Oklahoma Library Trustees Struggle with Internet Abusers
Posted May 31, 2005
After local police discovered that registered sex offenders were using
library workstations to contact minors, last February the trustees of
Oklahoma's Enid and Garfield County Public Library banned patron use of
Internet chat rooms. Earlier this month, the trustees also
voted to disable email and non-educational games on the library's Internet terminals
effective July 1, and to keep records of which Internet sites the library's
patrons visited by linking the traces of those visits to patrons' library
cards. In response to a public outcry about the new rules, the trustees
later
reversed their earlier vote, and decided to allow email on the library's
public access computers.
While we're usually mortified by draconian attempts to solve the
sex-offenders-using-libraries problem, we must admit that the prospect
of banishing email from public libraries - whatever the motiviation - has
a strong appeal.
Apart from the chronic malfunctionings of library computer workstations,
coping with the irrelevant-to-the-library's-mission demands
of the daily-email-checking hordes long ago replaced coping with thieves
who steal library materials as The Number One Biggest Nuisance for
public library workers. (Also not amused are patrons who'd like easier
access to library computer workstations for purposes other than spending
an hour every day on email sites or in chat rooms.)
Most sex offenders probably hatch their crimes from their own computers,
so banning email and chat rooms won't make them stop hanging around
libraries, but we do wonder about the proper role of Internet email (and
chat rooms, and non-educational gaming) in public libraries.
Why do public libraries feel obliged to provide free electronic
communication channels to The Great Unwashed Public (or to the Washed Ones,
for that matter)? Libraries didn't install banks of free telephones for
public use when the telephone was invented, although libraries did allow
phone companies to install pay phones in their buildings - provided those
machines were installed in such a way that their use did not interfere
with others using the library for other reasons. How come most libraries
feel they must provide free email access to their patrons instead of making
patrons pay for email? We thought libraries were in the business of
providing free access to information and entertainment, not free access
to electronically-transmitted communication.
Alas, at this point the "free email" horse has probably been out of the barn for too many years to
get her back in there. It seems to us that the least libraries should do
to exercise a bit more control of their environments is to tie Internet/email
access to residence-based library cards and refer all the other email
fanatics to local fee-based Internet Service providers.
Starting Salaries at U.S. Public Libraries
Posted May 28, 2005
Librarian Michael McGorty recently posted on his "Library Dust" blog a
list of starting salaries at 25 U.S. public library systems; he also ranked
the figures and computed an average. For some reason, Michael didn't include
on his list the $48,586 starting salary for librarians at AFPL; if he had,
it would have been the third highest-ranking salary on his chart.
Read Michael's list.(Warning: due to some sort of weird posting
glitch, you'll need to scroll down several pages past the chart headings
to reach the salary figures.)
"Digital Amnesia"?
Posted May 28, 2005
Some librarians in Australia are worried about the consequences of how
easily online information - particularly government-generated information
that is provided exclusively in that format - can abruptly and permanently
disappear into the ether. This could be a big problem for the United States
as well, since the federal government is doing more and more of its
publishing online.
Read the story.
"Libraries: A Love Story"
Posted May 28, 2005
It takes a few minutes to read the whole thing, but this homage to public
libraries, which a Canadian politician recently delivered in a speech at a
local library event, is full of affectionate anecdotes and several interesting
quotations from other library-lovers.
Read the speech, recently posted to that mainstay of all things Library,
LISNews.com.
Library Thief Sells $20,000 Worth of Library Materials at Flea Market
Posted May 28, 2005
Read the details of this
story out of Kentucky - although, to judge from the constant hemorhaging
of AFPL's nonbook collections, similar scams are probably happening all
the time at yard sales and flea markets in Atlanta as well.
Dept. of Library Thefts (Insider Jobs): California Division
Posted May 28, 2005
Whenever a library system collects hundreds of thousands of dollars every
year in overdue fines (and what large public library system doesn't?),
there are going to be plenty of opportunities for embezzlement. Here's the
story of a Mendicino County, California business office scam that involved
$65,000 before it was discovered.
Nonbook Selector Alert: Time Magazine's "100 Best Movies" List
Posted May 28, 2005
Here's a recent
pronouncement of "all-time movie greats" that branch selectors might
want to take a look at, and match against their branches' holdings. Two
interesting features of this particular list, which was compiled by two
famous movie critics: almost half the titles listed were made outside the
United States, and the list omits a title on almost every other similar
list we've ever seen - Gone With the Wind.
We hope Mr. Szabo will be hiring someone soon to (among other things)
monitor sites like this. AFPL needs to resume periodically reminding local
citizens why patronizing the county's libraries is A Good Thing.
Reference Alert: Some Search Engines Are More Equal Than Others
Posted May 17, 2005
Many librarians, and certainly many library users, probably think Internet
search engines are interchangeable, so that it doesn't matter very much
which one you use. Not so, according to an Information Week
article re-published by CRN.com.
Professional Alert: Gorman Publishes More "Meditations for Librarians" Posted May 12, 2005
Several AFPL libraries purchased incoming ALA President Michael Gorman's
Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for Librarians (ALA Editions,
1997; ISBN: 0838907245).
This past January, Gorman came out with a
companion volume, Our Own Selves: More Meditations for Librarians
(ALA Editions, 2005; ISBN 0838908969; $28.00). (Between his two
collections of meditations, Gorman found time to write Our Enduring
Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century (ALA Editions, 2000; ISBN
0838907857) and The Enduring Library: Technology, Tradition, and the
Quest for Balance (ALA Editions, 2003; ISBN 0838908462).)
Gorman covers a lot of interesting ground in his most recent book,
judging from its
Table of Contents. We haven't seen any journal reviews yet, but earlier
this month librarian Jessamyn West posted one
on the Internet.
Incidentally, Gorman's latest book includes his now-famous screed on
"The Blog People" that caused such an uproar earlier this year in the
so-called Blogosphere.
Dept. of Amazing Library Statistics
Posted May 11, 2005
Librarian-at-Large Marylaine Block is one of "LibraryLand's" primo
sources. Recently Marylaine posted the following alert in
her Internet newsletter:
The range of different ways these statistics point up, again and again,
the economic value of libraries is astonishing. Maybe one day soon,
AFPL will be blessed with having a Public Information Officer on its staff
again, someone who could get a few of these facts before The Great
Unwashed Public, or at least before the Local Keepers of the Library
System's Purse Strings?
Dept. of Astounding Library Bequests
Posted May 11, 2005
We've heard of the occasional library patron leaving some money in their
will to their favorite library, but this is the first time we've ever heard
of a library employee doing so.
Read the incredible story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and then
ask yourself the following question: What would it take for AFPL
to inspire this kind of generosity from one of its former employees?
Dept. of Scary Photo Opps: Librarians' Desks
Posted May 11, 2005
Librarian Jessamyn West recently posted a notice on her
web site about another librarian,
Amy Kearns, who's started collecting and displaying on
another web site photos of librarians' desks.
OK, all you people out there in AFPLand in possession of (or access to) a
digital camera: now's your chance for Internet immortality - or revenge
against some packrat colleague....
U.S. PATRIOT Act: Renew It, Revise It, or Scrap It?
Posted May 11, 2005
Many librarians,
including the president of the American Library Association,
hope the amended Act will delete the provisions authorizing federal agents
to go on fishing expeditions in the circulation records kept by public
libraries. Others think these investigations are harmless, and cite
examples of
known terrorists using libraries for their nefarious schemes. Critics have
subsequently pointed out that terrorists probably use public restrooms, too,
but no one has advocated installing videocameras in them.
The Shape of Things to Come for Atlanta's Suburban Libraries?
Posted May 10, 2005
With the likelihood of Sandy Springs and, later on, other areas of Fulton
County incorporating themselves comes the possibility of at least some of
those new cities choosing to operate their own libraries instead of letting
the county continue to provide public library services.
Another option we'd not thought of: Atlanta suburbs outsourcing their
entire library systems' operations to for-profit vendors. It's happened
already in several other places in the United States. Most recently, it's
happened in Memphis, where a suburban municipality there decided the
library services vendor LSSI could run the city's libraries more cheaply
than the city itself could run them.
Read the story posted by Library Journal.
Last fall, LJ published
an excellent background story on LSSI. Among the interesting facts
mentioned in the story: one of the people on LSSI's Advisory Council is
former (1986-1996) AFPL Library Director Ron Dubberly, who currently
co-manages a
library consulting firm.
If we were Dubberly, we would be alerting LSSI to the market potential
of Atlanta-area library systems. After all, some observers are predicting
that Fulton County government will implode over the next few years due to
city secession-generated budget cuts. When the dust settles, Fulton County
may not be able to afford to operate a public library system, even in
Atlanta itself. Stay tuned....
Dept. of Good Ideas: Web Sites for Friends Groups
Posted May 10, 2005
As far as we know, the Friends of the Library group at the Ocee Branch is
the only Friends group affiliated with AFPL that maintains its own
web site.
We think this is a great idea, and we're also grateful that the friends
sensibly call themselves (at least on their web site) the "Ocee Friends"
instead of the cumbersome "Friends of the Dr. Robert E. Fulton Regional
Library at Ocee."
Booklover's Alert: Library Book Sale Prices vs. Used Bookstore Prices
Posted May 4, 2005
From LISNews.com comes some good news for book bargain-hunters:
"[Blogger] Rich Burridge compares what he paid for books at his local library's book sale with what
the same books would've cost him through Amazon (used and new).
The library book sale wins."
[Warning: Due to some sort of Internet glitch, you'll need to scroll down
quite a bit from the beginning of Burridge's post to see his comparison
chart and his comments about it.]
Incidentally, a link embedded in Burridge's post will take you to a nifty
(and searchable by city and state) web site called
"Book Sale Finder: The Online Guide to Used Book Events", which lists
several Friends'ongoing book sales at AFPL libraries.
Update to No-More-Stinky-Patrons Rules in Houston
Posted May 4, 2005
Here's an update
to a previously-posted "LibraryLand" bulletin.
"Library Job Postings on the Internet" Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Posted May 3, 2005 Read the story.
Memo to AFPL Personnel Office:
Once we resume advertising AFPL vacancies to people outside the current
workforce, how about y'all routinely posting AFPL's recruiting announcements
to this fab site (among others)?
For some reason, AFPL's Personnel Office has always neglected to cast its
recruiting net as wide as possible to maximize the library system's chances of getting the most
excellently-qualified job candidates. Isn't it about time for the
Personnel Department to join the 21st century?
Fed up with libraries and the people who use them - or the people
who work in them? Posted May 2, 2005
Two web logs that feel your pain...and let you to laugh your way through it:
Librarian Ire, "a
place where a librarian can kick back, make some tea, and have a good long bitch. Wacko patrons? Annoying co-workers?
Professional frustrations? Its all good here. This is the Dark Side - cross over, you won't be sorry."
The “Patron Tales” section of the “Tiny Little Librarian,”
maintained by a librarian who may be "vertically challenged" but who isn't lacking in the spunk department.
Ranganathan Redux Posted May 2, 2005
Last month we posted to "LibraryLand" a reminder about
Ranganathan's "Five Laws of Librarianship." Since then, it occurred to us that there are probably
folks out there who not only never heard of (much less committed to memory or had tatooed on
their foreheads) the Five Laws, but who haven't even heard of Ranganathan. Curious readers will
find handy biographical sketches
here and here.
.com
Professional Alert: Gorman Publishes More "Meditations for Librarians"