The Collection All Around

Sharing Our Cities, Towns, and Natural Places

Jeffrey T. Davis

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780838915059
• eBook ISBN:
  9780838915820
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

CHAPTER ONE

It Starts with Membership

The romantic appeal of library cards is hard to deny and probably speaks to anyone reading this book. It’s evergreen too. A look anytime at the hashtag #firstlibrarycard on social media will reliably turn up the latest sharing of stories, photos, and enthusiasm about the milestone of receiving one’s first library card. (It’s a nice pick-me-up on Instagram, especially, go see.) A number of libraries recognize this with “My First Library Card” marketing promotions for young children.

But in the end, a library card doesn’t mean that the holder has checked out an item. It doesn’t mean that the holder has been to a library program, searched a library database, or used a library computer. Someone with a library card might never even set foot in a library. Having a library card does correlate with more library engagement, of course, but ultimately the card is just an account. It’s a by-product, an administrative hook for library services and the real work that we do.

But no. That’s not right either.

Whether they’re used or not, library cards are tokens of belonging and potential. Very often, for kids, a library card is their first tangible membership in grown-up society as an individual who is independent of his or her family. Library cards come with privileges and responsibilities and a whole new relationship to the world. They’re a big deal. It’s a wonder we don’t make elaborate ceremonies out of awarding these talismans.

Library cards represent belonging for adults as well. For new immigrants, for example, a library card may be the first tangible sign of membership in their wider new community, an unhyphenated membership in common with one’s neighbors. Whether one is a first- or fifth-generation American, the community library is the same, membership is the same, and the card is the same.

The 2014 Pew Research Center survey and report From Distant Admirers to Library Lovers and Beyond derived types of public library engagement in the United States.1 In the two groups least engaged with libraries “Distant Admirers” and “Off the Grid” 28 percent nevertheless reported that they have a library card. That’s kind of remarkable.

The Thing Itself

It makes sense, then, to start with a noninstrumental view of library cards. They have meaning to people whether or not they are used. The cards confer civic membership. They embody access to and a place in the city. From that starting point, we can extend library cards’ meaning and use in practical ways.

Used frequently or infrequently, the cards themselves are carried around, seen, and handled by library members. Their designs affirm the library’s brand and can communicate in other ways. The San Diego Public Library created limited edition cards for Comic-Con (the vast comic book convention held there every summer) and issued them with library registration held at the event (see figure 1.1); special library cards were created for the opening of their new Central Library; and standard-issue cards are available in five colors. When new members register, they’re surprised and delighted to be asked to choose the color of their library card. The cards create a connection with members. Using one of them may remind users of the time they got their card their membership at a special event or a local occasion, or when they just selected their own color. They’re part of the library community with a history that is both personal and shared.

FIGURE 1.1

San Diego Public Library/Comic-Con

Toshwerks & San Diego Public Library Comic-Con 2016 Library Card

Similarly, the Seattle Public Library created cards in partnership with the NFL and Seattle Seahawks. The Brooklyn Public Library featured a Sesame Street card to accompany a major exhibition. The Cleveland Public Library created a card honoring local author Harvey Pekar. In 2015, a number of libraries piggybacked on the ALA’s licensing of Peanuts for Library Card Signup Month that year.

Libraries have led library card campaigns for years, and in 1987 the ALA launched the September observance of Library Card Signup Month. That effort originated with then Secretary of Education William J. Bennett who said, “Let’s have a national campaign . . . every child should obtain a library card and use it.” Every September, thousands of public and school libraries join in this national effort.

Students Belong Here

The recognition of library membership as a valuable focus in itself continues to grow. In 2015 the Obama administration’s ConnectED initiative set a Library Challenge goal of registering every enrolled student in thirty partner cities for a library card. The Challenge is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Urban Libraries Council, and the ALA.

In some cases, the Library Challenge goal is being pursued through traditional means: essentially, library card campaigns partnered with schools. In others cases, library membership is being directly integrated with school enrollment. Library registration and activation are automatic via school enrollment in each of these districts:

• • 154,000 Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) public school students’ IDs function as library cards.
• • 60,000 Nashville (TN) public school students’ IDs function as library cards.
• • 15,000 Kansas City (MO) public school students’ IDs function as library cards (the ID numbers require a library prefix for operation).
• • 70,000 Washington, DC, public secondary school students receive the city’s DC One Card, a school and municipal ID that is also available to adults. The ID card provides access to Park and Recreation centers and programs, serves as a transit pass, and is an activated library card.
• • 20,000 Boston (MA) public high-school students receive the city’s Boston One Card. The student ID card also serves as a library card, community centers pass, and transit pass.

Some systems provide mechanisms to opt out of either borrowing privileges (leaving digital services in place) or out of library membership entirely. As another way to address concerns about automated account creation, some systems do not generate fines for late materials on these cards. Coordination between library vendors and school ID providers must be undertaken to ensure the compatibility of numbering schemes and to avoid duplication.

Like the DC and Boston cards, one way to build on library membership is to make the library card the hub of access to other community resources. The MyDenver card is an ID/pass for Denver youth from ages five to eighteen. The program first developed as a teen pass to city parks and recreation facilities and programs that was issued by public schools on an opt-in basis. The pass provides access to twenty-seven recreation centers where youth can take advantage of amenities and participate in structured drop-in activities revolving around sports and wellness, arts and culture, science, technology and education, community engagement, and social recreation.

A bond measure in 2012 included expansion of the program to all Denver residents ages five to eighteen. Card registration then moved from schools to online sign-up and was administered by the Denver Parks and Recreation Department. The city’s Office of Children’s Affairs now oversees the program and coordinates with the Denver Public Library (DPL).

Use of the MyDenver card for library services began in January 2013. Youth using the library then activated their MyDenver card for library use, but no forms were required. The library had access to the MyDenver database and imported records into its integrated library system (ILS) as needed. Beginning in 2016, all Denver public school students are now issued a MyDenver card via school registration with a simple opt-in. The schools provide the DPL with a data file that is loaded into the ILS. These accounts require no other activation for database and e-book access. For circulating materials, youth using the library obtain a library bar code to add to the record, but no other forms or permissions are required.

Jennifer Hoffman, manager of books and borrowing at the Denver Public Library, explains that “the big thing is making it really clear and easy for parents. One of the things that we realized early on is that the kind of parent who’s going to see the library as a benefit for their child probably has already signed their child up for a library card. So we have to be prepared for duplication and how to deal with that. The other thing is that we have different ways that we work with the schools in terms of registering whole classrooms for cards.” The DPL is working “to make signing up for the MyDenver card the preferred method of getting a library card for any child who’s in the Denver public schools system.” While the MyDenver card started independently of the library, the library was envisioned early on as a partner. Today there are 70,000 MyDenver cards activated for online services with the DPL. No visit to the library is needed for that level of membership. To activate a MyDenver card for full borrowing privileges, students only need to visit the library and present their card.

Just as importantly, Denver’s Office of Children’s Affairs has worked with partners at the Denver Art Museum and the American Museum of Western Art to add museum admission benefits and discounts to the MyDenver card. The expanded school, library, and recreation center core now includes benefits with the Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and many more. Work is under way to include mass transit access.

All of this places the Denver Public Library, through its joint-use card, at the hub of Denver youths’ access to local arts, culture, recreation, and education. That’s real community membership.

One for the Power Users

The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is experimenting with a “Power Users” program to build a closer relationship with its most active members. The program, which was launched in October 2015, used circulation totals to identify 150 patrons who had checked out over 5,000 items (over the available lifetime of ILS data, in their case, since the mid-1990s). A letter was then mailed to each of these patrons to invite their participation in the Power Users program. Less than a month into the program, over 10 percent of the patrons notified had brought their letter in to staff at a Brooklyn Public Library location. The first patron to do so was met with a round of applause.

Power Users get a branded library card, a tote bag, and a water bottle. Other perks are being explored, but for now patrons are responding mainly to the recognition. The Brooklyn Public Library asks Power Users if they’re willing to advocate on behalf of the library. The BPL hopes to cultivate these superfans as advocates for library members, with their advocacy addressed to the library system. Brooklyn Public Library’s strategic initiatives manager, Diana Plunkett, explains that the program “creates an opportunity for us to have conversations with our heaviest users and have them help guide us. It’s a great way to have a dialogue with people who are really invested in the library, and it can help us learn how we can make the experience for themselves or for others who might not be at their level even better and more powerful.”

Early participants are also being asked to help shape the program, which is expected to evolve, and to act as ambassadors to the next 150 invitees. So far the Power Users tend to be older, but the first group of invitees did include families and teens, plus a local government official. As the library makes contact with the invitees, it’s learning more about who the library’s most active users are their demographics, geography, local branch, and interests and also at how that picture changes as circulation thresholds are reduced to expand the membership in the program.

Going Cardless

We’ve been talking about library cards as physical things, but one could just as well be wondering about digital “cards” and other forms of secure identity. An account needs only an ID and PIN combination. A digital token can be passed from a smartphone, watch, NFC (near field communication) bracelet, and so on to accomplish anything a library bar code does ubiquitously now.

What about that? Is a virtual card different? Does it matter that it’s less substantive? If we can’t hold that totem and scrawl our name on it, can we still attach the same mystery and power to it?

Los Angeles Public Library Card

Card designed by Shepard Fairey. Illustration courtesy of Shepard Fairey/Obeygiant.com

We’ll see.

But whether physical or virtual, at hand or regularly lost, the role of the card doesn’t change. The important thing is that meaning and utility both are bound up in library membership. Online and in plastic, there’s a place for libraries to leverage art and branding. And of course, both physical cards and virtual cards can and do coexist and will both be used.

The “superfan” identity quickly raises a question about using circulation counts as an indicator. Circulation is only one measure of library use, of course, and the library is experimenting with other metrics for the Power User recognition. The BPL would like to include program attendance, for example, and it has experimented with card swiping. Plunkett reports that program attendees were comfortable with that, but didn’t always have cards with them and that it was a poor fit for caregivers and class visits. It’s a question the library is still looking to resolve. PC and Wi-Fi usage are other measures it’s looking at. Circulation, too, is not simple. The library’s measure doesn’t include e-book circulation, for example, because data on individual patron usage resides with e-book platform providers, not with the library. The BPL is working to get those numbers, but they’re not ordinarily available to client libraries. The noncirculation use metrics are increasingly important to libraries. An emphasis on membership and the collection all around may push this farther, and using a metric like card swiping might become more common and taken for granted. Library privacy policies and data aggregation and anonymization should follow into these areas.

The web page explaining the Power Users program (www.bklynlibrary.org/poweruser) lets all BPL card holders look up their lifetime tally and compare that to average and maximum totals for the system or for a zip code. Very cool. (Individual lifetime circulation totals are a standard part of Brooklyn’s Innovative Sierra ILS, but not all ILSs tally this.) Plunkett notes that “it’s a bit of a challenge to think about what the library can do in a benefits program when everything is free.” The BPL has shown, though, that for some libraries this is a terrific way to highlight and build on librar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Libraries Take on the World
• 1. It Starts with Membership
• 2. City Pass Agents Share the Wealth
• 3. Guides Make It Clear
• 4. Placemakers Bring It Home
• 5. Rangers Tend the Trails
• Conclusion: All Together Now
• Index