Finally, we had the Yellow team speaking as a group of branch managers at Chicago Public Library. Seeking to reclaim some of the underutilized spaces that occur in each branch, they seek to reimagine parts of the library by building an Idea Box. Taken from the wildly successful model launched at the Oak Park Public Library, Idea Boxes are flexible spaces that encourage creativity and discovery in library visitors.
How would you bring this project to fruition at your library? How would this affect the staffing model? What kind of creative igniters would you set up in the Idea Boxes?
Full pitch and audience questions can be found after the jump.
The most important resource in a library is its staff. Instead of sequestering staff and creating silos of information, why not put them all together in a central space? Not only will staff be able to work together but patrons will also have better access to staff. Staff will become community experts and share their information with their patrons. Staff will be identified as people, by name, and be better able to share expertise with patrons and fellow staff.
Full pitch and audience questions can be found after the jump.
The Dark Blue team was the 10th group to present and they represented a public library.
The pitch? Starting out by claiming that the Orange team approached the stakeholders and failed miserably with their idea (things just got real), the Dark Blue team proposed an “iTunes-like discovery platform that integrates all digital and physical content in a seamless and easy-to-use platform.” People would be able to find digital and physical collections, local news, and local events.
So, I think everyone can already agree that most people visit their public library website to search for items and manage their account. It sounds like the Blue Team wants to take this base discovery tool and add everything but the kitchen sink to it. Make it a one-stop shop for everything your local community member might be interested in. Would your customers/patrons/members find this type of discovery layer useful and appealing? When you throw in so much, does everything get lost in the shuffle? Or is this exactly what people need to make all of their interests gel into one place?
Representing a suburban community, the five-person strong Dark Green group proposed the Pop-Up Pod (see adorable mascot below), which re-imagines the bookmobile in order to better meet the current needs of the community. Leveraging existing resources currently devoted to the bookmobile, the Pop-Up Pod would be a smaller, more flexible traveling source of a range of library services.
This sounds a lot like Fraser Valley Regional Library’s (also adorable) Library Live and On Tour vehicle. Do you know of any others like it? This idea is based around responding productively to declining use of the hypothetical library’s bookmobile. How would you sell stakeholders on the focus shifting away from books?
The Black team has a library with a “product” of many different different people with many skills but how can they sell this “product” to the community? Their solution is to approach the Board with a suggestion of a new role of Community Connector (who doesn’t even have to be a librarian). The Community Connector will find all the little niches within the community, identifying needs and bringing in library experts. For example, a literary specialist might be able to meet with new moms and let them know about everything that is happening at the library. It doesn’t even have to be a physical space, as they can connect with the community in its online spaces as well.
Full pitch and audience questions can be found after the jump.
This Large Urban Public Library (with fabulous jazz hands) pitched their idea to Deep Pockets Tech Corporation, seeking sponsorship for their Digital Drive initiative. This would be a small fleet of vehicles staffed by interns and equipped with technology tools intended to provide interactive media experiences and build 21st century skills in K-12 students.
This idea is all about partnerships–with the sponsoring organization to provide equipment; with schools, community centers, homeschoolers, and other places children learn or congregate to provide venues and participants; and the all-important interns to provide the staffing. How would you set up this web of partnerships and keep it sustainable? How promising is this plan for exploring the public library’s role in helping learners develop 21st century skills (summed up by P21 as Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity)?
The Light Gray team represented a midsize suburban library and was pitching to their city council.
The pitch? In order to meet the changing roles of libraries and dwindling financial resources, the library and park district of this city should combine to create the Library Park. “Healthy minds. Healthy bodies.” This merger would save money through by reducing duplication of services and facilities. Once combined, there would be one outreach and marketing effort. In addition, a city-wide app would also be created to show city events.
What would be some of the other pros and cons of a program like this? How could this be lobbied for to tax payers and government officials alike? Would there be opportunities for collaboration on a smaller scale? Several libraries have installed small branches into park district buildings (Barrington and Waukegan). What other ideas or ways of pitching this program can you think of?
Feedback (paraphrased)
Who is going to staff this? We’re not going to layoff anyone. With the savings will create new spaces and new jobs. We’ll use this as an opportunity to open and staff multiple areas.
As a city council person, I see this is an opportunity to save money. We won’t be raising taxes.
I’m a fatty and I don’t like the park district. What about me? As a foodie, you might be interested in some of the park district cooking classes. Overall, patrons of the separate organizations might discover services and resources that were unaware of before the consolidation.
What about the fact that the park district charges a fee for classes traditionally free at the library? By joining our resources, we will be eliminating some of the previous overhead and reduce the cost of the classes (while adding some additional enrichment from librarian expertise).
Who is in charge? Library Park will be governed by one board and one director.
Full Notes:
Pitch: LIBRARY PARK
Midsized suburban library
Identified problems:
limited city resources
duplication of facilities and programs between library, park district
need better use of stats to measure what we’re doing in community
library’s role is changing in community as more things go digital
need for library as community space, maker space
limited budget
Solution:
Library Park
merging of local park district and library
healthy minds, healthy bodies
why? save money through consolidation, reduce duplication of efforts
story times, crafts, facilities, gathering spaces, etc.
combined marketing and outreach effort
city wide use app
promote idea of commons
Feedback:
will people lose jobs? park people or library people? who’s staffing library park?
not going to lay off anyone, able to open more spaces and train more staff
“i’m a fatty and i don’t really like the park district, and is this going to take away from my library resources”
this is another opportunity to discover
better access for cooking classes for foodies
zoomba class will disrupt library staff
take the class, better for you!
park district charges for stuff, the library gives it away for free. how to reconcile?
cutting down on overhead will allow park district to offer programs for free
how do you get rid of the turf war?
who’s in charge?
two year experiment with one board, one director of library park
create new policies, etc. long process.
How do you make the connection between the community and the library even stronger? The Brown group pitched their solution: embed library volunteers in the community.
The volunteers would serve a dual role: act as evangelists for the library, taking information out into the community to educate folks; and to gather information to take back to the library in order to better plan programs and services.
Take a look at the pitch: how would this program work in YOUR community? How would you satisfy your administrator’s or board’s concerns?
Fourth on the draw was the Orange team, which represented a large library consortium of about 80 libraries.
The pitch? Take digital content, owned by individual libraries, and integrate them seamlessly into the shared catalog. Using a team of expert negotiators, project managers, web developers, lawyers, and community leaders, the consortium aims to negotiate the right of first sale for this electronic content and make material available through a seamless single sign-on user interface.
Clearly, it’s a huge goal. (Let it never be said that we didn’t urge everyone to dream big. ) How would you sell this to the content providers – what can libraries do to prove that their role in the book (e- or otherwise) ecosystem has significant value to the publishing industry. Furthermore, how much value would libraries have to provide to offset any “lost” sales (either in theory or in actuality) caused by people opting to check out materials instead of buying them?
The White team was third up and they represented a public library.
The pitch? Now, this group really got into the unconference spirit by pitching an unconference for the public! The basic idea is to create a quarterly “how-to festival” in which community members would come and share ideas and drop some knowledge on their neighbors.
So, how does this idea sound to you? The “human library” idea has been explored in various ways, perhaps most recently and interestingly by Escondido Public Library with their Library You project. Is this a viable way to strengthen the library’s role as a community center and “third place” in people’s lives? What challenges might a library like this face while trying to successfully create this kind of program and sustain it over the course of a year and longer?
