Ending a chapter

I can’t believe the whole semester has flown by already. I had my last class on May 2, and I’ll graduate on May 17th. I had an amazing capstone experience at the Austin Public Library that has really shaped how I view library programming and strategic planning.

The project ultimately was a guidebook for strategic program planning, with three strategic initiatives created to demonstrate how the guidebook operated. The three initiatives we chose were

• Greener Austin, an environmental awareness and education campaign
• Latino American Cultural Awareness, an educational and cultural celebration campaign
• Financial Health & Wellness campaign.

The guidebook/toolbox discussed the different components of strategic initiative planning, and how to work through the planning process in such a way that the library could ensure that these programs not only helped accomplish a set goal or mission, but also demonstrated value within the community, and ensured the library’s place at the table with local government.

For those of you interested in the details, there’s more behind the cut…

Full Spectrum Programming

Yesterday, I met with my faculty adviser to talk about how my project was going, and brainstorm a few more project ideas. In collaboration with my two contacts at APL, I had a long laundry list of adult programs that the library might hold, and my FA added a few more to that list. I mentioned my frustration with how isolated each of these programs felt… I’ve been taking so many nonprofit classes that the mere idea of one-shot programs versus longterm systemic change oriented offerings gets my back up in a bad way. My FA said that the ad-hoc programming model of APL was probably a result of its (adult programming) recent addition to the library’s offerings. She said that we should consider co-authoring an article for Texas Library Journal on the strategic benefits of community partnership at the library. I’m interested, but I’m putting that off until summer! Another thing I’ll be putting off until summer was her suggestion that perhaps I could write myself a job, via grant, or co-funded position between the City and the iSchool, to set up a framework for meaningful collaboration between the APL and the iSchool (students and professors). Now that’s right up my alley! Again, that’s going to wait until summer!

Today I met with my favorite funding-research librarian at the Hogg Regional Foundation Library to discuss the relative “fundability” of my long list of possible programs. She is an absolutely brilliant woman. She helped me see how many of the “isolated” programs in that list were really very complimentary, and could be grouped together to provide a full array of programs targeted at a specific issue. She grouped them into three areas: Cultural Awareness and Diversity Education, Social Justice Issues, and the Arts. An example of this would be a book of the year, and a whole array of programming surrounding that. But not just any book, a book that addressed a social justice or cultural issue. For example, the Library could announce that the citywide reading program would feature the book, the Kite Runner. Then the library would offer a whole compliment of programming to go with that: Arabic language classes, classes on Arabic culture, art, music, and dance, classes on Arabic foods, history, film, and so on… maybe even tying in with the Zilker Kite Festival!

She also showed me how intertwined each of the main issues are, which is great from a fundability standpoint. I’m getting very excited about where this project is headed!

Strategic Initiative Toolbox

That’s the tentative title of my Capstone Project, the professional development project most MSIS’s at UT do these days instead of a thesis (although if I was doing a thesis, it would be titled either Librarians as Leaders or perhaps one on Fulfilling the Information Needs of Homeless Patrons).

The premise of this capstone is that the Austin Public Library (where I’m working on my capstone) would greatly benefit from increased strategic placement within the bureaucracy of the City of Austin, from a budgetary and other resource perspective. Simultaneously, adult programming at APL could be strengthened (although they have a wide variety of youth programs), and might be better supported if programs had a defined set of outcome/output/impact measures that could better demonstrate value to the library’s various constituents. Finally, as far as I can tell, APL has few community partners, and could be better positioned with regard to this aspect of planning.

For my capstone, I will be helping the Austin Public Library develop adult programming which addresses each of these challenges. The program begins by diagramming the City of Austin’s strategic plan, and then brainstorming program ideas that would help the city fulfill its goals. A total of three promising programs will be selected, and for each I will create a toolkit for funding, finding community partners, setting up, running, and evaluating the success of that program (if I have extra time, I may do a marketing plan for each, although APL has its own marketing department).

From mid-December to mid-January, I’ve been creating a Gantt chart for the project, diagramming City of Austin (CoA) goals and initiatives, doing a lit review of relevant materials published on the topic, and brainstorming ideas for possible programs. Next week, the ball really gets rolling: I have a meeting with my field supervisor at APL, to brainstorm further program initiatives, and finally, a similar session with my faculty adviser. Then I will create a diagram for each program, illustrating how well (or poorly) that program is connected to the stated goals/needs of the CoA. Then I’ll do an initial “fundability” review with a funding librarian at our Regional Foundation Library, ranking the programs in order of “most fundable” to “least fundable.” I’ll then turn this list over to my field supervisor, and let her pick the top three programs she thinks the APL would be interested in pursuing. Then comes all the fun stuff! Funding research, community partners who can make the program happen, volunteer candidates and management, management/ administration of the program (policies, best practices, history of similar programs), and finally, tools to evaluate the effectiveness and ultimate worth of the program, along with guidelines for modification based on feedback from the programs.

I’m very excited about the whole thing! More coming soon…

A brand new me

This last semester was an intensely challenging one for me, and one that ultimately changed the way I relate to the world, particularly the library world. I took a Nonprofit Strategy and Entrepreneurship class, a course in Research Methods, and a phenomenal course called Leadership for Community Change. I did a lot of soul searching and learned a great deal about myself and how I interact with the world and my field, and what part I want to play in all that. The semester also armed me with an abundance of tools for strategically positioning libraries (and librarians) for success.

I also continued volunteered at Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic (first as a “director” and now as a “reader”) for two hours a week, and, as part of my class project for NP Strategy, did an extensive review of their volunteer practices, and developed a series of improvements to those practices which might help them increase their production studio’s efficiency. I also started volunteering as a reference intern at the Austin Public Library… every single day I work there, I am more convinced that I’m in the right place. I’m particularly interested in working for a large urban public library system in adult services, and APL is a great introduction to that world (both the good and the bad). On top of all that, I was also the student liaison to Stepping Up: Library Leaders for the 21st Century, and held two information sessions for applicants to the program and I was Co-Director and Webmaster of the “blanket” student organization for the School of Information (SASI). It was all worth it, and I even got myself selected for the 2007 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities (toot that horn!)

Out of this fall semester grew my professional experience project (”Capstone”). I decided to plunge headfirst into administrative work, particularly with regards to strategic positioning of libraries. I’m interested in adult programming, so I decided to look at the City of Austin’s strategic planning documents, chart out their goals, and then develop programs for the library which would help the city achieve those goals. In this way, the library will be better able to demonstrate the value they provide to the community (in particular when it comes time for funding dollars to be distributed). Once we’ve narrowed the scope to the top three programs, I’ll create a toolkit for each program: resource needs, funding sources, volunteer management, potential community partners, and evaluation and measures of success. I’m calling it (tentatively) the Strategic Initiatives Toolbox.

And that capstone is what I’d like to talk about today… I’m going to make a small shift on this blog (not too difficult because I’ve been absent for so long that I’ve indubitably alienated any readership I had) and spend the remainder of the spring documenting my progress on my capstone project, in addition to the work I’m doing in my other two classes: Collection Management, and Nonprofit Audiences (a class offered by the School of Advertising).

I’m working on a recap of the work I’ve done this past month, but I’ll be shooting for one update a week (more often when I’m in the thick of things) describing the challenges I’ve experienced, as well as the successes. Like the title says, my experiences last semester have irrevocably changed the way I perceive the library world and the challenges it faces (on a number of fronts). Not all of these are related to my capstone, but I have a feeling you’ll be hearing plenty of them in the weeks and months to come.

Leadership and Advocacy

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about how important it is for libraries to court library advocates. Library advocates include anyone who’s willing to proselytize on behalf of libraries. Someone who goes out of their way to point out how a library can solve the problem at hand.

This is one of the most effective forms of advertising…we trust our friends and people we know far more than we do any marketer. If my friend Sharon tells me that her shoes are killing her, and I tell her about these new Brand X shoes I just got that feel like I’m walking on clouds all day… well, that certainly holds a lot more weight than if Sharon just saw an ad for Brand X.

What I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about is how consumer advocates are made. Why, for example, do so many people drink the Kool-Aid over at Apple? A great deal of it is about consumer advocacy, but where does it originate? I know I personally advocate for Mac computers every time I hear a friend or relative complain about the poor usability of Windows boxes. And yesterday, I did what many Mac users did… I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote. In fact, I make a point of watching every single keynote that Steve Jobs puts out. Even if it’s for a product I don’t personally use or plan to use.

No doubt about it, Steve Jobs is a phenomenal entrepreneur. But he’s also a very savvy leader. There’s something in the way you feel when watching a Kool-Aide Convention that makes you even more excited about the company than ever before — something about that unassuming personage up there, with the faded jeans, black turtleneck, and white sneakers — that makes you want to buy whatever it is he’s selling.

Steve Jobs excels at turning people’s natural reaction of “what’s in it for me?” to “what can I do to get in on this action?” Those of you versed in management will recognize this switch… the switch from “quid-pro-quo, replacing it with belief in a higher cause”*. That, my friends, is called Transformational Leadership (for more on this theory, pick up a copy of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge)

How can we turn librarians, and library workers, and ultimately our patrons into proselytizers of library services? If a patron’s sister is trying to figure out how to pay for her daughter’s college education, how can we get him to say “I bet they have something on that at the library?”

I hear all the time how librarians need work on our management skills, but management is not the same thing as leadership. Every librarian needs to be on board the leadership train!

Things Librarians should keep in mind when contemplating leadership:

• Leaders may be born, but they can also be made. It is possible to train yourself to practice good leadership skills – those skills that empower your colleagues and patrons to “buy in” to the mission of the library
• Leaders do not have to be in a position of authority – they can lead from within. Successful leaders inspire others, empowering them to do their part in the “quest for achievement of [a shared] vision.” *

Hey, if you want to learn more about leadership, I hear there’s this great place called a Library where you can check things out for free!
—————–

*Both these quotes are from “Authentic, Compassionate, and Empowering (ACE) Leadership: Transforming Labor and Restoring Leisure,” a paper by my Leadership for Community Change professor, David W. Springer, PhD, written for the UT Austin Humanities Institute 2006-2007.

Community Outreach

Whenever I mention to a colleague I don’t know very well that I’m taking a course in Nonprofit Strategy and Entrepreneurship, along with another called Leadership for Community Change, I always get the same reaction: Do you want to start a nonprofit?

The question behind the question is: What do nonprofits have to do with library school?

Quite a lot, in fact. I’m particularly interested in the nonprofit as a representation of a segment of our communities… ie: a patron with clearly defined information needs (it’s in their mission statements!). Nonprofits exist in a community, particularly the small scrappy ones, because they have identified a need within that community – they see a segment of the population who are being underserved, mistreated, or generally not getting a fair shake. Doing something about that is their mission in life. Helping them fulfill that mission is my mission in life.  I want to help give them the information tools that their segment of society needs.  Going beyond the reference desk… not waiting for someone to be bold enough to come up and ask me a question… but going out there into the community and answering the questions that are being asked all the time.

Beyond that, I decided to participate in the Nonprofit Studies program because I am so keenly aware that Library School often does not do enough to teach librarians how to be managers, or how to be leaders.   In the NP program, I can take courses in marketing for NPs, management, leadership… all the things I have a passion for. And everything I learn applies to libraries! We’re so very much closer to nonprofits than we may realize. Certainly libraries are often government organizations… particularly academic and public libraries. But funding is slipping all the time… we seek out private and corporate sponsorship. We have boards and volunteers… we operate successfully in large part due to the tremendous public trust in libraries. We also both rely heavily on public support, and advocacy/marketing/grassroots support (whatever you’d like to call it) must be a part of our plans for the future.

In this time of change and growth for libraries, I am particularly interested in seeing how the future leaders and CEOs of nonprofits seek out public support. My classmates are inspirations to me… each and every one will help build public support for a cause they believe in. And so will I. So can you… Keep your eye on nonprofits. They know where they’re going, and they have a good idea of how to get there.

Good works

It’s been a whirlwind summer for me…who said anything about a break?  Over the past two weeks, I launched a new website for my student organization, created an FAQ for new students, am in negotiations with iSchool IT services to create a wiki for our school, launched an online store to sell our Evolving Librarian shirt to librarians at large, went to a meeting for an IMLS grant whose goal is to recruit more diversity into the librarian profession (I’m the student liaison…the person our recruits will go to when they want to see a friendly student face), solicited feedback and advice from iSchoolers on tips for getting in to the program (for that IMLS grant), and spent an entire day at new student orientation + happy hour , telling people what our student council was about, what projects we’re working on, and dispensing general advice about their first weeks in the program. On top of all that, we’re gearing up for Fall in my library, and that means we’re processing hundreds of items for regular and electronic reserves, and showing new professors the ropes. I’ve also got an interview next Thursday for a volunteer reference intern position at the downtown branch of the Austin Public Library.  The most exciting news is that Jenny Levine has put Karin and me in touch with some folks at ALA to try and get a marketing wiki/social network going … I’m very excited about this project!

Now that orientation is over, the two sites are launched, the FAQ is done and the iSchool wiki is moving forward, I feel such a sense of accomplishment, but also feel as if a burden has been lifted since those were occupying every spare moment of time I had. I’ll be back here more regularly now, especially once my classes start in the fall and I find new inspiration from my colleagues and friends.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Nonprofits are your friends

Technically, libraries aren’t nonprofits…we’re usually government agencies, but we have a lot in common with nonprofits, too.  I haven’t spent much time looking into the advocacy offerings of the nonprofit folks because I’ve had my hands full just trying to catch up with the librarians!

But for my grant, I needed to evaluate the tools that were already out there, and I couldn’t find much in the way of Web 2.0 for library advocacy (which is good, since that’s what I’m trying to get a grant for!*) so I plugged “nonprofit” in my search box and lo and behold, I hit the motherlode! I shouldn’t be too surprised… nonprofits traditionally have even less funding than libraries, so they’ve been quicker to adopt new ways of garnering public support.

Here are a few of my favorites from the bunch…

• Nonprofit Technology Network – their Web 2.0 category has some great stuff!
• Net ^2 (squared) , remixing the  web for social change
• Roots.lab, helping nonprofits leverage the social web… they have a great rundown of what the social web can do for nonprofits here
  

More details about the revised grant forthcoming… I just finished the draft for my class this evening.
–

* Please let me know if you’ve found anything out there that deals with social networking/social media for libraries in any kind of detail. I couldn’t find anything, but maybe one of you has run across something?

Lessons in Marketing

Today I was reminded of how small the library online community is, and how important it is to plan for the unexpected.

My friend, Lea, and fellow co-director of the Student Association of the School of Information at UT, took some photos of a new shirt designed by a recent graduate of our program. The design is called Evolution of a Librarian:

She posted the photos on her flickr page so I could grab them easily to put up on our our blog. SASI has been printing shirts for as long as anyone can remember as a way to get funding from the Graduate School Assembly (GSA) and the Student Senate, that we can turn around and sell at a small profit in order to support student activities and community-building. I had intended to get the photos up sometime this weekend (or maybe next) and then send an email out to our school’s listserv to let students know they were available and when/where they could buy them.

But this morning when I woke up and checked my RSS reader, I found that Library Stuff had linked to her photo of our newest shirt design. We had always dreamed of coming up with cool shirts that we could sell to the library/information science community at large to support our school activities, and here was opportunity staring us in the face, and I didn’t even have a site set up yet! Worse, when I tried to log on to the iSchool servers, I couldn’t gain access. I couldn’t get on to the servers until a half hour ago (finally got the support site up here at SASI Swag). But even without that, we didn’t have any way of accepting payment. We hadn’t set up a paypal account and had only ever taken cash and checks in the past. We didn’t even know what to charge for shipping.

This entire experience was a great learning process for me. Technology failed us, and we failed to plan for a big enough response to our idea. This was a small glitch, something easily fixed, but we were franticly emailing and im-ing eachother and the iSchool technology folks trying to get our site back up, and figure out what to do in the meantime.

I wonder how much worse it would be for the library who fails to make arrangements for the unanticipated… I hope I’ve learned my lesson on this front.

Too much info, wrong emphasis

Part of my grant application requires that I do research to make sure I’m not repeating a project that’s already out there.  I started creating a table of all the results I found from a “library advocacy” (sans quotes) search in Google, and arranging the sites by state or region (if applicable).  As soon as I did the search, I knew I was in trouble.  3.8 million results. Tacking on the word “marketing” brought it down to 1.8 million. Clicking through, I saw a lot of the same information repeated again and again…  Best practices, talking to the press, talking to politicians, facts and figures about why libraries matter. About all the poor and disadvantaged people who depend on their services. Offerings usually follow the format of step 1, 2, 3.  And when searching journal indexes, I find even more suggestions. There are advocacy offerings for nearly every state, every major city, and from most of our organizations.  I had no idea the OCLC had a site called WebJunction, and that this site contained information on advocacy and marketing. There’s an overwhelming amount of information out there.

So why are we still talking about marketing? If it’s all out there in black and white, A, B, C… why aren’t people beating down our doors to give us money?  Why are we missing the 13-30-somethings from our libraries?

If most of these sites say the same thing, can my site really say anything different? Does a database of stock-photography and templates really make it more useful? I really don’t know the answer to that question. I’m afraid the answer is “no.”   I do know that there are people in every state who understand how important advocacy is. They try to get the word out, each in their own way, with a toolbox, a step by step guide, or a marketing campaign. Funders like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation give us money to create campaigns and train staff in advocacy… $7.7 million to the Public Library Association for training, and another $1.2 million to the OCLC to develop a nationwide advocacy network (and maybe a marketing campaign, too if there’s any money left over).

But apart from the good advice, which is all sound and traditional (and repetitive), the campaigns I’ve seen are boring and have dated graphics. But more than that…they’re depressing. I just watched a commercial (not naming names) that didn’t make me want to visit a library, it made me want to cry! Story after story of disadvantaged, downtrodden people with hard lives… People don’t want to hear about that! They don’t want to hear about hard work. They want to hear about success. They want to see themselves as successful, not as failures.  If they see the library as “that place where failures go” then they’re less likely to go there. On the funding side of the coin, politicians like to see people fulfilling the American dream (bootstraps, the works) but they’re human too. They don’t need to be shown images of people struggling, because this only reminds them of how dismally they (as politicians) have failed in other areas. They need to see people succeeding as much as your patrons.

We have some funny stuff out there…. but much of it revolves around inside jokes, like the March of the Librarians video.  That’s funny to me as a librarian, but I don’t know it would make a patron want to visit the library. Or make a funder give us more money.

Being positive is key. Knowing when to pull out the doom and gloom (stories of the downtrodden) is just as important as putting a positive spin on those benefiting from our services.

So what should I really be peddling with my project?  A real positive uplifting marketing campaign? A social-network for librarians to help them share their uplifting stories and marketing materials?  The grants I’m going after aren’t of the multi-million dollar variety, so would it be a waste? Can we have grassroots marketing from an inexpensive set of tools? Can I be the one to do it?  What makes me better than the OCLC with their million dollar grant and their professional marketing agency? I feel very Pollyanna-ish about this whole thing… the Glad Game and all that. But isn’t that what we need more of in this world? Or maybe I’m wrong?