Determining How Libraries & Librarians Help

"Determining How Libraries & Librarians Help." Library Trends / Joan C. Durrance & Karen E. Fisher.
Illinois: Library Trends 51.4 305-334, Spring 2003.

"Staff contributions. Each of these programs was headed by visionary staff who shaped the model, recruited the clientele, and developed the activities that shaped the outcomes of this community-focused service. Staff shared these characteristics: they were committed to their clientele, creative in their approach to providing service, entrepreneurial in their approaches to seeking additional resources, and were able to articulate some, but not all, of the outcomes of their services. Some were recruited to their jobs because of special skills that they brought to the service such as language facility, interest in the clientele, ability to teach, or knowledge of information technology."

Literacy & Illiteracy

Nice Marketing, Chicago Public Library!

Map of Prose Literacy in Canada / Canadian Council on Learning

Click map for full data.

See Also:
Literacy in Canada

Stylo / Gorillaz

Book Bind: Public Libraries Feel Strain of Budget Cuts

"Book Bind: Public Libraries Feel Strain of Budget Cuts." McClatchy News / Tony Pugh.
California: McClatchy News Online, April 19th 2011.

"After spurring a surge in public library use nationwide, the tough economy is forcing many branches to cut staff, hours and programming right when many cash-strapped people need them most.

As in previous downturns, Americans turned to their libraries during the Great Recession for free children's programming or to borrow books, movies and music. In 2008, when the economy was in freefall, a record 68 percent of Americans had a library card, and library visits and borrowing spiked as well. ...

Despite their funding peril, public libraries remain one of the most popular government services and historically have fared pretty well at the ballot box. In 2009, voters passed 84 percent of library funding referendums nationwide and 54 percent of library construction measures, according to the Library Journal."

Happiness

Library of the Living Dead

Library of the Living Dead / C. Michael Hall & Matt Upson.
Kansas: Miller Library McPherson College, April 2011.





This is pretty rad.


The Zombies are Coming.

Deciphering the Dewey Decimal

"Deciphering the Dewey Decimal." Mental_floss / Sandy Wood & Kara Kovalchik.
Ohio: Mental_floss, April 20th  2011.

Reading Humidity Levels in the Stacks

5 Myths About the 'Information Age'

"5 Myths About the 'Information Age'." The Chronicle of Higher Education / Robert Darnton.
Washington: The Chronicle of Higher Education Online, April 17th 2011.

"4. "Libraries are obsolete." Everywhere in the country librarians report that they have never had so many patrons. At Harvard, our reading rooms are full. The 85 branch libraries of the New York Public Library system are crammed with people. The libraries supply books, videos, and other materi­al as always, but they also are fulfilling new functions: access to information for small businesses, help with homework and afterschool activities for children, and employment information for job seekers (the disappearance of want ads in printed newspapers makes the library's online services crucial for the unemployed). Librarians are responding to the needs of their patrons in many new ways, notably by guiding them through the wilderness of cyberspace to relevant and reliable digital material. Libraries never were warehouses of books. While continuing to provide books in the future, they will function as nerve centers for communicating digitized information at the neighborhood level as well as on college campuses."

The Library of the Future

"The Library of the Future." Screwy Decimal / Rita Meade.
Brooklyn: Screwy Decimal: Tales From An Urban Librarian, April 15th 2011.

"I think the most poignant essay quote I heard that morning was from a third grade girl: 

"What does the future of the library look like? It depends on you." 

She's right. I couldn't have said it better myself. It doesn't matter if she's talking to kids, adults, patrons, politicians, or librarians. We all need to keep working, keep advocating, keep changing, keep growing. We need to work together to bring libraries into the future."

Aww.

That Library Smell

"That Library Smell." PopShifter / Jesse Roth.
America: PopShifter, March 30th 2011.

"It was during this time that I finally discovered the other scents that define what the library is currently.

On a typical day at the reference desk, I get a whiff of a variety of scents, from the pleasant to the wretched. Many times it’s that distinct smell of the unwashed, the downtrodden, who find themselves taking refuge on the street once the library locks its doors for the night. The foul odor is sometimes masked by cigarette smoke or alcohol, but is no less pungent and disconcerting."

See Also:
Are Books Smelly?

She's Using Her Library: Shouldn't You?!

Life Is Like

Random Acts of Kindness: Librarians Most Helpful People

"Random Acts of Kindness: Librarians Most Helpful People." Hawaii News Now / Marvin Buenconsejo.
Honolulu: Hawaii News Now Online, ©2000-2011.

"One would think that in this world of laptops and Ipods, public buildings filled with paper-bound books would fade away into history. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

"A lot of people do use the public resource because we¹re free. All you need is your card. It's one of the best cards to have," said librarian Hillary Chang."

It Will Be Hard To Find A Public Library 15 Years From Now

"It Will Be Hard To Find A Public Library 15 Years From Now." Idea Logical Company / Mike Shatzkin.
New York: Idea Logical Company, April 8th 2011.

"The core purpose — the founding purpose — of a library, around which other things have grown, is to deliver access to printed words. Even the smallest local library almost certainly had more content housed within it than any individual had in their home and, in most cases, far more content than would be available at any local store. It was the books in the library that initially defined the library and attracted a core of patrons to it. When all of us have access to more books on our screens than are in the library, what’s the point to the library?

At least, that’s what I was thinking. ...

Gary [Price] observes that many people use the library for more than books, specifically citing their mission in providing technology education and to provide Internet access, and making the point that not everybody has access to the computer and the Internet at home. In my opinion, all these objections will be almost entirely mooted in the next 10 or 15 years.

(A parenthetical point. In the US, at least, the poor will almost certainly always be with us. People will be left behind by change; our country routinely permits that. I’m a liberal Democrat; that’s not an aspect of America that makes me happy. Libraries will vanish faster than the need for them does. I predict what I believe will happen, not what I want to happen.)"

See Also;
Michael Shatzkin in Montreal: Libraries Don't Make Sense Anymore

Masonic House of Temple Library

Meeting User Needs Checklist

Meeting User Needs Checklist / IFLA.
Netherlands: IFLA , 2005.

A Bibliography.

Designing Library Services Based On User Needs: New Opportunities to Re-position the Library

"Designing Library Services Based On User Needs: New Opportunities to Re-position the Library." IFLA / Yoo-Seong Song.
Illinois: IFLA Milan Conference, 2009. 

"Proactive Partner: The library in this quadrant enjoys high visibility to its constituency.  The constituency actively seeks the library for collaboration, and the library also maintains close communication channels with the constituency. The library is widely seen as a critical component by the constituency for its success.

Proactive Provider: The library actively and consistently communicates its value to the constituency. Although not as high as the library positioned as the proactive partner, the level of interaction with the constituency is relatively moderate or high. The constituency seeks the library for assistance; however, the library is not recognized as the core component for its success.

Reactive Partner: While the constituency seeks the library for collaboration and assistance, the library does not actively market its value and services. Reasons for being reactive in serving the constituency can vary. Mostly, it may have insufficient resources, both personnel and budgetary, which can prevent the library from committing its resources to be a core collaborator.

Reactive Provider: Neither the constituency nor the library communicates with each other on a regular basis. The constituency does not regard the library as a critical factor in achieving its goal, and the library also does not have enough resources to support the constituency. The library only responds to infrequent and irregular requests for materials from the constituency."

Undone / Failure

The Library Card As A Pop-Culture Fiend's Ticket To Geek Paradise

"The Library Card As A Pop-Culture Fiend's Ticket To Geek Paradise." NPR / Linda Holmes.
America: National Public Radio Online, April 11th 2011.

"But on Saturday, I grabbed David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which I checked out because (1) I've never read it; (2) I may not talk myself into it or be able to finish it and I definitely don't want it in my house staring judgmentally at me if I don't; (3) I want to give it a try; and (4) it wouldn't work as a Kindle book anyway because of the footnotes. Taking it out of the library is basically the only model under which I'm likely to try that particular book.

I also found the last three books in a highly frivolous Nora Roberts romance series (oh, settle down) from which I'd already read the first. They'd cost $12.99 each if I bought them electronically. That's forty bucks to read three more books that are ... all very much the same book as the first book, but I kind of wanted to read them, because ... whatever, it was the weekend. It's relaxing. It's a series. Don't judge.

Anyway, borrowing them long enough to read them (which takes, in total, maybe twelve hours for all three) cost me ... nothing out of pocket."

Delightful.

That Hot Librarian Fantasy? A New App Makes it Even Hotter

"That Hot Librarian Fantasy? A New App Makes it Even Hotter." Fast Company / David Zax.
America: Fast Company Online, April 7th 2011.

"Hold up the camera or tablet in front of a series of books, and an overlay indicates to you which books are in the right order, which aren't, and which directions you should move them.

The sort of thing, in other words, that gets a librarian hot and bothered."

Flash Mob Freeze Mob for National Library Week

Libraries Cater For the Middle Classes, Not the Deprived

"Libraries Cater For the Middle Classes, Not the Deprived, Says John Redwood." The Guardian / Alison Flood.
London: The Guardian UK Online, April 11th 2011.

"The twice Carnegie-shortlisted author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons disagreed. "Where do you start? He does a half-hour visit to a library when he's clearly not a library user, and he doesn't understand that 320m visits occur to libraries every year," said Gibbons. "They are hugely used, and when they are not used it tends to be because people don't know when they're open, because of the successive cuts from the 1980s onwards, from politicians like him."

Gibbons was adamant that it is not only the middle classes who are library users. "The vast majority of people use libraries … Public libraries serve nearly everyone apart from incredibly rich people like John Redwood and the culture minister. Everyone else needs a library.""

L is for Library

Check-Out Card Pocket

Elegy For Librarians: After All the Budget Cutting's Done, Who'll Be Around to Help Us Ask the Sharper Questions?

"Elegy For Librarians: After All the Budget Cutting's Done, Who'll Be Around to Help Us Ask the Sharper Questions?" Chron / Editor.
Houston: The Houston Chronicle Online, March 301th 2011.

"In this iEverything age, the thinking goes, books are musty relics. And without books, who needs librarians?

The truth is that we've never needed them more. Every day in this city, librarians do important jobs not strictly related to library science." 

Sources for Disruption of Library Services / A Digital Outrigger

Libraries Are Ongoing Investment In the Future Of Our Children, Nation

"Libraries Are Ongoing Investment In the Future Of Our Children, Nation." The News-Sentinel / C.J. Woodring.
Indiana: The News-Sentinel Online, April 6th 2011.

"Libraries add prestige, culture and stability, defining a neighborhood, a community and a nation. Few inner cities have such institutions, yet few areas could better profit from these sanctums of learning and empowerment."

Evolution of the Noble Librarian

Could Not Agree More

Dutch Book Week Art by Souverein

The Most Stolen Library Books

"The Most Stolen Library Books." MainStreet / Jeanine Skowronski.
America: MainStreet Online, March 23rd 2011.

Librarians In Fashion

Strahov Monastery Library in Prague

Explore all 360^o of the Strahov Monastery Library in Prague, Czech Republic. Cool.