Greg Schwartz lays down some science and vocabulary about the different ways we can get regular audio content via the web. Don’t miss the list at the end, which is easily the best part.
Month: March 2005
book arts
Fore-edge painted books, links galore. How can you look these up in an OPAC?
your library @ the business fair
Our library had a table at the local business fair yesterday. We focused on the message “the value of a library card” and had visuals explaining that libraries circulate more books than Fedex does packages and library card holders outnumber Amazon.com customers by 5 to 1, that sort of thing. Other things that seemed to go well were:
- skunk puppet who told jokes, good for kids who are not normally people who enjoy business fairs
- free books for kids out of Friends of the Library booksale stock
- free pencils with our URL on them
- ability to sign people up for library cards right then and there
- laptop with slide show of library pictures cycling, there was no wifi but we had a couple of stock slide shows if people wanted to see them
- “this is when my books are due” magnets
- most importantly: someone to talk to.
I had people coming up to me telling me about their divorces, their bowel surgery, the last book they read, some weird thing that happened to them at the library, their home book collection, their early memories of the library and they had questions questions questions. I always sort of dread the business fair beforehand, and I always wind up having a much better time than I expect to.
using your tagging powers for good
Today is my Mom’s birthday. My Mom is a Flickr user and too far away for me to take her out to lunch [plus is booked solid for meals today] so I decided to make her a tag card on Flickr. Feel free to contribute, especially if you speak a non-English language.
on smelliness
I don’t really know what to make of this news article, except that a lot of people sent it to me. In Seattle it was easier to deal with patrons who smelled because there was a place where homeless people could take showers right up the road. You could refer people there if they had odors that bothered others. I think this quote is the telling one.
A strict code of conduct, officials argue, is needed to ensure one patron’s right to use a public library doesn’t infringe on the rights of another.
Maybe it’s just me, but after reading this article, doesn’t this seem like what they meant to say:
A strict code of conduct, officials argue, is needed to ensure one normal patron’s right to use a public library doesn’t infringe on the rights of another not-normal patron. [emphasis mine, of course]
I have this to say about smelliness. I was in a bad car accident a few years ago and was taken to the hospital. I had been on my way back from camping and was neither looking nor smelling my best. I was not planning on getting in an accident. When I was released [and I was fine, thanks for asking] I got my records from the hospital and they noted my appearance as “tattooed, unshaven, smelly.” Not “unwashed” but “smelly.” I can’t help thinking, as I did then, whether this observation affected the quality of my care.