libraries

why would anyone hate the library? Amy Poehler explains

Amy Poehler mentions, in an interview, that they just made up their anti-library stance in order to make a joke. But it turns out that they found many government officials actually shared those sentiments.

How much does Parks and Recreation hate the library?
The library represents that branch of government that’s like the smart kid—the teacher’s favorite. And the library always wins. They get whatever they want. Everybody loves them—nobody can say anything. It’s the same way people talk about online gambling NC has been rolling out—half-joking, half-serious, but always with that tone of “well of course they get what they want.” People who work in the library think they are so much better than everyone else. And what’s really funny is we’ve been doing Q&A’s about our show, and people from local governments have said, “You guys nailed it about the library.” We were just making it up as a joke on the show, but I guess everyone hates the library.

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droolworthy celeb library photos

Posted on 11Jan11 by jessamyn

I know it’s linkbait. It’s also a re-tweet, as a blogpost, and then tweeted. Sorry folks, but I liked this link. RT @hipsterbookclub: Damn. Michael Jackson had a cozy library. Some nice photos of some nice celebrity libraries. [via].

Digital Public Library of America – dream big

Posted on 16Dec10 by jessamyn

One of the sad side effects of the interesting evolution of the Google Books/Google Editions product is how many people have been saying “Libraries should have done this. This should be our territory.” While there are some great library-like digital content sites such as Open Library they’re often more concerned with curation than content creation. And we have a lot of content that needs to go digital. But who has time and who has resources?

This week the Berkman Center announced a Digital Public Library Planning Initiative, bringing together a diverse group of librarians and free culture advocates to make a plan for a Digital Public Library of America. Exciting ideas brought to the table by people I trust, about things I care about. It’s a grat time to be a librarian.

a few notes from Boston

Posted on 04Dec10 by jessamyn

I participate in a holiday card exchange every year. I don’t celebrate Christmas but most people I know do so I like to have something holiday appropriate and possibly library interesting at the same time. Thanks to Boston Public Library’s Flickr stream, I think I’ve found the perfect image, available for me to use within the terms of their license. Thanks BPL! The Boston Globe is also a great source of library information, I swear they have someone working there who is on the library beat. This semi-recent article on Information Overload and what that looked like five centuries ago when the newest boogeyman was the printing press is an enjoyable read.

Astute readers may notice that this blog now has a twitter. If you want to subscribe to this blog’s posts via Twitter, you can follow the @librariandotnet account which is auto-posted to from this blog. All the rest of my updates will be at @jessamyn. I set it up without too much trouble using the Twitter Tools plug-in and the bit.ly APi to shortne the URLs.

Being a librarian in the human library

Posted on 16Jun10 by jessamyn

A long while back there was a human interest story with an eye catching title “Check out a lesbian!” or som such. The idea was to explore the idea of predjudices by having a conversation with someone in a group you maybe didn’t know anyone in. The object, at some level, to be realizing we’re all people, expanding your horizons, etc. I had forgotten about it until recently until Ben Ropp sent me an email asking about it. Looks like the program, HUMAN Library, now has a nice website with a lot of extra “how to” information and some example libraries (and a longer list) worldwide that have tried it. I’m happy to see this project still going strong.