Show Us Your Library Card!

Just in case you didn't know, September is Library Card Sign-up month. Public libraries across the country are promoting the value of a library card to everyone in their community. The American Library Association has published a great list of 52 Ways to Use Your Library Card and there is a fun Flickr group where library geeks around the world can post photos of their library cards!

Here are the cards I use:

SPIT Take Two

This morning, SSJCPL's Strategic Plan Implementation Team (SPIT for short) came together for their second planning session. Using PLA's Implementing for Results text as a guide, the group started in on the exercises laid out in chapter one of that book.

If you take a few moments to view the meeting notes that have been posted to the SPIT wiki, you'll see that it was an interesting session to say the least. When I first read through the notes, I admit to being just a little surprised at what can be perceived as negativity. When I asked a couple folks from the team about this, they reminded me that the questions under discussion were designed to evoke potential negative reactions to the strategic planning and implementation process. Whew!

However, while I felt a little relieved upon hearing this, that doesn't change the fact that many of the feelings included in the comments aren't still floating around out there in our branches and other departments. I found today's comments very useful not just in the context of our planning process but also as a reminder that, when I feel like I'm doing everything I can to be inclusive of staff concerns in my work, I really need to try twice as hard.

This really isn't surprising. In every organization where I've worked, the first complaint that "the front line" has with management is "poor communication". What is the answer to this all to common problem? I sure don't know, myself. What have you seen in your organization as a particularly effective means of communication between management and staff?

ICMA Public Library Initiative

How many of us in library land are aware of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and its Public Library Initiative? I have to admit that I was not. ICMA's view of public libraries is that, in addition to circulating books, we:

"provide communities with Internet connectivity, career services, immigration assistance, economic development, teen services, childhood literacy, public safety, and other important services."

Nice! So often do librarians complain that their parent governments not understand the scope of services that we provide in our communities that it is refreshing to see an organization dedicated to local government recognizing the broad range of services we actually provide on a daily basis! Furthermore, ICMA states that a strong relationship between the Library and government administrators is key to maximizing the potential of public libraries. I'm not sure how I missed this wonderful and unexpected perspective but I have to say I'm thrilled.

The Public Libraries Initiative site has some nice features. There is a bibliography (on the Public Library Initiative homepage) that serves as a public library advocacy clearinghouse with links to many of the recent reports and articles that highlight the various ways in which public libraries are assets to the local community. (As an aside, it's amusing to see how many different newspaper articles feature virtually the same image of a person at the end of a shelf range browsing the collection!)

By visiting the sites "Libraries" topic page, you can find even more information. You can network with other librarians and public managers interested in the need for fostering strong relationships between both groups, ask questions and respond to those of others, and read a series of white papers on topics including strategic planning, libraries and e-government, libraries and broadband, and libraries' role in workforce development.