Wednesday August 16, 2006

  (10:07 pm) My Addiction

     Productivity in anything is low this week. I've reacquainted myself with a previous addiction known as Bola Loca, or Jezzball as it seems to be called now.

  (09:04 pm) Our Purpose, Ignoring Teens

     Annoyed asks a question, as only Annoyed can, about the purpose of public libraries. I actually ran into a related subject at a LISNews poll, which on further thought brought out a pet peeve of mine and ties back into Annoyed's post.

     Our purpose is to serve the information needs of the entire community regardless of whether they are users or not. If there is one group that uses the library more than any other that doesn't mean they should get preferential treatment, other than the simple advantage of familiarity that comes from use. Yet for teens we already offer their own fiction (for some libraries their own nonfiction), music, movies, multiple databases geared for school research (usually at the expense of individual but pricier business oriented sources), and let's face it a lot of adult nonfiction, particularly categories like science and history, are used for student projects and are evaluated and purchased for that goal. On top of that we have to offer a special area for them to hangout (even though they invade every other area), tons of programming, and now, as Annoyed points out, the new thing is video gaming. All in an effort to entice them into the library and all probably because librarians, bookworms they are, were uncool in school and are now trying to make up for lost popularity.

     Do we 'entice' local business owners like this? Or is that too boring? What about twentysomethings facing 9-to-5 for the first time or 4am baby feedings? What are we doing to make sure thirtysomethings are on the right financial track? What religious groups are in your community and when's the last time you offered an informational program geared specifically to them?

     One of our jobs is to look at local census information for groups in the community that we don't see coming to the library. We then find out if we have information resources that are valuable to them and then whether or not they know about it.

     The teens are covered. Relax.

Tuesday August 15, 2006

  (10:08 pm) re: Cuban Librarians At IFLA

     Clock is ticking, I hope you've all sent your emails (hint: click banner above). Word is that Cuba will be submitting their own resolution blaming the US for all its troubles. I wonder, does that mean if President Bush pardons the Cuban librarians in Castro's jails that they will be set free?