ASCLA’s President’s Program features Duct Tape Marketing author John Jantsch

The 2012 ASCLA President’s Program in Anaheim at ALA’s Annual Conference is not to be missed! We have a fantastic speaker lined up for the program and a free gift for the first 200 people who attend.

Our speaker, John Jantsch, is the best-selling author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine. John will be taking his theories and applying them specifically to libraries for this special presentation.  Don’t miss this opportunity to build a marketing strategy that will help your library realize its full marketing potential.

In celebration of the release of John’s newly revised and updated version of Duct Tape Marketing, LibraryAware is donating books to the first 200 people to attend the program. John will sign the books after he speaks. LibraryAware is NoveList’s new marketing software designed to help libraries easily create, deliver and measure their promotional campaigns.

John Jantsch is currently involved in a number of marketing projects with Intuit, Microsoft, Sage Software, HP, AT&T and American Express. His very popular blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for marketing and small business. His podcast, a top-ten marketing show on iTunes, was called a “must listen” by Fast Company.

In today’s marketing-savvy world, everyone wants to know the one thing they can do or the magic pill they can take that will make their marketing efforts successful. John gives sage and practical advice, and tips for how to uncover what works.

Please join me for this very informative and entertaining program in Ballroom B of the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, June 24, 2012, 10:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m. in Anaheim.

Dear ASCLA Members:

What an exciting ALA Midwinter Conference for ASCLA!  The drafts of both the Interest Group Guidebook and the Consultants’ Code of Ethics are moving forward.  The ASCLA/COSLA reception was lovely.  Many of the formal discussions of committees and interest groups were carried on more informally at the reception.  Also, ASCLA’s strategic plan was finalized and approved, incorporating your thoughts from the member survey.

Speaking of the survey, the board has heard from you loudly and clearly that you are looking for more networking opportunities.  To this end, we are moving the ASCLA/COSLA reception at the ALA Annual Conference to Saturday, June 23^rd at 5:45-7:30 p.m., immediately after the ASCLA board meeting.  Thanks to our event supporter, Novelist’s LibraryAware, we will be able to offer heartier hors d’oeuvres after an exhausting afternoon of quality programming.  Following COSLA’s greetings and the unveiling of ASCLA’s awards, the rest of the social will be devoted to networking time.   We envision people grouping around the topics that interest them the most:  e-books, fundraising, marketing, advocacy, etc.  The ASCLA membership committee has some surprises in store for us as well!

I hope you will be able to join us at ALA Annual for the ASCLA/COSLA networking social.  If you are not able to get to the annual conference, please participate in ASCLA in other ways– through webinars, online courses, committee or interest group calls and chats.  Look for information about attending ASCLA board meetings by conference calling as well.  ASCLA needs your thoughts and ideas.

Best wishes,

Norma Blake, NJ State Librarian and ASCLA President

Dear ASCLA Colleagues:

Getting a handle on the ebook “tug of war”, advocating for funding, helping job-seekers, creating the library of the future, increasing access to information for diverse audiences, thinking out of the box to help people with special needs, growing library leaders …

These are some of the many issues that you are passionate about and can explore through ASCLA. ASCLA is in the forefront of helping you find innovative solutions to your priority issues by providing excellent networking and training opportunities. Whether you make use of the ASCLA website, publications, webinars and online courses, conference programs, interest groups or committee work, ASCLA gives you access to the people and the ideas you need to be effective and fulfilled as a supporter of libraries.

Please take advantage of everything ASCLA has to offer and encourage others around you to join ASCLA as well. ASCLA is a strong library organization mainly because of its well-informed and caring members and staff!

Sincerely,

Norma Blake, ASCLA President

Dear ASCLA Members:

First let me say how grateful the ASCLA Board and Staff are that you have chosen to be a member of this fine organization.  ASCLA may be the smallest of ALA divisions, but it is the friendliest and easiest division with which to get involved.  Our individual memberships are growing well, but we still need your organizations to join us as institutional members.  This is an especially important year for ASCLA as our division is the center of expertise in ALA’s efforts on accessibility.  Also we are launching our educational and networking trip to Paris, the first of what we hope will be an annual ASCLA offering.  The trip is sold out!  We are also gearing up for a series of excellent online courses for your professional development.  Please let us know topics you wish us to cover.

I hope you will consider joining an ASCLA committee.  The committees are small, meet in convenient ways, and the committee chairs welcome new members at any time.   To see the rosters and contact the committee chairs or to fill out a volunteer form, just go to the ASCLA division on the ALA website.  There you will also see at least ten interest groups you may choose to join.  The number of interest groups is ever increasing as people find more topics about which they wish to interact.

Last year was a year of reorganization.  This year is the year of planning for ASCLA.  We will be reaching out for your feedback by conducting a member satisfaction/needs survey this fall.  The board will discuss a draft strategic plan at ALA Midwinter and have more to share with you in the spring.

Again, thank you for all your loyalty and support for ASCLA!

Sincerely,

 Norma Blake, ASCLA President and NJ State Librarian

Submitted by Diana Reese, ASCLA President

ASCLA: Future-Friendly, Future-Ready

ASCLA members will have the opportunity to affect substantial and meaningful change in their association by voting to approve ASCLA’s revised bylaws in the current ALA/ASCLA election. The changes provide a new structure that allows for more member participation and collaboration. Groups of individuals with mutual issues and interests can generate spontaneously, evolving or devolving as the future changes. The new structure streamlines ASCLA’s governance, reducing formally elected positions by 50%.  (more…)

A Midwinter Invitation: Two Important Events

We look forward to welcoming you to Midwinter in San Diego next month. I would like to extend my invitation to two exciting ASCLA events.

iMAgiNiff™  is a hilarious party game where players imagine what the other players are most like.  Players learn a lot about each other and discover common traits.  I would like to invite all ASCLA members to two important events at Midwinter where they can discover the “iMAgiNiff’s” they share about their association.

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By Diana Reese, ASCLA president and coordinator, institutional library development, Colorado State Library

Hiking the Colorado Trail one weekend, I met a lone hiker using a long cane. I was momentarily stunned to see a blind person on the trail. I couldn’t resist asking him how he managed to stay on the trail and avoid tripping. I have two good eyes and I can’t manage to consistently accomplish both of these on a good day! He explained that, of course, his cane guided him over and around the roots and rocks, but as for staying on the trail, he had a GPS with speech-to-text capabilities that alerted him when he strayed. I never thought of a GPS as an assistive technology before! It is wonderful that developing technologies increasingly provide individuals of all abilities with experiences they might not otherwise have, whether on the trail or in a library. The important work of ASCLA’s members provides librarians with information to understand and manage these developing technologies and other access issues so that all individuals have richer library experiences. (more…)

By Brenda Bailey-Hainer, ASCLA President

Almost daily the media broadcasts stories about how library funding has been cut or is in jeopardy. These generally dismal funding trends in public libraries were summarized recently in Library Journal by Norman Oder.¹ It�s clear that many public libraries have already cut easy budget targets such as spending for conferences, travel, and education. Others are implementing tough decisions like closing down branches or cutting hours and services. Staffing costs already have been reduced in more than 40% of libraries through staff reductions and wage freezes.

Once the easy cuts have been made, by necessity libraries must turn to more challenging ways of cutting costs. Stronger cooperative efforts can offer an opportunity. Roy Tennant, in a blog post, The Decade of Massive Cooperation, noted that libraries� best hope is to take advantage of the �efficiencies and opportunities that massive cooperation provides.� Economy of scale in cooperation is important, but the purpose and achievements of the organizations Tennant mentions illustrate that the quality of the structures used to shepherd cooperative efforts is just as critical.

A recent report issued by La Piana Consulting, Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector, offers ideas on how nonprofits can improve services through new kinds of cooperation. While this report has a significant focus on charitable nonprofits, the main ideas are applicable for all kinds of nonprofits, including professional associations, consortia, and individual libraries and cultural heritage institutions.

The five trends described in the Convergence report relate to demographic shifts, technological advances, organizational structures enabled through networks, a rise in civic engagement, and the blurring of sector boundaries.� More importantly, however, the report covers key competencies that nonprofits must develop to survive and thrive in the future. From the report, these are:

• leadership, management, and workforce development
• tools and technologies
• partnerships and organization structures, and
• role for funders.

Looking in new ways at partnerships and organizational structures is particularly relevant for ASCLA where we have sections for cooperatives and state library agencies�organizations that specifically foster collaborative work. The existence of cooperative library organizations such as LYRASIS, Orbis Cascade Alliance, Urban Libraries Council, and Western Council of State Libraries, illustrates the propensity of all types of libraries to cooperate.

As organizations, we all vie for increasingly diminishing pools of funding. Perhaps collaboration rather than competition is a better use of our scarce human resources. But how can we expand on the existing models? We need to become more knowledgeable and open to the new kinds of cooperative and collaborative organizational structures that are available to us.

The Convergence report leaves us with this thought:

In this changing environment, transformation is not optional.� The future will demand a collective rethinking of what it means to be an organization, how individuals define their work, and how best to compete and partner across many permeable boundaries. (p. 6)

Just as individual libraries are struggling with cuts and problems, likewise cooperative organizations are struggling as well. Cooperation is a central part of the ASCLA division. After all, ASCLA is the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies. But this tendency to cooperate must undergo a metamorphosis that goes beyond existing models and creates new partnerships that cross sectors. It�s time to make more of cooperation and focus on the quality of the experience and the results to be gained.

During the recent ALA Midwinter conference in Boston, ASCLA members attended a leadership session designed to identify new ways in which ASCLA might organize itself in light of current economic, social, demographic and technological trends. The results of this meeting are chronicled in a [report link to Finding your Perfect Match: Speed Dating at the Midwinter ASCLA Leadership Meeting] in this issue of Interface. Consider these ideas with an open mind.� Let�s embrace new structures that will make ASCLA an integral part of support for cooperatives and help them be fit to thrive.

[1] Norman Oder, �Permanent Shift.� Library Journal (January 2010): 44-46.

by Diana Reese, ASCLA Vice-President/President-Elect

Diana Reese, ASCLA Vice-President/President-Elect

For 28 years I have worked with diverse library types and populations�public, school, and correctional. It was working with youth and adult offenders that brought me to ASCLA 20 years ago.� There I found a welcoming group of librarians who shared my passion and interests.� There were those who worked with special populations, as I did, who mentored me in correctional librarianship, developed my leadership capacity, and taught me about assistive technologies, universal design, and accessibility. There were those who worked with state library agencies, as I did, who helped me understand the crucial role these organizations play in improving library services across all types of libraries.

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By Brenda Bailey-Hainer, ASCLA President

Everywhere you turn, there is news of change. Many of our home organizations
have had to take a hard look at the way we do business and serve our clientele, as well as devise new ways to do it more cheaply. Jeff Jarvis, on his Buzz Machine blog, speculates that we are experiencing neither a recession nor a depression, but rather a compression.� This great restructuring of the economy and society, as he also calls it, is simply a shrinking of the exuberance many sectors of the U.S. felt in the late 1990s.

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by Carol Ann Desch, ASCLA President, New York State Library

ASCLA Leadership met at the Midwinter meeting in Denver on Saturday morning to discuss trends in the profession and new ideas, directions and opportunities for the Division. Roundtable discussions facilitated by Ann Joslin, State Librarian, Idaho Commission for Libraries launched ASCLA�s planning efforts. Timing could not have been better, as ALA is also beginning its work to develop a new 2015 strategic plan.

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by Carol Desch, ASCLA President, New York State Library

These days, nothing seems more constant than change. Change in the seasons, change in government, change in the economy, change in technology, change in our libraries and of course, change for ASCLA!
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