libraries

link dump – libraries in the news

A few stories that I didn’t want to do fill write-ups for, collected using the Fargo ND airport’s free wifi.

Wanted: detainee librarian, Guantanamo Bay
“It’s All Acting” T Scott Plutchak discusses being a shy librarian, and why he’s so good in front of crowds as a result.
“the cultural heritage, the intellectual heritage, of humans … too important to be left to one company” – Google, Privacy and Libraries in the Wall Street Journal
The SF Maritime Museum is making their library appointment only, starting next week. Why? Budget cuts.
Delta librarian retires, from a town where 41% of the 40,000 residents can’t read.

how it should work: book donations @ your library

From Daniel Cornwall, via LISNews comes a good example of how a public library can be friendly and firm about accepting book donations. Here’s the example from the blog of the Seldovia Public Library.

Recently, a very large donation was left outside the library, without notice, for days in boxes too large for our volunteers to lift once they did discover them. In that time, the books became weather-damaged as well as suffering from the territorial marking practices of local dogs. Would you want to read these books or have your children read them? What a sad waste, and one that could have been prevented with a phone call.

Providence Public Library, updates and activism

Posted on 10Sep0610Sep06 by jessamyn

Sadly, the Providence Library Defense website is no longer going strong. However, there are two new websites that have been launched concerned with the layoffs and branch closings that have been happening in the beleaguered Providence Public Library system. The Library Reform Group and Not About the Buildings [read more here, here and here].

some 2.0 for the academic libraries

Posted on 24Aug0624Aug06 by jessamyn

I met Michael Habib when I was down at UNC Chapel Hill last year and I think now we’re associated via various social networks. I caught his blog post Academic Library 2.0 Concept Models and I think you’ll like it if you’ve been wondering where social software fits in an academic library environment. Hot Venn Diagrams! Available for hire 2.0 librarian!

The Libraries of DC and Baltimore

Posted on 16Aug0617Aug06 by jessamyn

This is just a wrap-up of the libraries that I went to when I was in the DC/Baltimore area.

DC Public – which I already wrote about some. Highlights were free wireless and a really interesting looking building downtown. Downsides were most everything else.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum Library – where my friend Ron works as a systems/reference librarian. They got new compact shelving that he got to show off and are in the middle of some pretty big deals to expand their digital collection. Very exciting. This library is a hidden treasure in the downtown DC area, if you’re at all interested in the subject area, drop in for a visit.
Peabody Library – I can safely say that short of the Library of Congress, I have never seen a library this fancy, but maybe I don’t get out much. Right in Baltimore, sort of unassuming from the outside, it’s completely knockout inside.
Enoch Pratt Free Library – right up the road from the Peabody, this library has a totally different vibe. Welcoming and bustling with the most fun pamphlet file ever, I had a wonderful time here and took a lot of pictures.
Waverly Branch, EPFL – my friend’s local library, just stopped in to take a peek.
The People’s Library – did not go in. My friend who lives up the road says he has never gone in either.