Treat Resistance or Negativity As a Request for More Information

This has worked exceptionally well in my work. Usually I under-communicate and assume that people both understand and agree. I have learned to give the message again and again. I am still amazed that what has been so carefully explained and negotiated at one level of the organization does not make it to all levels. Eventually, with enough information, however, even those who do not agree are likely to let it go.

Keep Your Eye On Perspective

Remember, it is not generally about you; it is about the other person’s perspective of the problem. This comes close to the Four Agreements dictate not to take anything personally.¹ The further up the corporate ladder you climb, the more important this becomes. It used to take me hours or days into being disturbed about some particularly nasty comment or disagreement to remember it was not about me. Now I almost remember automatically. This reminder about keeping my perspective has saved me huge amounts of angst and helped me toughen up emotionally. It’s like its own little therapy session.

Make Work an Affirming Place

I first read this in a “women’s” book about creating a loving home, but since I spend more time at work than home, it just made sense to change the location. This really carries you into the realm of coaching and mentoring––the topic of my last article. Imagine a library that employees and patrons want to be a part of just because we felt like better people when we are there.

The People Who Are the Hardest to Love Need It the Most

Naturally we want to be around people who are easy and fun. We spend most of our waking hours at work with people who, like our family, we did not choose. If we make friends of these people how much different our work places could be. Years ago, I worked with someone about whom I regularly and annoyingly complained. The person who most often had to listen to my complaints said “Can’t you find something to like about this person and focus on it, really exclusively focus?” I took the wake-up call and realized that this person was, beyond their obsessive compulsive exterior, a real visionary. When I started to focus on that trait, I began to learn.

With Age Comes Wisdom, I Hope

The ability to vision became part of my skill set. Next I began to look at whether or not I was an easy, fun person to be around. Not so much, I decided. I began working on smoothing out some of my rough edges (the ones that tended to give other people slivers––like sarcasm), and while I may have a ways to go on being fun, I am at least a little more relaxed.

Keep it Simple

Jerome M. Segal in Graceful Simplicity: The Philosophy and Politics of the Alternative American Dream tells us that “the point of an economy, even a dynamic economy, is not to have more and more; it is to liberate us from the economic––to provide a material platform from which we may go forth to build the good life.”² I keep thinking that this in some way may be true for libraries as well. If we keep our message simple, people will get it. If we keep our services simple, people will use them. And if we keep our mission focused on our community needs, we will stay relevant, and we can’t help but make a difference. We provide a material platform from which people can build “the good life.”

Seek and Give Feedback

This last item may be both the most simple and most difficult item on this list. Two quotes come to mind. “Unfortunately,” said Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, “most people would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”³ And second, the old addage “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.” Most people think that “constructive” and “criticism” should never be used in the same sentence, but straightforward and insightful critique can be life-changing and work-changing. Yes, you have to have a trust-based relationship with those you give and receive feedback from, but no one ever got better by doing what they have always done. There are times when people and relationships, like that pig, do not have the maturity required to deliver or receive feedback. In that case, that is what you work on instead.

If the difficulty in achieving this relationship is your problem, you might try reading Peter Bregman’s blog post “Don’t Be Nice; Be Helpful,” from the Harvard Business Review online. He states beautifully that honest feedback is “neither rude nor mean, it is compassionate.”⁴ And it’s not just for the director. “Everyone should offer feedback to everyone else, regardless of position. Because as long as what you say comes from your care and support for the other person—not your sympathy (which feels patronizing) or your power (which feels humiliating) or your anger (which feels abusive)—choosing to offer a critical insight to another is a deeply considerate act.”

There. One more list made.

References

1. Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (San Rafael, Calif: Amber-Allen, 1997).
2. Jerome M. Segal, Graceful Simplicity: The Philosophy and Politics of the Alternative American Dream (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1999), 12.
3. Anniekie Ravhudzulo, Nothing Lasts Forever (Bloomington, Ind.: Xlibris, 2010), 56.
4. Peter Bregman, “Don’t Be Nice; Be Helpful,” Harvard Business Review online, Mar. 16, 2011, accessed Feb. 23, 2012.

The post With Age Comes Wisdom first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

To this end, many libraries are starting to call greater attention to these hidden gems. New York Public Library (NYPL) recently unveiled two products that have captured the public’s imagination. “What’s on the Menu” gives patrons the opportunity to comb through the library’s collection of over forty thousand menus, some reaching as far back as the 1840s.¹ By giving patrons the tools to transcribe these fascinating historical documents (not to mention making it fun to do so), the library is effectively crowdsourcing what would have been a monumental task.

Similarly, the “Stereogranimator” provides a creative solution for another fascinating-but-tricky collection.² Stereoscopic images use a pair of similar two-dimensional images to create a three-dimensional optical illusion. When viewed through a stereoscope—a turn-of-the-century steampunk Viewmaster—the two images are fused together to create the illusion of depth. It’s easy to scan these images and archive them on the web, but existing digital archives fail to show the image the way it was meant to be seen.

The Stereogranimator approximates the three-dimensional stereograph by overlapping the two original images and flashing the images back and forth in rapid succession. By turning them into animated .GIF files, patrons get a better sense of what makes the collection unique. With a collection of 21,716 stereographs (and opportunities to create even more), there is plenty of content to warrant repeat visits.

What can we learn from these successes? It’s simple: without an alluring interface, it’s easy for all the unique and fascinating stuff in our collections to get lost in the stacks. Now, most of us don’t have the kind of resources NYPL was able to use to make this happen. But we can harness the power of a newly popular social web tool.

Enter Pinterest, the latest social web sensation and an easy-to-use platform for collecting interesting web content. After creating an account, you are urged to install a “bookmarklet” on their browser of choice. As you find Pin-worthy sites, images, or quotes in your daily surfing, clicking the bookmarklet adds the link to your ongoing collection. (You can also pin content directly on Pinterest, or upload original material that you’ve created yourself.) Pinterest then creates virtual corkboards of all the images in your collection, creating a visually appealing jumble of all the content you’ve tagged.

Big deal, right? From email forwards to Delicious to our browser’s Favorites folder, we all have our own tools for saving the links that catch our eye. But the true appeal of Pinterest doesn’t appear until you look at how all these links interact socially.

As your friends start pinning items to their pages, they’ll pop up in your main feed. What starts as a simple exchange of links and photos quickly turns into an ongoing parade of all the creative, clever, and fascinating stuff that makes the Internet great. Having a good Pinterest network is like having your own digital cabinet of curiosities. Every time you open its doors, you’re treated with something completely new and exciting.

This formula has led to a dramatic rise in popularity for the site. In less than six months, Pinterest has become one of the top sources of referring links online, with users clicking on pinned links almost as much as those from Twitter.³ This site has become a major part of the way folks discover new stuff online. This free-flowing stream of content is a prime opportunity for libraries. Let’s wade in and see how we can forge new connections with our virtual patrons. Here are a few suggestions to help get you started.

• Start developing content first, and let your voice emerge naturally as you learn the ropes. It’s easy to overthink this process. Should you have a concept for the items you pin? Don’t allow the process to get in the way of actually building your collection. The appeal of these sites lies with their ability to pull together random content. Be sure to keep that in mind as you get in the habit of maintaining your site. Once you get more comfortable with having a library presence, then you can start thinking about organizing your content.
• Think visually. Being the bookish types that we are, librarians have a habit of focusing on text above all else. This preference is all over our websites, our booklists, and even our signage. Pinterest turns this on its ear by placing the image front and center. This isn’t necessarily a major shift for us—it’s a chance to dress up some of our existing resources by laying them out visually. Take the humble booklist, for example. On its own, it’s typically a straighforward list of bullet points. But when laid out as a Pinterest board,4 the array of book covers calls to mind a tasting menu, or even the book order forms of our elementary school days. Creating a display like this is as simple as plugging the catalog URLs into Pinterest. As you start building your Pinterest page, think of ways you can use this nice, clean, visual interface to create new virtual displays.
• Give as good as you get. As with any other social web platform, Pinterest is built upon reciprocity. As your patrons start following your pins (you are  broadcasting your presence across your other promotional platforms, right?), you’ll want to keep an eye on the content they’re adding to their board. You might even want to highlight some of these pinboards on your blog or your Facebook page. Don’t be shy! This can be a great way to bring out the human factor in your web presence, and it’ll make your patrons more likely to remember you as they use Pinterest.
• Don’t be afraid to think big. As your collection and network gains a toehold, it’s important to think about ways to leverage Pinterest even further. I could see programs emerging in the same vein as the Wikipedia “editathons” several libraries have held recently.⁵ Instead of groups of patrons editing local Wikipedia pages, patrons could scan and curate their photos to build a living scrapbook of life in your community. Take a look at your archival and local history collections, and see if Pinterest might breathe new life into them.

Pinterest gives us a chance to socialize our collections in a way that hasn’t been done before. Its simple interface and robust social tools make it possible for anyone to curate their own collections, no matter how ephemeral. As stuff gets repinned and shared, it can take on brandnew contexts. If we give our patrons the chance to pin library stuff, it might just teach us a thing or two about the way they interact with our content.

References

1. “What‘s On the Menu,” New York Public Library, accessed Feb. 10, 2011.
2. “NYPL Labs: Stereogranimator,” New York Public Library, accessed Feb. 10, 2011, http://stereo.nypl.org.
3. Zoe Fox, “Pinterest Drives More Traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn Combined,” Mashable, Feb. 1, 2012, accessed Feb. 10, 2012.
4. “Pinterest: April‘s New Books,” Skokie Public Library, accessed Feb. 20, 2012.
5. Sanhita SinhaRoy, “Libraries Tap into Crowd Power,” American Libraries 42, no. 11/12 (Nov./Dec. 2011), accessed Feb. 20, 2012.

The post Share and Share Alike: Building Social Collections with Pinterest first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Shannon Seyler with ObitCity.com said the fact that a simple memorial for a loved one is no longer in everyone’s reach is unconscionable. “Everybody deserves an obit. Everybody,” she said. “That means people of limited income, refugees and immigrants, transients passing through, the lonely suicide in a hotel room, everybody. The prices charged for some obits are an outrage. To me, denying someone an obit just because the family can’t afford it is morally wrong.”²

And Carlson and Seyler are not alone in their sentiments. With so many newspapers on the chopping block due to the Internet, newspapers mostly charge to run an obituary rather than providing it as a complimentary community service. While rates vary by region, there’s no denying that a traditional obituary with a cherished photo can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

“Obituaries are history writ small, magnifying glasses to recent lives that teach us about ourselves, our community, and our country. However famous their deeds may have made them, personal information, the mortar that held their life together, can only come locally from friends, family, and near colleagues. Local media therefore have a special responsibility for gathering the obituary material that will become a story passed around the world into posterity,” said Professor Michael Locke, University of Western Ontario, who laments the lack of media investment in obituaries these days.³

Locke said, “Obituaries are a balance sheet of a person’s life. What did they contribute, what do we owe them, did they make a difference, and especially, why did they make a difference?”

“These little newspaper gems can bring a vast amount of new information to you about your ancestors,” said Elizabeth Fournier with Cornerstone Funeral Services and Cremation in Boring, Oregon.⁴ “Every human life has some value. If the story is not told and the family gets smaller and smaller over the years, then nobody will know the story if the newspaper doesn’t print it.”

Amateur genealogist John Henkle couldn’t agree more. “As someone who dabbles in genealogy, I recognize and fully appreciate the value of an obituary in providing not only family information but historical data,” he said.⁵ Obituaries often bring together in one place keys to the previous generation, names of family members and life events. That got Henkle, a longtime employee and collection development librarian at the Orange County (Fla.) Library System (OCLS), thinking about the library providing a mechanism to offer an obituary service in an online environment. “There’s information about the community that is lost when an obituary is not written,” he said.

The library already had a program called Orlando Memory launched in 2008 that celebrates the area’s rich local history by allowing members of the public to upload photos and submit video, audio, documents, and links as well as initiate discussions about Central Florida history. “A community obituary project that will allow members of the public to submit obituaries to memorialize and pay tribute to loved ones just seemed to be a natural extension of the Orlando Memory program already in place,” Henkle said. He suggested the idea to library administration and the concept got legs.

OCLS subsequently applied for and was awarded a $50,000 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to explore the feasibility for an openly accessible online database into which the families of deceased individuals can upload obituaries. OCLS director and CEO Mary Anne Hodel was immediately intrigued by the project, named Electronically Preserving Obituaries as Cultural Heritage (EPOCH). Hodel said the demise of the newspaper obituary presented an opportunity for OCLS to fill a void created by a world where the abbreviated death notices now far outnumber complete obits.⁶

In addition to the $50,000 from IMLS, OCLS will provide $21,754 in matching funds for the EPOCH project. Library staff members acknowledge up front that exact costs are difficult to predict. Most of the costs incurred would be in staff time for the library Information Systems Department to create links or  webpages, and for the library’s Community Relations Department to create marketing collateral both online and in print. There will also be a significant investment of time put into community outreach efforts. Once established, OCLS plans to pursue donations and other fundraising opportunities to support this important project.

“This will not only help families at a difficult time by sharing information on the memorial service and other final details, it will also create a searchable archive going forward,” Hodel said. EPOCH will offer an affordable alternative to costly traditional newspaper obituaries. Many people desire to honor their loved ones with a full life story obituary and run it for several days before the funeral only to find the cost prohibitive in traditional newspapers. And unlike obituaries in newspapers and on funeral home websites, which expire after a certain time frame, the information posted on EPOCH will remain there indefinitely as part of a searchable archive. “That means important memories and historical data will remain available to family and friends for years to come,” Hodel said.

“This is the differentiating factor that will make EPOCH an important research tool and a valued community resource.” “This is a wonderful time for libraries to really look at things with a fresh perspective, to be innovative, and to reconnect with our communities,” said Donna Bachowski, the head of reference at OCLS and the EPOCH project leader.⁷ “Hyperlocalism is really important and it is a place where we can connect our past with contemporary technology,” she said. Bachowski feels keeping the community connected and informed is a part of the library’s responsibility. “And, long term, in thirty years, we will have a terrific resource available.”

A study published in spring 2011 by the University of Missouri School of Journalism comparing citizen-driven news sites and blogs with daily newspaper websites substantiates Bachowski’s point on hyperlocalism.⁸ The overall conclusion of the study is that citizen sites work better as complements to traditional media, filling in hyperlocal news and opinion that newspapers have abandoned.

Questline, the call center for OCLS, regularly receives calls from out-of-district residents requesting obituary information or seeking copies of locally published obituaries. The number of calls received on a regular basis demonstrates a need for, and interest in, locating obituaries. “Quite frequently, we find this to be the reason they are calling. There is clearly an interest in the accessibility of this type of information,” said Jim Myers, who oversees the Circulation Department and Call Center at OCLS.⁹ The library system also frequently receives similar inquiries via its website.

There are other reasons that make Orange County an obvious choice for pioneering the effort. OCLS is home to the largest genealogical collection in the Southeast. It serves as the state library for the Florida State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Obituaries are not only an important part of genealogical research but a vital source of local history as well. This critical collection creates connections to the past and offers a sense of history. The study of genealogy is an intergenerational activity that gives a context in which to understand the world as researchers unearth the common threads that appear in every generation.

IMLS director Susan Hildreth said the grant will allow OCLS to explore alternative strategies for capturing and sorting such news, as part of a long-term historical record, to ensure this memory is not lost.¹⁰ The goal of the EPOCH project will be developing the framework for comparable endeavors that can be replicated by libraries and communities throughout the United States. Extensive documentation, such as checklists or a toolkit that will guide other communities in planning and implementing similar projects and guidelines for ensuring data compatibility, will be included as part of the final product. The software will be developed as a prototype to allow for usability testing and user input. Focus groups and advisors will provide input to the feasibility of the project and the functionality of the software.

An overarching goal of the EPOCH project is to create this toolkit that will help other communities implement similar initiatives. OCLS will explore privacy issues, equipment needs, and archival solutions. The library system also will be creating instruction manuals to make it user friendly, and reaching out to media outlets and funeral industry representatives to promote it. The grant started in December 2011 and has an aggressive, twelve-month timeline in place for building a framework for online obituary submissions that other communities can adopt. Specific issues include:

• addressing potential privacy issues;
• consulting with metadata experts at the Florida Center for Library Automation to ensure that the information in the database conforms to the Encoded Archive Context (a metadata standard for electronic archives that makes information available via common search methodologies);
• developing a detailed list of essential equipment;
• creating curriculum and supporting
  documentation for user instruction; and
• working with focus groups, including reaching out to small newspapers and funerary organizations.

Henkle says EPOCH will offer a much-neededmechanism that makes it easy to share stories, convey memories, and build community. Fournier agrees the service is much needed but for reasons beyond the capturing of historical data. “Recalling pleasant memories and happy times together is important to accepting the natural cycle of life and death,” she said. “The feelings of pain and loss associated with this passage in the natural cycle of life need to be dealt with in a healthy grieving and bereavement process.”

Hodel is just delighted that the prototype, which is scheduled to be completed by November 2012, will fill gaps and meet community needs on many levels. “EPOCH is completely in sync with today’s social media. It’s social, it’s sharing, and it builds an online community that can be accessed and referred to in the years to come,” she said.

References

1. Lisa Carlson, email interview with the authors, Nov. 8, 2011.
2. Shannon Seyler, email interview with the authors, Nov. 2, 2011.
3. Michael Locke, email interview with the authors, Nov. 7, 2011.
4. Elizabeth Fournier, email interview with the authors, Nov. 8, 2011.
5. John Henkle, personal interview with the authors, Nov. 8, 2011.
6. Mary Ann Hodel, personal interview with the authors, Nov. 7, 2011.
7. Donna Bachowski, personal interview with the authors, Nov. 3, 2011.
8. Nathan Hurst, “Citizen Journalism vs. Legacy News: The Battle for News Supremacy,” University of Missouri News Bureau, July 8, 2010, accessed Mar. 28, 2012.
9. Jim Myers, phone interview with the authors, Nov. 10, 2011.
10. Susan Hildreth, email interview with the authors, Nov. 16, 2011.

The post Electronically Preserving Obituaries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Other policies attempt to control the conduct of patrons, but their uneven application has led many to question whether these codes are little more than “poverty profiling.” Multnomah County (Ore.) Public Library, for instance, has enacted policies detailing the proper use of restrooms, placing a limit on “bathing, shaving, washing hair, and changing clothes.”³ Some libraries have even incorporated anti-homeless design into their buildings. Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library installed a spiked iron railing in their window sills to prevent homeless individuals from sleeping and loitering.⁴

These policies bring up an important issue in the management of libraries and information centers. Is it ethical, or even legal, to limit the access of homeless patrons to protect the rights of other patrons? How do we educate our patrons about the unique circumstances of the homeless population? And, most importantly, how do we remove the barriers of access homeless people face and create programs that engage them in a meaningful way? First, I will examine the legal and ethical ramifications of conduct codes and other policies targeted at the homeless. Then, I will outline some of the barriers that prevent homeless people from taking full advantage of library services. Finally, I will propose some outreach efforts that libraries can enact to fulfill the special information and service needs of the homeless in their community.

Legal Implications

Two legal cases provide important precedent in discussing the legality and constitutionality of conduct codes targeted at homeless patrons. The first, Kreimer v. Bureau of Police for Town of Morristown (1992), was brought to the District Court of New Jersey by Richard Kreimer, a homeless man, who sued the public library for violating his First Amendment rights after he was evicted based on his appearance, hygiene, and repeated behavior problems.⁵ The first issue to be decided by the court was whether the library is a public forum. If the library is a public forum, it cannot, as a governmental entity, condition access to freedom of speech––a constitutional right that applies also to the right to receive information.⁶ The second issue is whether the language of the conduct code was vague, and hence a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the government from enforcing conduct standards in an arbitrary or discriminatory way.⁷ Initially, the court ruled that the library is a public forum that cannot discriminate in providing access to information based on hygiene and “annoying” behavior, standards that are subjective and at risk of being applied in a prejudicial manner.⁸ However, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned their decision based on a definition of libraries as a “limited public forum.”⁹ The classification of the library as a public forum means that the library is open to the public for certain, limited purposes, and the court ruled that libraries do have the right to bar conduct that inhibits other patrons’ ability to utilize the library for these intended purposes.¹⁰

In 2001 the constitutionality of library policies based on hygiene and appearance was again put under question. In the case of Armstrong v. District of Columbia Public Library (2001), a homeless man was refused admittance to the library based on his “objectionable appearance.”¹¹ In this case, the court ruled that the library’s policy against “objectionable appearance” was too vague, and therefore subject to discriminatory application and a violation of the due process guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.¹² Furthermore, the library violated Armstrong’s First Amendment rights by limiting his ability to receive information. This case was different from Kreimer v. Morristown because Armstrong was not allowed admittance, and therefore not able to use the library for its intended purposes as a limited public forum, as established in previous court precedent.

The two previously mentioned cases represent two legal evaluations of library policies limiting the access of certain patrons to the library. They demonstrate that it is not illegal to regulate behavior and appearance if it interferes with other people’s utilization of the library. However, policies must be applied in an equal manner and based on clear guidelines, so as to target the behavior and not the patron. Mary Minow, a lawyer and librarian, offers a useful set of  guidelines for libraries to follow to ensure their policies are not discriminatory and within legal bounds.¹³ Her guidelines, “FEND,” give a set of best practices when creating conduct codes:

First Amendment: Libraries must protect the right of free speech.

Equal Enforcement: Policies must be applied consistently.

Notice: All policies should be clearly posted or distributed.

Due Process: A well-defined appeals process must be available to patrons who challenge library policies.¹⁴

The most important thing to remember when designing lists of unacceptable behavior is that policies must be written in such a way to ensure equal enforcement. This means that if sleeping is prohibited, it cannot be enforced only against the homeless; it must be enforced against all patrons, including children, teenagers, the elderly, prominent community members, and so on. Furthermore, patrons must be fully informed of inappropriate conduct and given the opportunity to argue their case. Only behavior that infringes on other patrons’ rights should be considered.

Another important consideration when enforcing behavioral rules is that patrons acting erratically may behave in such a way because of a disability.  Disruptive behavior by patrons who are expressing symptoms of disabilities such as Tourette syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, or others are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.¹⁵ In these cases, punitive action is inappropriate. Library staff may not be aware of the symptoms or nature of these disabilities and it is imperative that they are educated in these matters. Furthermore, appropriate courses of action for when patron behavior becomes disruptive or dangerous should be planned for in advance. Library workers should be aware of crisis teams in their community because these health professionals are specifically trained to deal with situations such as these.¹⁶ Library staff should be trained in assessing whether situations call for health professionals rather than police.

Ethical Obligations

Now that we have examined some of the legal ramifications of policies targeting homeless patrons, it is time to turn to the ethical obligations librarians have to provide equal access to information and how librarians can balance the rights of different patrons. The American Library Association (ALA) is the primary agency that provides libraries with a set of standards and a code of ethics. Section 61 of ALA’s policy manual, entitled, “Library Services to the Poor,” promotes “equal access to information,” and libraries’ “role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society.”¹⁷ This means that libraries should not promote policies that limit the access of information to any category of people. Further, it means that libraries have a special obligation to  advocate for the information rights of economically disenfranchised populations like the homeless. Policies that isolate and discourage the homeless from seeking information are essentially violating the ethics of the primary governing body of librarianship, the ALA. This sentiment is echoed by the Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force of ALA’s Social Responsibility Round Table (2005), which says that:

Odor policies of the sort enacted by San Luis Obispo County, California, and the civility campaign, launched by Salt Lake City (Utah) Library to teach the homeless, children, and others how to behave are at best misguided and, at worst, contribute to the criminalization of poor people.¹⁸

Therefore, when enacting conduct codes, libraries must be sure that they are, in fact, regulating behavior, and not participating in poverty profiling.

Balancing the needs of different patrons requires that libraries do their best to promote an atmosphere that is welcoming to all patrons and conducive to everyone’s enjoyment of the library. However, the presence of homeless people and the unpleasant effects of poverty may provoke patrons to demand the sort of discriminatory policies that have just been established as unethical and, in some cases, illegal. When responding to these dilemmas, it is important to remember that the poor and homeless experience poverty, not only in the economic sense, but also what Lan Shen calls a “poverty of rights.”¹⁹  Displeasing odors and atypical behavior do not compare with the seriousness and enormity of the issue of poverty. Furthermore, Don Mitchell, a geographer and homeless rights advocate points out that, for those who do not have private spaces of their own like the homeless, laws and policies that limit what can be done in public space are essentially limiting what they can do at all.²⁰ So libraries that ban the improper use of bathrooms and sleeping may be eliminating yet another space in which the homeless are able to perform basic human activities. Although, it is not the job of libraries to alleviate the issue of homelessness, many public libraries provide a refuge or sanctuary to those stricken by poverty.21

Outreach Programs that Empower Homeless Patrons

One of the benefits of the library serving as a refuge for the homeless is that it presents librarians with the opportunity to fulfill their role in providing information and services that enable the poor and homeless to participate fully in democratic society and become competent information users and active citizens. Librarians can provide quality information and service to the homeless by utilizing a number of strategies.

The first step to providing effective service to homeless patrons is to get to know the homeless in your community. The best way to do this is to engage homeless patrons through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. However, because of the difficulty of reaching patrons who are already underserved by the library, it is imperative to collaborate with nonprofit groups and government agencies that work with the homeless in your community.²² The homeless are not a homogenous group, even though they are often treated that way. The homeless population is a diverse group including people of difference races, ethnicities, ages, and genders. Therefore, information should be gathered about the demographics and sub-groups of homeless and their specific  information needs. Libraries should also gather information that will aid in the planning of programming and other services; for example, information about shelter hours in the area should inform decisions on when to plan programming.²³

In addition to meeting the specific information needs of the homeless, ALA urges libraries to “promote the publication, production, purchase, and ready accessibility of print and nonprint materials that honestly address the issues of poverty and homelessness . . . [and] . . . that deal with poor people in a respectful way.”²⁴ The acquisition and promotion of these materials will help to educate patrons and staff, ease tension, and breed compassion within the community. In addition to collection development, information relevant to the needs of homeless people can be disseminated via the library’s website or in the form of a pamphlet that can be given to patrons to keep. For example, Baltimore County (Md.) Library partnered with the Baltimore Coalition for the Homeless to produce “street cards” with information pertaining to food, health, shelter, legal aid, welfare, employment, and so on.²⁵

There are some aspects of traditional library service that present unique difficulties to the homeless population. In order to properly serve the homeless, libraries should evaluate their service for potential barriers they may present to homeless patrons. Some specific barriers for homeless patrons include those relating to costs, transportation, lack of permanent residence, and staff attitude. In order to eliminate barriers relating to cost, the ALA recommends the removal of fees for service, particularly overdue charges.²⁶ However, in tight budget times, public libraries may be reluctant to eliminate a reliable source of income. Another option is to create fine exemptions for people of low incomes. However, libraries should be especially careful that exemptions such as these are based on fair metrics and are not perceived as inequitable by the community.

Another common barrier that homeless patrons experience is lack of transportation. Transportation barriers can be alleviated in a few different ways. Bookmobiles can be used to provide convenient service, or libraries may choose to provide supplemental services at shelters in their area. Multnomah County (Ore.) Library has instituted a shelter delivery program that distributes paperbacks on a monthly basis to shelters and transition homes.²⁷ Providing services onsite at shelters is another option. Live Oak Public Libraries in Georgia provides storytime at six different shelters.²⁸ Onsite service and delivery to shelters can help alleviate another significant barrier to service for homeless patrons, lack of permanent housing. Homeless patrons’ access to library collections is limited by their often nomadic or unstable lifestyle since many libraries require proof of residence to check out materials. Libraries, such as Worcester (Mass.) Public Library, have begun to allow homeless patrons to use shelter addresses to obtain library cards, an option to consider when designing library policies that are barrier-free.²⁹

Some researchers, such as Julie Hersberger, professor of information science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, maintain that the biggest barrier for homeless patrons lies with the attitudes of library staff.³⁰ The intimidation and unworthiness felt by some homeless patrons is a real obstacle that libraries can eliminate by providing sensitivity training, education, and by adopting ALA’s Policy on Library Services to the Poor. The combination of sensitivity training and education can help reduce staff fear or confusion in dealing with homeless patrons and enlighten them to their unique service needs. Aware of the intimidation felt by homeless patrons, San José (Calif.) Public Library, in collaboration with lawyers, social workers, and other community agencies, created special reference services, such as focused one-day workshops, targeted to the needs of homeless patrons.³¹

ALA’s Policy to the Poor should be incorporated into a library’s goals, mission, or strategic plan in order to communicate the importance of these measures and create an environment that values inclusiveness. A 2009 survey of ALA members on Policy 61 (Library Services to the Poor) discovered that members were not collaborating with each other and other agencies to carry out the goals of this policy.³² This suggests that the ALA may need to do more to promote the significance of this measure and provide more resources and support to libraries undertaking programs and other outreach services to their poor and homeless in their communities. Lisa Gieskes, ALA Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force coordinator, also suggests that the category, “class” be added to amendment five of the Library Bill of Rights, which protects a patron’s right to use the library.³³

Conclusion

Enacting policies that amount to little more than “poverty profiling” and labeling the homeless individuals as problem patrons are ineffective and negative measures that do little to create an inclusive and welcoming public library environment. Furthermore, libraries have an obligation as public institutions to promote equal access to information and advocate for the poor and homeless by providing them with the information needed to become full participants in our democratic society. Providing outreach and eliminating barriers to service for the disenfranchised are positive and proactive ways that libraries can create a welcoming public forum, ease tensions between patrons, and educate others about the difficulties faced by those in poverty.

References

1. Sandy Berman, “Classism in the Stacks: Libraries and Poverty,” Journal of Information Ethics 16, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 103–10.
2. Lan Shen, “The Dilemma of Urban Library Service for the Homeless,” Current Studies in Librarianship 26, no. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 2002): 77–83.
3. Ibid., 80.
4. Ibid.
5. Sheila Ayers, “The Poor and Homeless: An Opportunity for Libraries to Serve,” The Southeastern Librarian 54, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 66–74; James Kelly,
   “Barefoot in Columbus: The Legacy of Kreimer and the Legality of Public Library Access Policies Concerning Appearance and Hygiene,” Public Libraries 45, no. 3 (May/June 2006): 42–49; Julie Murphy, “When the Rights of the Many Outweigh the Rights of the Few: The Legitimate Versus the Homeless Patron in the Public Library,” Current Studies in Librarianship 23 no. 1/2 (1999): 50–60.
6. Kelly, “Barefoot in Columbus”; Kreimer v. Bureau of the Police for the Town of Morristown, 765 F.Supp 181 (D.N.J. 1991), accessed Mar. 12, 2011.
7. Kreimer, 181 D.N.J.
8. Ayers, “Poor and Homeless”; Kelly, “Barefoot in Columbus”; Murphy, “Rights of the Many.”
9. Ayers, “Poor and Homeless”; Murphy, “Rights of the Many.”
10. Ibid.
11. Armstrong v. District of Columbia Public Library, 154 F.Supp.2d 67 (2001), accessed Mar. 12, 2011; Kelly, “Barefoot in Columbus.”
12. Ibid.
13. Jennifer McClure, “Librarians and the Law: An ALLA Pre-conference with Mary Minow,” Alabama Librarian 56, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 8–9.
14. Ibid., 8.
15. Murphy, “Rights of the Many.”
16. John Gehner and Kali Freeman, “Just a Little Understanding: A Social-Service Provider’s Perspective on Homeless Library Users,” (2005), Hunger, Homelessness, & Poverty Task Force, accessed Mar. 12, 2011.
17. American Library Association, “Policy Manual 61: Services to the Poor,” (2010), accessed Mar. 12, 2011, para. 1.
18. American Library Association, “Are Public Libraries Criminalizing Poor People? A Report from the ALA’s Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force,” Public Libraries 44, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 175, para. 2.
19. Shen, “The Dilemma of Urban Library Service,” 80.
20. Don Mitchell, “The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti-Homeless Laws in the United States,” Antipode 29, no. 3 (July 1997): 303–35.
21. Murphy, “Rights of the Many”; Julie Hersberger, “The Homeless and Information Needs and Services,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 3 (2005): 199–202.
22. Lydia N. Collins, Francis Howard, and Angie Miraflor, “Addressing the Needs of the Homeless: A San José Library Partnership Approach,” The Reference
    Librarian 50, no. 1 (2009): 109–16.
23. Berman, “Classism in the Stacks.”
24. ALA, “Policy Manual 61,” policy objective 2.
25. Shen, “The Dilemma of Urban Library Service.”
26. ALA, “Policy Manual 61.”
27. Shen, “The Dilemma of Urban Library Service.”
28. Ibid.
29. Ayers, “The Poor and Homeless.”
30. Hersberger, “The Homeless and Information Needs and Services.”
31. Collins et al., “Addressing the Needs of the Homeless.”
32. Lisa Gieskes, “ALA Task Force Member Survey on Policy 61. Library Services for the Poor,” Progressive Librarian 32 (2009): 82–87.
33. Ibid.

The post Library Service to the Homeless first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In its first five years, Smart investing@your library® has awarded nearly $6 million in grants and has a network of dozens of grantees representing more than 800 library facilities that reach a service-area population of nearly 27 million.¹ In addition to grant funding, participating public libraries and library  networks receive training in social media and social marketing, assistance with outcomes-based evaluation techniques, and an introduction to the financial education resources created and supported by the FINRA Foundation. Other program components include communications guidance, individual coaching/consultation, suggestions for building local partnerships, and site visits to review project implementation.

The grantees are encouraged to consult and collaborate with each other and to share resources across participating sites. This collegial environment allows informal mentoring and a mutual support system with opportunities to listen and learn among a broader network of professionals.

Responsiveness to local needs and economic conditions is a hallmark of Smart investing@your library®. The program functions like a laboratory, with the freedom to test new marketing strategies, create partnerships, and experiment with new roles for librarians, who are learning to integrate financial and investor education into an array of traditional and nontraditional library programs and service delivery models.

This article profiles representative programs supported by Smart investing@your library® and highlights innovative approaches to financial education adopted by public librarians.

People of all ages need help managing money, and with the uncertainty about jobs, paying for college, credit and debt issues, and complex decisions about investing, it’s no wonder that librarians are taking a leadership role in financial education. At public libraries across the country, adult services, business, reference, teen, and children’s librarians are stepping up to guide people to resources and programs about budgeting, avoiding scams, investing for retirement, repairing credit, and making informed decisions about managing money. With grants from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and training from ALA, libraries are experimenting with social media and novel community partnerships that are delivering new relevance to the role of librarians as they incorporate financial education into existing library services.

Partnerships

Partnerships are essential components of Smart investing@your library® projects,and have a decisive impact on project success and sustainability.² During the planning and proposal development process, grantees must identify partners to collaborate directly on program delivery and indirectly as marketing intermediaries. Libraries have learned from past experience that bonds formed with staff from organizations with a shared mission are likely to be resilient and able to withstand organizational and economic upheaval. In Smart investing@your library®, participating libraries have turned to a vast array of partner organizations—some familiar, others new. For the most part, these have been nonprofit organizations and government agencies. They have not, by and large, been financial services firms, due to restrictions placed on how the grant funds may be used and because Smart investing@your library® has a commitment to financial education experiences that are free from commercial promotions.

Programs supported by Smart investing@your library® are not about the sales pitch; they’re about connecting people to the best information at times and places that are convenient to them. They are also about making personal finance education accessible in other ways—in a language that library patrons understand, for example, or in a way that’s social and fun or connected to life goals that people have for themselves and those close to them. Good partnerships have helped grantees make all of this possible. Universities and cooperative extension agencies, for example, have stepped forward with first-rate educational content and assistance with program evaluation and staff development. School districts have opened their doors to collaborative arrangements that introduce children and teens to financial literacy basics that will help them with a lifetime of financial decisions. Museums and performing artists have worked with librarians to make financial education hands-on and appealing with narratives that acknowledge people’s emotions and aspirations about money alongside their desire for new skills. Nonprofits serving recent immigrants, language-minority communities, senior citizens, and low-income families have helped libraries deliver programs for the working poor, for older residents coping with the complexities of managing and  safeguarding money in retirement, and for those whose primary language is Chinese, Korean, or Spanish. Figure 1 identifies many of the types of  organizations enlisted by grantees to make financial literacy programs and services more readily and prominently accessible in communities.

Public libraries can be the local anchor for coordinating, broadening, and strengthening new and existing coalitions of organizations and individuals committed to financial literacy. Libraries’ solid community connections, stature as trusted public institutions, capacity to deliver programs and distribute information to large and diverse audiences, and universal accessibility make them logical partners to support financial literacy programs. The public libraries participating in Smart investing@your library® are stepping into leadership roles by providing staff expertise, up-to-date collections, programming, reference assistance, and deep knowledge of their own communities.

Many grantee libraries have found that by forming an alliance with an existing, well-respected organization, they have gained entrée to their target audiences with greater credibility. In such instances, the partnership has been able to overcome barriers of culture, race, language, distance, and economic conditions that may have precluded successful presentation of programs and information. This has been a common and consistent narrative in Smart investing@your library® as the program has expanded to communities nationwide. The initiative now has a presence in large cities, suburban communities, small towns, and rural areas. Some of these locations are abundant in potential partners; in other locations, an ethos of civic engagement and voluntarism has helped libraries to fashion collaborations that are both creative and enduring. Three examples illustrate some of the ways that public libraries have come together with a variety of nonprofit and government partners to improve financial education opportunities and resources for their constituents.

Ames Public Library Creates a Model for Statewide Expansion

Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and the Iowa Insurance Division worked closely with the Ames (Iowa) Public Library to tailor online and onsite investor education classes for Generation X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation. The program also provided training for public service librarians on the use of investing information tools and databases, and incorporated a social marketing campaign to reinforce important messages about safe investing and wise financial practices. The program used a “sandwich” approach, beginning with a face-to-face session at the library conducted by Iowa State University Extension field specialists. The opening session introduced basic concepts and reviewed a series of web-based courses. Participants then selected one of three online four-week courses: “Starting Out” for Generation X participants, “Building Up” for Baby Boomers, and “Making it Last” for retirees. The online learning was capped by a final face-to-face meeting at the library, again taught by ISU-Extension field specialists with support from librarians.

Building on the experience at Ames, the State Library of Iowa brought the program to scale with a follow-on grant from Smart investing@your library® that expanded the initiative to twenty-five libraries and small towns across the state. The program continues to expand to additional libraries. This has been achieved at modest incremental cost by leveraging the expertise of the three primary partners and using existing educational strategies and marketing materials. Participants in the expanded project achieved measurable improvements in their investment knowledge and gained greater confidence in investing. They also took action to improve their financial circumstances by calculating retirement savings needs and learned how to identify reliable, trustworthy investment information.

OCLS Reaches Hispanic Families and Hospitality Industry Workers

Orange County (Fla.) Library System (OCLS) worked with the Crummer Graduate School of Business at nearby Rollins College to organize a bilingual series on basic investing themes for Hispanic families. The project also provided investor education video-on-demand for library patrons and staff and created a bilingual e-guide on personal finance for users of the library’s website. Early on, the partners agreed it was important to deliver the community-based financial education workshops in Spanish. Six Spanish-speaking MBA students from different countries and cultures were tapped to serve as instructional leaders for the program, under the careful guidance of college faculty and OCLS librarians. Offering these financial literacy workshops in Spanish with the imprimatur of a respected academic institution helped position the library as a credible and trusted resource for unbiased financial information in the community.

The college, in turn, was recognized for its efforts to give back to the community and for meeting local financial education needs. The MBA students came to understand the rewards of public service. The library’s collaboration with Rollins College continues. Together they have reached out to the Hotel Management Association to provide Spanish-language financial education workshops for service workers in the local restaurant and hospitality industry––
a key part of the economy in central Florida––which is home to 114,000 hotel rooms and 450 suppliers to this industry.

Middle Country Makes Financial Education Hands-On and Exciting

Financial educators often emphasize the importance of starting young. Instilling in children the fundamentals of financial literacy will help them make more appropriate financial decisions later in life. Libraries have a great deal of expertise when it comes to children’s programming. Many grantees and their partners in Smart investing@your library® have placed young learners at the center of a common enterprise that is fun, engaging, and important.

Youth services librarians at Middle Country Public Library on Long Island in New York, for example, are enlightening thousands of children about money. Saving and spending, sharing and counting—it’s all included in the “Dollars and $ense: Let’s Learn about Money” exhibit that library staff created with the Long Island Museum. Children visiting the library play the role of bankers and customers, make deposits, practice writing checks, and perform a range of financial transactions. The library has also partnered with the Middle Country School District to integrate the exhibit into schools’ mathematics curricula. Visits to the exhibit—for all third, fourth, and fifth grade classes—have reached 2,300 students. Children experiencehands-on activities incorporated into the exhibit, plus an interactive money management lesson that includes different learning games to reinforce exhibit themes. The project also includes traveling financial literacy exhibits that circulate to other libraries in the area. “The strong partnership with schools and the museum is a critical part of the project,” said project principal Tracy Delgado-La Stella, the library’s coordinator for youth services. “Without the collaboration and support of the schools, the program would not have worked.”³

Partnerships like these are critical to sustaining the financial education activities initiated under Smart investing@your library®. More than 94 percent of grantees report that one or more partnerships will ensure that their project activities are sustained beyond the grant period.⁴ It helps, too, that Smart investing@your library® has placed considerable emphasis on staff development, which is often made possible by a partnering organization or an agency with relevant content expertise, or by librarians who are particularly skillful in the use of financial reference tools. When the grant ends, this expertise remains, along with updated collections underwritten by grant funds. Patrons continue to benefit from knowledgeable frontline staff members who direct them to appropriate materials, websites, or community resources.

Marketing Moxie

To raise awareness and build capacity, marketing funds are available through Smart investing@your library®. This aspect of the program alone is unusual. Rarely do libraries have dollars specifically allocated to promote individual programs. The program raises marketing to the level of a major goal for every funded project, recognizing that even the very best programs and services are of minimal value if they are not fully subscribed by library patrons.

Participating libraries use a variety of data to determine the financial and investor education needs and priorities of their patrons. Point-of-use survey  results, reference statistics, interviews with local government officials, and conversations with employers and leaders from community-based organizations are a few examples. Each library crafts a marketing plan with identified objectives that map to their target audiences. This attention to marketing has paid off handsomely, yielding higher visibility for the participating libraries, effective market segmentation, and attention to financial literacy messages and programs. Every local community is unique, and what works well in one media market isn’t necessarily the best option elsewhere. That said, even in this world of social media and online communications, old-fashioned word-of-mouth is still the most promising way to promote activities for many libraries. A well-informed staff is among the best ways to make library users aware of the financial literacy programs and services available to them. Figure 2 illustrates promotional methods that are working in libraries (ranked by frequency of citations by participating libraries).

Schaumburg Township (Ill.) District Library (STDL) and the Greenville County (S.C.) Library System (GCLS) are two libraries that conducted market research to identify their target audiences and then crafted messages that would appeal to them.

STDL’s “Market Research Summary of Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers” is posted on the Smart investing@your library® website. Librarians are welcome to use it as a template to gather data. STDL used skip logic to gather input from all three groups to gauge their financial literacy and develop appropriate programming and marketing messages for each age group. Survey results helped them select a topic for the kickoff event, shape the content for videos aimed at all target audiences, and adjust the focus of a traveling exhibit. They also conducted a survey of library staff to gauge their knowledge level of the library’s investor education resources and their comfort level in referring patrons to them.

GCLS wanted to reach low-income female heads of households ages eighteen to sixty-four, a new and important audience for the library. Research indicated that this demographic would especially benefit from programs addressing financial literacy basics, such as budgeting, understanding bank products, creating an emergency fund, managing credit and debt, and saving for retirement. The project director, Trinity Behrends, noted that this was “a stubborn market segment” made up of “people who had counted themselves out.”⁵ But she was determined to engage them. With a marketing campaign called “Your Recipe for Success,” the library selected a baking theme and the concept of following recipes to create a non-threatening and welcoming approach to financial topics that previously inspired feelings of dread, nervousness, and indifference (as revealed through participant surveys).

GCLS wanted to transform these anxieties about money into feelings of success and empowerment and draw participants to its financial literacy seminars. The campaign yielded total program attendance in the thousands. Some 86 percent of participants were female, 63 percent were from single-income households, and 45 percent had household income under $35,000.⁶ By the end of the program, 88 percent of participants indicated that they were very likely to change the way they manage their finances as a result of the educational offerings; 79 percent said the program was very helpful to them in improving their financial capability. Survey research indicated that 91 percent of patrons who attended the in-library seminars followed up with additional personal finance reading using the library’s print and online collections. Taking the campaign to the target audience was critical, and all portions of the marketing mix helped produce audiences for the program. Library staff distributed 12,000 newsletters to grocery stores, created bus ads, posted announcements that were listed on local radio websites and television web calendars, and aired ads on local cable television and other channels (Food Network, Oxygen, and A&E). “Know your audience is a key concept,” said Behrends. “We used ongoing surveys to gauge interest and continually refine our marketing messages and to keep interest high. We learned that marketing should be far enough in advance to allow for word-of-mouth.”

The recipe motif worked so well in Greenville that another grantee library—in Georgetown, South Carolina— adapted the template and rebranded it as “Powerful Investment Education,” or PIE for short. The target audience in Georgetown was invited to a “family financial fitness party” with activities for  children while parents talked with government agencies and nonprofit organizations about money issues like credit repair and saving for college. Unlike a lecture series at the library, which can sometimes be intimidating, the family fair attracted parents and children who wanted to enjoy the festivities and get their piece of PIE, both the kind you can eat—dozens were on offer—and the kind to improve your bank account. Greenville and Georgetown achieved similar marketing objectives: to reach people where they are with the financial information that they can put to immediate, practical use.

GCLS and STDL used a combination of marketing strategies to achieve their goals. The same has been true for most grantees in this initiative. Experience with Smart investing@your library® has made clear that libraries have an impressive talent for attracting earned media coverage for their activities. This has boosted marketing campaigns and stretched marketing dollars. The benefits of such coverage can be substantial and long-lasting. For example, the Newton Free Library’s project in Massachusetts, a retirement planning club for women, was featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition in February 2009. More than a year later, library patrons were still making note of the story and asking the project principal how the retirement planning club was coming along. The club remains active.

Marketing plays a starring role in the Milwaukee Public Library’s “Get Smart About Money@MPL” program, which is reaching 6,000 eleventh graders in the public schools. Working closely with its Teen Advisory Board, a local media company, community partners Make a Difference-Wisconsin and Money Smart Week (a program of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago), the library created three personal finance videos featuring local teens working with actors. Make a Difference-Wisconsin provides classroom financial education for high school students and uses trained volunteers and a curriculum based on the FDIC’s Money Smart program. These videos—”To Your Credit,” “Check it Out,” and “Bank Your Future”—have a growing presence on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and they have become part of the financial literacy curriculum in the public schools. “Although like many other libraries, we are short-staffed, we found a way we can still make a difference,” said project principal Judy Pinger,the library’s business coordinator. “Strong partnerships with like-minded  organizations create the right energy to sustain our program model.”⁷

Librarians have a new tool to help with marketing campaigns. Prepared by ALA, “The Media Training Guide” is a handy field resource with key concepts and digital-savvy techniques for public relations. Pitching a story and developing a message are just a couple of the practical exercises that help librarians distill their story and get coverage from local media outlets. Participants in Smart investing@your library® have also benefited from “Taking a Blended Approach to PR in a Web 2.0 World,” a webinar about combining social media with traditional media relations to create the optimal mix for building program awareness.⁸ “The Media Training Guide” and the webinar are available to all libraries at http://smartinvesting.ala.org.

Connecting Library Users with Quality Financial Education Resources

Smart investing@your library® makes reliable, unbiased financial education content readily and meaningfully available to existing and new library users. It’s important to note that this does not mean creating new financial education content. Financial information is available in abundance. Instead, the challenge is helping people make sense of the material, identifying what is most useful for different audience segments, and getting information to people when they need it, how they need it. Librarians participating in Smart investing@your library® are spending their time and talents developing partnerships and marketing strategies rather than creating content. They are also building their knowledge about financial education information sources and their skills in connecting patrons to the best available material and learning experiences. As noted, partners such as nearby universities, cooperative extension offices, and government agencies have assisted libraries with their staff development needs. They have also, along with the FINRA Foundation, connected librarians to best-in-class multimedia information sources.

Many of the grantees in Smart investing@your library® have integrated resources and learning opportunities into their well-established programs and services for patrons. Some of these programs and services—those serving small business owners and job seekers, for example, or Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)—have obvious connections to personal finance. In other instances, libraries have seized the opportunity to add financial education to events and programs where target audiences gather and appreciate the opportunity to learn about money in a way that’s timely and convenient. Estes Valley Library in Estes Park, Colorado, for example, selects entries for its summer film series based on money themes. You can think of it as personal finance entertainment. Screenings are preceded by introductory comments from the library’s consulting financial educator, and viewers discover that the library is an important first stop for learning about money. Figure 3 shows the integration of financial education into existing library programming.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County (Ohio) has been among those grantees that combine basic financial education with VITA services. The Youngstown program targets low-income families with young children, in particular. This has been an opportunity to help parents learn strategies to save for their children’s education, or put their financial house in order. The children’s librarians captivate the kids with storytime related to money matters, allowing parents to participate without the worry of arranging child care. Everyone gets a piggy bank to start the whole family on the path to saving and using the library.

The Athens-Clarke County (Ga.) Library (ACCL) created a partnership with the GED program at Athens Area Technical College to incorporate personal finance topics, many of which lend themselves to GED learning objectives, particularly in mathematics. Staff members from both the library and the college were willing to experiment and test whether this approach worked. The recessionary economy led to an enrollment increase in GED programs across the county, making the experiment well worthwhile. Many of the students in the Athens project were unbanked and unfamiliar with or reluctant to use traditional financial services. Among other themes, the program addressed issues pertaining to fringe financial services (payday loans, rent-to-own, title loans, pawn shops, and so on), as well as mainstream financial services, and compared the costs associated with each.

Other financial topics examined by the GED students included: understanding a paystub, creating a budget, credit reports, financial strategies in the event of a job loss, and saving and investing for retirement. Trudi Green, ACCL’s information services coordinator, said, “The success of the classes was due in part to the convenient location for the students. Now our ‘Money Matters’ program has been expanded to other GED programs with course locations at three different sites.”⁹ The project also branched out to programs for English language learners (ELL) using the same basic model—integrating financial literacy into the existing adult education curriculum. Course ratings for the GED programs have been positive, with 87 percent of participants describing the financial literacy lessons as “very useful.” More than 25 percent of participants had incomes between $10,000 and $25,000. About 45 percent were ages 35 and under, and over 70 percent were women.¹⁰

Other grantees have made financial education part of book clubs, summer reading programs, and storytimes for young children, both at library facilities and at daycare centers where the daycare staff themselves have received training. Technology training programs for library patrons have provided librarians with opportunities to demonstrate quality web-based personal finance resources. Grantees have also skillfully integrated information about investor protection and avoiding financial fraud into their outreach efforts serving senior centers and senior residential facilities. All of these strategies represent the collective and creative capacity of public librarians and their partners to make personal finance education into a core library service, and to do so in ways that make sense for patrons.

Many of the programs and strategies comprising Smart investing@your library® are easily adopted or adapted by other public libraries, and they are cost-effective. The grants have all been $100,000 or under and in most cases well under, inclusive of all developmental costs, and have been tested with a great diversity of audiences in a full range of geographic locations. The grantees themselves have been quick to borrow each other’s templates and ideas, and done so with notable success.

ALA and the FINRA Foundation have created a website for Smart investing@your library® with tools and ideas for public libraries to start their own programs. The site has extensive resources that have already been vetted by successful grantees. The site also features downloadable tools, case examples, multimedia materials to publicize programs, survey instruments, staff training templates, and a complete description of participating libraries. It’s a business-to-business site where librarians may borrow freely from virtual shelves and use the materials to create and expand a financial education program.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation and ALA will announce another round of funding for Smart investing@your library ® in April 2012. The application and more information about dates and eligibility are posted on the Smart investing@your library® website. In June 2012, two program panels comprising past and current grantees will present best practices at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. One panel will discuss marketing strategies; the other will share their experiences developing program partnerships.

References

1. Figures extracted from Compare Public Libraries data tool, FY2009 data, available from IMLS website, accessed Nov. 2, 2011.
2. Kit Keller, Smart investing@your library® Grant Program Final Report, Nov. 2011.
3. Tracy Delgado-La Stella, personal interview with the author, Feb. 7, 2011.
4. Keller, Smart investing@your library® Grant Program Final Report.
5. Trinity Behrends, personal interview with the author, Apr. 2009.
6. Greenville County (S.C.) Library System, final report, July 30, 2010.
7. Judy Pinger, telephone interview with the author, Oct. 19, 2011.
8. Litlamp Communications Group, “Taking a Blended Approach to PR in a Web 2.0 World” webinar, October 2011, accessed Mar. 27, 2012.
9. Trudi Green, telephone interview with the author, Nov. 15, 2011.
10. Athens-Clarke County (Ga.) Library Mid-Term Report, May 15, 2010.

The post Libraries Innovate With New Financial Education Programs first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Bibliotheca has announced the launch of its 2012 product range, which now offers customers a breadth of choice not previously seen within the library market. The flagship self-service (smartserve) collection has been developed to provide customers with a choice of five distinct options, each of which offers a selection of exciting features at price points to fit every library budget. Options range from built-in and tabletop to complete self-contained kiosks with cash and card payment and security case unlockers. The catalog also includes an improved and extended range of staff circulation stations, handheld devices, security gates together with totally new bulk transit/receipt and on-shelf reading solutions. Hardware will be supported by a new range of software products, all of which can be modified, controlled, and maintained by the group’s smartadmin central management platform. Within each product category, customers are provided with a range of technology choices, including barcode, electromagnetic (EM), and radio-frequency identification (RFID). Products became available for demonstration in January 2012 with first installations commencing April 2012. A new website will be launched later this quarter with full specifications and details of every product in the range. The Bibliotheca Group was formed in the spring of 2011 when the three leading independent companies of Bibliotheca (Switzerland), Intellident (UK), and Integrated Technology Group, ITG (North America) merged to create a single, global entity. The formation of this group creates the world’s largest company dedicated to the development, deployment, and support of RFID-based solutions,with particular focus on public, private, and academic library markets.

Midwest Tape Offers Titles with Original Artwork

Midwest Tape has partnered with Random House to provide public libraries with every audiobook from Random House, Books on Tape, and Listening Library––all with original artwork. These titles are now available for order via www.midwesttapes. com and will ship in their SoundSafe case. Additionally, Midwest has developed new Customized Standing Order Plans that ensure customers will receive a diverse array of Random House, Books on Tape, and Listening Library audiobooks as well as their exclusive content. As is the case with all Midwest standing order plans, customer plans are delivered as website carts and are automatically duplicate checked. There are no contracts, minimum order requirements, or obligations to order.

TLC and Overdrive Partner to Provide MARC Records

The Library Corporation and OverDrive have announced an agreement that enables OverDrive customers to order TLC MARC records and cataloging services simultaneously with their digital OverDrive materials. Using TLC’s streamlined BiblioFile OnDemand technology, MARC records for e-books, audiobooks, and music and video titles will be prepared and delivered directly to each OverDrive library ready to import in just a few days. Final testing is under way and is expected to go live soon.

News EBSCOhost App Available for Android Devices

EBSCO Publishing has released an EBSCOhost android app ensuring that Android device users can easily take full advantage of their premium EBSCOhost database content from wherever they happen to be. The latest option in EBSCO’s mobile access technology, the Android app provides the same search experience as that available when logging into EBSCO’s library resources online. Features include choosing which database to search; limiting to full text, date ranges, peer-reviewed content or by publication; and searching a library’s catalog. Additional features include the option to save articles and PDF full-text content on the device for offline viewing. The app can be used on devices running Android v. 2.1 or later.

Salem Press Introduces Library Grants Center Site

Salem Press has launched a new library grants site. The Library Grant Center differentiates itself from other sites more general in scope. Most sites specific to libraries target a type of grant (e.g., professional association grants) or type of library (e.g., libraries in public schools). Salem Press’s goal was to design a universaltool, the sole focus of which is library grants––but with coverage that includes every type of funding available. The center is free, requires no login or authentication, and will be updated on a regular basis. It also contains a how-to area with a tutorial, FAQ, and lists of resources. The Library Grants Center is divided into three main sections: National Library Grants, State Library Grants, and Library Grants: How-To, providing tips and links to other resources. Salem Press intends to keep the website as current as possible. Alerts for new opportunities will also be on their Facebook page. Salem Press is an independent library reference book publisher.

Smoothwall developers are also offering a feature to make Facebook read-only: You can look but you can’t click. Staff can keep an eye on their wall but not post anything.

eSequel Offers Remote Use

eSequels recently announced the availability of remote access to the eSequel database of novels in series. Users may now log in with a library card. eSequels has also improved indexing and added a What’s New section, which maintains a list of forthcoming series novels with their expected publication dates. The database is searchable by author, title, character, location, subject, and keyword. Each series is described and each title is annotated. Books are listed in the correct reading sequence. The product is easy to use and is a bargain at $30 per year. Like the book Sequels, first published by ALA in 1982 and now in its 4th edition (2009), this database aims to include the best, most enduring, and most popular novels in series that might appeal to today’s adult readers.

TechLogic Launches Media Surfer Kiosk

Tech Logic recently introduced MediaSurfer, a stand-alone machine that makes it easy for libraries to lend iPads and other media devices to library patrons. With a simple swipe of a library and credit card, patrons can use the intuitive touch screen to check out an iPad or other device to use for a designated period of time. A freestanding self-check kiosk that securely dispenses handheld tablets, manages tablet content, and automatically charges each tablet, MediaSurfer gives your patrons an easy way to access your digital collection. MediaSurfer fully integrates with any ILS, and library policies and procedures are customizable, including a variety of tracking and reporting functions. The MediaSurfer kiosk measures 53″ high, 30″ wide, and 27″ deep, and weighs 275 pounds. It is available for purchase or lease. Because MediaSurfer is the first of its kind, there is no need for an RFP process, and the units can be purchased directly from the manufacturer. MediaSurfer is patent pending.

ebrary Showcases Mobile App at ALA Midwinter

After recently launching download capabilities, ebrary has announced availability of a new app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. With ebrary’s new app, researchers can access content on the ebrary platform, including e-books that their librarians acquire from leading publishers and documents uploaded and integrated by librarians with DASH! (Data Sharing, Fast). Additionally, researchers can import their own personal research––outside of the ebrary platform. To make it easier to use ebrary, with or without the app, ebrary also announced the ability for researchers to sign-in with their Facebook usernames and password.

Crowley Debuts New Scanner Options

The Crowley Company has announced the debut of two new scanners. The first is UScan, the firm’s first self-manufactured on-demand microform scanner. Designed for walk-up patron use, the ultra-portable U-Scan unit fits easily on a standard desktop and digitizes all film formats (microfilm, microfiche, jumbo fiche, and aperture and micro-cards) as well as photographic materials (slides, negatives, and so on). U-Scan offers several advantages, the most apparent being a color digitization option. Additionally, the U-Scan provides an option for auto or batch scanning, valuable as the public becomes savvier in operating walk-up scanners. The unit measures 20.5″ by 11.5″ by 8.8″ without the optional roll-film carrier, which adds an extra 6″ depth. Features include a customizable icon-driven touchscreen interface, color scan options, and output to print, USB, e-mail, or cloud. U-Scan is slated to begin shipping in late spring. The Crowley Company provides digital document and film conversion services to the academic, publishing, commercial, government, and archive sectors. Crowley also manufactures, distributes, and services high-speed microfilm, microfiche, aperture card, book and document scanners, microfilm duplicators, film processors, and micrographics equipment.

Crowley has also announced the availability of the new Zeutschel zeta, which bridges the gap between expensive production-level book scanners and the needs of smaller-volume users. Ideally suited for walk-up patrons, records management operations, and low-end archival preservation, the zeta offers affordability, desktop size, touchscreen pad, and a green footprint. With zeta, the book lies on its back for scanning and is scanned from above; for the next copy the user can simply turn the page. Output to cloud services is under development and a pay-as-you-go feature is available as an add-on. Unit pricing starts at $10,000. Zeutschel GmbH is a leading specialist provider in the field of cultural possession protection and has been supplying devices, solutions and systems for document and archive management for more than fifty years. The Crowley Company is the exclusive North American distributor for Zeutschel products.

The post New Product News – March/April 2012 first appeared on Public Libraries Online.