PLA Packs ’Em In at 8th National
Conference in Charlotte, N.C.

March 28–April 1, 2000

As the dogwood and azaleas bloomed in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Public Library Association’s 8th National Conference March 28–April 1 blossomed into a record-breaking event for PLA with total conference attendance at 7,528, including 1,523 exhibitor representatives at 610 exhibit booths and tables. With more than 100 programs, 45 talk table discussions, and five preconferences, attendees could aim their gazes into the future and the issues that libraries will confront in the new millennium.

The tipping point

The hottest topic to emerge was e-books, due to the March publishing phenomenon caused by Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet when half a million people downloaded it within 24 hours.

At a well-timed panel of librarians and industry professionals on the topic, Linda Mielke, director of the Carroll County (Md.) Public Library and organizer of the panel, predicted: “There’s no escaping it. We’re in for a whopper of a change; it’s as inevitable as page two follows page one.”

Mary Ellen Heinen, vice-president of the software developer Glassbook, called the King phenomenon “the tipping point for e-books,” predicting it will bring about the development of more content, more devices, and more consumer awareness.

The e-book pace has certainly quickened since March, agreed Theresa Murphy, librarian-selector at Baltimore County Public Library. BCPL started gathering information about e-books in November 1998. By January of this year all 14 branches had a Rocket e-book to evaluate and analyze over the next half-year. “Just when we thought we had six months, into the mix jumps Stephen King.” BCPL’s cataloging team, she added, was the first to catalog Riding the Bullet and load it on OCLC, inventing the call number www.fiction.

All the panel participants agreed that librarians will play a key role in the development and marketing of this new technology. “Librarians need to be advocates to publishers,” said Stacey Aldrich, a former librarian and now a senior associate with Coates and Jarratt, a Washington-based group that studies business trends. With approximately 10% of the book market going to libraries, Mielke added, “PLA would like to talk to publishers; it would be nice if we were at the table.” Some of the issues that have yet to be decided are libraries’ need for some electronic ownership and the pricing, which Mielke believes has to be less than paperbacks.

Librarians’ input is actively being sought, said Lynn Connaway, netLibrary’s vice-president for research and library systems. NetLibrary recently surveyed 486 librarians on the issue, but only received 135 usable responses, all from academic libraries. She said another survey is being planned to go to public librarians.

Heinen of Glassbook concurred. “Give publishers feedback; it will help drive things your way.”

The Internet Library

While some attendees may have expected a slugfest, the jabs were verbal only in the matchup of the County of Los Angeles Public Library’s FYI Director Steve Coffman, Shenendehowa (N.Y.) Public Library’s Director of Technology Karen G. Schneider, and Camden County (N.J.) Library’s Customer Education Librarian Steve Garwood.

Coffman argued for “the largest library in the history of the earth.” Citing flat figures for circulation and reference but increased competition from Amazon.com, bookstores, and online reference, he concluded that “people still want what we have—books, help, and buildings. We just have got to find better ways of getting it to them.”

Schneider scoffed at the idea of buildings, calling it “rustic.” Her counterproposal was the creation of ESL, the earth’s smallest libraries in which libraries are about people not books, local touch is crucial, and the focus is on delivery models instead of loaning models.

The need for a new kind of catalog is one issue Coffman and Schneider agreed on, but they disagreed on the type. Coffman wants to create a huge, centralized Amazon-style catalog. “Amazon has raised the bar on catalogs,” Coffman said. They can no longer just be cards—they need graphics and a handy order button.

“Library catalogs suck,” Schneider agreed. Her answer is to ignore catalogs because they will soon be OBT (Overcome By Technology). “No one will care about catalogs in 50 years, if they even remember what they were,” she said.

Garwood envisions The Internet Library in the next five to 10 years. Its main feature is that it will offer all its services in one place. They include virtual real-time reference with 24/7 access; “borrowable” e-books in multiple formats; a universal catalog of print books; reliable links to quality sites; periodical access; and virtual story hours.

Both Coffman and Garwood see the need for libraries to make money, either through fee-based services or by selling things. But Schneider rejects the au courant idea; we live in a market-driven society, she notes, where “everyone is dazzled by money. Charging for public service . . . has no inherent social virtue.”

Library of the future today

The first thing patrons see on walking into the Ironwood branch of the Richmond Public Library in British Columbia is a quote inscribed on the floor from Groucho Marx: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

“We wanted to say to our customers, this is a different kind of library—it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s welcoming. Come on in and enjoy yourselves,” Cate McNeely, Richmond’s deputy chief librarian, explained to the overflow crowd of PLAers who came to see a slide show and presentation on what was billed as the library of the future.

The inviting bookstore design uses many retail-marketing tools. Bestsellers are placed face-out, flooring and lighting tricks lead patrons along, and a cafe offers drinks in a living room with a river-rock fireplace. In addition, the library is open seven days a week and evenings. What bookstores do has become the expectation of the library customer, McNeely said.

They also targeted marketing to kids to give them the good memories of the library that their parents have. “Not just book memories,” McNeely said, “but digital memories so they would see it as an exciting place for books and an exciting place for technology.”

Young patrons have six Digital Kids reference computers with lower countertops and large mice, and a “Disney-esque” red barn for storytimes, which are held seven days a week.

One of the best results of the new library is “incredibly high staff morale,” McNeely said. She explained that extensive use of automation gives the 13 FTE staff more time “to do the things they were trained to do” instead of clerical duties and has dramatically reduced repetitive strain injuries.

“Harnessing the power of the customer” also frees up staff. The library has a rate of 85 to 90% for Express checkout (a “value-added” way of saying self-checkout) and 99.9% compliance with patron-sorting of returns. Library Online lets patrons book their own computer time, pay fines, register for classes and programs, and get a library card.

Circling the wagons

Any librarian who has ever had to defend an item to fundamentalist Christians may have wondered, “What planet do these people come from anyway?” That was the question posed and answered by Mike Wessells, regional library manager of the Timberland Regional Library in Hoquiam, Washington, who is also a fundamentalist Christian minister.

With a determined fervor, Wessells took to the podium instead of the pulpit to preach his message of understanding. Fundamentalists, he said, have a defense mentality—a wagon circle way of thinking. “They follow the wagonmaster and think everyone else does too.” They also believe “there is a major battle between good versus evil being waged all the time,” and that all things connect to it; you can’t back off. That’s why they are against fairy tales and the Easter Bunny; they believe that angels and devils are real but the Easter Bunny is not. It’s hard enough to teach kids about this invisible world, they feel, without having to teach them to make these distinctions.

Wessells questioned if librarians really live up to their self-image of equality of coverage and all points of view. “There should be something in the library that affirms everybody, not just something to offend everybody,” he declared. Wessells said he has some things in his library that offend him, but he added, “I’m not afraid if the devil is in the library because there is God in the library.”

The common ground between librarians and fundamentalists, observed Wessells, is their strong belief in the importance of books and ideas; they know that both can make a difference.

Finally, Wessells cautioned librarians against treating people like stereotypes. “Listening and caring about the person go a long way,” he advised. “Listen a lot, don’t just refuse. When you start to quote library policy, you’re not listening.”

International answers

Andreas Mittrowann and Bettina Windau from the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany introduced PLA conferencegoers to the International Network of Public Libraries. Founded in 1996 at the initiative of the foundation, the network consists of 19 library practitioners from 11 countries. Its purpose is to pool international know-how, support the development of successful management concepts, and promote their practical implementation.

Glen Holt, director of the St. Louis Public Library, joined the network in 1998, calling it “a glorious experience. We have much we can teach each other and more we can learn from each other.”

Holt’s project was to examine the importance of partnerships to libraries, using St. Louis as a case study. Currently, he is helping a library director in Dresden, Germany, adapt the project.

June Garcia, Carl Corporation’s CEO, worked with a librarian in New Zealand on her INPL project, which identified the skills a library administrator needed to be proficient in. “I was amazed at how frank and honest” the answers were, she commented. “There is very limited information available on this; most practitioners are too busy to sit down to write.” Her new paper is a collaboration with a librarian in England.

As a result of Director Robert Cannon’s findings that libraries are not keeping up with the changes in society, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) established a help desk and a full-time trainer for staff. They also invented a new position: automation support coordinator, starting with one and now having 25. After a French library implemented his ideas, Cannon said, “It’s amazing-the basic issues are the same worldwide.”

Speaker highlights

Keynote speaker Michael Gelb introduced the PLA opening session to one of the greatest futurists who ever lived—Leonardo da Vinci.

The Renaissance painter of Mona Lisa and The Last Supper was also a renowned architect and sculptor. His inventions were far ahead of his time—plans for a flying machine, a helicopter, and a parachute. He studied anatomy, botany, geology, and physics before they were organized sciences.

Gelb identified seven Da Vincian principles that are outlined in his bestseller How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. As an example of his seventh principle, connessione—the interconnectedness of all things—Gelb pointed to ALA President Sarah Ann Long’s theme, Libraries Build Communities.

Children’s author Paula Danziger developed her own connessione with her luncheon audience. For a while she considered becoming a librarian, but when she listed the pros and cons, she decided she wouldn’t be able to keep quiet. And, she admitted, “I can’t say Dewey Decimal System without laughing.”

Danziger had a confession to make: “I don’t return books on time.” As a kind of apology for that, she revealed that she is dedicating an upcoming book to all librarians. To be called What a Card, Amber Brown, it’s the story of how Amber earns back her library card after returning her books late one too many times.

National Public Radio storyteller Bailey White inaugurated PLA’s first Box Supper Social by doing what she does best: telling a story. The former teacher told the ballroom full of diners, “I’m glad to see so many librarians in one room.”

White told an anecdote that she said “shows the power of the public library”: She missed her plane to the conference because she was so engrossed in a library book she didn’t even hear the airline paging her.

North Carolina author and poet Robert Morgan revealed what it’s like to have his current work, Gap Creek, chosen as a selection for Oprah’s book club. Although it was a headache for his publisher, who was “asked to produce 500,000 copies in eight days,” for him it was “like all heaven has busted out at once.”

This book marks the third time Morgan has used a woman narrator. Writing from a female point of view has made him into a better writer, he believes; he’s learned that storytelling is “about having a living story unfolding.”

At the closing session, cowboy humorist and National Public Radio commentator Baxter Black gave dramatic readings of his poems, throwing himself across the table and jumping from the dais at one point.

Admitting that his poems, which mostly deal with the cowboy life, may not be politically correct, the former large-animal veterinarian pointed out that they are certainly “biologically correct.” Before an autographing session, he invited PLA to visit him in Phoenix, Arizona, where he will soon move and which, coincidentally, is the site of PLA’s next national conference in 2002.                  —Carol Kristl