IS554: Public Library Management & Services

IS554: Public Library Management & Services Concepts & Constructs 24 January, 2006 Spring 2006 Bharat Mehra School of Information Sciences

Agenda for the Day • My Critical Reflections • Brief History of PLs in the United States • Conceptualization: Small Librarianship • Technology Emergence • Advantages and Limitations of Changing Role • Studying the Community and Developing a Strategic Plan • Constructs: One-Person Librarianship

My Critical Reflections • Establish confidence in yourself • Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it! • If material is already covered, find a way to get access to it • Explore multiple avenues to answer your question • Be reflective and self-critical • Positive approach • Find a class buddy to brainstorm

Brief History of PLs in the US Lowell A. Martin (1998). Enrichment: A History of the Public Library in the United States in the Twentieth Century • PL as a reflection of the story of the United States: need for informed citizenry and a skilled and educated workforce (ingredients for democracy and capitalism) • Foundation years (1900-1917) • Innovative years (1918-1929) • Depression and war (1930-1945) • Recovery and understanding (1946-1959) • Promise and disillusionment (1960-1979) • Culmination years (1980-1999)

Brief History of PLs in the US • Before 1700, reading skills and literature were limited to the privileged and scholarly (“Popular” 1729) • In 1731, Benjamin Franklin founded a new kind of library: a “subscription library” open to anyone who could afford the fees • Over the next century, America’s expanding economy demanded educated workers. Public education produced readers who desired more books. America’s new democracy, dependent on informed citizens, also required freer access to literature.

Brief History of PLs in the US • The growing middle-class used subscription libraries, but grumbled about their shortcomings: wealthy benefactors restricted book choices librarians guarded the stacks, forbidding browsing and fees could be prohibitive

Brief History of PLs in the US • Mid 1800s • Americans debated about tax-funded libraries • public libraries would be “people’s universities” where all could learn and immigrants could Americanize so they could find jobs (Jones, 1970). They would also provide socially acceptable pastimes • In opposition, a Minneapolis subscription librarian wrote: “I don’t see that there is any more reason for having free reading than free soup” (qtd. in Benidt, 1982). • New Hampshire settled the issue by legalizing tax-funded libraries in 1849. Within forty years, 29 states enacted similar laws • The library became the community’s center

Brief History of PLs in the US 1876 was a banner year for libraries in the United States: • The American Library Association is founded. • Library Journal is founded • The first edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification is published • Cutter got creamed • The U.S. Bureau of Education publishes Public Libraries in the United States of America: Their History, Condition, and Management, widely referred to as the 1876 Report

Brief History of PLs in the US • In 1903, Gratia Countryman became the first woman to head a major American library: the Minneapolis Public Library. Even so, her salary was set at $2,000 — $1,000 less than her predecessor! • Women were not the weaker sex on the public library frontier — they were its strong backbone • They raised funds, lobbied for tax support, implemented outreach programs — even drove book trucks • Women tried to improve society through libraries, but the lack of voting rights hampered their efforts • Women had long been involved in education as teachers. Then, in 1875, women were permitted to vote for and serve as school board members

Brief History of PLs in the US

Brief History of PLs in the US • 1890-1925 "the innocent years“ for the Bronx • from a country-like landscape of small villages into thriving a metropolis of over one million inhabitants • hope for the future and trust in progress • growth and optimism, free public library service was born

Bronx Traveling LibraryInterior of BookmobileBarbero & Gale PhotographyNew York Public Library Archives Bronx Traveling Library 1928First Bronx BookmobileNew York Public Library Archives

Bronx Traveling Library, 1937. New York Public Library Archives Bronx Traveling Library June 6, 1949Herald TribuneNew York Public Library Archives The establishment of free library service throughout the borough first depended on the generous bequests of wealthy, civic minded men like Samuel J. Tilden.

Brief History of PLs in the US • People like Andrew Carnegie, renowned library philanthropist, and a self-made millionaire, built a private-public partnership. He gave funds for library buildings if local governments filled the buildings with staff and books. In the end, he donated some $56 million for the construction of more than 2500 library buildings. Andrew Carnegie,Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (1920),46-7 cited in Id. At 8-9. Andrew Carnegie Portrait in the Andrew Carnegie Free Library

Brief History of PLs in the US Building façade and the clock-tower of the first tax-supported Carnegie Library in the Americas [second in the world--first in the world was Victoria Library in Grangemouth, Scotland], dedicated by U.S. President Benjamin Harrison on February 20, 1890

Brief History of PLs in the US Jesse Shera (1903-1982), Foundations of the Public Library Identified four factors linking the movement for universal schooling and the movement for tax-supported public libraries: a) A growing awareness of the ordinary man and his importance to the group b) The conviction that universal literacy is essential to an enlightened people c) A belief in the practical value of technical studies d) An enthusiasm for education for its own sake

Brief History of PLs in the US Recovery and understanding (1946-1959) • Ditzion, Sidney Herbert wrote Arsenals of a democratic culture, a social history of the American public library movement in New England and the Middle States from 1850 to 1900 in 1947 • Histories by Shera and Ditzion coincided with initiatives of the American Library Association to identify the future of the public library in a time of great change: The National Plan for Public Library Service (1948) established two main objectives for public libraries: • to promote enlightened citizenship • to enrich personal life

Brief History of PLs in the US • The Public Library and Federal Policy (1974) • The Library Services Act passed in 1956 • In 1968 the American Library Association Council voted to establish a Coordinating Committee on Service to the Disadvantaged which became the Office for Library Service to the Disadvantaged in 1970 • Ideals of the library as an agent for change • Over this same period (1950-1975) the American Library Association issued two standards documents (1956 and 1966) • The complex process of the Public Library Association moving from the 1966 standards to a planning process in the seventies is viewed by Verna L.Pungitore as a major innovation

Brief History of PLs in the US • The 1980 manual, Planning Process for Public Libraries, and the 1982 Output Measures for Public Libraries provided the tools for planning and measurement • The Public Library Mission Statement and Its Imperatives for Service (1979), a product of the PLA Goals, Guidelines, and Standards Committee intended as a bridge between standards and the planning process • The Public Library: Democracy’s Resource, A Statement of Purpose put together by the Public Library Principles Task Force in 1982 • In 1994 the Public Library Association Committee on Planning and Evaluation commissioned a public libraries entered the 21st century.

Brief History of PLs in the US The tendency of PLs to be “a multipurpose agency striving to be all things to all people and views” spreads “our mission across many areas rather than sharply concentrate it”: this tends to limit the effectiveness of PLs? Do you agree with this statement? Give examples to support your point of view.

Brief History of PLs in the US • “… the driving force for the development of public libraries comes directly from the local community, rather than from dictated national plans or requirements” (Martin, 1998). Discuss the benefits and challenges of this in relation to PL management and provision of services ?

Future of PLs in the US Martin recommends that the PL shift focus to the role of being a source of knowledge for the interpretation of information and a source of recreation. Do you agree?

Conceptualization: Small Librarianship • Pace of change in libraries has quickened • Keep in mind • Study the representation of your selected topic (and other topics) in PL contexts • Library Automation Framework for Digitizing Cultural-Specific Materials in Small Libraries

Library Management in Small Libraries • Emphasis on change • Marketing • Perception of library as business • Movement from patron to customer • Broadening of term “books” to include different formats

New Concepts and Expanded Views • Selective dissemination of information (SDI) • Importance of vision • Service responses • Multiple objective sets • Relationship between cost and demand • Grantsmanship • Program budgeting • Nonmonetary compensation

Important Considerations • Accountability • Library involvement in the life of the community” clear responses to identified community needs • Focus on customer service • Marketing strategies to get the public into the library • Customer service excellence within which library manager should frame decision making

Comparison between Small and Large Public Libraries • Learns a variety of tasks • Opportunity to make many decisions Question: Have you had an opportunity to work across different small and large library settings? What has been different across these settings?

Characteristics of Small Libraries • Personal relationships are stronger • “Small is beautiful” attitude • Dislike of change is perhaps stronger in small library • Members often have great interest in details Question: What are the challenges (strengths and limitations) for librarians in these settings?

Small Communities with Specialized Customer Bases • The suburban community • The college or university community • The company town • The market town

The Changing Marketplace • Vast opportunities and range of choices • Technology implications • Parts of systems and networks • Question: Opportunities and challenges for public librarians?

Planning in a PL: Perceptions? • How would you (as library staff) define a “well-managed” PL? • How do you think the public would define it? • How do you think the board would define it? Are these expectations the same or different. Why?

Marketing and Planning: The Keystone • Importance of marketing and planning • Importance of catering to wider customer base: • Customer need and demand has to be documented • Effectively presented to funding authorities

Marketing and Planning: The Keystone • Willingness/ability to plan and to use concepts of balance and compromise to provide best service realistically possible • Begin with a vision of ideal service to the community • Vision based on thorough community analysis • Articulated through an appropriate statement of mission and service response

Mission: PL Roles • Selection of librarian roles: No more than two primary and secondary roles should be selected • Community activities center • Community information center • Formal education support center • Independent learning center • Popular materials center • Preschooler’s door to learning Reference library • Research center Give an example to show how this may have impacted the planning in your PL?

Mission: PL Service Responses • Service responses provide greater detail and broader scope: focus resources on select • Basic literacy • Business and career information • Commons • Community referral • Consumer information • Cultural awareness • Current topics and titles • Formal learning support • General information • Government information • Information literacy • Lifelong learning • Local history and genealogy Issues of vision and implementation Give an example to show how this may have impacted the planning in your PL?

The Planning Process • Long-range goals inform current decisions • Definite attainable stages in progress towards long-term goals set in operational one-year plans • Marketing decisions of which products to offer • Identifying what each product costs to produce • Deciding how to distribute the products • Communicating how library meets community needs

Studying the Community and Developing a Plan: Broad Qs What shall this particular library try to do and to be? What should it accomplish? In what does the library make a difference? What is the difference because of the library?

The Planning Team Diverse membership Include reps from library staff, library board, library director, reps from specific target markets (media, schools, businesses, churches) Advisory group

Mission, Vision, Service Responses What are the normal functions of PLs and levels of service from which a choice is to be made? What are the characteristics and needs of THIS PARTICULAR COMMUNITY that will assist in determining appropriate library services?

Mission Statement and Vision Mission: • Looks at the present • Based on recent community analysis Vision: • Focuses on tomorrow

Roles and Service Responses • Consider in light of changing characteristics of technologies and communities • Results and transformations • Accountability, measurable outcomes, impacts, and results • Assess performance in light of identified community needs

Service from a Marketing Perspective • PL is a public institution and must make an effort to identify the needs of THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY • Means PL has to engage in outreach activities and cooperative efforts with local agencies • Challenge of change, pressure for accountability, emergence of ‘enterprise’ culture PL are a proactive agency

PLs and Accountability • Study of community needs a must • Reconsider priorities to redistribute resources to effectively meet community needs • Providing and suggesting proactive future uses and applications • Different methods of meeting different needs • Devise of utilize new relationships • Step up PL publicity efforts

Conducting a Marketing Audit • Community study (external environment) • Macro: Larger world patterns • Micro: immediate community, present needs and potential trends • Agency assessment (internal environment) • Steps in marketing audit • Establish a planning team • Determine what aspects will be covered • Develop procedures for collecting data and monitoring process • Collect and analyze data • Prepare reports and presentations

Studying the Community • To learn community’s information needs • “Secondary” data: Relate to data from other sources • Tangible and intangible community needs • Methods of Collecting Primary Data • Demographic info • Perceptions of library effectiveness • Usage rate of library • Reasons for nonuse Problems in using any of the methods?

Sampling Methodology • Telephone survey • Mail survey • Interview • Focus group • Community meeting

Looking Inward • What is the library currently like? • Who are the customer groups? • What programs and services are offered? • What is the size of the budget? • What is the size of the collection? • What outreach efforts have to be made?

SWAT Analysis • Strengths • Weaknesses • Opportunities • Threats

Study is Over: Now What? • Reflect on process of studying community and examine what one has learnt • Identify how library can better its fit into community • Recognize: • Change in library’s role • Recognize service not provided to all • Acknowledge gaps, needs, and resources • Id methods to address gaps • Ongoing process to study community

IS554: Public Library Management & Services