Minnesota Library Association Meeting

Today is the last day I just want to summarize the past few days.

As always it is great to talk with old friends and make new ones. It also creates a network that is invaluable when you have questions or concerns that you can call or e-mail and get answers or at least a place to start.

Friday sessions were confirmations of a trend we have been seeing for awhile with diminished budgets and hard choices. We must give the patrons what they want not what we think they want. Below is a summary of the final two sessions I attended.

The Eight Keys to Library Effectiveness: Consultant Sandra Nelson's message targeted what libraries will need to do to survive. While her message was not always what we wanted to hear (Phoenix Library sustained a 42% cut), it is what we needed to hear. Libraries will be making tough choices in the next few years on whether to cut costs or services. With touch economic times library use will increase while resources will decrease. Libraries need to take their focus away from what they think a library should be to focusing on user needs and wants. This means shifting resources to popular items instead of reference materials.

Libraries are becoming America's living room and we need to draw new patrons in by providing them with what they want, not what we think they need. We need to learn from the competition (Google, Netflix, Amazon). And we need to do this by providing excellent customer service--greeting people, anticipating their needs and not just sitting at the "desk" but having roaming librarians.

Lunch Speaker-Sandra Nelson
We were treated again to Sandra Nelson in her presentation Everyone is Getting Crabbier! In tough economic times everyone is stressed by working harder with less time and resources.
People mirror behavior. We can choose how we will interact. When you know tough times are coming, plan ahead. Then instead of cutting across the board, you can decide what services are most important and work to provide them. To accomplish this constructively you must plan ahead and simplify by getting rid of the clutter (such as vertical files) and the things we do that have high cost but are of little value.