I suspect that every public library experiences some form of this challenge: unattended minors. Whether it’s nine-year-olds hanging around the parking lot after closing because they’re waiting for a parent to pick them up, or a toddler ripping down the “do not leave children unattended” sign while her mother chats on Facebook on the other side of the library, unsupervised kids can cause real frustration for staff (and sometimes serious trouble for library systems).

The library where I work looks like an aftercare center each weekday beginning at 2:30, when the elementary school a few blocks away lets out. (Well, hopefully it doesn’t look like a daycare where you’d leave your children, because that would suggest you leave them at a facility with no staff to guide their activities.) Children as young as four—accompanied by older siblings who may be eight or nine—pour through the door after spending hours in a classroom. Needless to say, they’re ready to run and rough-house with the other kids who also seem to have nowhere else to go, e.g., a rec center or home. They bring candy, drinks, sometimes sports balls, or other toys . . . but almost never a library card . . . or a parent or caregiver. After the kids arrive, other customers tend to get short shrift because our limited staff’s energy goes to trying to maintain some semblance of order.

It would be easy to say this is not the library’s problem. Call social services; find somewhere else for these kids to go. But clearly our situation (that has turned the few remaining brown hairs I had grey) indicates a need in the community that is not being met, and, therefore, an opportunity for the library to meet it. Is it the library’s mission or responsibility to entertain these children? I think so, depending on how you frame the picture. And consider: Many libraries struggle to attract program attendees, particularly tweens and teens. At my library, we have a ready audience (just too few resources and programs). We are incredibly fortunate to have two talented librarians visit from other branches every other week. One conducts a Boys Read! program, and, on alternate weeks, the other conducts a Girls Read! program. Despite being brand new, both programs are very successful, but they account for only one hour a week of the time the kids flood the library.

I admit to despairing sometimes, but I do retain hope and even excitement about the possibilities for serving these kids effectively. I just started reading Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56, by famed teacher and leader of the Hobart Shakespeareans Rafe Esquith. I really like this book for its specific recommendations that include techniques and resources (some of which I plan to share in future posts). We in libraries are not classroom teachers, but, very generally speaking, I see our mission as the same: to encourage life-long learners, engaged citizens, and (I think) a kind, supportive, and thriving community.

Definitely “to be continued”!

I’ve reached the one-month mark at my new job, and, thanks to colleagues and the community, I think I’m finding my way—mindful, of course, that I still have long way to go! Tonight I attended the local civic association meeting, with a packed agenda. The meeting made for a marathon day—over twelve hours. But joining neighbors at events like this inspires me. I noted several specific areas that may offer opportunities for the library to partner with the community. Of course, the meeting also highlighted how much I have to learn about the area and even about the library. (I’m still struggling with the circulation functions of our ILS!) But, as difficult as it can be to do while still learning the day-to-day operations at the library, I think it’s important to “dig in” outside the library walls pretty quickly, too, because if I wait to learn all the ins and outs of the library and system before venturing beyond its walls, I’ll likely wait forever. And then I would miss the most important part of the picture.

Big changes since my last post: Though I’ve had an exhausting two weeks, I feel very fortunate to have started a new job . . . in a new state! I sit just over 600 miles northeast of where I sat last time I wrote, and I have spent the past week with generous, interesting, and patient colleagues at Prince George’s County Memorial Library System (and with an awesome new housemate).

I admit that, with all that’s changed for me in fewer than two weeks, my world feels decidedly other-worldly. Sometimes life offers explicit lessons. Just before moving, I edited a manuscript about wild turkey hunting in North Georgia. It teemed with fascinating details. (Truly! Anyone who has not hunted North Georgia wild turkeys--I assume this includes just about everyone--will be surprised at how captivating a subject this can be.) But, as with all great stories, this collection of turkey tales also included a “universal:” Patience leads to greater understanding. I am trying to be patient as I struggle to harness all the information now hurtling my way, while I learn about a new (to me) library and community. There is so much I want to do and understand right now! I will strive to emulate the wild turkey hunter of North Georgia: I will remain alert and aware, observing and learning all that I can. I will also practice patience, recognizing that worthwhile understanding, by definition, takes time. I’m simply not going to know everything by tomorrow.

Yesterday, I completed skills testing (in pursuit of a job) that I didn’t think would be as intense as it was, even though the HR representative had told me the test was comprehensive and would take about three hours. Afterward, when I told others I had taken the test, they said things like, “Oh, yeah. I heard it’s really something,” and I was glad I had remained blissfully ignorant for the day between scheduling the test and completing it. That is not to say I didn’t worry about a timed assessment of my skills. I did . . . a lot. But I figured I wouldn’t be any more prepared in a week than in one day, so I opted to “get it over with.” (Otherwise, I would have worried all week instead of just one day.)

In fact, one could spend a week preparing for the kind of assessment it turned out to be. Fortunately, I had years of experience to draw on. And if the circumstances were different—that is, if I had not been taking a timed test that determined whether or not I would advance to the next step toward landing a job—I would say the skills testing was stimulating, and maybe even fun. Dare I go further and say a similar exercise is probably a good idea every few years?

It’s possible to become a bit complacent after providing information services for a while. I tend to rely on many of the same sources time after time; I know my way around them and usually can find information. However, I also stockpile emails and announcements that describe cool new sources in hopes that I will come back later and explore all they have to offer. Unfortunately, I often “never come back” unless I’m compelled by a special situation. The assessment provided an opportunity to think about different resources. Also, it's satisfying to develop a strategy to use specific tools to look for a specific piece of information, and then find it. And it's stimulating, due to the creativity involved.

After writing all this, I may change my tune if I find out I bombed the skills test.

Here’s a thought-provoking question (request, really) from a recent job interview for a public library position: Stand up and make a presentation of one minute or less to introduce the library. It can be a presentation to any group for any library.

Of course, I didn’t come up with anything particularly creative during the interview, but thinking about what I could have done provided lots of amusement for me on the drive home after the interview.

I think this is a good exercise. Usually, you’re lucky if you have a minute—and you’ll rarely get more—to tout the great things the library has to offer, so how would you do it? My main thought during the interview was that I wanted to present a friendly face so that people would feel comfortable calling the library or, better yet, walking through the door. My goal: Make people feel welcome so that they want to visit the library, even if for no particular reason. Then, when they do have a particular reason, they’ll think of the library.

Here’s one of the “presentations” I thought of on the way home from the interview. Kind of cheese-y, but cheese-y is one of my signatures:

“Good morning! I’m very happy to join you today. I’m Debra Capponi with the Utopian Library System, but for the next 30 seconds I’m going to pretend I'm Monty Hall at the end of an episode of Let’s Make a Deal, when he would approach members of the audience and give them money if they could produce various items from their purses or wallets.” [At this point, I’d approach a member of “my” audience.] “You look very nice today, ma’am. I'd like to offer you some money. I’ll give you $2 if you can show me a library card right now.” Regardless of whether or not the person can show me a library card, I’d have an opening to say how much more than $2 a library card is worth. Then I could distribute literature describing the library’s myriad services and offer my card, ending with an invitation for all to visit the library.

Any one-minute “hooks” you’d like to suggest that could attract library users?

Part 1:
I am an optimistic newbie to Zotero, the free Firefox add-on for saving and sharing research sources, creating bibliographies, and I don’t know what all else. Still a newbie because I installed it on my computer last year after completing my thesis, so I haven’t had much call to explore its capabilities. I did, however, appreciate the ease with which I was able to create a bibliography for a short presentation last summer. It gave me a sense of power over my usually scattered research. But with power comes responsibility.

Part 2:
I credit the amazing work of information technology folks for making the software-incompatibility issues that used to plague public computers pretty much go away. Remember the Mac versus IBM disk problems? Programmers, information architects, systems librarians—the people who really understand the theories at work “under the hood” of my computer—have made the different applications I like to use work together seamlessly . . . most of the time. 

From early fall (when my NetId with the University of Tennessee expired) until this week, I was unable to access EBSCOHost databases, available through my public library, from my home computer. Every time I tried, Firefox automatically went to the UT proxy address (through which I also accessed EBSCOHost when I was a student). I cleared my history, my cookies, my cache. I wondered if perhaps it was an IP-address issue. I couldn’t figure out why my browser insisted on taking my back to UT, especially since I had no trouble accessing other databases provided by my public library.

Fortunately, a helpful systems librarian at Hodges Library (UT) figured it out. She asked if I had installed any browser add-ons, like Zotero! I saved what little I had stored on Zotero, uninstalled it, and now have access to EBSCOHost again. I also have reinstalled Zotero and look forward to using it with greater understanding. One place I’ve turned for understanding is Jason Puckett’s Librarian X Web site. He’s presented on Zotero and apparently currently is writing Zotero: A guide for librarians, teachers and researchers, planned to be released mid-year.

People my age may recognize the heading for this entry as lyrics from a Sesame Street song from, well, a while ago. Some form of this question always appears at the top of a library’s to-do list for developing a long-range plan, and nowadays, the Internet offers all kinds information to learn more about your community.

Walking out the door and through the neighborhood probably remains the best way to find out that your neighbor, Mrs. Nelson, lived in Nairobi for 10 years, or that Mr. Louis plays several musical instruments, but cool new tools that “mashup” data from myriad sources can offer a broad view of Hometown, USA. *Note: It is important to distinguish between extrapolated data that provides a general picture and data with real depth. A general view does not offer the kind of details that reveal the real gems of any neighborhood.

As an information specialist preparing community profile reports to aid the library’s long-range planning efforts, I mined many of the typical go-to sources for information about the library’s potential users. Census.gov’s American FactFinder provides numbers to help put together a profile, and my county’s development authority and the state’s extension service keep track of interesting statistics—things I wouldn’t think about tracking—to demonstrate changing demographics. There are lots of sites with community information. The following are some that I’ve had fun with:

www.everyblock.com/ Everyblock.com does dig to a pretty granular level. Unfortunately, it’s only available for (a growing number of) select large cities, but it assembles information at the neighborhood level within those cities from: local government information (crimes, building permits, and restaurant inspections); a variety of news media outlets; and interactive Web sites (like flickr, Craigslist). A great way to keep up-to-date if you happen to live in one of the cities covered.

www.zipskinny.com According to the folks at zipskinny, they provide a “first glance” at a ZIP code area, and they caution against using it for serious research. I think that's a good description. The data presented is derived from the Census.gov Web site and provides a snapshot of social indicators, economic indicators, and demographics for each ZIP code. And you can compare snapshots of up to 20 different ZIP codes at a time.

www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=20 “My Best Segments” allows you search by ZIP code for a different kind of neighborhood snapshot. Nielson, a leader in identifying consumer trends, offers free access to part of its data; it identifies “segments” (distinct lifestyle types) within each ZIP code, based on consumer lifestyle traits. Take this info with a grain of salt, but worth exploring for leads.

One goal of a cete of badgers—Share online information sources that don’t require a subscription or a library card, though I highly recommend getting a library card. In keeping with the stated interests of this site, I'll tend to write about easy‐to‐use reference resources for general audiences (like public library users and the library staff who serve them). Having said that, today I share a popular education site. I learned of it through the American Indian Library Association discussion list and wondered how I hadn’t heard about it before. Public librarians, accustomed to reference questions about math test prep and understanding mortgages, should be as excited about this resource as school librarians and media specialists are.

Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org (specifically, Sal Khan, “Bill Gates’s favorite teacher”) makes excellent use of videos (via YouTube) to explain math. Do not mistake me for a credible expert on numbers; I haven't thought about quadratic equations in 25 years. In fact, my lack of math practice probably has a lot to do with why I’m impressed with Khan Academy videos; I 'get' them. Each video covers a single concept, and those I've viewed cover the concept clearly and succinctly (in about 10 minutes). Over 2000 videos, subjects ranging from basic arithmetic to calculus, and including money matters--Khan is a Harvard MBA--and statistics. Also covers some science subjects.