Investing in The Future: Automation Marketplace 2009 By Marshall Breeding - 04/01/2009
In a year where the general economy presented enormous challenges, libraries continued to make investments in automation, especially in products that help improve what and how they deliver to their end users. Access to electronic content remains a key driver. In response to anticipated needs for new approaches to library automation, many companies have invested to expand their development capac... More
Back to the Scriptorium: Database Marketplace 2009 By Carol Tenopir, Gayle Baker, & Jill E. Grogg - 05/15/2009
Picture medieval monks hunched over their desks in the scriptorium as they labor to copy manuscripts. A 21st-century version of this activity is being repeated daily in the world's libraries and publishing houses.
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Library Referenda 2008: Libraries Build the Case for Voter Support By Beth Dempsey - 03/15/2009
Could there be a worse time to ask voters for money to support libraries? America in 2008 was distinguished by a rapidly downward-spiraling economy, a controversial war, and a President with the lowest approval rating in history. The first quarter of the year was pockmarked with contentious primary battles, and by the time voters went to the polls in November, the government was emptying its po...
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Paraprofessional of the Year 2009: Tina Adams By John N. Berry III - 03/01/2009
There is no doubt among the staff and managers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries, Raleigh, that advanced library technician Tina Adams deserves to be the winner of the LJ Paraprofessional of the Year Award for 2009. “Certainly this library has never seen anyone like her before, not in my nine years on staff,” says her immediate supervisor, Tripp Reade, NCSU media r...
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Book Buying Survey 2009: "It’s the Economy" By Barbara Hoffert - 02/15/2009
How bad is the economy? Bad enough that in LJ’s annual book-buying survey of public libraries, circulation took the biggest leap recorded since the survey was launched in 1999. Historically, circulation goes up when the economy founders, and this year’s whopping 5.16 percent increase overall suggests just how many people are saving pennies by borrowing materials instead of buying them.
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Librarian of the Year 2009: Team Cedar Rapids By John N. Berry III - 01/15/2009
The warning came a scant five-and-a-half hours ahead of the water June 11. Predicted to top out at 24 feet, the Cedar River crested at 31. Despite heroic efforts by the staff to move everything out of danger to 26'-high shelves, the Cedar Rapids Public Library (CRPL), IA, lost 160,000 items including large parts of its adult and youth collections, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, CDs...
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Budget Report 2009: Adjustment Time By Norman Oder - 01/15/2009
The country may be awash in bad budget news, but it hadn't completely hit home for libraries in late October. Those that answered LJ's budget survey then projected a modest increase in budgets for 2009, just 2%, with less than a 1% increase in funds for materials, a predictable area for cuts. That represents a clear tightening from last year's report (see “Treading Carefully,” LJ 1/...
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Best Audiobooks of 2008 By Raya Kuzyk - 01/15/2009
Ladies and gents of library land, lend us your ears! The best listens of 2008, selected by our intrepid band of audio reviewers, range from tales of Bengali and Haitian immigrants to political autobiographies and take us from locales as diverse as North Dakota, sub-Saharan Africa, and Pakistan. There's "cake" from Sloane Crosley and emotional pyromania from David Sedaris. All in all, a very good year.
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Design Institute 2007 December 11, 2007 at Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center:Design Institute 2007
Learning Gardens New York's GreenBranches program links the library to the street.
Green Picks: LBD May 2007 Want to reduce your library's carbon footprint? Join the Cradle-to-Cradle revolution. Helen Milling shares the green products her firm is using.
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