“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

Thank you everyone #alaac18 for coming to our presentation.

Here's a little GIFt for you - a few visual memories from NOLA (click on it)

If you have questions after you receive our NOTES, we will happily assist. Posting them within a week the ALA Conference Sessions Postings site.

Working full out finishing up our Program for the American Library Association Annual Convention (ALAAC18) in New Orleans - Saturday, 23 June.

Interested? Register Now | ALA Annual 2018

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

"I am the Executive Director of the Ramapo Catskill Library System a cooperative system that provides services to 47 independent member public libraries in New York State.

Public libraries are dedicated to protecting intellectual freedom and providing access to all to the record of human creation. Our democracy is founded on the principle of "Government by the people, for the people . . ." which requires an educated electorate. All people must have open and unfettered access to information. We are fortunate in this nation to have this right protected in the Constitution - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Net Neutrality is the First Amendment of the digital realm. Any action that would abridge digital access would disenfranchise the people of the United States. I do not want ISPs to have the power to block websites, slow them down, give some sites an advantage over others, or split the Internet into "fast lanes" for those who can afford to pay and "slow lanes" for those who unable to pay. Public Libraries, schools and not-for-profits depend on open and equitable access to the Internet.

Imagine a world where you pick up the telephone to make a call and get a recording stating "based on your account type your call is the 17th call in line to be connected." Eliminating Net Neutrality or if you prefer "packet equality" would setup just such a system for digital content access.

The Internet is a telecommunication system no different than the telephone system in place today; as such it should be regulated in the same way.

Help us protect innovation and our democratic way of life protect Net Neutrality!"

AND ...For those of you following along, you can go to GOFCCYOURSELF.COM it TAKES YOU DIRECTLY TO THE ECFS Proceedings Results Page  - hover over and click on 17-108 - for the comments on the Bill cynically titled as follows-

See 6,831,286 comments in ECFS Proceedings Results

ALSO: Here are some numbers for you:

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554

• Phone: 1-888-225-5322
• TTY: 1-888-835-5322
• Videophone: 1-844-432-2275
• Fax: 1-866-418-0232

Cred: Change.org, battleforthenet.com,fightforthefuture.org, Thank you John Oliver

Related articles

How you can fight to save net neutrality on the Day of Action and beyond

This is a very cool idea. See the splash page of the NYPL: The New York Public Library

We are so touched by some of these messages.

Have you posted yours yet? 

Add your post-it here: Support Public Libraries - #InvestInLibraries

Article directly quoted from Beatrice Calvin, CDF, Manager, Professional Development at American Library Association. American Library Association - LinkedIn  

"... know any library workers who should be recognized for the great work they do, their positive outlook, or how the wonderful way they assist patrons? Let’s take the time to show our appreciation for those fantastic library stars!

Consider submitting their names to the ALA-APA Galaxy of Stars as part of National Library Workers Day celebration.

National Library Workers Day (NLWD) is Tuesday, April 11, 2017. It is a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

The ALA-APA helps libraries and individuals prepare to celebrate by featuring a range of creative suggestions on its website. The National Library Workers Day web page encourages friends, patrons, employers and co-workers to “Submit a Star” by providing a brief testimonial about a favorite library employee. Each testimonial (listing first names, library type and city/state location only) will be posted on the NLWD’s Galaxy of Stars page. You may nominate as many library workers as you like.

Has your library celebrated National Library Workers Day in the past? Is your library planning to recognize and honor your library workers this year? Tell us about your plans. Please send your ideas and information to [email protected]. They will be posted in Library Worklife, the official newsletter of the ALA-APA. Be sure to share your celebrations on Twitter, using #NLWD17 and/or post to the NLWD Facebook page.

There’s still time to plan your celebrations to recognize library workers everywhere.

For more information, visit the ALA-APA National Library Workers Day website at: http://ala-apa.org/nlwd/."

Link to Session/Workshop Information

We are look forward to meeting librarians and trustees at the @ONLibraryAssoc Ontario Library Association Super Conference #OLASC in Toronto this Friday, 3 February.

Our Session and Workshop  - "Communicate Effectively with Design Professionals" - will introduce and develop the concept of the the Library Building Program Document as a comprehensive method for organizing your library’s requirements and communicating them to library users, board, city or municipal councils and the architect.

We believe that the librarian is the person who should lead the Library Building Project and we do everything we can to support you with tools to help you systematically navigate your Library Building Project. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or feel unsupported.

We help librarians lead the pre-planning phase of the library building project and offer and explain the use of methods and strategies to use throughout the design development phase that help you retain control of your design into the acceptance of construction drawings.

So that you are familiar with the visual language that designers use, we will introduce you to adjacency charts; bubble diagrams; construction drawing schedules and Room Data Sheets . We will workshop three of these with exercises so that all our attendees can get hands on experience of the work involved and gain some experience for when you begin the design conversation with your architect.

No words can politely express how we feel about this story.

Perhaps the lawyers for Michigan's Gov. Rick Snyder and Gov. Snyder himself really are hoping that there will be no one who is even able to read this article:

http://bit.ly/2fG2nHd

ScrnDrbCred: fox2detroit
 

@WLIC2016‎ @amlibraries and @ IFLA have news for those of us who think we have insurmountable problems getting our new library building projects off the ground and running.

Landscape + Recycling + Childrens' Reading Needs + Community Engagement = ‎The IFLA Green Library Award 2016. The Pequeño Sol Green Library

This is the 'formula' the people of Germinalia A.C., San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico used for their sustainable new library project.

For their brilliant needs assessment; commitment to sustainability; community orgainisation and willingness to do the work  - this community has received 1^st Place: for “a project where sustainability was in the soul of the project from the first starting of the idea until to the new library”

The design is clear cut and simple in its inception and brilliant in its execution:

Foundation and concrete slab, mixed and hand poured by parents and young adults;

Wall construction: Recyclable containers carefully washed out and stockpiled by families fill cast-off wooden packing pallets, parged by hand;

and a roof of sturdy metal tops off this structure built with love and intelligent design.

But it is the manner in which this library was constructed, by hand and with total community commitment, that impresses anyone who watches this beautifully put together video: El Pequeño Sol ecological library (The Little Sun Ecological Library

 Be prepared to never complain about your library again. 

See the full details in the Press release from IFLA [English – PDF].

Screen Grab Credit: YouTube Video

'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.

"...the hardest truth: that to be in the middle class, just working hard and playing by the rules doesn’t cut it anymore. To have a lifelong job, you need to be a lifelong learner, constantly raising your game." T. Friedman

See Mr. Friedman's OpEd here.

All change is inexorable. This change has already swept over us.

As a society we have been too slow to recognise it. Librarians have always designed spaces for people to meet, learn, research and work; for people who view the world as their home and their shared place of business as their own. 

Although Mr. Friedman's words make some of us uncomfortable and others even frightened, they are true. We have moved on. We are part of a global economy - a global web of opportunity - that we have never experienced before.

We can't go back. Our children don't want to go back. The globe, our planet is their future; their opportunities are quite literally a world beyond ours. We reside in a world where, as life-long learners already appreciate, libraries will continue to play a pivotal role.

Since the Towers fell in NYC; since I worked at a maximum prison; since my mother thought me how to carry my keys - points out - in my hand when walking to my car; I have thought a lot about my personal safety and what I would do, could do, "should anything happen".

Well "anything" happens all the time now. We are none of us as safe as we imagined we were yesterday or last year.

Tomorrow we present a Webinar for the Southern Ontario Library Service for librarians who are developing their management skills.  In it we talk about "The 3rd Place" and "The Commons" with respect to how librarians are providing space in their libraries for individuals in their communities so that they feel like they are a part of their physical community - not just the on-line one we are becoming so used to. 

Librarians are on the forefront of societal change especially concerning how we interact and how we find our place in our community.

In light of this article from the Atlantic - CITYLAB, our message rings both sickeningly hollow and loudly. 

How can we go into a public space and feel safe? How are these violent actions that are happening globally and involving our physical safety, affecting our behaviour in our cities, towns and in our libraries?

Indeed.

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