links about some good and bad things in libraryland

First off, I’d like to point out this question from Ask MetaFilter which asks the age old question “I am trying to automate my small school/church/club library. What software should I use?” I gave a few answers, as did a few other people, but the short answer is “There’s no good tool for this” as near as I can tell. Please let me know if I’m wrong.

A few more links people sent me over the last week or so.

my talk at UAZ SIRLS

I’m back from Tucson/Phoenix. I had a great time getting to spend the day with the students and faculty of the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science. I gave a variant of my digital divide talk The Information Poor & the Information Don’t Care Small Libraries and the Digital Divide (the notes look the same but all the talks are really really different). While I was in Arizona I also got to see the downtown branch of the Phoenix Public Library, the North Valley Regional Library (my first big suburban library!) and the Tucson Pima Public Library. I also did a quick walk around the University of Arizona library but got quickly distracted by the amazing art exhibit Reading Our Remains (waxed and sliced books, fascinating) and didn’t take a lot of other pictures.

hi – 11nov

Hi. I’m in Phoenix today, giving a talk tomorrow at University of Arizona’s SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium. Yesterday we did what I always do in new places, went to the library. We saw my friends’ suburban library the North Valley Regional Library and also the Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix. I have a bunch of observations, it was a lesson in compare and contrast, but I’ll just link to a photo I took in the Phoenix public library parking lot.