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>>JOHN PALFREY: It is such a pleasure to twice
in one day sit next to David Ferriero.

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I think those who have not followed his entire
career, having been director at MIT and Duke

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and the Mellon Director of the New York Public
Library, and now leading our archives.

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I think we as Americans are incredibly lucky
and proud to have you doing this.

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From the start of the DPLA, he was the number
one supporter of this project, and all the

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way along, I just have been so impressed and
grateful.

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Thank you for doing what you do as our archivist.

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(Applause.)

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>>DAVID FERRIERO: So, I really do need to
do that, because I want to frame my comments

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around what John is demanding of us all in
this new book about creating a new nostalgia

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to replace the way we used to do our work.

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The reason I jumped up is I had to catch Micah
before he left to remind him of a conversation

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that we had six years ago about should I go
to library school, and I said no.

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So, let me just, in no particular order, talk
about, especially that last session, about

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my own passion for creating, my deep feeling
that these institutions, and I'm talking about

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libraries, archives and museums, are villages
that require a certain set of competencies

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and the credential for, in my humble opinion,
isn't coming from the professional programs.

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I think there are pockets of excellence that
I can point to where there is some good work

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going on, but we train librarians and we train
archivists and we train museum professionals,

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and there's no co mingling, there's no looking
at the best practices in each one of those

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programs to create the kind of program that
I require as an employer, because each one

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of these jobs in each one of these institutions
requires the best of libraries, the best of

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archives and the best of museum practice.

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For me, even more disturbing is the recruitment
process for these programs.

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I don't think they're rigorous, I don't think
that the right questions are being asked,

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I don't think that you can expect to turn
out folks who are going to thrive in this

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environment unless you do a good job of screening
at the very beginning.

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John, this morning, in our conversation talking
about the book, I was pushing him on, because

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he doesn't, in the book, talk about, okay,
so you make this case for new nostalgia, but

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you kind of walk away from who's going to
staff it and how we're going to train the

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people, and he talked about the recruitment
process at his institution, his high school.

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John, what is the motto of the school?

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>> SPEAKER: (Off mic.)

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>> SPEAKER: Not for self, which gets translated
into be nice, which resonated with me, because

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in each of these institutions, what we want
are people who can be nice, people who can

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work with each other, but more importantly,
work with the clientele to engage, inform

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and entertain, another phrase in John's language.

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The community dealing with either the library,
the museum, or the archive.

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So, I was particularly struck by Mike's comments
about the administrative readiness for this

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vision and the problems with the culture in
some of our institutions, that this is threatening,

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that this risk taking focus on the unknown,
creating the future on the fly, is very threatening.

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Traditional, I'm counting myself among them,
traditional administrators are used to plans

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that kind of lay out what the next five years,
I remember when I was at Duke, being saddled

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with a committee to look at academic computing
for the next 25 years.

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(Laughing.)

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But we're trained as administrators to be
prescriptive about a path for a specified

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period of time, usually five years, and, so,
the requirements of this vision of being much

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more opportunistic, much more nimble, requires
a very different set of, a very different

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mindset on the part of the administrator,
and it's not going to be successful until

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that mindset exists.

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You can, I can, let me just share a story
about my first days at the national archives.

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So, I started in November of 2009.

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Within the first couple of months, I heard
that there was a group meeting basically in

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secret at the archives, a group of staff interested
in social media, and they weren't authorized

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to meet as a group, so I heard about this,
found out about their schedule and walked

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into one of their meetings, and it was like,
oh my god, we're busted, you know, but it

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was one of the best meetings I ever had in
terms of ideas that folks had and their vision

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of the future, and it also gave me a sense
of this problem of restricting the creativity,

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the innovation, the excitement of the staff
at large.

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So, we, this is how long ago it was, they
were very interested in iPads and iPhones,

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so I said let's get 25 of each and fool around
with them and experiment, and, well, the next

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morning, I got a call from the CIO saying,
you know, we don't support iPhones and iPads,

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and then I heard from the acquisitions department,
I understand you want iPhones and iPads, well,

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that will be about 13 months to get them in,
and I'm like, you know, 13 months, that's

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like two generations.

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So, the culture thing is real, and it's huge,
and it's not just the top, Mike, it exists

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within the organization too of folks who have
been around for awhile and feel that the innovative

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folks are getting all of the attention and
that we've lost our, you know, kind of vision

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of the importance of the traditional roles,
so it's very important from the management

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side, the administrative side, the leadership
side, to value, to pay as much attention to

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those innovators, those creative staff, as
to the folks who have been around for awhile,

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as you do to the newer innovative staff, which
leads me to question what kind of opportunities

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are we doing for continuing education, professional
development, whatever you call it, that bring

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those people along, that values their contribution
and then moves them into this new world where

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they're actually engaged and excited about
the work, and is it possible for the schools,

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the professional programs, or the professional
societies, or communities of practitioners

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to provide professional development for those
folks, or is this something that could be

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contracted out, that it's a new industry,
so that's a thought that I had.

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So, I was very interested in Kim's asking
the audience about skill set, because one

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of the things that really gets me is that
in my hundred years in the profession, it

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wasn't until I went to a session in January
at Simmons where anyone from a library school

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or an archival program or a museum program
ever asked me what I was looking for.

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So, it gave me, it has given me, for some
time, pause to think that how do these schools

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create curriculum if they're not talking to
the customer, and when I challenged this at

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this meeting, I was told, well, the students
are the customer, and I said garbage, I'm

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the customer, I'm the one who's buying your
product, why don't you ask me what I'm looking

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for in terms of competencies.

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So, Kim, thank you for opening that door,
and I think we have a lot of work to do to

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work with the existing programs to get them
to the point where we want them to be.

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Really resonated with passion projects, the
20 percent of the time, that that's something

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across the board that we're trying to instill
now in the national archives.

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We have a new innovation program, innovation
hub where staff from all across the country

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can bring, either physically or virtually,
issues, problems that they want to work on

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and trying to figure out ways that we can
free up 20 percent of peoples' time on a regular

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basis to work on passion projects.

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So, I guess that's it.

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I encourage you to buy John's book and to
buy multiple copies, because the audience

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for this book, as important as it is for you
to read it, it's more important for administrators,

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trustees, and the folks who are making decisions
about your budgets to read this book, because

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it paints a very optimistic future of what's
possible, but it's not going to work unless

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we get the support that we need to do it.

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So, thank you, John, for writing this book.

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(Applause.)

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>>MAURA MARx: What an awesome way to wrap
up today.

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Thank you so much, David.

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That was really wonderful, and we appreciate
you coming here.

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We know how busy you are, and in closing,
I really just want to thank each and every

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one of you for coming and sharing.

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These are hard work, these meetings.

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You know, we come, and it's very dense, there's
a lot of information here, there's a lot that

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you share that helps us.

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We're going to take it all and go back.

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I don't know if you know this, but Ricky Urway
and Christy Hill over here have been absorbing

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everything, and they are going to produce
a paper summarizing this meeting, you know,

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pulling it all together.

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Last year, we just published notes.

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We thought we'd improve upon that, so we're
really looking forward to that.

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That'll be out in about a month?

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A month ish, but in the meantime, we'll have
the archived video on the website, we will

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have the raw transcript, so if you want to
look for anything in there, you'll be able

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to do that.

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We're going to pour over it, and as I said
at the beginning of the day, you really help

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us do our jobs.

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You know, we rely on your expertise for everything
we do.

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When we make our awards, when we have you
in for panels, and we really rely on you to

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help us every year as we think about these
shared priorities, so thank you.

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Before I leave, there's just a couple of other
people that I would like to thank, and you

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know how, you know, a meeting of this size
is a big thing to pull off, so we thanked

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those who put the program together already,
but I want to take a moment to thank Katie

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Murray, who's hiding over there behind the
pillar.

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Katie, you know, runs the office of library
services, really, at the institute of museum

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and library services and coordinated every
aspect of this, and many of you know her,

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so can we just give her a big round of applause?

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(Applause.)

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And also, Capital Meeting Planning, Margaret,
is she over there?

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(Applause.)

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>> SPEAKER: Thank you so, so much, and that's
all I have for now.

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We look forward to keeping the conversation
going, and please keep tweeting on IMLS focus

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if things come to you.

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Look for our guidelines.

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We will publish guidelines this summer, June
or July, that will draw from what we've spoken

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about today.

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We have those two grant deadlines, September
and February, so we're having a lot more flexibility

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in our cycle, but we really, you know, we
really look to you to help us move the ball

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down the field.

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So, thank you so much.

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(Applause.)