Stop. Breathe. Think.

I am a big Oakland A's fan. And this is not a post about baseball. But I read a newspaper article a couple of days ago where a young A's pitcher was being interviewed. This guy is just on the verge of making the big league but is being sent back down to AAA to start the season because he wasn't quite good enough this spring. Reflecting on the source of his not-quite-good-enough spring camp, he said, "It's hard to slow everything down but it has to be done". As simple a statement as that is, I think it's very wise.

I'm a very impulsive person by nature; couple that aspect of my personality with the fact that I don't like leaving issues unresolved and the result is that I tend to make decisions more rapidly than makes some of my peers comfortable. In fact, I've been accused of just wanting to get out of a meeting when all I'm really trying to do is derail what seems like a very long trip when a straight line would get us to the finish that much faster.

And I don't mean to say that I make bad decisions. We all do but I no more than anyone else. What the concept of "slowing everything down" said to me, though, from the perspective of an elite athlete, was that bringing a more thorough focus to my thought process would lead to greater precision. Just like the pitcher has to eliminate all external distractions and focus only on the target, I should focus my thinking more clearly before raring back and throwing that pitch.

There are several "slow" movements out there right now. Slow food. Slow living. Slow design. The basic idea behind all of these "movements" is that you slow down, focus on quality, enjoy what you are doing in that moment, and produce great results. I think slow decision-making is a no-brainer, too. That's why I will be reminding myself to stop, breathe, and think before jumping.

Just a Little Bit of Fun

My blog via Wordle:




Not to difficult to guess what I write about, is it?

Pulling It All Together

Take a look at that widget over there on the left-hand side of this page; see that? That's Thingfo. This seems like a pretty cool little tool. Basically, Thingfo lets me pull all kinds of content that I define through feeds comprised of usernames, rss feeds, videos, blog posts, and blog comments from sites like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, Blogger, Wordpress, and more.

You can customize the widget's appearance using the Thingfo customization template or your own CSS. You can easily moderate content, removing anything you don't want displayed, and you can track some basic statistics. And it's all free.

I've only just started playing around with Thingfo but it seems like libraries could pull together an awful lot of customer and staff-created online social content in one place on a website. Take a look!

www.civillibrarian.com is up!

I just relocated from civillibrarian.blogspot.com to www.civillibrarian.com. Only about 15 months after I first intended. So, what I'm really trying to do is test whether this change will mess with my feed. Find out soon...

Fun is Important

Fun is important.

That's my new motto. I came up with it after many hours of deep thought and reflection. Not really. Actually, I was just chatting with someone about creating a happy and, thus, productive workplace. I was kind of just thinking out loud (some people would say I don't keep my mouth shut as much as I should...) and I uttered the phrase, "fun is important". The person I was talking to nodded and responded with, "Fun is important". And the more I thought about it, I realized this motto isn't even as simple as it sounds. It's deceptively simple. It's almost zen-like. Well, I might be going overboard but, really, it isn't just a statement about fun.

Lately at my library, we have been focusing on significant, time-consuming, work-intensive change. Resulting from an internal assessment with over 300 tasks, a performance audit, and a grand jury report, everyone here has a to-do list a mile long. And some folks are starting to feel it. Our interim Director sees this and has been working with everyone to think about how each of us works. He wants us to think about how much time we spend putting out fires when we should be spending time on what is important; the long-term projects whose outcomes will result in a great staff and a great library.

The Director's point is well taken. In order to be successful, our focus has to be on the important. We can't spend all our time responding to one "emergency" after another. But to do a good job, at least for me, it has to be fun. The important has to be fun. Having fun is important. In a workplace that really hums, where folks are loving what they do and they are, individually and as members of the team, striving for real excellence, a sense of fun is pervasive. And when people are having fun, they're more open to change. In fact, I believe that when people are having fun, they have more exciting and innovative ideas.

So something as frivolous as having fun is actually really, really important. When we're enjoying ourselves, we innovate and we embrace new ideas and we build a responsive and resilient organization. How does a sense of fun thrive, then? I know that I almost always try to have fun with my co-workers. I think some of them wonder if I'm ever serious.

The problem is, "have fun!" as a management directive doesn't quite cut it. Even so, I do think this attitude comes from the top. If employees see that their supervisor wants them to have fun at work and, in fact, actually encourages a happy, fun workplace, I believe they'll be more likely to embrace that attitude themselves.

What Are Your Customers Saying Part III

Quite a while ago, I got into the habit of checking out Yelp Sacramento to see what folks might be saying about the library. It seemed like this could be an approach to hear some valuable feedback that we wouldn't otherwise hear. Just lately, I've started using Twitter Search for the same reason. And you know what? Our customers are definitely talking about us. I thought it would be fun to just search for the phrase "public library" in general to see what kinds of comments users of other libraries are sharing with each other via Twitter. There were lots! Here are some entertaining ones both good and bad (names of specific libraries have been removed to protect the innocent):

• Library now has xml to update library account alerts. If only I knew that before my .50 fine for Vegan Feasts.

• I have paid my fine, returned my book and am back in the good graces of the Library. Oh, online book request - I missed you

• This tweet is coming to you live from the crappy computers of the library. :) Oh well, at least I have the prints I want.

• Absolutely amazed at the depth of the catalog and the convenience of my local library.

• Ahh happiness is a new Patricia Briggs book, Bone Crossed. Have I said how much I love library?

• Wondering how many of the very many public library weirdos are actually dangerous...

• I've decided to wander away from my desk... to the Library (yeah Decemberists!)

• Searching Library's website for potential holds.

• At the Library today. While searching for a place to sit, saw a guy watching porn on a library computer.

• high five to Library's Customer Service.

• I want to live in the Library

• I thought that the library supported technology. Turns out they use IE 6. ;-)

• Just bought GS cookies and am at amazing beautiful Library right now. Awesome day!

• I'm at a Library listening to Snoop's "Sexual Eruption" song. It's hot!!

• i feel yucky, i think i caught something at the contaminated library. that place is just nasty!

• The library is my single favorite building in my town. AND today was their book sale!

• saw men at library other day putting together jigsaw puzzle - first time I've seen such a thing.

• The library's got some stupid policies. Had to return a book against my will.

• Great ideas never die but people forget them in favor of "trendy". How to find the lost nuggets? Look in your nearest large public library.

• Headin' to the public library. A Saturday afternoon ritual.

• is annoyed that every DVD from the Library is scratched.

• Library has Mexican coke in glass bottles! Highlight of my week!!!!

• Boo on the LIbrary for not having Presentation Zen.

• I found a great book today at the public library. It's all about growing things in containers.

Twitterers who follow the folks making these comments are learning things about us. We have awesome collections; music even! Customers can request books online. Libraries allow drinks! We have great customer service. Are computers suck. All of our DVD's are scratched. Our buildings are dirty and dangerous.

None of these comments are true 100% of the time but the positive ones are definitely more often accurate than the negative. What do we do about it? What can we do about it? I suggest responding to the comments that seem like a comment would be helpful. That's where things get a little confusing. Who responds? Should each library designate a person to monitor this kind of public sharing of opinions and have only that person(s) respond? What about the majority of libraries that don't have a Marketing department?

What I really think is that libraries ought to be on Twitter themselves. One of the tweets I saw about my library was announcing an upcoming program. But it wasn't even from the library! Somebody "out there" just thought others would want to know! Why aren't we tweeting our programming? Then, once we develop a presence in this arena, it won't seem so creepy when we start responding to some of the less favorable opinions.

What has been your experience with your library and Twitter or other attempts at using the expanding social web for library outreach and marketing?

Sacramento Public Library's New Website!!!

After months of hard work, Sacramento Public Library today launched a completely redesigned website. I think the new site is a huge improvement and, hopefully, will fulfill the objective of making SPL's online presence easier to use while looking fabulous at the same time.

We timed our launch of Millennium's Encore catalog enhancement to coincide with the website launch so our users are getting a double dose of much needed change today. Kudos to everyone involved in the redesign at SPL!!!

And, these enhancements are only the beginning, by the way. In the coming months, we'll be adding features such as IM reference and greatly expanded access to our historic Sacramento Room collection via a grant-funded digitization project.

Please let us know your thoughts on what we've done right and what needs tweaking! Check back often to see how we're doing...