We just sent out the Call for Participation for the Reference Renaissance 2010 conference, so please look at all the cool things your Adult and/or Youth Services departments are doing and consider submitting a proposal for the August conference by the April 1, 2010 deadline.

We’re looking for reports from the field, panels, demonstrations, and workshops that range in time from a half hour to an hour and a half.  You can also present a research paper or use the really short Pecha Kucha format to discuss your topic.  And later on we’ll make a call for lightning round entries.  Conference tracks include Staffing & Managing User Services; Collaboration, Consortia and Sustainability as well as Virtual Services.  There’s even a Wild Card track for controversial issues or creative and innovative services etc.

Public libraries have responded to the economic turndown in so many helpful ways - but we all need to hear about your ideas and programs.  Tell us what worked and what didn’t and what you’d do differently the next time - don’t keep your brilliant new outreach efforts all to yourself - share the knowledge so we can all make our patrons lives better, without reinventing the wheel.

And if you can’t submit a proposal, remember, the conference is an excellent learning opportunity.  Conference chairs Rivkah Sass and Marie Radford and the planning committee are putting together a great program.

A public school in CA that recently banned the 10th edition of the Merriam Webster Dictionary has thankfully decided to put it back on the shelves.

I thought this was a first but then read that the American Heritage Dictionary was banned by the Eldon, MO library in 1978 and by the Anchorage School Board in 1987. 

Drat, they’ve finally realized what most of us discovered as children - there are lots of wonderfully, colorful words and oaths in the dictionary.

I’m really excited to announce that BCR’s second Reference Renaissance conference will be in Denver August 8-10, 2010.  The conference rose from the ashes of the Virtual Reference Desk conference, but has been expanded and this time includes tracks on Meeting Our Users Where They Are and New Roles and Future Directions for Reference Librarians. 

The Call for Participation should be going out next week, and we really want to encourage public librarians to submit proposals.  I realize everyone’s so busy that preparing a presentation might seem like an overwhelming task, but if you get a few people together and do a panel, you can share the work.  Also, you can submit a Pecha Kucha style presentation (20 slides for 20 seconds each, for a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds), or a lightning round (the call for these extremely informal submissions will be made later).

The 2008 conference was wonderful - jam packed with over 80 presentations and talks in six tracks ranging from Virtual Reference to Innovative Service Models to Managing Reference Services, it was an incredible value.  In fact if you’re looking for free library continuing education opportunities, many of the presentation materials are available online (not to blow my own horn, but do a “find” here on “Find Your Market” for the slides and full text of my presentation on how to promote your services to customers).  The proceedings will be published on 2/28/10.

So contact me at jshaffner@bcr.org if you want to stay informed about this conference and I’ll put you on the email notification list.  And when you book your flight, consider staying a few extra days - Colorado is a fabulous place for a summer vacation - our mountain valleys become magical patchwork quilts of flowers.

If you serve an area of 20,000 or less, read on.

I don’t usually jump on funding opportunities, but I really want libraries to get their share of the recovery money, and just recently the USDA has targeted libraries, specifically, for the $100 million they need to spend by 9/30/2010 on community facilities.  The funds are limited and once they are spent (which could be well before the September deadline) that’s it, so contact your local office now (scroll down to “Guidelines and Strategy” and know that, despite the page title, this is not about broadband).

Just saw an announcement for another round of broadband grants.  Surely libraries would qualify as “…deploying broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas of the United States, enhancing broadband capacity at public computer centers…”

You must submit the application between 2/16/10 and 3/15/10.

I attended a free SirsiDynix Institute presentation, Bite-Sized Marketing: Real Solutions for Overworked Librarians, which gave marketing tips for libraries that need to do their own promotion.  Nancy Dowd, Director of Marketing at the New Jersey State Library, had a number of ideas, especially about using social media for marketing and press room best practices. 

She pointed out that using social media like Facebook or MySpace to solicit ideas or feedback is great, if you want really want input.  However, if you don’t plan to use that input, don’t frustrate users and waste their time by asking for it and ignoring it.  Instead you may want to consider a more one-way type of communication. 

She also stressed that creating a program, doing a poster and even a press release, and then waiting for people to come is too passive.  Instead, before developing your program, define your goal (e.g. perhaps you want to increase small businesses’ use of the library by 5%).  This lets you determine who your target audience is and perhaps investigate what they are saying, and what they need from you.  Only then should you create your program.  Once that’s done, review it and figure out how you’re going to measure success.  Then, choose the best way to publicize your event.  MySpace may work well for teens, but for businesses it might be better to use Linked In.  Finally, after your program is done, be sure to evaluate how well it went.  Were your goals met?  Did you get some feedback that you might be able to use to show how your library changes lives?  Pithy quotes to impress funders?  What about photos from the event? 

What types of marketing have you found to work best?  How do you get customer testimonials?  How do you show your service areas how important your library is to the local quality of life?

I love this!  Maybe we should create a 12 step program for our chronically late patrons - it might even help them in social situations!  Then again those fine revenues can be helpful.  But it’s funny that someone can feel so guilty about something so small (to us) that only a $1000 donation can cleanse their conscience.

Alex Beam, a Boston Globe columnist, has a suggestion for libraries.  His modest proposal is that larger libraries that can afford them should buy some e-book readers so patrons can see what all the buzz is about and decide for themselves if they like them.  Being a non librarian he doesn’t realize that some of us (do a “find” on “Sony”) are doing this, but this is a good reminder that libraries can serve as trend makers and breakers for our communities, so circulating them is something to seriously consider. 

Often we wait until something is already popular with the general public before adopting a new device or format as we want to be sure we aren’t wasting taxpayer money on an unsustainable format like Beta, but that may mean we aren’t seen as relevant to the experimenters in our areas.  Many of us took our time with videos, DVDs, and Blu-ray…

And of course, e-readers still could be a fad or a specialty product not used by the masses.  My former director asked me to try one of the older readers several years ago and despite being only about 2.5 x 3 inches, I found it way too heavy to comfortably use it to read in bed (maybe because I lie on my side and hold the book with just one hand…).  And there are other reasons why e-books may not succeed, like the fact that you don’t own the books.

Is your library lending  Kindles or Readers yet?  How do patrons like them?

I’ve been lurking on a listserv that’s been discussing holds ratios.  Books still have an inordinate preference.  While I understand that DVDs and other media may have shorter checkouts, if we’ve learned one thing in the last year, it’s that we need to serve everyone in our service areas, even those who’d rather be couch potatoes - like me at times - and lazily watch movies instead of actively engaging their brains with books.  Yes, libraries as institutions of education are the public’s ideal, but they work just as well as publicly sponsored swap meets - effectively reducing costs (and material waste) for our whole community.

Looking back over the last twelve months, it’s been quite a year for libraries.  There have been some bad times (okay, lots of bad times - a number of libraries closing or being threatened by closures; lots of budget cuts; stress due to staff attrition, increased business and grumpy, overwhelmed customers…), but it really feels like this is the year libraries lived up to their full potential. 

We’ve always done great things and helped lots of people, but the bad economy has expanded our influence by leaps and bounds.  Media coverage exploded as the press “discovered” the many important services we provide our users.  Residents who previously eschewed holds lists to buy their own books and DVDs realized the folly of their environmentally unsound practices and the virtues of patience.  Frugal or broke customers gave up their internet connections to use ours and attended our movie nights and programs instead of spending and arm and a leg at the local cineplex or music venue.  Laid off employees and besieged unemployment offices depended on our help.  We jumped into the breach to help our struggling towns with tips on jobs, saving money, free services, helpful government programs etc.  In short, we became a more vital and necessary part of our communities than ever before.  Now if we can just parlay that interconnectedness into increased funding.

And somehow, despite being busier than ever due to huge increases in patronage and circulation, we’ve managed to still be the innovators and thought leaders in our communities.  We’re going greener - Rangeview (Brighton) is the first carbon positive library in the US; Jefferson County has the first green bookmobile; Seattle Public recycled 75% of construction waste; North Adams Public Library heats and cools with geothermal wells and Oaklyn Branch Library took advantage of the constant temperature of the earth and found itself a snug home in the side of a hill.  We’re providing better customer service - Houston PL will deliver materials to your car, elsewhere staffers are roaming the stacks to help patrons at their point of need, libraries are using market segmentation to refine their offerings.  We’ve got kiosks in shopping malls and airports, staffless libraries and vending machines.  We’re using marketing in new ways - cereal boxes and trucks, license plates and trading cards - we’re even using huge outdoor screens to advertise services.  And we’re keeping our patrons informed - through RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  We’re more accessible than ever - we’ll answer reference questions that come by text, Twitter or chat.  We’ll even go to community meetings or out to the local commuter rail station to answer questions.

So yes, it’s been a tough year, but it’s been an amazing year too.  Public libraries are stretching themselves to serve their areas in truly amazing ways and I’m just astounded by all we’ve managed to accomplish, and by how we’ve secured an incredibly important and relevant place in this modern, technologically-obsessed society.