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Digital revolution still perplexes, excites librarians, educators and journalists

11/7/2013

"DIGITAL DISRUPTION" was the topic Nov. 6, 2013 at a conference organized by the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island. Sydnye Cohen, technology integrator, New Canaan High School in Connecticut, addresses the group. CREDIT: Brian C. Jones, Library Report

By Brian C. Jones
Rhode Island Library Report
      KINGSTON, R.I. – (Nov. 6, 2013) – The digital revolution, its challenges and opportunities, continue to both perplex and excite educators, librarians and journalists.
      That much was clear from the latest conference sponsored by the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island to explore how computers and their offshoots impact society and therefore the way the school trains its students.
      For example, libraries can save space taken up by the storage of books and scholarly journals by having them available electronically, thereby creating room for new “user” functions, such as 3-D printers and multi-media production.
      But many patrons treasure their library’s traditional role as book repositories, and electronic editions pose new problems, including whether leased databases will include the same publications from year to year, or become too expensive during times when public budgets are tight.

A Digital Divide That Also Splits by Age

What the discussion by 50 scholars, reporters, librarians and entrepreneurs attending the all-day session also made clear is that the “digital divide” involves not just those who can afford expensive technology and those who can’t, but a new gap between generations about how comfortable they are in working with new devices.

For example, Rebecca E. Burnett, director of the writing and communication program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that when the university required students to bring laptops or iPad tablets to class, the most daunting hurdle was getting professors to go along.
“The first change you have to make is a culture change with the faculty,"

RENEE HOBBS, director of the Harrington School, with Bill Densmore, a conference organizer. Densmore is education coordinator of Digital City R.I., and a member the Harrington executive advisory board. CREDIT: Brian C. Jones

Burnett said, noting that in the outset, there were jokes about “kill switches” that would incapacitate the devices. So instructors and professors, she said, had to be educated about how their much younger students would use the new “tools.”
"These tools don’t change the thinking,” said Burnett. “They change the way we approach that thinking. Our brains are still intact. And she said students still need to learn how to “write and speak and design, and engage in interaction in a way that makes sense with other human beings.”

Ranganathan's "Rules"

The conference was entitled “From Ranganathan to Read/Write: Managing Digital Disruption in Libraries, Schools and Workplaces.”

According to the program materials, S.R. Ranganathan was a 20th Century librarian who developed five “laws” that describe the function of libraries: “(1) Books are for use. (2) Every reader his [or her] book. (3) Every book its reader. (4) Save the time of the reader. (5) The library is a growing organism.”
Among the questions asked at the conference were how those widely-accepted rules apply in the digital age, and how change can be measured in terms of old and new rules.

Books are for use.
Every reader his [or her] book.
Every book its reader.
Save the time of the reader.
The library is a growing organism.
_ Ranganathan's laws

Changes Stir Both Alarm and Hope

       An obvious change is how newspapers, once dominant and powerful sources of information, have been imperiled by loss of revenue from classified advertisements that now are offered free on craigslist, an Internet site, along with diminished readership.
      Peter Phipps, managing editor for new media at the Providence Journal and a media instructor at URI, noted that newspaper publishers, because they invested in expensive presses and ink, largely controlled what kind of news and information got to the public. But now, software experts who devise powerful data-sorting algorithms, or mathematical formulas, such as those used by Google, the dominant Internet search engine, play a central role in guiding computer users in accessing a broad universe of information.
      At the same time, Tom Stites, founder and president of the Banyan Project, in Newburyport, Mass., didn’t sugarcoat the difficulty faced by journalists who want to sustain the wide coverage that newspapers have provided for decades.
      Stites' group is trying to develop a Web-based journalism model that can be self-supporting and serve “news deserts,” or communities no longer covered by newspapers, and it plans a pilot edition in Haverhill, Mass. But Stites noted that, overall, “journalism is ill, and it’s not getting quickly healed.”
      The Harrington School brings together six once separate departments at URI – journalism, the graduate school of library and information studies, reading and rhetoric, film/media, public relations and communication studies.
      Renee Hobbs, the school’s founding director who arrived at the URI campus in January, 2012, said during one workshop that among the impacts of the fast-changing technology landscape is uncertainty and unpredictability in every field, including higher education.
      “There used to be a stable business model and now there isn’t,” Hobbs noted. But when some participants worried about the financial sustainability of journalism and other mediums, she said that entrepreneurs will figure out the new economics of the digital age.
      “I don’t think we should be pessimistic,” Hobbs said.

The Future of Silence

    The conference discussions, which took place in the lobby and classrooms of URI’s new pharmacy school, touched a variety of subjects, including how space should be used in public and school libraries. Some attendees suggested that common areas should have wheeled and moveable furniture so that spaces could serve multiple purposes and groups. Others talked of new roles for librarians as “coaches and navigators and facilitators” for library users information gathering and use.
      One father of a 14-year-old noted that his daughter insists that she cannot study unless music is “cranked up” and that she finds working in silence difficult. He asked whether that trend, shared by many school and college-aged students, is factored into plans for new library spaces.
      Sydnye Cohen, a former high school library media specialist at Brookfield, Conn., high school and now technology integrator at New Canaan High School, also in Connecticut, said she was never a “shushing” kind of librarian, and believes that creativity is an often noisy process and that strict rules about talking and other behavior can inhibit innovative projects. As a librarian, she allowed students to eat in the library, but conditioned that on the students cleaning up afterwards – which they did.
      Burnett said that the Georgia Institute of Technology created multiple kinds of spaces in new or renovated buildings, some so quiet that people entering them said “wow,” and other rooms with various levels of background noise.
      “All of us probably don’t mind having Bach playing in the background,” she said. “But there are other spaces where you want silence, and different kinds of silence.

What Unites Americans? Their Libraries

KAREN PERRY, digital information expert, says one survey showed that 91 percent of Americans consider libraries important. At left, Troy Hicks, associate professor of English, Central Michigan University. CREDIT: Brian C. Jones

The issue of public attitudes toward libraries was raised by Karen Archer Perry, of Clarion Digital and a former senior program officer for library initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.
Perry said that a survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that 91 percent of respondents said that the public libraries are important, which she said was a remarkable finding at a time when the country is divided on many political and social issues:

“Is there anything else that 91 percent of Americans agree on?”
      But she noted that some of that support is rests on past perceptions – with many people not aware that libraries offer electronic books, which can be read on computer tablets, a service that is “going through the roof.” And she said that a significant portion of those polled – 40 percent – don’t want libraries to move books out of traditional stack areas, which can hinder the ability of some libraries to free up space for new kinds of activities.
      Lisa Richter, reference librarian for the Bristol Community College’s Attleboro, Mass. Center, noted that libraries which used to purchase paper editions of scholarly journals, now instead lease databases from vendors. That can produce uncertainty about availability of some journals year to year.
      Richter was a participant in a workshop that discussed the evolution of new approaches to media. For example, video and film once were controlled by a limited number of broadcast networks and studios. Now, individual video creators can reach audiences – and earn income – from “microcasts” showing their work on YouTube, the Internet outlet. Similarly, participants said that writers can now self-publish some of their work, rather than depending on book publishers to market their work.
      Also discussed, during a session convened by the Banyan Project's Stites about the impact on democracy of weakened newspapers, were new approaches to getting civic information to the public.
      Mark Marosits said that the company he cofounded in Newport, Worldways Social Marketing, has been involved with the city of Newport’s development of a new Website, Engage Newport, meant to provide government news and to promote discussion of issues by city residents.
      He called the Website, launched two weeks ago, “a positive first step” for city government in providing essential information to the community’s residents.

Story edited by Carol J. Young

THE STORY Behind Tiverton's Quarter-Century Crusade to Build a New Public Library

10/27/2013

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By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report

        TIVERTON, R.I. – (Oct. 27, 2013) – Barbara Donnelly still remembers the moment in early 2009 when she got a call telling her that the trustees of Tiverton Library Services had won $475,000 in federal funds to help buy land for a new library - a dream that had eluded the board for nearly three decades.
     “I was walking in my door from work, the phone was ringing, and I ran over and picked up the phone,” Donnelly said at the Oct. 26, groundbreaking for the new building off Bliss Four Corners. “It was Senator (Jack) Reed. He was telling me that we had received a grant from HUD,” she said. “I was walking on air. “

THE ESSEX LIBRARY -- The iconic stone-faced library has served generations of Tiverton residents since 1939. But its tiny space has increasingly hampered delivery of modern library services as the town has grown to more than 15,000 persons. Credit: Gina Macris

Earlier this year, Donnelly, the board chair, reminisced about the trustees’ journey since they first realized, in 1978, that they would need to do something about the tiny Essex Library.
“He was the person who really did it for us,” she said of Reed. “At least we had some money to try to buy a parcel of land."

        “At that point it had been a step ahead and three steps back all the time; there were so many years of meetings here, and not seeing anything happening,” Donnelly said.
        She made the comments as she looked around the cramped quarters of the Essex library, which has 2,500 square feet of usable interior space – about the same as the typical single-family home.
    But with the groundbreaking for the new, $10.6 million building, the end of the long journey is now in sight.

LIMITED ROOM - Janet Linhares, children's librarian, presents a book on trains earlier this month, practically using up the width of the space in which she has available in the Essex Library. Credit: Gina Macris

The state's role: a stick and a carrot

      "The state played a big role” in the trustees’ pursuit of a new library, Donnelly said. The Office of Library and Information Services threatened to withdraw support if the board could not show yearly progress toward construction of a modern facility.
       Tiverton would lose state operating funds and be shut out of a borrowing network that pools the collections of some 200 libraries throughout Rhode Island, sending books crisscrossing the state at patrons’ beck and call.
      The trustees knew that Essex could not survive under those circumstances, a fact that kept them pushing forward on a “grueling” path, Donnelly said.

And yet a new library was perennially a hard sell in Tiverton, a collection of villages and neighborhoods known for their frugality. Many people felt well-served at Essex, a quaint jewel box of fieldstone on Highland Road with views of sunsets over the Sakonnet River.
The Essex Library was built in 1939 as a bequest of a retired school teacher and summer resident, Lydia B. Essex, in memory of her mother. Erected on the site of the former Essex family home, it was intended to serve a rural community of some 3,000 people.
The post-war boom saw Tiverton’s population grow by 70 percent between 1950 and 1960, according to census figures. By the year 2000, its population topped the 15,000-mark.

THEY'LL miss the Sakonnet River view from the front of the Essex Library when the new library opens in 2015. But the wooded home of the new building is has its points, too. Credit: Gina Macris

     The library no longer met the fire code or major provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
      Donnelly described the wheelchair ramp at the rear of the building as a “ski jump” in winter. The library’s only public toilet is inaccessible by wheelchair.
      Some library programs and meetings must be held elsewhere in the community because no more than 30 people can go about their business inside the library at any one time without violating the fire code, made much more stringent after the Station nightclub fire of 2003.

YUKKY REMINDER of the mess caused when both septic pumps failed recently, backing up sewage into the teen room, forcing a temporary shutdown of the Essex Library. Teens still awaiting new carpeting

BAD OLD DAYS A sign in the basement children's room of the Essex Library, marking the level water during flooding in 2010, and, in a lesson in reading between the lines, makes the case for a new library. Credit: Gina Macris

The library has had to secure annual waivers from the state to continue running children’s programs in the basement. State regulations say young children should not have programs below ground, because they are too small to navigate stairs for a quick exit in an emergency.
      The Essex basement, which houses teen books as well as the children’s collection, also has sustained damage from flooding in recent years. Heavy rains in 2010 claimed more than 4,500 books.
     Just a few weeks ago, the library was forced to close when both septic pumps failed and sewage backed up into the teen room. The library has since reopened.
The trustees recognized a need for a new library in 1978, the year Donnelly joined the board.
        They have known since 1987 that Essex could not be renovated or expanded.             A study led by a noted library consultant of the time concluded that the foundation was hemmed in by granite. Not only would it cost $350,000 to clear the rock for an addition, but the explosions could

damage the foundations of surrounding homes.
“We did do some fundraising at that time,” Donnelly said, “but in 1987 the economy got so bad. We knew we could not afford a new building. ”
It was difficult enough just to get the money needed to run the existing library, she said.
Over the next decade, the board considered and discarded alternate construction plans, while state library officials became increasingly concerned that Tiverton’s space problem prevented it from conforming to modern standards of library service.

The pressure increases

            In 2001, the state started requiring annual progress reports from Tiverton.
      The Tiverton trustees faced a “huge challenge,” said Karen Mellor, acting state chief officer of the Office of Library and Information Services.
       The state offered to reimburse Tiverton for half of the construction costs up to $200 a square foot, but “it was up to the local community to drive the process,” Mellor said.
     The Tiverton library trustees laid out the newly-instituted state ultimatum to town officials. And while the trustees did gather some support in town hall and in the community over the next several years, it wasn’t enough to get any start-up cash from the financial town meeting.
      Hearing the trustees’ request for a start-up planning grant in 2005 for a building ten times the size of Essex, one Town Council member called the proposal “outlandish.”

Many sites were proposed over the years, but nothing came together until the trustees found two parcels of land totaling five acres off Bliss Four Corners, near shopping areas, schools, a public recreation field and the site of Sandywoods Farm, an artists’ colony.

LAND AT LAST - This five acre site ended the long search for a site for a new library. Here, town residents arrive for the Oct. 26, 2013, groundbreaking. Credit: Brian C. Jones

On Oct. 3, 2007, Donnelly signed a purchase-sale agreement for the land on behalf of the trustees.
At that point, the only source of funds the library had was its endowment, although the trustees were taking steps to form a non-profit foundation to solicit capital contributions.

Sleepless nights lead to a promising idea

         One library advocate, Kathy Ryan, worried so much about the future of the library that it kept her up at night.
      In the wee hours one night shortly before Thanksgiving of 2007, Ryan got out of bed and went to her computer, looking for ideas.
     “I went to my favorite go-to, feel-good site,” said Ryan, president of the Friends of the Tiverton Libraries, the advocacy and community fundraising arm of the library effort.
      Ryan found a notice about an upcoming conference on “green” library building design in Chicago that would showcase problem-solving for one or two case studies.
      Tiverton submitted information on its project and was selected for an architectural workshop, or charette.
      Ryan and three others from Tiverton paid their own way to Chicago to attend the conference sponsored by the prestigious Library Journal in December, 2007. And the Tiverton project received national exposure when the charette was written up in a subsequent Library Journal issue.
    “This shifted the conversation,” Ryan said.
“If people from the national Library Journal and an architect say it can work, what’s the stopping point?”

NEXT GENERATION - Advocates of the bond issue for the new library argued it would promote the town's economic future. Here, Tyler Doucet, 3, and his mother, Lindsay, at the children's circulation desk on Oct 21, 2013. Credit: Gina Macris

Fresh from the conference, a re-energized group of trustees quickly identified available funds at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and made sure Senator Reed knew of Tiverton’s need. They included the Library Journal report in the packet of materials sent him.
Barbara Donnelly ended up writing the complicated grant application that was approved by HUD. She got the call from Reed at the end of February, 2009.
From then on, the project gained momentum. Of a total anticipated cost of $10.6 million to build a 23,792 square foot building, a total of $3.2 million in grants and pledges have come in, despite the economic recession of the last several years, according to Eileen Browning, president of the Tiverton Library Foundation.

       Some of the early private funding helped the trustees market a $7 million bond issue that was to be put to voters.
       In the face of an anti-tax majority that gained a majority on the Town Council in 2010, the trustees kept their pitch politically neutral.
     “We convinced them this was an investment in the town,” said Ann Grealish-Rust, the library director.
      The new library was promoted as a modern “information hub” and community center with ample meeting space, something the town lacked.

It would feature up-to-date print and digital collections for all interests and provide adult education, social enrichment and video conferencing, among other amenities.
When the $7 million bond issue was put on the ballot for November 2011, library advocates campaigned door-to-door, explaining that Tiverton residents would be responsible for $3 million of the total over 20 years, which amounted to $30 a year for a typical family. The state would reimburse the town for the remaining $4 million.

“I have great respect for the building committee and the board of trustees. It’s very impressive how these people have gone above and beyond to benefit the entire community. They make my job rewarding.”
-- Karen Mellor, acting state chief library officer

About 4,500 people turned out in the special election, or about 37 percent of Tiverton’s electorate, primarily to vote on an unrelated but contentious question that had been promoted by the anti-tax group. The library referendum was approved by 56 percent of the voters.
“I have great respect for the building committee and the board of trustees,” said the state’s Karen Mellor. “It’s very impressive how these people have gone above and beyond to benefit the entire community. They make my job rewarding,” she said earlier this year.

"Debt of gratitude to the people of Tiverton"

          Ryan, meanwhile, put the library effort in a historical context.
     “For 200 years, Tiverton has had a collection of merchants, summer people and local people who have built libraries in their local community because they saw the need and made it happen,” she said.
      From 1820 onward, another library popped up every 20 years, she said. The tiny Union Library at Tiverton Four Corners, begun in 1820, survives as part of Tiverton’s public library system.
      All the libraries have been part of the strong volunteer heritage of the town, which is the backbone of its strength and resilience, Ryan said.
     At the groundbreaking, Donnelly talked about the rewards of volunteerism.     “I’ve been involved for so many years, and I’ve made so many friends volunteering. I have become aware of so much that is going on in the town. I feel we have great people in this town and when they come together, they can do wonderful things.”
     “We owe such a debt of gratitude to the people of Tiverton,” Donnelly said, “because without that ‘yes’ vote, we could not have gone on. We would not be here today. “

CREDIT DUE - Library advocates credited support of Tiverton residents for the successful drive for a new library. Here, more than 100 show up for the Oct. 26, 2013 groundbreaking. Credit: Brian C. Jones

Story editing by Carol J. Young, Rhode Island Library Report

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TIVERTON BREAKS GROUND FOR STATE'S NEWEST LIBRARY; REED SPEAKS AT LAUNCH

10/26/2013

TIVERTON'S new library as it will look when it is scheduled to open in 2015. Credit: Union Studio

THE DIRT FLIES - Capping a 45-minute ceremony, town, state and federal officials take to their shovels at the Oct. 26, 2013 groundbreaking. Credit: Brian C. Jones

By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report
TIVERTON, R.I. – (Oct. 26, 2013) – More than 100 people, including half of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and an array of state and local officials, gathered amid the fall foliage in the woods off Bliss Four Corners Saturday to break ground for a new $10.6 million town library.
The single-story, shingle-style building will be 23,792 square feet, almost ten times the size of the main library in Tiverton today. Located of Bulgarmarsh and Stafford Roads,

near shopping and recreation areas, and the Sandywoods Farm artists’ colony, the building is expected to open in 2015.
     One speaker after another emphasized that the new library will be far more than bricks and mortar, starting with Town Council President Edward A. Roderick and ending with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, who played a pivotal role in securing federal funding for acquisition of the site.
     The $10.6 million in construction costs will come from a $3.6 million capital campaign and a $7 million bond issue approved by voters in 2011, with the state reimbursing the town $4 million of the principal over 20 years.
     Roderick called the library the “heart and imagination” of the town; not only a place to read books but “a gathering place to exchange hopes, dreams, and ideas for our town.”

SEN JACK REED addresses the large crowd that turned out Oct. 26, 2013 for the groundbreaking of the new Tiverton Public Library. Reed obtained a $475,000 grant for land purchase. Credit: Brian C. Jones

SUCCESS Linda Jenkins, chair of the capital campaign, chats with Ann Grealish-Rust, director of the Tiverton Public Library before ceremony. Credit Brian C. Jones

Reed said libraries are “about connecting with the community; connecting with the future.”
He recalled seeing “a line going out the door” of a computer room at a library in Pawtucket he visited one day.
“I was so impressed,” Reed said. “You can’t get a job today if you can’t get online. And for many people the only place they’re going to get online is at the library. This is about economic development, as well as intellectual tasks,” he said.

       Reed quoted Andrew Carnegie, a great benefactor of libraries: “A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a-never-failing spring in the desert.”
     U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline credited cooperation among leaders in local, state, and federal government for advancing the library project.
      When the state library reimbursement program was threatened, Cicilline said, Tiverton’s delegation to the General Assembly, particularly Sen. Walter S. Felag, Jr. and Rep. John G. Edwards, made sure the local library project got approval before funds were cut off.

    The General Assembly put the program on hiatus between July 1, 2010 and July 1, 2014.
      The $4 million grant to Tiverton is the largest ever awarded in the program, which dates back to 1965, said Karen Mellor, acting chief of the state Office of Library and Information Services.
     “In 14 years of working on library construction projects across the state of Rhode Island, I have not seen such a diverse array of funding, with such wide-ranging financial support, as I have seen in this town, so you all deserve congratulations on that,” she said.
      The new building, featuring a distinctive clock tower, will replace the well-loved but long-outdated Essex public library on Highland Road, which has only 2,500 square feet of usable space.
       Essex has served as the town’s main library since 1939. Tiverton’s library services encompass Essex and the historic 19th century Union Public Library, half the size of Essex, on Main Road at Tiverton Four Corners.
      The new building will greatly expand facilities for all ages and interests, from young children to the elderly.
       According to a design by Douglas Kallfelz of Union Studio in Providence, there will be a large meeting room for

SEN. JACK REED has sponsored all major federal legislation supporting libraries in recent years. He credits boyhood visits to the Cranston Public Library as helping shape his life. Credit: Brian C. Jones

BARBARA DONNELLY, chair of Tiverton Library Services, acted as master of ceremonies. Seated, from left: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed; Karen Mellor, acting state chief library officer; U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline. Credit: Brian C. Jones

community gatherings to the left of the entrance, with the circulation desk straight ahead. Adjoining the circulation area will be a business center with computer work stations and a reading area. Programs for children and young adults will have their own wing to the rear of the building.
      Lee Hoyer, the chairman of the building committee, said in an interview earlier this year that Kallfelz incorporated ideas by residents at a community design conference for the new library.
     “People wanted something that looked like it fit in; not new, necessarily. It’s eye-opening how a community meeting very much influenced design constraints.”
      The town needed a modern building that could still be run by a small staff, he said.
      Financially, he said, the committee knew it couldn't count on regular hikes in its operating budget.
     Although the library project was once the subject of a workshop on environmentally-friendly library design, Tiverton ultimately did not seek LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council because it would have been too expensive, Hoyer said.
     But energy costs, per square foot, are expected to be 60 to 70 percent less than they are now, Hoyer said.

FLOOR PLAN for the new library. To see a larger image, click on it. Credit: Union Studio

TIVERTON Town Council President Edward A. Roderick, left, talks with U.S. Sen Jack Reed after the symbolic groundbreaking. Fresh dirt had to be trucked in because the actual ground at the construction site was too tightly packed for the ceremonial shovel work. Credit: Brian C. Jones

The trustees have hired Jeff Lipshires of Behan Brothers as the construction manager.
The original budget, $11.6 million, has been pared to $10.6 million because the capital campaign goal proved to be

“overoptimistic,” said Hoyer.
      Hoyer is a retired physician and medical school professor who has had previous experience supervising construction of a research facility.
     He said the building committee saved money by eliminating exterior and interior details that have no impact on library services. For example, the fieldstone exterior was changed to shingles, and an outdoor reading area shaped like an amphitheater was eliminated, he said.
    The Tiverton Library Foundation has raised all but $400,000 of a $3.6 million goal, according to Eileen Browning, the chairman.
    She said major contributions include:

$475,000 in a site acquisition grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, with the help of Senator Reed.
$65,000 from the Central Baptist Church, which has disbanded, to complete purchase of the land
$1 million from local anonymous donors
$750,000 from the Champlin Foundations
$250,000 from BayCoast Bank
$250,000 from the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation
Grants totaling $80,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation
$50,000 from the John Clarke Trust
$50,000 from Al Lees of Lees Market in Westport, Mass.
$25,000 from Amica Companies Foundation
$25,000 from BankFive of Fall River, Mass.
$17,000 from Newport County Fund
$10,000 from BankNewport
$10,000 from Tiverton Power

Editing by Carol J. Young, Rhode Island Library Report

Preserving historic libraries brings early headaches and long-lasting rewards

4/27/2013

THE HINDENBURG passes over the Westerly Public Library May 6, 1937, just hours before the German airship, with Nazi symbols on tailfins, explodes in New Jersey. Credit: Westerly Public Library

By Brian C. Jones
Rhode Island Library Report

    WEST WARWICK, R.I. (April 27, 2013) – The workshop was about the chronic heartaches and sometimes heady rewards of preserving the historic character of old library buildings when they are rebuilt to meet modern needs.
    But what drew gasps from the audience was a photograph of the Westerly Public Library in 1937 – not because of an impending crisis for the library, but the disaster awaiting the ghostly shape that could be seen above the library’s distinctive roof.
    Passing over the library was the German airship Hindenburg, tailfins emblazoned with Nazi swastikas. The day of the photo, said library director Kathryn Taylor, was May 6, 1937; the time 1:21 p.m. About six hours later, the Hindenburg would explode while landing in New Jersey, one of the world’s most famous air disasters, which killed 36.
    While technically, the photograph didn’t fit the topic, “New Libraries in Old Buildings,” it was an apt symbol of why many older library buildings are worth preserving: because the structures, just like their print and digital materials inside, dramatically connect their patrons’ pasts with their futures.

KATHRYN TAYLOR, director of Westerly Public Library. R.I. Library Report photo

    The session, attended by about 30 people, was part of the much larger annual statewide conference sponsored by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, which drew about 500 people from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut to this one-time manufacturing town, now celebrating its centennial.
    Taylor was one of three panelists representing a range of libraries: the Westerly library at the southern edge of the state; the Willett Free Library in the North Kingstown village of Saunderstown, probably the state’s smallest library; and the state’s largest system, the nine-branch Providence Community Library.
    In each case, the buildings discussed are key landmarks on the psychological as well as physical landscapes of their communities. Each has confronted unique challenges; each has managed to come up with solutions.

Taylor has been executive director of the Memorial and Library Association since 1998. The organization oversees the Westerly library and 15-acre Wilcox Park. Established in in 1894, the library has grown three times, with additions in 1902, 1906 and 1992.
Completed in 2011 was a $6.5 million project involving interior work, along with a new outside ramp, replacing one constructed years ahead of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but built with twists and turns that made it difficult for wheelchairs to navigate.

OLD STAIRS were preserved in Westerly ramp upgrade. Credit: Westerly library

RAMP became an elegant walkway, says director Taylor. Credit: Westerly library

    A wrinkle in the ramp upgrade was the insistence of the Historical & Preservation Commission, which helped with the project, that Westerly preserve a set of old stairs, even though they would be obscured by the new construction.
    “They really wanted it to be like an archeological dig, so you could see what used to be there,” Taylor said. That produced many grumbles, and a comment from an official of the Champlin Foundations, which had helped with financing, to the effect that a “small house” could have been built with the resources that went into the ramp.
    However, Taylor said, that project turned out to be a net plus: it features a long, gentle slope that makes it more of a walkway than ramp, running elegantly alongside the building.
    “Look how beautiful that is,” Taylor said, as she brought up a photo of the finished project on a screen in a meeting room in the West Warwick Senior Citizens Center. “I thank the Rhode Island Historic Preservation & Heritage Commission for making us more beautiful than we planned to be.”

                                                          Leaky roof and a faltering stairway

LAURA MARLANE, director of Providence Community Library

    The next speaker was Laura Marlane, executive director of the Providence Community Library, which in 2009 took over management of nine neighborhood branch libraries that had been run by the Providence Public Library, and which are largely supported by city and state funds.
    Marlane focused on just one of the libraries – the Knight Memorial in the capital city’s Elmwood neighborhood. Its roots go back to 1915, when Elmwood women raised funds for a library which rapidly outgrew its quarters above a fire station. In 1924, the family of Robert Brayton Knight, founder of Fruit of the Loom Company, established the new building.
    “It is truly a spectacular building,” Marlane said, showing photos of stained glass windows and reading rooms with huge windows and sturdy old tables and chairs. Then-and-now pictures documented that the library has changed very little over the decades.
    “In some ways,” she said with a note of irony, “neglect has the benefit of not having buildings suffer through really nasty ‘70s renovations that made things really, really ugly. So while things fall apart, which we’re fixing, you still have all of this stuff preserved.”

KNIGHT library's well-preserved interior. Credit: Providence Community Library

STAIRWAY to Knight's front entrance blocked pending repairs. Credit: PCL

    But lack of maintenance has taken a toll, including roof leaks that have eaten at interior plaster.
    Thus, Marlane noted, the staff at Knight Memorial react with “Pavlovian response” when they hear rain falling, grabbing their assigned buckets and rushing them to where leaks occur.
    However, the roof is being worked on, paid for by private donations, and the repairs should be finished in mid-May. Next up: rebuilding iconic stone stairs at the front entrance, which are pulling away from the building and which are now blocked off by a security fence.
    A Community Development Block Grant from the city will pay for much of the work, she said, and the Friends of the Knight Memorial Library on May 9 will hold a fundraiser, with a $13,000 goal to make up the difference.
    Meanwhile, the PCL’s Smith Hill Library will undergo major renovations, helped by the Champlin Foundations, to repair that building’s leaky roof, and bring the interior up to standards outlined in the disabilities’ law.
    Both the Knight Memorial and Smith Hill repairs should be completed by summer, “so then we’ll have two building in really, really good shape, and we are really excited about that,” Marlane said.

                                                            Big changes at a small library

CLIFFORD RENSHAW

    Clifford “Jack” Renshaw, a Providence architect, discussed the redesign of the Willett Free Library, whose origins trace to a 19th Century “Circle for Mutual Improvement” in the tiny village of Saunderstown, in North Kingstown.
    The current library, designed in the early 1900s by Christopher Grant LaFarge, who helped design the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City, is the state’s smallest library by many measures – it has about 253 cardholders compared to 56,783 at Providence Community Library.
    Popular with residents, who love features like its working fireplace, it was so crammed with books that librarian John Edwards called it more “kiosk” than library, and there was no place to sit down with a laptop computer. So in 2001, Renshaw said, the trustees raised enough money, including a Champlin grant, to renovate the building which reopened this past January.
    The result is that elements like the fireplace were retained. Adding some square footage and slightly raising the roof, resulted in better use of space, helped by having moveable bookcases that can be rolled back to allow seating for events.
    As with the Westerly library, he said that installation of a wheelchair accessible ramp turned out to have unexpected benefits, in this case an added porch that provides space for space for warm weather use.

WILLETT LIBRARY'S new ramp

FIREPLACE was retained in Willett upgrade

    “It’s a wonderful community center,” he said. “This has a tremendous sense of place that has the historic integrity that the neighbors just didn’t want to lose.”
    The panel session, moderated by the writer of this article, ended with questions from the audience, including the crucial issue of raising money.
    Marlane, the Providence Community Library director, said some libraries are forming tax-exempt organizations to raise money that municipalities can’t or won’t, and that library directors have to take on new roles.
    “I think libraries have to become advocates much more than ever before,” Marlane said. “Directors need to be political; they need to be really active in their community to generate the fundraising that they need.
     “It’s always been difficult for libraries,” she said. “They are usually the first thing cut in any budget. That’s just been traditionally the way it’s been. But now with the economy where it is, libraries really need to advocate for themselves, and build their position in the community and become more of a community center.”

A "Seed Library" to Open April 30 at the Washington Park Library

4/17/2013

By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report

PROVIDENCE (April 17, 2013) - The Washington Park Library will push the envelope of public service – and honor the memory of a beloved patron- when it opens the David St. Germain Seed Library at the end of the month.
        In addition to checking out conventional materials like books, magazines or CDs, patrons will be able to use their library cards to take home as many as five packets of seeds at a time.
        The David St. Germain Seed Library will open April 30 at 3:30 p.m. and continue every Tuesday afternoon through the summer, said Dylan Little, library manager at Washington Park, which is part of the Providence Community Library system.
       The seed library, he said, aims “not only to hand seeds off to people but to have the vision to connect them with other great programs” in the community, like the Southside Community Land Trust, and the University of Rhode Island Outreach Center, which has an outpost in Roger Williams Park Botanical Center.
      “It will be exciting to see where this goes, “Little said. “Hopefully, we’ll get veterans and people who never planted seeds before” coming to the seed library.
      Little said the library has purchased some of the seeds. Others have been donated by the URI Outreach Center, which makes free seeds available to non-profit organizations with gardening programs.
      The seed library has received funding from the First Unitarian Church of Providence in memory of St. Germain, who was a fixture at the church on Benefit Street.
      St. Germain, known as a tireless advocate for the homeless and the disenfranchised, started a social justice committee at the church. When he died in 2010 at the age of 43, he was remembered at a State House vigil as a man with a lasting presence, who connected those experiencing hardship first-hand with those who needed to know about it.
     St. Germain, a disabled paramedic, had been homeless for a year before finding permanent quarters in a Crossroads Rhode Island apartment. But he could not get relief from debilitating pain, and on July 23, 2010, he jumped off the roof of the Providence Place mall garage.
     For the inauguration of the seed library April 30, Michelle Walker from the Southside Community Land Trust will be on hand to offer expert advice on exactly what patrons should do with the seeds they “borrow,” Little said.
     “Hopefully, in the off-season we can get seeds back that growers have collected,” Little said.
     “It might be possible to have a seed swap” in the future, he said.
    In addition to guidance from the Southside Community Land Trust, Little said, the library program has received “great advice and support” from the following groups:

The Fertile Underground

Small State Seeds

Sidewalk Ends Farms

URI CELS Outreach Center

Big Train Farms

Need a passport? Check out yours at the Pawtucket Public Library

4/10/2013

By Gina Macris
Rhode Island Library Report

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (April 10, 2013) The Pawtucket Public Library has scored two firsts:

It's the first library in Rhode Island to open a U. S. passport office
And it is the first organization to offer passport services in the evening.

And those who use the library for U.S. passport services will be helping support adult literacy and workforce development classes offered free to adult immigrants.

       U.S. citizens planning to travel abroad may apply for passports at the library, 13 Summer St., from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
      Patrons may use a passport photo machine at the library for a fee of $10.            Julie Fischer, passport manager, said that library personnel are available to go to other locations, "off-site," to provide passport acceptance services.
      All U. S. passport offices charge the same fees, which are set by the federal government. But a portion of the fee paid at the library will support the Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative, said Karisa Tashian, the literacy initiative coordinator.

        The Pawtucket Public Library is one of five library systems participating in the literacy initiative, which provides 17 classes in 9 libraries and community centers in four communities.
        The classes include English as a second language, citizen preparation, distance learning and workforce development.
     Besides the Pawtucket library, other participating library systems are the Cranston, East Providence, the Providence Public and the Providence Community libraries.
         For more information about passport applications, see the Pawtucket Public Library’s website. The Department of State also gives complete information about the passport application process at its website.

"New libraries in old buildings" to be a topic at upcoming Preservation Conference

4/3/2013

WESTERLY PUBLIC LIBRARY'S interior was renovated at a cost of $6.5 million, completed in 2011. The original building dates to 1894, with three additions since. PHOTO: Westerly Public Library

      WEST WARWICK, R.I. (April 3, 2013) – The challenge of honoring the historic character of older library buildings, while updating them to meet technological and cultural changes, will be among the topics discussed at the 28th Annual Statewide Preservation Conference Saturday, April 27.
      Libraries are often among the most cherished buildings on city and town landscapes, but some venerable structures need costly repairs or expansion for new computer systems and programs, as well as provide facilities and access for handicapped patrons.
      Balancing these needs is the subject of a panel discussion entitled “New Libraries in Old Buildings,” one of 23 programs scheduled for a day-long conference organized by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Preservation Works,” and one of the sessions will discuss the impact of state historic preservation tax credits, which would be reinstated under legislation proposed in the current General Assembly session.
According to the commission, before the tax credit program was closed to new

SMITH HILL LIBRARY in Providence will get needed repairs with the help of a $475,000 Champlin Foundations grant

new applicants in 2008, the state saw 215 historic buildings renovated over 11 years, during which $1.35 billion was added to the Rhode Island economy.
      Dr. Jonathan Prude, associate professor of history and American studies at Emory University, will be the keynote speaker, discussing the impact of 19th Century industrialization on communities in areas like the Pawtuxet and Blackstone river valleys.
      West Warwick was chosen as the site of this year’s conference in connection with the town’s celebration of its one-hundred year anniversary. Dr. Prude’s talk will be in Church of St. John the Baptist in Arctic Village.
      The library session will feature Laura Marlane, executive director of the Providence Community Library; architect Clifford Renshaw; and Kathryn Taylor, executive director of the association that runs the Westerly Public Library. Brian Jones, a co-founder of the Library Report, will moderate the discussion.
      Marlane will discuss the nine neighborhood libraries managed by the Providence Community Library, particularly two with pressing renovation needs, the Knight Memorial Library, built in 1924 by the family of the founder of the Fruit of the Loom textile company, and the Smith Hill Library, constructed in 1932. The Smith Hill library will be upgraded with the help of a $475,000 grant awarded the PCL last year by the Champlin Foundations.
      Renshaw is the architect who oversaw a more than $450,000 renovation of Willett Free Library in the North Kingstown village of Saunderstown, one of the state’s smallest libraries, which was the subject of a Library Report story this past January. Willett’s 1904 building was designed by Christopher Grant LaFarge, a prominent architect, who designed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. (A separate conference session will focus on stained glass windows in Newport created by LaFarge’s father, John LaFarge). Renshaw served several years as historical architect for the Historical Preservation Commission.
     Taylor in 1998 became executive director of the Memorial and Library Association, which maintains the Westerly Public Library and Wilcox Park. A $6.5 million project to renovate the library’s interior was completed in late 2011. The original building dates to 1894, with additions built in 1902, 1906 and 1992.
     Information on the full conference program can be found at the historical commission's Website.
     Reservations, at a cost of $40 per person, can be made by mail in letters postmarked April 17 or earlier. Registration in person can be made on the morning of the conference.

WILLETT FREE LIBRARY, where renovations included a handicapped accessible ramp

Libraries need a new breed of bold, passionate leaders, students told

3/26/2013

PETER BROMBERG, keynote speaker at URI library conference

By Brian C. Jones
R.I. Library Report

KINGSTON, R.I. (MARCH 23, 2013) – Libraries need a new breed of workers who are assertive, outspoken and passionate about the work of libraries and able to adapt to a pace of change never experienced.
      That was the message to a career conference organized by University of Rhode Island library students who already are – or soon will be – looking for scarce jobs.
      “The world needs libraries, and libraries need you – they need your best stuff,” said Peter Bromberg, keynote speaker at “Catapult Your Career in 2013,” organized by students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at URI.
      Associate director of the Princeton Public Library in New Jersey, and named one of the national library field’s “Movers and Shakers” by the Library Journal in 2008, Bromberg was encouraging to job seekers, but didn’t minimize the difficulties they face.
      One of the biggest challenges, he said, is confronting both the sweeping changes, particularly technological, that are transforming libraries, and then bringing to bear a forceful style of leadership that libraries may not be accustomed to.

“If you are getting out of library school and getting a job,” he said, “I’m telling you that your library needs you to come in with good ideas and a willingness to say: ‘I don’t think that’s a great way to do it.’ Or: ‘I have an idea – would you be willing to try this?’”
Bromberg said that assertiveness is needed because technological change is coming so fast that we no longer have chance to adapt to new conditions before the next development occurs.

For libraries to thrive in this world where there’s a lot of disruptive technology, disruptive change, we are required to come up with a new playbook. We need to be agile; we need to be nimble. That requires a new type of employee, a new organizational member. That’s you.”

Peter Bromberg
Princeton Public Library

One-million-and-a-half years ago, he said, the “lever and wedge” produced early technological changes, he said. It was 50,000 years ago that the bow-and-arrow showed up, and 500 years ago that the printing press revolutionized communication. Now, computer and digital system changes seem instant.
“For libraries to thrive in this world where there’s a lot of disruptive technology, disruptive change, we are required to come up with a new playbook,” Bromberg said. “We need to be agile; we need to be nimble. That requires a new type of employee, a new organizational member. That’s you.”

The Gap: jobs versus job seekers

STEFANIE METKO

          But before they can be assertive in the workplace, would-be librarians have to get inside the door, which is why the conference was organized, said Stefanie Metko, head of URI’s student chapter of the American Library Association (ALA).
      Metko is one of 35 students who will be graduating from the URI program this year. A count by the Rhode Island Library Report of job listings, both by the state Office of Library and Information Services and the ALA, found seven advertised positions in Rhode Island, three of which are temporary or part-time.
      In an interview after his keynote speech at URI’s Swan Hall, Bromberg said that be believes nationally there are more library school graduates than jobs. He’s read it’s taking between six months and a year for graduate students to land a job, although that was also how long it took him when he graduated from the master’s program at Rutgers University in 1992, when the jobs picture seemed brighter.
      But one difference between then and now is the Internet and the digital revolution, which have made it easier for outstanding students to make their voices heard by asserting their views on blogs, Facebook and YouTube.
      An example, he said is Andromeda Yelton, who was recently named to the Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers” list. She caught the notice of the library world when she was still in graduate school because of her “blog posts,” Bromberg said.
      (According to the Library Journal, she is a graduate of the Simmons College library program in 2010, and a founder and staff member of “Unglue.it,” in Somerville, Mass., an organization that raises money to pay authors and publishers to allow unlimited e-book distribution of books).
      “If someone is smart and motivated and energetic,” Bromberg said, “it has never been easier for someone coming out of library school to make a name for themselves, and to have an impact on the profession."

New skills for changing libraries

ATTENDEES register for career conference

When he’s considering job candidates at the Princeton library, he said some jobs require specialized skills, such as those involving library collections, children’s literature and sophisticated reference work.
However, he thinks generally that skills can be taught to people who have other qualities adaptable to the technological and social changes.

      “I’m looking for passion. I’m looking for creativity,” he said. “I’m looking for someone with a collaborative spirit, who can show some demonstration of having created or achieved something, and how have they done that.”
      Bromberg said one of his own important learning experiences was when he worked selling clothes for Nordstrom department stores, a company that he said “empowers” its workers to use their initiative to foster better customer service.
      During his formal talk, Bromberg said that the new culture of constant change has required libraries, as well as businesses, to adopt new “flatter” management systems, in which workers contribute ideas regardless of formal job titles.
      But the culture of libraries too often has been for library staffers to avoid frank discussions, he said, because they are inclined to be “too nice” to talk frankly about important issues, a process that results in short-term avoidance of discomfort, at the expense of long-term problem solving.
      Difficult conversations can be handled compassionately and thoughtfully, he said, and learning to exert influence is “not a natural skill,” but one which has to be developed.

SWAN HALL auditorium at URI

Libraries as a community's "Third Place"

The demands placed on new-style library staffers come about in large part, Bromberg said in his interview with the Library Report, because the role of the library has changed dramatically, even in the past decade.
Libraries used to be storehouses of books and other materials when access to information was difficult, and librarians guided patrons to the right sources.

      But computers and the Internet have made digital information plentiful, sometimes overwhelmingly, so the librarian now helps people “navigate this abundance of access” and steers them toward information that may be of higher quality than they find on their own.      Also, libraries are offering new services, including so-called “maker” areas, equipped with three-dimensional printers that actually produce objects, along with video and music production technology that patrons to create their own work.
      What’s more, Bromberg said, libraries increasingly are centers of community activity. In Princeton, in addition to traditional lectures by scholars and authors, the library sponsors events such as showing the World Cup soccer matches on its large-screen TV, putting on all-age Friday night dances and sponsoring election night voting return watches.
      The Princeton library works closely with the town’s merchants’ association, and was instrumental in the town converting a parking lot next to the library into Hinds Plaza, which hosts a farmers’ market and other activities.
      He said the library has become what sometimes is referred to as the “Third Place,” beyond home and work, where people can come together on common ground.
      “So the library is that neutral place where people can come, and we can engage each other as citizens and as community members,” Bromberg said, “and it’s there for everybody. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what color you are, how much money you have in your bank account.”

A high school librarian leverages Wikipedia's highs and lows to teach Internet use

3/26/2013

By Linda Henderson
Rhode Island Library Report

       KINGSTON, R.I. (March 23, 2013) - Even after almost a decade, Wikipedia – with its wide-open system of authorship and editing - is still considered a controversial resource for academic research.
       Which is why Mary Moen, library media specialist at Chariho Regional High School, uses the massive online encyclopedia as a teaching tool in a course that shows students how to use the Internet.
       Moen discussed her course during a workshop at the career conference organized by graduate library students at the University of Rhode Island, “Catapult Your Career in 2013.”

The Elephant in the Room

SCREEN SHOT: Chariho high school's Mary Moen uses this article about elephants to show Wikipedia at its best.

        Entitling her talk “Wikipedia, Friend or Foe,” Moen said her goal in developing an elective course is to teach students how to use Internet sites reliably – and to edit Wikipedia responsibly.
       Chariho is a regional school district encompassing the southern Rhode Island towns of Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton, with the high school located in Richmond.
       Moen first noted Wikipedia’s strengths and self-monitoring features. For example, she said, it is possible to see all of the edits that have been made to any Wikipedia article by using the site’s “show history” feature.
       Meanwhile, a “talk” button allows editors to discuss discrepancies in facts, and users can also use it to talk to editors. If there is a dispute between editors that they cannot resolve themselves, the main editorial board will settle the dispute.
       Moen explained there are various forms of Wikipedia articles. For example, “stubs” are short articles that have not been touched by many hands and may lack authority. She suggested that teachers steer students way from them.

Stars and Locks

On the other hand, she said that “starred” articles are considered high quality for research purposes. Many are “locked” by the Wikipedia editorial board, blocking new edits that might compromise their quality.
       She used an article on elephants as an example of a long and well-sourced article. She pointed to both “star” and “lock” icons on the top right corner of the article.
       In response to a question, Moen said that a user can find these high-quality articles by searching the list of “featured articles."
        Moen used a class in wildlife management to train students how to vet Websites as to their usefulness in research, asking them to use journalism’s famous “Five W” questions: who, what, when, where and why?

LOCK & STAR in upper right corner

Moen said her students quickly realized that much of what they had thought was reliable information was either biased, advertisements for “charities” or not verifiable by using other resources.
To emphasize the last point, Moen said she asked the students to plug information into a Google search to assess how many other sites contained the same information.

Turning Students into Editors

          Her ultimate goal was to make students into Wikipedia editors.
       Ironically, she said she couldn’t use the live Wikipedia site to complete this goal, because users on Chariho’s computer network were banned from editing on Wikipedia. There had been “vandalism” – irresponsible or malicious editing of articles of the Wikipedia site by people using the Chariho network.
       Instead, she set up a local Wiki page on the school’s Internet site where students were asked to verify the information in selected Wikipedia articles. They also had to add information that they thought was missing or incomplete and enhance the articles with additional material, such as pictures or graphics.
       Moen said that she sees Wikipedia and other Internet resources as a learning opportunity for her students. Instead of banning use of these sites, she said the ultimate goal should be teaching their responsible use.
       Brian C. Jones, of the R.I. Library Report, contributed to this article.

With jobs scarce, would-be librarians are told to stay positive. And do their homework.

3/26/2013

DANIEL O'MAHONY

By Linda Henderson
R.I. Library Report

    KINGSTON, R.I. – (March 23, 2013) – Whenever the Brown University library system has a job opening, it’s not unusual for up to 100 candidates to apply. Given those odds, what’s a would-be librarian to do?
   Stay positive, says Daniel O’Mahony, director of library and assessment at Brown’s Rockefeller Library. And be prepared to do some homework.
       O’Mahony was one of seven librarians participating in a mock interview program at the “Catapult Your Career in 2013” conference organized by graduate library students at the University of Rhode Island.
       Meeting with three students, while the other librarians led similar small-group sessions, O'Mahony said that that one way job seekers can advance their cause is by doing what librarians do naturally – conducting advance research.
       For example, a typical question asked of a job candidate is why he or she would be interested in the Brown job.
       O’Mahony told the students that they should conduct a thorough back ground check on the work place before an interview. One way to do this, he said, is to find relevant Websites, and zero in about how the job being advertised fits into the operation of the library and the university.
       In fact, one of the URI students in O’Mahony’s mock session had done just that – she had researched Brown University’s atmosphere and strengths, and thus could demonstrate she was familiar with Brown.

What's required

EDWARD GARCIA, Cranston library director, and three students

Most jobs available in college and university libraries require specialization in terms of subject matter and/or skills, O’Mahony said. There are a lot of data-driven positions, and, for many jobs, both reference skills and data manipulation skills are necessary.
At the same time, he noted that libraries are in a state of flux, so it’s important for job candidates to show they are flexible enough to deal with change and uncertainty.
Interviewees should also to be honest, he said, be themselves and show a sense of humor.

A Sample Job Posting

            O’Mahony launched the mock interview session by giving the students a resume and job ad for a social science data librarian at Brown.
       Then he had the students pick a number between one and ten, and the student who had the number he was thinking of went first.
       “Why are you qualified for this job?” he asked the “winner” of his lottery.
       The student responded by acknowledging that even though this was a mock session, she was nervous. But then she gave what O’Mahony said was a credible answer.
       As the session continued, O’Mahony added these pointers:

There’s no need to recite your resume, since the search committee already would be up-to-date on your written qualifications.
Summarize your strengths and make a connection between your resume and you as a person.
Emphasize your understanding of the qualifications needed for the position, and explain how you are moving toward mastery of those qualifications.

       Often, O'Mahony said, a potential employee will be asked for a success story, so the candidate should have prepared one or two examples ahead of time. This is the time to show some personality, he said.
       Shifting gears, he posed the opposite scenario – what if a job candidate is asked to cite an instance in which she or he experienced a failure?        What an interviewer is trying to get here, he said, is an understanding of how the candidate learns from failure and adapts his or her behavior.

The Panel Weighs In

PANELISTS: Rosita Hopper, Edward Garcia, Brian Gallagher, Corrina MacDonald, Julie Ann DeCesare and Daniel O'Mahony

       When this session ended, O’Mahony and his group rejoined the others for a panel addressing specific questions.
       One student asked whether it’s important for applicants for a public library post to cite success in getting their papers or research published.
        “For me, it’s not important at all,” said Edward Garcia, director of the Cranston Public Library, and a 2008 graduate of URI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.
       “I’d much rather look for potential staff that are more passionately committed to helping our patrons and have great customer service” backgrounds, Garcia said.
       Thus, one resume item that he would see as a plus: previous work in “a retail environment,” if that experience has helped shape positive customer service skills.
       Rosita Hopper, dean of libraries at Johnson & Wales University, noted that having a published paper could demonstrate that a job candidate is a competent writer.
       “The ability to write and communicate is good no matter what job you are applying for,” she said.
       Brian C. Jones, of the R.I. Library Report, contributed to this article.

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Digital revolution still perplexes, excites librarians, educators and journalists

THE STORY Behind Tiverton's Quarter-Century Crusade to Build a New Public Library

The state's role: a stick and a carrot

The pressure increases

Sleepless nights lead to a promising idea

"Debt of gratitude to the people of Tiverton"

TIVERTON BREAKS GROUND FOR STATE'S NEWEST LIBRARY; REED SPEAKS AT LAUNCH

Preserving historic libraries brings early headaches and long-lasting rewards

A "Seed Library" to Open April 30 at the Washington Park Library

Need a passport? Check out yours at the Pawtucket Public Library

"New libraries in old buildings" to be a topic at upcoming Preservation Conference

Libraries need a new breed of bold, passionate leaders, students told

A high school librarian leverages Wikipedia's highs and lows to teach Internet use

With jobs scarce, would-be librarians are told to stay positive. And do their homework.

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