Audio Recorders to Zucchini Seeds

Finished June 20

Audio Recorders to Zucchini Seeds: Building a Library of Things edited by Mark Robinson and Lindley Shedd

The authors have solicited input from libraries around the world, of all types and gathered the information here to show you some of the things other than books that libraries lend out to their communities.The book starts with a history of library lending discussing some of the earlier types of things such as curriculum materials, tools, toys and games, a/v equipment, and more. It then moves to a closer look at public libraries and what kinds of things some of them lend. Each example here looks at the history of that particular collection, the community involvement in the collection creation and maintenance, the funding for the collection including the ongoing budget, any special equipment involved, and the management and maintenance of the collection. There are seven collections covered here: Tool Lending; Book a Bike; Library Farm; Seed Libraries; Toys; and Sacramento's multifaceted "Create, Share, Play".

The next section looks at the lending of non-traditional things in academic libraries, again looking at the different aspects of each collection. Here are: technology items such as GoPros and microphones; curriculum material; cameras, tripods, external harddrives and other technology; video production tools; lendable tech like ereaders, calculators, Raspberry Pis and Arduinos; games, both tabletop and video; and scopes and instruments. 

The following section, looking at a special library that offers more esoteric material: from Alaska we see a library that lends furs, skulls, and other animal mounts.

The last section of the book brings together best practices from all of these libraries. It covers: planning; funding; acquisition and purchasing; cataloguing and describing; processing; storage and shelving; circulation; policies and procedures; staff training; collection maintenance; advertising and outreach; and assessment. 

There is an appendix with some useful documents that you can adapt for your own purposes, such as checklists, forms and agreements.

A good overview of this unique area of librarianship.

Letting Go of Legacy Services

Finished May 2
Letting Go of Legacy Services: Library Case Studies edited by Mary Evangeliste and Katherine Furlong

Libraries are being asked to do more with less these days, and many of us find it difficult to stop offering services that we've been offering for years to free up resources for those new things people want us to provide. The libraries here looked at the concept of planned abandonment, a concept popularized by Peter Drucker, and how it applies to libraries. Also included are several interviews that look at solutions to common pressure points.
This book contains a number of case studies of libraries who have taken a good hard look at either those things "we've always done" or things "we've always done that way" and determined if they are still worth doing or if they should be done differently. Each case study is wrapped up with a summary by the editors called Bookend.
Case studies included here are:
* a college library that changed the way they provide periodicals to their patrons.
* a county library system that took a good look at their web-based services, overhauled their website and improved community outreach.
* a university library that eliminated their reserve services.
* a university library that redefined reference service.
* a university library that used a series of crisis situations over six years to redefine mission critical services.
* a university library that used ethnographic research techniques to help them redefine library spaces to better meet student needs, reexamine resource delivery, checkout service, fines, ILL, and equipment lending.
* a university library who used collaborative strategic planning to facilitate the shift towards electronic resources.
* a public library who responded to a natural disaster and a financial crisis to look for efficiency opportunities in technical services, acquisitions, and cataloging.
* a university library used surveys and space analysis to create more useful spaces for their patrons

Interviews include:
* talking with David Consiglio about data driven decision making in a library context
* talking with Valerie Diggs about communication strategies for successful change

The conclusion to this book provides a lot of reflection on change in the library community. One sentence in particular spoke to me: "Among the many things we need to abandon is the nostalgia that unfortunately gives us an inaccurate perception of the past and hinders discussions of the present, and the future of libraries." Insights here range from the urgency of library as space for our communities to come together in a variety of ways, you can never had enough communication, and that fostering leadership and diversity is a necessity.

Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources

Finished January 4
Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources by Marie R. Kennedy and Cheryl LaGuardia

This marketing how-to-do-it manual is actually a general marketing manual with some good examples specific to electronic resources. The manual begins with a short backgrounder of the environment and the obstacles to awareness of libraries' digital resources.
Chapter one then begins with the marketing basic of defining your purpose. Knowing what you want to accomplish with your marketing plan is key to achieving it. It emphasizes the importance of engaging with library patrons, because after all they are the users and potential users of your resources. It talks about the challenge of not having physical resources to browse, the need to have all staff on the same page when it comes to messaging,
Chapter two outlines the components of a marketing plan. It uses the image of a circle to show the marketing cycle and defines nine components to any good marketing plan.
Chapter three moves into implementation of the plan giving examples of each component in action, There is a nicely laid out table of different marketing techniques as applied to marketing e-resources, as well as four main categories these fall into.
Chapter four discusses the written marketing plan report. Creating a report can be done at various points from before to after your campaign, but is an important element for various stakeholders. The report needs to be geared to the audience,
Chapter five looks at assessment. How effective was your marketing plan? Did it meet your stated purpose? As they say, assessment is not a one-time measure, it is ongoing through the life of the plan. Feedback is essential and many examples are given here of feedback forms for different purposes. There is also a list of questions library staff must ask themselves in terms of assessment.
Chapter six looks at revising and updating your marketing plan, the importance of reflection. Reflect on each of the nine components, how well they worked for you, and what you might do differently.
The second part of the book gives four marketing plans. One is for an all-electronic library, two are for public libraries, and the fourth is for an academic library.
This book provides very useful information for libraries looking at developing marketing plans.

Emerging Technologies

Finished October 24
Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians by Jennifer Koerber and Michael P. Sauers

This book begins with a discussion of the book's premise which is to provide a snapshot of new technology important to libraries and use that to show readers how to look at technology at it appears and gets applied in library environments. The chapters on technologies each have a brief overview of the technology giving background and current events, advantages and challenges to the technology's use in libraries, highlights of the most useful or well-known tools and/or devices in that technology and how libraries might use them, and some examples. The authors define emerging as those technologies just hitting the middle of the acceptance bell curve, so not leading edge, but also not mainstream. They also look at older technologies used in new ways.
The first technology they look at is audio/video. They cover hardware such as cameras and microphones, software such as screencasting, video-editing, and platforms such as Youtube, Vimeo, and Soundcloud. Uses include virtual library tours, training, memes, community engagement, events, and supporting makers.
The second technology is self-publishing. They look at the environment, platforms and tools, including some library-specific tools. There is discussion of the library's role.
The third technology is mobile technologies. Here the question is not if your library will use mobile technology, but which services should be provided. It looks at mobile websites and library apps, and proposes three sets of questions to ask: who creates and maintains the technology and its content; how are connections to third parties handled (ebooks, streaming media); and how is it serving, how are they accessing it, and what services does it provide. Hardware includes both the patrons' own as well as library-provided, through lending. Interfaces discusses range from native to apps to mobile web. Applications range from reference to ecommerce to collection access.
The fourth technology is crowdfunding and the main discussion is on platforms. Not all platforms allow non-profit use, and there is information on appropriate applications.
The fifth technology is wearables. Hardware includes activity trackers, life loggers, smart watches, and augmented and virtual reality. Not all uses discussed are patron-oriented. Some libraries use this technology for staff wellness programs.
The sixth technology is the Internet of Things. There is a long list of some that are becoming more common, but no library examples of use yet. Some ideas are given for future use by libraries.
The book now looks at the issue of privacy and security, noting that privacy is a core library ethic, and that it is part of our responsibility to help patrons learn how to keep their information secure as well as keeping public access computers as secure as possible. To do that, library staff have to know the basics themselves. Software includes browser controls and PAC resetting, as well as password managers, two factor authentication, and VPN.
The last chapter looks at how to apply this knowledge to other technologies as they emerge, and works on the basic ideas of read, play, and teach. Read widely, not just in the library field, but also social media, geek sources, and mainstream media. Play with technology by using devices in stores, reading instructions, pushing the buttons, spending time with different technologies and not being afraid. Teach by writing about what you learn, going beyond the basics, being prepared for random questions, knowing what next steps might be for learners, and setting goals for students in more formal settings. Several tools are mentioned here including Lynda, Gale Courses, edX, and Coursera.

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends

Finished August 20
The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends by Megan M McArdle

This short guide gives an introduction to the topic of genre blendings, discussing the issues that arise with books that blend genres, the primary one being where to put things on the shelf if you have a collection that separates genres.
My library doesn't separate genres, but we do use spine labels to help guide patrons, and because we don't use multiple labels, this can result in similar issues.
Following the introduction and issues, this guide focuses on seven genres and the blends between them. A chapter is devoted to each genre, with an overview of the genre, a discussion of genre blending with that genre and sections discussing the blending with each of the other six genres. These sections include a look at three books that blend the two genres, sometimes with a third genre as a bonus, and two books that deflect readers back to the genre that most interests them of the two blended ones.
Genres covered here are Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, and Science Fiction.
This is followed by a chapter on Whole Collection blends. This chapter looks more at format and offers genre blends in the formats of TV, Film, and Graphic Novel. For each of these formats, it looks at three examples, offering suggestions for the other formats and then gives a short list of other genre blends in the format discussed.
The next chapter is advice on how to do readers' advisory for genre blends, including suggested questions to ask readers, promotion ideas, and finding aids.
The last chapter is a discussion of genre blending with literary fiction, an interesting viewpoint on varieties of literary fiction. For me, this would be a path to guiding readers to books they may have classified as literary and therefore not of interest to them. By emphasizing the genre element in these literary or classic novels, we can expand readers' range and introduce them to new authors. McArdle gives 6 examples for each of the seven genres.
There is also an appendix of authors who are particularly adept at writing genre blends..
This is a good addition to any public library collection of readers' advisory tools, and a good resource for readers' advisory training for staff.