One of the biggest challenges—the effect on morale—is heightened when furloughs arrive with little warning, little support, or both. “Communication has been terrible. We are actually finding out more from the news than from our own admins,” says Cara*, an assistant at a branch library in Tennessee who was furloughed the week of March 20 … Continue reading What’s Lost in a Furlough
And all this within the first 30 days of my taking the helm. On day 31, a member wrote to me acknowledging the unforeseen series of events that had played out, and confided, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had buyer’s remorse.” I didn’t, and I don’t. Though I certainly would have wished for other … Continue reading Perfect Storm
Of course, being asked to take on tasks that fall outside their traditional job description is nothing new for librarians. But the unprecedented, widespread closure of libraries has made conditions especially ripe for staff redeployment—particularly since many localities consider librarians “city workers.” “All city and county employees, per our contract, work as disaster service workers … Continue reading Other (Pandemic) Duties as Assigned
Campbell County (Ky.) Public Library (CCPL) has four branches serving 92,000 residents, about 9% of whom are living below the poverty line. When an instructor at an early literacy skills workshop mentioned that something as basic as lacking clean underwear can keep some children from staying in the classroom, the library’s managers brainstormed a creative … Continue reading Collections in Briefs
“It’s a very depressed area economically,” Gromalski says of Mahanoy City. “The coal region, which is made up of small towns, used to be booming. Now the mining industry has been gone for several decades, older people are getting older [and] younger people are moving away because there are no jobs.” To re-create pride in … Continue reading Community Reporting
Deadline: October 1, 2014 Penguin Young Readers Group Award Description: Up to four children’s librarians can receive a stipend to attend their first ALA Annual Conference. Award amount: $600 Requirement: Must be ALSC member Administered by: ALSC Sponsored by: Penguin Young Readers Group Deadline: December 1, 2014 Baker & Taylor Conference Grant Description: Two grants for … Continue reading Travel Grants for San Francisco
“Our kids come to our library branches starving,” says Merritt, executive director of the Friends of the Detroit Public Library Foundation. “They can’t concentrate.” Luckily, the person who asked the question was also someone who was poised to help—Brian Glowiak, vice president of the Chrysler Foundation, the charitable arm of the Detroit-based car company. The … Continue reading Detroit Public Library Provides Food to Fight Child Hunger
Beth Bacon, vice president of content management at Seattle publishing platform Booktrope, posted a piece December 30, 2013, on the idea of libraries as ebookstores. On the surface, there is much to commend it. Many bookstores have closed, and the more than 15,000 public libraries in the United States—more, ALA tells us (PDF file), than … Continue reading A New Year’s Vision of Libraries as Bookstores
Cory Doctorow shared the sad tale on December 15 of one family’s holiday hopes being dashed by bah-humbug capitalism and the slippery nature of contractual licenses. Here is Bill's story, with another type of license taken from Clement Clarke Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas. ’Twas the night before movie time, when all thro’ the house Not … Continue reading On the Perils of Licensing; or Bah Humbug Capitalism
As libraries look forward, the question to ask is this: What factors influence people to vote yes or no on library referenda? The overarching challenge of developing a successful referendum campaign is to build trust and establish a compelling need. Meeting that challenge requires a campaign that clearly identifies three key things: (1) the amount … Continue reading Referenda Roundup
Due to loss of funding over the years, many libraries opted to hire less expensive staff members who were not certified librarians. Now, even though people with the title “librarian” make up one-third of library staff, only half of all libraries reported having a credentialed librarian on staff in 2010, according to the Public Libraries … Continue reading LIS on the Job
Remember all those library jobs that were going to open up once the boomers retired? Pundits prophesied librarians being in demand everywhere, with libraries scrambling to fill empty positions. There weren’t going to be enough librarians to go around! Things haven’t turned out quite as we expected, and now the rhetoric has shifted to the … Continue reading Start-Up Librarian
