In a report on 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Our Communities, the Project for Public Spaces identifies libraries as places that foster a sense of community and offer a unique gathering place.
"Librarians represent a newly emerging force for placemaking. They already provide a resource center for their communities, but many of them are now pushing to turn their libraries into civic centers that foster a sense of community and offer a unique gathering place. Many librarians now envision their facilities as both virtual and literal town squares for their neighborhoods and downtowns. "
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/Ten_Trends_Shaping_the_Future_of_Our_Communities/trends4_7#
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
A new chapter begins for libraries as economy sinks
Great article about library use going up in tough economic times , and how libraries contribute to the workforce-capacity-building that is essential to economic prosperity.
A new chapter begins for libraries as economy sinks
Crowds flock in, not for musty books, but for free CDs, DVDs, Internet access — and help finding a job
DAWN WALTON
From Monday's Globe and Mail
January 26, 2009 at 4:36 AM EST
CALGARY — Even before Calgary's Central Library opened yesterday at noon, dozens of people crowded inside its modest-sized heated foyer, while still more were lined up outside braving the -19 wind chill.
Crowds have been growing since the economy started to sour. Some were waiting to download music onto their iPods. Others wanted to borrow books. And lately, many congregate here looking for jobs.
"We're kind of a recession sanctuary," said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library.
Across the country - indeed, around the world - public library visits are up and are expected to rise in 2009 as personal finances take a hit during a global recession that is only projected to get worse. In a time of belt-tightening, libraries provide cheap and, depending on the location, free entertainment, as well as a haven for the unemployed.
Patrons of the Toronto Reference Library surf the Internet at a bank of computers. The turbulent economy is sending crowds into libraries across Canada. ‘We’re kind of a recession sanctuary,’ said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library. (DEBORAH BAIC/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
"It's generally accepted conventional wisdom that libraries get busier during rough economic times," said Paul Whitney, city librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, which has 22 branches.
In downtown Calgary, 46-year-old Mark Titley arrived early, anxious to use the public computers to search for work in the construction industry or with a seismic crew.
"This is typical," said Mr. Titley, a daily visitor, as he looked at the crowd. "You'll see this place get really packed."
At the Toronto Public Library, the biggest in the country with 99 branches, visits were up 8 per cent in the second half of 2008 as the recession bore down. Use of materials increased 12 per cent over the same period, while computer usage jumped 13 per cent.
Last year, the 17 public library branches in Calgary circulated a record 15.4-million items, up 1.1-million items, or almost 7.7 per cent, from 2007.
Libraries in Ireland have also noticed the wave of visitors. But the trend is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in the United States, where the recession, fuelled by the subprime mortgage crisis, began earlier and cut deeper.
"We're hearing from people who said I could no longer afford my newspaper subscription or I could not afford my Internet connection and now I'm going to my library because it's there," said Loriene Roy, immediate past president of the American Library Association.
Gone are the days of musty books, card catalogues and the threat of being told to "shhh." Today library visitors borrow CDs and DVDs and use study space for boisterous group work. They take advantage of free computers and bring along their laptops to use free wireless Internet.
"Now you can eat and drink in the library," added Jane Pyper, chief librarian in the Toronto system.
"The place is just more appealing."
There's also practical help for tough times.
At Vancouver's Central Library, 10 to 30 people are routinely showing up on Tuesday nights for the free "One Stop Job Search @ Your Library" workshop. Registration in programs for all ages has jumped, while the number of people logging on to the library's Web-based services was up 50 per cent in 2008 compared with 2007. Even in Calgary, Canada's biggest boomtown, seminars at the Central Library on interview skills, keeping a job and résumé development are full even though they don't begin for a month or more.
Goran Jelica, a 42-year-old computer programmer in Calgary, often brings his three-year-old son, Benjamin, to their local library to pass on his passion for reading. But the trip is also a money-saver.
"Here, if you find something you borrow it, and if you don't like it you just bring it back," he said. "At a bookstore, you can't return it."
A new chapter begins for libraries as economy sinks
Crowds flock in, not for musty books, but for free CDs, DVDs, Internet access — and help finding a job
DAWN WALTON
From Monday's Globe and Mail
January 26, 2009 at 4:36 AM EST
CALGARY — Even before Calgary's Central Library opened yesterday at noon, dozens of people crowded inside its modest-sized heated foyer, while still more were lined up outside braving the -19 wind chill.
Crowds have been growing since the economy started to sour. Some were waiting to download music onto their iPods. Others wanted to borrow books. And lately, many congregate here looking for jobs.
"We're kind of a recession sanctuary," said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library.
Across the country - indeed, around the world - public library visits are up and are expected to rise in 2009 as personal finances take a hit during a global recession that is only projected to get worse. In a time of belt-tightening, libraries provide cheap and, depending on the location, free entertainment, as well as a haven for the unemployed.
Patrons of the Toronto Reference Library surf the Internet at a bank of computers. The turbulent economy is sending crowds into libraries across Canada. ‘We’re kind of a recession sanctuary,’ said Gerry Meek, director of the Calgary Public Library. (DEBORAH BAIC/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
"It's generally accepted conventional wisdom that libraries get busier during rough economic times," said Paul Whitney, city librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, which has 22 branches.
In downtown Calgary, 46-year-old Mark Titley arrived early, anxious to use the public computers to search for work in the construction industry or with a seismic crew.
"This is typical," said Mr. Titley, a daily visitor, as he looked at the crowd. "You'll see this place get really packed."
At the Toronto Public Library, the biggest in the country with 99 branches, visits were up 8 per cent in the second half of 2008 as the recession bore down. Use of materials increased 12 per cent over the same period, while computer usage jumped 13 per cent.
Last year, the 17 public library branches in Calgary circulated a record 15.4-million items, up 1.1-million items, or almost 7.7 per cent, from 2007.
Libraries in Ireland have also noticed the wave of visitors. But the trend is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in the United States, where the recession, fuelled by the subprime mortgage crisis, began earlier and cut deeper.
"We're hearing from people who said I could no longer afford my newspaper subscription or I could not afford my Internet connection and now I'm going to my library because it's there," said Loriene Roy, immediate past president of the American Library Association.
Gone are the days of musty books, card catalogues and the threat of being told to "shhh." Today library visitors borrow CDs and DVDs and use study space for boisterous group work. They take advantage of free computers and bring along their laptops to use free wireless Internet.
"Now you can eat and drink in the library," added Jane Pyper, chief librarian in the Toronto system.
"The place is just more appealing."
There's also practical help for tough times.
At Vancouver's Central Library, 10 to 30 people are routinely showing up on Tuesday nights for the free "One Stop Job Search @ Your Library" workshop. Registration in programs for all ages has jumped, while the number of people logging on to the library's Web-based services was up 50 per cent in 2008 compared with 2007. Even in Calgary, Canada's biggest boomtown, seminars at the Central Library on interview skills, keeping a job and résumé development are full even though they don't begin for a month or more.
Goran Jelica, a 42-year-old computer programmer in Calgary, often brings his three-year-old son, Benjamin, to their local library to pass on his passion for reading. But the trip is also a money-saver.
"Here, if you find something you borrow it, and if you don't like it you just bring it back," he said. "At a bookstore, you can't return it."
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Family Literacy & MPL
On January 24th, MPL celebrated Family Literacy Day with a mass family reading of 5 Robert Munsch books, in support of ABC Canada's attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most children reading with an adult.
On the same day, the Globe and Mail published an editorial on the value and power of parent- child reading.From Saturday's Globe and Mail January 24, 2009 at 12:13 AM EST
Parental sine qua non
"While parents cast about at great expense looking for programs to improve their children's brainpower, a magic bullet exists at low cost that has never quite received its due. It is a life-enhancing, literacy-inducing, time-travelling device, colloquially known as a “book.” It works optimally when a parent or two read it out loud. Best of all, it is free at public libraries, though woe betide the person who returns it late.
"This device – sold separately, as they say (the book and the parental reading unit) – is far, far better than a Baby Einstein video. Imagine, if it only had the name. Let's do the Baby Einstein before bed. Think how eagerly parents would embrace it.
"What parent-child reading needs is marketing. It is getting some. Beginning Friday, and ending Saturday, thousands of Canadian adults and children are attempting to enter the Guinness World Records, for “most children reading with an adult, multiple locations,” trying to grab the record of 78,791 from the Americans, who set it in 2006. At last word, Canada had 187,043 people registered. Everyone is reading the same five books by the Canadian author Robert Munsch. Corny? No.
"Not when research has found that parental involvement in their children's reading is a more important influence on literacy than family wealth, or the level of parental education. Not when, of all school subjects, reading is the most sensitive to parental involvement, according to the research. And not when literacy is the sine qua non of school success, and much else that is good in life.
"Even if it is corny, it is the right kind of corny. And it pales next to Britain's focus on literacy. Canada has an annual Family Literacy Day – this Tuesday – sponsored by the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation and Honda Canada; Britain just finished a National Year of Reading, which is being followed by a national Reading for Life campaign. Young fathers, particularly working-class fathers, are one focus of that campaign; research has found that fathers' role in reading to their children has been undervalued. The goal is for all families “to see reading as an important part of their daily lives and part of the culture of their home.”
"Teaching children to love reading is not a job that can be offloaded on a video, or a daycare centre or the schools. The joy of reading is either in the air at home or it is not, and children, even small ones, can detect the difference."
"This device – sold separately, as they say (the book and the parental reading unit) – is far, far better than a Baby Einstein video. Imagine, if it only had the name. Let's do the Baby Einstein before bed. Think how eagerly parents would embrace it.
"What parent-child reading needs is marketing. It is getting some. Beginning Friday, and ending Saturday, thousands of Canadian adults and children are attempting to enter the Guinness World Records, for “most children reading with an adult, multiple locations,” trying to grab the record of 78,791 from the Americans, who set it in 2006. At last word, Canada had 187,043 people registered. Everyone is reading the same five books by the Canadian author Robert Munsch. Corny? No.
"Not when research has found that parental involvement in their children's reading is a more important influence on literacy than family wealth, or the level of parental education. Not when, of all school subjects, reading is the most sensitive to parental involvement, according to the research. And not when literacy is the sine qua non of school success, and much else that is good in life.
"Even if it is corny, it is the right kind of corny. And it pales next to Britain's focus on literacy. Canada has an annual Family Literacy Day – this Tuesday – sponsored by the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation and Honda Canada; Britain just finished a National Year of Reading, which is being followed by a national Reading for Life campaign. Young fathers, particularly working-class fathers, are one focus of that campaign; research has found that fathers' role in reading to their children has been undervalued. The goal is for all families “to see reading as an important part of their daily lives and part of the culture of their home.”
"Teaching children to love reading is not a job that can be offloaded on a video, or a daycare centre or the schools. The joy of reading is either in the air at home or it is not, and children, even small ones, can detect the difference."
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Obama Loves Libraries
As noted by Moe, our Director of Excellence in everything -
Did you know that Obama loves libraries? I found the following on Stephen Abram's Lighthouse Blog: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/
Here is an article from American Libraries based on Omaba's Keynote Speech at the 2005 ALA Conference: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/obama05.cfm
I highly recommend taking a minute to read the article.
And here is an excerpt from his address:
"More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That’s the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books. Whether it’s the ransacking of the great library at Alexandria, controlling information during the Middle Ages, book burnings, or the imprisonment of writers in former communist block countries, the idea has been that if we can control the word, if we can control what people hear and what they read and what they comprehend, then we can control and imprison them, or at least imprison their minds."
"At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams. That’s what all of you do each and every day, and for that, I am grateful."
No wonder he is now the President...he knows what he's talking about.
Be proud of what you do and keep up the great work.
Did you know that Obama loves libraries? I found the following on Stephen Abram's Lighthouse Blog: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/
Here is an article from American Libraries based on Omaba's Keynote Speech at the 2005 ALA Conference: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/obama05.cfm
I highly recommend taking a minute to read the article.
And here is an excerpt from his address:
"More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That’s the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books. Whether it’s the ransacking of the great library at Alexandria, controlling information during the Middle Ages, book burnings, or the imprisonment of writers in former communist block countries, the idea has been that if we can control the word, if we can control what people hear and what they read and what they comprehend, then we can control and imprison them, or at least imprison their minds."
"At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams. That’s what all of you do each and every day, and for that, I am grateful."
No wonder he is now the President...he knows what he's talking about.
Be proud of what you do and keep up the great work.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Did You Know 3.0
Latest in the Did You Know? series by some educators from Colorado. Starting out as a PowerPoint presentation, Did You Know? "went viral" on the Web in February 2007, and has been seen millions of online viewers.
Thought-provoking, sobering, Did You Know? is intended to provoke a conversation about shifts that are happening in the world around us, such as:
"The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years…For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8
Related wiki: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/
Thought-provoking, sobering, Did You Know? is intended to provoke a conversation about shifts that are happening in the world around us, such as:
"The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years…For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8
Related wiki: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Best Practices for the Customer-Focused Library
Relevant research and reports from the Metropolitan Library System in Illinois' LSTA grant project The Customer Focused Library. Among the findings: Only one third of the people who come into a library stop at a service desk, and two thirds of the people who come into a library have no idea what they came in for.
Great source of ideas for improving our spaces and services in the report Best Practices for the Customer-Focused Libraryhttp://www.webjunction.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=8052623&name=DLFE-1830002.pdf
and at
http://www.mls.lib.il.us/consulting/envirosell.asp
Sunday, January 4, 2009
How to Make a Library Great
A great article from Project for Public Spaces - How to Make Your Library Great
14 lessons from local libraries all over North America about how to turn libraries into great community destinations. To help libraries fulfill theirpotential as neighborhood institutions, PPS offers the following strategies as a roadmap to success.
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april2007/library_attributes
14 lessons from local libraries all over North America about how to turn libraries into great community destinations. To help libraries fulfill theirpotential as neighborhood institutions, PPS offers the following strategies as a roadmap to success.
http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april2007/library_attributes
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