I wanted to share ideas about what you can do to help solve the problem of publishers who will not sell ebooks to libraries. Stay informed. The ALA Transforming Libraries website and the American Libraries E-Content blog provide breaking news, as well as information about various studies, and reports. These include recent ebook research, information … Continue reading What You Can Do about Ebooks and Libraries
Digital literacy is supposedly what will save the public library, and I don’t doubt that. While you hear stories about welfare recipients and street people carrying around the latest in iPhone technology, those of us who labor in the public library vineyard know that those kinds of tales are triumphs of distortion over reality. Supposedly, … Continue reading Digitized to Distraction
In 1978, when I first read Ivan Doig’s This House of Sky, I was a librarian at Timberland Regional Library in Washington State. Doig’s memoir of growing up in the Montana high country as the third member, along with his father and grandmother, of an unconventional but loving family struck me as a very special … Continue reading Visiting Two Medicine Country
A thread through ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s mission has been “leadership.” Leadership takes many forms throughout our professional lives. We lead colleagues to accomplish the work of our libraries; we lead community groups to advocate on behalf of the library; we lead teams to learn new skills or to adapt a service in new ways. … Continue reading Leadership and Advocacy
Author Jonathan Franzen, an opening speaker at the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL) held November 24–December 2 in Guadalajara, Mexico, captured the event’s mainstream impact when he exclaimed, “How marvelous that the cultural calendar of Guadalajara is determined by books.” The 2012 fair marked the 13th year of the ALA-FIL partnership. The event … Continue reading ALA and FIL: A Powerful Partnership
Did you know that about 95% of incarcerated people eventually reenter the general population? Neither did I. Nor did I know that a high proportion of them are high school dropouts, though I suppose that’s not all that surprising. Given those circumstances, the importance of, say, health literacy training for inmates seems pretty obvious. Obvious, … Continue reading Making Friends with Research
And here we are, at my 100th column. Readers with long memories (or nothing better to do) may recall that for my 50th (Feb. 2007, p. 27) and 75th (Aug. 2009, p. 36) columns, I pioneered the groundbreaking idea of letting the internet do my work by, respectively, googling the numbers “50” and “75” and … Continue reading The Wheel Turns Again
Mobile phones, personal electronic devices, and tablet computers have infiltrated most corners of the academic library. Although many institutions are interested in exploring these new technologies, some are focusing on tablet computers in particular to enhance and even reimagine their services to better support their communities. Library and information professionals who are finding ways to … Continue reading The Tao of Tablets
Are efforts to use social media worth it? Indeed, they are. I see many reasons for libraries—or practically any other organization—to use these tools. Listening Listening comes first. Before your library starts “talking back” online, set up listening tools to see and hear what customers are saying about you, your services, and your community. Listening … Continue reading Social Media?
San Francisco Public Library announced the five winners of its Library Card Design Contest on November 8. The library received more than 3,500 submissions between September 4 and October 5, which were then winnowed down by a panel of guest judges on October 12. The panel consisted of author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), author … Continue reading Patrons Design Library Cards for San Francisco Public Library
Half a dozen tweens are crowded around several large tables stacked with odds and ends in the windows of the Meekins Library in the center of the small town of Williamsburg, Massachusetts (population 2,500). Two girls kneeling on the floor are pulling things out from under an old oak table that has been part of … Continue reading Creating a New Tradition
Last-minute wrangling in the Florida legislature produced a deal to preserve state funding for libraries at the current-year level. At just before midnight on April 26 the House, which originally wanted to zero out all funding for the State Aid to Public Libraries program, accepted a Senate offer to restore it to the FY2009 appropriation … Continue reading In Midnight Deal, Florida Legislature Reprieves Public Library Funding
