Alice Down the YouTube

A collection of videos created by staff for use in staff education on ethical issues:

Video List

King County Library System Training
KCLS Training – Michael Denton
Bunnies
123
Patrons Gone Wild
[Search YouTube/Google for "KCLStraining" to find more KCLS videos. Tips for successful training videos - use upper level managers to play "bad patrons" and "bad staff", front line staff for good examples; videos provide discussion starters, don't work in a vacuum; videos can support peer-to-peer learning, as in staff meetings]

Eric Faden
Fair(y) Use Tale
[Fascinating, provides an interesting meta-primer on fair use]

Art Institute of Washington
Goofus and Gallant in the Library
Part 2

Dan Conley
Managarian
Part 1 – Intro
Part 3 – Customer Service
Part 5 – Where do patrons come from?
[Library student spoof of dated training films still used in his LIS program]

Additional Resources
Denise Raleigh – Gail Borden Public Library
Part 1 Privacy @ Your Library and Part 2 Privacy @ Your Library .

Libraries collaborating across the Academic/Public divide

Finally getting to a series of ALA reports for my SPL colleagues. I do 'em here, because then I can find them again.

"Our Town, Common Ground" - Academic Libraries' collaboration with Public Libraries

Academic Libraries often have as a stated goal some amount of programming for the community. Lends itself well to arts and humanities programming. Collaboration follows staged process: Determine shared/compatible interests; Determine shared resources (strengths/weaknesses); Seek funding (if needed); Balance responsibilities.

Lawton, OK programs:

• Shared author visit - campus writing workshop, public library author visit program


• Shared "one book" program - public programs at both campus and PL venues


• "Oklahoma Chautauqua" - Campus workshops w/ scholars, evening PL public programs


• Smaller projects - Lunch & Learn - brown bag programs w/ professors; professors doing programming at PL, e.g. archivist on archives v. scrapbooking, historian doing genealogy workshops.

Service Learning programs - Many schools have service learning opportunities or requirements. Service learners provide a motivated source of short-term volunteers, if managed appropriately. If school has good structure in place, even better. Need to work with school Service Learning Coordinator to set up, think about how to tie service to academic goals.
Projects included: Weekly tasks - shelving, computer help, event assistance, storytime prep; "Legacy project" (school requirement) - group planned and implemented daylong Narnia festival with children's librarian's guidance.

Places for SPL to partner with, potentially:
CSUS ; Cosumnes college (has extant programs in ECE, classroom support, might try tech partnership?).

Report from "The Stacks"

I love the enormous trade show that comes with ALA annual. I love the hoopla attached to all things librarian, and in a country where your power can be measured by how hard vendors court you, it's nice to feel like they're still paying attention. While I now have a system (start from the left, up one row down the next, and never, ever, make eye contact with the conspiracy publishers in the small press aisle), I love watching the folks who stop to talk to everyone, who pick up tons of posters to take backs to colleagues at home, and most especially, the first timers who are blown away by scale of it all.

When I was living in England, I went to a library show in London that was billed as the biggest in the country. It made me long for ALA - there were a total of 8 programs the day I went, and the trade show was the equivalent of maybe 2 aisles of what ALA does. While I know a trade-show isn't the be-all and end-all of a professional organization's role (some might even argue it's a distraction), it's one of the many ways the professional infrastructure in the US is more robust than that in the UK.

Before I get in to what I actually found out, a quick impression - the effects of the economic downturn were clearly visible at the show. Fewer quick-and-easy giveaways - I can usually stock up on post-its and highlighters at ALA, and there were none to be found. Galleys were also in short supply, and less easily accessible. For first time ever, I had to wait in line to have face-time with the author to get a book (now that I've skimmed the book, it's clear they're hoping the author's star power will sell the book, which isn't very good, or even very readable).

Which is all an introductory ramble to this post, which is actually about cool stuff I learned and saw on the floor.

1. Overdrive - Overdrive has started adding Chinese materials, both e-books and e-audio-books. You can see the official press release here; I didn't get much more from the salesperson. Currently, they've got about 300 titles loaded, and given our population in Sacramento, and our uptake of e-materials in general, this feels like a strong possibility for us.
2. Mango - Mango Languages has been pretty popular amongst staff doing 27 Things. From the Mango staff, I learned they're spiffing up the interface a bit, and they've added a "where to find Mango at a Library near you" feature on their public landing page. They're also adding a bunch of new languages, including spoken Arabic (in the dialect spoken in Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine) and spoken Hebrew. I think Mango is a good example of something our customers use primarily in their homes, via our website, rather than in a library facility. This kind of delivery will, I predict, become more important for libraries in the future, and Mango provides a strong product for us to begin designing a new delivery model around.
3. Furniture - Library furniture is getting more and more beautiful. I didn't take pictures, but I did grab a bunch of circulars. Boats and busses seem to be big themes in play furniture. And the deco and craftsman influences are still holding sway for adult stuff.

So, 30 some-odd aisles, 3+ total hours, and sore feet. I did end up taking a single totebag, from the folks at Bulldog Packaging. One is exactly enough.

ETA: For a sense of the scale of the thing, look at this picture. Though I have to say, from ground level it felt a bunch more croweded.

Hazel Gay

Hazel Gay
Originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution

"When she retired in 1961, Hazel Gay had served for 45 years as head librarian at the American Museum of Natural History in New York."

From the set Women in Science, posted by the Smithsonian Institution in honor of Women's History Month, March 2009. Your tax dollars at (good) work. Have I mentioned how much I love flickr Commons?

Horseshoe Fall from Goat Island, Niagara (LOC)

Horseshoe Fall from Goat Island, Niagara (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has just added a bunch of new photos to their photostream, including this one of the Horshoe portion of Niagara Falls. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, and a trip to The Falls was part of any visit from out-of-towners. My most recent trip was in 1995 or so, when my parents made my now husband (then boyfriend) get out of the car to view the falls on the way to the Toronto airport for our flight back to California. The rest of us had seen them plenty of times; we stayed in the car.