- Recycling Ye Olde Card Catalog, Artfully
Posted July 30, 2008
CARTalog has been around since 2005, but we only discovered it
today.
Found via Papercuts, a blog sponsored by the New York Times.
And a good blog it be, too! So good, in fact, that we've added it to "LibraryLand's" ever-evolving
blogroll. Our thanks to LISNews for bringing it to our attention.
- Using the Internet to Create or Enhance Book Clubs
Posted July 29, 2008
Several websites catering to book clubs (both the traditional clubs and the online versions) have been developed
over the past few years. The Librarian in Black describes
two of them.
- Fed Up with Nonresident User Fees, Oregon Citizens Create Their Own Library
Posted July 29, 2008
Details from the Associated Press.
Found via LISNews.
- Storytelling Fundraiser at Decatur Library
Posted July 28, 2008
The Georgia Center for the Book is having an interesting-sounding program tomorrow night to raise funds for a library in
Oxaca, Mexico. Details.
- What? Libraries Let Teenagers - Even Children - Borrow X-Rated DVDs?"
Posted July 28, 2008
Another tv station goes undercover to expose the horrors public libraries are perpetrating upon the Innocents, this time in
Boston.
Found via Librarian.net
via Swiss Army Librarian.
Will we ever live to see an undercover investigation of negligent parents, or the circumstances that encourage such
negligence? Probably not, as it's easier to blame libraries for (shock and awe) ignoring a dubious rating scheme dreamed
up by the not-otherwise-known-for-its-altruism Motion Picture Association of America.
It will forever be easier to lambaste libraries for refusing to be parents than to "expose" the legions of parents not
paying attention to where their kids are and to what movies their kids are watching, or to "expose" the conditions that
interfere with the desire of most parents to be attentive parents.
- Libraries, Librarians, Books, Kids
Posted July 28, 2008
Speaking of kids and libraries, did you know that U.S. public libraries once barred children from using them?
 That astonishing fact is mentioned in passing in one of the best articles we've ever read in our second-favorite magazine,
the always-excellent New Yorker: The Lion and the Mouse:
The Battle that Reshaped Children's Literature.
Even if you don't usually read the New Yorker (and shame on you if you don't), and even if you have zero interest
in the history of children's literature (and shame on you if you don't), you will be enthralled by this story. You might
even find yourself finally subscribing to the New Yorker. Go ahead: spend a few bucks so that, for a few hours once
a week for the remaining years of your mortal life, you can immerse yourself in this magazine's delicious prose as it ranges
over an incredible range of topics. Even the short stories never disappoint, and the legendary cartoons alone are worth the
cost of the subscription . [End of shameless plug.]
Meanwhile, find yourself a copy of the July 21st issue of the magazine, and read this story. Or
Read. It. Now.
- The Times Interviews Doris Lessing :
Posted July 28, 2008
That's the New York Times,
by the way, not the London Times.
Our thanks to the alert reader who stumbled onto this interview and forwarded the link to us.
- Googlizing the Library Catalog
Posted July 27, 2008
“People don’t want a library that acts like just a glorified card catalog online. They want a catalog that’s as good as
Google and Amazon.”
Library Journal reports on what a library in
Canada has done to make the library catalog more of a multi-entry "discovery tool" than less of a semantic obstacle course
for would-be library users.
Found via
LISNews.
- Shape of Things to Come? Public Library in Kentucky Auctioned Off to University
Posted July 27, 2008
One of the hopes of those who'd like to sell AFPL's current Central Library to Georgia State University and use the proceeds
to help pay for building a new Central a few miles away can now point to this handy precedent in
Lexington, Kentucky.
The amount of those "proceeds" would be greater for a sale of the Central Library to GSU if the seller and the buyer could
avoid the cost of an auction by simply negotiating a price; the county probably won't be able to avoid the cost of an
appraisal. (For the sale in Lexington, the auctioneer donated his services. Will an auction of Central be required by some
regulation mandating the auctioning of "surplus" county property," we wonder?)
Found via LISNews.
- Dept. of Literary Tatoos
Posted July 27, 2008; updated July 29, 2008
 Most tatoos we've seen - and we're seeing more and more of them these days -
are of various images and symbols. As pointed out recently by
LISNews, some tatoo-ees have opted for quotations from poems and novels.
We think it would be (as they say) Way Cool if some library worker somewhere would tatoo
Ranganathan's Five Laws of Librarianship onto his/her arm, chest, back, or posterior....
July 29th Update:
Fade Theory recently linked to another round-up of literary tatoos (with lots o' photos, like this one) published by
the [London] Telegraph.
- Should Public Libraries Allow "Bible-Based Financial Planning Seminars" in Its Meeting Rooms?
Posted July 24, 2008
An impasse on this question at an Ohio library has
wound up in a federal court.
We predict this question will eventually end up being (expensively) settled in some federal court in Atlanta, Georgia too.
Despite periodic pleas from branch managers for clear guidance on this question, AFPL's
policy on library meeting room use does not address this issue one way or the other. That (deliberate?) ambiguity/non-guidance leaves branch managers
free to say yes - or to say no - to religious organizations wanting to use their meeting rooms. The fact that some managers
are saying yes while some are saying no is itself fuel for a potential lawsuit.
Found via LISNews.
- Which Library Services and Materials are Deemed 'Very Important' by Library Users?
Posted July 24, 2008
Recently, a public library system in Illinois spent $12,000 to find out whether the the programs and collections their public library system offers
dovetails with the priorities of 400 people who use the library system.
What their (rather expensive!)
study turned up might be a bit frustrating for any would-be library budget-cutting managers, administrators or
politicians.
Found via LISNews.
- Service Desk/Selector/Booklover Alert:
Another Online - and Free - Fiction Readers Advisory Resource
Posted July 24, 2008
The marvels of the wonderful NoveList aside, readers or librarians trying to quickly obtain a list of,
say, all of Nora Roberts' books by date of publication, can do that at a website called
FictionDB.
This is a nifty (and free) tool for people needing series-related titles and publication dates. That group of people
includes not only individual readers who've resolved to read every last book Author X ever wrote, but people needing to
know the order in which titles in series appeared, and library selectors trying to identify gaps in their runs of various
authors in their fiction collections.
FictionDB has other features that NoveList has, but not every public library system can afford to make NoveLIst
available (free) to its card-holders. (Fortunately, AFPL does.)
Found via the
Librarian in Black.
Click here to read all previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Ways Libraries Can Help You in a Bad Economy
Posted July 23, 2008
A website called The Consumerist has posted a list of
seven ways to save money by using your public library.
The most valuable thing about this blogpost is not the list itself, but the comments posted by readers.
Want a sampling of what people in the U.S. think of their public libraries - from what they value most about them to why
some people avoid them like the plague? Read the frank, compelling, and sometimes hilarious reader comments to this blogpost.
Then think long and hard about what AFPL needs to do to improve its rep among county residents - including how it needs
to focus its marketing - once it finally begins getting any marketing.
With another library bond referendum coming up, maybe there'll be another round of emphasis on improving the range and/or
the quality and/or the efficiency of what AFPL does for its users (and funders)?
In the meantime, it's fascinating to read about which public library systems have produced citizen cheerleaders (and why),
and where people feel pretty miserable about their public library (and why).
Found via LISNews.
- Are Internet Browsing Histories on Public Library Computers Confidential?
Posted July 22, 2008
Until the inevitable day when a federal judge rules one way or the other on whether the Internet-browsing patterns of
public library users are protected by the U.S. Constitution, librarians and local police officers will continue to argue
about whether to surrender their computers when the police show up to impound those machines as part of a criminal
investigation.
An incident in Vermont involving a
child who police think was raped, tortured, and murdered by a library Internet terminal-using rapist, torturer, and murderer
surfaces this issue in the most extreme set of circumstances imaginable.
If you think you already know where you stand on this question, read the comments about this story at
LISNews and think about whether you'd like to be the federal judge forced to decide this question.
- UK Municipal Government Accused of Age Discrimination in Forcing 65-Year-Old to Retire
Posted July 22, 2008
Details from the Camden New Journal.
Found via LISNews.
- Library Users Respond to City's Closing of Its Branch Library by Starting One of Their Own
Posted July 22, 2008
Details from the
Boston Globe.
Found via LISNews.
- Booklover Alert: Another Roundup of Stuff-Used-as-Bookmarks
Posted July 22, 2008
Last month we posted a link to a list of things librarians have found in returned books.
Here's a list of things found in books by people who work in bookstores specializing in used books.
It turns out that booksellers routinely find the same sorts of weird stuff in their (ab)used books as librarians do.
Our own fave impromptu gross-out bookmark of all time: a strip of bacon.
Found via LISNews.
Click here to read all previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Computer Hacker Sticks Massachusetts Library with $15,000 Phone Bill
Posted July 19, 2008
There aren't enough details in this news story to know
if this sort of scam is more likely when a library uses a VoIP-based phone system, but that was the first wondered when we
read this headline.
Could somebody find out if this is yet another reason to dread the advent of VoIP for the library system that the Fulton
County IT Dept. has decreed shall be installed at some point (to "save money," of course)?
Found via LISNews.
- Dept. of Law-Breaking Librarians (Wisconsin and North Carolina Divisions)
Posted July 19, 2008
Yesterday LISNews posted not one but two news stories involving librarians who've
recently run afoul of the law. A librarian in Milwaukee
apparently served liquor to some teenagers at two different parties at her house, and a librarian in
Burlington, NC, has been arrested for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
- Borrowing vs. Buying; Convenience vs. Thrift
Posted July 18, 2008
One of the blogs at the Wall Street Journal has devoted the past couple days to a lively discussion of the pros and
cons of using libraries as a money-saving strategy for busy families.
Library workers and library administrators would be astonished by what some people (not all of them residents of New York,
incidentally) have decided are the most valuable services provided by public libraries - and why.
Among other things, the comments on this blog confirm the fact that the level of public awareness of public libraries and
what they do or do not offer varies wildly, even among presumably well-informed citizens/consumers. Also humbling: what
factors determine whether or not (some) parents lead them to make public libraries an integral part of their families'
lives - or not.
For these and other reasons, the blog is absolutely compulsive reading. Libraries don't need any more focus groups to find
out how people perceive and/or use libraries: we just need to keep reading nlogs like this one, and adapt our services
(and hours of service) accordingly.
Read. This. Now.
Found via LISNews.
- Public Libraries and "Walkable Neighborhoods"
Posted July 18, 2008
This blogpost isn't about libraries per se,
but it got us to thinking that the existence of a nearby public library should probably be routinely figured into the
criteria used for calibrating the relative desirability of a given neighborhood.
- So Many Disposable Books, So Few Enduring Ones...
Posted July 17, 2008
One publisher's
conclusions about why U.S. bookstores - and many U.S. libraries - are cluttered with disposable infotainment
rather than - well, with something more valuable.
Found via LISNews.
- Memo to All Library Directors, Library Administrators, Library Managers on Planet Earth:
Posted July 16, 2008
Good leaders surround themselves with talented, outspoken
individuals, not yes-men (or -women).
Found via the
Librarian in Black.
- What You Might Not Have Known about Our Collection Agency
Posted July 14, 2008
Interesting
article from yesterday's edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer about the collection agency AFPL recently
hired to recoup its zillions of dollars worth of never-returned library materials.
Found via LISNews.
- So Who Do Libraries Serve, Anyway?
Posted July 14, 2008
“People” sounds a bit too general; “Users” sounds so impersonal; “Patrons” sounds too obtuse; “Customers” sounds too
retail-based; “Readers” and “Borrowers” no longer encompass all the constituencies we serve; and “Clients” sounds way too
grandiose. Library Journal
- Colorado Book Thief Gets 10 Years in Prison
Posted July 11, 2008
Details, via
LISNews.
Nice to know that, after stealing over $35,0000 worth of books and DVDs from the Denver Public Library alone, this
guy is behind bars.
The real news story here, however, is the extent of theft that goes on daily in all (or at least all urban)
library systems, and the indifference of library administrators to the vulnerability of their libraries to this sort of
systematic theft.
There's something very disturbing - and newsworthy - about this theif's identity being discovered not by anything the library system's administrators
did to catch him, but by an individual he was trying to sell some of the stolen goods to.
For various reasons, we think library administrators should be forced to publicize the number of items "gone missing"
every year from their inventory, and the net worth of those items. The fact that some of these items are lost due to
the sloppy work of some library employees rather than due to theivery is irrelevant to the need for publicizing this
data - and, in our opinion, equally newsworthy from the stewardship-of-tax-dollars perspective.
Maybe libraries should get their collective heads out of the sand and band together to create and maintain an internet site
of all missing library-owned titles (accompanied by identifying marks on those items) so more Craig's List and eBay customers
can help libraries catch more of predatory thieves sooner?
- Booklover Leaves $77,000 to Berkeley Public Library
Posted July 11, 2008
Details, via LISNews.
As we've opined before, it's sobering to realize that it's virtually impossible to imagine this sort of headline
with the words "Atlanta-Fulton Public Library" in it appearing in the local newspaper. Why is that - and what would it
take for the chances of that happening to be high?
- Houston Newspaper Publishes Municipal Administrator's Names and Salaries
Posted July 11, 2008
Although the
database posted by the Houston Chronicle only lists 250 administrators' salaries, LibraryLand denizens
react to the notion of posting government workers' (including library employees') salaries with
outrage, indifference, and everything in between.
Interesting, the way some promoters of "transparency in government" believe that this notion shouldn't extend to
the publication of municipal workers' salaries.
On the other hand, it's not municipal employees themselves who determine how much (or, in most cases, how little) they are
paid, so attaching an employee's name to his/her salary and then publishing that information alone seems a bit nonsensical.
However, whenever some idiotic or psycho public administrator - or even some lowly but habitually abusive, idiotic, or
dysfunctional bureaucrat - is drawing a government salary, being easily able to determine and publicize that particular
employee's salary it might help mobilize more people to help get said employee off the public payroll.
In fact, we think the individuals who hire and/or who are responsible for supervising said psycho or dysfunctional
underling should also be accountable to the taxpaying public, or, rather, to anyone among the taxpayers who gives a hoot
about how tax revenues are used.)
- Booklover/Selector Alert: Virtural Book Browsing
Posted July 10, 2008
If you'd rather do your book-browsing from a chair staring at screenfuls of hyperlinked book covers instead browsing
lists of books - or actually visiting an acutal bookstore or library - Zoomii may become
one of your favorite Internet sites. Think "Amazon with [Virtual] Shelves."
True, it takes a bit of patience to figure out how to zoom in and out of the various subject areas, but once you get the
hang of it, browsing Zoomii does seem a bit more interesting than surfing Amazon (or a library catalog) - especially if you
aren't looking for any particular title, but rather some ideas for what to read. Once you zoom in on a title that
interests you (based on its cover image), you get all the usual Amazon-provided book details.
Found via Infodoodads.
Click here to read all previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Another (Automated) Resource for Reader's Advisory
Posted July 10, 2008
Most librarians are at least vaguely familiar with NoveList,
but many have probably not yet experimented with (or even heard about) Booklamp.
Google "Booklamp" and you'll find plenty of introductions to
this tool that tries to find "read-alikes" based on various aspects of a preferred writing style.
One of the most recent overviews: a seven-minute
story broadcast by National Public Radio.
Found via LISNews.
- Another Resource for Advertising Libraries
Posted July 3, 2008
Last month, Susan G. Akers, Marketing Communications Manager at Ball State University, created a
blog devoted to ideas for marketing libraries.
Found via LISNews.
- Selector/Booklover Alert: NPR Expands Book Coverage
Posted July 2, 2008
As anyone working a service desk in a public library could tell you, thousands (millions?) of Americans have tracked down
books they first heard about (or whose authors they heard interviewed) on a National Public Radio broadcast. Booklovers
and library selectors will be happy to learn that
NPR's excellent website has greatly expanded its coverage of books and authors of books. Publishers Weekly has
the details.
Found via LISNews.
Click here to read all previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- LibraryThing-Loving Librarians
Posted July 2, 2008
The increasingly intriguing Library Thing has spawned a lively
electronic discussion group populated entirely by librarians who've signed up to use LibraryThing - either to catalog
their own home libraries, or who are somehow using LibraryThing at the libraries where they work.
Not only is the group a gateway to the profiles of its partipants, but it provides links to wide-ranging comments on dozens
of interesting topics, including:
- My Least Favorite Thing about Being a Librarian
- Funny Requests from Patrons
- Creepy Requests from Patrons
- Crazy Librarian Stories
- What Would the Ideal Library Look Like?
Found via the
Librarian in Black, who's a LibraryThing participant herself.
- Drive-By Pickups of Library Materials
Posted July 1, 2008
As some libraries are trying to offer more of their resources online, others are finding ways to shorten in-person library
visits. In Arizona,
a library has found a way for its patrons to avoid parking and coming into the building to obtain materials they've put on
Hold.
Found via LISNews.
Shouldn't every library - especially every on-the-drawing-boards (or scheduled-to-be-renovated) library located in any
automobile-dominated suburb - include a drive-up window? After all, not every library user is a browser - at least not
every time he/she wants to use the library.
Continue reading previously-posted LibraryLand Bulletins
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