- Residents Comment on DeKalb's Library System Expansion Plans
Posted June 29, 2007
Public forums for comment on AFPL's library system's proposed expansion
plan haven't been scheduled yet, as the referendum that will fund the
proposed expansion hasn't been held (and probably won't be until next year
at the soonest). Meanwhile, residents in next-door DeKalb County have begun
commenting on a similar, already-funded plan there.
Details from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
An interesting factoid we gleaned from the article: DeKalb charges
$45 a year for a nonresident's card...vs. the $25 Fulton County charges for
nonresidents.
- Report from the Lake Wobegon Library?
Posted June 28, 2007
Library fan Garrison Keillor was one of the speakers at last week's
annual conference of the American Library Association. You can read
his rah-rah library remarks (and the chagrined reactions of several
librarians) at
Salon.com.
- Dept. of Law-Breaking Library Trustees (Ohio Division)
Posted June 28, 2007
This particular arrestee - treasurer of the local library board - bilked
not only her local library over a five-year period, but embezzled money from
the local PTA and the church she belonged to as well.
Details from the Star Beacon.
Let's hope AFPL's trustees keep their hands in their own pockets, and
confine their takings of tax dollars to the occasional junket to an ALA
convention....
Found at LISNews.
- LibraryLand Reader Alert: Bookmark This Site?
Posted June 27, 2007
We're embarrassed to admit it, but until we read about it at
Library Zen, we didn't know about
OPLIN4Cast, a weekly roundup of news-for-public-library-workers
produced for well over a year now by the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
You can be sure we'll be checking in regularly here (in addition to
LISNews) to trawl for LibraryLand tidbits our readers haven't discovered
elsewhere first and told us about, but you can eliminate the middleman by
bookmarking OPLIN4Cast yourself.
- Booklover's Alert: Good Reads Tracks What's Being Read and/or Recommended
Posted June 27, 2007
One day some helpful librarian somewhere is going to take a deep, long look
at the various Internet-based book tracking/book recommending services and
let us all know which ones are the best (and why). Until then, you might
want to take a gander at Good Reads,
and pass along the fact of its existence to those patrons who occasionally
want you to give them suggestions for What To Read Next, or to people who
might want to know how to easily keep a share-able record of what they're
reading.
Found via Infodoodads, a blog
written by five librarians about nifty Web-based services they've found
useful. We found out about Infodoodads
via Library Zen...where we also
just found out about Librarian in the Stacks, which we've
duly added to AFPLWATCH's list of
reliably-hilarious library humor sites.
- Service Desk Alert: Using a Single Internet Search Engine Often Ain't Enough
Posted June 27, 2007
Library workers are probably just as Google-ized as anyone else: when was
the last time you used anything other than (or in addition to) Google to
search for a bit o' information for a patron you were trying to help?
A recent
study shows that that there was never much overlap between
search engines, and that the gulf between results using different search
engines is getting wider.
Maybe we should consider replacing that Google bookmark on our computers
with one for a metasearch engine like
Dogpile, which conducted this study?
Found via the
Librarian in Black, who also links to a summary of the study at
Search Engine Land.
- Bookchat Dept.: Annie Dillard Calls It Quits?
Posted June 26, 2007
The Pulitzer Prize winning writer has told
New York Magazine that her latest book (published this month) is
probably her last, and why.
Found via the Literary Saloon.
- South Carolina Library Cancels Summer Programs for Teens
After Receiving Threats from Members of Local Churches
Posted June 25, 2007
Details from School Library Journal.
Found via
Librarian.net.
- Drug Users Force UK Town Libraries to Close Its Public Restrooms
Posted June 22, 2007
This Wiltshire town's officials have a different view of what library staff
should be expected to put up with day in and day out than the view held by
most U.S. library-funding officials.
Details.
Found via
LISNews.
- When Public Libraries Close Their Doors...
Posted June 22, 2007
An
update from the Oregonian about how some library-loving citizens
are coping with the consequences of their recently-closed-down libraries.
Found via
LISNews.
- Memo to Self-Help Authors: Please Make Up Your Mind(s)!
Posted June 22, 2007
This is our title for this arrangement of books on a library shelf,
not the artist Nina Khatadourian's. Nina re-arranges batches of books in
various libraries in amusing ways. (Surely some of AFPL's shelvers must
have noticed some similar ironic patterns as they've gone about reshelving
AFPL's returned books over the years - especially shelvers working in the
Dewey 158s!)
You can look at more of Nina's work in this series
here; clicking on each photo links to further photos based on books
found in the same library.
Found via
LISNews.
- Mississippi Library Plagued with Mold
Posted June 22, 2007
The problem pre-dates Katrina, but the hurricane apparently accelerated
the process.
Details from the Hattiesburg American.
Found via
LISNews.
- Service Desk Alert: Searching WorldCat for Book Lists
Posted June 22, 2007
Library workers who need to generate a list of books on a particular topic
might want to first check WorldCat to see if anyone's created such a list
there already. WorldCat has introduced a
list-making capability, giving WorldCat users the option to make their
lists available to other WorldCat users (or not). There are some bugs that
need to be worked out in this new feature, but the potential usefulness of
this free Web-based resource (along with others, such as Amazon.com's
better-known Listmania feature) is certainly huge.
Found via OCLC's
It's All Good (where some of the aforementioned bugs are described by
IAG's readers).
- Charlotte-Mecklenberg PL Adopts Voice-Over IP
Posted June 20, 2007
Maybe someone at AFPL should contact someone at PLCMC to see what AFPL is
In For, since Fulton County's Information Technology Department has decreed
that all county department phone lines will be replaced by the Internet-based
VOIP technology.
Apparently, one feature of VOIP is the ability to have voice-mail messages
dumped
into one's email. That sounds semi-nifty, but does it outweigh the
problem of zero phone service when the network goes down (as it so often
does in Fulton County)?
Found via the
Librarian in Black.
- Booklover's Alert: A Gaggle of Internet-Based Book-Related Software
Posted June 20, 2007
Adam Pash, a regular contributor to LifeHacker, has rounded up his favorite
methods for saving money on books, for using free Web-based software to
identify, catalog, and comment on book titles, and for creating book lists and bibliographies.
Adam's
recommendations are followed by alternatives offered by his readers.
We were especially relieved to learn about Good Reads, a
free alternative to the popular Library Thing - which isn't free after
you've listed your first 200 books from your personal library.
Found via
LISNews.
- Another Study Shows Public Libraries are a Taxpayer's Bargain
Posted June 13, 2007
At least in Pennsylvania, whose libraries were the ones studied. Researchers
claim that every dollar invested in public libraries there yielded $5.50
worth of benefit for library users. The press release is here,
and the 52-page text of the study is here.
Found via
LISNews.
- Evergreen Library Software Proposed for Canadian Province Libraries
Posted June 13, 2007
The directors of the public libraries in British Columbia
reportedly hope to save 80% (!) of the cost of commercially-developed library circulation software by
adopting the home-grown Evergreen product.
Think of all the additional materials (or electronic databases) a
library system - AFPL, say - could purchase if up to a million bucks of
its budget weren't diverted every year to a commercial ILS vendor. We haven't
heard anything lately about AFPL's investigation of the pros and cons of
replacing SIRSI with Evergreen, but we certainly hope that look-see process
is still underway.
Found at Ohio-based Eric Schnell's
The Medium is the Message via LISNews' latest installment of
"This Week in LibraryBlogLand".
- Dept. of Workplace Timesavers: Introducing "The Ultimate RSS Toolbox"
Posted June 13, 2007
For library workers who've discovered RSS (Real Simple Syndication) can
streamline cut down on their time spent in front of a computer screen
checking changes in various favorite websites - or, perhaps, more to the
point, for library workers who haven't done that,
here's this, courtesy the good folks at Mashable.com.
Found via the Lo-Fi Librarian.
- Book Selector's Alert: Another Online Review Source Worth Bookmarking
Posted June 12, 2007
AFPL selectors interested in venturing beyond The Usual Suspects (Publishers Weekly,
Library Journal, Booklist, School Library Journal, etc.) for book reviews and
publishing news might want to take a gander at
Bookforum. The theme of this month's original content is
"Fiction into Film," but Bookforum has plenty of information about
upcoming and just-published nonfiction, many of which we don't recall being
mentioned (much less reviewed) in the aforementioned Usual Suspects. We
also like Bookforum's roundups of hyperlinked highlights gleaned
from other bookchat sources (its "Shelf Space: Books, Culture, and Ideas," "News Room," and "Town Square: Debate, Controversy,
and Gossip" features).
Found via the
Literary Saloon.
- Book Selector's Alert: "The Best Novels You Never Read"
Posted June 12, 2007
New York magazine asked sixty-one critics for the titles of their favorite
under-rated novel of the past ten years. Here's the list.
So which of these titles are in AFPL libraries, we wonder?
Found via the Literary Saloon.
- Booklover's Alert: Online Store Sells Products for Bibliophiles
Posted June 11, 2007
The Reader's Shop sells
"clothing and gift items...that showcase books, reading, libraries." The shop
offers libraryesque sentiments and quotations. We especially like their THE BOOK IS
BETTER THAN THE MOVIE! line of T-shirts, buttons, coffee mugs, and book bags.
Found via LISNews.
- A Few Obstacles to Good Decision Making
Posted June 7, 2007
Librarian Marylaine Block, in her most recent
Neat New Things I Found This Week, links to an
article that includes Wikipedia definitions of the following common
“cognitive traps”:
Surely, surely, library workers are never guilty of such
cognitive blunders???
- Bomb Threat Closes Three Public Libraries in Michigan
Posted June 6, 2007
Details from the Detroit News.
Found via
LISNews.
- Author Ray Bradbury Insists Fahrenheit 451
Was Protest Not Against Censorship, but Against TV
Posted June 6, 2007
This revelation, published (among other places) in the Los Angeles Weekly
adds Bradbury (who won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year) to the growing
list of authors mortified by the steep decline in the attention span of
most Americans since television finished its colonization of not only
private time but many public spaces.
(We know just what Bradbury is complaining about. For example, although
we've yet to spot an airport-based public library, most airports now
include at least one bookstore. But just try to find a seat in any of
those airports out of earshot of a blaring television. At least the
airlines provide earphones for the on-flight movies that most people seem
to [silently] reading a carry-on book.)
Read the entire interview.
Found via Rachael A.K. Grace's Fade Theory.
- Two More Entries from the Dept. of Nifty Book Art
Posted June 6, 2007
A sample of a series of intriguing book-based sculptures
created by Texas photographer Cara Barer:
A sample of a series of intriguing book-based sculptures created
by artist Robert The:
Both images found via Rachael A.K. Grace's Fade Theory.
- Book Selector's Alert: Yet Another Web-Based Book Reviewing Journal
Posted June 6, 2007
AFPL book selectors who prefer online book review journals to leafing
through whatever print journals are available to them might want to bookmark
Boldtype - not only for its own
reviews and recommended titles lists, but for its handy (albeit selective)
list of hyperlinks to other online book review journals (or the online
equivalents to the print versions of those review journals).
Found via Rachael A.K. Grace's
Fade Theory.
- Booklover's Alert: Another Online Community for Bibliophiles Debuts
Posted June 6, 2007
Another website for people to post (and discuss) what they're reading
is available. LitMinds describes itself as a "community of
readers, authors, and indie bookstores."
We like the sign featured in one of the website's banner photos.
Presumably posted at one of those indie bookstores, the sign reads:
"Have a seat, read a book." How come we've never seen that sign in
any library we've ever walked into?
Found via Rachael A.K. Grace's
Fade Theory.
Click here to read all Booklover Alerts posted to AFPLWATCH
- Dept. of Intriguing Public Library Art: New York City Division
Posted June 6, 2007
We missed the news about the unveiling of this elaborate project two years
ago, nor have we seen it yet, so we're grateful to Fade Theory
for bringing to our attention the existence of the "Library Way" in New
York City:
"GCP [Grand Central Partnership] has transformed East 41st Street between
Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue into an entertaining and illuminating
promenade to the majestic New York Public Library Humanities and Social
Sciences Library by displaying 96 bronze sidewalk plaques featuring
quotations from literature and poetry. Known as “Library Way,” this
initiative was being undertaken by GCP with the assistance and support of
the New York Public Library, the property owners and commercial tenants
along 41st Street, library organizations, and the New York City Department
of Transportation. Library Way was officially dedicated on May 27, 2004."
One of our favorite plaques:
The design, as well as the content, of each plaque, is different. Enlargable
photos of the 96 plaques are available
here, should any AFPL employee want to trawl through these quotations
for posting somewhere in an AFPL branch (or branch newsletter).
Fade Theory's reminder (and the photo shown above) came courtesy
logostoni.
- Gwinnett Mom Loses Another Round in Attempt to Ban
Harry Potter Books from County's School Libraries
Posted June 5, 2007
The so-far-unsuccessful litigant is considering how she might renew her
protest in the federal courts.
Details from the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Found via LISNews.
Note: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently published a
chronology of this local anti-Potter protest, which was undertaken
almost two years ago. Included in the article that contains the time-line,
the AJC also reported the protestor's warning that "I don't think
it's a good idea to raise a whole generation of witches."
- New Branch Library in Phoenix Will Ignore Dewey-Based Shelving Scheme
Posted June 5, 2007
Library Journal editor Norman Oder
explains the plan, which was mandated by the library system's director.
Reactions (such as the ones expressed by Oder's readers and appended to his
story, or the reactions posted to various biblioblogs such as
Library Revolution, the
Librarian in Black, and
The Letter Z) are mixed: some believe dispensing with Dewey will remove an
obstacle to patron browsing; others believe the change is merely substituting
one imperfect system for yet another (and possibly inferior) one.
- Amazon.com Buys Brilliance Audio
Posted June 5, 2007
Details
from Library Journal.
Yet another of a half-dozen reasons why it's essential that AFPL get out
of the Dark Ages and get the Fulton County Purchasing Dept. to allow the
library to open a standing account with Amazon.com - and make that account
easily accessible to AFPL selectors.
- School Librarian Incapacitated by Mold-Ridden Library Battles School District
Posted June 5, 2007
The WATCH doesn't usually post news items related to school libraries,
but the behavior of this librarian's employer is so fundamentally immoral
(and illegal) that
this case deserves wide attention. With creepy government behavior
like this, it's no wonder some librarians have found it advisable to join
unions. Has ALA gone on record as supporting this librarian, we wonder?
Found via LISNews.
- Book Selector Alert: Titles Recommended by Some Currently-Popular Writers
Posted June 5, 2007
The New York Times Book Review recently polled eight well-known writers for
some recommended reading, then published the resulting annotated
list.
How many of these fiction and nonfiction titles are on your library's
shelves, should anyone who read the Times article come looking for
them there this afternoon?
Found via LISNews.
- Library "Transparency," Although Necessary, Ain't Sufficient
Posted June 5, 2007
Blogger Meredith Farkas eloquently
explains why making it easier for library users to suggest changes in library
procedures and practices is only half the battle for more acheiving more
responsiveness to library patrons' needs: the other half is actually
implementing the (feasible) suggestions, rather than merely
rationalizing the status quo.
Found via LISNews' latest installment of "
This Week in LibraryBlogLand".
- "Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever"
Posted June 5, 2007
That's the title of a recent newsletter
of a New York City-based outfit called The Project for Public Spaces.
Found via LISNews' latest installment of "
This Week in LibraryBlogLand".
- Library of Congress Trying to Stifle Competitor's Legislation-Tracking Website
Posted June 5, 2007
And how is LOC doing this? By citing legislation that allegedly forbids
anyone to even mention LOC's legislation-tracking service without
its permission!
Details at the TechDirt blog.
Wow, is this ever a heavy-handed - not to mention ultimately doomed -
way for a government agency to respond to criticism of a (doubtlessly
imperfect, not to mention government-funded!) website.
Found via LISNews' latest installment of "
This Week in LibraryBlogLand".
- Teenagers Repeatly Break Into Nebraska Public Library to View Web Porn
Posted June 5, 2007
Predictably, the town's mayor seems more concerned about the library's
unfiltered Internet access than he does with the break-ins.
Details from the Omaha News Herald.
Found via LISNews.
- Citizens in Pennsylvania Town Vote Against Proposed Cut in Library Funding
Posted June 5, 2007
Finally, some
good news on the public library funding front.
The news continues to be bleaker elsewhere, such as in certain towns in
Massachusetts
and Michigan.
Found via LISNews.
- Thieves Steel Copper A/C Tubing from Connecticut Public Library
Posted June 5, 2007
Lawbreakers apparently have now have yet another lucrative motive for
targeting (and, in this case, disabling) ill-secured public library buildings.
Details from the
local newspaper, the Republic-American.
Found via LISNews.
- Public Library in Illinois May Install Lockers for Homeless Patrons
Posted June 5, 2007
Details
from the Springfield Journal-Register.
Found via LISNews.
- Dept. of Deranged Librarians: Former Florida Librarian
Again Sentenced to Death for Brutally Murdering Girlfriend
Posted June 5, 2007
Details
from the Miami Herald.
Found via LISNews.
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