Today at Library Journal‘s virtual summit, eBooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point, I’ll address the question posed by our moderator: “If libraries build the perfect ebook collection, will the patrons come?” My response is one of the unspeakables I wrote about last week. In this instance, it’s the notion that “The Collection” goes away in
◊ Business of Libraries ◊
Missed opportunities in library mission and marketing
The Herald Tribune of Florida ran a short piece recently on the decline of books in libraries. Like so many others, the article was a listless piece with no appararent focus, a few random facts and no context or analysis. What also made it typical was that there was no library voice in the story.
Libraries can help bring back authoritative sources
It wasn’t so long ago that a young person’s formal introduction to research and authoritative sources was a teacher or librarian pointing to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the sum of human knowledge. Or the majority of American adults relied on Walter Cronkite to tell them “the way it was” for a given day. Or information about
How it feels to voice the unspeakable
On September 29th, I’ll be a panelist at Library Journal‘s virtual summit, eBooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point. My participation so far suggests it will be a provocative, content-rich program offered in a new way, at a rock-bottom price—which is so important with the need for communication within the library profession so high and training/travel
The decline of independent pharmacies
Independent pharmacies helped form the landscape of my youth and early adulthood. Each community had one, usually near the center of town. In addition to health products, most offered a good selection of newspapers, magazines and greeting cards. A wide assortment of candy was a staple and some even had a soda counter with light
On measuring nonprofit value
The Scholarly Kitchen has served up an interesting article for libraries this morning. In, Tackling the Data-Driven Funding Challenge — a New Skill for Nonprofit Managers, Alix Vance reviews initiatives to address one of the key challenges for libraries and other nonprofit organizations: When it comes to fundraising and donors, it’s no longer enough for
On getting patrons to use the databases
How do we get patrons to use the databases? We spend a lot of money on them and no one uses them. This question from a public librarian during one of the Reference Renaissance forums intrigued me. My first reaction was to wonder why a library would continually subscribe to resources patrons aren’t using and
Inching toward a National Public Library Corporation
At the Reference Renaissance 2010 conference in Denver earlier this month, I was encouraged to learn of various statewide and regional collaborations to foster more efficient operations and delivery of better library services. Conversations about these alliances arose throughout the conference and I would continually ask “why stop here, why not extend this across the
A patron gets a peek
I’ve been at the Reference Renaissance 2010 conference in Denver since Sunday and it’s been incredibly illuminating and energizing. Many thanks to the BCR Library Network for their invitation to be a plenary panelist, generous hospitality and assistance connecting me with talented people from around the country, England and Canada. What a privilege it has
On engaging with the FOX News videos
So I’ve been summarizing my thoughts on the FOX News videos and noting how good it feels to experience powerful dialogue about the issues facing our public libraries. A common trope is to frame issues in polar, life-or-death ways and library rhetoric often falls into this trap. Two of the FOX videos do the same
