the shrinking librarian

May 8

libraryjournal:

librarylinknj:

thecardiganlibrarian:

jessydoesthings:

Send me your library card number; I’ll put random surprises on hold for you.

This is a brilliant idea for the teen who doesn’t know what to read once you’ve developed a rapport with him or her.

+100. Talk about bringing delight to your patrons! If you’re in a school, you can make the transaction more convenient by sending them to the student in their homeroom (even big HS kids love getting mail).

Awesome idea!

This is so adorable!

librarylinknj:

thecardiganlibrarian:

jessydoesthings:

Send me your library card number; I’ll put random surprises on hold for you.

This is a brilliant idea for the teen who doesn’t know what to read once you’ve developed a rapport with him or her.

+100. Talk about bringing delight to your patrons! If you’re in a school, you can make the transaction more convenient by sending them to the student in their homeroom (even big HS kids love getting mail).

Awesome idea!

This is so adorable!

Feb 13

“See it’s the librarian who sees the kids on a regular basis and gets to know a little about the kid and can really point the child in the right direction, because a librarian is always trying to serve the needs of the reader. So that element of curation that is so important to us.” LeVar Burton, “Flying Twice as High: Reading Rainbow 2.0” (via schoollibraryjournal)

(via libraryjournal)

Jan 24

“I tell the kids that the library belongs to them,” she said. “And I think that any child who could not afford that doll will remember the time they were able to borrow it from the library.” A Doll’s Magic, Free to Renew - NYTimes.com (via rachelfershleiser)

(via libraryjournal)

libraryjournal:

nypl:

In case you missed it, on the front page of today’s New York Times is the amazing story of Kirsten the American Girl Doll who has been in circulation with little girls at the Ottendorfer Branch of The New York Public Library for 8 years!!!! It’s an amazing story about a library, a librarian, and a community.

Just so good.

I just love stories about non-traditional circulation.

Jan 23

“Libraries have long debated what makes a good collection. “Give ’em what they want” was the mantra that came from Baltimore County Public Library in the 1970s, a strategy that emphasized accessible, bookstore-like environments, offered a wealth of popular materials and service that was “user-friendly” and “customer-focused” years before anyone started using those terms. On the flip side were libraries that emphasized broad, well-rounded collections to meet the needs of any reader, any time. Lists of core collections were published to help librarians invest in well-reviewed backlist titles, creating miniwarehouses of books just in case. Need a biography of Simon Bolivar? Hey, here’s two. Heading to Montenegro? We’ve got the authoritative travel guide. Oh, you want Mary Higgins Clark’s latest? Get on the waiting list. For years, many libraries tried to do both. But with so many quality resources freely available on the Internet, that’s no longer necessary—or feasible.” What We Buy Now by Brian Kenney | Publishers Weekly (via libraryjournal)

(via libraryjournal)

Jan 22

thelifeguardlibrarian:

schoollibraryjournal:

“This was a major turning point in my life.”

R.L. Stine’s life was changed when a librarian helped him discover Ray Bradbury.

Uh, thank goodness for that librarian.

OF COURSE.

Jan 17

“I like books, and I believe librarianship is about books, if you stop and think about how books equal stories, and it doesn’t matter what goddamn container they come in, be it paper, digital, audio, or a film or a video game. Stories are what people crave, and stories (like the storycorp partnership with libraries, or the not so new resurgence of reading aloud to adults–and adult librarians, if you need help on reading aloud, you know who to ask) are what libraries have and always will do best.” Ego, Thy Name Is Librarianship (via himissjulie)

(via libraryjournal)

Jan 15

“I was reading books when I was 13, 14 just coming up. I was living in the hood, but I went to the library and I checked out music books. I just read that shit because I wanted to be in the music business. But I felt like, if I’m going to be in the music business, I got to know about the business. I knew I had talent; I was talented as fuck. I could DJ, I could make music, I could produce beats, I could rap. But I needed to know the business part. So I went to the library, checked out a bunch of books. Well I had my mom check me out books; I was young. I was 13. I had her check me out a bunch of books from the library and I just read almost like six or seven books. Then I would check the books back in, and I would check them back out for another two weeks just to read the same thing over and over again so I could understand it.”

Rapper Juicy J talks about how libraries educated hime in a Vice interview (via lowscoreattack)

I took a kid (a DJ-hopeful) to the library once and dropped him off with the music librarian. He wanted to learn how to copyright his beats. He came back overawed with a) how kind the librarian was and b) “yo she knew everything!”

(via thelifeguardlibrarian)

(via libraryjournal)

Jan 13

expatlibrarian:

via Springer LibraryZone

(via 1001bookstoreadbeforeyoudie)

Jan 9

“This is what libraries do. I think it’s great that some libraries are able to lend out items other than books, because it shows that they are responding to the needs of their particular community. But again, I do not see it as a desperate move to stay relevant…. We’ve got relevancy coming out of our ears.” Rita Meade, “Ask a Librarian About the Odd Things Happening at Libraries” (via The Atlantic Wire)

(via libraryjournal)

the shrinking librarian

A shy violet keeps a library & information science scrapbook.