ACRL’s First Fish Toss

March 16, 2009

One fun panel presentation ("If Fish Markets Can Do It So Can We") involved the first competitive fish toss in ACRL history. Unlike the huge salmon and halibut that the fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market throw around at each other (and sometimes at unsuspecting customers), these were plush fish toys that four hardy volunteers agreed to pitch dramatically into a receptacle. A Russian librarian (left, named Ekaterina, I think) won the competition. The whole point, as Temple Associate University Librarian Steven Bell explained, was to show that libraries need to fashion a memorable user experience (UX) in addition to providing essential information. According to Rutgers Associate University Librarian Valeda Dent Goodman, the UX involves psychological, interactive, and value-based components. "Starbucks sells coffee, but their success is based on something else" — customers value the experience because they remember the friendly or innovative interaction with the store's baristas. As the poster child for a successful user experience, Starbucks is in the same category as Google, Apple, and the BlackBerry in developing simple, trustworthy, and innovative products that focus on people's participation.

Bell commented that libraries need to concentrate on their Wow Factor (the fish-toss quality that makes users say, "Your service is awesome") and their Difference Factor (the user experience that can prove more valuable than a Google or Wikipedia search). There is also a Fidelity Factor that keeps users coming back to the library, instead of merely being wowed once then crawling back to their online searches. Bell said that library high-fidelity involves the totality of UX (web access, reference, the OPAC, systems, and circulation) that, when presented in a convenient and meaningful way, retains the user's loyalty.

Brian Mathews, user experience librarian at Georgia Tech, mentioned some of the ways his library did usability testing on library spaces as they prepared for a recent renovation: "We tried storyboarding, psychodemographics, mapping, and decision trees to find out why the user experience works for some people and not others." When users complain, you have to listen, Bell emphasized, but you have to go beyond their recommendations. Henry Ford said that if he had asked people how they wanted to improve their transportation, they would have said "faster horses," not an affordable new car like the Model T.

Ira Glass and the structure of storytelling

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Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9
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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.
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ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The group will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia in June, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4

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ACRL’s First Fish Toss

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Fabulosity in the Room

Ira Glass and the structure of storytelling