Tech Alert: "13 Ways (and 147 Tools) To Help Your Library Save Money on Technology
Posted January 27, 2010
AFPL's Technical Services Administrator should mine this amazing list posted by the Librarian in Black to
see which of theses free and/or open source software applications could be used to operate the library system more efficiently,
cheaply.
Oh, wait. AFPL no longer employes a Technical Services Administrator. Never mind.
Service Desk Alert: Alternative News and Commentary Resources List Available
Posted January 27, 2010
Once upon a time - the late 1970s and early 1980s? - when librarians working on public library reference desks felt
obliged to be at least somewhat familiar with helping patrons locate non-mainstream sources of information on social issues.
Not many public libraries have reference desks any longer, nor is any service desk we know of staffed exclusively by
librarians, and very few librarians have at their fingertips a semi-comprehensive list of non-mainstream information
resources. (And, to be honest, there doesn't seem to be much demand at public library service desks for those sorts of
resources. Maybe things are different in college libraries?)
In any case, librarians who might still feel professionally obliged to be aware of the existence of non-mainstream
information resources will be pleased to know that the list entitled "
Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Media," compiled by Byron Anderson, was updated last month and posted to
the Internet.
iPhone's "Local Books" App: Potential for Spreading Library Joy
Posted January 26, 2010
The use of cell phones is getting ever more ubiquitous, and now there's another reason why the technical services
staffs at public libraries - if they have any (and AFPL, alas, does not) - should sit up and take notice.
Public libraries willing to post their events - and/or the holdings of their special collections - at LibraryThing can
publicize those events or make their collections searchable remotely through a new application available to millions of
iPhone users.
Even more exciting in terms of free publicity and better accessibility, those library events and/or holdings will be
accessible (and searchable) to the tens of thousands of local iPhone owners who place this particular application on
their cell phones.
The application pulls up and arranges by zip code, links to information posted to LibraryThing. Listings to public library
branches and bookstores are automatically displayed (along with links to their websites). (This automatic listing is a very
good thing for AFPL, which employs no technical services people to post those listings.) Cell phone owners using the app
will therefore:
Be reminded that their public libraries exist (always good)
Can sort the listings by which library (or bookstore) is closest to them (often necessary)
If the libraries have posted information about their programs or holdings, have that information conveniently displayed
(even better).
Choose to make the link to the local library system's website one of their "Favorites" (also A Very Good Thing for
libraries).
Details are available at LibraryThing.
A later LibraryThing blogpost
conveniently contains links to numerous websites (such as the Los Angeles Times) that further explain and/or discuss
the new application, which was launched earlier this month.
Gwinnett Libraries Abandon Plan to Charge Fees for Internet Access
Posted January 25, 2010
Here's why, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Georgia Librarian Raises $20,000 for Haiti Earthquake Victims
Posted January 19, 2010
Valdosta State University Technology Librarian Cliff Landis announced a few days ago that
he would match contributions donated to Boston-based Partners in Health
for Haitian earthquake relief efforts.
Cliff made this video to let his blog's readers know what happened next:
Service Desk Alert: EBSCO to Monopolize Access to Online Content of Major Periodicals?
Posted January 19, 2010
Apparently, the era of often-free
online access to full-text articles (or at least to articles from the Most Well-Known U.S. magazines) is coming to a close.
Public libraries had better get ready for a series of hefty increases in EBSCO licensing fees.
Vancouver Public Library Staff Instructed to Use Only Official Corporate Sponsors for Olympics-Related Library Programs
Posted January 19, 2010
People who live in Atlanta know full well about the corporate feeding frenzy that surrounds a city's hosting of the Olympic
Games. Unfortunately, the juggernaut-like reach of Olympic sponsorship has now been allowed to influence Olympic-related
programs (co-)sponsored by a public library system. Librarian.net posted some details (and links to documents)
after this development surfaced at Library Juice.
VPL administrators should be ashamed of themselves for enabling (if not initiating) this ridiculous kowtowing to
corporate interests that have hijacked the modern incarnation of this sports event.
2010 is (Among Other Things) "The Year of the Bookmobile"
Posted January 19, 2010
You will note that AFPL's bookmobile did NOT participate in this recent parade (video via Library Garden):
Mayhap the long-sidelined AFPL bookmobile will be up and running by National Bookmobile Day (on April 14th)???
Startling Library-Related Statistic du Jour: Printer Ink Costs Way More Than Human Blood
Posted January 18, 2010
Service Desk Alert: iPhone App Connects Mobile Device Users with Libraries and Their Gale Databases
Posted January 18, 2010
If AFPL had a Technical Services Manager, one thing he/she would do would be monitoring what's going on in the mass-market techno-universe
that's directly relevant to public libraries...and alerting staff to the probable service implications (and opportunities)
of those techno-developments.
Alas, AFPL doesn't have a full-time Tech Honcho on its payroll, but an example of a recently-announced gizmo that's quite
interesting for library users is the iPhone app introduced late last month that biblioblogger Sarah Houghton-Jon (aka The
Librarian in Black) describes so well.
As they wait (seemingly eternally) for AFPL's director to hire a Tech Honcho, tech-savvy and would-be tech-savvy AFPL
employees might want to get hold of the Sarah's forthcoming book
about how to train library employees to use computer-based technologies.
Administrative Alert: Once More with Feeling: Circ Stats Are Inadequate Measures of Library Value
Posted January 18, 2010
Aaron Schmidt's recent screed about library governance and funding agencies'
chronic over-reliance upon library circulation statistics is certainly not the first such complaint publicly aired, but
Aaron does do a good job of capturing how library administrators are painting themselves (and their library employees) into
a corner by the over-use of this particular GNP-analogous measure of a library's impact on its service area's users.
Gwinnett County Libraries to Resume Hiring
Posted January 17, 2010
County commissioners have ended Gwinnett's year-long hiring freeze that resulted in 42 vacant positions and lots of
stressed-out library employees who've been doing more than their own jobs in the interim. The Gwinnett Daily Post has
some details.
There's been no official word from Fulton County's Powers That Be about when Fulton's hiring freeze will be lifted.
But there are a lot of worn-out Fulton library employees - and a host of waiting-forever-in-the-wings job applicants and
potential promotion-seekers who are hoping the freeze will be officially ended next week, when the Fulton's commissioners
are required to adopt the 2010 county budget.
Georgia's PINES Network Celebrates 10 Years of Saving Taxpayer Dollars
Posted January 17, 2010
Interesting article posted by the
Dalton Daily Citizen about the library network that has managed to thrive over many obstacles - including the refusal
(so far) of metro-Atlanta public libraries, including AFPL, to participate in this
almost-statewide network.
We hope that AFPL library director John Szabo's preoccupation with getting five new bond referendum-funded libraries built over the next few years
won't prevent his finding a way for AFPL to join PINES. If the state's largest public library system joined PINES - and
GALILEO's funding could be restored to pre-recession levels - Georgia's library-using citizens would really have something
to be proud of!
Of course, the pursuit of joining PINES would be a lot more efficient if Szabo would get around to hiring a Technical
Services Manager for the aforementionedly large AFPL library system....
San Francisco Library Hires Social Worker to Help Cope with Homeless Patrons
Posted January 17, 2010
This is something U.S. library workers everywhere have often recommended, so it's good to learn (from the San Francisco
Chronicle) that another library system is
trying out this idea at its downtown library.
We are somewhat chagrined, however, to also learn what the library is paying this additional worker:$85,000 per year -
considerably more than any public library pays its librarians.
Librarians Have the 46th "Best Job" in the United States?
Posted January 17, 2010
So sayeth a study cited by the Wall Street Journal, in a
composite ranking determined by the following five factors: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands,
and stress.
Vandals Repeatedly Damaging Texas Library
Posted January 17, 2010
Repeated vandalism has forced the library in the town of Clute, Texas has had to replace its glass front doors four times
within the past 18 months. In a recent incident, the vandals have peed on the library's book collection. Houston-based KRTK
recently reported the dismal details.
Dept. of Indicted Library Officials (New York Division)
Posted January 17, 2010
The ex-treasurer of a library system in Utica has been charged with embezzling $280,000 from library coffers over the past
20 years. Vermont's WCAX posted a few details from an
Associated Press press release.
Dept. of Law-Breaking Library Patrons (Texas Division)
Posted January 17, 2010
A Brownsville (Texas) Public Library patron caught downloading child pornography from a library computer was sentenced
to six years in prison. Local television station KGBT reported
a few details.
Feel free to let us know which of the other other biblioblogs you
find useful enought for AFPLWATCH to begin monitoring for LibraryLand fodder.
"The 87 Lamest Moments in Tech, 2000-2009"
Posted January 4, 2010
Technologizer's intriguing review - of miracle products that
didn't go anywhere despite millions of advertising dollars, mergers of tech behemoths that ended in bankruptcy filings, and
over-hyped techno inventions and/or failed prophecies - is a long one, but the time it takes to read this list is well worth
the flashbacks it produces. And of course the number of reader comments suggesting further Lame Moments prove that any list
like this is only a sampling of what deserves to be listed.
.com
The use of cell phones is getting ever more ubiquitous, and now there's another reason why the technical services
staffs at public libraries - if they have any (and AFPL, alas, does not) - should sit up and take notice.
