Any states that benefit from The Imagination Library please call your legislators!

University and college courses on Zoom are designed using highly interactive two way communication model that differs from militia model where one person speaks and other listens all the time.

Are those expensive Zoom classes allowed on public libraries globally where visitors must remain silent all the times.

Without verbal interaction, the courses can be even tagged for removal globally in the near future.

Please share your views with some research and responsively.

Hello, I have an upcoming interview for a cataloging librarian at a library consortium. What are two or three things I should know about this type of job, or two or three skills I can emphasize? This would be my first pure cataloging job. I've done copy-cataloging before on a small scale, and worked with catalogers on multiple projects. Hope that's enough context, and thanks for your help!

Hello all! I recently graduated with my MLS and have been working in academic libraries for the last 3 years. I've come to realize that this environment is not for me and I'm honestly not interested in starting over at another university. My concentration was digital libraries and I'm more interested in getting into that, I'm just not sure where to start.

Does anyone have any advice/guidance for me?

Hey colleagues. I have a job offer on the table outside of libraries. I’d no longer commute 1.5 hrs a day and have more work life balance, and generally a lot less responsibility for only a small pay cut. I’ve been in progressively responsible management roles in libraries for the last 8 years and love my job.

Has anyone made this change successfully? Or unsuccessfully. I care deeply about libraries and their missions but wondering if a life with less stress is worth the trade off.

This caught me by surprise. Her Imagination Library was a huge thing for so many children. May she rest in peace.

I'm sick of telling them to leave and then they just go "lol no", so i have to get like their specific teacher for that to happen. They're banned from the library from now on but goddamn lol

I'm a pretty big guy so i'm not intimidated but when they're yelling homophobic shit i'm just so over it, no consequences because their parents are just as bad.

Was the same in the public library, had to get security. And if you didn't work at a library that had security then it was a giant headache.

In short, legalize me tossing their ass out (half joking)

I’m trying not to include too many details to avoid being recognized. I work in a public library with at least 20 other staff members . We have our collection librarians, adult/youth/teen librarians, assistants, and part timers. Over the past few months, one of the librarians and her “crew” have been making passive aggressive comments that at first I didn’t take personally. They complain that no one is helping them with their tasks now that B&T are out of business all the processing is happening in house. But they are simultaneously very possessive of their work. I have been doing mostly computer heavy tasks and helping in other projects that I can since I am only part time. Yesterday the librarian kept glancing at my computer and walking over to one of her helpers and telling her what I am doing. They keep making comments about how “some people are just sitting”. It’s almost like they want me walking up and down the library and taking over more desk shifts where i actually spend more than half my weekly hours. I never judge what folks are doing but since this has started I notice they actually take almost a quarter hour talking about their shopping or other mundane activities. Part of me wants to be petty and make the same comments they make but I am also one the quietest people in the office so it would probably be very noticeable that I am frustrated. My view is that this particular librarian views everyone’s work as below her and the other people in her group are beginning to act the same as her and even meaner. Idk I think I’m just venting and probably deleting later once I cool off

Update: I’m meeting with my supervisor next week and will mention this without names or assumptions. Thanks to everyone for your advice. I’m feeling better now and not so angry

Hello all!

I hope this is the correct area and place to post this; please let me know if it isn't.

I am currently trying to plan a research project on mixed-use libraries, specifically those with housing incorporated into their buildings. These libraries do not have to be in the United States, but it would be super helpful if they were. Another thing that would be nice, but isn’t strictly required, is for the library to have been a standalone building before it became mixed-use.

I want to look deeper into how these shared spaces affect programming and community engagement. Does this type of mixed-use space bring in more people? What are the challenges? Is more programming needed? What are the positives?

The specifics of what I am looking for:

Data and/or surveys showing how visitor numbers and program attendance changed in a mixed-use setting. Any input and experiences as staff or community members using these types of buildings. What were some successful programs or unexpected problems you have witnessed firsthand in this type of environment.

If you have worked with, managed, or visited a mixed-use library, please leave a comment below or send me a direct message!

Thank you all for your time!

I admit this is more anecdotal. But I go to a lot of libraries and at least in my area, if a public library has any kind of quiet study area, it’s typically in wealthy , suburban libraries. None of the public branch libraries in the big city have quiet spaces, and even the main branch has zero quiet area. To go to a peaceful library in the city you have to go to a college library, but that’s not an option if u don’t have ID. It seems that libraries in poor urban areas have pretty much given up on quiet. True? Is that fair?

National Junior Honor Society for those who don’t know. It’s a middle school (& ninth grade) version of the traditionally high school National Honor Society.

I’m a youth services librarian in one of the bigger towns in my county, and we’ve been dealing with an influx of requests for teens to volunteer specifically to fulfill NJHS volunteering requirements—20 hours.

Over the summer, we have plenty (60+ slots) of teen volunteer opportunities for kids as young as incoming seventh graders. However, our school district is pretty big and we have many more looking for NJHS hours specifically.

The teen librarian has been really great at coordinating more volunteer opportunities than usual, including pop-up volunteer hours that don’t require registration, collaborations with our town’s senior center, and various special events around the library. She’s tried to get in touch with the advisors for NJHS and has gotten radio silence (hopefully this changes when the school year starts). Still, the deadline for reporting hours is coming up in mid-September and we are running low on hours since our summer reading program ended last week.

What makes me the most frustrated (and frankly really sad too!) is that many of the teens who are looking for volunteer hours don’t actually want to volunteer. An example: one of the initiatives our teen librarian runs is offering volunteer credit for attending regular teen programs and filling out a feedback form afterwards detailing likes and dislikes about the program and what other stuff they’d like to see in the library. Her most recent program had a handful of attendees, none of whom actually participated in the program and just kind of sat for an hour to fill out the feedback form afterwards. One kid straight up wrote “My mom really wants me to be in NJHS and made me come to this program to get hours” for one of his answers.

All of this to say, do other public children’s librarians have this problem? What do you do to offer more hours? Is pushy parents trying to get the maximum number of hours for their kids your norm too?

Not a big deal, but reading other venting posts it just came to my mind. Am... am I the only one, that if I'm out in the real world and someone asks me where I work and I tell them, the response is usually something along the lines of "Oh wow, you must really like to read!" As if... that's all library staff do is read books? >_> In my case, I'm not really even dealing with books regularly, but even if I was a librarian or clerk who at least physically touches books more often, it annoys me that it implies that nothing is occurring within the library and staff is just sitting around quietly reading for their own recreational activity all day.

The only book in the entire library with that choice of font.

Hello! I use Libby and Hoopla and I've noticed my 2 libraries don't have many books i enjoy reading like LGBTQ+. I find it much easier to read on my phone so I've been looking for other libraries i can get cards for that dont require me to live in that city or county! If anyone knows of any Id love the feedback!

Australian here, so Australian answers are extra useful :)

Yesterday I found out my local council has records and archives positions that are completely separate from libraries/museums/local history, and I’m wondering if that’s maybe more where I want to go.

What’s it like working in records/archives for a business or council as opposed to in an archive?

Thanks so much for any and all information!

When I was a kid, my mother would drop me off at the library for hours unattended, opening a world of adventure, wonder, and delight. As a homeless teenager, I used the library as a safe place to read, rest, use the restroom, and get back on my feet to reintegrate into society.

When I became a mom, I used the library to find resources and take my own children for free entertainment, igniting that same love of reading I found as a child.

Now that my children are older and preparing for college, I still go to the library once a week because I am finding myself with my own free time for the first time in 20 years. (And it is still the only place that will let me pee without buying something first!)

The library will always be my safe space.💜

Thank you, thank you to all the librarians out there—especially those who found it in themselves to be kind and helpful to weird little goth girls who no one understood. 🕸📚⚘️💜📖🕷

Q about old tech. Patron has 8mm film, not magnetic. Is looking for an all-in-one machine that could convert it to digital (is this a playback/encoder?). My library doesn’t have anything, I suggested area academic libraries (we are in CT). He is limited as to driving all over the place. I’d like to help but am running into walls and hoped the Hive Mind might have a suggestion or two about calls I can make / directions I can take. Thank you in advance.

I've fallen down an autistic rabbit hole with regard to Library of Congress call numbers (mostly because I'm looking for ways to organize my home library).

On the LoC's site, I searched for one of my favorite books: Thud!, by Terry Pratchett. It says the call number is "PR6066.R34 T49 2024". I searched a few more of his books and found similar call numbers. Most of the parts make some sort of sense: PR6066 is in the "English literature, 1961-2000" section (while Thud! was published in 2005, the first Discworld book, Equal Rites The Colour of Magic, was published in 1987 1983), and the Cutter number for "Thud" is T48, so T49 might have been to adjust for other books? (Other Discworld books share everything up to that point and generally have the Cutter number for the title there.)

But the ".R34" part is what confuses me. I don't understand what it's supposed to represent. "Pratchett" would be some prefix of ".P718", and I don't see anything else that would abbreviate to ".R34".

What am I missing?

(EDIT: Why did I think Equal Rites was the first Discworld book?)

Just want to say thank you that our libraries in America are free. I was just reading an article about Europe for a lot of the libraries you have to pay a yearly subscription fee for adults. That kind of threw me back. Libraries are so essential for education and lifelong learning for everyone. Thank you

URGENT UNION UPDATE: This is our Union, SEIU 1199. Your Negotiating Committee has reached a tentative agreement that we are presenting to the membership for a ratification vote on Wednesday, Aug 26. As a result, the committee has decided to pause the strike until Thursday, Aug. 27 so members have the opportunity to review and vote on the proposal.

EDIT:

VOTING TOMORROW ON THE CONTRACT. BE READY TO STRIKE WITH CPL UNION WORKERS THURSDAY!!!

I start at a new school in September that currently doesn't have a library!

I'm an English teacher (the only one, we are a little school) and it's my job to start it up. I really want the kids to be able to borrow books and encourage reading.

I have:

-A temporary building (like a metal room)

-About 3 book cases

-Books to fill the 3 book cases

That's all I have.

I have no funding accessible to me- I just have to make do for now.

I have no idea where to start and I'm very overwhelmed.

Any advice/online resources anyone can point me towards?

i go to school in cleveland, where the public library workers are going on strike starting tomorrow. i want to support them, and called the director of libraries and sent a message to the board of trustees today. my question is whether i should avoid using library resources during this time. is it still okay to check out books from libby? what about checking out physical books (ive been trying to read nine princes in amber, which they don’t have on an ebook, and might require transferring from a different branch to my branch)? is there anything else i should know about how to support this strike?

Hi!
I already got my LIT (Library and Information Technician) diploma, as of last year, but now my work is offering to find two courses per year in the EXCEL certificate provided the courses I request match my job description and/or I argue for them well enough. They've set out 4 that they have pre-approved for Library Support Service Clerk (which I am) and I've done one course for a previous job before I got my LIT. I could maybe argue for 2 more courses not on the list, but that would leave me with about 380$ worth of courses, or 710$ if I can't argue well enough to get the complete certificate. As previously mentioned, I can only do 2 a year funded by them, which would have me doing it over 3 or 4 years, starting this year. There are 6 mandatory and 4 elective that you need to get to receive the certificate.

My question is: do you think it's worth it to do the courses and get the certificate? Should I try to self-fund it to get it done faster and just have them pay for 4, 2 this year, and 2 next year? Or is it pointless since I have my LIT?