After more than a year of development and research, the ReadersFirst Guide to Library Ebook Vendors (PDF file), which compiles information on ebook vendors and their products and then rates them on ease of use and efficiency, is available to the public. And it’s working. The guide is the brainchild of the Readersfirst Working Group, which … Continue reading ReadersFirst Eases the Ebook Experience
“We were lucky with the weather, really,” Eric Litschel, adult services associate at Cleveland Heights–University Heights Public Library (CHUHPL), tells American Libraries. “The worst day I rode was probably a little over 10 degrees.” Sam Lapides, special projects coordinator at CHUHPL, says the library’s Book Bike program, initiated in spring 2013, was supposed to run … Continue reading Custom Library Book Bikes Roll Out Across US
Through her long career, Peggy Johnson, author of Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, now in its third edition, has been one of many librarians who has taken the profession from book selection and purchasing to collection management by addressing such issues as cooperative collection development, collection analysis, and scholarly communications. Her book’s introduction explains … Continue reading Building the Collection
Moorefield-Lang, a former school librarian who is now education and applied social sciences librarian at Virginia Tech, was joined by Katherine Messier, managing director at Johnston, Rhode Island–based Mobile Beacon, a nonprofit that provides broadband service to libraries and other nonprofits; Bohyun Kim, digital access librarian at Florida International University Medical Library in Miami; and … Continue reading Left to Our Devices
Many libraries are eagerly digitizing their materials and making them accessible online. This enthusiasm often stems from patrons, who are excited to make use of the resources on the internet, or from administrators, who are intent on elevating the library’s public profile. But the push for digitization often puts pressure on library staff to make … Continue reading Metadata for Image Collections
There is money in Azerbaijan and plenty of it. Petroleum wealth mostly. Two-thirds of the country is rich in oil and natural gas, and Western companies are tapping oil fields in the Caspian Sea that the communist regime left untouched during the 70 years Azerbaijan spent as a part of the Soviet Union. Change is accelerating … Continue reading Building a Pipeline to Education in Azerbaijan
Music is the best market for forecasting potential trends. We can confidently assume that the last physical format for music, the CD, is in its twilight stage—soon to be replaced entirely by digital formats and niche markets like LPs. Starting in the late 1990s, the music industry experienced a downward sales curve that continued until … Continue reading E-Content and First Sale
Radical literature that calls for destroying the status quo and hate speech that assaults various demographic groups may well be uncomfortable to read, but study of the human condition wouldn’t be honest or complete if it didn’t take a hard, thorough look into humanity’s darker corners. On the other hand, maintaining collections for that kind … Continue reading Extremism @ the Library
I was observing students conducting research to see how they approached it and what tools they used, but when I saw Steve use that discovery tool, it was difficult to focus on anything else. Seeing that he was so overwhelmed by the number of links and buttons on an item record that he couldn’t even … Continue reading Through Their Eyes
An excerpt from Making the Most of Your Library Career, edited by Lois Stickell and Bridgette Sanders (ALA Editions, 2014). Making your mark Many thoughts percolated in my brain the day I started a new library position. I considered the new technologies, theories, and trends that I had encountered in graduate school, in journal … Continue reading How to Make the Most of Your Library Career
As I write this, I’m preparing for my annual trip with a couple of dear friends to Las Vegas. This is more nice meal/Cirque du Soleil than bottle service/strip show; we’re the dignified types—though one does get to see a great many more aspects of the human condition there than in other places, for sure. … Continue reading Rolling the Dice
When library staff members serving youth tell me how much busier they are when school is out for the summer (and in preparing for students’ vacation time), it makes me a little crazy. I say to myself, “Shouldn’t library staff be this busy all year long?” And really, what message does it send when talking … Continue reading The Myth of Busy Summers
