18 posts tagged “books and reading”

(Crossposted from my professional blog, The Gypsy Librarian).

I will be heading out to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. This is a quick note to let my three readers know that blogging here will pretty much pause until next year. It is also a chance to wish all of you out there a merry and safe holiday season, whatever the holiday you choose to celebrate. Please, I beg of you folks, if you drink, do not drive. If you drive, please put the cellphone down and pay attention to the road. We do not need unnecessary tragedies this season or just a bad situation on the road. In fact, two days ago, we had an 8 car or so pile-up in South Broadway Avenue (the area I live in), and it was basically due to a combination of tailgating and impatience. Please, be careful out there. Have a good time. Peace to all.

In the meantime, I have done my traditional holiday posting. You can find my holiday posts over at The Itinerant Librarian. So go on, stop by, and be amused for a while.

• "The Opening Salvo." Trivia, facts, and things to amuse and entertain you.
  
• "You are still NOT done shopping?" Plenty of ideas and advice on shopping, with a little humor. Of course, if you are not done yet, maybe you should read this later and hop to it.
  
• "The Reader's Edition." Stuff about books and reading. I am a librarian, what did you expect? There had to be something about books and reading.
  
• "Where we look at what the hell happened last year." My version of the obligatory annual end of year summary. I think mine is better.

This is mostly a small link dump for a post I am may write for our library blog about the Nobel Prizes. In addition to writing about the recent awards announced, I have spotted a couple of items out there that may be of interest as well.

• Here is something on what happens to some of the Nobel laureates who have to go back to work. Just because you won the prize, it does not follow you are rich and get to retire. Far from it. (via Bookninja). 
• From the Nobel website, "What Did the Nobel Laureates Read When They Were Young?" I am thinking that the books listed here would make a good library display as well. (via Resource Shelf).
  

Also, I need to check and see if the winners may have books out or books written about them or their work that we may have in our collection; this information can then be added to the post later as well.

Update note (Same day):

Here are a couple of stories on this year's Nobel laureate in literature, Herta Mueller. A lot of the attitude was "wtf is Herta?" as conveyed by the news stories. I will admit that I had not heard of her, but then again, there are a few other Nobel laureates in literature (and other fields) I had never heard of before I read about them winning the award, and I certainly did not go out of my way to be dismissive. Instead, I wanted to learn more. Why some, especially Americans, feel a need to poo poo an accomplishment like this is beyond me. Seems like a display of ignorance, and then they wonder why the rest of the world has a negative opinion. The stories:

• Literary Saloon has a small summary with links. 
• The Times has a piece on "Why have we never heard of these Nobel authors?" which looks a bit at the judges. 

As I have done before, this post is just a listing of postings discussing books I would like to read at some point. It is meant mostly to help me keep track of stuff I would like to read and remind me why it is I want to read it. Unless noted otherwise, I try to link the book titles to WorldCat. And they are not listed in any particular order.

• Gaye Tuchman, Wannabe U.: Inside the Corporate University (link to publisher page). Discussed here in Inside Higher Ed. 
• The Dalai Lama, The Leader's Way. Discussed here in Grassroots Innovation. 
• Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold. This fantasy novel is discussed here in Blogging for a Good Book.
  
• John Scalzi has a good opinion of this author in his blog Whatever. The author is David Anthony Durham, and he writes fantasy. 
• I tend to be fairly skeptical about leadership books geared to business types. They seem formulaic overall. But this one, Jason Hennings's Hit the Ground Running, was mentioned in the Anecdote blog here. Since I have a good opinion of the Anecdote guys, I am willing to consider the book. 
• I tried getting this one via Interlibrary Loan a while back, but apparently it was too popular at the time for libraries to lend it to our library for me to read. I may have to try again at some point, though to be honest, I am getting a bit tired of reading about religious fundamentalists in this country yet again. As much as I believe in "knowing your enemy," I am not sure I can read one more. However, this book, Jeff Sharlet's The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, is discussed by Dr. Myers at Pharyngula. So that's a good enough reason for me to put it on my list of books to read, even if it might give me nightmares as Dr. Myers suggests. (Update note: 10/12/09: Found an interview with Sharlett in AlterNet that looks good).
  
• Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito series is young adult, but it sounds interesting. It comes recommended by Guys Lit Wire, who say that the novels are "set in a vividly depicted fantasy world, full of action and mystery and the supernatural, these two books are probably unlike most stories you've read. And they're very well-written, to boot." Two books in the series available so far: Guardian of the Spirit and Guardian of the Darkness. For some odd reason, my library ordered the second one, but not the first one. I may have to order the first one on ILL then.
  
• The folks at Guy's Lit Wire are also pointing to a reprint of the classic by Rex Warner Men and Gods: Myth and Legends of the Ancient Greeks, now with illustrations by Edward Corey. In my younger days, I would devour mythology books like Bullfinch and Hamilton. The Warner books sounds appealing. 
• And the guys are on a roll, also recommending Matthew Polly's American Shaolin and they talk about Lobster Johnson and Conan the Barbarian over here. 
• Ryan Grim's This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America. Find review here at Shelf Awareness. 
• William Lobdell's Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace. This sounds a bit better than Sharlet's work. Pharyngula mentions it here. Dr. Myers listened to the author speak on the work. Makes me wish I was there.
  
• Peter Lance's Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI. It was mentioned in Library Juice here. If nothing else, from the comments that post generated, including the book's author and one of the U.S. Attorneys from the district the author criticizes, the book may be worth a look.
• Toni Morrison brings us Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word. It is a collection of essays exploring the issue of censorship and literature. LISNews mentioned it here.
  
• Michael Krondl's The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice. It is reviewed here in Cooking With Ideas. 
• Another for the LIS list: Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship by Shiraz Durrani. Mentioned in Library Juice here, as it is one of their books.
  
• By Mark Schultz, The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA certainly sounds interesting. It is reviewed by the folks at Guys Lit Wire here. A simple description is that this is a graphic novel about DNA.
  
• Again for the LIS list, Information Skills for Education Students. It is mentioned in the Information Literacy Weblog here. This is for students studying education. It sounds like something that I have to read, and that I should probably try to get for our library as well.
  
• Phil Zuckerman's Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment. This sounds interesting too. Pharyngula mentions it here. 
• This may or not be for reading pleasure, but it sounded interesting. I find that I am gradually building a small collection of books about drinks and cocktails. I am referring to recipe books, though I like reading some histories on the topic as well. Anyhow, the folks at Liquor Snob mention the book Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be by Natalie Bovis-Nelsen. It's a book of virgin cocktail recipes.
  

And there, there are some reading lists and bibliographies to look over:

• Resource Shelf links to a "Pre-Deployment Afghanistan Reading List. (link goes to a PDF). The list is from the U.S. Joint Forces Command. Actually, Resource Shelf has also pointed to a nice set of  "Professional Military Reading Lists" from the Combined Arms Research Library. And yes, there is more than just manuals. There are some good choices on current affairs in the lists.
  
• The Daily Beast has compiled a list of books President Obama has been spotted reading since the campaign trail. This can make a good book display as well. We did a book display on books that inspired President Obama at our library.I am thinking I may bring that display down and put books from the new list after I check and see which books we may have.
  
• Meredith Farkas of Information Wants to be Free has a bunch of LIS related books to read.LIS Literature is not exactly pleasure reading, but I do read a good amount of it for professional reasons. 

Update Note: 10/12/09:

• Barbara Ehrenreich discusses the deception of positive thinking her new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

Our big event in September at my workplace was the Banned Books Readout, part of our celebration of Banned Books Week. We have been doing it for seven years, and this would have been my third year doing it. We, namely me, made the decision to cancel the event. And no, it was not due to some picket or protest. In our case it was a combination of certain workplace "politics," which I would rather not discuss now, and a serious case of campus apathy where we just could not get enough readers to read.

At any rate, it pained me to make the decision, but given the lack of interest, I had no choice. What I would like to do now with this post is collect a series of links related to Banned Books Week. This is mostly for reference purposes. We, again namely me, put up a small book display related to Banned Books Week; I will be taking a photo of it for my Flickr at some point.

The links:

• The Effing Librarian, irreverent as ever, reminds us that "we need to remember that the act of challenging a book is just as important a freedom as defending free speech against that challenge." Not something that I automatically agree with, since a lot of challengers are not exactly the well-intentioned person with a reasonable objection, but some fundie nutjob wanting to impose his/her morals on the rest of us. Again, my answer to the challengers? Don't like the book, leave it on the shelf. And yet, if we are to be fair, we do have to provide for the appeals mechanisms, or else, we are no better than they are. To me, it is something that is not as easy as it sounds, but I try to be fair.
  
• Julia Keller at Pop Matters writes about the "Secret Lives of Book Banners."
  
• Jessamyn West had a very thoughtful look at Banned Books Week, asking if it is still meaningful? Some good points and food for thought.
  
• Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite writers, comments on Banned Books Week briefly. 
• Here is a story in Leesburg, Florida of another town segregating a collection due to pressure from parents and church leaders. When people say there is banning and challenges, this helps illustrate the issue. Because heaven forbid parents actually take care of their children instead of imposing their will on everyone else.
  
• The "saga" in Leesburg, FL continues, as we get "More Vulgarity Discovered at the Leesburg Public Library." Various links, some discussion. From Bookshelves of Doom. 
  
• Resource Shelf has a post on resources for Banned Books Week. 
• The Wall Street Journal weighs in by basically saying there is no censorship. If your library bans or removes a book, tough luck. Go buy it. Spoken like the capitalists that they are. Or you can look at it as another case of "I've got mine, Jack."
  
• Bookshelves of Doom point to a post about author Ellen Hopkins having her books pulled out of a school library and a visit by her cancelled. 
• The Annoyed Librarian falls along with The Wall Street Journal crowd here. Often, the AL gets it right, but on this one, I think she (I assume it is a she) simply misses the issue entirely. Oops, actually, she was confused and wrote about "Band Books" on that post, but here is the "actual" post about "Banned Books."
  
• The Library Law Blog has a short interview with Amy Sonnie, who had her book, Revolutionary Voices, banned (yes, actually banned) by the Texas Youth Commission. Sounds like a book I need to buy for my collection. 
• Even in Puerto Rico, they have to deal with issues of censorship, as reported in Global Voices. 

I did this once before, and it seems to be a good way to keep track of books I may want to read as well as some of the places that have discussed those books. I am a reader who likes keeping lists of items to read, so here we go then.

• Here is a "Batman Variety Pack" from the folks at Guys Lit Wire. From their lists, I already read Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, which I liked. That book is listed on my GoodReads list. Look under the tag for graphic novels and comics once you get there. Also from the same folks, a post about the Best American Comics series. I have seen the titles, but I never gave them much thought; after all, I already read an annual series for science fiction, and I read comics as I get to them. I may go take a second look now; it could be a good way to get a sampling of what is out there in American comics.
  
• From the Literary Saloon, an announcement that El pais de la canela won the Premio Internacional Romulo Gallegos. This is a reminder for me to keep up with my Latin American reading. The blog notes that the novel is not available in English yet, but for me, that is not a problem. Spanish is just fine.
  
• From LISNews, a couple of links about Street Lit. This is not a genre that is in much demand here, but I may need to take a look at one item at least sometime to keep my "RA cred," so to speak.
  
• From Likely Stories, a post about "Webcomics and the art of avoiding work," which looks at some of the nominees for the Eisner Award in 2009.
  
• From Blogging for a Good Book, there is a suggestion to read Touch Me, I'm Sick: The 52 Creepiest Love Songs You've Ever Heard. Just for the title alone I knew I had to add it to my reading list.
  
• Seattle Dan, doing a guest posting at Jesus' General, has some current affairs suggestions under that blog's Department of Book Reports. And here is Seattle Dan's book report on Gods, Gachupines, and Gringos.
  
• And here are the Dirty Librarian's book reads for April 2009. I always like to see what this blogger has read in terms of graphic novels and manga. Here are her March 09 readings.
  
• Not books, but this is still stuff I want to get around to reading. The Eclectic Librarian offers a list of "Webcomics I think you should be reading." From the list, I already read Questionable Content, Unshelved, and Shelf Check.
  
• From Feminist SF--The Blog, some notes on items out of Fantasy Magazine, including some Latin American speculative fiction.
  

This could also be a list of items I may want to build library displays upon at a later date. But, for now I am simply labeling it as a post listing books I would like to read at some later date.

• Some materials to read to honor Holocaust Rememberance. Though in some future point, I can see where we could make a display for the library on the topic, the post does provide some ideas on readings about the topic other than the usual things. 
• OK, these are not print books, but it is still reading. Eclectic Librarian gives a list of webcomics that are must-reads. I will have to check some of those out at some point. 
• From Stephen's Lighthouse, recommending a book called The Incident Report, about libraries and those patrons that cause incidents in our buildings. As of this writing, the book is not released yet. So this is more of a to read once it is out kind of thing. 
• Review of the book An Unlikely Disciple, about student who went undercover to Liberty University. Via The Daily Beast. This may be similar to that book I read about the professor going back to college a while back, My Freshman Year. See my booknote on that one here. 
• Guys Lit Wire offered a couple of ideas of what to read after watching the Watchmen movie (besides reading the graphic novel that started it all). 
• The dudes above also recommend the graphic novel Cairo. I do have that one on my TBR list. 
• Joyce Valenza points to the book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. This sounds like something educators should be reading overall. At times I surprise myself that I became an avid reader considering that my school years pretty much did their best to ruin the reading experience for me. But that could be a whole other post.
  
• Review of A Great Idea at the Time, about the Great Books program. Via The National. 
• From The Texas Observer, review of Tales for Little Rebels: a Collection of Radical Children's Literature. Sounds like the type of stuff not many around here would be interested in, but it sounds like a very cool book to me. 
• I had no idea there was a book on the history of the bagel, but Slate has a review of it here. 
• Liberty Street gives a short recommendation to read Benazir Bhutto's book Reconciliation.
  

As I look at the above, there are some pretty ambitious titles on the list. I am not sure if and when I will get to any of these, but I don't want to forget them.

I am always looking for new ideas for library displays. I do use some holiday observances as basis for displays. For instance, this April we did activities around National Poetry Month as well as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. But once in a while I like things that are different. The whole brouhaha over Amazon's "glitch" that excluded a bunch of LGBT titles made for a lot conversation in Twitter and the blogs. Notice I put the "glitch" in parenthesis because I do wonder how much of it was an honest mistake and how much of it was a case of "let's see if we can get away with something and no one notices." But the whole thing has been pretty much rehashed just about everywhere. Here are some links to give a sampling of the mess:

• An Amazon statement from the PR people. Via LISNews.
  
• NPR says Amazon will fix the problem. 
• Shelf Awareness reporting on Amazon's deranking of books. They provide specific book titles, and this inspired the idea of a book display for me. 
• The New York Times chimed on the error. 
• Even the comic strip Shelf Check took a crack at the Amazon fiasco. I am printing that one for my office door. 

Anyhow, I was thinking a small educational display, where we could explain what the issues were as well as include some books on LGBT topics, would be a good idea. If we had a book or two about Amazon as well (like a few on this list. By the way, finding books about Amazon itself on Amazon is not as easy as it sounds).

So, what are some of the titles that Amazon was failing to find? Here is a small list, which I could use to make the display:

•  Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
• Little Birds: Erotica by Anais Nin
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominque Bauby
• Maurice by E.M. Forster
• Becoming a Man by Paul Monette

Anyhow, just another idea for later. What I am really interested in is the display idea. The issue itself, while important, is not something I want to dwell on, even though as a librarian I should think about the implications of the monopolistic juggernaut that Amazon is building. But things like that often get beaten to a pulp by the more prominent bloggers, both in and out of my profession, so we shall move on for now.
 

One of the things I wish I could be is fluent in a few more languages. I am bilingual, but I wish I could be fluent (or at least read) in some more languages just so I could experience some of the great works of world literature in their original. OK, I will also admit that it is not just for the high literature. For instance, I would love to learn Japanese just so I could read mangas in the original. Anyhow, since I am only fluent in two languages, it means I have to read the rest of the stuff in translation. Sadly, there is a lot of good stuff out there that does not make it to the United States, or simply it does not make it into English at all. The two small articles I am linking now show us a different perspective: what happens when literary works do not make it in translation in other nations. Here are a couple of examples:

• Here is one on reading in Vietnam. Apparently, young people there have an interest in reading foreign works. One work they want to read: Indian author Vikas Swarup’s Q&A (the basis for the movie Slumdog Millionaire).
  
• Here is one on reading in India.
  
• Here are three on Spanish works; now these I can read in the original, and I do. Here is a note on Roberto Ampuero of Chile and another one on Tomas Eloy Martinez of Argentina. Here, Carlos Fuentes reviews Eloy Martinez's work (this review is in Spanish). The third one is on Bolaño, author of 2666, this time about another work of his: Nazi Literature in the Americas. 2666 is on my to read list, but right now, I am in the middle of rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude (yes, in Spanish), so it may be a while.
  

Of course, another challenge for me is time. Even when I can find good translations, finding the time to read them can be a challenge. Then again, it does mean I will not be without a good book to read anytime soon. And that may be a good thing--having reading choices. 

A hat tip to The Literary Saloon.

I have recently seen a few pieces here and there about the concept of a personal library. When I moved out of Houston to take my current job, I had to do a major weeding of my book collection. For one, it was for practical purposes: we could only carry so much given it was just the better half and me doing the move. Two, we did not have a lot of space in the new place. Three, I had not weeded for a while. Anyhow, I have been pondering writing some kind of post about having a personal library and what kind of items would be essential. As usual, I don't have a lot of time to write it fully, so I am just making some notes here for later.

Here are the items that stimulated my thinking:

• From Britain's The Guardian's Books Blog, not quite about a personal library, but this piece on "Getting remaindered is not the end of the line" got me thinking. I do buy a lot of my books as remainders when I can. Obviously it is cheaper for starters. And two, often I can get the hardback instead of the paperback. However, I tend to be selective when it comes to my books, and sometimes a paperback is fine. It depends on the book, etc. Anyhow, this article did give me some food for thought, plus it has a couple of interesting links. I may have to add the Books Blog to my feed reader at some point too.
  
• Donald Altschiller, writing for The Wall Street Journal, gives a small list of books essential to a reference library. This is the piece that prompted my thinking. I wanted to write a post with a list of my own, adding things not on the WSJ list, and make it a bit longer maybe. Still thinking on that one.
• The Freakonomics Blog asks as well which books have to be in your reference library.  
• Also writing for The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher explains why libraries are coming back in style. This refers to home libraries. This goes along, for me at least, with the fact I have my own workstation room at home. It does have my small library, but it is not TV free, and my small laptop. I get a good amount of writing and blogging done there. I set it up when I went to graduate school, and since then, every place we live, I have to have my own space for study. It's basically my writer's room. By the way, if you need some inspiration to make a writing room of your own, or you are just curious, The Guardian has a series on famous writers' rooms. Worth a look.
  
• Blake at LISNews asks which reference book would you like to see made into a movie. I just thought it would make a cool prompt. I will also admit that for at least one of the titles on Blake's list, it would have to be a porn film (or at least an erotica film). 

Anyhow, this is just an idea for now. Maybe later I will be able to make the essay or post I would like.

These are mostly my reading notes for Pete Blackshaw's Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000 (link to WorldCat record). This was definitely a pretty good read. Some of the points he makes are pretty much common sense, and there are some lessons here that I think are applicable to libraries. Blackshaw also provides a lot of stories and examples to illustrate his points.

The three truths that inform the book, according to the author:

1. "Businesses no longer hold absolute sway over the decisions and behaviors of consumers."
   
2. "The longer companies refuse to accept the influence of consumer-to-consumer communication and perpetuate the old ways of doing business, the more they will alienate and drive away their customers."
   
3. "To succeed in a world where consumers now control the conversation, and where satisfied customers tell three friends while angry customers tell 3,000, companies absolutely must achieve credibility on very front" (11). 

Now, as I am reading this book, I am asking myself how can this apply to libraries, especially in terms of marketing our brand as well as developing credibility with our consumers, in this case the faculty, students, and staff which make our academic community. There may be a thing or two to learn in here. The author addresses the use of blogs and social networks, but one has to keep in mind that a lot of the feedback generated in those places, which is part of what he labels Consumer Generated Media (CGM) is not going to the company, but to other people who could be potential customers. In other words, the companies (libraries) are often getting all sorts of bad publicity and feedback, and they are not even seeing it. And in the case where companies develop their own blogs, credibility becomes crucial. One has to be authentic, credible, reliable in keeping a corporate blog. Worse thing a company can do is have a fake blog or making it look like customers are generating the content when they are not. If you do that, you will be busted sooner or later by consumers who are very adept at detecting the bullshit. And I think a lot of this can apply to libraries that keep library blogs as well.

Author defines four types of key CGM generators. The techno teen sounds pretty much like the stereotype of the eternally plugged-in teen that the technolibrarians love to promulgate. Nothing new there. However, the Gadget Guy caught my attention. One of the Gadget Guy's key attributes:

"The Gadget Guy is also a search engine animal. He'll search, research, and analyze every topic, from health and medical issues to electronics, entertainment, video games, pet products, computers, telecommunications, and more. And because he's so tech savvy, he knows how to track down most information available, then add his own input" (55).

On the one hand, I kind of question how truly analytical this guy is. On the other hand, if you read that definition closely, that is pretty much the description of what a good librarian in this day and age should be: able to track down any information, analyze it, make sense of it, and then put in his own input. By the way, that's a lot of what information literacy is about. Notice though they did not label it IL.

Another idea is to keep track of what others may be saying about your business (in my case, the library) online. If I recall correctly, Tame the Web had a short post on searching up your library on a search engine to see what is out there about your library. I checked ours for curiosity on Google, and I did not find much that was substantial. Once you got past links to our library pages, the library blog, and some campus pages, other than the Wikipedia page for UT Tyler, which mentions the library, nothing much. To be perfectly honest, this town is just not the demographic of people who go online and post a review every time they use some online service. I am not saying it as a bad thing; it's just the way it is. Now, I am sure the students might mention us on Facebook, so I do keep an eye on that when I can.

Blackshaw goes on to discuss how businesses can measure CGM. He writes about businesses starting blogs initially as ways to learn how the process works. Technorati is mentioned as a tool for searching blogs, but personally, I am not placing as much stock in Technorati as I used to. For one, in a few times the site has either been too slow or just literally down, making it not too reliable for searching. I can always do a blog search on Google; their blog search is not too bad. There is mention of BlogPulse and IceRocket, which I admit at this moment that I have to look over sometime. But regardless of the tool, searching out what blogs are saying is important.

Blackshaw also defines and discusses key metrics that businesses should measure when measuring CGM. The list, found on page 70, is:

• Volume: How many comments are there about your company?
  
• Reach: What is the depth of exposure? How widely are the comments viewed by others?
  
• Issue: What specific issues are being discussed?  
• Sentiment: To what extent are messages favorable or unfavorable?
  
• Emotion: How do consumers feel about your company?
  
• Dispersion: How viral is the issue or conversation? 
• Source: Where is the conversation ocurring?
  
• Author: Who is the source? Are his or her comments credible?
  

Volume and reach may be a bit much for a small library like us. On the one hand, we can certainly see how many comments the library's blog is getting, making the volume pretty low at the moment. What interests me more would be issue (what are they saying specifically), their sentiment, and their emotion. In a different scale, we are about to launch LibQual+ here (the big library survey), which measures a lot of perception about services and how students feel. This is different than CGM, but it measures some of the metrics listed above, which is why I mention it. However, LibQual+ does not capture CGM per se, but rather responses to a survey (a very good time) at a point in time. There is no ongoing conversation so to speak.

On the metric of emotion, this caught my eye:

"Emotion is central to word of mouth, and this is why companies need to understand and embrace consumers' emotional responses not only to their ad campaigns but also to their customer service, business practices, and products. Consumers reward not only brands that work and perform but companies that connect on an emotional level" (82).

Now I think is very applicable to libraries, especially to smaller libraries like mine where word of mouth is still crucial. It is important to connect on an emotional level to our patrons and users.

Being transparent is also important, and the importance of transparency has been discussed as well in various librarian blogs. Transparency helps to foster credibility. This also caught my eye, as I think it is a gutsy move, and one that libraries should not be afraid to keep in mind:

"It's okay to a consumer occasionally see a negative review about your brand on your own Web site; this transparency is more than compensated for the trust and loyalty it conveys. In the same way, a waiter who occasionally wrinkles his nose at a menu item will have more credibility when he encourages you to try a different entree; acknowledging criticism lends more credibility to the positive reviews" (94).

It may well be a matter of balance. Sure, let them see the positives for the most part, but if constructive criticism, which may be negative, comes around, let your users see it as well, and respond to it to show that you are acknowledging as well as acting upon it.

Blackshaw also talks about the importance of the website itself. Often, customers go to a corporate website to find company information first. For us, the website is basically a virtual location or branch, which makes it important to keep it relevant, up-to-date, and accessible. We just did a major redesign, and although we are running into some initial resistance (the "we liked it how it was" syndrome), we are starting to see some positive feedback. It is a work in progress. This definitely should apply to any library's website:

"A Web site needs to act like a trusted expert who is always there to serve needs, answer questions, provide directions, and offer advice" (109).

No one is saying we need to replace librarians with a website, but we certainly should be making our library websites so they serve as portals to information, so they serve our users needs, answer their questions, and direct them as needed to other services (say, a reference librarian) as needed. We need to make our sites authoritative. Right now, librarians on their blogs commonly bemoan how students go to Google for their information needs. Sure, many of them will likely continue to do so, but if we can make our websites be the authority, to be the portal they want to start on for their research, we may get a step ahead. Once you have the website, marketing and promotion becomes important as well as inviting your users to participate and interact with the site. On an interesting side note, Blackshaw tells stories of companies that make their websites fun or add interactive elements. Libraries, unfortunately, are afraid of such risk. For instance, placing a small avatar on a website in lieu of a photo. I have seen some librarians that do it for their personal blogs (I do it here), and some even do it on their presences for their library websites. It can generate a bit of talk with users for one, but if the library is more worried about "image," then the idea might not fly, and you probably have a lost opportunity. I think ideas like these may spark some conversation amongst librarians who may consider experimenting and trying to use a bit of fun to be more accessible. Just a thought. This also goes with the idea of making the website a listening platform, as Blackshaw suggests, tools for patrons, in our case, to be able to give us feedback. Blackshaw writes, "it's common sense that the easier it is for consumers to find the portion of the site that solicits feedback, the more likely they will be to utilize it" (112).

Other things I would like to remember:

• "The fact of the matter is, consumers will always trust the word of other consumers over the word of companies or marketers, because consumers are perceived as more objective and authentic. Luckily, thanks to all the new participatory Web 2.0 technologies, consumers can be part of the conversation right on your company Web site" (113-114). For one, we do have a library blog, and I also think we can, in time, exploit our LibGuides to serve a bit more as platforms where some community can be nurtured. I am toying with the idea of creating a Facebook page for the library, which Blackshaw says it's fine, but go beyond that by creating your own spaces. That is where our blog and our LibGuides can come in for starters.
  
• On corporate blogs: "The most credible corporate blogs include open privacy statements, clear definitions of acceptable user behavior (including commenting guidelines), and a steady stream of interesting and vibrant content. If content is just a rehash of corporate press releases or company news sanitized to the point that no life remains, bored readers will shy away" (115-116). This is part of being transparent and of having credibility, and applicable to libraries as well. Crucial to note that it is important to have fresh and new content regularly. What is not noted by Blackshaw, or often by librarian bloggers, is that generating the interesting and neat content does take time and effort. Contrary to what some non-blogging colleagues may think, for the librarian doing the blogging it is a continuous effort that includes research, keeping up, and writing. It is not a cruise or simply recreation. A library blog is not an extension of the local campus information office (they can do the sanitized news releases; those have a different purpose). A library blog is a tool not just to inform the users, but to build a community.
  
• You do need some balance on blogging: "However, a corporate blog that is too free-swinging and 'out there' runs the risk of being seen as unfocused. Corporate blogs must walk a fine line between being interesting and informative and not going too far off message" (116). Again, think of library blogs, which must also walk somewhat of a fine line. Now, I think library blogs, unlike corporate blogs, can be a little more free-swinging since that can help build some sense of community and connect with patrons at the emotional level as well as at their points of need. Walking the line takes some effort as well, but it can be well worth in terms of the rewards down the road.
  
• Your brand does have to work and deliver on what it says it does. Blackshaw points to Starbucks, which may have detractors, but in the end, they do well because people like their coffee. He writes, "and if you have a great brand or product, consumers will want to recommend it to other consumers" (124; emphasis in original). This should go without saying for us in libraries. All it takes is one library website where databases are not very accessible or hard to find, and your users are headed to Google. "If a product doesn't do what it is supposed to do, no fancy marketing or public relations spin can make up for it" (127). If a library, to use a random example, lacks an up-to-date and attractive book collection, no amount of marketing is going to make up for that fact. If that were the case, that library is already failing on what the brand, the library, is supposed to be delivering.
  

Overall, the main message of the book is that companies need to cultivate and maintain their credibility. They need to deliver on what they promise, and yes, their product has to work. Companies have to be transparent, but they also have to listen and be responsive. Some proactivity is also desirable. Though the book is geared to the business world, there are some valuable lessons here for libraries as well. This may be a good example of one of those outside of librarianship that librarians should read, especially for those librarians who work in public services and in areas promoting their libraries.