04.03.07
Posted in News at 9:47 pm by Paloma Cruz
Texas Book Festival Exceeds $2 Million in Grants for Texas Public Libraries
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Now, in its 12th year, the Texas Book Festival passed the $2 million mark in total grant funds awarded to Texas public libraries. In 2006 alone, the Texas Book Festival raised $200,000 and now those funds will be awarded to 60 libraries throughout the state.This year’s grant recipients will be announced on Friday, April 13th at the annual convention of the Texas Library Association in San Antonio.
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04.01.07
Posted in News at 8:33 pm by Paloma Cruz
San Francisco Public Library Delays Five Branches
– reported by Library Journal
The San Francisco Public Library
(SFPL)’s ambitious $106 million branch renovation program, approved by
voters in 2000, is running out of money. Soaring construction costs
have caused the postponement of five branch projects, as the SFPL
Commission unanimously voted March 1 to use the $18 million dedicated
to these projects to instead help fund the completion of 11 other
branches.[snip]
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03.27.07
Posted in News at 10:45 pm by Paloma Cruz
Library customers run the gamut from the nostalgia-prone (I remember when) to the ones who think that the only reason to go to a library is for the free Internet access. However, something a lot of people ask (in the many different levels of customers) is why do we allow kids/teens to use the library to play?
An article in the Boston Globe addresses this issue.
[snip]
In an effort to lure teens and build a base of lifelong patrons, libraries are leaving behind their humdrum ways and getting the party started, stocking up on everything from video-game collections to radio edits of Ludacris CDs. Branches in Santa Clara, Calif., and Sewickley, Pa., are hosting Dance Dance Revolution video game tournaments, and in Charlotte, N.C., there’s a blue screen studio where teens can produce their own cartoons, claymation, and live action films. And, oh yeah, they still have books.
Until about 15 years ago, most libraries were divided into the adult and children’s sections, and teens had to make do with a shelf of Lois Duncan and Robert Cormier paperbacks. Over the last decade, though, libraries have begun to set aside separate budgets for adolescents, and now we’ve reached the point where the majority of libraries have carved out a place for teens to hang out. And they are — in droves.
[snip]
Sources:
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03.26.07
Posted in News at 10:22 pm by Paloma Cruz
Austin building eco-friendly library
– reported by the Austin Business Journal
[snip]
The library’s new permanent home will feature modular stay-in-place concrete forms, “Turf Cell” alternative paving systems, porous pavement areas and an underground “rain tank” sedimentation basin.
“With this library’s new building, it will bring recognition to the neighborhood as both a family-friendly gathering place and an architectural landmark,” says John Gillum, the facilities planning manager of the Austin Public Library Department.
[snip]
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02.12.07
Posted in News at 1:59 am by Paloma Cruz
In a follow-up to the ongoing attention to unattended children in the library, a recent story in The Monitor (from McAllen, Texas) covers the challenges their local library is facing:
It’s 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday, and the Lark Community Center and Branch Library parking lot in McAllen is jam-packed.
A school bus unloads droves of students who swarm into the glowing building for an evening program. A Valley Transit bus pulls in. Parents in SUVs scoop up their offspring and line up to exit onto the street.
Located just a block away from Garza Elementary School, the Lark branch library finds a similar scene playing out each school day. Children walk over after school and spend the afternoon reading, playing computer games and doing homework until their parents finish work.
The situation is not unique to Lark.
In South McAllen, students from Brown Middle School and South Texas Christian Academy settle in after the last bell rings. Same thing in Edinburg, Weslaco, McAllen and other libraries across the Rio Grande Valley.
Same thing all around the country — at least according to the many blogs and Web sites filled with librarians’ queries and advice on how to handle unattended children.
[snip]
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02.04.07
Posted in News at 12:12 am by Paloma Cruz
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, the challenge libraries face daily with unattended children has been receiving press lately. (See Libraries struggle with child overload and Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over.) It seems that reporters are just catching up with what the industry has known for years… decades: parents are using libraries as if they were daycare centers. And librarians are having trouble keeping kids in line.
LibraryLawBlog points us to the best unattended children’s policies: San Marino (CA), Virginia Beach (VA), and Jacksonville Public Library (FL) .
If you have other good policies to share, or any comments, please click comment link. More info at California Library Association and New Jersey Library Association (by attorney Grayson Barber), and LibraryLaw.com sites.
The blog also points us to Virginia Beach Public Library’s unattended children policy.
Locally, I couldn’t find Harris County’s policy online. However, Houston Public Library’s is easily accessible:
Your children are important and we want them to have a rewarding library experience. Please be advised of our library policy, which states that children under the age of seven may not be left unattended at any time and children between the ages of seven and fourteen should not be left unattended for extended periods of time or at closing time. The library is not equipped to serve as a daycare facility and cannot provide supervision for unattended children.
If you leave your children at the library to do homework, attend a program or check out books, please be aware that proper behavior is important. Children are not allowed to run, become loud and disruptive, use vulgar and inappropriate language, damage library property, become insulting to library staff or interfere with the use of the library by other customers. Should this happen, we will call you. If we are unable to reach you, appropriate law enforcement or child protective authorities will be notified to take custody of the child. In accordance with our policy, children aged 15 or older will be asked to leave the building.
You can help us by explaining and expecting good behavior from your children whether you are present or not. Make sure your child knows how to reach you and give them an emergency number as well. Children are our future and we want them to grow to be responsible adults. You play a key role and we need your support. Together, we will make sure that your child’s library experience is a positive one with many good memories.
Does your library have an unatended children’s policy? How is it communicated to the parents?
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01.25.07
Posted in News at 12:30 am by Paloma Cruz
Another one found at the Houston Chronicle:
StoryCorps
What: A national project to inspire people to record each others’ stories. One person interviews another in a sound booth. They get a CD copy and the interview is stored in the Library of Congress.
Where: Two permanent booths in New York City and two mobile booths traveling the country.
When: A mobile booth is outside the Museum of Natural History, Houston, until Feb. 3. All reservations are filled. For future schedules, access www.storyCorps.net.
Who: StoryCorps is a creation of New York City-based Sound Portraits Productions, a nonprofit public-radio documentary production company. In Houston, StoryCorps excerpts air on Fridays during National Public Radio’s Morning Edition on KUHF/88.7-FM.
The quote to note:
“We discovered going through our experiences with miscarriage, there is a feeling of being very alone,” said Darcy Casavant, a Houston Public Library librarian. “We want to take away the silence and the loneliness, so others will feel less alone.”
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01.24.07
Posted in News at 11:47 pm by Paloma Cruz
I read this twice and am not really sure what my reaction is. Let’s see what you think:
Witness to the decline of books
A librarian sees readers check out
– Houston Chronicle
I’m a librarian in an independent school in the Washington, D.C., area. We’re doing all the right things. Our class sizes are small. Most graduating seniors gain admission to their college of choice. The facilities are first-rate.
Yet from my vantage point at the reference desk, something is amiss. The books in the library stacks are gathering dust.
When I started in this profession five years ago — I used to teach English — I presumed that librarians were mostly united in their attraction to books. But as I moved along in my library science program, I found that books weren’t really our focus. Information management, database networking and research tools claimed the largest share of the curriculum.
In other words, literacy today is defined less by how English departments or a librarian might teach Wordsworth or Faulkner than by how we find our way through the digital forest of information overload.
Typically, many people in my line of work no longer have the title of librarian. They are called media and information specialists, or sometimes librarian technologists.
The buzzword in the trade is “information literacy,” a misnomer, because what it is really about is mastering computer skills, not promoting a love of reading and books. These days, librarians measure the quality of returns in data-mining stints. We teach students how to maximize a database search, about successful retrieval rates. What usually gets lost in the scramble is a careful reading of the material.
[snip]
A library’s neglected shelves reveal the demise of something important, especially for young readers starved for meaning — for anything profound.
Still, I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I’m turning the new-arrivals shelf into a main attraction in my school’s library. Recently I stood Charles Dickens’ Bleak House next to the DVD version produced by the BBC. Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) graced both covers. A senior fingered the DVD for a minute, then turned it over to read the blurb. “The book is too long,” she said. “Is the movie any better?”
“You’re right. The book is long,” I said. “But once you start this one, you won’t be able to put it down, right from that first page about the London fog.”
“I think I’ll watch the DVD,” the student said.
And in my library ledger, I’ll register this as a sale.
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Posted in News at 11:10 pm by Paloma Cruz
Public library seeks local young artists
– reported by The Pasadena Citizen
February is Library Lovers’ Month and the library is asking local children under the age of 13 to share that love through art in a mural contest.
Though a United Way Grant, the library is planning a mural for its youth department and is relying on local youth to provide the imagination and talent.
Local artist/muralist Deborah Legge will determine which entrees make the final project.
“She’s going to choose select pieces and incorporate either the theme that the children have created into her overall vision of the mural,” said PPL technical service manager Lisa Loranc.
The children’s individual pieces will be on display in the library throughout March, which is Youth Art Month, said Loranc.
Submissions for the contest will be accepted between February 14 and 25 and is open to any child with an idea and 11 by 17 inches of canvass space, the maximum size allowed for each piece.
Legge will also be teaching a mural workshop in March where all area children will be able to participate in the mural project, said Loranc.
[snip]
For more information on the Pasadena Public Library mural contest, call 713-475-4985.
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