From Seth’s Blog: Form and Function

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to what this all means. :-)

possibly related posts:

1. Computers in Libraries: Teens are users
2. changes to Netflix & thoughts about pain

This morning, Netflix subscribers got an email. Here it is in its entirety, i’ll meet you at the other end of it:

Dear Julie,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.

I wasn’t annoyed before (maybe i just wasn’t paying attention?), nor did I think I was owed an apology. But now, having gotten both an apology and an explanation, i’m a little peeved. Why? because of this: “the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.” Which means I will have to maintain two queues of movies- which is the exact opposite of the simplicity I was describing life suddenly had in my last post.

Having just canceled our TV service, Netflix was/is going to pick up the slack when we really did just want to veg in front of the screen. I had always enjoyed when movies on my DVD queue were suddenly available for streaming- it allowed me to watch it right then AND remove it from my ever-growing and very-not-simple DVD queue.

I’m not sure why this decision was made – to forgo simplicity and the wonder that is a single, integrated interface in order to accomplish this maneuver- but it’s not what I would have chosen. That said, we’ll be sticking with Netflix (and/or Qwikster) until we figure out what the deal is and how it’s going to function in our lives.

I file this move under “pain inducing” instead of “pain reduction.” It’s our job – when we’re in a service professor or providing a service to customers (like Netflix)- that we look at our services and products and make decisions based on LOWERING the amount of pain a customer has to go through to do things. Five clicks before they can log in and renew a book? Painful. Having to log in twice when doing two different things on the same website? Painful. It’s these moments of pain where the customer gets to make a choice – is this amount of pain worth the effort or is there an easier way (path of least resistance) to accomplish my goal? If there’s an easier way somewhere else – you’re losing business.

This serves as a moment for libraries and vendors to think about not just our interfaces and the pain we’re causing (or keeping from) our customers but also how we make decisions, handle problems, and respond when the community reacts. Are we meeting our own expectations? Our customers?

possibly related posts:

1. on form and function
2. Book lending; Netflix style

While walking through, you can usually find me snapping photos of design ideas for changing the house *yet again* and eventually, before I end up at the exit, I’ll have had the sudden “need” to purchase a small, usually cheap, organizational apparatus or *yet another* sheet set or kitchen item to make my house (and life) finally click. Today, however, i was already more than halfway through the showroom before i realized – not only had i absolutely no desire to buy anything, i suddenly saw the big picture and the whole key to the perfectly organized house and life.

You don’t need organizational tools, bins or schemas to help you organize if you just have less stuff.

I mean, my “epiphany” might be your “duh” moment, but this definitely was an “ah-ha” moment for me when the last few years suddenly just came together. Here’s how i think i finally ended up here:

I’m pretty sure it all started with high fructose corn syrup. Hang with me for a sec, this will all make sense soon. However I got on the HFCS kick, about 3-4 years ago i decided to take a stand against the rampant use of HFCS in everything and start reading labels and only buying things with sugar in them. Let me just tell you how annoyed i was to find HFCS in my cough medicine and my beloved childhood brand of apple sauce. Starting out, everything in my fridge with HFCS in it, got an X on it  and when it ran out, i’d look for an HFCS-free alternative- and let me tell you, that was not easy. Today, however, companies have gotten the memo and you can find plenty of “throwback,” “classic” or similarly branded items with sugar, like they used to have.

After that came the rest of my diet… I had read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and it opened my eyes (again) to the eating local and more consciously concept that somehow, over the years, had gotten lost in my life. Around the same time, a friend of mine invited me to a screening of FRESH at a nearby church where local growers, raisers, and makers of food were set up and my whole life changed. I learned about CSA’s and since that very moment we’ve been completely ignoring the existence of the middle of the grocery store (if not the grocery store all together), buying meat only from happy grass fed cows* or happy roaming chickens, making sure our milk and eggs are from said happy animals and buying what we can at local farm stands and markets for the fruits and veggies. I’m still working on a source of cheese, yogurt, and other similar dairy products that meets my now serious requirements (but i’m pretty sure within the year i’ll be making them myself).

Somewhere along the line of the HFCS crusade, the last straw was that i could only find canned mushrooms that were grown in PA (40 miles north), shipped to China for processing and then shipped back for canning. And so began my moratorium on anything made in China. It had the added benefit of making me think i could do my part for the ”carbon crisis, continuing the local idea, and voting with my dollar as far as international trade regulations were concerned (hello lead paint). It didn’t take long to realize that everything we buy is made there and gave me a mental image of a land full of factories, instead of the beautiful China my aunt speaks of from the  70s. Regardless,it is possible to find things made elsewhere (or god forbid in the USA). You may have to look a little harder, pay a little more or simply go without, but i think it’s worth it.

Similarly, i started to bug my normally receptive parents about their use of paper plates and cups over their regular dishes, and their need for paper napkins and paper towels instead of reusable cloth ones (which we’d been using for a few years now). because of the environmental issue (one word: WALL-E). I’m happy to report that I finally won that battle a few weeks ago. My next goal with them is to switch them to biodegradable trash bags.

About two years ago, when we moved to our current place, we learned the county had a very aggressive recycling program that accepted essentially everything (seriously not kidding) without it needing to be rinsed, cleaned, or sorted AT ALL. I’ve always recycled but now we were tossing out a huge bin of recycling and only a tiny half-filled bag of trash each week. If we composted (it’s coming, i can tell), we’d have no trash at all.

So all this is going on in the food and environmental sphere of my life, and over in sphere B, i’m still fighting the seemingly never-ending battle with my stuff. It needs to be organized, cleaned, picked up, and purged CONSTANTLY and it seems that every spare moment i have (not many) includes a to do list that has “organize X” or “clean up Y” right at the top. But even when i did that, it never looked or felt like I had made a dent.

I constantly felt overwhelmed. My home office was a dumping ground and it was a constant battle of moving piles from open spot A to open spot B in order to move something else just to have space to do stuff. Instead of spending time on projects, work, or just doing nothing, i spent time trying to get a hold of the “stuff monster.” We live in plenty of room for two people, but i felt like i was being crowded out.

In an attempts to at least curb the incoming stuff, last Christmas I put serious limits on the gift giving. Gifts is what my dad does. It fills him with joy to buy things that he thinks you will enjoy – and even more joy when he sees you open it on Christmas morning. In fact, until last year when I started imposing those limits on Christmas  (just call me Scrooge), Christmas morning gift giving was an almost all-day affair, each of the three of us taking turns opening one item at a time. But all that stuff takes up space and i was at my mental limit. Dad did okay last year – he tried, he really did- but it was painful and I still ended up with stuff because no one knew how to change the tradition of an all-day gift opening fest when there seemed to be nothing to fill the space with. The boy and I were creative with our own Christmas, however, wrapping games we already owned and playing them after they were unwrapped. This year, i’ve put a COMPLETE MORATORIUM on stuff at Christmas at home. One gift each, if you must at all; high premium on experiences over things; homemade items are good. Things made of plastic, in China, or something that won’t last forever are verboten.

If you’re wondering if my stuff problem extends to the bedroom, it does. The bedroom closet, that is (sheesh, people). A tshirt and jeans girl (& no shoes if i can help it), i never understood or was taught the concept of an outfit. What Not To Wear intrigued me, but always left me mostly baffled when it came time to apply the theory. Mostly solo clothes shopping was basically hell for me, and i continued to buy pieces, instead of seeing the whole picture (which is funny because i’m really good at seeing the whole picture everywhere else in my life and work). This all leaves me with a closet bursting at the seams with things that maybe kinda go together, but not really. And regardless of the things i owned, I still basically wore the same few things. Enter Kendi Everyday. I’ve had Kendi in my rss reader for maybe a year now but only recently have really started to pay attention to her 30 in 30 project – 30 items to make 30 outfits in 30 days. Basically – forcing yourself to see your clothes in a different way, and make them do new things for you. I had the unique ability to wear a skirt and have it still look like my normal tee and jeans uniform- no extra finishing pieces, no accessories, nothing special – slap it on and you’re on your way. But in the last month or so i’ve seen more new combinations in my closet than i have ever. For example, I had no concept of just how different a whole outfit can look just by tucking in a shirt. Bless you, Kendi. (Outfit Mentor status also goes to my friend A whom i very much miss shopping with (especially now that i know what i’m doing.)

So where does this leave us? Well, enter two of the final pieces of the puzzle: 1) my complete abhorrence for my current commute and my intense desire to work closer to where i live / live closer to where i work at some point in the not-so-distant future and 2) my reading of The Feast Nearby (also, a blog). Dreams of living locally, biking around town, knowing my neighbors and canning my own chutneys and whatnot (because with all this local veggie buying, winter is going to suck), everything consolidated for me.

Somehow a life that was never about stuff, turned into one of not just stuff, but complacency and a disconnect from nature as i tried to find my way in the world. I bought into the completely ridiculous idea that if i dressed a certain way, bought into this new productivity practice, or purchased a new thing, something would click and it’d all be okay. But letting go (of expectations, material things, and completely bullshit ideas of the kind of person you have to be to do x, y, or z)… making careful and conscious choices about my life (and the stuff in it)… and following the bliss – naysayers be damned – is my true path now. And i can’t tell you how glad i am that i’ve found it, even if it seems to have taken forever.

So the journey has been long, but the destination isn’t yet here. I’ve been selling our stuff on ebay like mad, we’ve ditched our TV service (with the added benefit of confusing and annoying The Company and saving a lot of $), I’ve relearned the word “no” and we continue making good choices for ourselves – happy cows, sustainable building materials and being creative with what we’ve got and making what we don’t (if we must).

All this to say, with less stuff, you really can do (and be) more.

———-

* I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is a difference i can feel between meat from a happy cow versus an unhappy one (think the difference between open field and feed lot). i feel better after the meal, it’s easier to digest, and tastes completely different (read: better). My mom was skeptical but let me buy them a pound of “happy cow” (as it’s now come to be known in our houses, though i’d imagine that if the meat is in my procession at some point the cow was no longer happy). They kept it frozen for a while but finally cooked with it. Mom was astounded- she didn’t feel a heaviness and sloth that she usually does after eating beef and she noticed the difference later too as it didn’t make her stomach do flips during digestion. WIN!

possibly related posts:

1. ToDo: 2009
2. Book lending; Netflix style

(c) erinbarker*, on Flickr

the boy and i were discussing something the other day which lead me to my normal rant of content versus container. here it is in case you’ve never heard it before:

When knowledge and stories finally got a container, they were preserved and shared in book form. (prior was via spoken word.) Libraries were the vessel for those book containers. Along the way to present day, the containers changed (disk, cd, dvd, database, journal, magazine, playaway, flash drive, internet, conversations with humans, etc). But during this change over the last umpteen decades, libraries had forgotten to tell people the knowledge moved which is exactly why people still equate libraries with books – except nowadays, books are those frivolous things some people use for entertainment (but who reads nowadays anyways).

[see also: Try again buddy: a note on libraries and books]

The reason libraries do not equal books anymore is because libraries are about knowledge – and the knowledge moved**. And we forgot to send out “we’ve moved” cards. Silly us.

Except we still haven’t sent out those cards (I’m generalizing here to make a point – I know many many libraries, library systems and librarians have sent out those metaphorical cards). We continue to have more book clubs than technology classes, advertise more bestsellers than databases, and hire more shy bookish people than interesting and engaging customer service focused people who love information and people.

We can’t keep complaining that no one loves us, funds us, or cares if we die a slow and lonely death and then continue to sell ourselves and our customers the same old, dusty and worn-out kool-aid.

The kool-aid is no longer hip. We’re all drinking martinis now.

And our martini is made of equal parts of the following:

• libraries are places where people can learn – we’ve got ridiculously awesome resources and ridiculously awesome people to help teach you how to find what you need (*cough*information literacy) and other amazing things (google+ for example)

• libraries are places where people can create- we’ve got ridiculously awesome resources for that too!

• libraries are places where people can grow- Sally grows by falling in love with The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Brian grows by taking a class on photoshop. Marianne grows by joining in on a knitting group.

• libraries are places where people commune***- we’ve got space, ac/heat, a cafe, and the resources for you to create whatever community you want

• libraries are places where magic can happen- ’nuff said.

You may have noticed a trend here. Libraries are places where people do stuff. And you better believe i mean “place” in the broadest sense- your building, your website, all your presences around the community. And “people”- that’s a no brainer. Libraries exist for the people who use them. And the best way to engage people? By talking AND listening to them. It’s the only way you’ll know what they want and they’ll know what you’ve got (*cough*databases).

So. Are you drinking the kool-aid or the martinis? Which is your library drinking? And what are you doing about it?

——————–

* thank to Erin for graciously letting me use her photo

** credit goes to the boy for the succinct and awesome phrasing

*** I was told i was using commune in an obsolete manner ala Shakespeare. Well if it was good enough for him, my friends, it’s good enough for you. (commune: to talk over, discuss)

possibly related posts:

1. Why we should stop caring about e-books versus “real” books
2. the perception of librarians Or so you like to read

enter upgrade.

i made my list of things i wanted in a device and started looking at how iphone or android would accommodate what i wanted. i couldn’t get everything (recycled case, SMALL size) but in the end, i went with the iphone.

while sad for the loss of my treo, i was excited about my new toy. i haven’t had a new toy in a while. i added my apps, synced my contacts easily (which luckily had been on my mac from gmail and my work server) , and logged in to all my apps (after remembering my passwords). it all went very smoothly. too smoothly.

now, i don’t know about you, but every time i’ve gotten a new device in the past, it’s meant manual input of contacts, realizing that one obscure piece of software that you use rarely but do need isn’t compatible, having saved text messages not move to your new phone and other such toils. (first world problems, i know, i know.)

well my upgrade to the iphone came with a particularly nasty version of this toil: i lost my voicemail.

now, it might not seem too bad to you, but as much as i like change, i’m a little nostalgic and very upset about what i lost in my voicemail:

my outgoing message. okay, so i record a new one… but i’ve had the same outgoing message since i was 17. posterity. it’s gone.

my saved messages. yeah i know, i should have recorded them somewhere else- and i’ve been meaning to- but i had 11 or so saved voicemails from the last few years including my niece’s voice when she was 4ish  (shes 8 now) saying “aunt julie’s not there!”; my soon-to-be 90 year old great aunt saying hello; lovey messages from the boy from the beginning of our relationship half a millennia ago; my parents singing good morning to me (it was always so-cute-it’s-painful, but now i miss it); and various friends and family singing me happy birthday over the years (sometimes i don’t answer on my bday so i have these msgs to listen to later).

all gone.

i remember now hearing somewhere along the line that the iphone runs on a different vm system than other devices. but it wasn’t something i thought of when purchasing my phone… nor was it something the sales rep remembered (or knew) to tell me.

to make matters worse, i call up customer service to see if i can fix things (i assume it was a glitch since i didn’t actually *touch the voicemail yet and i assumed (wrongly) that the sales guy who’s always been good to me hadn’t said this would happen) and the guy i speak who apologizes and says “we can fix this. our tech staff can send you the files on cd or whatnot so you have them. let me transfer you to them.” except, when i speak to the tech dept, the woman informs me that it’s “all gone. I don’t know why no one told you you’d lose them. and there’s no way to recover them.”

thanks a lot.

so here are my lessons for companies:

1. make sure your staff across departments are all on the same page so your information is consistent
2. don’t assume your customers know what’s going to happen next. explain the process. in detail.
3. have an EASY way (easy = click, click, done) to backup their messages
4. be able to recover things.

my own lessons learned:

1. don’t put your backups off until later. i’ve been saying to myself “i need to get these off” for probably Y.E.A.R.S… procrastination will always bite me in the ass.
2. try to figure out and ask the questions you don’t think you need to ask, assuming you won’t be informed by the other person (probably not feasible)

So while i try to work some magic to make my audio history reappear (lmk if you know how!), i’ll also be writing a letter to the company letting them know that this is one of those unacceptable errors.

/end rant. thanks for listening.

possibly related posts:

1. I’m not a bad friend… really.
2. smart phones: one year and dead

I was nervous about seeing the place and how it would match up to my memories- especially in Epcot. I have distinct recollections of Disney and I was afraid at how my other favorite rides (still there, while changed) will have survived time.

While Horizons has been gone for over a decade now, and Spaceship Earth has changed a lot, there was something that gave me calm when i was riding Spaceship Earth. An ease came over me towards the end of the ride – they hadn’t just ripped away my childhood without consulting me – but rather honored the past in their changes and new futures.

In the last bit of Horizons you could choose your own adventure- you could see the future in space, on earth, or underwater. I usually chose space (no surprise there) – everyone in your omnimover vehicle could choose something but majority ruled. Once the scene was selected, your omnimover would get blinders and you’d see a screen with your choice of future.

In a wonderful honor to this old wonderful ride, the new Spaceship Earth has a choose your own adventure ending now too – you answer various questions on a computer screen in your vehicle about what you care most about and it builds your future based on your choices using “technologies we happen to know about.” I have to say i was very happy when i heard references to augmented reality and remote home control. i rode Spaceship earth easily half a dozen times, making different choices each time just as i said i would in Horizons.

Disney has a history of doing things like this – honoring previous incarnations or now-defunct rides- taking pieces of or references to them and scattering them in various appropriate places. Journey to Imagination with Figment is another one of those that has changed too. for the worse*, i think, but the honor and deference paid to the original ride are there too. In the last moments of the ride after you’re blasted with a cold shock of unexpected air, a screen lowers and you see all the figments doing various things (riding a bike, flying in a hot air balloon, etc) that used to be scattered throughout the original ride.

Change is necessary and inevitable. But, as you can tell by my words above, not always welcomed (Figment should not be messed with). Regardless, we move on and the world moves with us. But we can’t throw out or ignore history just because we want to move away from it.

I’ve learned many times that change is a process – one that’s difficult to control because people happen upon it at different times in the change cycle and to different degrees.

for most of us, change looks like this:

a straight shot from what is to what will be with very little issue and battle. not so fast, mister. in reality change usually looks something like this:

Any significant change requires a “hold on – letting go” process. this process ends up looking like the abstract seagull above. people are going to be okay with things, not okay with things, fight to keep things, and then eventually, slowly, move forward in order to align with the change (or you’ll help them out). Here’s my (short and incomplete) list of things to keep in mind when trying to get an organization or group of people to change or make a change:

1. identify what will stay the same. some people need something to hold on to.
2. make the change safe for discussion and invite conversations. give honest answers and keep people informed as soon as you think you know something.
3. support soul searching while in the pit – that bottom of the curve where people start to wonder if all this is really needed.
4. clarify principles and expectations and make sure changes are still aligned with previously agreed-upon core values.
5. acknowledge loss through rituals and honor the past in a way that feels real for each situation/need
6. help people suggest adjustments, keep them involved in the process. allow for mistakes
7. take time to examine lessons learned
8. celebrate completion

Once you’ve gotten your advocates to help you spread the word and make light the work, helped the well poisoners out of the way and convinced everyone else you know what you’re doing, you proceed through the process above. But throughout it and after, you have to show deference to what has come before – it helps make the change easier as well as letting people know that you’re not just coming in and shaking shit up because you feel like it- but because this is the next step in a processional of next steps that started long before you.

In Disney’s case, i was never consulted. Change happened without me so the best they can do is keep parts of the past around for those of us who see them for it. It helps.

* Among other things, Figment is now an orphan as they completely removed any mention of the Dreamfinder as far as i could tell. In other childhood memory-shattering news, while they still have things to play with after the ride in the Imagination Pavilion, the tunnel of rainbow lights is gone. If i ever end up VP of Epcot, guess what’s first on my list? you betcha. I never approved this change.

possibly related posts:

1. why redesign when you can rss? or a little change goes a long way
2. You are the Future of Libraries, no pressure (or Be the conversation people)

The focus, for whatever reason, seems to always be on the “technology” (usually perceived as disruptive) and how it’s going to put us out of business or put a lot of us out of jobs or some such other nonsense. Books- for instance, are perceived as our primary business- not just by the customers (usually non-users) but also (unfortunately) by those who work in libraries (time for you to retire yet?). When i was in library school i remember discussions about libraries versus booksellers. It was always “versus” and i never understood why since we’re not really in the same business.

And now, as people are freaking out about ebooks, i ask the same question- why?

It seems we forget that our business is not defined by our things – the modes in which our information is delivered- physical book, ebook, database, audio cd, computer, etc- our technology if you will. The library is NOT an information warehouse and calling it such removes the element that actually IS our business – the people. Calling us “information gatekeepers” also does us a disservice – enforcing that stereotype that we are better than you and only we can dole out the world’s knowledge on a need-to-know basis and only if you’re worthy. Um, no.

Libraries are in the people business and i’d like to invite everyone who is in the profession on a front lines service desk who does not agree with me to do some soul searching and perhaps find another calling. Libraries are in the people business- connecting people to people (staff to customers and customers to their communities) and people to things (information, skills, knowledge, etc); usually people to the things they need to become better people. When libraries define themselves through their community, suddenly the technology doesn’t matter. And it shouldn’t. Technology is simply a way of getting things done, of solving problems. Sure, I’ll be the first to sign up for something flashy and new just because it is such but that doesn’t mean i’m going to implement it on a system-wide basis simply because it’s “the new thing.” In fact i’m very much against technology for technology’s sake in this context. With something new and interesting, I’m going to file it away and hope i recall it later when i’m faced with a challenge it might help solve. Wordle, for instance- was fun to play with in the beginning but what the hell can i use a word cloud for? Not much… until it came time to write the final grant report and i needed a visual way of representing the year’s worth of customer comments. Bingo.

That’s a simple example but i’m hoping you get my drift. If we define ourselves by the needs of the people in our community, and the relationships we build with them, suddenly we’ve just given ourselves the flexibility to ebb and flow with whatever the world throws at us. Suddenly “omg mobile” doesn’t seem so scary.

See, we have to be limber. Not just people and libraries, but everyone. Businesses that can’t move with the waves of life suffer. Take Western Union- the president of the company in 1876 said, ”this ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” Missed opportunity there. And i bet he’d pass out if he could look around the world today.

We’re very good, in libraries, at letting others decide what we should be doing – waiting for others to define who we are and what business we’re in. The great thing about the future that people tend to forget is that WE CAN INVENT IT! The Future is not something that happens to us; we are something that happens to the future. Feel free to quote me on that.

Seriously though, if libraries defined their identities and purposes by their specific community’s needs and stopped worrying about what other people were doing (not in that informed, always-looking kind of way but the “i don’t know what to do, oh lets do what they’re doing” kind of way), libraries would be more embraced into their community as a whole, start to chip away at the stereotype (the stuffy one, not the sexpot one.. though that annoys me too), and be more relevant to their worlds and more flexible as technology shifts (as it tends to do).

It’s our communities that binds us together. Sure, everyone has a hugely different demographic and community base but regardless of who their community is, libraries should be building relationships with those people, asking them what they need in life, and then providing it (either directly or as a referral or partnership).

I’ll go back to my mobile example from a bit ago- Sure, mobile is the thing we need to be in right now- its not going away. the xx billion text messages sent daily is a sign that something’s up. But if your small town library serves a community of aging ESL, perhaps texting and mobile isn’t really a bandwagon you should be jumping on right yet. But if you have conversations with them – keep them up to date with the world just as you try to be as a professional (you ARE, right?) and it piques their interest – ask them what they want to do. Maybe they’ll surprise you and already all have iphones and they want to try this new augmented reality thing. Or maybe you’ll delight them when they finally learn how to retrieve a text message from their granddaughter. You never know unless you ask.

The moral of the story is this- Stop freaking out about technology. Play with it, learn it, talk to people about it, but don’t let it cause an identify crisis. Be flexible. Build relationships with your community. Ask them what they need (and then give it to them).

So- now that i’ve said all that… what do YOU think the future of libraries is? I want to hear what you have to say- comment or trackback. :-)

[oh, and for giggles, here's this post in wordle (for no good reason other than i felt like it)]

possibly related posts:

1. Foresight 2020- Scenario Planning: Learning to Think in the Future Tense
2. You are the Future of Libraries, no pressure (or Be the conversation people)

(c) Andrew Mason on Flickr

Why do we care about e-books versus “real” books?

I, for one, don’t.

“Tree*” books, “real” books or just plain “books” as they’re often called have been around for 5,000 +/- years and now i swear there are more “ebooks vs books” writings than curls on my head. Why is that? Why does anyone care what format our stories, facts, conversations, and fun come in? Why are we so worried that tree books might be going away? Is it because they are “tradition”? Is it because “books” are what libraries are known for and if they go away, we think we’ll disappear too?

I would like to take this moment to remind you that it isn’t the technology that is important but rather the information it is sharing or the problem it is solving. True, a book is very old “technology”, but that’s what it is- it is just another casing through which ideas, stories, facts, conversations, teachings, are shared. And it’s not the method of transmission that’s important- which is only as good as it’s content. Sure, perhaps you like the feel or smell of the book and it’s pages over a device- but don’t you like the story or knowledge ultimately more? Sure, i might be upset if the next generation doesn’t know what it feels like to read a paperback on the beach- sand between the pages and all- but i’m sure my mom isn’t distraught that i have no idea what an 8 track feels like or sounds like.

Perhaps you argue that we’ll be leaving people behind because not everyone will be able to afford an e-reader- well, you’re right. But I’d like to remind you that no matter how fast things seem to go- a 5000 year old technology is going to take a little more time than overnight to disappear- if it ever does. We will always have books- even if they’re in the archives and 100 years old instead of the library for circulation. If the world’s new normal are reading devices that aren’t today’s “book”, libraries will just change their model and loan e-readers. Because in a world of e-readers and no printed materials, e-readers are cheap like books and we wouldn’t care if they’re lost, stolen, or smeared with jelly.

That’s the point, though, isn’t it?- libraries provide ACCESS and COMMUNITY to those who want it. And neither of those things, along with learning, are dependent on a technology, a medium, or a casing. Yes, the hundred-year stereotype of the library is “book”- but that’s just because a book was the primary source of entertainment and education for so, so long. If our current and modern conception of a “book” truly does go away, i’m not worried- I know that society will still thrive on the transmission, creation, and sharing of ideas, facts, stories, and more. And Libraries will always have a place in that world.

e- or not.

==================

Additional Readings:

Bold Prediction: Why e-books will never replace real books. Jan Swafford, Slate.
Books versus documents: what’s wrong with so-called “e-books.” Jon Stokes, ArsTechnica
Buyers of E-Books Still Like Print Too, Survey Shows. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Wall Street Journal.
Will E-Books Really Destroy Libraries?. Charlotte Abbott, Follow the Reader.
The future of libraries, with or without books. John D. Sutter, CNN
Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books: Cushing Academy embraces a digital future. David Abel, boston.com

Footnotes

*first heard at #ALA10 as said by Dr. Marie Radford

possibly related posts:

1. “the knowledge moved”
2. try again, buddy. a note on libraries and books

(via Librarian by Day)

possibly related posts:

1. Not Interested: connecting to a librarian in social web spaces
2. the future of the library

the couch to 5k program podcasts have been on my ipod for ages and i used them a few times when i had a gym membership and was forced to use the treadmill, but my plan is to do this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and continue my current 5:30 basement workouts Tuesdays and Thursdays.

last night i unveiled the plan, quite on a whim, and enlisted the boy to come running with me. he doesn’t do mornings (pre 1pm, to be honest), but he was a good sport about it and agreed to the plan. Thank goodness too, since i needed him to encourage me and set the pace as i found out i do indeed only have two modes: stop or FAST and couldn’t maintain the bat-out-of-hell speed for very long.

the couch to 5k podcast for week one took us through a 5 minute warm-up walk and then intervals of 60 seconds of running/90 seconds of brisk walk, finishing with another 5 minute cool-down walk. the whole process took 30 mins; the exact amount of time i have each morning to workout.

my goal isn’t to become a runner (although that switch might flip in the process) but rather to be able to run. esp, if chased.

to track my route and find out how far i went, i’m using the gmap pedometer, a tool i’ve had bookmarked for ages but have never used more than once or twice. and to track my progress, i’m using google forms. I figured a form will help me keep a consistent log and would be easy so i’m not sidetracked by previous entries.

this way, it’s easy-peasy and i can track what i did and how it went (including any pain, or if i noticed a plateau) which is important to notice any trends (like the stitch in my side) or if i went up to a higher weight. This particular form isn’t ready to track my weight (lifting) data, but i’ll be adding that soon.  And perhaps add a spot for measurements that i can add weekly or monthly. maybe. i hate that kind of thing because them i’m fixated on the number, instead of how i feel, how things fit, and the fact that i can run without problem versus having trouble with it. and if this is going to be a lifestyle for me, it has to be for the thing itself, not the measurements it might lead to.

Here’s the form:

I hope to have a lot of data to analyze at the end of the month and hopefully see any trends emerging so i can tweak and find something that is going to work for me for life.

How do you keep track of goals and progress? I’d also be interested in any runners tips you might have. :-)

possibly related posts:

1. talk about motivation
2. Elation in the Banana Republic dressing room