The weekly e-newsletter, American Libraries Direct, is now available to anyone who wants to sign up for it, not just ALA members. The sign-up form, as well as the FAQ, is at http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirect/aldirect.cfm.

Additionally, login is no longer required to view the current issue of the American Libraries print magazine online (in PDF format), or to view the archives, which date back to the January 2003 issue. Go directly to http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/alonlineebrary/alonlineebrary.cfm

First-time viewers will need to install the ebrary reader to view issues. To download, go to http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ala/Download.

Firefox 3 users installing the reader for the first time will need a workaround, http://www.ebrary.com/kb/users/ff3install.jsp, to make the ebrary reader work with their browser.

American Libraries has launched its own blog, AL Inside Scoop.

Editor-in-chief Leonard Kniffel offers an insider’s view of goings-on at ALA headquarters and what hot topics ALA staffers are talking about in the hallways, saying, “I want to shorten the lag between what’s new at headquarters and when we tell you about it, between what’s hot on the ALA Council’s electronic list and when you hear about it.”

Associate Editor Greg Landgraf offers his perspective from “the lower floors” of what many see as the ALA ivory tower.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to say!

When I was about 8-years-old I was walking home from my bus stop after school and a car stopped beside me. A man opened the door and offered me candy. In my mind I knew better, but like a typical kid I wanted the candy and walked towards the car. As I approached the car the door opened, and the man reached his hand out to grab me.

Does this sound like an urban legend?

It might, but it did actually happen to me. Luckily my parents had taught me stranger-danger. That and I was also a pretty tough kid. I slammed the car door (I think I may have crushed his hand), and ran home. If things had gone differently I may not be here tonight typing this post. I get chills thinking about it–especially now that I am a mom.

I am living proof that stranger-danger is real, but you don’t need me to tell you that. The news inundates us with stories of stranger-danger even though statistics tell us that most offenses to children are committed by someone who is not a stranger but is in fact someone close to the child.

What I am really here to say is that it’s important to educate children so that they can make smart decisions in any circumstance.

From USA Today:

Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking websites without parental permission.

This has to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard recently.

First, how will we define “other social networking websites” when pretty much every site is becoming a social networking site? Has anyone in Congress heard of Web 2.0?

Second, how does this teach children to think for themselves and make smart choices? We cannot block every site where a predator could be lurking just as we cannot place children in a bubble when we send them out the door to school every day.

As librarians and library staff we have to advocate for educating our public officials, the media, parents, and children about the real dangers of the Internet - ignorance.

If you haven’t yet take a look at the ALA Libraries & the Internet Toolkit. Most of the content is dated 2003, but it is still relevant.

CLENE Training Showcase

I spent Sunday afternoon with fellow trainers at the CLENE Training Showcase. I am new member of CLENE, and let me just say that this is a great group of people! It makes it so much easier to navigate through ALA when you have a relatively small group like this to be a part of.

The showcase was similar in format to the poster session I did on Saturday, participants were at tables around the room with displays and prepared to talk about, i.e. showcase, what they are working on. There was a much larger crowd for the showcase which may have been because members were standing in the lobby encouraging people to come in or because of the raffle for prizes every 15 minutes led by Stacy Schrank.

I was able to use the same display I used on Saturday, and I brought general information about PLCMC and copies of handouts about PLCMC’s Core Competencies program and live online learning to share. I gave away Brarydog magnetic poetry sheets which were a big hit.

Late Saturday afternoon I attended a train-the-trainer session with Stephanie Gerding and Kam McEvoy given by Brenda Hough and Sarah Washburn of the MaintainIT Project. Here’s a photo of Sarah explaining, Common Craft style, the relationship between WebJunction, MaintainIT Project, and TechSoup.

Afterwards we all went out to dinner in downtown Disney and celebrated Louise Alcorn’s birthday.

Thank you again to Sarah and Brenda for hosting a wonderful evening!

Saturday morning I had the privilege to hear Bruce Kimbrell from the Disney Institute speak about customer service. Soft-spoken and pleasant mannered, Bruce has a great sense of humor that can liven yet put any audience at ease.

Some notes that I took during the session:

• The front-line is the bottom line.
• When you find out what a customer’s “wow” moment was, make sure to share that with other employees and celebrate it with the employee who provided it.
• The most common comments Disney receives are not about how great the rides are, but how clean the parks are and how friendly the employees are.
• The most common question from customers, “What time is the three o’clock parade?”
• Customers can feel perfection even if they can’t see it (for example, eyelashes on the figures on a ride)
• Disney 2.0 - “Pal Mickeys” interactive GPS Mickey dolls that kids can take around the park. They talk and give you tips about where to go, when to go, and what to do. If kids accidentally leave them at the hotel the maids pose the dolls in interesting places. Then kids started purposefully leaving them in the rooms to “have fun.” This costs nothing, but adds that extra special touch and helps to make it a magical experience.
• A lot of what we sell is intangible - same in libraries
• 18% turnover rate
• At Disneyland there are 24 unions! Yikes!
• One of the keys to customer service is holding staff accountable. Make them aware of what is expected prior to hiring and during orientation.
• Separate on-stage presence from back-stage presence to maintain the setting. Snow White may smoke and fight with her boyfriend but not when she is “on-stage.”
• Safety is not negotiable.
• When you have to say no, turn it into a wow moment. At Disney if a child waits in line for a ride only to find he is not tall enough for the ride, he is presented with a certificate that allows him and his family to go immediately to the front of the line when he is tall enough. A potentially bad moment turned into a wow moment.
• Every face to face interaction is a moment of truth. If a customer interacts with 60 cast members per day there are 60 moments of truth. If there are 59 great moments and 1 bad, which do you think the customer will remember? We need all moments of truth to be great.
• First and last interaction at Disney is parking. Another three o’clock question, “Where did I park my car?” If a customer forgets where he or she parked the car Disney staff can locate it based on arrival time (stamped on ticket) they put the family on a golf car and locate and take the customer and family to the car. (Now this is process improvement!)
• Continuously improve the process. Training/learning/improving never ends. You have to keep looking for ways to improve.

Going back to the “three o’clock question.” I think this is a key area for improving customer service within libraries. As Bruce pointed out, we all have three o’clock questions. Identify them. Then come up with a response or better solution. You are not going to stop the three o’clock questions so you need to find a way to handle them with finesse. Disney was not going to stop the question, “Dude where’s my car?” So instead they created a solution.

So what are some three o’clock questions in libraries?

• Do you have any books?
• Can I use the computer?
• How do I get my print outs?
• Why do I have these fines?
• Where is the restroom?
• What time do you close?

I remember when we first installed our PC Reservation and print management software. There were days when I felt like I could bang my head against the wall if one more patron asked me how to set up a print account. Yes it is tedious. Yes there are a lot of steps. Yes I must have went through the steps over 100 times a day for a few months (or at least it felt like that many). BUT…nearly each time it was the customer’s first interaction with the system. This was my chance to offer a “wow” moment to that customer.

We have to find a way to turn three o’clock questions into wow moments because the three o’clock questions are the easy ones. These are the questions we can prepare for.

After the session I introduced myself to Bruce and told him about one of my new roles in our library with leading a team that will create a standard for customer service and provide training. I asked Bruce if he had any book recommendations to get me started. He offered to send me the book Be Our Guest written by staff at the Disney Institute. My first day back from ALA guess what was waiting on my desk?

A true Disney fan I also had to get a picture with Bruce. If you look closely can you see what kind of watch I’m wearing in the picture?

I got that watch nine years ago on my honeymoon at Disney World. I still wear it nearly every day to remember the great time we had. The level of service Disney provides is something we should all aspire to. In the age of Google and Twitter the human touch we provide to our patrons/customers is where we can truly stand apart from the competition.

Saturday morning started out with the ALA Empowerment Conference Welcome Breakfast. ALA has a “conference within a conference” for library “support staff.” From the ALA Conference site:

Designed specifically for library support staff and featuring a variety of programs with nationally known speakers like Warren Graham, Jenny Levine, and Michael Stephens, this is a conference not to be missed! Learn about work-life balance, customer service, career paths, ergonomics, safety and security, and more! Enjoy networking opportunities with colleagues from across the nation. Tour the world’s largest library exhibition. Get inspired at the opening breakfast, attend an always dynamic ALA opening general session, and gain valuable tips for making the most of your conference experience. You’ll come away rejuvenated, refreshed, and ready to successfully navigate the choppy seas at home!

At first I was hesitant to register for the Empowerment Conference (it is included in the full ALA registration fee) because of my stance on the support staff/paraprofessional/non-professional issue. I still don’t get why there needs to be a separation within the conference. Why can’t everyone just go to the same conference?

So with trepidation I went to the breakfast. I wanted to see what this empowerment thing was all about. Bruce Kimbrell from the Disney Institute gave a fabulous presentation on customer service. The information from that session deserves its own post. I have to say that this was the best presentation I saw at ALA.

During the session I kept wondering, wouldn’t librarians benefit from this too? Why is this featured as a session for support staff? After the session I spoke with a member of the sponsoring roundtable, LSSIRT, to try and wrap my mind around the issue of separate sessions for support staff. We even had our own conference bags (which were very nice I might add).

I didn’t get her name but the LSSIRT member explained to me that ALA can be overwhelming, especially to first-timers, and this was a way to feature sessions of interest to support staff and that anyone was free to go to any of the sessions. Librarians can attend Empowerment Sessions and support staff can attend other sessions.

But I wonder if other conference goers even looked at the sessions listed for support staff? Couldn’t librarians benefit from a customer service presentation? Aren’t we all capable of choosing what best suits us as individuals from among the plethora of sessions listed in the 226 page program guide? If the goal is to make ALA manageable for newcomers why not a separate conference within a conference for newcomers? Somehow I still felt singled out carrying this black and green tote around. Were people looking at me and thinking, she’s not a real librarian?

The truth is not a single person I talked with over my 5-days in Anaheim even knew about the Empowerment Conference, and instead of being judged by my tote people asked how I got such an awesome bag! When I described the Disney Institute session people wish they had known about it so they could have attended.

Because of other commitments I was not able to attend the other Empowerment sessions, but they all sounded amazing:

• What I Really Meant To Say Was…(a.k.a Dealing with Difficult People)
• Black Belt Librarians: How to Recognize & Respond To The Four Levels Of Emotion That Any Patron May Be In
• When’s My Ship Going to Come In?: Global Trends Affecting Libraries
• Are You Captain Bligh of the HMS Bounty or Julie McCoy, Cruise Director on the Pacific Princess? Dealing With Difference by Understanding Your People Style
• “Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?”
• Preparing For Tomorrow By Looking Back at Yesterday
• Would You Like an Umbrella With that Beach Blanket?: x-Treme Customer Service
• Captain Your Own Destiny and See Where It Takes You
• Ready, Set, Go! Racing Toward Excellent Public Service

I’m taking Paul’s advice about getting involved. I’m joining the LSSIRT. It seems like a good place to start to advocate for library staff and hopefully I can learn more about ALA and how support staff fit in with libraries and ALA.

During our new employee orientation the following question is asked, “How many of you are librarians?” A handful of people will raise their hands. The rest will squirm in their seats waiting, wondering what’s coming next. “To our customers we are all librarians” is the next thing new staff hear.With that statement you see a smile emerge and tension melt away.

When a customer walks through the door he or she does not care what initials you have behind your name. The customer wants service or information and all staff should be ready to provide it.

This is not meant to devalue or disrespect the MLS. But working in a library is kind of like working in a hospital (yep I’ve done both). When you work in a hospital whether you are an MD, RN, EMT, or CNA everyone is going to ask you for medical advice. In the library everyone is going to ask you for information. The key to both situations is knowing the basics and when to refer to someone else.

As an EMT I can administer and advise you on basic first aid. If you need an opinion about which medication to take for insomnia I’m going to refer you to a doctor or pharmacist.

As a library employee I can help you find the restrooms, help you with the Internet, and show you where the cookbooks are. But if you need to know the best resource for obtaining your great-great-grandfather’s Civil War records I’m going to refer you to a librarian.

All customers of any business or organization have two basic expectations:

1. Be greeted in a friendly, polite manner and offered basic assistance and triage.
2. Assisted referral* to the appropriate person for specific information. *Assisted referral is very different from a “blind transfer” or just sending someone to the 3rd floor. Assisted referral means remaining with that customer until you can explain the need to the person who can help so the customer does not have to repeat his request 3 times.

Like it or not a library is a business. We have budgets. We have strategic planning. Some of us have our own finance, IT and HR departments.

In a business you need a variety of experts with broad educational backgrounds. I went through a listing of graduate degrees at my university and selected some that could easily fit within the mission and goals of libraries. I hope that you can see how the diversity and wealth of information from all of these fields could benefit a library and libraries in general.

• Accounting (MBA)
• Adult Education (MAEd)
• Birth through Kindergarten Education (MAEd)
• Business Administration (MSA and BSA/MSA)
• Communication (MA)
• Computer Science (MS)
• Elementary Education (MAEd)
• Instructional Technology Education (MAEd; MS)
• Instructional Technology Specialist-Computers (MAEd; MS)
• Library Science (MLS, CAS)
• Master of Arts in Teaching (MA)
• Public Administration (MPA)
• Reading Education (MAEd)
• Technology Systems (MS)

While many library staff do not hold an MLS their contributions are essential to making libraries a success. When I first began working in libraries 9-years-ago I was put off by the terminology used to designate between MLS/non MLS, professional/paraprofessional, librarians/support staff. Coming from the business world I was not accustomed to this segregation. In the business world employees are valued for their unique abilities and contributions to the team. No one ever asked me what my degree was or if I even had one.

Without an MLS, do I love the library any less? Do I work less hard? Do I advocate any less for intellectual freedom? No.

In fact I have always wanted to work in a library. At one point I wanted to be a librarian. But I’ve discovered that my passion is in learning, helping other people learn, and connecting people with technology. With that in mind which would benefit me, the library, and my customers more–a library science degree or an instructional technology or education degree?

I hope that someday soon we do not even make the distinction and have to come up with words do describe MLS/non MLS. I know in my own training curriculum I’ve considered offering more advanced training for librarians and more basic training for other staff. In the end I decided the best way to handle this was to be clear in the program descriptions and objectives who the training is for and what is going to be covered. Staff can decide for themselves which level of training to attend. It’s worked great so far. Free learning for everyone. Isn’t that what libraries are all about?

An update regarding my last post. I have it from good authority that the Emerging Leaders Taskforce is going take another look at their requirements for the ALA Emerging Leaders Program. I hope they will also consider Sarah’s views.

Meredith suggested I formally contact ALA. I plan to.

Paul provided some very encouraging words about working together for change. I just recently renewed my ALA membership and joined the CLENE roundtable. I’m hoping to find a place with that group where I can contribute to ALA.

Jeff again reminded me that quitting ALA is not the answer, and after much thought I agree. As a wise man once said, We must become the change we want to see.”

The announcement I just received from ALA about the application for Emerging Leaders is the final straw in my decision to not renew my ALA membership next year.

The description of the program sounds exciting to someone who is eager to get involved in ALA:

The program is designed to enable more than 100 new librarians to get on the fast track to ALA and professional leadership. Participants are given the opportunity to work on a variety of projects, network with peers, and get an inside look into ALA structure and activities.

But then I read the requirements:

1. Be under 35 years of age or be a new librarian of any age with fewer than 5 years post-MLS experience, and
2. Have a recent MLS degree from an ALA or NCATE accredited program or be in an MLS program currently, and
3. Be able to attend both ALA conferences and work virtually in between each,
4. Be prepared to commit to serve on an ALA, Division, Chapter, or Round Table committee, taskforce or workgroup upon completion of program, and
5. Be an ALA member or join upon selection if not already a member.

So ALA will happily take the money from library “support staff” (BTW I hate that term) for membership but does not allow those same members to apply for leadership opportunities within ALA such as this one. Isn’t this the American Library Association (as opposed to the American Librarian Association)? When will ALA recognize that not all library “professionals” have nor need an MLS.

No thank you.