Author Archives:
Anythink
From the Anythink website:
Our small district in Adams County, Colo., is changing the face of public libraries. Introducing AnythinkTM, a new style of library that celebrates imagination, play and interactivity. Studies have shown that people who have had transformative experiences at their local library are more willing to support them at the polls. The Anythink [...]
Go, Saints
I don’t have any ties to New Orleans, but my heart almost always goes out to the underdog. And with the aftermath of Katrina still in recent memory, I really want to the Saints pull out a win.
Stephen Kellat: Defining Value
From Stephen Kellat, over at the LISTen podcast:
While many in the First World are more connected than ever with online tools and gadgetry, attention is taken away from the real world around you. When you functionally cease to be part of a community, value and cost make little sense to you. When you functionally cease [...]
My Day in the Life of a Librarian
This is my first time participating in the “Day in the Life of a Librarian” project, as inspired by Bobbi Newman. Here’s the run-down on my day for Wednesday, January 27, 2010, as the Branch Manager of the South Columbus Public Library:
9:00 – I attend and participate in a meeting with the Director, Deputy Director, Collection [...]
The Silent Shout
“Quiet is the new loud.”
Libraries have always had a reputation for being quiet. To many people, the library is a refuge from an otherwise noisy, cluttered, and busy world.
In all fairness, our “quiet” image isn’t always the case in reality. In recent years, we’ve have shaken off the quiet, mousy, “shushing” image, and we’ve learned to welcome a [...]
Google and China
Huge. News.
From the moment it began censoring search results in China, Google has walked a fine line between compliance with Chinese law and censorship of important ideas and vital communication. However, following a cyberattack that reach beyond Google and targeted the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists, Google has suddenly reversed its original stance on [...]
Boom De Ya Da, Sacramento
I’m lovin’ this video from the North Natomos Library in Sacramento, CA. It’s a “before-and-after” put together by one of the library’s teen volunteers, with wistful images of the old library and a sneak-peak of the new building (set to open January 9th, 2010).
(And you chose to click “Play,” so I’m not at all apologetic if that song is stuck in [...]
New places, new faces
This past Monday, I started in my new position as Branch Manager of the South Columbus Public Library, a branch of the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries in Columbus, GA. Of course, I’ve been busy getting myself moved and settled into my new surroundings, but in terms of geography and time and opportunity, so many things have [...]
Workplace Intellectual Freedom
From an amazing piece in the September-October 2009 issue of Academe:
This unwillingness to engage academic and intellectual freedom within libraries has resulted in a serious bifurcation: such protections exist for the users of libraries and in building, maintaining, preserving, and providing access to library collections of all types, but they do not cross the desk [...]
Small Strokes
The new (well, new-to-me) blog Small Strokes is the newest addition to my Google Reader. While it’s not library-related, issues of politics, gender, and sexuality have always interested me, and they can certainly inform how we, as librarians, implement our services and design our resources.
Anyway, I’m not trying co-opt or hijack Ashley’s project, but I do [...]