Mom: Don’t you know this is the liberry, not the cry-berry? –The Fordham Library Center. [thanks fiona]
best practices wiki
It’s possible, though unlikely that you haven’t yet checked out Meredith’s Best Practices wiki where librarians can share their success stories. It’s filling with content slowly and remember, you can help. For those who are new to wiki culture, I added a tips page on how to get started off on the right foot.
British Library
The British Library is quite near to King’s Cross station and I’m sure many people are concerned for their welfare in addition to the many others affected by today’s tragedy. They posted a brief update to their main page, which I think is something that all libraries should be able to do in case of an emergency. Apparently they locked the building down. Oddly this isn’t the only story about the British Library with the word tragedy in the headlines today. A British Library spokesperson had this to say:
“Kings Cross and Euston is cordoned off. “Police have advised us strongly that people stay where they are. There are staff and readers inside. We don’t know if we will be open tomorrow. We are discussing contingency plans.”
Update: The British Library has an update on their services available today here.
one link from a book
My friend Matthew works in a bookstore and we talk about bookish things often. From my inbox: “So, we just got this silly book in at the store called “The Lazy Person’s Handbook: Shortcuts to Getting Everything You Want with the Least Possible Effort” [link]
Chapter two is “The Short Cut to Arriving at the Right Answer” – it consists of five successive steps (e.g. guess, process of elimination, google it, ask random folk, etc.) – but #5 is Ask a Librarian then they say:
‘When all else fails, turn to the information experts. Today’s librarians are not your parents’ librarians. They are highly trained information specialists, with wide-ranging knowledge of subject areas, information sources, & search tools.'”
I’m not sure if being low on the lazy list is better than being high on the lazy list, but I guess it’s an honor just to be nominated, huh?
The Case for Privatizing Public Libraries
This is not my perspective at all, however I don’t think it’s tough to see where these people are coming from. I’m not sure if the linking to fee-based database articles locked behind a password entry page is intentional [see links under the words “been scandalous”] but it has an inadvertent side effect of driving home the opposing viewpoint: we learn and understand through free exchange of information. What that exchange is limited through fees, accessibility, or censorship, we all learn a little less. [thanks steven]