“Freedom is found through the portals of our nation’s libraries.” - David McCullough, Speech at the Library of Congress about his book on John Adams, aired on C-Span, June 10, 2001.

Americans go to school, public and academic libraries more than three times as frequently as they go to the movies.

There are more public libraries than Starbucks in the U.S.total of 17,566 including branches. 

Nearly 100% of public libraries provide WiFi and have no-fee access to computers. 

In 2013, there were 1.5 billion in-person visits to public libraries across the U.S., the equivalent of more than 4 million visits each day. That’s 2,854 per minute.

Credit: Quotable Facts About America's Libraries - ALA

Public, school and Academic Libraries are essential to the health of democracy.

Ask your librarian how to find any topic that interests you - they will find it for you and help you find even more.

Click on these images for bullet points in free PDF format:

in English

and Spanish.

For more info, click on this image:

More info at this link: 

Are people excited to see what's happening in your library?

How do you market your library and services to your community? 

Looking for ideas to bring engaged students to your library this Fall, and more users to your community library?

Take a look at this colourful, visual-story link. Looks like fun...

"What Your Teacher Librarians Can Do For You.... A Program & Ticket For A Successful Year!" ...

http://bit.ly/2w8SEB9

Source: http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com

Chicago PL pushes boundary of "Library Commons".

Chicago Housing Authority & Chicago Public Library Partner Up, Bring Mixed-Income Housing and Libraries Together

The City of Chicago is "beginning of construction on three innovative co-located housing and library developments being built across the city. (Beginning with the) Taylor Street Apartments and Roosevelt Branch Library, with construction also getting underway at two co-located developments in the West Ridge and Irving Park communities. Mayor Emanuel announced that plans will continue for two additional CPL branches using creative interagency partnerships — one in the CHA’s Altgeld Gardens community and a new branch in the West Loop to serve its rapidly growing community.

“Libraries serve as community anchors, making knowledge and learning accessible for everyone,” said CPL Commissioner Brian Bannon. “The new co-located libraries will help to sustain strong neighborhoods, and provide a place for all community residents to gather, share and succeed.”

“This project bringing together housing with a neighborhood library will be paramount for our community,” said Alderman Jason Ervin, 28th Ward. “This investment shows our residents that no matter what your income is or what neighborhood you live in, if you call Chicago home you should have a range of housing options to choose from.”

"Over the past six years, Chicago Public Library has witnessed one of the largest capital investments in recent history. Through City investment and innovative partnerships, the Library has seen over $200 million of new capital projects and investments in the people and programs that activate our community anchors. By the end of 2018, we will have 11 new library buildings and 14 additional locations with major renovations and expansions. Embedded in these locations and other locations citywide is our innovative way to serve children and teens. CPL will have added new early learning play spaces at 28 locations and new teen spaces at 19 locations."

Source: Mayor Emanuel and City Officials Break Ground on Innovative Branch Library Projects

Jan Holmquist - (Global librarian: Because libraries make communities smarter.) Shares this report by Julia Chandler - Libraries Taskforce highlighting the exciting news and great visuals from the second week in October during the UK's Libraries Week

ScrnGrbCred: Jan Holmquist Newsletter

goordreads.com

Frank Yerby wrote The Treasure of Pleasant Valley.

Mr. Yerby was "born in Augusta, Georgia to Rufus Garvin Yerby, an African American, and Wilhelmina Smythe, who was caucasian. He graduated from Haines Normal Institute in Augusta and graduated from Paine College in 1937. Thereafter, Yerby enrolled in Fisk University where he received his Master's degree in 1938. In 1939, Yerby entered the University of Chicago to work toward his doctorate but later left the university. Yerby taught briefly at Florida A&M University and at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels." (goodreads.com)

Why am I telling you this? Because The Treasure of Pleasant Valley changed at least one American's life; because he stole it from his school library.

Then he returned it. On the shelf beside his book, he saw another Yerby novel. He was struck by the reading bug and unbeknownst to him, his school's librarian, Mildred Grady, was his first supporter. He went on to attend law school, became a judge and retired as an appellate judge of the Arkansas Court of Appeals. His name is Olly Neal of Little rock, Arkansas.

The story Boy Lifts Book; Librarian Changes Boy's Life (NPR: Story Corps. October 2, 2009, broadcast on the Morning Edition) is a small story about one boy and his first book. It is simple and profound. It is as large as the history of the written word and those that guard it and it makes clear the power of the book and the integral role librarians occupy in our culture.

Restore your belief that books have power and librarians are the superheros of our society.

Read the Transcript here. (it will open in a new window)

from princh.com

We've heard this in various versions especially this past half year when Federal Funding for libraries in America is under attack. This article (click on the graphic above) articulates 4 core concerns of library users that are well worth reviewing.

1. A Good Range of Books - including free access to various ebooks, eAudiobooks, eMagazines and newspapers!
   
2. Longer Opening Hours -after work/school or during the weekend.
3. Core Library Service for Free - access to information but also to the library’s facility (use entices new library patrons)
4. Help from Knowledgeable Librarians - representing the human Google of your local community. You have THAT covered right?

Click on this image to open the beautifully produced vid in a separate window.

princh.com

I note that Libby, the Overdrive App is referenced in this Danish article. @OverdriveLibs

Part Two of the princh.com article, "5 other services users wish to find in a library (and how libraries offer them)"  can be read here: http://bit.ly/2ujOQOv

News from Ontario, Canada: WE SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES  The people of Canada's most heavily populated province are living up to these words, "Investing in Ontario's public libraries is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives."

"Ontario is investing $3 million through the Improving Library Digital Services fund and will support up to 307 libraries and library organizations across the province. This includes $1 million for rural, remote and First Nation public libraries through Budget Talks."

This is the press release from the office of the Hon. Eleanor McMahon Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport , MPP (Member of the Provincial Parliament) for Burlington (Ontario):  http://bit.ly/2tTA1Of

BurlingtonPL

The initiative will support funding for "access to technology, digital services and training opportunities at public libraries in towns, cities and Indigenous communities across the province."

FrstNtnsPLWeek2017

Ontario is the most populated province in Canada with 38.3% of the country's people mainly gathered along the border with the United States. Canada has only 11.2% of the population of the United States of America but it is clear that Canadians' 'Community Intelligence Factor' is more in tune with their citizen's needs.

Living south of the 49th, we have this year witnessed the erosion of trust in the Media; shortsighted slashes to funding for libraries at the Federal level (see this article in ALA News,23May'17); imprudent stagnation of funding to libraries at State levels and ignorance of the essential role of Information Literacy. We are proud that the people in Ontario gave voice to their needs so that they can take their place as leaders in our world economy and participate in global stewardship.

 The Ministry site also provides a complete list, with live links, to all the libraries in Ontario, check them out there are some fantastic things going on in Ontario and Canada-wide in Your Library.

Related articles

CANeLearn June News

The American Federal Government funding of libraries is 0.00006 % of the total Federal Budget.

Libraries are the bearers of, the repositories for, the collective knowledge of a culture.

Libraries are at the core of a healthy democracy.

This WH will eliminate federal funding for libraries.

Connect the dots.

Margaret H. Willison's article (@MrsFridayNext), What Donald Trump Doesn't Understand About Libraries - His proposed budget would eliminate all federal funding for the Institute of Museums and Library Services, in cosmopolitan.com/politics ends with this:

"I wish I could say that Trump is attacking libraries because he knows that the information literacy we exist to create is exactly the skill our electorate needs to shut down his lying, cheating, hate-mongering administration. I wish I had confidence that he thought that hard, or strategically, about any of the terrible policies he’s spent the first 50 days of his presidency advancing. But I don’t."

"Take a look at this map — built by a librarian, naturally — and you will see how the Institute of Museums and Library Services’ grants have benefited communities all over the country, red state and blue alike." (map credit: Anna E. Kijas,@anna_kijas)

The percentage of federal funding for libraries is so infinitesimal within the total federal budget, it doesn't show up on a pie chart.

What is going on in the minds of men who take these actions? I refer you to the beginning of this post. Draw your own conclusions.

 (Bar Chart maker Source: here)

Related articles

President Trump's Proposed Federal Budget Would Eliminate Funding For Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Other Arts Programs

'Sesame Street' has been mocking Trump since 1988 - here are some of the best moments

Library Advocates head for Washington DC tomorrow #NLLD

Think you don't need to worry about your on-line security because you "have nothing to hide", you are just a 'normal person' who hasn't done anything 'wrong'?

Then, consider this...

"... San Francisco-based Internet Archive ... http://bit.ly/2gVI2wC  ... announced a drive to raise $5 million to set up a mirror repository of the entire internet and place it in Canada for safety."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article118566728.html?utm_campaign=newsletter_subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_source=app#storylink=cpy

Here is the McClatchy.org link to the story

http://bit.ly/2gVrJT5

ScrnGrbCrd: mcclatchydc.com

Librarians and their Libraries have shifted and morphed with us since we had papyri and charcoal, flint and bone. It is our contention that, as our world becomes ever more connected and the individual in contrast senses a growing seclusion and remove, libraries will provide a Commons, a safe Place to be together, and a repository of our past, present and future musings - be they on tape, in a book, in bytes in the Cloud or on a Holodeck. 

Leave it to the brilliant and out-of-the-Box-Aussies to publish this piece "Libraries of the Future are going to change in some unexpected way", in a Business/Tech section.

from Business Insider Australia

Chris Weller in Business Insider Australia reports from an interview with David Pescovitz, (who has not Tweeted yet has 758 followers on Twitter!) , co-editor  @BoingBoing and research director at the Institute for the Future , that the Libraries of your Future are going to be there with you. 

They might not look like today's libraries but they will fulfill our deep societal need that will expand beyond our imaginings with information we haven't yet dreamed of and provide access to technologies not yet invented.

We change, Libraries change and, because we are libraries, they will keep pace and stay with us no matter where we go.

Save

Save

Save

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'A revolution has been happening (in Somaliland) in publishing books, reading, writing and literature,' says Musa...."

"Hamdi Ali Musa saw her first book when she was 10. Now 25, she's one of Hargeisa's only librarians." (shown in photo)

Somaliland is a self declared state (some sources say 'republic') and an autonomous region of Somalia.

It is also a region of Africa whose roots go back to the Neolithic Period. On the outskirts of the Capital, Hargeisa are the Laas Geel complex cave paintings  "containing stratified archaeological infills capable of documenting the period when production economy appeared in this part of Somalia (circa 5th and 2nd millennium BCE)".(Wikipedia)

The capital of this republic is Hargeisa (Somali: Hargeysa, Arabic: هرجيسا‎‎ is the second largest city in Somalia after Mogadishu. (source: Wikipedia).

And here's a fascinating fact ... for centuries until recent history (the end of the 1800's) when European Imperialist interests turned their attention to the region, splitting it up, negotiating treaties to alternately divide or reunite it and eventually leaving it to handle its own particular brand of civil war ... this country's people passed on their ancient legacy of stories in the Oral Tradition.

That's all changed now for a number of reasons, the need to join the community of nations being one of them. Books and their authors represent the renewed hope of these people who are widely spread across our globe as a diaspora - a country as an idea. Since 1972 the swelling initiative to support books written in Somali has been chiefly lead by the desire to gather together in a literary and a real way, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis that have fled this ancient land during its fight for independence and have not returned.

Somaliland has no passport agency and is not 'officially recognised' by the international community. It has no support from international aid agencies nor funds flowing to it from the World Bank. It does have a Book Fair, (site text not it English) and that's where librarian Hamdi Ali Musa enters this story. "The (Book Fair is the) biggest annual event in Somaliland, drawing 11,000 attendees this year, (is) an advertisement for a republic that showcases itself as a kind of "anti-Somalia."

I can not find any details about Hamdi Ali Musa other than what is reported by NPR (and republished by the online 'Samliland Informer'.) I am encouraged as should we all be, that a young woman is the stewart of this growing body of Somali literature, taking her country with her into her future.

Here is the link to the Hargeisa Library on Twitter. @HargeisaLibrary. Somliland skipped right over the 1900's and scooted right into the 21st with its communications and social media!

Credit: NPR, Wikipedia, Twitter

American Libraries Mag

Turns out that librarians and libraries are doing a great job at keeping up with competition from both obvious - box store book stores - and obscure sources - multi national uber-corporations.

In this book review in @amlibraries American Libraries Magazine: "The Purpose-Based Library Finding your path to survival, success, and growth" by John J. Huber and Steven V. Potter, you will read...

"Bill Gates’s quote should have you, as a member of the library profession, doing backflips. Librarians are specifically trained to gather, manage, and use information. If we take Gates’s words at face value, libraries should be the most competitive organizations on the planet."

Turns out that libraries are doing a great job in this regard.

...and that, my library friends and colleagues, should make you all feel very good about your work today!

Here's a sample of the ideas celebrated by Huber and Potter:

"To successfully compete, libraries must embrace the words of Bill Gates. 'Libraries must gather, use, and manage information in a way that large for-profit companies cannot.' So the question is: What competitive advantages do libraries have that these organizations do not? Let us count the ways:

• Libraries have more locations across the country than any other organization.
• Libraries have a personal presence in every community in the country.
• Library staff interact with their customers face-to-face.
• Library staff are trained and skilled to gather, archive, and manage information.
• Library staff are well educated and motivated to make a difference.
• And most important, libraries and their staff have a powerful, game-changing common purpose.

To go beyond survival, to succeed and grow, libraries must embrace and leverage these competitive advantages."

from: ALA Store

You may purchase the book at this link.

Congrats to Anne Bailey and her great staff at TPL!

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news/insight/2016/01/03/why-toronto-public-library-is-creating-its-first-book-lending-kiosk.html

Does Global Weirding affect recorded knowledge?

Yes.

This report is so sad on so many levels that it's difficult to read...
•Drought  
•Wildfire
•Lost History 
•Burned Library / Archives 

‎I think it's important to pay homage to a technology that opened up our lives and shrunk our world - 'just one phone call away' at a time. 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-kind-museum-was-just-lost-californias-wildfires-180956589/

The Ottawa Public Library in partnership with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) make a documentary: The Human Library.
Video in this link.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/human-library-stories-trailer-1.3166914

A new library building is not an end in itself.

The true purpose of your library is to provide programs and services that will meet identified community needs.

All libraries have Four Resources in common:

STAFF

COLLECTIONS

TECHNOLOGY

FACILITY

screen shot - BBC

This photo  accompanies an article from the BBC about the Birmingham Libraries reporting that they are not able to afford to buy new books for their new library.

A library is the sum total of its programs and services. Planning for the future of your library is about identifying your community's needs and assuring that resources are in place to fulfill those needs.

These Four Resources are marshaled throughout the planning process to ensure that you can deliver these services efficiently and cost effectively.

The Resources are not an end in themselves. If the cost of one or more of these resources prohibits your library from acquiring any of the other resources, it is an indication of short sighted or ill conceived planning.

If you don't plan well for instance ... you won't be able to buy new books.

Shortsighted ineffective planning can lead to temporary or permanent disaster.

Related articles

Cuts-hit Birmingham libraries ask public to donate books

Got your attention?

This summary article (Wiley.com) written by Lluis Anglada, Director of the Department of Libraries, Information and Documentation of the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia (CSUC), of his paper, Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? gives us the straight goods about the future of libraries and a formula (yes, a mathematical formula!) to help us find our way into our future as viable libraries.

Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? and available open access here  talks "...about the sustainability of libraries in a world where information is increasingly digital, networked, and free, based on a speech he gave at the 22nd Bobcatsss conference in Barcelona, January 21-24 2014."

He proposes that "the same stages and library events have taken place in all countries and in all library types, but not at the same time. Therefore, the different phases that libraries passed through to become automated are similar in each country, but they occurred in different years (Anglada , 2006)." And "a division of the recent history of libraries  (can be organised) into three major phases over the past 50 years."

Mechanization, a period characterized by the construction of new buildings and mechanization of processes; Automation, in which networks of libraries were created, OPAC was introduced and union catalogues were created; and Digitization, in which electronic journals and books appeared and documents stored in libraries have been digitized (Buckland, 1992)

Here is a portion of his discourse on the third phase:

"During the Digitization phase, however, despite librarians’ ability to adapt (both in terms of their own roles and how the library space is used), the speed of change has been so great that dysfunctions (defined as the difference between expectations and realities) have continued to increase. For example, duplication in catalogs as a result of one book being catalogued more than once; the ‘Googlization’ of information, while library catalogues – once so innovative – have failed to keep up with; and the failure of libraries to sufficiently adapt their services to meet users’ changing expectations. As a result, applying the formula to the Digitized library shows a clear downward trend in terms of its sustainability."

It continues:

"Basically, libraries are suffering from the fact that the public perception of them remains attached to the printed book, which – with the advent of the Internet and digitization of information – is no longer valued as much as it was. Among other things, this has led to the steady decline in library budgets – both in real terms and as a proportion of the overall university budget. Some classic library services are also experiencing significant declines – loan transactions, reference inquiries, and displacement of the starting point for literature searches from the library catalogue to and A&I service or the internet, for example."

and concludes:

"We need to establish a new stereotype of ‘library’ in people’s minds, one that is not based on physical elements – buildings and books – but on the role of providing support and assistance in the difficult process of using information and transforming it into knowledge.

The creation of this new perception must be performed by the current generation of young librarians – “those who are inheriting renovated libraries but also a mental image that is associated with becoming less powerful for society. This is the challenge and responsibility for young librarians: to create a new perception of our profession.”

Libraries are relevant

screen shot:Ferguson Municipal Public Library

and important

and safe.

Libraries are where we go

for information

and hope.

This is what happened in Ferguson at the Municipal Library on August 20 2014:

The Ferguson Library has been an oasis of calm since the town's residents erupted in anger at the police after a Ferguson cop shot and killed an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, on Aug. 9.

It has used Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to offer residents a place of respite for them to get bottled water, check their emails, and avoid the unrest developing on Ferguson's streets.

We are here for all of our residents. If you want to come, get water, read, check email, we are here… http://t.co/56qhtfFoOz

As the Ferguson-Florissant School District postponed the start of the school year for more than a week, teachers set up shop at the Ferguson library, providing activities and instruction for children awaiting the start of class.

Today, about 120 children showed up to the library for lessons and activities, though staff only expected about 60. Teachers also began hosting classes in the nearby First Baptist Church."

source: ABC News Online, FERGUSON, Missouri, Aug 20, 2014, 3:17 PM ET, Colleen Curry and Micha Grimes

Related articles

Ferguson Library Becomes Oasis of Calm Amid Strife

There has always been movement in the library.

‘Repurposing the Library’ is today’s term for “That Flexibility Thing Libraries Have Always Done’. Librarians are experts about the subject of ‘Movement’ whether it is movement of people or the movement of relationships and adaptations between spaces to account for new ways people need to use existing spaces. It is so vexing to a librarian who is documenting the needs of her or his library to be able to forecast what the space requirements for the library will be in 10 or 20 years. But librarians have always met the challenge.

Flexibility that is built in to your design will help you, as the leader of your library design project, to cope with planning for the future of your library.

When you know your needs based on your plan to supply your community with what they need, you can lead your designer to solutions that you may have not imagined. The article gives you some examples of what flexible storage is available on the market today. With a well prepared architectural program and a clear budget, you and your designer can together make the library for your community's future.

Screen shot from Spacesaver site ref.

I like the INFO SHEET: THE REPURPOSED LIBRARY found as a freee download on the right column on this Spacesaver Link, because it is clear and short and it's about storage spaces, real concepts that people can easily grasp.  It emphasizes what we have been telling librarians, that you need a plan (a Strategic Plan to begin) that takes into account your community's needs and you need to gather data about what you have now to plan for what you need in the future. You need this information to establish a Budget and you and you staff are the most experienced and well placed persons to gather that information.

Related articles

Future Proof | Library by Design

30 Vintage Photos of People in Libraries

This month's issues of PACIFIC*STANDARD, has a small piece under the monthly Topic: 'You Don't Know America', by Anna Clark called, 'Who Says Libraries Are Going Extinct', that will warm the heart of every person who wants to tell everyone they know how much and why libraries are so important in America.

This month's issue isn't on-line yet but when it is, you will find it at Pacific Standard's site. In short, it names examples of libraries such as those in Rochester, NY and Tulsa, OK that are providing services that are staying ahead of the "needs curve" to patrons and the community.  These libraries are thriving because of their imagination and service-oriented plans to remain viable, important and accessible partners in their communities.

See the whole article, below in the link to 'Related Articles' to read Ms. Clark's whole article from February this year.

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Who Says Libraries Are Going Extinct?