1. Go where it is
   
2. Corollary: Who Cares?
3. The answer depends on the question
   
4. Research is a multi-stage process
   
5. Ask a Librarian
   
6. Information is meaningless until queried by human intelligence
7. Information can be true and still wrong
8. Pay attention to the jokes

1. Tara Calishain
2. Jenny Levine, part I
3. Jenny Levine, Part II
4. Reva Basch
5. Sue Feldman
6. Jessamyn West
7. Debbie Abilock
8. Kathy Schrock
9. Greg Notess
10. William Hann
11. Chris Sherman
12. Gary Price
13. Barbara Quint
14. Rory Litwin
15. John Guscott
16. Brian Smith
17. Darlene Fichter
18. Brenda Bailey-Hainer
19. Walt Crawford
20. Molly Williams
21. Genie Tyburski
22. Patrice McDermott
23. Carrie Bickner
24. Karen G. Schneider
25. Roddy MacLeod, Part I
26. Roddy MacLeod, Part II
27. John Hubbard
28. Micki McIntyre
29. Péter Jacsó
30. the "It's All Good" bloggers
31. the "It's All Good" bloggers, part 2

BYE BYE

by Marylaine Block

As many of you know, I've been writing at a pretty steady clip since 1995: 285 My Word's Worth columns (http://marylaine.com/myword/subindex.html), 106 "Observing US" columns for Fox News Online, 270 articles for ExLibris, 250+ book reviews and nearly 300 profiles of the library world's "movers and shakers" for Library Journal (http://www.libraryjournal.com/toc-archive/2008/20080315.html?section=Movers+%26%+Shakers), 65 magazine articles (http://marylaine.com/resume2.html), numerous annotated reading lists (http://marylaine.com/bookbyte.html) and tutorials (http://marylaine.com/handouts.html), and 3 books (the most recent being The Thriving Library: Successful Strategies for Challenging Times, http://books.infotoday.com/books/TheThrivingLibrary.shtml).

And you know what? I'm tired.

Fortunately, I believe I managed to say pretty much everything I really wanted to, including some ideas that I believe may help libraries adapt and flourish - and may even have already done so.

This final column is my chance to point you to some of my favorite ExLibris pieces that I believe have continuing value for librarians:

On Management

• The Defect in Realism http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib86.html - our focus on doable, incremental annual improvements can stand in the way of fantastic, inspiring changes in our services.

  On Marketing

  We need to get so much better at telling and showing residents and community leaders all the things we do and how they make our communities work better:
  1. ROI: The Economic Impact of Libraries http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib153.html - we need to analyze and publicize the ways we contribute to our community's economic success.

  2. A Predictable Funding Disaster http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib149.html - it would help if we demonstrated exactly how many services community residents got each year for their tax dollars.

  3. In Need of a Better Business Model http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib207.html - Why don't we brand ourselves with the other functions we perform, not just the Information Place, but the Community Place, the Kids' Place, etc.

  4. Ideas Talking To Each Other, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib209.html - one of those functions is a place where we add context and understanding to turn information into knowledge

  5. Unclear on the Concept http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib220.html - perhaps the reason so many people (many of them reporters) totally unaware of what we do is because we don't TELL them. Here are some things we could be doing.

  6. Cultivating Reporters http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib214.html - one reason reporters don't understand our work is that we have no idea how they think and what they need. As a former Fox News Online columnist, I do understand that, and fill in some of those blanks.

  7. Community Outreach as a Survival Strategy, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib80.html - It's not enough to do well; we have to be SEEN as doing well, and that means aggressively courting all our constituencies, telling them what we do for them, and enlisting their ideas and assistance.

  8. Scratching Each Other's Backs http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib254.html - I argue that the most important people to market to are the people who fund us. Here's a way libraries can make themselves active allies of our city and county government.

  9. Party People, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib307.html - one of the most important things libraries can do is help build community. See how libraries do that by putting on really good, community-wide parties.

  10. A Human Voice, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib292.html - it helps to tell our story in a friendly, human voice, not officialese.

  On Information

  1. My Rules of Information:

     Go Where It Is, parts I and II (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib4.html, and http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib95.html );
     Ask "Who Cares?" (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib206.html);
     The Answer You Get Depends on the Question You Ask (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib6.html);
     Research Is a Multi-Stage Process (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib8.html);
     Ask Your Librarian (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib10.html);
     Information Is Meaningless Until Approached by Human Intelligence (http://marylaine.com/myword/data.html);
     Information Can Be True and Nonetheless Wrong (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib97.html);
     Pay Attention to the Jokes (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib212.html)

  2. What's Not on the Net http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib150.html - a lot has been added to the web since I wrote this, so I'd raise that percentage now, but it's still true that only a small percentage of humanity's recorded knowledge is on the net.

  3. Catalog Your Experts, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib195.html - Like most people, we rely on our local experts when we're stumped. So why don't we catalog those experts so all our staff knows about them?

  4. The Library's Place in Place-Blogging http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib297.html - if we are to be the ultimate resource for knowledge about our local community, we should share that knowledge by blogging about it.

  5. The Devil Is in the Details - and the Details Are in the 6th Paragraph (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib273.html) - we may need to go beyond helping people find information to helping them analyze and understand it.

  6. The Importance of Visualization, http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib139.html - and one of the tools for helping our patrons understand information is visualization.

  So, I'll be signing off now. My thanks to all my readers over the years, whose thoughtful comments have helped me think through these and many other issues. It's been fun.

  * * * * *

  COOL QUOTE:

  When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
  When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.
  When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
  Well, what can't be copied?
  There are a number of qualities that can't be copied. Consider "trust." Trust cannot be copied. You can't purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you'll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world.

  Kevin Kelly. "Better Than Free." The Technium, January 31, 2008, http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php

  * * *

  You are welcome to copy and forward any of my own articles (but not those by my guest writers) for noncommercial purposes as long as you credit ExLibris and cite the permanent URL for the article. Please do NOT copy and post my articles to your own web sites, however. Instead, please copy a brief excerpt and link to the URL for the remainder of the article.

  Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
  http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
  Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2007.

  [Publishers may license the content for a reasonable fee.]