Don't throw out thse date stamps (if you have any left.)

Look closely, see anything familiar?  Click on the image to enlarge.

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.

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.

One of the coolest pro-library celeb photos I've seen.  A Prayer for Owen Meany is my favourite book and Gosling is from Cornwall, ON.  Awwwww!

thank you:  http://librarianheygirl.tumblr.com/

I have had the pleasure of producing the 'Geek Your Library' posters for the Wallkill Public Library.  Wallkill Public Library Home Page    It's been a blast, maily because the Chief Librarian, Lou Carolan is herself a 'Force for Librarianship'!

Here are the posters:

I love doing these...my volunteer effort for my community, except everywhere is my community!

This is one beautiful library! Whistler Public Library

Respect for the surrounding landscape, the natural environment and the needs of the community (it has showers for bicycle and cross country ski commuters) has produced a stunning and ecologically efficient library design. 

Although I have not experienced the library myself, it looks like one that I would want to be in and appreciate - right up to it's grassed roof.

Check out this site and the photos.  Hughes Condon Marler Architects

You'll want to ski and hike and read all at once.

photos: Hughes Condon Marler Architects.

How would we react if our library was under threat of looting and vandalism during a time of extreme crisis?  I'd like to think that we would do what these people did to protect the Library at Alexandria (yes, THAT library!) this month in Egypt.

Here is what the library director had to say on the library's site:

Director’s Statement to Our friends Around the World: The Events in Egypt
30 Jan 2011

The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters. I am there daily within the bounds of the curfew hours. However, the Library will be closed to the public for the next few days until the curfew is lifted and events unfold towards an end to the lawlessness and a move towards the resolution of the political issues that triggered the demonstrations.

Ismail Serageldin
Librarian of Alexandria
Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

"Young students from the university designed and made a huge National Flag, and put it on the steps of the Library  which elicited cheers from passing demonstrators as the director waved to the crowds."

Children were there

to protect their future and our past too.

Alexandria Library site

A photo posted on the Literary Type, a Canadian source,

shows gaurdians joining hands.

from 'the literary type' site

Listen to our teens!  They want a space to call their own in their libraries. 

We all need a space to call our own.  Places and spaces for us to come together face to face, outside of our cyberworlds, are becoming ever more necessary for our sanity, emotional development and survival. 

Think of the importance of a city square where thousands co-operate to bring about the first steps toward democracy to a county. 

Think of a hotel lobby with foor lamps and really cozy arm chairs where two people lay aside their books to discuss both sides of the political views on universal health care.

Think about how your library provides this essential 'spacial opportunity' that you provide for people of all ages in your community.  We call it the commons.

(seating, teen space - Clifton Halfmoon Library, NY)

In our strategic planning sessions with library staff and communities we always hear about the need for a library to provide a space  - a common area - for people to simply be in the presence of other humans.    Strategic Planning for Results, Sandra Nelson for the Public Library Association

Today I found a link to this book.  One part of the synopsis reads:

"Filled with practical solutions for today's economic, political, and cultural issues, it's a much-needed and thoroughly accessible field guide to the new world of the commons. Including success stories from communities across the country and around the world, this book is for anyone seeking new ways of thinking about our shared values."

All That We Share

How to Save the Economy, the Environment, the Internet, Democracy, Our Communities, and Everything Else That Belongs to All of Us

Jay Walljasper and On the Commons

paperback -  $18.95 USD

A very old idea has once more morphed into a very currrent and modern solution for our inter-isolated, globally-intertwined lives. Libraries are the core of the much larger concept of 'the commons' discussed in this book.

At PLAN22 we think libraries are an essential and integral piece of a communty's commons.  Look around you, listen to your neighbours, observe the growing popularity of this concept that is once more becoming a respected ideal in our modern world. 

This book shelf design would be great for a children's area or Teen Space.

Choose the PLAN22 Photo Album in the right hand column to see a photos from a few of our strategic planning workshops with local libraries...