The Library 2.0 Process Toolkit

Internet Librarian 2007, MontereyDean Frey, Director

Red Deer Public Library

The Process Toolkit

• Web 2.0 technologies: a new level of interactivity in the Virtual World

• At the same time that libraries embrace these technologies, they are embracing new ways to engage people in the Face-to-Face World

The Process Toolkit

• Processes borrowed from the worlds of sociology, adult education and political science, but also from the marketing perspective

• How can the new technology and process toolkits be brought together to improve library service in your community?

Red Deer: Proxy CityAnytown, CanadaThe top 10 cities most closely resembling the country as a whole, according to Environics Analytics, July 20, 2007.

1. Red Deer, Alta. 2. Waterloo, Ont. 3. Guelph, Ont. 4. Kingston, Ont. 5. Kelowna, B.C. 6. Maple Ridge, B.C. 7. Grande Prairie, Alta. 8. London, Ont. 9. Calgary, Alta. 10.Langley, B.C.

www.cbc.ca/news/background/census/marketing.htmlwww.environicsanalytics.ca

Red Deer Public Library

• Serving Red Deer since 1914

• 2007 population of 85,705

• Two branches

• 45 FTE staff

• $4 million annual budget

Role of technology

• RDPL won the 2005 Canadian Library Association / Information Today Award for Innovation in Technology

• Digital divide strategies: public Internet access, Computer Lending Program

• Potential to engage new communities of interest

Technology Toolkit

• A highly-wired library– 60 staff workstations– 45 public access workstations– Fibre-optic network connecting the two

branches– Open wireless network– 100 Mb/s Public Internet gateway

Technology Toolkit

• Open source tools: Drupal for web development

• The webmaster’s toolkit: RSS, PHP, XHTML

• Audio-visual tools: HD video / audio studio & tools for a/v production & podcasting

Technology Toolkit

• Wired staff • Technical training• Marketing / community development

orientation

Community DevelopmentToolkit

• Community Development–Community Engagement–Action Research–Appreciative Inquiry

Community Development“Community development is about building active

and sustainable communities based on social justice and mutual respect.”

Based on values:– Social Justice– Participation– Equality– Learning– Cooperation

http://www.cdx.org.uk/about/whatiscd.htm

Community Development @ RDPL

• Focus on strengthening relationships between the Library and socially-excluded community members.

• Adding underserved market segments to our core market (middle-class kids + their parents)

Underserved Communities

• Began to seriously engage underserved market segments in the late 1990s

Seniors – Teens – Aboriginal Population – Low-Income Families – New

Canadians – Persons with Disabilities

• Using marketing tools & technology to reach each person in Red Deer

Community Development @ RDPL

“The mandate of Red Deer Public Library is to provide library service to every person in the community of Red Deer.”

Community Development@ RDPL

• 1999 Family Literacy Program• 2000 First Marketing Plan• 2005 Community Development

Consultant• 2006 Adult Literacy Program• 2006 Community Development

Librarian

Community Development@ RDPL

artsparks Project

• Engaging persons with developmental disabilities (PDD) through library-based arts programming

• Involving the entire community through a community development approach to planning

artsparks Project

• Persons with Developmental Disabilities• But also:

– Their families– Their workers– Artists– Arts organizations– PDD organizations– Other social service providers– The general public

artsparks Project

artsparks on the Boards:

– a Library-based theatre company

– Partnership with Treehouse Youth Theatre

artsparks Project

artsparks at the Library:• Performing & literary arts-based

programming• At the Library and in partners’ facilities

artsparks Project

• Integrates New Media and Internet technologies into its program delivery

• Video and audio from theatre and film-making projects on www.digitalreddeer.ca

• New artsparks web space at www.artsparks.org

Community Engagement

• In the UK, the MLA (Museums, Libraries & Archives) Council provides a broad range of Community Development tools on their website: www.mla.gov.uk

• Focus on planning, partnership development

Community Engagement

David Wilcox’s Ladder of Participation:

* Supporting independent community interests* Acting together

* Deciding together* Consultation

* Information

www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/ideas.htm

Election Forum

• Interactive online space for candidates in the October 15, 2007 Municipal Election

• Candidates for Mayor, Council, School Boards

• 2007 version more interactive than in 2004

• www.electionforum.ca

Election Forum

• Blogs for each candidate• Media blogs

– Print– Radio– TV

• Moderator’s blog– “Play nice!”

Election Forum

• Blogs for selected community members, representing– Seniors– Arts community– Persons with Developmental Disabilities– Downtown Business Association– Archives (history of Red Deer elections)– Former School trustee

Election Forum

• Semi-moderated comments– At first anonymous– Then required emails, which were verified

before posting comments• Based on the premise that comments

were about issues, not personalities• But this is politics…

Election Forum fall-outRed Deer Advocate - Oct 03 2007Election blog attacks anger DawsonBy ANDREA MILLER Advocate staff

Mayoralty candidate Jeffrey Dawson is accusing rival Morris Flewwelling of pestering him with annoying comments on his election blog.

But Flewwelling denies he had anything to do with posting the anonymous remarks.

Dawson said he was forced to block further comments on his blog at www.electionforum.ca on Tuesday because of the nuisance.Dawson said he received about 50 troublesome comments and questions, most in the last few days.

Some were seen as a personal attack.

Election Forum fall-outRed Deer Advocate - Oct 17 2007“Stability” wins

By LANA MICHELIN Advocate staff

In a race pitched as “change versus the status quo,” Red Deer voters chose to give the mayor they know - incumbent Morris Flewwelling - a second term in office. Flewwelling handily won another three years as mayor on Monday with 7,019 votes compared with the 5,704 votes garnered by his closest rival, former city councillor and businessman Jeffrey Dawson. …Flewwelling believes that Dawson, who accused Flewwelling of tampering with his online blog during the campaign, was seen as being too aggressive and confrontational.

“People don’t buy into that. The old hockey stick across the nose approach does not work.”

Community Engagement

David Wilcox’s Ladder of Participation:

* Supporting independent community interests* Acting together

* Deciding together* Consultation

* Information

www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/ideas.htm

Election Forum Pluses

• New friends on City Council, School Boards

• Community connections• Mainly positive experience managing a

civic forum• High profile in the media

Election Forum Pluses• Website hits

Action Research• An iterative

inquiry process that solves problems and gathers data at the same time

Center for Collaborative Action Research - cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/define.html

Action Research @ RDPL• Art Lending Program • Engaging local artists (emerging and

established)• Has gone through a number of iterations• Building a new circulating collection• Building Real World and virtual collections &

exhibits• Partnership with Red Deer Regional Hospital

Action Research @ RDPL

RDPL’s Art Lending Program in the online catalogue

ibistro.rdpl.org

Action Research @ RDPL

• RDPL’s visual arts exhibition program moves to the web

• Digital Red Deer – www.digitalreddeer.ca – a repository of media: audio, video, digital photography, digital exhibits

• Useful data for future projects

• Learning new processes (especially relating to evaluation) as we build new partnerships

Appreciative Inquiry

• Community development processes can inform internal planning as well as processes in the community

• AI is “…the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them.”

appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/definition.cfm

Appreciative Inquiry

• RDPL Project undertaken in 2006-07• The project engaged all staff & Library

Board members to find out what was best about our organization

Appreciative Inquiry@ RDPL

• Discovery: interviews with all Board members and staff – “the best of what is”

• Dream: a day to dream about “what we can become”

• Design: a team to co-create “what is our ideal”

• Delivery: planning on how we can empower, learn & improvise “innovating & sustaining”

Appreciative Inquiry@ RDPL

• Uses Drupal-based secure intranets to share information

• Board intranet at board.rdpl.org • Staff intranet at staff.rdpl.org

Culture Break…Monsier Jourdain:

Yes.

It’s prose?

Oh, really? So when I say: “Nicole bring me my slippers and fetch me my nightcap,” is that prose?

Well, what do you know about that! These forty years now, I've been speaking in prose without knowing it! How grateful am I to you for teaching me that!

Philosopher Master:

The way you speak?

Prose.

Decidedly.

Most clearly.

Timothy Mooney’s translation of Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme - www.moliere-in-english.com/bourgeois.html

Doing things purposely

“Sometimes it takes you a little while to realize what you did unconsciously, and then you can begin to do it purposely, and then it makes working very much simpler.”

- Howard Hawks to Peter Bogdanovich, “The Cinema of Howard Hawks”, Movie, no. 5, December 1962.

Face-to-Face & Web ToolkitsFace-to-Face Web toolsCommunity Development Internet ProtocolAction Research Open Source ToolsAppreciative Inquiry Web ToolkitCommunity Engagement 2.0 Tools

Web ProcessesContinuous Beta Pretty Good PracticesOpen Source CultureRapid Prototype DevelopmentCrowdsourcing / Continuous Design

Face-to-Face & Web @ RDPL

Face-to-Face WebLibrary programs & services www.rdpl.org

Library programs mezz.rdpl.orgkids.rdpl.orgseniors.rdpl.org

Conference Presentations, Web media: Programs, Visiting Authors www.digitalreddeer.ca

Face-to-Face & Web @ RDPL

Face-to-Face WebInternal interaction staff.rdpl.org

board.rdpl.org[secure intranets]

artsparks Arts Programming www.artsparks.org

[Red Deer’s Municipal Election] www.electionforum.ca

www.villalobos.ca

A final thought

“The main idea was to try and make every scene fun to look at….”

- Howard Hawks, on “The Big Sleep”

For more information

• Contact Dean Frey at dfrey@rdpl.org• Visit www.rdpl.org • Read the Library & the Community blog:

www.rdpl.org/community-blog

• Read Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.