Library Buzz

A colleague pointed out an op-ed piece from the Lawrence Journal World in Lawrence, Kansas titled Libraries are limited, obsolete by Mark Hirschey.

Dr. Hirschey is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Kansas.

In the op-ed, Dr. Hirschey decries the expense of building a new Library for the town of Lawrence, Kansas. Dr. Hirschey thinks that Libraries are obsolete because people can find what they want on the Internet and they don’t need a Library.

I think he raises a few points that Libraries and Librarians need to market their resources and be accessible to their patrons. But I also think that Dr. Hirschey is confused to think that everyone could find everything on the Internet. Publishers don’t put their materials on the Internet for free - someone has to pay for it. Libraries pay those fees to buy books, purchase access to databases of articles and reports and they make the materials available to their patrons.

I notice on Dr. Hirschey’s cv that he is a published author - well he is a tenured professor with a PhD and the rule is publish or perish. I guess he does get paid for the articles that he writes and the occasional book he edits or publishes. If Libraries didn’t buy these items - who does he think would? Well, his students would since I’m sure his books and articles are required reading for them.

Sure I use the Internet to find lots of information - but I also know where to look. Sometimes I connect via the Internet to a resource such as ProQuest with which my Library has contracted database services.

Of course - any time I need to know about business and economics - I look up the answer on Wikipedia and I know that it’s 100% always reliable!

No Responses »

The irony that I am typing this message is not lost on me. Yesterday I heard a sound clip from Katie Couric (now of CBS) reporting on the demise of cursive writing skills. With the advance of technology the younger generation isn’t learning cursive. Evidence of this has been essays on the SAT exams. Most folks are printing their answers rather than writing in cursive. Katie went on to say that the ability to write cursive affects the way we think.

Imagine - all those nuns teaching in Catholic schools were right to stress good penmanship!

No Responses »

Washington DC can be such a small town.

Wednesday evening after work I was running errands and ran into a friend from my Library school days. Well - it isn’t that long ago - we were graduated in 2000!

We neither of us dashed off despite the spitting rain that loomed worse overhead. We took the time to catch up. He’s at the same place - I have made a change - two years ago. We both confessed to being members of the Mary Ellen Bates fan club.

In talking he mentioned something that resonated with me. Both us try, at times, to put forward ideas to better serve our patrons. These aren’t revolutionary ideas - they’ve been implemented successfully in Libraries across the country. But we have both been met with a general lack of enthusiasm by higher ups.

The supervisors are excellent Librarians, but seem to suffer from having been in the same job at the same institution for too long. In some cases they have tried new ideas in the past but were themselves shot down so now they’re gun shy.

We then began to wonder what we’ll both be like when we’ve been in our jobs for a while longer!

No Responses »

The post below to the Federal Librarians listserv

It has come to the attention of our Library staff that effective October 1, 2006, the U.S. General Services Administration Library has been permanently closed and its resources are be disbursed throughout the
agency.

It is not yet clear what will happen to its collection of Federal Depository Library materials, which technically, I believe, belongs to the Federal Depository Library Program under the Superintendent of Documents, not GSA. The Library (Depository Library No. 0092C) is currently listed as selecting and receiving 11% of all federal publications available in the Depository Program.

The library is also listed (http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/about-union-histories.htm) as being one of the few sources in the world for certain compiled legislative histories to U.S. public laws (we were seeking one such compilation - that’s how we found out). Helen Davenjay at GSA is the current contact for questions about the Library.

how sad… who is next???

No Responses »

I’m leafing through the September issue of information outlook from SLA. There’s an article on page 15 by Duane McCollum that is worth reading. Mark Twain and Knowledge Management.

Now, you’re probably thinking, what has Mark Twain to do with knowledge management (KM)? Well - I’m not sure, but I like Mark Twain and feel he has a great economy of language about many things. And I find the topic of KM to be important. I also think it is a nebulous and elusive area and one can talk at length and not say very much. No wonder I’m intrigued by it enough to consider it a field for a PhD.

Seriously, Duane’s column puts KM in an understandable framework. Definitely worth reading!

3 Responses »

Greetings all — Happy October. I love the month of October- - fall is in the air. My birthday is coming up. The weather cools and soon leaves will start to turn ah yes.

The other day I was in a meeting with a fellow from another division at my agency. He wanted to talk to the Library staff about what resources we offer. His wife is a Librarian. Part of me cringed - “Oh no, one of those people who knows something about what we do.”

Well, his wife must be a good Librarian because she has pitched our profession well. After showing himwhat we do for folks he said - well it looks like you’ve got things covered pretty well. Then I mentioned that it would be useful to get out to some of the staff conferences and provide demos of how we can help our folks carry on the mission of the agency.

He thought that would be good. My boss pointed out that he’s been trying for some time to get us into the conferences, but we get turned down. But maybe we’ve found an ally - someone who will help to champion the Library to this audience.

I’m confident that if we can get into a conference and let the attendees give feedback that something of what we are doing is useful… we’ll get invited to more and more.

Think big when you are trying to promote your services!!!

One Response »