How Adele sent her love to libraries | #WhyBooksMatter

Library advocacy | Public libraries | Outreach \ Culture

June 12, 2017

By Steven MacKenzie

@stevenmackenzie

 

Adele may have headlined Glastonbury and filled arenas across the globe in a worldwide tour that climaxes next month with four sold-out dates at Wembley Stadium, but 10 years ago she was playing a gig in a library in Lancaster for an audience of 175. “You can check out the show online,” says Stewart Parsons. “I am so relieved we filmed that!”

 Parsons, a librarian with more than 30 years of experience, started the Get it Loud in Libraries scheme 10 years ago to introduce new people to libraries by turning them into live music venues for special concerts. Over the last decade, 36,108 people have attended 279 shows put on by acts including alt-J, Florence + The Machine, Imelda May, British Sea Power, Plan B and, of course, everyone’s favourite balladeer, Adele, whose fee that evening in Lancaster was £50.

Read more...

Meet the "Human Google" at the New York Public Library

CBS News August 15, 2016, 7:24 AM

 

 

View More: U.S. News|Live News|More News Videos

 

The local library is a great place to fill your summer reading list for free. But it also remains a vital source for research. And in an era of online searches, librarians at the New York Public Library are still the most- trusted source.
They have been called the "Human Google," said CBSN's Elaine Quijano. And though they may not be as fast as your favorite Internet search engine, they're as reliable as ever.
The Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library attracts about 2.5 million visitors each year.
Many pose with the lions named Patience and Fortitude ... snap pictures in the grand entry hall ... and pass through the reading rooms without cracking a book.
But the tables are full here. "Shushing" happens as much as you may remember. And the phones keep ringing for researchers. Read more...

Rikers Island gets unofficial New York Public Library branch by Alison Fox

July 27, 2016

The library at the Rikers Island correction facility has a wide range of books, including "The Hunger Games" series and "To Kill a Mockingbird." (Credit: Craig Ruttle)

 

The (unofficial) 93rd branch of the New York Public Library is now open for business — and you can’t take the subway to visit it.

That’s because the small-but-well-stocked collection is the first permanent public library on Rikers Island.

And the collection, which is housed in the women’s Rose M. Singer Center and sits below a poster of Beyoncé as Rosie the Riveter, is as varied as the people who will be reading from it: “The Hunger Games” books share space with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Les Misérables,” and an extensive James Patterson collection. 

“It’s amazing the city services that are available in the community; many of those we want here on the island,” said Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte. “This is a good step to introduce inmates to the value of education, the value of reading.”

The library holds 1,200 books — spanning everything from comics to sci-fi, from Spanish language works to nonfiction classics — and it will be open every Tuesday for about six hours each day. Read more...

 

A Day in the Life of a Bookmobile Librarian

Northeastern Nevada Regional Bookmobile Librarian, Elko County Library, Baker, Nevada, 2000, photo Robert Dawson

Kelvin K. Selders is the librarian for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Bookmobile. His story appears in the book The Public Library: A Photographic Essay, which features essays by Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Ann Patchett, and others, alongside author Robert Dawson’s photographs of libraries — from the extravagant to the minute. In the following piece, Kelvin Selders gives us a look into his typical work day. Read more...

Family Literacy at a Food Pantry

Family Literacy at a Food Pantry: In this webinar, learn how Cazenovia Public Library operates learning-focused programs for the whole family at a local food pantry.

The Cazenovia Public Library
is connecting the dots between early literacy, the local food pantry
and family well-being, and they’re doing it all on a small budget.
Starting with an Early Literacy project at the CazCares food pantry,
library outreach coordinators began to build more in-depth relationships
with the food pantry’s clients. Their interactions led to unexpected
positive outcomes:

• adults obtaining their high school equivalency through the library tutoring program;
• school age children participating in an interactive summer learning program and book club;
• and the food pantry becoming the site for ESL classes, Dolly
  Parton Imagination Library sign ups and health literacy initiatives.

Find out how this innovative library team supplemented their small
budget with donations and volunteers to make Family Literacy work for
the community.


Presented by: Betsy Kennedy, Director, Cazenovia Public Library

Top 10 Things You Need To Know About The Library

Here are 10 important things you need to know about the Albert S. Cook Library at Towson University. Know your stuff so you can utilize these amazing resources!

1. Your own personal research assistants! Get help student to student with the A-LIST crew.

Our fellow A-LIST students are here to help you on your academic journey. If you need help starting your research paper, finding a book, or have any questions related to the library find them in their gold shirts on the reference desk on the 3rd floor or around the library. Appointments can be scheduled as well, students helping students.

2. Hidden gems within the library! STARBUCKS-COPIESPLUS-LAUNCHPAD

Cook library has many resources and services inside the library, did you know? You thirsty or need a quick snack while studying? We have a Starbucks in our library, problem one solved. You need to fax papers, resume paper, or copy or print papers in bulk? Copies plus is here to help, problem two solved. Do you have a business start-up? Are you an entrepreneur? Oh wait, we have Student Launch Pad, Problem three solved.  Read more...

Why We Need Diverse Libraries By Rachel Smalter Hall Sep 1, 2015

www.nationofchange.org

Public librarians fight the good fight: we’re champions of literacy and intellectual freedom, we oppose book bannings, and we’re pro-education and public service. We’ve had a bit of a public image problem what with our shushing and our late fees, but we’ve been hard at work reinventing our image as welcoming, affirming professionals who are here to spread the love of books and information. We even have literary tattoos and bookish roller derby names.

All of this makes it harder to say this next thing: Public librarians need to do better with race.
When I recently read about the Napa Valley Wine Train that apologized for wrongfully escorting a book club of 11 black women off the train for being “too boisterous” (i.e. #laughingwhileblack), my first thought was of how many times I’ve seen the same thing happen in public libraries — I’ve witnessed many similar microaggressions against people of color throughout my time in libraries.

The nature of microaggressions makes them tricky to define, especially since they’re often so specific and personal, but I’ll do my best to describe a few of the instances I’ve seen.

"The Library is the Heart of Our Campus" on Vimeo

September is Library Card Sign-up Month

Library Card Sign-up Month is a time to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all.

Free promotional tools for libraries

Tour of the Brooklyn Public Library by Larissa Kyzer, Assistant Organizer NYLM

On June 3, 2009, following the LibCamp ‘unconference’ at Brooklyn College, a dozen intrepid NYMeetup members attended a tour of the Youth Services Division and Multilingual Center in the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch. This was the first Meetup event that I have been responsible for arranging, and perhaps surprisingly, only one of the first events that I have attended as a member. Stephanie has asked me to share my experiences planning this event and a little about the tours itself, and I am happy to do so.

My first NYLibrarians Meetup Event was an extensive tour of several divisions and services within the Center for Jewish History. I was delighted at the opportunity to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of such a vibrant and specialized library--one which I may not have ever found myself visiting had I not been for the tour. Afterwards, Stephanie asked the group for feedback on future events that she was interested in scheduling—in particular, she wanted to know if there was any interest in scheduling events in Brooklyn, such as a tour of the children’s library at the Brooklyn Public Library.

As a fervent Brooklynite and a library school student who has been considering the merits of young adult librarianship, I found both prospects appealing. I contacted Stephanie, who generously offered to allow me to make arrangements for a Brooklyn tour myself. The prospect was initially a bit intimidating, but I was exceptionally pleased with how straight forward the planning process was, and the opportunities that scheduling this tour afforded. For one, I was able to schedule a tour which appealed to my own personal interests—young adult librarianship and multilingual services in a public library setting. Secondly, it compelled me to reach out to active and talented librarians who, as we found during our tour, were exceptionally willing and excited to share their experiences and diverse collections with other librarians and MLIS students.

Our tour started in the youth services wing with David Mowery, the head of Youth Services. The Youth Services Division is composed of both a large children’s library and a recently-renovated Young Adult section. At 6:00 PM, the library was an active, energetic place, with children and parents perusing the stacks, making use of the computers in the youth-dedicated ‘Tech Loft,’ and studying. Highlights included viewing the rotating artwork that is on display in the section, a discussion about limited funding and its effects on youth programming, and information about how to best utilize the most popular, but least resilient items in the YA section—Manga (Japanese comics).

Following our tour of the Youth Division, we met with Frank Xu, the head librarian of BPL’s Multilingual Center. Though operating on a tight budget in a somewhat cramped corner of the adult fiction wing, the Multilingual Center manages to serve an incredibly large and diverse population of recent immigrants and Brooklyn residents for whom English is not a primary language. The center specializes in assisting individuals find practical resources (such as job-finding aids), collects current fiction and literature extensively in five languages (and somewhat less extensively in eight additional languages), and provides ‘conversation-roundtables’ in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, and any other language they can find volunteer teachers for. The staff—a small group of librarians who are exceptionally gifted linguists (one librarian, we were told, speaks over five languages; most speak at least three)—works together to ensure that the largest possible group of patrons is reached. For instance, the staff ensures that all information on the website is translated into as many languages as possible, organizes a popular reading series with international authors, and travels to public libraries and book fairs throughout the world to purchase popular contemporary materials that are being read in their home countries.

As a whole, the tour reinforced for me many of the wonderful qualities of public libraries, and especially of the Brooklyn Public Library. Upon leaving, however, a few things in particular struck me. For one, that the public library system reaches such an incredible variety of patrons—children, teens, recent immigrants, scholars, students. And as such, no vein of librarianship, even within the public library system, is quite the same. Secondly, that at this time, when we need our public libraries more than ever, they are making small miracles with the limited resources at their disposal.
Larissa Kyzer

Finding an internship through NY Librarians Meetup by Marc E. Shelton

In the discourse of a slow recovering economy, and as an ever-present
Library School Student attending Queens College Graduate School of
Library and Information Science program in Flushing, New York I found
the NY Librarian’s Meetup Group. This particular Meetup has been very
beneficial in providing a social networking space for the needs of
Librarian’s and Library Students alike in areas such as museum and
archive visits, library tours, resume workshops, and library skills of
various sorts. Social outings have included coffee shop sit downs, a
walk and tour through the Botanical Gardens.

Just recently I have been privileged to accept a volunteer internship
at a Brooklyn based organization called Children of Promise. Children
of Promise, NYC (CPNYC) is a Brooklyn based organization committed to
embracing and empowering children of incarcerated parents to break the
cycle of intergenerational involvement in the criminal system. CPNYC’s
mission is to provide children of prisoners with the guidance, support
and the opportunities necessary to effectively develop leadership
skills, form positive social relationships and enhance academic
performance. Implementing the principles and best practices of youth
development, this innovative after-school program infuses a mental
health model. Mental health based intervention allows CPNYC to acknowledge the
traumas children of prisoners experience and to address the problems
and challenges at the root, allowing young people to create new
behaviors, new habits and new reactions. It also allows staff to
understand the sources of negative and inappropriate conduct and model
appropriate behaviors and reactions.

Through my volunteer internship, I will be among 3-4 other library
school students who will help to develop their afterschool and summer
day camp library. They are in need of new/used children and teen
books. If you think you can help, please contact me at Librarianmarc[at]gmail.com. We will be organizing and cataloging their new library and helping to set up and
implementation plan for running the library smoothly. This is a great
chance for me to help others, especially children in special
situations. The NY Librarian’s Meetup Group has been the force behind
the inspiration to getting me out and looking for career-related
experiences, internships and a job.

Through my membership, I have attended a few of these events. Joining is free and the
social networking you experience is a lifetime experience that builds
on everything you already know. Stephanie is a hard-working organizer, dedicated to pleasing a wide range of professionals, library students, and individuals considering librarianship. So get involved, come to a few
groups, share what interests you and make a few suggestions as to things you would like to see happen. That’s all in the spirit of Meetups.

Best of Luck,

Marc E. Shelton
Librarianmarc[at]gmail.com