User Experience

In the January 2010 Library Journal, Aaron Schmidt writes about the user experience. "Any time you choose how people will interact with your library, you're making a design decision." Take his example -- and how many of the rest of us have done something similar -- of the stapler in the drawer at his reference desk. They let patrons use it, and every time someone asks for it, a librarian opens the drawer and takes it out. Good design or bad? He started keeping it on the desk and improved the user experience. Naturally, someone who thinks like this must invoke Ranganathan: save the time of the user. He uses Ranganathan to remind us of our professional values and show how they apply to so much more than the collection.

"We need to consider [patrons'] lives and what they're trying to accomplish." This kind of thinking draws our attention to the many unnecessary barriers libraries build. We can control and make positive the user experience by considering how we plan -- or design -- our spaces and interactions. Of course, Schmidt won me over with an opening quote from Ray and Charles Eames: "The role of the designer is that of a good host anticipating the needs of their guest." This is exactly how I have perceived my roles when opening a weekend camping event, a summer camp, and this library each morning: "Is this space ready and welcoming? Is everything we need at hand?"

Still Reflecting on Moving, Because it is Taking so Long to Get a Move Date Set and so it Seems Both Prolonged and Surreal

A grad school classmate often posts random mobile shots from her day. She lives in D.C. and seems to visit other cities often. Something about one I glanced at toady helped me identify part of what makes me feel sad about moving. She took a picture from, perhaps, a bus window of a street of smallish row houses, some with their front porches closed in with vinyl siding. There are wires and signs -- it's a cluttered shot. And the shoveled sidewalk -- widely cleared here, a narrow path at that point -- draws my eye all the way in. It feels urban, and familiar, yet not familiar in the "what street in Richmond must that be" way because it seems more D.C. or Philly or Balto. somehow. It does makes me think, Yeah, that's we city folk know. And then I remember that she's n times hipper than me, maybe grew up in a city not a suburb, and that D.C. is a major league city (if unusual in so many ways). I remember that I'm headed for a house with a plot of grass and a neighborhood with only about 4 restaurants in walking distance (and those are longish walks!).

Many people I know left the Fan area years ago, when they started families and need space and better schools. Living here still made me feel younger. Not having kids, helps, too. Moving "to the suburbs" (it is in the city, really) makes me feel like I am finally having to say goodbye to young adulthood. Next time she posts a cool city scene, I might have to think "yeah, I remember what it was like to live in town."

I Always Wanted to Pretend I Was an Architect

Tipped of by the Washington Post item on the show, I watched a PBS program on Benjamin Latrobe. Interesting stuff: a competition for a plan for the US Capitol got dismal submissions; the man who started the project was a political choice -- his work resulted in a roof collapse; Latrobe made improvements that were mostly lost to fire; all good neo-classicism in the US is thanks to Latrobe; he died broke. Dan, I reckon you will have to take me to the Baltimore cathedral, now that I know more about this interesting man.

Watch the show online (or in rerun, I bet).

(I wish I could take time to say more about this, but packing seems to fill my time these days.)

New House

Late February will find us in a new place! While it's not as walkable a neighborhood as where we live now, there is

- a city library at 4/10 mile
- a drugstore and some fast food at 7/10 mile
- a Ukrop's at 1.5 mile (but hills and intersection and I think a lack of sidewalk make it an unlikely walk).

My work is 4.5 miles away. Yup, that's right! Fun with the odometer on the way to work, today.

And Mapquest says the block of restaurants, bookstore, and wine shop is 7/10 mile!

Another Book I Wonder Why I Wanted to Read

I finished The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs, by Jack Gantos last night. What a strange - no, creepy story. It's gothic in an old-fashioned sense, with the curse being something repulsive that we watch the narrator rationalize. It's gripping, and the writing is strong, but I can't imagine recommeding it to any of my lib patrons. And, I wonder, again, where I read about it -- what end of the year list, what passing mention made me want to call it from another branch and read it. Should I start noting the source when I Shelfari something as "want to read"?

Nerves

My alma mater uses Facebook to keep current students and alumnae connected via announcements, pictures, videos, and the occasional discussion question. At the beginning of the fall semester, we were invited to recall move-in day. Oddly, one of my strongest memories has to do with breakfast that day. (I shared it more briefly than what follows.) We drove up from Virginia the day before move-in day and stayed at a hotel in Springfield. We had breakfast (in the then-still revolving-roof restaurant?? could that be true?) in the hotel. My nervous tummy lead me to order waffles - nice and bland. The waitress kindly said something along the lines of, You don't really want that - they're just frozen ones. I don't remember what I said as I ordered them anyway. I hope I showed my appreciation, because it was a kind gesture in the face of my - unknown to her - queasiness.

I had another meal on a nervous tummy with the folks, tonight. This time, add in my husband, but the reason is, once again, loaded with potential good. We'd just been looking at some houses Phusband and I are considering buying. I know they are just trying to keep me grounded and sensible, but my parents' talents at pointing out potential drawbacks are enough to make even stronger stomachs than mine sink. I had choked down just one piece of pizza. We started the meal with an unfamiliar waitress, but a favorite waitress checked on us and brought us the bill. Perhaps a good sign?

Something I am thinking about doing: a YA lit decades read-along.

Values Study

When a study is done on something like making choices, how does one know the difference between what people say they would do and what they really do? Maybe the new Girl Scout Research Institute study simply indicates that more kids know how to give the Right Answer. Young people believe they should say the right answer is "smoking is not acceptable." It may not be what they live. I certainly see more than 18% of young people smoking when I'm on a campus or out. Of course, the study didn't survey college-aged people; it stopped at people in 12th grade. Maybe they all turn the minute they leave high school. I thought the point of instilling values, practicing making good choices was to help them, at age 16 or 22 or 27, turn away when asked to try something risky, unhealthy, or bad.

Reading Notes

"The Future of Reading," by Tom Peters in Library Journal (11/1/2009).

- Don't fight the brand identity that libraries are about books/reading
- Reading is evolving (listening, digital reading, interactive like Amanda Project), but he doesn't think it's dying out
- "Because readers are atomized and disorganized as a power bloc, librarians must continue serving as clear, organized, professional advocates for them." (p. 19)
- Will need to know how to balance rights of content creators and those of readers' in increasingly complex situations
- Books may become "fleeting communal experiences" ; we may have to give up "the archival impulse" (p. 22) [See also this USA Today article, and note what an adult readers says about enjoying the Twilight reading community.]
- Proposes a" reader bill of rights for the digital era" with points like "When a reader purchases a book, he or she owns access to that text in all modes and instances and on all devices, for the duration of the ownership agreement." (p. 22)

Covers, Judging by

Publisher's Weekly has nice coverage of a recent Teenreads.com survey on teen reading habits. Teens are influenced by their peers when it comes to choosing books; 81% of surveyed teens used the library once a month or more; at bookstores, they wish there was more to choose from (for real? Have you seen how huge the teen sections in big box bookstores has gotten?!).

Most importantly, 91% of them indicated that the copy on the book jacket "was the most important factor" when picking a book! And I'm pretty sure that phrases like "award winning" or "important bildungsroman" are not the winning phrases. I am always so embarrassed to hand books like that to a kid -- especially when it really is an awesome book. I hope more publishers will take note of this. From the repackaging of classics to look like the Twilight books, I can tell some publishing houses get it.