You've started building your story, based on what you observe and find out from your staff. You've identified some distinctive things about your library and its services and people. You know some of the special things that you do. What's next? Visiting Another River You may be too close to your own library to recognize some aspects of its story: You're a fish in a familiar river, hard-put to describe the details of that river. It's your world. Have you considered visiting some other river—and inviting one of their fish to visit yours? The analogy breaks down, but the idea's sound. A perceptive librarian at some other library may spot aspects of your library's story that you're too close to recognize. That's part of what good consultants do: Tell an institution what it's all about but is too close to see. Maybe a little free consulting from a suitable specialist—another librarian—will help. It cuts both ways, and almost has to if it's going to work. You're building the story of Brandville Library. You'd like someone from Storytown Library to visit Brandville and offer her perceptions, telling you what you do that's interesting but you've missed (or may be misinterpreting). You should offer to do the same, either directly or indirectly. Maybe you can spend a day at Storytown seeing what story elements you find. Maybe you go to Fable Community College's library instead, and someone from Fable visits Storytown. Peer Consulting Call it peer consulting. You want an outsider's perceptions—but you need knowledgeable perceptions, not just another "Well, you have a bunch of books and a children's area" laundry list. A librarian (I'm using that term in its broadest sense, to include library staff who lack the MLS) should be able to spot what appears to be unusual, what appears to be working particularly well, what may need a little help. "Peer" is a tricky word. I'm assuming most of you are in relatively small libraries with relatively modest discretionary budgets. Just as the price of a competent consultant may cause gasping and internal distress, you may not be ready to fly librarians in from around the country to offer you good advice. (Some of you have more resources and may be snickering at my naïveté—after all, I am not working in a library at the moment and have never worked in a small or rural public library. OK; you've got lots of discretionary money: Can you spare the time and people to do some free consulting for your less wealthy peers?) If you have the connections, I'd suggest at least two different kinds of peer consulting using two different axes of similarity, both mentioned above: Pieces of the Story As you develop your story—starting with your own observations, adding those of your staff, and developing through peer consulting—you'll start organizing the kinds of elements in your story. Collections and services make up many of those elements, but don't forget place and people. Your library occupies a special place in your community and part of that is the literal place. What's the history of your building? What's special about it? How does it relate spatially to the rest of the community? You may be doing incredible things through your "virtual branch" or other online services-but never forget the place that's at the heart of your library. More on that next time—along with thoughts on expanding your story through the eyes of your patrons and your community. See Expanding Your Story, Finding Their Stories.
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| The Storied Library: Developing Your Story |
The third installment of Walt Crawford's series sends librarians on a "fishing trip" to help put their library's story into perspective.
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