Worth Their Weight

The topic of economic justification of libraries seems omnipresent, and looms over libraries of all sizes.

I recently wrote about the Library Use Value Calculator on my library's website, which is a simple tool that tries to give the cost of libraries some context. It shows just how much money a patron would have to spend in order to receive the same materials and services outside the library, in an effort to make the tax money they spend on the library a bit more tangible.

I bring this up again because, earlier this month, the Americans for Libraries Council released a report called "Worth Their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation" (info; pdf [1.3M]). It's 104 pages long, and provides "an overview of the cutting-edge field of library valuation, or models for expressing a library's multiple contributions to its community in dollars and cents."

I haven't read the whole thing, but I did read page 24 - where they mention the Chelmsford Library and the Library Calculator.

Chapter 3 of the report is titled "Examples Illustrating Methodologies and Trends," and under Section 3.6 - Encouraging Developments, they cite how we adapted for our website the Library Value Calculator from the MLA, and that it subsequently spread to other libraries as a valuable tool.

So, hooray for recognition. But more importantly, the report covers many aspects of library valuation, including valuation methods and tools, tips from the private sector, and additional case studies and examples from other libraries. Any library facing budget issues or closure might benefit from this report.

More Library Valuation resources:

• Report description and links
• Report download, pdf, 1.3MB
• ALA's Articles and Studies Related to
  Library Value
• Report also available at Libraries for the Future

Thanks to staff from the Montgomery City-County (AL) Public Library for point out this report to me.
acl, americans for libraries council, economic justification, libraries, library, library calculator, library use calculator, library use value calculator, library valuation, library value, public libraries, public library, value of libraries, worth their weight

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Reference Question of the Week – 5/13

A woman with a bad haircut walks up to the desk and asks...

(bad haircut? Yes, bad haircut. Even worse than mine.)

"Can you find the phone number of whoever issues licenses to hair stylists?"

Since two of us were working the desk at the time, and there was nothing else going on, both of us started looking. It didn't take much time to find the answer, but I thought it was interesting that we took two different routes to get there.

My Coworker's Approach
Started with Google (which is on our desk computers' start page) by searching for "cosmetology association massachusetts." The first result was for National Cosmetology Association: Recommended Links, and under their State Cosmetology Regulatory Agencies section was a link to the Massachusetts Board of Registered Cosmetologists.

That link lead into the Mass.gov website (MA's official government website), which, after a couple more clicks, offered a telephone number.

My Approach
Figuring this must be a state agency, I went directly to Mass.gov, even though their site search is generally less than ideal. I search for "cosmetology license," and the first result was a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Board of Registration of Cosmetologists. One of the last questions was How would I contact a cosmetology association in Massachusetts?, which provided a phone number in the answer.

Also at the bottom of the page was a Contact Us link for the Office of Consumer Affairs, of which the Division of Professional Licensure is a part, and which in turn has its own Contact Information page. This is the same page my coworker ultimately found, which strangely lists four categories for Cosmetologists and Aestheticians, but all of them have the same phone number.

The Result
The patron had wandered off right after asking the question, so we wrote all the websites and phone numbers down. I found her a few minutes later, herself searching the internet, and she was happy with the information we found.

But this was one of those cases where just finding what the patron wanted didn't feel like enough. There was definitely a story here, between the way her hair looked and the question she asked. As a librarian, I am trained not to pry or ask why a patron needs certain information, but I came close here to offering to call these numbers, just so I could learn if she was trying to complain about a salon she just came from, or wanted to open her own salon, or what. There had to be something interesting there; I still think a television show set in a library would be endlessly entertaining.

association, cosmetologists, cosmetology, libraries, library, licensure, mass.gov, professional license, public libraries, public library, reference question, searching

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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Open Source

Looking for a way to learn more about using open source tools in your library? Sure, we all are. Have I got a program for you...

One committees I'm on is the Information Technology Section of the New England Library Association. In addition to going to the meetings and sponsoring sessions at NELA's annual conference, we're also planning the NELA-ITS Spring Program, called "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Open Source."

This program is being held Wednesday, June 6, 2007, at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, in Boylston, MA. I'm looking forward to going, both for the program itself and because I've heard Tower Hill is a great place to spend a nice day outside.

More about the program:

Cost: NELA Members - $40 Non-members - $50

More details and online registration is available, but feel free to ask me any questions you might have, too.

Going to various committee meetings is okay, but I really enjoy getting off the desk and out of the library to find out what other librarians are doing and how they handle the same issues I see in my own library. This program will be great for that - maybe I'll see you there.

Elizabeth Thomsen, ils, information technology section, Joshua Ferraro, Koha, koha, Liblime, libraries, library, linux, Linux in a Public Library, nela, nela-ite, nela-its, new england, new england library association, open source, Open Source ILS, public libraries, public library, Randy Robertshaw, spring program, tower hill, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, tower hill botanical gardens, Ubuntu, Wes Hamilton

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Reference Question of the Week – 5/6

I'm traveling to Ohio this weekend, to celebrate both Mother's Day with my Mom and Grama, and my brother Mike's 30th Birthday (May 9th). So, this week's reference question is family-related.

My sister announced in March that she's going to be having her third child, which got everyone excited. Her first two are boys (Andrew, 5, and Jake, 2), so needless to say she is really hoping for a girl this time.

On Tuesday night she called to tell me that she is, indeed, having a girl. Hooray for Jenny. During the course of the call, we started talking about names for the baby, and she said she and her husband were having trouble picking a name this time.

Jenny is usually up on what's trendy, and the names of my two nephews turned out to pretty much be the "in" names for the years they were born. But with this one, they're stuck. They didn't like the idea of looking at baby-name books (I don't know why), so I suggested some fun online tools.

One, from the Social Security Administration, lists Popular Baby Names according to newborns registered for social security numbers. It shows which names were popular each year back to 1880, as well as allows searching by a name to see how popular it has been over time ("Brian" was #8 in 1974, but has since slipped to #63). There is also a by-state breakdown, to show which names are popular in different parts of the country.

The second fun website I use for baby names is the NameVoyager Baby Name Wizard. It requires java, but is visually-appealing. Type in a name, and it shows a popularity graph (which indeed confirms that "Brian" peaked in the early '70s). Mousing-over the graph gives a ranking by year for the last couple years, then by decade for the '90s and back.

A few other sites I pulled from the Librarian's Index to the Internet's listings for baby name resources are:

• http://www.babynames.com: ad-supported searchable names database, which also provides short meanings (I am High and Noble) and origins. Also has lists of names from Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, and soap operas
• http://tools.oxygen.com/babynamer: database of over 23,000 names - plus source, meaning, popularity, alternate spellings, teasing nicknames, and pronunciation. Also provides a bunch more information
• http://www.babycenter.com: more of a "pregnancy central command," which does list names, but also lets expectant mothers chart their development, connect with other pregnant women, and also provides related articles

So, no word yet on what name they might choose. But I know what girl names they're not going to use. Below are the names I've reserved (on the off-chance that I ever have children) that my siblings can't use for their kids:

What? Don't like my names? Try making up your own. I just learned this morning that Jason Lee named his son Pilot Inspektor. Huh.

babies, baby, baby names, babynames, libraries, library, name, names, naming babies, public libraries, public library, reference question

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Slowly Building Towards 2.0ness

My library is slowly adopting web 2.0 tools. We've done a bit up so far, but now we've finally started a flickr account.

We always take pictures at our many programs, but then those photos just end up sitting on our staff network. They usually don't even make it our website. This seemed to me a sad waste, so I've been talking up using flickr as a storage and sharing tool for the last few months.

People were pretty tepid to the entire idea, and couldn't see why I cared. So, as a micro-project, I started using flickr just for some historic photos from our archive (and then integrated them into the website). Once people saw how flickr worked, and how it could be used, then they started thinking about what ways they could use it, too.

The first to dive in was our Children's Room librarians. The Children's Room is being repainted with a mural, and they saw that flickr would be a great way to share the progression of the painting - and by using a flickr "badge", they could also put these pictures right on a Children's Room webpage.

The biggest sticking point now is concern that patrons will be outraged if we post their photograph on the internet without first getting their permission. And this is legitimate, because although photos taken in public places are fair game, I wouldn't want to rely on a legal technicality. But I also think that it's not that big a deal - once people get used to it, there should be no problem (I hope).

So it's still slow going (slower than I'd like, anyway), but I am getting people on board. Perhaps soon we'll even find the $25/year to pay for a pro account, and really invest in this as a permanent tool.
flickr, libraries, library, library 2.0, patron photos, patron pictures, photos, pictures, public libraries, public library, publishing, web 2.0

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Reference Question of the Week – 4/29

Ten minutes before I'm due to go home, the phone rings. The caller identifies himself as a reporter for the local newspaper and asks if I can help him find the correct spelling of the name of a bar that was in Chelmsford 10-15 years ago. He says it was called "Beer Bellies," gives me the address, and I tell him I'll see what I can find and call him back.

I've only lived here for about two years, so this bar was before my time. But since all librarians are big drinkers, I asked around the staff on duty that day to see if anyone recalled this bar. No one did, which surprised them all, since most of them have lived here all their lives.

Even when I mentioned the address I was given, all anyone could remember in that area was a gym, or a racquetball club, or something like that - which has since been torn down to build an office park. And because I had asked around, suddenly the entire library was working on the same reference question.

Since he wanted the correct spelling, I thought I'd have to find a reference in writing, but was at least hoping the staff here could give me some leads. We didn't have any phone books that old, Chelmsford doesn’t have a city directory, and the time span was far too great to skim through old newspaper microfilm hoping to get lucky.

But since this was a bar, there must be a record of ownership, and a liquor license. So I went to the Town's website and into the Tax Assessor's database. This database has helped me more than once, but rarely completely answers the question.

And it was the same in this case. I searched for the address, and found that that property was owned by the same person from 1979 to 1996, which would certainly coincide with the patron's "10-15 years ago" range. But, unfortunately, the name listed was a person's name, not "Beer Bellys" or something.

So, I got out the local phone book to look up the name. It was listed and I gave them a call, hoping to explain who I was and ask them if they used to own a bar at that address. But, the phone number was disconnected. Drat. Not wanting to give up on this particular lead, I also tried this person's name on Switchboard. There was a listing for the same number as in the phone book, but also a second phone number.

However, by now it was time for me to go home, so I had to pass this question off to the next shift. They called the other number and got a hold of the right person. After explained the situation, the man said that yes, he did own a bar at that address. But it was never called "Beer Bellies" - it was called the "Brass Racquet." They then called the reporter back, who was happy with the result; he only thought the name might have been "Beer Bellies," which is why he wasn't sure of the spelling in the first place.

brass racquet, chelmsford, chelmsford ma, libraries, library, public libraries, public library, reference question, reference questions, switchboard, tax assessor

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