When citizens enter a library, they want to see librarians and books. and 26 other rules for good library design. [thanks blake]
the guilty pleasure of books on tape
My secret stash of book on tape
“I wonder what my colleagues would think if they knew how much of my mental life is still enriched by spoken-word recordings. Listening to tapes while engaged in mindless but unavoidable activities, I get through about 30 books a year that I would not otherwise have read. It’s almost like I’m sneaking in an extra half-lifetime of reading in the course of doing my ordinary chores, which have a way of getting done more thoroughly as a result of listening while I work.” [thanks michael]
best practices for OSPs
Because your library IS an Online Service Provider, and because your library has a commitment to patron privacy, you should read the EFF guide to Best Practices for Online Service Providers.
“OSP owners must deal with requests from law enforcement and lawyers to hand over private user information and logs. Yet, compliance with these demands takes away from an OSP’s goal of providing users with reliable, secure network services. In this paper, EFF offers some suggestions, both legal and technical, for best practices that balance the needs of OSPs and their users’ privacy and civil liberties.”
books, we read books!
A few more librarian booklists from 2004: Lis, Cedar, Brian, bookish, TangognaT’s textfile, Steve, “The Cataloger” …. Any others? Keep in mind that I count graphic novels as books, as Lis counts long fanfic as books, so my numbers and your numbers may not be at all comparable.
a few tsunami links
People sent me links for a few libraries that have tsunami relief information: the Waterboro Library blog got something up the day after Christmas (not on the main page, but on the RSS feed for sure) and the University of Texas maps library. This huge disaster happening over the holiday season drives the point home that we’re still offering much more in the way of services and up to date information during the hours we’re open, than when we’re closed. Check the statistics on your library web site. When are people coming to visit it? Our library page views go down when the library is closed, but they don’t drop to zero. If your library home page doesn’t change in response to massive world-changing events, doesn’t that sent a message, however inadvertent, about the responsiveness and plugged-in-edness of the library itself? [thanks marylaine & elyssa]