- Conglomerate Acquires SIRSI
Posted December 28, 2006
Not many details yet.
- Illinois Library Sponsoring Video Contest on YouTube
Posted December 28, 2006
Here's an innovative way
another public library is using wildly popular Internet technology to
interest a tech-savvy set of (probably younger) constiuents in the library.
- Latest Experiment in Library-Sponsored Speed-Dating
Posted December 21, 2006
Courtesy the Bibliophile Bullpen, the
update from Australia.
- Dept. of Library Technology Horror Stories:
Data on 15,000 Patrons Mistakenly Made Available on Internet
Posted December 21, 2006
From an LISNews report of a story published by Michgan's Muskegon Chronicle:
"...the Lakeland Library Cooperative Web site made available personal
information of more than 15,000 patrons across West Michigan on the
Internet. Information that was displayed included names, phone numbers,
e-mail addresses, street addresses and library card numbers of library
patrons registered on the site. Minors were also indicated on the
spreadsheet-type document by a listing of parents' names."
More...
- Book Lover's Alert: Website Promotes "Bookstore Tourism"
Posted December 21, 2006
Who knew there was such a thing as the "National Council on Bookstore
Tourism"? And that it has a website?
What next? Organized tours of trip-worthy public libraries? And would
AFPL ever be a destination for such a bus-load of book enthusiasts?
[Found at
Bibliophile Bullpen.]
- And the Purpose of The Public Library is...?
Posted December 20, 2006
Like clockwork, public musings upon "The Mission of The Public Library"
erupt from time to time into the biblioblogosphere. And, like clockwork,
it turns out that everyone has a different opinion, and that these
different opinions pretty much cover the waterfront, and that whatever
Answers might emerge seem to be highly provisional or otherwise
unsatisfactory to those (like library funders) who might prefer Definite,
Eternal, Universally Popular Answers to Questions of Import.
Still, "the" mission(s) of "the" public library is An Issue Worth Yammering
About, and one that should be probably be frequently re-visited everywhere,
including (and possibly especially) at AFPL.
Certainly, "mission clarity" can be useful when allocating institutional
(and institutional employees') time, energy, attention, and dollars, and
when trying to decide which battles to fight (with oneself, with colleagues at
staff meetings, with administrators, with patrons, with funders, etc.).
Some such discussions of The Mission of The Public Library are, however,
more articulate than others. Reading the
screed posted yesterday by the always-provocative-and-often-right-on
blogger who calls herself the "Annoyed Librarian" - as well as perusing
the numerous thoughtful reactions of the AL's readers - will perhaps
clarify, at least partially, at least temporarily, your own thoughts on
this perennial question.
- Booklist Maker's Alert: Free Clip Art from DK
Posted December 20, 2006
 Librarians and their patrons rightfully adore the image-saturated books
produced by the publisher Dorling Kindersley. DK has posted a boat-load of
handsome - and free - clip art from its books on the Internet. If you're
one of those people on the library staff frequently called upon to create
(or to spruce up) booklists, program flyers, newsletters, etc., you might
want to bookmark
DK's clip art site on your computer.
Note: The search box at this site searches DK's book titles, not its clip
art. The site's maintainers have, however, grouped the hundreds of images
into handy and somewhat-easily-scannable categories.
[Found via
Librarian in Black, who found it at
The Resource Shelf.]
- Book Lover's Alert: Outstanding Cover Art
Posted December 20, 2006
Is there anyone among us who hasn't bought a book - or plucked one from a
library shelf - solely because we were intrigued by its cover?
Enjoying unusual - and especially unusually apt - cover art is one
of the many harmless pleasures of book-browsing, and it's gratifying to
learn that there's a website devoted entirely to cover art appreciation.
Take a look.
[Found via Fade Theory.]
- Many Libraries Using Web-Based Chat Alternative MeeBo
Posted December 19, 2006
Although we've long thought that instant messaging is one of the clunkiest,
most irritating communication tools - especially for library reference work -
ever to come down the electronic pike, we are definitely in the minority
here. Millions of people around the globe use chat rooms habitually, and
hundreds of libraries are experimenting with instant messaging-based
reference service and reaching out to more otherwise-library-ignoring
patrons thereby.
But because so many IM channels, even in libraries, are blocked by The
Techno Powers That Be, a web-based IM service has been invented to get
around the Techno-blocked IM-software downloading problem. We don't
understand how MeeBo works,
but, again, there are
plenty o' libraries that have adopted it on behalf of their
IM-preferring-but-annoyingly-blocked users. How long before the
aforementioned Techno Powers That Be find a way to block this popular site
as well, many wonder.
- No, Communities Do Not Revolve Around Libraries...
Posted December 19, 2006
Ohio-based librarian Laura Solomon, at
Library Geek Woes punctures the grandiose notion of a lot of library
administrators that they can position themselves to become - at least among
their computer-users - the centers of so-called virtual communities.
- Retirement? What's That?
Posted December 19, 2006
This eighty-five-year-old Vermont librarian has no intentions of quitting
anytime soon.
Details.
[Found via LISNews, via the Worcester
Telegram.]
- Nomination for Best LibraryLand Neologism of 2006
Posted December 18, 2006
Merriam-Webster has declared that
"truthiness" is Word of the Year for 2006, but what about this past
year's Best Contribution by a Public Library Librarian to Library Jargon?
Marie Radford, a blogger for the New Jersey-based blog Library Garden,
has identified a user group others may call Millenials but that she calls
"screenagers." We like that.
Read the context of Marie's useful addition to library jargon.
- Philadelphia Library Installs Bathroom Attendants to Monitor Homeless
Posted December 17, 2006
Since the 1970s or so, most libraries in large urban centers - including
AFPL - have had major problems keeping their restrooms non-horrible. This
challenge is due in most cases to the heavy use (and mis-use) of library
restrooms by daily throngs of homeless people.
The recently-renovated Free Library of Philadelphia is conducting a
six-months experiment to address its version of this stubborn problem. The
price tag: $17,000.
Details.
- Service Desk Alert: OCLC's Upgrades "Fiction Finder"
Posted December 17, 2006
Patrons don't often ask for help finding things like "mystery novels set
in Charleston," but when they do, it's nice to surprise them with a
handy booklist tailored to their reading tastes. The Internet has made
that task a lot quicker and easier, as users of NoveList can assure you.
Blogger Lorcan Dempsey writes that a similar tool, OCLC's "Fiction Finder,"
has been improved.
Come to think of it, both NoveList and Fiction Finder should also be in
every fiction selector's toolkit. After all, once you've given a handy
fiction booklist to your gratified patron, that patron's going to next
ask you how many of these titles are owned by your library. "Fiction
Finder's" ranking feature could come in especially handy for selectors: it
allows you to rank your list of titles by the number of libraries
(represented in WorldCat) who own each title on the list. So even if you
couldn't afford to buy all the novels on a certain subject you'd like to
stock, you could get the most-purchased-elsewhere ones.
- Top Ten Library-Related News Stories of 2006
Posted December 17, 2006
Apparently assuming that Nothing Major will transpire in LibraryLand during
the final two weeks of the year, LISNews has already posted its
densely-hyperlinked
re-cap of "the good, the bad, and the ugly library stories of 2006."
- Gwinnett County School Libraries Can Continue Stocking Harry Potter Books
Posted December 15, 2006
As expected,
Georgia's Board of Education yesterday
upheld the Gwinnett County's school board's refusal to remove the
Harry Potter books from the libraries in county-operated schools.
A Gwinnett parent claims the books glorify witchcraft. (The
International Herald Tribune story is
here.)
- Georgia Prison Escapee Caught After Checking MySpace at Philly Library
Posted December 15, 2006
This
story has us wondering how the police got wind of this guy's using the
Internet in a public library, but of course the police ain't talking.
[Found via
Library Garden.]
- Selector Alert: "100 Notable Books of 2006"
Posted December 15, 2006
How many of the titles on this
list published by the New York Times Book Review are part of
your library's collection? How many titles will you order now that you know
about
the list?
- Library Webmaster Alert: "Biggest Mistakes in Web Design"
Posted December 15, 2006
Although AFPL doesn't have a webmaster on its staff (yep,
you read that right), maybe out there among AFPLWATCH's readers are a few
webmasters at other libraries who could benefit from reading this
hilarious and instructive set of
web-design caveats.
[Found via the
Librarian in Black.]
- Service Desk Alert: RUSQ Now Online
Posted December 13, 2006
And what is RUSQ, you ask? Shame on you! RUSQ is Reference and
User Quarterly, and for some librarians it was required reading, back
in the pre-Google days when people came to libraries with questions (other
than Where are your restrooms?) that they wanted answers to.
Anyway, RUSQ prints some useful stuff, including booklists on particular
topics, so some of you out there in LibraryLand may want to bookmark the
new - and free - online version. Especially if you don't work at the
Central Library and can't easily get to the print subscription to RUSQ
available Professional Collection there,
which maintains a print subscription. (Or if you're one of the hundreds of
AFPL employees who weren't aware that the Professional Collection exists,
and that AFPL spends many thousands of dollars per year paying for the
mostly-ignored resources therein.)
[Our thanks to the
Librarian in Black for alerting her readers to the online existence of
our old friend RUSQ.]
- Coming Soon: Easier Travel Between British, French National Libraries
Posted December 13, 2006
Lorcan Dempsey
reminds his readers that, next year, the terminal for the British
end of the EuroStar train that travels under the English Channel between
the United Kingdom and France will be re-located in the St. Pancras
rail station right next door to the British Library. This should make
travel logistics a lot more convenient for scholars - and librarian tourists - who want to
schedule visits during the same trip to both the British Library and the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
- Service Desk Alert: Georgia DOT Removes 488 Towns from State Map
Posted December 11, 2006
Supposedly because the map was becoming illegible, gone are Hiawassee,
Young Harris, and 486 other towns with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants.
Details.
Let's hope that drivers out looking for these disappeared towns (and/or
intersections) won't be pulling into the nearest public library asking for
directions - after all, we'll be referring to the same map those hapless
drivers will be waving at us. Unless, of course, we cleverly archive at our
service desks a pre-revised edition of the DOT map.
What next? Will the DOT decide there are just too many counties
in Georgia, and omit the boundaries of the smallest ones?
Good thing the DOT made their announcement about their new highway map
after the recent election.
Update: After a few days of fielding complaints
about their map re-make, the DOT has backpedaled a bit - but not enough to
suit some people.
Details.
- Service Desk Alert: Time for a Reference Service Paradigm Shift?
Posted December 9, 2006
After some introductory remarks about a shift in LibraryLand priorities
from "back-room" operations to customer service interactions, SIRSI Vice
President of Innovation Stephen Abram offers
six ways library managers could be using technology to transform library reference
services into something relevant to today's user environment.
Read Abrams' half-dozen suggestions and ask yourself how many of them
have been implemented - or are even being investigated, or are even being
discussed - anywhere at AFPL.
- Another Holiday Gift for Your Favorite Booklover
Posted December 8, 2006
We say "favorite booklover" because a pair of these - the bookends, not the
dictionaries - will set you back 80 bucks. They cost that much because
they're being sold by Restoration Hardware.
Details.
[Found at Bibliophile Bullpen.]
- Selector Alert: How Delinquent Patrons Can Help You Select
Posted December 8, 2006
YA author Patrick Jones recently offered this suggestion when he spoke at a
library conference:
"The single most important list [of books you need to order] is the [list of]
books that got stolen last year. Start your year by buying replacements.
They have a track record!"
[Posted by Peter Blomberg at at
Library Garden]; someone else Blomberg quotes later in the same blogpost,
though on a different subject, provides the latest
Spooky Quotation posted to AFPLWATCH.]
- Booklovers Alert: Literary Postage Stamps on the Internet
Posted December 7, 2006
Bibliophile Bullpen blogger J. Godsey recently began building
another blog she calls Literary Stamps,
and it's already worth a look-see.
Interesting, though, how so many of these public tributes to treasured
authors and books are issued by governments other than the one that
operates the United States.
- A New Goal for Library Catalogs: Make Them Fun to Use
Posted December 6, 2006
Portland-based Library Thing
founder Tim Spalding has raised the bar for the tiny band of librarians who
yearn to make radical changes in public library catalogs. Tim thinks we
should not neglect the importance of "fun" to the catalog user in our
preoccupation with making the catalog more "friendly," which, as we and our
patrons who struggle with us in our efforts to get the catalog to Do Our
Bidding know all too well, would be a fairly daunting project all by itself.
Happily, Tim has some very specific ideas on how catalog-constructors could
engineer more "fun" into library catalogs. His rant is so thought-provoking
(and amusing) that you should probably read
his entire blogpost (including his readers' comments).
[Found via LISNews' latest
"This Week in LibraryBlogLand".]
- Back-to-the-Future Dept.: Public Library Books by Mail
Posted December 6, 2006
Speaking of "delighting the user," SIRSI "Vice President of Innovation"
Stephen Abram used this phrase to describe his visit to a Kansas public
library that mails books to patrons. Stephen helpfully links to
others bloggers' commentary about this oddly-not-very-widespread service.
Like so many other things, this service idea has no forum at AFPL in
which it could be thoroughly examined. Sad, that. One would think that an
institution claiming to value its customers would create some sort of
mechanism devoted exclusively to systematically exploring potential
service-improvement ideas.
[Also found via LISNews' latest
"This Week in LibraryBlogLand".]
- Libraries in Ohio Quantify $$$ Value of Public Libraries
Posted December 4, 2006
Last week, OCLC blogger Alice Sneary alerted the readers of OCLC's blog
It's All Good to the fact that a group of Ohio libraries spent $25,000
on a study to figure out how much citizens who invest a buck in public
library service get back in service.
Here's what the study found.
Perhaps AFPL will consider citing these figures when it comes time to
promote the bond referendum it hopes will pay for implementing its Master
Facilities Plan. Such an appeal to economic bargainhood might help convince
citizens unmoved by the billboard images of allegedly book-starved children
that AFPL used during the previous library referendum.
Come to think of it, why wait for the bond referendum? These (or comparable)
figures should probably be posted somewhere on the library system's
website.
- Holiday Gift Idea for Library-Lovers: A Scented Spray Called "In The Library"
Posted December 4, 2006
No, no, not the aroma of a room full of bath-deprived homeless persons or
a toddler throwup-enhanced filthy carpet, but that nostalgic old-leather-books
smell of yore. 50 milliliters for a mere $35.
Details.
[Found at Fade Theory, whose
author found it at
Talking in the Library.]
- Fancy New Seattle Library a Haven for the Homeless
Posted December 4, 2006
The 10-floor, $168 million main library in Seattle has barred over 800
people (mostly homeless people) from the library for rule infractions.
Details.
- A Resource for Better-Libraries-Through-Technology Librarians
Posted December 2, 2006
From the
Librarian in Black:
Peter Scott points us to the
AmbientLibrarian Wiki, a resource "dedicated to helping information
professionals (librarians, MLIS students, and others) learn more about
Library 2.0 and other available web technologies." Here's their
Cool Tools section as an example. There isn't a whole lot of information
there yet, but it's growing--that's what wikis are all about.
- December 1st = World AIDS Day
Posted December 2, 2006
We don't know how many public libraries put up a book display to mark this
year's World AIDS Day, but Fade Theory
posted this graphic that some of us might consider copying and adding to
this year's display, or using next year:
- "Knocking the Exuberance Out of Employees"
Posted December 2, 2006
A
meditation, with graphics, on how virtually every administrator says
he/she wants to supervise creative, thoughtful, energetic employees...when
what most administrators really want working for them is a bunch of
compliant, yes-people - the more robot-like, the better.
[Found at
Dances With Books, who also blogged in the same posting the
How to Change the World's "Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things"
and its 10 ways CEOS can minimize the doing of dumb things in their
organizations.]
[Incidentally,
Dances with Books consistently embeds her blogposts
in such hilarious, razor-sharp humor that, despite the fact that she
works in an academic library rather than a public library like AFPL, we've
added Dances to
AFPLWATCH's list of reliably-humorous
weblogs. You might want to consider bookmarking this site so it will
be handy for those times at work when you need a bit of gallows humor to
calm you down from some workplace annoyance-creator.]
- Library Bomb Suspect Says He Was 'Studying Religion'
Posted December 1, 2006
An update
on the Salt Lake City Public Library pipe bomb
incident this past September.
- A Librarian is Named One of 2006’s “Public Officials of the Year”
Posted December 1, 2006
Governing magazine did the choosing; the head of the Chicago Public
Library was one of the eight officials chosen this year.
Details.
[Found via Marylaine Block’s
Neat New Stuff I Found This Week.]
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