2020-12-04 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 7, Issue 2

Featured Story

High-Tech & High-Touch

What practices from the Covid era will survive after the pandemic is over? I’ve been doing a sort of recalibration in my thought process regarding our Covid-modified procedures. Like most of you have experienced, long-range planning is really difficult right now and things tend to go sideways basically as soon as they are implemented. My thought process so far has been more of a “let’s do this for now, and then we will revert when things go back to normal.” However, many recent projections indicate that Covid will continue to impact everyday life for most of 2021, and possibly into 2022. My question today is which of our operational changes will we roll back, and which will we keep? Two broad categories of impacted operations are sanitation and programming.

It seems reasonable to assume that enhanced cleaning measures will be here long-term. My library has (well, when we were open to the public) implemented an hourly cleaning regimen for frequently-touched areas like counters and keyboards. Some libraries have upgraded the filters on their HVAC systems, which is an all-around good plan anyway. Will we see masking become a common practice during cold & flu season? 

Library programs have largely gone online, and many libraries have put a lot of effort into expanding their digital library offerings. I can see live streaming events becoming a common practice, as well as regular programs being hosted as online meetings. As an example, speaking for my library, we have implemented an on-demand craft & book request program for children which has been quite popular. Patrons fill out a form to the effect of “Little Billy is interested in space and astronauts” and our staff collect a range of titles & a few related craft projects curated for that interest. It’s time-intensive for our staff, but the value it offers our patrons is something that leads me to think it will continue even after physical operations resume some sort of normalcy. Similarly, our library has seen strong sustained growth in ebook & eaudiobook use, and that trend has accelerated as we have scaled back physical operations. It will be interesting to see if that growth continues as rapidly in the coming months & years, but it is hard to imagine an actual decline.

It seems like just yesterday Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People was the hot read in libraryland, and everyone was buzzing about libraries as an open & democratic third place where an entire community benefits by gathering & sharing space together. Folks might buy groceries at different stores, or eat at different restaurants, or have a big house in the suburbs or sleep on a park bench, but everyone comes together at the library. I’m confident libraries will recover as a shared physical space, but I also think COVID gives our profession some existential questions about our mission in the 21st century beyond shared space. We won’t be able to compete easily with relatively affordable streaming services, and many patrons are on the wrong end of the digital divide for those library-affiliated services like Kanopy. I believe that there is strong growth potential in the value-added services libraries provide, namely the knowledge & skills & experiences of the library staff. Request kits, personalized book recommendations, themed bundles– in an increasingly high-tech world where books and media are widely and cheaply available, and when libraries generally can’t offer innovative and engaging in-person programming, libraries have promising room for growth in personalized, high-touch services.

– Tyler McLane
 

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

Switching to a New System During a Pandemic

Starting in early September our library consortium began the process of switching from Polaris to Koha. It has been a crazy experience dealing with this switch while also keeping up with other changes brought on by the current pandemic. It was difficult to train on the new system because we didn’t have the ability to meet together as a staff, so we each had to watch the training video separately and then ask questions via Slack. Although it has come with its share of challenges our supervisors have done such a great job of answering questions as quickly as possible and have worked hard to create tools like Koha question binders at each public service desk and a Koha questions channel on Slack. While we have still had to figure out little issues along the way I am so grateful to have a team that has supported us every step of the way.

– Jackie Wood

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

Designated Dissenter

The Designated Dissenter concept comes from Shirley Lai, a Design and UX writer based in Singapore – “Events pertaining to the misuse of user data, and concerns over privacy, security and bias in technology have raised questions about the responsibility of technology companies and tech workers.

The Designated Dissenter card deck was designed to help tech makers facilitate conversations about the human consequences of their work.

The cards aim to get participants to consider the externalities of technology from a human values perspective, as well as enhance ethical awareness, ethical reasoning and reflection in participants through use of gameplay.”

While these cards are designed to think about ethical implications of technology, they’re also a really good tool for evaluating new library services. Having one person in the room who can bring up possible objections or roadblocks can lead to better services in the long run.

– Alex Johnatakis

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.