Tag: visits

I continue to visit libraries every chance I get. This year I worked in my local library so my visit count is way up, I also gave my privacy talk at six Vermont libraries which was more visits. The rest were working on my VT 183 project or just curiosity. The pie chart isn’t that interesting, but you can see it here. I decided to just include a photo of one of the great libraries I visited in Warren Vermont.

This year I went to 45 libraries in six states and one Canadian province. One hundred and three visits total. Previous years: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and some reviews from 2003. Continue reading “2018 in Libraries”

I’m a firm believer of eating your own dog food. Meaning if you say stuff about libraries (and I do), then make sure you go to them as if going to them was your JOB (and I do). Don’t just go to the one library where your job is, though that helps.

Every year I make a list. Every year I reflect on that list. This year I went to forty-five libraries in nine states and one non-US country. Eighty-six library visits total. Many more different libraries than last year, but just a few more visits overall. With all this, I only added two new libraries to my Vermont 183 project even as I hand out awards to people who have been to over 190 libraries in Vermont!

Seven years in a row I’ve been keeping this up. Previous years: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and some reviews from 2003

Libraries I went to more than once include.

• Kimball (VT) – my local and one of the best libraries in my opinion.
• Hartness (VT) – my local academic, bigger collection and longer hours but further away
• Westport (MA) – my summer local, don’t love it but do use it
• Tiverton (RI) – the library in the summer that I go to more often even if I can’t check out books
• Carney/Dartmouth (MA) – local academic, another great library, well-loved, well-used
• Harvard Law Library (MA) – where my fellowship is and where I can go work
• New Bedford (MA) – used to be a museum, I take guests here
• Hookset (NH) – here for work, twice, always enjoy it

Libraries I only went to once

• Gutman (Harvard) – part of an attempt to go to all Harvard’s libraries
• Winooski (VT) – doing some Passport work here
• Oak Lawn IL – stopped & checked email on our #WestOn20 trip
• Library of Congress (DC) – always a favorite
• Stowe Free (VT) – participated in a panel for their anniversary
• Newton (MA) – stopped to chill after a long ALA week
• URI/Carrothers (RI) – gave a talk, visited friends
• Claremont/Berkeley (CA) – hid out avoiding a kid birthday party
• Southworth/Dartmouth (MA) – great place to work, lovely art
• British Library (UK) – got to take my sister to this great place
• VT Law Library – MontP (VT) – a farewell to a colleague
• Lamont (Harvard) – so stoked to finally get in here!
• Aldrich/Barre (VT) – visiting a friend doing some visioning
• Belchertown (MA) – what a gem! stopped by on the way home from friends’
• MIT/Hayden (MA) – what a treat after Harvard’s closed system
• Ames/Easton (MA) – stopped in before a wedding next door
• Former War Library (DC) – this is basically IN THE WHITE HOUSE, omg
• Harold Johnson Library, Hampshire (MA) – my alma mater
• Montpelier (VT) – stopping in before seeing a friend
• Goddard (VT) – was on the radio!
• Brown/Northfield (VT) – passport wrap-up
• Cambridge/Central Branch (MA) – can’t even remember this visit but I am sure I liked it
• Boston Public (MA) – saw my friend Tom, got a cool tour
• Schlesinger/Harvard – saw my friend Jen, got a cool tour
• Lewisham (UK) – a great neighborhood library
• Watson Retreat Center (NY) – a funky special library
• Internet Archive (CA) – they say they are a library, so they are
• Girard (PA) – a round library, part of #WestOn20
• Caird Library (UK) – at the Naitonal Maritime Museum, not as friendly as I’d hoped
• Howe/Hanover (NH) – always a favorite
• MLK Branch (DC) – saw movies about black history and drank it in
• Weissman/Harvard – a rare open house, I was not allowed to take photos
• Cazenovia (NY) – a mummy!
• Manor House (UK) – a library having hard times but doing ok
• Fairfield/Millicent (MA) – another great library to take friends to
• BU (MA) – gave a talk, stuck around to see the basement
• Pollard/Lowell – a great old classic library

I’ve had an average of 80-ish visits per year for a few years now so I think that is my new normal. So a library every five days. A new library every eight days. Maybe when I hit ten years I’ll do a decade long wrap up. I wish this data was all in standard form….

I am very thankful my work takes me to all of these lovely places. Thanks to the librarians who graciously showed me around.

Again with the library tracking! This is now six years in a row. Previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and some reviews from 2003

I went to twenty-two different libraries in seven states and one non-US country for eighty-two visits total. Did not intend this but it’s the same number of visits (though many fewer individual libraries) as last year. A few things influenced this: I did a lot less distance traveling this year but did a lot of work in local libraries, I also taught at a college where the library was a major hangout for me (thanks VTC Librarians, you are the best) and I worked a lot at my local public library. Here’s the short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year.

• Kimball Library – my local public library, I work here and I am a patron here
• Hartness at VTC – the best academic library anywhere near here and I worked at VTC this year
• Carney Library UMass Dartmouth – probably my favorite library building of all time (still!)
• Chelsea VT – helping with tech planning and visiting my friend Virgil
• Westport MA – the library where I summer, trying to warm up to this library
• Fletcher/Burlington VT – did consulting here this year and spent more time here
• Canada Water UK – the closest public library to where my sister and I stayed in the UK, nice busy library
• Cranston RI – visiting my friend ed, great renovations!
• Springfield MA – did some work on the way to CT, neat building with a weird vibe
• Cary Library, Lexington MA – did a talk earlier in the year, really nice place and great people
• Tiverton RI Main Branch – lovely new building across from the Sip n Dip, great to see it!
• RUHS Library – high school library in my town
• Bangor ME – a neat classic library which is getting renovated
• Greensboro VT – the quintessential Vermont library
• Roxbury VT – taught an ipad class and saw how it’s been growing and changing
• East Granby CT – killing time bfore a CT talk, this was a great place to get some R&R
• Pasadena CA – there was a fancy event here for CLA and we had a nice time hanging out and talking to people in the theater.
• Bethel VT – another place I taught an iPad class
• Springfield NH – did some consulting for a library having growing pain challenges as they make decisions on whether to automate or not
• Kellogg-Hubbard VT – went to a slide show given by a friend of mine, great to be here again.
• Norwich University, Northfield VT – sropped by and saw their renovations and excellent art exhibits.
• Orono ME – a pretty and small library

The bigger deal was really the Passport to Vermont Libraries project, a summer program put on by VLA which got hundreds of Vermonters visiting their local libraries and getting passport stamps and other fun adventures. I worked on this with a team of a few other people and it was a very successful program and I think a chunk of that was all of our enthusiasm for our library visits. So I didn’t get my further in my personal project, but professionally I helped get this idea to take off. If you just like library photos, I have more on Flickr.