Leading Readers to Water - ALA 2013

My desire to attend the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago was motivated by two primary goals. Number one - I wanted to have the opportunity to explore varied professional practices and trends in librarianship by attending numerous educational sessions over the course of the conference. Number two - I wanted to network with professional colleagues at the national level to learn about their professional interests and the work that they do at their respective locations. I felt that my overall ALA experience satisfied both of these goals.

I strived to attend only sessions that were directly relevant to my daily job responsibilities, but this was not always possible. Admittedly, it was sometimes frustrating having to choose among multiple program sessions of interest that were offered simultaneously. However, I did feel that I was able to attend a diversity of programs that focused on the perennial tasks I perform at the Midwest City Library. Below, I have attempted to provide a general summary of the individual sessions I attended.

10 Steps to a Better Library Interior - The presenters of this session discussed how to best utilize the physical constraints of your library building space, and stressed that we should customize and personalize physical library spaces much like we are able to do for niche Web user groups. The ten primary considerations to be mindful of when trying to enhance the usability of your physical space are:

1. Use a fresh perspective - try to see your space from the vantage point of the viewer;
2. Remove physical barriers - service desks can often create barriers;
3. Do more with less - be conservative with library signage, as too many signs often go unnoticed by users;
4. Unclutter - be mindful of messy public workspaces;
5. Clarify - use design motifs to aid in customer expectations;
6. Leverage physical assets - utilize building niches, windows, etc. for item displays, marketing, etc.;
7. Zone your interior - group areas with similar functions together;
8. Create variety - less is more, but don’t be monotonous);
9. Use light to shape space - use different exposures for different tasks;
10. embrace color, but carefully.

The lessons learned in this session can be useful when thinking about the overall layout of your library space as well as how we erect signs and item displays.

Beyond Genre: Exploring the Perception, Uses, and Misuses of Genre by Readers, Writers and Librarians – This Readers’ advisory session consisted of a panel of authors who discussed the mashing up of book genres in contemporary publishing. The presenters stressed that librarians shouldn’t constrain readers to the venerable, well-established genres, but should celebrate the creativity that goes into these genre amalgamations.

Understanding Leveling Systems – “Leveling” refers to the numerous systems used in education to match students to their reading-aptitude level. The various leveling systems discussed in detail during this program included Accelerated Reader (AR), Lexile and letter rating systems. I have personally received a multitude of questions at the information desk about finding books at a certain "point level". While these questions are typically easy to address, I have never considered the complexity of some of the equations used to calculate these assigned points. The presenter discussed how these point systems are controversial due to the stigmatization of those reading below a particular "point level" and how it is technically in violation with the ALA Bill of Rights.

Do What You Love: Make Your Talents and Passions Work for You – Every workplace has a varied cast of staff with eclectic tastes and talents. We should utilize what we and the rest of our staff can offer in terms of the programming we offer in our libraries. With many libraries dealing with reduced programming budgets, it can be very cost-effective to utilize the talents of your own staff. During this session, I couldn't help but think about how the concept of this program is continuously implemented at the Midwest City library. Kristin Williamson has taken her personal passion (science) and turned it into a widely popular children's program that also fills a need in the greater community.

The Elusive Library Non-User – This session consisted of a four-person panel who discussed their individual experiences with recruiting public library non-users. The provision of outreach in the community (community centers, schools, street fairs, churches, civic groups, etc.) is key in this endeavor. Barriers to service (i.e. inconvenient operational hours, language, ignorance of services provided, etc.) are often the cause of library non-use. The primary reasons people state for not using library services can typically be easily rebutted or rectified. The speakers also discussed the best survey practices to use when attempting to reach non-users. Focus groups can be useful, but finding willing participants to make up these interview sessions are not always easy to come by. Although I feel that we as a system embrace outreach to our community, this program still provided useful information in attracting other non-user groups.

Leading Readers to Water…Guerilla Marketing for RA - This panel discussed the myriad ways in which we can market individual book titles and reading in general within our libraries. Book displays, programming and innumerable websites, blogs and other online avenues can be a part of our readers' advisory arsenal. One panelist suggested that the OPAC area can be used to plug reading interests. Another panelist talked about placing “read-alikes” printouts in popular books that patrons can discover upon checkout. Some of the online resources discussed in this session included: www.dearreader.com, www.bookish.com, earlyword.com, epicreads.com and netgalley.com.

Different Strokes: Serving the Health Information Needs of a Diverse Community – This four-person panel discussed the multitude of challenges involved in providing health information (and other types of information) to service populations with various disabilities. Some specific barriers to the provision of services to this demographic include: not knowing your community, underestimating the importance of a culture, not understanding questions asked, and not knowing where to go for answers. Politically correct terminology when addressing disabled persons was also discussed. Although this session focused on the provision of health information, many of the tips for working with disabled persons can be applied in any informational realm. Some Web resources of note from this session included: www.ethnomed.org and www.nces.ed.gov.

Leveraging Open Source Software to Create Library Websites – Although I will not personally create or implement Web pages in my current position, I thought that having a greater understanding open-sourced webpage creation could be useful in some professional realm. We learned primarily about open-source Web creation services such as Wordpress and Drupal. Wordpress is no longer used solely as a blogging platform, but has full Website capabilities. Different domain varieties and plug-ins are also available on this open source program. Drupal is not as user-friendly as Wordpress, but is more adept for handling large data sites.

The Future is Now: Rural Library as Innovation Incubator - This two-person panel focused on providing innovative programming opportunities for your service population when you have a limited programming budget. A point that the panel stated repeatedly was that libraries can and should be trend setters rather than trend followers. One of the presenters talked about a music production lab for children and teens that was made possible by a national grant and creative shopping endeavors.

There’s An App for That: The Use of Mobile Devices, Apps and Resources for Health and Sci-Tech Librarians and Their Users – Although this session was geared more towards academic librarians, I feel that good ideas in education and librarianship can be useful regardless of environment. The session was insightful due to some of the statistics provided in regards to tablet computer use and some of the more quality academic apps that students can use.

More with Less: Putting School Library/Public Library Collaboration to Work for You - In all honesty, I felt that the presentation was not quite as advertised, but still I gleaned useful information from it. The program discussed two major library programs offered to K-12 students. One involved a book review video production contest that students can submit (much like the reviews the children did on the PBS show Reading Rainbow), while another program talked about integrating an interactive, online book review system in school libraries.

Speaker event with Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik - I attended an author-talk session that included director Oliver Stone. Mr. Stone and his coauthor have recently completed a Showtime series entitled "The Untold History of the United States" and they have recently released a book adaptation of the same name. The authors highlighted their book and discussed how the teaching of American history in public schools should be more inclusive to counter views and be more dynamic overall. I opted out of the book signing due to an extremely long line, however.

Although Chicago is a sizable town, the ALA conference seemed to permeate the greater downtown vicinity of the city. My post conference evenings were typically spent getting on the subway and jumping off at random to find somewhere to eat and go over my following day's conference itinerary. Regardless of where I was, you could typically spot a group of librarians on the sidewalks or in whatever venue you found yourself in. My overall ALA conference experience certainly satisfied all of my general expectations, and I hope to be in attendance again in the future!