Public Libraries

Take a Scavenger Hunt Through Toronto’s 100 Libraries

Submitted by Blake on January 14, 2016 - 12:20pm

Visiting each of the Toronto Public Library System’s 100 branches sounds like a daunting task, and this literary scavenger hunt aims to navigate you through each one.

Toronto-based graphic designer and web developer Noah Ortmann created the Toronto Library Passport as a way of encouraging local readers to explore each outpost in the city and utilize their free resources. One challenge urges readers to find a book about Roman architecture, while another instructs you to read a mystery novel in the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection—a room in the Toronto Reference Library modeled after Sherlock Holmes’s study. The 36-page booklet also includes branch hours, information about fines, and spaces to jot down your impressions of each location.

From Take a Scavenger Hunt Through Toronto’s 100 Libraries | Mental Floss

Topic: 
Public Libraries

Sacramento’s ‘Library of Things’ Lets You Borrow GoPros, Sewing Machines, and Ukuleles

Submitted by Blake on January 4, 2016 - 10:52am

 The program makes great sense in urban communities, which thrive on publicly connected spaces and resources. Other cities have similar services—the Berkeley Public Library, for instance, created a Tool Lending Library stocked with weed eaters, hedge trimmers, demolition hammers, and electric plumbing snakes.

Reddit users discussed the idea in the Today I Learned community. They noted some of the non-book items they can check out at their own local libraries.

From Sacramento’s ‘Library of Things’ Lets You Borrow GoPros, Sewing Machines, and Ukuleles | Upvoted

(thanks little_wow)

Topic: 
Public Libraries

X-Rated at the Library: The NYPL's erotica collection

Submitted by Blake on January 3, 2016 - 8:16pm

X-Rated at the Library
The New York Public Library’s erotica collection (yes, it has one) includes seedy Times Square ephemera, early transgender magazines and copies of Playboy.

From X-Rated at the Library - Video - NYTimes.com

Topic: 
Public Libraries

Tested by budget battle and funding cuts, Pa. libraries buckle

Submitted by Blake on December 29, 2015 - 11:11am

But even if a deal is struck or funding released, Drury said the cutbacks could continue at the library if that state funding is reduced.  

"Depending on what the budget number is we may have to make these reductions permanent instead of reinstating them," Drury added.  

Penny Talbert, executive director of the Ephrata Public Library, also in Lancaster County, said state funding for programs like hers has decreased heavily in recent years.  

From Tested by budget battle and funding cuts, Pa. libraries buckle | PennLive.com

Topic: 
Public Libraries

Video of Josh Hanagame of the Salt Lake City Library

Submitted by birdie on December 15, 2015 - 9:40am

KUER's VideoWest/RadioWest's intro to the video Ties the Room Together. "Josh Hanagarne is a writer and a librarian in Salt Lake City who's written beautifully about his experiences with Tourette syndrome. We had him on RadioWest to talk about his 2013 book The World's Strongest Librarian. We want to thank Josh for letting us tag along and pry into his life."

Here's a photo of Josh holding an "In My Book, you're quite a character" card in the beautiful SLCPL .

Shipping is free during December, visit www.inmybook.com for more details.

Topic: 
Librarians
People N Patrons
Public Libraries

Inside The NYPL's Eerily Empty Rose Reading Room

Submitted by Blake on December 14, 2015 - 9:17pm

Good news: the NYPL's Rose Reading Room will reopen in 2016. That will be nearly two years after it closed its doors when a foot-wide piece of plaster (one of the rosettes) fell from the ceiling, but still ahead of the previously scheduled reopening date in 2017.

From Inside The NYPL's Eerily Empty Rose Reading Room: Gothamist

Topic: 
Public Libraries

Libraries suit ends, Kentucky tax rate method stays

Submitted by Blake on December 14, 2015 - 1:42pm

It appears that the way that Kentucky libraries set their tax rates will stand, despite protest from people who say they've been doing it illegally for decades.

The Kentucky Supreme Court issued a decision Friday that it will not hear arguments in the 2012 lawsuit objecting to the way Campbell and Kenton county libraries set their tax rates.

From Libraries suit ends, tax rate method stays

Topic: 
Public Libraries

In response to controversy, hundreds pack Mount Horeb library for reading of transgender book

Submitted by dubuquer on December 5, 2015 - 9:54pm
Topic: 
Books
Censorship
Children
Must Read Stories
News
Public Libraries
<P align=justify><blockquote>MOUNT HOREB — In a turnout that stunned organizers, nearly 600 people filled the library here Wednesday night to hear a public reading of a children’s book about a transgender girl, with many in the crowd expressing strong support for a local family with a transgender child.</blockquote></P> From <A HREF="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/in-response-to-controversy-hundreds-pack-mount-horeb-library-for/article_095da109-0caf-534e-9879-3cb4e0c769ee.html">http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/in-respon

A Slippery Number: How Many Books Can Fit in the New York Public Library?

Submitted by Blake on November 27, 2015 - 10:03pm

In just the past decade, vexingly different figures have been reported — 1.8 million in The New York Times in 2009, four million by The Associated Press in 2013. The library and its current president, Anthony W. Marx, seemed content until two years ago to put the number at about three million, although the figure of 3.5 million had long been used, and appears in the lead paragraph of a Times article from Oct. 1, 1905. (Puzzlingly, the headline says 4.5 million.)

From A Slippery Number: How Many Books Can Fit in the New York Public Library? - The New York Times

Topic: 
Public Libraries

3 small cities strive to book new libraries

Submitted by Blake on November 27, 2015 - 2:56pm

If only Oprah were here.

“And you get a library, and you get a library, and you get a library!”

But alas, three small Clark County libraries will have to do it the hard way.

Ridgefield, Woodland and Washougal are in the hunt for new libraries to feed the minds of their growing cities, and they are all edging slowly toward their targets.

“Right now, if you go into any of those three communities it’s a very tight space, and once we find a space that fits the needs of the community, it opens up opportunities for everyone,” said Rick Smithrud, executive director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation.

From 3 small cities strive to book new libraries | The Columbian

Topic: 
Public Libraries

Pages

Subscribe to Public Libraries