I am putting my blog on hiatus through the end of July, which is turning out to be a busy month for many reasons, both professional and personal. In the meantime, I encourage you to read the first two posts in my series Lunch hour interview: View from the director’s desk. I want to thank both Kathy and Deb for allowing me into their “homes” and sharing their thoughts with me. I sincerely appreciate their hospitality. I intend to post a third installment in August, but summer is a tough time to coordinate schedules and sometimes other factors get in the way. I do hope to see the series continue, though.

Next week, I will be attending The Pennsylvania Academy of Leadership Studies in Harrisburg. When I return here in August, I hope to write about that, too. If you happen to stumble upon my blog while I’m away, I hope you will take some time to read old posts to see if anything sparks your interest. And then please come back for more at the end of the summer.

But for now, I’ll leave you with what’s on my mind at the moment: Risk vs. reward. How does someone know when the risk is worth it? Taking risks is scary any way you look at it. Trying something new can result in unexpected benefits or disaster of epic proportion. When is fear of the unknown reason enough not to try?

My experience with the library world has taught me that risk-taking is especially difficult for us. We like to analyze and consider and mull over and chart and graph and review and predict every possible outcome before we take action. Maybe we’re so afraid because we have so much–and so little–to lose. By that I mean that because funds are always short, and we seem to have to fight for every dollar and prove our value and relevance at every turn, when we take risks and fail, we don’t always have a buffer to protect us from the hard fall.

And yet without risk, how will any real, necessary change occur where real, necessary change is needed? Sometimes taking a chance is the only way to find out what works and what doesn’t. Caution is one thing; paralysis is another. How do we find a balance that allows us to sometimes–sometimes–throw caution to the wind?

As always, I don’t know the answer. But I think it’s a question worth considering.

See you in August.

The whole point of doing this series is so that I can listen, learn, and grow and then share that information because we all learn from each other. One thing I’ve quickly learned is that one format is not going to work for these posts because the view from each director’s desk is so different, which is what makes all of this so interesting. I’ve learned new things from both Kathy and Deb, and what I learned this time is that Deb is interested in having her message mingled with my own because she values individual voices. So what follows contains much more of me than the prior post–more of my take on our conversation. It’s empowering to be asked to use your voice to interpret someone’s words. And as Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker (Spiderman), “With great power comes great responsibility.” I take that responsibility very seriously.

As you may know, I’m not particularly fond of rigid structures, formats, or consistency anyway. Our conversation would be difficult to contain within the format that I’ve outlined for myself since Deb basically took my ten questions, turned them upside down, and set her own agenda–in a very good way. Our discussion was encompassing and far-reaching (I have about 1 hour and 40 minutes of recorded conversation), and so I will turn my format upside down to match–summarizing the gist of what was said using actual quotes to illustrate specific points. Deb asked a team member–Aimee Nelson, Director of Operations–to sit with us, too, so some of what Aimee had to say will be included.

What follows is the view from both sides of one director’s desk.

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The Elizabethtown Public Library has been situated at its current location–”a multi-level facility in the heart of the downtown community”–for almost 12 years. Upon entering the building, which is part historic and part renovated to code, I noticed three things immediately–it is a bright, open, airy space with welcoming signage. And I smelled coffee, which we’ll get to later. As I was waiting for Deb to come and meet me, I also noticed one sign in particular sitting on part of the front, large, rounded desk that quoted Walt Disney as follows: “Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” I’m actually not certain, from memory, if the sign used the entire quote, but I am certain that is used at least the beginning portion of it. You get the idea.

The first thing Deb did was to take me to the basement level. The basement serves multiple purposes. The library is hosting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) pick-up site for Lancaster Farm Fresh. As we walked by the drop-off table, Deb snatched one lonely pint of strawberries, which was the only item left on the table and which would not have survived much longer. Along the same hallway, we stopped to admire a pile of huge burlap bags that contained green coffee (coffee in its natural state) that is bought a pallet at a time from various countries all across the central band region. The coffee is all small-farmed with the exception of one variety that is only grown on large farms. The basement provides optimal conditions for storing the green coffee for up to 2 1/2 years, if necessary. Why does the library store coffee? Because the library is also home to the Elizabethtown Coffee Company, which roasts its own beans on the premise. More on that in a bit.

Next we entered a room that housed a variety of leftover items from various programming events. The room serves as a staging area for evaluating material that can be removed from off-site storage. The room is also the venue for board meetings, or “meeting in the closet” as Deb called it. She said that a lot of places give their boards “This kind of lush view of the world. We don’t do that. They get to be in the least favorable place because we want the favorable places to be available for the public.”

We went upstairs to the ground level and looked around the stacks as Deb stopped to introduce me to team members along the way. And then we headed directly for The Coffee Company, where Deb showed me the roaster. Deb explained that because “coffee is kind of part of who we are as people and one of our biggest priorities is connecting people to each other. So, we connect people to each other, to the information they need, and then to whatever resources are required to do what it is they want to do.” The library has a roastmaster as part of its team, but among other things, Deb happens to be a certified barista trainer. The roasted coffee is stored in containers separated by variety on shelves nearby. The beans take anywhere from 12-27 minutes to roast (the longer, the darker). The roasting process is actually like popping corn, as the beans “crack” several times before they are fully roasted. And it smells so good.

Then up to the second level. On the way, Deb showed me their “collection” of folding tables and chairs, which are cataloged (I can attest to that) and circulate. They are wildly popular. Deb said they could probably double the quantity and still not have enough to satisfy demand.

The second level is where the children’s area is housed in another equally bright, open, airy space with lots of windows. There is a great room dedicated to the YA collection, which looks like a comfortable hangout for teens. There is an attractive display for the shape cake pans that are available to circulate.

Still meeting and talking to team members along the way, we head for Deb’s office. After Deb kindly provided me with a cup of freshly roasted coffee (delicious), and after she invited Aimee to take a seat with us (in case I needed to know anything “traditional,”) we started the “formal” part of our conversation, and I went through my list of ten questions, although as I stated at the outset, the content of our conversation doesn’t necessarily correlate well with my questions. So, as a reminder, these were my 10 questions-

~How long have you been the director here and how did you come by the job?
~How long have you worked in libraries?
~If you could say only one thing about your library, what is it that you would most want people to know?
~If money were not an obstacle, what is the first thing you would change about your library and why?
~How have funding cuts in recent years affected your library?
~What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing your library today?
~What do you say to someone who believes that the library is not essential to your community and no longer relevant in society?
~What aspect of your job do you find most rewarding, and what are you most proud of having accomplished here and why?
~If you had to weigh against each other the following facets of the library: physical space, collection, services and programs, which element would you say will be the most essential for libraries to maintain or grow in the future and why?
~If we sit down again in ten years, what do you hope you will be able to say to me about the library?
~Anything else you want to add?

And this is the story that unfolded from the answers-

As stated previously, Deb has two primary goals as a director and as a librarian–to take care of her team and to help make dreams come true. The tagline for the library is Making Dreams Come True. “Educating, empowering, enriching, stimulating. Those are the words we use when we talk about who we are. We don’t have an agenda. It’s not about us. It’s about whoever you are. We should almost be like an invisible tool that enables you to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve.”

This is Deb’s first permanent library position. She has been at Elizabethtown for ten years and it was an “accident.” She got her MLS while working as a consultant for library turnaround projects out of the area, which is where she realized that in order to actually work at a certain level in this profession you had to have this degree. Family issues brought her back to Lancaster County, where she thought she would remain for six months. Instead, after working at the library for a time, the board asked her if she would become the director because they liked what they saw. Deb said, “Yes, for a while. But a while hasn’t ended yet.”

As the director, CEO, and “facilities manager” (“It may say CEO on my business card, but I’m really the facilities manager.”), Deb’s primary goal is to “take care of my people–my team. Their responsibility is to take care of those people who come in from outside.” What happens as a result of that is that Deb’s people, in turn, take care of her even though “it’s not on anyone’s job description.” “It’s a lot of never-ending work to achieve that kind of culture. It’s like family stuff. You work at it every single day, and it’s usually the stuff that looks like it doesn’t even matter that matters the most. Showing up. Just being there. My job is to empower my people and to give them what they need to do their jobs. And if I do that, we all win. I hire good people and hold them accountable to doing good work.”

As a librarian, Deb’s focus is most certainly on defending “the freedom of people.” “We will not judge you. We’re not going to keep a record of it. Chances are we won’t remember it, not intentionally, though.” Deb’s focus is not on the day-to-day like story time or the summer reading program. That’s because her team has clear direction and they care about those things so that Deb can “care about what our purpose is. And our real purpose is that we defend people’s freedoms to do whatever it is they want to do. That’s what we do. Where is the only place on the planet that you can go, get information, and somebody else comes in and says, so, what did so and so request? And we look at them and say, Who? Protecting personal freedoms–that’s what gets me out of bed in the mornings.”

Deb does get frustrated, though, that while the ultimate purpose of the library is to help people reach their goals, there doesn’t seem to be enough people with goals anymore. “I’m disturbed at the diminishing capacities of humans to utilize their potential or even recognize that they have potential. Motivation is sometimes lacking. “I also get frustrated with the disconnection that some of my peers in this profession have to their purpose. Who cares about the color of a label? How about asking if we really need the label in the first place?”

Deb believes that part of that disconnection comes from the failure of library schools to teach the things that are central to the success of a library. “They don’t talk about budgeting. They don’t talk about fiscal control, facility management, empowering teams, organizational culture, outreach, or fundraising. And I don’t think ever once did anyone ever mention why are we doing this? It was all about the task-orientation.” Deb strongly believes that the library/information science degree should be an undergraduate degree. However, she does believe there should be a “graduate component,” which could be something like an advanced degree in childhood education or nonprofit management, social work, business administration, accounting…whatever would be relevant and helpful in taking the library to that next level.

Deb also understands that in the traditional library world, “What we have is what matters. We count what we have and that matters. And here (at Elizabethtown), we’re much more about community and outreach and engaging and then that other stuff happens. But it’s the way we do things, not what we do. But in the typical library world, what matters is what we do not how we do it.” I asked whether her board was okay with her non-traditional approach. “My board rocks. Aimee, do you want to tell her what I say after every, single board meeting?” Aimee said, “She looks at me and takes a deep breath and says, what other group of people could get together and talk about this stuff and have so much fun?” Deb continued, “We have a culture of high trust. Fun matters (evidenced by the fact that during our entire conversation, Deb was playing with a Rubrik and at one point fashioned an awesome green dog). We get a lot done. That’s the kind of environment we have and should have. I did a lot of board consulting before for not-for-profit turnaround, and I get frustrated when I see ineffective boards because it doesn’t have to be that way.”

As you’ll hear from most library directors, Deb believes that most obstacles eventually all go back to funding, or the lack of it. Funding and lack of time, which also goes back to funding. When the funding cuts hit a high in 2008, “We closed on Fridays. I fired some people. We spent less on collection purchases, although we’re starting to ramp that back up (because declining circulation drastically affected their state funding last year thanks to a revamped funding formula, which unfortunately [my commentary] relies heavily on circulation statistics. It’s particularly unfortunate for a library like Elizabethtown that sees its primary goal as “outreach–services and programs,” which are more difficult to measure and value.) Aimee added that they’ve had to be “more careful with all spending.” Deb continued by describing the unfortunate timing of the decision to launch the Coffee Company four days before funding crashed. When I asked if she regretted it, she said, “Oh, no. I don’t really have any regrets at all in life. Regrets don’t really get you anywhere.”

If funding were not an issue, the team at Elizabethtown would include in its priority list of “must-haves” installing a sliding glass door on the far wall in Deb’s office, as well as a dumb-waiter, so holding team meetings wouldn’t require walking around a wall and so that Deb could just call down for her coffee. That’s not just frivolous thinking–”It symbolizes a lot more. That’s who we are. We do a lot of collaboration.” They would also replace the elevator, which is the “bane” of Deb’s existence. “It bleeds money.”

Money may be a powerful force, but Deb believes in the power of words, too. She has strong negative feelings about the (overused and misused) word “communication” as well as the word “staff,” which reminds Deb of the disease (spelled differently, but sounds the same nonetheless) that was part of her former career in nursing. “The words we use really, really matter. My ‘team’ is a team because that’s what we are. They’re not some disease.” As far as communication, “Right now it seems to mean that we say a whole bunch of stuff, and as long as we say a whole bunch of stuff while we’re standing or sitting near other people, then that’s good enough. We should just get rid of it. The word has been murdered so badly that it will never be returned. We need better communication? No. We need to get stuff done. Shut up already and work!”

Deb understands and can identify her own weaknesses, too, and she isn’t afraid to admit to them. “I’m not good at traditional library speak. In fact, I’m really bad at traditional library speak. I need to figure out how to basically do better in the typical, traditional library speak when I need to do that. Or else I need to have someone else do that for me.”She believes that leaders should tell their people their weaknesses because “your people already know what they are. They want to know that you know what they are.”

Deb’s ultimate goal is “To not be needed. That’s my job. My goal is to not be needed. A couple of years ago I told my board that we should start working on a sustainability plan that would continue to work after I’m not here anymore. We need to figure out how this organization is going to operate successfully and culturally and in every other important way without me. Because if the organization is dependent on my presence then we haven’t done a very good job. Actually, we’ve then done a really bad job.”

“It’s not about me.”

It’s been an interesting few days in the virtual community. Engaging, maybe? Maybe not.

My awareness of the complexity of online interactions has increased substantially recently. It all started when one of my Facebook friends posted a strongly worded, political status. There was some negative reaction, and the original poster was offended by the criticism. This person said something along the lines of this–if you want to contradict something I’ve said, then do that on your own page, not on mine.

Then, still on Facebook, I became more aware of something I already knew–there is a certain library community whose members aim to post thought-provoking topics of interest in the profession. This happens, frequently. What also happens, frequently, is that the discussion quickly deteriorates into name calling, personal insults, character assassination and the like. None of that takes much thought.

There were two recent blog posts about how librarians should dress for the profession. The comments on one post were mostly snarky commentary on how badly librarians dress in general. And the author of the other post had to include an update indicating the removal of at least seven comments that were simply insulting and without any value.

I won’t even get started on Twitter. I often hear the phrase “Don’t feed the trolls!” And yet some of those protesting the loudest seem to be waiting under bridges themselves.

I usually link to the comments I reference here, but I’m not going to this time. There would be no value in reading them. I’m also not interested in singling out individuals or calling anybody out. I’m all in favor of healthy, honest, constructive discourse. But when it turns into a diatribe against the person rather than the idea, or when it leads to a full-blown battle among participants, then it changes from discourse into disaster and disgrace.

Maybe it’s a chicken and the egg kind of question. In the first example I cited, was it unrealistic for my Facebook friend to post something provocative and expect no one to protest? Or does someone have a right to openly express their opinions online without fear of retribution? When is someone “trolling” and when is someone posting a genuine concern? Does it matter?

There is a vast amount of valuable information to be found in online communities. Why waste an international forum for opportunity and growth by using it to sound like an ass?

It’s one thing to be passionate. It’s another to be mean. It’s easy to be mean, especially online where there are few, if any, repercussions and sometimes no accountability. Maybe some are amused by that sort of thing or think it’s harmless. Maybe sometimes it is. Often it’s not.

My first rule of engagement is not to unless I have something of positive value to add to the conversation. Not that I haven’t broken that rule or been tempted many times to simply go off on someone or something that’s been said–something so outrageous that it’s hard to ignore. I’m not above being sarcastic and argumentative (just ask my husband). Disagreement can be a good thing and can lead to further understanding. Being combative is polarizing.

Maybe some will say I’m just trolling with this post. Feel free to post your opinion. And I will feel free to choose whether or not to engage. We all have that choice. I think it comes down to a matter of respect for yourself and for others. I hope this blog is respectful if nothing else. That is one of the things I miss the most about Will Manley’s blog. The conversation got heated, sometimes, but it was always thoughtful, respectful and professional. For the most part, everyone behaved like adults. I wonder if Mr. Manley looks around the virtual land of libraries and wonders if perhaps what he has to say or the way he says it is out of vogue or no longer relevant?

Good manners never go out of style and are always relevant.

Note: I haven’t forgotten about Lunch hour interview: View from the director’s desk. I have two interviews lined up–one for next week, and one in July. Look for those posts to continue the series.

I spent four days last week taking time off from being a librarian. Instead, I spent my time using public library resources, which is something relatively uncommon for me. Let me explain-

I’ve stated more than once on this blog that, while I completely support the mission of all libraries and believe strongly that every community in every sense of the word can and should benefit from library services and resources, I have not been a regular library user–kind of like the “super supporters” identified in the 2008 Gates-funded, OCLC study From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America. That changed this past week.

The picture I’ve chosen to headline this post illustrates the way in which I used the library. In fact, I was delighted to find a picture of my mouse at Morguefile.com. However, that is not my hand (who, of a certain age, doesn’t remember that episode of Seinfeld?).

My husband (and by proxy, me) owns a small business. I’ve written about it before, and it is still going strong, although it is getting more and more difficult to stay viable in this still recovering economy and with new and more stringent and restrictive rules and regulations always on the horizon. In short, sometimes it’s hard to make a profit and pay your bills.

We decided to take the business to the next level by way of a concerted marketing effort. Up until now, like many small businesses, ours has relied heavily on referrals and word-of-mouth advertising and that has been sufficient to a point. It’s time to take a new direction.

Enter the public library. We are fortunate to have on staff at the Library System of Lancaster County an Economic Development Manager and Consultant–Rhonda Kleinman. Her budget helps support business databases that are available to any Lancaster County library card holder. Rhonda was kind enough to spend some time introducing me to two of them–ReferenceUSA and Hoover’s.

Both are comprehensive business intelligence tools. And although ReferenceUSA actually offers more usable features to library users (I’ll explain what I mean as I go on), I’m going to focus on Hoover’s because that is the database that gave me exactly what I needed for this particular research project. I intend to give ReferenceUSA another try next time. There will definitely be a next time.

Hoover’s is a goldmine of information about over 95 million companies, organizations, and other entities. What I needed was this: a targeted list of the names of athletic directors for every school district within a 100 mile radius. And that’s exactly what I got.

Using the library-subscribed version of Hoover’s, I was able to create such a list by selecting the industry SIC code and excluding the sub-code for universities and colleges (we only wanted secondary schools) and then designating the geographic radius. I ended up with 457 contacts, which included multiple names (in some cases) for the same school districts.

The problem with Hoover’s (and the benefit to using Reference USA) is that the download feature is disabled for at least some “merchant customers” like the library. When you create a list in Reference USA, you can download that list, along with the contact information, directly into an Excel spreadsheet, which is then ready for use in mail merge, etc. In this particular instance, I was not able to get the same detailed list using ReferenceUSA, so even though I had the exact information I needed from Hoover’s, I was left with a dilemma.

I could not save my search (that feature is disabled, too), and I could not buy my list via Hoover’s Ondemand (a feature that is available on the Hoover’s Web site without authorized access; however, the searching capability for this feature is not as robust, and I could not generate the same list that I did using the library’s subscription). As a result, I was forced to manually copy and paste the information I gathered into a spreadsheet, which was very time-consuming. While you can go into each listed entry and get complete contact information, I was having trouble with the session timing out, so I ended up saving each page of my search to my desktop as a Web page. I was  a bit worried that when I opened them up days later, the lists would be gone; however, my search results remained intact.

Since this was all new to me, I was a bit leery of simply trusting, without verification, the information that populated my list. We wanted to send our direct mailings to specific individuals, and I was afraid that the names I had been given were perhaps outdated or inaccurate. The librarian in me decided to use the list to verify the information by going to each school district’s Web site. And what I have found so far (I’ve not yet completed this process, but I’m about 3/4 finished) is this: All but a handful of the names on that list are completely accurate and current. Next time I will know that I can trust the list I generate without verifying the information. (Personal note: many school district Web sites are as bad or worse than public library Web sites. Must have something to do with lack of education funds all around. And I speak from experience)

During the process, I talked to two Hoover’s customer service representatives. As I mentioned, I was trying to buy my list, which I couldn’t do, so then I tried to get a free trial, which didn’t work out either. If I had been able to buy my list for direct mail purposes, it would have cost me $.24/contact or around $110. The reps also told me that subscriptions to Hoover’s start at $3,000 per year. The business could have afforded to buy the list. The business could not afford to pay for such a costly subscription, and I doubt that many small businesses could afford such a luxury. Either way, the public library saved us money. I was able to access the same industry-standard tool that bigger businesses pay for out of their own budgets, and I was able to get the same information.

Last week, I also registered for the Simple Steps for Growing Your Business workshop series offered by SCORE Lancaster. This is a 6-part series–6, 3-hour sessions–offered at a cost of $120/participant. That’s 18 hours at about $7/hour. The same day, I noticed an advertisement on LinkedIN for an all-day business seminar to be held at a local hotel for around $600/participant. That’s around 7 hours at about $87/hour! Granted, the all-day seminar included breakfast and lunch. The SCORE workshops are still a better value.

Most SCORE services are free, including personal business mentoring. It is staffed by volunteers, including our Economic Development Manager, Rhonda. Technically, SCORE is not a library service, but the library is my connection to it.

As a taxpayer, small business owner, and citizen of Lancaster County, I received good value for my money from library resources without ever having entered a library building. I worked from home and let the library come to me. I am a satisfied library customer.

Back to cataloging tomorrow. And off to my first SCORE workshop on Tuesday with plans to continue working on my marketing list next weekend.

Working to give good value for taxpayer money and getting that same value in return.

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of this blog–two years of bringing my noise. This milestone got me thinking about something that’s been on my mind a lot lately–how does one measure success?

With regard to this blog, is the measure of success the number of views? Or the number of comments? The number of subscribers? Or the number of posts? The number of retweets? The number of “likes?” Which number is an accurate measure of success? Or is it something more intangible like the depth of satisfaction, or whether one post has resonated with just one person? Or the quality of writing and the overall response?

How does one measure success as an employee? As a cataloger, for the most part, my success is measured by the number of items I catalog each day. Increased productivity=success. Or does it? What about quality? Or discernment? Or looking beyond the task at hand at the bigger picture? What about the effectiveness of communication? Or contribution? Perspective?

How does one measure effort? How hard one is working? By statistics? Number of  emails answered? Number of phone calls returned? Turnaround time? By overtime hours worked? By number of absences? Does it matter what else you’re looking at, thinking about, or conjuring in order to take your organization to the next level? How about engagement? Curiosity?

How do we measure the success of an organization? By employee retention? A perfect audit? By the number of complaints? By the number of compliments? Should we look at employee satisfaction? Customer satisfaction? Contribution to the greater good? How do we measure those?

How about the success of a small business? By the bottom line? By profits? Numbers on a bank statement or tax return? Or is it by effort? And work ethic? And dedication? Endurance? Commitment?

How do libraries measure success? Circulation statistics? Number of cardholders? Number of visits? Number of hits on the Web site? Program attendance? Amount accrued by fundraising? What about changing lives? Outreach? Increasing literacy? Bridging the digital divide? Not as easy to quantify.

Are you a successful parent? How do you know? By the number of As your child gets in school? By the number of meltdowns your child has each week? The number of times your child got detention? Or arrested? Scholarships? Awards? Or have you been successful if your child is happy, secure, well-intentioned, and kind?

Are you a successful human being? What does that mean? That you have many dollars? Many degrees? Many friends? Or does being a successful human being have more to do with attitude, and generosity of spirit, and love, acceptance, and compassion?

I get metrics and the importance of quantifying outcomes. I understand the value in numbers. There’s certainly a place for that kind of measurement, and I don’t doubt its validity. However-

I hope to rarely measure my success in numbers. Not as a blogger, a cataloger, an employee, a librarian, a parent, or as a human being. Sometimes it’s easy to hide behind a number–to raise that number as a trophy of victory. But numbers never tell the whole story. If they did, then I could tell you, in numbers, how much I love my family, or how much I value my friends, or how much I enjoy a good movie or cooking or a perfect glass of wine. I could give you a number instead of telling you the way in which a book or a story affected me. I could tell you how many times I ate exceptional food rather than describing the pleasure derived from doing so. I could tell you the number of times I looked at a painting rather than explaining the feeling I got from looking at it. I could tell you exactly how many college visits I’ve been on with my kids. What does that tell you about what I learned, or observed, or felt? I’ve been to only three countries outside of the United States. I’ve visited or traveled through 33 states. Those numbers don’t reflect anything about the quality of my travel. I could probably estimate the number of times I’ve rocked or nursed a wakeful child to sleep in the middle of the night, but the value lies in the incredible feeling of connectedness, bonding, and love that occurs during those intimate moments that can’t be measured on any scale.

There’s a place for both quantitative and qualitative measurements. Numbers serve a purpose, no doubt. But I don’t want to quantify mine or others’ success by numbers alone. Then there’s this-

How do you define success? Because before you can measure something, you have to know what it is your measuring. Defining success is even harder than measuring it.

Based on my definition with regard to this blog, I have been successful. We may look at the same statistics and other quantitative data and come to different conclusions about that. But I am committed, try my best to produce a good end product, and I have readers. That’s really all I need.

Which begs another question–is success always necessary?

Successful or not by your definition, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate the overall satisfaction I get by writing this blog an 8. What does that number tell you?

I’d rather just say that I’m having a blast, and I hope you keep reading. It doesn’t matter how many times you visit as long as you enjoy your stay each time.

Thanks for spending some of your time with me.

As you may know if you read my blog regularly, I work for a systems office in a federated library system with 14 member libraries, 3 branches, and a bookmobile. Since traveling to the libraries is not a regular part of my job as a cataloger, I decided to make it a regular part of my job as a blogger and as an interested resident of Lancaster County. So, on Monday, I used my lunch hour (plus an hour of personal time) to travel to The Adamstown Area Library to interview Kathy Thren, Director. I started with Adamstown for three reasons–the alphabet, geography, and for the simple reason that I had never been there before.

Ninety-five percent of the work I do on this blog is done in the evenings or on the weekends (my husband can attest to that). Occasionally, I will write a post on my lunch hour or reply to comments or post a draft written the night before. Rather than use my lunch hour to write, I decided to use it to listen and learn and connect. While conducting these interviews is not part of my job, and I’m not really acting in my capacity as a system employee, building these relationships and taking the time to learn about our customers can only help me do my job better, too.

I plan to reach out to each of the directors, so while I’m calling this a series that is really only my hope at this point. Look for the brown bag and the title above to designate future posts, which I expect to be forthcoming, although not consecutively, with other, unrelated posts popping up in between. Each post will follow the same format using the same, ten interview questions.

Libraries are about learning, and libraries can learn from each other as well. What follows is the view from one director’s desk.

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The Adamstown Area Library was founded 64 years ago and has moved among several locations, finally settling at its current location on North Reading Road where it has been for the past 13 years. It is a small space–2,500 square feet–with a big heart. The library serves over 30,000 patrons and has four full-time staff, 6 part-time staff, a whopping 40 volunteers, and a friends group with some of the most “financially savvy and creative” people. Please check out the Web site I linked to above–they have a really well-done video on the front page that will introduce you to the library.

Before Kathy and I sat down to talk, she gave me a tour; however, she had to look for a missing receipt and was interrupted twice to help with an interlibrary loan and take a call from her board president, yet she still had the presence of mind to stop to admire a little girl’s shoes along the way (they were pink TOMs–what’s not to admire?). It was clear that Kathy loves her job and takes enormous pride in the library.

Not only are directors busy people and jacks of all trades, but they make good use of their often limited space. I wish I had taken my camera, because my favorite part of the tour was the “Book Bunker” housed in the basement of the building, which is also shared with the Borough Office. Approximately 25,000 books slotted for the annual book sale have taken cover in the book bunker. When you enter the bunker, you have to lower your head or it will smack a beam. It is truly a bunker. Kathy showed me how the volunteers, when they are sorting the books, have to position themselves between beams in such a way so that they can stand erect. It was awesome, as is the library itself. As I said, please visit the Web site for more information.

Then it was time to ask my ten questions and listen to the answers. I am a novice interviewer–I was taking notes and recording (but I forgot to ask permission!), so in presenting Kathy’s responses, I have not used any quotation marks, but I have requested her approval before publishing this post. I sincerely hope that if I didn’t get the words exactly right in every case, I got the gist of her message-

How long have you been the director here and how did you come by the job?

I became the director in 2006, so I’ve been here for 7 years. I saw the job posted on a library listserv. Here’s the interesting thing–I saw the job at a time when I was completely free. I had just gone through a divorce, and I could have moved anywhere in the world. I seriously considered jobs in New Mexico and Dubai (for almost $200,000 per year!), but then I saw the post for Adamstown, which is five minutes from my house. I knew it had a wonderful reputation as a customer-friendly library. I thought I would take the interview just for practice, but I ended up taking the job. I’ve never been disappointed that I took this position.

How long have you worked in libraries?

Before I took this job, I was in health care for 18 years, and then I started my own information business. I conducted research as an independent contractor for 7 years without any library experience. Having library experience, particularly having my master’s degree, would have helped me greatly. During that time, I went to Kutztown University and got my BA in education and my graduate degree in library science from Clarion right after that. Once I got hooked on the databases I was gone!

I stopped working in my own business mostly because I was on my own, couldn’t hire anybody to help me, and I had no contact with other people except over the phone and via email. It got to be tiring. Contracted jobs started going away, I was almost done with my library science degree, so I changed direction. I worked in two libraries in Berk’s County before I took this job.

If you could say only one thing about your library, what is it that you would most want people to know?

We are patron-friendly with a wide variety of services for everyone.

If money were not an obstacle, what is the first thing you would change about your library and why?

Space. Absolutely. I would build a brand new, beautiful library something along the lines of the Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill or similar to the Manheim Township Library. If the need warrants it. At this point, we would take 10,000 square feet. Anything is better than the 2500 we have now. That’s the dream. (I asked if she thought it would happen, and she said, “No”–not unless the whole economic landscape changes or they merge with another library, which is always a possibility).

How have funding cuts in recent years affected your library?

Technology. It took us a long time just to save up enough money to get an update on the Windows XP computers, and you know how many years ago that was. Computers before that time–they were so old and they wouldn’t update properly and patrons really grew tired of that and they stopped coming. But we just didn’t have the money to update them. And the sad part about grants is that unless you’re doing something wildly innovative it’s really difficult to get money for grants for technology. We don’t have a wild and innovative space–I think we’ve innovated to the max here. One of our community businesses–Stout’s Black Angus–held a fundraiser for us. We raised $9,000 and that paid for everything–all our laptops and all our desktops. That made a big difference in our usage. Half of our library’s use is computer-related, so that made a big difference.

Another thing, if we could afford it, is more staff. Do more things.There’s always more you can do out in the community. We hired a PR person, but he only has so many hours and he’s doing constant contact in the newsletter and getting the word out about our programs, which is helping, but you can always do more.

What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing your library today?

Space, again. Current trends–what people think about libraries, perception. The economy. If we weren’t faced with this looming pension situation at the state level, I think more money could go to libraries.

What do you say to someone who believes that the library is not essential to your community and no longer relevant in society?

In 2008, we saved our community over $2 million dollars. For people without means– even though libraries are for people in every socioeconomic situation–for those families with 5 children who come in here and they take out hundreds and hundreds of books per month. That saved our community at least $2 million, which doesn’t even include the cost of internet connection and our computers. Just in resources. We want our patrons to live a healthy and productive life, and I think libraries serve that purpose well. We certainly impact people’s lives. We’re like a community center of information and technology. People can’t get everything online. Much of that information can be inaccurate. If you’re going to be searching for medical information at a .com, other than something like Web MD or Mayo Clinic, well, you might be in trouble. We are uniquely positioned to teach everyone all the literacies (Kathy referenced the PA FORWARD initiative). Health is just one of those literacies. It’s vital that you get the proper information. You wouldn’t want to read the effects of a drug in an online chat room when you have a resource like a Physician’s Desk Reference in front of you that by law has to state the effects of a drug.

What aspect of your job do you find most rewarding, and what are you most proud of having accomplished here and why?

Helping people. That is number one. It is probably the most awesome thing I get to do all day long. From the most simple problem with a computer to reference questions to reader’s advisory. Or a teenager comes in and says, “What book has changed your life? Could you tell me?”And you give them some examples. It’s so much fun.

I most proud of developing a solid fiction and nonfiction collection–improving the collection. Not enough money was being devoted to it. And utilizing the space we have.

If you had to weigh against each other the following facets of the library: physical space, collection, services and programs, which element would you say will be the most essential for libraries to maintain or grow in the future and why?

I think going forward, this is how I think a library will look: You’ll walk into a library, and the collection will be against the wall. Everywhere. It will outline the space. In the center there will be groups–chairs, sofas, teen section, bean bags, meeting places–and of course your big meeting rooms. I see it as becoming more of a huge information, knowledge center/community center all in one.

If we sit down again in ten years, what do you hope you will be able to say to me about the library?

The library has improved. It is in line with the trends. I really think there will be print books. I don’t see them going away. I think there’s a place for everything. Everything will have it’s proper place. You want to go on a plane and don’t want to carry ten books, you check out a Kindle. It just makes sense.

Anything else you want to add?

That we just love our patrons. Customer service is paramount to almost everything, anything we do.

There has been renewed chatter online recently regarding online degrees versus brick-and-mortar degrees, specifically in library science. The discussion began with a post from the Annoyed Librarian, which generated a lot of comments and further discussion in the ALA Think Tank. In the past, I’ve written about this; Will Manley has written about this; and many others have, too. My post had so many contributors that I wrote a part 2. Will Manley’s post (which I cannot link to) resulted in an intense debate and was the genesis for my posts. Of course, MOOCs are a hot topic these days as well.

I know this issue generates heated discussion and often defensive responses. And in my opinion, it goes beyond the discourse about whether online degrees are as good as those acquired traditionally. The argument extends to whether it matters which school you get any degree from regardless of the way you get it. I’m not here to discuss either.

The bigger question is why? Why does this topic generate emotional debate? I would say that it has little to do with the merits of different educational platforms and more to do with people. Because people work hard to get an education however they can, wherever they can, based on where they live and how much they can afford and lots of other factors. Those people don’t want their efforts, and in many cases sacrifices, to be judged by the reputation and merits of their schools or programs. Those people want to be judged on their own reputations and merits. And they should be.

If a hiring manager is eliminating potential candidates for a job by looking at Alma maters, then that person is deluding themselves or is completely indoctrinated into the misconception that pedigree makes the person. The person makes the person. Why wouldn’t a supervisor want an employee who has worked full time while putting themselves through school online or at their local community college? Doesn’t that show initiative? And drive? And determination? Don’t you want those qualities in an employee? What am I missing? That’s not to say that the person I just described is any better (or worse) than the traditional student that attended an Ivy League school and excelled.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that matters is what you do with what you learn. The attributes that make someone a good hire do not have anything to do with where or how they got an education–often not even with regard to if they got a higher education. Those attributes come from within–from a personal desire to excel and contribute and understand and continually learn and perform to the best of one’s ability.

People don’t like to be judged on circumstances that are sometimes out of their control, like where they went to school or how they got their degrees or if they got their degrees. People want to be judged on their efforts and on their abilities to perform the tasks of a job–any job.

I value education. I understand that there are requirements and standards for certain positions. But it is pretentious and arrogant to believe that the source of the degree has more value than the person who got it.

My style often leads me to be neutral–to see both sides of an argument and ask questions rather than take a stand. On this issue, I take a firm stand on the side of common sense.

My MLS gives me the credentials to say that I’m a librarian. Take that for what it’s worth and no more. With or without it and whether it was earned online or in a classroom or in a generic state school or one that has top billing, it only means as much as I make of it.

Not the other way around.

Reblogged from bringyournoise (byn):

I am surrounded by negativity today. Not necessarily at work, but rather online. More specifically, I am surrounded by ideas for reducing negativity.

Just today, this announcement was made–The No Library Whining Zone: A Social Experiment. The idea is to refrain from public complaining in social media venues about anything library related–patrons, your own library, library organizations. You get the picture. I applaud the idea. The description of the experiment indicates that the “no whining” policy does not extend to whining to one’s own coworkers or other in-person whining. This experiment is meant to address online negativity only. Fair enough.

Also just today, a coworker posted this link in our office’s online social network community: How to Squash Negativity at Work. From the article: “Whether you’re trying to keep your own negative thoughts in check or manage someone else’s, it must be dealt with. Otherwise it’s like a virus that continues to spread throughout the entire organization, cripples the company culture and damages productivity.” I wholeheartedly agree. Negativity is poison.

Thanks to a suggestion in a post earlier this year from Dr. Steve Matthews at the 21st Century Library blog, I have been curating Web topics via Scoop.it that relate to libraries and work culture. Many of the articles that I’ve “scooped” relate to building a positive, productive work culture that does not support negativity. Easier said than done in my experience.

My question is this: Does homegrown negativity breed online negativity, or does online negativity exacerbate local negativity? Or both? In other words, will controlling one prevent the other? Probably not. And what does it say about the culture of libraries that we need an experiment to prohibit complaining?

If you read my blog regularly, then you know that I’m all about the culture of libraries. I firmly believe that the way libraries define and curate their own cultures is the key to our collective future. I suspect that others feel the same way.

I did not sign up for the No Library Whining Zone experiment, but I will be following the results. In my opinion, the greatest outcome would be for individual libraries and organizations to institute this idea not as an experiment, but as policy.

There is a fine line between useless complaining and constructive criticism. I welcome any initiative that can help to define the difference.

]]> http://bringyournoise.com/2013/05/01/negativity/feed/ 5 bringyournoise file9101253346681 http://bringyournoise.com/2013/04/27/my-town-moravians-pretzels-chocolate-rock-and-roll-and-zombies/ http://bringyournoise.com/2013/04/27/my-town-moravians-pretzels-chocolate-rock-and-roll-and-zombies/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:39:30 +0000 bringyournoise http://bringyournoise.com/?p=6653 Continue reading »

You probably did not know this about me, but I live in the coolest small town in America. That’s right–according to Budget Travel, Lititz, PA is the coolest small town in America, 2013. There are official banners hanging over our streets, so it must be so. Funny thing–I would describe my town as quaint, charming, historic…but cool? Cool is not the first word that comes to mind. I decided to explore my town on this sunny, spectacular Saturday, as if for the first time, to see what I may be missing.

Like any good librarian, I start my quest for information at the library. I live on the outskirts of town–not Lititz proper–and it isn’t easy to walk directly from my house into town. So, I parked at the library and headed out, camera in hand. I took all of the photographs in this post today.

As you enter the town proper, by way of my chosen route, the first landmark you will encounter is Linden Hall followed by the neighboring Lititz Moravian Church. I could go crazy in this post with history lessons, but then we would be here all day. Suffice it to say that Lititz was originally established as a Moravian Mission Community by immigrants from Germany and the Czech Republic of Moravia. The Moravian Star is one of the symbols associated with Lititz (along with the pretzel and Wilbur bud–more on those in a bit). Linden Hall is the nation’s oldest independent boarding and day school for girls. (If you’re interested in more detailed, historical or other information, a good place to start is the Lititz link near the beginning of my post.)

Across the street from Linden Hall and The Moravian Church, you will find The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, where you can take a tour and make your own pretzel, which I have done as part of the Lititz walking tour field trip with my kids when they were in elementary school. You will also find this handy map of downtown Lititz in front of the Pretzel House.

Continuing down the street toward the center of town, you will come across a sundry of shops that will entice you to come inside to either browse, drink, or eat.

Once you reach the town square, if you turn left, you will come upon one of my favorite stops for coffee and home to the famous Achenbach’s Long John, as well as their own delicious pastries–Dosie Dough.

If you turn right at the square, you will happen upon Tomato Pie Cafe (I cannot convey in words how much I love the tomato pie, which is better than Quiché), Wilbur Chocolate (home of the Wilbur bud), and Lititz Springs Park, famous for its Fourth of July celebration, including the Queen of the Candles Pageant. The canal that you see in the picture weaves through the park and is covered with a wooden structure that holds candles so that the entire park is illuminated in a soft glow for Independence Day festivities.

Heading back out of town, the same way we came in but on the opposite side of the street, you will pass more shops (Aaron’s Books has been a great partner to Lancaster County libraries), my family’s favorite place for pizza, and if you duck down an alley and go behind Main Street, you’ll encounter part of Lititz Run, which winds its way out of town. You may also find a family of ducks waddling by.

As I make my way back to the library, I pass Pots by de Perrot, one of the many artisans in Lititz.

Walking down Kissel Hill Road (the view explains the name) from behind the library, I have come full circle thereby ending my walking tour of Lititz. It took me about an hour, including brief stops to take pictures. It will take you much longer if you explore every corner and go behind the facades shown here.

See? Charming, quaint, historic, yes? Moravians, pretzels, and chocolate. All of this is cool, I suppose. But what about the rock and roll and zombies? Well, there is more (cool) to Lititz than meets the eye.

Lititz is home to three of the biggest companies behind some of the biggest names in the music industry–Clair Global, Tait Towers, and Atomic Design. There is even a new Rock Lititz Penthouse at the General Sutter Inn, which is beside The Bull’s Head Pub but not pictured above. We also grow some up and coming bands, including The Districts (my nephew’s band). These boys have gotten some great buzz and are scheduled to play at WXPN Xponential Festival on July 26 along with big names like The Lumineers. 

And on October 19, cool will culminate in Dawn of the Lititz Dead, a “zombie-filled, 5k obstacle run”, a Rock Lititz event, although I’m sure there are those who do not think that zombies are cool. As a fan of The Walking Dead, I may have to bear witness to this event even though I will not participate. My town is cool; I am not.

I have lived in Lititz for almost 24 years. It is a great place to raise a family. I haven’t shown you nearly all of it. I haven’t named, photographed, or linked to nearly all of the wonderful merchants that inhabit our town. Like all small town businesses, these entrepreneurs fight for every dollar and every customer because we have our share of chain and big box stores nearby. We are also centrally located for easy access to Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia. As part of Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the heart of Lancaster County, Lititz has a rich heritage and a unique personality. And of course there are the people, too. The people are Lititz in many ways.

Hopefully, I have at least given you the flavor of this town of many flavors. Lititz–the Coolest Small Town in America.

My town.

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