Monthly Archives: May 2009
Library Gardening
Spring is here and while thoughts may turn to “flowers” (beautiful new materials), it’s a good time to make sure your library “garden” has space so “flowers” can be seen and appreciated. So weed out the dead and useless debris … Continue reading
Another Threat to Library Funding
So many libraries and librarians are so very frugal. They are careful to stay within their budgets, not ask for too much, supplement operating expenses with grants, donations and volunteers and keep salaries low. When times are bad they accept … Continue reading
Privacy and Patrons – A Non Issue?
When I worked in a public library, patron privacy was a top priority for me, but now that I’m no longer at one every day, my ideas about privacy have morphed considerably. OK, I admit to being too lazy to … Continue reading
Your Place in History
When print on demand books became an option did anyone guess that a good marketing technique for them would be that they can be easily personalized? The Obama Time Capsule lets you (or someone you want to honor, delight, compliment or send … Continue reading
Advocacy Article
There have been so many articles supporting libraries lately, but this one from Kenneth C. Davis (of the Don’t Know Much About _____ books) really does a wonderful job of making our case. Thanks to Linda Tillson for posting this … Continue reading
COUNTER and SUSHI for Usage Statistics
Trying to get usage statistics has long been the bane of electronic resources collection development librarians. Some databases are so costly that you want to make sure they are really being used and serving the needs of patrons. And these … Continue reading
23 Things for Patrons?
Many of us have had the opportunity to do (or have at least heard about) the 23 Things training originally developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. It’s a training program developed to give library … Continue reading
Public Libraries Advisory Group – 2nd meeting
We had the second meeting of the Public Libraries Advisory Group at the end of April (for more information on this group see my 1/30/09 blog post). After the first meeting, we did a survey about potential topics and the … Continue reading
Libraries and the Economy – Part 2
As I mentioned in my last post, libraries are very popular right now (did I really need to tell you that?). Gerry Meek from the Calgary Public Library sees us as a recession sanctuary. So is it time to start rethinking the way we … Continue reading
