Librarian of Fortune

Thoughts from CIL conference on client relations

I recently returned from the latest Computers in Libraries conference. (See slide decks of my presentations at batesinfo.com/extras.) One of the keynote speakers was Brent Leary of CRM Essentials, who spoke about “Evolving Community Engagement: What Would Amazon & Google Do?”.

Here are my musings based on his presentation.

People don’t buy from companies – they buy from people, and based on good experiences. People buy from Amazon.com because it’s an easy, successful experience. They can browse among a variety of alternative products, read reviews, compare prices and features, and make a purchase, all without leaving the house or finding out that the local store is out of stock. Regardless of what you think about the impact of Amazon.com on brick-and-mortar stores and the working conditions of its employees, Amazon’s success demonstrates how important it is for companies to  ensure that their customers always get what they are looking for.

Successful entrepreneurs / info pros / consultants focus on building relationships with clients; every interaction is another opportunity to either enhance or damage your brand. And your brand is only as good as your execution. If clients see that you are their ally, they will keep coming back.

How can you differentiate yourself? How can you amaze your clients with something they never thought to ask for and that they value?

 

Erin Callan, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers, writes in the New York Times of March 10 about her choices to devote all her energy to her job. 

I didn't start out with the goal of devoting all mof myself to my job. It crept in over time. [...] I did not know how to value who I was versus what I did. What I did was who I was. [...] Even at the best times in my career, I was never deluded into thinking I had achieved any sort of rational allocation between my life at work and my life outside.

I find it heartbreaking to read these kinds of regrets. One of the best reasons I have for being an info-entrepreneur is that I can balance all the parts of my life. Maybe not perfectly, but I know that I am in control of what choices I make, and that balance is possible.

Some additional thoughts on the death of handwriting, triggered by Ellen Naylor's comment in my earlier post.

I was mapping out a book chapter yesterday (The Reluctant Entrepreneur - watch for it later this year!), and found that the only way to do it was to use 3x5 cards spread out on my work table. I wonder if this is an artifact of being born pre-digital... another example of how we who grew up without the web will
always think and speak with an accent that digital natives don't have.

MEB's 123s - Top 10 tips for successful surveys

I just uploaded another 20-minute MEB's 123s podcast, at BatesInfo.com/meb123. This one offers tips for us "amateur" survey designers -- it's not part of our job description but we need to gather information that can only be gleaned by going to the source.

In the podcast, I recommend SurveyMonkey, which I have used for a number of years and which offers flexibility and power for us occasional survey designers. What other web-based survey tool do you recommend?

 

Has handwriting become obsolete?

According to the Jan. 30th Wall Street Journal, children are not longer being required to learn cursive script in school; instead, they are now expected to be proficient typists. (One wonders if, once tablets become ubiquitous, typing will give way to proficiency in tapping and swiping...)

I can see a day in which people will no longer be able to read cursive writing; all those love letters your grandmother saved might as well be in Sanskrit, and the Declaration of Independence will appear to have been written in a foreign language.

It is a sign of the times that Jack Lew, our next Secretary of the Treasury and whose signature goes on all US currency, writes his name with 9 loops. When announcing his nomination, Pres. Obama noted "Jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible in order not to debase our currency."

 

Hmmmmm. Why does that look so familiar???

Granted, my penmanship is so bad that I print my handwritten notes, and my signature looks like the scrawl of a third grader. But I still swoon when I see nice handwriting and dream of one day having the time to practice my cursive writing. Yes, I'm a nerd. My goal:

 

The bookless library - quelle horreur

I have been reading a number of articles lately on the decision by Bexar County (Texas) to open a public library with only digital editions of their content. They will have lots of e-readers that patrons can borrow, along with laptops and tablets in the library.

My take on the articles: Keep in mind that Bexar County, Texas, doesn't have a county library system. This is an effort to provide library services to residents in unincorporated areas. That is A Good Thing.

On the other hand, it appears that the library will not be staffed by professional librarians, which is an alarming move. And the cost for library versions of digital books is often significantly higher than for the print edition; the Douglas County (Colorado) library system tracks the disparity in pricing of the top 25 e-book best sellers between print and e-books, as well as the premium that libraries pay for library versions of e-books. And we're not talking chump change here... Libraries pay $24.99 for an e-copy of The Time Keeper, whereas consumers can buy the same digital book for $9.50. And A Wanted Man? $84 for a library edition, and 12.99 for consumers.The other limitation of digital libraries, of course, is that not everything is available in digital format, including a number of bestsellers. And I just can't imagine reading Pat the Bunny to a child on an e-reader... 

(And I must mention the Aloha Community Library, a volunteer storefront library in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, as another way that a community without a public library can create one. Full disclosure: my sister Amy Grant is one of the board members. A very small library can still have books.)

That said, if a county has $1 million to spend on library services, and it wants to address the digital divide, this is one step. Today, children are spending their afternoons in McDonald's because they don't have highspeed Internet access at home. Offering them a place where there are lots of computers and lots of resources can't be a bad thing. Were the location staffed with information professionals, who could assist patrons in research as well as direct them to the more in-depth resources available at the San Antonio City Library, I would feel a lot happier about the initiative.

Musings from the weekend's news

The New York Times had an article on Feb 3 about Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. The tragedy (actually, one among many) is that self-immolations, a central part of the Tibetan protest movement, are one of the few ways Tibetans can protest non-violently.

What I find so profoundly sad is that the reason these (mostly) young people choose to kill themselves in such a horrifying way is "that is the only thing we can do without hurting other people", as one Tibetan said. How many other human rights struggles have seen such inward-directed anger and despair?

Google search quirks

In preparation for my Internet Librarian talks, I was playing around with Google, looking for how much my search results varied based on how I constructed my search. I was surprised to see how much they differed. 

First, I tried searching carbon neutral winery and then searching winery carbon neutral. Not only were the results significantly different, the first search retrieved 93,500 results and the latter retrieved 195,000. (My hunch is that since there are plenty of sites that have the exact phrase "carbon neutral winery", Google delivered the results from a "shallower" search than for the less common wording of "winery carbon neutral".) I also found that, among the first 20 results of each search, there were five results that appeared in only one or the other search result. 

My other surprise was the difference in results between standard results and limiting the search results to web sites updated in the last year, a technique I often use to get more relevant results. There was very little overlap between the two search results and, while I still prefer the results with the last-year filter, I am reminded that I could be missing some good material that way.

 

 

Entrepreneurs who get it

I have a standard poodle. (OK, actually a very non-standard poodle, but that's for another post)  So I take Meatballinto a local groomer, who did a great job and didn't yell at me, so I was going to use her regularly. But then I got a call from her this morning, asking how Meatball was and whether I was happy with the cut. I am now not just a regular customer but a groupie; this woman really wants to create loyal customers and knows how to show it.

If you're ever looking for a great dog groomer, check out Puppy Paws Pet Spa in Niwot, Colorado.

Why we can't assess risk

There was a great article in Sunday's New York Times, to the effect that the basic architecture of the brain makes us feel first and think second and explains our notorious risk-perception gap. Long live the amygdla!

My highlights from the article:

• While our choices about risk invariably feel right when we make them, many of these decisions end up putting us in greater peril, because we often cannot correctly evaluate risk.


• Humans subconsciously weigh the risks and benefits of any choice or course of action — and if taking a particular action seems to afford little or no benefit, the risk automatically feels bigger. Conversely, if the benefit is very clear, the risk is seen as less. (See, e.g., difference between parents' enthusiasm for polio vaccine and fear of current childhood vaccinations)


• The part of the brain where the instinctive “fight or flight” signal is first triggered — the amygdala — is situated such that it receives incoming stimuli before the parts of the brain that think things over.


• A societal risk, well off in the future, tends not to trigger alarm — in part, because the hazard isn't singling any one of us out, individually. Hence the lack of response about global environmental threats.


• Risk perception is not so much a process of pure reason, but rather a subjective combination of the facts and how those facts feel to us.

While the article looks at personal decisions such as whether or not to vaccinate one's child, it applies in the rest of the world as well. I'm in the business of providing insights for decision-makers, and I know in my heart that a lot of what goes into a decision is far less tangible than analysis...