Perspective Following ALA Mid-Winter Conference

by Marcy L. Simons, Head of Access Services
The American Library Association’s Mid-Winter conference has long been a staple for the “think-tanks” behind the association, its members, and committees. Unquestionably, the theme of this year’s mid-winter was budget-cuts and how to deal with them.

Whether in a discussion with colleagues, during a more formal presentation, or in round-table discussion groups, an item on every agenda was how to deal with shrinking budgets.

The attendance numbers have been confirmed – 7,905 actual attendees – a far cry from the almost 11,000 who registered for the conference. Cancellations of discussion groups, panel sessions, and committee meetings were many due to panel members not able to travel, and, even in some cases, chairpersons having to give up their positions because they would not be able to attend the 2009 conferences.

As so many of our colleagues commented, there is strength in numbers, and there is no better way to jumpstart creativity than by spending time with like-minded people who all have the same goal: providing information and services that our users need and want. On everyone’s agenda was the question of how libraries prepare for, and implement, budget reductions while still taking advantage of future trends to support student and faculty research and learning. Below is a brief list of some of the interesting take-aways that I heard.


Librarians should anticipate an insistence on data management for all types of libraries. For academic libraries, this means measuring our impact on the educational experience of our users.

Today’s practicing librarians have a stake in what is being taught to future librarians in our graduate library schools. The curriculum needs to include course topics such as the following:
- evaluation of library services using well understood metrics
- evaluation of the “user experience”
- community service
- “each one reach one” mentoring programs
- library service advocacy

Librarians need to become more experienced at advocating for their library’s programs and services. In addition to receiving training to accomplish this, practicing librarians at all levels need to get out among their community of members to inform people about libraries and the services available to them.
Librarian administrators, deans, and public service directors spoke about various ways to manage budget reductions. Some of the more creative ways were the following:

- shared print repositories and consortia making “group” collection decisions
- creating formal assessment tools/programs to answer the “how do you provide
value” questions coming from boards, trustees, and others
- using today’s uncertainties as a qualified opportunity for reevaluating programs
and services and for re-structuring and right-sizing for organizational efficiency

There is more interest on developing an interface to efficiently deliver more mobile content for small-screen mobile devices such as the iPhone or iTouch, Blackberry, PDAs, smart watches, and other devices with restricted processing, memory, screen size, and bandwidth.

Librarians need to direct more attention to enhancing and evaluating the user’s library experience by actively employing collection techniques that go beyond placing posters throughout the library soliciting comments.

As a new professional to librarianship, the most important thing I learned was the importance and value of practicing librarians sharing our stories among each other so that we can capitalize on our successes for providing library programs and services.

Ball State Libraries Hold Successful Marketing/Communications Conference for Librarians

Design a Blueprint for Communication: Strategies that Work!, a one-day conference on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, hosted by Ball State University Libraries, provided 24 librarians from around Indiana with a unique opportunity to learn more about the hottest marketing and communication topics libraries are facing.

The conference provided six sessions with information relating to strategic planning, using research data, managing the library’s brand, connecting with customers, programming as a marketing tool, and improving print publications.

“The excellent roster of speakers attracted a wide range of librarians from both academic and public backgrounds,” said Susan G. Akers, Marketing Communications Manager, Ball State University Libraries.

Dr. Melvin L. Sharpe, professor emeritus in Ball State’s Department of Journalism, engaged the audience with a discussion on strategic planning and how to use research to determine the needs of one’s audience. Dr. Becky A. McDonald, assistant professor in public relations at Ball State, discussed the difference between public relations and marketing. Susan G. Akers presented information on creating a library’s brand along with a short session on targeted marketing and writing creative copy.

Maria Blake, Director of Communications and Community Relations at Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library (IMCPL), discussed the practical applications of public relations in her talk cleverly entitled, “If You Build it, They will Come—Not!” Many attendees were interested in hearing about the public relations challenges related to IMCPL’s Central Library expansion and building project which ran more than $50 million over budget and ran two years behind schedule.

Emily Hankley, Adult Program and Product Development Specialist at IMCPL, discussed the importance of creative programming in the library and specifically toward connecting with adult visitors. Paula Balensiefer, Community Relations Assistant and Graphic Designer at Anderson Public Library, teamed up with Becky Brewer, who works in information services and adult programming at Jackson County Public Library, to illustrate design do’s and don’ts. Becky holds the distinction of being named as co-winner of ALA’s “Best in Show Newsletter” award last year.

Several University Librarians Attend the 2007 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

In June 2007, the American Library Association held its Annual Conference in Washington D.C. for a record attendance of 28,635 according to the ALA Conference website. Several librarians from the University Libraries attended and took advantage of the opportunity to hear and discuss ideas, give presentations, see exhibits and displays, and speak with colleagues.

Following the conference, the University Libraries’ attendees met to discuss the ideas, products, exhibits, and demonstrations for possible implementation at the Ball State University Libraries. While discussing the Conference experience, attendees observed that many of the current programs and services offered by the University Libraries are in line with activity at other academic libraries. In some cases, we are offering activities that other libraries had singled out as creative and inventive to talk about at the Conference.

Some of the Conference take-a-ways the group discussed include the following:

• CONTENTdm 4.3 upgrade major enhancements, a release that is scheduled for Fall 2007
• Current status of e-books and audio books in library collections
• Discussion about the future of the MARC record and MARC field usage patterns
• Information on long-term digital asset and metadata preservation research
• Mobile Reference, using text messaging to connect with library users
• New service opportunities for Find It @ BSU (SFX Link Resolver)
• Opportunities for social networking, social bookmarking, and other 2.0 based services
• PBS Point of View (P.O.V.) 20, offering independent TV documentaries for local PBS stations
• PennTags, which are a form of social bookmarking with applications for academic library users
• Use of wiki technology to manage internal projects and workflow
• Using video objects to address information literacy
• Using WorldCat Local in the academic library

For more information on these and other ideas generated by the ALA conference this year, contact Bradley D. Faust, Ball State University Libraries’ Assistant Dean for Library Information Technology Services, BFaust@bsu.edu, (765) 285-8032.