Barack!

It was electric. Ballrooms A, B, & C at the Connecticut Convention Center were all wide open last night to barely accommodate all of us who were there to see Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois. I went with library pals Bernadette Baldino from Bridgeport and Sandy Ruoff from Guilford. (Who knew? Bernadette has the voice of a nightingale, which I heard while she was singing along with the national anthem, sung by Sandy's state rep from Guilford.) The occasion was the state Democrats' annual pep rally/love fest known as the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner. (The manager of the convention center was a wreck because the Dems continued to sell tickets long after the event was sold out, about 1750, 200 more than even this enormous venue can handle, but this event is so not about the food.) They were all there--all of our state and U.S. reps and senators and wannabes, whom the likes of us we can usually never get near, but whom we were hugging and kissing and posing with last night. The scene at the Jefferson Jackson Bailey is always like that--awash in table hopping, pandering, posturing, all done in the glow of the glam from national headliners like Gore, Edwards, Hillary, and the favorite (until last night!) Bill Clinton. But Barack was something different. They'll be talking about this one as long as they've been talking about JFK's last whistle stop in Waterbury on his road to the White House in 1960. We needed Barack last night. He's young. He's handsome. He's warm, well-spoken, smart, and passionate. He's not a haranguer like his warm-up acts, Dodd and Lieberman. He's not a takes-himself-too-seriously type like Hartford's Mayor. Barack is the best of us. He not only got Sandy, Bernadette and I to our feet clapping time after time, but he got all those Democratic men and women with the old faces and the new clothes excited. They could stand up and cheer and clap and whistle and not be cynical or defeated or forced to accept yet another compromise candidate. For one brief shining moment last night, it wasn't about Malloy and DeStefano, or Lieberman and the guy from Greenwich, or cities vs. suburbs. For a moment, we were all in the palm of the hand of this young man from a city in the heartland, whose face looks like America, who is not tired, or cynical, or defeated, who made us feel like winners because he is one. Oh baby, what a night!

Wonderful Wireless

At the risk of sounding like someone who hasn't been in a library since Junior High, I have to say that wireless Internet access is nothing short of wonderful. I mean, I know about wireless. We have it in the CLC office. We have a discount deal with Spot-On Networks to install it in libraries. Most of the libraries I visit either have it, in at least some part of the library, or are in the process of getting it. And of course, the free citywide access planned for Philadelphia has gotten a lot of press, and I've seen people working wirelessly in NYPL's Bryant Park, and in front of the public library in Chatham, MA. But I had never done it. I had never walked a mile in those moccasins. Last Friday I was at a CLC vendor showcase at Fairfield University Library. I had brought my laptop with me to see if I could fit in some work between presentations, (which I couldn't, of course. Why do we think we can?) I saw a couple of the thirty-something vendors sitting outside the meeting room in comfortable, overstuffed chairs, chatting and checking their e-mail while they were waiting their turn to present. I asked the library's director, Joan Overfield, if the library had wireless access. Of course they do in that beautiful, state-of-the-art college library. Now, I believe in low expectations, especially with technology, so I never thought it would really work for me. I figured that I'd have some hitch in getting connected, or I would need a password, or I wouldn't understand the instructions, but NO! I plugged in my laptop, clicked on "hotspot", typed in "gotomypc.com" and there it was--all my unanswered e-mail! (Of course I only got one reply off before I once again realized what a myth is multitasking, but I could have done it!) I think my colleagues at the showcase were really embarrassed for me the way I kept going on and on about how great is this thing called wireless, since all of them either have it already in their libraries, or have a plan to install it. (They probably even have it at home, where I am getting it next!) To use my computer, I didn't have to take up one of the library's public workstations. I didn't have to sit up straight at a study carrel, and best of all, I didn't have to be quiet! I could sit in a comfortable chair in a sunny spot of my own choosing, and work and talk and embarrass myself. If I am not the only librarian out there who has not already worked on the wonderful wireless, do it! As I recall, it is not even expensive to install, and it adds a whole new dimension to the Internet access we can provide without buying one additional computer!

It's All About You, Just Like It's Always Been.

Last December, David Pogue, who writes about personal technology for the New York Times Business Section, spoke to the FLAG group of public library directors at Westport Public Library. His presentation was one that he regularly gives to educators about the larger environment in which they are teaching, especially regarding the tech savviness of their students. His talk had a lot of implications for the public librarians in the audience, and two of his points especially resonate--that information must be personal, and that it will all be web-based.
There is no doubt that tech savvy folks want information to be all about them. The 50 million people who bought iPods don't want to buy the whole CD, just the one or two cuts they like. Those with video iPods buy episodes of their favorite TV shows without subscribing to hundreds of cable stations. When you log onto Amazon.com, products are personally recommended to you based on your previous purchases. Most young apartment dwellers don't bother to share a landline because they each have their own cellphone, complete with customized audio and video. On the front page of today's New York Times Business Section, Saul Hansell writes about a phenomenon he calls "slivercasting" by producers whose programming has too small an audience to make it onto broadcast or cable television, but who have very dedicated audiences on the Internet. John Hendricks of Discovery Communications likens these specialized video services for niche markets to the magazine display at Borders (or one's local library?) Thanks to these technologies, we can make information and entertainment all about us. We can get what we want where and when we want it, and that would be on the web, 24/7.
What does this mean for Connecticut's libraries, purveyors of information and entertainment to all the people? I would say that we are responding very well to the public's need for personalized, web-based services, probably because we have always been all about the individual. Although we have statewide reciprocal borrowing, every town has its own public library (and some more than one!) The state-funded iCONN databases are available to all Connecticut residents on the web 24/7, and they will soon be supported by virtual reference librarians on the web with them 24/7. Audiobooks can be downloaded from library websites (except to the resistant iPods!) and streaming video and RSS feeds to announce new books and programs are also part of library website designs. Books can be reserved, renewed, and requested online anytime, and we offer a wide array for every taste, just like those magazines at Borders.
The fact is that libraries can serve niche markets because our niche has always been the individual. Just as we go to great lengths to protect the privacy of individuals using our libraries, we also base our services on the needs of individuals, and its not just about the technology. New public libraries are being constructed with a host of small study rooms as well as larger group meeting rooms. (Wilton has 19!) Academic libraries have long developed pathfinders for specialized research topics. The high school library is often the only place in a high school where it is socially acceptable for a teenager to be alone. And what is the reference interview, whether virtual or real, but a one-on-one conversation between one librarian and one patron?
So if the trend is toward the personal, bring it on. We know all about that. It's the way it's always been.

Love the Pod. Hate the Apple.

I love my iPod. I have it to thank for so many good things--a new-found ability to exercise regularly, a relatively inexpensive way to satisfy my addiction to online shopping, (a single is only $.99, the same price we paid for a 45 back in the day!) and now I can indulge my fondness for talk radio in the middle of the day without subscribing to Sirius, thanks to free podcasts on iTunes. (Thank you, Leslie Burger, for yet another excellent lifestyle tip!) Once a week I attach my iPod to the computer and automatically download the latest version of The Onion, Lisa Loeb's #1 Single, iTunes New Music Tuesdays, New York Times' Talks, Slate, and my personal favorite, TWIT, aka This Week in Tech, (where you not only get to listen to real techies from California talk about the latest and greatest, but just when you start to feel like a loser, one of them reveals that he has used the latest video technology to view the last three seasons of Battlestar Gallactica.) So what's the problem? Why hate Apple, that appealing underdog, the comeback kid who has brought me so much iHappiness?
It's about the audiobooks. In the past couple of weeks, I've enjoyed Curtis Settinfield's Prep, Benjamin Kunkel's Indecision, and my favorite, Augusten Burroughs' first, Running with Scissors. But not one of these books was I able to listen to on my iPod. (All were CDs borrowed from the wonderful Russell Library, well-known among fellow travelers for its excellent audio collection.) Neither Prep nor Indecision, although both heralded first novels, were available on iTunes; I could have purchased Running with Scissors for $15.95, or his new memoir, which I really want for my next trip to Willimantic, Magical Thinking, for $18.95. Now, I want you to know that I am not above occasionally purchasing a new hardcover without the CLC discount, but I am not paying the price of a tank of gas to download a best seller! As you know, there are many great audio titles available for free downloading from our public libraries through vendors like Recorded Books and Overdrive. You can download them all right, just not to an iPod.
I visited Library Connection on Friday to talk about InfoAnyTime, and had a quick conversation with George Christian about this, since LCI has just launched a consortium deal for downloadables with Overdrive. George says he now gives Apple's number to the people who call him to ask why they can't download the Overdrive books to their iPods. I say, you go, George, let Steve handle it! So the next time you are about to utter a disparaging word about Microsoft, remember the Gates foundation, and remember the audiobooks!

Honky

Bringing an author to town is one of the best things that we do. Doing it as part of a community read is, well, simply the best. We librarians introduce regular folk--our friends, family, and patrons--to books and the people who write them. It allows us to share a little of the magic that we experience every time we go to a conference to meet an author, hear her speak, have dinner with him. I got to do all of that last night, (and I didn't even have to make any of the arrangements, worry about doing an introduction, or be the one to get everyone to the auditorium on time!) I went to Southington for the culmination of their "Southington Reads--Get on the Same Page" event with Dalton Connelly, the author of Honky, the story of a white kid growing up in a black neighborhood in New York.
Jay Johnston, Southington PL's director, asked me about a year ago what I knew about OneBook projects. I told him what I could, most of it from my experience in southeastern CT with One Book One Region, now ably led by Groton's Betty Anne Reiter. Then Deb Zulick in the CLC office put Jay in touch with the wonderful Russell Perrault of Random's Vintage Books imprint, and the rest was easy, (easy because Southington's Jean Chmielewski took over from there and made it all happen.) I not only got to have dinner with the author, but I got to sit next to him. He is also a big fan of audiobooks, and was quite impressed with Southignton's recent rollout of dowloadables. I was able to tell Dalton (Jay insists on calling him Dr. Connelly because he has a PhD and is chair of the social science department at NYU, but, heck, the guy is about thirty, and looks like one of my Kingswood students.) about how Apple prevents both Recorded Books and Overdrive from being able to download their products onto the ubiquitous iPOD, therefore preventing the 50 million owners from having access to downloads from their public library. Anyway, it was a wonderful evening for the 300 people of Southington who got to meet, and even question, a real New York author, and for me to remember just why I went into this business!

At Last!

I've been blabbing about blogging for at least six months now, and tonight is finally the night. As happens so often, my motivation comes not from an urge to do good, but from trying not to look bad. (As a seasoned politician once told me when I was running for elected office, "It's not that you want to win so much; it's that you don't want to lose.") In this case, I happened upon an old email from Kirsten Kilbourne. In response to my telling her that I wanted to start a blog, she had enthusiastically gone to blogspot and set me up with a username, password, etc. That was in November, 2005, soon after she had joined the CLC staff. No one wants to look bad to the people with whom they work, especially with good reason. So enough, tonight is the night. I took my user name and my password and logged on. Plenty of our Connecticut colleagues have blogs, including Michael Golrick, Mike Simonds, and Alan Gray, so it's not like this is even a new thing. And of what am I afraid? That I have nothing to say? Has that ever stopped me before?
I've named the blog BetweentheBookends because of the stories to be found there. There is magic in libraryland, and I am uniquely suited to report on it. While you all are making the magic, I get to go door to door collecting your stories. I'll try to report out as engagingly as I can. I also ask for more than a little help from my friends. So many of you are such good writers, like my friend David Bryant, with whom I rarely agree, but who can be disagreeable in just the best prose. I look forward to sharing this space with friends and colleagues for the benefit of the readers, which we will hopefully attract. For now, good night, and thank you, Kirsten. I needed that!

In Good Company