“This Ain’t Your Mama’s Library!”

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At 1:00 I will be live blogging again. Speaker Michele Gorman will be presenting “This Ain’t Your Mama’s Library! Creating a New Generation of Library Services for a New Generation of Library Users.”

Library Cards–More Popular Than Ever!

 

ALA | Home – American Library Association via kwout

Guess what? Library card registration is at an all-time high! Why, you may be asking yourself? Because people know that libraries are an important educational resource. According to a new American Library Association poll, 72 percent of respondents said that libraries are a pillar of the community. Seventy-one percent said that they are a community center, seventy percent said that they are a family destination, and sixty-nine percent called their libraries a cultural center. Midwesterners and Westerners register for library cards more than Easterners and Southerners, and women register more than men. What do most cardholders check out at the library? Books, of course! In total, 76 percent of Americans visited their public libraries in the past year and 41 percent visited their library’s online website. For more information, you can view an article from School Library Journal.

Do You Know What Time It Is?

Well, now I just feel totally bored with the clocks in our library. A new clock at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England, cost over a million pounds, which is about $1.8 million to you and me. Plus it’s more like a work of art than a mere clock. It doesn’t even have hands like a real clock, and it’s designed to run in an erratic fashion, slowing down and speeding up whenever it’s in the mood. Kind of like people. Which is sort of the idea behind the “Corpus clock” designed by inventor John Taylor who built it with his own money in honor of British genius John Harrison. In 1725 Harrison invented the “grasshopper” escapement, a device that helps regulate the movement of clocks. As a visual pun on the grasshopper idea, Taylor designed a whimsical grasshopper which sits atop the clock. The grasshopper is called a “time eater” or chronophage. The long needle teeth and barbed tail of the insect are vital components of the clockworks. The grasshopper’s jaws begin to open halfway through each minute and then click shut at fifty-nine seconds. Its eyes, which are usually a lackluster green, sporadically flash a bright yellow. The clock has become the showpiece of the college library, which was also donated by Taylor. Taylor made his fortune with his other inventions, which include controls for electric tea kettles. Not nearly as exciting! To learn more about the clock, and how it is supposed to remind us of our own mortality, read an article at the FoxNews website.

Teen Tech Week Is Here!

Teen Tech Week is here! We have a list of cool sites posted on our del.icio.us links. Visit these sites to find out more about Teen Tech Week and teens using technology.

The Library—It’s Not Just for Books Any More!

Teen Tech Week is just around the corner! Are you ready? Do you even know what it is? Teen Tech Week is a national initiative designed to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, particularly those that are offered through libraries. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. In the past few years, teen use of technological resources has dramatically increased, but this use has primarily been from home rather than from school and public libraries. In 2005, 86% of youth aged 8-18 had a computer in their home, and 74% had Internet access in their home, according to a recent study by Harris Interactive. Eight- to eighteen-year-olds spend an average of six hours and twenty-one minutes per day using media (including TV, video/DVDs/movies, video games, audio media, computers and print media). Seventy-one percent of teens report that the Internet is their primary source for completing school projects, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Unfortunately many studies have shown that  most teens lack the critical thinking skills and technical expertise to use the Internet and other electronic resources such as online databases effectively. The library is your trusted resource for accessing information, and library media specialists are the experts who can help you develop the skills you need to use electronic resources effectively and efficiently. Please call on us for all your technology needs!

How Much is Your Library Worth to You?

Thanks to the Monroe County Library and the Massachusetts Library Association, you can calculate the value of your library’s services to you. Just go online and enter the number of times you use each service you use. The form automatically calculates the cost per service, the total for each service, and then the final total for all services. The results may surprise you! Libraries really do provide valuable services to their communities, and now you have proof. Just click on this link and follow the directions to see just how true this is.

Chile Returns Books to Peru’s Libraries After 126 Years

In 1881,  during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific, Chilean soldiers captured Lima, Peru, and pillaged its library. This Tuesday, Chile returned 3,778 books via DHL to Peru, more than 126 years overdue. The books, most in excellent condition, dated from the 16th to the 19th centuries,  and were written in Greek, Latin, French and Spanish. Some included full-page colonial-era maps. The books were presented to Peruvian officials at a ceremony by Nivia Palma, national director of libraries, archives and museums in Chile. Palma called the return a “concrete expression of our deep commitment to building a relationship of brotherhood and cooperation between our countries.” Peru’s Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde thanked Chile for returning the books and said the two countries must work to strengthen their friendship. Border disputes dating back to the 19th century war in which Chile captured territory from Peru and Bolivia–including Bolivia’s only coastline–had undermined relations between Chile and Peru. The books are scheduled to be returned to Lima’s national library.

Libraries for Sale?

While news articles bill it as the salvation of the Jackson County, Oregon, public libraries, is privatization really the answer? In a recent Associated Press article, Julia Silverman praises outsourcing and claims library patrons won’t notice the difference in service. If libraries are being staffed with fewer librarians and less professional staff, the service is sure to suffer. For more information, see the article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. What do you think about “selling” public libraries to private companies to keep them open?

College libraries–all the comforts of home

Some college libraries are making students so comfortable they don’t want to leave. What do you look forward to in college? If you ruled the world, what would you like to see in the Grizzly Media Center?

Denver Library patron borrows and sells hundreds of items online.

Have you read or heard about this patron who used seven different library accounts to borrow over 2,000 books, tapes, and DVDs? He was caught attempting to sell them online. What do you think?