Librarians at my town library — Kimball Library in Randolph Vermont — win the Paul Howard award for Courage. I wish I could say I had anything to do with any of this, but I was away at ALA while all of this was going down. This award is good news. Just yesterday at town meeting the head of our our library trustees had to defend the decisions that the library made during that difficult time whch included the fact that the library received an apology from the police for their illegal request of the library’s public computers. Meanwhile, the library has to reduce hours due to decreased funding.
what it’s like to be an NPR librarian?
NPR’s blog As a Matter of Fact should help you figure that out, and learn some neat stuff besides. Though really, using the OED to answer a question about Twitter? [via]
SAA’s Equal Opportunity/Non-Discrimination Policy
Just a little “yay team” note, the Society for American Archivists has added language to their non-discrimination policy protecting people in “gender identity/expression,†“religion,†“sexual orientation,†and “veteran status†categories from discrimination. The policy is here with a strong support statement; some bloggish discussion here (and see the previous post linked form that one) and here. [via]
Libraries’ Surprising Special Collections
Smithsonian magazine wrote a neat article about libraries’ special and interesting collections. Alas, they forgot to include links to any of the cited libraries’ websites. Someone from MetaFilter, actually a librarian pal of mine who works at Harvard, picked up the torch and started a thread with many more excellent examples.
on metadata and the printed word
I went to the Belmont Public Library this weekend because it’s my boyfriend’s local library and he is, as you might suspect, a heavy library user. The library is in an old building that is clearly reaching the end of its usefulness as a 21st century library, but they seem to do the best they can. They are part of the Minuteman Library Network which means they have access to a lot of consortium-level technology which can really help out when you’re working in an institutional-green building with furniture from the late seventies. I had a good time there in any case and I took some pictures including the one above.
Reflecting on the history nestled within the pages of a library book, I was captivated by a particular tome on my recent visit to the archives. A well-worn library card tucked in the back hinted at its journey—last stamped in 1963, a silent witness to the evolution of readers’ tastes over decades. Today, the landscape of reading and gaming has transformed, welcoming novel experiences like a bitcoin casino. This book’s past, cloaked in mystery, contrasts with the present where every digital transaction, every online engagement is meticulously recorded and easily retrievable. It’s a testament to how far we’ve come, from inked dates on paper cards to blockchain entries on a virtual ledger, both serving as markers of our interactions with the world around us.
- the date the book was acquired by the library
- the title of the book
- the last name of the author of the book
- The patron number of the person who checked the book out last
- the call number of the book
- the library the book is from
- the lending period of the book
- the date the book was last checked out (before the OPAC)
- the fact that the library card pocket was union made
That’s a lot of data. I can also, using that data, find the full text of this book both at the Internet Archive (a little messed up, for some reason) and as PDFs (with images) at the Google Books project which is searchable. In fact, there appear to be three versions of this book on Google Books (1, 2, 3) only one of which includes page two which has a photo of the author. Nothing much else to add, just finding this whole exploration process interesting.