October 30, 2007

New logo for the new Darien Library

At the Annual Meeting on Sunday, Steff Geissbuhler of C & G Partners, unveiled the new logo for DarienLibrary to an enthusiastic audience. We will begin to use the new logo in January 2008. We expect to open the new Library in January 2009.

Posted by louise at 11:43 AM | Comments (2)

June 27, 2007

So many exhibits, so little time

I had only six hours to visit the 4000+ exhibits at the trade show of the American Library Association (ALA) last weekend, so I had to use my time wisely. I glanced wistfully at the book exhibits as we headed for the booths that were showcasing things we need for the new library. We will have self-check machines and a materials handling system, so we looked at the new versions of this equipment.

We want to digitize our back files of the local newspapers, and other local, historical documents (in cooperation with the Darien Historical Society), so stops at the vendors with high tech scanners was a must.

We are really, really looking for a solution for displaying and securing our DVD and CD collections; one that allows easy browsing and prevents theft. No one has quite what we're looking for yet.

We'll have digital and conventional signs in the new library, and it's fun to visit these booths.

And new furniture. Fred Eustis is one of my favorite people to visit at ALA. His chairs are beautiful and comfortable.

It was exciting to see the Encore catalog being demonstrated. Innovative Interfaces, our integrated library system, has developed a new online catalog, that is the closest thing to Google in the library field. We will begin testing this catalog this summer. I can't wait!

And what a treat to see Elizabeth Anderson at the Economist Intelligence Unit! A Darien High School ( and Columbia University) graduate, she clearly has the "intelligence" part down pat.

Posted by louise at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2007

Another first

Oscar night was another first for Darien Library's intrepid movie critic and blogger, Barbara Thomas. She hosted our first ever, live chat room to discuss the Oscars.... on Sunday night. Family, friends and fans from all around the country joined our chat room to predict the winners and comment. Reporter Ally Mookerjee published the details of the fun in her recent article in the Darien News Review. Thanks Ally, for a nice article and thanks Barbara for continuing to move us forward in using new forums for communication.

Posted by louise at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2007

Branding

I'm really excited about a branding exercise we're doing to develop an identity system for the new library. We are working with Steff Geissbuhler and Leslie Sherr of C & G Partners.

We've been thinking about our brand identity and brand promise for several years, but wanted to coordinate this exercise with the transition to the new library, where we will need a new graphic image, signage and logo. Our kick-off meeting with Leslie and Steff challenged some of our assumptions about the Library and its role in the community and encouraged us to think deeper about who we are, what we do and why it matters. We will developing a core ideology and an envisioned future to guide the graphic design.

And of course we know, as Marty Neumeier says in his book The Brand Gap, that our brand is not what we say it is, but what you, our users, say it is. If you have thoughts you'd like to share with us, I encourage you to comment on this blog, or contact any of our task force members: Kim Huffard, Peggy Hersam, Ann Mandel, Melissa Yurechko, Alan Gray or me.

In the meanwhile, I've been looking at taglines from other libraries that have obviously thought about branding: "Delivering the Future" ( Westerville,OH), "Browsing is just the beginning" (Cuyahoga County Library System), "An Oasis of Knowledge" (West Palm Beach Public Library), "A city with a great library is a great city" (Nashville), and "for a little library, we do a lot" (Rocky River, OH).

Posted by louise at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2007

III Public Library Directors Symposium

I've spent a very productive day and 1/2 at a symposium sponsored by Innovative Interfaces (III), our online catalog vendor. Every two years, III hosts a symposium for the public library directors that have III online systems. And it's just for the directors; we can't send our techies. This is good because we discuss technology on a different level than our techie staff does, and we can share perspectives with like-minded colleagues.

Marshall Keys, one of my favorite futurists, was the keynote speaker. Marshall always has more material than he can possibly cover in his allotted time, and the power point slides just whiz by. Yesterday, Marshall talked to us about the 3-D Internet. I know about Second Life, but I had no idea how fast 3-D Internet was growing. Marshall encourages us to find new ways of thinking about our services and the future of libraries. And I was encouraged to hear him speak of the importance of community, since that's a cornerstone of the services we plan for the new library.

I'm coming home with a number of ideas to share with our staff. Westerville OH has so many innovative services. And Middle Country Public Library on Long Island does a lot of cultural programming, a service we will expand in the new library. Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH has a terrific customer service model.

The most unexpected treat happened this morning when I found myself sitting next to the library director from Indian Prairie Public Library. Since her library system includes the town of Darien, IL. we enjoyed sharing stories about our virtual users who found themselves in the wrong state.

Posted by louise at 06:00 PM | Comments (1)

January 30, 2007

Fellowship

An email I received this week shows the power of social networking sites like Flickr. robotika writes, " I just got an email today about a fellows program named after you. You must be doing some great library work. I love the Darien library flickr site. I am still an MLS student at Simmons but your fellowship makes me want to hrry up and finish! "

The Louise Parker Berry Fellowship was started by George Wyper and the Darien Library Board of Trustees to honor my 25th anniversary as Director of the Library. Emily Weiss is our first Fellow, and her appointment ends in September. We are actively recruiting our next Fellow and are delighted that the word is out in the blogosphere. The Fellowship brings one of the best and brightest recent library school graduates to work in Darien for a two year appointment, working on high stakes projects. We have a relatively stable, small staff, and the Fellowship has brought new ideas to Darien. Emily has an interest in programming and her projects have included the summer reading program for adults, the Darien Community Matters blog, and a very successful Food for Fines drive.

Posted by louise at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2006

Blogging Librarians make the New York Times

Kudos to Janet Davis and Barbara Thomas for representing us so well in the Connecticut section of the New York Times on Sunday. Patrick Verel's article about librarians who blog quoted Barbara and Janet, and spotlighted their podcasts. Thank you, Patrick!

Posted by louise at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2006

A phoenix from the Tower Record ashes

Our old CD racks

Our new CD displays

In the new library, our Main Street section will have a retail look and feel. We are beginning to experiment with retail displays in our Main Reading room, and bought used CD, book, and DVD displays from the now bankrupt Tower Records in Stamford. One library user exclaimed that she had never borrowed CDs before, but was attracted to the new display racks. Tower Records may be bankrupt, but I'm betting that, in picking over its bones, we will increase OUR CD circulation.

Posted by louise at 03:11 PM | Comments (2)

October 13, 2006

Art Auction Preview Tonight

Public preview tonight, October 13, at the DCA for the art auction benefiting the Capital Campaign for the New Darien Library. The Auction, Quiet Places, Gathering Spaces is SOLD OUT for Saturday evening.

Posted by louise at 05:53 PM

October 04, 2006

Dewey Cares

We librarians are a caring bunch. We work in a profession that is rooted in helping others, and as individuals and as a staff, we are philanthropic by nature. Last year, we launched a Food for Fines program to help stock the Food Bank of Connecticut, and you donated TONS of food. We donated the revenue from our book sale to the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina effort, and sent our microfilm of the New York Times to a hurricane damaged library. This year, we are supporting the Domestic Violence Crisis Center. We are accepting donations of children's and family DVDs and videotapes for the shelters, and we are sponsoring a knit-athon to make caps and scarves for children in the shelters. And all those purple ribbons all over town? Our staff did that, too. Special kudos to Emily, Barbara and Caitlin for their leadership on these projects. And if you would like to donate videos or knit for the shelters, just click the Events blog for details.

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September 22, 2006

Coming soon in your mailbox

We know it's confusing and we apologize. Yes, we are raising money to build a new library, and many of you have generously contributed, or will contribute to the Capital Campaign. BUT we still need $450,000 each and every year in the Annual Campaign to buy new books, computers, DVDs, CDs, books on tape..... well, you get it, everything you use in the library, or check out to use at home. AND no, your tax dollars do not buy these things. We are grateful to the Town fathers and mothers for paying our salaries and the oil bill, but they do not buy any books for you to read! So please help us out. We need to build the new library, but we also want you to have the new books, movies, programs that you expect from us this year. The annual appeal is in the mail, or you can donate online by clicking here. Any questions, feel free to call me or Jay Wood, our annual fundraising chairman.

Posted by louise at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2006

Accountability and Transparency

Most of us think of Enron as an issue for the corporate world. And yet, legislation passed by Congress (Sarbanes-Oxley Act or SOX) in the wake of that scandal has implications for not for profits as well. Brian Peoples, the chairman of the Library's audit committee, and I attended a seminar last week that addressed these issues. In the last year, the Library has implemented a number of the "best practices" recommended by SOX, including forming an audit committee, approving a conflict of interest policy, and moving from a cash based audit to a full GAAP audit of our financial statements. We plan to draft a whistleblower policy and a document destruction policy in the coming year, and we will post our financial statements on our web site once our audit is complete. The Library will also be acquiring books and other materials on governance for not for profits to help our fellow organizations as we all work to improve our accountability and transparency to our community.

Posted by louise at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2006

Required Reading

Darien Revitalization Inc. (DRI) President Tom Geary and Executive Director Debbie Parnon
The future of the downtown affects the quality of life for all of us in Darien. That's why everyone should read the action plan for Downtown Darien just published by the Connecticut Main Street Center. The Board of DRI has begun to study the recommendations and we want to hear from you!

We, at the Library, are excited about the initiatives outlined in the action plan, and plan to partner with DRI on a number of them. We would love to co-sponsor the Community Conversations, a series of forums to discuss the ideas outlined in the report. This is a natural progression for us, from our Darien Community Matters blog. On a personal level, I found the section on branding very interesting and useful, since this is a concept that we have been discussing at the Library.

Posted by louise at 07:24 PM | Comments (3)

September 06, 2006

Who says that everyone goes away for Labor Day?

Over 1800 people checked out 3358 items on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

Posted by louise at 11:33 AM | Comments (1)

P & Z discusses new library

Last night, the Planning and Zoning Commission discussed the Library's application for a new building and instructed Town Planner Jeremy Ginsberg to prepare a resolution approving the application. The final vote is expected to take place next Tuesday, September 12.

Posted by louise at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

Sneak Preview

Last week, we had a staff meeting to plan for the fall lineup of programs, and I thought that you might like a sneak preview of some of the upcoming events at the Library. We will, of course, be describing these events with more detail in the forthcoming months....including special email announcements for our computer savvy customers, and back by popular demand, separate flyers for individual events for our Friends who love to get things in their (snail) mail box.

So here's the lineup: Beatles author Bob Spitz will be the featured speaker at the library's annual meeting on Sunday October 29; Acabella will perform at our annual holiday concert on Sunday, December 3; the Fall Book Discussion series with Jordon Pecile begins on Sunday, September 17, and the Foreign Film series begins on Friday October 20. A very special program for children based on the Lemony Snicket books will take place on.... when else, but Friday the 13th of October. I personally will NOT miss this event. We also have a few Capital Campaign events in the works for the fall... so save these dates as well: Quiet Places, Gathering Spaces art auction on October 14 and a special event for children and families on November 19. We expect a busy fall.... see you in the Library!

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August 18, 2006

SDI

When I was in library school, we talked alot about SDI (selected dissemination of information). Only then, back in the pre-PC dark ages, it was a manual process. Librarians would quickly scan (i.e. read) articles, journals and other print media for relevance to their customers, and then alert them to items of interest, usually by mail (as in snail mail). Legendary disseminators of information include Norman Horrocks and Sandy Berman. If you were ever on Sandy's distribution list, you received a manila envelope full of interesting stuff with great regularity, and Norman sends wonderful tidbits that you might never see from the British and Canadian media. Here at Darien Library, using modern technology, our Chief Disseminator is Alan Gray. Alan reads widely and sends interesting links to appropriate library staff, keeping us innovative and nimble. Now you, too, can benefit from Alan's reading and thinking since he has launched a personal blog, Last Clear Chance.

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August 10, 2006

Web 2.0

How cool would it be if the local newspapers syndicated their headlines with an RSS feed so that you could subscribe to them? And blogged "live" from government meetings? And posted dozens of photos (all the ones that didn't make it in this week's paper) on a Flickr account, especially if there was breaking news? OK, we're biased because we want them to do it so that we can feed the headlines, blog posts and photos onto our own Darien Community Matters blog, providing the most balanced, accurate and up-to-date information possible. And I guess that you could say that we're becoming Web 2.0 missionaries..... because we (that's me and Assistant Director Melissa Yurechko) invited Josh Fisher, editor of the Darien Times over to discuss it, as the first of a series of meetings with the local news media.

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August 09, 2006

Dude, You've got a Dell

Today, we received 38 new computers replacing the tired old ones that keep crashing. All of these computers were purchased with funds from the Annual Campaign for the Darien Library, and will go with us to the New Library in 2008. So enjoy better computing soon as we unpack and install our new machines...
and that's Alan Gray, our head of technology and planning, not Ben Curtis....

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Plus ca change

Technology planned for the new Library, such as self check out and automated material handling, will allow our friendly staff to spend more time with our customers, talking about books. "Readers Advisory", a staple of public libraries in the past, is making a comeback across the country, as more libraries free their staff from standing behind desks and get them out on the floor talking books with readers. In preparation for an expanded role in the new library, our own staff of insatiable readers recently honed their readers advisory skills at a workshop in Middletown, and returned with lots of enthusiam and ideas. Watch for new booklists from Lois, Jen, Priscella, Alison, Ruth, Marianne and Emily!

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July 22, 2006

DeweyDarien

Dewey Darien the Library Heron

Who named the library heron? We did! DeweyDarien is now our screen name for IM (instant message) reference. And he's just waiting for your questions... so fire away! We have other ideas for using DeweyDarien as the library mascot..... and would love to hear yours.

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P & Z

What do Bob Harrel, Enid Oresman, Brian Peoples, Mary Bennett, Parker Buckles and Jeff Annecchino have in common? They were all in the audience at the P & Z hearing last week. An enthusiastic crowd of 30 friends, staff and trustees supported Bruce Hill's presentation for the New Darien Library. Thank you to everyone who attended! Bruce would like you to come to all his presentations.....

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July 21, 2006

Road Show

Michael and Jenny gave me the push I needed. Darien Library staff were joined by librarians from all over the state to hear Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens discuss Web 2.0 and easy new ways to make our library even MORE customer friendly, with new technologies. Judy has details and photos on the Info Tech blog. I was inspired to open a Flickr account, aggregate my favorite web sites with RSS feeds and at long last, start the Directors BLOG.

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