“Library web sites boast an alluring array of R[eaders] A[dvisory] features these days: staff-written reviews, annotated lists, readalikes, discussion forums.”

"[The] Internet plays a special role in their world: 33% of online teens share their creations online, 22% have their own webpage, 19% have a blog. 19% remix content into their own creations."

"The unquestioning enthusiasm for new technologies blinds some librarians to the complex and significant, and sometimes negative, social effects that these technologies can have, making nuanced and balanced decisionmaking within institutions more difficult."

"If you [claim to] provide reference service, [but] are using one engine, typing in less than 2.6 words, and not look past the first page of results, you may as well shape up that resume and get out of the profession because anyone who walks into your building can do that."

“In this world, a good time to laugh is anytime you can.”

"A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." --James Madison

"The restoration to favour of forgotten books and authors is always a chancy business. It is a myth that time will do the testing; it would be truer to credit chance, and, more important still, the continuation of reasonably well-informed talk."

"It's...not my job to teach a vendor how to be a vendor, or to chase after him or her with pleas for deliverables or invoices.

With bosses, you either have to make the best of your situation or move on. With vendors, depending on your level of engagement, it may take a while to move on--but there's always that option. It's like any difficult decision: once you make it, you realize how right it was....Your other vendors will shine all the more in comparison."

“…During the user's experience of a bricks-and-mortar library, the weakest link in the experience chain can cloud that user's opinion of the entire experience. If the user cannot find a convenient place to park her car, her bike, or her carcass, that's a problem. If the signage is poorly designed-although the service point, once she finds it, is great-that's a problem that negatively affects her sense and value of the entire experience. It doesn't matter to the user that the library cannot control all the factors that coalesce in mysterious ways to form, in each user, a sense of a complete experience. Most users form a sense of the gestalt experience first, then look for responsible parties second-if ever.”

"TAXES! People come up and ask me which form they need for amortizing capital appreciation. Howabout estimated tax payment vouchers for 2004? EITC when the child is the dependent of the non-custodial parent? I keep saying over and over that I cannot give tax advice. They think I am being mean. I keep the J.K. Lassiter's Your Income Tax 2006 out on a table and encourage people to use it. Most act like I am crazy. There is also some idea that since we give out tax forms for free, if someone copies something from the reproducible binder or prints from the web, it should also be free. I don't think FGI has that kind of free in mind. I had one older gentleman tell me that charging for tax forms was disgusting, and that he would take his business elsewhere. I wonder where he went?"

"The U.S. population age 65 and over is expected to double in size within the next 25 years. By 2030, almost 1-out-of-5 Americans - some 72 million people - will be 65 years or older. The age group 85 and older is now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population."

If the vast majority of our library use is happening virtually, are the people who animate the information there too? 24/7? We have to ensure our reference librarians, other user support staff and teacher-librarians are available to virtual users as much as they are to physical users.