Ann Arbor District Library (MI) uses
the open source Drupal content management system with incorporates
blogging, tagging, user comments, and RSS feeds. Its location page is tied
into Google Maps.
Hennepin County Library (MN) has
blogs for library news and teens, RSS feeds built into the catalog along
with user reviews/comments, a MySpace account and, podcasts.
Memorial Hall Library (MA) - Library
director maintains a Blog and site has a wiki with an accumulated
collection of reference question called "Andover Answers," teen podcasts,
and a MySpace page and an online community calendars.
Salida Regional Library
(CO) links to Library Elf which allows users to track due dates on checked
out items; local digital archive link, downloadable audio books, director
(weekly) newspaper articles, and staff recommendations.
Stevens County Rural Library District
(WA) maintains a library news blog and a public wiki project designed to
create a guide to Stevens County, including local history.
Westerville Public Library (OH)
features director, teen and adult services blogs, library Flickr and
MySpace presence, RSS feeds, podcasts and videocasts, user rating of
catalog items with links to Amazon, B&N, NoveList, and Syndetics for
reviews.
Sadly, AFPL appears on neither list, because, seven years into the
21st century and 10 years after the introducing the Internet into its
libraries, AFPL offers none of these web-based services to AFPL's
computer-owning users. None, zero, nada.
Alaska Man Arrested for Using Library's WiFi from Parking Lot After Hours
Posted February 27, 2007; another link added March 2, 2007
Once AFPL gets wireless connections to the Internet in its libraries (and
we won't mention how long that's been on the drawing board), are the
parking lots of AFPL branches going to be jammed with nocturnal Internet
addicts? And how will we keep the daytime car-based wifi users from
monopolizing a branch's parking slots, we wonder? Will the parking lots be
full of litter (cigarette butts, coffee cups, doughnut boxes, etc.)
discarded by the car-based wifi users? Oy, vey!
Dept. of Indicted Library Workers (North Dakota Division)
Posted February 27, 2007
A 37-year-old library employee has been jailed for having sex with a 15-year-old
after setting up their rendezvous on an Internet chat room. A few details
here.
In the Netherlands, the Spijkenisse city library won a marketing award
from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
last year for its campaign to attract nonusers to the library with a simple
postcard and the slogan “Wij missen u" (”We miss you”).
Coping with Uncivilized Library "Customers"
Posted February 23, 2007
Unless you're clever enough to have sealed yourself off in some administrative
office somewhere from the onslaughts of the more unsavory (or less sane)
components of The Great Unwashed Public, you've probably long since met
your official quota of such encounters.
Yep, we're talking about those manipulative, abusive, irresponsible, lying, thieving
Library Users. If you're like most library workers, you've handled some of
your encounters with such individuals more successfully than others. And,
like most of your library colleagues, this mixed-bag of results with
"challenging" customers will probably continue until your sometimes-stressful
career in public service is over, done with, finished, abandoned, fini
and you've graduated to that totally stress-free retirement you often
fantasize about in the midst of your homicidal thoughts provoked by certain
library users' abusive behavior.
The writer of
this blogpost (and the readers posting their comments) are
not library workers, but these customer service reps from other professions
certainly share the kinds of predicaments library workers often find themselves in
vis-a-vis our more uncivilized (or insane) "customers" - excuse us, our
more uncivilized "taxpayers" (some of whom, incidentally, we doubt have
ever filed a tax return in their unhappy and/or unlucky lives).
Anyway, the blog's wise and sometimes hilarious advice may make you feel
better - at least for a few minutes. (We especially hope to remember the
tip about taking a deep breath in the midst of our next encounter
with an unpleasant "customer.")
Kentucky Board Approves Religion-Sponsored Programs in Library Meeting Rooms
Posted February 23, 2007
The board voted unanimously to delete the provision in the meeting room
policy of the public library in Frankfort, Kentucky that prohibits
religious groups from using the library's meeting room.
Details.
Unfortunately, this controversy is not limited to Kentucky libraries.
Many taxpayers in Fulton County would strongly object to religious groups
using public library meeting rooms to practice their religion; there are
probably plenty of other taxpayers who would object to their being denied
access to library meeting room space for any sort of peaceful assembly,
regardless of its content or purpose.
AFPL's current meeting room policy does not specifically prohibit religious
groups from holding religious services (or preaching, or conducting
prayer meetings or hymn-book sing-a-longs, or studying the Bible or the
Koran or the Upanishads) in AFPL's meeting rooms.
It's probably only a matter of time before someone attempts to use an AFPL
library meeting room to practice, celebrate, proselytize for, or "study"
their religious beliefs. The federal court rulings on this question vary,
and we predict that Fulton County's libraries will not remain forever
immune to this particular part of the "culture wars" that so often these
days get are being acted out in public library systems. It's a pretty safe
bet that AFPL's library system will eventually become embroiled in litigation to settle
the meeting room use question.
Meanwhile, library staff are left in one of those damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't
lurches about how to properly respond to an application for meeting room
space submitted by a library card-owning member of a church/mosque/synagoge
or other religious organization who wants to book the meeting room for a
religion-themed or religious-organization-sponsored activity or program. At
the moment, there's no policy or regulation that could be used to deny such
an application, as long as the group agrees that the "meeting" must be open
to the public (including, presumably, an unsympathetic and potentially
disruptive member of the public).
New York Politician Threatens to Cut Off Funds for Local Public Library
Posted February 22, 2007
The politician is "stunned" and "mortified" to learn that the library has
been complying with federal court orders to allow adult patrons full access to the
Internet (including the Internet's porn sites).
Details.
Meanwhile, AFPL remains at risk of an inevitable lawsuit because it
does not provide immediate temporary disabling of it Internet filter for
any adult library user who demands it.
Metro Atlanta Agencies Get Millions More to Cope with Homeless
Posted February 21, 2007
With almost $28 million now being spent every year addressing the
problems of Georgia's homeless population, AFPL's non-homeless patrons are
still wondering why certain Fulton County public libraries still feel (and
smell and look) like overcrowded day shelters.
Library Security Expert: "Loving Books is Not Enough"
Posted February 21, 2007
The author of
Black Belt Librarians recently spoke to the staff
of the Gwinnett County Public Library about how to help make Gwinnett's
libraries safer.
This
story from the Gwinnett Daily News doesn't provide any practical
details from the talk, but we're impressed that the library system set up
such a training session for its staff on the heels of adopting a revised
code of conduct. Perhaps the group planning the upcoming AFPL Staff
Development Day could pay this guy to come talk to AFPL employees?
Another Tribute to Book-Choked (vs. Computer-Filled) Libraries
Posted February 19, 2007
The pseudonymous satirist "Thomas H. Benton" writes in the Chronicle of
Higher Education about his unabashed indulgence in "library porn."
Read the article.
Bank Donates $1 Million to Atlanta University Center Library
Posted February 16, 2007
The gift is part of the bank's support of the library's acquisition of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. papers.
Details from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mayhap some other local institution with philanthropic urges will step up
to the plate and announce a similarly generous gift to AFPL's Auburn Research
Library, to support Auburn's recent acquisition - according to page 12 of
the transcript of the library board's November 2006 meeting - of former
congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's papers?
It's interesting to speculate who'll be operating the public library
this kid will be using. Will it be the Milton County Public Library?
the John's Creek Public Library? the Atlanta-Fulton-Milton Public Library?
Stay tuned....
Pennsylvania Library Roof Collapses
Posted February 16, 2007
The part of the roof that gave way was over the children's area. Miraculously,
the cleaning crew members in the building at the time were not injured.
Details.
Another Pronouncement on the Value of Wikipedia
Posted February 16, 2007
"Wikipedia is a collection. Some entries are excellent, some less so. One
cannot summarily judge its value in the way that one might have done when
deciding whether or not to buy or recommend a reference book. Judgements
about 'authority' and utility have to be made at the article level, and
who has the time and expertise to flag individual articles in this way?
Rather than continuing a tedious Wikipedia good/Wikipedia bad conversation,
we should recognize the attraction it has as an addressable knowledge base,
understand the variety of uses to which it is put, and remind folks of the
judgments they need to make depending on those uses."
As usual with most biblioblogposts, some of the comments appended to
Dempsey's blogpost are as also interesting. We especially enjoyed one
reader's comparisons of Wikipedia to Douglas Adams' description of
Adams' imagined Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Friday Fun for Book Selectors: Which of These Book Titles is the Faux One?
Posted February 16, 2007
These sixteen titles belong to actual books, except one of them. Can you
spot the fake title?
Take the quiz.
Illinois Library’s Website Providing Videoblogs for Computer-Owning Patrons
Posted February 15, 2007
The Arlington Heights (Illinois) Memorial Library not only creates mini-videos for
its patrons to view on its website, it has already amassed an archive
of them. Take a look.
Unfortunately, AFPL doesn’t even have its own full-time webmaster on
staff - much less any library service-related videos on its website that
patrons could download and view.
Library Journal Conducting a Job Satisfaction Survey
Posted February 15, 2007
This is the magazines’s first survey on job satisfaction in libraries
since 1994, and LJ promises to keep individual responses
confidential.
Fill out the survey.
Takin' It to the Streets - or at least into the laudromat...
Posted February 15, 2007
Atlanta to Get Rid of Dilapidated Housing Projects
Posted February 15, 2007
In a decision bound to affect the location (or relocation), the
size, and the contents of certain AFPL branch libraries, the Atlanta
Housing Authority plans to raze the massive low-cost housing projects it
hasn't already removed.
Details from this morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Germane Greer's Valentine to Public Libraries
Posted February 14, 2007
Are "Dueling Exhibits" a Good Thing for Public Libraries?
Posted February 14, 2007
Hypothetical Situation: A public library allows a patron who objects to a
previous library exhibit to schedule and create her own counter-exhibit.
The controversial topic of the exhibits sparks the attention of both
journalists and lawyers. Statements by government functionaries and politicians,
some of them supportive of the library's decisions, some of them not,
then ensue.
Is this an appealing scenario for a public library to become embroiled in?
Perhaps so, perhaps not. We like the idea of libraries creating book
displays on controversial as well as tame topics. The notion of exposing
library users to diametrically opposed points of view also seems desirable.
Both ideas seem consistent with the notion of the public library as a
place for acknowledging the fact that the so-called "marketplace of ideas"
is not only important but diverse and full of conflict - and that the
library, like museums and other educational institutions, is properly part
of the "idea marketplace."
On the other hand, refereeing the deeply-felt emotions and opinions of
library constituencies with wildly different points of view on social
issues might involve an inordinate amount of administrative
effort and force non-administrative library employees into a lot of
explaining behavior when library visitors demand to know from the nearest
library worker how and why certain exhibits made their way into a library
display case.
In a worst case scenario, even well-done "dueling exhibits" might permanently alienate some library users. Educating
the public via exhibits vs. safeguarding the public's perception of the
library's status as a neutral public arena can be a tough call when
people disagree. Would a written disclaimer placed inside or alongside a
controversial exhibit successfully convince (most) exhibit-viewers that
the library really doesn't endorse the exhibit's point of view (whatever
it happens to be)? Maybe.
Read the news story about the intentions behind - and the fallout from -
a library exhibit in
Colorado and decide whether you think the upshot of it all should be
considered A Good Thing or A Road Better Not Taken.
Dept. of Picture=1,000 Words
Posted February 12, 2007
Last month, we posted
a link to the blog written by the director of the Iraq National Library
that the British Library has been posting. Recently, we stumbled across
this 2003 photo of the library:
[Caption:] The looted and burned National Library and Archive in Baghdad in April
2003, a week after United States forces seized the capital.
Saad Eskander, the director of Iraq’s National Library and Archive in
Baghdad, finally had some time to catch up on his diary after a couple of
very busy weeks. As he wrote in his latest entry, he was having trouble
repairing the Internet system; the Restoration Laboratory “was hit by 5
bullets”; and “another librarian, who works at the Periodical Department,
received a death threat. He has to leave his house and look for another
one, as soon as he can; otherwise, he will be murdered.”
For a month now, Dr. Eskander’s intermittent diary entries have been
appearing on the Web site of
the British Library, and they detail the daily hurdles of keeping
Iraq’s central library open, preserving the surviving archives and books
and, oh yes, staying alive.
A reader to Live Journal's post added this comment: "It was in Iraq
that the first university in the world -- Al-Mustansiriyah School -- was
established in 1227. Its building was intact and well preserved, until the
US-led invasion; it suffered -- as the rest of Iraq's historical and
cultural sites -- destruction and negligence."
Delighting vs. Satisfying Customers
Posted February 12, 2007
Advice from Candi Clevenger, communications manager of an Ohio-based
consortium of academic libraries, about how to go that extra step in the
never-ending campaign to turn library patrons - one patron at a time -
into cheerleaders for public libraries.
Zestr - "keep track of your books, movies, music, and games"
With one exception, we found these sites listed in a comment posted by
one of the developers of Library Thing to a posting at
librarytwopointzero, after seeing that posting referenced in a comment
to a blogpost of the
Librarian in Black. The reference to Good Reads we found at Steven
Cohen's blog, Library Stuff.
Service Desk Alert: New Blog for In-the-Trenches Library Workers
Posted February 12, 2007
Circ and Serv aims to
bolster the spirits and hone the skills of the people who work circ desks
day in and day out, and of the other people behind the scenes (such as
Interlibrary Loan folks) who also link patrons to the library stuff they
want.
Ann Arbor District Library
(AADL Teen Blog) - note all of the
posts with comments from the community; the Library is having a
conversation online with its patrons
Western
Springs History - 4620 Grand - when libraries normally provide local
history online, it's just what the librarians know about the community;
here, we see the community also contributing (collaborating) complementary
knowledge that the librarians wouldn't otherwise be able to provide
Lansing Public Library's READ Posters - note how just posting some
pictures of local community leaders helps get the Library out into the
community, via the newspaper, posters in the schools, etc.; it helps
humanize the Library, especially online
Homer Township Public Library District's Flickr Pictures - note how
the pictures of the
Bookmobile,
Crazy Hat Days help show the vibrancy that happens in the Library and
shows the community using their services (and smiling about it, too!);
notice, too, how they redisplay current pictures on
their home page automatically, as well as headlines from
their blog; they load the pictures once and then reuse them on their
website without any additional staff time
Kansas City Public Library
Subject Guides - note how they've made it easy to find everything about
a topic in one place (expertise), rather than forcing users to go to the
catalog to find books on the topic, guessing at which databases to use for
that topic, going to the calendar to find events on that topic, etc.
Unfortunately, AFPL is doing none of these things, nor have the
AFPL Powers-That-Be established any mechanism to even explore any
of them for possible implementation on behalf of AFPL’s patrons.
A Manifesto-Posting Blog
Posted February 12, 2007
ChangeThis is on a mission to
“spread important ideas and change minds.” If you’re a person who changes
his/her mind after reading (or perhaps, just before writing) a manifesto,
you might want to browse through the declarations posted here (mostly in
PDF files). We like the one entitled
“Not a Dirty Word: Seven Steps to Creating an Accountability-Based Organization”.
Memo to AFPL Hiring Committees: Hire People Who Want to Work with Customers
Posted February 10, 2007
Something we read today in the biblioblogoshere reminded us that we’re
been keeping our collective fingers crossed that the folks now (or soon to
be) interviewing applicants for vacant library positions will choose
candidates with demonstrated customer service skills, or at least
demonstrated customer service attitudes, as well as with demonstrated
competencies.
Hire Nice, Motivated People:
"The company’s preference is to hire a nice person and teach her how to
sell, rather than hire a saleswoman and teach her how to be nice. The
corollary to that rule is "hire the smile and train the skill." I once
asked Bruce Nordstrom who really trains the [company’s] sales people. His
answer was: "Their parents.”
Dept. of Libraries-Trying-to-Be-All-Things-To-All-People
Posted February 10, 2007
We can’t argue with the fact that lots o’ citizens expect all these
things from their public libraries, but we think it’s preposterous for
library employees to actually attempt to accommodate all these expectations.
Or, worse, to try to provide all these labor-intensive services
half-heartedly and/or only semi-competently. A better idea: settle on a
few unique core services and do them well - and leave it to others to
niche-market themselves as commercial or nonprofit providers of all those
Other Nifty and/or Needed Services.
Besides, the time and energy of too many public library employees are
already stretched beyond reasonable limits - especially with their
time-consuming duties as unpaid babysitters for rampaging teens, and as
unpaid counselors and conflict managers for hordes of homeless people who
camp out every day in the closest and/or warmest/coolest public library.
Dept. of The Shape of Things to Come: Library as Everybody's Print Shop
Posted February 9, 2007
Something we never thought about until this very minute: What happens when
a laptop-toting library patron using the library's wireless connection to
the Internet decides he/she wants to print something from a
website he/she has on his/her screen?
At least
one public library located in New York has put a button on its website
that allows that laptop-ownng patron to connect to a printer inside the library. Not
only that, but you can use that button even if your printer at home just
happens not to be working - just connect to the printer and go pick up
the print job the next time you're in the library.
Somehow this whole idea of The Public Library as The People's Print Shop
fills us with profound dread and anticipatory weariness rather than with
excitement and joy. Maybe some technologically possible things just work
better in small-scale library settings than in giguntous urban environments
like the one AFPL serves?
On the other hand, we do like the fact that the New York library that's
adopted the remote-printing service operates a blog for its patrons,
and don't see why that particular Internet-based technology wouldn't work
spectacularly well for AFPL's patrons too.
[Found via LISNews, whose
report doesn't highlight the remote-printing story, but instead another
unusual service offered by
this same library: downloading DVDs from the library's website.]
Congressman Introduces "DOPA, Jr." Legislation
Posted February 8, 2007
The wording of the bill is almost identical to the bill that died in the
previous session of Congress.
Details.
Volunteer-Operated Library Bookstore Rakes in $25,000+ Per Year
Posted February 7, 2007
Details
from California's Times-Standard. [Found via
LISNews.]
If a library in a little town like Eureka, California can be this
profitable, one would think AFPL could create a permanent volunteer-operated
bookstore at its Central Library, somewhere in all of that vast, unused
floor space resulting from Hooker's "reorganization" of Central a few years
back.
Ohio Librarian Refuses to Help Police ID Woman Found in Nearby River
Posted February 7, 2007
A case of a librarian scrupulously upholding the rules about the
confidentiality of patron records, or a case of a librarian's lack of
common sense about when to violate those rules?
You decide.
Library Display Creator Alert: Factoids for Anniversary-Themed Displays
Posted February 7, 2007
The U.S. Census Bureau operates a
website that displays statistics that library workers could use in
various commemorative-themed displays (Irish-American Heritage Month, Women's
History Month, etc.).
Dept. of Why a Library is Still A Good Thing
Posted February 6, 2007
Although it's not the most felicitous prose in support of libraries that
we've ever seen, another omnium gatherum of
reasons-why-libraries-shouldn't-be-declared-obsolete has been posted to
the Internet.
This one, posted (somewhat ironically, we think)
at a website operated by an association of colleges offering online courses,
is written by Will Sherman.
Tips for Keeping Up with Library Technology
Posted February 6, 2007
At the Reference and User Quarterly website, University of
Illinois-based librarian Kathleen Kern
summarizes how she learned what she's learned over the years about
library technology, and includes descriptions of her favorite lib tech
websites.
Selector Alert: Selection Training Website Available
Posted February 3, 2007
AFPL's non-veteran selectors who are sick and tired of waiting for the
library system's Collection Development Unit to resume comprehensive, on-site
training for AFPL's hundred-or-so people who select the library system's
materials now have an alternative to continuing to wing it with their
selection assignments.
The Arizona State Library has posted to the Internet a Collection Development
Training website. The site covers virtually every philosophical and
technical aspect of selection, and provides convenient hyperlinks to
numerous web-based selection tools.
Bookmark this website now!
Bravo to Arizona's state library office officials, and shame on AFPL
administrators for forcing its employees to get their crucial training
and selection tools off the Internet.
Selector Alert: Roots Redux
Posted February 3, 2007
This coming May, Vanguard Press will reprint Alex Haley’s Roots,
and the television series adaptation will be re-released on DVD by Warner
Brothers.
Source: Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2006, page 4
Selector Alert: Librarian’s Resource for Homeschooling Parents
Posted February 3, 2007
Public library-based blogger Adrienne Furness maintains a
blog for the homeschooling parents in her library’s service area in
New York State. Her blog is full of useful program ideas and reviews of
homeschooling books AFPL selectors may want to order for their own libraries'
collections.
Selector Alert: Two New Resources for African-American Booklovers
Posted February 3, 2007
Written, launched last year, is a media-review inserted bi-monthly
as a supplement to (among other publications) the Atlanta Daily World.
Debuting this year, Blacks & Books is another newspaper insert.
Source: Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2006, page 10
Petition Calls for Printing All Books on Recycled Paper
Posted February 3, 2007
Popular author Phillip Pullman (whose bestselling book The Golden Compass
is being made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman) has joined over 200
other writers worldwide calling for the book industry to begin using only
100% recycled paper.
Details.
Selector Alert: Dept. of Non-Euphemistic Book Titles
Posted February 3, 2007
Now on sale from your favorite library vendor: The No-Asshole Rule:
Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.
Publishers Weekly’s review of Robert Sutton's new book is
here.
Some AFPL employees would probably argue that this title belongs in the
library system's Professional Collection....
Booklover's Alert: How to Save Money on Books
Posted February 3, 2007
Get Rich Slowly predictably includes "frequent your public library" as
one way of reigning in an out-of-control book-buying addiction. What's
really valuable, though, about this blogpost - as is so often the case in
the biblioblogosphere - are the additional cost-savings suggestions recommended
by the blog's readers (over five dozen so far). This trove of book-buying
cost-saving tips includes at least a dozen price comparison websites or
web-based book-swapping services we'd never heard of before.
Also contributed by a reader was a link to this amusing flowchart (complete
with typographical errors) for deciding whether or not to purchase a new
book:
The guy who created the flowchart is blogger
T.C. Black. AFPLWATCH found the link to Get Rich Slowly at
LISNews.
.com
The Arizona State Library has posted to the Internet a Collection Development
Training website. The site covers virtually every philosophical and
technical aspect of selection, and provides convenient hyperlinks to
numerous web-based selection tools. 