- Dept. of Inspirational Resources for Public Library Websites
Posted September 30, 2008
LibSite.org showcases library websites, with screenshots, descriptions, and links. And it's
searchable by category (public libraries, for example).
In that far-off time when AFPL finally gets its own webmaster again and that person sits down to improve AFPL's website, this
resource should be one that this future webmaster should routinely scrutinize for useful ideas.
Meanwhile, we can poke around looking at all the different ways other libraries (most of which, of course, employ their own
webmasters) have decided to present their libraries to their computer-owning users.
Found via Tame the Web.
- Dept. of Odd (And Expensive) Private Libraries
Posted September 30, 2008
From Wired, the first published photos of an unusual custom-built library celebrating the human imagination.
Found via LISNews via
Stephen's Lighthouse.
- Service Desk Alert: Presidential Campaign Quotes and Fact-Checking Websites
Posted September 27, 2008
Google has jumped into the U.S. presidential campaign media frenzy by introducing a new feature that
compares the two top contenders' claims on various topics.
And although we doubt that droves of nonplussed voters are begging their local librarians for advice on
how to wade through the ever-thickening muck being slung around by the dueling presidential candidates and their supporters,
there are a slew of Internet websites
that have undertaken the formidable task of investigating the various claims being made.
Found via LISNews, which posted links to these separate stories
here and
here.
- Dept. of Fired Library Directors' Lawyers Obtaining Big Bucks
from Public Libraries (Michigan Division)
Posted September 26, 2008
Details from the
Bay City Times.
Found via LISNews.
- Revamping Libraries from the "Customer's Experience" Point of View
Posted September 26, 2008
Slides 28-38 of this slide show includes
the results of "shadowing" a would-be library customer through their perplexed first journey into a public library; slides
68-73 show what the library did to fix two of those customer perplexities.
If AFPL's upcoming bond referendum passes, we hope the new and refurbished libraries will spend part of the resulting
revenues to create more user-friendly design, signage, etc. in Fulton county libraries. Brain surgery, it's not, but
keeping the focus on the customer's perspective in the way we design our libraries is regrettably uncommon.
Found via Library Bytes.
- Factors in Public Library Closures
Posted September 26, 2008
A Florida State University study entitled
"Why Public Libraries Close" is lengthy and full of interesting (if somewhat unsurprising) details. Turns out there is
no single, simple answer to the question studied. The main finding:
"...Public library closures are usually caused by the evolving needs of the local libraries (e.g., remodeling, branch
relocations, library mergers) or due to factors that are somewhat outside of the library’s direct control (e.g., reduction
in funding or staffing). Lack of library use at the closed library is not the primary reason for
most public library closures."
Found via LISNews.
- Flight Attendants to Soon Join Librarians as Reluctant Porn-Police?
Posted September 26, 2008
As several airlines introduce in-flight wi-fi Internet access, some flight attendants are worried about a new duty being
added to their workplans: resolving disputes between passengers who choose to look at naughty photos, and someone
next to that person who objects to that. Details
from the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, the Internet filter industry has found itself a new market segment. And we bet those filter-sellers probably aren't
warning the airlines about what librarians found out long ago: filters do nothing to block nudie/sexy photos stored
as attachments to email messages. Good luck, o ye flight attendants. (As if managing intoxicated airplane passengers weren't
plenty stressful enough without adding Internet-viewing disputes into the mix. O Brave New World, etc.)
Found via LISNews.
- China Builds World's Third Largest Library Building
Posted September 11, 2008
Details from China View.
Found via LISNews.
- Ideas for Library Programs for Adults
Posted September 11, 2008
If you're in charge of concocting ideas for luring adults into your library via programs, you might be interested
in scanning last month's online brainstorming session for
program ideas featured in a thread at LibraryThing's "Librarians Who LibraryThing" discussion group.
- Trustees Restore Two Sexuality Books to Idaho Library Collection After Lawsuit Threat
Posted September 11, 2008
Although it took three attempts by a library patron to get the two books removed from its original location in the collection,
the library's trustees finally agreed to his request. When the ACLU threatened to sue, the board reversed its decision.
Details from the Idaho Statesman.
Found via LISNews.
- Survey of Library-Related Blogs Underway
Posted September 11, 2008
According to an alert at LISNews,
librarian Walt Crawford has undertaken another comprehensive survey of library-related blogs. Walt has identified
587 contenders this time around, and is asking folks for additional candidates he might have overlooked.
AFPLWATCH - a website instead of a blog, although embedded within it is a blog-like "LibraryLand" section - eagerly
awaits the results of Crawford's survey. Meanwhile, we'd like to repeat our standing invitation for WATCH readers to
notify us of exceptional blogs "LibraryLand" should be routinely monitoring in addition to
the blogs we're already trying to keep tabs on.
- Booklover Alert: "Gateway Books" (as in "Gateway Drugs") That Hooked Readers Forever
Posted September 10, 2008
Last week, the New York Times "Paper Cuts" blogger Gregory Cowles, inspired by a wonderful quotation from Eudora
Welty, posted an invitation for Times readers to report the title of the book that turned them into voracious,
lifetime readers. The four dozen or so readers' responses posted since then make for mighty interesting reading!
Take a look.
Does your library own the titles mentioned by these readers?
All previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Using a Library Blog for Posting Reading Lists Online
Posted September 10, 2008
Different libraries use various different software products to display online their home-grown reading lists. There are pros
and cons - for library workers as well as for users - with these different methods.
After experimenting with a readers advisory wiki, librarian Bobbi Newman at the Missouri River Regional Library decided to
establish a blog devoted exclusively to the library's recommended reading lists.
Take a look at the result.
Of the advantages of blogging reading lists (instead of using some other method), we like these best:
- Blogging makes it easy to add new pages as the site grows
- Blogging makes it easy to post new lists
- The tagging allowed by blogware makes finding a list easier
- Patrons can leave comments on a blogged list - and can post their own additional recommended titles that the library
inadvertently omitted from a given list
- Embedded links to the library's catalog make is easy for patrons to check the status of an item or place a hold
- Blogged lists can be quickly created using mostly copy-&-paste
- Most blogging software provides user statistics
Not mentioned by Bobbi, but also true:
- Blogging software (in MRRL's case, WordPress) is free (unlike, say, BookLetters)
- Blogging software is (unlike, say, BookLetters) is relatively easy to learn as well as easy to use
Found via Librarian by Day via a comment to an unrelated post at
Tinfoil + Racoon.
- Selecting Crime Novels by Locale?
Posted September 10, 2008
We suppose one could use NoveList to get a list of crime novels by the city where their plots are set, but (computer-owning)
crime novel fans would probably also be interested in listening to
NPR's recent series of interviews with novelists who always (or usually) set their novels in the same town - Istanbul,
say, or Chicago.
Found via Sites and Soundbytes.
- Dept. of Apt Metaphors
Posted September 10, 2008
The cell phone: "surely the longest umbilical cord in history."
Source: Liverpool University's Paul Redmond,
"Here Comes the Chopper...Helicopter Parents...", in The Guardian.
Found via a link blogged at Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog.
- The Future of the Public Library Catalog?
Posted September 9, 2008
The future of the public library catalog is already here, thanks to John Blyberg and his cohorts at the Darien Public Library.
Over a year ago, Blyberg et al. introduced a drool-worthy catalog re-vamp unique in the departures it made from the usual,
catalog-centric library website. They've recently gone a step further (or several steps further) in creating a web interface
for a library that draws information from a catalog, but doesn't privilege that source and that isn't limited by a catalog's...
limitations. For example, users can add their own tags and book reviews, which increases the catalog's usefulness. Take a look.
We note with interest the comment in the website's "Welcome" message from the director of the Darien Library that its
newfangled website is being debuted along with plans for a new library building. Apparently, it isn't an either/or choice
for Darien. Alas, we fear it will be an either/or choice at AFPL - especially with no Tech Services Manager on the AFPL
payroll for over five years now.
Found via Pegasus Librarian.
- Dept. of Library Factoids: 66% of U.S. Public Libraries Offer Wi-Fi
Posted September 9, 2008
AFPL still hasn't joinged the supposedly-happy majority, but apparently will do so "soon". The factoid is one of many
interesting findings in an ALA report mentioned
last week here at "LibraryLand."
This particular factoid in the ALA report was (along with others) highlighted by the
Librarian in Black.
- "The Internet is Only 5,000 Days Old..."
Posted September 8, 2008
A 20-minute video of a speech delivered last December by technology
commentator Kevin Kelly. Full of unusual observations, factoids, graphics, and predictions about what the next 5,000 days of the
Internet are likely to produce.
Found via
Stephen Abrams’ Lighthouse.
- Booklover Alert: Book Patrol Joins Other "Book Culture" Websites
Posted September 8, 2008
Those of us who routinely bookmark every book-centric website we stumble across are going to have to create a separate
folder for them soon, as their numbers are rapidly proliferating.
The newest one we've seen is Book Patrol, and here is a books-into-art image posted there recently:
Found via Bibliophile Bullpen.
All previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Vice Presidential Candidate Reportedly Interested in Library Book-Banning Methods?
Posted September 5, 2008
We assumed that the upcoming U.S. presidential election was devoid of anything relevant to librarianship, but we assumed
wrong. And, as is often the case, readers' comments to a fragment of
a Time story blogged by LISNews
are as interesting as the story that triggered those comments. Also as often happens, the veracity of the original media
story - or at least the reliability of a person quoted in that story - has been
questioned.
- Only 10% of Georgia's Public Libraries Have Sufficient Numbers of Internet Workstations
Posted September 5, 2008
That's one of the findings about library-provided Internet
service included in a report recently posted to ALA's website.
Found via LISNews.
- Hawaii's Public Libraries in Big Trouble Due to Huge Budget Cut
Posted September 2, 2008
Details via the Librarian
in Black.
- Maine City Drops Case Against Library User Who Stole Library Book
Posted September 2, 2008
Details (and commentary)
at LISNews.
- Fired Library Employee Confesses to Stealing $88,000 from Wisconsin Library
Posted September 2, 2008
An auditor discovered the thefts; the employee claims she stole the money "to survive."
Details from the Janesville Gazette.
Found via LISNews.
- Gwinnett Library Critic Joins Library Board
Posted September 2, 2008
Details at Library Journal.
- More Librarians-in-Fiction Titles
Posted September 1, 2008
Last month, we posted a link to a list of books featuring
librarians as heroes or heroines that had been posted
this past May to the Seattle Public Library's blog.
Recently, SPL blogger "David W" updated his list with commentary about
a dozen or so additional libararians-in-fiction titles suggested by his blog's readers.
Meanwhile, one of the WATCH's alert readers reminded us that AFPL libarian Tony Miller had compiled
a list of librarians-in-fiction titles owned by AFPL, basing his annotations on the ones published in Librarians in
Fiction: A Critical Bibliography by Grant Burns (McFarland, 1998).
Wouldn't a link on AFPL's webpage to staff-developed booklists on various topics (such as this one) be a nifty enhancement
of AFPL's website? We think so...but, regrettably, there's no AFPL webmaster to suggest this idea to. Perhaps the AFPL
blogpeople might consider creating such an archive?
Continue reading previously-posted LibraryLand Bulletins
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