RPL @ PLA (Public Library Association) 2008

Rochester sent a large contingent of library staff to attend this year's Public Library Association meeting held at the Minneapolis Convention Center. This four-day (or five-day if you came for pre-conference) event showcased some of the best and brightest that the library world has to offer.

In addition to the hundreds of vendors on the convention center floor (selling more than we could possibly ever buy, but would like to), there were classes held on seemingly every library topic under the sun (except the card catalog - some of you are experiencing a sigh, others a sigh of relief).

Representatives from Reference, Administration, Circulation, Reader Services, Technical Services and Children's all took in various sessions to learn how to be better public libraries. And collected a veritable smorgasbord of bags, books, pens and other giveaways for prizes, thank you gifts and whatnot.

During the opening ceremony, several different people (visiting from other states) kept on remarking about how cold it was here. Every single one seemed to. Repeatedly. Okay: One, the temperature is above freezing and it's just lovely. Two, we get it. It is colder here than where you're from. We really get it. But we're not holding the conference in a tent outside or making you go out to hunt your own food in the arctic tundra, so get over it. Thus endeth the rant.

Cold weather aside, the folks at the conference were very friendly, and had lots of great ideas for us to mull over back in Rochester. Changes in the library world have been and continue to be sweeping, and RPL does not want to be caught resting on its laurels. Many of the cutting edge ideas that our colleagues presented at PLA were already being implemented (or are in the planning stages) including "roving" reference service, better signage, downloadable audio, video, and music, and much more. You'll be seeing more in the weeks and months to come

AskMN 24/7 Reference is coming!

What is "AskMN" you might ask? If we said that it was a statewide virtual reference initiative, would you stop reading because that's some mighty boring jargon? In that case (for those who are still reading), let's say that it's reference assistance from a real librarian 24/7 (twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week - not the much awaited Kiefer Sutherland show "24", Season 7). If you can type it, we will answer.

Rochester is getting in at the ground floor of the AskMN project which involves several libraries across the state providing reference service all day and all of the night (and a small royalty check to the Kinks for using that phrase).

Great, you say. When can I use this service? The best answer is soon. We are running vigorous clinical and psychological trials as we speak to work out the bugs (and learn the software) and we hope to launch sometime this spring. As soon as we're live, we'll blog about it and you can start sending us your questions.

Speaking of questions, you might be wondering how Rochester Public Library (or the other MN libraries in the group) are going to staff reference 24 hours a day. Did some of the RPL staff move to Sydney, Australia to cover the overnight hours ? (Not a bad idea, but incorrect.) No, your beloved RPL staff (and also beloved, but more distant MN libraries staff) will only be covering some of the time during our normal operating hours. If you get up at 3:00AM and need to know something, you may be talking to an expert librarian Down Under, but you will be talking to a librarian.

Exciting? Yes. Keep posted to find out more.