2015 Minnesota Library Association keynote: All you need is love

At the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference in St. Paul (Oct 8-9), Eli Neiburger from Ann Arbor District Library presented “FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” He used the 1884 satirical book of the same title to tell a story about how libraries should seek to offer services in the 4th dimension: love. His message? To be successful, do things at the library that people love, not what they need or want, and they will support you when you need it. 

More specifically, he discussed how libraries have done things historically with our collections, events, summer reading programs, and library messaging. He gave examples of unique things that his library does that people love in each of these areas. It was one of the best keynote presentations that I’ve seen in quite some time, and can be found on YouTube. Here’s a short summary of the content that he discussed:

Collections
These are unique things that Ann Arbor has in their collections that circulate:

• Books about the city/region that no one else has and are only of interest to the people that live in the community.
• Mini synthesizers, music tools, art tools, science tools, and more. Some of these are not available at retail stores anywhere in the United States, and are hugely popular. A famous local musician even came to their library to check out an instrument he could not buy anywhere else.
• Resonance bowls (bowls for understanding waves). and other items that you can’t get anywhere else, but not hugely popular. 

Going up one level into the 4th dimension, they look to offer collections that people will love. Here are some examples.

• An album recorded by a local musician using only things he checked out from the library.
• They circulate Otamatones (musical instruments). You can buy this on Amazon, but it’s not sold in retail stores. People at their library love it. 
• Ann Arbor news media is disappearing local arts coverage is practically nonexistant. So the library commissioned published articles from people who used to write for the newspaper, and founded Pulp, an alternative arts and culture weekly. They also welcome contributions from the public. They moderate comment sections at the library (erase the garbage, but also note it was erased).
• The library digitized a community newspaper called the Ann Arbor Sun, published in the 1960s. People love them, even if they don’t circulate as widely as 50 Shades of Grey.

Events
For events, they look at what provides unique value to their community. 

• Having a safe place to play the game Minecraft is a unique experience. Their library hosts a Minecraft server. They are watching it and can ban users for inappropriate behavior. One parent remarked “when my kids are on the library's Minecraft server I don’t have to worry about it.”
• Having Legos collections is not unique, but having lego competitions is. Ann Arbor is having their 10th annual lego contest. This gives kids the opportunity to experience success in front of their peers. 
• Ann Arbor host a Kids Comic Con and a Kids' Comics Revolution awards.
• Tiny Expo, a local craft show, lost its physical space, so the library approached them and offered their space. This provides value to the community, artists, and shoppers (and it doesn’t have anything to do with books).
• They hosted a live-action Angry Birds event in a gym.
• They give out flashlights that shine their library logo at other community events.

Again, going up one notch into the 4 dimension, what are the events that people love?

• Nerd Nite Ann Arbor. Once a month at a bar, local speakers talk about what they’re interested in. The library sponsors it and in return there is no cover charge at the bar.
• Back to the Future Day was Oct. 21st, 2015. They planned an Enchantment under the Sea dance. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
• Yuri’s Night is an international event that honors the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, and on that day they are planning a dance party at the library.
• Launch club. Every time there is a rocket launch, they show it at the library.
• Drunk spelling bee at a local bar. People love this.
• The library hosted an International Minecraft Hunger Games tournament on their server. Fifty-nine libraries in the U.S. played. The entire project cost about $55.00.

Summer Reading
Ann Arbor public library took their old reading log, and revamped it into an online badge program instead. They have a badge called the “Mega review master” that kids receive for providing online reviews of favorite books. They also receive badges for visiting city parks, and they have a “Plants vs. zom” badge for following zombies through the catalog. They have a badge called “For heaven’s snake” that people receive for finding things in the catalog that relate to constellations. They also have badges for attendance at their own library events.

These are things they do at Ann Arbor public library that people love:

• Citizens correct the OCR (optical character recognition) on their historic newsletters and receive points and a badge.
• They partner with a historical society on a puzzle called Streets Quest that guides people around the city.
• Every day the library has a download of the day (DRM free downloads). People receive points for downloading.
• A week before the download of the day, people receive the “Lowdown of the Day.” This is a puzzle that gives you a clue about what the download of the day will be. If you guess what the download of the day is, you get points.
• The library is involved in the CivCity Initiative. It gives all sorts of badges for civic engagement. For example, there was a badge for speaking to the library and they had 9 year olds coming to library board meetings. Points were given for taking a selfie with an elected official, and more.

Messaging
The fact that patrons can get and do things at the library that they can't get or do anywhere else is a message you should drive home. But an even better message is one that empowers your patrons: "Love your library. It is what you make of it."