Because I am a detail-oriented nerd, I track the libraries that I visit. I usually take pictures if I can. Here is my post about the 2009 visits. I’m still using Daytum to track visits and I learned they just came out with an iphone app last month. I went to twenty-six different libraries for fifty-five visits total, I’m sure I have forgotten some. Here’s the short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year. I have a few library photos in this Flickr photoset.

• Kimball Public library (18) – my hometown library where I often worked this year.
• Hartness/Randolph (10) – the local academic library, open late, great DVD collection.
• Howe/Hanover (2) – my favorite bigger town library, so comfy, so lovely.
• Boxboro MA (2) – my Mom’s library, great for unwinding.
• Loussac/Anchorage Pl AK(2) – went here twice when I was at AKLA, neat architecture, busy place.
• Chelmsford MA(1) – came to see Brian, stayed to do work.
• Surprise AZ (1) – on a tour with my boyfriend’s parents. Neat libraries, so unlike New England libraries.
• Stowe Free VT(1) – former workplace of my great library pal Stephanie.
• New Bedford Pl MA(1) – I was on a weird research quest and they helped me out.
• Montpelier VT(1) – popping in to check email, lovely old wood in here.
• Burnahm Library, Colchester VT (1) – on a 251 club drive, nifty busy library.
• Goddard VT(1) – for a WordPress training, home library of my friend Helen.
• Beatley/Simmons MA (1) – before I gave a public speaking workshop.
• Cambridge (1) – walking distance from my boyfriend’s place, amazing renovation.
• Peoria AZ (1) – modern and fancy but sort of empty.
• Alling/Williston, VT (1) – fun history room and a snazzy bookmobile.
• Fort Lauderdale Reading Center, FL (1) – a weird non-library in some ways, well-loved clearly.
• Jericho/Deborah Rawson VT(1) – Fireplace and wifi, a great place.
• Palm Beach State College, FL (1) – busy place, old-fashioned building but modern collection.
• N Regional/Broward County Library, FL (1) – big and bustling, a little hectic.
• Niceville Pl, FL (1) – fun design, nice people, memorable fish tank
• Waterville NY (1) – doing great things, big lovely windows and light for a small place.
• Lantana Public Library, FL(1) – old fashioned and full, great location.
• Warren Branch, Indy (1) – super busy old style library/
• Nat’l Archives – Waltham MA (1) – friendly staff helped make awkward renovations managable.
• Maynard MA (1) – last library of the year, bright and busy w/ a great book sale.

• Entering the sub-basement at Colorado College.
• Rubber stamps in the University of Alabama library basement (there was also a printing press)
• The stairs to the room upstairs from the Bradford (VT) library
• The Calef Library basement in Washington Vermont
• Old card catalogs at the Library of Congress
• Not quite on topic but the secret door [art piece, not functional to go someplace secret] at the San Jose State library is pretty nifty.

A few more links people sent me over the last week or so.

• Toronto Public Library cutting service to Sick Kids [hospital] reading room saying that the hospital should play more of a role in the provision of library services.
• Phoenix is considering closing six public library branches prompting one columnist to ask “Cut all librarians before any cop?”
• Marilyn Johnson has written a book — This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Here is an interview with Marilyn and a good looking book review from the Boston Globe

I’m a nerdy list-maker. This should come as a surprise to no one. In addition to all the other reasons I enjoy the end of the year, it’s also when I make my year-end summaries. I did a guestroom wrap-up on my personal blog. I have two bookish wrap-ups to put here. This first one is about library visits. 2009 was the first year I kept track of all my library visits in an orderly fashion. Longtime readers of this blog may remember I did library reviews in 2003. I found I had a difficult time with constructive criticism if I knew the people who worked at a library, so I stopped doing this.

This year I made 67 library visits, about one every five days. A lot of these were for work [either local work or giving talks] and the rest were either fun or curiosity. I used a website called Daytum to track my visits which was really easy. So, here’s a short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year.

• Aldrich/Barre (1) – killing time before dinner with friends in town. The first library in Vermont I did any work for.
• Austin (1) – LBJ library, sort of a flyby right beore it closed for the day.
• Belfast, ME (1) – a small pretty library we stopped at while on vacation
• Belmont, MA (5) – my boyfriend’s local library
• Boxboro, MA (1) – my mom and sister’s library
• Cambridge, MA (1) – got to see it after the renovations were done. It’s nice!
• Camden, ME (1) – another fancy little Maine library
• Chelmsford, MA (1) – home of the Swiss Army Librarian
• Concord, NH (1) – stopped in here during a rainstorm
• Des Moines, IA (1) – I helped change their photo policy!
• Elko, NV (1) – A small library with a great mining collection
• Hartness/Randolph VT (7) – my local college library
• Houghton Library, Harvard University (1) – special tour and Samuel Johnson exhibit
• Howe/Hanover, NH (4) – one of my favorite all-time libraries
• JFK Library, MA (1) – mostly a museum and a general disappointment
• Kimball/Randolph VT (6) – my town library, a great place
• Library of Congress (1) – thanks Dan Chudnov for the tour.
• Long Branch, NJ (1) – fun to poke around in while I was at NJLA
• Montreal, QC (1) – ducked in here during a subway bomb scare
• McGill/Montreal, QC (1) – gave a talk, saw the library
• NYPL (2) – hiding out with good wifi in the periodicals room, highly recommended
• NYPL/SIBL (1) – fancy library, right downtown
• Portland, ME (1) – another hideout from the rain
• Portsmouth, NH (1) – gave a talk and stuck around
• Rochester, VT (1) – classic small-town library in a funky old building
• Toronto, ON (1) – no wifi, sort of surprising
• Tunbridge, VT (21) – where I work most of the time
• Westport, MA (1) – my Dad’s library.

This document was released only to a select number of existing customers of the company SirsiDynix, a proprietary library automation software vendor. It has not been released more broadly specifically because of the misinformation about open source software and possible libel per se against certain competitors contained therein.

SirsiDynix is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with one of the largest public libraries in the U.S. (Queens Borough, NY) and this document does illustrate the less-than-ethical nature of this company.

The source states that the document should be leaked so that everyone can see to what extent SirsiDynix will attempt to spread falsehoods and smear open source and the proponents of open source.

This is a linkless post, for obvious reasons.

• Sarah Houghton-Jan talks about what it’s like to live with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Not just an interesting outline of what it’s like to have a misdiagnosed disease for a long time, but also what it’s like to live with chronic pain and a busy life. Many interesting notes in the comments as well.
• Kevin Kelly writes about The Triumph of the Default. I’ve mentioned similar things before. It’s surprising to me how many novice computer users have no understanding that all software comes with a bunch of pre-set configuration options, all of which have a default setting, a setting that was chosen by someone who makes software. In many cases, these defaults affect our impression of how usable a piece of software is. Remember when the talking paperclip was the default help option for MS Word? Defaults are cultural choices, and most people don’t change them. we should learn more about them, as librarians, and think about our own presets (browser home pages, anyone?)
• Seattle Public Library is implementing some new charges including overdue fines for ESL materials and a whopping $5 fee for ILLs. Some interesting data in the article including “7 percent of library cardholders are responsible for roughly 45 percent of the hold requests” No official mention on SPLs website yet. You can read the complete policy changes in this PDF document.
• In another cost-cutting move, the state of Vermont is no longer going to be paying for our “branded” access to Webjunction. As near as I can tell, we still have access to all the same content, with the exception of continuing education classes, prompting me to wonder what exactly we were paying so much money for. The Continuing Ed discussion forums haven’t had a post made since November 2008.

Yesterday I got on the highway and went for a trip out to the Howe Library in Hanover New Hampshire. I took some photos. Mary White who was my gracious host when I spoke at Marlboro College a few years ago is now the director there. She had been in touch with a former Marlboro student who is now fresh out of library school and looking for work in the area — please hire Tyler (old blog, new blog, twitter), he is a smart, engaging involved person — and was having an informal chat with him and invited me out to see her library and meet Tyler. Apparently Tyler was partially inspired to his professional path by my talk/presence at Marlboro. Neat.

This is one of the things I think we don’t so much talk about in the blog-twitter-facebook world of librarianship — how important mentoring and personal connections are to getting, finding, and keeping work. Mary and I both had some identical pieces of advice for Tyler: join a professional association and try to go to the NHLA conference in May. I remember when I was first in library school and joining WLA and ALA, there were more experienced librarians who took me under their wing and sort of showed me how it was done.

The other thing I took away from my quickie visit was how much of what’s wonderful about the Howe — a library I’ve enjoyed going to since I first moved to the Upper Valley but haven’t been back to in a while — is the attention to detail that Mary and others bring to the place. Sure, the library has a great website that they hired a local company to create. There are TONS of signs in the library, many little nook-like places to sit, nice spaces for people to work in (tech services has windows), many interesting ways to say “thank you” to people for donating money or efforts, a year-round booksale and even a free hour of parking if you need to use the parking garage because the lot is full. Anyone in the area who wants to see a loved and loving library should wander down to the Howe and say hello to Mary.

“Government imposed censorship is very different from censorship imposed by a parent.”
“Internet content filtering does in fact have flaws… It overblocks.”

Thanks to Sarah for the heads up and kudos for the ACLU using your research. I find that numbers, not emotional appeals are what are going to really help make the case against governmentally-mandated filters. Here’s hoping.

• “…the increased popularity of the Internet in America has not been correlated with an overall increase in reported sexual offenses; overall sexual offenses against children have gone steadily down in the last 18 years” Note: this does not say “oh the internet is safe!” It just says that the internet getting more popular doesn’t correlate with sexual offenses against children. More from the Research Advisory Board of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force
• Speaking of Berkman people, I’ll be hanging out in the Boston area over the turkey weekend and likely going to this event that Saturday. Anyone in the area should consider going, it looks like fun.
• Evergreen is gaining traction as an ILS that works even for big/complicated systems. The Traverse Area just went live with their Evergreen implementation. Doesn’t that look nice? More about Michigan’s open source ILS project.
• I’ve been reading more lately. I read Cory Doctorow’s book Content (my review) and think it should be required reading for librarians or anyone else in the various digital content industries. If you’d like a copy, you can read it for free online, or if you’re a librarian or a teacher, you can request a donated copy from the website. I already gave mine away.
• FCC broadband bill passed. This might help Farmer Bob [my generic term for the people over on this side of the digital divide] get broadband.
• Pew Report “When Technology Fails” (and even really great technology sometimes does). The results will likely not surprise the librarians. “15% of tech users were unable to fix their devices” and “48% felt discouraged with the amount of effort needed to fix the problem.”