News & Views, May 8, 2009

News & Views, May 2009 (mp3 file; 6 MB; 6:25 min.)
Collaboration; Reading to Reduce Stress; Old MacDonald Storytelling Resources


We're all hearing more and more about collaboration these days, in these tough times. Collaboration won't solve all the problems of the world or of libraries, but it certainly can be part of the solution. Collaboration with other libraries, partnerships with other community agencies and organizations, conversations with colleagues--we can use them all to look for ways to provide better, and perhaps more efficient, services.

The Library Service Areas are looking at more ways to collaborate, for example. One new project is developing a series of resources to help libraries help their patrons in tough times. "Help in Tough Times" includes a website with links to a host of resources and ideas of how libraries can and are providing help in these tough times; a blog for sharing ideas, and Twitter, where we can quickly update you when we find a new resource or hear about a new idea. You'll be getting more information very soon about this project, and we'll keep you updated as we continue to develop it.

All libraries have been quite good at sharing and collaboration with each other for some time, but we're enterprising folk so we're always on the lookout for new ideas, new ways of doing things. Tools such as instant messaging and wikis and Google Docs and Wimba allow us to work together without investing so much in time and travel, and we're getting better about using them to good purpose. We partner with some organizations and agencies, sometimes, but during these tough times it doesn't hurt to take a few minutes to brainstorm about other, new possibilities: And don't forget the strengths you bring to the table, that you can offer to others!

I was privileged to be asked to help develop some of the questions for discussion at the recent Iowa Small Library Association's spring meeting, and maybe some of the quesitons will spark a new idea for you; here are three of them:

1) In what ways can you collaborate/share with your fellow librarians to provide enhanced service with limited resources? With other community organizations and agencies?

2) What do you consider your greatest strength/interest in the library field that you could "trade" with a colleague for her/his strength/interest, to improve or add to service in both (or more!) libraries?

3) In an ideal world (money and time no object), what one service would you add to your library's services?
Then: what is one seed or kernel of that idea, however small, (or one step) that you could begin to implement today, perhaps in collaboration with another library or agency?

In tough times with tight budgets and more work than we find time for it's difficult to carve out time to just think, but a few minutes of brainstorming and sharing ideas with others can reap the benefit of more or better services, with workload decreased in the collaboration and sharing.

Link from today's podcast:
Reading can help reduce stress