http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6497275.html
Inventory comes slowly
Billington also told the committee that the library has inventoried less than 20 percent of the 17 million print items it aims to include in its Baseline Inventory Project (BIP), which began in FY02.
While in 1998 LC estimated that the BIP might be completed in eight years (by 2010), costing $1.1 million a year, now it could “take ten more years to complete with available funds,” Billington said. Nevertheless, LC Inspector General Karl Schnornagel told the committee, “I do not believe that this has significantly impaired the library's ability to secure its collections.”
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The answer is in your face!
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6497259.html
Something is still wrong with reference services and how serious or passively we take our jobs. ...The jobs of Public libraries are roughly the same as it ever was over twenty years ago. In May 1984, William Miller published a comprehensive critique of reference service entitled “What's Wrong with Reference: Coping with Success and Failure at the Reference Desk” (American Libraries). Some 24 years later, I wish I could say things have improved, but, in
fact, they have gotten even worse. David Isaccson, Library Journal.
My feelings are the same..
Cataloging materials may never change in the traditional respects, and I realize that this could kill the collection, however the author speaks truly to the spirit of libraries, that more is not better. We can't ignore quality over the collection and having a quantity of materials means quality of service. That means that the reference desk is fully aware of the way library books, videos and audiocassettes are purchased and placed on the shelves, and the longer it is put off the longer our expertise is wasted for vanity sake. Poke around for a while and notice the obvious fact that shelf ready books add dubious collections in a library, thereby duplicating collections into nonsensical libraries. Libraries exist by their unique locale, history and communities they serve. No library should resemble another's collection.
If the public outlook on libraries continues to be as negative as the author Mr. Miller states, I think that all library professionals are going to buy into a self-service library. My case especially is how we are pointing out those self-fullfilling acquistion folks in libraries who do not acknowledge libaries as places where people visit, rather than a library as a containment for books.
Another case in point, serving the public by referral to the community outside of the library, can save an unnecessary trip. So, in order to answer the public's questions, one must be able to reinterpret and reframe a question in order to reveal the facts. Librarians are good at this point of questioning the question, and are very good at passing the information on to the user, sometimes reluctantly. It is very crucial that we teach in our profession, how to give up the secret, so to speak. It is also crucial to be honest about how the answers are ultimately refined by subject specialists, ie lawyers or medical professionals, and not by the generalists in the library.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Research at Risk - 7/15/2005 - Library Journal
Research at Risk - 7/15/2005 - Library Journal
Learning Times presents a stimulating discussion on things miscellaneous regarding libraries. Visit the link above to find background information on the peril of indexing on the web if you dare.
Thanks to librarians and gurus in library catalogs, you don't have to pay for a book after it is published, sold and obsolete!
Learning Times presents a stimulating discussion on things miscellaneous regarding libraries. Visit the link above to find background information on the peril of indexing on the web if you dare.
Thanks to librarians and gurus in library catalogs, you don't have to pay for a book after it is published, sold and obsolete!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Dreaming about our food
http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/l.html
I spent this morning trying to get my head around the real vs. fudge factors in our economy. This morning's news includeed snipits of last night's answers by running candidates about the current economic conditions. Thompson came up with a few studders and Mitt Romney had nothing but encouraging words as well as denying he ever tipped tax raising.
Back to my dream... I had to think of why I found myself held up at the cash register in the middle of an italian pizzeria with only half of my lunch order. The clerk was trying to figure out how much she should charge for a slice of pizza and a coke. She couldn't total the figures for me since she weighed all of the real dollar on our actual economic spending, unemployment and gouging of natural resources so I had to wait awhile. Her total for my pizza and coke would have been a dollar, but since it took a while to add uup the total, the price actually went down and she added a free sausage sub to the order. I walked away happy in the dream, but I am frightened by the reality of the fudge factor. We don't know the value of anything less than a dollar, so we add to it public debt in the end and charge a dollar because it's worth it.
I am prompted by radio, television and reading about our economy and it explains how we our our understanding facts becomes twisted.
How funny I just had a British comedy question about the department store, Grace Brothers on the Show "Are You Being Served?" Take a look at that show or "Squirrels", about an International Rental shop. It's hilarious! on the show Squirrels, or even the show The Rag Trade, all poke fun at the consumer coming to bid with the store clerks. I always think of my great aunt Me Me, she never wanted to pay for something that she had no need for anyway.
I spent this morning trying to get my head around the real vs. fudge factors in our economy. This morning's news includeed snipits of last night's answers by running candidates about the current economic conditions. Thompson came up with a few studders and Mitt Romney had nothing but encouraging words as well as denying he ever tipped tax raising.
Back to my dream... I had to think of why I found myself held up at the cash register in the middle of an italian pizzeria with only half of my lunch order. The clerk was trying to figure out how much she should charge for a slice of pizza and a coke. She couldn't total the figures for me since she weighed all of the real dollar on our actual economic spending, unemployment and gouging of natural resources so I had to wait awhile. Her total for my pizza and coke would have been a dollar, but since it took a while to add uup the total, the price actually went down and she added a free sausage sub to the order. I walked away happy in the dream, but I am frightened by the reality of the fudge factor. We don't know the value of anything less than a dollar, so we add to it public debt in the end and charge a dollar because it's worth it.
I am prompted by radio, television and reading about our economy and it explains how we our our understanding facts becomes twisted.
How funny I just had a British comedy question about the department store, Grace Brothers on the Show "Are You Being Served?" Take a look at that show or "Squirrels", about an International Rental shop. It's hilarious! on the show Squirrels, or even the show The Rag Trade, all poke fun at the consumer coming to bid with the store clerks. I always think of my great aunt Me Me, she never wanted to pay for something that she had no need for anyway.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Not Your Mother's prayer books
http://www.publishersweekly.com/Community/Religion/47143.html
Looking for religious guidance reads is not as hard as it may seem. My mother continually read "Passages" in the 1970's, and now that I seek the same kind of broad shoulder, I struggle to find something as readable as this one. I recently came across Joyce Meyer's, "Penny" and Rick Warren's, "Purpose Driven Life". I find that both fiction and non-fiction are fitting the need of readers with a broad sense of spirituality, whether the titles are chosen for their informative or entertaining value. My list is going along bit by bit here, so bear with me. No pun, intended!
Looking for religious guidance reads is not as hard as it may seem. My mother continually read "Passages" in the 1970's, and now that I seek the same kind of broad shoulder, I struggle to find something as readable as this one. I recently came across Joyce Meyer's, "Penny" and Rick Warren's, "Purpose Driven Life". I find that both fiction and non-fiction are fitting the need of readers with a broad sense of spirituality, whether the titles are chosen for their informative or entertaining value. My list is going along bit by bit here, so bear with me. No pun, intended!
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