Librarians and the scarcity mentality

Many people have what's known as a scarcity mindset or scarcity mentality. In the simplest terms, the scarcity mindset is the belief that there will never be enough — whether it's money, food, emotions or something else entirely — and as a result, your actions and thought stem from a place of lack. - Grayson Bell

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In a reply to my last post "6 biggest library annoyances and how to avoid them," Tom wrote: 

My biggest inner conflict lies with wide open access to limited resources. Sometimes the casual surfers/YouTubers co-op resources needed by “academic” patrons. When I try to reallocate those resources, I'm labeled the Unfriendly Librarian. Some days, there's just no winning…

I could relate.

Long, long ago when the earth was still cooling and dinosaurs ruled the land, I was a junior high librarian in a small school in Iowa and my library had a conference room converted into a computer lab. It contained 2 Apple II computers - the only ones in the building. Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Eamon, Lemonade Stand, and other MECC games were among the most common uses. But kids (and a few teachers) also wanted to use Bank Street Writer and mess with VisiCalc - more "academic" pursuits as Tom calls them. My solution to this was that there could be no games for the first 10 minutes of the period or after school and then if a computer was unused, kids could use it for gaming. If you needed the computer for a school project, you needed to get in and get busy in the first 10 minutes. I thought it a brilliant compromise - those who needed the computers for school work got first dibs, but no computer was left unused.

Times have changed, of course. My guess is even the poorest of schools has more than two computers for student use. Between 1:1 programs, BYOD programs, low cost computer purchasing programs, kids can get to a device to do school work pretty much as needed. (OK, I may be living in a bubble - let me know.)

Yet the scarcity mentality remains, especially among school librarians. After decades of small or non-existent budgets, resources - books, computers, space, supplies -  are viewed as precious commodities that need to be tightly controlled and reserved for "school use only." 

As a result of scarcity ruling our thoughts, books remain on the shelves; computers sit idle; cabinets fill up with unused supplies. And we as professionals are viewed as stingy and controlling. (The hair tightly controlled in the bun is pretty much the stereotypical symbol of this view.)

We need to apply the "it's better to wear out than rust out" philosophy to our library programs. Yes, Books will get lost and damaged. Yes, some books will be unavailable if not returned. Yes, some kids may use computers for personal interests. Yes, we may run out of glue and tape and construction paper at the end of the year. But it is only when these things happen that others become aware that our budgets and resources may not be sufficient to meet our student and staff needs. Rationing implies sufficiency.

Let's be cognizant of when we may be exhibiting the scarcity mentality and strive for an abundance mindset instead.

BFTP: 6 biggest library annoyances and how to avoid them

The website Lifehacker this week had an article titled: The Six Biggest Media Center Annoyances (and How to Fix Them) and I got excited thinking those smart people were going to help school media specialists become (even) more popular. The "media center" being written about, however, was the home amalgamation of TV, amplifier, speakers, and various tuners, DVRs, etc. - not school libraries.

But it is a great title that I have modified slightly for clarity to use for this post. I am putting on my library patron and parent/grandparent hat in writing this post...

Six biggest library annoyances and how to fix them

1. Unfriendly/unhelpful librarian. I am always shocked when I see kids treated as an annoyance rather than as a reason for being by any library staff member. You fix this by firing the librarian with the negative attitude and replacing him/her with someone whose personal mission statement includes service to children. The librarian should be a primary reason for coming to the library - not the reason one avoids it.
2. Book fines. Libraries with policies that seem to emphasis getting books back instead of getting books out, drive me nuts. Find positive ways of helping kids and teacher show respect for other library users by the timely return of stuff. A book sitting on a shelf is worthless.
3. Computers "for school use only" policies. School libraries should encourage personal learning not just academic learning. OK, a library may have a limited number of terminals and priority should be given to school work, but there is absolutely NO reason for a library workstation to sit unused if there are students wanting to look for information of personal interest. This is a simple policy change. A computer sitting unused is worthless.
4. Material checkout restricted by age or reading ability. It drives me insane to hear about my grandsons' book checkout being restricted to the "easy" book section or set of preselected materials when they go to the library. At the very least, librarians should allow a child to check out one book of personal choice from anywhere in the library along with the required book.
5. Poorly weeded collections. A badly weeded collection is not the sign of underfunding but of professional incompetence. If funding is a problem, collections should be getting smaller, not older. The only fix for old, cruddy collections is a dedication to weeding - and a information campaign to staff about why weeding is imperative.
6. Excuses. There is no excuse for a library program that is not getting better.  Problems with budget, staffing, facility, scheduling and administrative support are not good reasons for not providing kids and staff access to good reading materials, Internet access, and information literacy skills. It is our personal toward our programs, not our situations, that determines our efficacy. Get your head around it.

 So what are your biggest annoyances and how would you fix them? Oh, feel free to creat a similar list for your tech director or tech department. If you're going to dish it out, you better be able to take it as well, my mother always warned me.

Image source

Original post 10/25/12

Do you adhere to a clean desk policy?

A clean desk policy ensures that all important documents, confidential letters, binders, books, etc are removed from a desk and locked away when the items are not in use or an employee leaves his/her workstation. It is one of the top strategies to utilize when trying to reduce the risk of security breaches.

Having a clean desk helps to not only eliminate clutter, but also helps prevent the likelihood that anyone can gain access to your company’s information or the information of your clients. Clean Desk Policy - 5 Ways to Improve Your Security

Even after working in IT for 25 years, you still come across a new term now and again. For me this week, it was "clean desk" as applied to technology security. As part of our physical security assessment portion of our comprehensive network audit, we are getting dinged on not enforcing staff to have "clean desks."

Yes, I've long understood the need to lock one's computer screen when not at one's desk. And there is the long-running joke about folks writing passwords on sticky notes and attaching them to their monitors or under their desktop blotters. But thinking of sensitive documents, address books, keys was not really a part of my thinking when it came to keeping data safe. Seems data come in other formats than digital - imagine that. I did not connect the years I spent carefully locking my red spiral bound grade book carefully in my desk drawer when out of the room with today's clean desk policy.

Anyway, I am finding the physical security portion of our network health audit very interesting - and it may drive an initiative to make all our staff - and students - more contentious about leaving data in all formats just lying around.

So, if walked by your desk would I see only coffee rings?

Image source "Can you spot the 10 security mistakes?"