Playaway Library Advisory Board; Library Journal Day of Dialog

A little autobiographical information about me: While I have attended professional events in both of my previous careers as a teacher and as a bookseller, this week was the first opportunity to attend a professional event since working at the library.

While an Assistant Manager in the Collection Development department, Debbie Tour and I were selected to be on a Library Advisory Board for Playaway. In case you are not familiar with Playaways, they are self contained audio books which all you have to do is plug in headphones to use. As a part of serving on that group, Playaway offered to fly us into Solon, Ohio to visit their headquarters and then to participate in Library Journal's Day of Dialog in Warrensville Heights, Ohio (both in the Cleveland area).

On Monday, the members of the advisory board were welcomed to the Playaway offices and given a tour of the offices and production process of Playaways. It was really remarkable.

We received a tour of the offices of the content development and sales offices and then went to the production area. They basically have all of these computers connected to machines where they load their patented devices (up to eight at a time) which then load the content in a matter of minutes. They are then sent with a work order where the labels are then placed on the unit. Depending on how many of a title has been ordered, they are either hand labeled or mass labeled with a machine. Watching all of these ladies either use the machine which presses the labels or the ones that hand label is pretty impressive. They also test to make sure the right content is receiving the right label.

We then saw where rows and rows and boxes of boxes of labels are waiting to go on Playaway units as well as boxes of already made, ready to ship units are waiting to be shipped as orders come in. In the next room, staff prepare the plastic covers and paper inserts for the library packaging of the Playaway. The last room showed pallets of Playaways that are being shipped to the armed services after their recent deal with the Department of Defense.

After the tour, we went to the conference room where each library board member gave reports on the history of Playaways in their particular library system, its successes, and then gave suggestions for improvement. During this portion, various members of the Playaway organization would ask follow up questions to better understand our systems, the operations of the library, and how Playaway could best meet our needs.

After a brief recess, several of the Playaway staff gave presentations including content preview, a pilot preview for libraries that do not currently carry Playaways, and trade show participation. We then went to dinner and back to the hotel.

One of the great benefits of getting to be with people from other libraries is that you get to hear the different ways they approach particular things, receive validation for operations that we may also share, or receive insights that cause you to think about ways the library may could take advantage of even more opportunities. I cannot state how valuable these conversations with colleagues and the Playaway staff were during the course of the two days.

The next day was the Day of Dialog sponsered by Library Journal, the Cleveland Public Library, the Cuyohogo County Public Library, Harper Collins, Macmillan, and Playaway.

The first presentation was moderated by Barbara Hoffert, book editor of Library Journal who led a discussion on how to conduct author interviews while interviewing two authors, John Scalzi and David Giffels, both former journalists now writers. It was a lively interview about their books, writers and interviews, and how to conduct good interviews.

After a brief interlude for book signing, Harper Collins rep, Virginia Stanley presented new title releases. Most notable to me personally were a compilation of short stories by Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible, Fool by Christopher Moore, and Wilderness Warrior by esteemed historian, Douglas Brinkley. There were a number of other wonderful titles, but these appealed to me most.

After that, Cynthia Orr, Interim Director of Tech Services and Fiction Selector from Cuyahoga County Public Library and Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust, presented about several initiatives they have been involved in regarding how collections are displayed and patron profiles are evaluated in terms of usage of the library.

After lunch, Talia Sherer from Macmillan presented new book titles. Noteworthy among those were titles by Jonathan Carroll, Orson Scott Card, C.J. Box, S.J. Rozan, Kristin Hannah, Sandra Dallas, Jacqueline Winspear, and Margaret Weis.

Playaway then gave their presentation of new titles including The Shack, foreign language titles, and new titles for kids and YA.

Nancy Pearl then presented her 17 principles of giving successful book talks, by far the most inspiring talk of the day, although talking about books and libraries all day was really just a rich experience.

After that, there was a reception at the Playaway offices. There were a number of Advanced Reader copies and small gifts for being members of the Library Advisory Board as well.

The weekend was so great from the accommodations to the conversations, from the food to the seminar. It really was a wonderful experience and I look forward to working on several ideas that came about as a result of attending. I have to thank the Orange County Library System, my branch administrator, Wendi Bost, and the director, Mary Anne Hodel who approved my professional leave. The experience was truly invaluable.