“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.

Kids and E-Resources

For the past few years’ business at PPL has been growing and with the newly renovated main library the trend continues.  Attendance and borrowing of collections under the roof at our 4 locations are one source of increased activity but there is also a significant increase in the past year in use of “e-resources” by the general public.

No where is this better illustrated than the statistics for October for TumbleBooks and TumbleReadables which are both available through our website (http://www.portlandlibrary.com/kidsplace/tumblebooks.htm). Both of these products are designed to develop a love of reading (TumbleBooks) and to encourage early readers (TumbleReadables).  TumbleBooks also has a feature to allow you to view the site in French or Spanish thus facilitating native or second language development.  October use figures have shown a dramatic increase over October 2009.  TumbleBooks use grew by over four fold from 3,691 views in 2009 to over 16,200 this October, surpassing 10,000 monthly views for the first time.  Tumble Readables use went up 41% (1,299 views versus 919 in October 2009). 

It is clear that in the past few months’ that e-books and other non print materials have begun to gain a foothold with our users.  Even so, borrowing of books continues to be a strong indicative of the historical situation in libraries whereby all types of formats are used concurrently and often for long periods of time.

The PPL catalog now includes eBooks for downloading.  PPL, as it did in the case of the downloadable audio books, assumed a leadership position in providing leadership funds for the both products to then benefit of our users.