Minor Musings

Books, Reading, Etc. Starting to think about welcome= back-to-school displays and  helping students figure out what to read now?  NYPL has some great YA book recommendations.  (also a great collection development tool re: summer orders and what we forgot to buy!) Oldie but still good: platforms for students to share book thoughts and recommendations. School…

What kind of friend are you?

Over the past few months there have been some bad/sad things in my life - a few I've kept to myself, a few I've posted about on Facebook.  Last weekend I learned that two people I knew had died suddenly, neither of which were announced anywhere on social media.  What's telling is how we deal…

Summertime, and the reading is easy

What is it that makes us call certain books "summer reads" (or "beach reads")?  Is it that they're books that we can get lost in? or books that we don't mind falling asleep or being interrupted while reading?  Or perhaps it's a lighter subject matter?  Why don't we have "winter reads"? Anyway, over the past…

A tale of two divisions

There's a lot of talk about replacing qualified librarians with volunteers or paraprofessional staff.  In part this is due to budget cuts, in part it's due to a lack of understanding about what libraries can and should be, and in part it's just silliness.  Silliness that affects people's lives and livelihoods, but silliness nonetheless.  It's…

When you have a bully pulpit

A few things have happened recently that left a semi bad taste in my mouth - they revolved around someone using their bully pulpit for what I can only call personal gain. Without giving away names or exact details, here's what's going on: creators advocating for their product, which is completely understandable, but not being…

Real World, Real Tools – #ALA2013

Going to ALA's Annual Conference is always a great time for me to learn, especially from those in situations unlike my own.   I'll attend sessions provided by other divisions because even though I'm not in an academic or public library, or work that heavily with technology, I can take ideas and think about how they…

Teens and eBooks – a #YALSA / #ALA2013 discussion

pace Freud, what do teens want? That's the question that the roundtable I attended considered - and the overall sense was that, as with men vis-a-vis women, we just don't know what teens want when it comes to e-books/e-readers.  We do have a few ideas, however: it's population specific - don't trust national polls, as…

Quick thoughts on #ALA2013

There are things to love about an ALA Conference, and things to, well, not love quite so much. For example: Love that the hotels had free wifi for conference attendees, but hate that it wasn't promoted beforehand (had to convince someone this morning that yes, I'd seen tweets about it so she could argue with…