Librarysoul

Cllr Roxanne Mashari ousted Cllr James Powney to become the new lead member for environment and neighbourhoods

In what could be its most radical makeover in a century, the State Library will be transformed from a mere repository of books into a hot-wired hub of the digital age. Mark Baker reports.

By: Patrick Gill Dear Michael Rosenblum, You recently wrote an article for the Huffinton Post Media section asking “What’s a Library?” Though you proceeded to write about the death of libraries, I ...

As librarians, we know the value of our community services, and our patrons appreciate their importance as well. But in an increasingly digital world, we see the role of libraries as community and cultural centers at times undervalued, and occasionally under fire. When shrinking municipal budgets combine with the nonstop technological revolution, public library services that focus on building community face-to-face, inspiring and educating patrons about art, literature, and music, and helping patrons engage in civil discourse can seem quaint. But it is precisely those shrinking budgets and the onslaught of technologically mediated life that make public libraries’ cultural and community offerings more important than ever....

Editor's note:  The following post was written by Professor Jill Hurst-Wahl and Matthew Gunby, recent graduate of the LIS degree program at the iSchool. The current conversation around the value of...

The New York Public Library’s newest branch is going to sparkle like fine crystal.The W. 53rd St. center will be an airy, vibrant structure with multiple public spaces, modern computer labs, an audio-video collection, and walls of books, library officials said Monday as they unveiled new renderings of the three-story facility designed by Enrique Norten’s TEN Arquitectos.Meanwhile, the city is sucking dry its existing libraries.

Please help us in our campaign to keep libraries across New York City open, stocked, and staffed.

The Donnell branch of the New York Public Library has been reconceived to fit at the base of a high-rise hotel and designed to emphasize places to congregate rather than those for books.

Two separate incidents made me a little bit sad over the last couple weeks.

User experience is an important tool for libraries to employ against a number of competitors like bookstores and at-home Internet access. Libraries have taken this as an opportunity to provide services that are not available elsewhere, like the story above illustrates. The strategy to focus on users and their needs has earned libraries strong support from the public as demonstrated by a recent Pew Internet study: an overwhelming 91% of Americans “say public libraries are important to their communities."

Ever worry about where our profession is headed? I do—a lot—but then something happens to make me realize there is indeed a bright future for librarianship, and that library work still attracts talented, creative, and interesting people. I recently had the good fortune to meet two such individuals: Ashley and Heather Pierce. They’re sisters who both happen to work at the Harvard Law School Library (HLSL), and they’re both vibrant, motivated young women who enjoy their work immensely and are obviously committed to it.

This is a longer read than usual, but here is the text and some of the images from the keynote address I gave at The Acquisitions Institute 2013.  The slides are available too (PPT downlo...

By the 1900's libraries will be dead. Discover why!

"Moving Past the Deficit Model and Demonstrating Our Worth" Texas Library Association Annual Conference. Fort Worth, TX (via Skype). Abstract: Our communities, be they an academy or a city, are not...

San Juan Capistrano’s new librarian has the know-how to take on a changing library landscape By Brian Park It’s no small task replacing a local legend, but that’s exactly what San Juan Capistrano’s...

Libraries: the Best Bang for Your Buck (via Observer-Dispatch) Recently an Observer-Dispatch editorial noted that: the public library …. is a treasure. We...

Who are the unsung of the book-publishing world?  The librarians and booksellers, who give advice and make recommendations to their members and customers. The people who are in their jobs because t...

I know... I know... another post about the future of libraries.  But this one is different from the talk I gave before. It's shorter; it geared towards an audience of non-librarians; it uses different stories; it betrays more of the form of a larger idea that I'm working on. And it has a different ending! This presentation was for the Seventh Annual Conference on Teaching and Learning, held at the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, May 1-2, 2013: On the verge: debating the future of university teaching.