libraries

UCLA taser incident, why no UCLA library voice?

What about the UCLA taser incident? Morgan wonders why we didn’t hear more about it on the blogosphere. I know that I was waiting for not just the inevitable ass-covering by the University Police, but also some sort of response from someone within the UCLA library system. I figured it would be decent to give them a chance to say something — perhaps along the lines of the Salon article that Morgan links to “I don’t like to see patrons tazed but in this case I think the campus police handled this correctly.” or perhaps something more sympathetic to the man who was tasered by campus police. But they said nothing, nothing that I could find. I was still waiting by the time I read Leslie’s letter, and Morgan’s post.

I was proud of Leslie Burger’s open letter to the UCLA Chancellor. In general I have been happy with some of the gutsy letters she’s written on behalf of libraries. There is a certain disconnect that happens when libraries have an opportunity to go on record about something that includes the larger institution that they are a part of. UCLA decides that the case is closed. What is the library’s role, or the role of library staffers, to comment on the events that occurred, events that were by all accounts the results of non-compliance with a library policy?

State Funding for Libraries – It’s Overdue

Posted on 28Nov0628Nov06 by jessamyn

So today I went to a meeting of the Vermont Library Association’s Advocacy Committee. The Advocacy Committee works closely with the Government Relations Committee of VLA to get stuff done on a legislative level. They act and we promote. We work in tandem.

Big news this year is that the VLA is working with the Dept. of Libraries to try to get a small amount of guaranteed state funding for Vermont’s public libraries. Currently funding is 100% local, with the exception of grant programs like LSTA, Gates Foundation and Freeman Foundation money. For most Vermont towns this means getting the budget approved in town meeting every year. Some towns have the library as part of the town government funding and some have a separate line item. Some of the towns I work with have big fights about library funding every year. Some libraries get small increases every year when they need them. In any case, Vermont is one of only six states that has no state level funding for libraries and we are asking the Governor for $1.6 million [pdf] which will give public libraries in the state the equivalent of 10% of their operating costs, or a minimum of $1500.

A concern among some of the libraries is that towns might see the state money as supplanting money the town would have to pay and libraries would actually see no net increase in funding. And, of course, in a state where people are used to being so independent, there are always concerns when money comes from the government (CIPA anyone?).

In any case I’m new to this lobbying and legislating stuff, though I am pretty good at stringing sentences together. If anyone has advice, feel free to leave it in the comments.

a fable in five ims

Posted on 26Nov0626Nov06 by jessamyn

my im friend (2:49): so i went to [Vermont public library] .. and was like.. you teach computer classes?
my im friend 2:49 : and theyre like YOU NEED TO COME BACK WHEN THE HEAD LIBRARIAN IS HERE
my im friend 2:49 : and im like no no.. i was just wondering if i could volunteer to help out with them
my im friend 2:49 : and theyre like WE HAVE SOMEONE <repeat DEFAULT LIBRARIAN IS HERE PHRASE>
my im friend 2:50 : so im like.. ooooookay .. and left

You can learn a lot about people by what they take away from this story.

determining the cultural health of an area by looking at its libraries

Posted on 16Nov0617Nov06 by jessamyn

I think this is a politically smart thing to do. Iowa governor Tom Vilsack’s wife Christine Vilsack visited 500 libraries during her term as state’s first lady. [libraryola]

confessions of a bookplate junkie

Posted on 06Nov06 by jessamyn

Hi. I’m in the Los Feliz branch of Los Angeles Public library where the air conditioning is brisk and the wifi is fast and free. Abby has an amusing wrap-up of her impressions of the WLA conference as well as some thoughts about Library Thing. It’s fun to hang out with other moderator/administrators of library-ish social-ish sites (LibraryThing for her and MetaFilter for me). A lot of the issues we deal with concerning identity, authority and content filtering as well as the sheer volume of the bits and bytes we move around mean that even though our sites are very different, some of the cat-herding aspects of being an overseer of a social software network are very similar.

Speaking of MetaFilter, here’s a fun link from there today: Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie.