putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999
Ed Bilodeau has a few words about food/drink/trash policies. If you feel that you must have them, enforce them.
I am calling on librarians everywhere to pull yourself away from the Internet and take a few minutes every day at different times of the day to take a stroll around your library and ensure that your policies regarding food, drink, and general proper use of the library are being respected.
I talk a lot about how availability of free online tools is really helping small organizations get things done. Here is an example in a note that came across the Vermont Libraries listserv this week which I’ve reprinted with permission.
In our rural state, many libraries are staffed by a single staff person, or by a very small staff. This can make it a challenge to accomplish large projects within a short time period, have an extended vacation, or take advantage of a professional development opportunity. Also, those librarians who work part-time sometimes would like to expand their experience, network and income with additional work within their profession.
The Vermont Library Association (VLA), Green Mountain Library Consortium (GMLC) and Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) are excited to introduce the Vermont Library Substitute Pool!
Here’s how it works:
If you would like the opportunity to sub or temp at a library in your area, or are seeking freelance work or volunteer opportunities, simply fill out the Vermont Library Substitute Pool Form at http://www.vermontlibraries.
be available for one year to libraries looking to fill a need.
We particularly encourage current library staff and volunteers interested in exploring work in other kinds of libraries to sign up for the sub pool. For example, if you are a school librarian interested in finding out what it might be like working with children or teens in a public library setting, the substitute pool could be an excellent opportunity for you.
We anticipate that there will be a mix of paid and unpaid opportunities available.
Libraries looking for a volunteer, project temp, or other such staffing need, will be able to request a single log in to access the data. To do so, please contact our Vermont Library Substitute Pool volunteer, Helen Linda, at addressremoved@gmail.com with the name and email address of your library representative.
The VLA has also provided a space to list ongoing Volunteer Opportunities at libraries, http://www.vermontlibraries.
We currently have 55 people on the list and they represent every county in the state (most of them selecting multiple counties). Below is the breakdown of current availability:
Bitch magazine has a lending library in Portland Oregon. The library has a blog and they would like your zine donations. They make posts about books in their collection and today’s post is about Celeste West and a new book out on Library Juice Press celebrating her life. [via]
She Was A Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West is a collection of essays, excerpts, and photos that attempt to capture the spirit of Celeste West, a woman whose influence on feminist librarianship, publishing, journalism, and activism was monumental. After West passed away in 2008, a few friends and admirers (Toni Samek, Moyra Lang, and K.R. Roberto) decided to embark on a project that would honor West’s work and life. This book, which acts as a comprehensive and compassionate obituary, was the result.
I participate in a holiday card exchange every year. I don’t celebrate Christmas but most people I know do so I like to have something holiday appropriate and possibly library interesting at the same time. Thanks to Boston Public Library’s Flickr stream, I think I’ve found the perfect image, available for me to use within the terms of their license. Thanks BPL! The Boston Globe is also a great source of library information, I swear they have someone working there who is on the library beat. This semi-recent article on Information Overload and what that looked like five centuries ago when the newest boogeyman was the printing press is an enjoyable read.
Astute readers may notice that this blog now has a twitter. If you want to subscribe to this blog’s posts via Twitter, you can follow the @librariandotnet account which is auto-posted to from this blog. All the rest of my updates will be at @jessamyn. I set it up without too much trouble using the Twitter Tools plug-in and the bit.ly APi to shortne the URLs.
One of the old school resources that I still check out often is Ariadne a regularly published web periodical that keeps me abreast of what’s going on in UK and other European libraries. The article in this issue called What Is a URI and Why Does It Matter? is an excellent introduction to why we care about URIs and URLs. Lots of nerdy metadata talk and worth a read. [via]