- Bookslover's Alert: Multiple Library Websites to Feature "Pearl's Picks" for Readers
Posted August 31, 2006
Beginning tomorrow, the website of the Seattle-area
Kings County Public Library will include a link to Nancy Pearl's latest
book recommendations. Pearl, the author of
Book Lust and
More Book Lust, is a much-sought-after speaker at literary
events.
According this
press release, eight other library systems have also agreed to include
the "Pearl's Picks" link on their websites.
AFPL's website woefully lacks the kind of
"Good Reads" section - or, for that matter, any of the other reader
advisory sections - featured on the KCPL website. Perhaps some AFPL
administrator would be willing to persuade The Website Powers That Be to
create a link on AFPL's website to "Pearl's Picks" until AFPL achieves the
wherewithal to prominently feature the reading recommendations of its
own library staff?
- Booklover's Alert: Website for Locating Used Books Sales
Posted August 30, 2006
Although it's by no means a new website,
Book Sale Finder is the kind of website that The Perfect Public Library would include a link
to in the reader-support section of its own website. Book Sale Finder's
Georgia page, in addition to the well-known biggie annual events, also includes upcoming sales sponsored by
Friends Groups at several AFPL libraries.
Sadly, AFPL's website doesn't contain a "reader-support" section. Will
it ever, we wonder?
- Reported Book Challenges Drops to All-Time Low
Posted August 30, 2006
From the Associated Press: "The number of books threatened with removal
from library shelves dropped last year to its lowest total on record, with
405 challenges reported to the American Library Association."
More...
- Librarian Appoints Businessman Interim Manager of Main PL Branch
Posted August 30, 2006
Library Journal posted
details of this unusual appointment for a Georgia library system.
- Do Bestsellers Stand the Test of Time?
Posted August 30, 2006
Library selectors in public libraries really don't have the option of
ignoring bestselling titles, but there probably isn't a librarian anywhere
who hasn't at least wondered whether all the expense and effort to obtain
them is worth it. Toronto Star book columnist Philip Marchand
takes a look at sixty years' worth of New York Times bestsellers to
see if there are any patterns...and finds a few.
Read the column.
- Dept. of Gorgeous Library Lobbies
Posted August 30, 2006
Nothing newsworthy here, just a "purty pitcher." And a deep, sad sigh, to
realize how far we've sunk in terms of building library entrances like this
one compared to, say, the lobby at AFPL's Central Library.
For photos of other gorgeous (old) libraries,
click here, although we found this one elsewhere, at
Findability.)
- Another Blogger Weighs in on How to Make Libraries More "Welcoming"
Posted August 29, 2006
The recently-revived weekly roundup of library-related blogs at
LISNews mentions another set of suggestions on improving library
signage, this set posted by Christopher Harris at Infomancy.
- Juvenile Book Selector Alert: A Gateway to Blogged Book Reviews
Posted August 29, 2006
Apparently, the biblioblogosphere is as replete with reviews of books
written for kids as it is of reviews of books written for adults.
Pop Goes the Library
recently posted a link to
Children's Book Reviews, a wiki that gathers together links to all these
review sites, grouped by the different age-levels the reviewed books are
targeted for. How handy is that?
(AFPLWATCH found this information via Dave Lee at Georgia Perimeter
College, whose David's Random
Stuff blog hosted the most recent installment of the
Carnival of the InfoSciences, another weekly roundup of library-related
blogposts.)
- School District Suspends Students for Not Completing Summer Reading
Posted August 28, 2006
We've been so annoyed with some of the "incentives" dreamed up to "reward"
students to complete library-sponsored summer reading programs that we
never considered the notion of punishing students who'd rather do something
with their summers than read - especially when the books are chosen by
adults.
In some places, apparently, the schools mandate summer reading assignments,
and in Lancaster, Texas, a student can get suspended if he/she doesn't
complete the required reading by the beginning of the school year. The
school system suspended over 500 non-reading students this year, down from
over 1,000 suspended non-readers from last year. Details were reported by
ABC News, whose
story was mentioned by LISNews.
- Dept. of Great Library Promotion Ideas: Enhanced Book Receipts
Posted August 28, 2006
'Brary Web Diva recently posted this arresting suggestion (among
others):
Do you print receipts of what a patron just checked out? Customize it
to feature upcoming events!
- New Coffee-Table Book Showcases Gorgeous Libraries
Posted August 28, 2006
A new book of photographs of (alas, mostly non-modern) libraries has been
published:
Libraries by Candida Hofer. The blog
Fade Theory recently alerted its readers that there's
a website that's posted 16 of the photos in this drool-worthy tome.
- Homeless Persons Now on Sandy Springs' Radar Screen?
Posted August 24, 2006
For several decades now, intown Atlanta libraries have been coping - sans
any extra funding from the city or Fulton County, of course - with
multitudes of homeless persons. According to an
article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it looks like
the newly-incorporated suburban city of Sandy Springs is beginning to
acknowledge it has its own growing population of homeless citizens.
- Service Desk Alert: Help with Some Hard-to-Pronounce Authors' Names
Posted August 24, 2006
One thing oddly missing from the Internet is a web site exclusively devoted
to showing the pronunciation of easily-garbled authors' names. In the
meantime, Maryland-based blogger Max Magee, via
The Millions (A Blog About Books), provides us with the pronunciations
of the following handful of often-mispronounced names:
- Donald Barthelme
- Michael Chabon
- J.M. Coetzee
- John Le Carre
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Seamus Heaney
- Thomas Pynchon
- Rainer Maria Rilke
- Paul Theroux
- Henry David Thoreau
Magee also sets us straight with how to correctly pronounce the name of
the literary prize named after journalist Joseph Pulitzer.
- San Mateo Opens New, "Green" Library
Posted August 24, 2006
LISNews alerted us to this
article about the environmentally-sensitive design of California's
newest public library.
Besides the fact that it took five years to build, we found the following
comment intriguing: "Ninety-eight percent of the old library was recycled when it was torn
down." If we remember correctly, the only thing saved from the old Central library for the current
building were a few tiles depicting episodes from the Uncle Remus stories.
- Pennsylvania Legislators Increase Library Funding by 23%
Posted August 23, 2006
The increase sounds impressive, but actually merely restores funding to
2002 levels, before a series of drastic cuts. Library Journal reports
the details.
- Decatur Book Festival Set for Labor Day Weekend
Posted August 22, 2006
The DeKalb County Public Library's Georgia Center for the Book is
among the numerous sponsors of the festival. Details and a schedule of
events are available at
the festival's website.
- Florida PL To Include Adjacent 5-Acre Park
Posted August 22, 2006
Details
about the park, to be created next to a recently-opened branch library in
Broward County, Florida, were posted by Library Journal.
Now there's an idea worth dropping into AFPL's Master Facility Plan hopper:
why not consider siting one of AFPL's future libraries on a site with
more-than-the-absolute-mimimum acreage?
- Interview with "The Warrior Librarian"
Posted August 21, 2006
Readers who've enjoyed the hilarious expostulations of
"Biblia" since she arrived on the Internet in all her glory a little
over three years ago will want to read inCite's
interview with Biblia's Australia-based creator, Amanda Credaro. And
readers who haven't read Credaro's work will probably want to after
reading the interview.
- County Commissioners Do Two Good Things This Week
Posted August 18, 2006
First, they lowered the pricetag of the parks in Sandy Springs from
$27 million to $16,000, which the new city of Sandy Springs can afford to
pay.
Next, they finally approved a ten-year-old proposal that allows the
survivors of same-sex partners of county employees to receive deceased
employees' pension benefits in the same manner as surviving spouses of
different-sexed married couples.
Now for the bad news: Although not offering to pay the legal bill out of her own
pocket,
Commissioner Boxhill says she hopes someone will sue the county over the
parks deal. And the equitable pension benefits decision wasn't unanimous
(the resolution's opponents on the Commission had repeatedly tabled a vote
on it since last May and it finally passed by a 4-3 vote), and to make sure
they get the benefits, partners of same-sex employees must first be
certified by the county as being "officially" in a committed relationship.
- Six Questions for Public Libraries (Including AFPL)
Posted August 18, 2006
Last month, Cleveland Heights, Ohio librarian and self-defined “library geek” Laura
Solomon taught a workshop on change-embracing vs. change-phobic libraries.
The interesting six-part question Laura used in the workshop that she
posted on
her blog:
Can your library identify any of these policies/behaviors as its own?
- Static web sites or sites that are hard for customers to use
- Web sites that don't provide ways for customers to interact with each other
- Services that aren't easy to use, available 24/7 or fail to push information directly to the user
- Thinking that librarians are more important than customers
- Restricting customers without sufficient reason or based on belief rather than fact
- Believing that change is a scary (and hence, unwelcome) thing
Children’s Librarian Alert: Why More Kids Don’t Like to Read
Posted August 18, 2006
From Marylaine Block’s most recent installment of her always-interesting
Neat New Stuff I Found This
Week:
The Kids and Family Reading Report. Children's librarians and school
librarians take note. There's both discouraging news (the falloff after
age 8 in the number of children who enjoy reading) and opportunity here
(the top reason given for not reading is being unable to find books that
interest them).
Dept. of Extremely Kewl Ideas for Public Libraries
Posted August 18, 2006
At her other always-equally-interesting website,
Ex Libris, Marylaine Block recently mentioned the fact that the Denver Public Library provides a link
on its website that allows a library user to automatically install
a DPL toolbar on his/her home computer if they use Internet Explorer as their web browser. The
toolbar eliminates the need to type in the library’s website address before searching its catalog or
databases.
Minimizing the hassle of - and thus the hesitancy to - place a Hold on a library item from home
would, all by itself, seem a great justification for offering this nifty tool to AFPL computer-owning
cardholders.
But into whose AFPL administrative bailiwick would such a decision fall into, we wonder?
Alas, the answer to that question reminds us of our favorite cartoon in
the current (August 21, 2006) issue of the New Yorker, which shows
an executive at a desk talking on the telephone. Caption: “And you can
rest assured that your problem is being ignored at the very highest levels.”
Friday's Grab-bag: Book Covers / Deceased Fiction / Math-Themed Literature
Posted August 18, 2006
Three rather items of interest to library folk recently surfaced on
Edward Champion’s blog:
- Admit it. Some book covers are far more inspired than others. Librarians are among those
who probably see more book covers on the average day than 99% of the rest of the population, so some
of us are bound to be interested (for a moment, anyway) in this new
blog devoted to displaying and commenting on book covers.
- A brief, hilarious reaction by blogger Kristin
Tillotson to the latest news of fiction’s most recent demise, which we seem to recall was
announced by (millionaire fiction writer) John Updike.
- Canadian blogger Amy Nelson-Mile’s
Books, Words, and Writing’s link to Alex Kasman’s
Mathematical Fiction, an “attempt to collect information about all significant
references to mathematics in fiction.” (AFPL fiction book selectors and
book exhibit creators, take note.)
Selector Alert: Ready to Weed Your Astronomy Collection?
Posted August 17, 2006
From yesterday's New York Times:
In the hope of ending years of wrangling, a committee of astronomers and
historians has proposed a new definition of the word “planet” that would
expand at a stroke the family of planets from 9 to 12 and leave textbooks
and charts in thousands of classrooms out of date.
The Times forgot to mention the soon-to-be-outdated astronomy books
in thousands of libraries. AFPL selectors may need to make a note to
set aside more dollars than usual for the next several years for
re-stocking their astronomy book sections.
The International Astronomical Union vote won't be announced until August
24th, so the revised astronomy books probably won't be on the market until
later this year at the soonest.
Of course, even if there were revised planet books available for purchase
this fall, AFPL selectors wouldn't be able to order them. At AFPL, the
book-ordering season ended earlier this week - a fact about county
purchasing regulations that apparently isn't sufficiently scandalizing to
provoke library administrators and Friends groups into lobbying county
commissioners into exempting libraries from them.
Even though the current chair of the Fulton County Commission offered -
way back in October 2005 - to help get this done. But we digress....
A Walk Down (Computer) Memory Lane
Posted August 16, 2006
This excerpt from
a recent blogpost by librarian Michael Casey will resonate with
that ever-shrinking band of longtime employees who were around back
during the pre-Internet era at AFPL:
"It's hard to believe it's only been 25 years since the introduction of the
IBM PC. It's also hard to believe that until 1994, when I first started
using Mosaic to
browse the new web, all I ever used my computers for was word processing,
some spreadsheet work, lots of gaming and email (via
Prodigy until 1992 when I started using Internet-based email...).
In retrospect, the computer was nothing without the net."
Remember Mosaic and Prodigy (and Gopher and CrossTalk) - all terribly
cumbersome-in-retrospect programs used by AFPL's Internet pioneers before
the trustees, after years of begging, finally gave the green-light for
installing a graphical (vs. text-only) browser for the Internet at
AFPL workstations?
Remember when WordPerfect was the county-mandated word processing program,
Lotus 1-2-3 was the county-mandated spreadsheet, and the subsequent agonies
of converting thousands of computer files to Word and Excel? Amazingly
enough, there are still folks working at AFPL who used CD-ROM catalogs, and
microfilm catalogs before those, and actual card catalogs before those.
Unfortunately, not all the technology-related changes have been for the
better. For example, some of us remember when AFPL had its own webmaster....
Dept. of Ideas Whose Time Has Long Since Come:
More Convenient Patron Access to Library Managers
Posted August 16, 2006
The ever-innovative Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenberg has come
up with a simple,
customer-friendly, put-a-human-face-on-the-library idea to include
include on its website.
County.
Why couldn’t AFPL’s administrators' and managers' names, photos, and email
addresses be displayed this way at AFPL’s website?
Non-Library-Related Trivia Factoid Du Jour
Posted August 16, 2006
OK, we recently opened a book (Donald Pink’s A Whole New Mind) and
the following factoid lept off the page we turned to at random (trying to
figure out what this book was about):
At
The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator website, you can type in your city (or
zip code, even) and find the labyrinths nearest to you.
Who knew? (Incidentally, Pink’s book isn’t about labyrinths - it’s
about creative thinking.)
Why Bar Codes Shouldn't Be Plastered on the Covers of Library Books
Posted August 16, 2006
Because
stuff like this sometimes happens, albeit without the irony of this
particular example. (Our thanks to Jessamyn West
for blogging this item from Mark Hurst’s much-needed
“This is Broken” blog.)
AFPL's ancient decision to instruct its book vendors to put the barcode
on the top left corner of AFPL's books - no matter what the confusing
and/or unappealing visual result - makes us (and our annoyed patrons)
wonder why something more sensible couldn’t be come up with. Surely AFPL
service desk staffs - no matter how busy they are - could manage to quickly
locate and scan a barcode even if it weren't, for a good reason,
affixed in the top-left-hand corner of every single book?
Another Tale of Two Cities (i.e., Two Library Systems)
Posted August 16, 2006
Number of blogs sponsored by the Darien, Connecticut public library:
10 (including one written by
the library director). Number of blogs sponsored by the Atlanta-Fulton
Public Library (written by the director or by anyone else on AFPL's staff):
0.
More Gossip about the Gwinnett County Library Director Firing
Posted August 15, 2006
We don't know how we missed it when it was first posted back in June,
but The Annoyed Librarian
and some of her many fans (including a few Gwinnett County readers) waded
into the copious commentary about the firing, earlier this summer, of
Gwinnett library director Jo Ann Pinder. Interesting reading, even two
months after the fact.
Read the AL's blogpost and the 16 reader comments.
Library Signage: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Posted August 15, 2006
Librarian blogger Michael Sauers (aka The Travelin' Librarian) has
created
a Flikr site with photos of (and comments about) various signs posted in
libraries around the country that contributors have seen fit to email
to the site. There aren't many examples yet, although
the sign from an Idaho public library that started the whole thing is
a doozie!
Canada Teenager, Chased by Police, Crashes Van Into Library
Posted August 14, 2006
Details.
GSU Creates Photo-Blog to Keep Library Users Up to Date on Renovation
Posted August 14, 2006
So why can’t AFPL do something
like this for the next library it builds…or, better still, for the
finally-resumed progress on the Central Library plaza?
Dept. of Biblio Bon Mots
Posted August 14, 2006
Latest faboux neologism from "Free Range Librarian" Karen Schneider:
bibliohackles, a term Karen uses in her
review of Lewis Buzzbee's The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop.
Why DOPA is So Dopey
Posted August 14, 2006
As we mentioned when
they did it, the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved the
Delete Online Predators Act (DOPA). Here's a criticism of that House vote
that we think hits the mark:
"Rather than teaching people to swim, its always easier just to close down
the pool."
Source: Geoff Harder’s Blog Drivers Waltz.
"Library 2.0" is about Technology, Right? Wrong.
Posted August 14, 2006
AFPL library workers who missed (or ignored) the hoopla about "Library 2.0"
might want to consider what one librarian blogger, Kansas City Public
Library's David King, has to say about what he thinks underlies the
movement to change the paradigm used by many public libraries in
LibraryLand. David thinks it's all about changing the way libraries
communicate/converse/connect/commune with patrons - with or without the
aid of computer-based technology.
Read his blogpost.
Atlanta Finally Gaining, Instead of Losing, Population
Posted August 11, 2006
According to an
article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "with an
estimated population of 451,600, Atlanta is approaching the 495,039
residents it had in 1970."
So apparently it took a mere 35 years for soaring gasoline prices and
the horrific commutes resulting from suburbran living to reverse the tide
of Atlanta residents fleeing from "the city too busy to hate." Let's hope
what looks like the beginnings of The Great Return doesn't bring with it
a sudden influx of the provincial attitudes that fueled the white flight
of the 1960s.
Board Member Warns of Possible Bankruptcy for County-Funded Grady Hospital
Posted August 10, 2006
An
article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that
Grady Hospital has lost money every year since 1999 and could be headed
for bankruptcy. Fulton County (along with Dekalb) is contractually
obligated to provide enough money to keep Grady afloat, and yet neither
county has increased its contributions to Grady's revenue streams for the
past three years, despite the soaring costs of operating the hospital.
Meanwhile, Fulton County has lost revenues from the recently-incorporated
areas in the north end of the county.
Could the county's obligations to Grady have an impact on county funding
for other county government operations - like county libraries? Of course
it could.
Homeless Patron Sues Library Over Lending Restriction Policy
Posted August 10, 2006
Details from an
Associated Press story on a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts.
Fulton Commission Chair, Library Trustee Karen Handel Wins Election Runoff
Posted August 9, 2006
The state's Republican Party voters chose Roswell resident Karen Handel
as the party's candidate for Secretary of State in this fall's statewide elections.
She'll be running against Democratic candidate Gail Buckner, a House
Representative who lives in Jonesboro, and against the Libertarian
candidate Kevin Madsen.
Details of yesterday's runoff elections are available in a story
published in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Memo to AFPL Administrators and Managers: Why People Quit Their Jobs
Posted August 9, 2006
Gregory P. Smith, author of the book Here Today Here Tomorrow:
Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention
recently posted to his blog
The Top 10 Reasons Why People Quit Their Jobs. Smith notes that all
ten reasons have to do with bad (and preventable) management decisions or
habits.
Our thanks to
Dances with Books for mentioning this interesting list.
Rock Band Now Finishing Up Its National Tour of Public Libraries
Posted August 9, 2006
Using music concerts to lure teenagers into libraries could
become The Next Big Thing for YA programmers. Here's the
website spawned by The High Strung's nationwide tour of libraries,
including one in Cobb County
this past June.
The Fallout from Banning Gay Pride Book Displays in Tampa Libraries
Posted August 9, 2006
In June 2005, the Hillsborogh County commissioners passed a resolution
forbidding the county library from putting up book displays during Gay
Pride Week or from otherwise acknowledging the existence of the movement
in the United States to establish full civil rights for lesbians and gay men.
This
website created by a library school student examines (among other
things) what happened this past year as a result of that county commission
vote, as well as some of the political developments that led up to the vote.
Why Libraries Must Find Better Ways to Advertise Their Wares
Posted August 9, 2006
Excerpts from a recent
blogpost by OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey:
"If you want something to be discovered it has to be disclosed to a
discovery environment....If I want people to know that I am a plumber
available for hire, I do not simply put a note on my door. I disclose my
availability through the yellow pages, the local newspaper, Google ads:
all those places where I know that I am going to be discovered....
So, if I want the stuff in my library to be discovered by those to whom it
will be useful, I have to disclose its existence in those discovery
environments that people actually use....I can expect some of them to find
their way to my door - the library catalog or website - but if people are
having discovery experiences elsewhere what should I do [with the data
in my library's catalog]?"
A Tale of Two Cities (or, Rather, of Two Library Foundations)
Posted August 7, 2006
An excerpt from the
August 2006 issue of Georgia Public Library News:
“In Columbus, citizens formed the Muscogee County Library Foundation three
years ago. That foundation has now raised an endowment in excess of $18
million, contributing more than $600,000 a year to the operating budget of
the library.”
And AFPL’s Foundation has been in existence for how many years? And the
size of the endowment it has created for AFPL is how large? And that
endowment contributes how many dollars a year to AFPL’s operating budget?
Wikimania Conclave Features "Wikis in Libraries" Session
Posted August 7, 2006
Filipino Librarian reports on the session's presentations
at this year's international gathering of
wiki operators and enthusiasts, held this past weekend in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
Alas, no rep from AFPL was among the forty attendees at this workshop.
Perhaps one day that will change. Who knows? Maybe one day an AFPL staffer
will be making a presentation there?
Michigan Woman Caught Trying to Pawn 1,500 DVDs
Posted August 7, 2006
Read the dreary
details.
Maybe AFPL's security force needs to make routine visits to metro-Atlanta
pawn shops looking for the hundreds (thousands?) of DVDs that have gone
missing from AFPL libraries? At the very least, maybe the directors of all
the public library systems in metro-Atlanta could mail a jointly-signed
letter to the managers of the area's pawn shops to be on the lookout for DVDs with library markings, and who at each library system to
notify should they spot any suspicious merchandise among their wares? Who
knows - maybe every now and then a pawnshop owner might be willing to
trade the good publicity of becoming a library hero for the money they
would lose from re-selling stolen DVDs?
Israeli Army Destroyed Lebanese Archives
Posted August 7, 2006
Read the story as
reported last week by Library Juice.
Typewriters in Public Libraries
Posted August 5, 2006
When
Library Garden asked last Friday whether other public libraries still
made typewriters available to the public, readers responded with a
resounding Yes! As one reader remarked: "I think there would be a riot if
the typewriter was removed."
Everything You Ever Wanted - or Needed - to Know about the Wikipedia
Posted August 5, 2006
There may be some library worker somewhere who still hasn't heard about the
free, reader-edited, online encyclopedia known as the
Wikipedia, but we doubt it. After all, it's been around now for seven
years. Still, even those who consult the Wikipedia from time to time at
library service desk are probably unaware of the intriguing history of
this ongoing, worldwide experiment with the Internet's ability to instantly
capture and organize the considerable energies and knowledge of the
planet's literate, passionate - and mostly amateur - experts.
Lately, the Wikipedia's growing popularity and the intermittent controversy
over its credibility has spawned considerable press coverage. Two of the
best are the feature (= longish) stories published by
The New Yorker and by The Atlantic.
Read either (or, better, both) of these fascinating investigative accounts,
and you may end up changing your opinion - whatever it happens to be -
about the Wikipedia, and about whether or not it is likely ever to supplant
some of those expensive print encyclopedias most libraries are in the habit
of purchasing every year.
Fulton County Employees Won't Need to Find New Doctors After All
...Unless, Of Course, They Already Did Posted August 4, 2006
For those who haven't already heard the news, Blue Cross and Piedmont
Hospital finally reached a deal yesterday, as reported by the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Thousands of county (including
library system) employees and their families are among thousands more in
Georgia who are relieved to hear this news. Hundreds of people are, however,
annoyed and/or were inconvenienced by the delay in reaching the agreement.
What isn't clear is how much this post-deadline contract renewal is
going to cost county employees each month.
Dept. of "We've Lived Too Long...":
UK Politicians Install Gym Equipment in Public Library
Posted August 4, 2006
LISNews reports this
latest development in trying to make public libraries be All Things to
All People.
Won't these equipment-using patrons soon be demanding that the politicians
who came up with this bright idea build shower stalls for them?
Public Access to OCLC a Harbinger of Increased Holds?
Posted August 4, 2006
This week's New York Times
obituary of OCLC’s first president mentions that, starting later this
month, OCLC’s WorldCat will be available to any one with an Internet
connection, and that users can enter their Zip Code to see which nearby
libraries own a copy of a particular book.
With computer-owning AFPL patrons no longer needing to know about and
use GALILEO to access WorldCat, will their more direct access to that
database have “interesting” consequences for AFPL? Staff (including AFPL's
couriers) may soon find themselves handling even more Holds than ever.
Stay tuned….
Another Public Library Launches a Staff Wiki
Posted August 3, 2006
Shortly after learning (at a Staff Day presentation) from
Michael Stephens and Jenny Levine how various web-based tools can help remove barriers to
customer service, the circulation staff at St. Joseph (Missouri) County Library
created a staff blog for recording and responding to ideas for improving
the way they do their work. We love the image the SJCPL staff chose to
represent their "brainstorming" intentions:
And we also admire SJCPL's initiative. Why, oh why can't something
similar be instituted at AFPL???
Who Reads in America? Who Wrote What They Read?
Posted August 3, 2006
This AlterNet "essay" is over six months old, but everyone who works in a
public library would benefit from reading it. And each of the readers'
comments is equally intriguing.
Read this blogpost.
Librarian Bloggers React to House Approval of DOPA Legislation
Posted August 2, 2006
It's no surprise that many blogging librarians are enraged at
the recent Congressional vote to block library-based Internet access to...well, to (among
many other things) Internet blogs.
More than one of these bloggers is
suggesting that library directors take a good, hard look at the real costs
and the full consequences of the Internet filtering required by libraries
that accept E-rate funds.
Samples of the apparently-soon-to-be-inaccessible-via-library-Internet-workstations
discussion (i.e., blog postings plus reader comments) are
here and
here.
One More Thing for Public Libraries to Cope With
Posted August 2, 2006
After reading about what researchers found infesting the computer keyboards at
and computer mouses a North Carolina hospital,
The Krafty Librarian suggests that public libraries might want to
routinely desanitize their keyboards and mouses, or provide the supplies
that would allow patrons to do that when they sit down to our workstations.
Blogger David Rothman reports
what he's done at his library to minimize infections spread by
keyboards and mice swarming with nasty microbes.
Mottos for Libraries Aiming to Excel?
Posted August 2, 2006
These section headings used in an Frederick Nesta's Library Journal
article entitled “Google Your Library’s Mission: What Librarians Can Learn
from Google’s Corporate Philosophy” (June 1, 2006, pages 36-37) sound like
good advice for customer-friendly libraries:
- Focus On the User and All Else Will Follow
- It’s Best to Do One Thing Really, Really Well
- Fast is Better Than Slow
- Democracy on the Web Works
- You Don’t Need to Be at a Desk to Need an Answer
- You Can Make Money Without Doing Evil
- There’s Always More Information Out There
- The Need for Information Crosses All Borders
- You Can Be Serious Without a Suit
- Great Just Isn’t Good Enough
Read Nesta's article.
Supervisor Alert: How to Fire Somebody
Posted August 2, 2006
It would be a more pleasant planet if everyone who was ever hired turned
out to be a stellar - or at least a functional - employee. Alas, this is
not that planet.
The Intinerant Librarian recently linked to this interesting
essay by blogger Guy Kawasak, who, though not a librarian, explains how to go about
properly doing something that is inevitable for many supervisors in libraries
- especially those supervisors who may not be very adept at making good
hiring decisions. As usual with blogs, much of the value in this blogpost
can be found in the comments readers have posted in reaction to (or
agreement with) it.
Selector Alert: Books Providing Background on the Wars in the Middle East
Posted August 2, 2006
Over at AlterNet, Deborah Campbell recently posted an annotated list
of books under the headline "What to Read While the Cradle of Civilization
Burns: Books That Will Give You the History and Context of the Middle East
That the Media Refuses to Provide." You might want to check these titles -
novels as well as nonfiction - against your library's holdings, and consider
ordering some of the titles missing from it.
Really intrepid selectors will want to sift through the comments of over
a hundred readers of
Campbell's post who suggest additional titles (or who vividly object
to those suggestions, or who vividly object to those objections).
(Note: You'll need to scroll down past the adverts to get to the text
of Campbell's list.)
Amazon.com Now Offering Cataloging, Processing for Library Purchases
Posted August 1, 2006
Libraries with Amazon accounts can now get their purchases with mylar book
covers, spine labels, and MARC cataloging records.
Details.
Every year since Amazon became the world's largest online bookseller,
selectors at AFPL have been begging library system administrators to set
up an account with Amazon, so selectors could obtain items - including o.p.
items - that AFPL's primary vendors don't stock. Please, please, can we
now finally get that standing purchase order created, along with
convenient procedures for ordering from Amazon? Most selectors have
a list from here to Philadelphia of titles cancelled by (or not stocked by)
Baker & Taylor or BWI that their patrons would like to get hold of.
Dept. of Thieving Librarians (Manchester, UK Division)
Posted August 1, 2006
A 44-year-old librarian has admitted to stealing over 400 rare books and
other items from the library where he worked and selling some of them on
eBay. Fortunately, many of the stolen items were recovered from his
apartment.
Details.
Continue reading previously-posted LibraryLand bulletins
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