Month: November 2005

librarian finds peace, leaving New Orleans

Posted on by jessamyn

Just got an update that New Orleans Public Library resumed circulation of books today at the Nix and Hubbell Branches. Weekly bloggish updates of the recovery efforts are on this page. This all, however, just a feel good intro to this heartwarming librarian story Evacuated librarian lends hand, finds peace

When Xavier University’s library director decided to leave New Orleans hours ahead of Hurricane Katrina, fate put him on the road to a mutually beneficial relationship with a library miles away.

a small foray into Google Books

Posted on by jessamyn

You can use the date operator to browse public domain books in Google Books. I’m not entirely sure why the covers of some of these books remain under copyright. Any ideas? I’ve also noticed a few scanning errors and some pretty neat finds like this one which gives the name of every librarian in the US and Canada working in a library holding over 1,000 volumes. Google Books clearly uses keyword indexing to make these books searchable. How great would it be to have this one in a database? You can see a few images that I particularly liked over at Flickr.

the plural of manifesto is?

Posted on by jessamyn

I’ve liked the idea of manifestos since I started rattling the idea of an OPAC Manifesto a ways back [it was a wiki before everyone had a wiki, and I didn’t like being a wiki-mom so now it just has a page]. Michael makes the link between the ILS Customer’s Bill of Rights and Jenny’s new proposal the Online Library User Manifesto. For anyone who considers the Cluetrain Manifesto essential reading — my copy is the only book in my boudoir currently — this is a logical extention. If, as they say, “markets are conversations” then libraries are big loud boisterous and lively conversations, and we’re all part of it. Jenny’s manifesto delightfully contains links to people who are getting it right, behind her no nonsense declarations like “I want to know how your library works.” I’d even bring this out further and change it to “I want to know how our library works.” Who wouldn’t?