I love starting a work week with a new book delivery. Just arrived are the advance copies of Managing Your Library Construction Project: A Step-by-Step Guide.

As you might imagine, we usually pull author talent from the library profession. Sometimes, though, a topic calls for outside expertise. Such is the case with library construction. For this topic, we’re pleased to have as author Richard C. McCarthy, an experienced architect with numerous library projects to his credit.

Rick did a great job of summarizing his approach and the content coverage in his preface:

In this book I describe the process of a building project. I take the point of view of an architect—but tempered by the fact that, as of this writing, I am serving my eighteenth year as a library trustee. I try to balance these two roles and present you with as objective a view as is possible. We look at methods that can be used by library boards and directors to aid them in selecting, hiring, and working with architects and other design professionals. I cover what you can expect from an architect in terms of services, offer assistance to help you determine what services you need, and provide examples of documents and graphic presentations. Subjects covered include the parts of a typical architectural project, the evaluation of architectural firms, guidelines for interviewing architects, and advice on coping with common problems and procedures during construction. An understanding of the process boosts the chances of a successful project and helps ensure that you get your money’s worth for the professional services for which you pay.

The book is full of information that you definitely didn’t learn in library school or even in more general management training, and yet is critically important to a successful construction project. For example, try making a list of questions to ask the client references your future short-listed architects have provided. I tried it and came up with five or six pretty good ones. Rick lays out seventeen, just for starters:

1. Did the architect provide all the services specified in the contract?
2. During the programming phase, was the data collected efficiently and were the program requirements met in the end product?
3. Did the architect make appropriate use of materials provided by the library building consultant (if any)?
4. Was the architect responsive when you had questions or needed clarifications?
5. Was the architect willing to modify the design when requested to do so by the board?
6. Was the building produced on a budget and in time? If not, was this attributable to the architect?
7. Did change orders during construction increase the cost of the building by a significant amount? If so, were the changes caused by errors or oversights by the architect?
8. Did the architect provide leadership in the design and build process?
9. Were the architect’s budget estimates realistic?
10. Were the architect’s estimates of the time required for construction realistic?
11. Did the architect adequately represent the library in negotiations with civil and municipal authorities?
12. Did the architect adequately represent the library in negotiations with the contractor?
13. Was the architect easy to work with? Did the architect give due attention to your needs?
14. Was the total of the professional fees paid to the architect consistent with what you were led to expect?
15. Do you feel that you received good value for the money you spent for professional services?
16. Is the building, considering necessary compromises, what you wanted?
17. Would you use this architect again?

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I’m not likely to manage a library construction project in my own career, but next time I hire a residential architect, I’m going to use his list, not mine.

I lost a significant amount of work from an MS Word file last week, with hide nor hair of an autosaved temp file to be found afterward. Thanks to a tip from our managing editor, Christine, I was able to find the errant file, masquerading as a temp version of a completely different file in a totally random place on my hard drive. So even after at least 10 years as a Word power user, I’m still occasionally attacked by software gremlins, and I still don’t know (or at the very least, I don’t always remember) every trick for navigating the program’s hiccups and oddities.

Even more notorious than Word for its idiosyncracies is Excel, and the program’s sterile functionality puts off more than a few good librarians. Luckily, Tony Greiner and Bob Cooper are here to help with their new book, Analyzing Library Collection Use with Excel. With expertise and a healthy dose of good humor, they walk readers through the process of using Excel to make quick work of library collection use analysis. Starting with the absolute basics and ending with instruction on how to use Excel charts to make your findings really pop in presentations, this book will unquestionably make your job easier. To quote the authors:

Technology has now solved the problem of the cost of collection analysis. By following the procedures in this book, most libraries will be able to analyze their collection in no more than a few days, and perhaps a good deal less. Every library has an acquisitions budget. A use study will help show you where to put it. If you want more money for your library, change your collecting to meet the demand, watch your circulation rise, and a year or two later go to the funders with the numbers. Funders like success.

But the best aspect of the book is Tony and Bob’s approach to the subject. No jargon or techspeak. Just straightforward instruction accompanied by fifty-eight large, easy-to-read screenshots. Be warned, though. After reading this book, you may need to allocate time for fielding your colleagues’ Excel questions…

I have space allocation on the brain these days. My husband and I are in the process of modifying the layout of the condo we are purchasing. Square footage is a premium in highrise apartment living, and modifying the space to suit the needs of our lifestyle (heavy kitchen use, multiple computers and other tech, a boisterous two-year-old, overnight guests, etc.) has been a complex process of analysis and design.

Libraries everywhere are in similar situations. Chances are your library has added or modified services in recent memory in order to meet the changing needs of those served. How were those services handled in terms of physical space and furnishings? Was the space altered to suit the new service, or was the service modified or limited because of spatial constraints?

If your library has a habit of implementing workaround solutions when it comes to facilities management, I encourage you to take advantage of the advice that Cheryl Bryan delivers in our newest PLA Results Series book, Managing Facilities for Results: Optimizing Space for Services. Starting with the fiscally sound premise that library space is a valuable asset, not to be neglected or misused, Bryan walks through the processes of

• project definition and planning,
• committee organization and data collection,
• resource requirement determination and allocation,
• gap analysis and recommendations, and (perhaps most critically)
• recommendation presentations and reports.

The 23 workforms will give you and your committees a running start in assessing needs and implementing changes to best support your library’s services, and can be included in your recommendation presentation as evidence of preparedness for the project ahead. And my personal favorite feature, the Toolkit for Calculating Square Footage, offers a host of quick reference information, such as

• a comprehensive list of square footage requirements for public-use furniture and equipment
• typical square footage needs for staff office and cubicle layouts, and
• guidelines for calculating shelving space allocation.

I’ll let you know how my space planning turns out. If you have success stories that you want to share, I’d love to link to some before and after Flickr pics as inspiration for others.

I was visiting with my family over Easter weekend. My mother and I decided to introduce my 15-year-old niece to that most classic of war epic/love story/Hollywood extravaganzas, Gone With the Wind. As long as it got her out of washing dishes, my niece was shruggingly all for it. My brother-in-law assured us, though, in a knowing tone, “She’s going to think it’s Bo-ring.” How’s that for pressure?
I did think we were losing her in the first 20 minutes, what with all that flowery language about the loss of the glorious civilization that was the pre-bellum South (good riddance, I say) and the fiddle-dee-dees and the icky sappy flirting between the wimpy Ashley Wilkes and his milquetoast cousin.
I was silently willing my niece to “stick with it…you WILL really like it.” By the burning of Atlanta scene, I was able to lean back in my seat. My niece was hooked. My mother and I felt…what…relieved? There’s nothing that can wilt an adult’s confidence more than an “oh puh-leeze, you geezer” look from a 15-year-old.
Tough customers, those teens. Even those of us who fancy ourselves “the cool aunt” can’t escape an occasional eyeroll thrown in our direction.

Today, on my second to last day here (foreshadowing, dear reader), I was thrilled to receive my copy of Serving Teens Through Readers’ Advisory,” by YA librarian Heather Booth. This book is perfect for the librarian who inwardly dreads the “eyeroll” when trying to hook a teen on a great book. Heather does a great job of describing how the readers’ advisory interchange can be more challenging with teens.
For starters, how do you even begin the conversation? As adults, we’re used to talking with strangers all the time…at the bank, on the phone with our insurance company. Not so with teens. They’re not used to initiating such conversations. As Heather points out, “The teen who comfortably glides to the reference desk with the maturity and grace of an adult to chat about a good book and ask about a new one is rare (and wonderful), but just because many teens would not think to do that does not mean that they cannot participate in a productive RA interaction.” She has good advice for ways to start the conversation. Basically, it means meeting the teens where they are rather than expecting them to come to the desk. Under the pretense of browsing the shelves looking for books to display, the librarian can casually strike up the conversation. “Have you read this one? I’ve been hearing a lot of people talking about it” is just one of several conversation-starters she recommends.

I’m working on a building design process at home, and it has been slow going. Careful and thorough in our decision-making, my wife and I reminded each other, “We’re only going to do this once; we better get it right.” We have never done it before either, which can make the process stressful. What struck me about Rolf Erikson and Carolyn Markuson, authors of Designing a School Library Media Center for the Future, is the number of design projects, they have have been involved with. I looked back to the proposal for the first edition, and it was an even 100 between them. He had 35. She had 65. He claimed several more in the proposal for the revision. Together, 107 projects, at least, but who’s counting?

I don’t work as the acquiring editor on too many book projects anymore. When I did, school libraries was one of may areas. I’ve been struck by the passion and idealism of our school librarian authors. Judi Moreillon is passionate about getting librarians directly involved in reading and reading comprehension. From my sideline view, technology seems to have swept aside teacher-librarians’ logical role in reading instruction. Conversations with Linda Cornwell of Scholastic and ALA author Gail Bush at National-Louis University’s Center for Teaching through Children’s Books got me thinking about what we might publish. Then I met Judi, who knew just what she wanted to write — Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact.

I received a letter from Jennifer Bromann asking that we bring Storytimes for Two-Year-Olds back into print. She had used the book for her programming as well as in library school classes that she was teaching. The popular second edition had gone through a few reprints, but sales had slowed. We decided not to reprint in hopes that Judy Nichols could revise the book. A couple of our editors had contacted Judy to see if she would be willing, but we had not been able to get the project going. Jennifer’s letter inspired us to pick up the ball again. Judy updated the bibliographies of all the programs so that recommended books include newer publications as well as the best of the old favorites. A favorite feature of mine is the basic sign language instructions, which I think can enhance programs even for kids who aren’t hearing-impaired.

A couple weeks ago we published Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders, edited by Judith A. Siess and Jonathan Lorig.

Judy Siess and I were talking on the phone when she floated the idea of collecting Stephen Abram’s writing and speeches. Acquisitions editors customarily look to the podium for author leads. As much as I got charged up by Stephen’s energy, I couldn’t imagine his sitting still long enough to write a book. On the other hand, for an experienced and knowledgeable editor to gather his ideas — now that sounded promising.

Another author teased me that I had broken my rule not to publish collections. Up against such a charge, I always recall the words of Father Dwyer, who taught grammar with jesuitic style: “For every rule there is an exception, and for every exception there is a rule.” Who knows? We could go Out Front with somebody else.

When former director of the St. Louis Public Library, Glen Holt, pitched me the idea of a book that will help a library prove its value to its community, politicians, the media—I thought, “Bring it on.” I don’t know about you, but I rarely open a library publication anymore without some talk of threatened branch closings, scaling back of hours, staff layoffs.

The beauty of the method Holt and his coauthors, Leslie Holt, Donald Elliott and Sterling Hayden lay out is that it gives libraries the language that will make those who hold the pursestrings take notice: dollars. As in a great sound bite: for every dollar of tax money going toward the library, the taxpayer is getting three dollars of benefit.

Undertaking a cost-benefit analysis sounds like a huge undertaking…and it is…but the authors break it down into doable, understandable steps. They walk readers through all the steps involved: identifying and sampling library users to determine benefits, developing a survey instrument, determining library costs, measuring return to taxpayers and donors, communicating findings. Funded by grants from PLA and IMLS, the team field-tested the method first at large libraries throughout the country, then small and medium sized libraries.

In addition to seeking additional funding, libraries in the IMLS test used their CBA results in other ways: Determining which materials and services provided the greatest streams of benefits and reallocating resources accordingly in subsequent years. Showing how the library was balancing traditional materials and services with new innovations: staff and users could see how the library was adapting to changes in technology and customer service desires. Raising staff morale and increasing funds to invest in staff…the library’s greatest resource.