Library News, Reviews, and Views
PLA has been my favorite library conference since I attended my first in 2010. I relished the show’s focus—the granularity and prescriptiveness of its sessions; the moxie and optimism of its presenters. I bonded with a group of Connecticut librarians I now call friends, and I met a future Multnomah County mover who would become [...]
A double session room filled to capacity at the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia got an earful about the difference between Big “R” reference and a more nimble and responsive vision of services anticipating 21st century user needs. The session was presented by Jason Kuhl and Richard Kong of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library (IL) with Celeste Choate of Ann Arbor District Library (MI).
Along with moderator Patrice Johnson of the Chicago Public Library and the Library of Congress’s Jill Garcia, Wilkins offered an inspiring talk on the free materials available to the sight-impaired and learning-challenged during the session, ”Digital Access, the Future is Now! The Next Dimension of Accessible Audio Media.“
Curators at The British Library are archiving videogame websites, and they want gamers and designers to suggest material they consider worthy of preservation. Besides the online games themselves, that can include forums, FAQs, emulation software, even ads. Sites can be nominated by filling out a form at webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/info/nominate. “The collection will include some actual games [...]
With the economy still in the gutter, it’s hardly surprising that LJ’s 2012 Book Buying Survey of public libraries nationwide turned up a book budget decrease of more than two percent on average. Nor is it surprising that, as budgets are cut, some respondents have adapted their purchasing policies, particularly in the high-circ area of fiction. And with ebooks taking off, one might expect the materials budget breakdown to shift somewhat in their direction.
A new report from LJ indicates that it is vital for libraries to connect with digital patrons, especially ebook readers, and satisfying their expectations has a meaningful upside for both the library users and the publishing community.
The report, “Mobile Devices, Mobile Content, and Library Apps,” a part of LJ’s ongoing Patron Profiles series, points out that even though digital users—defined as a patron who uses a smartphone, ereader, or tablet—remain a minority, they are, nonetheless, more active than the general patron not only in digital services but also “in virtually every metric of library activity.” As such, they could guide librarians in understanding the intersection of their print holdings and their growing digital collections.
The New York Public Library is offering the Stereogranimator, which lets users turn 19th century stereographs into animated GIFs.
As patrons embrace mobile devices, libraries need to provide new services. Here’s a look at the state of mobile library services—and what libraries need to do to stay on the radar
INFOdocket by Gary Price
Library Journal Social Club