| YA librarian podcasts |
[15 Dec 2009|09:46am] |
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Hey guys, are there any general topic podcasts out there targeted specifically to YA specialists besides the one run by YALSA? I'm looking, but I'm not seeing any.
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| Books For Swaziland! :: An exciting request. |
[14 Dec 2009|10:06pm] |
BOOKS FOR SWAZILAND! :: An exciting request.
A PITCH THAT I SPENT MUCH TOO LONG WRITING.
(Cross-posted to: my LiveJournal and related communities, my Facebook profile and related pages, HPK-Mayhem, Bowers House, Moomers Readings, lots of my friends. Please forward!)
Hi everyone!
My name is Lydia and I am currently volunteering in Swaziland with the U.S. Peace Corps. For several years previous to my departure, I worked in the wonderful bookstore O'Gara & Wilson -- Chicago's oldest bookstore, in fact! (It has a beautiful new website that you can access by clicking here). I am also a nigh-rabid writer, and generally spend much more time reading than out in the healthy fresh air like a normal human.
Recently, my friend and fellow volunteer Jason collaborated with an organization called Books For Africa to create Books For Swaziland, a project designed to establish new libraries or enhance existing school library facilities in rural Swazi communities. He then recruited a bunch of us other volunteers to help distribute the books around our communities. If this sounds awesome to you, please donate to the project by clicking here.
But perhaps you have doubts! Read on, my friend. I will settle all your doubts and solve all your problems.
Your Doubts!
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking:
1) "Wow, it is awfully culturally imperialistic for America to be shoving our books down Swaziland's throat. I am disappointed in Lydia, as I thought she was a more culturally sensitive human than this!"
2) "Book donations are very rarely of good quality or useful subject matter. Doesn't Lydia know that it will not be awesome for Swazis to receive thousands of obscure literary criticism tomes and 1995 computer manuals?"
3) "I feel zero confidence that these books will be properly accessible to the Swazi populace and/or taken care of. For example, how is Lydia ensuring that the books for at her site are not sold, or perhaps destroyed through neglect?"
I completely understand! But rest assured that I would not participate in a project that did not address said doubts. Allow me to explain!
( Read more... )
Take care, all of you. I hope all is well in America.
Lydia
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| ALA |
[14 Dec 2009|12:34pm] |
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I just joined the ALA under a student membership and have not gotten much time to look over the site...I will probably do that when I get home. Anyways, I would like to know your guys (if you are/have been a part of the ALA) likes and dislikes of the ALA site; what benefits, member discounts, and stuff like that.
Thanks :)
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| Interaction requested! |
[14 Dec 2009|09:24am] |
For my final for one of my classes, I was asked to answer the following question: "What is the relationship between culture and information technology?" I created a blog, thinking that the format would also illustrate my point that the two are interdependent and shape eachother. If you have a moment, please check out ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) instant_culture and post a few responses/questions so that we can get some discussion going on there and really drive home the point!
Thanks!
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[05 Dec 2009|11:38pm] |
Hello everyone!
I'm hoping there's some non-US based people in this community, I am wrapping up my International Librarianship class and I need a little help with my final project. I have a short survey up on my personal LiveJournal with just a few questions about cataloguing practices in other countries. It's just a few questions, and I really could use the data for my final project (I'm presenting on the 10th).
International cataloguing practices survey
Thanks in advance!
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| Library of Congress |
[04 Dec 2009|03:15pm] |
I went to the Library of Congress today to visit my book.
I boarded the Metrorail at Vienna in the dark and arrived at Union Station just after sunrise. Oddly, as I was passing through the main hall after disembarking, I noticed it was eerily empty; far from the compacted crowds I was expecting to find on this Friday morning in the nation’s capital. The relative emptiness followed me out onto Delaware Avenue, which led me past the U. S. Capitol building and to the steps of the Library of Congress. The last time I was in D.C., it was a claustrophobic, shoulder-to-shoulder scuttle through the streets. Today though, it was a comfortable delight.
After passing through library security, I went straight to the restroom. When done I must have looked confused. A man with no arms came up to me in the hallway and wanted to know if I was interested in a tour. I was planning on joining the 10:30 tour later, but he said with a wink that there was an opening in a special Reserved Congressional Tour just about to start. Not ever wanting to miss out on special treatment, I gratefully accepted the offer from the winking man with no arms. Our small group spent the next hour following Pat the tour guide as she provided a continual stream of fascinating details about this incredible building, it’s contents, and it’s history.
In 1800, the members of Congress began accumulating a reference library – books to help them better understand their constituents. In 1812, the British, still holding a grudge over that independence declaration issue, stormed Washington torching the White House and U.S. Capitol. And hence, the reference library went up in flames. Three years later, retired president Thomas Jefferson sold his immense personal collection of over 6,500 books to the U.S. government, and the Library of Congress was re-born.
In 1851, flames again brought trouble to Congress’ collection. An accidental fire on Christmas Eve destroyed approximately two-thirds of the Jefferson collection. It was a devastating loss. One hundred and fifty years later though, a football team came to the rescue. Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, began financing an effort to restore the original Jefferson collection. A worldwide search remains underway to obtain copies of the books that were destroyed in the fire of 1851.
Today, the Library of Congress has grown into the world’s largest, containing over 142 million items covering every imaginable topic, including even the history of my father and his ancestry. In effect, the Library of Congress represents an accumulation of all knowledge garnered by mankind, catalogued and secured under the auspices of the United States government. It’s like a hard copy of the internet. Quite an extraordinary and ongoing accomplishment.
Some other fascinating facts about the Library of Congress:
I contains 650 miles of bookshelves.
The smallest book is a mere 1/25th of an inch square.
The library contains an original Gutenberg bible, printed by what is universally recognized as the most important invention of all time.
The building contains thousands of intricate and beautiful statues, paintings, and ornamentations full of thoughtful symbolizations.
And here’s one more fact, albeit a selfish one: if you search for “Koppenhaver” in the Library of Congress’ data base - all 142 million items - the first result returned is the book I came to visit today.
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| "mangled titles" tumblr |
[29 Nov 2009|10:54pm] |
Hey all,
I've had a tumblr blog for ages but last month I finally figured out what to use it for - keeping track of those mangled title requests we get from patrons! But, of course, I need your help! If you have any classic messed up titles/authors stories, please submit them!
Check out what I have so far here http://orangerful.tumblr.com
Don't worry, all names will be changed to protect the confused!
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| technology |
[25 Nov 2009|07:40pm] |
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I read an interesting article the other day which was about how technology was influencing libraries such as the use of online catalogues etc. However the thing that interested me the most was how how technology can help to use the space in libraries more effeciently but this subject was only touched upon briefly. So I just wondered, how does your library make use of limitted space? what items take up less space than traditional formats?
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| League of Extraordinarily Unprofessional Library Censors |
[19 Nov 2009|10:26am] |
....on the story of a pair of library workers losing their jobs by refusing to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier to a patron as per their employer’s policy.
http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/1011029.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/18/library-workers-fire.html
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/11/09/alan-moore-destroyer-of-librarians/
While it is an adult graphic novel and not a child's comic book, it was wrong HOW the book was witheld (against policy and on personal whims).The circulation clerks should have conferred with and deferred to a supervisor about policy concerning challenged materials (even when challenged by staff); perhaps requesting to hold the book for the approval of the 11 year old patron's parents before checkout in this case- if that is allowed in policy.
Later Edit: Turns out the public library where I work has also had patron complaints about sexual content in LEG graphic novels (different volume, ours in #2 and has a couple of "racy" pages of Alan Quartermain and Mina Harker being intimate. Shows boobs and butts, sexual poses, but no genitalia in view). The book is still in circulation, shelved in our Graphic Novel Section.
Part of me wants to roll my eyes and say "good grief", it wouldn't take you long at all to go grab a mystery, contemporary fiction or even a classic to find something with just as or more explicit content..is the difference just because of the format and this being visual? What about photography books of nudes or ancient greek art? IMO, Let it be and be responsible to yourslef (or your family) about what you choose to read. It comes down to freedom of information and of choice; I'm glad a wide variety of books are available in our public libraries.
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| out of curiosity |
[07 Nov 2009|12:27pm] |
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Whose silhouette is in the spine of biography books outside of the USA? We use the silhouette of Abraham Lincoln. Do other countries use somebody else- or someone specific at all?
How about in books about history? We use a covered wagon, which may not be relevant to the history of many other places.
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| Specialization Question |
[04 Nov 2009|04:33pm] |
Hello! I'm in my first quarter of library school and am interested in becoming a children's librarian. I'm working on my specialization paper this quarter, and plan on doing it on digital media for children's collections; I also plan on taking as many courses in children's related topics as I'm able to.
However, I also want to get a job when I graduate, and I'm flexible about this. I plan on taking courses in cataloging and computer programing, as well.
So my question is, am I limiting my employment options by focusing on children's librarianship? If I wanted to apply somewhere like the LC or a special library, would I be less likely to get an interview? Thanks for your input!
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| GRE |
[04 Nov 2009|01:56pm] |
Hello everyone,
I have been watching this community for 6 months now - ever since I decided I wanted to go back to school for an MLIS. Next week I am taking the GREs. This makes me very anxious and nervous. I bought the Kaplan GRE book to study and dowloaded the ETS software to help learn the style of the test. But I am interested in everyone's experience in taking the GRE.
Mostly, I am curious about how you think it affected the college's decision to accept you. Did you do well? Did you do poorly and still get in? Did you do better than you hoped? What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again? Did you college have a min score?
Anyways, I look forward to all of your input! Here's to hoping I do well!
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[30 Oct 2009|12:45pm] |
I just had a patron phone call that made my day!!!! :)
Remember that Gay Pride book display I did a while back, and the spot of cotroversy it caused? A patron called, apologizing for being "better late than never" but to let me know how much he APPRECIATED the display and how wonderful he thought it was, and what it meant to him as a gay man and what it could mean young local gays. He called me his "favorite radical librarian." Awwww...
It was nice to feel a genuine click and connection with a patron, and to feel appreciated for who I am and how I am at work.
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| Libraries Australia |
[29 Oct 2009|10:12pm] |
Is anyone here familiar with this site? http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss
Is there a way to search for specific article from a periodical in Libraries Australia? I have all the basic info: the name of the periodical, the titles of the two articles, the authors of the two articles, the volume and the year that it was written in. However, despite all that, I've been having a lot of trouble finding the articles that I need. Can anyone here help me?
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| Cataoging software help! |
[29 Oct 2009|12:01am] |
Hi! I have come to this community desperately seeking help and advice. I've been asked to serve on my synagogue's newly reformed library committee. The library currently resides in boxes that are stashed anywhere there is some empty space in the synagogue. The goal, obviously, is to get the books OUT of the boxes and INTO the hands of the synagogue members.
We need to develop a catalog of all books, so we know what we've got, and we also need to set up a way of tracking who borrows which books (so that we can eventually get the books we lend out BACK again!) And I've been assigned the job of figuring out how to do this. I've used dBase III+ and later MSAccess to create a sort of catalog of my books at home but I think the synagogue needs something that's more specifically designed for libraries.
I'm sure there are software programs out there for cataloging small home libraries or small organization libraries - anyone here have any experience with these? Advice? Suggestions on which program might be the best? Also, money IS a consideration... we are a temple on a budget here. ;-)
In other words........... HELP!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!
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| Adult programing? |
[23 Oct 2009|11:43am] |
I'm a newly minted librarian and was hoping some of you wouldn't mind sharing some of your favorite resources for library programming ideas -- especially for adult services (not senior). I've found a few useful sites, but many that I bookmarked last year when I was still in grad school have disappeared or changed considerably. Also, if anyone had a program idea that was well received at their own branch I would be happy if you could share those too. Thanks!
(x-posted to librarygrrls)
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| I need some creativity here! |
[17 Oct 2009|10:37pm] |
I am working on a group project for a class in Digital Libraries and we need a good, short name for our project. We will be using initials to designate file names so 2-3 words is best.
We want to do a collection of book cover scans to show graphic design and pop culture and print design from the middle of the last century (1940s and 50s but we might have a book from 1930s or 1960s too). This will be a source of artistic inspiration for graphic designers, fashion students, researchers of pop culture. We want to restrict this to book covers (no advertising or fashion spreads). Basically we just love these covers and want to share them with other lovers of design and art from that period.
We will be using some pulp fiction but also covers from chapter books for girls. For instance I own this book
Sue Barton
and this one
Cherry Ames
and I will be including them, as well as offering some of my pulp fiction novels.
Any ideas for a name for our project? One person in the team suggested "Pulp Design" which I like, but since we are including books for girls that might not be usable.
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[06 Oct 2009|07:10pm] |
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Hello Everyone! I was wondering if there are any YA / Children's librarians in here that would be willing to answer a few questions for me regarding interface preferences, skill level, information needs, etc as I have to interview a few people for a paper I am working on. If you're interested, let me know and I can send an e-mail your way with the specific questions. Thanks!
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| Newbie! Newbie with questions! |
[06 Oct 2009|06:12pm] |
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Hello! I'm new here. I'm not a librarian...but I love books (perhaps a little too much) and am constantly collecting them. Recently, I adopted 25 old books from the German department at my university. Many of them are from the early 1900s, and are in sorry shape. Four of them are losing their covers or missing their spines, two are missing their covers entirely, at least two of them are losing pages, and most of them have varying degrees of water damage. Is there anything I can do to repair any of the damage?
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