The 80/20 Librarian: Focusing on the 20% that matters

In following the story of American Library Association (ALA) Connect, which is currently being worked on I am wondering if this could be the best platform for librarians to electronically communicate on a national level on passport related service ideas/questions that they have.

To my knowledge no national electronic platform to communicate on passport services currently exists for librarians to use.

Obviously ALA Connect has the backing of the national professional association for the industry, which makes it ideal to use.

While work is still being performed to get ALA Connect ready to launch, I am willing to wait and see what transpires. To be continued.

A few months ago I was asked to speak on a panel at the Maryland Library Association Conference, in nearly two weeks, on the topic of passport services in libraries.

I recently learned from the State Department that 323 library branches around the country offer passport acceptance facility services.

One aspect of this service that makes it unique is that there is, as of early February 2018, a $35 passport execution fee paid, per application, directly to the library for its role in providing the service. The execution fee is a separate and distinct fee from the application fee paid directly to the State Department

While the number of libraries offering this service nationwide is impressive, the library industry only has a few articles out there which speak to this service.

Robert J. Rua from Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library wrote in February 2011 in American Libraries Magazine

Some important points from Rua’s article are that his library started passport services in April 2010. His library made over $100,000 in execution fees. The money from the execution fees allowed his library to reinstate Sunday service hours to the entire library system. Passport services were then offered at all branches of the Cuyahoga County Public Library System.

Michael Meise from Roanoke County (VA) Public Library wrote in June 2016 in Public Libraries

Some important points from Meise’s article include the statistic that 203 libraries were offering passport services nationwide at the time of his writing. We also learn that some discernment is involved in seeing what the trade-off is between obtaining the then $25 execution fee per application and considering the number of staff needed, the time the service takes, and the staff’s current and future workload. Many tips on how to actually go about providing passport services are provided.

Leah White from ELA Area Library System wrote in her personal blog in November 2016   

We learn the following points from her post. Her library filed 7,493 passports in 2015. With a $25 execution fee the amount earned from all 7,493 filings came to $187,325. She provides links that act as “how-to” resources for libraries that want to become passport acceptance facilities.

White brings forth some compelling arguments to provide passports services at the library. The two quotes below resonate. The first speaks to libraries being able to offer evening and weekend hours, and no appointment needed service for their passport acceptance services.

“Most facilities, like a local clerk offices or post offices, offer extremely limited hours that only people privileged enough to have paid time off can afford. Weekdays during work hours and appointment only. Someone with multiple jobs and no paid time off cannot come in Monday through Thursday between 9am and 1pm,  in addition to the hassle of getting their children out of school for the day.”

“You bring people in for passport service but also introduce them to all the library offers – ESL classes, voter registration, lifelong learning, programs, books, etc.”

So what do I think are the next steps? Here is a general outline of my thoughts.

1. The national library industry, possibly through its professional associations, needs to develop some platforms (facilitating both electronic and in-person communication) for librarians across the country to communicate about passports. At the very least a national directory outlining where passport services are provided would be key to start opening up the lines of communication. After looking through program information for the American Library Association Conference in June 2017 in Chicago and the Public Library Association Conference in March 2018 in Philadelphia I could not find any program offerings on the topic of passport services.
2. The academic wing of the library industry should invest in studying and explaining the passport acceptance service model. Some basic questions should be posed to start the study. These could be simply asking, Who was the first library to offer passport services? When? What was their original intent? What were the metrics of success for them? Do those metrics of success differ from other libraries providing this service? Why or Why not? Case studies can be created to explain the development of passport services at different types of libraries across the country.
3. The library industry’s technological vendor community can be consulted for a possible pilot study to see what can be done to automate at least a part of the passport application acceptance process. Currently, the vast majority of passport applicants going to a library must pay the State Department with a paper check or money order. Why not work on building in a credit card payment system? In addition, the filing process largely uses paper forms and filling out those paper forms by pen. Why not build in a kiosk system that can scan the form and prepopulate the data on a screen? Or, enable a kiosk system to fill out and submit an application electronically? Digital photos of the applicant could also be taken by the kiosk system. While physical objects such as previous passports and original government documents will probably still need to be mailed in, the payment/form completed piece could be considered for automation.
4. Promote the services to major press outlets! Since there are not many articles written about the service at the national level of the library industry, the national press is by extension possibly largely unaware of the library as a passport acceptance service provider. There was no mention of libraries providing passport acceptance services in this Fox News Report in early February 2018 documenting the change of the execution fee from $25 to $35.

Here is a great recent article to read concerning the role entrepreneurship is playing in disaster recovery/disaster preparedness in Puerto Rico.

How Entrepreneurship Is Helping to Save Puerto Rico by Andy Isaacson in Entrepreneur Magazine

What are some key points from the article?

1. Jessie Levin’s, “expeditionary entrepreneurship” is of note. As Isaacson writes, “Governments and NGOs are important, with their standard operating procedures and approaches to administering aid. But entrepreneurship-not profiteering, but the principles of entrepreneurship can accomplish what those bodies cannot: quick and nimble responses to ground level problems, and connective tissue between foreign aid resources and capable local actors like grocery store merchants who are not often engaged. The same instincts that help an entrepreneur build a business, in other words, can help them rebuild a region after catastrophe.”
2. To solve “ineffective communication” Levin was quick to build relationships with a variety of stakeholders. According to Isaacson, “Levin often just connected dots.” In my opinion these stakeholders are: resource allocators, local leaders, and technical implementers. One example of this is connection taking place in the article concerns, “A cutting-edge, solar powered water-purification system was installed at a Boys & Girls Club in the town of Loiza because of an introduction Levin made between MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and the Rodenberry Foundation.”
   1. Of note here is Levin’s use of a house in San Juan that was used as a central gathering point for the stakeholders to network and to learn how they could help one another.
3. Re-invention of government services. The article cited Levin’s role in re-designing the office of the Puerto Rican Innovation and Technology Services
4. Entrepreneurship is taking place both from local Puerto Rican entrepreneurship, but also from entrepreneurs arriving from outside of Puerto Rico. I like how Levin, fuses the two. In the article he states, “I go into an area and try to identify who’s who. And I try to empower them and connect them around a goal.”
5. DePaul University researchers cite disaster recovery as an impetus for entrepreneurs to abandon fears of failure that may have held them back from trying to offer different products/services before. “”Necessities of the individual and his community override increases in fear of failure,” the DePaul writers report. From this, new solutions are created and new businesses are born.”

(Photo By Laura Bly, USAToday)

The death of author Peter Mayle came as a shock to me as I learned about it several weeks after the fact.

While all the major publications (such as USA Today, Washington Post, and the Guardian) did their duty and wrote up very professional obituaries, I could not help feeling that something was missing from these published accounts. Clearly, obituary writers can only do so much with immediate deadlines to adhere to, limited time, and space constraints.

Occasionally, I have read prefaces by authors who salute their readers. So, why shouldn’t a reader salute an author? It’s the least a reader can do. My only regret is that my timing is too late for the author to appreciate the sentiment.

I have never written a tribute to an author before, but the time has come to apply my hand to the trade. As a reader, Mayle’s books on Provence (Southern France) and the French made a deep impression on me and many others.

Simply put, there are several reasons why I’d like to pay tribute to Mayle as an author:

1)      Peter Mayle actually wrote about how he enjoyed life and he shared this joy with his readers. Very few authors have a knack for bringing us back to the basic fact that life itself is a gift. Life is short, so we best enjoy it.

Mayle was able to find enjoyment in life’s little pleasures that many of us either take for granted or ignore amid the busyness of the world. Although Mayle mainly described Provence as the best venue for food and wine, good weather, pleasant conversation with neighbors, having a long lunch, and taking a siesta; these are things that we actually all have access to for our enjoyment. An open mind to these seemingly small gifts doesn’t require anything other than slowing down and savoring them.

2)      Mayle wrote award winners in both non-fiction and fiction, which not many authors can pull off. His non-fiction best seller A Year in Provence, was made into a BBC film series. His novel, A Good Year, was made into a movie.

3)      Mayle’s use of humor was prevalent throughout his books and always made for a good natured laugh. His book, A Dog’s Life, was a memoir written entirely from the perspective of his dog, named Boy! On pages 140-141 we see an example of this humor:

“As I may have mentioned, I do like to have something to chew when the mood takes me, live preferably, but that involves catching it first, and for some reason it’s not too popular with the management. And so, faute de mieux, I usually have to make do with an inanimate object such as a stick, the Labrador’s blanket, or a guest’s shoe. Dull pickings, for the most part, although I did manage to get hold of a child’s teddy bear once. It didn’t put up much of a fight, I have to say, and there were tearful recriminations over the remains, much wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by solitary confinement for the winner. The stuffing gave me a bilious attack, too. Everything these days are man-made fibers, which I can tell you are highly indigestible. If you’ve ever eaten squid in a cheap Italian restaurant, you’ll know what I mean. It was shortly after the teddy bear incident that I was given my first tennis ball, and I took to it immediately. Round, springy, and small enough to carry in one side of the mouth while barking from the other, it was my constant companion for weeks.”

4) I could read Mayle’s books multiple times and get the same enjoyment out of them as I did the first time I read them.

Here are just a few of my favorite passages from Mayle’s works:

Enjoying a Sunny Day and the Weather

Toujours Provence pages 38-39:

“June in Provence is unpredictable and sometimes wet. But when I woke and went out into the courtyard, the seven o’clock sky was a never-ending blue, the color of a Gauloise packet. The flagstones were warm under my bare feet, and our resident lizards had already taken up their sunbathing positions, flattened and motionless against the wall of the house. Just to get up to a morning like this was enough of a birthday present. The beginning of a hot summer day in the Luberon, sitting on the terrace with a bowl of café crème, the bees rummaging in the lavender, and the light turning the forest to a dark burnished green, is better than waking up suddenly rich.”

Toujours Provence page 232:

“We no longer watch television. It wasn’t a self-righteous decision to give us time for more intellectual pursuits; it simply happened. In the summer, watching television can’t begin to compare with watching the evening sky. In the winter, it can’t compete with dinner. The television set has now been relegated to a cupboard to make space for more books.”

 Taking Time to Enjoy Daily Life

Encore Provence page 11:

“It’s true that time in Provence is not worshipped in quite the same way as it is in more hectic parts of the world, and it took me a week or two to bow to the inevitable and put my watch away in a drawer. But while there is no great importance given to time in the sense of punctuality, there is an enormous relish of the moment. Eating, obviously. Conversation on a street corner. A game of boules. The choosing of a bunch of flowers. Sitting in a café. Small pleasures receive their due, and there is an absence of rush-sometimes infuriating, often delightful, and in the end contagious. I realized this when I went into town on an errand that need only have taken fifteen minutes, and came back two and a half hours later. I had done absolutely nothing of any importance, and I had enjoyed every minute of it.”

Digital.Com just recently let me know about the post 15 Books that Entrepreneurs Should All Read by Dale Cudmore!

Definitely take a look!

Some of these books, shown below, I discussed at some point here on 8020librarian:

Start with Why by Simon Sinek 

Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Iin terms of the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician, 8020librarian has cited E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

The other ones that Cudmore references will definitely be on my reading list!

Greetings (insert name),

Sorry to hear that you are so tired. I wonder if you are tired of mind games and watching the wheels go round and round.

I was saddened to learn that you are considering (insert the action prompting you to write). Even my guitar gently weeps.

Sometimes life is an exhilarating magical mystery tour and other times it is the subdued long and winding road.

But you should know that no matter what happens, ob la di ob la da life goes on.

Now, let’s imagine just a few efforts that you can consider undertaking to make the world a better place. There has to be something that ignites your passion. Don’t worry about being labeled a fool on the hill.

How about making the environment better for all living creatures like the walrus, octopus’s garden, blackbird, and rocky raccoon?

What about making the world a less violent place? Really, is happiness a warm gun? Why not give peace a chance?  Then celebrate when war is over.

What about connecting with people on the margins of society? You know, the folks on the outside looking in. Why not come together?

If you ever need help, you can always get by with a little help from my friends from across the universe. I’m not sure if someone back in the USSR, might be someone you’d like to reach out to.

If you get stuck there will be an answer, let it be.

Let me know how you’re doing, promise me that. Don’t let me down.

I hope you can turn the page from yesterday. Tomorrow morning, just yell out here comes the sun!

Sorry, I have to go it’s time for me to get back.

Goodbye for now.

(Insert your name here)

P.S. All You Need Is Love

I recently got to hear wonderful things from Jose Aponte out in San Diego. You all may remember his ride across the country in 2016 to raise money for the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship after retiring as Director from the San Diego County Public Library System.

Aponte has an amazing art exhibit (Indigenous: A Mestizo Journey) displaying at the Vista Library until March 10. The San Diego Tribune’s Lisa Deaderick wrote a wonderful article on January 21 about it.

(Photo of Jose Aponte taken by Eduardo Contreras of the San Diego Union Tribune)

Here are a few things that make this exhibit important for us in the library world, along with some reflection questions to prompt future action. This might just be one of the most important posts I’ll make all of 2018.

1)      Aponte had to travel outside of the library in order to both get inspiration for his project and in order to go carry it out. He went to Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and various parts of the United States. So, traveling out of the library is a good thing. International travel allows traditional frameworks of thinking to go out the window as you learn how other cultures work and you thus become sensitive to those cultures. Library supporters and librarians need to ask themselves even if they cannot travel internationally at this time, where can I go to learn more about my local community? This might involve going to local business association meeting, places of worship, cultural heritage institutions, and centers of learning to name just a few. Stopping by and visiting is good, but getting involved is even better. How might library leaders empower staff to do this?

2)      A skill set was brought along for use in Aponte’s travels. I am not talking about a strictly library related skill gift, but rather a more personal one. Simply put, photography was something Aponte came to the table with. What skills, apart from the strictly library related, do we have that we can take with us for use anywhere? How do we see the use of those skills benefitting other people we meet?

3)      Choosing to interact with people that we do not normally see every day or that are different from us is going against the grain. We leave our comfort zone behind and become open to how these interactions change us for the better. Aponte willingly did this. So, how are we interacting with people that are different from us in our local community? How can we describe the benefits of these experiences? How might we record these experiences for future private  reflection or even public sharing? Aponte states, “The message is simple: celebrate one planet, live as one people, and learn from the richness of our diversity of cultures, peoples and geography for a truly prosperous and vital common humanity.”

4)      Tie everything together, bring it on home to the library (as well as elsewhere), and tell others about what you’ve been up to. Aponte’s venue for his exhibit is the Vista Library. We should all think of the library as a place for public sharing. However, we needn’t stop there. What places, library included, might be venues for telling the story of our experiences with other cultures to a public audience? How might we use the online environment to spread the word about what we are doing? How might we partner with those in our community to help us do so?

I have been blogging about the Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician over the last few months.

To illustrate how all of what I am talking about connects using a successful example from librarianship, I will briefly touch upon the Inter-Library Loan system (ILL). What would be helpful for further reading would be the PhD dissertations and academic publications that go into the history behind ILL, the genesis of it, the key decision makers, the administrative architecture that the managers employed to launch it, and how it was first implemented in actual libraries. While I will not go into much detail, I can make an educated guess that the process generally went something like this.

The Entrepreneur: A library director thinks about borrowing books/materials from other libraries out of their own area. The idea itself may have been planted from either frontline library staff  or customer suggestions. The entrepreneur thinks, would it not be grand if a book, that our library does not have, could be sent from another state for a patron/student to borrow at their local library?

The Managers: These folks were probably the forerunners to those working in IT departments. It is possible that staff that ordered, purchased, and cataloged materials were probably consulted. The questions they asked were probably: What type of medium do we need to record the pertinent information on to start making such a request? What pertinent information do we need to communicate/record? How do we plan to send this information to the library that has the book being requested? How do we know that a particular library has the book being requested? How do we guarantee that the request gets to the right place? What is the means of delivering/returning the book? In short these folks had to develop the administrative architecture/platforms to make ILL happen.

The Technicians: These were the people working in the actual libraries that had to fulfill these requests by grabbing the books off the shelves. They most likely asked questions such as: How are the instructions delivered to me to find a certain book? Where is the place where I prepare the book for shipment elsewhere? What instructions do I need to follow to make this work?

I am thinking about other illustrations that could work from modern librarianship. If you think of any let me know.

Just got Ray Dalio’s Principles as a gift. I have been flipping through it to get a flavor of what it is about. I love the brief commentary in huge font on page 164, which is as follows:

BAD: Worry about appearing good.

GOOD: Worry about achieving the goal.

My take: While appearances are important, if there is no substance behind the appearances it will produce a lack of credibility. This is the equivalent of talking the talk but not being able to walk the walk.  For me, “achieving the goal” is similar to doing the right thing. Better to do the right thing than to focus a great deal of energy to keep up a mirage. Doing the right thing seeks to serve a higher purpose than the self and will often cost something of value to carry out.

I’m focusing today’s post on the Entrepreneur from the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.

The Entrepreneur is the big-picture thinker, looking at projects on a macro scale. Often times the Entrepreneur will go against the grain by challenging existing ways of doing, operating, and thinking in the world. The Entrepreneur is often asking why not? A reluctance to readily accept the status quo is key here.

Gerber believes that the Entrepreneur in us is the visionary, the dreamer, the creative force, the innovator, and the grand strategist. The Entrepreneur is also a lover of the unknown and the untested.

According to Gerber, the Entrepreneur is the “Energy behind every human activity. The imagination that sparks the fire of the future, The catalyst for change. The Entrepreneur lives in the future, never in the past, rarely in the present. He’s happiest when left free to construct images of “what-if” and “if-when.”

How the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician interact with each other will be the subjects of future in 2018. Happy New Year!