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Language: en

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[Music]

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thank you all for uh for being here
again uh this morning and for our robust

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uh discussions uh yesterday uh it was uh
both fun and enlightening and it's great

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to be back together and it's great that
all of you found uh

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enough uh
enlightenment or fun uh last night that

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you would return this morning so
i i wanna i do a few minutes uh with a

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couple of thoughts about yesterday as a
segue into today uh and then i will uh

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jump right into an introduction of tim
coates and and the freckle report uh uh

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momentarily so i i learned one important
thing yesterday and that is that we are

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all part of the illuminati

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and i want you to know that i have
already heard from marjorie taylor green

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um
she wants she wants to join

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the other thing that i heard i think
loud and clear

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yesterday
is that

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librarians
particularly the librarians who are

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gathered here uh but many others as well
are entrepreneurs and innovators

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uh and i and i think that's an important
takeaway for for a number of different

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reasons um it is that we have
the the first and most important reason

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is that we have a lot of agency
with what we do

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we there we have power in the library
world

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and it
as as libraries get bigger and more

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institutional the
the largest urban libraries

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if you're part of the city county system
uh if you have uh in in a small town or

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a suburban environment you have a
particularly active board

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uh i think you all know what i'm talking
about

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uh
of course there are limitations to this

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but but we shouldn't ever lose
the the important notion that as

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librarians as library directors that we
have agency in the world and um i think

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uh uh felton and carmen and diane
certainly demonstrated that and i know

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so many of the people in this room
who have also demonstrated that um it's

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easy i think
to uh in in the incredibly difficult

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times the things that that bob and
shaylin talked about uh yesterday the

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the things that i mentioned in in my
introduction the polarization in our

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world
sometimes there is the uh the tendency

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been tendency certainly over the last
couple of years for us to lose sight of

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that that we have significant agency
in the world and we'll talk some more

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about about that with tim and with tony
um

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and with marianne in terms of
reading uh and literacy

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and equity and and and where those
things meet um i understand there was

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some conversation particularly with our
academic colleagues uh about the

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relationship of literacy and reading and
what librarians do the ecology

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of that and its relationship to equity
and i do believe that that is the single

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most important
question before us

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today and that tim will have a lot to
say about that marianne will have a lot

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to say about that and i can't wait to
hear whatever tony has to say about

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anything
but i think that i keep that in mind as

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we go through what we're going through
today the the relationship of these

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things because sometimes i think we we
lose we lose that relationship

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um
another thing that is a takeaway and

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felton had said this to me before the
conference and he said it during the

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conference and and and i i mentioned i
mentioned it in my remarks last night

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but i want to repeat it um i think there
is a tendency for us to come away from a

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meeting like this both inspired and
determined to do something and then we

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say
um well we could do that or

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you know carmen and diane can do that
but can everybody do that are we all

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superhuman
and the answer of course is no and we're

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not uh
what is the average librarian the

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average library director what what are
they able to do

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and
and that's why i brought up jaime

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escalante last night i'm not sure i
finished that thought but i do want to

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finish that thought this morning
in in the work that i've done over the

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uh the last 30 years of my life i've
chaired a commission on the future of

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higher education in the in the state of
missouri that was sponsored by pew as a

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sort of model for the national governors
conference i worked with the kauffman

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foundation monroe was there uh for many
years uh very closely on on these issues

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i worked inside the not not just with
the

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kansas city uh school district i worked
inside the kansas city school district

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uh the the library worked with
individual schools charter schools in

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the district
um

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when i was in st louis uh i was involved
with bill danforth the chancellor of

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washington university and others in the
in the ending of the desegregation suits

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in kansas city and st louis which was a
huge thing huge thing nationally

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billions and billions of dollars etc i
feel have a right to say

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a couple of things to you about this
that i think are important things to be

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said the first thing i want to say is
on the side of the kids that we deal

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with
the kids are capable

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that's that's the takeaway i have from
what jaime escalante did with the

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calculus class in uh in the barrio
school in l.a is the kids actually have

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the capability
um

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and and
in the desegregation suit it was

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interesting to me
um there were people involved from both

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the right and the left
um republicans and democrats

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conservatives and liberals and i found
that some of the senior people on both

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sides if you got them after a couple of
drinks

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uh would say to me you know
the kids we can't help these kids we're

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babysitting these kids we're babysitting
these kids after second grade

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um we're not actually serving them
and and i know there are teachers in

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school districts and they're librarians
and libraries who believe that too

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and i think that is completely and
utterly wrong

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uh and and i have a long experience with
this i'm probably maybe the oldest

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person in the room
and i've been doing this for a long time

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and it's not the kids
it's our losing our sense of agency uh

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in this that i think is the single
biggest problem there are lots of

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problems school districts are problems
themselves

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uh money is a problem frequently though
it's probably less a problem than we

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sometimes think
but but the real problem is

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is that we don't when we find something
that works we don't do more of it

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and librarians know that

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the another takeaway from yesterday i
think is

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uh is how do we stop being transactional
and be

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you know to use the big word
transformative i would say it's more

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it's more about continuous improvement
it's more about doing more of the things

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that we know are right
um

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and i would say in and and tim will
we'll talk about this

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um and and i think in a very different
way marianne will we'll talk about this

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i think we we have to focus on the
things that make a difference

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the the key to not being transactional
is to remember

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what makes a difference and it tends to
be it is about the individual librarian

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or the individual teacher
may having an individual interaction

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uh with with the child if
children is what we're concentrated on

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and and
we're going to talk some about

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circulation in a minute
and i want to say one thing about

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circulation um and you know we're
talking about equity and equality not

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every circulation
is equal not every circ is equal and we

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know that i think every librarian knows
that

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um you put a book in the hands of a
child that awakens their imagination and

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that circulation uh is transformative
marianne we'll talk about that uh uh in

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a little while
and so the reading ecology how we relate

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what we do in libraries to how we how we
work uh with school districts with how

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we work with reading groups
many of which are represented in the

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in the audience and will be on our
panels

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is important to think about today
i also heard what was said what nicole

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said about
library school and what felton said

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about library school and uh and and
library directors have had every ulc

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meeting uh every night foundation
meeting some at some point in some

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corner of some room there is the same
discussion about library school

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and so i want to say this
two things

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one the imls
in our new budget should it ever pass

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um
should should congress get around to

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doing that we've been on a continuing
resolution now for almost six months uh

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and i don't think any records have been
set yet but they they're capable of it

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in that budget there there is a new
program five million dollars that we're

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putting towards professional development
program that is specifically designed

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around equity and uh and and
producing in professional development uh

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very in various forms
a more equitable pathway

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an encouragement of a more equitable
pathway particularly for people of color

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for for people who come from backgrounds
that most of us didn't come from

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i think it's important that we begin to
work with library schools at the imls do

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this and groups like this
begin to work with library schools and

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talk about the nature of professional
development talk about the importance of

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the mls or mlis
in the world and other potential

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pathways of professional development
that don't involve uh

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immediate uh
excuse me immediate move into

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uh
postgraduate education that don't

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necessarily take the time and money that
can be mid-career etc and that focus on

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uh the
the equitable provision of that kind of

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advancement so that the management
levels of our

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libraries
can become

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more like the rest of america
i think that i think that's important i

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think we we have to talk begin talking
about that uh out of uh out of this uh

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meeting
and we have we have some money at the

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imls to uh to begin working on on that
and we can do uh some convening around

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that
um

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i think at the end of today um i want to
talk a little bit more about

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polarization that obviously is a major
topic and it's something that that bob

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and sheila and talk about um uh very
very eloquently and how the i we i

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cycle in american history has taken us
to a particularly bad place

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today
i think i'm uniquely qualified

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because i'm a political appointee who
was endorsed by the both the ala and the

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cato institute
and uh

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and then i've worked successfully so far
with that former president guy and our

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current president neither of whom i'm
sure actually knew who i was by the way

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but um
and i think america 250 the 250th

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anniversary of the declaration
um will give us an opportunity uh as a

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as a profession as an industry uh and
and as one of the trusted institutions

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uh in america as maybe the most trusted
institution in america uh to to talk

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about uh polarization and to do
something about polarization as i say

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i'll talk a little bit more at the at
the end about that

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uh anyway uh so i i want to segue now to
uh

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uh to tim uh and and what will
uh what we'll what he'll be talking

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about um
tim coats has had a fascinating career

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um
he uh it's a career uh with books god

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bless you
uh for that um

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he's been a marketing director of large
retailers uh in in england including

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waterstones any any of you who've
traveled in england will know know the

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name waterstones
he was managing director of the uk

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academic division of baker and taylor
again company that many of you know

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he's been called the best bookseller uh
in england uh which

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you know is a great title to uh uh to
have

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um
he's testified before that house of

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commons uh
uh on on the subject of books and and

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literacy and
uh and libraries he has a master's

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degree from a little university uh north
of london called oxford

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and he wants to grab
you

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and me
by the lapels

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and
shake us up

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uh and
and

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and ask us
um

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if we know what we're doing
do we really know what we're doing in

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the library world
his statistics actually there are

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statistics the imos statistics
he wants to take a look at those and ask

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us if we know what we're doing
uh he wants to share these statistics um

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uh
with uh with the imos and and its uh

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director uh until some knowledge of the
meaning and limitations of our

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statistics might might fall out of our
heads

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um he wants us to think more about our
collections and their impact

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uh about our buildings and their use
um he's a little bit like

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the crazy uncle that you know you invite
with trepidation

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uh to uh
thanksgiving

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christmas dinner
um he comes from across the pond uh to

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join our dinners uh here um and uh and
and maybe when he gets up and leave mom

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and dad will sigh a sigh of relief
um but you know something you're going

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to realize after you've heard what tim
has to say

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actually lisa and rivka had dinner with
him last night and they came back

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converted you know it was you know i i
thought the the pod people had gotten

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them uh
but uh after after he after he's done i

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think you will look at our numbers in a
little bit different way

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um and i think that's really important
because again as i said yesterday i

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think there's an awful lot of inertial
activity and inertial thinking uh in the

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library world not unlike every other
professional world by the way but

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it's it's moments like this that we can
we can do something else

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so purpose
uh and perspective is what we're about

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here and i would like to give you one
perspective one thing that uh tim

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uh uh i think
it ignores is the wrong word but i think

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qualifies his perspective a little bit
um and it's this

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the statistics that he'll show you are
2009 to 2018 mostly

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and that's exactly the life cycle
of this the iphone

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uh and i think that is the great
externality of what we're talking about

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it doesn't mean that his the statistics
and what he says any less important or

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the perspective but what we do about
this

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i mean i i've said this before in in a
number of meetings when i came to the

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library in 2005
that the most interesting thing to me

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was the lines of kids teenagers
particularly teenagers the teenage well

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you
you know before before the late 90s you

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wouldn't have seen teenagers in the
library at all right um

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and and and particularly
uh kids of color particularly say an

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00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:54.000
african-american teenage male was
probably the last person you would see

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in a public library at 9 00 a.m on
saturday morning

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and yet when i showed up the library in
2005 they were lined up at our bluford

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library and why was that the use of
computers

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00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:13.520
by
2016 or 17 they weren't lined up anymore

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because of this
it's simply that

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true i think simple it's that simply
true

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um and i think we haven't done enough
thinking about that i think we all know

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this and we all think about social media
and we all think about um uh

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reading online etc etc but really it's
about

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this
and so i would keep that in mind as you

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hear what tim
has to say

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[Music]
it is significantly about the nature of

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reading in my view
marianne will also talk about this

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00:17:47.120 --> 00:17:51.120
and so um
think today about the building as an

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asset and a liability
your buildings is an asset no liability

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think about your collection
as an asset that you focus on as a

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transformational asset not simply as
numbers

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that not every circulation is equal and
that being mindful about this and

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00:18:10.320 --> 00:18:14.799
intentional about this is really
important and so ladies and gentlemen

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00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:19.240
tim coats and the freckle report

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00:18:39.760 --> 00:18:44.000
thank you crosby now where have you gone
i was over there

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00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.760
thank you i'm very very grateful i'm i'm
grateful

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00:18:47.760 --> 00:18:51.520
and would like to say how grateful i am
because

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00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:55.039
a year ago it must be nearly now i got
this call

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00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:59.840
completely out of the blue from someone
of whom i confess i had never heard

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and uh then i worked out who he was
and he has been nothing but kind

254
00:19:05.919 --> 00:19:11.039
and interested in in the things that
that i've been writing ever since that

255
00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:13.919
and
and then of course it's wonderful to be

256
00:19:13.919 --> 00:19:17.360
able to come here that's that's very
special i i

257
00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:20.720
haven't been at the end of the street
for two years never mind

258
00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:26.160
so to be able to come here is special
so thank you i mean it i'd also if i may

259
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:30.400
like to thank catherine
if she if she if she's in the room

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00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.559
oh catherine for the arrangements that
you and your colleagues have made

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because it makes a tremendous difference
if you know if everything is done as

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00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:44.160
nicely as it has been
so thank you

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00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:56.880
i i'm going to show you oh if i
may i just say first can you all i can't

264
00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.799
see what's on the screen yet can you can
is there anyone who can't read

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00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:04.400
what's on the screen
because i i

266
00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:09.919
shan't normally yeah i can say oh thanks
i i shall normally

267
00:20:09.919 --> 00:20:12.559
speak
or read out what's there if you can read

268
00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:16.159
it that that's fine that's that's all i
wanted to say

269
00:20:16.159 --> 00:20:21.039
okay so i'm going to show you
information

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00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:27.600
which comes from three sources
the first as crosby says is the imls own

271
00:20:27.600 --> 00:20:31.600
data which they publish every year in in
magical spreadsheets

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00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:37.120
uh huge spreadsheets which are full of
really really important information

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00:20:37.120 --> 00:20:41.600
the second is a
consumer survey which

274
00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:46.840
was initiated three years ago so
therefore before the pandemic

275
00:20:46.840 --> 00:20:51.919
began which is called where did you get
your book

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00:20:51.919 --> 00:20:55.440
and it starts
by asking

277
00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:00.960
anybody who who will answer have you
read or made use of a book in the in the

278
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:05.840
past year
and about 80 percent of americans

279
00:21:05.840 --> 00:21:10.640
respond yes to that question
and that's consistent we've done it

280
00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:14.960
three or four times now and
that's and in fact that number has risen

281
00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:19.600
during the pandemic so more people
it appears have been using or reading

282
00:21:19.600 --> 00:21:23.600
books and it's a very big number
it's probably more than people who would

283
00:21:23.600 --> 00:21:28.240
say they'd watched a film a movie
or had watched the tv series

284
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:33.120
so a lot of people read that's very
important to understand

285
00:21:33.120 --> 00:21:39.600
of that of of that 80 to 83 percent
about 15

286
00:21:39.600 --> 00:21:44.400
got their most recent book from a public
library

287
00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:50.159
so that's not a bad number the 15
but it shows the scale of what the

288
00:21:50.159 --> 00:21:53.840
library service does
it means that

289
00:21:53.840 --> 00:21:58.880
four out of five people who read
don't get their books from the public

290
00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:00.880
library
and

291
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:04.799
it therefore shows also
when we talk about non-users which is a

292
00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:08.159
librarian expression
we're not really talking about people

293
00:22:08.159 --> 00:22:11.039
who don't read or aren't interested in
reading

294
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:16.000
we're predominantly talking about people
who do read and are interested but but

295
00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.240
don't choose to use the library
and that's important too

296
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:25.120
because you'll find that a theme of what
i'm going to say is about increasing use

297
00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:30.720
and a lot of the increasing use we can
get is from people who do actually read

298
00:22:31.840 --> 00:22:35.440
the the third
source of information is is the reports

299
00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:39.440
that that crosby has been talking about
there are two one called freckle report

300
00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:42.880
20
and the other freckle report 21 and just

301
00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:47.600
so that you get a drift
of of of what i say i'll just read you

302
00:22:47.600 --> 00:22:51.200
from the paragraph right right at the
beginning of of the of the more recent

303
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:56.320
one
throughout this report there is great

304
00:22:56.320 --> 00:23:01.039
stress on the importance
of reversing the decade-long reported

305
00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:05.840
decline
in use of public library buildings

306
00:23:05.840 --> 00:23:09.200
and particularly of the printed work
that they contain

307
00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:13.520
in all the countries because i covered a
number of countries

308
00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:21.200
both inside and outside the library
service there is a widespread sense that

309
00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:26.640
technology has made this inevitable
this author firmly believes this is not

310
00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.559
the case
that libraries provide universal free

311
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.880
access to written material is a
miraculous and brilliant idea of our

312
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:38.159
ancestors
technologies

313
00:23:38.159 --> 00:23:42.559
that have already found how to make
material digital

314
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:46.240
to improve the ability to search and
find

315
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:52.799
and to transform book supply chains
should all make the library service much

316
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.240
more useful
not less

317
00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:59.919
we just haven't found the way

318
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.039
the penalty for not addressing these
matters quickly

319
00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:08.400
is that decline leads to closure
as we are already seeing

320
00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:12.480
in some places
but worse than closure

321
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:18.080
is the truth that we will have deprived
the generations that follow us of

322
00:24:18.080 --> 00:24:22.240
something that we all believe to be
profoundly important

323
00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:27.039
we can't do that
could i have the next slide oh i've got

324
00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:32.520
this excuse me
somewhere here

325
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:35.679
is the slide

326
00:24:41.120 --> 00:24:46.120
they go here it is just here we go

327
00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.200
this

328
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:05.760
it's been going on for 20 to 30 years
that

329
00:25:05.760 --> 00:25:08.960
somehow
somewhere somebody decided that we

330
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:12.799
should keep offering more services
within public libraries we feel it's the

331
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:16.640
right thing to do
and the intention of it has to have been

332
00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:20.240
it couldn't be anything else
that it would broaden the access of

333
00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:26.679
libraries to more people
but it hasn't worked

334
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:48.080
we rarely almost never
hear anyone talk about

335
00:25:48.080 --> 00:25:53.279
the fact that reading is private
for a child to read a book

336
00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:57.600
or for you to read a book is a private
thing to do

337
00:25:57.600 --> 00:26:01.919
reading is not a community activity i
know that there are reading groups of

338
00:26:01.919 --> 00:26:06.240
course i do
but the point about reading is it is a

339
00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:09.600
private experience
and

340
00:26:09.600 --> 00:26:15.440
what the role of the library is is to
help that occur and take place and

341
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:20.400
and for benefit to come from it
we hardly ever talk about that we talk

342
00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:23.279
all about all about the community
activities

343
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:26.480
and yet to a child
the point is that they should read

344
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:29.480
something

345
00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:43.279
so these figures for the last 10 years
they're exactly the same as the sheets

346
00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:46.080
which are on your table

347
00:26:46.159 --> 00:26:49.880
every single year

348
00:26:58.159 --> 00:27:02.000
oh thank you all thank you thank you

349
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:09.279
it means that at the end of each year
nobody looked

350
00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:18.799
the the green are
print circulations

351
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:22.080
and and the yellow are
our

352
00:27:22.080 --> 00:27:25.279
digital circulations

353
00:27:25.919 --> 00:27:31.520
by 2019
we had invested oceans of money

354
00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:36.080
in in digital circulation in digital
licenses

355
00:27:36.080 --> 00:27:38.480
ocean

356
00:27:43.360 --> 00:27:47.520
in-house
this expression i've used here simply

357
00:27:47.520 --> 00:27:52.000
means i've extracted the things the
library services that take place as

358
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:58.240
cosmic would say on the phone that you
don't have to go into the library to do

359
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:02.480
the largest of all is borrowing books
you'll see some some fixes some figures

360
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:06.960
about that in a moment
but none of none of the other activities

361
00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:11.120
come anywhere near
making up for the for for the falling

362
00:28:11.120 --> 00:28:14.480
use of the buildings
that has arisen from the fall in

363
00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:17.840
circulation of print books

364
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:22.240
year after year
this is these of course average which

365
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.480
means that there are some which are
better

366
00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:30.000
and some which are worse
but year after year

367
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.960
nobody's noticed

368
00:28:35.520 --> 00:28:40.880
children's books too
and as patricia will tell you i think is

369
00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:43.919
that
it can be understood that most of these

370
00:28:43.919 --> 00:28:48.720
figures are probably actually worse than
than the graph shows because they get

371
00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:51.919
reported a bit high but that's i'm not
going to get into that

372
00:28:51.919 --> 00:28:54.320
you can

373
00:28:56.080 --> 00:29:00.799
so our job of helping children to find
what they would like to read has not

374
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:03.679
been successful

375
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.919
is the point that
crosby was making that there was a time

376
00:29:09.919 --> 00:29:14.080
when there was very limited access to
the internet and the libraries performed

377
00:29:14.080 --> 00:29:16.880
but that has gone down
[Music]

378
00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:20.559
so you couldn't now build an operation
on the base of

379
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:25.480
using free access to the internet in the
libraries

380
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:31.520
people say to me oh you don't understand
it doesn't happen in my place it does

381
00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:35.200
those figures are full there are falls
in every single state

382
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:39.600
every single state
and then they've also falls in every

383
00:29:39.600 --> 00:29:45.520
single of the 70 largest
libraries in the country i went through

384
00:29:45.520 --> 00:29:50.520
them all they're all they're listed in
this report

385
00:29:54.559 --> 00:30:00.399
and it's not just a number
if if use is falling it means that

386
00:30:00.399 --> 00:30:03.760
certain families no longer go to the
library

387
00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:08.640
it means people no longer use the lang
the library as a dependable place to go

388
00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:12.960
all the things we talk about trust
doesn't don't apply to an increasing

389
00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:19.039
number of people
and nobody does anything about it

390
00:30:21.520 --> 00:30:26.240
and it's not because there's no money
the american public library service has

391
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:31.279
over 13 billion dollars a year
and then and the amount is rising well

392
00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:34.480
we haven't seen so we haven't seen the
most recent figures but

393
00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:38.720
up until 2019 it was writing every year
there's no reason to think it works

394
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:42.240
so okay i'm sure that there are places
where where money is short of course

395
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.360
there are
but in totality you cannot blame the

396
00:30:45.360 --> 00:30:49.440
politicians for not giving you enough
money

397
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:53.200
interesting on this graph the green is
the staff cost

398
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.320
the little lines in the middle the blue
and the

399
00:30:56.320 --> 00:31:02.880
that's the material budget in the middle
just see how small it is

400
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.519
compared to the amount of money
available

401
00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:09.840
it's less than 10
in total and of that

402
00:31:09.840 --> 00:31:14.240
a fraction of it is spent on print
materials

403
00:31:15.679 --> 00:31:19.679
so people could rightly say but you have
all this money

404
00:31:19.679 --> 00:31:24.559
and the thing that we all come for
are materials so why do you spend so

405
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:28.080
little
and of what you do spend why does so

406
00:31:28.080 --> 00:31:33.840
much of it go to some wholesalers who
take you know best part of half of it

407
00:31:38.320 --> 00:31:41.279
there's the there's the spend on
primitive and this and your the sheet on

408
00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:44.880
your table actually shows that over 20
years the spending on print material has

409
00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:50.720
gone has gone down by a lot but this is
what people come for

410
00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:56.159
can you imagine a store doing that
and then the yellow is the the digital

411
00:31:56.159 --> 00:32:01.919
spend and what a huge portion of the
total spend it it had become by time by

412
00:32:01.919 --> 00:32:07.360
2019 remembering that
digital circulation was less than 10

413
00:32:07.360 --> 00:32:10.679
of the total

414
00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:29.840
we've added a lot of services but nobody
asked us to

415
00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:36.679
accept ourselves

416
00:32:43.919 --> 00:32:48.640
this slide is really important it's
probably the most important in the deck

417
00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:51.919
it's it comes from this consumer survey
we've done

418
00:32:51.919 --> 00:32:54.320
this
we've done it now three times

419
00:32:54.320 --> 00:32:56.880
it's all they all say exactly the same
thing

420
00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:00.720
it's completely tied up with any other
consumer survey that you would see

421
00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:04.960
and the question asked is when you in
this instance is when you last visited

422
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:08.480
the library what did you go for

423
00:33:09.120 --> 00:33:13.679
85 percent
of library visits are either for reading

424
00:33:13.679 --> 00:33:17.200
borrowing books reading books sitting or
sitting and studying

425
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:21.039
so when we talk about traditional and
progressive

426
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:23.840
which are
difficult words because they've been

427
00:33:23.840 --> 00:33:28.720
used in the education sector and become
come to me very little

428
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:31.840
what people want in the library service
are books

429
00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:37.960
and somewhere somewhere to sit and work
and study at all ages

430
00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:53.600
we haven't been looking at the data
and we're managers and we're managing a

431
00:33:53.600 --> 00:33:56.480
lot of public money

432
00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:04.000
so we have to do something about it
and my solutions are really simple

433
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:08.879
it's the reputation that matters
not circulation they don't they come

434
00:34:08.879 --> 00:34:11.599
second
what matters is re-establishing the

435
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:14.639
reputation as being a place
that

436
00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:19.359
that will provide what you want to read
it's reading that changes lives not

437
00:34:19.359 --> 00:34:22.720
libraries
it's reading that would enable a

438
00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:26.399
generation of
teenagers to do the transformation we

439
00:34:26.399 --> 00:34:30.079
were talking about yesterday
and they would do it and we believe that

440
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:33.760
they should because they read
the transformation doesn't come because

441
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:36.879
they come into the library
it comes because they will have read

442
00:34:36.879 --> 00:34:40.159
something that will help them

443
00:34:40.480 --> 00:34:44.720
that's a picture i want when i talk
about library collections i don't just

444
00:34:44.720 --> 00:34:48.320
mean you have to buy the right things
you have to display them properly you

445
00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:52.960
have to keep complete series
you have to have plenty of copies new

446
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:56.240
copies
of all the things that people want

447
00:34:56.240 --> 00:34:59.879
and we don't do that

448
00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:08.560
we are not going to
increase the use of libraries by

449
00:35:08.560 --> 00:35:12.240
programs it's not going to happen
because that's just a statement of

450
00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:15.240
arithmetic

451
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:25.680
the collections need to be diverse
i took the doctors sarah somewhere she

452
00:35:25.680 --> 00:35:29.680
would talk to telling us yesterday i had
the importance of of the diverse

453
00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:34.560
ethnicity ethnicity of the collections
is so important and it's the one thing

454
00:35:34.560 --> 00:35:38.160
that libraries can do that nobody else
can do because they work in small

455
00:35:38.160 --> 00:35:40.720
communities

456
00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:45.440
and more backless so
believes me 90 of what people read is

457
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.640
what is not stuff that i've just been
published

458
00:35:48.640 --> 00:35:52.480
it's stuff that's been around a long
time you have to replenish the backlist

459
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:56.960
collections with new copies of things
it's basic stuff

460
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:02.000
here's a nice display of of a children's
section in a bookshop

461
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.320
to show you that you don't need green
dinosaurs made of fluffy cloth

462
00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:11.040
to attract children into a lot into like
what you need very attractive

463
00:36:11.040 --> 00:36:14.560
displays like this face out using the
illustrations that the publishers have

464
00:36:14.560 --> 00:36:20.000
put on the books kids love that that's
absolutely that's heaven

465
00:36:20.240 --> 00:36:25.680
so i have three recommendations really
we have to measure better and we have to

466
00:36:25.680 --> 00:36:29.440
pay attention to the measurements that
we have

467
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:35.200
we need to spend more money and more
concentrate more on diversifying and

468
00:36:35.200 --> 00:36:38.240
improving the quality of the print book
collations

469
00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:43.040
and then we have to make sure that we do
use those things to increase

470
00:36:43.040 --> 00:36:47.920
the use of the life
and we have to do it quickly

471
00:36:48.079 --> 00:36:51.240
thank you

472
00:37:10.560 --> 00:37:16.800
so thank you tim and and that sets the
stage for uh a response a speed response

473
00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:22.640
we're we're calling it uh from uh uh
from three of our uh

474
00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:27.359
panelists uh who i want to introduce now
um and

475
00:37:27.359 --> 00:37:30.800
let me get my
introduction here

476
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.400
um
uh

477
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:40.400
so jenny garner who is the library
director in north liberty uh iowa the

478
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:44.240
north liberty library uh a place that
she's been for

479
00:37:44.240 --> 00:37:49.760
25 years six is the director
who is an advocate for rural libraries

480
00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:54.079
and the president-elect of the
association of role and small libraries

481
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:56.240
parcel
um

482
00:37:56.240 --> 00:38:00.400
she's also involved with the iowa city
unesco city of literature executive

483
00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:04.160
board
the iowa library association

484
00:38:04.160 --> 00:38:08.160
and uh
focused on uh social justice uh

485
00:38:08.160 --> 00:38:14.560
diversity equity and inclusion and uh
jenny is over here okay and they're

486
00:38:14.560 --> 00:38:19.280
gonna be doing this from their from
their seats at the at the table

487
00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:23.200
pat lucinski i can't believe this is
true but i'm reading this in in pat's

488
00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:27.200
bio that he actually has been the
director of the columbus library since

489
00:38:27.200 --> 00:38:34.720
columbus founded columbus in 1492.
no no i'm sorry 2002. he's been been the

490
00:38:34.720 --> 00:38:42.000
director since since uh uh 2002. um uh
columbus uh ceo magazine has named him

491
00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:46.880
ceo of of the year uh
columbus business circle award for the

492
00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:52.560
most admired uh executive uh university
wisconsin high school distinguished

493
00:38:52.560 --> 00:38:56.320
alumnus award we go on and on and on
with uh uh

494
00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:00.640
with uh uh his uh
his um

495
00:39:00.640 --> 00:39:04.800
in comey uh pat has been a leader in the
uh in the library world i think

496
00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:07.920
everybody here knows knows that um and
he's

497
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:12.560
pat is way over there table five
uh kelvin watson kelvin has already

498
00:39:12.560 --> 00:39:19.119
taken some hits uh today uh yesterday
kelvin is over here uh he's he's run uh

499
00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:22.720
some of the largest libraries in the in
the world he's currently running the las

500
00:39:22.720 --> 00:39:29.839
vegas library with its 25 branches and
77 million dollar uh budget um and uh

501
00:39:29.839 --> 00:39:34.160
he's received a number of awards as well
uh broward county library when he's

502
00:39:34.160 --> 00:39:39.200
running it was uh named the library of
the of the year in uh in florida uh and

503
00:39:39.200 --> 00:39:44.480
he was the
ceo of the of the uh queen's library uh

504
00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:50.160
and uh you know he's uh he he was a
commissioned officer in in the uh in the

505
00:39:50.160 --> 00:39:56.320
army and he uh uh
has had a a life outside of the library

506
00:39:56.320 --> 00:40:00.160
world but in the library world but from
the from the commercial side working for

507
00:40:00.160 --> 00:40:05.680
for ingram uh uh and uh
and others so he brings a particularly

508
00:40:05.680 --> 00:40:11.359
unique perspective i think uh on on
things so

509
00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:15.839
terry you want to
put this together

510
00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:21.920
so we have a slightly different format
than yesterday each of our respondents

511
00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:26.720
will have two minutes to stand from
their seats and respond to tim's

512
00:40:26.720 --> 00:40:31.040
presentation and then tim will have two
minutes to respond at the end of those

513
00:40:31.040 --> 00:40:34.960
remarks and then
crosby will come back up and introduce

514
00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:40.160
our next keynote and we'll sort of start
the cycle again so with that um can i

515
00:40:40.160 --> 00:40:45.440
call on calvin we'll go we'll go down
the line here so calvin jenny and pat

516
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:50.480
all right hot mike
good morning everyone so uh

517
00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:55.040
so i've had the opportunity to talk to
tim a couple of times uh when he uh

518
00:40:55.040 --> 00:40:59.040
issued the first freckle report so
some of the things that i'll say is that

519
00:40:59.040 --> 00:41:02.720
you know my background also is in
bookstores so i worked for borders and

520
00:41:02.720 --> 00:41:07.200
borders as you recall had lots of
programs so i would say that was one way

521
00:41:07.200 --> 00:41:12.160
that we actually drove actually
people into the bookstores it was not

522
00:41:12.160 --> 00:41:16.720
just about it wasn't totally about the
reading as you know but it was also the

523
00:41:16.720 --> 00:41:22.160
programmatic aspects as well and that's
a similar approach that i use in um

524
00:41:22.160 --> 00:41:26.720
in libraries and so in broward county
the reason that we were florida library

525
00:41:26.720 --> 00:41:30.640
of the year is because we actually
increased not only our circulation but

526
00:41:30.640 --> 00:41:36.480
we also had the programmatic aspects as
well so i i think that

527
00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:41.599
you know um
for our our roles leveraging our

528
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:46.800
resources both inside and outside the
library right increase

529
00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:53.359
people's awareness of libraries
we put digital libraries on 400 buses in

530
00:41:53.359 --> 00:41:57.200
las vegas
increased library card holders increased

531
00:41:57.200 --> 00:42:01.760
circulation
again it's it's leveraging those that

532
00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:06.960
the resources all of the resources um
working directly with school students

533
00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:10.960
with programs like community share where
we're delivering electronic books

534
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:16.400
directly to the student
in on their at their desktop right so

535
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:19.730
these are uh
my two minutes are up

536
00:42:19.730 --> 00:42:24.800
[Laughter]
oh oh the wrap up is 30 seconds okay in

537
00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:28.839
30 seconds what i will say
is that

538
00:42:28.839 --> 00:42:34.079
um programs and the services and the
the libraries bringing the community

539
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:40.000
hubs can drive
marketing of the library increasing

540
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.839
people coming in that's what my
perspective is

541
00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:55.440
well i'll just kelvin said it i'm done
um

542
00:42:55.440 --> 00:43:00.079
i was going to start with this i think
it's also about impact it's not all

543
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:04.960
about the numbers the numbers are great
and we need them and we're not great at

544
00:43:04.960 --> 00:43:09.119
collecting them we talked about this
yesterday at our table um

545
00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:11.359
i'm going to tell you a really quick
story

546
00:43:11.359 --> 00:43:15.200
about a young girl who came to a poetry
night that i had when i was a teen

547
00:43:15.200 --> 00:43:19.440
librarian
i was a teenager when i started 25 years

548
00:43:19.440 --> 00:43:23.119
ago
who we had a program and i was really

549
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:27.280
excited because we had a pretty good
turnout for most of our teen programs

550
00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:30.800
and this particular one was a poetry
slam and i was so excited to do it for

551
00:43:30.800 --> 00:43:35.760
the first time and we had 10 people and
i was like oh bummer this is so sad and

552
00:43:35.760 --> 00:43:39.920
the next day a mom called me and she
said i want to thank you my daughter has

553
00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:42.960
been dealing with depression and
suicidal thoughts

554
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:48.720
and your program meant so much to her
and it changed my way of thinking

555
00:43:48.720 --> 00:43:53.040
i had an impact
so every day in our library where i work

556
00:43:53.040 --> 00:43:57.680
where we have 20 000 people in our town
i've worked in three libraries all in

557
00:43:57.680 --> 00:44:01.599
north liberty because i started in a
library that was 1200 square feet

558
00:44:01.599 --> 00:44:07.200
and 10 years later we built a 6 400
square feet library and 10 years later

559
00:44:07.200 --> 00:44:12.160
we built an 18 000 square foot library i
worked with three people when i started

560
00:44:12.160 --> 00:44:16.640
i now have 20 employees under me
so our library is growing our library is

561
00:44:16.640 --> 00:44:21.040
growing fast our community is growing
fast our circulation numbers are pretty

562
00:44:21.040 --> 00:44:24.960
good they're not where i'd want them to
be and of course after covid we know

563
00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:29.359
that libraries are resilient and we know
that libraries respond to what the

564
00:44:29.359 --> 00:44:32.960
community needs i turned from going into
the community and saying here's what i

565
00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:36.000
have to give you to go into the
community and saying what is it you need

566
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:40.000
from us and how can we help you
and i think that is one of the solid

567
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.560
answers and the other is marketing as
kelvin brought up but how do we as small

568
00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:49.960
libraries leverage that when we don't
have the funds

569
00:44:54.640 --> 00:45:00.079
so our favorite uncle tim
gives us that gloomy report and then

570
00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:07.200
says pat lucinski says it's worse
thanks tim i can't wait for the staff

571
00:45:07.200 --> 00:45:12.880
development day speaking invitations to
flood my mailbox after that one

572
00:45:12.880 --> 00:45:19.440
um but actually it's true and um
i think what what tim really hits on is

573
00:45:19.440 --> 00:45:25.440
the brand of libraries still being books
when you see that 70 number

574
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:29.760
it's a big deal we don't talk enough
about it oclc did a series of reports

575
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:34.560
over the last decade that confirmed its
books its books its books so that's our

576
00:45:34.560 --> 00:45:39.760
brand and so we need to think about
what the story is if that's not the

577
00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:45.520
brand moving forward
good news is it and first of all why is

578
00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:48.319
it worse
because we were certainly one of the

579
00:45:48.319 --> 00:45:53.200
libraries that early adopters to get rid
of fines fine free

580
00:45:53.200 --> 00:45:56.960
many of us also put in automated
renewal

581
00:45:56.960 --> 00:46:00.319
why hold the book on the shelf if the
customer can keep it in their home for a

582
00:46:00.319 --> 00:46:04.640
couple more weeks
so what you're seeing here

583
00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:08.720
our library actually has 10 renewals and
i know of plenty of libraries that have

584
00:46:08.720 --> 00:46:13.280
five renewals
so what you're seeing here is

585
00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:17.200
all of the circulation when what you
should look at in your library is first

586
00:46:17.200 --> 00:46:20.960
time circulation
because all the others are circulations

587
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:24.880
of convenience
not actually new circulation so the

588
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:29.359
numbers are actually much worse
and it's sort of the law of unintended

589
00:46:29.359 --> 00:46:33.520
consequences of the fine free
people no longer have to come in to the

590
00:46:33.520 --> 00:46:37.040
library for another visit where we could
hook them with new materials so it's an

591
00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:39.760
interesting thing that's happened on the
good

592
00:46:39.760 --> 00:46:44.880
side during the pandemic our job was a
whole lot easier than museums because we

593
00:46:44.880 --> 00:46:50.160
had a product that people could come in
and get from their car

594
00:46:50.160 --> 00:46:55.599
on the bad side that is no longer kind
of where our future is

595
00:46:55.599 --> 00:46:59.599
and
if i have one criticism of tim's

596
00:46:59.599 --> 00:47:03.680
report is that it focuses on inputs and
outputs

597
00:47:03.680 --> 00:47:08.880
and as elusive as they are i think our
real opportunity is to talk about

598
00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:12.079
community-based outcomes that we can be
a part of

599
00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:18.599
but that will be part of my remarks when
i'm up on stage thank you

600
00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:38.160
um
thank you very much

601
00:47:38.160 --> 00:47:40.960
calvin
um

602
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:45.040
of those points i would like to address
one particularly

603
00:47:45.040 --> 00:47:49.760
when people look at these numbers
they it's frequently say to me it's the

604
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:54.079
impact that you don't
seem to understand

605
00:47:54.079 --> 00:47:58.079
the impact
is on the people

606
00:47:58.079 --> 00:48:01.760
who use the service
and the measurement of it is whether

607
00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:07.200
they choose to use the service again
so if the use of the service is going

608
00:48:07.200 --> 00:48:11.280
down
the impact has been negative

609
00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:15.920
so i mean for years i've heard people
say it's all about impact we need impact

610
00:48:15.920 --> 00:48:19.200
measures no one can ever produce impact
measures

611
00:48:19.200 --> 00:48:24.160
but the real measure of impact is how
much people use the library service

612
00:48:24.160 --> 00:48:28.760
that's the answer to that point that's

613
00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:48.880
so i do i do have one thought um where

614
00:48:50.240 --> 00:48:55.359
to make about the statistics that you
see at the tables um one of the things

615
00:48:55.359 --> 00:48:58.480
uh that i thought would be useful to
know i mean i think everything that tim

616
00:48:58.480 --> 00:49:03.440
has said uh pat's point about um
circulation renewal

617
00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:06.559
is true
one of my heroes waller maguire will

618
00:49:06.559 --> 00:49:11.040
remember him uh was a guy named carl
sandstadt who ran the

619
00:49:11.040 --> 00:49:16.240
saint charles library and saint charles
was a growing suburban community and

620
00:49:16.240 --> 00:49:21.040
carl explained to me how to manipulate
circulation statistics and he was one of

621
00:49:21.040 --> 00:49:26.079
the very very early adopters of the
automatic renewal number one

622
00:49:26.079 --> 00:49:29.760
and number two he said make sure i don't
know if you remember the hapler

623
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:36.240
statistics pre predated uh library
journal statistics etc but um hapler the

624
00:49:36.240 --> 00:49:40.400
thing was based on you you gave them
your census data your previous previous

625
00:49:40.400 --> 00:49:43.280
census data
and they and they judge your circulation

626
00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:48.240
on that and karl realized that um
that that was the denominator in the

627
00:49:48.240 --> 00:49:53.200
numerator if you were in a fast-growing
area was growing really quickly and the

628
00:49:53.200 --> 00:49:58.480
denominator wasn't growing so he looked
really great for nine years and he said

629
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:01.520
i'm going to retire in the tenth year
and he did

630
00:50:01.520 --> 00:50:06.000
um
so so the point of the statistics um

631
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:09.599
that i asked matt birnbaum in our
research and evaluation area to to put

632
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:15.520
together is to go back beyond uh
tim's starting date to 1990. i think if

633
00:50:15.520 --> 00:50:20.640
you look at these statistics um they
look it's flatter there's no it's not so

634
00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:25.359
much a decline it's flat though i think
again what tim and pat have both both

635
00:50:25.359 --> 00:50:29.520
said would would point out that the
statistics still actually are are pretty

636
00:50:29.520 --> 00:50:33.440
bad uh but i wanted to give some context
to that

637
00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:40.400
so now uh tony uh again i want i want to
introduce and i want to um i think uh

638
00:50:40.400 --> 00:50:46.319
what pat said about the books being that
the brand uh is is important here i had

639
00:50:46.319 --> 00:50:51.200
this conversation that i mentioned
before with uh with tony luke swarthout

640
00:50:51.200 --> 00:50:55.440
um
and uh marcellus turner mt was uh was

641
00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:59.440
part of that conversation too is he here
did he come is he

642
00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:05.920
there he is there he is
um and uh uh mt's version of that was

643
00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:11.440
the word what he said what is the what
of libraries well the brand is books and

644
00:51:11.440 --> 00:51:15.599
tony's
tony's statement was that he here is

645
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:19.680
this guy who is
producing is a digital guru and he's

646
00:51:19.680 --> 00:51:23.520
producing a bookless library and what is
a bookless library is that really a

647
00:51:23.520 --> 00:51:26.960
library
um and and you know he said this uh with

648
00:51:26.960 --> 00:51:32.559
a certain amount of uh awe and shock
and uh and and it's it's it stayed in my

649
00:51:32.559 --> 00:51:36.640
mind in a big way
um tony marx brought tony again to the

650
00:51:36.640 --> 00:51:41.839
new york public library um uh telling
him that it um was even larger than the

651
00:51:41.839 --> 00:51:45.280
queen's library and tony tony said that
the queen's library is mainly about

652
00:51:45.280 --> 00:51:48.839
books about corgis
sorry

653
00:51:48.839 --> 00:51:51.839
okay
sorry

654
00:51:51.839 --> 00:51:57.520
one bad joke that's all i really
just one bad joke uh tony uh tony had an

655
00:51:57.520 --> 00:52:02.880
incredible career uh in in england as a
chief technical officer or some some

656
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:07.839
similar title at the guardian uh and at
the at the bbc where he increased the

657
00:52:07.839 --> 00:52:13.359
the bbc's uh web traffic from 2 million
to 25 million in five years

658
00:52:13.359 --> 00:52:16.160
um and
at the new york public library many of

659
00:52:16.160 --> 00:52:18.800
you know
he he's

660
00:52:18.800 --> 00:52:23.280
expanded the reach of the digital
universe dramatically and uh

661
00:52:23.280 --> 00:52:25.760
strategically
um

662
00:52:25.760 --> 00:52:29.920
uh and in my a number of conversations
that i've had with tony i'm very

663
00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:33.520
impressed with
uh not not only the

664
00:52:33.520 --> 00:52:36.400
the uh
the attempts of the new york public

665
00:52:36.400 --> 00:52:40.800
library to reach people digitally who
have not been reached one of the

666
00:52:40.800 --> 00:52:45.040
the activities that we're involved in
the imls is helping the new york public

667
00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:50.480
library fund uh is a
a radio frequency uh

668
00:52:50.480 --> 00:52:55.680
attempt to get through the big buildings
in uh in new york uh create wi-fi with

669
00:52:55.680 --> 00:52:58.720
radio frequency
and

670
00:52:58.720 --> 00:53:02.400
something that's also been used in rural
areas the utah school district has uh

671
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:08.960
has used it creativity uh in in reaching
people is i think what tony's all about

672
00:53:08.960 --> 00:53:13.119
but also
uh as the pandemic started tony marx

673
00:53:13.119 --> 00:53:17.680
many of you will have seen wrote a a an
editorial op-ed in the new york times in

674
00:53:17.680 --> 00:53:22.559
which he said everything that we know
and tim is talking about is the huge

675
00:53:22.559 --> 00:53:27.119
increase in in digital circulation that
we saw at the beginning of the pandemic

676
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:31.920
and continued through the pandemic and
continues to this day

677
00:53:31.920 --> 00:53:36.079
and i was talking to to tony about that
and the problem with the increase in

678
00:53:36.079 --> 00:53:40.480
digital circulation
is it is the same people who are using

679
00:53:40.480 --> 00:53:44.880
digital circulation before it wasn't new
people at all

680
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:49.200
and it's certainly not people on the
other side of all of our divides the

681
00:53:49.200 --> 00:53:52.880
digital divide to begin with but all the
other divides we have in this country

682
00:53:52.880 --> 00:53:57.119
we're not reaching
with the digital we're not reaching the

683
00:53:57.119 --> 00:54:00.800
people who need
the library's help the school district's

684
00:54:00.800 --> 00:54:05.680
help uh the help of government the help
of all of us uh if we're talking about

685
00:54:05.680 --> 00:54:12.079
equity uh in this country so tony tony
to me is asking all the right questions

686
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:16.240
uh and and he comes out obviously from a
different point of view uh from the

687
00:54:16.240 --> 00:54:19.520
digital point of view from the from the
point of view of the person who is

688
00:54:19.520 --> 00:54:27.000
creating the bookless library the uh the
digital library so tony

689
00:54:44.640 --> 00:54:47.760
i'm not making that mistake

690
00:54:48.160 --> 00:54:53.119
okay so uh thank you grosby uh imels for
convening this discussion

691
00:54:53.119 --> 00:54:57.760
uh thank you kelvin uh
jenny and pat

692
00:54:57.760 --> 00:55:03.119
for joining this discussion i hope your
questions and responses are going to be

693
00:55:04.839 --> 00:55:08.559
gentle and thanks to everybody else for
being here

694
00:55:08.559 --> 00:55:12.240
so yeah my name is tony aggie i'm chief
digital officer for the new york public

695
00:55:12.240 --> 00:55:16.799
library
uh at nypl i'm concerned with the

696
00:55:16.799 --> 00:55:21.599
digital transformation of the library
and i also oversee a design and

697
00:55:21.599 --> 00:55:26.160
engineering team that helps develop
operate and evaluate

698
00:55:26.160 --> 00:55:30.160
at many of the digital services that are
used by our patrons

699
00:55:30.160 --> 00:55:35.200
a large part of that work is concerned
with ebooks and their impact on our

700
00:55:35.200 --> 00:55:38.160
branch libraries and our research
libraries

701
00:55:38.160 --> 00:55:42.319
so crosby has asked me to speak on this
panel to see if ebooks have anything to

702
00:55:42.319 --> 00:55:47.200
say to tim's hypothesis
tricky question

703
00:55:47.200 --> 00:55:50.480
i'm personally very interested to hear
what you all have to say about the

704
00:55:50.480 --> 00:55:55.599
freckle report and in particular the
opinions of our distinguished panel

705
00:55:55.599 --> 00:55:59.040
and of course
i've had to construct this presentation

706
00:55:59.040 --> 00:56:02.960
without hearing anybody else speak so
here's what i've done

707
00:56:02.960 --> 00:56:06.880
for the purpose of this presentation i'm
going to take tim's hypothesis seriously

708
00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:10.000
and ask
if tim

709
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.559
is correct
and american libraries are facing a

710
00:56:14.559 --> 00:56:18.880
challenge as the result of differing
perspectives on the importance of brick

711
00:56:18.880 --> 00:56:23.680
and mortar buildings and our physical
books if that is the problem

712
00:56:23.680 --> 00:56:28.319
then can e-books
be a solution

713
00:56:29.200 --> 00:56:35.359
so my answer to that question
is a qualified no

714
00:56:35.359 --> 00:56:39.200
i believe ebooks do have an important
role to play in the service of public

715
00:56:39.200 --> 00:56:42.960
libraries
but as presently constituted

716
00:56:42.960 --> 00:56:46.640
our ebook services
could not have prevented the decline

717
00:56:46.640 --> 00:56:49.599
that tim describes in the british
libraries

718
00:56:49.599 --> 00:56:53.680
and is unlikely to reverse a similar
trend in the us libraries

719
00:56:53.680 --> 00:56:58.079
should it manifest
so before i explain too much more i want

720
00:56:58.079 --> 00:57:02.640
to give a brief introduction about
myself to those of you i haven't met

721
00:57:02.640 --> 00:57:07.839
i joined in ypl about six years ago
before that my career had been in the uk

722
00:57:07.839 --> 00:57:13.440
almost exclusively as crosby said for
major now global media companies in

723
00:57:13.440 --> 00:57:17.200
particular guardian newspapers and the
bbc

724
00:57:17.200 --> 00:57:20.559
for the last 20 years or so i've been
primarily concerned with helping

725
00:57:20.559 --> 00:57:24.400
organizations such as those
understand the ways in which digital

726
00:57:24.400 --> 00:57:29.920
technology was changing not just their
operations but their entire businesses

727
00:57:29.920 --> 00:57:33.359
i helped the guardian understand why it
would have to build an online

728
00:57:33.359 --> 00:57:37.760
up-to-the-minute news and information
service and i explained to the bbc why

729
00:57:37.760 --> 00:57:41.599
people would expect to be able to be
free to watch their television programs

730
00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:45.599
at times that suited them not the
schedulers

731
00:57:45.599 --> 00:57:48.640
on demand
now these may seem very silly

732
00:57:48.640 --> 00:57:54.640
conversations here in 2022 but in 1994
and 2003 i can assure you

733
00:57:54.640 --> 00:57:59.119
they involved very long complicated
and

734
00:57:59.119 --> 00:58:02.160
shouty
discussions

735
00:58:02.160 --> 00:58:06.960
before a consensus could be achieved
at the same time i manage teams of staff

736
00:58:06.960 --> 00:58:10.720
who imagined built delivered some of
their digital services used by i don't

737
00:58:10.720 --> 00:58:15.359
know readers viewers audiences what we
would call patrons

738
00:58:15.359 --> 00:58:18.400
and my role at the library my po is
similar

739
00:58:18.400 --> 00:58:23.359
but one final thing i wanted i want to
say i often say this my title is chief

740
00:58:23.359 --> 00:58:29.520
digital officer and i think of the term
digital in my title in much the same way

741
00:58:29.520 --> 00:58:33.040
that fireman thinks of the word fire in
theirs

742
00:58:33.040 --> 00:58:39.200
i'm not trying to spread it
i'm not here to be a

743
00:58:39.200 --> 00:58:42.960
uh to promote digital to be an advocate
for digital technology

744
00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:48.480
i am here to ensure that the digital
technology we use can be understood

745
00:58:48.480 --> 00:58:51.440
the good the bad and everything in
between

746
00:58:51.440 --> 00:58:56.720
and then harnessed to help my library bs
be successful as a library

747
00:58:56.720 --> 00:59:00.640
fire can generate light
and heat

748
00:59:00.640 --> 00:59:03.839
but if you simply let it loose in the
library it will destroy it and i am

749
00:59:03.839 --> 00:59:09.280
concerned that digital technology is
capable of doing much the same

750
00:59:09.440 --> 00:59:12.559
american library's public library sorry
today

751
00:59:12.559 --> 00:59:15.760
have had more than a decade of
experience of licensing and serving

752
00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:20.240
ebooks to their patrons at this point i
think we can start to draw some

753
00:59:20.240 --> 00:59:24.240
conclusions so here are three things
that we observe ebooks currently do to

754
00:59:24.240 --> 00:59:28.720
the new york public library
there is they reduce foot traffic to our

755
00:59:28.720 --> 00:59:33.200
88 neighborhood libraries
they place pressure on the print and

756
00:59:33.200 --> 00:59:37.359
physical materials budget and they
separate the patron from our staff and

757
00:59:37.359 --> 00:59:42.400
from their neighbours
so observation one

758
00:59:42.400 --> 00:59:46.319
ebooks currently reduce visits to the
libraries but we all understand that

759
00:59:46.319 --> 00:59:51.040
ebooks allow libraries to deliver a
virtual facility of our service without

760
00:59:51.040 --> 00:59:55.520
needing to come to the building that is
in itself not a bad thing

761
00:59:55.520 --> 00:59:59.119
and during the early days of the
pandemic this was a massive feature

762
00:59:59.119 --> 01:00:02.480
we could be closed many patrons could
still be reading books from their

763
01:00:02.480 --> 01:00:05.359
library
and actually even before covid many of

764
01:00:05.359 --> 01:00:09.920
our patrons chose to read
via ebooks rather than through the print

765
01:00:09.920 --> 01:00:12.480
collection
that means

766
01:00:12.480 --> 01:00:15.520
they no longer need to come to the
library

767
01:00:15.520 --> 01:00:20.319
and seen through tim's lens in this
change in foot traffic uh this is both a

768
01:00:20.319 --> 01:00:23.440
flaw and a feature

769
01:00:23.599 --> 01:00:27.920
i want to borrow something from digital
platform theory and try to apply it back

770
01:00:27.920 --> 01:00:32.720
to our physical libraries
in this uh very fine book the authors

771
01:00:32.720 --> 01:00:37.839
describe one type of digital platform
as a transaction platform

772
01:00:37.839 --> 01:00:41.520
i think we should call that the t word i
think

773
01:00:41.520 --> 01:00:45.040
think of amazon's marketplace or
airbnb

774
01:00:45.040 --> 01:00:48.559
or uber
one side you have producers on the other

775
01:00:48.559 --> 01:00:52.079
side consumers in the middle is the
platform

776
01:00:52.079 --> 01:00:56.319
so the products may change
the available places to stay might

777
01:00:56.319 --> 01:00:59.680
change
the drivers can change but the consumer

778
01:00:59.680 --> 01:01:02.880
always comes back to the platform
because they can rely on it to meet

779
01:01:02.880 --> 01:01:08.880
their buy-in renting riding needs
there's tremendous value and power

780
01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:12.640
in being this type of transactional
platform

781
01:01:12.640 --> 01:01:17.440
now to me public libraries behave a lot
like community-based transactional

782
01:01:17.440 --> 01:01:20.079
platforms
they sit between the authors and

783
01:01:20.079 --> 01:01:25.119
services and the patrons we don't write
publish print the books ourselves

784
01:01:25.119 --> 01:01:28.960
and while we put on many of the programs
we also regularly bring in community

785
01:01:28.960 --> 01:01:32.720
members elected officials authors to do
the programs

786
01:01:32.720 --> 01:01:36.559
and though the books and the programs
change the library is a constant that

787
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:40.480
people can turn to in their community

788
01:01:40.559 --> 01:01:44.400
there's a fundamental formula which is
often used as a shorthand that

789
01:01:44.400 --> 01:01:48.079
the value of a network is equal to the
number of connections among users

790
01:01:48.079 --> 01:01:50.960
squared
so each additional user you add to the

791
01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:56.160
network creates exponential value if you
think of the library as a platform

792
01:01:56.160 --> 01:02:01.440
then ebooks driving down the visits to
the library is driving down the value of

793
01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:04.799
the platform
and the reasons are obvious a patron

794
01:02:04.799 --> 01:02:07.760
comes the library to look for a book
they can discover something else the

795
01:02:07.760 --> 01:02:11.599
library is offering they might be
dragging along a kid

796
01:02:11.599 --> 01:02:15.520
only for the child to discover a book or
vice versa

797
01:02:15.520 --> 01:02:19.520
and if a patron doesn't come to the
library they can't see their neighbor

798
01:02:19.520 --> 01:02:22.720
they aren't meeting on the street
outside the library or in the parking

799
01:02:22.720 --> 01:02:27.359
lot or enlivening the space or marking
the library as a critical hub for the

800
01:02:27.359 --> 01:02:30.960
community
now i'm not suggesting that this floor

801
01:02:30.960 --> 01:02:35.839
outweighs the value of e-books but if we
are concerned about declining visits to

802
01:02:35.839 --> 01:02:40.319
libraries
what ebooks are not helping

803
01:02:40.480 --> 01:02:44.960
observation 2 ebooks place pressure on
collections budgets well my good

804
01:02:44.960 --> 01:02:48.640
colleague bill kelly who runs our
research libraries tells him talks

805
01:02:48.640 --> 01:02:53.280
increasingly about how he's having to
run two businesses on a single budget

806
01:02:53.280 --> 01:02:57.839
continuing physical one and an
ever-growing digital one

807
01:02:57.839 --> 01:03:01.680
some of you may be in organizations that
have allocated additional resources to

808
01:03:01.680 --> 01:03:05.280
fund the expanding e-book services on
top of your print collection and if

809
01:03:05.280 --> 01:03:08.079
that's the case
then disregard this point and meet the

810
01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:11.119
observation three in a minute or two
but

811
01:03:11.119 --> 01:03:14.079
uh from day one of the new york public
library

812
01:03:14.079 --> 01:03:18.319
our e-book license costs were wedged
into our single collections budget and

813
01:03:18.319 --> 01:03:22.720
that budget has been largely flat for
the past decade which means the ebook

814
01:03:22.720 --> 01:03:28.079
licenses and audio licenses are coming
at the expense of something else

815
01:03:28.079 --> 01:03:32.480
dvds perhaps at first but increasingly
it's from print books

816
01:03:32.480 --> 01:03:36.960
and that means
fewer printed copies on our shelves

817
01:03:36.960 --> 01:03:39.680
this is particularly significant for the
50

818
01:03:39.680 --> 01:03:44.480
of our readers who only ever discover
their book by browsing

819
01:03:44.480 --> 01:03:48.480
now we shouldn't be surprised if a
reduced collection

820
01:03:48.480 --> 01:03:53.680
means less rewarding browsing which
leads to less satisfied patrons and some

821
01:03:53.680 --> 01:03:58.640
choosing not to come back
so absent a big part of new money for

822
01:03:58.640 --> 01:04:02.960
ebooks i don't know uh how we resolve
that challenge easily although i do want

823
01:04:02.960 --> 01:04:07.520
to share a couple of things that we've
done at nypl to stop it getting worse

824
01:04:07.520 --> 01:04:10.880
the first is that we've now separated
our print budget or our print book

825
01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:14.960
budget and our ebook budget
these are different businesses and we

826
01:04:14.960 --> 01:04:19.200
should evaluate our ebook services as we
do our physical library services rather

827
01:04:19.200 --> 01:04:24.000
than just isolate the size and the
marginal cost of the ebook collection

828
01:04:24.000 --> 01:04:27.680
otherwise we're in danger of stripping
our shelves of books

829
01:04:27.680 --> 01:04:32.000
while retaining all of the surrounding
overheads and other costs

830
01:04:32.000 --> 01:04:37.440
the second mitigation is something we
put in place on march 15 2020 that was

831
01:04:37.440 --> 01:04:40.400
the first monday after our physical
shutdown

832
01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:45.119
we changed our ebook checkout and hold
limits from 1515

833
01:04:45.119 --> 01:04:49.200
to three and three
now we've been thinking about that for a

834
01:04:49.200 --> 01:04:53.039
while because we realized that when the
library started offering ebook services

835
01:04:53.039 --> 01:04:56.720
we simply imported our borrowing and
holds rules from the physical library

836
01:04:56.720 --> 01:05:00.559
despite the fact that the patron use
cases were totally different

837
01:05:00.559 --> 01:05:03.839
a patron visiting a physical branch
might only come once a week or once

838
01:05:03.839 --> 01:05:06.720
every couple of weeks
they might be borrowing for family

839
01:05:06.720 --> 01:05:10.960
members or neighbours
they might be borrowing children's books

840
01:05:10.960 --> 01:05:14.559
or there might be a student doing a
report whatever any of those reasons

841
01:05:14.559 --> 01:05:19.039
would justify a higher borrowing limit
but the e-book service we provide was

842
01:05:19.039 --> 01:05:23.359
overwhelmingly used by adults doing
recreational reading rather than say

843
01:05:23.359 --> 01:05:26.880
research
for most of our patrons getting get into

844
01:05:26.880 --> 01:05:30.160
the free wi-fi
to download their next ebook was

845
01:05:30.160 --> 01:05:32.799
actually closer than getting to their
local branch

846
01:05:32.799 --> 01:05:37.039
starbucks or wherever
so what's worse

847
01:05:37.039 --> 01:05:41.119
uh is that our holds limit we're
encouraging patrons to play games they

848
01:05:41.119 --> 01:05:45.599
were placing lots of holds in the hopes
of finding something good

849
01:05:45.599 --> 01:05:49.280
as it became available
by lowering our borrowing and hold

850
01:05:49.280 --> 01:05:52.880
limits we were able to accommodate
during covid

851
01:05:52.880 --> 01:05:58.799
over 150 000 new ebook users during
these past two years without raising our

852
01:05:58.799 --> 01:06:04.079
budget or taking money away from other
services to retain those new users now

853
01:06:04.079 --> 01:06:07.920
that the branches are reopening
now on an average day our ebook users

854
01:06:07.920 --> 01:06:11.920
are still up 20 25
over the pan over the pre-pandemic

855
01:06:11.920 --> 01:06:18.160
numbers but our overall circulation and
therefore our spending is flat

856
01:06:18.160 --> 01:06:20.880
we suspect although we don't have data
that this change may actually have

857
01:06:20.880 --> 01:06:26.240
improved overall patron satisfaction
because less game playing more reading

858
01:06:26.240 --> 01:06:28.799
by the way
echoing everything everyone's said so

859
01:06:28.799 --> 01:06:32.720
far if you ever need an example about
optimizing for circulation leads to

860
01:06:32.720 --> 01:06:36.559
perverse incentives
since the change we're serving more

861
01:06:36.559 --> 01:06:41.520
patrons with more books at lower cost
per reader but i still regularly filled

862
01:06:41.520 --> 01:06:46.480
the question why didn't you make overall
circulation go up

863
01:06:46.480 --> 01:06:51.119
observation three e-books disconnect
patrons from our staff and from their

864
01:06:51.119 --> 01:06:53.520
neighbors

865
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:57.520
okay so mindful of time i'm just going
to leave this one here for discussion by

866
01:06:57.520 --> 01:07:03.440
others but if uh if one values one of
the values of a public library is in

867
01:07:03.440 --> 01:07:07.839
helping to develop and support our local
communities by connecting our patrons to

868
01:07:07.839 --> 01:07:13.200
each other and to our staff ebook
services as we currently provide them

869
01:07:13.200 --> 01:07:16.640
don't do that
so

870
01:07:16.640 --> 01:07:19.680
we observe ebooks lead to less foot
traffic

871
01:07:19.680 --> 01:07:23.680
budgetary difficulties
patrons disconnected from the libraries

872
01:07:23.680 --> 01:07:29.200
but what about all the good things we
get from ebooks more users more reading

873
01:07:29.200 --> 01:07:33.680
more circulation less hassle
for the patrons

874
01:07:33.680 --> 01:07:36.640
where the advantage of ebooks in this
presentation

875
01:07:36.640 --> 01:07:41.440
and doesn't all this offset the downside
of ebooks

876
01:07:41.440 --> 01:07:46.000
yeah maybe
frankly i don't actually know

877
01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:49.359
i think that's for you to discuss but i
would point out

878
01:07:49.359 --> 01:07:54.720
that the actual libraries that you all
represent individually and collectively

879
01:07:54.720 --> 01:08:00.319
do not deliver currently
very much if any value through the ebook

880
01:08:00.319 --> 01:08:06.079
services we currently pay for
we all nypr included rely on vendors to

881
01:08:06.079 --> 01:08:11.599
provide our ebook services our primary
function in the library ebook ecosystem

882
01:08:11.599 --> 01:08:17.839
today is to provide money
yet we do some selection and we put in

883
01:08:17.839 --> 01:08:22.000
book lists but i think the role that
libraries currently play in reflecting

884
01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:25.839
the tastes and needs of their
communities and shaping their ebook

885
01:08:25.839 --> 01:08:30.960
services pales in comparison to the
service design and delivery that happens

886
01:08:30.960 --> 01:08:34.880
in any one of the 17 000 branch
libraries every single day across the

887
01:08:34.880 --> 01:08:38.239
country
so where does that leave us i think

888
01:08:38.239 --> 01:08:41.679
there is a strong case that ebooks are
an important part of

889
01:08:41.679 --> 01:08:46.400
a robust public library service now and
into the future i haven't talked about

890
01:08:46.400 --> 01:08:50.719
it here but we know that some patrons
with accessibility challenges

891
01:08:50.719 --> 01:08:54.560
are much better served by ebooks and by
audio books than print books

892
01:08:54.560 --> 01:08:58.400
ebooks are probably the single biggest
service innovation in libraries in the

893
01:08:58.400 --> 01:09:01.359
past decade from the perspective of the
patrons

894
01:09:01.359 --> 01:09:04.799
but
the current model of ebook service that

895
01:09:04.799 --> 01:09:09.600
has evolved during the same decade is in
tension with the physical library as a

896
01:09:09.600 --> 01:09:13.440
community platform
and if you believe that tim may have

897
01:09:13.440 --> 01:09:16.239
identified a problem facing public
libraries

898
01:09:16.239 --> 01:09:20.239
then i don't believe that ebooks alone
as we currently offer them will be the

899
01:09:20.239 --> 01:09:24.400
solution
thank you

900
01:09:29.520 --> 01:09:33.799
do you want to shall wait here

901
01:09:38.159 --> 01:09:42.799
thank you so much tony now we're going
to have our panelist responses again

902
01:09:42.799 --> 01:09:45.920
another two minute response from each of
our

903
01:09:45.920 --> 01:09:50.480
table panelists and then a two minute
response to that from tony and then

904
01:09:50.480 --> 01:09:54.000
we're gonna switch up the format a
little bit i'll say a few announcements

905
01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:59.600
before we go to break
and um and then we'll continue so calvin

906
01:09:59.600 --> 01:10:03.040
would you like to start us off again
please

907
01:10:03.040 --> 01:10:07.840
so that was interesting uh having been
a digital officer at queen's library as

908
01:10:07.840 --> 01:10:12.080
well uh
you know i know tony so i actually

909
01:10:12.080 --> 01:10:17.199
agree that ebooks probably is not the
solution but it's something that we've

910
01:10:17.199 --> 01:10:21.679
had to provide our diverse communities
their diverse meeting their diverse

911
01:10:21.679 --> 01:10:25.280
needs
i think that we um as i mentioned

912
01:10:25.280 --> 01:10:28.960
earlier you know what i've been able to
do and i'll use some practical

913
01:10:28.960 --> 01:10:32.239
experiences on the libraries that i've
that i've led

914
01:10:32.239 --> 01:10:37.520
it's really you know figuring out that
this is a hard pro problem that's why

915
01:10:37.520 --> 01:10:42.320
we're here discussing it right so there
is no one solution but we've at public

916
01:10:42.320 --> 01:10:48.480
libraries have had to be unique unicorns
driving people in to the libraries in

917
01:10:48.480 --> 01:10:51.840
different manners
right so one of the things that i looked

918
01:10:51.840 --> 01:10:56.480
at when we were having decreased um when
we opened our buildings the

919
01:10:56.480 --> 01:11:00.239
foot traffic was down right people
coming in the building so looking at how

920
01:11:00.239 --> 01:11:04.560
can we partner with our stakeholders to
offer classes with the college of

921
01:11:04.560 --> 01:11:09.920
southern nevada to bring
a new people into our buildings so that

922
01:11:09.920 --> 01:11:14.800
they can be exposed to the library so i
agree i agree with tony ebooks is not

923
01:11:14.800 --> 01:11:19.840
the solution but it is a way that we can
continue to introduce people to the

924
01:11:19.840 --> 01:11:23.199
library
in different manners i mean that's again

925
01:11:23.199 --> 01:11:27.120
the way the way the reason that i did
the bus project in las vegas was to

926
01:11:27.120 --> 01:11:32.080
introduce people who in the community
were not coming into the library we

927
01:11:32.080 --> 01:11:37.679
actually increased our library card
holders in a month by 7 000 new library

928
01:11:37.679 --> 01:11:42.640
card holders we also let the visitors in
the community also access those ebooks

929
01:11:42.640 --> 01:11:44.880
as well
so again

930
01:11:44.880 --> 01:11:48.560
um
the the licensing models

931
01:11:48.560 --> 01:11:51.840
they're they're no they're definitely no
good we know that from the large

932
01:11:51.840 --> 01:11:56.880
publishers but you also need to look at
the increased number of titles that are

933
01:11:56.880 --> 01:12:02.080
being published outside of those large
publishers as well so that's another

934
01:12:02.080 --> 01:12:09.480
opportunity for libraries also so
i think i'm done

935
01:12:15.199 --> 01:12:19.120
so i think what tony's saying holds a
lot of truth when we're stretching our

936
01:12:19.120 --> 01:12:22.880
dollars to
provide all the services that we're

937
01:12:22.880 --> 01:12:26.320
providing in our communities how do we
do that with um

938
01:12:26.320 --> 01:12:29.199
with lower budgets or smaller budgets
our

939
01:12:29.199 --> 01:12:34.000
book budget is much smaller than many
many of you in the in this room um our

940
01:12:34.000 --> 01:12:38.719
book budget is 60 thousand dollars our
ebook budget is 30 000

941
01:12:38.719 --> 01:12:41.760
but our ebook collection
is

942
01:12:41.760 --> 01:12:46.239
much bigger because i partner
i partner with our neighboring libraries

943
01:12:46.239 --> 01:12:49.120
i collaborate
in any way i can to stretch those

944
01:12:49.120 --> 01:12:53.520
dollars and that's what i think we have
to continue doing in order to engage our

945
01:12:53.520 --> 01:12:58.239
communities and be out about out in the
public outreach is a really important

946
01:12:58.239 --> 01:13:03.360
part of what we do every day i
my goal in north liberty is for people

947
01:13:03.360 --> 01:13:05.760
to recognize me when i walk out of the
door

948
01:13:05.760 --> 01:13:08.560
they don't recognize me in the library
because i'm in my office all the time

949
01:13:08.560 --> 01:13:12.480
but when i'm out in the community those
people know me they know who i am and

950
01:13:12.480 --> 01:13:16.880
they come to us looking for things and
they ask us what what do we need well

951
01:13:16.880 --> 01:13:20.560
let me tell you what i can do for you at
the library you tell me what you need

952
01:13:20.560 --> 01:13:24.640
and we'll make it happen
so those are how we um continue to

953
01:13:24.640 --> 01:13:28.880
thrive libraries are resilient and
responsive and we always have been we've

954
01:13:28.880 --> 01:13:35.120
been partnering since
the 1900s early 1900s 100 years ago

955
01:13:35.120 --> 01:13:39.920
duluth and butte um both partnered with
their red crosses during the pandemic

956
01:13:39.920 --> 01:13:46.239
during the influenza pandemic so we know
from this pandemic and the 100 years ago

957
01:13:46.239 --> 01:13:50.400
libraries reflect what their communities
need and we continue to do those things

958
01:13:50.400 --> 01:13:54.880
that's why we'll continue to thrive i
truly believe that and i do think ebooks

959
01:13:54.880 --> 01:13:58.719
have their place and i'm so glad to hear
what you said about the e-books

960
01:13:58.719 --> 01:14:01.920
tony and i don't i don't have any main
words for you

961
01:14:01.920 --> 01:14:07.040
i love what you said um ebooks do have
their place and books have their place

962
01:14:07.040 --> 01:14:10.800
and sometimes people want to just have
the books in their home so they either

963
01:14:10.800 --> 01:14:14.880
keep our books and they don't return
them which is okay with me i'm okay with

964
01:14:14.880 --> 01:14:17.920
that that's part of doing business or
they buy them

965
01:14:17.920 --> 01:14:21.960
if they can afford to buy them

966
01:14:51.040 --> 01:14:54.400
hello
okay now i have 30 seconds um so i'm

967
01:14:54.400 --> 01:14:59.120
going to try to uh
bridge tim and tony just a little bit

968
01:14:59.120 --> 01:15:02.560
because
part of what tim suggests in his

969
01:15:02.560 --> 01:15:07.120
recommendation to buy more materials is
that somehow we're not meeting demand

970
01:15:07.120 --> 01:15:11.280
and i think you know i look at what we
spend on extra copies and holds and all

971
01:15:11.280 --> 01:15:16.640
of the rest and i'm
i'm not sure that the answer is spending

972
01:15:16.640 --> 01:15:21.520
more money on materials
um you know the pandemic i'm going back

973
01:15:21.520 --> 01:15:28.400
to that again the disruption
has created so many other channels to

974
01:15:28.400 --> 01:15:32.080
obtain content
beyond libraries which i think is a big

975
01:15:32.080 --> 01:15:37.280
hurdle for us moving forward and i
mentioned last night i never envisioned

976
01:15:37.280 --> 01:15:43.360
that we would buy four or five streaming
services per month and pay i just did

977
01:15:43.360 --> 01:15:49.120
not see that future 10 and 15 years ago
when tony says

978
01:15:49.120 --> 01:15:55.840
you know 150 000
ebook users during that period of time

979
01:15:55.840 --> 01:15:59.440
that sounds great to me but one of the
questions we try to ask locally is that

980
01:15:59.440 --> 01:16:03.040
a good number
so

981
01:16:03.040 --> 01:16:07.840
compared to how
much market penetration

982
01:16:07.840 --> 01:16:12.400
you know how are we actually doing
how many of you just curious

983
01:16:12.400 --> 01:16:15.760
show of hands if you're in a public
library do you know about how many

984
01:16:15.760 --> 01:16:20.880
library card holders you have
most of you do you know how many of

985
01:16:20.880 --> 01:16:25.199
those library card holders have ever
streamed an ebook

986
01:16:25.199 --> 01:16:27.760
do you know that

987
01:16:28.080 --> 01:16:31.280
show of hands
a couple

988
01:16:31.280 --> 01:16:34.560
so our selectors who buy ebooks didn't
know that

989
01:16:34.560 --> 01:16:39.679
and
for us out of 650 000 it's 50 000.

990
01:16:39.679 --> 01:16:44.239
so they say to ourselves is that a good
number and

991
01:16:44.239 --> 01:16:48.560
if you go a little bit deeper you start
to see those 50 thousand

992
01:16:48.560 --> 01:16:52.719
this isn't a big surprise but it's an
insight about our work

993
01:16:52.719 --> 01:16:58.159
you find that the people in areas where
we don't have broadband service which is

994
01:16:58.159 --> 01:17:01.520
about fifty thousand homes in central
ohio

995
01:17:01.520 --> 01:17:06.640
are not able to download those materials
so it gives us insight into where we

996
01:17:06.640 --> 01:17:09.440
might be headed

997
01:17:09.520 --> 01:17:15.520
i i think the principle that we have
around confidentiality of customer data

998
01:17:15.520 --> 01:17:21.520
has held us back
and we have confused that principle

999
01:17:21.520 --> 01:17:26.719
with using deep aggregate analysis of
the data to understand where our

1000
01:17:26.719 --> 01:17:29.360
opportunities lie
and

1001
01:17:29.360 --> 01:17:34.800
i think we have an opportunity to make a
lot of progress in that arena

1002
01:17:39.360 --> 01:17:42.880
yeah so unfortunately i think i agree
with everything everything everybody

1003
01:17:42.880 --> 01:17:45.840
said that's not going to work well but i
would say a couple of comments first of

1004
01:17:45.840 --> 01:17:50.000
all jenny it's uh um in particular but
people exactly like you who think the

1005
01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:53.199
way you do and that the way you do it's
a genuine honor and privilege to work

1006
01:17:53.199 --> 01:17:56.640
with you and i believe that i work in
service of you

1007
01:17:56.640 --> 01:17:59.360
so carry on doing what you're doing and
i will do everything i can to support

1008
01:17:59.360 --> 01:18:05.360
you speaking uh i think pat is right
data analysis information um one of the

1009
01:18:05.360 --> 01:18:11.120
um things that i um i'm good at um is
i'm willing to ask questions i'm willing

1010
01:18:11.120 --> 01:18:14.800
to interrogate something i'm not so good
at the answers but i definitely know

1011
01:18:14.800 --> 01:18:18.159
when we've got the wrong answer i'm not
saying anything here for this room but

1012
01:18:18.159 --> 01:18:22.159
i'm saying you know ask questions look
at your data don't be scared to ask and

1013
01:18:22.159 --> 01:18:25.440
don't be scared to find an answer you
don't like the look at and then you know

1014
01:18:25.440 --> 01:18:28.880
take action
uh kelvin um thank you he was one of the

1015
01:18:28.880 --> 01:18:32.000
very first people ever to extend a
welcoming hand to me when i first

1016
01:18:32.000 --> 01:18:36.640
arrived six years ago i've been watching
your work uh from afar well not always

1017
01:18:36.640 --> 01:18:40.480
from afar but increasingly from afar and
what i think about kelvin is one he's a

1018
01:18:40.480 --> 01:18:44.560
pioneer he's somebody who is willing to
try a new service willing to take

1019
01:18:44.560 --> 01:18:48.320
something on but also what i've seen him
do is he analyzes it he learns from it

1020
01:18:48.320 --> 01:18:52.000
and decides whether he needs to adjust
it drop it completely or keep going so i

1021
01:18:52.000 --> 01:18:54.560
would say
thank you for letting me speak today

1022
01:18:54.560 --> 01:18:58.320
don't disagree with anybody but keep up
the good work

1023
01:18:58.320 --> 01:19:02.239
all right
tony is going to lead our discussion

1024
01:19:02.239 --> 01:19:06.719
this is sort of what we had yesterday
where each of the library practitioners

1025
01:19:06.719 --> 01:19:11.760
had 10 minutes to respond with more
substantive remarks the format may be a

1026
01:19:11.760 --> 01:19:15.360
little different more of a facilitated
discussion we'll leave that up to tony

1027
01:19:15.360 --> 01:19:18.560
and his colleagues
but we have 30 minutes to go through

1028
01:19:18.560 --> 01:19:23.760
this portion and you can continue to
feed questions to your imls notetakers

1029
01:19:23.760 --> 01:19:29.280
we will have the q a eventually um but
we'll do a table activity after we wrap

1030
01:19:29.280 --> 01:19:34.960
up with the panel so tony take it away
thank you can you hear me

1031
01:19:34.960 --> 01:19:38.800
so thank you all i'm going to do my best
to open up a conversation from these

1032
01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:43.280
guys i think if there are questions from
the floor please

1033
01:19:43.280 --> 01:19:46.400
make yourself known i think there are
microphones that will roam around

1034
01:19:46.400 --> 01:19:49.360
um i'm going to start the first question
unfortunately to you kelvin i hope you

1035
01:19:49.360 --> 01:19:54.880
don't mind uh i said at the mic uh this
guy has a history of innovation and

1036
01:19:54.880 --> 01:19:58.640
doing new things and i think that sounds
like a bold claim so if you don't mind

1037
01:19:58.640 --> 01:20:01.120
i'm going to put you on the spot i think
you have a history i know you have a

1038
01:20:01.120 --> 01:20:04.560
history of rolling up your sleeves
trying new things particularly ebooks

1039
01:20:04.560 --> 01:20:07.280
could you give us some examples of
things that you've tried that have

1040
01:20:07.280 --> 01:20:10.800
worked
some of the things that i've tried that

1041
01:20:10.800 --> 01:20:15.040
that worked and i've learned from as
well as tony mentioned earlier so when i

1042
01:20:15.040 --> 01:20:19.679
was in broward county
we put in a bookless library at the fort

1043
01:20:19.679 --> 01:20:24.239
lauderdale hollywood airport so it's
still is still there between terminals

1044
01:20:24.239 --> 01:20:28.800
three and four
and so the assumptions were uh before

1045
01:20:28.800 --> 01:20:33.520
you look deep dived into the data was
that oh we're going to have everybody

1046
01:20:33.520 --> 01:20:37.360
that's traveling through the airport
we're going to be poor right we're going

1047
01:20:37.360 --> 01:20:41.600
to run out of money and because of all
of the people getting ebooks but what we

1048
01:20:41.600 --> 01:20:45.600
found from the data was that actually we
had

1049
01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:46.920
more
people

1050
01:20:46.920 --> 01:20:50.719
[Music]
who lived in broward county actually not

1051
01:20:50.719 --> 01:20:54.000
only
have any opportunity to get it a a

1052
01:20:54.000 --> 01:20:58.320
library card but also they were the
primary users of the content only two

1053
01:20:58.320 --> 01:21:02.960
percent of the visitors who didn't live
in broward county were actually using

1054
01:21:02.960 --> 01:21:07.520
uh using the service as well as not
really using the content as they were

1055
01:21:07.520 --> 01:21:12.159
coming through through the airport other
ideas i mentioned earlier was the buses

1056
01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:16.480
which is something that columbus will be
doing soon

1057
01:21:16.480 --> 01:21:22.239
and so we have digital access to not
just a library card but to content on

1058
01:21:22.239 --> 01:21:28.880
the 400 buses in las vegas so
that was out of a partnership um you

1059
01:21:28.880 --> 01:21:32.800
know it's hot and dusty in nevada as you
know

1060
01:21:32.800 --> 01:21:37.440
but we did pop-up libraries in broward
and so i'm testing these types of

1061
01:21:37.440 --> 01:21:42.080
hypotheses and seeing
number one who is going to be actually

1062
01:21:42.080 --> 01:21:46.239
using it is it going to be visitors and
so i i typically open it up to everybody

1063
01:21:46.239 --> 01:21:48.719
right so that you don't have to you know
you know

1064
01:21:48.719 --> 01:21:52.080
you can actually see
are the people who live in the community

1065
01:21:52.080 --> 01:21:56.800
going to use these resources versus the
the visitors so the same with buses we

1066
01:21:56.800 --> 01:22:01.679
open it up to the visitors same same
results right minimal use of the

1067
01:22:01.679 --> 01:22:04.480
visitors really people from the
community

1068
01:22:04.480 --> 01:22:09.840
leveraging those and so booklets
libraries uh we have one coming um in

1069
01:22:09.840 --> 01:22:16.080
mesquite nevada it's a it's going to be
an all steam related bookless library

1070
01:22:16.080 --> 01:22:18.960
location so we're opening that up as
well so

1071
01:22:18.960 --> 01:22:26.239
um to tony's point i i like trying new
things with with e-books e-resources uh

1072
01:22:26.239 --> 01:22:29.520
hospitals
uh

1073
01:22:29.520 --> 01:22:33.080
seaports when i was in broward we put
you know we had some

1074
01:22:33.080 --> 01:22:36.840
outreach at uh at the seaports as well
so

1075
01:22:36.840 --> 01:22:41.920
um again nothing is beyond the
imagination if you you know just it's

1076
01:22:41.920 --> 01:22:45.199
about experimentation and really finding
out

1077
01:22:45.199 --> 01:22:50.960
how people are going to use the ebooks
and what that traffic is going to be

1078
01:22:50.960 --> 01:22:54.239
like coming into the actual physical
library

1079
01:22:54.239 --> 01:22:58.320
thank you so eddie if anybody has a
follow-up question for kelvin if you can

1080
01:22:58.320 --> 01:23:01.120
um
make yourself known uh i'll ask him that

1081
01:23:01.120 --> 01:23:03.840
in the meantime danny can i just ask you
a quick question

1082
01:23:03.840 --> 01:23:06.480
so tim suggests that libraries should
simply

1083
01:23:06.480 --> 01:23:12.239
buy more print books and pat answered
that um i think quite um candidly what's

1084
01:23:12.239 --> 01:23:15.679
your thought
i mean i agree with pat i don't think

1085
01:23:15.679 --> 01:23:20.080
that is the answer i think um what we
need to look at is our model

1086
01:23:20.080 --> 01:23:24.400
and our brand like we said you know our
what if you want to call it our tagline

1087
01:23:24.400 --> 01:23:28.400
at north liberty is experience your
library and what i mean by that is every

1088
01:23:28.400 --> 01:23:32.239
person who comes in the door is their
library and i want every person who

1089
01:23:32.239 --> 01:23:36.000
comes in to feel that they belong
by nature

1090
01:23:36.000 --> 01:23:40.719
not because we're welcoming them but
because it's the place for them to be

1091
01:23:40.719 --> 01:23:44.080
and to thrive and to do what they need
to do

1092
01:23:44.080 --> 01:23:47.199
whatever that is and many of them are
reading and many of them are coming in

1093
01:23:47.199 --> 01:23:50.880
to check out books and we have a pretty
good model of

1094
01:23:50.880 --> 01:23:55.840
when i started at the library we never
bought duplicate copies because we had

1095
01:23:55.840 --> 01:23:59.520
this tiny budget and we were afraid that
would but now we realize that's not the

1096
01:23:59.520 --> 01:24:02.560
right model the right model is looking
at the books that are going off the

1097
01:24:02.560 --> 01:24:05.840
shelves and buying more and more of
those books to make sure that they're

1098
01:24:05.840 --> 01:24:10.320
going out and making sure that we're
reaching the right people

1099
01:24:10.320 --> 01:24:14.480
so some of it is about
how informed we are about our

1100
01:24:14.480 --> 01:24:18.159
communities and what we know they their
needs are

1101
01:24:18.159 --> 01:24:22.080
um and we know in our community that
people need

1102
01:24:22.080 --> 01:24:25.440
socialization they need to connect you
know i think that was mentioned

1103
01:24:25.440 --> 01:24:30.400
yesterday bob brought that up in his
you know that people are isolated and we

1104
01:24:30.400 --> 01:24:34.000
knew during the pandemic that people are
isolated the beauty of a small library

1105
01:24:34.000 --> 01:24:37.760
in our community is we know some of
those folks and who they were so one of

1106
01:24:37.760 --> 01:24:42.719
the first things we did was implement
calling patrons weekly who we knew might

1107
01:24:42.719 --> 01:24:46.480
be alone and not have anybody else to
talk to

1108
01:24:46.480 --> 01:24:50.560
and the response to that was not only
fantastic from the people we called

1109
01:24:50.560 --> 01:24:53.679
because they were like you're just
calling me to check on me

1110
01:24:53.679 --> 01:24:58.719
but from our leaders they were like wow
you took the time to do that we worked

1111
01:24:58.719 --> 01:25:02.000
from home pretty well librarians can do
that there were other departments that

1112
01:25:02.000 --> 01:25:04.719
weren't able to do that very well but we
were

1113
01:25:04.719 --> 01:25:08.880
and a couple of our staff who weren't
able to work as well from home

1114
01:25:08.880 --> 01:25:12.400
and were still getting paid every our
city made sure that every employee from

1115
01:25:12.400 --> 01:25:15.440
our part-timers to our full-timers was
paid when they were at home whether they

1116
01:25:15.440 --> 01:25:19.840
could work or not um but those those
people were willing to make those calls

1117
01:25:19.840 --> 01:25:22.239
even though they didn't knew they didn't
have to

1118
01:25:22.239 --> 01:25:24.800
just to keep you there for a little
longer so tell me a bit more about that

1119
01:25:24.800 --> 01:25:28.080
calling when you said there were people
calling in what what was that

1120
01:25:28.080 --> 01:25:31.920
our staff called our we identified
patrons and we asked other people in the

1121
01:25:31.920 --> 01:25:34.960
community do you know somebody who
doesn't have anybody with them that

1122
01:25:34.960 --> 01:25:38.639
they're alone during this pandemic that
they're staying in an apartment by

1123
01:25:38.639 --> 01:25:42.960
themselves
or what and we made those phone calls

1124
01:25:42.960 --> 01:25:46.880
we can't afford to buy we don't have a
public transportation system and we

1125
01:25:46.880 --> 01:25:50.239
can't afford to buy
vending machines to put books into so we

1126
01:25:50.239 --> 01:25:55.920
bought lockers we put them outside and
we were hopping we were working in two

1127
01:25:55.920 --> 01:26:00.080
teams when our doors were shut we
weren't really closed we were still

1128
01:26:00.080 --> 01:26:03.199
doing this work
making sure that our community felt

1129
01:26:03.199 --> 01:26:07.199
connected to us in whatever way we could
and i think libraries are about

1130
01:26:07.199 --> 01:26:10.880
connection that is to me probably the
biggest thing we do

1131
01:26:10.880 --> 01:26:15.520
bridging and bonding like was um felton
i think mentioned yesterday we're about

1132
01:26:15.520 --> 01:26:19.920
connecting people to each other we're
about connecting people to us and we're

1133
01:26:19.920 --> 01:26:23.520
about connecting people to what their
resources and what they need

1134
01:26:23.520 --> 01:26:27.199
so pat i don't want to um
put you on the spot here but you know

1135
01:26:27.199 --> 01:26:31.199
this kind of the
term floating in the air was our brand

1136
01:26:31.199 --> 01:26:35.120
is books everything jenny has said there
says the brand isn't is not books it's

1137
01:26:35.120 --> 01:26:37.360
something else
can you

1138
01:26:37.360 --> 01:26:40.800
pick up on that what is that where does
that fit

1139
01:26:40.800 --> 01:26:45.600
yeah a couple of thoughts on this um
first of all i think of what carmen

1140
01:26:45.600 --> 01:26:49.360
where's carmen this morning
yeah what carmen did at highwood you

1141
01:26:49.360 --> 01:26:54.239
know it's a high highwood
and community center i think that makes

1142
01:26:54.239 --> 01:26:59.040
so much sense and we've said during the
pandemic that yes we're library in our

1143
01:26:59.040 --> 01:27:02.400
traditional business
for a period of time here we're in the

1144
01:27:02.400 --> 01:27:06.239
business of community recovery
so i'm not too worried about the covid

1145
01:27:06.239 --> 01:27:09.520
kit that we passed out making a
connection to reading right now we just

1146
01:27:09.520 --> 01:27:14.080
had to do everything we could to kind of
help the community recover

1147
01:27:14.080 --> 01:27:18.960
but i do have the perspective of small
libraries and urban libraries in fact

1148
01:27:18.960 --> 01:27:24.480
bob putman's book our kids where he
talks about the decline of his hometown

1149
01:27:24.480 --> 01:27:30.560
port clinton i was a library director in
port clinton first one four years we had

1150
01:27:30.560 --> 01:27:34.800
13 folks
who worked at that library

1151
01:27:34.800 --> 01:27:38.480
so
the small communities have to be all of

1152
01:27:38.480 --> 01:27:43.280
that because oftentimes they are the
only cultural institution to put all of

1153
01:27:43.280 --> 01:27:47.520
those things together so we can handle
that i think on the

1154
01:27:47.520 --> 01:27:52.000
micro level that makes a lot of sense
but the macro level about our shared

1155
01:27:52.000 --> 01:27:56.000
elevator speech about what our
profession is all about

1156
01:27:56.000 --> 01:28:01.600
has to be different and
i would say the shift that we have to

1157
01:28:01.600 --> 01:28:05.600
make is we've focused too much on the
noun

1158
01:28:05.600 --> 01:28:10.560
books
we have to focus on the verb reading

1159
01:28:10.560 --> 01:28:17.600
and in that regard we can make a library
a verb instead of a noun as well

1160
01:28:17.600 --> 01:28:22.159
because and i'll tell you what you have
to say well why is that i'm going to

1161
01:28:22.159 --> 01:28:26.000
relate this back to to
to tim

1162
01:28:26.000 --> 01:28:31.040
as well because
tim we're in danger of running out of

1163
01:28:31.040 --> 01:28:33.520
readers

1164
01:28:33.600 --> 01:28:39.280
so we do a lot of work in columbus
around mapping

1165
01:28:39.280 --> 01:28:42.560
third grade reading proficiency why do
we focus on third grade reading

1166
01:28:42.560 --> 01:28:46.960
proficiency because dr james heckman
some of you read his work from the

1167
01:28:46.960 --> 01:28:51.440
university of chicago if you're not
reading at the third grade level by

1168
01:28:51.440 --> 01:28:55.360
third grade you're four times more
likely to drop out of high school

1169
01:28:55.360 --> 01:28:59.040
just let that sink in for a little bit
and there's almost a one-to-one

1170
01:28:59.040 --> 01:29:03.760
correlation of the skills you have for
kindergarten readiness

1171
01:29:03.760 --> 01:29:08.000
to third grade reading proficiency so
it's not about starting at the beginning

1172
01:29:08.000 --> 01:29:12.080
of third grade it is those critical
first eight years

1173
01:29:12.080 --> 01:29:15.679
of life that
are so important

1174
01:29:15.679 --> 01:29:21.360
so we serve 10 school districts
the largest is the columbus city schools

1175
01:29:21.360 --> 01:29:28.480
about 55 000 students and pre-pandemic
their third grade reading proficiency

1176
01:29:28.480 --> 01:29:32.159
scores were
43

1177
01:29:32.159 --> 01:29:35.920
57
not reading at the third grade level by

1178
01:29:35.920 --> 01:29:40.000
third grade
what do you think it is in the first

1179
01:29:40.000 --> 01:29:45.440
year of the pandemic
it's 23

1180
01:29:45.440 --> 01:29:50.159
so we have more than three out of four
third graders and they hold back one

1181
01:29:50.159 --> 01:29:53.760
percent so they're you know we're going
to fourth grade and i get it how do you

1182
01:29:53.760 --> 01:29:59.040
hold back 5 000 kids right
it's impossible to do

1183
01:29:59.040 --> 01:30:03.920
we have
not only the opportunity i think we have

1184
01:30:03.920 --> 01:30:11.120
the moral obligation to help kids learn
to read and try to own the out of school

1185
01:30:11.120 --> 01:30:15.440
time
of libraries with not by ourselves but a

1186
01:30:15.440 --> 01:30:22.560
lead role in that space and sadly
there's a lifetime of opportunity for us

1187
01:30:22.560 --> 01:30:27.040
that we can let the circulation part go
make that self-service for those who

1188
01:30:27.040 --> 01:30:30.800
still need content
but our focus has to be on building

1189
01:30:30.800 --> 01:30:36.880
relationships with kids in order to have
them develop an essential life skill

1190
01:30:36.880 --> 01:30:41.600
of reading so
yes of course

1191
01:30:41.600 --> 01:30:44.239
so one of the things that i've loved in
the last couple of days and i'm going to

1192
01:30:44.239 --> 01:30:48.400
call out our friend rich over there for
the d.c public because

1193
01:30:48.400 --> 01:30:53.040
you know i've been uh on cbs i've seen
the commercial run a few times about the

1194
01:30:53.040 --> 01:30:58.960
kids and reading that's that's i love
that uh so pat's right on and he um you

1195
01:30:58.960 --> 01:31:02.320
know i
uh totally agree you know and pat and

1196
01:31:02.320 --> 01:31:06.159
i've talked about that for years and
just preparing um and so we just

1197
01:31:06.159 --> 01:31:09.280
implemented actually some of the launch
pads to help

1198
01:31:09.280 --> 01:31:14.480
you know to help kids because you know
as uh as crosby mentioned about the

1199
01:31:14.480 --> 01:31:20.239
iphone right and the technology so how
do you mix the technology in with

1200
01:31:20.239 --> 01:31:24.560
reading gamification also you don't need
the internet

1201
01:31:24.560 --> 01:31:29.840
don't need broadband access and i'm
focusing on pre-k to third grade so

1202
01:31:29.840 --> 01:31:33.600
that's some of the some opportunities
for us as well so totally agree with

1203
01:31:33.600 --> 01:31:36.239
your problem okay we're just following
on from that and it's actually a

1204
01:31:36.239 --> 01:31:43.440
question from the floor jenny so crudely
should libraries teach children to read

1205
01:31:43.440 --> 01:31:47.199
yes and yes and no
um

1206
01:31:47.199 --> 01:31:51.840
i think libraries need to
work with the people who are teaching

1207
01:31:51.840 --> 01:31:54.639
our kids to read
their parents

1208
01:31:54.639 --> 01:31:59.920
and their teachers their educators
and then we need to work with each other

1209
01:31:59.920 --> 01:32:04.560
to make sure that we're doing the early
literacy work in the libraries and when

1210
01:32:04.560 --> 01:32:07.760
i say work with each other i'm talking
about what what kelvin and pat are

1211
01:32:07.760 --> 01:32:12.159
talking about the messaging that needs
to come across the nation

1212
01:32:12.159 --> 01:32:18.000
we were i was talking earlier with john
about this from every library

1213
01:32:18.000 --> 01:32:21.920
we need to find a way to have a national
initiative

1214
01:32:21.920 --> 01:32:26.960
that includes all libraries of all sizes
in all communities because

1215
01:32:26.960 --> 01:32:30.320
we can't put ads on buses in north
liberty i don't have a transportation

1216
01:32:30.320 --> 01:32:34.080
system and i don't have the funds to do
that unfortunately

1217
01:32:34.080 --> 01:32:37.520
our transportation system is i had a
homeless guy come in a few weeks ago and

1218
01:32:37.520 --> 01:32:41.040
i called somebody at city hall said can
you help me figure this out and she said

1219
01:32:41.040 --> 01:32:45.440
yep we'll get a voucher for him to get a
taxi and we got him a taxi to a to a

1220
01:32:45.440 --> 01:32:49.120
homeless shelter to get started with the
services that he needed we couldn't do

1221
01:32:49.120 --> 01:32:52.320
that but what i did was run in the back
and get the snacks that we give out

1222
01:32:52.320 --> 01:32:56.480
every day to the kids and make him a bag
with snacks and water in it

1223
01:32:56.480 --> 01:33:00.960
so those are the things we can do and he
he might or might not remember that but

1224
01:33:00.960 --> 01:33:05.600
i sent him off with what i could provide
and that's that micro level stuff that

1225
01:33:05.600 --> 01:33:09.440
we're talking about we do micro work in
our libraries every day but we don't

1226
01:33:09.440 --> 01:33:14.159
think enough on the macro and the meso
levels that social workers learn in

1227
01:33:14.159 --> 01:33:18.080
school which is why we need social
workers in our libraries and why we need

1228
01:33:18.080 --> 01:33:22.480
to partner with so many other
organizations to do what we're doing

1229
01:33:22.480 --> 01:33:25.920
but on the other end
north liberty is the first library in

1230
01:33:25.920 --> 01:33:31.280
iowa to become a family place library so
we were able to raise the funds to go to

1231
01:33:31.280 --> 01:33:34.960
new york city or new york long island to
get the training

1232
01:33:34.960 --> 01:33:39.440
from center reach to be a family place
library and we'll start that we've got

1233
01:33:39.440 --> 01:33:43.840
that in 2019 so that's been on hold for
a while

1234
01:33:43.840 --> 01:33:49.040
but we will launch that in the fall we
hope where we every for five weeks

1235
01:33:49.040 --> 01:33:53.040
families will come in and parents will
be on the floor playing with their kids

1236
01:33:53.040 --> 01:33:55.280
they won't have their phones in their
hands

1237
01:33:55.280 --> 01:33:58.000
they will have
books

1238
01:33:58.000 --> 01:34:01.679
and wooden toys
and all the things that kids need to

1239
01:34:01.679 --> 01:34:06.960
develop which literacy is about reading
yes and it's about play

1240
01:34:06.960 --> 01:34:10.719
for kids it's about all the things that
we're going to teach them so we need to

1241
01:34:10.719 --> 01:34:13.760
be the place where they they know they
can go to learn

1242
01:34:13.760 --> 01:34:16.480
and we talked about this a little last
night i mentioned this during a

1243
01:34:16.480 --> 01:34:21.920
conversation last night we need to teach
kids to learn and we need to teach the

1244
01:34:21.920 --> 01:34:25.360
importance of reading to parents and
children

1245
01:34:25.360 --> 01:34:29.360
so reading us as a component of learning
rather than but it does feel like you

1246
01:34:29.360 --> 01:34:32.239
know the brand is reading rather than
our brand

1247
01:34:32.239 --> 01:34:35.920
his books i don't understand literacy
you know that there must be different

1248
01:34:35.920 --> 01:34:39.600
interpretations of that term but you
know kelvin following on from that then

1249
01:34:39.600 --> 01:34:43.920
so we started with ebooks and i'm saying
they dislocate the patron from the

1250
01:34:43.920 --> 01:34:47.920
library and jenny's spoken very clearly
many times about how important the the

1251
01:34:47.920 --> 01:34:51.920
building is the library the environment
kevin any thoughts on how you could use

1252
01:34:51.920 --> 01:34:58.480
ebooks to connect people to the library
yeah so to to jenny's point um

1253
01:34:58.480 --> 01:35:03.440
you know i'm i'm larger so i can do the
buses but i'll tell you you know uh

1254
01:35:03.440 --> 01:35:07.520
leveraging barber shops for example uh
leveraging

1255
01:35:07.520 --> 01:35:11.840
laundromats like when i was in queens so
there's ways coasters and bars yeah well

1256
01:35:11.840 --> 01:35:15.760
post death we did that in broward
actually we had coasters that we put in

1257
01:35:15.760 --> 01:35:21.199
parks actually so so looking at those
opportunities but you know literacy

1258
01:35:21.199 --> 01:35:26.400
through engagement right always learning
and taking taking the opportunity to uh

1259
01:35:26.400 --> 01:35:32.000
you know to do that so you know
i'm gonna take a you know another

1260
01:35:32.000 --> 01:35:35.119
another swing and you know at that and
say

1261
01:35:35.119 --> 01:35:39.280
we talked to you know tony and i were
chatting and i was talking about you

1262
01:35:39.280 --> 01:35:42.400
know marketing so my background is in
marketing as well

1263
01:35:42.400 --> 01:35:47.199
and so that's why i use the outside ways
to market the library to bring people

1264
01:35:47.199 --> 01:35:52.080
inside the library instead of you know
putting all the emphasis on the people

1265
01:35:52.080 --> 01:35:54.719
who are already coming in the door how
can i

1266
01:35:54.719 --> 01:35:59.199
expand that out or how can i work with
different partners to do that for

1267
01:35:59.199 --> 01:36:04.719
example um
oh um the seniors who have been uh

1268
01:36:04.719 --> 01:36:07.600
because of covet
we all but

1269
01:36:07.600 --> 01:36:12.080
essentially seniors in vegas have a
higher suicide rate i didn't know that

1270
01:36:12.080 --> 01:36:17.119
when i you know when i moved to vegas
but apparently they do so we um

1271
01:36:17.119 --> 01:36:20.880
we've started a
reading program

1272
01:36:20.880 --> 01:36:25.040
with a
with an organization called three square

1273
01:36:25.040 --> 01:36:29.199
and so we've moved we've brought meal
we're bringing meals and

1274
01:36:29.199 --> 01:36:34.480
reading together inside the library for
example so those are some that's another

1275
01:36:34.480 --> 01:36:39.280
i idea to help bring you know people in
and

1276
01:36:39.280 --> 01:36:44.960
you know focusing on working with um
prison um

1277
01:36:44.960 --> 01:36:49.679
systems right the prison systems or
organizations that help support you know

1278
01:36:49.679 --> 01:36:52.960
you know
recidivism for example those are ideas

1279
01:36:52.960 --> 01:36:57.199
that that we're working on is you know
as well you know we talk about reading

1280
01:36:57.199 --> 01:37:01.760
and literacy and learning
and one of the things that i know

1281
01:37:01.760 --> 01:37:06.560
and i focus on is really dismantling
what i call the pipelines to prison and

1282
01:37:06.560 --> 01:37:12.320
introducing pipelines to literacy
education and success for our

1283
01:37:12.320 --> 01:37:15.440
communities
so thank you

1284
01:37:15.440 --> 01:37:20.000
just kind of switching tack a little bit
you mentioned data earlier and uh you

1285
01:37:20.000 --> 01:37:22.080
know
again a question from the floor what are

1286
01:37:22.080 --> 01:37:26.320
the best ways to capture ebook data use
and how might you do

1287
01:37:26.320 --> 01:37:31.440
drill deeper while still being mindful
of privacy and you know respect you know

1288
01:37:31.440 --> 01:37:34.880
and other issues like
that um

1289
01:37:34.880 --> 01:37:38.719
one more time
how could we capture data use what can

1290
01:37:38.719 --> 01:37:43.600
we what could we know what might we
want to do with with the data yeah so i

1291
01:37:43.600 --> 01:37:47.119
started at a pretty basic level of just
saying well how many customers do you

1292
01:37:47.119 --> 01:37:54.080
have that actually have streamed
or downloaded an ebook

1293
01:37:54.080 --> 01:37:58.480
you just got to go deeper
first of all this is aggregate data

1294
01:37:58.480 --> 01:38:03.440
i'm not looking at what kelvin is
actually doing i'm looking at

1295
01:38:03.440 --> 01:38:06.639
the people in kelvin's neighborhood and
what they might be

1296
01:38:06.639 --> 01:38:09.280
looking at but
[Music]

1297
01:38:09.280 --> 01:38:15.440
you know to say well how many have
downloaded one book only ever

1298
01:38:15.440 --> 01:38:21.360
how many do one a month how many are in
both spaces and what's the ratio that

1299
01:38:21.360 --> 01:38:24.239
we're seeing
you know the the

1300
01:38:24.239 --> 01:38:28.080
question i asked you tony about is 150
000 a good number i mean it's positive

1301
01:38:28.080 --> 01:38:31.520
i'm not saying it's a bad number because
it represents growth

1302
01:38:31.520 --> 01:38:34.880
and greater integration

1303
01:38:35.360 --> 01:38:39.199
but i think we often
capture what happened

1304
01:38:39.199 --> 01:38:43.679
rather than setting goals out
to actually say we're trying to achieve

1305
01:38:43.679 --> 01:38:48.480
that and i think we've been guilty of
not connecting our silos

1306
01:38:48.480 --> 01:38:52.159
not connecting our public service people
to understand what we're trying to do in

1307
01:38:52.159 --> 01:38:55.679
that space
not having our centralized collection

1308
01:38:55.679 --> 01:39:00.080
management people understand what they
might be asking the people in the

1309
01:39:00.080 --> 01:39:05.119
locations to do or remotely and then how
are we connecting through marketing and

1310
01:39:05.119 --> 01:39:09.040
social media and do we have enough
meetings where those three come together

1311
01:39:09.040 --> 01:39:12.400
to say
we're trying to have a hundred thousand

1312
01:39:12.400 --> 01:39:16.239
ebook users by the end of the year
what's that going to take instead i

1313
01:39:16.239 --> 01:39:19.760
think oftentimes we just capture it and
say well this is what happened

1314
01:39:19.760 --> 01:39:22.960
so um
but i just think it's it's being

1315
01:39:22.960 --> 01:39:26.880
creative it's being curious asking that
you said you're not good at answering

1316
01:39:26.880 --> 01:39:30.480
questions but you're good at asking i
think that's that's part of it because a

1317
01:39:30.480 --> 01:39:34.800
well-defined problem is half solved
so kevin what every similar question

1318
01:39:34.800 --> 01:39:39.199
your data and questions you'd like
answered so all what pat said but what i

1319
01:39:39.199 --> 01:39:43.360
would also add to that
is

1320
01:39:43.360 --> 01:39:48.239
around the programmatic aspects as well
so i would want to know for example

1321
01:39:48.239 --> 01:39:52.000
the that information that you talked
about regarding who's using our you know

1322
01:39:52.000 --> 01:39:56.480
the ebooks but i i bring in the physical
books as well and then also how that

1323
01:39:56.480 --> 01:40:01.199
ties in with programs because that's a
essential

1324
01:40:01.199 --> 01:40:05.760
this essential work that we're doing
also right and so you know but i start

1325
01:40:05.760 --> 01:40:09.920
really at the basics and really first
try to find out

1326
01:40:09.920 --> 01:40:14.320
how many library cards do we have out
there who's using the library card

1327
01:40:14.320 --> 01:40:19.360
who used uh you know we had asked as a
question earlier like how many people um

1328
01:40:19.360 --> 01:40:22.800
know how many library card holders they
have

1329
01:40:22.800 --> 01:40:26.960
but do you also know how many people
used how many of those library card

1330
01:40:26.960 --> 01:40:32.719
holders actually used the library card
in the last six months in the last year

1331
01:40:32.719 --> 01:40:36.960
it you know and so when you dig deep
into that you know what i've found that

1332
01:40:36.960 --> 01:40:42.480
now three large library systems is
it's a third of a third of a third right

1333
01:40:42.480 --> 01:40:47.679
so there's like 900 there was like 900
000 card holders at queens

1334
01:40:47.679 --> 01:40:51.600
we had about 300 000 people that
actually used it

1335
01:40:51.600 --> 01:40:56.159
but in a year there was like a third of
that that actually had even checked out

1336
01:40:56.159 --> 01:41:00.639
any material so
and that day and i repeated that same

1337
01:41:00.639 --> 01:41:07.600
analysis for example in broward and then
i've done it in las vegas as well so

1338
01:41:07.600 --> 01:41:14.159
data is definitely key to uh to how we
you know can do our jobs even better but

1339
01:41:14.159 --> 01:41:18.880
then again digging deeper in that data
and using heat maps for example and you

1340
01:41:18.880 --> 01:41:23.840
know all of those you know to answer
and ask questions

1341
01:41:23.840 --> 01:41:28.239
uh tony one one more piece to add on to
that i i don't know what you have all

1342
01:41:28.239 --> 01:41:32.400
experienced but
again this great disrupter of the

1343
01:41:32.400 --> 01:41:36.080
pandemic
library use is a habit

1344
01:41:36.080 --> 01:41:40.000
and the habit has been disrupted in the
biggest way

1345
01:41:40.000 --> 01:41:43.520
and
i you know what's really troubling for

1346
01:41:43.520 --> 01:41:48.719
us is the usage usage is coming back
much faster in our affluent

1347
01:41:48.719 --> 01:41:52.159
neighborhoods
but in the locations that need the

1348
01:41:52.159 --> 01:41:55.760
service the greatest we're having the
biggest struggle

1349
01:41:55.760 --> 01:41:59.520
you know to the point of kids not coming
back to the library and say what has

1350
01:41:59.520 --> 01:42:03.440
happened to that and what are our new
strategies for how we're going to

1351
01:42:03.440 --> 01:42:06.880
connect and
do we do we have time after this to or

1352
01:42:06.880 --> 01:42:11.199
is this it are we done afterwards we're
on ambassador

1353
01:42:11.199 --> 01:42:14.400
we're on amber
amber

1354
01:42:14.400 --> 01:42:17.360
but we're coming back we're coming back
yeah all right i'll talk i'll talk about

1355
01:42:17.360 --> 01:42:20.639
that sort of programmatically some ideas
later

1356
01:42:20.639 --> 01:42:24.239
okay actually and um yeah we've got just
a few minutes left so jenny i'll maybe

1357
01:42:24.239 --> 01:42:27.119
give you a couple of minutes just to
think you know is there one big thing

1358
01:42:27.119 --> 01:42:30.639
you want to land here is there one
thought that has emerged from what

1359
01:42:30.639 --> 01:42:35.760
you've heard today yesterday
i mean it's the same thought but i think

1360
01:42:35.760 --> 01:42:39.760
i mean hoping that this this convening
comes as a place where we start to ask

1361
01:42:39.760 --> 01:42:44.080
the questions that we need to ask
and those questions are how do we

1362
01:42:44.080 --> 01:42:47.040
leverage
what's happening in libraries now or the

1363
01:42:47.040 --> 01:42:52.080
decline in circulation
with but like in our library as kelvins

1364
01:42:52.080 --> 01:42:56.320
mentioned programs are increasing
and we aren't getting the numbers back

1365
01:42:56.320 --> 01:42:59.520
of the kids and and that's something
that's a whole nother thing we're all

1366
01:42:59.520 --> 01:43:04.159
crying over missing our kids um in our
library but

1367
01:43:04.159 --> 01:43:07.360
but where do we where do we go now
what's the brand and what's the model

1368
01:43:07.360 --> 01:43:10.639
that we need to create um i'm going to
just tell you a real quick thing about

1369
01:43:10.639 --> 01:43:14.159
our library
our library is located in a community

1370
01:43:14.159 --> 01:43:19.040
center that is 60 000 square feet which
includes a recreation center two

1371
01:43:19.040 --> 01:43:23.040
swimming pools
a communications department and before

1372
01:43:23.040 --> 01:43:29.040
and after school program and our library
and it works that model works it's it's

1373
01:43:29.040 --> 01:43:33.520
not only a place for civic engagement
i have couples who come in in the

1374
01:43:33.520 --> 01:43:36.639
morning and one sits down to read the
paper while his wife goes upstairs and

1375
01:43:36.639 --> 01:43:42.080
walks the track um you know we do things
like on we started with a monday morning

1376
01:43:42.080 --> 01:43:46.159
um we used to call it senior coffee hour
now we just call it social hour because

1377
01:43:46.159 --> 01:43:50.320
it is not just seniors anymore it's
people who want to make connections

1378
01:43:50.320 --> 01:43:53.840
and the group has grown in fact last
week we had 24 people sitting in our

1379
01:43:53.840 --> 01:43:57.920
magazine area and they talk about
politics and they're really loud and

1380
01:43:57.920 --> 01:44:00.880
they
disagree and agree and then one of the

1381
01:44:00.880 --> 01:44:04.800
guys started bringing slides in and
showing traveling that he'd done so he

1382
01:44:04.800 --> 01:44:07.600
was doing armchair traveling
presentations we didn't have anything to

1383
01:44:07.600 --> 01:44:13.360
do with it we just provided the space so
how do we as libraries be that place a

1384
01:44:13.360 --> 01:44:17.600
place of civic commons the place where
people can connect and meet and bridge

1385
01:44:17.600 --> 01:44:21.360
those gaps and bridge
economic differences and social

1386
01:44:21.360 --> 01:44:26.000
differences and equity differences how
do we become that and the question is

1387
01:44:26.000 --> 01:44:31.040
answered in marketing
it's partly marketing it's partly how we

1388
01:44:31.040 --> 01:44:34.800
train the people coming up i'm talking
to nicole yesterday i said i'll

1389
01:44:34.800 --> 01:44:39.040
volunteer to talk to your class anytime
it's how we bring new librarians in and

1390
01:44:39.040 --> 01:44:42.960
what what that looks like and it's how
we make connections with those average

1391
01:44:42.960 --> 01:44:47.440
librarians and i'll say right here i'm
not an average librarian i'm a leader

1392
01:44:47.440 --> 01:44:50.239
and we know
that libraries aren't good at that we're

1393
01:44:50.239 --> 01:44:54.080
not good at speaking up about those
things but i am a leader in my community

1394
01:44:54.080 --> 01:44:58.480
people recognize me and when i used to
say i need to be at this table can i

1395
01:44:58.480 --> 01:45:01.440
come to this meeting and people would
say who are you and where are you from

1396
01:45:01.440 --> 01:45:05.040
now they call me and say hey could you
come to this meeting we need your input

1397
01:45:05.040 --> 01:45:09.440
and that's where we need to be
so kevin maybe just a few last words

1398
01:45:09.440 --> 01:45:12.639
leadership so what does leading look
like

1399
01:45:12.639 --> 01:45:16.800
leading is
actionable leading is organizing

1400
01:45:16.800 --> 01:45:21.760
collaboration strategic vision vision
and really execution that's what

1401
01:45:21.760 --> 01:45:26.880
leadership is to me like putting so uh
you know our strategic plan that we

1402
01:45:26.880 --> 01:45:31.520
implemented in las vegas is all around
action we actually call it strategic

1403
01:45:31.520 --> 01:45:37.920
playbook 2026. so it's based on getting
things done and it's wrapped around the

1404
01:45:37.920 --> 01:45:40.000
community
people

1405
01:45:40.000 --> 01:45:45.280
places partners and platforms so that's
the approach that

1406
01:45:45.280 --> 01:45:51.119
that i've taken and leadership is um i'm
the leader but certainly i look to all

1407
01:45:51.119 --> 01:45:55.440
the leaders within the organization
at the top the bottom across the

1408
01:45:55.440 --> 01:46:00.800
organization and they all have a role in
that strategic execution of that plan

1409
01:46:00.800 --> 01:46:03.920
thank you pat maybe you want to just
bring this home

1410
01:46:03.920 --> 01:46:09.080
uh where do i want to bring it home well
just find yourself

1411
01:46:12.239 --> 01:46:16.159
you're that kind of leader yeah i mean
you know so leadership collaboration

1412
01:46:16.159 --> 01:46:19.119
what we what have we learned here you
know what what is that what does that

1413
01:46:19.119 --> 01:46:21.679
look like
it's a great interview question what's

1414
01:46:21.679 --> 01:46:26.480
more important management or leadership
and the answer is what's more important

1415
01:46:26.480 --> 01:46:31.679
inhaling or exhaling right these are two
things that absolutely go together but

1416
01:46:31.679 --> 01:46:36.320
you know we manage things
and we lead people by creating a

1417
01:46:36.320 --> 01:46:42.800
compelling vision and the passion around
a problem to solve that marshals all of

1418
01:46:42.800 --> 01:46:45.760
our resources
and it's

1419
01:46:45.760 --> 01:46:49.760
what this group does
all across the country in a profession

1420
01:46:49.760 --> 01:46:54.560
that i think
with not without our challenges

1421
01:46:54.880 --> 01:47:00.960
but i think we've got a great future but
i'll leave with uh with a quote that

1422
01:47:00.960 --> 01:47:04.880
some of us heard
some of us here attend the the night

1423
01:47:04.880 --> 01:47:09.040
foundation meetings
and they have the from the night ritter

1424
01:47:09.040 --> 01:47:13.119
newspapers now the the knight foundation
and we're not a night ritter community

1425
01:47:13.119 --> 01:47:17.199
but when they call you in columbus in
january and ask if you want to come to

1426
01:47:17.199 --> 01:47:21.280
miami for a couple of days you know
i'm 100

1427
01:47:21.280 --> 01:47:25.280
uh every year
but i remember the the ceo of the knight

1428
01:47:25.280 --> 01:47:29.840
foundation saying to all of the
assembled librarians don't make the

1429
01:47:29.840 --> 01:47:33.760
mistake
that newspapers did

1430
01:47:33.760 --> 01:47:37.719
we assumed permanence

1431
01:47:39.040 --> 01:47:43.760
i think that is right in front of our
eyes what's happening

1432
01:47:43.760 --> 01:47:48.400
and
you know i'm i still have

1433
01:47:49.119 --> 01:47:53.280
if my career is a runway i have more of
the runway behind the plane than in

1434
01:47:53.280 --> 01:47:56.320
front of the plane
yet on the other hand i think there's a

1435
01:47:56.320 --> 01:47:59.840
lot of folks saying
man i got three years to that retirement

1436
01:47:59.840 --> 01:48:03.600
i'm just going to keep my head down i
can make it we've got to confront the

1437
01:48:03.600 --> 01:48:07.280
blunt truth on this and really change
what this is all about

1438
01:48:07.280 --> 01:48:10.639
and
and accept that challenge and assume the

1439
01:48:10.639 --> 01:48:15.719
responsibility for it and have the
courage to do so