We're back from our trip (actually, have been back since last Thursday night but I was enjoying my blog holiday too much to start posting right away.) But today was back to work and so I'll get back to working on my blog as well.
I'm not sure if the blog holiday will influence how I go forward with this site. Part of me thinks it'd be nice to post a little less often but I also realise that if I stop aiming to do daily posts, it's really easy to slip to "okay, as long as I post weekly" then "okay, as long as I post monthly" and so on until the blog withers and dies. But we'll see. Anyhow, a Music Monday post is a nice way to gently ease back into things...
Does anybody else have a song that becomes their "theme" when they're doing something - whether it's a vacation, a conference or even sometimes just something simple like a walk to the corner store or whatever.
For example, at the recent CLA conference in Edmonton, I kept having Moxie Fruvous' song, "River Valley" run through my head. Nothing mystical there - just a natural connection since the conference was held in the Shaw Convention Centre which overlooks Edmonton's River Valley.
Same with this trip. This song kept running through my head - especially during the week we spent in Vancouver (I like that this video is a bit like a home movie travelogue instead of the Blue Rodeo concert video you might expect. In fact, this video could come from our own digital camera videos - though it doesn't).
My "Misadventures at CLA 2010" series sort of died out after a couple days, somewhat ironically because I was out having mis-adventures that left me less time for actually summarizing what I was up to. (And let's be honest - the first two I wrote were pretty "I did this then I did this" boring anyhow.)
But I did want to wrap up another great CLA experience with a photo that I hoped could capture a bit of what it's like to be at this conference. This is from the reception at the Art Gallery of Alberta last night:
As part of their preparations for the AGM, CLA has been distributing a two-question mini-survey to members soliciting feedback about how CLA is perceived and how it can better accomplish its mandate.
Here are my answers:
1. Why does CLA matter? To me, CLA matters because it is (and/or should be) the only national voice for all of Canadian librarians. No matter how many delegates it gets to its own conference or how many members it may have, OLA will never be able to fill this role. No matter how nice its magazine is or how cheap its membership is comparatively, ALA will never be able to fill this role. No matter how they structure themselves or how they may account for the giant that is Ontario, my provincial association (or a coalition of provincial associations) will never carry the same weight. As someone pointed out to me yesterday, "we focus too much on the 'L', we should focus more on the 'C'".
2. CLA is the national advocate for Canada's libraries. How can we better accomplish this? Honestly, I think CLA missed a question that should've been inserted between the first and second one on their survey: "Given our current financial crisis, how should we fix it?" I think we need to focus on fixing our financial problems before turning to how the association can work better on its broader mandate.
I've posted some of my own half-formed ideas and I know that the membership (especially the membership who are engaged enough to come to and actively participate in the annual conference and therefore will receive this survey) would have tons of other ideas.
But as for the question itself, I think CLA does a pretty good job as a national advocate for the most part. But again, echoing what I've heard others say, CLA members spend a lot of time and money on divisions and don't target specific issues - for example, right now Copyright is the hot topic and we should be really quick and vocal in our response - so I suspect the new structure will somehow de-emphasize the divisions and focus more on specific topics/areas.
What will come of it? It remains to be seen. But I know today's AGM is going to be *very* interesting.
Posting this as a Friday Fun Link sorta feels like being the party guest who comes over and starts criticizing your housekeeping or your parenting skills or whatever. But anyhow, here I am in Edmonton, enjoying the CLA conference and I can't help but re-post my essay, "Cash Cow: User Fees in Alberta Public Libraries".
I didn't mention it except for one brief exchange with a colleague from Calgary but for me, it was the elephant in the room for the pre-conference on social responsibility. We had twenty or so people there, at least fifteen were from Alberta yet nobody seemed to notice or bring up that the fact that Alberta charges a fee to everybody who wants a library card (and yes I know they'll waive the fee for those who can't pay it but I address all the related issues around that in the essay. Go read it!)
(That reminds me - I gotta go reply to Punch Jackson on Twitter. Oops, can't find his reply to my tweet right but I think he asked "how do you make up the $4 million shortfall for not charging user fees?" Well, call me a communist but how about since Alberta's population is 3.3 million, how about adding a buck and a quarter to the annual taxes of everybody in Alberta? Or what about tapping into a very small fraction of the the surpluses they had when I wrote the essay and the government projects to be coming back? Or maybe have the libraries raise their levies a small amount? It's not a hard question - it's a question of having the balls will to do it.)
It was a long day today, what with an early start for the First-Timer's breakfast (which I like to attend even though I am slowly realising I can no longer claim "baby librarian" status and might have to shift to being a self-described "toddler librarian" ) and also because I had that second scotch late last night that I probably didn't need.
After the breakfast, we had an amazing keynote from Sue Gardner, a Canadian who also happens to be the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. (And on that note, I wonder if it would be possible for CLA to record - ideally all sessions but at least the "biggies" and ideally video but at least audio - and then post them to supplement the Powerpoint slides and handouts which don't always capture a session very well.)
I'm such a hardcore dork, I teared up twice during her speech - not at the end when she shared a couple stories of how Wikipedia helped change the life of an inter-sexual person who didn't understand their life until they found the site or a young person who realised there was a much wider, educated world beyond his own narrow borders via the site.
Nope, it was her pointing out that the cost of using the site was "$0" which made me think about how truly radical Wikipedia (and most Internet sites are.) Families no longer feel obligated to spend hundreds of dollars on Encyclopedia Britannica to help their kids be "educated". Just think about how radical that is. (I use that word twice purposely as she said she was trying out a new tactic - previously, she would promote Wikipedia as an equal of other educational/cultural resources. Now, she's trying to shift the emphasis to exactly how radical the site is. Good idea I think though I know that word will scare some people too.)
The other thing that got me misty was when she showed pictures of various Wikipedia users from their profile pages and talked about how it created a community for many smart but often introverted/quiet types who previously might not have had that outlet. If the librarians in the room didn't see the parallels to many of the people we serve (and indeed many of the people we work with), they're missing the point.
After that, trade show and lunch then into sessions. I'm not going to try to pick out the high (or low) lights - some great information, ideas and tips, some stuff I'd heard before so not necessarily bad but just nothing new - at least for me.
I did have the thought that somebody should do a session called "All The Ways We Fucked Up" and do nothing but talk about stuff they screwed up at their library. It's not that presenters don't share some insight into things that went wrong but I've never heard a presenter who didn't at least gloss it over or put a positive spin on things somewhat. Or maybe you could make it an open mic thing and have attendees all share their failures? Or put a confessional booth in the lecture hall with a separate entrance and a voice changer mic and let people broadcast their errors that way! Okay, now I'm getting carried away.
But beyond the sessions, it's the personal interactions that I love - the students and recent grads on to the mid-career and senior librarians who make this whole crazy libraryland go round. I was at a non-library function recently and when I told someone what I did, I got one of the greatest compliments I've ever heard. "You know, I've never met a dumb librarian. I've met dumb doctors. Lawyers. Nurses. Teachers. But I've never met a dumb librarian."
I did daily posts
from CLA in 2006 when I ferried a van load of UWO students for that conference in Ottawa
from London. Last year in Montreal, I was too busy being
a Ryan Meili fan boy to do CLA-related posts but I'm back with a
vengeance this year. So let's recap the day in random order...
- up and out the
Westin's door to Stanley Milner central library just next door for a
tour this morning. Realised that everyone else on the tour (except for
about half a dozen of us who had the same idea) are convening at the
Shaw Convention Centre then making their way here. Luckily, I have my
Deputy Director's phone programmed into my cell so call her and pass
along a message not to wait for a bunch of people to show up there.
(And slightly related - how soon until *everybody* in downtown urban
areas is walking around with their heads down, looking at smartphones,
and bumping into each other or walking in front of cars?)
- tour is
excellent. I have this idea of a conceptual "best library ever" in my
head and although I don't know exactly what it looks like, I know that every
time I visit a new library - no matter how big or small - I add one or
two things to the list. After the Milner tour, I added about a dozen!
- grab Korean for
lunch and bump into one of the librarians who wrote me the reference
letter that helped get me into library school. I will love her forever
for this.
- Also grab a
couple six packs of Alley Kat from Sunterra Market and this visit to
Edmonton is a lot like a trip down memory lane for me since I spent
three years in Calgary and was in Edmonchuk on pretty much a monthly
basis for staff meetings during that time. (Time to do another "Five
Things I Learned At..." post since I don't think I've done WGA
yet.) I *loved* Alley Kat when I worked in Calgary and conveniently,
the pub next door to where I worked, the Hop 'n' Brew, served only
microbrews and the best pizza in Calgary.
- go to Social
Responsibility pre-conference for the afternoon and this will sound
weird but one thing I love about conferences is how dumb they make me
feel. What I mean by that is there are so many great ideas and
perspectives flying around in any session that it's a bit intimidating
and a bit overwhelming in that there is so much to know and so little
time.
- after that's
over, come back to have a beer in my hotel room (sadly, alone but
might've had more success if I remembered to include the CLA hashtag properly!)
- go to opening
reception and I'm a bit more comfortable than I used to be as, every
year that passes, I get to know more and more people that come to these
things. Funny looking back at those 2006 posts as we were all worked up
about the "entertainment" which was bad Elvis and Monroe
impersonators. This year's was circus acts - mimes, clowns, jugglers,
stilt-walkers - and very entertaining. One highlight is the juggler
doing his thing then having one of the librarians pull balls out of
their pocket and start juggling himself! [Edit: On re-reading this, I should specify that this particular library carried *juggling* balls with him and did not pull any other type of balls out of his pocket! )
- meet an unnamed
recent UWO grad who says that students still love the list of the "three
A's of library school" I posted long ago (Semester One = Anxiety, Semester Two = Anger, Semester Three = Apathy) but have added a fourth - Alcoholism. "I
didn't even drink when I started library school and now look at me!"
she said, holding up her half-empty glass of wine.
- Leave reception
and wander about downtown looking for supper and of course it's not CLA
unless I get caught in a downpour, totally under-dressed and unprepared
for it - three for three, baby!
- now just
hanging out in my room watching playoffs as they go into OT. Go Hawks!
I don't know the full background and history of how they've arrived at this point but having seen numerous other member-based organizations face similar financial crises, often on a recurring basis, I won't let that stop me from wading in with some ideas on how to fix the problems!
1. Change the Membership Fee Structure Right now, I think any working librarian basically has two choices - they can pay $100/year for membership if they earn under $40 000 or $200/year if they earn over that amount (I may have those numbers wrong but that's the gist of it.) I think a better way to do it (and I admit to stealing this idea wholesale from an Ontario colleague) would be to figure out the absolute lowest recovery cost of a membership then restructure your fees with that as the entry level amount.
But then, make the kicker that the brackets aren't based on actual income but on suggested income levels so members can pay what they perceive as the value of the organization. So the fee chart might look like this and someone who makes $50 000/year is asked to pay $125 but they can choose whatever level they believe the value of CLA is to them - from $50 to $250. Even if everyone paid the lowest amount, hopefully you'd see a corresponding uptick in membership that would offset the cost of membership. Plus you'd have a stronger association because of the increased numbers to sit on committees, volunteer, purchase other CLA-related products and services and so on.
MEMBER FEE PER YEAR
SUGGESTED INCOME FOR MEMBERSHIP LEVEL
$50
Zero or Low Income (Students, Unemployed, Under-employed)
$75
Up to $30 000/year
$100
$30 0001 to $40 000
$125
$40 001 to $50 000
$150
$50 001 to $60 000
$175
$60 001 to $70 000
$200
$70 001 to 80 000
$225
$80 001 to 90 000
$250
$90 000+
2. Get 'Em While They're Fresh Take a page from the Marlboro playbook and hook 'em while they're young! Instead of charging anything, give free memberships to students and waive registration fees for their first conference as well. Hopefully by showing them what a useful, effective, strong organization you have with these free "samplers", you will get a lifetime of membership fees rather than students telling you to fuck off.
3. Get 'Em When They're Not Fresh A bit crude but on the other end of the scale, encourage bequests from members and others who support the CLA and its goals (though this may put the CLA in conflict with local giving programs.) We did this at the WGA and didn't have any huge bequests (at least while I was there) but did get some small bequests and there's always the possibility that one millionaire librarian (it could happen) with a mattress stuffed full of hundred dollar bills will decide that the CLA is where their money will be put to best use after they're gone.
4. Get 'Em When They're Not Individuals I've heard more than one person involved with library management say that they don't hold a personal membership in CLA but still buy a membership for their institution because of some of the advocacy and other valuable national-scope activities CLA encompasses. Perhaps CLA could do more to market itself to libraries that don't belong already? Another benefit of this approach is that (I believe - I'm too lazy to check) institutional memberships are more expensive so could bring in more money than individual memberships do.
5. Become a Registrar for the Profession Not sure what would be required to make this happen but often, people ask why nurses, doctors, engineers and other professionals need to join a professional association but librarians don't. A colleague theorized that our ALA-accredited Master's *was* our de facto professional designation but I still wonder if this goes far enough? At any rate, requiring any working librarian to register and pay a fee would provide a revenue stream for CLA - even though I suspect many librarians might (rightfully?) see it as a cash grab unless there could be some true value shown for such an arrangement - especially considering right now, we have no tradition of professional registration in librarianship.
6. Create a Speaker's Bureau I've obviously got Alberta on my mind but the Book Publishers Association of Alberta has a speakers bureauwhere presumably, they charge a fee to authors and publishers to be listed and then organizations and others looking for someone with expertise in an area can contact the speakers directly. Something similar would be very useful for the Canadian library community. There are numerous times we've hired outsiders to do training/consulting/speaking at RPL but these arrangements usually come about because a staff member knows (or knows of) the presenter. A speakers bureau would help eliminate that need for "a friend of a friend" type recommendations as well as letting new librarians get their feet in the door for this type of work. Plus, if CLA wanted to get really crazy, they could go all Web 2.0 and let people rate and comment on speakers in the database so others looking to get a sense of who to book could see the various speakers strengths and not-so-strengths. Although it wouldn't have the cachet of all its speakers being book authors like the BPAA example, there are examples where non-librarians would like to learn from our expertise. For one simple example, I've given a presentation on Web 2.0 to a local rotary club. It was a "friend of a friend" recommendation but a speakers bureau might help other organizations who don't have that "six steps of separation" connection find speakers.
7. Foreign Credentials Assessment Service ALA refuses to touch this (perhaps with good reason?) but perhaps CLA could step-up and provide some sort of service to libraries in both Canada and the US to help them assess the credentials of foreign-trained or non-ALA accredited MLIS holders?
8. Distance MLIS Coordination One of the things discussed at the 2008 Libraries HR Summit was the idea of a Canadian-based distance MLIS program. I'm a huge fan of this idea and perhaps there could be a role for CLA as a central coordinator between the various library schools (if they could work together to share offerings rather than having one single school bear the load.)
9. Seek out the next Andrew Carnegie Seriously. Find some wealthy industrialist in Canada who wants to see their money put to good use as they're getting older and thinking about their legacy. Help create a foundation to direct this money to whatever - greening library buildings, buying technology, a national childhood literacy strategy. Take a healthy administration fee.
10. Hold the Next CLA Conference in Vegas. Bet the budget on Red since that's where it is anyhow. (Ouch! )
Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head. If you'd like to hear more, I'll be at the Westin!
I'm off to the Canadian Library Association conference in Edmonton from Tuesday until next Sunday. I'll likely still be blogging most days but just wanted to put this out there a couple days early in case anybody else will be around - either for the conference or Edmonton-area readers - and wants to connect. You can reach me on Facebook or via e-mail (jason@hammond.net).
I heard about this innovative library program during a presentation by Red Deer Public Library's Director at CLA. For the last two municipal elections, that city's library has created information pages for all municipal candidates from the mayor to council to both school boards. The candidates provided the information and the library simply posted it on their behalf in a non-partisan fashion. In 2004, these pages were pretty straight-forward HTML (the generic "brochure on the web"-type pages) but in the 2007 election, they created blogs for every candidate (with comments enabled!), had a dedicated domain (www.electionforum.ca), provided links to local media outlets, posted video clips and more.
Here's an explanation from the staff member who was the project coordinator:
"The main focus of our website will be to provide an interactive
platform for candidates to present their views and comment on election
related issues. Our site will allow them to post their comments in
their own words. They will be able to update their blog as the election
process continues. Interested citizens will be able to post questions
and concerns to which the candidates can respond. We hope to create a
busy conversation site and give everyone a chance to state an opinion
or ask a question. Our website is intended to promote a healthy
dialogue, increasing communication and understanding between candidates
and voters.Via the Election Forum 2007 website, we will strive to
provide information the citizens of Red Deer will need, enabling them
to make informed decisions on Election Day."
The RDPL Director said that the general feeling was that this site definitely had an impact on the final result as voters were much more informed than they might have otherwise been if they didn't have this central repository for information. (I think their was also some sort of a flame-out by a candidate or a supporter on one of the blog's comment sections - I can't remember the exact details though.)
Personally, I believe this is a great role for the library to play as we not only have a long history in facilitating democracy (some have called libraries the "embodiment of democracy in society") but also because we are perhaps the last completely neutral entity within society. (This used to be the media's role but I'm pretty sure that's not the case anymore.)
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