At Your Service

Over the past three years we have been having many conversations within the library system as to how best to respond to an external environment that has been and remains unpredictable from a fiscal, programmatic and technological viewpoint. It has become important to understand in-depth – beyond assumptions and clichés – who it is we are serving, not serving and what resources do we have available to employ in that service.

There is a great deal of talent in the Library system and PPL faces a challenge as to how to best take advantage of that talent. One of the barriers is the traditional library organizational structure that focuses more on how (lending, public computing, reference, etc.) we do things versus concentrating on the who we are trying to serve. We have taken a big step going forward in redesigning our structure to identify the who and the topics that we intend to concentrate on over the next few years. To begin this engagement we have created Teams of staff that have skills and expertise associated with the scope of each Team.

The Teams are:

Business and Government
Children
City of Readers
Cultural Center (Arts and Humanities)
Health
Portland History
Science and Technology
Teens

Over the next few months we will publicize each of these Teams and describe in more detail their mission and scope. We will be looking for volunteers to support the efforts of each Team.

AMPED!

“It is not a tsunami we are running from; it is a wave we are riding.”


A colleague at Portland Public Library made this comment as part of her post mortem of the recent MPBN Maine Watch program called
“Public Libraries Evolving." At odds with the continued and decades long prediction of the demise of public libraries was an articulation by the public librarians on the show that was upbeat, realistic and most of all ringing in the reality of record public library use. So whatever the next wave is – no matter how high – we have the attitude and skill to ride.

We’ll be here.

“To be Sharp, Yet Open”

I like the woods in any season which leads me to read a lot of nature writing.  I am re-reading Bernd Heinrich’s A Year in the Maine Woods  at the moment.  In the prose of the best nature writers there are many passages such as the one below that resonate with a broader application beyond the purposes of the book.

“Very few people know the birds exist here at all, so I feel like I am delving into a deep secret.  If I can find out how they do it, then I’ll know something that nobody in the world knows, and that prospect excites me.  I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced.  Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it.  During this time, my senses must be sharp; that is the main thing – to be sharp, yet open.”

Portland Public Library, like all public libraries, is undergoing tremendous and complicated change and the need to stay sharp, engage, observe, see clearly and yet be wide open (stay out of the organizational and personal ruts) to the possibilities and potential within the current environment is our critical and essential bundle of qualities.  The assertion that the role of libraries is in fact changing may or my not be accurate depending on your perspective. One thing that is abundantly clear to even fairly casual observers is that the HOW part has already, and is now daily, changing hugely and I would argue for the better.

Portland Public Library, at this moment in its history, has never been better equipped to respond to the needs of the community.  We have the information tools – digital and print - and the needed infrastructure that, thanks partnerships and networks of funders, present a potential to be an even greater force in the daily lives of our users.  I would not suggest that we have enough staff but that is the ever present ‘complaint” of all organizations now.  But, I do believe that the imperative that we become true experts in the knowledge and effective use of all tools at our disposal is a critical competency that we need to acquire.  It is easy to get bleary eyed at the enormous number of electronic journals in a data base and to not delve deeply into the value of the content and then deliver it to meet user needs.  The recently completed community survey strongly stated the public expectation that PPL have great collections, safe, comfortable and productive environments and a staff that is helpful, skilled and committed.