pafa.net

7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy: Handy short article on the ways library services and resources can help people at ANY time, not just during a bad economy.

1. You can get pretty much any book at the library
2. Yes, we have movies
3. Kids Activities
4. Save Money and maybe your life!
5. Make new friends
6. Find a new job
7. Libraries listen to consumers!

Really interesting comments from library users listing lots of additional services that they find valuable. I loved this comment in particular:

Using my local library has been one of my resolutions for 2008 and I can report that its going great. I’ve saved a ton of money by reading books from my library vs. Amazon.com. I use Amazon.com to research and keep track of titles and when I’ve read one of those titles from the library I check the “I own it” so I can get better recommendations.

Can’t wait for the day we all have catalogs that have those sorts of “amazon” features….. someday soon?

(via LISNews)

One of the things I love about traveling all over to teach is hearing about new projects and ideas from the library staff in my classes. I always come back with a bunch of scribbled notes on pieces of paper that eventually sift out of my notebooks, folders, pocketbook and who knows where in my suitcase.

So here are the notes that have surfaced from last week’s trip to CT:

• Mystery on Pine Street - Wacky, fun, stop-motion claymation style video created by kids at the Cornwall (CT) Free Library as part of their 2007 Summer Reading Program.
• Forman School Library - Short audio book teasers to encourage summer reading. The mp3 files are stored on their wikispaces account and presented with an embedded audio player.
• Writers Club - Norwalk (CT) PL - Great project had kids reading their own riddles, writings and offering book reviews. They’ve used the handy playtagger audio player that comes from del.icio.us. Nice simple way to embed an audio player on a regular web page.

Last week Nancy Pearl was in town for the 50th anniversary of the Southern Adirondack Library System and gave a delightful talk at their annual dinner. She also presented several other programs, including a session on readers advisory for children & teens. And even though I’ve never done any real RA work, the librarians I work with do. Going to events like this helps me keep a bit better in touch with the real world of libraries! Little did I know that I’d learn so much in that hour. Nancy’s framework for looking at the appeal of books is so elegantly effective, yet simple enough for my non-literary brain to wrap itself around.

I won’t attempt to write up my notes since my good friend and librarian extraordinaire, Sue Rokos, did such a great writeup.

Some excerpts from Sue’s excellent post.

… every book of narrative fiction and non-fiction fits
at least one of Nancy Pearl’s four potential doorways through which
readers enter a book:Doorway # 1 is Story

(more…)

In the NYT tech section today, David Pogue give the simple little Flip video cam a terrific review - Camcorder Brings Zen to the Shoot

I bought one about 4 months ago, lured by its ’shiny new toy-ishness’. And it truly is a terrific little camera. Perfect for schools & libraries doing video projects with kids and teens (and adults). I’m thinking durable and easy to use. Is it the greatest video quality in the world? Not really. But is it good enough for fun youtube type videos? You bet!

This is the camera I’d throw in my beach bag or give to kids to use at a pool party. And I might just buy the waterproof case mentioned in the review. I think a snorkeling trip to Hawaii would be a good way to test that one out. Aloha.

Thanks to Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian, for posting so many great photos of DOK - Library Concept Center in Delft, The Netherlands (aka the Delft Public Library).

What a trip it was to spin through these late last night in her flickr account. My head is still spinning.

Click on the slide set below to see a few of the pictures, but be sure to go directly to Jenny’s flickr account to see the whole thing. It looks like an absolutely amazing place - both architecturally and in the services offered. What fun! Field trip anyone?

Full set of photos at flickr