Booktalking 10 Ways

Donna Johns, librarian at Newton North High School, is reaching teens 'One Teen At a Time." There are many ways to make booktalks more exciting and Donna shared these ways with a large audience on Thursday morning at 9:30 am in Ballroom B.  Using PowerPoint, Donna used twenty slides and her own voice to give us an twenty-second booktalks.  Each booktalk focused on one image which created visual interest.  

Booktalking 10 Ways:

1. Keep It To Twenty Seconds
2. Scaffold for Different Kinds of Readers (non-fiction and magazine readers are readers, too!
   
3. Differentiate Instruction
   
4. Podcast It! (Gcast.com, etc.)
   
5. Blog It!
6. Create Master Booklists (using Library Thing or Shelfari)
7. Online Book Clubs and Discussions (Dear Reader, etc.)
8. Use Wikis (to build a collaborative community - PBWorks.com or WebPaint.com)
9. Build Book Trailers (throw some slides into imovie, add text and an audio track)
10. Enrich Your Displays (use great items such as a toast with books in it)

If you have questions for Donna, you can email her at mamasigs126@gmail.com

Donnas has two blogs: Looking for a Good Book? and Libraries4Teens.

Whining in Harmony

Everybody's a baby about something, you know?

"Don't tell me that the shine is shining.  I don't care because I'm too busy whining!"

Bill Harley began the Jordan-Miller Storytelling Program presentation with song. (Wednesday, 1:00 pm.)  Either we tell stories ... or we want to.  Either we sing ... or we want to.  And "story and song are just part of what culture is" claims Bill Harley, because "they are expressions of being human and using the tools we have as humans to express ourselves."

In A Hero With a Thousand Faces, Bill Campbell tells us that it is the same story, the 'hero myth' over and over again.  Think Star Wars, Wrinkle In Time, Wizard of Oz. Someone is called away to a different world, he/she passes a test and brings it home. 

These were some of the stories and philosophies Bill Harley shared with his audience.  He was brought up in a home of books, having a mother who wrote for My Weekly Reader and a father who edited law books. He began his love affair with poetry when he became bored and looked through his own home library and began reciting Robert Services, The Creation of Sam McGee. And so began a career of storytelling and The Ballad of Dirty Joe.  

Out upon the briny deep where the wild and wet winds blow,
There sailed a cruel and evil man, the pirate Dirty Joe.
He sailed upon the scummiest craft that ever left the docks
He roamed the world and seven seas in search of dirty socks.

You can read the entire ballad on Bill's website.  You can read the picture book, as well. 

Storytelling is not rocket science.  It is getting near the listener with the story and pictures in our head.  He recommends a book called Ten Twelve Tales by Celia Barker Lottridge.  Rhyme, rhythm and repetition are all very important ingredients for storytelling.  We can all do it if we just relax and tell the story starting with the small ones.

You can read Bill's blog or visit his website. 

Resonant Leadership

"When the best leader's work is done the people say, "We did it ourselves'."  Lao-Tzu

"Management is about coping with complexity ... Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change ... What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them (people) cope as they struggle through it."  John 

"The most important personal traits a leader can bring to any kind of change effort are imagination, conviction, passion, and confidence in others." Rosabeth Moss Kanter

"The leader's job, after all, is not to provide energy but to release it from others." Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute and past Chief Executive Office of the Girl Scouts of America

Leadership as a process of encouraging and inspiring others in our lives.

Maureen Sullivan has

more than twenty five years of experience as a consultant on organization development, strategic planning, leadership development, introducing and managing organizational change, organization and work redesign, establishment of staff development and learning programs for today's workplace, creating a work environment that supports diversity, revision of position classification and compensation systems, and the identification and development of competencies

.

Although she resides in Maryland, Maureen welcomes the chance to come to Massachusetts to lead many leadership and library-related management workshops, symposiums and trainings. Once again she returns to MLA and Resonant Leadership.

Maureen's advice: Spend more time listening than speaking – repeat what you have heard and paraphrase. Good leaders know themselves, they know understand and appreciate their followers. Recognize leadership to be a relationship with with those followers. Leaders are authentic and they look toward the future. They are resilient and they engage others in creating and moving toward a vision. You must remain open to learning to be an effective leader. Select three of your strengths – things that you do well and work on those.

Maureen's workshops are always potent and useful. There are many resources on the web that cite her articles and philosophies. In this particular workshop we focused on Resonant Leadership and the principles of the authors of books, Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Richard E. Boyatzis and Annie McKee and Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness by Richard E. Boyatzis, Fran Johnston, and Annie McKee. Their mentor and colleague is none other than Warren Bennis, author of "The Seven Ages of the Leader."

Maureen stresses these practices for leadership development at your library:
1. Focus on leadership development as a key initiative within the library. Make it a clear priority.
2. Connect and align the leadership development program with the larger change initiatives in the library.
3. Take a broad view of who will have the ability to lead. Be careful not to prejudge potential too early.
4. Create opportunities for potential leaders to interact with effective, more experienced leaders.
5. Identify meaning and challenging projects and assignments that will challenge and stretch potential leaders.
6. Ensure that the current formal leaders in the library are held accountable for effective leadership. Insist that their leadership practice matches the espoused leadership philosophy and values of the library.
7. Make the process as transparent as possible.
8. Recognize the different stages in leadership development.
9. Remain alert to complex and challenging situations. Put managers and potential leaders in those situations.
10. Make your leadership development program one that is based upon an action-learning model.
11. Establish a mentoring program.
12. Expect current leaders to take an active role. Develop their own teachable point of view, i.e. their view of what it takes to be successful in their organization and what it takes to lead others. Create a dynamic story to convey this.
13. Lastly, create a learning culture within the library.

Capwiz Alert!

"One person can make a difference and every person should try." President John F. Kennedy

What is Capwiz? It is a software advocacy solution for "organizations to achieve legislative success by influencing state and federal policymakers." Capitol Advantage is the name of the software company.

Both Janet Rafferty and Krista McLeod, co-chairs of the MLA Legislative committee urge us to spread the compelling message that libraries transform lives - a theme we hear this morning from panelists and legislators.  Capwiz is a perfect mechanism for reaching our senators, representatives and getting their attention.  It is an effective tool, especially if personalized.  It is easy and convenient and there are features to it that even the hardiest 'Capwizzer' might not know about. For instance, did you know that you can even reach our Washington legislators?  Capitol Advantage takes all the work out.  Their extensive contact lists are at our fingertips.

Krista urged us to plug-in our personal stories.  The alert HAS been prewritten for us but our own stories are so important. 

Another feature of Capwiz is the Media Alert.  Take a look at all of the newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and all the contact information.  It's extensive.

If you have any problems with  Capwiz and you'd like some help write to Krista at kmcleod111@yahoo.com.

Colleagues From All Corners

Tamson Ely, Barbara Garvey, Maureen Killoran, Timothy Plante, Judy Paradis and Margie Schuster led a panel discussion on a variety of advocacy topics.  Speaking for the college and school library academic environment, for the library trustees and local government, the Commonwealth, for the cities and town, and for the Friends, this panel of six each had fresh ideas ... and each echoed the words of the legislators and executive directors who spoke earlier at the Sample Legislative Breakfast. 

• Ms. Ely is Director of the Springfield Technical Community College Library;.
  
• Ms. Garvey is a member of the Springfield Library Foundation Board and former chair of the Springfield Library Commission and former City Councilor;
• Ms. Killoran is the Government Liaison of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners;
• Ms. Paradis is the Chair of the Masschusetts School Library Association Legislative Committee; 
• Mr. Plante is the CFO of the City of Springfield;
• Ms. Schuster is the Friends Liaison of Hennepin County (Minnesota) Library.

Breakfast With Champions

Tuesday's preconference, 2009 MLA Advocacy Institute,  began with a Sample Legislative Breakfast at the bright and cheery hour of 8:30 a.m. First to be welcomed was State Senator Stephen J. Buoniconti of West Springfield.  The Senator told us that Springfield is a city of first - the first automobile was manufactured in Springfield.  

Senator Buoniconti echoed the voices of most of the legislators that met us during the Legislative Breakfast and Legislative Day in Boston. We are facing "tough times" and that "we are honest with each other."  April is usually the biggest revenue month and receipts came in $456M under the expected figures after two downward revisions earlier this fiscal year. The Commonwealth currently faces a $700-$1B deficit.  There WILL be more cuts and further use of federal stimulus money and the rainy day fund.  

Senator Buoniconti's wife is on the Board of Library Trustees of the West Springfield Public Library and he has good personal advice for us in our advocacy mission - get the spouses of our elected officials on the boards of our libraries. It makes the personal connection.  Buonoconti's further message: 'You must advocate.  Get political.   Get essential. Get out there and talk about libraries. In tough economies the demand increases for all public services. Libraries need to become essential and talk about their services.' We need to get aggressive and become essential. Focus on our personnel and the mission of the library.  Think outside of ourselves and out of the box. The senator even had an out-of-the-box message for us.  'Get a revenue stream this is direct to the library and become autonomous.'  The library is an institution that the town relates to - its enduring architecture serves as a inspiration.  We need to make sure that no one forgets about us.

Breakfast attendees asked several questions of the senator.  'How can we get our hands on some of the IT training budget that doesn't go to libraries? We are essential to training and teaching patrons of all ages.  Senator Buonocotti told us that when things get better in one, two, five years - go after a bigger piece of the pie.  In the meantime, 'become a face to the legislator - create a relationship' for that time when the money will be there. Make your message personal to our legislators. 

Second on the agenda was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, Rob Maier.  Rob reiterated what he and those involved with libraries have been saying for the past few years, libraries are being used more than ever.  Rob added, though, that 'we have been seeing an increase in public libraries for nine consecutive years' and it has been an ongoing trend.  It is not just circulation but attendance at programs across all ages. An especially critical core service is access to Internet and we need to talk to more people about that.  We need to talk about what we are doing and how we are reaching out and providing the services people need (doing it the way we do things - hands-on and direct.)  That's why our libraries are more relevant than ever.  

Should the MBLC present a more modest legislative agenda to our legislators?  No.  We need to keep those numbers we NEED in front of everyone.  Library services are 'core, essential state-funded programs.'  There is a pre-existing gap between 'real funding' and that which is needed.  We need to keep that gap critically exposed. Our current legislative agenda is 'a program of recovery for libraries - ready for two, three, five years from now and we need to be prepared to act.'  The Senate budget is being prepared as we speak ... we need to tell our stories about how we impact real people in the communities. 

Keith Fiels, Executive Director of the ALA, knows Massachusetts well.  He served as Executive Director of the MBLC until 2002 when he left for ALA.  We all know that Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Keith suggested that our breakfast today might be nicknamed the "Green Eggs and Ham Legislative Breakfast." The first legislative breakfast was held in Springfield fifteen years ago.  Legislative breakfasts are so important because it is a chance for senators and representatives to meet librarians and constituents. Keith has two further messages for us and that is to make sure that our legislators and communities know that 'libraries change lives' and libraries build communities'.  He shared with us the name of a new book, Living Well in a Down Economy For Dummies.  One of the key messages in this book is to visit the library and use its services. It isn't a secret anymore!  He also proudly told us that Massachusetts libraries are the 'envy of the country' and we are doing things right. More advice for us? New and future technologies will change the way we work in our global society and we need to remember that "libraries are the window and the door to this future that lies ahead."

The last to speak at the breakfast was State Representative, Westfield resident Donald F. Humason, Jr.  Representative Humason is on the Board of Library Trustees of the Westfield Athenaeum Library.  His advice? Get your local officials on the Friends group or on the library board of directors.  

So just how do you lobby a legislator?  The representative adviced the all public officials like to have their pictures taken in front of shiny things - in short, invite them to your library.  The library is one service that everyone uses - all ages groups use the library.  This is a unique feature of the library that is unlike that of other town and city resources and departments.  As a Friend of the library, currently and in the past, he suggested having a tag sale with library discards ... or actually giving them away. Our patrons love to build their own libraries at a minimal cost. Make sure there is note on the book - 'courtesy of your library.'

While all of the speakers had different messages for us in today's economy ... the message is clear from all of them.  We need to speak up, speak out, stay relevant, and be prepared for better and happier days ahead.  It's simple.  Keep doing what we do well and make sure that our communities and our legislators know us and know what we have to offer. 

Lights, Camera, Action ... Direct!!

Navigating the rushing waters flowing through the director's office can be a daunting task for any director in Massachusetts. For a new library director it can be particularly difficult. Just figuring out all the acronymns (CMRLS, MLN, MMRLS, C/WMARS, MBLC) of regions and networks and institutions of the Commonwealth can boggle a mind ... but keeping up with deadlines, learning who the colleagues and administrators are, figuring out the complicated interactions, making the connections between the library and town departments, and STILL doing the director's job can confuse even the hardiest in our field. (Not to speak of the challenges facing a librarian moving to Massachusetts from out of state, such as making one's way through a rotary or in and out of Logan Airport.)

Margaret Cardello of the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System and a cooperative effort of most of the Massachusetts Library regions were awarded an LSTA grant to develop a Director's Essentials website. An advisory committee has been meeting for the last six months and the project is lifting off the ground with a Director's Boot Camp at Tower Hill in West Boylston on May 20th. Currently, the advisory group is gathering the information that will make a new Massachusetts director's job easier.

The Roundtable was a great mixing of ideas, personal narrative, suggestions and information. Some of the suggestions for the Directors' Essential sites may include listservs, wikis and a decision tree approach to the FAQ-driven knowledge base. So many directors are reinventing the wheel; information should be available in a consistent format between libraries so that new directors can spend less time searching for information that can be easy to locate. Directors need to be 'directed' to resources that are in place in print and in people.

One of the hurdles is that directors are filling positions in many areas: public, academic and special libraries; how many of those administrative tasks are the same and how many are different? How do we address the needs of directors of libraries of all types? Another hurdle is that changes in the field (in technology, in budgeting, in collections) are rapid and library directors already on the job are struggling to keep up; those coming in need to know which changes have occurred and which are occurring.

The talk was lively and personal in this roundtable. Everyone attending contributed and lots of wonderful ideas and laughter circulated. One of Margaret's many, many strengths as Assistant Administrator of the Central Region is that she always welcomes participation and open flow of conversation.

Often one becomes an 'accidental manager' (as described in Rachel Singer Gordon's book, the Accidental Library Manager) for many reasons. One is not necessarily prepared for the job of library director - managing a staff and board of library trustees, communicating with a town, adhering to standards and certification and relating to community groups such as a Friends of the Library group. A Massachusetts directorship can be even more complicated with the deadlines imposed by our towns and the Commonwealth.

The Prizewinners from Hudson, MA

Debbie Backman, Children’s Librarian and Melissa Caissie, interlibrary loan librarian from the Hudson Public Library incorporated the important goals of the Hudson Public Library into their One Book, One Community project. Some of these were to reach new patrons across the community including those in three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and two catholic schools, one senior center, two over-55 housing communities and everyone else. One of the unique techniques that the Hudson Public Library used was to incorporate books on more than one reading level and to schedule most of the programs during the traditional summer reading calendar.

The author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Terry Ryan, died in May before their program began but two other siblings in the Ryan household were invited to attend a program to speak. Other programs were a Penny Pincher shopping talk and a Hannaford shopping spree. All aspects of the program fit in well with Terry Ryan's at-home-mom, cookies-and-milk, traditional family lifestyle.

The books on younger patrons' reading lists included children's books about bugs, including The Bugliest Bug (and a visit by the illustrator, Scott Nash) and programs included performances by Bugworks. Debbie and Melissa enlisted the support of the school librarians and were able to convince them to include the Westing Game on summer reading lists.

The Hudson Public Library will continue their One Book, One Community program again this year ... at another time besides summer reading!

Getting Yourself Out Of a Rut

Helen Graham, Reuben Hoar Library, Paralibrarian Recipient; Diane Faye, (retired) Boston Public Library; Marnie Oakes, Reuben Hoar Library and Laurie Christie, Paralibrarian, 2007.

Stand out! Ideas, creativity and inspiration were the words of Laurie Christie. Add to that mix, the crucial ingredient: the willing attitude of a library administrator.

Marnie Oakes revealed that it takes employees who have a devoted commitment to the library and community, sometimes to the point of working above and beyond to create a win-win for the library and the town. Diane Faye agreed with Marnie that it sometimes takes making the jump to another job. Diane feels it it is crucial to find your confidence, take risks and finding management that MUST support you. Diane wore many hats as a paralibrarian at the Boston Public Library, in the AFSME union and held posts in paraprofessional sections of national and state organizations. Helen Graham shared the story of her small town suffering financial woes and the library suffering from staffing cuts. Her director, Marnie Oakes, encouraged the paraprofessional staff to get involved with each other and paraprofessional organizations.

Exhibit Tips

The exhibits opened to a waiting crowd. Some great tips? Knitting Out Loud has a show special that might appeal to librarians in every community. (Our library has been a knitting community for years now.) Knitting Out Loud has produced six knitting books on audio. Buy five and receive one for free at the conference. You can schedule a library talk with Kathy Goldner, company owner. Yale University Press is distributing A Voter's Guide: Election 2008 by the editors of The New Republic which may or may not interest you. You can receive a free book, Encyclopedia of New England, Encyclopedia of New York, or Encyclopedia of Ireland from Yale University Press just by filling out a questionaire. Make sure you support the exhibits by visiting them. They make the conference possible.

What's Your Brand?

Elizabeth Doucette, formerly the Assistant Director in Wakefield, is now the Library Director at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine serving the communities of Brunswick and Harpswell. While in Wakefield, Liz helped with the branding project (Where Wakefield Connects) and continues her marketing missions in Brunswick.

Ready for Reference

Susan McGlamery, Director of Question Point Programs @ OCLC presented an update. Susan started the 24/7 Reference Cooperative. Memorial Hall in Andover was the only library outside of Southern California to join the cooperative, a rare step and on the cutting edge indeed in reference services. MassAnswers and BLC joined at some point after.

If you haven't watched Desk Set with Tracy and Hepburn, do it soon! Susan reminded us that harnessing the vast powers of librarians like Bunny Watson goes back to the 1950s.

Susan gave many examples of how libraries, including the LOC in DC, are using Question Point in cooperatives or in house. Question Point integrates walk-up, phone, fax, email, web forms, co-browsing and chat together to address and answer questions - whether patron or librarian-driven. Falmouth Public Library and Memorial Hall in Andover are using multi-format online reference services.

Worcester Public Library will be testing the Qwidget-powered reference session soon. Susan described the process to add the Qwidget box to your own library's website. You need to be a Question Point library to do this. To see the Qwidget at work at the Arlington Heights Library in Illinois; it's similar to the Meebo widget. Susan also introduced the CAPTCHA enhancement for foiling spammers.

There are many wonderful ways to address reference needs. Check out Question Point for more answers.

Stories from Dorothea Benton Frank

Dottie wrote her first book because she was angry enough to write the book that 'she had to write.' Her first book was written when she was 43 years old when she had spent years mothering her children, fundraising and working for community organizations. She's had nine books published in the meantime ... and is working on another.

Dottie Frank is one frank woman. She is delightful and she woke all of us up from dinner stupor. (The sandy sunset, wine and carbohydrates in the bread and bisque.) Her anecdotal talk was full of fun, peppered with colorful language. Her mother, her husband, her mother-in-law and Gore Vidal were all victims of her barbs.

You can read descriptions and a bio at Ms. Frank's website.

Listen Up!

Manager's Listen Up! Why Social Networking and Web 2.0 is Important for your Library presented by David Lee King, Wednesay 2:45 pm.
Trendwatcher or hiding in your shell? At the head of the track or sleeping on the job? Who are all these people wearing Bluetooth devices and talking to themselves in the airports? iPodding through life? Showing up on YouTube? The rest of the world is already there and they aren't all geeks. What sites are on the web are using Web 2.0 (community-driven-participatory tools) and you don't even know it. Amazon.com, eBay, USATodayand most major newspapers. Check it out! Millie Garfield, age 82, has her own blog, YouTube account,video blog and Twitter account. Thoroughly Modern Millie or Lester Public Library. Check out Topeka and Shawnee Public Library's 'Digital Branch.' David thinks that the 'digital branch' of the library might make up 50% of his patrons. Scan your library community and stay with the trends. It's important to check the community pulse at all times especially and stay relevant as a manager who is setting the pace for the library.
How do we watch these trends? By reading, watching and listening as much as we can. RSS feeds, blogs, iGoogle Reader and other subscription readers. David suggested the metaphor of RSS feeds as a constantly flowing river. Jump in and jump out as you have time. Hit the delete key. Read what you like but make it a priority to connect and keep up-to-date. Be ready for change, read, stay on top, check the pulse, stay relevant.
Best practices for committing to a Web 2.0 library? Communication with the library; gauge your staff finding their strengths and interests; find champions in your library who will start Web 2.0n projects, get stuff done and finish them.
"With great power comes great responsibility" Stan Lee. Train your staff and and trust them. Assign Web 2.0 responsibilities to your staff.
Your library is digital, it is mobile, it is changing quickly. It is anywhere with WiFi access.

Nancy Pearl: Book Buzz 2008

Katherine Hall Page, Linda Barnes and Mameve Medwed. For more information you might want to visit the author's website linked to her name.

Nancy Pearl: In Love With Books

Nancy presents Doorways to Enjoyment at 8:45 a.m. in Ballroom 1. There are two of us - Susan Mello and Charlotte Canelli - blogging Nancy's talk today. The photo is from Nancy's website, BookLust.
Two tips for being a good Reader's Advisor? (1) Remembering that 'it's not about me' - meaning you the reader's advisor. It's about the reader; and (2) that while you don't need to have read everything you recommend, you do need to stretch your reading tastes. Pick up one book a month that you might not have read ... and try it.

Another suggestion? Have every staff member do a 45 second booktalk at each staff meeting. Scholastic Inc. starts every meeting with a booktalk! Grow your knowledge of books this way.

Nancy's Doorways to Reading categorizes books according to Story, Character, Setting and Language. a Email me mzlibrary@aol.com for a Word copy of the handout.