By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens We’ve written about ideas for improving customer service, boosting staff morale, fostering change, and building a management and communication style that is win-win for both staff and administration. Almost everything we’ve discussed has, as its only cost, time–necessary to plan, implement, and review. There are no expensive technologies to purchase, no cutting-edge software to struggle with, and no $500-an-hour consultants. Our suggestions involve listening, dialog, and transparent actions. Trust is the underlying concept. Communication is its foundation. Economics hit morale On April 1, 2007, when we began writing The Transparent Library column, the nation’s […]
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By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens We appreciate your feedback, positive and negative. As we move into 2009, even as you grapple with budget challenges, keep in mind that these Five Things We Just Can’t Ignore in Libraries require moxie more than money. Privacy: We really need to rethink our privacy concerns, offer varying levels of opt-in, and educate our users about a networked world in which our life streams are saved through social networks and servers in the “cloud.” We believe the default should be privacy, but if patrons want to share, we should let them. Rethink your library […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens You make every effort to create a transparent library. You listen to your staff and customers and give them all possible means to talk to you-email, blogs, paper comment cards, telephone numbers, instant messaging, etc. You try to listen in via Twitter and Yelp. You hold community nights for customers to talk to you and go out to where they are and try to hold conversations where it is most convenient for them. From all of this, you try to steer your library on the right course, paying heed to and responding to input. […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens Properly handled and managed, adaptation to change ensures our survival Last month, we presented six mile markers for your transparent library. Here are six more. Have an open-door policy. You have to listen to be heard. And you have to be out there to be noticed. Whether you’re a director, leader, or manager, listening to your community and working with other leaders and managers is the only way you will remain relevant and grow stronger as a leader and help build a stronger organization. Seth Godin reminds us in his book Tribes (Portfolio, 2008) […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens We recently presented a workshop in London at Internet Librarian International, based on our writings here, and realized that throughout the columns we’ve identified a set of mile markers for the journey toward transparency. Give everyone an avenue to talk. Offer online and real-world mechanisms for all of the library’s stakeholders, staff and users, to talk, react, and suggest solutions. A good start is a suggestion box and a way to share the answers with everyone. Add an online forum or blog and “town hall meetings,” and the stage is set. Your goal is […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens The rules of marketing have changed. Do libraries know that? Corporate PR-types used to control the message. Sitting behind a desk, they’d write a carefully crafted press release and then send it off to newspapers and upload it to their web site. The attention the company got might barely justify the salary of the PR professional. Today’s world is fundamentally different. Neither news nor brand identity are controlled through press releases or carefully choreographed newspaper articles. Brands are molded and shaped by the audience-and the audience is everyone. People talk. And people listen. Social […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens As the buzz around social networking continues, consider that author Kevin Kelly has called the emerging web “One Machine” and predicts that “total personalization in this new world will require total transparency.” So, where do we fit in? Where do we position ourselves as professionals? We two don’t completely agree, so we thought we’d try to tease out the relationship between personal/social transparency and library transparency. MS: I think the line between the personal and the professional online has blurred so much recently that it’s impossible to separate them. MC: Our worlds are colliding-I […]
MC: And how do we manage this personal/professional divide? Should we be worried that supervisors “friend” subordinates on Facebook and can look into their personal lives while at the same time they must evaluate their performance? Do we go to someone’s Flickr stream or Twitter status to check on them when they call in sick? Ethical questions surround what we can now “find out” about coworkers, job applicants, potential friends, etc. MS: Indeed! Our location-aware iPhones and applications like Loopt make it very easy to follow someone’s movements. I am both excited about broadcasting my whereabouts to trusted friends/colleagues and a little […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens Sometimes, it’s simply not easy. When life throws us $4-a-gallon gasoline, rising unemployment, a housing credit crunch, and tight local, state, and federal budgets, libraries feel the pinch. It’s natural for work morale to suffer. Boards and administrators feel pressure to make cuts and increase staff efficiency. Front-line staffers get hit from both sides–supervisors who expect more (and sometimes give less) and users who expect the same services they’re used to, plus a smiling face. During times like this, the natural inclination is to “get serious,” push your staff harder, and make every dollar […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens Egos can insidiously prevent us from doing what we could do best. Recently, in a late-night conversation, a few trusted librarian colleagues told us how much damage an inflated ego can do to a library’s culture. One in that small circle had clashed with a department member and been called out by the administration for “only thinking of herself” in planning and implementing a new project. Another had been recognized in a national forum as a rising talent, only to have that accolade ignored by employers. A third led a well-regarded project but was […]