The Sentient Search Engine

The folks at Twitter have released a new product into public beta, and libraries need to take notice! CoTweet is a business tool designed to allow organizations to coordinate their Twitter use under a single brand and share the tweeting resposnsiblities between several folks. In CoTweets own words:

CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. No dropped balls, no stepping on each other’s toes.

There have to be some possibilities for libraries here! Could this become a nifty sort of asynchronous eReference platform? A new way to engage customers\patrons\users with a more interactive Library Twitter experience? I think CoTweet needs to be on our radar and implies some exciting possibilies.

UPDATE (8/3/09): The Ohio Legislature and the Governor have agreed to a budget with more managable, yet no less destructive cuts.

UPDATE: For the most up to the minute information, refer to the Ohio Library Council site specifically this article.

I don’t usually comment on politics publicly. I frankly don’t care to share my opinion with others, as I don’t really care about theirs. However, sometimes things happen that are, frankly, so boneheaded that I can’t help myself.

The Governor of my state, Ted Strickland, has lost what remaining respect I had for him (limited though that might have been in the first place). In his revised budget proposal, he has proposed cutting the Public Library Fund $227,000,000, roughly half of the $400,000,000 fund over the next biennium. He has other proposals to cut funds OhioLINK for Adult Education and GED programs.

So, in a down economy, this genius’s idea of good policy is to gut the institutions that help people acquire new skills to reenter the workforce, support the public education system, and otherwise facilitate the enlightenment of humanity.

I am, perhaps understandably, a bit biased on this issue. After all, I am a Librarian that lives in Ohio, and this proposal both goes against my professional beliefs and seriously threatens my livelihood. I have to say that I am honestly at least as concerned about the folks most affected by this idiocy, Library customers, as I am for myself.  They rely on their libraries for services including checking-out materials, reference service, storytime and children’s programming, job searching, entertainment, homework assistance, and countless other things.

I understand that Ohio is facing a serious budget shortfall. I would have been understanding, even amenable, to a modest, responsible cut in funding. This goes far beyond what is responsible. For my library, this will be devastating as it is. If the cut is applied evenly across the board, my library, supported by the state and a local levy, looks to loose roughly a quarter an eighth of its funding. Other small libraries rely wholly on on the state funding and will loose half a quarter of their total revenue with a single piece of Legislation. As few entities can afford to loose half so much of their funding and survive, many (indeed most of the smallest) won’t, especially considering the pressure many already face. Those that do will may have to so drastically significantly roll back services that they will be shadows of what they once were.

I’m honestly having trouble coming up with intelligent things to say, as this proposal is so utterly foolish that I can’t really think straight at the moment. When will people and politicians get it in their head that libraries are not luxuries or amenities, but requirements for a modern, technological, economically viable society.

If you care about Ohio libraries, please contact your state representatives and state senators. This is not law yet. Hopefully we can get enough outrage build up that the cuts can be reduced to a more tolerable level.

I am not hopeful however. After all, the local headlines about this proposal read something to the affect that “Governor Supports Expansion of Gambling to Cover Budget Shortfall” rather than “Governor Guts Library Funding While Claiming to Protect Education”.

Ohio has long enjoyed some of the best libraries in the country. If this cut in funding comes to fruition, this seems likely to end. Saddest of all, it will be through no fault of their own.

My employer has some big news from Library Journal!

Naturally we’re all pleased (not that any of us have time to celebrate, too much work!) However, I find it amusing that someone felt it necessary to post a “Yeah, but…” comment on the YouTube video not even a full day after it first appeared. You know what I mean, the kind where someone says “Great job, but…”.  “Cakewad” commented:

Congrats, Columbus Library!

Now that you’ve mastered the social/community aspects of what a library can be, let’s see if you can gather a range of holdings competitive with New York, Washington, or even Cleveland. Good luck on your next challenge! Keep up the good work.

Three things:

1. Thanks you for your kind comments the library, its always nice to hear that people appreciate what were trying to do.
2. Yes, there are always new challenges to pursue and we appreciate your wish of Good Luck!
3. Seriously, couldn’t you just let us enjoy it, for I don’t know, a week before you hinted that we were somehow inferior?

“Holdings competitive with New York, Washington, or even Cleveland.” What exactly does that mean? It sounds like someone thinks that we aren’t really in the same league as these other libraries because we don’t have enough books.

Reality check! Why would be want too? CML could easily match the collection of the systems you mention if it wanted too. However, that’s not what we’re really about!

CML is a service oriented system that keeps its own collection “lean and mean”, so that it reflects the needs and interests of the community. They fill the inevitiable gaps through the pursuit of parnerships and judicious review of what materials we have to acquire through Intralibrary Loan. This way we meet the needs of our customers and avoid having large numbers of books gathering dust and filling valuable shelf space.

One of truly wonderful things about Franklin County, Ohio is that no library in the county has to be good at everything! This seems to be working for all involved since Franklin County libraries have the top score in 3 of the 9 expenditure catagories (30mil+, 5-9.9mil, and 1-4.9 mil). one of CML’s closest partners, Worthington Public Libaries, is also a 5 star library in its catagory (5-9.9 mil). Thats a total of 4 5-star libaries in one county. With these and other great libraries in the county like the Ohio State University Libraries (we could agree that their collection is somewhat big, I hope), why do we need a collection like NYPL, Washington, or (even?) Cleveland? (Incidently, CPL folks, it sounds like this could be a dig at you as well, I’d look into it.)  After all, if we don’t have it we can get it and isn’t that idea at the core of what the profession is all about?

The idea that a library needs to own everything its patrons could conceiveably need is as outdated as it is stupid. The mark of a great library is not the size of its collection but its ability to serve and get what its users want. CML has found a way to provide excellent service and access to materials for its users without weighing down its own budget.

New York, Washington, and “even” Cleveland can sleep soundly tonight with this knowledge. CML has no desire to compete with you in the “bloated collection” catagory, you can keep that all to yourselves.

Congrats CML!!! Keep it up!!