Library Trends and The Center for the Future of Libraries

Miguel Figueroa, Director of The Center for the Future of Libraries, spoke to the 2015 Cohort of Emerging Leaders.

The Center for the Future of Libraries works to identify trends relevant to libraries and librarianship. 
Each of the circles links to a page outlining HOW the trend is developing and WHY it is important.

For more info: http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future

Each color represents a classification:

      
     
 

TRENDS:

     
     
    
     
    

    

AAP/Library Reads Mystery Authors Panel

Council II got out SUPER early on Monday morning, allowing me to stop by the Association of American Authors/Library Reads Mystery Authors Panel.  Linda is doing the purchasing for Mystery right now, but I thought it might be fun to see what was coming up, and of course get some free swag.

Speakers:

Cara Black, author of Murder on the Champ de Mars (Soho Crime)

Allison Brennan, author of Compulsion (Minotaur Books/Macmillan)

John Katzenbach, author of The Dead Student (Mysterious Press)

Keith McCafferty, author of Crazy Mountain Kiss (Viking)

M.P. Cooley, author of Flame Out: A Novel - The June Lyons Series (William Morrow)

Mostly, the authors talked about their journey to becoming a mystery author.  McCafferty and Katzenbach both started as crime reporters and segued.  Brennan and White focused on the impact libraries made in their lives and the lives of their families.  Black talked mostly about her love of France and how that passion influences her work.

It was a nice change of pace from all of my meetings and serious panels.  The authors were enthusiastic, engaging, and I'm excited to read their work!

   

Gloria Steinem: My Life on the Road

Gloria Steinem started her talk to a well deserved standing ovation.  We started by celebrating the SCOTUS ruling announced Friday morning and moved on to the journey and travels that Gloria Steinem went on, the daughter of a gypsy who prided himself on never wearing a hat or having a job.  She told us that she hates the hierarchy implied in the set-up of the room and asked us to imagine we were sitting in a circle as equals.  They turned up the lights for a bit so that she could see all of our faces and who she was talking to.  She was interactive and caring and really listened during the Q&A.

She talked about some of the monumental things she did such as Ms. Magazine, giving a shout out to the librarians at Mount Diablo School who fought censorship in their library to keep the magazine on their shelf for those who wanted access.  She highlighted again and again the strengths of libraries and librarianship.  The strength in the people she surrounds herself with.  And the equality for all that she continues to fight for and believe in.

Instead of paraphrasing, one of the most important quotes I took from the talk, published in Publisher's Weekly:  

"Pressing send," she said, "is not organizing,” adding that while she reveres the written word, “something happens in a room" that can’t happen on a page. “I hope that as we democratize knowledge we also understand the importance of libraries as places where we can physically come together."

Some recommended reading from Gloria Steinem:

• Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad F. Emmett

• Mermaid and the Minotaur by Dorothy Dinnerstein

Really, of course, she was there to promote her own book, "My Life on the Road", due out October 27.  I'm excited to read it -- the excerpt she shared was funny, insightful, and defying stereotypes and expectations at every turn.

What I Stopped Doing: Improving Services by Giving Things Up

Speaker:  Maureen Hartman, Hennepin Co. Library, YALSA Board Member

Guide:  The future of library services for and with Teens: A Call toAction

•  Looks at the shifts in services to teens & demographics, technology use, and literacies (not just print)
• Growing and changing what our ideas of what learning looks like

Guiding principles:

o   Be a facilitator, not an expert

§  Ask questions and put others in charge of their own learning

§  Be the “guide on the side” by empowering them to go on the journey with you

o   Everyone serves teens, not just you

§  Introduce teens you know to other staff

§  Stop thinking of yourself as a one person show – you’re just burning yourself out and making it look like only an expert can do it

o   Library staff learn new skills

o   Refocus beyond traditional roles and measurements

o   Partner outside library walls

§  Sometimes you have to give up other things to make time for partnerships

·      Ex:  Limited when teen volunteers could come in; planning way ahead (all storytime planning twice a year); stopping

Things you may be able to stop to make room for programming:

• Think about stopping programs that you’re not sure if anyone’s going to come (over and over again) – you need a more solid understanding of what the needs of your community are
•     How about programs where only 5 kids come on each basis?
•    We’re not competing with Youth Services but… why aren’t more people coming?  This could be something you can stop doing
• Stopping bookclubs
• Delegate booklists/displays to other people
• Stop working the desk – (but how will you know what the community needs?!)
• Stop complaining about administration

What about you?

•      What are you holding on to?  What were you told to give up but you secretly do it anyways?
•      Every change is hard at first

What does your boss think?

•     Make sure you’re communicating with your supervisor
•      Look for support from people who do similar work or who will bring another perspective

What about patrons?

•     Even after HS, kids were staying into 19, 20 years old – needed to write specific guidelines to age kids out and be sensitive to kids– you have to ease them out over time, not a sudden drop/change

Priority Grid:

High	“Quick Wins”	Major Projects
IMPACT	“Fill Ins”: Low Impact, Low Effort	“Thankless Tasks”: Low impact, hard to achieve
Low	EFFORT	High

Make a plan – Team action plan for the year

•      What is the work, project or program?
•       What are we trying to accomplish?
•       How can we measure this?
•       Who is doing the work?
•       What do we need to do this?
•       What to start and end

Start/Stop/Continue

Start: What should we/I start doing

Stop: What should we/I stop doing?

•      List ideas/items:
•    Things that are not working or helping
•    Things that impeded or are not practical
•    Not delivering desired results
•    We or others dislike

Continue: “What should we/I continue doing?”

They're Our Customers, Too: Engaging the Homeless at Your Library

This panel talked to 3 libraries with large populations of people experiencing homelessness.  Each library dealt with their patrons in a different way, ranging from programming to bringing in a social worker, to working on staff and patron perceptions through a specialized program.  While we don’t necessarily have very many obvious patrons experiencing homelessness coming through our doors, as we know from the HOPE team talk and our own experience, they do exist, and we can’t always tell exactly who they are.

Dallas Public Library 

(Programming for people experiencing Homelessness)

Coffee & Conversation 

• “an ongoing community engagement program aimed at providing a space for open dialogue on topics that unite us, rather than divide us.  Its focus is engaging the homeless population of Dallas.”
• Programminglibrarian.org/programs/coffee-conversation
• Encourages interaction, responsibility, buy in.  Patrons feel included
• Staff sit down and find commonalities with customers
• Meet every other week
• Engage in a topic (of conversation), activity, and/or have a guest speaker
• Topics sometimes include introducing new library policies or staff members or fun stuff like favorite movies or why they love the library
• Activities may include card-making , art, spoken word, poetry, etc.
• Guests have included people from the community who can help (VA, Housing, HIV Testing, etc.) – can only speak for about 5 minutes before opening up to conversation but used more to highlight the HELP desk, rather than make the day about social services

Podcast: a part of the Dallas Public Library’s ongoing Homeless Engagement Initiative aimed at increasing community awareness of issues related to homelessness and promoting the public library as a place of social inclusion.

Art and Creativity: photography/art exhibit created by homeless

H.E.L.P. (Homeless Engagement and Leadership Program) desk

• Not social services, provide referrals
• Staffed ~40 hours a week by AmeriCorps volunteers

Most important to get to know the providers in your community and get them into your building so that staff know who they are and train staff to work with this community.

Denver Public Library

•      Hired a FT Social Worker (title:  Community Resource Specialist)
• Started Feb 2015
•     Terminology:  NOT Homeless people – People experiencing homelessness
•     Goal:  Reduce barriers to library service and connect patrons with resources
•   Many of these barriers don’t just apply to people experiencing homelessness, but also people with behavior issues, low income, abilities, etc.
•     Since she is an experienced social worker, she can also recommend some services over others
•      Help isn’t forced – Like the HOPE team said, try, try, try again
•     Refer patrons to her because there has been an issue where security has been involved – she can try to get to the real crux of the problem rather than just banning them, etc.
• Some barriers to seeking help: They don’t know where to start, they are afraid, they are embarrassed
• The VA trained staff on how to use online patient portal so that they could help patrons navigate their services
• Social worker provides training for “Trauma Informed Care”: many with mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and homelessness have experienced trauma (usually at an early age) – how do you talk to them, etc.
• ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study – youth traumatic experiences
• Looks at the relationship between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-bring.
• Certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the US

Salt Lake City Public Library

•     Resources, background, studies, etc:  www.slcgov.com/hand/homeless-services
•       Get ready for backlash from patrons not experiencing homelessness when you start offering more services to this underserved community
•       4 major providers of homeless services in the area: Entire management team visits each location to learn about where they are, what they do, etc.
•    Trigger Warnings – for some staff who may have or are experiencing substance abuse, housing issues, etc., this trip may be difficult for them and they may have a negative reaction
•    One of their service providers, Road Home, the shelter, was built for 300 people but currently houses 800

**Homelessness is a condition, not a character trait**

**People experiencing Homelessness are a constituency and a community of patrons that need service**

•      Get to know the definitions of people, services, places, and the statistics surrounding them in your community
•       For example:  Homeless Youth vs. Unaccompanied Minors has very different implications and services available
•       Bring the service providers into your library
•       Imagine standing in line at the DMV 8X a day for everything you need.  That’s what it’s like to experience homelessness
•       Work with staff on how to recognize mental health issues, substance abuse issues, etc.  While these are often connected to homelessness, they are not definitions of homelessness

Homeless Services 6 point strategy

Project Uplift

We do nothing more or less for the homeless than we would do for any other constituency – same thing as a job fair, Spanish outreach, etc.

"Project Uplift is a social services information and resource fair for the homeless and at-risk in Salt Lake City.  Held at the centrally located Main Library of the Salt Lake City Public Library System, the program connected the homeless community with service providers and information in a welcoming environment."

•      Logistics
• 400 attendees
•       Included over 30 service providers to connect attendees
•       Breakfast, Lunch (donated from Even Stevens), Swag Bags
•       Hair Cuts from cosmetology school students
•       Pictures
•       Movies – Didn’t work
•       Prize Drawings
•       One on One sessions were most effective

Misc. Notes

• CommonArgument against allowing homeless in the library:  “Intended Use” of the library – They’re not using the library for it’s intended use.  They’re just sitting there reading!
• Modeled behavior with staff – Let them see you talking to members of the homeless community –
• This isn’t the other, this could be me.
• Many homeless youth are LGBTQ – find a partner to reach out to these kids

Engaging Patrons Through Programming

Engaging Patrons Through Programming

1st up: Henry Makncke, a scientist who spoke about the brain, and its development.

His main point being that the brain is built up through learning and experiences.  Learning and experiences that are facilitated by library services.

2nd up

Julie Acteson from the King County Library System spoke about her systems adult programming.

After assessing their own services:

-they realized that 68% of the library's programming was aimed at children.

-33% of their pop. was aged 50+.  A large percentage that was not received the same level of service. 

Why do adults matter in libraries?  They make up the current voting population!

But their current programming though minimal was not seeing the high attendance #'s they hoped for.
So they revamped their adult programming. 

A few things they did:

Each calendar year had a different them/ focus
2013 A Place at the Table (focus on food, cooking, nutrition)
-encouraged patrons to donate tot he food drive (giving back to the community)
-cooking class
-international cuisine
-organic gardening
2014 Start to Fitness
-fitness classes
-cardio training
-tied into the local sports teams
2015 Mind Matters (focus on promoting brain fitness)
-home organization tips
-yoga
2016 Everyone's Talking About It
-local and international issues
-trending topics


How did they do it?
-surveyed the community to determine, brand awareness (if and how strong), amount of motivation for attending programs, barriers to attendance, messaging preferences, location preferences.
This initial phase was slow and lengthy but vital to a successful, quality program series.

-took more programming outside the library

-formed strong, critical partnerships (American Heart Assoc., Brain HQ)

-PR and Promotion (reach out to local radio and TV stations- their interns used library programming info to learn how to write PR's)

Reading Into the Future

Reading into the Future
Tips and Tools for Staying on top of the Book World

Session Desc: Be the first to know (instead of the last to hear) about reading trends and hot new titles. Join a panel of experts who will share practical techniques and invaluable resources to help you keep up with the current literary scene. Learn strategies to maximize your reading time, stay ahead of your patrons, and position yourself as a crucial literary resource in your library community.



Reader's Advisory should be a core service for libraries and Advance Reading is essential to offering effective RA.

Advance Reading allows for librarians to add more diverse lit to their collections by becoming more aware of what is available and choosing materials more purposely, thus leading to better collection development.

Publishers are happy to make free digital or print copies of ARC's available to librarians. 

How can Admin support staff?
- Offering training in technology such e-readers, and having these available to staff
- Encouraging staff reviews of new books during staff meetings
- Keeping up with professional literature, dividing articles among staff and briefly sharing them at meetings.


Pick at least 1 source for reviews, and check it often!
Examples:
Daily New York Times (esp. Friday) much better than the Sunday reviews
NPR Fresh Air
Podcasts (ie. Books on the Night Stand)
People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly (these are popular among patrons)
Edelweiss
Scholastic Book trailers
Kirkus
Genre blogs

A lot more info found in the Session handouts:
Session Handouts
 

Moderator: Stephen Sposato, Manager, Content Curation, Chicago Public Library
Speaker: David Wright, Reader Services Librarian, Seattle Public Library
Speaker: Nora Rawlinson, Co-founder and Editor, EarlyWord
Speaker: Stephanie Anderson, Head of Reader Services, Darien Library (CT)