If any of you were at all curious about follow up to the link I posted a few days back [about the link to a Republican web site appearing on the “hot links” section of all iBistro OPACs, a Sirsi product] I swapped a few emails with Sirsi Central about it.
Month: August 2004
library nostalgia
You know, I know this is just me having a hard time getting with the program, but I really miss being able to look at the card in the back of a library book to see how many times it had circulated. I liked the idea that this information was available to both staff and patrons, as if information about the public library books somehow belonged to the patrons as well as the staff. I liked knowing when my books were due by looking in the book, not keeping a little slip of paper that represented all my books. I liked not having to be sure to remove that piece of paper once I was at the library so that some other patron wouldn’t find my reading list tucked into one of those little pockets that we still put into our library books, even though there are no cards to go in them now. Sort of like what this author says.
RB: I like the story about how you like to go to libraries and see how many times your books have been circulated.
CM: Yes, you can’t do that anymore because they all have computers. It used to be fun, driving across Ohio, to stop in a small town and go in a library and pull a book off the shelf—and they were always all there. And look and see that it had been taken out every four days. [thanks rachel]
CM: Yes, you can’t do that anymore because they all have computers. It used to be fun, driving across Ohio, to stop in a small town and go in a library and pull a book off the shelf—and they were always all there. And look and see that it had been taken out every four days. [thanks rachel]
are the shelves half full or half empty?
Kapolei [HI] Library opens four years after the groundbreaking ceremony. [thanks brandon]
any library that can be replaced by the Internet is no library at all
Another beautiful essay by Michael McGrorty on this whole library vs Google thing.
[T]he earth has only the one moon. While the Internet will confirm that fact, it does a lousy job of explaining why that is, either in literal or figurative terms. The Internet does a lousy job of explaining anything, but that isn’t surprising since it hasn’t any responsibility, no code, no direction and is bound to no constituency.
are you a radical reference librarian?
Radical Reference wants you to help perform reference services [on site or remotely] during the upcoming protests at the RNC. They’re specifically looking for people with foreign language experience or who work in law and/or government libraries. The RNC starts in less than two weeks.