Susan Henricks

TH: Your move toward libraries was the result of your aversion to the bottom-line emphasis in the business?
SH: A woman came into the library and said, "Can you help me find some books? My teacher told me to come here because I can't read." I thought, "Oh, wow." I said, "You came to the right place." But finding the right material for an adult who doesn't know how to read. She doesn't want to read about the Berenstain Bears, you know. It was so gratifying. She was so glad to have help. When I worked in Blairstown, I had people come to me and say, "I don't know how to read. Will you teach me?" I'm not a teacher, I'm not an educator, but I felt like that's not really that far removed from my role. We gave it a shot.

TH: Before libraries, you had plumbing in your background?
SH: Plumbing wholesale. And that's before I went into manufacturing. But the manufacturing industry that I was in was drinking fountains and water coolers, which is marketed through the plumbing industry. So that was a very natural step for me and a step up. In the plumbing industry, I worked with every plumber in town, especially on commercial projects. So I would take, and this was, of course, before everything was on computers, but I would go to the architects, the engineers, I would take, call it take out the blueprints, that's what you would do. OK, you've got 10 toilets, you do the specifications and I would create a bid for the entire building, whether it be a small office building or a high-rise building, and quote the plumbers competitively with the other plumbing wholesalers. We got jobs that way.

TH: Besides keyword searching, what are the other types of Internet filters?
SH: Then you've got like search categories. So you could say, OK, I want to block out guns and weapons. I want to block out nudity. You do this by categories. Well, that's kind of hard, too, because the people that filter it, this is proprietary; they're not to tell you what's in those categories. That's how they make their money. So you don't really know what you're blocking, what you're getting, what you're not getting. When this issue came up, I did my research, my homework, and I found out, it's also expensive and you've got to maintain it. So I thought you know, we've got this software now, there's got to be something we can hook into if we need to filter, right? I found out, yeah, you do have that ability and it isn't going to cost you anymore either, but you know what it is? It is a blank screen and we build the Internet. We would have to go in and find every single Web site we wanted to offer, like you're building a collection of books.

TH: To permit.
SH: Yeah. Well, that, I said, even if it's free, it's not for me. It isn't going to work. Really, I think the only redemptive quality about that CIPA act is that adults can go to the library and say, turn off the filter. They don't have to say why. But should you have to do that? No. I think if we have a good policy, we go by that policy, it's worked. I can't say it's perfect, but filtering isn't perfect either. It's a challenge. It's probably one that isn't going to go away.

TH: Obviously, you feel quite strongly about privacy issues.
SH: When I was talking about threats, the most immediate threat is always the most obvious, and that's funding. Whether it's the state level or the city level or where you get your dollars from, that's the threat. But the real one that smoldering out there in the background and it's working and that is confidentiality and privacy. It's the Patriot Act and it's the Internet and it is some people would RFID, Radio Frequency Identification. They put chips in. And that's become a trend now for library books. It's really cool. You put chips in your library books or whatever and you can have a whole stack of books just get near the device that reads this electromagnetic field, they're checked out. You just set a whole stack near it and you're checked in. Talk about saving time and money. It's just wonderful. But a lot of people are very concerned about this because you're tying that patron information to a tile, to a computer chip, which is supposed to be passive and then deactivated when they leave the librar y. Well, some people are concerned about that. It can be deactivated, it can be reactivated. It can be hacked in to. There's concerns about that. You know, it is frightening. Technology and science move so fast ahead that any moral or ethical implications are sort of in the dust and then they say oh my gosh, what are we doing? Let's try to fix this. But those, I think, are the real threats.

TH: That's interesting. So some people would be concerned that they may want to find who's got the book or where the book is on how to fly but not looked up the chapter about landing, they could figure out where that book is if the took the time to use global positioning or whatever it might be.
SH: It probably technically could be done.

TH: You can put in chips and find your lost dog. Interesting.
SH: It is very interesting. And right now, I had a chance to check it out at the new Cedar Falls Public Library. Beautiful library. And they've gone to RFID identification, but it is very, very costly right now. Iowa City just launched it. Cedar Rapids is doing it. I feel somewhat reserved about it right now just for practical purposes. It looks like one of those nicotine patches. But there's a bump underneath which is the chip. Well, it's right there in the book. I can just see every kid, what's under here? Peeling it back like a Band Aid or something. You can just see what's going to happen. You're going to lose them. In fact, when I first saw it, I didn't recognize it as the chip. I thought, what is the? I'm pushing it. And I ought to know better. Your first temptation is to pull it back and see what's in there.

TH: I know money is always an issue. If there was one thing you could change about your job, what might it be?
SH: I can't say money?

TH: Well, money is a given. That's the first part of the answer. Now, what else?
SH: One thing I could change about my job, it would be nice to see, well, see, that implies money. I was going to say places where I'd like to focus on library service, but my hands are tied. I'd love to have a marketing and PR person because I keep saying, "Let's tell the library story, let's talk about this, let's get people excited about the library. Let's get them in here." But I don't have anyone to do that. It's going to be me and my assistants. But I'd love to have someone in here that can work on marketing and PR.

TH: You say that you are pleased that the library has increased its collection of what you call "popular material." What does that represent?

SH: That's what people want. There might be some criticism, "Well, you can just go and rent a movie." Well, yeah, maybe you and I can. You rent a movie, you pay 5 bucks. There are a lot of people that just can't do that. Either it's too far away and they don't have the transportation. Maybe they just don't have the money. And some people, like me - I'm just too cheap. Popular material, that is what people want. That doesn't mean we're not going to have anything else to offer. We have a very comprehensive collection on Shakespeare. Many non-fiction titles in DVD format. They're not going out, but we have them. Because some people are interested. A few. But people want the popular material. It's like responding to that demand. That's what they want. One person actually filled out a comment card and said, "Thank you so much. You have saved me thousands of dollars," because this person decided to cancel cable TV and doesn't have to rent movies anymore. I had a comment card at budget time, "Just cut DVDs. This is a library." It is a library, but it's not grandma's library anymore. We need to respond and continue to evolve to match the needs of the community. And if you just have stacks of books, you might as well close the doors.