Hot Stuff!

The ALSC blog, as Abby the Librarian mentions, has been on fire lately.  The content has truly popped and the guest contributors have flooded the blog with great practical and philosophical ideas on youth librarianship.  It has become my go-to stop for ideas to sparkle up my creativity and jumpstart services.  I mean in one week they had posts on a giant Kid Experience program, special needs storytimes, serving teen parents, floor-etry and mirrors to occupy kids at Circ desks! Man, I can use them all.

It's great to have a professional association blog that doesn't just function as the voice of the office, informing us of news of note, event deadlines and minutiae within the association. We need that stuff but that isn't content to get us rocking. We've all subscribed to blogs like that out of duty but it doesn't really inform our work on the front lines.

Now they have a survey up asking about how they are doing and what kind of content you, the reader, want. Please head on over and let ALSC know. And if you haven't already, put them on your "must-read" blog list!

Blow Out the Candles

Exactly four years ago, I was involved in a wonderful experience late in my career. My library system, along with two others in the state worked together to create Project Play. The multi-week, online course was set up over two semesters to help library staffers learn about the potential and reality of 2.0 technology and apps. Week 2 immediately challenged us to set up a blog. I did and Tiny Tips for Library Fun was born!

I didn't have a fancy-dancy name for it. So Tiny Tips it started as and Tiny Tips it remained. I didn't know quite what I was doing . There were already so many blogs reviewing kids and teen books so I didn't really want to go there. And then it struck me! I just wanted to talk about children's librarianship and how we run our libraries good..

Now 199 posts and 32,000 page views later, I am happily blabbity-blabbing along, thinking about why we do what we do and sharing with and hearing from my peeps near and far (hello my Australian and New Zealand friends).  I am so grateful for the work my Wisconsin colleagues did to create this learning opportunity for us and so grateful to learn so much to help me navigate technology with ease. Thanks all of you for coming along for the ride!

Caution - Rut in the Road

Even the most committed youth staffer runs into stale times in creative-land.  Burn-out can happen after a long string of successes.  It can hit when you're working in a non-supportive library. It can leap at you when your energy reserves are just plain low. It can descend on you when you feel isolated in a one- or two-person library. It can sneak up on you for no reason you can think of.  What do you do?

For me, staying fresh and involved is a basic part of what makes work fun for me - and keeps me out of a rut.  I need something new - a new way to create efficiencies; a new way to reach out to kids; a new conversation with a youth colleague (whether they are old friends or new acquaintances); a new thing to learn; a new program; a new approach....a "new"!

I have been roundly chastised by some for that changeability and malleabilty.  Working with me can be a crazy experience...perhaps it can be compared to trying to walk on quicksand or through a temblor. Verrrry tricky.  If stability and an even keel is what you're looking for, I am not the co-worker for you. But change keeps me fresh.

Short of driving co-workers insane, though, what can you do to stay out of a rut? There are lots of great ways to get inspired when inspiration seems out of reach. It can be as simple as looking for a new blog to inspire you (check out the ALSC blog -it has reinvigorated itself and is chock-full of ideas or Keeping Up with Kids); joining a listserv like PUBYAC or getting in touch with a colleague near or far to pick their brain. With email, IM, Skype and Facebook, everyone is close. Or check out the #libchat on Twitter Wednesday evenings (7-8:30pm Central time). Ideas will flow and something might sparkle for you. That's where I got turned on to a great post by Meredith Farkas of Information Wants to be Free that addresses ways to stay bright and involved when you work with, well, slackers.

Heading to system level workshops, continuing education and conferences are other fan-tab-ulous ways to get re-invigorated.  And its not just the content of the sessions that can do it.  Time spent talking to people next to you at lunch, in the hallway, before and after the program can introduce you to new folks who love to share ideas and work they are doing.  I never leave these sessions without bumping into strangers and friends who have something new in youth services to chat about. I can't help thinking, "Wow!  I have to try that!"

Chatting with your community members, family and school and organizational colleagues is another amazing way to stay fresh and check for ideas. Even if you can't implement all the suggestions, it gives you direction on where you might want to go and can start the creative juices flowing. 

And if you don't have a mentor, reach out.  It doesn't always need to be an ancient crone paired with a sweet young thing relationship.  You can create a compadre relationship too. Find that idea generator; that enthusiast and that committed youth librarian and partner up to share ideas and creativity.  They can inspire you and you can inspire them.  I think all my best mentor/protege/compadre (yep, been all three) relationships have been give and take from both parties that enriched our work equally.

Ruts are out there to get stale in....but with enthusiastic delving into what's new and what works, each day can be a powerful one with smooth driving and even a challenging hill or two to keep things fun!

I Can't Lift This Book!

Jonathan Hunt in Heavy Medal blog discusses an issue I can really relate to.  He talks about the increasing page count in books that are ostensibly meant for middle graders that push them into the YA realm...when they really aren't. He isn't specifically discussing the Newbery committee's work in his post but rather questioning the publishing industry.

I think he has a point.  There are increasing numbers of bloated books over 300 pages coming out that have a great premise and are well-written  - but just try getting a fourth-sixth grade kid to take it from your hand.  They see the size and refuse it in favor of something shorter. I sometimes wonder if it is still the last left-over vestiges of the Harry Potter big book phenomena that saw kids wading - and sometimes wandering - through Rowling's massive texts.

I don't have anything against big books.  I'm just wondering if all the verbiage is necessary and whether tighter editing might result in books that middle graders can read and relate to.  Deep concepts don't always need a huge page count.  Besides books that Hunt cites in his post, I think of Marian Dane Bauer's On My Honor and Cynthia DeFelice's Weasel that are tautly written. I'm sure that you can think of even more.

There are, of course, many great, short early elementary titles that appeal to readers in second and third grade. We don't lack material there. But I do worry about those fourth through sixth graders and having well-written, tightly edited material that comes in at 200 pages or less.  We don't want to lose those fiction readers who aren't gifted or hyper -motivated.  Publishers, can you hear me now?

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Field Trip Adventure!

In the past, our tours were ok but lacked punch and direction. Kids were led around from one collection to the next and given pretty much the same spiel no matter what the age. The highlight was a half hour of stories and songs at the end. Content often depended on which staffer hosted the tour and messages and emphasis varied widely. It didn't seem like we were getting any over-arching message across like, "Hey this is a really fun place and cool too!"

So a year ago, we decided to re-imagine the tours into field trips with a concentration on fun and giving kids a glimpse into how libraries really work. But before the fun we had to work on the mechanics. 

The first thing we did was make some decisions on dividing field trips into appropriate content depending on age/comprehension. Then we worked on some messages we felt all kids needed to hear: Books belong to everyone in the community and are shared. A library card allows access to great books and information.  We are like your school library but you have more time to browse for books and we are open when your school library is closed (evenings; weekends; summer). 

Preschool-Gr. 1
We use this scenario to explain how a library works:

Ask who the books belong to (librarian? Nooooo; Library? Nooooo. You?  YES!)?  The books belong to all the kids and people in La Crosse. They live here at the library but they love to visit you.  When you have a visitor, do they stay forever?  Noooo. That’s right, they go back home.  When a book “visits” you, it stays for 3 weeks then you bring it back here to the library- its house.  Then another child checks it out.  We all share. [This can be expanded and played with depending on your crowd.]

For their tour, we do a theme each school year based on a children's book. Last year it was based on Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny. We placed stuffed book characters at the collection or room points we wanted to highlight. Then we searched for Knuffle Bunny and found all the other characters and told kids about those collections. Knuffle Bunny was found back in the storyroom where we shared another book or two. This year we are using Emma Dodd's Dog's Colorful Day. We'll have a white dog cut-out for each child and they will collect dots at each stop on the room tour.  More great books to use include Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where's Spot by Eric Hill.

Gr. 2-4

We can "play" a bit more with this age group. Our new colleague Sara came up with a great way to engage these kids. You can read about it at S. Bryce Kozla.

We also give the teachers options for an activity rather than just stories. So kids can be cataloged, barcoded and shelved; can do origami ; can create spine poetry; can play Book Bingo or get a booktalk. If teachers want a non-fiction concentration we let the kids know that the non-fiction is arranged alot like grocery stores. In stores, all the cereals are together; all the canned veggies are together -they aren't arranged alphabetically and that's how it is in non-fiction. I also like to ask kids if they know words in other languages.  Then I tell them my other language is Dewey Decimal and it helps me know exactly where the books are that they crave!

Finally, no matter what the age, we build in time for the kids to browse and ask questions while they go through the collection. These changes have really refreshed what we do and made our old tours into SUPER fun adventures for kids. What do you do to sparkle up these opportunities for kids at your library?

Image: 'Thor vs. Superman (49/365)'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00/4369073183

Playing That Mystery Game

An insanely simple but fun game we played with the kids this summer is actually a stealth book recommendation ploy. We offered it as one of the weekly activities kids could do in the SLP along with reading, writing and playing literacy games. We called it the "Mystery Game" and this is what we did.

We went through the collection and chose fun books that kids might not find on their own. You know the ones - picture books, easy readers, non-fiction and chapter books that you know are great and handsell when you can.  Once picked we slipped them into lunch bags (or donated plastic grocery bags) and wrote a grade on the front.  The grade level was a guesstimate and used as an aid for kids to narrow down their choices. 

We piled them on a table by grade level, put a sign up and watched the fun begin.  Kids were asked not to look inside - just pick a bag. At check-out they could take it out (and return the bag to us for refill) and take it home to test it for us.

Holy smokes!  Was that popular or what?  We probably had 20 books out for every grade level and we constantly re-filled or put out new bags. Kids came back again and again to pick a mystery book to try and told us how they felt about them.  We are pretty pleased that we could give some exposure to books that need a little love and attention. And the game aspect really tickled the kids.

Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Paw Prints 2008.

Pudding Proofs

Okie dokey - the final circulation stats are in for SLP.  Yesterday, the last day of August, with school starting today, was finally the quietest day since our summer reading program began June 6. Quiet enough to actually work on the wrap-up report!
So wassup? 
 
Even though we offered half the number of events during SLP, our circulation boomed with increases higher than we had ever experienced before in that time period.
Our new SLP was a big part of this success.  During July, our weekly bookmark format kept kids coming back again and again as they read and worked towards earning a book. That resulted in lots of book check-outs - we almost doubled our circ increases over the previous July.  It leads us to believe that designing the program to encourage July return visits is a keeper!

August was a whole other story. In previous years, usage and circ slowed down considerably.  This year, book prizes earned were available in the first two weeks of August. That brought lots of kids and families in during a traditionally very quiet time. A few well placed programs with big crowds kept the momentum going.

We are already thinking about how to keep the circulation momentum up next summer.  And we are happy to let our board and community know that kids in La Crosse read and check-out..alot!

Image: 'Food Photography - Bread & Butter Pudding' http://www.flickr.com/photos/74149825@N00/1725407679

A Program is a Program is a Program?

If you work with kids, you know that creating, planning, booking and doing programs takes a chunk of our work life. Because it is such an uber-part of our time, I can't help thinking about it and asking why it is we do what we do. Why, really, do we program? Is it to entertain?  Is it to educate? Is it to get people to the library?

I'm pretty old school about it.  For me, we create programs at the library to draw people into our buildings, to create a pleasant library experience and to highlight our collections, increase check-out and support literacy. Thinking about programs this way helps me plan realistically, create breaks for patrons and staff rather than program year-round and helps focus our energy. If programs are doing what they should, our usage and circulation should be directly affected in a positive way.

I like programs that relate to books and literacy and our collection (storytimes and book parties, I heart you). I like programs that piggyback onto pop culture interests of kids and debuting media that allows us to ride a popularity wave while relating back to our books and collections. I am less impressed with clowns, magicians and other performers that our community kids can see any and everywhere around here. I'm not saying we never book them, but I always wonder how it relates to what we are doing in a larger sense. 

I've also been thinking alot lately about the non-traditional program initiatives we're involved in and we've read about at other libraries  - 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, Summer Library Programs (yep, we all do SLP's but do we realize they are "programs" in and of themselves?) Story Action Pods, Free-quent Reader Club, Between-Storytime Coupon Books,Winter Reading programs, etc.  These initiatives are often run over a long period of time and fit all my definitions of programs listed above. What is their place in our program sphere?

Every time we plan and create one of these initiatives, we see people flocking in, circ increasing and interest in books and literacy skyrocket.  Yet we don't necessarily "see" them as programs or count them as programs in terms of attendance.  I think that's a mistake.

What I love about the above initiatives is that beyond the initial planning and very minimal daily administration, they take little staff time. They allow much greater staff-child interaction in the most pleasant way than almost all our traditional programs ("Wow, look at all the books you listened to!"; "Which one of these activities did you enjoy most this week?"; "What's going on in this picture?").  Much of the interaction leads to conversations about reading and books that are fundamentally important in creating a feeling of comfort and worth for these kids.

Yet, we barely count them as programs and the statistics are almost hidden.  We know and report how many kids sign-up for Summer Reading Program - but if we looked at participation (how many times did kids return to the library) - an initial participation rate of 521 kids skyrockets to over 2,000 return visits made to the library by these readers.  But that is usually a lost statistic.  Same for 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Club.  400 kids are being read to but we've had over 1,100 return visits to the library.

These initiatives - passive programs in a way or value-added programs in another light, or perhaps, best of all, stealth programs! - create just as much, and often more, response and participation than our traditional programs. We find ourselves in times of shrinking budgets turning more towards them. Since our state required program statistics only recognize traditional programming stats, we are discussing at our library how to recognize the importance of these unreported statistics that correlate to huge circulation increases and much busier Children's area.

We think they are programs.  How about you?



Image: 'Juggler'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/69444890@N00/404640681

1000 Books Before Kindergarten - 6 Month Update

So how goes this initiative after the first 6 months?

We are happy to have over 400 kids in the program; with just a touch under 50% working actively and returning to the library to trade in their 100 book-level sheets. We have twelve kids who have reached 1000 books and as you can see from the picture, our garden is starting to fill up with color as kids add dots as they finish levels (The 100-400 levels are on the bottom and getting the most color so far!)

We have had over 1,100 visits to the library by participating families during the six months of the program. Our circulation of Picture books, Board books and Easy Readers has gone through the ceiling with an average increase of 20% over last year (usual increases hover at 2-5%).

Parents have been enthusiastic participants and the kids are pretty avid as well. As usual with preschoolers, the congratulatory stickers and  stickers to put on the giant flowers are the big hits for them. The fingerpuppet and book at the 500 and 1000 levels don't quite compare to those sticker treats along the way. Parents do appreciate their little "thank you" rewards (lanyard, window cling and date-due slip magnetic holder) as they go along. But I think even without those parental rewards, they would be on board!

Publicizing the program is ongoing. We talk it up at storytimes. We have sent info to kids in area daycares.  Our schools have been enthusiastic supporters of this effort and we hope to keep reaching out and growing the program as we go along. We were invited to many of the schools during Kindergarten orientation and talked about the initiative and encouraged parents to read alot before the kids start school in fall. We are connecting with the Reach Out and Read program at the health clinics and providing posters and bookmarks for parents at "Well Baby" check-ups. We present at service clubs and organizations in our area.

How is it for staff?  One of our staffers keeps her eye on supplies. We planned for 1000 participants so all that material is ready when we need it.  Otherwise, it consumes very little of our time and the reward for a "passive" program and quality time encouraging kids and parents on their great job is worth every minute spent at "check-in" when they trade in their sheet. Everyone loves the extra time and interaction with the kids and parents and watching them beam as we praise them.

We think we are off to a great start...and more importantly, so are the kids!!

To find samples of our materials, check out our Winding Rivers Library System Youth website and scroll down towards the bottom of the page!

How'd We Do This Summer? - Deconstructing an SLP

Abby the Librarian has a great post up at the ALSC Blog assessing their library's summer reading program. I love it because it is one of my favorite things as SLP ends.
We try to do a wrap-up meeting as soon as we are finished to look at the positives and negatives.  We keep notes and incorporate any changes into our plans for the following year.  It's easy, it's fun and it makes sure that the programs remain fresh and serve the needs of the community and the staff!  Although our wrap-up meeting is a week away, I can share some of my thoughts on SLP 2011 efforts.

This year we introduced our Rubber Ducky Club for kids birth to 35 months that stressed pre-literacy skills and it was a huge success. Families were asked to return twice in the summer  - once for a rubber duck reward and once for a book.  We were pleased with the results of this program - so were the parents - and will definitely do it again.

Our elementary school Passport program with activitiy bookmarks (including reading; library book check-outs; attending programs; playing literacy games; using writing) went over great. I was pleased to read about the efforts at the Darien CT Library that Gretchen Caserotti wrote about in the Libraries and Transliteracy blog and felt like we are going in a good direction. One of my marvelous co-workers created a new early literacy activity area called "Story Action Pod" that encouraged kids to use art, writing and imagination to enhance their experience of books (you can read about it here at her fun new blog: S. Bryce Kozla.). This too was an activity that counted towards completing a bookmark and was a real hit for K-2 kids.

We had lots of return visits to the library which was a huge goal and people used the library more consistently throughout the whole program. Our print circulation stayed robust because we encouraged use of the collection. And parents and kids really loved the program and let us know. I think kids liked the stamping of their passport as much as getting a little "surprise" and they love the culminating book prize they are picking up now.

Our Teen program (whoa! I forgot to blog about it!) experienced a resurgence.  A key piece was adding a chance for kids to get a USB drive or $5 off their fines coupon (you can guess what 90% of the tweens and teens picked!) after 15 hours of reading/volunteering/program attendance and a book after 25 hours. In the past they had a chance to win a weekly prize but no guarantees that kids would receive a prize. So they were inspired to participate. They were also pumped about final raffle prizes: $75 gifts cards from B&N, Best Buy and Marcus Theaters.

We cut down on events and still had lots of usage - enough to consistently double staff our public service desk throughout the 8 week program - a first for us!  Despite the increased circ and usage and piloting new SLP formats, we had time to do reader's advisory and chat with kids and parents.  That was best of all!

Image: 'Pumpkin carving'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/99472898@N00/5127099146

Covers and Spines - Valuable Real Estate

I am always bemused (sometimes to the point of tearing out my hair, so that could take me slightly beyond bemusement) by how little regard library and automation planners and apparatchiks give to the amazing real estate we know as book covers and spines. You get a cover and a spine to sell books to kids. It freaks me out to see how much of that libraries can cover to make the book anything from asinine to undecipherable.

Two hilarious and unfortunate barcode placements highlighted recently in Awful Library Books blog here and here are perfect examples of this practice. Automation folks say the barcode MUST go here and chaos and snickers result. Of course the argument also goes that if we put the barcode on the back, we'll lose the back jacket blurb.  I don't display the book backwards, though, so I harumphingly say, let the cover shine.

Full authors names on the spine are another bete noire of mine.  I have heard it blatted about that it helps shelvers by giving them the info they need to shelve correctly. I'll agree (although our college-aged shelvers seem to have no trouble dealing with three letters or less in shelving exactly alphabetically...could have something to do with their excellent predictive skills or more like, their ability to read the author's full name higher up on the spine where the publisher placed it so we could see the author's moniker) somewhat. But really,  kids looking at spine-out books get to see "The Secret"  or "A Series" or "My Friend" without seeing the whole title.  How do they choose?  My favorite spine label cover-up is for a multi-volume fiction series that displays the word "The" for each book - and no, it doesn't include the series volume on the spine label, so every book needs to be pulled out to find the desired title. How very un-fourth law of Ranganathan!

And save yourselves now and don't let me get started on endless dewey numbers in juvenile non-fiction collections.  Come on!  Except for mega - and I mean freakin' - big collections at large urban libraries, why are we extending dewey numbers beyond one decimal for kids?  They come in and want a dinosaur or lion or bug or horse or dog or truck book - and for 98% of the kids it's ANY book on this subject. They don't particularly want a certain NF author just a book on their passion. And they just want to find a book now. Long deweys mean they have to come to us (ah, it's a job security issue, not a cataloging one?) to unlock the mystery of the impossible long number. 

Libraries using a BISAC model or truncating Dewey and replacing the cutter line with a clearer indication of the subject (636.1 HORSE; 796 FOOTBALL or F; 599.7 LION or L) are my BFFs and heroes. And libraries honoring preschoolers by busting out big subject areas in the picture books into more friendly subjects that tots crave (princesses, concepts, "big teeth" dinosaurs, sharks and felines", transportation, celebrations, fairytales) have my undying gratitude and respect.

I say let the book covers and spines shine out.  Let kids find books easily by wise decisions in cataloging, processing and automation issues. Let those books be free!


Image: 'Finally got to make something with this+awesome+vintage+fabric' http://www.flickr.com/photos/63103685@N00/3023635136

School-Schmool/Masters-Schmasters - Ya Need the Big Picture!

A great post from Mr. Library Dude questions whether it really matters exactly what MLIS school program you go through to get your degree and be employable.  My favorite paragraph: " I’ve never looked at anyone’s resume/cover letter and thought: “Wow, she graduated from X library school!” Library school is what you make of it. The MLS is just the basic requirement for the job. If all you do is take the required courses, but get no work experience, then you are setting yourself up for failure." He advocates instead making sure you have some work experience; get with mentor(s); be willing to move; learn to market yourself and your skills among other direct advice.

As someone who has worked with many people from various graduate schools, both at the libraries I've worked at and professionally on a state and national level , I agree with Joe.  It ain't the school -and I would add, it ain't the degree.  It's the passion, the ability to look at the big picture of serving our communities and making information, literacy and books (in whatever format) touch those communities in a meaningful way. You can have a string of letters after your name, but if you can't see the forest for the trees, you'll never make a great librarian.

I have worked with amazing and less-than-amazing folks over my 36+ year career and have been humbled by the amazing work of lots of non-degreed library staffers. I have also been underwhelmed by any number of MLSed blessed professionals who have the letters but are clueless on how to really bring great service to the table.

Having just gone through the hiring process, I agree with Joe.  I didn't care what school someone went through. I was looking for the telltale signs that spoke to the person's passion, energy and ability to see beyond Library Practices 101 and think about the real world of library work.  I was happy to see so many great candidates who fit that description but it was still a distinct minority of our applicant pool.  Folks who hire assume you can do the work.  The real issue is whether you can dream, imagine and then create the new reality that looking at the big picture of library work demands.

Capturing Numbers

I've had a couple of people ask me on- and off-line how we record our stats for summer and get staff buy-in with the process.

I like to track just enough data points to give us needed info but no more than is necessary:

• name
• grade going into (or age, if preschool)
• name of school or, if homeschooled
• participation level (we all know the number of kids registered for the program doesn't reflect the actual number of kids who return and participat

These numbers point me in the direction of how effective our SLP is, where we need to devote more planning or changes in direction, what is effective in our approach. Combined with anecdotal information, it gives us the info we need to meet the needs of our kids.

We have played with a number of methods to get this data. When I worked at a one-location (no branches) library, we set up a very simple excel sheet that we would record info. We could easily handle 1000 entries that way and perhaps more. It allowed us to do single and multiple data point sorting. Staff buy-in was easy because we had been doing alot of this tracking by hand (index cards that volunteers would sort at the end of the summer according to the various data we wanted). The downside of this method is that the spreadsheet could only be open on one computer at a time.

When I moved to my present job, staff used hatchmarks to keep track of kids registered for the program and that was it. We didn't know our participation rate, what schools or ages the kids were, how many incentives we gave out - nada beyond the number involved. Planning was challenging because it was based on...nothing. Our board asked questions when I reported out to them in August that I couldn't answer.

So we designed a simple Microsoft Access database for our three locations so we could enter info and track readers with the database. The same data was collected and we could easily do sorting in the database to extract the numbers we needed. We did have some access issues that made this database too glitchy to use though so we threw ourselves on the mercy of our library's IT guru who wrote a small, helpful database within our "intranet" system to handle the same duties. This is our favorite, of course, because it fits our needs to "T" - but we know not everyone has an IT guy in their library pocket.

Staff wasn't too sure about all this as we did the design for the databases. Once they saw what we could do with the data (anticipate staffing needs; better target buying or incentives and book prizes; calibrate our printing needs more precisely), there was a much better staff buy-in for using this new technology for keeping track of summer business. We have also been able to present some powerful data to our board and school colleagues. And, of course, because we base planning on what really happens, we tailor our design to our community's response - and we are seeing real success in increasing the number of kids who participate!

Image: 'Day 214'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/38451115@N04/4423765348

Statistically Speaking

Numbers are so boring....

...but numbers are so powerful! 

Today we got our June circ stats which gave us a real "Wow!" moment. Our print youth circ leapt up 17% and total youth circ jumped 13% over last June.  That is significant. Our usual increases come in at 2-5% and those are hard fought battles to raise those percentage points with our users.

What made the difference this year?  I definitely think our newly revamped summer programs I blogged about in June jumpstarted our circ. The programs for elementary school kids and teens are designed to encourage frequent returns to the library and that has encouraged alot more check-out of materials. Between our circ numbers report and our SLP database that helps us track the kids reading and produces helpful data, we know we are right where we want to be.

Most interesting in this whole time period is that we actually decreased the number of events and storytimes we presented. Our staffers felt some trepidation about this decision. Would less people coming to fewer programs impact our circ and usage? We are pleasantly surprised to see that the strength and make-up of our SLP program is the driver behind the circ uptick.

I am a stats monster from way back when.  Tracking numbers and usage can produce amazing information. The trick is to actually use the numbers we gather and only gather the numbers we'll use!  It wastes time to track program attendance if we file it away and never compare the numbers to circulation patterns or other programs we did in previous years. It makes sense to keep an eye on stats for circ or programs if we institue major changes in program direction, new initiatives or added value services. And stats definitely help us say when to say when and end programs or services that no longer garner the support of our users.

Stats don't always go the way we want.  But the information they provide can be a powerful tool to help us make the changes we need to keep programs, collections and services fresh and responsive to our users.

Image: 'Happy Pi Day (to the 36th digit)!' http://www.flickr.com/photos/64419960@N00/2332789392

Getting on Board

Last week I had the opportunity to talk with our board of trustees about some of the changes that we are making in Youth Services.  We set an ambitious agenda for ourselves late last year and have followed through on much of what we set out to do. There has been some upheaval-level transformation in our traditional approach to service as this happened. I wanted to give the board a heads-up so they could answer community -and staff - questions and concerns that might come up.

Although boards don't always get into this kind of detail with staff, I think it is important to give them alerts when major changes are being planned for services, programs and spaces.  I don't mean telling them about dropping a storytime or offering a new afterschool series.  I am talking about those truly expansive, BHAG evolutions that nudge - or launch - service into a whole new direction.  Offering outreach to a new demographic; curtailing a longtime service because it is no longer used; launching a new literacy initiative for an unserved demographic; etc.

Director, management and  colleagues should be in from the start as well.  Their buy-in, contributions and ideas contribute to making the transformation happen.  But it is important that our citizen board of trustees have knowledge of the changes as well. I figure the more a board knows and  understands, the more on board they will be. And the more they will share with others in the community from a great knowledge base since they've been kept informed.

The other key piece is keeping them updated with the successes or failures of any projects. It's as important to tell the story of what doesn't work as well as what works. Couple that with a brief analysis on why an effort faltered and whether a new approach to the project may produce a positive outcome. If it is a successful initiative, briefly share stats that show increased usage; share anecdotes from the public or collaborators and explain how some of the concerns expressed when it was first proposed didn't come about.

All this can be quickly done (5 minutes) in a brief address to the board once or twice a year when you have a big change to discuss.  Work with your director to make sure you have this opportunity or s/he presents it on your behalf. And if you can't get on the agenda, create a very brief report and ask your director to share with the board in their packet. Support of Youth Services is something we help create and getting everyone on board for our work makes it that much easier.