The 4% Solution?

Just 4%, that's all that it is. Not that I was surprised. I think the national average is about 3%. But when the town manager projected that pie chart at the public hearing on Wethersfield's budget, that 4% sliver looked pretty small. The Board of Education's budget is 57% and growing. The rest of it is in the category of things not in our control like debt service, or untouchables like public safety and public works. As I was sitting in the high school auditorium waiting for my turn to speak for the library, I kept thinking about the four percenters--4% for the library and 4% for parks & rec. So when it was finally my turn to speak, it was as much about parks & rec as it was about the library.

In many ways, we are our natural allies. Both departments are staffed by highly trained professionals with advanced degrees who provide services in the evenings, on weekends, and all summer long, and who are usually not as well compensated as are staffs in other town departments, (especially those in the elephant in the dining room.) The library and parks & rec often serve the same families--as preschoolers, in after-school programs, and later, as seniors looking for recreation when their jobs no longer provide it. Likewise, both the library and parks & rec are well served by talented and dedicated volunteer boards. When I was a member of the Town Council, I was (by choice!) liaison to the Parks and Rec Commission; I can attest to the quality of commissioners and their tenacity and devotion to the cause. Similiarly, the library board remains one of the easiest of the town's boards and commissions for which to find willing appointees. My husband has served for many years on the Democratic Screening Committee and I can tell you, by virtue of that second hand experience, that it is increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to serve on boards and commissions, let alone run for elected office. There is, however, always a waiting list for the Library Board. In a town like Wethersfield, with an increasing number of over fifty fivers, this combined 8% solution is more than a bargain; it is where the service is!

Now, about that tax increase. I had some fun with the elected officials at the hearing, which I'll share here. We have a taxpayers group, as do so many towns, and they were predictably concerned abut the projected $440 per household tax increase that is projected in the FY 2006-2007 budget. Not to be totally obnoxious about the real burden that this may present for some of our residents, but Wethersfield is, after all, a suburban community, and $440 doesn’t go that far in a year. It may buy:
A daily coffee, and that's at Dunkin Donuts, not even Starbucks.
Extended basic cable, with no HBO.
A fuel pump for a 2003 Passat (I have that one on personal experience!)
Your windows washed in the fall.
A Big Bertha driver.
A new set of Cleveland irons.
One night at a hotel in Manhattan.
A musical instrument that your child may never again play
Membership in health club, whose doors you may never actually darken.
And my personal favorite, a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes!

Damn those Retirements!

It's not that I believe everything I read in the newspaper, but there it was, a headline--Betsy McDonough is really retiring as the Danbury library director. This follows too many others--Barbara Gibson from Farmington, Ralph Arcari from UConn Health Center, Denis Lorenz from West Hartford, and Stuart Lamson has sold Bank Square Books in Mystic, and Barry Williams has retired from lobbying for the good guys (except for us in CLA!) And by all reports, we ain't seen nothin' yet. It's the demographics. We are an old profession, and one in which many have a real pension, (Real meaning not a 401K, but one of those where the checks don’t run out just because your contributions did.) and they are exercising their right to collect it while they can still enjoy it. And whyevernot? Thirty years is probably enough for one person to do one job, even a job as diverse and unpredictable as being a library director. But what about me? What about those who are left behind? Its not that I ever saw or spoke with Betsy or Barbara or Ralph or Denis every day. But they were always there. I left the library world for almost ten years, and when I came back, everything was as it had been. Everyone I had known before was still here. Need a wise man to facilitate a planning day? Ralph will do it for you, and you know he will do it right. Need someone who doesn't have a dog in the race to give you advice? Barbara will listen to you and will bring her smarts and experience to bear on your behalf. Need someone to knock the Polyanna out? Denis will do it. And Betsy--everyone involved with creating a fledgling should have a Betsy on their board. She's smart and funny and a fighter. Oh, sure there are others of us who can do some of those things. And there are bright new people who are wise and smart and funny, but, well, you know. It's just not the same because it is about the people, and contrary to what we say as managers, people are just not replaceable.

Tom Friedman & Malcolm Gladwell in Hartford

Thomas Friedman and Malcolm Gladwell--really an unlikely pair, but they sure brought the crowd to Hartford! I was there because my friend and colleague, Suzanne Maryeski, gave me a ticket to the Connecticut Forum, which brings people of note like Gladwell and Friedman to the stage of the venerable Bushnell auditorium for a conversation moderated by an equally notable person like veteran newscaster Rita Braver. The problem with this Forum was that Friedman and Gladwell didn't really have much to say to each other. Friedman was defensive. He was defensive about his support of the war. Everyone loves Friedman. He writes the columns. He's written the books. He's the man, but he supports the war in Iraq, and, as he said Thursday night, he has not backed down from his support. Friedman is pudgy, but still manages to look establishment. Gladwell, on the other hand, looks haggard. He is certainly younger, but not by so much. Gladwell's comments were those of a young man, and Friedman's those of an old guy. I credit Rita Braver for great questions directed to two people who really don't belong together on a stage. She clearly was very comfortable with Friedman, but didn't quite know what to do with Gladwell. I wonder how many folks in the audience had read both The Tipping Point and Blink, as well as The World is Flat?Friedman was good when talking about his book and its premise, which is that the world's playing field is now level. Gladwell, however, talked about (to my mind) more compelling issues. He described how his sympathy for the cops in the Dijallo shooting was born when he was picked up as a suspected rapist on 14th Street after he grew his African hair long. The cops made a snap decision based on what they knew about how criminals look and how they behave. The two men were cordial and allowed as how one was "big picture" and the other "small picture." I don't think so. Friedman is a foreign journalist. He talks about international economic policy. Gladwell talks about what it is like to live in these United States in the twenty first century. I think the crowd liked Friedman better. Maybe, like Braver, they were just more comfortable with him. I can't be sure because I couldn't stay for the questions. Suzanne had to leave at 9:00 pm because she was leaving for Australia the next day at 7:00 am. What was my excuse?

What about the Future?

A month ago, Russell Library's Director, Arthur Myers, asked me to talk to the Middletown Rotarians about the future of libraries in Connecticut. (My talk was yesterday, the first in a series of three talks about libraries that he has planned for Rotary this month--I'm glad I got to go first!) I've copied the speech below, so you can see for yourself, but I realized, when it was over, even though it was fairly well-received (low expectations?) that it is about libraries; it is not about the future. I was flummoxed when one of the Rotarians, who had just read The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle, asked me about online searching, in the not-too-distant future, without any of this authentication or proprietariness that I had been describing. (I mean, one doesn't expect to be caught off-guard about techno stuff at Rotary. I recovered somewhat by doing what the big guys do--changing the subject to something I do know about, in this case, France's challenge to Apple regarding the iPod/iTunes monopoly. Why? It always distracts people to talk about the French, because we can all agree to disdain them.) I guess my point is that many of us think we are addressing the future when we are really discussing the present possible. News about Skype, the voice over IP company now owned by eBay, is the subject of an article in this morning's New York Times Business section, hardly the bleeding edge. I heard about Skype for the first time last summer when Carl Antonucci and I went to Denver forr a Virtual Reference conference and heard the uninvited young entrepreneur, Brian Higgenbottom, talk about Skype as the way he communicates with international clients. We were so impressed that we invited Brian to come from Houston to West Hartford for CLC's first Trendspotting confab last fall. It was there that Wesleyan's Mike Roy introduced us to learning objects, and then later the CLC board invited Mike to bring us up-to-date on blogs. Where am I going with this? Is it just that we need to invite young guys to speak to us at conferences if we want to predict the future? Well, partly. We need to be aware that, as practitioners of the sacred science of libraries, we are not usually steeped in the future. That is hard to do when you are running an operation for teh public. (I realize that many of my forward-thinking colleagues are thinking, "speak for yourself, Chris!" but I know I'm not the only one.) My point is that we need to listen to those among us and just outside our circle who really are futurists. We need to know what is really likely to happen ten years out, not just what we are hoping to introduce in next year's budget. Not that there is anything wrong with being practical. That is what sustains us. It is just not enough. So back to the future we should go, whenver we can breakaway from the present possible.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chris' Rotary speech on April 4, 2006 at the First and Last Tavern in Middletown:

Arthur has asked me to talk briefly about the future of libraries in CT. Although I’m sure you all respect Arthur, as I do, and love the Russell Library, many of you might share the view of my sainted mother, who, a few years ago, said, "Well, I guess you'll be out of a job now with the Internet."
We know that libraries have a past. No less an historian than ArthurSchlesingerR said, “Our history has been greatly shaped by people who read their way to opportunity and achievement in public libraries.” And Dwight D. Eisenhower said “Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.” and my personal favorite, the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges, “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
But that was then, and Arthur asked me to talk about the future, not the past, and about libraries in Connecticut, not Argentina.
Last year in CT, our 182 public libraries reported 1,944,000 registered borrowers, better than half our population, but that was down 5000 from the previous year. CT had 6 library visits per capita, but that was also down from 6.2 the previous year. Total reference transactions were down by 25,000. And the circulation of library materials, is down from 31 million items to just over 30 million items. These statistics are not declining precipitously, but down is down. One of the librarians quoted in a recent national report said it well--"We are serving you better, seeing you less."
CT's library statistics show that we are definitely seeing you less, but are we serving you better? And how is better defined, especially for the future?
I have four key words to define the future of CT's libraries-- information, socialization, education, and collaboration.
First, information. We used to have it all, you know. If you wanted consumer reports or the city directory, the used car price guide, or Value line, unless you were independently wealthy, you pretty much had to come to the public library. But no more.
You don’t have to go to the Russell Library on Broad St. You just have to go online to http://www.russelllibrary.org/, and it's all there. The CT digital library has databases of national newspapers, consumer health, and business info. Russell has all those Chilton auto repair manuals online, special databases to help middle school and high school kids with their homework, and testing manuals with civil service, real estate, and insurance exams. You don't have to go out to the library to get this information. You just have to get online at your home computer.
In the very near future, we'll have online reference librarians to help you with all that information, and right now, today, you can download audiobooks from the Russell Library website, so no matter how bad your commute is, there is no excuse for road rage.
But, if you do actually visit the Russell Library, you won't be alone, because the second key word in the future of libraries is socialization. In CT, there are just 2.5 people in the average household, and 14% of our population is over 65. These people want a place to go. Retirees nationally are looking for good weather, good golf, good healthcare, and good public libraries. Now we can't do anything about the weather in CT, but the pressure will be on public libraries in CT to be a social assembly place for retiring baby boomers. We have over 180 public libraries in our 169 CT towns. Out west, they may have one county library system to serve an area twice the size of our entire state. But that is not our way in Connecticut. Each CT town supports its own library, often on the town green, always at the center of the community. The public library is fast becoming the community's third place, the place that is not work or home. Libraries are following the lead of bookstores in merchandising the reading experience not only for older adults, but also for preschoolers and their parents, teens, and working people.
The third key, education, is not only the future, but also the traditional, mission of the public library. This is the place where new immigrants such as authors Frank McCourt and Esmeralda Santiago came to learn about America and how to succeed here. 11% of the CT population is foreign born and 18% of households speak a language other than English. The ethnic groups who come to the library in the future may be different from those who are here now, but their purpose will remain the same. One-on-one tutoring, both virtual and actual, will remain the province of the public library. Newly built or renovated library buildings have increased numbers of small meeting rooms for group study, and homeschooling, as well as one-on-one tutoring. And the earliest education that many of us remember in the library, the preschool story hour, is alive and well and multiplying on into the future.
Finally, the last key to the future is collaboration, because sustainability is not possible without it, not for museums, or historical societies or public recreation and cultural activities as well as for public libraries. The national public library planning process, which we use in CT, stresses cooperation and collaboration so that citizens are served by the most appropriate service provider, and those providers supported by each other. Public funding for these and other community services is increasingly hard to come by in CT's towns and cities. When I was on my town council years ago, I remember seeing public education taking a bigger and bigger bite of the municipal pie and that has not stopped, especially as state support has decreased proportionately. There just isn't a lot left over after providing for public education and public safety, and those retirees are not looking to increase revenues through taxation. Many national figures including Paco Underhill, who recently spoke at the public library association's national conference in Boston, say that libraries should encourage people to think of us in their estate planning and that public libraries should investigate non-governmental funding sources.
So, that is the future as I see it. Information will increasingly be provided virtually through online databases and digitization projects; Socialization will be encouraged and the public library will become the third place in the community; education will remain at the heart of the library matter; and public libraries in Connecticut will be sustained by collaborating with community partners so we can all make through those cold dark winters together!