PLN Highlights

What’s new at the PALINET Leadership Network?

• In Looking in the mirror, Peter Bromberg offers a dozen questions you should ask new employees to help gain a clearer picture of your own library–and five questions to ask yourself about where you are and where you’re going. Steven J. Bell asks “are you where you want to be professionally?” and suggests that you define your own signature statement–and Barbara Kelly expands the “signature statement” idea to suggest stepping back and making sure your library has a clear, authentic, understandable and real signature statement of its own.
• Service and policy complements the existing Service attitudes roundup (primarily non-library notes), offering notes from several library writers. Barbara Kelly notes ways she’s been delighted by deviations from policy–that might not be deviations at all, but rather flexible, service-oriented policies. Tyler Rousseau takes on the “teach them to fish” attitude in reference services, suggesting that sometimes “just give them the ichhyo…” might be the best course of action. “Karen K.” offers some lessons in customer service and Walt Crawford offers examples of unusually good customer service and the remarkable effects of being just a little more helpful.
• Jeff Scott adds the perspective of a rural public library director to the discussion in Directors, leaders and work-life balance. You’ll be seeing new additions to other existing articles (especially the sets of notes from non-library sources); this one happened a little faster than most.

Your contributions and feedback help make PLN work. Let us know how we’re doing.

What’s up at PALINET Leadership Network (PLN)?

• Wikis and libraries offers a five-minute introduction to wikis: real-world definitions, key characteristics, dominant software, why library leaders should care about them and a few library-related wikis.
• Transparency and MediaWiki considers the extreme transparency of the wiki software most commonly used for library wikis (including PLN itself)–not as a weakness (it’s generally a strength of MediaWiki) but as something leaders should be aware of.
• Wiki notes includes miscellaneous notes on wikis (except Wikipedia, which has its own article).
• Leadership, balance and choice begins a new composite page of notes (mostly outside librarianship) to complement some discussions elsewhere in PLN.
• Presentations begins with segments of Leader’s Digest April 2008 (also added in the past week) on effective presentations.
• There’s a new What’s hot at PLN? page showing the 25 most frequently read articles from April 7 through May 6, 2008, and you’ll find substantial new material in Searching notes, Technology trends and elsewhere.

PLN is your resource. Tell a friend, blog about PLN (if you’re so inclined)–and let us know how we’re doing:

• Give us feedback, by responding to the polls and adding your own suggestions.
• Comment on articles when you disagree or have something to add–every article has a Talk page and you can add content directly to most articles.
• Start a discussion in the Forums–or pick up on something that’s already there.
• Direct email is always welcome, to crawford@palinet.org or waltcrawford@gmail.com

What’s up at PALINET Leadership Network (PLN)?

• “Directors, leaders and work-life balance” offers diverse perspectives on two key sets of questions:
  • Can you be a library leader and still maintain a reasonable balance between the demands of work and the rest of your life? To put it another way, can you have it all?
  • Can you be a library director or administrator and have it all?
• We’re trying to make sure you can always explore further and that you can find worthwhile articles in a variety of ways. To that end, we’ve eliminated “orphan articles”–which is to say that every article in PLN has a related-article link from at least one other article. The goal is to have all but the briefest items also have outbound links to the most appropriate other articles. You can help: If you see an article relationship that isn’t flagged, add it yourself or send me a note (crawford@palinet.org).

PLN exists to serve your needs as a current or future library leader. Two current polls on the general feedback page will help us determine how to do that better. Should we provide more technology briefings and commentary (such as the Kindle/ebook cluster)–and should we provide more policy briefings and commentary (such as the Open Source cluster). We need your feedback and ideas to improve PLN–and we encourage you to contribute and to tell your colleagues about the PALINET Leadership Network.

It’s panel time at the PALINET Leadership Network:

• The LLN Peer Panel for April 2008 weighs in with “Recommended reading,” books panelists have read that they’d recommend to other leaders–from The Long Tail to Rome and Jerusalem.
• April’s PLN Challenge concerns “Library roles in 2020“–will your library still play a major role as a physical source for resources, and what will your library’s primary roles be in 2020? Pamena Snelson and David Schappert kick things off with two thought-provoking answers; you’re invited to add your own responses (and to bring in public, special and school library futures).

Comic books? Sometimes, Jamie LaRue’s newspaper columns take a slightly different turn, as in “Power corrupts,” where we learn one perk of being a library director: Nibs on the comic books! Leaders need lighter moments too…

Nicole Engard added another element to the “Open source notes and resources” article, adding a few blogs on open source. For those directly related to libraries, there’s now a new section on the main page; other blogs appear on the Talk page.

Engard also did something else a handful of other users have done, something you might consider: Clicked on her username (the leftmost link on the top of each page after you log in) and created her user page. Just as we encourage direct user participation in PLN, it’s great to let other people know who you are and how to contact you–and a user page is one good way. (Here’s mine, such as it is.) Once you create a user page, any signed contributions will link to the page.

This week, new items at the PALINET Leadership Network are largely from the management literature (via Leader’s Digest) or bring together new material to flesh out other articles. For example:

• Searching notes hosts brief notes about searching in general–starting with team searching and Illumin8–and links to some longer articles.
• Ebook notes splits out notes on book-length digital text from notes on Kindle and other dedicated ebook readers.
• Qualities of successful leaders offers notes on qualities of leaders–not just what they do but who they are–and links to longer articles on related topics.
• Leadership development notes serves as a hub for articles on developing leaders and includes brief notes from management literature.
• Open source notes and resources enhances PLN’s cluster of articles on open source software by providing key definitions, linking to articles elsewhere, and offering links to key resources on open source in libraries.

These and other “notes” pages will continue to grow over time. We continue to look for ways to make these and other resources more suitable for your needs. Let us know how we’re doing, specifically in the Feedback and suggestions page and polls and more generally through Feedback pages for each topic.

What’s happening at the PALINET Leadership Network (PLN)?

New articles include notes by Steven Bell on Innovation and control and some new Mentoring notes from the business literature. We’re continuing to add links so you can keep exploring a topic once you find a worthwhile article.

Two new features may also help you find worthwhile articles and notes:

• Every topic (the twelve primary categories in the topics sidebar) now shows a “Feature article of the month” at the end of the list of Recent articles. These articles aren’t necessarily the must-read articles or the best of PLN. They are articles that may deserve more attention than they’ve received recently. You’re encouraged to take a look–and to add criticism or commentary as appropriate.
• We’ve also added What’s hot at PLN? This page shows the 25 articles viewed most often during a given period–currently March 7 and April 6, 2008. Typically, that list will be updated once a month, sometimes a little less often. This isn’t exactly “Greatest hits of PLN”–it reflects recent readership, not overall readership.
• Assembling that first “What’s hot” page–taken directly from log analysis, but with most Topic, Category and Help pages removed from the list–we removed one additional page, but maybe it’s worth highlighting here. The General feedback and suggestions page was viewed a lot–but had no content other than the header. So, to get you started, we’ve added a couple of polls on content within PLN. Please respond to the polls (you can add a message)–and, of course, add your own suggestions there or on the feedback page for each topic, or start a discussion in the PLN Forums.

Know people who are or might be library leaders and haven’t heard of PLN? Tell them about it and encourage them to join. And if you have acquaintances who have PLN accounts but aren’t getting these posts–encourage them to sign up. PLN Highlights is the best way we have to keep you informed on what’s happening at PLN. We won’t flood your aggregator or inbox, but we will try to let you know what’s new.

What’s new at the PALINET Leadership Network (PLN)?

• We tend to share success stories–but we’re not so good at sharing failures (or “learning experiences” or “qualified successes” or “premature innovations”). That’s true even though we may learn more from clearly-described missteps than we do from successes. Learning from failure combines a post by Meredith Farkas, some of the comments on that post, a related post by Alan Kirk Gray–and a new page on the Library Success Wiki. We’d all benefit from your learning experiences; can we do better at sharing?
• In Light my fire: thoughts on the Kindle, Villanova’s Joe Lucia comments on his own experiences using Amazon’s Kindle and considers the nature of text and books.
• Leader’s Digest for March 2008 brings together summaries and extracts from more than twenty articles on aspects of leadership and other current events. Some of the elements in this collation will turn up elsewhere over the next days and weeks, but they’re in place now for a good overview–as are 18 earlier Leader’s Digest compilations and conference reports.

There’s a Feedback and suggestions page for PLN–and each of the dozen Topics (primary categories) also has a Feedback and suggestions page. There’s also a Site Feedback Forum. All of which is to say: We welcome and need your feedback–and if adding to one of those pages or starting a topic in the forum is too public for your taste, feel free to send your feedback to crawford@palinet.org or waltcrawford@gmail.com.

It’s been a busy week at the PALINET Leadership Network, PLN. Some of the new resources:

• Telling the library story — the March 2008 LLN Peer Panel question is about information literacy, but the responses are mostly about telling your library’s story…and making sure that your library’s reality matches the story you’re telling. George Needham, Jamie LaRue and Lirene Roy offer comments.
• Challenges in developing library information literacy programs — Glen Holt discusses some real-world issues in library information literacy and orientation programs.
• Who needs reference librarians? — Jamie LaRue asks that question in his newspaper column, says the answer is “we all do,” and offers ways those reference librarians can become more visible and valuable.
• A call for OpenLibrarianship — Carl Grant offers a challenging set of proposals for today’s and tomorrow’s librarianship and proposes a term to go along with it. Walt Crawford added a comment on the Talk page, which inspired Grant to write another piece refining the first one: OpenLibrarianship: A framework discussion. These are noteworthy, provocative pieces. Is OpenLibrarianship really Librarian 2.0?
• Real men aim for maximum gadgetude — Jamie LaRue again, this time with a true confession from a one-time Kaypro II owner.

As with last week’s Future catalogs: food for thought, Carl Grant’s articles deserve extended discussion as possible visions for tomorrow’s libraries. The talk pages are open, as are the forums. PLN–free to all current and future library leaders (however you define “library leader”)–is there for discussion and to exchange information.

In the category of exchanging information, one PLN participant has posed an interesting query on the Talk page for leadership training, mentoring and other resources: Are there resources to help interim library directors do their jobs as well as possible? Your suggestions are welcome.

Note: Some of the links above won’t work unless you’re signed in as a PLN user. So join up: It only takes a minute or two, along with clicking on a link in an email message.

Some of the articles just added to the PALINET Leadership Network (PLN):

• Future catalogs: food for thought - What could a “catalog” do? Eric Lease Morgan offers an extended and challenging set of visions in this essay.
• Separating the discovery layer from the ILS - In a related article, John Houser discusses the desire to provide unique local interfaces for a library’s integrated library system–and the simultaneous desire of many institutions to share metadata. Separating layers might serve both desires.
• Face time or Facebook? - Jeff Scott notes the uses of technology to help bring people through the library doors–and the importance of face-to-face service once they’re in the library, to make them loyal patrons and supporters.

You’ll also find updates to the extensive set of Kindle and ebook reader notes, a new Open source category to gather the growing set of articles on open source, and more links to take you from one article to related articles.

Remember–your views and contributions are always welcome, and really essential to making PLN a true participatory resource for today’s and tomorrow’s library leaders. Add your comments on the Talk page attached to every article (or, if that’s appropriate, directly to the article), add feedback on the feedback pages for PLN as a whole and for each major category, start new Forum topics. If you have something you think may be suitable for an article and you aren’t ready to deal with MediaWiki markup, send it to me (crawford at palinet.org or waltcrawford at gmail.com) and I’ll take care of it.

And, of course, if you’re not yet a PLN member, sign up now–it’s fast and free. Do remember to click on the link in the email following your signup!

What’s new at the PALINET Leadership Network (PLN)?

When you click on that link, you’ll see one big change: the home page has a clean, minimalist redesign, so you can take in the whole thing and move on to topics or new articles in a few seconds. As always, comments on the redesign or any aspect of PLN are welcome.

Some of the newest additions to PLN:

• Changing your mind — The March 2008 PLN Challenge finds one academic librarian questioning Turnitin.com–and a public librarian finding that web 2.0 initiatives haven’t been a big hit in her community. PLN Challenges are now just that: Open-ended challenges for your responses and comments, seeded with responses from the PLN Challenge Panel. What have you changed your mind about lately?
• Different ways of dealing with obstacles — Morgan Wilson was inspired by a nature walk to suggest half a dozen ways of dealing with obstacles of all sorts. Thought-provoking reading, open for additional commentary on the Talk page.
• Should libraries host user generated content? — Kathryn Greenhill makes a case for libraries hosting patron-written blogs and other user-generated content. Don’t miss related articles (on libraries serving as centers to create local content and helping to tell the community’s stories)–and you can add your own comments to the one that’s already there.
• Should libraries rely on free commercial web 2.0 services? - Kate Davis considers issues raised by relying on the commercial infrastructure, particularly when there’s no direct payment for services rendered.
• On door counters and carparks - Davis again, discussing the need to focus on physical and virtual library users and getting beyond “bums on seats” (no, not people on the down-and-out) as justification for physical libraries.

If there’s any doubt as to the international nature of PLN, this quartet of contributions from Down Under should clarify the situation!

The article’s not new–but it’s sparked a discussion. Glen Holt wrote Ranking and reality–We’re number one! two years ago, when St. Louis Public Library emerged as the leader in one library ranking. Now, there’s a discussion (click on the topic with the article’s name) in the Marketing Forum on the question of whether being ranked highly has a downside. Add your voice–and note that creating a new Forum topic is another way to discuss something you see in a PLN article or something you don’t see.