So, what does this have to do with public libraries and why should they care? While libraries are guardians of patron information stored in their integrated library systems, how well are public libraries doing when it comes to extending these protections to third-party vendors? And what about ancillary services like the library event registration system and the thousands of eager readers who sign up for the summer reading program?

ALA guides libraries with its Library Bill of Rights which addresses how libraries should protect people’s privacy: “All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and
protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.”2

While ALA provides a guideline for such practices, laws at the federal and local levels are in place to legislate what libraries can and cannot do. At any given time, one can search for COPPA violations and retrieve a goliath’s share of results. In a nutshell, COPPA gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their children. COPPA puts the parents in the driver’s seat when it comes to any website or online service collecting information from a child under the age of 13. Libraries must take this into consideration when working with any third-party commercial vendor aimed toward children. Under a 2013 revisions, COPPA takes it a step further by broadening coverage to the regulation. The revision states that COPPA also applies to operators when they have “actual knowledge” they are collecting personal information from users directed to kids under 13. It does not require general audience sites to investigate the ages of its users; however, if the site asks for or otherwise collects information that indicates a visitor to that site is under 13 years of age, that triggers
COPPA compliance.3

While COPPA’s coverage is aimed at commercial web sites, it doesn’t mean public libraries are off the hook. For example, all websites and online services operated by the Federal Government and contractors operating on behalf of federal agencies must comply with the standards set forth in
COPPA.4 And in the case of public libraries, a major concern is how library users of any age interact with the services of third-party commercial vendors, what their privacy policy states, and how that vendor complies with COPPA.

In addition to COPPA, public libraries can also look to their state legislature for guidance. According to ALA, forty-eight states have laws protecting the confidentiality of library records.5 The Arizona statute, A.R.S. 41-151.22, for example, states that “a library or library system supported by public monies shall not allow disclosure of any record or other information, including e-books, that identifies a user of library services as requesting or obtaining specific materials or services or as otherwise using the library.”6 Note the phrase, “or any information” and “or services”—which broaden the scope of the law to not only include the users circulation record, but so many other services such as the aforementioned event registration or summer reading signups examples. Violating this law in Arizona constitutes a class 3 misdemeanor.

Libraries must also continue to pay attention to their own internal procedures and practices as well as third-party vendors whenever personal identifiable information is requested from users. Managers should review internal practices occurring in their libraries and may consider conducting
their own privacy audit which can uncover areas which need strengthening. The resources below can guide libraries as they create new privacy policies or update existing ones. As library services
continue to evolve, privacy protections must always be adapted to new technology, new services, and changing procedures and practices

Resources

ALA’s Privacy Toolkit

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

A Practical Guide to Privacy Audits

Developing or Revising a Library Privacy Policy

State Laws Regarding Library Records

Public Library Privacy Policies Incorporating Third-Party Vendors:

Kalamazoo Public Library

Multnomah County Library

New York Public Library

References

1. “Press Releases for September 2019.” Federal Trade Commission. United States Government, September 4, 2019.
2. Admin. “Library Bill of Rights.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. American Library Association, February 11, 2019.
3. “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule: Not Just for Kids’ Sites.” Federal Trade Commission. United States Government, July 24, 2017.
4. “M-03-22, OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002.” Memorandum. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, September 9, 2003.
5. Admin. “State Privacy Laws Regarding Library Records.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. American Library Association, April 10, 2019.
6. Privacy of user records; violation; classification; definition. A.R.S. 41-151.22.
   
   

The post Personal Identifiable Information, Parental Consent, and Public Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Résumé
In order to be invited to the interview we’ll have to start with a well-designed and easy-to-read résumé. “I look for the resume to match what the application has stated. I also look for it to be concise, not more than two pages,” states Lisa Mendez, Deputy Director, Yuma (AZ) County Library District. The easier it is to read, the easier it is for the hiring manager to scan and find what they are looking for. What are they looking for? That varies greatly depending on the library, the position, and the current makeup of staff skills.

If you have never worked in a library consider the previous work you did and emphasize skills that transfer. These are the skills that we use in any job such as customer service, adaptability, project management, and other soft skills useful in any work setting. Depending on the position, hiring managers will hire with no previous library experience if that person brings a skill that is sorely lacking in the organization. “This is very situational but we like people with experience in other sectors. People who have social work, business or education backgrounds are interesting to us, for example. We like people who bring something unique to the system.  Language skills are also great and many people miss the opportunity to put those on their resumes.“ states Joanna Brookes, Library Administrator/HR Liaison, St. Paul (MN) Public Library.

The Interview
Hiring managers do not just rely on previous experience and accomplishments to predict future capabilities. They also place importance on personality and character traits. An applicant may have the aptitude, but can they be successful in the organization? Mendez cites the top traits for any library position as friendly demeanor, prior customer service experience, passionate, cultural fit, and ambition.

Cultural fitness indicates the ability for a candidate to help the library fulfill its mission, vision and values. Watch for interview questions that illustrate whether or not we have a positive attitude, a sunny outlook or if we are curious life-long learners. According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions the top question hiring managers ask to determine cultural fitness is, “What are the three things that are most important to you in a job?” Think about how your answer meshes with the library’s mission statement. [Tip: Read the library’s mission, vision, and value statements and ask yourself, “How can I help move this organization forward?” and remember to insert that during the interview].

Behavioral questions asked during the interview are designed to extract how you exhibit those behaviors. Take adaptability, for instance. According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions, the top question designed to determine how adaptable you are is: “Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn?” Imagine, for a moment, you are on the other end of the interview. How adaptable is an adult services librarian who refuses to cancel storytime because the performer is a no-show and steps in with their back-up picture book routine? Very adaptable! This is exactly the answer Brookes looks for in her applicants, “The ability to respond and adapt to quickly changing environments—you just never know who is going to walk through your door on a given day! Our staff must be comfortable working in gray areas. We like people who are focused on finding solutions for the customer.” Brookes says.

Lastly, remember that although your résumé earned you a seat at the interview; the résumé cannot speak for you. This applies to those who are new to the industry as well as those with years of solid library experience. With hundreds of résumés and time constraints of the interviewers, you must reiterate, repeat, and emphasize correlations between your experience, ambition, and passion to the position you seek. Mendez looks to see if applicants have done their homework, “During the interview, I expect the candidate to listen to the question that is asked and answer it. Many times, interviewees think they know what is being asked and answer too quickly without answering the true question. I also look for candidates to know the job description or job they are applying for. I expect that candidates have done research on the library and are aware of the programs and resources that we offer. I also expect candidates to ask a few questions at the end of the interview.”

If you are looking for feedback on your résumé or practice interviewing, seek assistance from colleagues or mentors. You can do this through reaching out to your state or local library association, ALA’s Education & Careers, and PLA’s Professional Tools. Quite often you can find résumé clinics at any of the library association conferences. For all applicants, remember that hiring managers want you to succeed during the interview and show your best self so they can identify the best candidate for the job. Whether you are new to the workforce, new to libraries, or have been in the same library job for many years and are looking for a change, keep these tips in mind when you start looking for your next best job and lastly, never give up because the right job for you could be the next job ad you see!

Note: All direct quotes are from email with author on 9/16/18.

The post What Are Hiring Managers Really Looking For? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Not only do libraries face those with mal intent and mischief, items are frequently misplaced or misshelved and the library must undergo an inventory audit to see if they can find the materials.  Take for example, the Boston Public Library when a Rembrandt and Dürer, valued at about $1 million, went missing only to be recovered in the library months later after an eight-week search. ²

So, while investigations are quietly underway for recent thefts, what about unsolved book mysteries from 20, 30, 40 or 80 years ago? We can only speculate what public treasures are waiting to be discovered in hidden safes, basements, trunks and cardboard boxes around the world. Take for example New York resident, Margaret Tanchuck, who was cleaning her late father’s jewelry store when she happened upon an old manuscript by Benjamin Franklin and several centuries-old Bibles and books.³

How do we recognize these rare gems when we find them—quite possibly for sale in our friends’ book stores? Would you recognize either one of these stolen books?

1. First Edition of Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
   “First edition, no. 206 OF 425 copies. Signed by Joyce. Original brick red buckram, gilt titling on spine, edges untrimmed and mostly unopened. In the original (very slightly soiled) yellow cloth slipcase, and housed in an extremely attractive modern dark red morocco-backed folding box.” For more information.
2. First American Edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
   “Scholastic Press, 1999, first American edition (first printing), insignificant and quite small grayish mark to a tiny section of the b.p.e.’s, else fine in like pictorial dw. Signed by both the author and the illustrator. Quite scarce thus.” For more information.

You can find more information on stolen or missing books listed with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers who maintain a database of stolen books.

Among the stolen and missing authentic materials also exist forged documents such as those fashioned by author turned forger and thief, Lee Israel, in the early 1990s with a collection of antique Remingtons, Royals, Adlers and Olympias.⁴

This year, the interest in book theft and forgeries will continue to soar with the release of two movies:

• Melissa McCarthy plays Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
•  American Animals, the movie depicting the 2004 college-based book heist at Transylvania University (KY).

As long as books are valued book theft is inevitable. Public libraries with special and and rare book departments must secure their collections to protect these cultural artifacts from thieves and forgers.

References

[1] Bob Warburton, Library Journal, April 3, 2018. Suspects but No Answers in Rare Book Theft at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library.

[2] Lisa Peet, Library Journal, June 11, 2015. UPDATE: BPL’s Lost Artwork Recovered Following Ryan’s Resignation

[3] Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2015. Did a book bandit pilfer rarities from N.Y. Public Library?

[4] Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 7, 2015. Lee Israel, a Writer Proudest of Her Literary Forgeries, Dies at 75

The post Rare Book Thefts Among Us first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Books go missing for a variety of reasons. Take for example the Kansas City Public Library’s top missing books which include the Bible, books on witchcraft, any books in the Harry Potter or Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. Certainly not a surprise as these would commonly be missing in many public libraries. However, sometimes when items are mis-shelved they can appear missing despite the fact they are right there in our libraries waiting for someone to find them. The item may sit for days, weeks, even years until a staff member stumbles upon it during weeding or a customer checks it out giving the item another chance to find its proper home upon return.

A more ominous scenario occurs during a booknapping. You know, when the patron finds a book they don’t want to check out but they want to continue reading it. They’ll stash it just about anywhere where only they have exclusive access to it. The titles run the gamut and you know it when you see it. “What is a copy of ‘You Fill in the blank’ doing there?”

So however a book goes missing in our libraries there is one person who is key to recovering the item so it is findable once again. Enter the essential library page. Just imagine being a page at the Faye G. Allen Children’s Center at the Seattle Public Library. This 15,000-square-foot children’s area includes 80,000 items. Sure, items are not always going to find their way back to the shelf. It’s going to happen. Even a well-intended customer could unintentionally mis-shelve the item.

In addition to the importance of the duties of the library page, the position is an on-ramp into the field of librarianship. I have fond memories of toiling over every spine and wanting to thumb through various sections of Dewey’s nonfiction or reading every headline when organizing newspapers. My supervisor wasn’t thrilled with my productivity, but everything looked so interesting! I fell in love with libraries as a page and went on to earn my MLIS degree.

We should ensure our pages understand how the library works and that their role is equally important just as every other position in the library. Ensure other staff know it, too. Typically a page is part-time with limited hours so when they cannot attend staff meetings make certain they are included in some way.

Because their work is often behind the scenes or in the stacks other library staff may not see them, but customers sure do. Pages might be the most visible staff in your library. We know that a customer’s perception is that anyone who works in the library is a librarian. So, when customers approach the page, their typical response is, “Oh, I’m just a page. You’ll need to go to the desk and ask a librarian.” Rather than minimize their role suggest they respond, “Sounds like you need a librarian, let’s go find one.”

Pages perform the most fundamental task of what we do at libraries –organize items into their proper sequence. If items are not in the right place, guess what? Yep, searchers are not going to find what they are looking for and browsers may not discover their next new read. When customers do not find what they want we have a service failure. With the weight of this on their shoulders, why do we still hear our coworkers say, “Well, I’m just a page.” How often do you remember hearing yourself say that and now you hear it from others? I’ve developed a great response and it goes something like this: “Sure, like a page in a book. And the library would be nothing without pages!”

Let’s take time to elevate library pages by sharing with them the importance of their work and how their success at their job is directly tied to the patron experience. When a page does their job well it allows all library workers to provide excellent customer service. Their attention to detail, approachability in the stacks, ability to follow directions and efficiency in their tasks is closely aligned with library staff and customer satisfaction.

The post More Than Just A Page first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Besides the Reading Merit Badge, scouts can select from more than 135 merit badges—thirteen of which are required for Eagle advancement, the highest rank advancement in the BSA program. High-interest topics include fishing, camping, and wilderness survival to kayaking, entrepreneurship, and family life. How does the Reading Merit Badge compare in popularity to the other merit badges? Its overall lifetime rank is 29^th with 1,490,797 scouts earning the badge from 1911-2016. However, completion of the reading merit badge has decreased by 60 percent in the last five years (2012: 5,676; 2013: 5,216; 2014: 4,712; 2015: 4,179; 2016: 3,574)². Librarians are in a unique position to encourage more readers by working alongside scout leaders or becoming counselors themselves.

What does it take to complete the reading merit badge? Scouts must read six books in four different genres. At least one title must be an award winner. They learn how to find books in the catalog and on the shelves. For each book, they will keep a log which includes the title, pages read, date completed and their comments about what they read. They will discuss their books with the counselor using the log as a reference and explain why they chose each book and what it meant to them. Next, they will read about the news using two sources and discuss what they learned. The service portion of the merit badge includes four hours of reading to a sick, blind or homebound person, performing volunteer work at the library, or reading stories to younger children. Librarians will find that requirements of the merit badge dovetail nicely with summer reading programs.

Librarians can reach out to their local troop to make a connection with that troop’s reading merit badge counselor and work with them. If the troop does not have a designated reading merit badge counselor librarians might find a great outreach opportunity awaiting them! Can you imagine if every public library offered a reading merit badge workshop? In an earlier post, Man Up: Attracting the Male Patron, I explored creating programming for boys and young men based on BSA’s merit badge topics. Partnering with local troops offers librarians another avenue to reaching boys and their parents.

Library staff at the Naperville (IL) Public Library has offered the Reading Merit Badge for several years. “The first couple of times that I conducted the merit badge it was solely for the troop that my sons belonged to which is Troop 889.” states Donna Pistolis, adult services librarian. Once she worked out the kinks, she reamed up with teen librarian, Allison Colman Gegenheimer. “We offer the merit badge on a group basis, Pistolis writes, “We ask for a minimum of 6 boys and no more than 10-12.  I’ve been a RMBC for 7 years.  We have had just under 50 scouts go through the merit badge session,” she said.³

You might find that scouts and their parents are astounded by the resources they can locate at the library or remotely through the library web site. “Scouts (and their parents) leave amazed with all that the library has to offer.  When we talk about looking up news articles, the boys were amazed that they could look at newspapers online from home,” Pistolis states then adds, “Boys couldn’t believe that they could download or stream popular music from the library.”⁴

If you want to reach more boys in your community and inspire the next generation of readers, don’t hesitate to inquire with your local troop. Additional merit badge topics librarians may want to consider include citizenship in the community, nation and world, genealogy and scholarship.

For more information:

• Reading Merit Badge Requirements and Resources
• Volunteer with Scouting
• BSA’s Merit Badge Program

References

1. 2016 Boy Scouts of America Annual Report. Irving: BSA, 2016.Http://www.scouting.org/filestore/annualreport/2016/2016_AnnualReport.pdf. Boys Scouts of America. Web. 15 May 2017.
2. Wendell, Bryan. “2016 Merit Badge Rankings: The Most- and Least-popular Merit Badges.”Bryan on Scouting. Boys Scouts of America, 23 Mar. 2017. Web. 15 May 2017.
3. Pistolis, Donna. “RE: BSA Reading Merit Badge Counselor – Q & A.” Message to Paula Wilson. 22 May 2017. E-mail.
4. Ibid.

The post Become a Reading Merit Badge Counselor first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The benefits of a more formal approach to civic education in the public library are tremendous. Public libraries by the very nature of their service can level the playing field for the unrepresented and marginalized populations. Public libraries who offer local civic training bring their residents into the decision making process, make government more accessible, and can even nurture future civic leaders. Librarians may find there are many civic-oriented resources including curriculum at the national level (see iCivics or Center for Civic Education) but few resources like this exist at the local level. Here is our opportunity!

Start by identifying examples of how a citizen might engage with your local government today:

• Serve on boards and commissions.
• Provide public input at a monthly town hall meeting.
• Attend a quarterly meet and greet with your elected councilperson.
• Read an upcoming notice or agenda for a public meeting.
• Respond to an online survey for public comment.
• Write a letter to your local elected official in support of new proposals.
• Register to vote.
• Vote for mayors, city council, referenda.

Next, identify how your local town engages its citizens. It might provide the following:

• Accessible town website with contact information.
• Online postings of council agendas and public notices.
• Live recordings of town meetings for those who cannot be present.
• Online surveys requesting public input on proposed changes.
• Electoral information for locations, candidates, and issues.

Librarians have a unique opportunity to position themselves as civic leaders that can bridge the gap between apathy and engagement, bringing community members from unaware to informed. If libraries see themselves as purveyors of civic education think about how much value the library has brought to the community.

When you teach your residents how local government works, you provide them with the education, skills, and tools to take action, get involved, and help solve local problems.

Some examples include:

• Create an informational workshop or series of workshops that explain how your local government works and how residents can be participate in their government. Call it “Your City” University or “Your City” 101, for example.
• Ensure your library partners with your local town to provide election information in your lobby and on your website.
• Publish info guides and pathfinders with links to voting places and sites like BallotReady, an app that provides background information on down-ballot races for positions like school board seats, judges, and commissions (which can be hard to find). Include this app in your workshop on local government.
• Host a town hall-type meeting; make the library the place for civic (and civil) discussion by sharpening your facilitating skills.
• Partnering with local high schools to teach young adults the importance of their vote and responsibilities as local citizens (reach the students to reach the parents).

Reluctant librarians may question whether civic engagement is a part of their mission or question their authority to be that civic place. Reports conclude that this is an untapped opportunity for libraries and helps local elected officials do their job because by reducing political apathy, it makes their jobs easier and grooms future government leaders.

Municipal officials say both they and the public need more training for engagement processes and that “important players (including citizens, the media, community and special interest groups and their own city halls) are not stepping up to their proper roles”¹ Oddly enough public libraries were not even listed as ‘important players’ in this report.

City and county officials believe their community’s public library “should definitely” or “should maybe”²:

• Provide information concierge services to access government services 81.9%
• Provide citizenship education services 78.9%
• Provide a forum for convening public discussions: 76.1%

Libraries that adopt a more formal approach to civic education contribute greatly to the participatory government this country’s founding fathers envisioned. Collectively, the thousands of public libraries have the capacity to change the face of government one community at a time by opening up government to those who want to participate but don’t know how. If your library is offering civic education classes please comment below and tell us about your programs!

For more information see the following reports published by the Urban Library Institute:

• Civic Engagement Stepping up to the Civic Engagement Challenge.
• Library Priority: Community-Civic Engagement”.
• Partners for the Future: Public Libraies and Local Governemnts Creating Sustainable Communities

References

1. Barnes, William and Bonnie Mann. Making Local Democracy Work (Washington, DC: League of Nations, 2010) p. iii.
2. Horrigan, John B. The Role of Libraries in Advancing Community Goals: An Analysis of Factors Influencing Local officials’ Responses in the ICMA/Aspen Institute/PLA Libraries Survey. (Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute, 2017) Chart 15b-‘Public Services and Civic Engagement’, p.13).

The post Civic Engagement: Democracy Thrives at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

It took me almost two months to drive into town and get my library card. Since then, I checked out books, renewed them online, streamed some music, and then—poof!—I lost my card before scanning it on Keyring, an app I use to keep track of my library and reward cards.

Although I will go to the library to get it replaced (and to renew material, and to just enjoy browsing), I cannot take advantage of all the library has to offer until then, and other patrons may not have the ability or incentive to do the same.

Then, after reading “The Future of Library Cards,” I thought, It really doesn’t have to be this way. Many libraries offer additional keychain cards for easier physical access. Likewise, digital access cards (offered by libraries like the Harris County Public Library in Texas and Rowan Public Library in Salisbury, North Carolina), allow access to digital subscriptions and collections but do not have borrowing privileges until they are authenticated in person.

Here’s how I see checkouts in a perfect world.

1. Patrons log onto their library’s website and click “join” or “register” just like any other website.
2. A validated address would allow a patron online-only access, and proper identification at the library would result in upgrade to a physical card. In this world, the patron would login with a username and password (not a 14-digit number) to unlock the library’s digital collections.
3. While in the library, they would gather all of their books and use the library app on their own phone to check out books.

Another twenty-first-century checkout scenario would be that the library customer uses an app like Keyring and place it under the library’s self-check out machine. But only if we lived in this perfect library world.

Jesse Ephraim, former director of Roanoke (TX) Public Library summed it up perfectly in a post in American Libraries: “With little risk and a small investment, patrons can turn mobile phones into virtual library cards” adding that “Library policies run the gamut from outright refusal to enthusiastic adoption.” Sara Polsky, in “Is the Library Card Dying?” on The Atlantic, also explains that smartphone apps can generate scannable bar codes, which can replace the need for a physical card.

Have library cards been keeping up with technological progress over the past seven years? Drones can deliver books, so why is it that a library does not offer digital access cards, patrons cannot check out their own books with their phones, or not every member of my community has a digital access card? It is so simple for community residents to be members of a library, even if they do not have physical borrowing privileges.

If your library is one of the few libraries offering digital access cards, funding a mailing campaign to new residents. or pushing the bar on the traditional library card, I welcome your thoughts and comments below. Let’s not let another seven years go by without pushing for library card innovation that truly works with customers’ needs and expectations.

Kaitlin Throgmorton, “The Future of Library Cards,” American Libraries, January 3, 2017.

Sara Polsky, “Is the Library Card Dying?” The Atlantic (Washington, D.C.), April 6, 2016.

The post Digital Access Cards for Everyone, Please first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In Librarian Takes It Off in the Stacks, Goes Viral, I left off with some unanswered questions: How do public libraries teach information literacy? How do they incorporate it into their programming? In “Fighting Fake News,” Marcus Banks spotlights an eight-week training course in community journalism for high school students hosted by the Dallas Public Library called “Storytellers without Borders.” Programs like this exist for college and high school students, but what about everyone else? How do public librarians reach the rest of the population?

As librarians, we approach each and every question with the utmost professionalism. We cover all perspectives of a subject and gather multiple sources so our researchers can come to the most truthful conclusion. But in our hyperconnected, networked world, where information flows freely to devices with the tap of a finger, librarians are no longer the gatekeepers of information. Promoting our detective-like information-finding skills is important so people know they can still turn to us when Google can’t cough up a good answer.

I have put together some innovative ways librarians can shine the light on reference services and continue to be the super info-professionals in their communities:

The Roaming Reference Librarian

Visit with some of your regular patrons while they are roaming the stacks or in front of a computer, like the Chattanooga Public Library did. Let them know you are promoting the library’s reference and research services and would be happy to help them research any topic above and beyond what they have found on Google. Equip yourself with a tablet in one hand (and perhaps a pencil behind your ear to look official). You may not get any takers on your first round, but continue to do that for a few weeks, and they will soon seek you out with their advanced research questions.

Straight from the Source: Government Documents

Librarians can continue to grow civic-minded communities by highlighting both local and national government documents. Rather then read editorialized and possibly skewed (maybe fake) news, show your patrons how to get theirs directly from the source by following presidential executive orders, memorandums, and proclamations. Logs like the Congressional Record and the Federal Register help us keep up with congressional activities and proposed rules, final rules and public notices, respectively. Since combing through these sites is often time-consuming, teach your patrons how to utilize the site’s search alerts and social media feeds; ”like” or ”follow” to import the sites into Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feeds.

Set the Record Straight with Database Content

By using social media streams, librarians can help set the record straight by offering multiple sources from the library’s premium databases. Yes, you can actually share full-text news and articles from some of the subscription-based databases in your digital collection—look for the “share” symbol! Sharing articles with the library’s social media fans promotes the vetted, trustworthy, but often underused resources and helps to validate the librarian’s role in the information space. Be mindful of your sources’ political leanings by providing balanced perspectives and viewpoints or sticking to middle-of-the road publications.

Gamification: Escape from the Library

By getting creative with gaming in the library, librarians can teach critical thinking skills that lead to scrutinizing sources and finding accurate information. One way to accomplish that is to create an escape locked in a room at the library. Escape rooms are physical adventure games in which a team is given a series of puzzles to solve and questions to answer in a limited time. A team may unlock one room only to enter a second room and answer additional questions. Escape rooms incorporate engaging elements such as collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, which make them very popular with all ages.

I hope these ideas are just a start for you to engage further with your community and position librarians at the center of the information revolution. This is a great opportunity for librarians to flex their info-muscles and help our communities develop information and media literacy skills so they are better prepared to digest and think critically about the world around them.

I welcome your comments, questions and thoughts about innovative ways librarians can fight fake news in their libraries.

Further Reading

“Before The Internet, Librarians Would ‘Answer Everything’ — And Still Do,” npr.org, December 28, 2014.

See how they did it in Chattanooga Public Library: Meredith Levine, “A Roving Reference Assessment in Teen Services,” Public Libraries Online, January 21, 2016.

Katie O’Reilly, “Libraries on Lockdown: Escape rooms, a breakout trend in youth programming,” American Libraries, September 1, 2016.

The post Creative Ways To Fight Fake News first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

• Results published in August from the National Endowment for the Art’s Annual Arts Basic Survey cited a decline in reading for pleasure.[1]

• Pew Survey Shows Adult Reading in Decline: New Pew survey finds small declines in reading across all formats.[2]

• Only 51 percent of children said they love or like reading books for fun, compared to 58 percent in 2012 and 60 percent in 2010, and reading enjoyment declines sharply after age eight, according to Scholastic’s The State of Kids & Reading.[3]

Statistical reports are further distributed through secondary sources with pointed headlines like:

• The long, steady decline of literary reading[4]
• Study: The Number of Teens Reading for Fun Keeps Declining[5]

As disappointed as librarians might be, we must realize there are opportunities and challenges for us. Opportunities exist because we know there is much good in reading for everyone. Reading has many benefits—many of which are documented in scientific studies: reducing stress, improving sleep, increasing vocabulary, fostering empathy, increasing concentration, improving memory, and engaging the brain.

As public libraries have rebranded themselves as centers of learning and technology, are they still doing the book thing? Storytime, summer reading, book displays, early literacy programs, and book discussions are still offered in libraries. One of the greatest challenges we face, however, is that our relationship with a patron is not as mandatory as it is with school librarians.  The job we have in front of us becomes even more difficult when school libraries in our community close or they are not adequately staff by certified, degreed librarians. A child is required to attend school, but they are not required to visit the public library. That is why reaching the child requires us to reach the parent.

To foster a long-lasting love of reading in a child, it is critical to get their parents’ involvement. By taking a two-generation approach, libraries can provide opportunities for meeting the needs of children and their parents.

Programs like Every Child Ready to Read supports parents and caregivers with the early literacy development of their children birth to age five. Librarians should also look out in their community to network with other local literacy efforts. Some may be national organizations with local chapters such as Reach Out and Read, an evidence-based program which builds on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers to develop critical early reading skills in children. Books for Babies, an initiative with ALA’s United for Libraries, is a great outreach program to new parents who may not know the many benefits of reading to their newborns.

Public librarians must focus their efforts on early child literacy to foster the love of reading in their communities. If you can reach the parent, you can reach the child. There may be many places where your patrons can get free Wi-Fi, but where are they going to learn to be good readers? If not you, then who?

References

[1] “Arts Data Profile #10 (August 2016) – Results from the Annual Arts Basic Survey (AABS): 2013-2015,” National Endowment for the Arts, August 29, 2016.

[2] Jim Milliot, “Pew Survey Shows Adult Reading in Decline,” Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2016.

[3] “Kids & Family Reading Report, 5^th Edition,” Scholastic, 2015.

[4] Christopher Ingraham, “The long, steady decline of literary reading,” Washington Post, September 7, 2016.

[5] Charlotte Alter, “Study: The Number of Teens Reading for Fun Keeps Declining,” Time, May 12, 2014.

The post Reading Is in Decline: If Not You, Then Who? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In a recently completed study,[1] most tech-savvy students have a difficult time distinguishing between real and fake news, or identifying the author of an article, according to researchers at the Stanford History Education Group. Researchers began the study in January 2015, because there were few ways to assess how students evaluate online information.

When we understand what motivates people to disseminate false news or conjure up sensationalized headlines it helps us, as librarians, to identify such stories and address them using information literacy tactics. Oddly enough, many times, consumers do not distinguish articles as false if the topic resonates with their beliefs, so they lend much more credibility to it rather than news they do not agree with.

Greed, influence, persuasion, and power seem to fuel much of the fake news we are hearing about lately. We as consumers must think critically to identify fake or parody sites, opinion pieces, sites or articles with ideological slants, satirical sites, and typosquatting, not to mention sponsored ads that appear in the body of an otherwise credible source.

One of the main reasons people create fake news: money. A recent BBC article identified a small city in Macedonia where teenagers earned advertising dollars by creating fake news websites centered on the U.S. presidential campaign.[2] People make money by creating content and placing ad space on that content via services like Google AdSense. They use click bait articles to entice readers to click on links, share content, and boost the popularity of their pages, resulting in more ad revenue. Authors of these pages purchase Facebook ads to generate more clicks to the page. This is not a new trend and there are other iterations of it, but that is basically how it works.

Why does it pose such a challenge for us librarians?

Librarians have professional standards we abide by for reference services which include identifying the accuracy, currency, and authority of a source as well as uncovering any bias it may display. We know how to search and retrieve valuable information on the Internet as well as find vetted, trusted materials.

What public libraries can do right now is to promote themselves as experts in information literacy through programming (computer classes, webinars, in-library displays) in their libraries as well as promotion (via blog posts, e-mail newsletters, and especially social media). Create a meme that drives the point home!

As I mentioned earlier, there are many related issues and I will leave with some questions that I hope to answer in future posts, or perhaps you may comment below and collectively, we can find answers.

How can we get the trusted, vetted content public libraries pay so much for in front of our patrons?

If the dearth of school and teacher librarians continues, where do public libraries fit into teaching information literacy?

How do public libraries teach information literacy? How do they incorporate it into their programming?

For more information:

• Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians
• Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online
• Teaching Information Literacy Now

References

[1] Stanford History Education Group, “Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning” (executive summary, Los Angeles, 2016), 4–5.

[2] Emma Jane Kirby, “The city getting rich from fake news,” BBC News, December 5, 2016.

The post Librarian Takes It Off In The Stacks; Goes Viral first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Action Guide originated from a report, Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries. The report made several conclusions including that when librarians align services to support local community goals, they will find the greatest opportunities for success. But when the community’s priorities are not well articulated in city planning documents, how do we know if the services the library offers, or plan to offer, support the goals of the community? Libraries like the Loveland (CO) Public Library are using the ‘turning outward’ approach to find the answers. They are asking community members to consider the following questions:

1. What kind of community do you want to live in?
2. Why is that important to you?
3. How is that different from how you see things now?
4. What are some things that need to happen to create that kind of change?

The “turning outward” approach originated from the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit that teaches people to change communities and solve problems. The American Library Association partnered with the Harwood Institute to teach librarians new ways to engage with their communities.

Strategies such as the aspirations tool assists libraries in facilitating these discussions. This strategy calls for participants to complete the following sentence: My hope is to live in a community where _________________ (aspirations). However, right now we face _________(challenges). In order to get there as a community, we need to ________________________ (new conditions, change). The Harwood Institute also publishes a facilitator’s guide so anyone can learn how to conduct the aspiration activity.

Members of the community group will tend to find consensus and can work together to create change through participating in this activity. Informed librarians can then begin to define and refine library services which will foster the desired change. As library activities closely align and realign with the aspirations of the community, librarians become the change agent proving their value to the community once again. This approach allows librarians to structure their programs and services in alignment with community aspirations with much more autonomy than they would have had if they asked inward questions like, “Do you want more hours on weekdays or less hours on weekends?” and other examples above.

Has your library implemented the Aspen Institute’s Action Guide for Re-Envisioning Your Public Library? Or the Harwood Institute’s aspirations tool to initiate a community discussion? If so, I would love to hear from you by commenting below!

The post Turning Outward at Your Library: Re-Envisioning first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A recent story sparked my interest in the reasons we read and the psychological, emotional, and social effects of being surrounded by books and reading. You may have seen the story as it made its way through social media circles. It’s about a secret library in a war torn suburb of Damascus. Tucked away in a basement lined with shelves and furnished with two couches and a desk, volunteers have amassed more than 14,000 books of all subjects. For 14-year-old Amjad, who lives next door, visits to the library are a daily occurrence. He takes such good care of the books that visitors have dubbed him, “deputy librarian.” ¹

As most of the world helplessly sits by reading headlines of the war in Syria, those who have read the words of the late Omar Abu Anas have been inspired by his brave heart and reminded of the resilient human spirit. “Truly I swear the library holds a special place in all our hearts,” he said. “And every time there’s shelling near the library we pray for it,”² Anas, a former engineering student, was killed in early August on the front lines during an attack by pro-Assad forces as he was defending his home town.

Syrians, driven from their homes, families, and country arrive to a life of uncertainty as refugees to host countries in foreign lands. Civilians who have not left the country contend with pain and suffering and the difficulties of trying to continue living in war torn cities without safe homes, shelter, and little food and water. But among the rubble, a tiny spark of humanity ignited and Anas’ words reflect a human spirit yearning to be free and sovereign over oneself. “Books motivate us to keep on going,” he said. “We read how in the past everyone turned their backs on a particular nation, yet they still made it. So we can be like that too. They help us plan for life once Assad is gone. We can only do that through the books we are reading. We want to be a free nation. And hopefully, by reading, we can achieve this.”³

In a free, democratic society, we are afforded basic human rights (they are not privileges since they cannot be taken away). In the United States, the guarantee of our fundamental liberties is outlined in the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, these became known as the Bill of Rights. Referred to as inalienable rights, the amendment that pertains to libraries is the first –Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This country fought, men and women perished, lives were lost to gain the First Amendment so that we could have the freedom of speech which extends to thought and expression. And through that expression, democracy works not only when citizens participate in government, but to work well, a democracy requires educated citizens who are well-informed and can participate intelligently.

Ray Bradbury spoke of the link to reading and democracy when he said, “If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country — we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.”⁴

As someone who loves libraries and understands why they are important not only to us as individuals, but collectively—to our communities and country. I urge all people to use their public libraries and to defend and protect their public libraries as if their lives depended on it — just as Omar Abu Anas did. In the words of Bill Moyers, “When a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open, too.”⁵ Libraries provide hope even in the darkest corners of the world.

References:

[1] Thompson, Mike. Syria’s secret library. July 28, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Popova, By Maria. “Ray Bradbury on Doing What You Love and Reading as a Prerequisite for Democracy.” Brain Pickings. Maria Popova, 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 9 Sept. 2016.

[5] Moyers, Bill. Foreword in The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson New York: Princeton Architectural Press 2014.

For more information:

ALA Democracy Statement

Public Libraries and Intellectual Freedom

Libraries and Democracy. ERIC Digest

The post Democracy, Libraries, and the Human Spirit: We Learn from Syria first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What we see in New York City repeats itself over and over as city governments across the country have been clamoring for sport franchise bragging rights, subsidies, and public funding of stadiums. Only when local officials understand the value public libraries bring to their communities and view them as investments will we see budgets parallel to their importance.

Why is that? Well, as you know, libraries are not meant to be a revenue stream, although a library will generate some minimal income in the form of late fees, used-book sales, book bags, ear pods, and the like. If local officials do not recognize the human capital that libraries create, they will never see them as an investment but more so as an expense. But what if local and state officials acknowledged that investing in the creation of human capital pays off?

Though the field of library valuation is relatively new, in Worth Their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation, it is noted that public library researchers have already adopted economic valuation methods to determine a dollar value of a library’s programs and services.^[2] Tools such as The Individual Return on Investment Calculator first appeared online in 2006 and have since been adapted by many libraries to show the return in value for every dollar in taxes spent on libraries. Worth Their Weight also seeks to quantify learning values and cultural benefits^[3]; such quantification would allow local libraries to express human and social capital as data values that refer to citizens’ well-being. Herein lies the crux of our challenge.

How can libraries demonstrate the return on investment tax payers gain in collective human capital or social capital? Let’s talk a bit about investing in human capital. Human capital refers to intangibles—such as the collective knowledge, talents and skills—of an individual or a group of people. Local governments invest in human capital by adequately funding things like education and libraries, which, in turn, results in less crime and poverty through higher literacy rates and a skilled workforce, ultimately increasing community welfare.

Major league sports teams can dangle extra zeros at the end of their annual/seasonal cost/benefit analysis reports, usually with more success than public libraries; how can libraries numerate their value propositions to get a larger piece of their local budgets?

We continue to advocate by using the tools we have right in front of us (and teach others to advocate on our behalf):

• Visit and use the tools at ALA’s Advocacy University
• Read “Showing Library Value to Local Government”
• Use the Libraries Transform campaign to demonstrate value and impact

We continue to help local government solve local problems (and show just how indispensable libraries are):

• Enlist public libraries to help fight homelessness
• Start a seed library
• Support entering the workforce and networking

While sound arguments have been made for the community benefits of local and state sports teams,^[4] it’s no secret that cities and towns across the country continue to lose taxpayer money on sports endeavors.^[5] Using valuation tools, we can (and need to) demonstrate the value libraries provide to the citizens who, in turn, can advocate for our library budgets and let their local officials know just how the library has transformed them. Advancement in library valuation is essential, as well as patrons’ stories that illustrate the library’s social return on investment.

Further Reading

• David Giles, “Branches of Opportunity,” Center for an Urban Future, 2003.
• A. Zimbalist, Sports facilities and economic development. Government Finance Review 29, no. 4 (August 2013): 94+.

References

[1] Jim Dwyer, “Denying New York Libraries the Fuel They Need,” New York Times, April 23, 2015.

[2] Susan Imholz and Jennifer Weil Arns, Worth Their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation (New York: Americans for Libraries Council, 2007), p. 5.

[3] Ibid.

[4] David Swindell and Mark S Rosentraub, “Who Benefits from the Presence of Professional Sports Teams? The Implications for Public Funding of Stadiums and Arenas.” Public Administration Review 58, no. 1 (1998): 11–20.

[5] Jeffrey Dorfman, “Publicly Financed Sports Stadiums Are A Game That Taxpayers Lose,” Forbes, January 31, 2015.

The post Demonstrating the Library’s ROI first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

These outdated views of what libraries were create a negative impact on our libraries and tend to erode support for libraries with this logic: if libraries stand for books, and if books can be downloaded from the cloud at the drop of a dime, then why do we need libraries? Library members and frequent visitors know better. In fact, our regulars have been visiting public libraries for so long they have witnessed our transformation from pre-computers to free Wi-Fi and can testify to how libraries have impacted their lives.

Not only do the new videos align with the E’s of Libraries, they support the initiatives of Project Outcome, which focuses on outcome-based reporting favoring impact over numbers and helps librarians demonstrate to local funding authorities the difference the public library is making in the lives of their local residents. And if increased viewing, creating, and sharing of video content is the direction our society is headed (see Pew Research Center’s log of articles about online videos), then certainly our clever and creative use of these videos in our own libraries can be quite impactful.

So, how do we put these videos in the front of those who need to see them?

Because the films were intended for you to use in your library, they are devoid of library names or patron names, making them perfect for repurposing. Extend the E’s of Libraries brand by not only posting the videos to your existing media channels but also consider creating additional digital content. For example, when posting information about your library’s job events link to a locally created web page that displays the video created for employment and relevant statics[1] to accompany that video:

• Every day, 300,000 Americans get job-seeking help at their public library.
• In a year, 30 million people use library computers and internet access for employment or career purposes.
• Ninety-two percent of libraries provide access to online job databases and resources.
• Seventy-six percent of libraries help people complete job applications online.

Perhaps people who do not normally view the library as a place to get job help will think twice after seeing the video.

Consider using them in local PSAs, incorporate them into your talks and speeches, and play them at your next Friends meeting. The videos can also be created as a tool to request additional funding. For example, if your library is seeking to be that entrepreneurial spot in the community, show the video to your funders and let them know that you aspire to be that place, and that you need their support to get there.

The possibilities are endless! What’s most important is that you use them. If you found an impactful and powerful way to use the videos in your library or have some ideas on how you might use them, you are welcome to post in the comments below.

Resources

PLA Premieres Library Advocacy Video Series at National Conference

Project Outcome – Looking Back, Looking Forward

Public Library Association Conference in Denver showcases new advocacy series

Public Library Association Advocacy Videos

References

[1] “Employment,” Libraries Transform, accessed May 18, 2016.

The post Can Videos Change Perception that Libraries are Only About Books? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

If you visit the FPL website, you will notice there is a lot of activity not unlike what you find at a library—ads promoting various programs and links to e-books, data sources, and downloadable material. Additionally, the library has created a web page of sources about the Flint water emergency.  Now, FPL is embarking on creating its own digital collection of stories with Flint Voices Matter, a project that combines collaboration of StoryCorps and Flint residents. StoryCorps’ is an independently funded organization whose mission is to “preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.”[1]

FPL will archive stories of residents living through the water crisis and make those digital recordings available for all to access[2]. Children affected by the lead contamination who are not old enough to understand or grasp the health implications of the contamination today will be able to access these first-hand accounts later in their lives.

The library partnered with StoryCorps last year, recording stories about the town’s history though everyday Flint residents. Moving forward, the library is going to begin adding stories about the town’s water crisis. It will be a resource for future generations to hear the stories first hand—not only read those quoted in newspaper and magazine articles but also hear the voices and see the faces of the residents who lived through it.

FPL offers librarians a working example of exactly how patrons move from the role of consuming content to creating it while shining light on a critical community issue. This is a maker-program using digital technology as well as creating digital collections available in varying formats and accessible to all. In this case, audio files with accompanying photos that will be uploaded to the web upon completion.

FPL is offering all people of their community the opportunity for their voice to be heard. It is fulfilling its role as community convener and as the voice of the people, shows the Library as a true pillar of democracy, a trusted public institution. The fate of the thousands of infants, children, young adults, and all other residents who drank toxic water remains unknown, but it is a fate that, with the help of the FPL’s StoryCorps program, will not go untold.

References

[1] “About StoryCorps,” StoryCorps, accessed, May 5, 2015.

[2] Will Greenberg, “Flint Public Library to archive stories of residents living through the water crisis,” Michigan Public Radio, March 31, 2016.

Further reading

“Flint Public Library: A Gateway to Critical Information,” Public Libraries Online.

The post Flint Residents: In Their Own Words first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Communities across the nation face many of the same challenges: lack of high-paying jobs, low civic engagement among residents, and increasing poverty levels. But within the unique fabric of our communities, more specific issues may arise, such as youth obesity, low high school graduation rates, and drug and alcohol abuse. Librarians can help their communities as they work alongside their city governments, nonprofit, and educational communities to find solutions.

If you are looking for a few good ways to get started, select one of the activities below.

Connect with your community today!

1. Connect with your city’s or town’s office of economic development to discuss how the library can support workforce needs and support for entrepreneurs and small business start-ups.
2. Meet with your town clerk or local archivist and discuss possible digitization projects and upcoming grants you can collaborate on.
3. Read recent city council, boards, and commission minutes to identify the pressing needs of the community. Attend meetings if possible.
4. Identify nonprofit, governmental, and educational organizations that share in the library’s mission. Meet with leaders and attend their meetings.
5. Align the goals of the library to that of your town or city’s strategic plan. Ensure library representation during the strategic planning process as well as ongoing participation.

Helpful Resources:

Libraries Transforming Communities: “Communities have challenges. Libraries can Help” Look for lots of upcoming training, case studies, and blogs.

A Step-By-Step Guide to ‘Turning Outward’ to Your Community” (Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, 2015). The tools in this workbook are designed to help libraries strengthen their role as community leaders and bring about positive change in their communities.

Action Guide for Re-Envisioning Your Public Library (Aspen Institute, 2016). This guide is intended to help libraries act on the report, Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries (2014).

The post Five Ways to Connect With Your Community first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

With many school library closures, the public library might be the only such place that our young male patrons experience. School librarian Helen Cox says that having objects that inspire curiosity—like chess sets, gyroscopes, 3D puzzles, kaleidoscopes—really does help foster an environment that boys like. In fact, she says that in her thirty years of experience working with students, boys respond well to a ‘scholarly environment.’[1] Cox also states that comics, pop-ups, 3D illusions, and jokes, as well as “the gross and the gory, the horrific, toilet humor, and action-packed adventures” should be highlights in the collection.[2]

For programming and even more collection ideas, let’s take a look at an organization that boasts a membership of over 2.5 million young boys as well as a record-high attendance at three of their high-adventure camps: the Boy Scouts of America.[3] How can the public library tap into that number? When asked how libraries might engage with scouts, Nancy Welton—Scoutmaster Troop 4, Thunderbird District, Grand Canyon Council (AZ)—stated, “Scouts actively seek truth and knowledge in all they do, so continuous learning through reading will only help them even more during their Scouting journey and into adulthood.” [4] Libraries provide meeting spaces, tours, merit badge book collections and some staff may even serve as the reading merit badge counselor.

If you take a look at BSA’s merit badge offerings, a total of 136, and specifically their most frequently  earned badges, you might glean some programming and collection ideas for your library. In order to get a cleaner picture of the statistics, let’s take away the thirteen Eagle-rank required badges and those popular offerings often found at summer camp or merit badge roundups. The remainder is merit badges that scouts chose to complete on their own. The following merit badges represent the next chosen in order of popularity: art, chess, mammal study, shotgun shooting, climbing, Indian lore, space exploration, pioneering, geology, and photography, basketry, aviation, and orienteering.[5]The list continues, but you get the picture. The merit badges that gained the most in popularity over the last year include game design, sustainability, programming, search and rescue, and cooking. Any one of these can easily tie into library programs and collections.

If you decide to pursue programming for males, don’t be surprised if you spark the interest of females who might be just as interested. And never exclude a patron based on their gender. Timmins Public Library (Ontario, CA) did just that but soon reversed its decision to exclude girls from a robotics program. In fact, many of the STEM and Makerspace programs have great appeal to both boys and girls.

Jon Scieszka, author and advocate with Guys Read, cites one of the reasons that boys struggle with reading is that they “don’t have enough positive male role models for literacy. Because the majority of adults involved in kids’ reading are women, boys might not see reading as a masculine activity.”[6] So if we can get Dad into the library, perhaps we can also help to create that male role model that our boys so desperately need.

If you’ve found success in reaching boys in your community, let us know by commenting below.

References:

[1]Helen Cox,. “Boy Story: Do you really want guys in your library?” School Library Journal, September 1, 2010.

[2]Ibid.

[3]“2014 Report of the Treasurer and Consolidated Financial Statements,” Boy Scouts of America, accessed February 11, 2016.

[4]Nancy Welton, text message interview with author, DATE.

[5]Bryan Wendell, “2014 merit badge rankings: Which were the most and least popular?”Scouting Magazine, March 25, 2015.

[6]Jon Scieszka. “Guys and Reading,” Guys Read [blog], accessed February 11, 2016.

Resources and Further Reading:

Brookfield Library programs reach out to men: Fantasy football one of the new “bro-grams” started this year

Culinary Literacy Center: Free Library of Philadelphia, Event Listing

Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library’s Manual for Showing Young Guys That Books Can Be Fun And Men Like to Read

Getting Boys Into the Library by Mike McQueen

For the Love of Reading

Check These Out at the Library: Blacksmithing, Bowling, Butchering

The post Man Up: Attracting the Male Patron first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

So, why are we so worried about the future of our libraries? People love us, right? Yes, they do, but that love is not always measured by their willingness to allocate funding to our budgets. Which begs the question, “How do we transform this unquestionable love for public libraries into increased funding?” Enter the librarian.

As I wrote in October, if the library is “the place,” then the librarian (and by librarian, I mean everyone who works in the library) may very well be what saves the public library. Listening to Patrick Sweeney’s keynote session at the Arizona Library Association conference, I was reminded of OCLC’s findings in a report that states that “The factors that determine residents’ willingness to increase their taxes to support their local library are their perceptions and attitudes about the library and the librarian.[2]  Sweeney, who works for EveryLibrary, (a Super PAC), informed us that most voters will not vote against a library referendum if they have a relationship with the librarian.[3]

Sure, I am making several assumptions, and perhaps drawing lines between dots that might not otherwise be connected, but play along with me, will you? Librarians humanize the library. They put a face on the institution as they connect people to books, programs and resources. Librarians are true community connectors and therein lay the potential that Wiegand brings to light—our transformative potential, that is what causes change or causes a shift in viewpoint usually for the better. When a patron experiences this transformational change, it can be exactly the type of emotional catalyst needed to motivate them up the ladder of engagement—from patron to volunteer to advocate to voter—and send them straight to the polls to vote for the library referendum (if and when that time comes).

What if librarians were fully engaged in their communities (yes, I know many are) and well-networked with their municipal counterparts, stakeholders, elected officials, trustees, and patrons (yes, even patrons). Wouldn’t forging such positive professional relationships help boost the perception and attitudes about the library and the librarian?

So, let’s drop our wasted energies on defending ourselves and our existence. People love us. Yes, libraries do matter in the age of Google. They always have and they always will. Libraries will outlive the printed books so long as we continue to evolve, grow, and innovate (just as we always have). In the words of Roy Bennett, “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, focus your energy on what you can create.”[4] Let’s continue to create the future of public libraries with innovative services and a well-connected community of librarians.

Reference

[1] Wiegand, Wayne A. Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

[2] De Rosa, Cathy, and Jenny Johnson. “From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America.” Report to the OCLC Membership (Dublin: OCLC, 2008). Web. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/reports/funding/fullreport.pdf.

[3] Sweeney, Patrick. “Opening Session: Party Hard.” Key Note, Arizona Library Association Conference, Flagstaff, AZ. November, 19, 2015. Libraray Association Conference, Flagstaff, AZ. November, 19, 2015.

[4] Http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7349842-instead-of-worrying-about-what-you-cannot-control-focus-your. Accessed January 22, 2016.

Resources-Further Reading

Berry, John N., III. “By the People: The Library future resides in the users’ perception.” Library Journal. (15 October 2015). Web. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/10/opinion/john-berry/by-the-people-the-library-future-resides-in-users-perception-blatant-berry/#_.

Wiegand, Wayne A. “Why Americans love their Public Libraries.” The Northwestern. (27 October 2015). Web. http://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/opinion/2015/10/24/americans-love-public-libraries/74563880/.

The post Americans Love Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I first learned about TYCTTLD just recently when browsing the Association for Library Service to Children websiteand immediately thought, “Well, that’s a winner.” Let’s think about this for a moment, from a parent’s perspective. We know taking our children to the library is a good thing. We know taking them regularly is as important as daily nutrition and good hygiene. And we all want to be good parents, right? So, if a Facebook post crosses my phone, or a door hanger lands on my door, or I receive an announcement about TYCTTLD with my water bill, I am most definitely going to put it on my calendar.

Now, from a librarian’s perspective, front line or administrator, is this too good to be true? What could be better than TYCTTLD for gaining awareness of the libraries vast services for children and parents? What a wonderful memory you can help a family make. (Okay, well maybe it can get just a wee bit better if your favorite elected official just happens to come in that day, too!) The possibilities are as endless as the impact you can have on your community and families as you help to create generations of readers.

As the number of libraries celebrating TYCTTLD increases, so do the resources made available to participants. Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, author and illustrator, has generously created the artwork to support the program . Images are available in high and low resolution JPG files that can be used on flyers, social media, and websites, and a collection of printed material available is for sale at Upstart/Demco. TYCTTLD-branded items include bookmarks, posters, bags, and library card holders – a portion of which helps support the work of the CLC and Connecticut-based nonprofit organization Read to Grow.

Additional free resources have been donated to the cause so, if you’re on the fence about joining, this should seal the deal. Take, for example, the TYCTTLD Program Guide written by former children’s librarian Patti Sinclair. This guide includes all sorts of ideas and suggestions such as creating daily book displays corresponding to famous children’s book authors and illustrators. Games (such as library bingo, library trivia contests, and creating a photo shoot) and a complementary song list are just some of the resources in Sinclair’s guide. With the inclusion of the New York Library Association, even more resources are available .

To find more information about TYCTTLD and how libraries are getting press, just Google “take your child to the library day” and “public library,” and you’ll uncover a host of press releases and glowing media coverage. Are you ready to get on board yet? If so, head on over to the TYCTTLD blog and sign up. It’s that simple. If your library is celebrating TYCTTLD please comment below and let readers know how it went.

Resources

Koester, Amy. “February 1 Is Take Your Child to the Library Day,” School Library Journal. January 29, 2014. Web. http://www.slj.com/2014/01/industry-news/february-1-is-take-your-child-to-the-library-day/#_. Accessed December 22,2015.

“Take Your Child to the Library Day now a nationwide campaign,” by Channel 8, WTNH News8. January, 26, 2013. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsgJMYCAH54. Accessed December 22, 2015.

The post February 6 is Take your Child to the Library Day! first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

U.S. public libraries are currently serving refugees and expecting more with open arms just as our overseas counterparts (see Refugees Supported by Public Libraries in Europe). If you are asking yourself if your community should expect refugees the answer partially rests with the President and Congress who determine on an annual basis the amount of refugees each year. It is then up to the Resettlement Support Centers to determine where a refugee will be resettled (U.S. Department of State). At the center of current controversy is exactly how the United States government intends to qualify refugees resettled from countries like Iraq and Syria, whose residents are fleeing from the terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

For lists of receiving states, data, graphs and maps visit the Refugee Processing Center’s web site. The Refugee Processing Center (RPC) is operated by the U.S Department of State (DOS) Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. For city-specific information, try checking the Resettlement Affiliate Directory (to see if there is a resettlement support center in your area). If so, contact them to inquire about how the library can help. With the release of the Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016 we gain a much clearer picture of the 2016 U.S. Resettlement Program and how it may impact our communities and the way in which we serve them.

In order to grasp the historical context and put those numbers in perspective one should know that the United States saw over 250,000 displaced Europeans in the wake of World War II, and then the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was enacted, allowing for another 400,000 seeking asylum.[2]

Introducing public library services to people who may not have had a public library and who do not understand the concept of a public library is both exhilarating (new patrons) and overwhelming (what services will they need? Which languages do they speak?). Thankfully there are libraries that have been providing these services all along and we can look to them for guidance. If you find that you are a receiving community, a great place to start is the WecometoUSA.gov web site that new arrivals are being directed to where they can learn more about living in America. A page just for public librarians offers citizenship resources, educational materials, ESL, citizenship class including links to exemplary models found at the Los Angeles Public Library, Queens Library and Harford Public Library.

Once again, as always, the public library is here to assist new arrivals to the country and open our doors to a whole new world for our upcoming citizens and their children. Are you currently serving refuges in your community or do you anticipate refugees arriving soon? I would love to hear from you about how you are serving them or plan to serve them.

Citations

1. Fennelly, Katherine. U.S. Immigration: A Historical Perspective . Accessed December 22, 2015
2. Refugee Council USA  History of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. Accessed September 20, 2015.

For more information:

“Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT).” Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT).

“PLA Service Response Workbook: Welcome to the United States: Services for New Immigrants.” PLA Service Response Workbook: Welcome to the United States: Services for New Immigrants.

“Responding – Public Libraries and Refugees,” International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

“Serving Refugee Populations in the Library: Who Are the Karen, the Bantu, the Meskhetian Turks?” Serving Refugee Populations in the Library: Who Are the Karen, the Bantu, the Meskhetian Turks?

“U.S. Refugee Admissions Program FAQs” U.S. Department of State. May 31, 2013.

The post Refugees and The Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The campaign overview defines its goals and objectives and gives an explanation of how this campaign dovetails with existing ALA public awareness efforts. Over the course of the campaign, the Libraries Transform brand will replace the “@ Your Library” campaign brand as ALA’s signature public awareness campaign. The campaign has several components including provocative “Because” statements that answer the question, “Why are libraries transforming?” Answers include, “Because employers want candidates who know the difference between a web search and research” and “Because why shouldn’t you be able to bring your Grande Caramel Snickerdoodle Macchiato.” The “Because” statements are part of a toolkit and made available as downloadable posters and banners.

Libraries are expected to create their own “Because” statements and encourage their end users to do the same. It goes without saying that the “Because” statements offer multiple answers to the “why libraries matter” question and/or statement posed throughout the last several years in various articles, speeches, and posts. Because transformative libraries are forever forward-thinking, the campaign outlines major trends providing perspective on how they impact libraries and what librarians should know about them. Trends like the “internet of things” focus on smaller devices, many unseen such as wearable technology and the further chasm between the technology haves and have-nots. Other trends include the increase of digital natives (those born after 1980), drones, robots, economy sharing, flipped learning, and curiously enough, the unplugged movement (of which I am a big fan). Each trend is described and its impact for librarians outlined.

Frankly, I’m quite jazzed about the campaign and can see many ways to incorporate the public awareness elements of it into advocacy efforts I am already making. How can librarians embrace and enable the campaign locally? Start early, begin speaking about the campaign to colleagues, incorporate it into one’s state or regional library association, and share it with friends of the library groups, boards, and trustees. Convene local library advocates to create “Because” statements that resonate and speak to your local community. As the campaign develops, so will your local efforts. Keep an eye out on how other libraries are implementing it by signing up for updates on the campaign’s web site.

If you’re planning on using the Libraries Transform public awareness campaign I invite you to comment below on your thoughts and ideas on how to localize it in your community.

The post Because Libraries Transform: ALA’s New Public Awareness Campaign first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

So, why consider crowdsourcing the library?

1. Because crowdsourcing is a 21st century skill and we want 21st century libraries.
2. Because crowdsourcing can create massive digital content resulting in greater data discoverability and value-added content (through tagging and annotations).
3. Because crowdsourcing creates engaged user groups and we want to engage with our communities.
4. Because crowdsourcing helps libraries achieve goals it would never have the resources to complete on its own.
5. Because crowdsourcing requires a level of trust and loyalty to the organization inherent in libraries and their communities.

While librarians are familiar with the broad concept of crowdsourcing we might not readily understand the potential implications for public libraries of the future. And in the end, we just might develop an engaged, involved user group formerly known to us as “patrons” who are ready to take part in the type of meaningful participation crowdsourcing allows.

Crowdsourcing is not new, in fact, we first heard about it over ten years ago. As defined by Merriam-Webster, it is the “practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.”

Innovative librarians with crowdsourcing skills must develop the framework, platform, or strategies that allow crowdsourcing to flourish in public libraries. I’ve outlined some high profile digitization projects that you’re probably already familiar with, but have you ever considered crowdsourcing library services such as collection development or reference?

Take for example, collection development. Isn’t patron-driven acquisition a form of crowdsourcing collection development? [See Chicago Public Library PDA grant-funded crowdsourcing collection development —http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/z687/cplpda1].

And, how about applying crowdsourcing to answering reference questions, which has been done outside of the library field [See Crowdsourcing Reference Help: Using Technology to Help Users Help Each Other by Ilana Stonebraker and Tao Zhang http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2015/Stonebraker_Zhang.pdf]

Crowdsourcing has been used successfully in many high profile library projects such as New York Public Library’s Labs, in which they have opened projects to researchers to crowdsource digital map and menu collections. [see How the NY Public Library Crowdsources Digital Innovation at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2488220,00.asp].

Along the same lines, the Smithsonian has created a Transcription Center where they have placed an open call for digital volunteers (even coining their own Twitter hashtag #volunpeers). They are currently recruiting for help to transcribe the William D. Stone General Store Ledger Book, 1865-1867 [https://transcription.si.edu/project/7669] where one will “gain a first-hand knowledge about the needs of people and businesses returning to their lives after the Civil War.”

I would love to hear your thoughts about how you think this could work in your library. What would your library look like if you crowdsourced it?

For more information:

Holley, Rose. “Crowdsourcing: How and Why Should Libraries Do it?” D-Lib Magazine,

March/April 2010, Volume 16, National Library of Australia.

[http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march10/holley/03holley.html]. Accessed 8/13/2015.

Howe, Jeff. The Rise of Crowdsourcing. Wired, Issue 14.06, June 2006.

[http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html] Accessed 8/13/2015

Matthews, Steve. “Crowdsourcing – A New 21st Century Library Skill.” 21st Century Library Blog, June 29, 2011. http://21stcenturylibrary.com/2011/06/29/crowdsourcing-%E2%80%93-a-new-21st-century-library-skill/ Accessed 8/13/15.

The post Five Reasons to Crowdsource the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

We’ve certainly had our smattering of “Why Libraries Matter” and “Do we still need libraries?” like the speech Sari Feldman, 2015-2016 ALA President, gave to the City Club of Cleveland [Why Libraries are More Important than Ever]. After stumbling upon Why Libraries Matter (The Nation) and In Praise of Libraries (The Rotarian), I wanted to take a closer look at how public libraries around the country are grabbing headlines. In search of an answer, I spent some time crawling through news aggregators attempting to gather insight on just how our nation’s public libraries are faring in the general press.

Much of what we see is generated via press releases, like those about summer reading programs. Press releases also garner media attention for the introduction of new services (see ‘Denver Public Library’s new on-site social worker settling into job’, The Kansas City Business Journal’s coverage of their libraries lending hotspots as is done in Seattle. Local broadcasts are also providing archived videos such as CBS8’s (San Diego), “Mayor presents plan to increase Internet speeds at public libraries.” Collectively, positive upbeat coverage bodes well for all public libraries everywhere.

When libraries can control the narrative through press releases—great! But that is not always the case. Public libraries have seen their fair share of budget woes in the press during the last several years. The New York Public Library’s budget crisis and deterioration of their three library systems remains highly visible in that city’s top dailies (see NYC public libraries urge reversal of recession-era funding cuts, Boost city funding for New York’s public libraries (Editorial), and most recently, Queens, Brooklyn and New York public libraries rally to restore $65 million in funding cuts). Just a bit north from there, the Boston Public Library finally solved its missing Dürer and Rembrandt prints (Daunting Search Paid off for the Library) but not after much ado in the Boston Globe as well as the resignation of the BPL’s President Amy Ryan.

Whether public library headlines are in the form of editorials, opinion pieces, commentary, or news stories, librarians must take charge of the conversation and, in some cases, consider how to change the narrative. One way is having library advocates issue guest editorials, letters to the editor, and opinion pieces. So wonderfully did Wilford Adkins, president of the Montclair Public Library Board of Trustees, address the crowd at the MPL’s Under the Covers Benefit, “Affirming and assisting the Montclair Public Library,” that his speech was issued as a guest editorial.

Announcements regarding new officers and key personnel are typically picked up by the media. Recently, Crain’s Cleveland Business brought public libraries to the eyes and minds of its readership with the coverage of Felton Thomas’ PLA presidency [Felton Thomas voted 2016-2017 president of Public Library Association]. This type of coverage in the business press elevates public libraries and librarians simply by the audience it reaches: local community, government, and business leaders.

As I wrap up my coverage of public libraries in the headlines, I am reminded of a famous quote attributed to Jim Morrison, “Whoever Controls The Media, Controls The Mind.” What has your experience with the media been? If you have a local story you would like to share, please comment below.

The post Reading Between the [Head]Lines…or Through the Looking Glass first appeared on Public Libraries Online.