"I feel terrible when I think of all the people I have encouraged to be public librarians. I still think it's a great job. I guess it's a great job if it's not the primary income in a household."

...Libraries try to be "content agnostic," but we need to emphasize the highest priority tasks for our users - and not give equal weight to everything. Look at the data of what your users are doing on your website and look at your mission (the purpose of your site). Then decide what to emphasize. "Design for what your users are doing."

...You can check other library websites for ideas, but for redesign inspiration, checking non-library sites will prove more fruitful.

...[Move] away from librarian-speak to plain English (e.g. Reference --> Ask a Librarian). These style and naming guidelines should be carried through in print media, physical and virtual text and marketing. Consistency is key!

...Images of people on a website have been found to increase trust (include children's librarian photo on the kids site, subject guide creator on the s.g. page). But if people are really good looking, people interpret the images to be advertisements and not real. If you can label people - who they are and why they're there - that will increase trust.

Free services:

• Google Book Search
• Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book" feature
• MSN Book Search
• Live Book Search
• Online Books Page
• Project Gutenberg
• World Public Library
• The Internet Archive
• International Children's Digital Library

Semi-free services (some texts free, others not):

• Digital Book Index

Fee-based services:

• NetLibrary
• Books24x7

"I’ve been out of library school long enough to have forgotten the exact numbers, but I do recall that most information-seeking behaviour research shows that people typically turn to a trusted friend for information long before they approach a more formal source like a library. It will be interesting to see what happens as libraries start to place themselves in the middle of peoples’ online social networks. I’m wondering if the barriers will start to fall as social networking tools make it just as easy and comfortable for people to contact a librarian as it is to contact a friend. The library itself may assume the role of 'trusted friend.' Of course, all of this is contingent on libraries figuring out a way to place themselves in those networks in a natural and non-contrived manner. I’m quite sure we’re not there yet, but evidence of innovative thinking does offer some hope."

"Patrons are increasingly using libraries as a free alternative to DVD rentals, music stores, Internet cafes, and even gaming arcades."

"I tend to think of four facets of the library: place, collections, expertise and service."

"It's bound to happen. Most people already expect to be able to vote and comment on what they find online. Many, when they have a negative experience, find that the net is the primary outlet. They not only tell their friends, but they're likely to tell everyone in their social network. And those networks are growing. If I told everyone in all of my social networks about my horrible experience at (insert library name here), that could turn out to be a significant number of people who hear that (insert library name here) isn't, say, customer-friendly.

But, not only could I potentially tell all of my online "friends," but with such a site as I imagine, I could post my experience to an ongoing, social archive. "No wireless at Library X. Rude check-out people. Couldn't find anything and no one would help me." And it would all be attached to that library's record in perpetuity and perhaps Googlemapped to boot."

Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
Don Borchert. Virgin (Holtzbrinck, dist.), $21.95 (240p)
ISBN 978-1-9052-6412-4

Jack-of-all-trades Borchert shares wholesome, guardedly witty dispatches from the suburban L.A. library system in this charming tell-all. For 12 years the family-man author has held the post of assistant librarian, keeping a wary eye on unruly kids, mollifying mystified parents and repairing sadly manhandled materials. Borchert relays a conversation with an aged librarian who reveals how it was in the good old days (staff lunches used to be served with wine), then contrasts that account with modern-day multicultural crayons and the preponderance of latchkey kids abandoned in the library for long, numbing afternoons. A few of the regular patrons are inspiring Renaissance types, but most are unsettling and unsavory, such as intensely reclusive crossword-puzzler Henry hounding the reference desk; loser Max looking futilely on the Internet for a South American wife; or the drug dealers working the restroom. From patrons who rack up hundreds of dollars in fines to missing pet rats and fist-fighting mothers, Borchert has seen it all, and his account gives a human interest spin to this undervalued profession.