Trustee Institute

The Keynote Speaker at the Trustee Institute was Karen Hyman. Karen is the Executive Director of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative. She has delivered the keynote at the institute before and will be the featured presenter at CLP's multi-district workshop April 21 (you all have a flyer--it is yellow).

Karen calls them as she sees them and does so to get her message across. Board members may not "get" her--especially if they are "new" to libraries or library "traditionalists".

The part of her talk that made the biggest impact with me was that "we can't stop the cultural shifts that are occuring": texting, iPhone, Facebook, Myspace, drinking Starbucks everywhere... People want to eat & drink everywhere, why can't they in the library? They are anyways--you just aren't "catching" them. And, you can guarantee that they are eating, drinking, taking a bath--with their library! So, why not in the library...

Her talk was titled: 12 Questions for 2009. I will copy her handout for everyone's delivery, but just to think on, here are her 12 questions:

1. Do you think this is OK?
2. How do you know something at the library needs to change?
3. What's your story?
4. What's your brand?
5. How do people experience your library?
6. Why are you so mean?
7. Is your space holding you back?
8. In a world supersaturated with obligations and choices...why would someone pick you?
9. Why don't you do [something else]?
10. How do you serve kids?
11. Why don't I know what you're doing?
12. What's the most fun thing you've done lately?

And, here are her "5 things you can start today":

1. Look for societal shifts that impact on what your customers and potential customers may care about today. Put yourself in that picture.
2. Tailor your message and provide a look and experience that matches the library you want to be.
3. Look for easy and elegant solutions that you're missing right now and try a few.
4. Remember that marketing is always about THEM. Is yours?
5. Believe that greatness is a possibility and a continuing adventure. Have fun while you are looking for it.

A friend recently connected me with someone at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library in North Carolina. His title is: Director of Library Experiences! How cool is that!?

And, as Karen Kern says--EVERYTHING is experiential. How would someone define their experience at your library?