Blog Safety

Just ran across this resource on Blog Safety: BlogSafety.com. Good information for teachers and parents who might find the whole blog-thing scary — especially “MySpace”. Now, if only the kids would enter this virtual world with caution.

Lessons learned while shopping

I went shopping today . . . and thought about libraries. Yes, I think about libraries a lot (even on Sunday) – some say I should get a life ;^)

First I went to Home Depot to buy a new kitchen faucet. There was a very expansive faucet display, with every kind and price faucet you could want, all on a display wall. The bottom of the display was about eye-level for me, and went up from there. Each faucet had a sign, with the price of the faucet and the features/installation requirements. Trouble is, I had trouble reading the signs. I’m a baby-boomer, with middle-aged vision compensated for with trifocals. In order to read the signs, I had to tip my head way back, attempting to find the part of the visual field where I could read the printing. Some of the signs I couldn’t read at all, and after stretching my neck back until it hurt, I went to Menards and bought my faucet.

Then I went to Barnes and Noble to buy Marly and Me. No trouble finding it on prominent displays, since it’s #1 on the New York Times best-seller list for non-fiction. Then I wandered around the store, browsing the displays on tabletops. I ended up buying Marly, plus 2 more books I didn’t even know I wanted before walking into the store.

Thirdly, I went to Hollywood Video. Multiple copies of new releases were all around the perimeter of the store. In the center of the store were previous new releases, being sold as excess/used merchandise at a fraction of the original cost.

All this reminded me of a class I took in library school at UIUC – Marketing Library Services. A class exercise was looking at libraries through the eyes of a customer. How many books in the library are beyond the field of trifocals, or what treasures are there buried in the stacks that could find new life in a table-top display? And how many customers could we thrill with shorter waiting-lists for best-sellers?

I don’t know how feasible all of this is, but it sure is interesting to ponder.

Reality check for managers

From Bulletin Board in today’s Pioneer Press:

“A recent issue of Sports Illustrated featured a story on NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

An excerpt: ‘After (graduating from) NYU, Tagliabue worked for Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on nuclear-weapons policy. The two great lessons he took away from his time at the Pentagon were 1) “No matter how well designed the system is, monkeys still run the system,” and 2) “Whoever is most critical to your plan will be in the crapper when you really need him.” ‘

How true.

The “L” Word

During library school at UIUC as a LEEP student, we spent a fair amount of time debating the name of library schools, and how many venerable ALA accredited programs have dumped the “library” word. As glassy-eyed students, most of us could not understand this drastic action and definitely did not approve.

Now OCLC published a report just last month, Perceptions of Libraries and Information Sources that provides evidence that the word library is a brand that invokes perceptions that are not necessarily healthy for the longevity of libraries. OCLC report
Chris Olson, as a guest columnist in Informed Librarian reviews the report, and cites 3 key findings:
1. The people surveyed overwhelmingly equate the library brand with “books.”
2. Respondents use the library less and read less since they began using the Internet.
3. People like to self-serve when it comes to locating information.

Reading the Tea Leaves, Chris Olson, Guest Forum, Informed Librarian Online

Chris further relates what a millstone the library brand is becoming to libraries who are working to project the image of information utility. Libraries have always been and probably always will be associated with repositories of books. Looking up the word library in a dictionary gives primary meanings related to books and repositories. Even Wikipedia only adds “modern libraries” and access to information in the second paragraph.

I work hard to inspire libraries of all types to establish themselves as something more in their communities than the place they keep the books. The libraries I see receiving the most respect (and the funding that follows) have positioned themselves as an intrinsic part of their communities, as critical a utility as the power company.

I understand the concept that Chris is putting forth, but I fear that attempts to adopt a new identity and word other than library will not be in our best interest. As an example, I see school library media centers being marginalized out of existence. I hypothesize that the beginning of the end for those institutions was when they ceased to be known as libraries with all the history, tradition, and respect of the institution in the educational system, and proclaimed themselves as media centers – media being something that could be maintained with credentials far less than those of the teaching librarian.