Library Stuff

Globe & Mail – “Toronto is inching closer to a springtime strike, with the clock now ticking toward a work stoppage at the public library and talks with the city’s inside workers described as “slow.” The province issued a “no-board” report Thursday, meaning 2,300 library employees will be in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m. March 18.”

Chicago Tribune – “What should a 21st Century library look like? To ask that question is to conjure futuristic visions–of libraries that resemble sleek Apple stores; of librarians who stroll around their branches with computer tablets, and of robots that stack books in shelves, provided, of course, there still are books. Such issues are no longer academic, not with a new library commissioner heading to Chicago, especially one from digitally-savvy San Francisco.”

Time – “The Harry Potter website known as Pottermore has been beset by delays. But there is some good news. When the portal launches later this year, its stock of JK Rowling e-books and digital audiobooks will be available to public library members. This coup for borrowers was the result of an agreement between Pottermore and OverDrive, the largest distributor of digital content to libraries. But OverDrive is more than just a library partner. It also will provide the sales platform for buyers to purchase e-books on Pottermore.

Mercury News – “They waited in the rain with the kind of excitement usually found at Apple product launches. Hundreds then surged forward as the doors of the new Los Gatos Library opened to the public for the first time Saturday, a moment that captured the enduring importance of repositories of treasured information to community life, even in the Age of the App. The 30,000-square-foot, two-story building quickly flooded with bodies — toddlers, teens, civic leaders. Its inviting interior — slate floors, wide-open spaces and floor-to-ceiling windows — surely would have found favor with the late Steve Jobs had he built a library. Rather than offering the latest in fashionable gadgets, however, the library will provide something far more lasting: aisles of soft-page books revealing ancient tales and important histories. There are also corners for reading and reflection.

KALW – “The bad news is that state funding for California libraries has been completely eliminated. There’s not really any good news about that except that it was expected. This past July, state library funding was sliced in half, and there was a trigger amendment attached to the budget that would eliminate state funding for public libraries at midyear if the state’s revenue projections were not met. Needless to say, they weren’t.”

Contra Costa Times – “This winter local homebound seniors will have a chance to enjoy a new high-tech way of reading thanks to an innovative new Brentwood Library program that will serve as a countywide model. Under the program, they will have the opportunity to borrow Kindle Touch eReaders to access popular books and magazines through the library. “Many people could benefit from them. It can read to you and you can adjust the size of the type,” local Contra Costa County Library Commissioner Shirley Peck said. “We aren’t the first library to do it, but it is quite unique.”

Techdirt- “Against the background of today’s war on sharing, exemplified by SOPA and PIPA, traditional libraries underline an inconvenient truth: allowing people to share things – principally books in the case of libraries – does not lead to the collapse of the industry trying to sell those same things. But publishers really don’t seem to have learned that lesson, judging by this article in the New York Times about the nonsensical attitude they have to libraries lending out ebooks:”

San Jose Mercury News – “In an effort to preserve the cash-strapped city’s budget, a San Jose councilman wants to replace retiring city library workers with community volunteers or face the more serious alternative of outsourcing the libraries altogether. “We have beautiful libraries, and if we allow volunteers to augment current city staff, our libraries would be open more days per week,” said Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, who has consistently sought to outsource the city’s union employees with less expensive contractors. “The reality is, 95 percent of the library patrons use self-check out. It’s not the library you and I grew up with. I want a model where the doors are open.”

Toronto Star – “Allan Tong has a more particular reason than most for availing himself of DVDs distributed through the Toronto Public Library. The Toronto documentary filmmaker is leaving for Sierra Leone next week to make a film about amputee soccer players. As background, he recently borrowed a copy of Murderball, a 2005 documentary about wheelchair rugby. “If there’s something obscure that I need to watch, it helps me with my research,” he says, after returning the DVD to the St. Lawrence branch on Front St. E. Vested interest aside, Tong is nonplussed by recent comments from Toronto budget chief Mike Del Grande that the public library system should not be in the business of duplicating services available at video stores.”

AP – “About 100 public libraries across Tennessee will soon be sharing an online library catalog. The Tennessee State Library and Archives recently purchased a new electronic product, making it easier for libraries to use state-of-the-art computer technology to share resources. Participating libraries will have the option of making their inventories of materials available over the Internet, which will allow patrons to reserve books online or request that neighboring libraries ship books to their local libraries to check out.