Syndetics Unbound Syndetic Solutions and LibraryThing for Libraries were designed to make online library catalogs more informational and interactive. ProQuest has now combined these two services into Syndetics Unbound, which provides 16 different catalog enrichment elements in one service. Many of the features will be familiar to those who are used to shopping for books … Continue reading Improving Library Websites
Sometimes collaboration is accidental. I’ve had lessons that just happened to coordinate with the curriculum. For instance, our library at West Magnet Elementary in Batesville, Arkansas, was able to give students a “virtual field trip” via live stream to see President Barack Obama answering questions at DC Public Library’s Anacostia branch. Our 4th graders were … Continue reading Partnerships Beyond Four Walls
Over the past few years, critical librarianship has become a force that pervades every area of our work, from reference to library instruction, collection development, cataloging, and storytime. Biweekly #critlib Twitter chats (critlib.org) address topics across all areas of librarianship. Many librarians are thinking about how they can fight for social justice in their work, which … Continue reading Never Neutral
Most library internships allow for experience in one area. Choosing between a public library and an academic library meant I would learn practices and policies unique to that particular type of institution. Thankfully I did not have to make that decision. I came across an opportunity for a dual-library internship, applied, and was selected. The … Continue reading Best of Both Worlds
Let’s start with raising money. The first set of chapters in 40+ New Revenue Sources for Libraries and Nonprofits, by Edmund A. Rossman III, lays the foundation for specific discussions about sources. Rossman covers why libraries might need more than what their traditional funding bases offer, which for public libraries is 85%–90% local, and how … Continue reading Developing New Skills
The end of the James H. Billington era has prompted an outpouring of advice from scholars and pundits on a new agenda for LC, from mass digitization of the library’s book collections and wholesale archiving of websites to relaxing copyright restrictions. Yet many of these prescriptions align poorly with the realities of the digital present … Continue reading Rethinking the National Library
In recent years, there has been much discussion among children’s librarians about whether to provide—and how to execute—holiday programming. I think the answers to those questions depend on your community, and the first step is to stop and think objectively about what you’re offering and why. Start by reading “Librarians—Check Your Holidays at the Door,” … Continue reading ’Tis the Season …
There is a better way. I work at Colorado State Library’s Library Research Service and several years ago we took a step back to think about how we were presenting our research findings, which were mostly thick reports full of statistical jargon. What prompted this reflection was feedback from school librarians about our best-known body … Continue reading Let’s Get Visual
If libraries are a cornerstone of our democracy, librarians are the key to their riches. Librarians are also the key to enabling library users to unlock those riches on their own, whether through one-time bibliographic instruction or a more embedded form of instruction—information literacy. At its January 2016 meeting, the board of directors of the … Continue reading Information Literacy
Hoopla Hoopla, launched in 2013 by Midwest Tape, provides single-platform access to most major types of digital holdings: audiobooks, ebooks, video, and music. Patrons can access content either by streaming it from the Hoopla website or by using the mobile app, which allows both streaming and temporary downloads for offline access. Items are automatically removed … Continue reading Online Streaming Options
We also can’t leave out areas such as competitiveness within organizations for appointments and time, the question of whether one can make a difference in the profession through an association, and the need for one’s values and ethics to be in sync with those of the association. And then there is the inevitable query: Is … Continue reading Helping ALA Cruise to Success
Reduce junk traffic Traffic generated by spambots and junk referral websites is a nasty issue that all web analytics tools face. Spam traffic generates sessions and pageviews by nonhuman visitors and clutters up your data by making it difficult to identify usage by your website’s real users. It also tends to inflate such negative metrics … Continue reading Improve Your Analytics Data
