Recent issues of library professional journals have included lots of articles relating to social networking web sites and services, and how they are used by libraries.
Public response to our "web presence" -- this blog, the library's web site, and the library's FLICKR(tm) account -- has been pretty low key.
A couple of libraries have added us as FLICKR(tm) contacts.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Significance
The York News-Times' "forum" received 10 comments in the week following the May 19th York County Board meeting in which the topic of county funding for public library service was raised.
The 2008 and 2007 York County Board meetings at which the request was presented do not turn up in the York News-Times' "advanced archives search" using "county" and "library" as search terms. A July 26, 2006 article explains the request for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
The library board's request follows the same formula each year. The basic principle in the request is "funding proportionate to use."
The April 2009 statistics are fairly representative. 32.9% of items loaned in April 2009 were borrowed by rural York County residents. For the year May 2008 through April 2009 the percentage was 30.3%
The 2008 and 2007 York County Board meetings at which the request was presented do not turn up in the York News-Times' "advanced archives search" using "county" and "library" as search terms. A July 26, 2006 article explains the request for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
The library board's request follows the same formula each year. The basic principle in the request is "funding proportionate to use."
The April 2009 statistics are fairly representative. 32.9% of items loaned in April 2009 were borrowed by rural York County residents. For the year May 2008 through April 2009 the percentage was 30.3%
Friday, May 22, 2009
Just A Little Bit Wrong
| An out-of-town advertising specialty company contacted local businesses pitching a public service refrigerator magnet listing community agency phone numbers. The list includes sheriff, police, fire, hospitals, some national emergency hotlines, etc. The list is surrounded by ads from the advertisers who paid for the product. |  |
In addition to the ads, the margins identify two public service agencies chosen to be distribution points.
 | The library's name is spelled wrong in both the service agency listing and the "Distributed by" box in the margin. |
The library agreed to be a distribution point in a brief telephone conversation. No one at the library had any role in securing advertisers, or reading proof on the copy before the piece was printed and distributed.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Regroup & Refocus
There's so much going on in the world. A former colleague, dead of Alzheimer's disease a few weeks shy of her 61st birthday. Unexpected excitement during routine review of claims. The formal opening of the next budget planning cycle.
 | 9 days and counting until "Art Thingy." If you've read this far (with or without peeking at the diversions), indulge yourself in "I Love Libraries." |
Thursday, May 7, 2009
7:p.m. sharp
This post outlines a presentation to the York City Council's May 7, 2009 meeting.
The topic is the library's role in providing access to electronic content.
TheElectronic Databases and Other Electronic Resources page in Kilgore Memorial Library's web site lists a selection of resources. Some are provided at no cost by their publishers and sponsors. For example, the York News-Times archive at Newsbank (March 2000 to date) is provided by the newspaper.
The Nebraska Library Commission's NebraskAccess program provides several to Nebraska residents and users of Nebraska libraries.
Kilgore Memorial Library's materials expenditures include subscriptions to the following:
The service provides Kilgore Memorial Library's cardholders access to a wide-ranging selection of downloadable e-audiobooks. They can be "borrowed" for three weeks, with a three-week "renewal." A user can have up to ten titles "on loan" simultaneously. The service includes the option for individual users to download and install the NetLibrary Media Center which provides search, loan tracking, and download assistance. E-audiobooks can be transferred to, and played on a variety of MP3 compatible devices.
The topic is the library's role in providing access to electronic content.
TheElectronic Databases and Other Electronic Resources page in Kilgore Memorial Library's web site lists a selection of resources. Some are provided at no cost by their publishers and sponsors. For example, the York News-Times archive at Newsbank (March 2000 to date) is provided by the newspaper.
The Nebraska Library Commission's NebraskAccess program provides several to Nebraska residents and users of Nebraska libraries.
Kilgore Memorial Library's materials expenditures include subscriptions to the following:
- Britannica Online
- NOVELIST; a fiction "readers' advisory."
- PriceIt - database of sales results for antiques and collectibles
- ReferenceUSA - business and personal "directory" type information
- Salem Health and Salem History coordinate with print resources from Salem Press
- NetLibrary's e-audiobook service was added this spring.
The service provides Kilgore Memorial Library's cardholders access to a wide-ranging selection of downloadable e-audiobooks. They can be "borrowed" for three weeks, with a three-week "renewal." A user can have up to ten titles "on loan" simultaneously. The service includes the option for individual users to download and install the NetLibrary Media Center which provides search, loan tracking, and download assistance. E-audiobooks can be transferred to, and played on a variety of MP3 compatible devices.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Brain Drain
Maybe its the stuffed head from spring pollen, or pre-occupation with must-do details.
For whatever reason, nothing new has come to this blog for most of a month -- at least no one was hollering for a new post.
NetLibrary e-audiobooks are now available for iPod(tm) as well as generic MP3 players. The company is promising even more enhancements in the next few months.
Preparations are underway for this year's summer reading program; the theme is "Be Creative At Your Library," and the program will kick off with an all-day extravaganza on Saturday, May 30th.
For whatever reason, nothing new has come to this blog for most of a month -- at least no one was hollering for a new post.
NetLibrary e-audiobooks are now available for iPod(tm) as well as generic MP3 players. The company is promising even more enhancements in the next few months.
Preparations are underway for this year's summer reading program; the theme is "Be Creative At Your Library," and the program will kick off with an all-day extravaganza on Saturday, May 30th.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Declutter
Lincoln historian Jim McKee tells the story of Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick, whose book collection filled a two-story house.
Filled -- wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
Fitzpatrick began the collection as an organized arrangement. He valued the books above all else, and gradually filled every available space.
The successor owners had different values. They sold off the items that had substantial financial value, and trashed the remainder.
People who knew in general terms what the collection had contained, and who tracked what was "salvaged" lamented the lost intellectual content.
A recent article on the demise of VHS noted that thousands of "silent classic" films from the early 20th Century that had been reformatted and released on VHS in the 1970s and 1980s are once again unavailable until there is sufficient financial incentive for someone to navigate the morass of copyright and content licensing to reissue them in the digital formats currently in use.
Kilgore Memorial Library's VHS collection is going away this year as the library needs the space for new materials. Some titles will be replaced with DVD copies. Many will just go away, following in the wake of Life Magazine back files and other once valued pieces that had to make way for something newer.
Filled -- wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
Fitzpatrick began the collection as an organized arrangement. He valued the books above all else, and gradually filled every available space.
The successor owners had different values. They sold off the items that had substantial financial value, and trashed the remainder.
People who knew in general terms what the collection had contained, and who tracked what was "salvaged" lamented the lost intellectual content.
A recent article on the demise of VHS noted that thousands of "silent classic" films from the early 20th Century that had been reformatted and released on VHS in the 1970s and 1980s are once again unavailable until there is sufficient financial incentive for someone to navigate the morass of copyright and content licensing to reissue them in the digital formats currently in use.
Kilgore Memorial Library's VHS collection is going away this year as the library needs the space for new materials. Some titles will be replaced with DVD copies. Many will just go away, following in the wake of Life Magazine back files and other once valued pieces that had to make way for something newer.
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