Category: libraries

IPL turns ten

Posted on by jessamyn

Happy tenth birthday Internet Public Library! I didn’t know when I started doing some online reference for them in my last year of library school that they were so new and that a lot of the things they were trying to do were really pretty cutting edge. I still go there today to find good links to author information, to get POTUS information or just to see if my list of the seven basic plots in literature is still there. I guess some of the admiration is mutual, since I just found this on their blogs page

It would be wrong of library students to drop out of their programs and simply read Vermonter Jessamyn West’s blog about creatively integrating techonology and a human-centered approach into library services. But it would be understandable. A great blog.

information visualization aesthetics @ Seattle Public Library

Posted on by jessamyn

The article begins “From now on, whatever you check out of the Seattle Central Library will play in color-coded streams across six big plasma screens on the library’s fifth floor.” but don’t freak out, that’s actually not what happens. Read more about the new art installation in the Seattle Public Library’s main branch. Of the three other major artworks in the library, two aren’t working currently, they need new projectors. [thanks matthew]

Libraries change lives right here, right now

Posted on by jessamyn

Marylaine Block has a more personal look at how librarians in areas affected by Katrina are helping people get their lives back.

Sandra Fernandez, Public Relations Manager for [Houston Public Library], says that they’ve been operating an impromptu “branch” library on site at the convention center since Saturday, September 3. She says, “We have Library staff there, as well as volunteers. We don’t have a circulating library at that location. The materials are all either donated recently for that library or provided by the Friends of the Houston Public Library — which means that when something is “checked out” at that library, they can keep the materials. We have (as of yesterday) approximately 16 computers there, with internet access, games and reading materials for all ages. We are holding storytimes throughout the day as well. The GRB [convention center] is just a mile or two from the Central Library, and we are offering temporary library cards to all evacuees which then can then be used at all library locations.”

emergencies, public information, and libraries

Posted on by jessamyn

When disaster strikes, is the library web site a place you could go to for breaking news, even if the library was closed? I hate to be a disaster vulture, but I always wonder when things happen like the tsunami, or 9/11, or this hurricane, what is the library’s role? How could their web presence help people? Here are some other New Orleans web sites, to demonstrate what I mean.

  • the Loyola web site automatically redirects their home page to the emergency announcement page and includes a bright yellow button on the footer of every page on the site so even if you start on a page within the site, you’ll see their announcements.
  • Louisiana State has a news sidebar explaining that the school will be closed
  • The Louisiana Library Collection Database even managed to put two links in which aren’t too styling but direct people to FEMA and the National Hurricane Center
  • LSU Health Sciences does it quickly and simply with a big emergency headline across the main page.
  • Nichols State even appears to have a blog ready for emergency preparedness with a way to post regular updates, linked off of the main page.

My question to you: if there was an emergency, could you update your library home page quickly to inform your patrons?

update: due to sporadic electricity in the Louisiana area, many of these sites are now down. I’ve added a bit more description in lieu of actual pages you can look at.