LJ Insider

June 16, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

I'd be eating up the funny, insightful, and plain-old true thread on Publib "You know you're a rural librarian if...." (and its Kansas cousin)--but then, I'm not one, and I'm still loving it.

From requests to ID a live snake to getting library deliveries at your home on the days the library is closed (or your personal ones at the library when its open) to efforts to barter farm goods for fines, and on and on, these descriptions of life in small libraries give a taste of the surprises awaiting at most public libraries.

Seeing these posts also urges me to remind all the great librarians in all the great small libraries out there to think ahead to this year's Best Small Lib...Read More
Industries: People

July 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

When Queens Library's Kathy Degyansky heard that New York City had a high school drop-out rate somewhere between 30 and 40 percent (depending on whose statistic she looked at), she couldn't ignore the problem those numbers represented, and she started thinking about how libraries could help these young adults find their way in the world. She stopped by LJ's offices last week to take questions for a video about her interest in this population, the so-called "disconnected," the subject of LJ's ...Read More
Industries: Public Services

July 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

At a family reunion in Salt Lake City this weekend, a cousin of mine (who happens to be the chair of her library's board) and I discovered a mutual passion in our affection for the many smart librarians we know and in our mutual disdain for those whose censorious actions masquerade as selection. Our conversation took place right on the heels of my plane-flight immersion in The New Yorker, and specifically Jill Lepore's fascinating history of how Stuart Little found his way into libraries despite an overzealous gatekeeper (in the form of NYPL giant Anne Carroll Moore). Kelly (my cousin) has seen her Boise, ID, library through a number of challenges, one of which resulted in a book being kept in the library's collection but sequestered in the director's office. This co...Read More
Industries: Collection Development

May 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

It's getting on 3 p.m. here at the San Francisco Public Library, and the "Going Green" Design Institute is way better than I expected. A morning panel focused on sustainable design and the community, with Susan Hildreth (California State Librarian) moderating. There were many insights, but Pheonix City Librarian Toni Garvey (an LJ Librarian of the Year) was right on. She talked about intelligent lighting--"we cut half our lights, and it didn't impact security...."--and got right at how to spur change. "Why did we start recycling?" she asked. "Because they talked about it at school, and our kids came home and made us do it!" Kids are interested in the need to be green, she said, "We should use our opportunity to interact with our kids and teens on this."

During lunch, Jared Blumenfeld, the director of the San Francisco Dep...Read More
Industries: Academic Libraries, Buildings & Facilities, Managing Libraries

May 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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Industries: Academic Libraries, Buildings & Facilities, Managing Libraries, Public Services