Local Inanity, Global Insanity

At their last two regular meetings, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council took dauntless stands against violence and air pollution. At least that’s what they told themselves.

Just one day after the Virginia Tech shootings, the RPV Council endorsed the “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” campaign, in order to create an America free of gun violence. Of course, illegal guns are, well… illegal, and this vacuous motion does not make them any more illegal. One councilman was not happy about joining in support of a nationwide legislation without seeing the complete legislation, understanding it, making sure that it is not brought to us under false cover. Still, the motion was passed unanimously.

This is just one part of the larger Brady anti-gun campaign that aims to eliminate or severely curtail gun ownership in America. Interestingly, the brave anti-gun movement is out of step with mainstream Americans who appreciate the benefit of guns for sport and home defense. The fastest growing gun-owner demographic is single women.

Liberal legal academics have finally come to see gun ownership as a right guaranteed by the Constitution, the right position long understood by conservatives. The New York Times reports that in March, for the first time in the nation’s history, a federal appeals court struck down a gun control law on Second Amendment grounds. Liberal law professor Laurence Tribe (Harvard) said he had come to believe that the Second Amendment protected an individual right. “My conclusion came as something of a surprise to me, and an unwelcome surprise,” Professor Tribe said. “I have always supported as a matter of policy very comprehensive gun control.”

Does anyone know the last time a shooting homicide was committed in Rancho Palos Verdes? The City Council would have more effect on the homicide rate by fencing off the Oceanside cliffs.

The other local inanity was the vote by the RPV Council to endorse the “US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement” also known as the “Cool Cities” pledge. By signing the pledge, RPV effectively ratified the Kyoto Protocol, thereby agreeing to reduce citywide carbon dioxide “pollution” to 7 percent below levels set in 1990 by the year 2012, or something like that. One councilman expressed concern as to the degree of commitment that the city might find itself in. “It's one thing to make a statement that you're in support of something; it's then another thing to go out and wage a complete commitment to incur costs and do studies. We did not do that part, but we wanted to show our support for the concept of what Cool Cities represents.”

Is this inanity, or what? The motion passed 3-0.

RPV now joins Seattle and the State of California in setting a goal to reduce pollution that is not pollution (Tell it to the trees.) and our action will have not the slightest effect on local or global temperatures. But it sure feels good. According to the UN climate commission, avoiding the horrors of global warming (assuming the climate models are right) will cost on the average of 3% of world GDP per year. In 2006 dollars that’s 3% of 45 Trillion dollars or $1.3 Trillion. (or $400 Billion from the USA).

I have an idea. There is at least one councilman who is an avid biker. He is known to consume more than his share of oxygen and produce more than his share of carbon dioxide pollution while pumping his two-wheeler. Give it up, Tom, save the Earth.

Fortunately, the local inanities are merely annoying examples of useless government interference. On the global level, however, the bad ideas verge on insanity. Here is a fun example.

Children are bad for the planet! John Guillebaud of the Optimum Population Trust says that “the greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child.” The effect on the planet of having one child less is equivalent to reducing a family's carbon dioxide output by 620 round trip flights a year between London and New York. The EU average is currently 1.5 children per family, but the Professor says “rich countries should be the most concerned about family size as their children have higher per capita carbon dioxide emissions.” He has not yet suggested mass suicide.

On that note, Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society warns that mankind is “acting like a virus” and is harming Mother Earth. Watson has called humans a disease (the “AIDS of the Earth”) and wants the population to be reduced to less than 1 billion people. To the Sea Shepherds, saving the whales is more important than saving 5.5 billion people.

California Dreamin'

On March 13, several of the Palos Verdes Library District (PVLD) staff, trustees and volunteers attended a workshop on the “Future of Libraries: Perceptions and Realities” at the Burbank Library, Buena Vista Branch. Joan Frye Williams and George Needham gave a lively and informative presentation on the changes in the library, alternating between George’s data and Joan’s stories.

At the 10,000 foot level, the trends in public libraries include self service, dis-aggregation and collaboration. Information was once expensive and scarce, but now the library value proposition has been “turned on it’s ear” because information is everywhere, it's cheap and “time is money.”

The question today is, What is the new Library brand? The stat’s reveal some of the trends. Today, 65% of library users borrow print books, 63% use our reference books, 54% get assistance on research and 38% use the library internet services. Libraries do a good job providing these services, but we could do better. To the question, Which fits my lifestyle perfectly?, search engines got the top score (54%) with libraries coming in second at 18% followed by bookstores at 15%. Furthermore, 31% of patrons report that their library usage has gone down, compared to 25% that have gone up.

Part of the cause for the decline in usage relates to the internet. When asked, Which sources of information would you rate favorably?, respondents gave the top score (88%) to search engines, followed by libraries (79%), bookstores (77%) and library web sites (46%). This ranking is partly due to familiarity, as 55% reported being familiar with search engines, compared to libraries (46%) and library web sites (15%).

When asked, Where do you begin searching for information?, the divergence becomes marked, with 84% saying search engines compared to only 1% who begin at the library web site. As for usage, 71% have used Google while only 21% have used their library web site. Furthermore, 70% of users find no difference in trustworthiness between search engine sourced information and library information, and search engines are still in their infancy.

George concluded, “the information war is over, and we lost.”

Thus, there is a need to evolve the library brand. The question is, What is the library’s primary role? Today 85% of patrons see the library as a place to learn. That increases across the age brackets from 69% of 14-17 year olds to 94% of 65+ year olds. Voluntary learning seems to be the transformative trend in library usage. It could be part of our new brand.

Joan stressed that libraries are an option for busy people, and what we can do to make that option more attractive. She emphasized a warm welcome, clean and comfortable surroundings, natural light, community rooms and to be a source of pride. Still today, too many people come to the library “expecting to get into trouble.” Fasting and vows of silence are not welcoming. We need to treat patrons like guests in our house.

We also need to de-mystify the library experience. Too many of our tools are un-necessarily complex, as is our nomenclature. And we need to evolve from just answering questions to solving problems for our patrons. Our highest value adds are service and ideas, not information. As community specialists, we need to show that we care more about people than about information. The library should become the “idea laboratory.”

There is a wide range of opportunities on the library web sites. Blogs are a growth opportunity. How about a PTA blog? A new parents blog? Users group blogs? Links from YouTube and Wikipedia to pvld.org? What is Technorati saying about PVLD and the Annex? In a year or two more money will be donated online than by check. We need to build our online donations and create relationships with our donors.

And we need to listen better to our customers. They want convenience and abbundance; more workstations, fewer OPACS (only 9% of library users ever use the OPAC in LAPL); browse-worthy collections with face-forward books; story-time classes, emphasizing learning; new things (art, music and ballet in the library); online payment of fines (call them “extended-user fees”); Net-Flix style circulation (offer to send out held books); record and podcast programs; better support the school district (eg. stock reference textbooks); provide simplified wayfinding and virtual tours. In general, we need to partner with the community to learn what they want, to be customer-focused and then judge our performance on results not transactions.

After the presentation, six local librarians talked about some initiatives their institutions were taking. From George Needham’s web site:

David Campbell from PVLD talked about a staff training opportunity the library had launched. The training consists of 10 exercises, including starting a blog, posting a photo album to Flickr, and create an RSS feed. Everyone who completes the training gets an MP3 player and is entered into a drawing for a digital camera, an iPod or a Wii.

Nanette Schneir of the Santa Monica Public Library demonstrated the Vocera communication system her library uses. The Vocera Communications Badge allows staff to range throughout the building while still being able to handle reference calls or back up the desk. The reference librarians at Santa Monica were please with the change.

Karen Schatz described the new Help Desk that replaced the old reference desk at the Oxnard Public Library. It's staffed by trained (but not-MLS) employees, it's placed in a very visible, highly strategic location, and it allows the reference librarians to provide more quality and quantity time with customers who really need help.