I went to the library, briefly, when I was in Toronto for Superconference. I was mildly surprised that they didn’t have wireless, but I enjoyed messing about in the stacks. Now Joe Clark has started a blog for Fans of Toronto Public Library with insider tips on how to use the library as well as an estimate of just how much money he saves going to the library instead of purchasing books from Amazon. Admit it, you love the library.
Tag: library
My local library gets an award!
Librarians at my town library — Kimball Library in Randolph Vermont — win the Paul Howard award for Courage. I wish I could say I had anything to do with any of this, but I was away at ALA while all of this was going down. This award is good news. Just yesterday at town meeting the head of our our library trustees had to defend the decisions that the library made during that difficult time whch included the fact that the library received an apology from the police for their illegal request of the library’s public computers. Meanwhile, the library has to reduce hours due to decreased funding.
smell like old books, delicious!
In The Library, a perfume for people who can’t get enough of that “work smell” [thanks scott, via]
Whenever I read, the start of the journey is always opening the book and breathing deeply. Don’t you find there are few things more wonderful than the smell of a much-loved book? Newly printed books certainly smell very different from older ones. The ink is so crisp. I’ve also noticed that books from different periods & different countries also have very different smells. And then there are the scents of different bindings: leather is marvelous of course but I find a peculiar pleasure in musty worn clothbound books as well. Perhaps just a hint of mildew!
scooting about in the library
From the VTLIBRARIES Mailing list: “A public library in Illinois offers a motorized scooter for its patrons to use. One of those ideas that makes you think, of course!”
Why is my Dad talking to me about the public library?
My Dad never goes to the public library. He buys his own books and is a little… fussy about public spaces. That said, when I go to visit him we talk about library issues because they’re interesting to me and he’s a techie and always curious how libraries seem to have gotten so much so wrong. He did talk to me about two library news items that I found interesting. One was the I Love My Librarian award winners which my Dad read about in the New York Times. The other was the Chelmsford High School Library’s Learning Commons project — which he read about in the Boston Globe — which provided an (incorrect) opening to say “Hey, my friend Brian is a librarian there! He has a blog!” I then got to prattle on about their town-wide history project which I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while. So, there it is, get your library in the paper get the retiree crowd curious about you.