Brave New World (au) by Aldous Huxley
A good dystopian discussion piece, but not as grand as when I first read it years ago.

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (au) by Marilyn Johnson
Learned a few new things about my profession from this paean to librarianship. Still, I’m not sure it tells us how “librarians and cybrarians can save us all,” instead focusing on the author’s experiences during her explorations in lieu of the adding depth to a wider view.

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck aptly captures the rhythms of the people and the tragedy of their circumstances in this remarkable story of a midwestern family’s migration west during the Depression. One of my favorite books of 2011.

Freeway by Mark Kalesniko
Graphic novel about a young cartoonist breaking into the industry that he idealizes based on the studio’s golden days in 1940s Los Angeles. The flashbacks here are beautiful, but the plot has that pathetic graphic novel malaise that make Adrian Tomin’s books such a drag to read.

Skybreaker (au) by Kenneth Oppel
An excellent sequel to Airborn. Great quasi-steampunk coming-of-age adventure story perfect for teen readers and me.

Hollywood Hills (au) by Joseph Wambaugh
Hard-boiled detective story with a late-blooming plot and entertaining dark local color. Takes place right around the corner from my library.

The Other Eighties by Martin D. Bradford
Interesting telling of several 80s counter-culture movements. Unfortunately it reads a lot like the leftist apologia it tries to be an antidote for.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (au) by David Foster Wallace
From my goodreads review: “A contemporary Henry Miller, David Foster Wallace spouts beautiful, full, descriptive sentences that alternate at clutching the soul and numbing the skull. Misogyny too, is kind of a big deal here, and the outlook of a lit-theory postgraduate…should only be imbibed in measured doses.”

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
Top-notch video game criticism that descends into unexpectedly raw autobiography.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (au) by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein near his best in this sci-fi tale of a revolt incited by a supercomputer-turned-revolutionary.

On History by Howard Zinn
I read to get an example of a historiographical perspective and I got one. The essays and speeches that I read (I didn’t get into all of them) gave me a decent sense of a Marxist historical perspective – in that way many beat the on the same drum – as well as some previously-unknown-to-me events/people in history.

Historiography: An Introduction by Roger Spalding
A good, if not too 60s-80s perspective-heavy, introductory survey to historiography. Just what I was looking for when I read it.

Ship Breaker (au) by Paolo Bacigalupi
An apt alt-history young-adult novel with many of the same appeals as Kenneth Oppel’s Matt Cruse series (see Skybreaker above) but less storytelling finesse.

Concierge Confidential by Michael Fazio
A quick-and-dirty read full of Fazio’s entertaining stories-of-the-craft. His encapsulation of the customer service ethos appealed to me.

My winter reading has already started and it continues in a similar direction as the Fall. I am currently reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner which is, like Grapes of Wrath on my list of American authors/books I’ve missed so far. Looking at previous reading lists, I’ve been gotten a book or two from that list read every season, which is fine with me; I’ve never been much of a list-stickler. Historiography is also a strain that I’d like to continue. I have Ernst Breisach’s serious survey of historical study on my shelf as I type this. It’s a big one, but I hope to finish it during the Winter season and now that the groundhog saw his shadow and we get six more weeks, I think I may just be able to do it. I suspect my average number of books read will also decline because I’ve resolved to do more thinking and writing about the books I read so you might expect more bookish essays and long-form reviews (similar to the Reality is Broken essay I posted recently). Besides that, my commute is now shorter by half so my audiobook listening time has been likewise reduced. Oh well.

Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

In response to the thesis brought forth in Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal that using game mechanics in could better our everyday lives on a large scale I say that I agree, but not without reservations.

Game mechanics are important because they provide ongoing incentive for doing things that may seem rather drab without the playful elements added. Thinking about a world without oil, for example, is a deeply distressing and laborious task unless, like in the game “World without Oil” it is done with thousands of other people with whom to “play” the scenario. Play that makes you more creative because unlike thinking about the topic in a conference room with other experts, “World without Oil” gives you a believable alternate reality in which to live. Summed up, you’re playing a game with a bunch of other people who provide social incentive to engross yourself in a world you choose to inhabit for the ultimate purpose of creating real positive results. After you finish playing, you can turn around and say “Wow, that was fun,” but not feel bad because it has no effect on your real life.

Indeed, some game mechanics are already pervasive in many industries. Salesmen will often have a public leaderboard of bests so that success is a social boost in addition to actual rewards like vacations or tickets to sports games. These are basic motivators that work fairly well, but they lack a few elements of life-changing games: the believable alternate reality that makes gaming so engrossing, progressively more difficult challenges (unless promotions are involved, of course), and a system that provides players with intrinsic rewards. Though I’m sure some salesmen do believe that their product will make the world a better place, I think that this is a minority. The majority of game mechanics in the workplace, whatever the industry, involves extrinsic rewards like more money or a vacation. These things are nice, but they’re the reason people say that work doesn’t love you back; it’s because rarely does it provide the type of incentives that makes a whole life more rewarding; they are short-term motivation boosters and up to a point, they work. In a reality of business cycles, quarter after profitable quarter, I am fairly certain that most bosses do not consider the long-term, whole-life ramifications of their actions. Nor do they consider how their quarterly earnings (or tactical goals) influence society. Up until recently, social good was sometimes the occupation of entrepreneurs after work hours, today this is changing though not quickly enough. Too many corporations are still only giving lip service to social good. All-inclusive game mechanics, like other powerful conceptual tools, do not assign moral value – they are, as their name suggests, tools that can be manipulated by the game master.

For many years I have been curious about what makes Scientology so appealing to so many different kinds of people. I gained some insight by reading Dianetics and other readily-available Scientology literature as well as having a Scientologist co-worker who was nice enough to talk to me, albeit in a somewhat limited way, about his beliefs and take me on a tour of a Scientology building on Sunset Blvd. so I could get a sense of Scientology methods of instruction and generally how things work for rank-and-file Scientologists. To be sure, I was impressed by the things he showed me, Though I never harbored any serious thoughts of becoming one, I could see the appeal of the religion/technologies to so many people. And yet, it was not until I began to explore Jane McGonigal’s work and some basic game theory did it become clear. Scientologists are so drawn to the organization because it is rife with game mechanics!

To start, there is an all-encompassing cosmology that one finds more and more about as he goes up the org chart (Bridge). To find out about it, you have to take classes and get audited, and by getting those experiences you rise in rank. These levels are not merely a chart, they represent your development as a person; your first push is to become a “Clear,” then through many levels of work and a long time you become a Thetan. Many special abilities are attributed to a Thetan which makes working your way up to that level very appealing. Despite the money and hard work that you put into the organization, there are many people on the same path with similar aims. This social proof gives credence to your own goals and desires. Furthermore, ostensibly the mission of Scientology is, from the beginning, focused on the greater good; Scientology seeks to improve the world. That is why affiliations with organizations like Narconon (to help get people off drugs) and its equivalent for alcohol, the World Literacy Crusade, and the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (of “Psychiatry Kills!” fame) are not hidden. All of this is, of course, a simplification of Scientology, but I expect that no Scientologist reading this will disagree with my thesis.

Obviously, L. Ron Hubbard and the other inventors of the Scientology materials (the game masters, if you will) understood how game mechanics could motivate people. Though they probably would not be pleased to have their work being looked at through this lens, the connections are very clear. Despite the myriad faulty scientific and logical/philosophical claims in the writing of LRH, I must admit that there are also plenty beneficial teachings. So many intelligent people become and stay Scientologists because it is relatively easy to accept the fundamental ideas of LRH and once those are accepted, the game mechanics (and, I must add, the aesthetically-pleasing buildings, books, and learning materials) do a great job of keeping people plugged in.

In the introductory chapter to Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal writes “What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what’s wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists?” I like this mode of thinking, and it leads to a very persuasive argument posed as a question. Why not, McGonigal asks, since more and more people are transfixed by games that provide little real-world solutions, not work real-world problems into the back story of games and use the reflexive illusion of play (that is not really play, but is play, but is not really play, etc. etc.) in an “alternate” reality to then fold the “alternate” reality solutions into the real world?

My knee-jerk response is that games have creators and game runners and these people have identities that factor into the games they create. For Ender Wiggin, the game he didn’t know he was playing was set up so he would play it despite any pacifist tendencies he might have. Part of the controversy was that the deception that took place had real-world consequences; had Ender known he was playing at reality, perhaps his actions would have been different. Moving into a real-world scenario, the fun of many games is that we do not know what will happen next; if the game is spoiled for us, we won’t want to play. And here we have our moral dilemma: When using games to solve real-world problems, how can we be sure about the nature of the problems we are purported to be solving? The deeper one is in a game world, or an alternate reality, the more difficult it becomes to extricate oneself. Even more insidious is that the deeper we go, the more difficult it becomes to recognize that the problem we were solving is no longer the same – that the people we were once associated with are no longer the people we like.

Inherent in alternate realities is their exclusionary qualities; like having a secret, if everyone knows about it, it is no longer a secret. To accept an alternate reality is to be part of a special tribe, ascribing to oneself particular identities that require difference. There must be a spectrum of qualities unlike the entity you wish to become for that entity to exist. By itself there is nothing amiss about exclusivity, but when that exclusivity is an unknown factor to non-members, consensus on what is normative behavior becomes difficult. The slippery-slope argument goes like this: If everyone is playing an alternate reality game but no one knows who is playing what game, how do we agree on how to communicate? What secret mission is that person carrying out? Does it have to do with me? Does that person’s reality carry a back story that is detrimental to my own? Do that person’s assumptions about the meaning of words differ from my own? Do we both mean in the same way?

Though this is a slippery-slope argument that quickly jumps from the rise of real-life gaming to a world where society can only be seen through the lens of one’s fragmented consciousness, it is eerily real when it comes to tribes like Scientology, fundamentalist religion, and polarizing politics. The use of game mechanics can help alleviate the distress in the world, but it can also initiate the progress of the filter bubbles Eli Pariser describes in his book. Only the filter bubbles I’m talking about are not merely digital but in our minds. When game mechanics make it easy to join a “game” that makes us a part of something bigger than ourselves, the threshold to becoming an in-game representation of yourself (as opposed to your avatar being part of you) is real. Whereas online, no one can tell that you’re not really a [blank], they can tell in real life – it’s a scary proposition when because of the ubiquity of the games we play, no one – even in real life – will be able to tell who we are. It will be as if we are surrounded by sociopaths.

p.s. – A fellow librarian recommended the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline in which the protagonist along with everyone else spend most of their time in a virtual world. Mayhem ensues.

Planning

It would be great if everybody came to the event you’re putting on, wouldn’t it? But that isn’t going to happen. People are drawn to events that: Touch on an interest (a writers’ group), allow for a specific type of social interaction (speed dating), teach them something (computer class), help them with something they can’t/don’t want to do themselves (resumé workshop). Audiences for programs can also generally be divided by other obvious identifying factors: gender (knitting circle=female), age (retirement workshop=older), socioeconomic status (charitable-giving how-to=wealthier), stage of life (mommy & me=young mothers), it can go on and on. It’s a mistake to begin planning an event without putting plenty of thought into who you expect the audience to be. Since (lack of) time is a major factor in promotion, the majority of your effort should be spent talking to people who are most likely to come to your event (you do actually talk to people about your event, don’t you? More on this later). So before you call any performers or start designing your postcards, break down your expected audience using these handy-dandy questions:

• What is the purpose of the event? (In your answer consider the reasons people are drawn to events listed above.)
• What is the age range of your expected audience?
• What is the stage-of-life (or social role) of your expected audience?
• Is your event likely to draw more males or females? Or is it not a gender-specific event?
• Is socioeconomic status a consideration for your event?
• Does your event focus on a specific interest? Are there groups, associations, clubs, etc. in your area that are devoted to that interest?

Your answers to these questions should inform the way you inform your community about your event.

Getting the Word Out

Paper: Fliers, postcards, half-sheets seem to be the most common method of event promotion in libraries. This is strange because in my experience paper is the least effective means of communicating your message. Paper is passive; you might spend an hour designing a beautiful flier, make 100 copies of it, and see people picking it up, but get only one or two audience members in response. The fact is that taking a flier obligates a person to do nothing – they may use the page as scratch paper, they may throw it away as soon as they get out of your line-of-sight, they may stick the paper in a drawer at home and forget about it; a flier picked up is as good as trash for the most part; just wasted paper.

There are ways, however, to maximize the advertising potential of your paper: 1) Design your fliers to play to your expected audience. Make them distinctive. 2) Put your fliers in people’s line-of-sight, but not if that means among a gaggle of other fliers. Counters, well-used doors, anywhere people linger are all good options. 3) Get them out of the library. Go to places where your expected audience congregates and put fliers there! This is especially important if your expected audience isn’t composed of frequent library patrons. 4) Give your fliers out by hand whenever possible. When I worked at the little Lomita Library, the manager had the circulation desk staff give quarter-sheet storytime handouts to everyone with kids who checked out items. That means all of those people at the very least knew that we were having a storytime or whatever the event happens to be. As a result the library, which is tucked away off the street in the sleepy Lomita civic area and less than a mile from two bigger libraries, always has an impressive turnout.

Media/Partnerships: If you don’t write press releases and send them out to the applicable publications on your media contact list, than you’re doing an unprofessional job. There are two elements I’ll expound on in the previous sentence:

1) Press releases – If you’re talking about a regular event (as opposed to something special like a summer reading finale, or a very high-profile speaker), the release doesn’t have to be a production. When promoting events, I usually sent out a simple media advisory that contained a punchy one-paragraph description of my event, the library’s (and any performers/partner organizations) boilerplate and some one-liners about essential information like WHAT: WHEN: WHERE: and the COST:. This format has served me well in the past because it’s simple enough for a calendar listing and, if it’s interesting enough to the editor, can lead to full-length articles (audience members say: “That was you in the newspaper!”).

The 2) element is a media contact list. Don’t have one? Make one! It’s pretty easy, though never finished. Start by calling up the local newspaper(s) and ask to speak to the person who compiles the calendar listings, introduce yourself and ask them where it’s best to send press releases. One contact made. Next, check online for hyperlocal news sites like Patch or homebrew efforts; when I was at the Lancaster Library there were three or four hyperlocal news sites that would regularly include library events prominently on their sites. When that’s done, scour the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media for organizations that reach your service area; many libraries subscribe to the online version of this source, but I think the print version is easier to use. Don’t rule out local radio stations either, an on-air shout-out is often just a phone call away (my wife, a programming librarian, got the local classical music station to mention one of her library’s concerts by simply calling and asking). A few hours of research and phone calls is all it takes to create an initial contact list. It’s very likely, though, that by being an active community member you will constantly be updating your list. That’s a good thing.

A better way to promote your event than sending it out to general purpose news outlets is to find any local organizations that specialize in the theme of your happening. When I had my writers’ group at the Lancaster Library, I connected with many of the other writing groups in the area as well as two literary magazines and other folks in the arts community. These contacts either led to, or became core members of the group, not to mention they were cool people. My experience with the writer’s community in the Antelope Valley can translate to practically any type of ongoing program. I believe that developing a network of individuals interested in the content of your program is the single best way to guarantee robust participation. Creating, becoming part of, and giving back to a community is about more than promoting library events, but an audience for your programs is not a bad side effect.

Word: While paper and press releases are popular passive ways to let people know about your event, the aforementioned relationships with community organizations and word-of-mouth are powerful active ways of building an audience. The latter has long been my favorite way of getting people involved with library programs. I have lost count of the number of patrons who I’ve encouraged, in the midst of our usual communication, to come to my events. The philosophy is simple, if a person is already a regular library patron, then coming to program won’t be out-of-the-way. And, if an occasional patron has an interest or a possible interest in the subject of your program then why not tell him about it? There is nothing gained in being shy. I’m very comfortable saying that I strongly recommend pitching your programs to patrons directly where appropriate. If you’re going to do any type of promotion, talk to people. It is the best way.

Don’t stop with patrons, though. It’s always strange to me how that very staff that works in the same building as programming librarians don’t know what’s going on at their workplace. I would even venture to say that before you talk to any patrons, make sure your staff, from the volunteers to the librarians know what’s going on and are at ease answering basic questions about programs. Sometimes, staff will even come through by promoting your programs to friends and family. This type of excitement over your events shouldn’t be an exception, it should the normal course of things. Just like the circulation staff at the Lomita Library knew that they played an important role in bringing happy audiences to their library, your staff should be made to feel that their contribution is important. Because it really really really is.

At the Event

Before the program begins, make sure to introduce yourself to the audience and clearly go over upcoming library events. Then either hand out fliers or make them available somewhere in the room. Since these people are already at a library event it is much more likely that they will come to another one, but only if they know about it – it is your job to make sure they do. Make sure to also be available during any breaks and after the event to chat with folks. It’s those personal connections again, their importance cannot be understated; so many times I’ve rustled up an audience for a program that could easily have failed by inviting patrons I already knew. Because these people trust me to steer them correctly, they don’t mind taking a chance on something they might not have thought to attend on their own.

This is related to another topic so I’ll just touch on it briefly, but do take a few minutes before the program begins to survey your audience. Ask for a show-of-hands of people who are new to library events, ask what kind of events they’d like to see, ask how they found out about your program. This accomplishes two things: First, it warms up the audience which is good for the performer, and second, it gives you some crucial knowledge as to where your audience came from (so you could determine which of your promotional methods are working) and how to keep them coming back. That latter point is a useful one to remember; libraries, unlike some businesses, do not have a way to keep customers locked in – the way we work is to keep providing the right stuff. It’s a shame to lose a attendee for future events so ask what brought them there, and what would keep them coming back. You’ll be surprised at how eager people are to tell you what they like; they want to have good time, after all.

To Think About:

Poetry events: There are some programs that are harder than others to promote. Poetry events – well, literary events in general – are known to be among the most notoriously difficult for many reasons. The main reason, in my opinion, is that librarians putting on literary events typically shoot from the hip when it comes to promoting them. When the author or the workshop leader is not a recognizable name (read: most of the time), the only way to gather an audience is by finding the program’s other selling points and pitching them to a qualified audience. By qualified, I mean people you already know are interested or patrons you have some other connection with. This is precisely why it’s so important to consistently follow the suggestions I’ve outlined above, so you rarely have to promote programs cold. When the performer asks “How many people do you expect?” you should be able to answer with an educated guess. That said, too many times I’ve seen librarians with no idea what to expect because all they’ve been doing is passive advertising with no pre-planning.

So here’s the big question: How do you get a good audience for poetry events? Answer: Find the poetry-lovers in the community and ask as many of these individuals and groups as possible to come. You’ll have to ask a ton of people to get a respectable audience (approximately 10% of the “qualified” people you ask may show up). However, if you’ve been following through with your promotion for any period of time, a ton of potential audience members should be an email and a few phone calls away.

Oversaturation/Competition: Part of doing successful programming is to be able to read your community in order to ascertain their needs and wants. You will also have had to do the research to find out if the type of program your considering is already underway elsewhere in town. When I started the all-ages Checkmate Chess Club at the Lancaster Library, I knew that, while there was some chess-playing and a chess club or two around the Antelope Valley, there were enough chess players to sustain the library club (we ended up with anywhere between 35-50 people a week). Part of the Club’s success was due to my partnering with a local chess couple who provided lessons for beginners and helped promote the Club. On the other hand, perhaps your program isn’t getting a good showing because there are already plenty of concerts or movie nights or writing workshops going on in your area? Make sure you have a case for your undertaking before you do a whole lot of a work. Or maybe there’s something similar happening on the very day your program is scheduled? Check and keep checking for conflicts on your big day. Don’t set yourself up to fail.

Finally, have patience: Planning events is not always easy. It takes time to build a loyal following for an ongoing event. Be patient, but balance that patience with a strategy that calls for action if you don’t meet your participation goals by a specified date. Make sure to adjust your tactics in a meaningful way. Also, be bold; success comes to those who are unafraid to step out and make things happen. It can be as little as making a few phone calls or as much as renting a costume and parading out on main street dressed as a trombone to promote a concert. I haven’t done the latter, but you can have the idea. No need to give me credit.

Happy Planning!

On Being My Second Conference
My very first library conference was the 2009 CLA conference two years ago also in Pasadena. I went into it having just graduated library school and not knowing very many people at all. I wandered through the exhibit hall and the sessions in a daze of solitude interrupted by activity. I did meet a few people, but didn’t make any very solid connections. The experience was as overwhelming as it was underwhelming; even though I had not worked as a professional librarian yet, the sessions I attended seemed strangely lightweight. I only kept going to them because I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do. That definitely wasn’t the case during this conference.

After almost two years of working as a librarian and being a relatively active part of the library world online and off, I came to this conference with the primary goal of making personal/in-person connections. Certainly, there were sessions, but due to my previous conference experience I felt no qualms putting them on the backburner. This resulted in my inserting plenty of free time into my conference schedule. Contrary to the 2009 conference where I spent far too much time with my nose buried in a book, this year I was able to spend time around the conference center’s main thoroughfares and be sure to run into people I knew. Being at a regional conference like CLA, I really got the sense of how small the library world is. The good thing about that is the opportunity it affords to chance upon well-known people doing wonderful things and have insightful conversations with them (lots if superlatives there, I know).

Interest Groups (impact groups)
As a person who has never had anything to do with CLA interests groups I was surprised how much I enjoyed the ones I attended at this conference. Being a small section at the beginning of the conference booklet (as opposed to being put in-line with the sessions) they’re easy to miss, but my feeling is that interest groups have the potential to be the best thing that the CLA Conference offers attendees. My rationale is that because most of the sessions are either too basic for the working librarian (read: they are for library students), not interesting to me, or case studies of one or several library projects that may or may not be applicable to anything I’m doing, and hallway conversations are generally much too informal, interest groups provide the perfect outlet for advanced librarians looking to have serious conversations about their topics of interest.

The best thing about interest groups is that they can do whatever you want them to do within reason. The ones I went to were pretty small, about six people each, so there was discussion aplenty. In the new Volunteer Engagement Interest Group, we sat together shared answers and suggestions for specific questions. We also learned from each other about useful resources. At the end, my notebook was full of stuff to follow up with and I felt like I had gotten some of my sticking points as a Volunteer Coordinator off my chest.

The Information Technology Interest Group was a little different; it was longstanding group that had dwindled to a few members and was being reinvigorated by new leadership. Here, our discussion centered not so much around shop talk as program ideas for the Spring Fling and in what direction did we want to take the group. I think maybe I talked too much for a group that is for me more a personal (rather than professional) interest. Still, Mathew and Suzana are capable leaders and were able to reign me in giving everyone else a chance to talk as well as furthering their own ideas.

My suggestion for anyone reading this who is a member of the California Library Association and an advanced librarian is to get involved in at least two interest groups now, when the planning process for upcoming activities is still underway. And next year, forgo a session or two to attend your interest groups. You’ll find it well worth the time.

Sessions
Bookview 101: An Author Panel: Highlighting Authors of Books that Expand our View of Our Neighbors, our World and Ourselves

Was going to let the afternoon go by without attending a session but saw Ron Koertge‘s name in the program and him being a poet I recognize (I saw him read his off-kilter humorous poetry at the HAMMER museum a while ago and bought a book), I wandered in. The session featured two more Los Angeles-based writers discussing their books, how they work, and all kinds of other stuff including Los Angeles literary places (Libros Schmibros was mentioned) and “accessible” poets to add to library collections and pitch to patrons. Though the temperature in the room was very hot, the back-and-forth between the authors and the audience kept me too engaged to worry about discomforts. I ended up buying a book about the history of poetry in Los Angeles and promising to buy another about Los Angeles “saint” street names.

California Reads from the California Council for the Humanities and the California Center for the Book

This was actually a program to discuss a grant and most of the audience-members represented libraries that were in some stage of receiving the grant. I only found this out when I was in the session and since I liked the presenters I decided to stay, listen, and learn. All I learned, I already knew and that is that the California Center for the Book and the California Council for the Humanities are two organizations that do exemplary work for our state’s bookpeople.

SCAN Jose – Augmented Reality Brings History to Life

The potential of augmented reality is a continuing interest of mine and so I attended this program in which IDEAS Manager (what a job title!) Sandra Stewart and Web Librarian Nate Hill explained step-by-step how they created their SCAN Jose initiative, in which they combined geo-location capabilities of smartphones and tablets with their local history collection to get a smooth walking tour (browser-) app. Maybe when I have time I’ll ask Nate to let me study the code. As a general note, though, more libraries should be doing projects like this; relatively low-threshold coding / collection mashups that are easy for patrons to access and infotastic to use.

Exhibit Hall
The Exhibit Hall is actually the least interesting part of the conference for me. I wandered through it for a total of maybe twenty minutes, looked at a few things, and left without much enthusiasm. I’m not in a position to buy anything for my library and even if I was, I don’t think I would do it at a conference. To me, the exhibit hall is basically a giant waste of space. I can understand why it would be useful for some people though..

Battledecks
Battledecks is a competition in which competitors must deliver a presentation from slides they see for the first time on stage. It’s the ultimate in improvisation because no theme is given; all that exists is the competitor, the slides, and of course, the audience. Each performer is given five minutes to talk about ten slides. Because I’m a big show-off, I volunteered to be a competitor. While I highly recommend you watch the whole competition, my part starts at around 9:15. Enjoy!

As you can see, a couple of slides stopped me cold. I didn’t see the joke in the book burning slide and the social media one I just didn’t “get” (see all the slides at MC Patrick Sweeney’s blog). It was fun though I didn’t win. Still, definitely a good public speaking workout. Maybe sometime I’ll even do it again, this time with the advantage of experience behind me.

And in Conclusion…
Ashley and I had a good time at CLA 2011. I’m not sure if we’ll be going to the 2012 conference in San Jose due to the necessity for time off and funds. We will, however, very likely be heading to the 2012 ALA Annual conference in Anaheim.

Water Street (au) by Patricia Reilly Giff
Neat coming-of-age story set in 1875 New York. Many of the same appeals as Reilly Giff’s House of Tailors.

Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser
A prescient long-form articulation of the short-term effects and long-term consequences of algorithmically-personalized web services.

Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman
Probably the best coverage of Scientology from outside the religion to date. A dense tome, but a must-read for anyone interested in the topic.

Into the Wild by Erin Hunter
The first volume of the endless Warriors series in which wild forest cat clans duke it out for control of the forest. I didn’t dislike this one.

Fire and Ice by Erin Hunter
By number two of the series, the plots begin becoming so taut that I have trouble with the drama.

All the King’s Men (au) by Robert Penn Warren
A heavy book that exhibits a fictionalized, but very real, world of Louisiana politics and southern culture. Possibly featuring one of the most understated and yet memorable narrator-protagonists in fiction.

Forest of Secrets by Erin Hunter
Ugh. By the time I got to this one I was sick of the series. Thing is, I had to read it to find out what happened! But getting to the end, I was met with the fact that the third one is not the end of the cycle. No more for me, thank you.

Vive La Paris (au) by Esmé Raji Codell
A smug and interesting protagonist with a cool family. Madame Esmé has a tween winner here. The audiobook version I listened to is a winner as well.

It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville
A soft coming-of-age story that’s slightly out-of-date but still charming.

Seek (au) by Paul Fleischman
An audio-mosaic in which a boy searches for his radio announcer father. I love the atmosphere of this book and the boy’s intellectual family.

Marching Men by Sherwood Anderson
One of Sherwood Anderson’s early books. I read this in order to write its Wikipedia article. Let’s just say I won’t be reading it again.

Chiggers by Hope Larson
A girl’s camp graphic novel that featuring teen friendships, angst, and all. The art style is quite enjoyable. A short read, too.

Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes
One scene in the life of Houdini. For a graphic novel with so many possibilities, this one is just too short.

Airborn (au) by Kenneth Oppel
A delightful steampunk adventure with a wonderful audio production. Highly recommended! Probably one of my favorite books of the year.

Watchmen by Alan Moore
Not a perfect plot, characters, or pacing in places, but the mood overshadows all and makes this alt-history Cold War era graphic novel the classic it is.

2024: A Graphic Novel by Tad Rell
An underwhelming graphic novel take on 1984.

Blankets by Craig Thompson
Coming-of-age graphic novel with an effective(and affective) realistic romance and amazing art. This is a seminal work in the graphic novel genre.

Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year by Esmé Raji Codell
A smooth and funny diary of a unique teacher’s first year. A quick read.

Cages by Dave McKean
This is what avant-garde graphic novels look like. The sort-of plot with its strange trajectory will appeal to readers who are comfortable with the graphic story form and enjoy poetry.

On the Wings of Heaven (au) by Richard Peck
An episodic home-front story. Solid, if not memorable, storytelling. Probably not Richard Peck’s best work.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle
Good local color and fine art. If only there was a plot to speak of.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
From my Goodreads review: “I enjoyed the realistic artistic style here and how it melded with the fairly sober, epiphany-filled childhood of the author who, in discovering her own sexuality reflects on her fathers parallel track as a gay man (though this was never actually confirmed).”

Leviathan (au) by Scott Westerfeld
Steampunk adventure in alt-WW Europe lags in places but good parts raise it above flavor-of-the-month.

BodyWorld by Dash Shaw
Another experimental graphic novel. Drugs, depravity, and all-around weirdness. This one is definitely not for everybody.

Giving (au) by Bill Clinton
Clinton explores different ways of giving, through monetary means or simply time. In a large part a list, but also with some insights on how the NGO world works.

Since my Fall reading has already started (and almost concluded). I’ll just wait till I post that list in order to talk about future reading. I did finish Grapes of Wrath which was on my American authors list and it was excellent – a true classic. I’ve also read some other good stuff. More on that later.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (au) by Carson McCullers
Really powerful, complex, characters each with his/her own depressing social context made this one difficult to read at times. The essence of strong literary fiction.

The Moviegoer by Percy Walker
Not as much about movie-going as I thought it would be. Instead, about breaking with the past. Excellent sense of culture&place – New Orleans.

The Dharma Bums (au) by Jack Kerouac
Rollicking times with characters that you want to hang out with. A bit of pseudo-zen thrown in for good measure.

A Bell for Adano (au) by John Hersey
After Hiroshima I was expecting much better. Instead Hersey wasted my time with cookie-cutter characters and predictable plot.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (au) by Ken Kesey
Counterculture classic with tremendous character arcs. I like the book better than the movie.

A Lesson Before Dying (au) by Edward J. Gaines
Good sense of place and time, but slow story.

Ethan Frome (au) by Edith Wharton
If I wanted to make futurepeople suffer, I would put this book in a time capsule. They’d think: “Wow, was everyone in the past a dolt like Ethan Frome and the other characters in this book?”

The Penguin Book of Zen Poetry, Edited by Lucien Stryk
A survey of zen poetry from long ago to contemporary times mixes excellent poems with a few awkward translations. Many of the poems require some knowledge of zen stories, Japanese culture and language to truly appreciate.

The Chocolate War (au) by Robert Cormier
Classic teen lit full of angst and derision. A private-school version Lord of the Flies. Almost.

Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (au) by Robert James Waller
Quasi-literary romance. Waltz should have been faster.

How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom (au) by Garry Kasparov
I liked the chess stories but not the comparing-chess-to-life parts. Some of those were too much of a stretch.

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
After some back-and-forth, I decided to like McGonigal’s manifesto despite having read much of the material online from her presentations. Also had trouble with the fact that McGonigal’s half-full glass seemed always to be overflowing; critical chops would have been nice.

Fight Club (au) by Chuck Palanhiuk
The hardcore anti-consumerist version of Dharma Bums. Both book and movie are recommended.

A House of Tailors (au) by Patricia Reilly Giff
Coming-of-age immigrant story. I liked reading about tailors in old New York.

Night (au) by Elie Wiesel
Everything positive that people have said about Night is true. A must-read.

Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues that Affect Our Freedom by Ron Paul
Conclusion: All problems are caused by a large central government and its meddling with the economy.

Mary Poppins (au) by E.L. Travers
Booooooooooo! Disjointed story and mean Poppins. Movie Poppins better!

The Practice and the Presence of God, and As a Man Thinketh (au) by Brother Lawrence
An inspiring little tome for those with a mind towards higher things.

Looking forward is almost pointless here since we’re already well into summer. Still, I should mention that I’ve started Grapes of Wrath, but have put it down temporarily in lieu of a few other things, including some classics of the graphic novel genre. Look out for a slew of those in the next reading list, in addition to some other excellent books. Thus far summer’s been a full reading season, especially since now I have more time to balance listening and reading, what with not having to drive to Lancaster daily.

To that end, the last year and three months have only served to reinforce what I had expected to feel since I began volunteering at my local library as a teenager, that I love being a librarian. The daily grind tells me that there is nothing I’d rather do then what I’m doing now, which is why I am saddened by what the current circumstances mean for me and my patrons. Though I knew from get-go that mine was a temporary position, the initial year for which I was hired seemed like such a long time. Like any good tree there was just no way I could avoid doing what came naturally; I found a nice place at the Lancaster Library and began to take root.

From the beginning, I sought out interesting people and made connections. I met people at the reference desk, I met them when out to lunch, and, most of all, I met them at my programs. After establishing the Lancaster Library Writers’ Group, my branches began to sprout; many of the well-known local writers came through the group at one point or another and some even stayed. Reaching out to the local paper scored a couple of articles…Always fascinating new people. The life of a librarian, like a busy spider weaving, weaving.

And then the Santa Clarita situation began to unfold. Throughout the major activity, us rank-and-file librarians were privy to pretty much the same information as the public. It was only about two months ago, after the dust began to settle, that I found out I was being forced out by a Santa Clarita librarian. Actually, it was not that librarian pushing me out as much as the circumstances above both of us.

Still, what is one to do in this situation? Do I drop everything and vegetate, walking like a zombie back and forth from the reference desk? How do I continue my work knowing that I will soon be gone. Now, for some this may not pose a problem, but for me, doing a good job requires commitment. My feeling is that part of customer service in a community organization like the library is actually getting to know people; as a librarian, I am part of people’s lives on a monthly, weekly, and sometimes even daily basis which means I’ve grown friendly with many people during my time in Lancaster both in the library and just around the Antelope Valley. Moreover, I’ve developed a personal geography of the area, becoming intimately involved with places I visit practically daily.

Since finding out about my fate, I’ve been doing what I feel is right, remaining my usual friendly self though not completely without reservations. So here I am, stuck dutifully zooming around the library with a residue of discomfort because, as I’ve said, commitment means fully giving of myself and I just can’t. On a day-to-day level, I’ve scaled back the publicity for my programs, and have stopped building up my to-do list and jotting down ideas. I’m slowly cleaning out my work area, taking the variety of doodads and pictures I’d pinned to my cubicle walls in happier days off. All in all, I am gently vacating my space in the same way I hope to make my exit, gracefully – leaving things just as I had found them.

This is not so difficult with cushy gray walls. It’s harder when I tell my favorite patrons that later this month I’ll be gone. Lacking psychic abilities and hindsight, I can’t tell exactly what part I played in their lives or if they’ll remember me in five or ten years…Maybe: “That librarian, what was his name? Oh yeah, Oleg…He was nice,” would be okay. I could live with that. As for me, I can’t say who I’ll remember when I think back to my first librarian job; there are so many great people to choose from.

I’ll remember the library staff, of course. Everyone with their unique personalities thrown boiling together in the summer heat. Of course there was plenty of drama (not related to me, mind you) that I, an oblivious male, only noticed emerge a few months into my time on the job. That stuff was never really at the forefront of my experience at Lancaster though. Instead, I tried to learn a little bit from everyone and I think I did. After learning everyone’s peccadilloes and developing intricate, and sometimes not so intricate, inside jokes, it’s downright tragic to think that soon it’ll, poof, be gone – the people outlined daily in your eyes no longer there. How will they remember me? I wonder. I was the young librarian who was always smiling and joking around. Maybe, but like with my favorite patrons, there’s really no telling what will stick. I know what I want to stick: that I loved being there; that I never lamented having to go to a job that wasn’t really work. The truth? I want my co-workers to occasionally think back and say, “That guy…(long pause, savoring the memories)…that guy really liked it here,” and be temporarily lifted above the hassles of the everyday.

Before I came to work at the Lancaster Regional Library, I was told that it was “umm…interesting,” that there were a lot of homeless people, that other people transferred away. In fact, I wasn’t told, it was more like I was warned. Having worked there for all this time, I’m still not exactly clear what they were going on about. In the end, I figure it doesn’t matter what “they” said. I came here expecting to like it and I did. That’s what matters in the end, isn’t it?

And still the question lingers: How does one just up and leave? I don’t know. Will the other librarians continue my programs? I don’t know. A tightness in the chest comes from relinquishing control over a part of the world which, if you don’t have it figured out by yet, I actually cared about. My feeling is that librarianship feeds on that kind of commitment; good librarians care about what they do and where they do it. But that’s not something that can be measured in beans, its something that can only be measured by the undefinable stuff of memories, those byways of experience we travel down. The hope that maybe, that perhaps, we’ve had an influence on someone’s day somewhere out there in the windy Valley.

UPDATE (13 June 2011) – I got a call last week telling me that the County was not intending to release me. All I know at this time is that after I finish at Lancaster on June 17th that I’ll be transferred to the Lomita branch (as a Children’s Librarian, no less, which is pretty cool) for an indefinite amount of time.

Introduction

A little while after the 2011 ALA Election, Erica Findley posted a message to the Facebook group ALA Thinktank lamenting the lackluster voter turnout (approximately 1/5 of ALA members voted). Reasons for the low turnout were discussed (mostly by people who voted) until Andy Woodworth challenged us to stop the conjecturing and do something. Reading that, I pondered for a minute or two and decided, per the #makeithappen philosophy, to find out why people didn’t vote. The best way that I could think of how to do that was to simply ask.

I spent a few minutes brainstorming and wording the questions/answer choices and creating the survey. Using Google Forms I got a tool which was both free and conveniently deposited the answers into a downloadable spreadsheet. Naturally, the questions I came up with aren’t perfect, but I felt that the survey had to directly address voting (not general ALA gripes, though those came in too), be short enough so even the worst of I-don’t-care-niks would take a moment to fill it out, and be useful for future Election committees.

After coming up with the survey, I posted a link to the Thinktank for a people to review before giving the word to let the survey loose into the world. The distribution was completely voluntary and started via social media as several Thinktankers posted a link on their Twitter and Facebook feeds, as well as their blogs. After this first wave, I can’t say exactly how the survey spread but I do know that several state library organizations received it as well as some general library list-servs. A huge boost in responses came when the folks behind AL Direct included the survey in their weekly round-up. A completely online distribution means, of course, that offline non-voters were not represented within the results. This is a trade-off that had to be made since a direct mail and/or phone campaign would have made a turnaround of just under two weeks impossible. This is just one of the issues that we must take into account when considering the validity of our results, feel free to post others in the comments.

Between the time the survey opened May 4th and closed May 16th, a total of 521 responses were received. This was brought down to 502 after I removed the entries from respondents that were clearly not part of the sample population (those who voted or were not eligible to vote) and obvious duplicates. The only other edits I made were to insert a paragraph to a respondent’s answer for question two per her request by email, and to correct the occasional typo and spelling mistake when I caught them (I didn’t, however, systematically correct spelling, my name not being “Spell Check”). The complete cleaned-up spreadsheet of responses is here(.pdf, 233KB), the raw responses are here(.pdf, 240KB). A cursory glance will reveal very few differences between the two, but keep in mind that the calculations below are based on the cleaned-up version. Also, I tallied the the following statistics by hand so please excuse the human error that probably hides there. If you catch anything, do let me know.

My more specific analyses are below and in the conclusion, however, a general word or two before the results. Reading through the responses (which I did, several times…Yes, all five hundred of them) was at once demoralizing, enlightening, and hopeful. It’s true that some respondents were very forthcoming about their apathy, but this was tempered by the respondents who, despite being hampered by various things, were truly earnest in their desire to vote. My intention and hope in doing this survey and taking the time to calculate and write up these results is that future election committees, ALA administration in general and, most importantly, candidates would use them to spur change in the election process in order to draw more turnout. 502 responses is an amount that, at least statistically, is said to represent the approximately forty thousand non-voters. Now that we are in possession of this information, let’s take the initiative and increase future voter turnout. #makeithappen

-o

The Results

Question 1:
Why didn’t you vote in the 2011 ALA Election? (respondents could choose all that applied so results do not add up to 100%)

75%   I was unfamiliar with the candidates
38%   I don’t understand what, if elected, the candidates would do.
24%   Voting takes too much time.
23%   Other*
17%   I forgot
9%   The voting interface was clunky
3%   I didn’t know there was an election
2%   Circumstances beyond my control prevented me from voting

* 23% of respondents wrote in their own responses in the open field marked “Other.” These loosely break down in the following way (responses were categorized twice when appropriate, see Appendix for all responses):

25%   (6% of total) Apathy (“Didn’t care,” “Not interested in outcome”) or something similar
21%   (5% of total) Time Pressure (“Too busy,” “Low priority”) or something similar
12%   (3% of total) Candidate Issues (“too many,” “no difference,” “don’t represent me”) or something similar
11%   (2.6% of total) Online Voting Issues (“Paper ballots,” “Won’t vote online”) or something similar
8%   (2% of total) My fault (“I didn’t take the time,” “laziness”) or something similar
8%   (2% of total) General disconnect from ALA as a whole (“not involved with,” “don’t feel part of,” “doesn’t impact my professional life”) or something similar
7%   (1.5% of total) Did not perceive oneself part of voting public (“retir(ing/ed),” “student,” new) or something similar
7%   (1.5% of total) Bureaucratic Issues (Couldn’t login, etc.) or something similar
3%   (<1% of total) Timing of Election (“Voting Window too short”) or something similar
2%   (<1% of total) Other

Analysis:
Based on the simple tallies and categorization carried out for question one, the overwhelming problem for non-voters is a lack of connection to the candidates, if not the organization as a whole. The sample population (ALA members who were eligible to vote but didn’t) did not recognize the names of those who were running and were unfamiliar with the position for which they were running. In their follow-up comments, a number of respondents felt that they should not vote for candidates and issues on which they are not educated.

Time was another major issue according to question one. The 24% and the 5% in the “Other” field (note that respondents could have marked off, “Voting takes too much time” in addition to writing a related comment in the open field) that indicated not voting due to time-related issues had a variety of reasons including too much to do at home or at work (staffing shortages, etc.), as well as the size of the ballot, and time necessary to do adequate research on the candidates and their positions. The voting interface, or size of the ballot, could also have contributed if the non-voter had started a ballot but did not have time to go back and finish it.

Related to time issues were cases of “information overload” that led to forgetfulness or lost emails, and a range of bureaucratic issues like absence of login information. Likewise, the “information overload” factor was also likely related to the amount of candidates which might have a link to the respondents who blamed themselves for being too lazy or simply not taking the time to give voting due diligence (2%).

A small faction (2.6%) of the non-voter population were exclusively adamant about paper ballots. This percentage increases a little when the responses that mentioned paper ballots in the other questions (but did not write them in to the “Other” field in question one) were tallied with this. The ease of reading offline, “email overload,” and a distrust in the integrity of online voting were the main reasons for this group.

More information could be taken from the raw data provided in question one if the amount of respondents who marked the same two (or more) options were counted (i.e. How many respondents that marked “I was unfamiliar with the candidates” also marked “I don’t understand what, if elected, the candidates would do”?). Having that information would allow further conclusions to be drawn about non-voters. If anyone would like to take that on, just email me and I’ll send you my Excel spreadsheet with the data. I’m sure plugging the responses into a database would make finding links quite easy (by searching for two strings using an AND operator in the appropriate field, for example). As with everything, post any results you get into the comments and I’ll incorporate them into what’s already up here.

Question 2:
Please expand on the items you selected above.

Approximately 2/3 of the respondents to question one also responded to question two. Instead of forcing you to read all 334 of the responses to this question, I broke them down and tallied them using similar categories as those in the “Other” field above. If they fit in one or more of the categories, I put them there, if they explained an item in question one I didn’t mark them down unless they fit snugly into one of the other categories. Many of them ended up fitting into more than one category. Below the quantified results I’ve highlighted responses I felt were representative or noteworthy in some way.

23%   Time Pressure (“Too busy,” “Low priority”) or something similar
22.6%   Candidate Issues (“too many,” “no difference,” “don’t represent me”) or something similar
18%   General disconnect from ALA as a whole (“not involved with,” “don’t feel part of,” “doesn’t impact my professional life”) or something similar
10%   Did not perceive oneself part of voting public (“retir(ing/ed),” “student,” new, foreign) or something similar
8%   Bureaucratic Issues (Couldn’t login, etc.) or something similar
7%   Apathy (“Didn’t care,” “Not interested in outcome”) or something similar
7%   My fault (“I didn’t take the time,” “laziness”) or something similar
5%   Online Voting Issues (“Paper ballots,” “Won’t vote online”) or something similar
4%   Other
1%   Timing of Election (“Voting Window too short”) or something similar

Time Pressure:
“I’m just so busy, it’s really hard to find the time to become more informed about the candidates.”

“I belong to two divisions and several sections within those divisions, which means a lot of ballots and a lot of races. Most of the time I don’t know much about the candidates and reading through their list of accomplishments is tedious. Unlike political elections, I feel most candidates are generally on the same page with me and there aren’t controversial issues or enough clear differences between the candidates to compel me to vote.”

“The election falls in one of the busiest times of the year for my library, and I didn’t have time to look up all the candidates, learn about them and their positions (not just what they say publicly as part of their platform, but their larger presence in the library world, etc.)”

Candidate Issues:
“I feel anyone willing to run for the positions listed has already decided to commit themselves fully to undertaking the responsibilities necessary to their elected position. Any differences between the candidates would be like deciding what flavors of dessert you wanted after you’ve already committed to eating dessert: they are all equally yummy.”

“To read and make informed decisions about who to vote for and why would have taken more time than I have whether at work or at home. My other priorities take precedence. There is little encouragement or interaction at work to discuss candidates, their importance as elected ALA officers to do what for us that has meaning and impact for us at a local level.”

“I honestly don’t see any difference between any of the candidates. They all take a very standard, middle-of-the-road approach to our profession and supply the same answers to the same questions.”

General disconnect from ALA as a whole:
“…I am not convinced that the leadership of ALA (especially at the very highest levels) really makes any difference in my day-to-day work and the constraints that my library faces.”

“The ALA is some ambiguous, amorphous organization that I really have no contact with. I don’t see how it helps me in the day to day; it focuses almost solely on public libraries; and some of its stances are frankly embarrassing and ridiculous. (Why in the world does a library organization need to pass resolutions on unrelated political happenings? A resolution on the war in Iraq? Really?) I guess I feel that the ALA is out of touch. They talk a good game, but it’s the same game they’ve been talking for the last twenty years, albeit with a different vocab. I can’t think of a demonstrable difference they’ve made in my life, professional or personal, and if they have, they have failed to communicate it.”

Did not perceive oneself part of voting public (“retir(ing/ed),” “student,” new) or something similar
“I’m a new ALA member. I don’t have much familiarity yet with the organization, the elected positions, or the persons running. I hope to become more familiar after attending this summer’s conference.”

“I just became a student member about two months before the election and the little blurbs sent out requesting my vote did not differentiate the candidates. I couldn’t tell what difference it would make to vote one way or the other. I usually vote in EVERY political election, and I hope to know more next year so that I can vote. I felt guilty for not voting, but did not want to make an uninformed decision.”

“I am a retired life member who is no longer active in ALA. I keep up on some of the news, and read parts of the online weekly newsletters; but ALA is not a focus in the way it was prior to my retirement. I will continue to support various units of ALA through paying for membership (& publications) but voting on the scale that ALA elections ask is something I no longer feel compelled to do.”

Analysis:
The clear takeaway from the responses to the second question is that many of them feel different aspects of candidate issues mixed with being “unfamiliar with the candidates” – how are they different, what they do, that there are too many are all strains that can be felt in nearly every response that mentions candidates at all. Respondents felt overwhelmed by the amount of candidates and with no way to easily distinguish them did not want to be “uninformed voters.” But without an easy way to get informed and with the added weight of time pressure, most respondents opted-out of voting.

In fact, the concept of the “uninformed voter” was huge in question two. Wanting to take their voting responsibilities seriously, many non-voters were curious about what their elected officials did, who they were besides what was written in their statements, and how they differed from the other candidates. This seemed to be a thread through many of the contests but particularly when selecting the Councilors – several people mentioned starting the ballot and not finishing it because they were unable to find time to research all of the candidates for those positions. As to how non-voters wanted the statements changed, there were mixed responses; some wanted longer ones, some shorter. Fairly few people explained exactly what kind of information they wanted to know about candidates.

Moving to a larger scale, the issue of being disconnected from ALA was consistently brought up: it’s relation to day-to-day life, the size of the organization, and the complexity of its governance structure was a mystery and a turn-off to many non-voters who, as a result, indicted that they felt distant from the candidates and ALA’s everyday achievements. Even members who were heavily involved in a specific area of ALA appeared wary of the whole. For some of these members (though not all of them), political stands perceived as being unrelated to library issues played a part in their disillusionment.

Two groups that were notable in removing themselves as part of the “voting public” were students and retired (or almost retired) members. Students who were still in school or had recently graduated (Congrats!!), for the most part, did not feel that they knew enough about the candidates in particular and ALA in general to cast an “informed” vote. Many students that responded, however, mentioned that they expected to be voting members in the future once they got settled. Retired members, on the other hand, while remaining involved and passionate about libraries, did not expect to return to being voting members in the future.

7% of respondents reported being in some way apathetic, demoralized, or cynical about the voting process. For many, this was as a result of systematic problems within ALA, for some, it was a matter of representation. A small number of school and academic librarians felt that ALA represented primarily public libraries. A few respondents with non-traditional library jobs likewise felt disenfranchised.

The number of technical/bureaucratic issues such as lost logins, uncertain membership info, or some other technical mishaps were a slightly larger percentage of question two responses than write-ins for question one. The number of folks interested in paper ballots was very slightly higher in question two (13 in q1 versus 18 in q2) though a negligible amount when looking proportionally at the number of responses.

Question 3:
What would need to happen for you to vote in the next election?

Of the 300 responses to question three, only fourteen (~5%) were flat-out against voting in the future. Mostly everyone else who responded had some condition that would lead that respondent to vote in the next election. The majority of these conditions fell into the following categories:

24%   Learn more about the candidates / their responsibilities
19%   Demonstrate ALA/Election relevance
8%   Other
8%   Clear differences between candidates / different candidates
8%   Simpler voting process
7%   More time in my schedule
6%   Nothing, I’ll vote in the future
6%   Paper ballots
5%   Less/more/different reminders
4%   Less candidates
3%   Fix login issues
2%   If someone I know has running

Analysis:
Again, as we saw in the previous questions, the biggest obstacle for non-voters was becoming “informed voters.” Various suggestions were given as to how voters could be informed about the different candidates including: A widely distributed voters’ guide, candidate’s campaigning, “Meet the Candidates” forums for more of the candidates, using different methods to connect to voters, particularly online (YouTube, Twitter, audio, etc.). Non-voters wanted to know who they were voting for and most, when they found this to be too difficult or time-consuming, decided not to vote. Kim Leeder had made a spreadsheet outlining the various candidates for Councilor-at-Large and this was mentioned by a respondent (though not by name), it seems like the spreadsheet is close to what some non-voters were looking for. Dovetailing into knowing more about the candidates is the 8% of respondents that wanted to see a clearer difference between the candidates or different candidates in general.

The second most important condition that would encourage respondents to vote is for ALA to demonstrate it’s relevance. This was a hazy issue for most non-voters, but was often related to paying dues and not seeing noticeable differences in their workplaces especially when held up against the budget issues many of the respondent’s libraries were facing. A sizable group within this percentage were new ALA members who were feeling lost in the shuffle. Several suggested a new member’s guide or something similar to give them an idea why the American Library Association matters. Though, as mentioned in the introduction, this survey was not intended to be a place for general ALA gripes, it appears that not voting in the election is directly related to them. This became clear in the “Other” category in which respondents mentioned ALA’s political stances, and again, dues-related issues. In the same category were requests for changes to ALA governance with special emphasis on increasing term limits. My personal favorite response that was categorized as “Other” was that “filling out this survey” was what needed to happen for that person to vote in the next election. If only the other 501 respondents made it so easy.

The final batch of categories to cover are those to refer to “process”: “fix login issues,” “less/more/different reminders,” “simpler voting process,” and “paper ballots.” The latter is another thread that has been going since question one, though here a few “paper ballot” respondents clarified that they prefer ballots or voters’ guides printed out, but are okay with voting online. The difference in this group is between respondents who do not trust online voting inherently and those who, for various reasons, prefer to make their decisions offline but are okay with expressing those decisions using the online system. Some of the frustration of the “paper ballot” group was similar to those that could not vote because of “login issues” which is described under bureaucratic issues above in question two.

“Simpler voting process” is several suggestions rolled into one category: some respondents felt that the emails explaining how to vote were unclear, while others felt that the ballot was too long and should have been broken down into chunks so as to be managed easier, a few respondents suggested that the voting be open from one day to a week to even longer. Rarely were opinions about process explained in detail, probably due to size of the input field. A few sentences to a paragraph or two was the general length of responses – not long enough to indulge in deep discussion about how long to keep voting open. In general, the reminders were also a point of contention for a few non-voters. Sending more to aid in remembering or sending fewer to add immediacy were proposed, but like the other opinions about process, explanations did not run very long. A third suggestions, of sending reminder using different social media was brought up – this is an idea that was anticipated by Patrick Sweeney and a few others, the efficacy of which could not be measured in this survey.

Conclusion

Bearing in mind that the American Library Association and its election committee cannot control the country’s economy, clear a few hours in librarian’s schedules, or, on its own, get unemployed librarians fulfilling work, there are still enough items gleaned from our results that those responsible for future elections should strongly consider. Readers may draw myriad conclusions based on the results as outlined above, as well as their own perusal of the 502 responses, but what follow are my recommendations as they stand after spending many hours reading, categorizing, and analyzing the survey’s results:

Election Committee: Create an easily accessible (read: a link from the ALA main page) election home page that contains a voters’ guide that is available both in HTML and downloadable as a .pdf, links to candidate’s home pages, short videos explaining what each positions does, instructions explaining the voting process, and a “Contact Us” area for those are having trouble logging in or finding the voting email. A little link to a survey asking “How was your voting experience?” wouldn’t hurt either. After you’ve created the page, get the word out about it far and wide. If nobody knows about it, nobody will use it.

Candidates: Actively campaign! Non-voters WANT to know who you are and what you’re going to do. Put up a simple WordPress site, throw a few essays on there that tell voters more about you than your CV does. Go in person or online wherever ALA members are and engage people in discussion. ALA can only do so much to get your name out there, the onus is on you to show why you and the position you hope to fill matters.

ALA: Do whatever it takes, but please do not put so many candidates on the ballot. Are members really expected to go through forty candidates in choosing the Councilors on top of the other positions they’re voting for? It’s a lot to ask even for dedicated members. As respondents suggested, stagger the elections, extend term limits, “streamline” the organization (I interpret that as a call to cut down the number of positions, committees, round tables, task forces, and whatever other groups ALA contains). I’m not informed enough about ALA governance to give specific recommendations about this here, but I know that some people reading this will be. All I can say is next time, less candidates for Councilors please.

(Non-)Voters: It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again…ALA is not a panacea. Most folks filling volunteer positions in the organization truly care about libraries and librarians and want to help but there is no way they can come to your library and, for example, take an hour at the reference desk or edit your libguides. ALA is a national organization that lobbies for libraries on the national-level – state orgs lobby at a state level and local advocacy groups are most effective locally. The fact is that most day-to-day library funding is done at the state or local levels, not nationally. That doesn’t mean that ALA can’t do anything to help your organization or you personally. I’m a new member of ALA and a new librarian, but the folks from ALA that I’ve encountered (pretty much exclusively online since I can’t afford conferences at this point) have been eager to do what they can. Shoot them emails with your ideas, including how to make ALA more relevant to YOU (and that includes thoughts about candidates and elections). As the survey indicates, there are many reasons why people didn’t vote. Hopefully everyone will take on the responsibility to make the path to voting a simpler one.

Finally finally finally, if you filled out the survey, a BIG thank you. Without you sharing your thoughts, no one would know that non-voters thought. Also, a BIG thank you to all of those who helped distribute this survey, I read a lot in books about the power of social media and crowdsourcing, but to see it happen beats all. Way to go, folks.

All the downloadable docs together:
Results Spreadsheet (cleaned up)(.pdf, 233KB)
Results Spreadsheet (raw)(.pdf, 240KB)
The Results w/ Appendix (.pdf, 146KB) – This post as a .pdf, for readers who love to do it offline.

But what is quality-of-life and how is it determined. Scientists most often study this through qualitative methods, which is to say, analysis of interviews or journals. Another way is to attach beepers or some way of communicating with subjects that tells them to report on their state of being at regular or irregular intervals. That data, whether subjects rate their happiness on some scale, or say a few words about it is then considered and reports are written. For me, however, it is much more a manifold state of being than how we feel at any one moment. When we think about our personal happiness, we remember how we felt when we woke up this morning, whether the drive to work was satisfactory, the fulfilling aspects of work, a fight with the spouse, maybe – all of these elements come together to color our myriad moods. Basically, I believe that as long as we get enough sleep, are well-fed, and have something we feel is useful to do, happiness is just around the corner. It is that extra boost, the time we must fill when we aren’t eating, sleeping, or working where the library fits.

The aspirational rhetoric that has so long defined public libraries as havens of knowledge and self-improvement is not a bad place to point when it comes to how libraries improve quality-of-life. Through this basic level of access to “knowledge,” people can make themselves more useful to society, which is to say, each other. And as I mentioned previously, being useful is a leading cause of happiness. Going further into how libraries improve quality-of-life, we look towards the prevalence of genre fiction in our circulation records. If we simply go by what gets the most check-outs, it is easy to see that many people love filling their time living vicariously through the heroes in romance novels, detective thrillers, and inspirational fiction (think Richard Paul Evans, or Debbie Macomber). Finally, the exploration of identity, whether that is through genealogical research, or exploration of place, is a large part of what local public libraries allow. Through subscriptions to genealogical databases, collections of how-to books, and archives or records and ephemera, libraries preserve the heritage that teaches us who we are. It is no other organization in the world but the public library that brings about these contributions to people’s happiness in quite the same unfettered and obvious way.

To hammer that idea home, we should look at how other people’s happiness affects our everyday lives. Maybe 42-year old lawyer, Jeff, is having a bad morning. His clients are late, the case load is high and nothing is going right. Lunch is boring and the afternoon is no better. After work, however, Jeff remembers that he skimmed an article from the library earlier. A book that he had ordered a few weeks ago had arrived and was waiting for him. Dropping by his local branch, Jeff finds the book and is about to leave when he hears strains of beautiful music coming from the library’s meeting room. Wandering in, he takes a seat in the back of the room and I implore you to answer me this. How can the harried Jeff remain agitated in the face of the relaxing and melancholy dirges delivered by a local string quartet and performed, for free, at the public library. As his breathing evens out and the stresses of the day subside, Jeff decides that his wife hasn’t had flowers in way too long. He looks forward to just-before-bed when he can relax with his long-awaited novel and as the quartet concludes, Jeff joins the rest of the audience in giving them a well-deserved standing ovation.

Tell Me by Kim Addonizio
A sharp book of poems that includes “Therapy” (one of my favorite poems, generally). In it, Addonizio talks drinking, relationships, and depression, her standard topics, but does it in such a way that every poems has something to discuss.

Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: What Truly Drives the World’s Most Passionate Managers (au) by Stan Slap
Just another business motivation book that says what so many have said before it. The only thing that saved it was the author’s unique brand of sarcasm. I 86ed this one halfway through.

The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles by Margaret Leslie Davis
Thoroughly researched and well-written biography of a power-player in the golden years of Los Angeles. An inspiring person was Franklin Murphy and this book, well, it’s highly recommended.

The Kingdom on the Waves (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #2) (au) by M.T. Anderson
Though, like its predecessor, it had some very high points, I found this one lacking in comparison. Nothing much moved for a major part of the plot and this probably explains my reticence about this volume.

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
Unlike Martin’s other books in that the plot is not ultimately uplifting. Still, this one had Martin’s sly humor and was a neat look into the art world. I read it very quickly (in one or two sittings, I don’t remember now). Hurry up, Steve Martin, write more books!

Decoded by Jay-Z
An interesting idea, to annotate his own rap lyrics, but disappointing execution. My favorite parts of this book was the autobiographical prose. The visual style was eye-catching as well.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (au) by Oliver Sacks
This book came to me recommended by several people. I found it a mixed bag, some of the stories kept my attention while other anecdotes dragged. I’m glad I didn’t read his other books, particularly Anthropologist on Mars since this one regurgitates roughly half of it (if not more).

The Zen Life by Koji Sato
Telling photographs, and insightful and accessible essay on life in Empuku-ji (a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan). I’m quite fond of the subject and day[or longer]-in-the-life portraits.

The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets by Ted Kooser
Kooser’s manual said everything I’ve always wanted to say to neophytes of poetry better than I could. He also selects mostly excellent examples.

Click: The Magic of Instant Connections (au) by Ori Brafman (and his brother)
I found a lot to like about this little business book. I even made some notes later. In hindsight, most of the “insights” are obvious but what can I say? Click and I clicked.

Winesburg, Ohio (au) by Sherwood Anderson
Anderson’s short stories got the very marrow of his character’s emotional selves and the poignancy of all of them together in one small town. I loved this book and will be re-reading it.

Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose by Raymond Carver
A few good stories, but mostly filled with out-of-context introductions and book reviews. Unless you’re a die-hard Carver fanatic, read his actual collections.

Bombing Ploesti by Charles Hood
A poetry book that tells a story and whose words truly swing. On the strength of this one, I bought another book by Charles Hood and plan to read it sometime (soon?).

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (au) by Alain de Botton
These meandering essays do not do much to explore the pleasures and sorrows of work, but they do introduce one to some truly different and interesting professions and hobbies.

The House of Mirth (au) by Edith Wharton
I wrinkle my nose as I write this but I was really caught up with the fortunes of Lily Bart. Plus, turn-of-the-century New York is a great time for story.

Ugly as Sin: The Truth About How We Look and Finding Freedom From Self-Hatred by Toni Raiten-D’Antonio
Useful anecdotes and light tone made this book a fine read. If only the conclusion wasn’t such a cop-out…

The Oxford Guide to Library Research by Thomas Mann
Indispensable to anyone interested in research. Why didn’t we read this in library school again?

Am I Thin Enough Yet?: The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity by Sharlene Hesse-Biber
The point-of-view reminded me of a few years ago when I read a few hits of 2nd wave feminism. The anecdotes and academic tone of this book were welcome.

The Call of the Wild (and a few other Klondike stories) (au) by Jack London
What a vicious adventure story. Truly a book for boys. I enjoyed almost every moment.

The Chosen (au) by Chaim Potok
A teen book at heart. Still, I enjoyed its “jewish-ness” and was fond of most of the characters. A poignant plot helped. Potok may not be the most literary of writers but he can sure keep me engaged. Will likely be reading the sequel, The Promise.

A Single Man (au) by Christopher Isherwood
I enjoyed the location and the mood of this book most of all. Everything else was great too.

Babbitt (au) by Sinclair Lewis
Lewis can write a sentence! He can also skewer middle-class businessman boosterism while still making the object of his ridicule sympathetic. Quite a book! I’ll be reading more Sinclair Lewis before long.

We’re into spring as I write this list so I am already into my spring reading. The goal this season is to continue making inroads into (mostly) early 20th century American writers that I’ve missed. I have a list as a draft in my gmail that I’m going through — future contenders for my eyeballs are Salinger (Catcher in the Rye, I know, I know, but I never got around to it in school), Frank Norris (McTeague), Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose), and possible either Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden) or Thorton Wilder (Bridge of San Luis Ray). Of course, diversions like poetry and selections from my Zen reading list may intervene. They say it’s a bad time for reading, but I do not believe them. I’m having a great time!