Amalgamated Puppet Libraries [thanks jude!]
Category: libraries
IPL turns ten
Happy tenth birthday Internet Public Library! I didn’t know when I started doing some online reference for them in my last year of library school that they were so new and that a lot of the things they were trying to do were really pretty cutting edge. I still go there today to find good links to author information, to get POTUS information or just to see if my list of the seven basic plots in literature is still there. I guess some of the admiration is mutual, since I just found this on their blogs page
It would be wrong of library students to drop out of their programs and simply read Vermonter Jessamyn West’s blog about creatively integrating techonology and a human-centered approach into library services. But it would be understandable. A great blog.
information visualization aesthetics @ Seattle Public Library
The article begins “From now on, whatever you check out of the Seattle Central Library will play in color-coded streams across six big plasma screens on the library’s fifth floor.” but don’t freak out, that’s actually not what happens. Read more about the new art installation in the Seattle Public Library’s main branch. Of the three other major artworks in the library, two aren’t working currently, they need new projectors. [thanks matthew]
Libraries change lives right here, right now
Marylaine Block has a more personal look at how librarians in areas affected by Katrina are helping people get their lives back.
Sandra Fernandez, Public Relations Manager for [Houston Public Library], says that they’ve been operating an impromptu “branch” library on site at the convention center since Saturday, September 3. She says, “We have Library staff there, as well as volunteers. We don’t have a circulating library at that location. The materials are all either donated recently for that library or provided by the Friends of the Houston Public Library — which means that when something is “checked out” at that library, they can keep the materials. We have (as of yesterday) approximately 16 computers there, with internet access, games and reading materials for all ages. We are holding storytimes throughout the day as well. The GRB [convention center] is just a mile or two from the Central Library, and we are offering temporary library cards to all evacuees which then can then be used at all library locations.”
preparedness, before and after
It’s All Good plugs OCLCs digitizing services [“aren’t you glad you’ve done the hard work of digitizing all your special collections at times like these?“], and then points to two useful pages on the SOLINET web site: Before the Storm: The Countdown (Preparing for a Storm) & Actions for the First Day After (Cleaning Up After a Storm)