E-book FAQ

http://librarianbyday.net/2011/06/29/ebook-faqs-36-most-common-questions-answered-by-the-oitp-ebook-task-force/

Trustee topics

The module for week 3 was "who manages the public library?" and the topics was public library boards and their responsibilities and library law. Several students contributed helpful links that I will share here:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/51fedlegislative.cfm

Ethics

I had to fail a student this past semester. He faked an interview assignment and did it so well that had I not be familiar with the librarian he interviewed, I would have missed it. I have no idea how many other assignments (attend and review a library program, interview a board member about library issues, etc.) he had faked.

This struck me as particularly egregious, because he was a library school student about to enter into the profession of librarianship. And whatever criticism of our profession, one that you rarely -if ever- hear is that we fake the information provided to our patrons.

What would happen if librarians were slippery with the truth or not quite accurate with the facts? What if sometimes we cut corners and made up the answer rather than research it? In short, our profession - and possibly our libraries- would fail.

We can be irreverent or we can be too serious....but it's vital that as librarians we are always truthful.

Random interview of a librarian

Interesting random interview by Sean Lovelace......http://htmlgiant.com/random/interview-of-a-librarian-2/

Marcia Mardis Rolls Out MARC in a Minute

Marcia Mardis Rolls Out MARC in a Minute

Interesting article on information today....

Interesting article about information.....

http://chronicle.com/article/5-Myths-About-the-Information/127105/

Please autograph my digital book?

I just knew someone would figure out how to get an author's autograph on a kindle book!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/fashion/14NOTICED.html?_r=2

Find the Future!

Interesting idea..http://game.nypl.org/#/menu

Tweet this!

Tweet me (Librarylover) at Teachlibrary......

IMLS

file:///Users/jcbrandau/Desktop/IMLS-Overview-for-International-Visitors-18March2011.ppt

Organizing the Bookcase

Library Ireland Week 2011

E-book Bill of Rights

http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/

Becoming A Librarian | American Libraries Magazine

Becoming A Librarian American Libraries Magazine

The future is here: library apps!

Library Launches Mobile App

Your library is now more convenient and user-friendly – if that’s possible – when you download the “Topeka Library” mobile application.

Access the latest books, DVDs, music and games; place a hold on desired items; renew your stuff; and find a bookmobile stop and book drop wherever you are. Have our social media pages and a calendar of library events at your fingertips.

User-friendly and convenient, this app could come in handy for a myriad of reasons.

• You realize the books in your car are due today. Where is the closest book return? Look it up on the app. It is possible to renew the books you want through the Topeka Library app. The ones that can’t be renewed can be put in the book return.
• You hear about a book on the radio and want to read it. Look it up on the Topeka Library app to see if the library has that title. If they are all checked out, you can place your name on the list for a copy.
• Someone asks a question in your carpool group. You can use the Topeka Library app to contact the library to get the answer to the question.
• You are at the bank and want to get cash to pay your late fees at the library. Look at your account on the Topeka Library app to see how much you owe.
• Your wife or child has wanted to read a book and can’t recall if she placed a request. You connect to your account on the Topeka Library app and see a list of items your family has on hold. It’s not in the list. You search the catalog, find the title and place it on hold – all in about one minute’s time.

Download the library’s app, try it and tell us what you think. You can send feedback via the app in our “What’s Missing?” section.

This app complements the digital offerings at the library, including our website or Digital Branch. Key parts of tscpl.org’s content are available through the library’s app, providing access in a quick and convenient manner to our website that’s designed to be viewed on a larger screen. If a member needs to use aspects from the full Digital Branch, it is easy to go there.

“As a local leader in technology and ease-of-use concepts, it simply makes sense for the library to have our own mobile phone app. Not everyone will use this, but for those who do, I predict it will be very popular,” Deputy Director Rob Banks said.

The app is free and powered by Boopsie. It runs on the following systems: Windows Mobile, palm, BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, Symbian Series 60 3^rdEdition and Java J2ME CLDC/1.1 MIDP/2.0.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is a 21st-century, landmark library, and features the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery, the Millennium Café, Chandler Booktique, meeting rooms, and free computer and Internet access and training.

Library hours are Mon. through Fri. 9 am to 9 pm, Sat. 9 am to 6 pm and Sunday 12 pm to 9 pm.

Leave the libraries alone.

Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value. | Blog | False Economy

Serious renewal notices :)

Love this cartoon:

http://comics.com/pearls_befor

e_swine/2011-01-16/

comics.com

Welcome to LI 863 XI!

Welcome to LI863XI: Current Issues in Management of Information Organizations for Spring 2011!

I use this blog to "park" interesting articles or thoughts about the management of public libraries. Feel free to suggest content or to comment on the entries.

I love the idea that the class is asynchronous! The wikipedia definition of asynchronous is a "student-centered teaching method that uses online learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a network of people"...

I'm looking forward to a great class!!

Libraries...a little history

Picked up this interesting post to publib from Sara Weissman of the Morris County Library. Thanks, Sara!

Public Card Catalogs

You know you've been a long time in libraries when:
-your childhood catalog was index cards written in copperplate hand, with
steel nib pens and ink wells. Colored stars--red, gold, silver,
green--indicated collection level (Juv, Ref, Adult, etc.) Typewriters
were considered shocking modern technology (far too noisy to disrupt the
silence of the library).
&
Your tech services course in "book school" prepared you to type catalog
cards (five rows down, seven spaces over for first entry). Carlyle Frarey
taught the class.
&
Your paraprofessional job was checking the above-the-rod filing of the
student employees. Something very satisfying about pulling the rod and
dropping/patting those cards into place?!
&
Your first professional position included filing new cards when subject
headings changed, as Rumania to Romania, among others.

Many (most?) of our patrons would be delighted to have card catalogs--the
visual, tactile experience--back again. There was something about the snap
of the card corner under your finger ... They'd just miss the online
renewals and holds!


The picture is of a small New England town library, run
in the 1950s by "Miss Emily" and "Miss Susan", neither of whom were
librarians. Maiden sisters, they lived across the street and the library
was open when they felt like it. Often not when it rained, but always when
it snowed. Their sister-in-law was Chairman of the Board of Trustees until
she was 100 yrs old and had to argue down the younger trustees (those in
their 50s), who didn't want audiobooks. "You young people!" Harriet Haynes
snapped "don't understand that your elders can't read the way they used
to!"
The only sounds you heard in Miss Emily's library were the tick, tick,
tick of the grandfather clock and the muffled "thump" of a stamp quietly
plonking a return date on a book being checked out. In the 1970s, when a
professional librarian was finally in charge, a roof leak required
checking the cupola of the building where were found, in their original
brown shipping wrappers, the volumes of the official history of the Civil
War, authorized by Congress in 1866. A set had been sent to each town that
had a significant number of veterans who served. The town Civil War
obelisque is just outside the library door.

http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/records/about.cfm

The Board of Trustees, over some strenuous objections, opted for the future
over the past and sold the set to help raise money for the first-ever
addition to the library, completed in the late 1980s.
I became a librarian because in this my childhood library reading was
reverenced and "nerdy" was very, very cool.

Assure library visitors access to the digital age

Good guest editorial written by Sandy Dixon of the State Library of Iowa.

To view the contents on www.desmoinesregister.com, go to:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201012290405/OPINION01/12290326