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(And not just 1000 views, but 1000 in a single month.) On Feburary 7th, I set up a new stat counter as the original one was not capturing data as it should. How ironic that today of all days we hit that 1000 mark! We are freaking out at reaching this milestone so quickly. Thanks to everyone for all their support and friendship. Go Musers!

The first Coretta Scott King Award for outstanding book for children and young adults by an African American author was presented in 1970. The award for illustrators was added in 1974. The 2008 CSK Awards were presented this week - congratulations to all winners! Looking into my database on past CSK selections for winner, honor, and new talent awards, the following stats appear: 36.8% of

Since 1970 the CSK Award winner and honor awards have been presented to 231 persons. (Note, where two or more won an award, I've classified as Couple.) 62% total author awards, 38% illustrator awardsWomen represent 69% of the author awards presented and 50% of ALL awards presented Men represent 75% of the illustrator awards presented and 43% of ALL awards presentedWorking in teams - or the

We talk a lot about what works in libraries, but our decentralized nature makes real data collection sometimes difficult and often onerous. This article, which I am still plowing through, came to me in the mail via the Sandy Berman Monthly Envelope o’ Stuff. It’s written by Douglas Galbi who is a sort of library fanboy but also a senior economist at the FCC and from what I can tell, a pretty smart guy. So, read Book Circulation per US Public Library User since 1856 and then click around a little to see what else is on Douglas’s library analysis page. Then, if you’re still intrigued, go check out his blog where you can check the latest issue of Carnival of the Bureacrats and especially enjoy the video of him talking to an older gentleman about why he doesn’t have high-speed internet access. I find it hard to believe there are other library fanatics out there who videotape their conversations with octogenarians and then blog about it, but there you go. Enjoy.

Rochelle links to a survey done by the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (pdf) which looks at how library users and non-users look at library services across the state of Wisconsin. It also compares results this year with results from the same survey four years ago, so looking at the trends is also revealing. The report is about twenty pages long and worth a pretty good scan. I have a few comments on the survey and the results.

First off, I am the typical “most likely to use the library” user according to this survey. Late 30s, female, comfy with computers and a regular internet user. And, guess what, I use the library all the time! Secondly, the survey puts people into user and non-user groups based on how they answer the question “Which of the following terms best describes how regularly you personally use your public library?” If you answer rarely or never, you’re a non-user. If you answer very or somewhat regularly, you’re a user. I assume there is a decent reason to do this, but I’d think even if you went to a library a few times a year, I’d consider that a rare user but also not a non-user.

One of the most interesting parts of the survey results is on page 16 entitled “New Initiatives” where they ask about how interested patrons are about using some new technology initiatives. To me they are asking all the wrong questions (mostly about content, less about context). They ask a lot of questions about downloadable content, which makes sense since the library probably has to shell out money for these things and wants to figure out if they’re worth it. However, they also ask about 24/7 librarian access and IMing a librarian and also find that people tend towards the “slightly disinterested” side. In fact the only new technology initiative that got anything that fell towards the positive side was wireless internet access. I wish they’d asked more questions about computers generally. Do people want more classes? Do they want more Macs? Do they want more public access PCs?

The next fascinating page follows: what would make you use the library more. The two runaway favorite answers are “If it were open more hours” and “If it had more CDs/DVDs/videos that I wanted” This will definitely be helpful for libraries who are facing funding drives since they can direct appeals appropriately, but I’m curious how the hours question breaks down. Do people want late night hours (as I do), or morning hours, or consistent hours, or weekend hours, what? Similarly, the difference between people wanting more classical music CDs (or any music CDs if your library doesn’t have a music collection) is worlds away from wanting popular movie DVDs.

Lastly, I’d like to point to the Internet question which was sort of glossed over. Of all the people surveyed 26% had no Internet at home and 23% only had dial-up. That’s nearly half the respondents having a level of connectivity at home where a downloadable audiobook is worth basically nothing to them, and likely a group that doesn’t spend a lot of time online. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t still stress technology initiatives, but that’s a pretty sobering takeaway when you’re trying to provide more and more services online.

The summary from the group that did the survey has an odd, to me, conclusion.

So, this information presents a juncture: On one hand, if you interpret the results literally you could make a decision to reject technology and focus on building a collection around personal enjoyment for Wisconsin residents. On the other hand, these same results may suggest that initiatives and library services need to be marketed in such a way that resonates with current conceptions of a public library. To this end, I would suggest an exploration of branding Wisconsin library services to more effectively market services. But, regardless of the direction taken from the juncture, a heightened focus on Wisconsin public library customers and customer service is essential in order to expand and maintain your current brand loyalty.

Do they realy think that the solution to getting more people to perceive value from the libraries technology initiatives is to just find a more effective way to market them? Aren’t there questions they could have asked about the services that would have helped nail this down more effectively such as “Are you aare that the library offers downloadable audio books?” “Do you use this service, why or why not?”

As I’ve said before, I think that before we can fully immerse ourselves in a 2.0 initiative as librarians, we have to make sure we’re counting the right things. If you only collect internal statistics on reference interactions that happen in-person or on the phone, it’s no wonder that IM reference seems like a “flavor of the month” thing for the library to do. And, after the fact, if you can’t show that people are really using the new techie things that you do provide it’s harder to stress that those things that should be part of what your library is and does. Many of these things are countable — website stats, flickr photostream views, IM interactions — the question is: are we counting them?

Shock Point has been cited as a book that appeals to struggling readers. It's aimed at kids 12 and up, yet the reading grade level is 5.2.

This article says, "Advocates of high interest/low vocabulary books argue that getting reluctant or struggling readers to practice reading is essential ... In creating such materials careful attention must be paid to constructing a work that will not only keep the readers' interests (and not appear too babyish) ... [The] essential characteristics of a good high interest/low vocabulary book:

- Compelling storyline and credible characters
- Topics and issues with which readers can make personal or emotional connections
- Supportive formatting that includes illustrations and appropriate text placement on the page
- Careful introduction and reinforcement of difficult vocabulary and concepts
- Straightforward plot development
- Simple sentence structures"

Do I write this way on purpose for kids? I don't think so. My last adult book came in at a 5.8 grade level. It's probably the influence of my day job, where I often try to translate the CEO's memos into something everyone from the housekeeper to the neurosurgeon would understand. The CEO's first drafts always come in at 12th grade level [Full disclosure: and they would come in at post-grad level if the program measured that high.] With luck, I can get them down to 8th without completely rewriting them.

How does your own writing compute? If you use Microsoft Word, you can go under "Tools" chose "Spelling and grammar" and then under options check the readability index box. To bring the number down, use shorter words and shorter sentences. The formula doesn't think about how difficult the words are, just how many syallables they have. "He smelled a fug. Could it get any worse than this?" and "He felt a tug. Could it get any worse than this?" have the exact same score, although many people don't know the word "fug." [Full disclosure: a wonderful word, IMHO.]

For many books, Amazon has a wonderful feature under "Inside this book" called "text stats." You can see how many words a book has, the grade reading level, all kinds of things, plus comparisions to other types of books. Wondering how many words are inside a book you see as a role model, or what the reading level is? Now you can compare.





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