“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.

A Reader is a Reader is a Reader!

We have recently been asked by media and individuals our opinion about the surge that eBooks have experienced as a reading source and how that might affect libraries. Below are our answers to those questions. Regardless of what you think of the technology and format from our perspective the more readers the better!

1. What steps, if any, is PPL taking to accommodate eBooks and eReaders?

Recently, we provided start up funds and now participate in the statewide initiative for eBooks through a service called Overdrive. With your library card, you can begin to utilize popular eBooks or Downloadable audio books through the Maine InfoNet Download Library listed on our website (www.portlandlibrary.com)  This service complements our other eBook resources such as Tumble Readables and Tumble Books available on our website and geared toward children that are being used thousands of times per month.

We have been providing eBooks for a number of years but they have tended toward reference titles such as languages, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. You can find those in the PPL catalog online on our home page.

  

2. How do you think eBooks can, and are, changing public libraries? Would you go so far as to say eBooks will revolutionize public libraries? If so, how? Fewer books? More computers?

It is pretty clear based on rising sales figures for eBook and eReader purchases, as well as “mentions” in the popular press that we have reached a tipping point in the acceptance of eBooks. Popular acceptance, or at least widespread curiosity, was confirmed for us just recently as 55 people showed up (with approximately 10 days notice) to a program at PPL to demonstrate eReaders and how to acquire eBooks. (See information on this event through CTN's link)

Having said that, I am not sure that the revolution is as much about public libraries as it might be about reading itself.  PPL’s  City of Readers Team has a mission to create a culture of reading in Portland. Whether that reading engagement with the printed word comes through print, audio or through digital download doesn’t concern us. The future of reading conversation is not the same as the future of the book. So for us at PPL we are excited that there is a developing world of convenience, value and enthusiasm that takes advantage of electronic devices utilizing literature of all types.    

The tendency of folks to engage in “either / or” scenarios regarding the future of public libraries each time a significant technology event occurs is very familiar. We have been through it with computers, compact discs, DVD’s, etc. Libraries have always existed in a rather messy format world of concurrency whereby we offer various formats at the same time. Call it a “long tail” phenomena if you’d like but the fact is that our full range of users tend to use various formats for a long term, often well past their announced demise by pundits. So what public libraries do is participate in the changes that come to our society – like eBooks -  and brilliantly incorporate those while holding on to useful resources that might appear at first glance out of date but remain quite valuable to our users.

We are discussing creating downloading stations as many eBooks still do require being downloaded to a computer and then transferred to a device. However, in general,  I don’t see many more computers of desk top size or profile being required, as the overwhelming momentum for eBook use is on hand-held devices, whether it be smart phones or dedicated readers which are light, portable and which pack tremendous power. There is real instability right now in the eBook world whether we are talking about formats of eBooks or what an eReader will or won’t read at present. This is confusing and frustrating to everyone. There is also a more immediate concern for libraries and that is the struggle that publishers are facing in creating a business model that makes sense in this environment. A price will eventually devolve from that model and that will determine how many eBooks PPL can afford to have available to our users.

Librarians are trying to have a voice in some of these debates. This fall PPL hosted a forum for the staffs of Maine’s larger libraries that featured an address by Tom Allen, President & CEO of the Association of American Publishers concerning the current state of publishing and what it might mean for libraries. 

I agree that there will be fewer physical books in the future but among the fewer, many will be older titles that when needed are important to have but the delivery will be quicker and the storage cheaper when it is in digital format. This is clearly being played out as Google Books becomes more and more a force both in the marketplace and how libraries will choose to manage physical collections going forward. For us at PPL, knowing that our collections have the potential to expand by millions pushes us to make sure that the collections can be found in the digital environment and that what we do collect has a higher degree of likelihood of being used multiple times while on the shelf.

3. If a significant number of readers switch to eBooks, do you think the library will notice a drop in number of people who physically visit the library?

I think if reading grows overall because of convenience due to portable reading devices through which folks can also acquire content from the library or commercial sources that will be a great thing. I don’t think necessarily that means fewer people in the library because of the large and varied types of things that we offer beyond borrowing printed books. But I think it will be a more a case that if someone is now reading eBooks then they will enjoy reading for its own pleasure and benefit but the physical book will still be a big player in the arsenal of a reader.  It will remain another option or format.

Whether less people will visit the library is an interesting point to ponder. Prior to our renovation of the Main Library, Portland Public Library was the most heavily visited cultural organization in Maine with close to 620,000 visits annually to all of our locations. We are on record setting pace again now that the Main Library is reopened with over 37,425 average visits per month at that site alone. This speaks to the complexity of the public library and its relationship to its community which extends well beyond lending materials. People use PPL for many things and reasons whether attending programs, using technology, or simply experiencing the library as a public space to appreciate art, architecture and to be part of the social community. 

4. Do you believe the eBooks will ever wholly and completely replace the physical book?

No. I say this not in knee jerk reaction as a book lover and not at the expense of the value of eBooks nor in opposition to the embedded caution and maybe even good sense of “never say never.” There is something special and clearly different about a printed book; it is undeniable. It is a different kind of sensory experience – visual, tactile, smell, etc. -  it is portable, needs no power source and is tremendously tolerant of run of the mill environmental conditions. People often say that young people don’t read books. That is not supported by library lending nor anecdotally. My son’s generation (“20 somethings”) grew up with all manner of technology and certainly use it aggressively now but they also still read books. I am discovering that is not unusual. (If you love to read you’ll read the comics, graphic novels, cereal boxes, e-Books, box scores, free newspapers, novels, information on the computer, etc. -  whatever.) It seems that the book has so many basic advantages and positive visceral qualities going for it that I think it will be around for a long time to come.

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.

Back to Blog Land

It is time to come back to Blog Land. The last few months have been a little exhausting on this end and in fact there has been too much to say but unfortunately it was matched by my lack of posting discipline. So here we go with a new start.

You may have caught a report or two on the recent grant award received by the Maine State Library for $1.36 million. The funds came from the federal Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) and it specifically funds a project called the Maine Public Library Information Commons Project.

The Maine Public Library Information Commons Project establishes or enhances public computer centers in more than 100 public libraries in Maine. The centers will serve as access points to free high speed Internet service, and will provide assistance to vulnerable populations both in the use of technology and in finding and using needed information in the areas of employment, civil law, health, government services, small business information, and workforce development. This project also establishes 11 additional video conferencing regional hubs to enhance training for patrons and librarians.

PPL is both one of the 100 public libraries and one of the video conferencing centers. We are also hoping to receive a mobile computer lab at some point. It is also worth noting that we have recently received significant upgrades to our bandwidth that should allow us to take full advantage of our participation in the program. The subject areas targeted by the grant are of enormous interest to us as we are already focusing some of our efforts already in these areas through our External Work Groups (Business and Government; Science, Technology and Health) and potential community partnerships that we will talk about over the next few weeks.

Hardware Summary

6 desk top computers
10 lap tops
Video conferencing unit

Partners in the project include the Maine State Library, Maine InfoNet, the Department of Labor's Center for Workforce Research and Information, Access to Justice and Project Compass, and Maine InfoNet.

The full executive summary may be found at: http://www.maine.gov/msl/recovery/

As we have more information we will try to provide regular updates.

This is a very exciting development.