To keep people happy … keep some books

By Saskia Leferink

24 January, 2018 

At the 2017 Dutch Contact Day last October, we heard how staff at the library of the Free University of Amsterdam is going to renovate their library space. One request students made? Surprisingly (perhaps), they wanted books around them. Not just because of the information that physical books provide, but because of the atmosphere and comfort they provide. So, the library kept the books as part of their renovation.

This may seem counterintuitive in our digital world as more and more of our experiences happen online. And it raises a few questions: What role does the physical library play in a digital world? And what makes people still want to come to this place?

Joren van Dijk, a well-known environmental psychologist, helped Contact Day attendees explore and address this fascinating topic. What he told us, based on his research, is that physical space is still very important. In fact, for libraries, it’s crucial if we want to become or remain that special “Third Place” where people gather to engage, meet, and learn in an ambiance that promotes both conversation and quiet relaxation.

What design elements help create all of those feelings? Nature, flexible space, and … books.

Physical space still matters

The theme for the 13th annual OCLC Contact Day in the Netherlands was “Third Places: Experience is environment.” I had the honor to host more than 300 members from across the country who came together in Rotterdam for one day to discuss how we can make our libraries “the places to be.”

Clearly, in today’s world, the library competes with other places, such as restaurants, cafés, concert halls, and parks to name a few, to be the preferred Third Place, where people let down their guard, relax, be themselves, develop new friendships, and deepen existing ones.

The concept of Third Places was first coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in the early 1990s in his book, The Great Good Place. It’s a space where people meet to unwind, discuss, and talk about things that matter to them, their neighborhood, and their community. It’s a space distinct both from the work environment where communication and interaction can be functional, stereotyped, and superficial and distinct from the domestic space of home and family life.

Third Places provide opportunities for a community to develop and retain a sense of cohesion and identity. They are about sociability, not isolation.

At Contact Day, Joren stressed the role of the physical facility, whether we are conscious of it or not, in shaping experiences. He studies how the physical environment influences the behavior and perception of people. And he challenged us to think about how we can improve the library experience for our users and how we can make our libraries more attractive.

  

Improve your space with these three tips

If you are considering a remodel of your library space, or building a completely new facility, Joren suggests these three things.

• Involve end users in the design. By involving people from your community in the design process, you can respond better to their diverse needs and wishes. Participation in the design process can also increase the involvement of end users at the library; the library transitions from a library to their library. 

• Bring the outdoors in. Nature impacts people, and research shows that seeing or experiencing nature results in vastly improved concentration. That can be nice views of nature, nature in the building, or even images of nature. Because of nature, people can study better and are refreshed in the process. 

• Offer a range of spaces. The way a physical space meets the needs of individuals in specific user groups is key. Some space should be designed for social interaction to support group meetings and brainstorming. Some space needs to be designed for people who like to work in silence. Be careful not to ignore the needs of user groups or to place conflicting functions side by side.

Environment is part of who we are

Although we live in a technology-driven, digital world, physical space remains core to the human experience. People long for community and places to go for solace, comfort, reflection, and joy.

As Joren told us, the environment will influence how users experience your library, both the physical and the digital. By carefully designing our space and delivering the services users need, libraries can maintain and grow their role and increase their relevance as community hubs.

Source: OCLC

Forbes.com: How Libraries Are Reinventing Themselves To Fight Fake News

By Ryan Holmes
April 10, 2018

When I was in grade five, the librarian at my school saw my passion for tech and encouraged me to enter a district-wide programming contest. Against the odds, I took home top prize, an Apple IIc personal computer—an unbelievable luxury for a kid in the mid ‘80s. It was a turning point for me and the start of a lifelong love of tech, all stemming from that encouragement from my librarian.

April 10th marks National Library Workers Day, a holiday set aside during National Library Week to recognize people like my elementary school librarian, Mr. Adamson. I know what you’re thinking—in an age when you can look anything up on Google, have librarians gone the way of pay phones, fax machines and encyclopedia sets? A recent article in USA Today went so far as to assert that librarians will be extinct by 2030. I sincerely hope not.

The reality is that being a librarian goes well beyond checking out books. One of the most important parts of the job is teaching information literacy. The American Library Association defines information literacy as the ability to “locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information.” Yes, this sounds dry. But in today’s age of fake news, knowing where to turn for reliable data—and being able to distinguish between objective and biased sources—might just be one of the most important skills of our time. It’s also one that’s sorely lacking.

The high price of information overload

The online revolution of the last 20 years has made our lives better in countless ways. But it has inundated us with information as never before. We’re flooded with news and commentary every time we look at our phones—much of it algorithmically slanted to confirm our existing biases. Without a critical framework to evaluate the reliability of all this information and to assess its underlying agenda, it’s easy to get disoriented and to reach mistaken, even dangerous conclusions.

I’m acutely aware of this coming from the social media world. A majority of US adults now get their news in real time from social media feeds, according to The Pew Research Center. The challenge is, of course, that these are largely uncurated spaces. There’s no gatekeeper on Facebook or Twitter vetting what shows up on your news feed for accuracy or objectivity. What you see is dictated largely by what your connections have clicked on and engaged with or who has paid to put an ad in your stream. It’s becoming little different with television and newspaper news media, many of which have abandoned their once objective platforms to support their own bias.

In the absence of a critical eye, falsehoods can, and do, thrive. And the consequences are very real. During the 2016 U.S. election cycle, Russian specialists spread slanted and patently false stories via hundreds of social media accounts, all in an effort to undermine the democratic process. By many accounts, they succeeded. And this is unlikely to be an isolated incident. The use of bots, trolls and paid ads to deliberately disseminate misinformation has become a new reality. 

Fighting back with information literacy

Part of our response to this challenge has to be technological—more robust algorithms and smarter tools to sniff out manipulation. Part of the responsibility rests with the social networks themselves to better police their content, partners and advertisers. But, for now and for the foreseeable future, solving this problem depends in large part on boosting our own media savvy. And that’s where the discussion turns back to librarians and the role of information literacy. 

To date, some of the best, grassroots responses to the tide of fake and misleading news have come from the library community. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions put together a handy “How To Spot Fake News” infographic, which has been translated into 37 languages and used around the world. Librarians at Indiana University East developed an interactive fake news website, complete with tips on fact-checking and a deconstruction of an article about “hollow earth.” In webinars and slide decks, librarians are fighting back against misinformation.

In the years ahead, it’s not hard to see the role of librarian evolving further. What’s needed—more than just a pamphlet or a set of guidelines—is a sustained, comprehensive effort to train a new generation in media and information literacy for the social media era. This isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an urgent and ongoing need—something that should be integrated into primary- and secondary-school curriculums everywhere. And librarians—alongside encouraging and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders—can be at the forefront of this charge.

In some ways, it’s hard to imagine a more important calling right now. I’ll end with a statistic that’s both depressing and a needed call to action. A recent study by the Stanford History Education Group at Stanford University looked at 7,000 college, middle and high school student answers to questions about online information. The study’s conclusion: “Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the Internet can be summed up in one word: bleak.” Fewer than 20% of middle school students were even able to distinguish between “sponsored content” and a real news story—let alone assess underlying bias.

In the 1800s, the public library was considered a vital force for strengthening democracy. Today, librarians are poised to play no less critical a role—helping tomorrow’s leaders navigate an ever swelling sea of information, discerning the hard truth from convincing lies. This is a vocation worth celebrating and fighting for. To all the librarians, and to Mr. Adamson in particular, Happy National Library Workers Day.

Source: Forbes.com

GlobalNews.com: We will wait and see’ says Vancouver Mayor on policy banning librarians from giving naloxone

By Jeremy Lye and Simon Little
March 20, 2018

Vancouver’s mayor is staying non-committal about the prospect of city library staff using naloxone to reverse overdoses.

The drug has been responsible for saving countless lives amid B.C.’s opioid overdose crisis, however some city staff have been told they are not to administer it.

Librarians have been told instead to call 911 if they find someone they suspect is overdosing — but according to the city, that’s over safety concerns.

On Monday, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the “next steps in terms of staff training and policy around naloxone” required further study.

“We will wait and see the outcome of that review,” he said.

Vancouver police and firefighters were some of the first in North America to be equipped with the drug, and Robertson pointed to their specialized training.

“With the rest of city staff, it’s still a process of training and determining exactly… the incidents of overdose are far fewer for those, the rest of city staff,” he said.

“We have quite a few front-line workers on the streets and first responders that obviously are trained for this.”

More than 1,400 people died of suspected drug overdoses in B.C. last year. In January this year, overdoses killed British Columbians at a rate of about four per day.

Vancouver saw the largest proportion of those fatal overdoses, with 33 recorded in the first month of the year.

Source: GlobalNews.com

Kelowna Capital News: Kelowna librarians, city staff, preparing to help in OD crisis

By Kathy Michaels
March 28, 2018

Librarians aren’t the first people who come to mind when discussions about the overdose crisis arise, but they’re among those who have had to adapt to the change it’s created.

Just a year ago there was an overdose in one of the Okanagan Regional Libraries, said Michael Utko, the Okanagan Regional Library’s communications manager, and it’s had an effect.

“The situation was handled well, but the potential for a death was there,” said Utko, adding that it, plus the stories from libraries in high drug traffic cities around North America, have sparked change.

“While we don’t have anything finalized, equipping staff with naloxone kits to help with overdoses and other incidents is being considered…It’s not going to be mandated, but if we do it, it will be person to person, librarian to librarian ”

Kelowna’s library won’t be the first place to implement such training measures.

In larger high drug traffic cities librarians have become unlikely frontline workers in the opioid crisis, roaming from bathrooms to the stacks looking for men or women exhibiting the telltale signs of an overdose—ranging from paleness and shortness of breath to unconsciousness.

The reason for this unlikely scenario is simply that libraries are open to the public and welcome people of all walks.

The job of bylaw officers has shifted for a similar reason.

Lance Kayfish, risk manager for the City of Kelowna said that all their bylaw services staff have had the training to administer the life saving substance—though it’s also not mandated training.

“We started having that conversation awhile ago,” Kayfish said. “There is interest by some and there is some concern and apprehension by others, also.”

Some of those who have taken the chance to educate themselves on using the naloxone kits have had the opportunity to put their training to use.

“I do know that we have been administering naloxone on more than one occasion,” said Kayfish.

Kayfish, himself, has taken the training, noting that it’s not as though there isn’t ample access to services in the downtown if he were to come across an overdose—it’s simply a reflection of the times.

Source: Kelowna Capital News

CBC: Good news, bad news as libraries remain open but underfunded, say librarians

April 4, 2018

N.L. Library Association says statement by minister on budget day was not expected

A budget announcement that not a single branch of the public libraries would be closed was welcome, albeit surprising, news for Newfoundland and Labrador librarians.

But allocating $11.3 million for the next year means libraries are still underfunded, says Kate Shore, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Library Association.

This was great news to hear that it's officially off the table now.- Kate Shore

"We were not expecting that," Shore said of Education Minister Dale Kirby's announcement that no libraries would close.

At the budget lock-in last week, Kirby said everything would be "status quo" for the province's public libraries. In 2016, the Liberal government announced it would be closing 54 branches.

After public outcry, the province put a hold on that plan in favour of a consultant's review by EY, which was completed in 2017 and recommended some branches close, others be consolidated, and a system of regional boards be put in place to run them.

Kirby said at the 2018 budget announcement that the report was shelved and the operating budget for the provincial libraries would stay the same.

But Shore said that doesn't necessarily take into account the changing costs of library materials.

"When he says status quo, it's back to its pre-2016 budget. But when you take inflation it's not really any kind of increase and you can see that we're definitely still in need of more money," she told CBC's On The Go.

For example, Shore pointed to the fluctuating American exchange rate.

"We buy books, that's one of the things that happens with operating budgets, and if you're talking about major change, books are gonna be more expensive so it means less bang for your buck, really," she said.

"Luckily we no longer have the 10 per cent extra tax on books, so that's one of the greatest things that did come out this year. But those kinds of things really do take a toll on the budget, where that money could be appropriated in other places."

Librarians Not Only Ones Surprised

Despite Kirby calling library closures a "dead issue," Shore said none of the librarians and library staff she's spoken to, herself included, knew about this announcement in advance.

"I don't think that message actually really was out there because the message last year after it (the report) came out was they kept saying, we'll wait until the review to see what happens," Shore said.

"We assumed that those kind of changes would take over a gradual amount of time, because it does take planning, so we just assumed, OK, well, we're gonna hear more. But we never did."

CBC News has asked Kirby's department for comment.

Shore and the Newfoundland and Labrador Libraries Association weren't the only ones surprised by Kirby's announcement.

The Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador in a release last week said things were "ominously quiet" after the EY review was done.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees' Dawn Lahey said in a release that it was wonderful news to hear no branches would close, but added "members have been working in a very difficult situation, wondering every day whether or not they will have a job tomorrow."

"It's unfortunate that it took so long for the government to make it clear that they are committed to library services for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador," Lahey said in a release.

All of those groups were, however, happy with the announcement overall.

"It was great to hear officially that the 54 libraries are not gonna be closed," said Shore, who feels it will eliminate uncertainty for library workers and patrons.

"This was great news to hear that it's officially off the table now."

Source: CBC.ca