Iowa Library Association annual conference report

On Oct. 16-17, 2008, I attended the ILA annual conference at the Grand River Center in Dubuque. In terms of breadth and depth of sessions, this was one of the best ILA conferences I have attended.

Thursday morning opened with a talk from Joan Frye Williams, a library consultant and futurist, on “Transforming Library Services.” She identified, from her research, four major transformations libraries must make:

1. Make the library part of the mainstream — library use should be presented as a part of every-day life, rather than something rarefied.
   • Emphasize hospitality — As basic as recognizing the presence of users with brief eye-contact and a nod.
   • Promote green buildings and practices.
   • Simplify way-finding — Williams argues there should be no need to take a vocab course to use the library; terms like circulation, periodicals and reference are rarely understood by civilians (Williams’s term for non-librarians). Lay out the building by activity. Williams also researched what “civilians” prefer to be called relating to a library — the answer: members.
   • Borrower-defined loan periods.
   • Go where people are.
   • Less gate-keeping, more convenience.
2. From Altruism to Return on Investment
   • Fuel savings — pursue downloadable, and Netflix-like content.
   • Zone staffing — Reduce desks so there is only one place to ask questions. Never leave a service desk unstaffed — Williams’s belief is that the presence of a desk requires it to be staffed, otherwise we are not living up to the expectations of our users.
   • Centralized selection — a controversial suggestion, but Williams’s research indicates this is more efficient and of higher quality.
   • Use evidence-based decision making.
   • Less perfection, more efficiency.
3. Move from focus on past to focus on future — “Change does not disrespect the past, and nostalgia is our enemy!”
   • Mobile services
   • Engines, not OPACs — On searching: “only librarians like searching, everyone else likes finding.”
   • Meta-tagging, folksonomies — Use natural language, not controlled vocabularies.
   • Collaborative learning environments — worry less about teaching, more about supporting learning.
   • Create a real-time activities buzz — promote what is currently happening in your library.
   • Less caution, more innovation — “It’s ok to stop doing dumb stuff … even smart stuff, if there’s smarter stuff.”
4. From Frill to Necessity
   • Essential to literacy and early learning.
   • Economic development — libraries support small businesses, job seekers, and provide skills training.
   • Embed library staff in the process of the community — William told the story of going on an admissions tour at Carleton college, where the student guide said “Find a librarian and make friends with them early — they’ll help you ace any class.” Here, she was pleased to see that the student had recognized the connection between the library and successful outcomes in courses.
   • Less reticence, more urgency.

Finally, Williams noted that libraries are a tool for self-actualization, and that in the end, relationships trump transactions.

I stuck around for Williams’s second session, “Reinventing Reference.” Williams first provided an overview of the current state of reference, then provided suggestion on how to more effectively meet user needs.

Research has found a number of reasons “civilians” don’t love reference:

• It’s boring.
• It takes too long
• Information in itself doesn’t solve their problem.
• They don’t like feeling dependent on or “below” reference librarians.
• Asking a question makes them feel stupid.
• Most people will leave the building before asking a question.

Civilians want convenience and quality, acknowledgment as a human being (the current model is almost an act of confession), and respect for their time, intelligence and priorities.

Some of the limitations of current reference models are:

• Library-centered
• Process is dense
• Transaction-based (not relationship-based)
• Unaccountable

Williams suggested stressing the “right result” rather than the “right answer.”

Williams concluded by presenting the Dispatch model of reference, which she noted is still experimental. This model consists of consolidating service points into one desk in a prominent location. The desk worker serves as a dispatcher, with experts on-call. In the libraries where she has experimented with this, initially she has been met with adamant resistance, but quickly librarians realize this arrangement provides a chance to be introduced as a professional librarian, and gives the opportunity to work on stuff they need and want, rather than dealing with copier jams, and pointing to the restrooms.

After lunch, I attended a session on the State Library’s effort to research a shared open-source automation system (John Goodin is a member of the advisory board studying this possibility). The state library is looking at the Evergreen automation system, which is currently being used on a large scale in Georgia. At the moment, Evergreen has a number of functional modules, but doesn’t support serials or acquisitions.

A number of current assumptions on the project were shared:

• Participation would be voluntary
• All types of libraries may participate
• Growth will be regulated
• Catalog may be shared first, with circ to follow
• Non-automated libraries can become automated
• Infrastructure will be hosted by the state
• Libraries will provide staff workstations
• Locator and SILO ILL will be maintained
• Would not replace Locator initially.
• Shared catalog and Locator will be synced.

There is generally great excitement among libraries of all types regarding this project. The State Library is concerned that initial funding will be difficult to come by, as the state recovers from the natural disasters of the past year, and the current state of the economy.

Day two began with a talk by Joseph Janes, of the University of Washington Information School, titled “In the Library.” Janes identified five qualities which define a library:

• place (physical and virtual)
• stuff
• support
• interaction
• values

Echoing some of the themes Williams mentioned the previous day, Janes talked about the need to recognize and support of the basic urges of humanity:

• to communicate and be heard
• to learn
• to organize
• to search and make meaning in the ambiguous context of language.

My final two sessions were presented by Curtis Rogers, President of the South Carolina Library Association. First, “Joomla to Blogs” offered suggestions on how to incorporate open source content management and communication systems into libraries.

Next came “Flickr and other social networking tools to connect with patrons. Here we saw an overview of the ways libraries are using Flickr, YouTube and Facebook/MySpace can be used to extend the reach of library services.

After lunch on Friday, Stephanie Vance of Advocacy Associates, LLC, gave a lively talk on methods of advocation for libraries with elected leaders. Vance has served as a congressional staffer and lobbyist, so was able to provide advice from multiple perspectives. A main point was that lobbying is not so much about money, as it is about clarifying your connection to the constituents of leader.

The final conference agenda item was the announcement of the All Iowa Reads book for 2009: The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown.

Next year’s ILA conference will be held in Des Moines, Oct. 21-23, 2009.