Poster Presentations

In mid November my group and I presented the preliminary results from the research project we are working on. Our presentation was a poster and we were very excited to be one of the five winners of the "Outstanding Poster" award. This presentation was at the iDEALS summit sponserd by the UNCG LIS department and the UNCG libraries.
I also got forwarded a link to a webguide about how to create great poster presentations. I wanted to share it with you because I look forward to using their suggestions for my next poster presentation.

Apology

I apologize for the lack of postings. This semester has been busy with my library science classes. I hope to continue posting again soon. Please check out a blog we have made for an independent study project that I am a part of: http://librarywebsites.wordpress.com/

Do reference librarians follow RUSA guidelines?

I am currently taking a class on Reference (or more properly called Information Sources and Services) and we were discussing how to do a reference interview and the RUSA guidelines which govern how to do that skill well. Those guidelines involve being Available so that patrons will come up to you, showing Interest in the patron's questions, Listening carefully to what the patron says, developing an appropriate Search strategy to try to answer their question and then Following up to make sure that the patron is satisfied with the interaction. The assignment we had in class was what concrete actions could librarians do to demonstrate these things.

Our group wrote a list down of all of these suggestions such as smiling and wearing distinctive name tags so that people would know that you were available for help. But then our discussion side tracked into, would current librarians really be able or willing to do these things? Well smiling, no one took issue with that one. But one woman (who current works in a university library) said that her colleagues would not be willing to where name tags because they would not want people knowing that they work there and because people would "bug" them all the time with questions.

I was shocked at first, librarians not wanting to help their patrons?!?! And then I thought about it more, often at larger university libraries and some public ones the staff have not always been friendly to me. And I hate to say this, but especially the older ones. I have no scientific merit backing up these statements but from personal experience there are way too many librarians who are not following the RUSA guidelines, they are haggard and curt and often to the point. The don't seem to care about my questions and seem to just want to answer them as quickly as possible and then get me out of their way. In these librarian's defense perhaps this is because library budget cuts are making all libraries get by with fewer and less trained staff. Perhaps these people are not trained librarians who have even heard of the RUSA guidelines before and are now forced into performing these types of tasks.

But that is no excuse! I feel that in many libraries the common courtesy is gone. That personal touch is gone. And it is that personal touch that goes the extra mile with patrons today. When too many people think they can get everything they need off the interest it becomes the person and the personality of the librarians who will make the difference to keep libraries funded.

So my non-scientific thought survey came to this conclusion:  reference librarians especially in academia are in general not following the RUSA guidelines on a day to day basis. So I implore all librarians to get back to their roots from LIS school, go the extra mile, show the patrons that you care.

Library websites

So what makes a good library website? I took a course this summer about Web usability and design. We learned a lot about web usability and what makes a good website overall (Do what users expect). We also learned a lot from Jakob Nielson and his book, Prioritizing Web Usability,  however the class was so general that we didn't step in specifically and look at library websites. So this fall, myself, Dr. Anthony Chow and Patricia Commander are going to try to answer the question of what makes a good library website by looking at and evaluating a sampling of public and academic websites. I am really excited.
I also found this article today from Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog about the 3 stages of library websites. I wonder if what he found is also what we will find. And I want to check out NCSU's library page. Hopefully it will be as good as he says!

Are Libraries just for the Have-Nots?

In fall 2009, I was teaching high school and I surveyed all 65 of my students at a small private Christian school in Charlotte, NC about their thoughts about libraries. A couple of different students commented on the survey that they didn’t use the library, but they did think libraries are important for the less fortunate. Is that all that libraries are good for? Do most Americans see libraries as being just for the poor? Do the rich see them that way? Obviously these students thought they had access to all the information they needed, they had internet at home (and also most likely on their cell phone), could buy whatever books they needed, and could either download or buy whatever movies and music they wanted to. And honestly I sometimes wonder if the public library is really an institution mainly for the less-fortunate. I use my public library often to check out materials and to go there to read. I don’t use it for internet access because I can afford that at home. I use it to check out materials, because I can’t afford to buy them all.


School and academic libraries to me are clearly NOT just for the poor, because they both have important missions of teaching their students how to evaluate, find, and choose worthy information sources. Additionally academic libraries have access to tons of journals and articles that students need for their research, that it would be silly most of the time for a student to buy those articles and journals (unless everything went to a pay per article format). In the case of academic libraries students need the library because through the library is their only way to access these useful sources of information.

But public libraries… is it sacrilegious to say that I think the lower and middle classes probably use them much more often than the upper classes. Really for these classes the public library is an essential service. Please don’t misunderstand, I think public libraries are wonderful and awesome and should be a mandated service of the government because they provide services to all and in many cases help equal the playing field when it comes to access to information. But I am not sure that the rich in America need public libraries. They can get internet now in Starbucks or even McDonalds, many bookstores are now holding weekly story times… So are libraries just for the have-nots? Or just mostly for the have-nots?

Librarian Movies

The Huffington Post wrote this article on August 16, and I knew I had to share it. It features the top 11 movies with librarians in them. Obviously Music Man with Marion the Librarian is the first. I love (and own) that movie. Now I need to go back and watch some of the others....

I want an e-reader

I feel left behind. I really want to be a hip young librarian in the know. However, while still going to school I obviously am not making a ton of money working only part time. Therefore I am not rich, and cannot afford an e-reader. But I would really really like one! Why? My family asks and my husband asks, why do you need an e-reader. Paper books and magazines work just fine. And the simple answer is well not so simple. I could say that I want one for the convenience, because that is true, or so that I carry less books around with me and that is also true. But I think the real reason is that I want to be with current technology and the library world is started to use and embrace e-readers and e-books. Yes, they are still a small part of the book market, but that portion is growing.
Library Journal is hosting a webinar soon solely about e-books, many large and medium sized library systems now have e-books to check out. A library director who I interviewed a YEAR AGO, was using e-readers as an essential part of the class he was teaching. But finally and most importantly for me, I have started to actually have practical uses for one. I have started to find e-books in my email inbox, to sign up for on LibraryThing and seen advertisements for free downloads of some classics. Just today I got an email previewing some new titles of books coming out this fall. (so exciting, I am still new enough that free books in any shape or form are still awesome to me and I still pretend to have time to read them). One of these new titles you could download the first chapter to preview and read! But for me reading long things on the computer is difficult, I much prefer to sit in a nice oversize comfy chair and read. And I am too cheap to print out 32 pages of this book. So what would be the perfect solution? An e-reader, but well I don't have one. So I am stuck with either reading uncomfortably from my computer screen or spending the money on ink and paper and printing out 32 pages......

At the moment I am feeling cheap, so the computer screen it is, but oh How I want an E-Reader. I am not picky at the moment, Kindle, Nook, IPad, any will do... :)

Support our Libraries by Buying Books!

For three days in August, 18 local bookstores have joined together to help out our local Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. This past year the library’s book purchasing budget was dramatically slashed by 58%! That means that the libraries have significantly less money to spend this year purchasing books, however these cuts come just at a time when the library is seeing a surge in use. There is a general consensus that libraries are essential to our literature community, as they provide valuable resources to all of us and host programs and events that encourage a love of literature and reading. Without the proper funds the library would not be able to purchase as many books and other resources therefore leaving us as a community without those rich resources.


Local booksellers have recognized this need and are stepping up. For three days in early August eighteen local bookstores are banding together to host a “book fair” to help generate funds for the library so that they can continue to purchase the books and other materials that library users need. To participate simply shop at one of the local booksellers during their book fair dates (those vary by individual store) and ask that your purchase be used to help support the libraries.

For the complete listing of participating booksellers and the exact dates they are having their book fairs please check out this article on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library website: http://www.plcmc.org/about_us/in_the_news/releaseDetails.asp?id=469.

Brighter Future for Libraries?

Thomas Frey

Lately there have been many people talking about lots of coming doom and gloom for libraries. How libraries are an outdated business model and who needs libraries when we all have the internet and ebooks? Well Thomas Frey, executive director and senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute, thinks that libraries do have a place in the future, although a slightly different one then what roles they currently occupy. This is an interview with him posted on the American Libraries website. His ideas are really interesting, I especially like the concept of and Electronic Outpost Library. I think these could really catch on in various places, especially among those who seek to know information all the time, but don't yet have an iPhone or Droid.

New Video about Studying in the Library (Take off on Old Spice Commercials)

So, yes this video has been blogged about a lot and posted in multiple places, however I just had to join the crowd and post it as well (in case you are a librarian under a rock somewhere or on vacation and missed it). But this video is a marketing tool for the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU. Its hilarious!
Enjoy!

Take a Quick Blogs vs. Journals Survey

Stewart Baker, a librarian at California State University, is conducting a survey of librarians and library science students to study the impact of library blogs vs scholarly journals. If you would like to take the survey follow this link: Blogs vs Journals Survey.

I personally think he is trying to answer a really interesting question, if both blogs and scholarly journals have value in the library world and more specifically what value? If money and time are both in short supply, can we just read blogs? Are blogs accurate enough to be thought of as good sources? I believe that most blogs are accurate and certainly they are much much more timely than academic journals. But blogs are also opinion pieces, since there is no peer-review process, a blogger is free to say whatever they want to say in their blog.

Personally I read both, kind of. I read a couple of blogs that I find interesting (although I need to read them more often) but I also read Library Journal and American Libraries, which are not scholarly journals, but are still trade journals discussing the news and trends in the field. I would subscribe to a scholarly peer-reviewed journal if I had an area of expertise or speciality in the field. Because I am still a student and not sure yet where I want to go, as of now I do not subscribe (money is also an issue).

Bibliotherapy: Personal Stories Part 3 of 3

In this final post I want to explain why bibliotherapy means so much to me and why I am so interested in it. Mostly it is because bibliotherapy has meant so much and been extremely effective for two very important people in my life. To protect their privacy I will simply call them "Susan" and "Melissa." I want to share their bibliotherapy success stories.

Susan
Susan was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder when she was in her mid 30s, she is continuing to fight and struggle through this mental illness still today. As her illness progressed various medications and treatments would work, but after a while each different type of treatment or medication seemed to wear off and the symptoms of depression would inevitably return. However, during these years of ups and downs one constant self-treatment that Susan often used was reading. Susan mostly used creative bibliotherapy (see post 1 for a definition). She would use fiction books as an escape from her pain. The books she read were an effective coping strategy that would keep her from slipping deeper into depression and often help stabilize her mood. Most likely Susan would say that her books were life savers for her, helping her cope with her illness and getting her through hard times.

However, Susan's bibliotherapy was self-directed. Although she has not yet tried it, Susan indicated that she would interested in learning more about clinical bibliotherapy with her psychologist and feels it could be even more beneficial to her, because of the successes she has had with her self-guided bibliotherapy.

Melissa
Melissa's story is similar to Susan's. She was also diagnosed with a mild form of depression, however Melissa was diagnosed at an earlier age, when she was in high school. Melissa still struggles with the illness, however Melissa is no longer using any formal treatment or medication to help control her disease. About 6 years ago Melissa and her counselor worked on coping strategies and together they determined that reading was an especially important escape for her. Melissa's reading of familiar and comforting books helped her stabilize her mood and keep her mind off negative thoughts. Melissa's comfort reading let her see hope through the characters and stories she read (because when engaging in bibliotherapy she would only choose positive books to read).

Today Melissa swears by bibliotherapy to self-treat her depression. And Melissa would tell you that reading books has many a time saved her life. Melissa learned enough from her counseling sessions to be able to choose appropriate books to treat her depression. Today Melissa swears by her self-directed bibliotherapy for when she has depressive episodes.


I share these two stories, although neither is formal bibliotherapy, because I feel that both of these individuals I know could have benefited from a formal bibliotherapy program. Neither of these people had heard about bibliotherapy until I mentioned it to them and they both feel that a formal program could have been or could still be helpful to them because they are both engaged in personally using books to heal themselves. People like Susan and Melissa are why I feel there is a great need for more formal bibliotherapy collaborations and programs between practitioners and public libraries. I wrote these posts to hopefully encourage librarians to think more about these posibilities.

Bibliotherapy: Suggestions for Librarians Part 2 of 3

So in my first post I defined bibliotherapy and explained why it was important and useful. In my research I have found a surprising lack of librarians publishing and participating in bibliotherapy in the United States. I wish to offer suggestions about why and how librarians should reintegrate themselves into bibliotherapy practice.

The impact of librarians on clinical bibliotherapy is very small (only 3.1% of Professional counselors use librarians to choose sources and only 0.4% call that input valuable), whereas I feel that this is an area where collaboration between librarians and health professionals should abound. Much of the recent research in bibliotherapy has a clinical slant and has not focused on best practices or application, which have left these studies mostly inaccessible to be utilized by librarians (Brewster 116). Perhaps this absence of bibliotherapist librarians in the United States is because of the ethical issues surrounding medical information, as suggested by Rosey Clark: “Librarians who are asked questions by patrons concerning law and medicine have very strict guidelines. Definitive answers are never given, we only give patrons reliable reference sources. We refer them to physicians and lawyers for interpretation, diagnosis, and treatment” (36).

So is recommending books for bibliotherapy a form of treatment? If the recommendations are made in conjunction with a mental health professional who is guiding the librarian based on their own expertise in medicine, development, or mental health, then I believe that recommendation is completely within the bounds of librarianship. Liz Brewster agrees, stating that, “Both self help and creative bibliotherapy contribute to the wider agenda of current library practice” (173). Moreover collaborations of recommending books for bibliotherapy should thrive. Librarians are experts in books and health professionals are experts in therapy, when put together correctly that should be a winning combination for successful treatment (Brewster 174).

A few of the librarians publishing about bibliotherapy in the literature suggest a good first step towards librarians gaining a foothold in bibliotherapy is through the use of bibliographies. Jami L. Jones suggests that librarians could provide the names of books or specific passages in literature that could be useful for health professionals in therapy (26). Jones suggests this method because it allows librarians to be proactive and prove their usefulness to health professionals. Additionally, Rosey Clark, although she still has concerns about bibliotherapy complied a bibliography in response to a request for materials a teacher could use to help his students with issues of abandonment and abuse (36-37). She felt a bibliography was still considered reader’s advisory and not a bibliotherapy prescription.

Although bibliographies and perhaps other passive bibliotherapy techniques such as book displays are a good start at reintegrating librarians back into bibliotherapy, emulating a system such as England’s “Books on Prescription” or a similar collaboration between public libraries and local health departments could benefit both librarians and the communities they serve. Book prescription schemes are a collaboration of public libraries and local health departments where libraries agree to stock a certain set of books agreed upon by the librarians and mental health professionals (Brewster 118). The health department advertises the service to doctors and hospitals and gives them, literally, prescription pads on which to assign books for patients. Then when the patient is prescribed a book the patient can go to the library to “fill their prescription” rather than going to the pharmacist.

Due to the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in conjunction with other treatment methods and current economic climate, many patients seeking help for a mental or physical illness cannot easily afford to buy books, nor can health professionals afford to give them away. A bibliotherapy collaborative project between librarians and health officials could let health department officials advertise bibliotherapy resources to hospitals, treatment centers, and individual practitioners, while librarians would stock appropriate books and resources and assist individuals in finding them in a non-threatening way.

It makes perfect sense for libraries and health care to join together to promote bibliotherapy because public libraries already have locations in the heart of their communities and already provide information, literature, and support to their patrons. Librarians in the United States need to learn from the Book Prescription programs in England and begin bibliotherapy programs here, which can serve as an excellent new library service that would improve the health and well being of their communities in a collaborative and low-cost way.

Works Cited

Brewster, Liz. “Medicine for the Soul: Bibliotherapy.” Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services. 21.3 (2008): 115-119.
Brewster, Liz. “The Reading Remedy: Bibliotherapy in Practice.” Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services. 21.4 (2008): 172-177.
Clark, Rosey. “Fiction or Nonfiction?: Bibliotherapy Examined.” Library Media Connection. 24.1 (2005): 36-37.
Jones, Jami L. “A Closer Look at Bibliotherapy.” Young Adult Library Services. 5.1 (2006): 24-27.
Pehrsson, Dale-Elizabeth and Paula McMillen. A National Survey of Bibliotherapy Practice in Professional Counseling. American Counseling Association Conference. Charlotte, NC. March 2009. Presentation.

Bibliotherapy: What is it? Part 1 of 3

So in my library science courses this summer I have come across this concept of bibliotherapy. Although it is a very old concept it is new to me and really fascinates me as well. This is the first in a series of 3 blog posts in which I will talk about what bibliotherapy is, why its useful and important, how librarians can get more involved in it, and then some personal stories about it.

1. What is bibliotherapy?
Although sometimes difficult to define, bibliotherapy in general is the use of books in healing or treatment (Pehrsson and McMillen). The concept of bibliotherapy goes all the way back to ancient Greece, where the Library in Thebes had the phrase "Healing place of the soul" over its doorway. However, the term 'bibliotherapy' was coined by Samuel Crothers in 1916 because during that time period (WWI) reading for therapeutic purposes greatly increased as patients libraries in hospitals used reading to help soldiers recover from physical and mental trauma (McMillen and Pehrsson 74; Turner 56). Today bibliotherapy is practiced by many different groups: physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, parents, teachers, librarians, and counselors.

Classifying Bibliotherapy:

Developmental: used to assist individuals dealing with life transitions or normal development
Clinical: used usually by a trained mental health or medical practitioner to help meet specific therapeutic goals

Self-help: utilizes non-fiction sources often classified as self-help books
Creative: utilizes fiction or poetry

2. Why is Bibliotherapy Important?

According to a presentation by Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson and Paula McMillen bibliotherapy “increases self-awareness and clarifies emerging values, stimulates discussion of feelings and ideas, improves coping skills, reduces negative emotions, and enhances self-esteem, interpersonal skills and emotional maturity.” Additionally a bibliotherapist librarian commented in a survey that bibliotherapy has “real benefits to users, giving them more control of their illness” and a bibliotherapy patient responded in that same survey: “I feel that I have been able to help myself instead of just being told what is wrong with me” (Turner 60). Additionally Stephanie Burns states that creative bibliotherapy “facilitates valuable therapeutic work by evoking emotion and stimulating senses” and that clients “have an opportunity to find increased meaning, purpose, and hope for survival when fictional stories are utilized in therapeutic settings” (442; 446).

However, bibliotherapy in practice provides more than just a list of benefits on paper. Studies have shown that when used properly, bibliotherapy is successful. Recent literature reviews have shown that bibliotherapy as a separate treatment show mixed results, however they did conclude that bibliotherapy is very successful in helping patients reach treatment goals when used with other treatment methods (Aiex). Several studies have found positive responses to using self-help bibliotherapy with adults to treat health related problems, including improved attitudes towards problems and treatment and lowered stress levels (McMillen and Pehrsson 78).

Moreover, bibliotherapy can have economic benefits in addition to mental and medical ones. The British organization, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, advocates the use of bibliotherapy in the treatment of depression due to its cost effectiveness. This organization estimates that £5 million ($3.38 million) a year would be saved if exercise and guided bibliotherapy were used as treatments instead of antidepressant medication (Brewster 117).

So to Summarize:

• Bibliotherapy is helping people heal with books
• It has concrete positive impacts!
• It is proven successful as a treatment!
• It is cost-effective!

Works Cited:

Aiex, Nola K. “Bibliotherapy.” ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication. June 1993. Web. 7 June 2010.
Brewster, Liz. “Medicine for the Soul: Bibliotherapy.” Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services. 21.3 (2008): 115-119.
Burns, Stephanie T. “Utilizing Fictional Stories When Counseling Adults.” Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. 3.4 (2008): 441-454.
McMillen, Paula and Dale Pehrsson. “Specialty of the House: Bibliotherapy for Hospital Patients.” Journal of Hospital Librarianship. 4.1 (2004): 73-82.
Pehrsson, Dale-Elizabeth and Paula McMillen. A National Survey of Bibliotherapy Practice in Professional Counseling. American Counseling Association Conference. Charlotte, NC. March 2009. Presentation.
Turner, June. “Bibliotherapy for Health and Wellbeing: An Effective Investment.” Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services. 21.2 (2008): 56-61.

Reader's Advisory

So this summer I am taking a class in Reader's Advisory, the art of where a patron and a librarian work together to find a good book that the patron will hopefully like to read. I call it an art because from just starting to read about it that what it seems to be, an art, not a science. I am a very fact based person, so personally I really just wanted a step by step guide to reader's advisory that would work every time. Perhaps like a dichotomous key that biologist use to identify species. The librarian could ask simple questions and then based on the patrons' answer ask one of two other questions and so for an so on until TA Dah! The perfect book or author is found. However from just starting to read about the reader's advisory process it is no where near that simple.

The textbook we are using is called Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests 6th Ed. By Diana Tixier Herald and I am overwhelmed by just what it contains. This text is 560 pages long and over 3/4 of it is just lists and bibliographies of books. Now those books are organized by genre and subgenre so that if a patron tells you a book they just read or a type of genre they like you can look it up here and find other books listed next to it that are similar. But I am still overwhelmed! How is a librarian to know all of these books, so that when a patron comes up to ask for a good book the librarian can mentally calculate based on the patron's answers to questions what books they would like?!?
The simple answer is that they can't. And I think this is the true secret to good librarianship: Know that you don't know everything, but know where to find anything. So a good reader's advisor doesn't have to have all the fiction books memorized by genre and plot type and whether or not the lead character is female. They can simply know how to find a novel that a patron has just read in Genreflecting (and have that book behind the reference desk) or know how to use fiction searching sites such as NoveList to type in key words that patrons use to describe their reading preferences. It is such a positive relief to me that librarians really don't have to know everything, we just need to know a few good sources to finding whatever we need. And thanks to the librarians who made those sources describing many of the fiction works all in one place!

Outrageous Costs of Journals

So to the entire library world this post is old news. But with the craziness of my life recently I only had a chance to read the April 15, 2010 Library Journal this week. And again there was another article which mentioned the "new normal" and also the sky high price of periodicals. It is amazing to me that periodicals go up in price usually between 5-10% per year, because usually most library's budgets for periodicals do not go up nearly that much. Additionally in the past few years and many of next years budgets have already been reduced so that there will be even less of a collections budget for periodicals.

Again, like I said this is all old news in the library world: increasing periodical prices and stagnate budgets. But one tidbit from the article called "Seeking the New Normal" By Kittie S. Henderson and Stephen Bosch really shocked me: "In October, the library world reeled as Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced a 640 percent price increase (from $39.95 in 2009 to $299 in 2010) for a print subscription to Scientific American." WOW! How could a publisher do that?!? A 640% increase?? True, that price for a science journal started out at lower than average, but to me that just seems ludicrous!

I know that individuals rant and rave about these price jumps in things like blogs, but does the library world actually stand up and try to fight them? Can libraries band together and say we will not purchase a journal? Could they say that to a journal as standard and prestigious as Scientific American or would NPG just laugh, because they know that libraries will keep buying the journal anyway because our patrons still want it and they don't exactly know the cost that is going into purchasing it?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library

I am a resident of Mecklenburg County and a proud supporter of and volunteer in our public libraries. Many of you may have heard in the past couple of weeks the major budget issues going on in our library. The Public Library had to return $2 million to the County to cover a gap in the budget for the fiscal year 09-10 and then next year the public libraries are looking at a 50% funding decrease from the county. To fix the short-term budget gap the library originally planned to close 12 branches and lay off 140+ people, however there was a huge public out cry and the library came up with a new plan involving staff pay cuts, cuts in services and hours, and no collections budget for the rest of the year, but they are keeping all of the branches open.

Is it sacreligious for a future librarian to say that I think they should have closed some of the library branches? Because that is how I feel. I really do love our public libraries, however there are some which are located very close to each other. In the small area that comprises downtown Charlotte there are 3 libraries (Main, Imaginon, and Check-it Outlet). I personally think one of those 3 (Check-it outlet) could have been closed without a lot of loss of service or convienence. There are a couple other branches which could have been closed as well because they are located very near other branches.

I am not trying to be tright, honestly I wish none of the branches had to close and no one had to be laid off, but if the library had to cut $2 million dollars I think there are better ways to do it then how they did it. Cutting the collection budget, services offered, and salaries will make for more grumpy patrons and grumpy librarians, than if patrons had to drive an extra mile to get to a library branch. I know some library employees who now say they are going to have to find second jobs in order to make ends meet with this pay cut.

In hard fiscal times like these there are hard decisions to be made. It scares me even more to think about what the library will try to do to cope with a 50% budget decrease for next year. I know that they will have to start closing libraries then and perhaps even lay off more people. We need to support our libraries and the services that they provide (most of which are free because you paid for them with your tax dollars). Please consider talking to your county commissioners or donate to the library.

Some cool (slightly older) blog posts

So I am finally going through all of my old emails from the first 3 months of this year and I can across a few really cool blog posts that I thought might interest others:

http://programminglibrarian.org/library/planning/get-in-the-loop.html -This is a post all about programming in libraries and what MLIS students should be aware of, and what they could use in their libraries or while as students for programming projects.

http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/my-sweet-sixteen-list-of-things-i-learned-in-librarianship-in-2009/ - a list of sixteen things learned about librarianship in 2009. All 16 are interesting things to ponder about the future of librarianship. They definitely made me think.

Google to investigate 'education searches'

I saw this article in the School Library Journal e-newsletter and wanted to share. Google is exploring the option of creating an 'education search' from its website. Now, the article is very vague about what that type of search would be, however it sounds intriguing.

What would an 'education search' look like? If I was doing any controlling of that type of search I would very start by making sure that all hits to my search were valid and credible websites. That if I did an education search on 'genetics' I did not find a website written by Sally Smith in Grade 4, but rather a website authored by a professor of genetics at a University. I hope Google hires some librarians/educators to work on this project, if it gets out of 'exploration' stage. Because wouldn't they be the best to evaluate how students use the internet to get information?

The Nature Explorium - In a Library!

How cool is this! I just found this news story (originally posted at the Green Libraries Blog). The Middle County Library Foundation is Planning and fundraising for a "Nature Explorium," an interactive outdoor learning environment for children the Middle County Library - Centereach. This will make it the first library to have an outdoor education space as well. The space will have centers with different themes, from a "messy area" to a planting area. As a self-titled environmentalist I love this concept because it highlights another area of education that a public library can offer, makes the space available for new and unique library programs, and highlights the library as an essential part of the community.

My closest public library, the Steele Creek branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, has a Children's Garden outside. Although, I don't think that the children's garden can even come close to the Nature Explorium, I am still glad this public library has it, because it adds a great outdoor space and character to the library.

Hi!

Hello to all! I am a current Masters of Library and Information Science Student at UNC-Greensboro at their distance learning campus in Charlotte, NC. I wanted to start this blog to share and blog about ideas and issues that I think are important for brand new librarians/librarians still in school/other topics that I think could be interesting to the library community.

I welcome comments and critiques of all that I post here. I seek to not only share my thoughts, but also gain wisdom and advice from other new and experience librarians who will hopefully, eventually check out this blog!