. Links should be limited; advanced search, FAQ answers, clear and concise Boolean search instructions, an explanation of keyword and tag searching and how the search process works, live reference and homework help, and a link to a more informational and colorful library splash page.
Output pages should also have clean lines and be easy to read. At top should be a synopsis of results from all available sources and links to these results. Results should also be available simply by scrolling. Results should be accompanied by image of book cover, journal article or Web page. Every result should include a brief summary, list of subject headings and tag cloud, and links to reviews if available from reputable sources. Multiple sort and limiting options should be available to refine search.
User tagging and tag searching should be employed by a "smart" system that suggests spelling, more popular tag choices, title and author names, and subject headings as user is entering search. Initial tagging may be suggested by publishers and librarians but users must be the focal point adding tags and building the system. In addition to this suggestion or funneling system, a list of expanded, related, and narrowed searches should be displayed as a sidebar on results page.
Most importantly to the success of the library search engine or OPAC and of literacy education will be the scope of the search. Searches should include the library book collection, WorldCat, or if preferred by schools, SchoolCat, archived journals or magazines, all leased or publicly available preferred databases, library selected websites, and Google. These returns with summaries should be displayed to any user on any computer anywhere. If certain database articles are available only with a password or from computers inside the library, this note should be made. The available summary, cover image, and tags will assist user in assessing value of the source.
By including Google results along with database and book results, users will have the opportunity to choose the level of information needed and may potentially access a wide variety of sources. If the Wikipedia article can be compared directly to Britannica and to the latest literature or government reports, users will begin to make informed decisions regarding quality of sources. If by narrowing and refining search (The Google Game) to get best possible results, they learn that databases often win, the users themselves will win.
At the public library users looking for a great fiction book will be delighted by the included summaries, subject headings, tag clouds, and reviews. They will be further delighted upon choosing a book that is not on the shelf that they can quickly identify if it is available at another nearby library (WorldCat) or if a used copy can be purchased inexpensively (Amazon) all in the same search.
(Note: Search libraries around the world by location or by OPAC platform used - http://www.libdex.com/ )
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