Brian Gambles

From August 12-13, 2014, the IFLA Public Libraries Section held a satellite conference, Public Library Futures in a Global Digital World, at the new Library of Birmingham, England. Its director, Brian Gambles, opened the conference with a keynote speech about change. “Leadership has to be hungry for change,” he stated. Small steps were made: a redesigned organization, a new dress code, shared desk space and welfare facilities, as well as new working practices. But change is not embraced by the whole organization: according to the 20:60:20 rule, 20% of staff agrees, another 20% is against. For Gambles, this last minority has to be left alone and “invited to exit the organization.”

The conference confirmed that these are the days of a “renaissance of space.” Here are four experiences of new spaces built by incredible staff and successful branding.

 Vera Binz and Sarah Dudek presenting the “Themenraum”

Themenraum

If you had an empty room in your library, how would you use it? 3D printers? The latest high-tech gear? Games? No way! Imagine a book display on a specific topic and let it explode in different dimensions. At the “Themenraum,” or “topic room,” at the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek (Berlin, Germany), web links are next to print bibliographies, while printed books sit next to a Twitter wall and news items. The topics, often inspired by the latest news or important anniversaries, change every month. The patrons’ favorite ones so far have been the Leipzig Bookfair, fairytales, the diversity of Islam, and “poor and rich.” The Themenraum shows how digital curating has emerged as a new skill required by librarians, as well as the public’s need for digital literacy.

Corinne Hill presenting the 4^th Floor

4^th Floor

“Transformation” is one of the main values of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Public Library’s mission. The 4th Floor is a space in continuous transformation, thanks to a high performance staff. Before a chaotic repository of unused materials, now the 4^th Floor hosts programs and events about coding, genealogy, STEM, and makers. Print collections are still relevant though: “responsive collections” is another strong value of theirs.

Henriette Dybdal and Allan Thomsen Volhoj presenting the FolkeLab

FolkeLab

Public and academic libraries in Aarhus and Roskilde (Denmark) created a project with six temporary innovation spaces, such as TechLab, Wastelab, or GuitarLab. The lessons learned can be summed up in a decalogue: (1) people are not reduced to just guests; (2) people are more important than technology; (3) people have opportunities to engage at different levels; (4) people determine the clout of the maker culture; (5) people create together; (6) staff must be willing to change the frames and expand the ideas; (7) staff uses its own creativity and skills; (8) staff must assure different thresholds; (9) learning is something also done with the hands; (10) creativity comes from chaos and mess.

BiblioTech

BiblioTech in San Antonio (Tex.) went far beyond the library as a book repository, eliminating books completely. Despite being a recent pilot experience, BiblioTech enjoyed terrific global press coverage as the first “bookless library” [1]. The advancement of digital literacy, intended as something more than knowing how to use technology, is one of the main goals. The equipment includes 600 e-readers for external circulation, 45 iPads for internal use, and four surface tables. The library’s success is based on its programming (for seniors too), community partnerships (i.e. with the San Antonio Spurs Foundation), and an attractive brand.

Jens Thorhauge, the guru of the 4-space model, ideally closed the conference describing how the traditional role of public libraries has been challenged during the last 20 years. His provocative assertion that “access to information is not the librarian’s business anymore” hit the mark, considering it preceded by just a few days the launch of the Lyon Declaration on access to information and development.[2]. Thorhauge highlighted that nowadays libraries struggle to compete with fast-movers in the media market (i.e. Facebook), and with commercial media streaming services (Netflix or Spotify). He can’t see a new standard model for libraries though, so the discussion continues.

Table tennis at the Library of Birmingham

References

[1] BiblioTech – An Entirely Bookless Library, by Elena Rivera on February 21, 2013. BiblioTech opened in September 2013. Two satellite facilities were opened more recently.

[2] The declaration will be one of the main advocacy tools for IFLA in the next months.

The post Report From the IFLA Public Libraries Conference first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The FLA Annual Conference typically kicks off with an opening session featuring the keynote speaker. The Conference Planning Committee came up with the excellent idea of having the poster sessions inside the auditorium immediately before the opening session. This allowed those who had invested their time and energy in creating posters the opportunity to showcase them to a captive audience. Some of the takeaways from the poster sessions were the study on floating library collections by the Palm Beach County Library System. Three librarians conducted in depth research of libraries that had created floating collections and presented the pros and cons. One library created a comic book inspired poster session to publicize their successful comic-con, complete with a life size Chewbacca stand! Other displays showcased the creative uses of library space, library teen zones, and SEFLIN’s User Experience project.

Another new highlight this year was having engaging games during the opening of the exhibit hall. These games allowed attendees to not only have fun, but also mingle with each other and the vendors. The exhibit hall is a huge draw at each year’s conference and it was important for our committee to create a balance between work and play. One of the subcommittees created an Instagram bingo game that created competition amongst the tech savvy crowd. Flashy prizes such as a tablet and gift cards were given to the victors. Photos from this competition can be located on Instagram under #FLACon2014. A scavenger hunt ran simultaneously to ensure that those who did not use Instagram could still participate. We received many positive comments from both participants and vendors for both of these games.

There is also much meat at a conference and this year there was no shortage of engaging presentations. Areas of interest ranged from Authors & Books to Outreach & Programming and of course plenty on Technology. By far the majority of presenters were unpaid for their presentations and came on their own accord to give back to the profession. The new Executive Director of FLA Martina Brawer met with attendees on the first day to get to know the members and interact with them. The conference ended with an engaging talk by J. Jeff Kober from Disney on the Wonderful World of Customer Service. Audience members were moved not only by his inspiring stories on excellent customer service at Disney, but also by having to stand up often to participate in his presentation!  Participants came away with countless tools to improve their attention to detail, from the opening speaker who taught us to look at the entire picture while examining art, dealing with “Tough Talks in Tough Times”, crafting an inspiring vision to lead, and of course improving themselves and their libraries for excellence!

The post Experiences at FLA 2014 first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

How Do I Register?
Although you do not need to be a member of ALA to attend ALA conferences, becoming a member makes it a bit easier. Joining ALA is a mostly painless process that includes an annual fee and filling out some information. It may seem pricey but honestly, it’s worth the money. Becoming an ALA member allows you to obtain discounted conference registration fees and you will also get incredibly helpful emails and magazines (which I look forward to all the time). Check to see if your library system/business/school can compensate you for conference registration. I was lucky enough that the system I work for selects a few people to represent us so they paid for my ALA membership as well as my conference attendance. Also, students tend to get discounts so I would take advantage of that if you are a student.

Travelocity
Plane? Train? Automobile?  I made the eight-hour drive to Anaheim because I wanted to have my car with me, just in case. Plenty of people fly in, some take trains or local transportation. Once you are onsite, ALA offer shuttles to-and-from some hotels around the area so you don’t have to trek ten city blocks before your day has even started. Check the ALA website to see which hotels feature this shuttle service.

Home, Sweet Home
If possible, stay with friends or family who live around the conference center. I know this is a stretch but it never hurts to pinch pennies here and there. There also are networks of librarians on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. who may be looking to share hotel rooms. I found my hotel room through a friend’s friend on Tumblr. We split the room four ways, which kept the five-day stay on the lower end of the money spectrum.

The Good Book
When you get to the convention center (I recommend getting there a day early if you can, to scope the place out) you’ll have to first go to the registration counter to get your badge and other registration information. At registration you’ll receive a very large program book. You don’t have to read the whole thing, or carry it around, but it will help you to know where you’re going and in deciding which program you will attend. I opted to carry the book around with me until someone told me to just rip out the pages pertaining to which day of the conference it is. Five folded pages and a red pen is better than a 200-page tome with annotated notes in the margins. There’s also a nifty app for iPhone and Android that make scheduling your time at the conference easy.
Exhibits Excitement
The first night of the conference is the Exhibits Grand Opening. There is typically an Exhibits Opening Gala with limited amounts of tasty food and many galleys (aka ARCs/Advance Reader Copies). As you wind through the aisles of book vendors, you’ll find ARCs of various kinds of books from kids to mysteries. While this continues throughout the conference, the majority of ARCs are handed out that first night. If you’re far from home only take ARCs you know you’ll read. There’s a USPS outpost in the exhibits hall, so you can send your goodies back home to yourself. For example, by the end of the conference I bagged 54 books, ten of which were signed. It turns out it’s a good thing that I brought my car after all.

The Daily Grind
You’ll want to pack light on a daily basis if you can help it. Stay hydrated by bringing your own water bottle. There should be jugs around the conference rooms you can refill with. Some panels offer snacks but if you can, pack a lunch so you can munch through the day without paying an arm and a leg for food at nearby eateries. Before your conference have some business cards made. It doesn’t matter if you’re a grad student or if you’ve been a librarian for ten years, you’re going to meet lots of people and you’ll want to stay in touch and network with them. It never hurts to have friends across the globe. I went to my first conference not knowing anybody and by the end I’d met several friends I still keep in touch with today.

I hope this encourages you to take the leap and attend a conference. The things you’ll learn and the people you’ll meet are well worth the money. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. It never hurts to make friends in the industry.

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