Public Libraries

Getting Lost in the World’s Largest Stack of Menus

The Buttolph collection of menus at the New York Public Library continues to inspire a new generation of researchers, chefs, and restaurant fans.

The library provided Buttolph no budget and no salary. But she kept collecting, even placing advertisements in restaurant trade and hotel magazines to solicit menus from readers, stressing that their condition must be immaculate. Buttolph could only lure donors with the satisfaction of contributing to a historic archive, but she continued to receive menus from admirers across the country and overseas, including one from a London banquet celebrating King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.

January 8, 2023 by Blake Public Libraries Special Collections

Could bolstering libraries be the key to reducing crime and violence?

Could bolstering public libraries be the key to reducing crime and violence?
Milwaukee%u2019s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) is trying to expand the role of an already critical community resource: public libraries.

January 6, 2023 by Blake Public Libraries

Hidden books in NSW town Braidwood taking kids on literary treasure hunts to encourage reading – ABC News

Kids find a book sealed in a plastic sleeve, take it home to read, write their name in it, and then re-hide it or pass it on to a friend.

The books are hidden in shop windows, parks and around the streets.

The concept is simple and follows the global painted rocks craze, where kids hunt for painted rocks around their local neighbourhood.

Mum of 10, Samantha Dixon, started the trend after seeing it on a community Facebook page overseas.

“We had a bookshelf full of books the children had already read,” she said.

January 4, 2023 by Blake Books Public Libraries

How San Franciscans use their libraries is shifting dramatically

In lieu of borrowing physical books and other items, residents could check out digital materials, including eBooks, streaming content and digital newspapers and magazines. As a result, digital circulation during these months rose by at least 40%. December 2020 recorded the library’s highest monthly digital circulation of over 555,000 — a 50% increase from the previous December.

January 2, 2023 by Blake Public Libraries

5 Ways Libraries Used to Be Hardcore

While every profession employs miserable people doing jobs just because they’re told to, librarians are an exception. Librarians are heroes. Librarians — and firefighters. Firefighters are heroes, too. It’s no coincidence, then, that these two occupations are so well represented in porn.

January 1, 2023 by Blake Public Libraries

St. Paul libraries face moment of reckoning

Libraries are expanding their role, from social workers to helping homeless patrons. But some say staff are stretched too thin.

https://www.startribune.com/st-paul-libraries-face-moment-of-reckoning/600239371/

December 30, 2022 by Blake Public Libraries 0

A Music Historian Takes a Top Job at the New York Public Library

Brent Reidy, the new director of Research Libraries, said he hoped to help democratize the 127-year-old library by reaching a younger generation.

NY Times