During the visit of the first floor, I noticed a study room with glass walls. Inside a man sat, concentrated, in front of a notebook and a large, colorful candy jar which immediately caught my attention. Our guide explained that he was Mathieu Blais, the current “writer-in-residence”[2]. Writers who participate in this project “find the library and its users to be very inspiring for their writing,” said Martin Dubois, manager of library services of the City of Longueuil. “The residence also prompts them to be very disciplined because they have to respect the agreed schedules and to be in the room. They are less distracted than being at home” [3].

Mathieu Blais, writer-in-residence at work. Photo Courtesy of Corrado Di Tillio.

The project was launched five years ago by the Conseil des Arts de Longueuil, an institution which supports the development and promotion of arts (literature included) in Longueuil. The Raymond-Lévesque Public Library is a natural partner, together with a local bookstore, ALire, which provides a grant to the author. By the way, “partnerships” was the topic of this year’s MetLib Conference. After attending many presentations which explored how “almost anyone can be a partner” in Québec and in other regions of the world [4], I could then see with my eyes a real ongoing partnership.

Writers respond to a call for proposals which are examined by a jury. In addition to the 25 hours per week in the library during a two month period, the writer also commits to a series of activities, such as seminars about literary writing. “Not all the authors are comfortable interacting with people […]” Dubois said. “Users are often shy to meet the author because they are afraid of bothering him”. [5]

And the candies? “They are my source of inspiration,” Blais said to me.

References

[1] Regarding its space for teens (“Soda”) read Sarah-Ann Brisson, Teens at the Brossard Public Library: A Necessary Adaptation of Space and Services, in “Feliciter”, Issue #6, December 2014, vol. 60, p.23-25.

[2] Mathieu Blais was born in Montréal in 1979. His website is http://mathieublais.ca

[3] Martin Dubois’ e-mail to the author, July 19, 2017.

[4] Quotation by Kimber L. Fender, from her presentation Howdy partner! Developing library/community partnerships, delivered on May 2, 2017. All the presentations are available at http://metlib2017montreal.org/en/downloads/ . The IFLA MetLib Conference is the annual conference of the IFLA Section on Metropolitan Libraries.

[5] Martin Dubois’ e-mail to the author, July 19, 2017.

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The 2016 contest is still open, and the deadline for entries is April 30, 2016. The award ceremony will take place in May at the 29th International Book Fair in Turin, Italy. Read more about the contest and its rules for submission here.

The three categories for entry are fiction, documentary, and advertising. Below are some notable selections from previous years.

Fiction

Non parlate (dir. Davide Pettarini), which won the first year, tells the romantic story of a librarian and a patron who communicate only through the titles on book covers. Some films can be funny in describing the various types of patrons and their behaviors. This is the case of I lettori (dir. Francesco Minarini), A biblio life (dir. Edoardo Orlandi) and La biblioteca dietro le quinte (dir. Lisa Contini e Alessandra Gaias). Patrons, especially young students who usually spend the whole day in public libraries, are depicted while eating secretly, sleeping, freezing for air-conditioning, looking desperately for a seat, even having sex! Librarians, too, are described in their typical commonplaces and traits. In Lib(e)rando libri (dir. Lorenzo Debernardi), characters from classic literature come to life in front of a patron who is walking around in a public library.

Documentary

Marius (dir. Chridtine Pawlata and Nicola Moruzzi) is based on an interview to a Roma teenager who learned to read and write Italian thanks to the lessons provided by volunteers in a public library. The public library is “the best place I’ve ever known,” he says—because he does not have to feel ashamed there. It is a story of how public libraries, as nonjudgmental and neutral places, change lives. Paradisi Project describes a group of high school students looking for books and information about the fourteenth century paintings in a chapel in Terni, Italy. The film shows their visits to the city library and archive and their final discovery that art scholars had different interpretations of the paintings through the years.
In the films of this category, public libraries are often presented with interviews to patrons and staff.
Non pago di leggere (dir. Christian Biasco and Francesca Terri) is about the campaign against public lending right introduced by a European Union directive.

Advertising

In this category, films must be a maximum of two minutes. La biblioteca è +teca (dir. Andrea Pecora) was shot in some of the best Italian public libraries, located in the metropolitan area of Milan. The film effectively represents what you can experience in today’s public libraries: drink coffee, play chess, learn to dance, attend a concert, read while biking, etc. Scegli la tua storia (dir. Nicolò Favaro) featured a book domino chain as an original way to promote the library space.

Watch more submissions from previous years to get inspired. Because IFLA is a partner, the contest’s judge panel is international. One judge is Siobhan Reardon, President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia and Secretary of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Metropolitan Libraries

Note: The Italian Library Association runs Librariana, a unique virtual reference desk about libraries and librarians in arts and literature. One of the founders of the contest, Gabriele De Veris, a passionate librarian in the city of Perugia, Italy, contributed to the subtitling in Italian of Ann Seidl’s The Hollywood Librarian, which became popular in the Italian library community after its first screening in 2010.

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Attending the seminar New Uses of Public Libraries (organized by the Province of Barcelona with the Library Consortium of Barcelona, the IFLA Section on Public Libraries and the IFLA Section on Library Buildings and Equipment), I learned that these two libraries had kitchen and cooking programs. I emailed both library directors a few questions. [1]

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

Public Libraries Online: What made your library decide to start activities about cooking?

Mariona Chavarria Domingo (Biblioteca del Fondo): Seeing the multicultural context of the neighborhood, the municipality, [and] aiming for social cohesion, [we] thought about the idea of “cooking” as a central point to all cultures, and as an excuse to bring diversity together and build a community by creating mutual trust.

Marta Granel Dalmau (Central Library of Castelldefels): Our library specializes in cooking, [so] these activities are the ideal complement for our specialty. We complete our cooking programs with a collection of books about cooking, for kids and adults.

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

PL Online: What information, tools, and processes did you need?

Mariona: One of the halls of the library has a complete kitchen installed, prepared to cook and to perform cooking shows. It is equipped with a hotplate, electrical oven, microwave oven, fridge, [and] dishwasher. It is also equipped with enough kitchenware (a list of which was provided by a local Restoration School). We have gathered information about legal points to take into account (related to health and food security, hygiene, and first aid). A Commission has been established in order to think about the project named “Cuines del Món” (Cuisines of the World), which includes the kitchen and a section of the library collection (books and other document types).

Marta: We need professionals to do the activities, normally local collaborators, [as well as] multipurpose spaces and users interested in activities about cooking.

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

PL Online: How did you determine what activities to organize?

Mariona: The above mentioned Commission “Cuines del Món” (which includes: representatives of the municipality – politicians and technicians; representatives of social, educational, and cultural entities of the neighborhood; representatives of the University of Barcelona Campus de l’Alimentació – Food and Nutrition  and representatives of Fondo trading association as well as a well-known Chef, Víctor Quintillà, whose restaurant La Lluerna has been awarded with one Michelin Star during the last three years). The overall objective of the “Cuines del Món” Project is to be a tool helping to bring together diversity; bringing down walls of lack of trust; and, being a public library, to promote reading habits and skills. We have oriented the activities in three main directions or levels:

a) Academic level – about food, nutrition, science and cooking – inviting cooks as well as university lecturers;

b) Informative level – bringing together people from different backgrounds to share a cooking session while explaining similarities and differences of cooking, for instance about rice, potatoes, or about the use of species or different kinds of oil, etc.; teaching to cook nutritive meals to people with low incomes; teaching children cooking habits, etc.

c) Reading Promotion: the library, in collaboration with educational and cultural entities of the neighborhood, organizes activities connected to its own activities (storytelling for children and families, a reading club for adults, people learning Catalan or Spanish, etc.).

In some cases we offer the kitchen space for activities organised by others: i.e., by a psychiatric center nearby, or by other similar associations; by groups working with children with social risks, etc.

Marta: First we contact the collaborators and look for the activities, we want the activities to be attractive, easy, and possible to be done in the library, without fire. Normally we try to organize the activities in cycles, for kids and for adults.

Cooking Workshop at the Biblioteca del Fondo

PL Online: What challenges did you face?

Mariona: The main challenge is to implement good projects that keep the kitchen lively and used at its best. Linked to that, another challenge is trying to keep with a regular activity in the kitchen while not having enough library staff for that, having to work with volunteers (good on one side, but unstable on the other). Also the follow-up after the activities in the kitchen (the washing up and putting back stuff in the cupboards) is an unsolved problem. I wouldn’t call it a challenge but it’s challenging.

Marta: The challenge is making programs varied, attractive, and cheap.

PL Online: What kind of positive results have you had? (And, any negative ones?)

Mariona: We are “young,” yet the fact that this library, situated in such a popular neighborhood, has a kitchen, has put this place in the newspapers for something good and unseen before. It gives a new/better status to the surrounding area. The kitchen opens us easily to different collaborations (for instance with market stall holders or other commerce in the area, or the University Campus, lecturers, and students).

Marta: The results are very positive, the users are very happy and thankful about these activities. The are usually no vacancies in these type of activities.

Cooking Workshop at the Biblioteca del Fondo

PL Online: About how much time does it take?

Mariona: It takes a lot of time: meetings, contacts, preparation of the space, being close during the activities in case of any need, and collecting and washing the kitchenware.

Marta: We spend a lot of time to program these activities. First we look for the possible collaborators who could do the activities, and sometimes we have to pay for the activities. Then we have to do advertising and registration. Afterwards we send the participants an assessment questionnaire, as we want to know their feedback.

PL Online: What advice would you give a library wanting to do something similar?

Mariona: I feel it is too soon to be able to give any good advice. The only one I can think of is: don’t be afraid to start a similar project!

Marta: At the end of the activities the users are so thankful and happy!!

Sources:

[1] Mariona Chavarria Domingo’s e-mail to author (03/19/2015); Marta Granel Dalmau’s e-mail to author (03/25/2015). The interview questions were inspired by Kate Theimer, Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections, Facet publishing 2010

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Brian Gambles

From August 12-13, 2014, the IFLA Public Libraries Section held a satellite conference, Public Library Futures in a Global Digital World, at the new Library of Birmingham, England. Its director, Brian Gambles, opened the conference with a keynote speech about change. “Leadership has to be hungry for change,” he stated. Small steps were made: a redesigned organization, a new dress code, shared desk space and welfare facilities, as well as new working practices. But change is not embraced by the whole organization: according to the 20:60:20 rule, 20% of staff agrees, another 20% is against. For Gambles, this last minority has to be left alone and “invited to exit the organization.”

The conference confirmed that these are the days of a “renaissance of space.” Here are four experiences of new spaces built by incredible staff and successful branding.

 Vera Binz and Sarah Dudek presenting the “Themenraum”

Themenraum

If you had an empty room in your library, how would you use it? 3D printers? The latest high-tech gear? Games? No way! Imagine a book display on a specific topic and let it explode in different dimensions. At the “Themenraum,” or “topic room,” at the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek (Berlin, Germany), web links are next to print bibliographies, while printed books sit next to a Twitter wall and news items. The topics, often inspired by the latest news or important anniversaries, change every month. The patrons’ favorite ones so far have been the Leipzig Bookfair, fairytales, the diversity of Islam, and “poor and rich.” The Themenraum shows how digital curating has emerged as a new skill required by librarians, as well as the public’s need for digital literacy.

Corinne Hill presenting the 4^th Floor

4^th Floor

“Transformation” is one of the main values of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Public Library’s mission. The 4th Floor is a space in continuous transformation, thanks to a high performance staff. Before a chaotic repository of unused materials, now the 4^th Floor hosts programs and events about coding, genealogy, STEM, and makers. Print collections are still relevant though: “responsive collections” is another strong value of theirs.

Henriette Dybdal and Allan Thomsen Volhoj presenting the FolkeLab

FolkeLab

Public and academic libraries in Aarhus and Roskilde (Denmark) created a project with six temporary innovation spaces, such as TechLab, Wastelab, or GuitarLab. The lessons learned can be summed up in a decalogue: (1) people are not reduced to just guests; (2) people are more important than technology; (3) people have opportunities to engage at different levels; (4) people determine the clout of the maker culture; (5) people create together; (6) staff must be willing to change the frames and expand the ideas; (7) staff uses its own creativity and skills; (8) staff must assure different thresholds; (9) learning is something also done with the hands; (10) creativity comes from chaos and mess.

BiblioTech

BiblioTech in San Antonio (Tex.) went far beyond the library as a book repository, eliminating books completely. Despite being a recent pilot experience, BiblioTech enjoyed terrific global press coverage as the first “bookless library” [1]. The advancement of digital literacy, intended as something more than knowing how to use technology, is one of the main goals. The equipment includes 600 e-readers for external circulation, 45 iPads for internal use, and four surface tables. The library’s success is based on its programming (for seniors too), community partnerships (i.e. with the San Antonio Spurs Foundation), and an attractive brand.

Jens Thorhauge, the guru of the 4-space model, ideally closed the conference describing how the traditional role of public libraries has been challenged during the last 20 years. His provocative assertion that “access to information is not the librarian’s business anymore” hit the mark, considering it preceded by just a few days the launch of the Lyon Declaration on access to information and development.[2]. Thorhauge highlighted that nowadays libraries struggle to compete with fast-movers in the media market (i.e. Facebook), and with commercial media streaming services (Netflix or Spotify). He can’t see a new standard model for libraries though, so the discussion continues.

Table tennis at the Library of Birmingham

References

[1] BiblioTech – An Entirely Bookless Library, by Elena Rivera on February 21, 2013. BiblioTech opened in September 2013. Two satellite facilities were opened more recently.

[2] The declaration will be one of the main advocacy tools for IFLA in the next months.

The post Report From the IFLA Public Libraries Conference first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The life of a word can be investigated using an n-gram search in the digital book collection of the National Library of Norway. Suddenly an enormous corpus of texts offer new possibilities not only to linguistics, but also to humanities and social sciences.¹

Words are at the core of a project started in April 2013 by a research group headed by professor Rosa Maria Paniccia (Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, “Sapienza” University of Rome) at the Public Library in Rome, with the aim of comparing the representations of patrons and librarians regarding the public libraries as social places.

Paniccia remarks the difference between inclusion and integration: the first assimilates diversity, and is based on individualism; the second recognizes diversity and works on skills and relationship building in an ever-changing environment. The two paradigms (and exclusion) are evident in the findings of the research.

The project team adopted a methodology called “Emotional Analysis of Text” ( AET for “Analisi Emozionale del Testo”), already experimented in other contexts ². The technique, with the help of a specific software, tracks the words which are dense – emotionally meaningful – and group them in clusters. Dense words provide information about the so-called “local culture”, the dynamic context which is organized in categories based on emotions and the unconscious. The clusters of words are located on a multi-factor map and analyzed through psychological models.

In June and July 2013 nine managers and 24 staff members of eleven branches were interviewed. Seven focus groups with patrons were held in six branches. The texts of the interviews and focus groups were analyzed using the AET technique and a first report was presented in May 2014 ³.

The research with patrons produced five clusters of words which somehow portray the various types of patrons. The “study/take” and “critique/poetry” clusters are radically opposite: the first relates to the efforts for the acquisition of knowledge in the individual study versus the shared participation and production of reading groups. The “experience/social” cluster is linked with taking part in the life of the neighborhood, commitment and connection, and the values of cultural activities. The “control/pay” cluster describes the big city as a place of anomie, war, competition and robbery. Perhaps it refers to the formal procedures that patrons are obliged to undergo at the desk. The “children/parents” cluster describes the typical context of children’s areas, where families live in isolation.

The work with librarians produced three clusters. The “loan/catalogue” is the cluster which describes the library as the owner of the book as artifact, and its relationships with the single user. The “school/guide” cluster highlights the library as a reassuring and friendly place which includes and assimilates diversity.
The “space/aggregation” cluster relates to the library which builds connections with the different components of the community, such as the marginalized ones.

It would be too easy to identify the implications of this research only within the area of management and evaluation: i.e., to support the qualitative analysis of user groups or the profiling of personas. They also affect policy-making and the ongoing discussion about the mission and role of public libraries.

References

1. Jon Arild Olsen, Digital book collections as a cultural telescope, in Scandinavian Library Quarterly, no.2, 2014.
2. My translation. The methodology is described in Renzo Carli and Rosa Maria Paniccia, L’analisi emozionale del testo. Uno strumento psicologico per leggere testi e discorsi, Franco Angeli, 2002. The work has not been translated yet.
3. More details can be found in Rosa Maria Paniccia and Cecilia Sesto, “A research-intervention with the Municipal Libraries of Rome as a place of social coexistence in the city. Librarians and clients’ expectations in comparison,” in Rivista di Psicologia Clinica, no.1 (2014). Preprint version courtesy of prof. Paniccia

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The Rotunda at Tårnby Main Library

Drivers in City Development
Knud Schulz, manager of the Main Library in Aarhus, illustrated the new wave of iconic library buildings in three of the main Scandinavian cities, where a lot of money is invested and the best architects are competing. In Aarhus, the second-largest city of Denmark, “Dokk1” (17,500 m2) is defined as an “urban mediaspace” where the users enjoy a unique experience: “from information that can be found anywhere to what can only be experienced at the library” ¹. In 2017-18 Helsinki (Finland) will have a new central library, called “Käännös” (“turn, translation”), a 16,000 m2 zero-energy wooden construction. The citizens are involved in the projects, through public debates etc., as in Oslo (Norway), where the new “Deichman” library, open in 2017 (13,900 m2), aims to play a leading role in Europe.

The “Ask Me!” staff tag at Tårnby Main Library

From a Place for Books to a Place for People
In the suburbs of Copenhagen (Denmark), Jens Nordentoft Lauridsen, Library Manager, explained how Tårnby Public Library moved “from a place for books to a place for people” after 2010. One of the library’s goals is to provide “events, learning sessions and happenings every day”². Staff is encouraged to walk and talk instead of sit and wait, and also wear an “Ask me!” badge. An ongoing dialogue with the users is a key factor.

Learning centres are at the core of this shift. The Learning Centre at the Malmö City Library (Sweden) is a place for informal learning where well-equipped computers and various softwares (publishing, vector graphics editing, etc.) are available freely to everyone. “Potluck” and “sounding board” are two of the keywords of this space, because co-creation and the involvement of visitors are highly encouraged³. Small businesses are invited to transfer their offices temporarily there and contribute with workshops and lectures. Users from all over the world come to the Learning Centre to print, scan, edit pictures, use Skype, study English or Swedish languages, and edit audio and video.

The “Flower” at the Ørestad Library

In times of financial crisis, Danish and Finnish public libraries partner at a local level with municipalities so that citizens’ services are integrated in the library while at a national level consortia are made up for the acquisition of e-books and catalog data.

We Like to Try Something New
Marian Morgan-Bindon’s expression is paradigmatic of the new spirit of public libraries. She is the Manager of Library Services and Cultural Development at the City of Gold Coast (Australia), where augmented reality is only one of the latest experiences in the library⁴. Library spaces have become more and more flexible. Aarhus library organizes a “Transformation Lab” at the entrance of the Main Library, with new projects every 5-6 months, regarding literature, music, and democracy, but also using interactive floors and robots. Their philosophy is based on user-driven innovation and design thinking.

While some librarians are becoming coaches for patrons, others have made their libraries totally self-served facilities. As in a few other areas of the world (something similar already exists in Singapore), the Ørestad Library (in the Copenhagen area) provides unstaffed opening hours: Monday to Friday 8-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.; on Saturdays 8-11 a.m. and 4-10 p.m.; the whole day on Sundays (8 a.m. – 10 p.m.). In 2013 they recorded 60,000 visits in the unstaffed hours, with only a few reported accidents.

Resources

• Knud Schulz, Library Transformation: Sketching the future library transitioning to a space for citizens and community connections, slides presented at the Mid-Term Meeting of the IFLA Public Libraries Section, February 27, 2014;
• Jens Nordentoft Lauridsen, Welcome to all of you, slides presented at the Mid-Term Meeting of the IFLA Public Libraries Section, February 28, 2014;
• Stefan Wahlstedt, Investment in learning. The learning center in Malmö City Library, slides presented at the Mid-Term Meeting of the IFLA Public Libraries Section, February 27, 2014, provided by the author;
• Marian Morgan-Bindon, How the Digital Media lab delivers on the city’s Culture Strategy, slides presented at the Mid-Term Meeting of the IFLA Public Libraries Section, February 27, 2014; she is the Chair of the Section’s Standing Committee

**All photos courtesy of the author.

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The first step with self-assessment is to understand how services are currently provided by your organization. This is done by completing a detailed checklist [1]. For each question, the library indicates if the service/program/procedure is operational or is planned to be implemented. The result is a snapshot of your organization.

Last year Edge released a Toolkit with 11 benchmarks which evaluate the library’s technology services. The checklist is divided into three main areas: Community Value, that is services and collections (programs, training, and individual assistance of patrons, software, and access to electronic resources); Engaging the Community, that is relationships outside of the library (feedback from patrons, outreach, and partnerships); andOrganizational Management, that is internal issues (staff training, technical infrastructure).

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative provides the STAR Checklist, which consists of 64 questions about processes and policies, with four final levels of scoring. Libraries which earn at least one STAR receive a certificate. Most of the STAR libraries are academic libraries in Australia and the U.S.A. (actually some of the questions are academic-oriented), but also a few public libraries stand out.

The second step is to identify the weaknesses of the library, the areas where the library can improve, and work on it. Edge offers several training resources: articles, webinars, other tools, and also some case studies. Some interviews with library leaders involved in Edge can be watched in a dedicated YouTube channel.  Library management can use the benchmarks for its technology plans or in determining its strategic goals. Finally, advocacy. The results of the assessment can be showcased to community leaders and demonstrate how your library keeps up with the best practices.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative advocates for a radical change in resource sharing. Its Manifesto (2007) aims for the reduction of barriers and global access for users. For instance, libraries should offer unlimited renewals if items are not needed locally, loan items regardless of the format, loan new items, and accept credit cards for the payment of fees.

The Edge Initiative is developed by a coalition which includes PLA. 160 libraries participated in a “soft” launch last year and during January 2014 it will be launched nationally. The program will be adopted statewide in seven states, while previewed in other states. Any individual library can participate though. A program will be held at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Saturday, January 25, at 10:30 a. m. during which library leaders will share the results they obtained and attendees can learn more about how to get involved.

[1] Checklists are the topic of a popular book by a Boston-based surgeon, Atul Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto. How to Get Things Right, Picador, 2011)

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What do the German cities of Dresden, Erlangen, Jena, Regensburg, and Würzburg have in common? Their public libraries all got four stars for the year 2013 [1], that is the top rating of the BIX benchmarking system. Four stars mean a gold rating (the best) in each of the four groups of indicators, or, as they say, Zieldimensionen, (target dimensions). The participant libraries are mostly German, due to the fact that German must be accepted as the project language, so the only exceptions are from Switzerland and Austria. BIX was born in 1999, but looks very up-to-date if we consider the 18 indicators for public libraries, divided into: services (6), usage (5), efficiency (4),and development (3). Services refers to the core assets of the library: collection, space, staff, computers, programs, and Internet services, whose indicator sums up the number of services provided online, such as homepage, OPAC, user account management, virtual reference, Web 2.0 tools, and electronic resources. Usage includes virtual visits per capita, including homepage and OPAC sessions. Efficiency considers the relationship between expenditures and loans or visits. Development focuses on expenditures on buildings or the training of staff (including conference visits).

Created in 2006,  perhaps more relevant indicators are now needed for the Library Journal Index, whose benchmarking scheme is based on the data of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In it, U. S. public libraries, divided into 9 groups according to the annual expenditure, are assigned from three to five stars, based on four core output indicators regarding circulation, visits, programs, and Internet sessions. The 2013 LJ Index (year 2011) did not count new services, such as Wi-Fi access, e-books and database usage, or new ways of interacting with patrons. For instance some public libraries are starting to record “inreach,” services and collaborations with community agencies, in their statistics [2]. Electronic circulation per capita will be added starting with 2013 data. Simplicity is the main objective at the expense of the measurement of efficiency or of some classic service outputs like reference transactions.

At the international level a global evaluation of public libraries has been conducted by the IFLA Metropolitan Libraries Section since 2000 [3]. The last report (year 2011), published in November on IFLANET, was compiled by Helsinki City Library. 56 libraries participated from Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. The survey adopts more than 20 indicators regarding inputs, collections, expenditures, staff and outputs. The 2007-11 trends present a stabilization in staff and acquisitions (after the 2008-09 drop, probably due to the U. S. economic crisis), but a decline in weekly opening hours. After a boom in 2010, e-book collections are moderately increasing. For the second year, data about “hot” topics were collected: electronic services and resources, social networking, and programming. All the libraries (except three) have a Facebook account and the page of the National Library of Singapore generated more than 785,000 activities in a year! Fans of rankings will find something to sink their teeth into. In this edition Cleveland (Ohio) Public Library collected seven top positions, particularly in input measures and financial/staff ratios. Columbus (Ohio) and Seattle (Washington) earned some high rankings in output measures, while, among the European libraries, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Helsinki (Finland) got to the podium (Helsinki for the highest number of visits per capita).tThis survey was used as a management tool by Auckland (New Zealand) Libraries staff when 7 separate library systems merged into one. “We became a library system serving 1,5 million people, – Allison Dobbie of the Auckland Council wrote – “so used the statistics as a benchmark to check our resourcing levels relative to other libraries of a similar size. This was useful as we were then able to justify our levels of resourcing to our Council” [4].

If you are confused by the big national and international data projects, go back to the local level and have a look at the aspects that a single public library’s open data can reveal, such as the rise of e-book checkouts or the renewed interest in a novel due to a movie release in the Chicago public library system. [5]

———-

[1] In the group of cities with over 100000 inhabitants. Libraries are divided into five peer groups, according of the number of inhabitants of the served community.

[2] “Inreach” services are considered those “miniprograms that arise spontaneously between staff and patrons.” The last two reports present the profiles of some top-rated libraries, or of new star libraries, with their big strategies and small recipes to earn the 5-stars.

[3] The Section is the network of libraries of cities with 400,000 or more inhabitants

[4] E-mail to author (07/31/2013). Other library managers, such as Judith Hare (Halifax Public Library, Canada) and Siobhan Reardon (Free Library of Philadelphia), reported to me about the use of the so-called MetLib Statistics to evaluate the library’s progress in comparison with other institutions of the same population size (e-mails to author, 07/17/2013 and 07/21/2013). After three consecutive years of funding by IFLA, now the survey is looking for new funds to continue.

[5] Elliott Ramos, “Perusing Chicago Public Library Data: Rogers Park ranks high among bookworms, Great Gatsby flies off shelf and eBook checkouts on the rise”, accessed November 13, 2013,
http://www.wbez.org/blogs/bez/2013-06/perusing-chicago-public-library-data-rogers-park-ranks-high-among-bookworms-great

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Public Libraries as Placemakers
Creating a model program for the building and redesigning of future public libraries is the aim of  research co-funded by the Danish Agency for Culture and Realdania, a philanthropic association. In Denmark new libraries are user-oriented (rather than collection-oriented) and self-served. Jens Thorhauge reported about the current state of the research, which started from a careful analysis of the recent literature about city-planning and the role of libraries, then continued with a series of visits to some of the most inspiring libraries in Northern Europe. Some common trends in place-making are “the effort to create centers and identity in new urban spaces,”to revitalize “urban spaces in cities or neighborhoods that lost their traditional function” and to update or qualify and innovate “urban spaces that are already recognized” [1]. The design principles, under development during this summer, will consider four library goals (experience, involvement, empowerment, and innovation) and the four-space model tool: the learning space, the inspiration space, the meeting space, and the performance space. These spaces can be virtual or physical.

During spare time I visited a branch which is embedded at the top floor of one of the omnipresent shopping malls of the city, library@chinatown. Volunteer-run and created by private donations, the location has no reference desk but self-service stations and a cybrarian kiosk patrons can use to phone a librarian in case help is needed. Newspapers are available in print and via three large screens for browsing electronic versions of international newspapers. [2]

Outside view of library @ Chinatown Singapore

Cybrarian at the Library @ Chinatown branch library in Singapore

Public Libraries and E-reading
A day-long program was dedicated to e-books. Keynote speakers detailed the recent evolution of the book market, and six speakers illustrated the challenges in each continent, showing the enormous gap between Africa / Latin America and the rest of the world. Those two regions are left behind, due to lack of broadband coverage or budget.The second part consisted in the presentation of two case studies from Norway and Canada, and a look at the situation in Singapore, followed by a world café-style discussion on market/business models, advocacy and legal issues. [3]

Two initiatives were illustrated : the first is The right to e-read, a campaign launched by EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) last May and based on a joint action of European library associations, lobbying the EU for a clear copyright framework which would allow libraries the acquisition and lending of e-books for the benefit of the citizens. The second one is the ReadersFirst movement, which, facing the challenges of the e-book scenario (in availability, discoverability, and access), advocates with vendors and endorses some clear principles, such as the possibility to “discover content in a single comprehensive catalog,” to “access a variety of e-content from multiple sources,” to “interact with the library within the library’s own context,” and to “read e-books that are compatible with all readers” [4].

Public Libraries and Collaboration
Collaboration in statistical measurement should “start with the statistics librarians actually use on the job” in order to improve their practices, according to Tord Høivik, who surveyed the global situation and noticed that, even when countries have good statistics at the national level, they lack “extensive, user-oriented web publishing of the data.” He mentions the main bottom-up examples, such as the German project BIX, the Global Libraries program, the LJ Index, and the  Edge initiative. [5]. I would add the project of the IFLA Metropolitan Libraries Section, conducted by Toronto and Helsinki Public Libraries with an online platform provided by Toronto-based company Counting Opinions. The last report analyzed 2010 data from 59 public libraries of 25 countries. The project has been financed by IFLA during the last three years but is now looking for new funding to continue.

Consider evaluating resource sharing in your library by completing the Rethinking Resources Sharing STAR checklist. Brenda Bailey-Hainer and Evan Simpson illustrated that initiative and some cooperative projects involving public libraries in the US, such as the IDS Project and COKAMO.

Other News
The conference was the location for the launch of the IFLA Trend Report, the result of a year’s consultation of experts from various sectors, who identified five top level trends affecting the information society. They include access, learning, privacy, empowerment and new technologies, and are intended as debate-starters for the library community.

Last, but not least, posters can sometimes be a captivating way to catch your attention on a small project or activity. My favorite two at this conference were both related to social networks: What does it meme is a Philippine project which uses memes for library promotion and Digitalgud. Cataloguing can be fun!,  an Estonian project to promote collections and crowdsourcing through Facebook.

REFERENCES
[1] Jens Thorhauge, Creating a model-program for the building of future public libraries and their role in culture led redesign of urban spaces, p.7-8. Maija Berndtson explored the topic of the need of public spaces in Public libraries and placemaking.

[2] I also visited library@esplanade which is located at the Esplanade theatres and whose collection is centered on music, film and the performing arts. It offers a fully-geared “Silent Studio” and a piano practice room. Also the Green Library for children at the Central Public Library impressed me (and my little daughter) for interior design and the recycling of materials.

The entrance to the library @ esplanade – Singapore

[3] See the report on IFLA Express. YS Chi (IPA) explained his nine “E’s” of the publishing industry: excess, easy, expensive, enigmatic, experimental, experiential, ephemeral, empathy, eternal. Québec showcased their experience with e-book vendor DeMarque. Ivan Koh from the National Library Board of Singapore mentioned their partnership with Singapore Airlines for e-books on flights and with the US Embassy for donations of e-resources and devices. In Singapore the use of devices is very low compared to smartphones.

[4] From slides presented at the conference.

[5] Tord Høivik, Improving practices. Statistical standards in global libraries, p.3. He is well known by IFLA-goers for his ground-breaking studies of the the behaviors of library users through observation.

Photographs: Corrado Di Tillio

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Retail Style Displays at Almere Public Library

Perfect for Browsing – at Almere Library

From the first steps inside what can be considered a wow building, the first thing you think of is bookstores, as you see a huge row of books piled horizontally according to the same cover colors. It’s a shock. Face-out and horizontal displays are frequent through the whole library. The displays at the entrance refer to other areas of the library, called winkels (stores), each one with a name and a specially designed signage: “De living” (living room), for instance, with sunflowers and a vivid yellow background everywhere, is dedicated to women and contains books about cooking, health, gardening, interiors design, etc.  Another store is “Hoogspanning” (High tension) and contains finance, computer science, management; both areas include fiction. Dewey is not the shelving guide anymore and the visit to the library is transformed into a shopping experience. It’s another shock. The library has a lot of stand-alone displays with books, cds,and dvds. Don’t worry now: the library has more or less traditional (but amazing) spaces for cds/dvds, children, teenagers, and videogames. There are also closed study-rooms.

Shelving Unit at the Almere Public Library

Everything started with a customer survey ten years ago, when the city of Almere decided to build a new library, which opened in 2010. The survey highlighted that “80% of [the library] customers do not visit the library with a specific idea of what they want to lend and make their choice by browsing the collection,” customers also noticed “the rather boring interior” of the old library [2]. In 2008 the Metropolitan Library System in Chicago obtained similar findings adopting a combination of observation, interviews and video to study users’ movements, experience and behavior within the library: “two-thirds [of the visitors] did not know what they wanted before they arrived” and “56 percent spent less than ten minutes in the library” [3]. One year later Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich (Illinois) reorganized their Popular Materials Department according to retail models: more displays, face-out shelving, more spaces to browse. Consequently circulation increased without further acquisitions. Observation emerges as a key method. An interesting project in some Norwegian public libraries considers 14 different activities and, after rounds of observation through the various functional zones, came to the conclusion of three types of users: “classical,” “social,” and “digital” [4].

However the most strategic factor to obtain change is the training of staff and this was as true in Almere as in New Zealand, where an impressive training program, Best Sellers, has taken place since 2008, deliberately mashing up readers advisory with the principles of retail librarianship, with the aim of winning the competition with book retailers in the business of books and reading. About 300 librarians (in 2010) were involved through workshops, meetings and conferences about the core components of readers advisory work, which are a mix of the traditional (use of RA websites and blogs, interview techniques) and the modern (visual merchandising, book reviewing techniques and promotional activities). As Paul Brown considered, the crucial change for libraries is a shift from “hub” to “habit” of the community, that is from a passive location to an intuitive action [5].

The circle is closed: the 2014 Metlib conference will take place in Auckland!

[1] A group visit is charged 150 euros. Source:  http://www.denieuwebibliotheek.nl/?page=8099257

[2] Marga Kleinenberg, Almere library and the retail concept,  http://elsfutursdelabibliotecapublica.wordpress.com/documentacio/almere-kleinenberg/

[3] Valerie Stern, Why We Borrow? Using Retail Strategies in Public Libraries, in “ILA Reporter”, June 2010, p.4-8

[4] Tord Høivik, Count the Traffic. What do users do at the library? http://www.slideshare.net/plinius/count-the-traffic-presentation-572753, presented at the 2008 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Québec

[5] Paul Brown, Best Sellers: Readers Advisory at the Core of Public Libraries and ‘First to the Fringe’, in “The New Zealand Library & Information Management Journal”, Vol. 51, no.4 (April 2010), p.268-283

Picture Credits:

01, 03: Corrado Di Tillio

02: Tomáš Rehák

The post The Retail Revolution @ Your Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The “circolo del teatro” – the “circle of theater” – is a small group of theater lovers which meet two or three times a a month to discuss upcoming shows, generally before (as a preparation) and afterwards (for comments and discussion). The members choose the shows and a calendar is scheduled in advance for the period October-May. The circle invites directors and actors for talks and of course the lively scene of a capital city with more than 70 theater venues helps a lot. The meetings are lead and moderated by a passionate expert, Paolo Albani, who launched the idea three years ago. “He wanted to propose his idea of a school for the audience: the more you know about the show […] the better you enjoy it[1],” Marina Girardet, head of the Guglielmo Marconi branch says. Other activities include watching videos of performances or guided listening, as in the Invito all’opera program.

On a larger scale, Toronto Public Library combines performance and lectures, in partnership with the Canadian Opera Company and the Stratford Festival. A popular program series is called On Stage. Lectures discuss upcoming shows and often include a short performance. A lot of work is necessary to establish relationships, but also to organize and test technical details. One of the challenges is “finding the right space,” Paul Trumphour, Access and Information Manager of the Toronto Reference Library, explains. “It has to be large enough to accommodate a sizable audience and it must be acoustically appropriate so that people can hear the performance and speakers[2].”In addition to these programs, which appeal to older adults, Toronto Public Library also dedicates a library club for kids (ages 7-12) based on Shakespeare’s plays.

But libraries can also be the space where plays are written (workshops) or held, even in complete silence, with participants listening through headphones (yes, as in the “silent disco.”) Take, for example the case of The Quiet Volume by Tim Etchells and Ant Hampton, a piece of audio-theater held in several London libraries in 2011. Natasha Tripney, in her review on the Guardian theater blog, suggested further investigation of  the relationship between libraries and theater – their affinity in terms of social role and places of gathering – and the idea of library theaters. What are we waiting for?

1. E-mail to author (03/26/2013)

2. E-mail to author (03/26/2013)

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