LISNews: Hawkish On Libraries Since 1999

The Multnomah County Library has taken a step further into the digital era, offering patrons a more personal online experience than ever before.

Several weeks ago, the library quietly launched My Librarian, an online tool that lets readers connect with a real-life librarian, without actually visiting a library branch. Instead, readers can build a relationship with one of 13 librarians through video chats, blogs and phone calls to discuss their favorite books.

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I'm on a mission to find all librarian & patron "Happy" videos...suggestions? 

Check out the boogey-ing cop.

It was the mid-1940s and Dorothy Porath figured she had three career choices.

She'd just graduated from what then was the state teachers college, so she could be a teacher, of course, or a nurse, or a librarian. A part-time job at the downtown library led her to become a librarian and, in 1953, to an unexpected title.

Dorothy Porath was named "Miss Librarian of 1878" as the Milwaukee Public Library system celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Porath, whose husband, Bob, was apparently more impressed with the honor — he's the one who clipped her photo from the Milwaukee Journal's Green Sheet and put it in a scrapbook — died April 13 at her Dousman home of natural causes. She was 89.

Porath had been a librarian for about seven years when the library system planned its anniversary bash.

Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/miss-librarian-at-milwaukee-systems-75th-anniversary...

News story via Lancaster Online, about State Librarian Stacey Aldrich's address to Pennsylvania librarians about modifying the focus away from technology in libraries.

Last year, she spoke mostly the future — advancing technology, and the changing ways that libraries can store information and provide it in new ways to patrons. This year, Aldrich was more reflective. She talked a lot about her travels — to libraries around the state as well as other countries — and she took the group on a visual tour of State Library of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

She still had a few things to say about technology, though — including the way many people are looking for ways to get away from electronics, even if it’s only for a short break. “A lot of people are looking for ways to disconnect to reconnect,” she said. “They’re turning off the electronics.”

Libraries, which have been scrambling to go high-tech with advanced computer and Wi-Fi options, are also trying to meet the need for patrons to decompress sometimes, Aldrich said. Sometimes, that means sponsoring “digital detox” nights, she said — hosting board games, for instance, and providing opportunities for conversation.

“Look around you. See what people are doing in your community,” she urged.