I’d love to see an update, with hard data, of this map of underfunded libraries. Rochelle points out the questions she has when she does what any librarian should do and evalutates her source. If anyone has more info about this, feel free to help her out. Id lvoe to see something like this [with hard data, updated for 2005] on the main page of the PLA web site, updated daily.
Tag: libraries
NHLA Conferences from days past
When I went to prowl around the Carpenter Memorial Library in Manchester, I saw some old photos of a previous NH Library Association Conference from, I think, 1924. Take a look at these librarians. Greg took a few nice shots of the library interior, love that octagonal reference desk!
why is it so cold in the library?
This is a sad little library FAQ, at least the first four questions. It is only when you scroll to the bottom that you realize that the library may be cold and dark and have no elevators and few restrooms, but it does have wifi!
All these books belong to you.
Tous ces livres sont à toi. A photoessay on the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec. [thanks aaron]
food for thinking about libraries
This weekend has seen lots of good thoughtful pieces on libraries, their purpose and their use. I’ve been reading them all [and making my edible book] so I haven’t been writing here. Here is a short list, in one post, of things I think you should go back and read:
- read about ALA giving a citation to Laura Bush thanking her for being a “tireless supporter” of libraries, read some ALA Council emails [here’s mine] on the subject, then finish up with Mike McGrorty’s piece.
- Read Chuck’s post and follow-up about technophilia and the changing role of libraries. Pay attention to the comments, and also see how this is rippling through the blogosphere, in places like Meredith’s blog and Librarians Happen. There are a lot of good thoughtful statements and comments circling around this issue.
- Read more Michael McGrorty as a bit of a palate cleanser to get back to books for a bit before you re-enter the rest of the busy world of blogs, computers and everything else.
I must confess that the reason I went to library school was more in the way of understanding the system and its operators than anything else. I thought they must possess some secret, something essential that I might discover and come away with. In the end, I found that it was nothing more than a set of skills set atop the same understanding of the library that I kept; half of me was a librarian all along. Sometimes I have seen it as love, other times as an obsession, but whatever it may be, the devotion to books and reading has saved me from worse fates, and the library, that temple of the book, has been my church, my rock and comfort since I was old enough to walk the stacks.
It’s weekends like this, at the end of National Library Week, that make me happiest to be working in and among libraries.