June 2007 ALA

Before I headed off for the beach, I wanted to get down my thoughts about ALA. I have always enjoyed ALA, but in recent years as I have become more active in committee work, there is less time for programs and the exhibits. This year was no exception, and perhaps worse than ever.

As chair-elect of LAMA’s Building and Equipment Section (BES), I had to attend the LAMA Board meeting, which meets twice—from 8:00 – 12:00 on Saturday and the same time on Tuesday. Since our section’s all committee meeting is Monday from 8:00-12:00, you can see my time was severely limited. For me, it is worth it. BES routinely puts on one or two pre-conferences and five or six programs. In Anaheim next June, the section will provide a pre-conference tour of libraries in Santa Monica and Cerritos—both of them green and award winning facilities. Programs will include offerings on Security & Preservation of Rare Materials; Redesigning and Repurposing Existing Library Space, “PeopleSpaces in Libraries:”Top Building Trends, Sustainable Libraries, ALA-IIDA Library Interior Design Awards; Planning a Capital Project; Ergonomics, and Building Blocks for Planning Functional Library Space—I only hope that I get to sit in on a couple of them.

I attended one terrible program, entitled “Transforming your Library though Technology,” which was offered by ALA but unfortunately was very mundane and basic and offered little food for thought. I did, however, attend the LAMA Presidential Program which featured Frances Hesselbein. Ms Hesselbein, the former CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute. A petite mature woman with a very quiet voice, she held her audience spell bound and challenged all of us to care and trust one another and especially to work for America’s young people and children—our future.

For me, the other worthwhile program was the 23rd presentation of AIA/ALA Library Building Awards, which is sponsored by the American Library Association and the American Institute of Architects, and administered by BES. Some of this year’s winners included new library buildings or renovations at Santa Monica College, Lafayette College, Seattle’s Ballard Library and Neighborhood Service Center, and La Grande Bibliotheque in Montreal, Canada. I enjoy seeing the winning libraries and it is exiting hearing the architects and librarians talk about bringing their ideas to fruition. After my term as Chair of the Section, I have volunteered to serve on the committee making these awards, so I am looking forward to that time. I would urge you to put this awards program on your ALA to do list, alternating years with the ALSA-IIDA Library Interior Design Awards which will be presented next year in Anaheim.

I was also able to spend some time with R2’s Rick Lugg, along with Hester Campbell, talking about their return visit to Joyner on July 10. They had their first draft of their report, which we discussed in part; their final draft will be delivered to us next week. They, however, have asked us not to distribute the report to the Library until after their presentation. Through experience, they have found that this works best.

Along with Blythe, I also met with Maureen Sullivan who will be leading the Library on a visioning retreat this coming July 31. I felt that Maureen and I immediately clicked—she and I are the same Myers-Briggs type indicator—ENFP. The best way I have of explaining that is that there are no trees in my forest. Well, that is just an aside; Maureen has extensive experience leading libraries though change, and I think all of will get a lot out of the sessions.

I did not get much time to go through the exhibits--my favorite thing is to look at the children's books--and to buy books for my hoped for "grandchildren." Joyner Library had a booth--staffed mostly by our TRC colleagues and other participants in our Eastern North Carolina Digital Program. They certainly are good ambassadors for Joyner and ECU. Thanks guys!

Funding the Margin of Excellence

Keeping up with this blog is even harder than I imagined. I am constantly confronted by two problems—lack of time to write and lack of anything of worth to say.

For me the last week here at Joyner has been really hectic, with having to participate in two to three evaluations on the days that I am here—and then there is the problem that I don’t seem to always be able to be here. Yesterday, along with Alan White form the College of Arts and Sciences, I participated in a follow up to April’s ECU Foundation Spring meeting, working on strategic planning for the organization. The Strategic Planning Committee is led by Carol Mabe, who recently during our Staff Development Day led the Library in a discussion of branding and marketing. Carol, who is joining the Board of Trustees, is an excellent and well organized leader. She helped us come up with a Vision for the ECU Foundation—Funding the “Margin of Excellence” for ECU. We will take that vision plus some strategic goals to the Foundation Board in October. It seems very likely that the University will launch a Capital Campaign in the next year or so and is looking to raise from $50 to $100 million. I hope the Library can be an active participant in that campaign.

I have very much enjoyed an email debate that has been going on among the members of the RTF about appointments and recruiting—with the Task Force recommending that we not do any more appointments at least until their work is closer to completion. It has been good to hear and see the debate. I have asked the RTF to post the discussion on their blog—if they don’t do that, I will try to get people to post it here.

Later this week I am off to ALA—I am chair elect of the Building and Equipment Section and assume those duties after this annual conference. As chair elect, one of my prime responsibilities has been to appoint committee members and chairs, but the database which one is suppose to use to do that has not functioned very well. I am hoping that I can get things finalized at the conference—when I can talk to folks face to face.

Doing Our Part

I had hoped to write about the Appalachian Regional Development Conference, Doing OUr Part: The Role of North Carolina's Rural Public Universities in Economic Transformation, earlier, but tempus fugit, ya’ll. It was great to spend the weekend in the mountains. Sue and I were able to get some much needed yard work done at the house and to get in a visit with a number of our friends. But on the day of the conference I arrived at Rosen Hall, not really knowing what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

The day’s proceedings began with introductory remarks about encouraging economic development in their regions from the chancellors of each of the rural public universities—ECU, ESCU, UNC-Pembroke, Western and ASU. Our Chancellor, Steve Ballard, led off and presented a very cogent and succinct outline of our strategic framework, focusing on developing Eastern North Carolina’s economic, research and artistic potential and ameliorating the health and educational needs of the region. The chancellors from ESCU, Pembroke, and ASU also addressed how they are contributing to their regions, especially in training teachers and nurses and other vital professions. I was very impressed with Western’s Chancellor, John Bardo, and I would encourage you to look at his statement: Communicating the University’s Role in Economic Development.

At lunch, we were shown a very interesting video called Shift Happens, which is about rapidly changing economic development, mostly what is happening in China and how we in the US are not keeping up nor really aware of the rapid change overtaking us. Worth watching and thinking about. The conference audience was certainly intrigued to say the least.

I also very much enjoyed hearing from a number of others, including:
· Valeria Lee, President of the Golden Leaf Foundation, which is helping North Carolinians make the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy through grants and investments that will positively affect the long-term economic advancement of the state.
· Judith Cone is vice president of emerging strategies for the Kauffman Foundation, “where she leads efforts to explore new program opportunities to advance entrepreneurship and education;” and
· Eva Klein, president and founder of Eva Klein & Associates, Ltd. (EKA) which “is a specialized consulting practice, providing technical expertise, planning facilitation, creative strategy formulation, and ongoing project management for colleges and universities, communities, and regions that want to compete effectively in the Global Knowledge Economy.”

June musings

It has been an interesting week to say the least—starting with the announcement about Jim Smith’s resignation on Monday morning. Quite frankly, I am still in some stage of grief. Meeting Jim and talking with him about his management style and how we would work together was certainly one of the deciding factors for my coming to ECU. Jim is and always has been a friend to the Library and supportive and helpful throughout my first eight months. It has been nothing but a delight reporting to Dr Smith since I arrived; I surely hope that his successor will maintain his “transparent, collaborative management.”

We have had two opportunities to discuss the administrative changes that I think are necessary to continue moving forward and dealing with the complexity of issues we face vis a vis the delivery of information services to the ECU campus—the Revisioning Task Force (RTF) and then an all Library meeting. In both of them, I hope that I have made it clear that the appointments do not and will not negate or nullify the work of the RTF; as someone has said “change is organic.” We have a lot of issue to deal with and questions to answer. All this summer we will be hearing from experts on the changing role of libraries—beginning with this week’s dynamic speaker, David “Giz” Womack from Wake Forest’s R.Z. Reynolds Library, who shared with us the fun that hosting a “gaming night” has generated in their library. I was excited—I know that I will never be able to compete at Halo, but I have some hope that I would not embarrass myself at DDR.

I was asked to share the outline of the organization chart with the Library. That is one of my goals this week—so look for the email.

Finally, I can not tell you how much fun I have had cheering on the Joyner Knights! We may not be the winniest team competing, but I love watching them play and along with a large number of our Joyner colleagues, cheering them on. In fact, I think it is fair to say that we have the most supportive and boisterous “cheering section.”