Daily Archives: September 1, 2016

Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington in Seattle

By the Numbers: Library Architecture and Design

September 1, 2016

18 Number of terra-cotta figures—academic heroes such as Plato, Benjamin Franklin, and Galileo—guarding the façade of the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington in Seattle. 123,000 Square footage of the McAllen (Tex.) Public Library, built in a former Walmart store and the largest single-floor library in the US. 1895 Year that Boston Public Library … Continue reading By the Numbers: Library Architecture and Design


Tiebrary

Community Ties

September 1, 2016

Preparing for a job interview can be nerve-racking. Looking your best often translates into feeling your best. But if you live in southwest Philadelphia, one of the city’s most economically depressed neighborhoods, where the poverty rate is a staggering 36% and unemployment is more than 16%—compared with national averages of 14.5% and 5%, respectively—then your … Continue reading Community Ties


Dispatches, by Kristen Wilson

Community Knowledge Bases

September 1, 2016

In 2007, James Culling proposed as an alternative a single, centralized knowledge base that would use web services to provide its data freely to anyone who wished to use it. In a 2008 article in Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, Ross Singer took the idea one step further by pointing to collaborative projects like Wikipedia … Continue reading Community Knowledge Bases


Librarian's Library: Karen Muller

All in the Family

September 1, 2016

Fostering Family History Services: A Guide for Librarians, Archivists, and Volunteers, by Rhonda L. Clark and Nicole Wedemeyer Miller, offers practical advice, with bibliographical notes, on how to establish a family history service within the framework of existing programming and outreach. The authors assert that providing family history resources is more about offering guidance and … Continue reading All in the Family


Joseph Janes

Knowledge for the Win

September 1, 2016

The implication is clear: Those books are his pathway to a better life after the grime and gore and folly of the war. At the bottom we are reminded “Public library books are free,” and emblazoned across the top, in a strong but inviting serif font, all in gold capital letters: KNOWLEDGE WINS. It’s an … Continue reading Knowledge for the Win


Mobile Comics Plus: Library Edition from Recorded Books

Reading Remotely

September 1, 2016

Comics move online Independent audiobook and ebook publisher Recorded Books and comics distributor iVerse Media has partnered with IDW Publishing to update its Comics Plus: Library Edition service. Comics Plus: Library Edition supplies libraries with digital graphic novels and comics that can be accessed by patrons from any web-based device. Patrons can check out as … Continue reading Reading Remotely


Meme Librarian Amanda Brennan has a none-pizza-with-left-beef party with some of her favorite memes (from left): LOL Wut Pear, The Signs as Fat Chefs in My Mom’s Kitchen, Little Grey Cat, and Pepe the Frog. Photo: Todd Boebel; Illustrations: Ursula Vernon (pear); Shutterstock (chef, cat); Matt Furie (frog)

Bookend: I Can Has Meme Job?

September 1, 2016

“I knew that I didn’t want to work in a traditional library,” says Brennan, who previously interned at Know Your Meme and MTV Networks’ tape library while earning her MLIS. Of her career path, she says, “It just kind of clicked—­I was up at 2 a.m. researching some weird internet thing [on Know Your Meme] and … Continue reading Bookend: I Can Has Meme Job?