I may be in Tuscany, but who can escape the power of The Library? See, I was in the shower the morning after I visited the library in Assisi and I began to wonder how they could manage without a good Internet connection. It sure it seems they could use some new technology. Anyway, whilst scrubbing away I started to think about the size of their print collection and then began to wonder if they had ILL (Inter-Library Loan). Of course, I was then thinking that what they really needed were enormous digitzed reference collections.
Where is this story going? Don’t ask me, I’m vacationing in Sienna right now! Oh wait, I know! This article in the SF Chronicle reminded me of those recent Library thoughts. As Homer Simpson would say: Mmmmmm…Robots digitizing collections…….
This post is little crazy, isn’t it? I think what I need is a vacation.
Assisi, Italy, Public Library facts:
1. While the stacks are open, you can’t enter the Library unless you are buzzed in by the Librarian.
2. The Librarian doesn’t speak English (and this Librarian doesn’t speak Italian).
3. The ceilings of the multi-room facility are covered in highly decorative trim and fresco paintings.
4. You can expect a standard small/medium sized Library collection including children’s books.
5. You can’t take pictures in the Library even if it is empty of patrons. I imagine this rule might slide if you spoke some decent Italian.
6. Finally, there isn’t one computer in the whole place.
Arrivederci!
Did you know it is National Unappreciated Librarian Month? -via LISNews
A great story from Edmonton must have been written for the occasion, no?
I’ll be somewhat pressed for time over the next couple of weeks otherwise I would look into this more myself. Is there really not a web page for this national month long holiday?! This must be corrected!
This is just the first of many plugs for the new Librarian web site WebJunction.org. This site has been formed with a combination of high quality organizations, very hard work and major cash flow from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (where I used to work:).
At this point, my favorite part of the site us the Community Center, where Librarians can communicate with each other about whatever they need to (professionally anyway:). It will hopefully turn into a very popular and active professional resource for us. From MP and Library Man it gets a gold star and we highly recommend you visit often.
WebJunction just went live so expect a work in progress. Still, it is a work that has been in development for many months and involves a suprising number of hours of planning and consultation. It is edifying to see ideas move into reality like this, especially in our little Library World!
Perhaps the fine visitors to libraryman.com can chime in on this. For the last several years, every time I wrote the word ”librarian” I always used a capital ”L”. Same for Public Library. Of course it was not grammatically correct to do this, but I thought it indicated the esteem I hold for the professionals and the institutions. Call it silly creative writing or good point, since I have been jotting a great deal lately I have been thinking that perhaps I should not use those officially incorrect capitalizations. Any thoughts?
A huge thank you goes out to the most excellent KB. I’ve got some moving and shaking coming up quickly and he jumped up and snagged me from a little pickle of a fix. That sounded weird, but suffice it to say he pitched in with some FTP and web dev stuff I couldn’t get to right now. Thanks a fifty gazzillion, KB. Everyone else we know in Seatlle appreciates, enjoys and uses his expertise. Just ask them, they are my blog buddies (mostly). You know, I’d still be friends with him if he didn’t do the blog things, I just wouldn’t tell him about my favorite Helium record or buy him a “thanks for the code and post” dinner. Thanks, home-silce.
Via our pals over at LISNews we find a story about an overdue book returned after 94 years. After having dealt with so many weird returned item situations I imagine this doesn’t strike most of us as dramatically it does the general public.
However, it reminds me of the play “Underneath the Lintel”. Evidently the show is a great big off Broadway hit. It is only natural then that a theater company here in Seattle did its own version recently. It’s about a Librarian that becomes obsessed with finding who returned an overdue book. A VERY overdue book. I don’t know how long it will be posted, but here is an article about the show from the Seattle PI.
The new director of the Minneapolis Public Library system refused to take more pay than the police chief. That’s cool, but she sure has her work cut out for her in that system/state. As a non-librarian it will be interesting to see what she does to make that system improve. There are some phenomenal Librarians working in Minnesota and the Minneapolis area though so at least she has some staffing issues already solved. If only Chad and Susan ran things around there, then we’d see good things happen!
This one is for Aaron. via Book Notes Blogs
I have received several emails asking if this was Libraryman’s doing. While it is quite understandable that people would think this, it really isn’t Libraryman’s bag. I haven’t actually checked with him but I think he spent the weekend with Jeb Bush in Florida explaining the finer details and consequences surrounding the state’s recent push for filtering in libraries. If he did meet with Jeb, you FL Librarians will likley see a large funding increase very shortly.