4 important things users want from a library (and how to offer them)

Public Libraries | Library Services | Phone Reference

 

 

Sometimes, there is a big imbalance between what the users wish to have in a library and what they really get. As Mick Fortune mentions in our previous post, for many years libraries measured their success primarily by footfall and they only focused on that. Only in the last few years, libraries have really started focusing on getting to know their users better. Even so, all the studies, such as those made by The Pew Internet, Carnegie UK Trust, Museums Libraries & Archives UK, etc. end up showing the same results.

In the following blog posts, we’re going to explore the various things users want from a library and suggest a few ways how libraries can set this right. In this first post, we will focus on the 4 most important things users want from a library.

 

1. A good range of books

Read article 

 

 

Secrets of the New York Public Library (5th Ave at 42nd St New York, NY 10018)

Archives & Special Collections

The marble lions (named Patience and Fortitude) outside of the New York Public Library weren't always popular. (Credit: Getty Images )

By Melissa Kravitz and Meghan Giannotta December 10, 2016

Walk up the steps at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, past Patience and Fortitude, the iconic Library Lions, and enter the main branch of the New York Public Library.

While the NYPL has branches throughout Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, its iconic Beaux-Arts building in midtown is perhaps the library's most famous spot.

Free to enter and explore, this often-overlooked museum has plenty of historical artifacts, notable artwork and countless information. Read more...

Hayden, Marx in Conversation at NYPL

Public Libraries

By Lisa Peet on November 8, 2016

Carla Hayden and Tony Marx in conversation at NYPL
Photo credit: Chasi Annexy/The New York Public Library

On Halloween night, Friends and trustees of New York Public Library (NYPL) got a treat that didn’t require a costume: Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and NYPL President Tony Marx sat down together for a lively hour-long discussion of research, preservation, digitization, Hayden’s plans for the Library of Congress (LC), and the influence of Hamilton. The conversation was the first in a series of public programs over the next year highlighting the importance of archival research.

The event was held as part of the celebration of the reopening of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building’s Rose Main Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room. These had been closed since May 2014, when a plaster rosette fell from the Reading Room’s 52-foot ceiling in the middle of the night. After an inspection, the ceiling was deemed structurally sound, but NYPL decided to err on the side of caution and reinforce all of the decorative rosettes bordering the ceiling with steel cables, and at the same time to restore the mural on the ceiling of the Bill Blass room. The spaces reopened in October 2016 with a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Sitting at the front of the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Trustees Room—hung with what Marx called “incredibly politically incorrect 400-year-old tapestries”—the two bantered briefly and then got down to business. “Why libraries?” asked Marx.

Hayden described her experiences with public libraries as a young patron and then a librarian, and her dawning realization of what sanctuaries they were for their constituents. Plus, she told Marx, “In the ’70s, when I was a baby librarian, what attracted me was the idea of information as power.”  Read more...

Go Inside the Renovated New York Public Library Reading Room

Public libraries

Olivier Laurent October 5, 2016

The renovated New York Public Library Rose Reading Room / Ryan Fitzgibbon

A group of Instagram photographers got an early look at the Rose Room

It all started with a piece of plaster. On May 30, 2014, a piece of ceiling fell inside the New York Public Library Rose Reading Room. The stunning landmark space was forced to close for “about two weeks.” That turned into two years.

Now, the Rose Room is finally ready for its reopening. And the results are stunning. “I’ve been to the library for events or just to explore the space prior to the closure of the Rose Main Reading Room, but it’s clear that the heart and the history of the New York Public Library stems from this two-city-block-wide study hall,” says Ryan Fitzgibbon, the founder of Hello Mr. magazine. Read more...

Inside the New York Public Library's new $23 Million Subterranean Book Vault

The New York Public Library just spent $23 million to create a gigantic storage space beneath Bryant Park to stash millions of books. Our Michael Scotto takes look.


This book is winding its way through the New York Public Library on a high-tech $2.6 million track system that cuts through 11 levels of the main library on 5th Avenue.

"This allows us to deliver multiple items versus having to have someone carry, physically carry it up the building to its delivery point," Gerry Oliva, who works for the library's department of facilities management.

The tracks replace an old conveyor belt system that had grown obsolete. They will soon be shuttling books to the famous reading room, which will re-open next month after a multimillion-dollar renovation.

"This is the circulation system of the largest collection at the New York Public Library," said Matt Knutzen. Read more...