Smithsonian magazine wrote a neat article about libraries’ special and interesting collections. Alas, they forgot to include links to any of the cited libraries’ websites. Someone from MetaFilter, actually a librarian pal of mine who works at Harvard, picked up the torch and started a thread with many more excellent examples.
Category: libraries
a little omg and response to some gaming in libraries
Librarians play games “on the clock”. News show flips out. Locals talk to their representatives. Nebraska Library Comission produces 27 page report explaining what went on.
The Library Commission‟s actions in acquiring gaming equipment and a few representative games is proper and in accord with the agency‟s state statutory mission and its purposes in introducing new technologies, techniques and providing information and instruction in the use of these technologies. Innovation requires latitude in researching, examining and use of new and emerging technologies to evaluate their usefulness and benefits. That is the purpose and motivation behind the Commission‟s purchase of gaming equipment.
Read the whole report, it’s really worthwhile. [via]
Library Journal’s Star Libraries – show me the data
Library Journal has been making an effort to open up more, make more types of content available. I’ve been enjoying following Josh Hadro on Twitter. This was particularly useful when their Star Libraries report came out. Vermont has five libraries on the list [yay!] and I was trying to figure out how this compared to other states, by population and/or by sheer numbers. Josh went back and forth with me a few times pointing to other ways the data was displayed to see if any were helpful. What I was looking for was a list — similar to the Movers and Shakers list we were always agitating for — but I got close. The data is available, among other ways
- In a graphic showing libraries by state with split-out charts at the bottom sorted by expenditure category.
- As a Google spreadsheet with a separate page for each expenditire category
- Listed by score within each expenditure category (note sexy sortable lists)
It’s hard to tell how all these pages are related to each other — this page is the best start page I found — and each page lets you comment which is also a little on the confusing side. I asked about where to find everything on one page and I guess you can’t do it. Library Journal staffers are hampered by a CMS that doesn’t really allow them to make decent links between things and whether it’s software or “wetware” the link they offered in a comment wasn’t even one I could click. So, yay hooray for the winning libraries and a “let’s do better next time” nudge for decent information design for this report next year.
Topeka Library Board Restricts Access to Four Books
Library Journal put up a quick article about the Topeka Library Board’s decision from yesterday to restrict access to four books with sexual themes. I was following most of the meeting, in realtime with photos by keeping an eye on David Lee King’s twitter feed (starting about here) as I was in my all day meeting. Here’s the brief story from the AP Wire. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this story.
One lawyer at the meeting told the newspaper he had already been approached by potential plaintiffs. “Because it would take these books off the shelves and place them out of reach of patrons browsing the shelves, the proposed policy is unconstitutional,†warned the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri in a letter to the board.
smell like old books, delicious!
In The Library, a perfume for people who can’t get enough of that “work smell” [thanks scott, via]
Whenever I read, the start of the journey is always opening the book and breathing deeply. Don’t you find there are few things more wonderful than the smell of a much-loved book? Newly printed books certainly smell very different from older ones. The ink is so crisp. I’ve also noticed that books from different periods & different countries also have very different smells. And then there are the scents of different bindings: leather is marvelous of course but I find a peculiar pleasure in musty worn clothbound books as well. Perhaps just a hint of mildew!