Blog December Post 6 - Tomorrow's Library

The future library trend continues into today's post as Victoria releases stage 1 of the Tomorrow's Library report.

The key finds state:

The environment in which public libraries operate is changing rapidly. It is challenging for public library services to keep pace with changes in technology and the phasing out of obsolescent technology. Identifying emerging trends and changes can be difficult, as is anticipating the impact on library usage, particularly for smaller services. There is an ad hoc approach to implementing new services. For example, some public libraries are providing commercially acquired ebooks while others are not.

The future of public library services is set to be exciting and innovative. To ensure public libraries remain valued and treasured public institutions, they must continue to adapt and evolve. At the same time, public libraries must continue to deliver high-quality services that meet the needs of their communities. It is important that public libraries position themselves to adequately embrace and meet the challenges of the future. 

The MAC concluded that the public library sector needs to increase collaboration and take a unified, strategic approach if it is to effectively adapt to the future and remain relevant in a globalised, digital world.

The statewide initiatives and responsibilities include:

·      Increase accessibility to a quality statewide collection developed and owned by local government.

·      Establish a statewide languages other than English (LOTE) collection.

·      Improve access to the statewide interlibrary loan service.

·      Expand the statewide courier system to more efficiently deliver interlibrary loan requests.

·      Develop a common platform for digital material consisting of two parts: access to downloadable ebooks and eresources and digitised local history and heritage material.

·      Establish a single library management system.

·      Investigate best value collection procurement options.

·      Establish common processing and cataloguing practices.

·      Deliver shelf-ready material directly to branches.

·      Install RFID readers at all public library services and tag all items in the statewide collection.

·      Develop one library card with local branding.

·      Develop a single discovery layer and integrated content management system.

·      Develop a Victorian Library app.

·      Establish a Victorian Library social media presence.

·      Investigate central procurement options for hardware (computers, tablets, eresources) and other services.

They also go on to talk about a statewide marketing approach.

These are all great ideas and I am wondering if other states will follow and do a review/report on their library services.

Blog December Post 5 - Future vs Reality

So I really did post yesterday's post before reading the latest issue of Incite.

If you haven't read it yet, it discusses the future of libraries.

In the Opinion piece, Seth Godin says: The next library is a place, still.  A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together.

My question back would be, what happens to all the libraries that exist that do not have the space to be a place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects?  I have branch libraries that you can barely swing a cat around in - and I can't really believe that the book collection will shrink so much that we can remove the shelves and become a space.

Who will fund the new furniture and technology required to become this.  With local, state and federal budgets being so tight and libraries being at the end of the priority line - where will the money come from to create these spaces??

While I do see new libraries moving this way - what happens to the old?  Do those communities miss out because of lack of funding?

Or in my case we have youth hubs popping up that are providing those spaces for the youth - what of the library?

And then I go back to looking at my libraries and I don't see people using the library space as a space they come together to work.  I see the library space where people use the public computers, sit and read the paper but the majority come in, choose their books and leave.

Another article mentions offering programs.  What of the one person library?  I have a branch where I can't even offer storytime because we don't have the funding to provide an extra staff member for an hour a week to provide this service.

I've been told to use volunteers but we have tried this in the past and it is not sustainable as the volunteer eventually moves on or wants to be paid.

I don't mean to be negative, and I'm happy for people to come back at me with "buts" and suggestions.  Today I just have an issue with looking past the reality of our situation.  And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I am optimistic that one day the funding will rain on us and we will build new buildings enabling us to be creating spaces and have more than one staff working.

But unfortunately, today the realist in me spoke!!

Blog December Day 4 - It's the end of the (library) world as we know it - and I feel fine!

This morning I was going through my RSS feeds and came across a post from the What's Next: Top Trends blog which showed an extinction timeline.

According to this timeline by 2019 libraries will be extinct.

Of course, this is not the first time we as library professionals have heard/read/talked about the demise of libraries, but honestly, I'm a bit over it all.

If I had a dollar for everytime I've been introduced to someone as a librarian and they have said to me - well with eBooks libraries aren't going to be around anymore.  Prior to that it was - well with Google libraries aren't going to be around anymore.  The same can be said with any major technological change that impacts on what libraries do and how we do it.

Well sorry everyone but libraries are bloody good at taking advantage of these changes and running with them.

However, I must stop and make comment based on my own library community.  While some libraries have found that their members are ready to jump on the eBook wagon and embrace eReaders, tablets and iPads - I find that my own library community are still embracing the print book and traditional library services.

You may say, but Sharon, they may be ready but may not be coming into the library.  All those with eReaders and tablets may be buying online and satisfying their information needs in a different manner than walking into the physical library.  That may well be but in the four years I've been working in my library community, I have not noticed people not coming into the library - in fact I would say more are coming into the library. 

I have had a handful of people ask about eBooks because they have purchased a Kindle - and guess what??  While they purchase eBooks via Amazon, they also continue to borrow print books!!

So while we may often get caught up in the doom and gloom of possible extinction - I think there is still something to say with the traditional services we provide - they are still relevant.  And I actually think that in the future there will be a move away from technology and people will be wanting to get back to basics.  Or we may even be forced to turn away from technology due to economic or environmental reasons.

I know this might be a little bit left of centre but one of the more successful shops in our little town of Bellingen is the Bellingen Sweet Shop.  And guess what?  It is set up in the old fashioned traditional way the sweet shops used to be and you can also purchase the sweets you used to buy as a child those many years ago.

So my bet is that in 2019, there will still be libraries and there will still be print books and traditional library services!!

Blog December Day 3 - The best library is an empty one

Ok so some of you are probably thinking I have lost the plot after reading the title of this blog post.  I assure you I haven't but I am wondering if by the end of my post you will agree with that statement.

Anyway, I was umming and aaahhing about what to blog about this morning, so I thought, since it's coming up to Christmas, often it means that libraries start to slow down.  Ok, not public libraries as they start to offer school holiday programs, but I do remember my days in an academic library and Christmas was always a time to tidy things up or shift things around.  Mainly because there was less students around so less disruption to them.

Where I work, all the branches are closed on Monday's.  I don't want it to be this way but it is so I work with it.  My other staff do not work Monday's but I do (although the public always tell me that it is so good that I get Monday's off - I do try to correct them but they think that there is no work to do in a library when it is closed).  So this is what brings me to - the best library is an empty one.

For me Monday's are my catch up day.  I can plough through my "to do" list in record time without interuptions.  I can fix any public computer problems because I'm not disturbing anyone.  I can weed collections without having anyone look over my shoulder.  But best of all I can have quiet time!!

Some may question that working in a library should be pretty quiet anyway.  Those working in public libraries will understand that this is not the case.  While we don't let noise get to a disruptive level, there is always the quiet chatter, the tapping of keyboard keys, the hum of staff talking to library users.  So on Monday's there is none of that.  There is also no interuptions!!

So on Monday's I allow myself the thought of the best library is an empty one!!  But of course, on every other day the best library is a full one!!

Blog December Day 2 - eBook Dilema

In library land we hear about ebooks and the library dilema almost everyday.  There are articles, blog posts, tweets, and discussions in the library about it all the time.

This blog post is not about the ebooks and library dilema.  This is about my ebook dilema.

Now I have a tablet and it has a Kindle app on it and Bluefire Reader so I get the best of both ebook formats.  I take advantage of the free to low price of ebooks available and never pay anything over $10 for an ebook and that is only on the very rare occassion - I have issues paying over $5 for an ebook.

My collection has built up quite quickly - mainly due to my Rural Romance Readers and Writers, Romance Readers and Writers, Indie Authors and Australian Romance Readers Association links via Facebook and email lists - you would not believe how many suggestions of what to read pass through these channels on a daily basis and how many of them are free!!

So now I have my dilema.  I have read some really great reads in ebook format and normally, when I buy print I will then pass them on to a friend or donate them to the library.  So what do I do with my ebooks??  I can't pass them on to a friend - unless someone has worked out how to do that and would like to share with me???  And I can't donate them to the library.  Do I delete them?  Do I keep them on my tablet thinking I may read them again??

I feel like I have not completed my reading journey or duty of sharing these wonderful books with someone else.  I mean some of them are free so I could just say to friends, "you should download this book," but it really doesn't work for me, as a lot of my friends do not have ereaders.  And what about the poor library that is missing out on these wonderful donations???

So that is my ebook dilema!!

On a side note, we are in for another hot day today.  Due to chores I couldn't make it down the beach yesterday, but I plan on hitting the surf before lunch today as we are supposed (please please please) have some rain/storms from lunch time onwards.

Blog December Day 1

As a personal challenge I am going to try to blog every day of December.  This will be a challenge as my parents are coming up this week so perhaps I will miss a couple of days but hopefully I will have a bit of time in the day to do some reflection.

I don't reflect enough so blogging will force me to reflect.

To kick off, on Thursday I attended the Public Libraries NSW North East Zone meeting in Taree.  It is the last time the librarians and councillors who attend the meeting get to catch up for 2012 and the first time for some of the new councillors who were elected in September to actually meet.

I will discuss the meeting in more depth in a later blog post.

My two councillors were unable to attend so I travelled down with our new Information Services and Collections Librarian.  We decided that we would do a library road trip on our way back on Friday.

So while this post will be short and sweet - I will share with you some photos I took of some of the libraries we visited.

Our first library was Great Lakes Library - Forster branch.  I didn't take any photos here because I have visited this branch before and must upload the photos from this visit at some point.  So I will share later.

Next we went to Harrington Library.  It is 4 years old and located within the towns new shopping centre car park.

Then on to Wauchope Library.

Both libraries were small branches but I find visiting smaller branches very worth while as my branches are small and I can get some great ideas that I can implement in my libraries.

It is worth noting that when I visit libraries, I first go to the customer service desk and introduce myself and ask if I can take photos.  Most times I encounter a proud and enthusiastic library staff member that is happy to provide a tour and answer questions.

Sometimes I have visited a library where staff have not been very helpful.  I sometimes drop a note to the library manager (especially if I know them) and make them aware that my encounter was not a friendly one.

I'm sure other library staff do this too - well I would hope that if someone visited my branch libraries they would let me know if the customer service was not up to scratch.

What are your thoughts on this?  Would you contact a manager about customer service or would you let it slide?

Sorry this post is a bit rushed but Saturday mornings means chores and I have lot to do with the parents visiting this week.  More later!!

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

November brings the National Year of Reading Twitter Reader Group theme to "cry"

So what books made you cry?

The first book that comes to mind for me is "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton.  I mean who didn't cry when Johnny died (sorry for anyone who hasn't yet read the book).  It made reading the last few chapters difficult as I sobbed and wiped the tears away.

Another book that comes to mind is the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J. K. Rowling.  I mean really the last chapters were a mixture of sobbing and tear swiping and anger at what the author did to her characters.

"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins was the latest book to make me cry.  I won't go into details but I'm sure anyone who has read that book knows exactly where I cried.

My husband once asked me, as I was sitting in the lounge sobbing over a book, "Why are you reading that book if it makes you cry?" and I replied, "You know that it is a good book if it makes you cry."

That said, I don't think a book has to make you cry to be good.  A good book just has to take me to another place and make me feel the characters.  It makes me miss them when it's finished.   It makes me want more to read about them.  That's what I think makes a good book.