Selector Alert: Buy Those Oscar-Winners Now?
Posted February 28, 2005 LibraryPOP has posted a handy list of which movies won which
Academy Awards this year, and which ones are available on DVD.
A Public Library System Finally Outlaws Foul-Smelling Patrons
Posted February 24, 2005 If AFPL's "new" board of trustees wants to do something useful, why
don't they do something like
this on behalf of Atlanta's non-malodorous library users (and library workers)?
Are Fulton County Library Users Happy with AFPL?
Commissioner Boxhill Wants to Know Posted February 21, 2005
Fulton County's District 6 Commissioner Nancy Boxhill is asking in the
January/February newsletter she mails to her constituents for comments on
the public's experience seeking service at AFPL libraries.
Here's Boxhill's survey.
Are You Now Or Will You Ever Be a Part-Time Librarian?
Posted February 21, 2005
If so, you might want to take a gander at the
web page
maintained by the Association of Part-Time Librarians, founded way back in
1988. Among the hyperlinks on APTL's page: "Characteristics of a Good
Part-Time Librarian's Position" and "Hints for Finding a Part-Time Job as
a Librarian."
Catalogs and Search Engines: Similaries and Differences
Posted February 21, 2005
Most librarians who are not catalogers--and certainly most library users--
assume that Internet search engines have made library catalogs obsolete,
or will soon supplant catalogs altogether. Wrong, says this
article, based on a paper presented at a 2002 conference in Germany.
Although the English translation of the article leaves a lot to be
desired, the information about how catalogs differ from search engines is
amazingly succinct. In addition to the thought-provoking text, the nifty
chart at the bottom of the document is definitely worth a look-see. Be
sure to click on the links at the beginning of the document as well.
Fair warning: the article's excellent outline of "what a catalog should do"
will make AFPL employees squirm in their seats as they reflect on how
terribly inadequate AFPL's catalog has gotten since its
pre-decimation-of-the-Technical-Services-Division glory days.
Homeless Man Sentenced for Library Attack
Posted February 19, 2005
Here's a
LISNews summary about what happened to the 24-year-old guy who attacked
an eight-year-old child in the bathroom of a Philadelphia public library a
year ago.
Selector Alert: Most Challenged Library Titles of 2004
Posted February 19, 2005
Year in and year out, campaigns are mounted to remove books from U.S.
libraries. Just in time for the current AFPL ordering season, ALA has published
last year's most popular targets of these book challenges, some of them successful,
some of them not. AFPL selectors may want to check the list to make sure
these titles are in their collections.
Dept. of Occupational Hazards:
Clever Comebacks Librarians Can Use for Thwarting Unwelcome Advances at
the Service Desk
Posted February 18, 2005
Virtually every female librarian we've ever known has a story about some
guy approaching the service desk to try to get her to go out with him. Some
of the attempted pickup lines are pretty corny, and finally somebody's
compiled
a bunch of responses. These are the brainchildren of Scott Douglas,
and comprise one of the "Dispatches from a Public Library" that he's been
filing the past couple of years for McSweeney's.
Librarian Fired for Breaking Patron Confidentiality Rule
Posted February 15, 2005 Read the story
as reported by Missouri's Johnson County News.
Considering the circumstances, we think the penalty rather harsh.
Whatever happened to the management principle called "progressive
discipline"? We also can't help but wonder if the library officials
involved have made any efforts whatsoever on behalf of their patrons to
resist--or at least protest--the threat posed to the confidentiality of
their patrons' records posed by the USA PATRIOT Act?
A Valentine for Libraries?
Posted February 14, 2005
It's called "A Librarian's Alphabet,"
and it was written back in 1998 by Denise Plourde, a librarian at a
New York law firm.
Asking Teenagers What to Buy for YA Collections
Posted February 8, 2005
Here's a
story from the Boston Globe about how a YA librarian in
Massachusetts set about trying to make her public library a hangout for
teenagers who like to read.
The Public Library as Political Football
Posted February 8, 2005; updated February 9, 2005
"Everywhere in America, library support comes in at less than two percent
of the cost of government, less than one percent in most places, yet
politicians cut into that pittance with regularity.” - John Berry,
Library Journal, February 1, 2005, p. 10
"In the depths of the Great Depression, not a single public library in
America closed its doors. Banks went under, farmers went bankrupt,
millions of people were out of work and out of luck-but the American
public clung to its libraries, not only because of their inherent value to
our society, but also because they are symbols of community strength and
hope." - Jim Hightower, from
a February 2, 2005 posting to AlterNet
The Malling of American Libraries
Posted February 8, 2005 Library Journal has published another story about
public libraries operating in shopping malls. Their latest article features
facilities located in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Seattle, Dayton, and
Birmingham. Read the story.
Naturally, it's only after this incident that the library's
trustees are indignantly demanding that the library director look into
beefing up library security. It's a shame that library administrators,
library boards, and the politicians who fund libraries aren't held
accountable for refusing to provide even minimal security measures at
every public library facility.
Perhaps one day the courts - in response to repreated lawsuits - will
start requiring security to be budgeted before a library is opened rather
than being tacked on after some highly preventable tragedy. After all,
post-tragedy regulations are the only reason public buildings include
minimal fire protection devices. The question is: how many sacrificial
victims will it take before the politicians who just love to crow about
opening new libraries are forced to acknowledge that ongoing security is
just as important (and just as expensive) to operating a library as
installing a sprinkler system in it?
Are Literary Prizes Good for Fiction?
Posted February 4, 2005
A lively essay
from The Guardian about the pros and cons of treating books like
racehorses. This particular outburst was a response to the awarding of
one of Britain's most well-known literary prizes, the Whitbread, to Andrea
Levy's Small Island.
Michigan Librarians Track Down DVD Thief
Posted February 4, 2005
Read the story as reported by Library Journal.
Alas, if only the number of DVDs stolen from AFPL's Central Library
alone were a mere thousand....
Dept. of "I've Lived Too Long...": Corporate Branding of Library Urinals
Posted February 2, 2005
Read this
newspaper story about what the bladder-relieving male patrons of the
University of Pennsylvania's library now have to contend with. We suppose
this heralds The Shape of Things to Come, if zero limits are set on
corporate philanthropists who insist on permanent advertisements of their
largess to libraries.
Down with Books Clubs!
Posted February 2, 2005
Here’s
an entertaining, contrarian screed that takes the opposite viewpoint
of all the book-clubs-are-a-good-thing essays you’ve ever read (or written).
Libraries and the Georgia Legislature, 2005 Edition
Posted February 1, 2004
Three proposals involving public libraries have surfaced already in this year's
session of the Georgia Legislature:
A bill to establish a separate city of Sandy Springs,
that would, among other things, operate its own libraries.
Another bill that would ban smoking in, among other
places, all public libraries in the State.
And, finally, a
resolution, passed by the Senate, commending the DeKalb County Public Library for
various recent achievements. Wonder how many years it’ll be before the state’s lawmakers could
commend AFPL?
Interlibrary Loan Alert
Posted February 1, 2005
Is it cheaper for libraries to buy titles requested through ILL than to
borrow them? Probably. And online bookseller Alibris is partnering with
OCLC to make that probably-cheaper choice easier.
Read the press release.
Will AFPL administrators be savvy enough to set up a purchase
order each year with Alibris for AFPL's Interlibrary Loan and/or
Collection Development Unit staff (two departments that, for a number of
reasons, should have been merged years ago)?
Dept. of Nifty Optical Illusions
Posted February 1, 2005
Courtesy the people at Librism.com, here's
a clever little invention Dan Brown might be tempted to use in his next
bestselling thriller:
.com
