#MLAOnline2021 Keynote Summary

I just had the great fortune to hear (live/online) Tony Zanders deliver the keynote address at the 2021 Metrolina Library Association's 2021 conference. Usually I would take detailed notes, but something right off the bat struck me that I need to hear more than analyze every word of what he had to say. I am glad I did. 

Mr. Zanders spoke about the difficult conversations needing to take place in libraries and addressed several I have discussed here. The first of which is taking ownership of the library and promoting it within the community we serve. As libraries, and Librarians, we need to be aggressive in our advocacy of our place in the community. I see this as the only why we survive in the 21st century. 

Secondly, there is a need for us highlight the impact libraries have on our community. In a recent presentation, I discussed the need to take hard stock of "cost per interaction" as leverage for funding. Libraries traditionally don't make money but we produce so very much. And at a very low cost. Getting down the the bare minimum of how much each patron interaction costs the library, then working on increasing the interactions to tip that balance while still doing it inexpensively, I think, is critical to libraries leveraging for more funding OR at the very least maintaining their current levels of funding. Simply put, if we produce more at the same costs, how much more can we produce with more funding. 

The final point of interest I took away was the notion of librarians personalizing their work within the goals of the library. I have said in a lot of interviews and in my positions of leadership that we need to maximize the personal talents of everyone on staff. My biggest complaints in my last position of leadership was that a) my talents were being wasted on minor details within my job description and b) my staff's talents were being wasted as well. There was no growth, and no real plan to grow the talents of the staff, and that led to stagnation of the staff and ultimate turn over rates that were appalling. Within the field, we need to let our staff grow and develop within the goals of the library, their own initiatives and education. If workers are no growing they are shrinking. Its as simple as that. 

I could not have agreed more with what our keynote said today. There needs to be some hard looks at what we in the library world are doing, and how we can improve. I know personally, I didn't get into libraries to do things as they have always been done. If I wanted that, I could have stayed in teaching. We need to develop and grow new methods and measures of staying relevant in our communities, which...I think..will make it easier to stay funding and perhaps even increase funding!