South Central Library System presents… 2006 PLA Conference Highlights

1. South Central Library System presents…2006 PLA Conference Highlights A panel presentation on some of the best events & sessions of the biennial Public Library Association conference

2. Conference Links PLA Conference Program: http://www.placonference.org/programming_schedule.cfm PLA Conference blog: http://www.plablog.org Handouts & Audiotapes: http://www.placonference.org/handouts_audiotapes.cfm (handouts not yet available, 3/31/06)

3. Andy BarnettMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids Reinventing III: the Customer-Centered Library. How to Stop Tweaking and Start Doing It with 12 NEW Steps for 2006.(Karen Hyman of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.) • Care. • Think like a customer. • See the problems. • Change your approach…not the customer. • Abandon victimhood. • Organize your library to support quality service.

4. Andy BarnettMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids Reinventing III: the Customer-Centered Library. How to Stop Tweaking and Start Doing It with 12 NEW Steps for 2006.(Karen Hyman of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.) • Walk through everything. • Get the “book” into their hands. • Transform the library experience. • Overcome overdues. • Take the library to the people. • Make something happen.

5. Andy BarnettMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids • Trading Spaces: How to Transform a Library Like Yours in Nine Months with the Money You Have Right Now (Karen Hyman with Mount Laurel Library). Program handouts at http://www.sjrlc.org/tradingspaces/TradingSpacesPLA06.pdf. • Mildly Delirious Libraries: Re-creating Your Library from Top to Bottom (West Palm Beach PL http://www.wpbpl.com ) .

6. Andy BarnettMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids • The Lost Have Been Found (KCLS Roving Reference Model) • You are, but IM: Connecting Young Adults and Librarieshttp://www.connectingya.com/CYPD2005.ppt • Good To Great: How to Rethink, Reconfigure and Revitalize your Library into Greatness! (Cate McNelly of Richmond PL)

7. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • How People Use the Internet: Results from the Pew Project • Before the Auditors Come: Secure Cash Handling Practices and Point of Sale Systems • 7 Tools for Improving Your Workplace • Get the Whole Shebang, or Expect More From Your Friends and Foundation • Reinventing III: The Customer Centered Library. . .

8. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Also attended sessions on • Funding and politics • Library as place for informed citizen dialogue • “Beyond the bake sale” • Demonstrating results • Organizational values/ethics • Also picked up handouts for sessions I didn’t attend!

9. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Before the Auditors Come (“Talk Table”) • Maricopa County, AZ. Had failed their audit 6 years running • Doing wrong: • No documented procedures for cash handling • More than one person at desk at same time taking payments and using cash register • Re-entering cash receipt information 5 times

10. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Before the Auditors Come (“Talk Table”) • Things they started doing right: • Procedures • One person counts money at the end of the day. (has backup) • Included cash drawer management in requirements for new automated system. • Document processes and have a clear paper trail.

11. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Seven Tools for Improving Your Workplace • Sara Laughlin, Bloomington Indiana • The library's continuous improvement fieldbook : 29 ready-to-use tools • Tools:

12. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System Cause Analysis

13. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Get the Whole Shebang • Or, Expect More From Your Friends/Foundation • Staff from the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library • www.thefriends.org • Create a long term vision • Have high expectations

14. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Get the Whole Shebang • Expectations: • Fundraising(5-15% of library budget for enhancements) • Advocacy(increase library’s budget by 10-25%) • Awareness(deliver at least 25% of library’s messages) • Programming(coordinate at least 50% of adult programs)

15. Cheryl BeckerSouth Central Library System • Books I learned about: • Millennials Rising: the Next Great Generation / Neil Howe • Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution / Howard Rheingold • The Library's Continuous Improvement Fieldbook : 29 ready-to-use tools / Sara Laughlin • Demonstrating Results: Using Outcome Measurement in Your Library / Rhea Joyce Rubin

16. Vicky BillingsPortage Co. Public LibraryStevens Point “10 Steps to a Culturally Responsive Library” (Yolanda J. Cuesta) • Excellent 1st prg. I attended. Explained that diversity is both a service issue & a management issue. • Further explained why diversity is important for all levels of staff and described the steps to reach cultural responsiveness. Also included an assessment tool to determine “where we are in the process.” • The steps included everything from #1 “walk the talk” – not just recognize that diversity is important but making it happen at your library, to #10 “integrate diversity into the library culture/organization, i.e. have the appropriate signage, weave it into existing, and make sure diversity training & all is an ongoing/evolving process.

17. Vicky BillingsPortage Co. Public LibraryStevens Point “Booktalking: From So-so to Sensational” (Chapple Langemack & Melanie Workhoven) • Chapple is a librarian from a regional library in Bellevue, Wash. and Melanie is an actor at the Repertory Theatre in Woodinville, Wash. • They discussed and gave tips on how to physically, mentally, and materially prepare for booktalks and then deliver them with pizzazz. • Interested folks from the audience gave spontaneous booktalks (just the beginning) and then were critiqued and then gave the talks over to incorporate the suggestions. The suggestions could easily be applied anytime you have to do some public speaking, e.g. at a PTO meeting, a Board meeting, a class you’re teaching, and so on. • The program was valuable both a developing your craft and for instilling confidence in yourself so as to perform your craft well.

18. Vicky BillingsPortage Co. Public LibraryStevens Point “Guys Read” presented by panel consisting of Jon Scieszka, Erik Kraft, Jarrett Krosoczka, and Tony DiTerlizzi. • Each member of the panel described how they had gotten into “reading” and how they now write and illustrate books, essentially for kids. • They spoke of the importance of helping boys enjoy reading and what things may attract boys to books. • I had attended the author lunch with Jon Scieszka and wanted to hear more from him. • Boys are fortunate that these four guys are around writing and illustrating!

19. Sarah CordsMadison Public Library • Out of this World: The Newest Science Fiction and Fantasy for Your Patrons and You (Bonnie Kunzel and Diana Tixier Herald) • Looking for a Good Book? Developing an Online Reading Suggestion Service (Andrew Smith, Barry Trott, Penelope Hamblin, Neil Hollands, Charlotte Burcher) • How People Use the Internet(Lee Rainie, PEW Internet Project) • Reading Maps(Nancy Pearl and Neal Wyatt) • Most interesting new product I saw: The Reader’s Advisor Online, a new database from the publishers of the Genreflecting books. You can take a tour at http://rainfo.lu.com/

20. Phyllis DavisSouth Central Library System • The Smartest Card: Get it! Use It! • Metropolitan Group Tips • Brand and Deliver@ your Library • Nancy Davis & Pam Fitzgerald, the Ivy Group, Nancy Benner, Montgomery County (Md.) Public Libraries • The Art of the Sell: Courting the Ideal Candidate during the Interview

21. Trudy LorandosVerona Public Library • PLA Pre-Conference: Cultural Programming for Libraries: Linking Libraries, Communities, and Culture (included book of the same title by Deborah A. Robertson) • Successful Folklore and Folklife Programs in Library Settings American Folklife Center homepage: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/ American Folklife Center American Memory collections: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html “The Learning Page” at LC: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/index.html Video conferences at the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/educators/video/index.html Veteran’s History Project: http://www.loc.gov/vets/

22. Deborah McCabePortage Co. Public LibraryStevens Point • Trading Spaces: Transform a Library like yours in 9 monthswww.sjrlc.org/tradingspaces • Good to Great: How to Rethink, Reconfigure, & Revitializewww.yourlibrary.ca • Reinventing III: The Customer-Centered Library

23. Ron McCabeMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids • Tour of Boston Public Library and purchase of Upon the Objects To Be Attained by the Establishment of a Public Library—Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1852. www.scls.lib.wi.us/mcm/history/report_of_trustees.html. • “Do They Hear Us Now?”—Cathy De Rosa reports on OCLC’s Perceptions of Library and Information Resources. www.oclc.org/reports .

24. Ron McCabeMcMillan Memorial LibraryWisconsin Rapids • “Intellectual Freedom Still Matters: Communicating Our Mission and Role in Our Post-CIPA Society”—Judith Krug, Candace Morgan, and Kent Oliver. (Intellectual Freedom policies and guidelines under Professional Tools at www.ala.org.) • “Reinventing III: The Customer-Centered Library—How To Stop Tweaking and Start Doing It with Twelve Steps for 2006”—Karen Hyman.

25. Thanks for participating! This presentation will be archived & available for viewing through Friday, April 14th. The audio recordings of PLA conference sessions will be available to request from SCLS soon. Be sure to hang up your phone & close your browser.