Kansas State Librarian Joanne Budler recently terminated the Kansas Digital Library Consortium’s contract with ebook vendor OverDrive to become a beta tester of 3M’s new Cloud Library ebook lending service. The change is the culmination of a nearly yearlong battle over whether the consortium owned the content it had purchased or had simply licensed it. … Continue reading Joanne Budler
Reference librarians frequently get scholarly questions that challenge their library’s resources. Take, for instance, “Who finished second to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Democratic New Hampshire primary?” Google can help, but the definitive answer is available at the New Hampshire Political Library in Manchester. Tough reference questions—from reporters, candidates, and political junkies—are the lifeblood … Continue reading This Political Library Gets Everyone’s Vote
At age 83, Philip Levine has been appointed 2011–2012 poet laureate consultant in poetry by Librarian of Congress James Billington. He took up his duties October 17, opening the library’s annual literary season with a reading from his work. “Philip Levine is one of America’s great narrative poets,” Billington said. “His plainspoken lyricism has, for … Continue reading Poet Laureate Philip Levine
The best pleasures in life are often unexpected, and we have been lucky enough to be ambushed by a program that has become one of the most extraordinarily rewarding experiences of our careers. The Sylvania branch of the Toledo–Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library and Lourdes College of Sylvania cosponsored the Veterans’ Writing Workshop, which began … Continue reading Helping Warriors Unleash the Power of the Pen
Gaming has gained a foothold in libraries, with good reason. It’s a popular service, and one that can offer educational, community, and information literacy benefits. Here we present three short articles on gaming in libraries. In “Serving Players through Selection,” Erik Bobilin and Nicole Pagowsky of 2011’s Emerging Leaders Team G discuss their research on … Continue reading Achievement Unlocked
While libraries are learning the value of gaming, there is not currently a great deal of information available discussing standards for videogame collection development, and few libraries with game collections have published their policies. To help librarians more effectively serve gamers, Team G of the 2011 class of ALA Emerging Leaders worked to study and … Continue reading Serving Players Through Selection
As video games gain influence in our culture, the need to preserve them for future study gains importance as well. “The computer game industry has had a major impact on the film industry,” said Richard Pugh of the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia. “The two industries have been feeding … Continue reading Preserving Bits
Like many libraries, Canton (Mich.) Public Library has traditionally operated a summer reading program to encourage children to keep reading through the summer months when they aren’t facing regular class assignments. But the library had two significant issues with the program. One was budgetary. “We have relied on the community, sponsors, donors, and our own … Continue reading Summer Reading Levels Up
The notion that the research efforts of a group of people with varying opinions, when aggregated, can result in better information than a specific expert could come up with—aka “crowdsourcing”—has been around for some time. It’s one of the ideas on which the 10-year-old Wikipedia is based. So it seemed only natural when one of … Continue reading Libraries Tap into Crowd Power
Librarians shouting about funding is fast becoming old news. We need to find new ways to take a stand against library budget cuts. A grassroots push is a terrific advertising tool, and it can be really fun to pull off. It’s a wonderful motivator to get people out and keep them coming back to do … Continue reading Grassroots Advocacy: Putting Yourself Out There
About a decade ago, libraries were talking to teens about what would make the public library a cooler place. The results of these conversations were captured in Elaine Meyers’s article “The Coolness Factor” (American Libraries, November 1999) and informed the focus of the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development project. That world—without Facebook and … Continue reading Talk to Teens – They’re Still Listening
Like a good book, the 11th annual National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., September 24–25, took readers to places they had never been before. The new expanded two-day schedule of events, record roster of writers, and new pavilions reflected recent literary trends. With the theme “Celebrate the Joys of Reading Aloud,” the festival was organized … Continue reading National Book Festival Stacks Up as Record-Breaker
