This vid just in from Solano County on YouTube's MrDavidthelibrarian'schannel.

Wow, is this library incredibly active, getting the word out about their library every way possible. 

There is such energy out there. 

It's got to make you smile.

ALA and every associated organisation should adopt the rights to this Oscar nominated animated short and have it up on their website.  It is that good.

This website will only be open for a limited time.  If you ever wanted to show people how important are words and the spirit of the book - this is the way to do it.  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

This recent article in the Boston Globe, "The new independent bookshop: It’s in your local library", is instructive in two ways.

1. It gets the word out to Bostonians that libraries are selling books.  Actually selling books.  In a bookstore.  And people are coming in and buying them.  Come to your Library and BUY BOOKS, just like in a REAL BOOKSTORE!
2. It shows the library community that we are not effective in getting the word out to our communities about ALL the services we offer and what we do every day, every year for our communities.

After you scan the Boston Globe article, take a look at this website out of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.  The Friends of the Cornwall Public Library/Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Publique de Cornwall have their own Friend's Space that was designed for them when the library moved to it's current location in the 90's.

The Friend's Group there is incredibly active and has done amazing work for the library, raising many thousands of dollars that they have given to the library to fund essential needs.  These are the people that do the work and bring in the people who normally wouldn't go to their library. 

These are the people who haul boxes of books, man the bookstore as volunteers and collect the money to help their library in a very real way.  This is what the article in the Boston Globe is reporting about.  We have had the privilege of knowing most of the people in this photograph, and we know the work that they do behind the scenes.

Thousands of libraries across the US and Canada have Friend's Bookstores.  Libraries are already doing nearly everything they can to bring in revenue to bolster dwindling funding.  Librarians must be more active in their communities.  Librarians must stand out, stand up and tell everyone about the services and amazing programs you offer at your libraries.

Thanks and fondest regards to Cornwall Public Library/Bibliothèque Publique de Cornwall.

In fact we have at least one thing in common with the Canadian librarian who coined this phrase.  We too are nearly driven wild when we see library funding cut and communities who will not support the library. 

The catch phrase that we use and one that we like to think hits legislators and the public with a certain effectiveness is: 

Libraries will get you through

Times of No Money

better than

No Money will get you through

Times with No Libraries

You are free to quote to anyone within hearing distance!

Special thank you to:

Marilyn McIntosh, the Executive Director at Monroe Free Library in Monroe, New York and her intrepid, stalwart and intelligent staff.

and

Eleanor Crumblehulme.

The New Yorker publishes their cartoons on line, as animations!

Watch this animation, while Babar provides backup as a librarian collects a little girl's book fine.

Need a new roof?  Renovating your existing roof? 

The beautiful and leading edge Brooklyn Botanic Garden is showcasing their new 10,000 square foot roof garden with its installation of 40,000 plants on the roof of BBG’s new Visitor Center.

Here's their vid, showing construction sequence.   

 The living roof will change throughout the seasons, its grasses, bulbs, and perennial wildflowers attracting local pollinators and visitors alike.

 While you're at it why not look around the  BBG site?  It will warm you up and remind you that Spring will come.

Check out this link to theUnited Nations Environment Programme UNEP environment for development.

5 June is WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY.

They have teamed up with musicians and artists, treehugger and piictu. Here is a link to the page where you can sign up with  piictu on your iPhone or iTouch  to submit photos of the environment around you.

Add your 'insights', good or bad to the photo record.  Show others around the world what your environment means to you. 

Don't limit your photos to ones of the outside. The interior environment in your library is as important as the one outside your walls.

Here's a course you may want to consider... Marketing Your Library

Location: Online
$250 (Simmons GSLIS Alumni Price $200)
March 1 - March 31

Given as part of the curriculum at, Simmons College, Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston, MA

This on-line course will "enable students to jump-start a grassroots user-centered marketing effort, drawing on web usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s premise that gathering evidence from even two users is better than none."

Instructor:

Rebecca Metzger: Rebecca Metzger is Reference, Instruction & Outreach Librarian at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. She brings six years of experience as a public relations and communications specialist to her role as a librarian.

This week, ALA leadership met with senior management from Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Perseus publishing houses to discuss ebooks and libraries.

this is the link to the on-line article:  ALA Goes to New York, Things Don't Get Violent | American Libraries Magazine.

In March of last year, Librarian in Black Sarah Houghton took ALA to task for being too timid with HarperCollins. “Speak out and speak out now, ALA. Reassert libraries’ rights to lend materials. Reassert libraries’ responsibilities to the public good. And reassert libraries’ roles in our communities as cultural and thought leaders… Please, say something to the world–or the rest of us will keep talking loudly, angrily, and unofficially.”

...assertiveness is what many librarians want from their organization.

Submitted by Christopher Harris on Fri, 02/03/20 E-12 - 09:34