Annual Meeting

The 39^th Annual Meeting of the South Central Regional Library Council was held at Elmira College on 14 October. The campus was resplendent in gold and purple with the beginning of lovely fall colors. We had a wonderful lunch and the Gannett-Tripp Library staff offered tours of the Mark Twain Archives, the library, and the new computing center in the library. Pictures of the meeting are on South Central’s website: http://www.lakenet.org/AM05.html

After electing new Board members (see Board news item), and doing a little more official business, the participants heard a panel of regional library directors identify some key issues each of their libraries would have to deal with in the next few years. Users of libraries are very technically savvy, students now have differently wired brains, libraries need to market themselves in quite different ways, and library services are changing in very significant ways.

Here are notes of each of the talks to give you an idea of how some of our member libraries are meeting these new needs.

Janet Steiner, Tompkins County Public Library

It is not what is down the road in the future but what is around the corner. At TCPL, staff take every opportunity to ask what is the future of this library.

Four major issues:

1. Collection:

• Need to balance stock of best-sellers and media core collection responsibilities.
• Need to separate the content from the container – containers change (e.g. audio books) but content is the important thing.
• Trying to avoid any pay per view where the library pays to access, but not own, information.
• Change from print to electronic – shrinking some print collections like reference.
• Increases in circulation and interlibrary loan even if some places see a drop.

2. Reference, information access:

• Public libraries reaffirming their readers’ advisory role – suggesting materials, stimulating discussion, community reads etc.
• Training and encouragement of critical thinking/evaluation of information, educating the public in the value of information (Google vs …).
• Marketing the role of librarians as people who know how to find reliable, accurate, authoritative information.

3. Community connections:

• The library creates a sense of place – inviting, neutral, building community, nurturing social networks, fostering tolerance, supporting and informed citizenry
• The library as a virtual place, more web-based services, eg blog for 8^th graders.
• Emphasis on family and children’s programming.
• Challenge to avoid becoming an amusement or entertainment center.

4. Infrastructure:

• Staffing – retirements, recruiting challenges, emphasis on customer service, move to more support staff, more management skills needed, generational issues.
• Technology – upgrades, training, blogs, portable, personal, 24x7 access, privacy, security, confidentiality.
• Funding – tax support is local but federal policies affect what happens at the local level (support pushed down, national deficit etc.), tensions in free vs fee by funders, increase in developing special library districts with their own votable budgets (breaking away from local government budgets).

John Meador, Binghamton University

• New types of users. The library is in their brain but not in their minds. There are many competing distractions – wikis, blogs, etc.
• Social software is becoming mainstream.
• Must market library branding, brand recognition, develop virtual branches, institutional repositories. Showed examples of Bartle Library PR.
• Mass customization – groups by discipline, team etc.
• Federated searching is a must.
• Library as place – collapse the service points, open 24x7, easy to use, run the library for the students not for the staff, wireless, information commons, one-stop-shopping.
• Visualization/customization of information, e.g. Grokker, Podcasting. Libraries must meet users learning styles.
• Course management systems must include library services, e.g. e-reserves.
• Cannot use systems that do not attract students – go to where they are, IM, Blackboard etc. NOT Question Point or Docutek.
• Don’t disintermediate librarian even if that is what the technology is doing – use blogs, RSS etc. Find ways to filter vast array of information, offer advice. Become value added information providers.

Gail Barraco, Broome Tioga BOCES, School Library System

• Students interact with information differently from the way we think – we must meet their needs, not ours or our old ways.
• Students are increasingly responsible for their own learning – integrate relevant technology that is natural to them. But unfortunately education is not moving with them now.
• Open source library technology is important – allows customization.
• Metasearching is important for OPACs, databases, regional materials, CERF.
• Need to keep education fresh!
• Video streaming important – issues with digital rights, requires mega-servers, and robust network structure.
• BOCES have a business model – must provide value-added services that schools will buy and are cost-effective. School Library Systems must do the same.
• Convergence in technologies – IP phones etc.
• Federal grants have been important to develop collaborations, expand collections and services.
• Customize and mediate services to make them easier for students to learn.

Liz Wavle, Elmira College

• Elmira College’s approach to students is to know them & personalize/customize their education, offer intensive education and experiences, require community service & arts/cultural classes, live on campus. The college helps them succeed.
• One to one meetings with all freshmen, it is a Yes place, there is no one-size fits all.
• Name things with words the students use – e.g. signs in library.
• If they ask, it is done and done fast.
• If the material is not in the library, it will be bought or obtained immediately.
• Customer service reigns!

Sue Bretscher, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital

• In a hospital, information is needed to:
• make or verify decisions, right now and right here
• educate.
• Many hospital libraries are closing or down-sizing as a result of the print to digital continuum, expensive space, move to increased ambulatory care.
• Hospital care is moving to practice care, move to e-medical records.
• Major challenge for Lourdes is the move from print to electronic information and change of collection space to a training room.
• Changes are very fast due to introduction of e-medical records, major education effort, and staff must learn to use their computers.
• Maybe the mission will change – information services @ your desktop. Get it to me where I am.
• Librarian role is changing from print collection development to educator, special requests, selection of e-resources, dealing with nomadic patrons (e.g. virtual navy library).
• Need to get the right information to the right person in the right place, to make the right decision.

Jim Gates, Library and Giamatti Research Center of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Main activities of libraries:

· Acquisitions - get stuff

· Organization – make it accessible í All the content in whatever container

· Preservation – take care of stuff

· Presentation – put it out there

Millenials think differently – they have always had computers, they will move into our profession and will change us.

Expectations and assumptions affecting libraries:

· Speed – overwhelming user needs (60K questions/pa at NBHF)

· Digitization – isn’t it all electronic?

· Truth – not true just because on Internet – need for critical thinking

· Availability – rights, DRM, legal issues, not everything is available. Problems with images, logs, privacy etc. especially at NBHF

Libraries will rise again – intermediary role will come back to help users deal with vast amount of information.

(JC)