Having been on boths sides of the Canadian Libraries project (scanning these 685 books on the evening shift at Robarts, and as grateful user of digitized materials like this), I’m very glad to hear that their electronic collection will continue to grow apace.

From Lurking in our libraries [Toronto Star]:

Confronted by [disruptive] events, the library staff in the novel are guided by compassion and library policies. The staff are supportive of one another, which Baillie says reflects the camaraderie she has found among library employees.

About 90 per cent of the incidents in the book are loosely based on Baillie’s experiences or those she was told of by other library staff. As a result, the book provides an inside look at the kind of bizarre incidents library workers sometimes encounter.

The fascinating novel also delves into some wider themes, including “the nature of urban storytelling,” Baillie says. “Whoever is sitting behind the reference desk is an ear. You play the role of a bartender a bit.” The novel asks, “Why do we so often pick strangers to tell our stories to?”

My time as a patron vastly outweighs the two weeks I logged at a public library reference desk in college, but even that short stint had me nodding my head as I read the article. Reference work in a special library just isn’t the same… the pseudo-confessional atmosphere is virtually (but not completely) absent, but I suppose that’s why social reference sites like Ask MetaFilter are popular among we library folk.

When [the pilot and safety expert’s] plane ended up at the bottom of the Hudson River on Jan. 15, so did a book he had checked out from the library at California State University, Fresno, through his local library near Danville… [He] asked for an extension and [received a] waiver of overdue fees because the book was in the airliner’s cargo hold.

Interestingly, a reference to this bit of library trivia has already made its way into his Wikipedia entry.

I’ve just barely broken the 10% threshold! For now, at least, it seems that 1gb/mo is plenty given that at half of the time I’m using the iPhone on my home WiFi network. Perhaps as I begin to more fully integrate the device into my various quotidian information seeking routines I’ll start to push its limits… but I’m no longer too concerned.

If approved by a federal judge, the settlement would end a class-action suit filed September 20, 2005 by the AG and certain authors, and another suit filed October 19, 2005 by five major AAP members. It would transform Google Book Search into a major online bookstore, creating a one-stop experience for users who wishing to search, access, print or buy copies of books. The announcement comes just weeks after LJ reported reported on October 10 that a settlement was imminent… [read more]

A settlement is good, but a verdict confirming Google’s approach as fair use would have been better.  For more information on what this will mean for Google Book Search product, there’s more detailed information from Google. 

This paves the way for some seriously innovative offerings that will be particularly relevant to special libraries.  When trying to find titles for ILL I have frequently come up empty at local libraries but found exactly what I need on Google.  Depending on the price point, this could be a real lifesaver.

From “Mayor Palin: A Rough Record” in Time Magazine, via Librarian.net :

[Former Wasilla, Alaska Mayor John] Stein says “[Palin] asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor… [read more]

Threatening to fire the librarian for her refusal is somewhat unsurprising, given that Palin also reportedly sacked the heads of other city agencies for alleged ’loyalty’ to her predecessor.

Note to elected officials: undermining the merit principle for staffing and promotion in a non-partisan civil service is no easy shortcut to ‘cutting red tape’ or slashing ‘unecessary bureaucracy’; instead, it’s just another plodding step down the road back to the untrammeled patronage system of the not-so-distant past. Also, don’t mess with the library!

Photo credit: AKMuckraker via WIkipedia.

[He] has been nicknamed “Lordy” by his fellow inmates, orders around his cellmate, lectures on American history, and has been promoted to work in the library, according to a story yesterday in London’s Daily Mail. [read more]

I couldn’t track down any more details about his duties in the library, though the Daily Mail notes that the new gig affords him “virtually unlimited access to newspapers”… a perk welcomed by procrastinating library types the world over. 

I’ve just added the feed to my NetVibes account so as to keep an eye on the job market for curiosity’s sake.  This could have saved me an awful lot of obsessive bookmark-checking when I was last looking for work, as most of the sites I consulted on a daily basis are included in this mashup.

Toronto Public Health and the Toronto Public Library are teaming up with community partners to make pedometers available for loan at 18 library branches throughout the city. This initiative is part of a new Walk into Health program to encourage people to build physical activity into their daily lives. In 2007, over 2,000 pedometers were lent out at 12 branches. Those who borrowed last year stated that pedometers helped them continue walking for exercise.

Last year, SunLife Financial began sponsoring the Musem and Arts Pass, which allows patrons to ’sign out’ tickets good for admission to a number of large and small cultural attractions all over the city.

What other cool stuff do — or could — our public our libraries lend?

Simple, durable objects (like hand tools or sturdy toys) spring to mind as the most practical options, while anything fragile or so expensive as to necessitate a deposit (like laptops) is probably out of the running right away. The most obvious choices here would be objects that dovetail with other municipal programs (hance the pedomters for public health and museum passes under the rubric of ‘culture’).

Because TPL’s 99 branches blanket the city fairly evenly, I have long felt they could play some part in rolling out some future city-wide bicycle rental scheme; however, I’m sure lending complex mechanical devices is much too tricky (and costly) to easily graft onto the library circulation model. Perhaps libraries would be most useful as handy municipal property rather than as administrators of such a program.

If anyone knows of other interesting items circulated by public libararies around the world, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Like pajamas, e-mail reference (or chat) can represent comfort, privacy, and flexibility. We reference librarians like to think of ourselves as friendly and welcoming, but some patrons are—despite our best efforts—uncomfortable asking questions face to face… Whatever the reason, e-mail alleviates those discomforts: patrons can ask a question, phrased just the way they want, without having to stand in the reference office in front of a librarian. It’s private, too: their classmates needn’t know they’re asking questions, and no one will overhear them saying something dumb. [read more]

I’ve been digging through the back issues of Law Library Journal lately, mainly to consume Mary Whisner’s “Practicing Reference…” column.  Although this particular piece focuses on the vagaries of providing academic legal reference services to law students, the passage above is also relevant to those of us working within large firms where ‘remote’ users are more likely to be at their desks down the hall (or down the stairs on another floor, or down the road in another city) than at home and wearing suits rather than pyjamas.

My library has set up an online form that populates most of the fields in our reference query database, providing all of the benefits of asynchronous communication while also happily saving time for all involved by eliminating the tedious, repetitive Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V process of transforming an email question into a well-formatted database record. I prefer handling queries by email, too, as hearing loss can make substantial telephone reference interactions with soft-spoken or accented users akward.

We don’t ask for much more information than the user would likely have included in a free-form email, so the barriers to entry are low – if not nonexistent, as the user does still need to navigate to the appropriate intranet to locate the form. So: same time to submit a question, plus less time preparing to answer each question equals more time spent locating the best information to answer it, equals a better experience for everyone… right?

Maybe, assuming we can stimulate wider adoption and long-term compliance. Our training librarian preaches the ‘use the form!’ gospel to all new hires, but many incumbent users are sticking to their preferred method of interaction, be it phone, email, or walk-in.