Boston Gets All Booked Up.

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Author: Goldberg, Beverly

However, the most-coveted spot was to hear luncheon speaker Elie Wiesel, acclaimed humanitarian and author of Night, his memoir of what he endured during the Holocaust. "My dear, dear, dear librarians. I see you as friends," he told a rapt gathering of some 1,500 (almost a third of whom heard his speech in an overflow room), offering gratitude for the profession's guardianship of libraries as "a temple, a concert hall" whose quiet doesn't stifle the clash of philosophies to be found on the shelves "but encompasses it."

Describing himself as a man who "takes words seriously," Wiesel explained that he still talks about the Holocaust despite the intervening decades of genocide on several continents because allowing victims to be forgotten is "to condemn them to a second death." Noting his horror in discovering after World War II that even physicians had committed atrocities--proving that a cultured life was no shield against barbarity--Wiesel said the answer lies in continuing to question "why people go on killing one another" because the act of questioning sensitizes the askers to the suffering of others. Reiterating his overarching ethos--"we are all responsible for each other"--he concluded, "A tale of despair is actually a tale against despair."

PEA also offered a plethora of how-to programming. At "Community Building Through Your Website," Shifted Librarian blogger Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens, who writes tametheweb.com, advocated harnessing weblog and RSS applications to drive web traffic to--and heighten human interest in--the library. "If people are asking questions about something at the information desk, it's bloggable," asserted Stephens. And while you're at it, Levine urged, "'turn on the comment feature," and don't worry about the nature of people's posts any more than you would about patrons' conversations inside a library building,

Levine and Stephens also recommended adding RSS feeds so special-interest websites will automatically link to relevant library URLs and OPAC records; the latter application, they acknowledged, necessitates librarians "having a conversation" with vendors to enhance their products.

While blogging was touted as a low-cost tool with a big payoff, most other library operations need sustained funding. Several programs explored avenues for sustaining revenue. Steve Coffman and Tom Hennen revisited the debate they began in the pages of American Libraries (Feb. 2004, p. 37-39; Aug. 2004, p. 44-46) over whether public libraries should expect tax dollars to foot their operations bill. Coffman reiterated that libraries shouldn't "put all your eggs in one basket" and should actively solicit community donations. Hennen suggested the answer lies in promoting libraries as a "tax-supported public good" and promulgating a "plural legislative strategy" through ALA at all levels of government.

At "POGing Along," Multnomah County (Oreg.) Library Director Molly Raphael and Spokane (Wash.) Public Library Assistant Director Jan Sanders apprised colleagues of their respective experiences with the Priorities of Government budget model, which is being considered by legislatures in five states. POG requires every agency to bid each fiscal cycle for the right to provide services ranked as a high priority by a citizens' panel. In theory, Raphael said, government functions with low rankings will not be funded. In reality, Sanders explained, "The political will to discontinue services isn't really there."

Almost every 7-12-year-old in the United States has been playing video games since toddlerhood, stated John Beck, who extended to libraries the research he and coauthor Mitchell Wade detailed in Got Game: How the Garnet Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever. Beck dismissed the suspicions among nongamers that aficionados' worldview is narrow. Noting that some battle online with competitors halfway around the globe and become familiar with real-life street scenes designed into the games, Beck asserted that such experiences "could do more for intercultural understanding than Fulbrights."

He also contended that years of immersion in the virtual worlds of "programmers who want them to win" is yielding a generation that believes they are all heroes. The result is 20-somethings who crave difficult assignments and the autonomy to tackle them independently. Beck advised library managers to think of themselves as reference resources not unlike the strategy guides gamers consult for playing tips. Otherwise, younger employees will come to perceive them as level bosses--the digital bad guys that players must slay to advance closer to their goal.

Also urging librarians to ditch negative messages was Karen Hyman, who directs the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative of 600 member libraries. At "The CustomerCentered Library," she shared how a Boston Globe reporter covering the conference had asked her repeatedly whether libraries were opening cafes in order to compete with Barnes and Noble, as though libraries "were preserved in amber in the 1950s." "Most organizations are set up for the convenience of the staff," Hyman stated, challenging attendees to "think like a customer instead of an insider.'"

"Throw nut the concept that being commercial isn't appropriate to your profession," insisted closing session speaker Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Increased patronage is born from attention to such environmental-design basics as widening aisles so women won't encounter the discomfort of "the butt-brush factor" and tying signage to people's natural movement patterns through a space. Underhill concluded by offering a principle he believes "with messianic fervor": The key to success and leadership is being seen on the floor.

PLA's 12th national conference is slated for March 25-29, 2008, in Minneapolis.

PHOTO (COLOR): Booklist Editor and Publisher Bill Ott demonstrates Booklist Online for librarian Sarah Nagle.

PHOTO (COLOR): Author and actress Anna Deavere Smith

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By Beverly Goldberg