Monday, November 22, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and as we all gear up for the holiday, I thought this was a good moment to pause and consider what I am thankful for here at the Huntington Beach Public Library.

As a librarian, I am thankful for all my colleagues that inspire, challenge, encourage and engage me. If it wasn't for the greater library community, I would not be nearly as good a library director as I (hope) I am. I find new ideas, think about things differently and find new solutions from conversations and ideas that my peers and colleagues share.

As a Library Director, there are so many things to be thankful for that I could go on for quite some time. I am thankful for my staff who continue to amaze me with their resilience, creativity and dedication. We've gone through some major changes this past year, really in just the past few months, and everyone keeps surprising me. Their willingness to look at things differently, talk about what we do and how we can do it differently but efficiently and still maintain our service standards is remarkable. Each and everyone of my staff make a difference everyday in what we can do for the community.

I am also immensely thankful for our amazing community supporters. Without the strong interest and support of our library patrons, Friends and volunteers, the library would be a much less vibrant and exciting place. Thank you all for making it possible for me to work with you to make the Huntington Beach Public Library a truly transformational place.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 8, 2010

E Readers - is it the Kindle?

Wired magazine reported that out of all the e book reading devices, it looks like the winner is... The Amazon Kindle.

As a Kindle owner, this makes me feel good about the decision to buy the device. The Kindle is the most popular device for reading e books right now. HOWEVER only 7-8% of Adults are actually reading e books.

Whenever I see another Kindle reader out in public I do feel like I'm a member of an interesting club. I've had more conversations with strangers because of my Kindle than I can count, so there is definitely buzz and interest.

Even though I really enjoy my Kindle, as a librarian, I keep coming back to what does the Kindle mean for libraries and the profession?

I think some of my online colleagues, like Kathy Gould and Genesis Hansen, have it right. We have to start really looking at things differently. Start blowing things up, as it were. :)

The big thing for me with e books, especially with the Kindle is the essential problem of the economic model. The book and the device are conjoined - BN does allow very limited borrowing on their Nook, and it looks like Amazon plans to follow suit, but again, 1 loan per title, and only some titles will be available? And why the restrictions? Because someone could lose money?

I do feel like I'm sitting on my hands, waiting for everything to shake out, but by then it may be too late - we will be on the outside looking in.

Why is it so hard for us to make our case to the industry about the value of what we do? Do we need the American Library Association or IMLS to have a publishing summit, where libraries have a seat at the table and can make some contribution to the development of the digital publishing market?

Maybe we need to find someone close to Jeff Bezos...