My “other” job is being the director of the public library here in Bowman. I’ve been the director for about a year now — it has been interesting, challenging and not that different from marketing artwork. Earlier this spring I was chosen to attend the ALA conference in Washington D.C. in June — all expenses paid thanks to WebJunction.org and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Pretty cool to be one of the 150 people from 34 states to be chosen for this!

So off I went to DC at the end of June. Some of the most inspiring/thought provoking parts:

Jana Ponce - director of the Parker Public Library in Arizona. Energy! Wow! She spoke at the WebJunction workshop. Very inspiring. Lots of things to remember & think about. Highlights:

• Ways to help make your library be the place people want to be/the place people notice.
• Dream BIG!
• Get out into the community — partner & be a community partner.
• “the only safe computer is one in the box”
• And– most of all — Library work is a sales job.

Next memorable event was the Swap’n'Shop. Big booth with award winning handouts, etc. great for inspiration and to see how other libraries market themselves. I wish I lived in Wyoming or could afford their marketing campaign. Even if I could only have the logo for my library… I did get some good ideas on illustrating value of our public library.

Somehow I ended up at a workshop by Stephen Abram. Workshop was described as 10 ways to use social software, but it was more about keeping the public library as a vital part of one’s community/PR for your library. Really, really interesting.

Got me thinking– What like about my “library job” is that it is all about ideas. And in that way it is just like my “art job.” To me, the library is one big piece of changing sculpture and my community and I work together to make the best, most relevant piece of art for our community. At least that’s the way I see it.

I’m surprised when librarians are threatened by the idea that libraries “aren’t just about books.” I am so naive that I’m truly surprised when librarians are threatened by any idea. Aren’t they the idea specialists? Aren’t they supposed to be professional filters of information? I don’t think technology will trump books. I want to know every way to feed my head– books are one way to do that. And as long as I’m on a tangent — what is this prejudice against audio books? Why is a “reading” a book valid only if you see every word rather than hear it? I hear this from librarians, teachers and patrons.

I have a notebook filled with things to try, things to consider, things we are doing right, websites to check out, books to read. Wish I would have took my laptop and digital camera and been able to attend more of the seminars and all the authors. (I did see RFK, Jr. Absolutely fantastic!).

Since I’ve been back I’ve finished two grants, started facebook (like!) and myspace (don’t like) accounts for the library, inquired about wireless access for our library, listened to nearly every one of the webjunction archived In Focus webinars, read two Seth Godin books (highly recommended!), and began our library’s tech plan. I signed up with Google Alerts to get results when variations of Bowman Library is searched. Made a list of the Big Dreams for our little library. I updated the library’s Flickr photos. And I figured out how many visits our library has had since opening in May 2006 (over 20,000! WOW! Not bad for a community of only 3600).

I hope I can find a way to go to the ALA conference next year.