Tuesday, July 1, 2008

MLA notes Day 2

Ok, ok, I know. I said I'd post these notes a long time ago and I'm horrified at how long I've actually put it off. I guess my only excuse is that we've been real busy with a lot of year end deadlines and the beginning of Summer Reading but only you can forgive me.


A Prescription for Teen Services - Erin Lockledge, Editorial Director, Rosen Publishing

This was my first session after the business meeting breakfast and it was about health information geared for teens. It was nice to see how much work Rosen Publishing was doing in this arena but it doesn't help much if your system doesn't pay for this service. I did learn some new things anyone can use:

We discussed Evidence Based Practice, using quantitative data to support your results - what is your program and it's benchmarks (# of attendees/feedback/change in circ patterns or usage reports). Erin stressed that community health impacted leadership, voting rights and overall citizenship.

Places to go for ideas: YALSA listserv, Chase's, community groups (Health Depts), Howard County has some good toolkits with A+ Partners in education and also Multnomah County's teen health site.


And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Melissa Rabey, Teen Librarian, Frederick County Public Library

This session was an excellent end to my conference and Melissa was a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic presenter. She began with a discussion of participatory culture which is not a new things but it is new in it's methods. The culture is ending up with more Prosumers (produce + consume) who aren't just consuming what they find but producing and morphing content. This can be found in thousands of years of literature with authors taking and building on each other (Shakespeare and Homer are two great examples)

This will affect libraries as customers expect more and up to date technology, services, programs and methods of providing service. Our customers have high expectations, although, we will still find those to whom we need to teach technology. However, she pointed out that we have a wide variety of entertainment products Blockbuster or bookstores will never have: Internet, Books, CD's and the most importantly social interaction and community.

The title of the session was did appear as she talked about programs and outlets libraries can provide. Some ideas: RPG (role playing games) including book based - be characters from Harry Potter and make your own story lines; fan fiction writing workshops which are story driven since characters are already fleshed out in original and develop writing style; and digital video editing and image manipulation workshops.

There are many challenges to this participatory culture. The first and most dicey is copyright since there are laws but much is still in flux with the new media and mashups. Not always clear what is protected or prohibited. For library programming, it is best to avoid any audio and video that is not self produced as these industries are cracking down. The next challenge is to keep our technology up to date which is always tricky but even worse with bad budget years. The last issue to consider is staff doubt. Many of us encounter staff who don't think that a program or service has any value or place in a library.

On the other side, there are great rewards such as serving new demographics, increased visibility, redefinition of the library's role, creation of community connections, and being an active participant in creating culture not just being the archive for it.


Overall this was a great conference and I look forward to going again. Not only were the sessions excellent, but the site and set up were conducive to making it enjoyable. After ALA where you had to run all over and choose one session over another since you just couldn't get there in time, it was great to have everything in the same hotel. In addition, there was enough down time and social activities to meet local colleagues and get to know those in your own system.