These new, free telephones replace the pay phones previously offered by the library. “As mobile phones have become more prevalent, and pay phones have become more scarce, it had become more difficult to keep the pay phones operational,” said Karen Spiel, Downtown Regional Manager for the Seattle Public Library. “We knew we wanted to continue to provide phones, so using the existing infrastructure to provide free phones was the most simple solution.”¹

SPL worked with several department, including IT, Facilities, and City Telephone Services, to install the phones. The library purchased the phones, and the dedicated telephone lines are part of the City’s phone network.² The phones themselves cost $400 each ³, and the lines cost about $60 per month.⁴

The phones are set up to make only outgoing local or toll-free calls, with an honor system time limit of ten minutes per call.⁵ Because of their location within the library, the phones are only available during open hours.⁶

Spiel considers these telephones a vital service for library patrons. “People need to call about job interviews, call their child’s school, and call for basic services including shelter,” Spiel said. “Those of us who have gotten accustomed to carrying a cell phone everywhere probably don’t notice how often we rely on them.” ⁷

The phones are getting plenty of use. “Recently during one hour we referred a tourist who didn’t have their phone with them, a patron whose cell phone died and they didn’t have their charging cord, and a patron who needed to call a shelter,” Spiel said.

References and Resources

[i] Karen Spiel, Downtown Regional Manager for the Seattle Public Library, e-mail interview with the author, September 10, 2018.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] “Downtown Seattle Public Library installs free phones.” Real Change. August 29, 2018. https://www.realchangenews.org/2018/08/29/downtown-seattle-public-library-installs-free-phones

[iv] Karen Spiel, Downtown Regional Manager for the Seattle Public Library, e-mail interview with the author, September 13, 2018.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Ibid.

The post Seattle Public Library Offers Free Telephone Service first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

One hurdle is liability. What happens if a program participant or user who checks out a fitness item gets injured? A liability waiver may suffice in some districts, but not others. Related, insurance can be another hurdle. “This can especially be a challenge for someone who is not a professional fitness instructor, but who does it as a hobby,” said Noah Lenstra, founder of Let’s Move in Libraries (letsmovelibraries.org). “I personally don’t think a volunteer instructor should be required to have this type of insurance coverage (it costs a TON) but many cities and counties require it.”¹

In some places, getting a fitness program off the ground may be hampered by opinion – from library administration thinking fitness is outside the purview of the library, or from local businesses who feel that the library is undercutting their paid memberships. “One solution here would be to partner with the gyms/rec centers to offer a small sampling of programs at the library or to even check-out passes to gyms at the library, which I’ve seen a number places do,” Lenstra said.²

If bringing fitness to your library is a priority for you, there are many ways to work it into your collection or programming. Here are two examples of successful fitness programs that you may be able to replicate at your library:

In Shrewsbury, MA, not far from Boston and its annual marathon, the library hosted a program to help users reach a slightly easier goal — running a 5k. The Couch to 5k Runners Group met once a week at the Shrewsbury Public Library and twice a week at Marathon Sports, a local running store, to tackle an eight-week program to build up to running 3.1 miles in one go. Thirty people signed up to attend the first run, and eight eventually finished the program, including reference librarian Caitlin McKeon Staples, who organized the program.³ McKeon Staples set up the program with raffles and incentives including a Fitbit and other prizes, but found at the end of the program that many people had forgotten about the tangible prizes altogether. “My big takeaway is that people were excited just to have completed it,” McKeon Staples said.⁴ To stem any liability issues, McKeon Staples limited the program to older teens and adults, hoping that people would be able to judge that they could complete the program safely. She also modified a waiver form found at Let’s Move in Libraries (http://letsmovelibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ExamplesOfLiabilityForms.pdf) for participants to sign before the runs starting at the library, and Marathon Sports had participants sign a separate waiver for runs starting at the store.⁵

The Smyrna Strong Collection

The Smyrna (GA) Public Library offers users a chance to get fit on their own schedule. The “Smyrna Strong” collection gives users access to novice-level fitness equipment including resistance bands, kettlebell weights, and hand weights; wellness items including food scales and body tape measurers; hiking packs with binoculars that can be used at nearby parks; and kids equipment including jump ropes and movement games like Twister.⁶ Mary Wallace Moore, the director of the Smyrna Public Library, has found that the bags check out extremely well when they are on display, but poorly when they are on regular shelving, so she and her staff try to incorporate items into their displays when possible.⁷ Moore took the liability issue to the City Attorney, who wrote a disclaimer that is posted on each kit in the collection and states that the patron accepts risks associated with use of the kit by checking out the kit.⁸

Visit Let’s Move in Libraries for more ideas around library fitness programming.

References

1. Noah Lenstra, founder of Let’s Move in Libraries, in an email interview with the author, August 15, 2018.
2. Ibid.
3. Caitlin McKeon Staples, reference librarian at Shrewsbury Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, August 15, 2018.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Mary Wallace Moore, library director at Smyrna Public Library, in an email interview with the author, August 13, 2018.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.

The post Fitting Fitness into Library Programming first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Jacksonville Public Library (JPL), a county library system, has participated in COHS since its Florida inception in 2015. The application requirements at JPL are simple: potential students must be 18 or older, have a library card in good standing, be a resident of Duval County, and not hold a diploma or GED already. If a student meets these criteria, they fill out an application and are directed to complete a prerequisite course in one of eight career majors. This course allows students the opportunity to test out the online learning environment and determine if the program is a good fit for them. If the student passes the course with a 70 percent or higher, they are invited to interview at the library, and if they do well on the interview they are awarded a scholarship. Then the high school (Smart Horizons Career Online High School, in JPL’s case) takes over, collecting the student’s existing school transcripts, awarding credit for completed courses, and assigning an academic coach to facilitate communication between the student and the school.

Students have 18 months to complete the program whether they are starting from scratch with no high school experience or coming in with all of the required academic credits (but no diploma) and working only on the career component. When they finish, they receive an accredited high school diploma that they can use to apply to college or the military and a career certificate and portfolio that may help them get a foot in the door to land a job. Completing the program is not easy. “For someone with no credits [going into the program], it’s a lot of work,” said Katie Devanny, Literacy Program Manager at JPL. “Eight to ten hours of work per week is a minimum, if you’re a good student.”² The program can be difficult for those who lack computer skills or who need the face-to-face time lacking in an online course. “At the end of the day it’s not the best for everyone,” Devanny said.²

But COHS can be the best option for others, like those who may find it difficult because of schedule or physical ability to get to an in-person GED class and those who know they don’t do well on standardized tests, Devanny said.[2] Over the last three years, 427 potential students have applied to the program at JPL, 171 were awarded scholarships, and 57 have graduated. The library has one staff member dedicating part of her workday (about ten hours per week) to the library’s side of the program, including collecting applications, conducting interviews, and making the library’s scholarship offers.

Reference

1. Personal interview with author.
2. Ibid.

The post Get Your High School Diploma at Your Local Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Brewchive is housed at California State University, San Marcos in San Diego’s North County area. It is intended to store materials related to craft brewing in San Diego over roughly the last 30 years, since the craft beer resurgence[i].

In the late 1980s, San Diego County was host to five or six craft breweries. By 2010 the number had climbed to 43, and at present there are 156 breweries operating in the county, according to CSUSM Special Collections & History Librarian Judith Downie’s count[ii]. These breweries include nationally known breweries like Stone, Karl Strauss, Green Flash, and Alesmith. “Our goal is to save every brewery we can get a hold of including those that have closed,” Downie said[iii].

A special focus for Downie is women’s history in the brewing movement. In her research into pre-Prohibition brewing, Downie noticed a lack of information about any women who might have been involved. “I’m very concerned that you can find a mention here and a mention there, but if we don’t capture women’s history right now, that’s going to disappear,” Downie said[iv].

The collection, viewable online, currently hosts newsletters from a local homebrewing association as well as brewing logs and scoresheets from homebrewing competitions. It will soon have recorded oral histories from local brewers, homebrewers, and others associated with the brewing business[v]. The collection will eventually include realia like tap handles, growlers, and shirts, as well as ephemera like coasters, menus, stickers, and decals. Downie is also working on saving items from social media, where a lot of marketing is currently done for breweries[vi].

Various tap handles that were donated to the Brewchive collection. Photo Courtesy of Judith Downie.

Downie is collecting items from breweries around the county a little at a time, sometimes purchasing small items like stickers out of her own pocket and sometimes receiving donations from breweries who are interested in being part of the archives[vii]. Stone Brewing, a brewery that distributes nationally, is in the process of giving its archives to the Brewchive, and once those items are cataloged and stored properly Downie hopes to get more official archive materials from other brewers[viii].

This isn’t just a fun project for the library; it will help support research at the university including that of students in the upcoming Engibeering certificate program for students interested in the science and marketing of brewing[ix].

The archives will also be open to the public, and a small number of brewing books from Stone’s archives will be available for reference use.

Although the Brewchive is a large project for the university, it could be replicated on a smaller scale at many other libraries. “There are so many opportunities,” Downie said. “Even if libraries start in a very small way collecting local history or working with historical associations it can be a win win for everyone.”

References

[i] Judith Downie, Special Collections and History Librarian at California State University San Marcos, in a phone interview with the author, November 14, 2017.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] “Brewchive(tm).” California State University San Marcos. Accessed November 18, 2017. https://archives.csusm.edu/brewchive/

[vi] Judith Downie, Special Collections and History Librarian at California State University San Marcos, in a phone interview with the author, November 14, 2017.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] “Brewchive(tm).” California State University San Marcos. Accessed November 18, 2017. https://archives.csusm.edu/brewchive/

The post San Diego’s Craft Brewing Archive first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The correspondence is part of the library’s Anti-slavery Collection, a “Collection of Distinction” at the library that has been well taken care of by the library’s staff. From the outset, this collection was “pretty meticulously cataloged on catalog cards”, according to Tom Blake, BPL’s content discovery manager, with some cards including abstracts of the letters.[i] Now, digitized versions of the letters, broadsides, newspapers, and other print material in the collection are available online via the library’s catalog, Flickr, and the Internet Archive.[ii] But because of the handwritten nature of the correspondence, the letters are not searchable by their content. With more than 12,000 such letters in the collection, it would be expensive and time-consuming to have library staff take on the process of transcribing them.[iii]

That’s where the public comes in. The library has partnered with Zooniverse, an established crowd-sourcing platform for science and humanities projects, to build a website to facilitate the transcription of these hand-written letters into machine-readable text. Users register for a Zooniverse account and then, after a brief tutorial of the transcription tools, are able to turn the handwritten letters into typed text one line at a time, saving their progress as they go. Multiple users will work on each line of text, and once three users agree on the exact wording of a line, that line is considered finished and is unable to be transcribed again.[iv] Users can interact with each other and get advice on transcribing difficult passages via a Talk page on the website.

The library launched the transcription site on January 23, 2018, and there are already more than 2,200 registered volunteers for the project. These volunteers comprise library staff and community as well as members of the Zooniverse community who span the globe.[v] The project isn’t only about the physical act of translating handwriting into typed text. One social studies teacher in St. Louis, Mo., gave her class assignments from the library’s transcription project and used it as a springboard for discussions on historical inquiry, preservation, and the abolitionist movement.[vi]

Blake is enjoying how quickly this project has moved from the simple transcription of letters into a connection between the library and its users. “Libraries these days have become more aware their main commodity isn’t necessarily their collections but the communities they build,” Blake said. “Putting our collection on a platform like this helps to make people understand this is their collection.”[vii]

References

[i] Tom Blake, Content Discovery Manager at Boston Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, February 15, 2018.

[ii] “Anti-slavery.” Boston Public Library. Accessed February 17, 2018. http://www.bpl.org/distinction/featured-collections/anti-slavery/

[iii] Tom Blake, Content Discovery Manager at Boston Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, February 15, 2018.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] “8th graders in Missouri transcribe anti-slavery documents and learn about the abolitionist movement.” Boston Public Library. February 7, 2018. http://www.bpl.org/distinction/2018/02/07/6191/

[vii] Tom Blake, Content Discovery Manager at Boston Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, February 15, 2018.

The post Anti-Slavery Collection at Boston Public Library Gets a Digital Makeover first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A Brief History of the Library’s Tweet Collection

The Library of Congress announced its acquisition of the Twitter archive in April 2010 with a blog post titled, “How Tweet It Is!” At the time, Twitter saw more than 50 million tweets every day, and the acquisition comprised billions of tweets.[i] 

According to the gift agreement, tweets older than six months could be posted to the Library’s website or made available to approved researchers for specifically non-commercial use. Tweets could not be made available in a way that would allow for bulk downloading of the information.[ii] The transfer of the tweets from Twitter to the Library of Congress began in February 2011 with tweets from December 2010. The full 2006-2010 archive was received in February 2012, comprising about 21 billion tweets. By the end of 2012, the Library had received a further 150 billion tweets.[iii]

In January 2013, the Library had finished the acquisition and preservation of the original 2006-2010 archive, including establishing systems for receiving, preserving, and organizing the incoming tweets. By that time, the full archive comprised about 170 billion tweets and over 300 terabytes of information. The amount of incoming tweets had grown to 140 million per day in February 2011 and then to almost 500 million per day in October 2012.

Access to researchers was not made available, although the library had received about 400 inquiries about topics ranging from elected officials’ communications to predicting stock market activity.[iv] At the time a single search of the smaller 2006-2010 archive could take 24 hours and so was untenable for research activity.[v]

In December 2017 the Library decided to change the collections practice for Twitter. The Library will now limit the scope of the collection by acquiring tweets on a selective basis, matching its practices for the collection of websites.[vi] The Library plans to collect tweets around themes or events including elections and public policy. The 2006-2017 archive of tweets will continue to exist as a standing collection, but access to the collection by the public and researchers will remain unavailable until a solution to searching and access problems is resolved. [vii]

References

[i] “How Tweet It Is!: Library Acquires Entire Twitter Archive.” Library of Congress Blog. April 14, 2010. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/

[ii] “Gift Agreement.” Library of Congress. Accessed January 20, 2018. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/files/2010/04/LOC-Twitter.pdf

[iii] Library of Congress. Update on the Twitter Archive At the Library of Congress. January 2013. https://www.loc.gov/static/managed-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/02/twitter_report_2013jan.pdf

[iv] “Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress.” Library of Congress Blog. January 4, 2013. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-the-twitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress/

[v] Library of Congress. Update on the Twitter Archive At the Library of Congress. January 2013. https://www.loc.gov/static/managed-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/02/twitter_report_2013jan.pdf

[vi] “Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress.” Library of Congress Blog. Published December 26, 2017. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/12/update-on-the-twitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress-2/

[vii] Library of Congress. Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress. December 2017. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/files/2017/12/2017dec_twitter_white-paper.pdf

The post Library of Congress Slims Down Twitter Archive first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Before spending the grant money, which was allocated broadly for a music lab, Levine and other library staff toured the area to see what kinds of services were already available in Chattanooga. They found some locations with good video equipment, but didn’t find a good recording studio that was easily accessible to the public, and so they used that idea as their focus for The Studio. “We didn’t want to make a small room a ‘recording studio’,” Levine said. “We said, let’s go all out and make it a professional recording studio.”[1]

To that end, Chattanooga Public Library hired a studio designer, James Matchack, and asked him to create a studio with education in mind. For example, where most studios have small control rooms, The Studio’s control room is the largest room so that the library’s classes can fit inside it. The library offset some of these design expenses by having their own maintenance department do construction and electrical work, and by using recycled library materials including glass and doors within the space. The Studio is also filled with $80,000 worth of recording equipment, with a full list available on The Studio’s website . “My favorite thing is to stand by the door sometimes,” Levine said. “People assume it’s just a room, and when they walk in you see their eyes light up and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh.'”[2]

Levine was committed to staff the space with people who possessed an audio engineering background, and she was happy to land on a partnership with a local 501(c)3 nonprofit called Dynamo. Dynamo’s vision is to give students the tools to become music industry professionals, and the library had the space for them to realize that mission.  The nonprofit offers a variety of programming per week, primarily for teens but also for adults, including Beat Making and Digital Music, Live Sound Recording, Acoustic Guitars and Singer Songwriters, and Full Session Recording. When classes require recording music, local musicians are brought in to give students the opportunity to record a live person and give those musicians a recording to use for themselves. “The goal with those classes where we bring in artists is that they know when they go in there they’ll have something recorded, but in exchange they’re having teenagers record them,” Levine said. [3]

The Studio has attracted other partnerships outside of Dynamo’s class offerings.  A local entrepreneurial podcast called Studio Next  is produced in The Studio, and a community and culture podcast called Camp House  will start producing episodes there soon. The Chattanooga Times-Free Press also hosts their Music Wednesdays series on Facebook Live  out of The Studio. Levine hopes to extend the reach of the library’s partnerships using Chattanooga’s “The Gig” (a 1-gigabyte-per-second Internet connection available throughout the city) and a low-latency software called LOLA to allow The Studio’s users to connect in near-real-time with users in other locations to record music together.

References

[1] Meredith Levine, head of youth services at Chattanooga Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, August 7, 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

The post Chattanooga Public Library Offers Professional Recording Studio first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Rockford’s Read & Reward program, modeled after the Indianapolis Public Library’s Earn and Learn program allows children ages 5-18 whose cards are blocked due to fines to pay down those fines by reading books and attending library programs. Kids receive a new card that allows access to books and online resources only, and they earn $1.00 per book read.[i]

The books read are counted by children checking out a book, taking it home, and returning it at a later date to staff at the customer service desk, rather than in the automated RFID return. This takes the greatest amount of staff time, as staff must manually enter notes into the child’s account. “But I think it’s worth it,” said Lynn Stainbrook, executive director of the Rockford Public Library.[ii]

Children in the program must stay in the program for one year, even if they earn out their fines earlier.  “We really wanted to emphasize that learning and habit forming of coming in and having to return things on time,” Stainbrook said. The one-year requirement also deters users from jumping in and out of the program as they pay off their fines, she said.  If any users in Read & Reward accrue new fines and don’t pay them off, they are removed from the program.[iii]

The Read & Reward program is a good fit for the Rockford Public Library, which is situated in an area of under-educated residents and low incomes, according to Stainbrook.  In this environment, “Kids are not necessarily growing up knowing how to use a library card,” Stainbrook said.  “If they’ve never been exposed to how the library works, that we all share these things together, get them for limited time and bring them back — if they don’t know that, how do they know what they’re supposed to do?”  Nearly 3,000 kids in the library’s service area have blocked or barred cards.[iv]

Read & Reward is still fairly new to the library.  It started as a trial run at one branch in fall 2016 and was opened up to all branches and widely publicized starting early this summer.  At the end of March, twenty-three children were participating in the program; by late July there were sixty-eight signed up.  Stainbrook said circulation staff have received many positive comments from kids in the program, including one regular program attendee who said, “Read & Reward helps me pay off my fines while doing what I enjoy doing.”[v]

References

[i] “Get a Read and Reward Card.” Rockford Public Library. Accessed July 24, 2017. http://www.rockfordpubliclibrary.org/how-do-i/get-read-reward-card

[ii] Lynn Stainbrook, executive director of the Rockford Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, July 21, 2017.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

The post Read & Reward: Kids Read Books to Pay Off Fines first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

To limit participants and raise some money for the library’s Friends group, spellers pay a $5 fee to enter the bee. Audience members get in free, but can donate money to sponsor spellers who cannot afford the fee.[iv] Spellers can also purchase cheats at the time of registration, ranging from a $3 ‘Ask a Friend,’ where a friend in the audience can spell the word for them from their own knowledge, to a $15 ‘Mulligan,’ where a speller can stay in the competition after misspelling a word.[v] A “Big Cheat Deal” package gives contestants several cheats at a discount, and was so popular in the second year of the event that nearly everyone bought it, said Bonnie Brzozowski, a reference librarian at the library and one of the spelling bee coordinators.[vi]

These fees brought in enough money to allow the event to break even in its first year, after the Friends donated the proceeds back to the library’s programming budget. In its second year, with a change in venue, the event ended up costing the library $1000.[vii]  This year, the event cost between $500-750, Brzozowski said.[viii]  Although the event doesn’t raise as much money as it costs, the library will likely continue doing it in the coming years as it attracts a hard-to-reach demographic.”People react to the event as something to keep going because it brings people to a library event that we never see at a library event, the 20-  to 30-somethings,” Brzozowski said.[ix]

With the bee’s large number of contestants and the benefits of the cheats, a big challenge has been timing. In the second year, Brzozowski said the event lasted nearly four hours before a champion was crowned. This year, an “end-of-bee” round was introduced, in which 20 words are given and all remaining contestants at the end of the round are declared winners. This allowed staff to limit the event to two hours.[x]

Another important consideration is the bee’s word list. Official Scripps spelling bee lists are difficult to come by, so the library’s spelling bee committee makes its own list of about 500 words per year to challenge contestants.[xi] Committee members ask for suggestions of difficult words from friends and coworkers, look up lists of frequently misspelled words, and use their own leisure reading time to collect words. “Any word I find that’s a great spelling word, I write it down and keep a list all year long,” Brzozowski said.[xii]

References

[i] “Sip & Spell: An Adult Spelling Bee | Programs That Pop.” Library Journal.  Accessed June 22, 2017. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2017/05/opinion/programs-that-pop/sip-spell-an-adult-spelling-bee-programs-that-pop

[ii] Bonnie Brzozowski, Reference Librarian at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, in an e-mail interview with the author, June 22, 2017

[iii] Bonnie Brzozowski, Reference Librarian at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, June 20, 2017

[iv] “Sip & Spell: An Adult Spelling Bee | Programs That Pop.” Library Journal.  Accessed June 22, 2017. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2017/05/opinion/programs-that-pop/sip-spell-an-adult-spelling-bee-programs-that-pop

[v] “Sip & Spell Official Rules.” Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. Accessed June 22, 2017. https://cbcpubliclibrary.net/pdf/SipandSpellOfficialRules2017.pdf

[vi] Bonnie Brzozowski, Reference Librarian at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, June 20, 2017

[vii] “Sip & Spell: An Adult Spelling Bee | Programs That Pop.” Library Journal.  Accessed June 22, 2017. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2017/05/opinion/programs-that-pop/sip-spell-an-adult-spelling-bee-programs-that-pop

[viii] Bonnie Brzozowski, Reference Librarian at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, June 20, 2017

[ix] Ibid.

[x] Ibid.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid.

The post Library Spells Success with Sip & Spell Event first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

MELSA previously offered a program called Museum Adventure Pass, which allowed patrons to check out physical passes to local museums and other institutions.  This program was well-loved by patrons but had downsides, including the fact that patrons had to physically go to a library branch to obtain one of a limited number of passes, which often ran out early in the day, and patrons had no limits on repeat checkouts.[ii]

With the new smARTpass, patrons can obtain tickets and passes straight from an app on their smartphones, making them more widely available to MELSA patrons.  These tickets are still limited and still run out quickly, sometimes within hours, but new policies help spread the cultural wealth among patrons.[iii]  First, patrons can generally only reserve one pair of free admissions to each institution per year, unless the institution permits more, and once reserved the admissions cannot be returned – if they are not used the patron still cannot reserve another set that year.  Second, patrons can have only two active reservations at a time, with reservation slots available up to two months in advance.  With this policy, if a patron reserves a set of tickets to two different institutions for the next month, they cannot reserve a set of tickets for another institution until they’ve used the first of their reserved tickets.[iv]

“It works best if you have a lot of cultural organizations that can contribute, so lots of people can take advantage of it,” said Sally Lederer, communications manager for MELSA. “Luckily for us here we have a lot of great arts partners.”[v]

MELSA has partnered with more than two dozen organizations to provide passes and tickets for this program.[vi]  The tickets are provided by the organizations and are not paid for by MELSA; it is up to each institution to decide how many tickets they will offer, with what restrictions, and for what specific dates.  Partners can also offer discounted tickets, which are usually not limited by the free ticket policies, allowing interested patrons further admission to their favorite institutions.[vii]

“The good thing about [smARTpass] is that it’s really scalable for different sizes of organizations,” said Lederer.  “It can be a small theater company or a large museum that’s open every day; it just depends on what the organization has to offer.”[viii]  Current smARTpass partners include museums, orchestras, smaller music ensembles, theaters, and even a dance studio.[ix]

The smARTpass app was built by Nerdery, a Minnesota-based web developer, and the app and website are maintained by MELSA staff.  The app’s backend allows partners to generate reports to see how many people are using the partner’s offered tickets and which libraries the users come from.[x]

The program is marketed with ads on local news sites,  MELSA’s website,  websites of its member libraries, and in individual branches via bookmarks and posters. Currently, smARTpass has about 16,000 registered users, a small percentage of the library population, and “the ones on there are pretty serious about making reservations,” said Lederer.[xi]

References

[i] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[ii] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] “How it Works.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/how-it-works/

[v] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[vi] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[vii] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] “Partners.” MELSA smARTpass. Accessed January 21, 2017 https://smartpass.melsa.org/partners/

[x] Sally Lederer, Communications Manager at MELSA, in a phone interview with the author, January 5, 2017

[xi] Ibid.

The post Patrons Can Check Out a Museum Pass with smARTpass App first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

This new policy is not a huge change for CML, which has been moving in this direction for several years. In 2012, the library reduced its daily fine rates and maximum fines for items. In 2014 they introduced automatic renewal, renewing items for patrons without any effort on the patron’s part up to ten times, unless the items are reserved for other patrons. That same year CML created a kid’s card for patrons under eighteen that allows kids to check out up to five books, fine-free, without a parent’s signature.[2]

“What we’ve been seeing is that the people most impacted by fines are the people who rely on it the most,” including lower-income patrons and children, Zenitsky said. “But the majority of our programs and services are tailored to those people.”[3]

CML follows in the footsteps of other Ohio libraries, including Worthington Libraries and Stark County District Library, in eliminating fines.[4] In 2015, the Columbus Metropolitan Library took in about $370,000 in late fees, which went to the library’s general operating budget. “It’s certainly money lost, but not money we rely on,” Zenitsky said. “Getting materials into the hands of our customers is more important”. [5]

Although daily late fines will be eliminated, patrons will still have to pay for lost and damaged items and cards will be blocked for those who have items more than three weeks overdue. Patrons with blocked cards will still be able to access digital library materials and use library computers and services.[6]  Existing overdue fines will remain on patron cards, but library staff will be “empowered and encouraged to use good judgement to waive existing fines,” according to a library press release.[7]

The impact of this policy on the CML has yet to be seen, but the library has its goals in place. “We’re looking for fewer blocked cards, fewer customers fearful of overdue fines, and more customers empowered to come to the library and check out materials,” Zenitsky said.[8]

References

[1] Ben Zenitsky, Marketing and Communications Specialist at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, in a phone interview with the author, December 9, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] “Columbus libraries to eliminate overdue book fines,” NBC4i.com, December 1, 2016.

[5] Ben Zenitsky, December 9, 2016.

[6] “Columbus libraries to eliminate overdue book fines.”

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ben Zenitsky, December 9, 2016.

The post Columbus Metropolitan Library Kicks Off a Fine Free 2017 first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Last year, Cuyahoga County Public Library took the ConnectED Library Challenge and partnered with the local Parma City School District, the district in which CCPL’s headquarters library is located, to go out to schools and sign kids up for cards via the traditional application with parent signature. This year, the libraries invited the students to come into their local library to sign up for, or reinstate, a card and get their fines waived. The program was promoted through print media and radio spots as well as flyers, posters, and bookmarks sent to the schools.

Several of the library systems offered students a limited library card (does not require a parent or guardian’s signature). The Heights Library’s “Three for Me” card allows kids under 18 to check out three books, and with the CCPL’s Opportunity Card students can check out up to three items at a time, access library computers, and have unlimited access to the digital collection and databases. “It’s a way for us to expand students’ access to our resources and at the same time get library cards into the hands of students more easily,” said Robert Rua, assistant marketing and communications director at CCPL.[1]  Students who get a limited card can later have their parents or guardians fill out a regular application to get full access to each library’s resources.

Full statistics are not yet available however the effort has shown some successes. During the promotion, the  CCPL issued 1,426 new cards and waived fines on 3,337 existing cards and in Euclid, the library forgave $20,000 in fines on 507 cards, about one-fifth of the approximately $100,000 in fines and fees owed on juvenile cards.

“Our true hope is that kids are using the cards and checking out books and movies and music and that the library is in no way the entity that is putting up the barriers,” Euclid Public Library Director Kacie Armstrong said.[2]

References

[1] Robert Rua, Assistant Marketing and Communications Director for Cuyahoga County Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, September 12, 2016

[2] Kacie Armstrong, Director of the Euclid Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, October 27, 2016

The post A Card for Every Kid first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Each summer, school libraries renovated by the Baltimore Library Project stay open for six weeks in the summer to offer drop-in programming to students from around the city. This programming is provided by staff and volunteers from MOST as well as community partners including Young Audiences Maryland, the Maryland Zoo, and Code in the Schools, among others.[1] During the six-week program, the libraries offer programming Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On an average day, students show up at nine for a free breakfast from the Summer Food Service Program,[2] read aloud in the library until the first workshop of the day, followed by free lunch, recess, and a second workshop or other activity in the afternoon. The average program attendance this year was twenty-one students per day per location, with a wide range of attendance across the locations.[3]

In addition to the daily workshops and activities, participants in SummerREADS work on a long-term project at each library location. This year’s project was to create an Olympic stadium out of found materials. “We kept the description vague so students could develop, design, and be creative,” said Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST. “We ended up with ten very unique, different visions for what a stadium should include.”[4]

The libraries also play host to a small summer reading program. Students can log fifteen minutes a day of reading to earn prizes, and the schools give out ten self-selected books to all students, not just SummerREADS participants, through a grant from the Abell Foundation.[5]

Staffing SummerREADS is the hardest element to handle, said Mincarelli. MOST tries to keep the student-adult ratio at 15:1, so each of the ten libraries is staffed by the school’s librarian and two AmeriCorps counselors and supplemented by Foster Grandparents where needed. The AmeriCorps staff manages the daily programming, and the school librarian is on hand to operate the library, check out books, and be the connection between the schools and the students that participate.[6]  At Harford Heights Elementary School, librarian Hope Kimbrow also recruited student and parent volunteers to lead groups of students during activities.[7]

Although Baltimore is lucky enough to have support from big-name community partners, other libraries can and do put on similar programming during the summer. “What we’re doing is a model of what libraries can do,” said Mincarelli. “You don’t need a philanthropic arm to renovate libraries to do this.”[8]

And the program does more than just keep kids learning over the summer. “This program provides a safe haven for students. Students know they can come to a welcoming environment where they can be provide a fun, loving, and happy learning environment,” said Kimbrow.[9]

References

[1] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[2] Paul Mincarelli, “In Baltimore, The Library Is Open,” Huffington Post, July 22, 2016.

[3] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Hope Kimbrow, Library Media Specialist at Harford Heights Elementary School, in an email interview with the author, August 31, 2016

[8] Paul Mincarelli, SummerREADS program manager at MOST, in a phone interview with the author, August 19, 2016.

[9] Hope Kimbrow, Library Media Specialist at Harford Heights Elementary School, in an email interview with the author, August 31, 2016

The post School Libraries in Baltimore Don’t Take a Summer Vacation first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Previous summer volunteer programs at the library gave teens few options in volunteering. The main focus was on staffing the summer reading table in the children’s department, with some time given to shelving or helping in the library’s drive-through window. The Traditionalists squad takes care of these responsibilities, but teens can also opt into a squad that lets them flex their creative and teaching muscles.^[2]

This summer’s other squads included Book Buds, which helped young kids with reading; Peewee Pollocks, which worked on art projects with two- to three-year-olds; STEM Squad, which provided STEM education to three- to five-year-olds; Kids Create, which worked on crafts with grade-school-aged kids; <code>breakers, which built a website to teach coding to all ages; and Sprout Squad, which tended a garden in the park district and presented at a local farmers market.^[3]

Each squad requires two staff members to lead the teen volunteers, so squad availability changes each summer based on staff availability. Youth Services staff run many of the squads, but staff from Digital Services ran the <code>breakers squad this summer, and previously, staff from the Genealogy Department have run a genealogy squad.^[4]

Together, the staff supervised 232 teens this summer, all of whom were required to apply online and come to the library for an interview. “This gives us an opportunity to make sure they understand what they are getting themselves into and that the squads they chose are really what they want,” said Lynne Priest, grade school programming specialist at Arlington Heights Memorial Library and coordinator of the Summer Volunteer Squad.^[5] All volunteers are accepted. Most volunteers join the Traditionalists and work the full ten-week summer. Each specialized squad has ten to twelve volunteers and runs for eight weeks. During the school year, students can volunteer through the library’s advisory boards for teens and tweens.^[6]  Scheduling for the program is handled by Volgistics, a paid volunteer logistics service, which allows teens to sign up for and cancel their volunteer time slots online and squad staff to set the number of hours their volunteers can work.^[7]

For libraries looking to start a similar program, Priest says to get a feel for the community first and make sure that the kids are there and interested in helping. “The kids that come in can’t wait to work with little kids and help out,” Priest said.^[8]

References

[1] Lynne Priest, Summer Volunteer Squad coordinator, in an e-mail interview with the author, July 27, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Lynne Priest, Summer Volunteer Squad coordinator, in a phone interview with the author, July 28, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Lynne Priest in an e-mail interview with the author, July 27, 2016.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Lynne Priest in a phone interview with the author, July 28, 2016.

[8] Ibid.

The post Summer Volunteer Squad Offers Creative Options first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The store’s supply of books will come from discarded Chattanooga Public Library books or books donated to the Friends of the Library for their regular book sales. The Friends plan to rotate the books out weekly to start and adjust their schedule according to the store’s needs.^[2] With retail space limited and bookstores closing locations, it’s hard to get a book vendor into a regional airport, said William Sundquist, chair of the Friends of the Chattanooga Public Library. Working with the airport, the Friends were able to fill that need in a 500-square-foot space (formerly, a TSA office) adjacent to the ticket counter.^[3] The lease will cost $1,800 for the year.^[4]

Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport had almost 400,000 passengers on its airplanes last year, and Sundquist hopes  the bookstore will reach about 10 percent of those users.^[5] Having a location outside of the security gates means that the bookstore can also be accessed by people who are not boarding planes on a given day. Although the most obvious function of the bookstore is fundraising, having the store at the airport will also be great advertising for the Friends and the library. “Unique to Chattanooga is that about 80 percent of the travelers that fly out of Chattanooga are repeat business customers, so this is a good way to promote libraries, in general, to the business community and local community,” Sundquist said.^[6]

The Friends are planning a soft launch for the Sky Lib at the end of June, with a grand opening to follow in late July or early August.^[7]

References

[1] William Sundquist, chairman of the Friends of the Chattanooga Public Library, in a phone interview with the author, June 13, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Mike Pare, “Library group to open bookstore at Chattanooga Airport,” Times Free Press, May 28, 2016.

[5] Ibid.

[6] William Sundquist.

[7] Ibid.

The post Friends Group Opens Airport Bookstore first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

You can find the Tasty Tuesdays farmers market in the New Port Richey Public Library courtyard from ten in the morning to noon every Tuesday, rain or shine. The market started with a serendipitous conversation between Assistant Library Director Ann Scott and two local organic micro-farmers. One of the farmers mentioned how great it would be to have a place for people to share recipes, growing tips, and actual produce. ​”Then it was just like one of those cartoon lightbulbs going off above our heads,” Scott said.[1]

With support from the library director and the city, Scott created a contract for market vendors that indemnifies the library and city and leaves the vendors responsible for following appropriate regulations for their products. The contract also specifies that vendors must use non-GMO seeds and organic materials. Some vendors also provide gluten-free and other allergy-free products.

The Tasty Tuesdays market also helps out those who need food the most. Through a grant from Florida Organic Growers, the market offers “Fresh Access Bucks” to customers using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Customers can double their ability to buy healthy food for their families by spending up to $10 of SNAP benefits to receive up to $20 in tokens to spend at the market.[2] The library then pays the vendors for the tokens accepted.

About twenty vendors are on hand every week, with more in the winter as the snowbirds come south. At first, vendors were asked to commit to attending the market weekly. “Now they come and go as they like, however many vendors are here rain or shine, all year long,” Scott said.[3]

Those vendors bring in about a hundred customers weekly, some who are library customers and some who are there just for the market. “What’s really interesting is watching library members’ curiosity grow as they venture in and out and begin exploring the event. The same goes for market attendees,” Scott said.[4]

The library promotes its other wellness programming and resources at the market, including an organic heirloom seed library, cooking classes, meditation, and yoga for kids, and has seen market customers become enthusiastic library members.

References:

[1] Ann Scott (assistant library director) in e-mail interview with the author, March 16, 2016.

[2] “Fresh Access Bucks,” Florida Organic Growers [website], accessed March 18, 2016.

[3] Ann Scott (assistant library director) in e-mail interview with the author, March 16, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

Resources:

Tasty Tuesdays Community Market at NPR Library

The post Fresh from the Library: Organic Foods first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Libraries across the country are embracing programs that bring pro-bono lawyers to the library for presentations on popular legal topics or one-on-one basic legal advice. In Florida, Lawyers in Libraries is a statewide project initiated by Florida Legal Services. At first, the program consisted of presentations by lawyers to library staff to show staff how to find the state’s online legal information and services to pass on to patrons. Soon it expanded to include presentations directly to patrons on legal topics including family law, bankruptcy, and medical directives.

“There are all kinds of ways that people can benefit from the information and face to face contact with an attorney,” said Kathy Para, director of Pro Bono Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (JALA).[1]

The Jacksonville Public Library has hosted more than fifty of these presentations over the last year in conjunction with JALA. Librarians at each branch are able to request presentations on topics of interest to their patrons, and a group of fifty volunteer lawyers are on hand with JALA to take on the topics they are experts in.

In Baltimore, Maryland, the library’s role as a safe space in the midst of 2015’s riots helped spark a connection between Maryland Legal Aid and the Pennsylvania Avenue branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, a branch located right in the middle of the unrest.

In September, the library started hosting a weekly Lawyer in the Library program, with volunteer lawyers arriving for two hours every Tuesday to offer advice on topics ranging from consumer issues to housing to public benefits. Patrons get about fifteen minutes one-on-one with a lawyer at the library; if their issues are more complex, MLA does a full intake and assigns a lawyer to the case.

The services offered at the Pennsylvania Avenue library are exactly the same as what is offered in MLA’s downtown office, but the library location offers a huge benefit to patrons. “They can walk to the library from their house, so they don’t have to take three buses downtown to MLA,” said Amy Petkovsek, Director of Advocacy for Training and Pro Bono at Maryland Legal Aid. “This brings us right to them in a place they already see.”[2]

In addition to the weekly program, the library also hosts an expungement clinic one Saturday a month with MLA. A recent change in Maryland’s law means that many people are looking to expunge charges from their records,[3] a process can cost upwards of $1,000 with a private attorney. At these clinics, which have served up to two hundred people in one day, these expungements can be completed for free.

Even the busiest days do not deter people. “They may have to wait 6 hours to see a lawyer but they so grateful and willing to sit there” and use the library while they wait, said Petkovsek.[4]

Resources:

Lawyers in Libraries

References:

[1] Jennifer A. Dixon, “Enoch Pratt Free Library Brings Lawyers to the Library,” Library Journal, accessed February 23, 2016.

[2] Kathy Para (Director of Pro Bono Jacksonville Area Legal Aid), telephone interview by author, February 19, 2016.

[3] Amy Petkovsek (Director of Advocacy for Training and Pro Bono at Maryland Legal Aid), telephone interview by author. February 19, 2016.

[4] Ibid.

The post Lawyers and Libraries: A Winning Combination for Your Patrons first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine is a standalone library that provides access to thousands of vintage cartographic and geographic items that date back to 1475. The library’s collections contain 294 globes, the oldest of which are dated 1603 and 1607.

Because of the globes’ age and fragility, they are usually only observable behind glass. Digitizing the globes allows anyone online to virtually observe them in greater detail and to move them around—without physically touching the items. OML staff have been working for the last several years on digitizing the collection’s flat maps and atlases on the website. For this globe project, a different set of skills and equipment was needed. “There isn’t anyone else in the world digitizing globes the way we are now,” said Ian Fowler, Director of the Osher Map Library and Library Digital Initiatives.[1]

The common way to digitize a globe is by making a “video game” version using flat map and globe images applied to a globe base. Osher Map Library, on the other hand, is using a method most often seen on online retail websites like Zappos. To make their 3D globes, OML staff take up to seven hundred distinct photos of the globe covering nearly every visible angle. Visitors to the website can either view each of these photos separately or view the 3D model, allowing them to both rotate the globe and zoom in to see finer details. All of this effort pays off by vastly increasing access to globes.

OML secured a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to allow the library to conserve the globes, a process that involves removing the paper and varnish, cleaning up the globes, and putting them back together again. The library also received seed money from their Friends organization for the Ortery 3D imaging equipment and 36-megapixel camera used to take the photographs.

So far, thirteen of the library’s globes have been conserved, and three have been fully imaged and uploaded to the website. Along with the detailed globe renderings, the team is also uploading hundreds of pages of manuals that instruct globe users on points like measuring distances or understanding time zones. The NEH grant will help pay for the digitization of twenty-four globes, and the library’s goal is to eventually digitize all globes in the collection.

References:

[1] Ian Fowler and David Neikirk. Interview by author. January 13, 2015.

Resources:

Osher Map Library

Osher Map Library at University of Southern Maine digitizes its rare globe collection.

The post Osher Map Library Brings its Globes to the Public first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

With the Toronto Public Library in the middle of developing a new strategic plan, the staff decided to theme their hackathon by posing this question to participants: “How can the library make our communities more resilient, more knowledgeable, more connected and more successful?” The library provided data sets to participants, including statistics on circulation, programs, and attendance, top ten books borrowed by format and type, real time online catalog searches, and demographic information from the City of Toronto.  The participants chose the data they were most interested in to create their project. Because of the limited time that teams had to work on their projects, the focus of the event was more on ideas and concepts rather than working prototypes, though some projects did make it to that stage.

On Sunday, each team gave a three-minute presentation on their project and winners were chosen. The Best Idea winner, Sacha Chua, wrote a script allowing the library’s holdings to be visualized on a map.  Patrons can see which branches have the most items in a specific category, like foreign language material, and can also see that if their closest branch may not have many items of interest, a branch a few blocks away may have a better collection. “She got the library. She really used the data sets, and she presented the idea in a concise, compelling way,” said Ab Velasco, TPL’s Project Leader, Digital Innovation.  Sacha’s presentation and those of the other groups are available on the Toronto Public Library website.

The Best Idea and Awesome Team winners were presented with 3D-printed trophies, and other winners received weirder prizes.  One participant spent the day cleaning up a library data set to make it easier to use in the future and was given the “Scrubber Award” and a dish-sponge trophy.  The youngest participant received the “Lion Courage Award” and a stuffed lion.

Although the focus of the weekend was on concepts, some of those concepts may become reality.  Velasco said that a few of the hackathon ideas matched ideas already in progress and that the participants and staff will have discussions on implementation; other new ideas will go to library supervisors to see if they can be made into full-fledged library projects.  “It will be wonderful to continue the dialogue with our community,” Velasco said.

Preparation for the event included collecting the relevant data sets, creating a dedicated Wi-Fi network for hackathon participants with increased bandwidth, and, of course, getting the participants to come.  The Toronto Public Library worked with the City of Toronto and the Open Data Institute based in the city to advertise the event, recruiting people with a range of computer literacy from “first time hackers to pros,” Velasco said.

Nearly sixty people aged twelve to seventy-five participated in the hackathon, and even more potential participants were put on a wait list.  Because of the success of this first program, the library plans to host another hackathon next year with a new focus and brand-new ideas to consider.

Sources:

Velasco, Ab. “Great Ideas and Teamwork Displayed at Inaugural TPL Hackathon.” Toronto Public Library. November 28, 2015. http://www.tpl.ca/hackathon. Accessed December 15, 2015.

Velasco, Ab. Interview by Alison McCarty.. December 9, 2015.

The post Toronto Public Library Brings Community, Data Together at Hackathon first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The library hosted workshops on writing, blogging, and vlogging while the Waterstone’s and the Civic Centre focused on panels and conversations with local authors. Many of the panels and workshops covered hot topics in the teen and middle-grade world, including diversity, female heroines, trigger warnings, and activism. The festival was also a jumping-off point for the Year-Long Legacy Programme, a year’s worth of visits by festival authors to the Hillingdon area libraries funded by a grant from Arts Council England. These author visits will be held in the neighborhood libraries, and local schools, especially those in disadvantaged areas, will be invited to attend the events for free.

YA Shot was planned to be a small library-run YA event. The Hillingdon Libraries asked several authors to take part, including Alexia Casale, a longtime library volunteer andauthor of YA novel The Bone Dragon. “I ended up taking charge and, true to form, it soon turned from a series of panels into a festival,” said Casale. What was supposed to be an eight-author, one-room event ended up with seventy London-area authors, participating in the festival as panelists and workshop leaders, including Casale, James Dawson, and Taran Matharu. An important feature for the YA Shot program is that all of the authors donated their time to the festival. “YA Shot is based on the premise that authors will welcome the chance to ‘join up’ that generosity to achieve something far greater than any of us could accomplish alone,” said Casale.

The festival had an unexpected impact on the library staff. “Not only did we have enthusiastic teens and young adults attending, but we also inspired library staff who had never read the YA genre to give it a go,” said Samantha Everett, YA Shot co-coordinator and Branch Manager of Manor Farm Library. “They are now better engaged and more enthused to work with teenagers and young adults in the future.” The success of YA Shot will also be helpful to the Hillingdon Libraries in the future as it has given the libraries an “innovative and fun” reputation among publishers, authors, and agencies, said Everett. “We are hoping that the festival will be the stepping stone to allow us to work much more closely with our local schools and to be in better position to really promote reading for pleasure amongst local young people,” said Everett.

The post YA Shot: A Teen Book Festival with a Lasting Impact first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

It was surprisingly easy to bring this international festival to Colorado.  A Boulder resident, Jessie Friedman, had attended the flagship JLF in India and wanted to bring it back to Boulder.  She got in touch with the company that runs the festival, Teamwork Arts, and found that they already been looking for a location in the United States.  After considering cities across the US, the company decided on Boulder for the festival location.  When Teamwork Arts approached the Boulder city government in the fall of 2014 about participating, Director of Library and Arts David Farnan said, “We have to do it.”

Over the course of the next year, Farnan and two staff members – the library’s program coordinator and head of public services – put in hundreds of hours of work on the festival.  They helped put Friedman and the team from the JLF in touch with organizations who could provide money for the festival, whether directly or through grants.  The library team also hosted parties to get individuals interested in funding the festival and its programs.

For next year’s festival, Farnan will be looking for more corporate sponsorship in addition to the individual and nonprofit sponsorship and grants from this year.  Nearly 80 percent of this year’s budget came from grants.

The festival was held on the grounds of the Boulder Public Library and Civic Lawns, in one large and two smaller meeting rooms inside the building, as well as on the park grounds outside the building.  Except for computer access, which was limited when they emptied the large meeting room of its public computers, the library operated as normal throughout the festival.

Farnan said staff members were excited about hosting the festival at the library, which was probably helped by the fact that most of the planning and executing were done by Teamwork Arts.  Staff members who were scheduled to work the days of the festival were given the same volunteer training as other festival volunteers so that they would feel confident in helping visitors navigate the festival, but otherwise they worked their regular jobs and shifts.

Overall, Boulder’s JLF saw 8,000-10,000 attendees at all programs during the two-day festival.  Of those “butts in seats,” Farnan estimated that there were about 2,000-3,000 individual attendees.  He hopes that when the festival comes around again next September, they will triple both of those estimates.

The JLF brought in regular library users, brand new attendees, and even some long-awaited returning customers.  “We were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came to the festival who hadn’t stepped into the library in thirty years,” said Farnan.

To other libraries thinking about putting on a similar event, Farnan said, “Take a risk.”

Sources

Farnan, David. Interview by author. October 9, 2015.

Hoffert, Barbara. “Jaipur Literature Festival Comes to Boulder Public Library.” Library Journal. Accessed October 9, 2015. http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2015/10/prepub/jaipur-literature-festival-comes-to-boulder-public-library

JLF @ Boulder. Accessed October 12, 2015. https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/boulder/

The post Boulder Goes International with Jaipur Literature Festival first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Outernet is a satellite-based alternative to the Internet, a service common in the first world but virtually nonexistent in many places. According to Thane Richard, publisher and COO at Outernet, up to 80% of the world’s population is without access to unfettered internet. This includes people in China whose Internet is highly censored, people who live in areas with access to mobile Internet but who cannot afford the data plan to receive it, and people who live in remote areas that the Internet has not yet reached.

On the other hand, the Outernet broadcast can be accessed by anyone with a satellite dish and an Outernet receiver. The signal is sent to seven satellites, providing global coverage. Outernet can broadcast up to 1 GB of data per day globally, and up to 100 GB per day over Africa and Europe.

What users receive from Outernet is more like a radio broadcast than like the Internet you’re reading this post on right now. Instead of being able to access everything ever written at any time, Outernet sends out bins of data on a regular basis, like a song on the radio. These bins are full of files including documents, songs, podcasts, photos, and videos. The files can be accessed as they are received via a user’s device, queued up to access later, or permanently stored to the receiver. An example of the feed you would see on your device is available here.

Outernet receivers can be built at home with a Raspberry Pi or purchased from Outernet. Outernet is currently selling a basic receiver called Lighthouse as well as a do-it-yourself kit. To access the information broadcast and stored on the devices, which act as Wi-Fi hotspots, a user must also have a Wi-Fi-enabled device with a browser to view the feed.

A recent Indiegogo campaign raised funds for a receiver called Lantern, which will have a built-in antenna for limited mobile data access in addition to satellite access. It will then charge the mobile devices needed to access the data.

Outernet has its roots in the library world. It was founded in early 2014 by CEO Syed Karim, who holds an MS in Information Science, and the operating system the receivers run on is called Librarian. Outernet even bills itself as “Humanity’s Public Library”, offering information to users exactly at their point of need.

With that billing, Outernet takes its collection development seriously. Outernet employees work to develop a core collection of files, including news in multiple languages, textbooks, high-quality Wikipedia articles, and videos from creators like Khan Academy. The majority of the rest of the broadcast content is decided on by the public, who can request certain types of information and also vote on the best files that fit that request. A recent edit-a-thon held live in Uganda and Guatemala and remotely online added thirty bins of content in four different languages.

Some of the content is sponsored by various companies or by individuals to provide funding for Outernet’s work. This sponsored content is currently less than and will not exceed 25% of the broadcast, according to Richard.

Anyone who wants to sponsor content can upload files, including Twitter feeds, at uplink.outernet.is. To add content for free, check out the submission rules at https://wiki.outernet.is/wiki/Edit_Outernet. To donate to the Outernet project, visit donate.outernet.is.

Sources

Outernet Blog. Accessed August 14, 2015.

Outernet Wiki. Accessed August 14, 2015.

Richard, Thane. E-mail interview by author. August 6, 2015.

The post Outernet: “Humanity’s Public Library” first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I work at a public library was started by librarian Gina Sheridan in 2010 as a way to remember and share the interesting encounters she had at her library. Before long, she had shared the blog with other librarians who in turn shared their own stories to add to the site. Now thousands of readers, from librarians to library lovers, read and share these stories on Tumblr.

Posts to the site are filed, in true librarian fashion, into various categories based on the Dewey Decimal System, including “028.9 Reading Interests and Habits,” “302.2 Miscommunication,” “745.5 Found Objects,” and “808.879083 Children’s Humor.”

Recent submissions have included humorous word mix-ups:

“Same, Not the

Patron: I need books on gynecology.

I begin to walk to the section.

Patron: Yeah, I really want to know about my ancestors.

I quickly change course.”^[1]

And adorable children:

“Blues, Library

A little girl was taking her time picking out books when suddenly she sighed heavily.

Girl: Coming to the library makes me sad.

Me: Oh dear! Why does it make you sad?!

Girl: Because it reminds me of school and school is out and I miss it terribly.”^[2]

Sheridan says that I work at a public library gets about ten story submissions per week, some of which go up right away if they catch her interest. Not every story makes it to the site, though; Sheridan works to give the blog the right tone.  “I work at a public library isn’t about making fun of people or venting about work. It’s meant to be an objective celebration of the mundane–a reminder to stop and observe the weird and wonderful things that happen every day in a place where everyone is welcome,” Sheridan said.^[3]

Fans of the site can also find great library stories in print in Sheridan’s 2014 book I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks, which features some popular stories from the Tumblr blog but is comprised primarily of book-exclusive stories from Sheridan’s library life.

Sources:

[1] I Work at a Public Library. Accessed July 10, 2015. http://iworkatapubliclibrary.com/.

[2] ibid.

[3] Sheridan, Gina. E-mail interview by author. July 10, 2015.

The post Thousands Enjoy Public Library Stories first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

To prepare for the publication of these books, 1000 trees have been planted in a forest outside of Oslo for the sole purpose of providing paper to print the books. As noted on the Future Library website, “Tending the forest and ensuring its preservation for the 100-year duration of the artwork finds a conceptual counterpoint in the invitation extended to each writer: to conceive and produce a work in the hopes of finding a receptive reader in an unknown future.”

One author we know will be in this library is Margaret Atwood, who was chosen to be the first author to provide a manuscript for the project. She presented her manuscript to the library on May 26^th in a ceremony that included a walk through the Future Library Forest and a conversation with artist Katie Paterson, who created the Future Library concept. Atwood is a natural choice for inclusion in the Future Library as so much of her writing deals with what will happen in the future. “In the case of the Future Library, I am sending a manuscript into time. Will any human beings be waiting there to receive it? Will there be a ‘Norway’? Will there be a ‘forest’? Will there be a ‘library’?” wrote Atwood in an essay for the project. Another futurist author, David Mitchell, was chosen shortly after Atwood’s ceremony to write the second work for the Future Library. His manuscript will be added in 2016.

For $1000, collectors can purchase a printed certificate that functions as a piece of art until the Future Library opens, at which point the certificate entitles the owner to a complete set of the 100 works in the library

Paterson’s other artworks have involved broadcasting the sounds of a melting glacier live to a visitor on a mobile phone, mapping all the dead stars, compiling a slide archive of the history of darkness across the ages, custom-making a light bulb to simulate the experience of moonlight, burying a nanosized grain of sand deep within the Sahara desert, and sending a re-cast meteorite back into space.

Sources:

Future Library – Framtidsbiblioteket – Katie Paterson. Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.futurelibrary.no/.

“KATIE PATERSON: Future Library Certificate.” James Cohan Gallery. Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.jamescohan.com/editions/2014-09-05_katie-paterson-future-library-certificate.

“Margaret Atwood 2014.” Accessed June 9, 2015. http://www.futurelibrary.no/Future_Library_Katie_Paterson_Guide_2015.pdf.

The post Opening in 100 Years: The Future Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

For five days in July, the library will be full of girls participating in STEAM projects under the supervision of library staff and 10 middle-school-age counselors-in-training.  Planned events for this summer’s program include a field trip to the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University and a day of learning about space, with a special Skype chat with a scientist from NASA.

Hands-on activities from last year’s weeklong event included Peeps chemistry, building circuits, creating marble runs, 3D printing, and launching rockets. The week also brought guest speakers from nearby colleges to talk about biology, chemistry, computer programming, psychology and law, and technology.

In February, the library held a one-day version of Geek Girl Camp with a Harry Potter House Cup theme. The girls were split into houses named after rad ladies in STEAM fields and they earned points for their houses by performing real life experiments based on Potions class, Quidditch, and the Hogwarts Express.

The camp is partially supported by resources already housed at the Fayetteville Free Library’s Fab Lab and by donated materials including a trebuchet. Funding for other resources and costs comes from the camp fee, which this year is $35 per camper. The library offers four scholarship opportunities for campers who cannot afford the fee.

Geek Girl Camp was created for the 2014 summer reading program at the Fayetteville Free Library to fill a need for STEAM opportunities for elementary-age girls in the area. The FFL’s established STEAM programming, including a Creation Club for middle schoolers and a Little Makers program for 5-8-year-olds, was attended primarily by boys. Since the inception of Geek Girl Camp, more girls have participated in these monthly programs, and the library’s Coding Club is almost evenly split.

“We asked girls on the first day of camp what they wanted to be when they grew up. The answers were a variety of ‘teacher, actress, singer,’ but on Friday we asked the same question and the answers changed to ‘working at Google, pilot, physicist, computer scientist,’ and more. One girl actually said when she grows up she wants to be ‘a computer programmer and an actress on the side,’” said Meredith Levine, Director of Family Engagement at the Fayetteville Free Library.

The camp has encouraged the library to introduce new programming as well, including a two-day Superhero Camp and one-day Self Defense camp this summer, along with other day-long STEAM programming on the local schools’ days off. The counselor-in-training program for this summer’s Geek Girl Camp is also new, providing girls in grades 6-12 an opportunity to gain leadership experience and enjoy the STEAM subjects.

For librarians interested in trying something similar, Levine recommends that they “relentlessly innovate, be brave, and take lots of risks.” The FFL found its resources and experts in the local community and organizations, utilizing services like LinkedIn and Meetup to find people interested in sharing their STEAM knowledge with elementary schoolers. The library also got its first counselors from library staff and teen volunteers who expressed interest in the program.

“It was amazing to watch FFL staff as a whole participate as the library turned into something wonderful for that week,” Levine said.

Sources:

Geek Girl Camp. Accessed May 6, 2015. http://fflib.org/just-for/kids/geek-girl-camp.

Levine, Meredith. “Fayetteville Free Library’s Geek Girl Camp: Creating a Community of Future STEM Leaders.” School Library Journal. Accessed May 6, 2015. http://www.slj.com/2015/01/programs/fayetteville-free-librarys-geek-girl-camp-creating-a-community-of-future-stem-leaders/.

Levine, Meredith. E-mail interview by author. May 11, 2015.

The post Geek Girls Camp at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.