Public Library Association in Minneapolis (1)
I now interrupt my tour of the Boston Trustees for a series of comments of the 2008 Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis.
For a start I will mention one of the highlights and a slight disappointment. The most energizing program I attended was presented by Greg Buss, the director of Richmond Public Library (BC). They generously keep their presentations on their website under About Us.
Now, my library (like many others) has used Richmond as a test bed for the last decade. They try things out and after we can see that they work, we adapt them to our situation. We went self check after seeing how they did it, though we also owe a debt to Waukesha Public Library, who provided a more local example. We have moved to display areas, also following their example. While we did not get any amazing new ideas from them this time, Buss did remind us of our goals and that sparked what I hope will be a new wave of innovation. His presentation may be the focus of our next staff training day. He also echoed our main thesis - that you do all this to become a great library. Not a great bookstore, not an excellent retail establishment. No innovation should be planned without seeing that it serves the library’s mission - otherwise why bother. All this is also in line with my favorite Chesterton quote. I won’t repeat it, though you can find it in my book under Chesterton.
I was disappointed in the virtual conference - not in the content, but in the participation. I was granted permission to host a virtual Talk Table. Now I hosted a non-virtual Talk Table in Seattle four years ago and found it enlightening. It is helpful to get all your ducks in a row, think things through and put it on paper. My topic this time was about how we slowly evolved into a more displayed oriented library, especially small steps that can be taken to start on the road to where Richmond PL already is. I was quite pleased with the presentation, which was narrated /recorded PowerPoint, a format I hadn’t attempted before. But in the event, it seems that none of the Talk Tables generated much discussion. They also seemed hard to find and poorly linked from the main conference. Since they required registration (and a fee), I can’t link to it, though I may post it here later.
It’s too bad about the Talk Tables, since one of them was very relevant to us. It concerned coffee and tea service in a library, something that we have had a problem with. We simply do not have enough traffic for it to make financial sense. The start of the presentation made it clear though - if you are doing coffee/tea/food service, you must do it to support the mission of your institution. You can’t do it to make money, to be an entrepreneur or to show off. It has to make sense as a portion of your service or you shouldn’t spend any of your time on it.
As I write up my notes, I will be posting them here
April 17, 2008 at 6:33 am
Introduction – Digital Library Development
Libraries are rightly called the store house of valuable knowledge. It was invented in 5th century BC with both fiction and non fiction books and today there are millions of library all over the world. With rapid growing advancement in every field more and more documents are becoming available in printed forms and Libraries keep and preserve materials making availability of all the historical items.
Many Libraries in India have not yet catalogued all of their holdings and searching the physical format of over 100 years has become a difficult task. Due to the invent of new technologies, many providers are now providing customized digitization services to the libraries around the world.
Digital Library Advantage -
Digital libraries need not keep large and expensive stores of bulky and decaying paper. Libraries can shrink from large warehouses to small rooms and catalogs can be electronic, electronically updatable, and computer generatable, making them easier, faster, and cheaper to search, produce, and update. Libraries will not need to buy multiple copies to allow for book scuffing, book destruction, or to place one book in several categories.
Nor will they need binderies to bind journals or magazines into volumes, or to rebind old books. Nor will they need reshelvers. Also, the library can more easily refer readers to other books with similar subjects, tastes, or interests.
Libraries will not need to chemically treat their decaying books, microfilm them, or transcribe them to large-print, or audio. All transformations are easier with electronic books.
Useful Reference –
Pressmart Media Limited : Leader in providing digital archiving solutions.