Return on Reading | Backtalk
There have been many efforts to quantify the return on investment of a library. Researchers take into account the cost of public meeting space, computer use, books checked out, and other factors, and have found that libraries return several times more value to the community than they cost. While those factors may be easier to quantify, I would like to revive a simpler definition of a library: it’s a place with books. The benefits of these books to the community are difficult to quantify, but research on the effects of reading shows us that the benefits are also difficult to overstate. As we adapt to the Information Age, we must be cautious not to forget about one of our core services.
Higher Education Rebooted | From the Bell Tower
It may not rise to the trend of the year in higher education, but the “rethinking” of higher education is very much on the minds of everyone in the field. It’s time for a reboot.
Seven Questions with Library Anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster
Library Journal: What does it mean to be a library anthropologist?
Nancy Fried Foster: I was trained as an anthropologist at Columbia University, and I conducted fieldwork in several Wapisiana villages in Roraima, Brazil. I also had the chance to do research in England, Guyana, Venezuela, and Papua New Guinea. My background provides me with a lot of field experience and a grounding in anthropological theory, all of which I apply when I look at what happens in libraries.
I Did the Math: Towards a More Diverse NYT Notable Book List
Of the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2012, there are only 39 women, 16 authors of color, and a mere seven women of color. It’s the job of book review editors—as guides to the overwhelming volume of titles published every year—to draw readers’ attention to the kind of books that can broaden their world, that tell the kind of stories that have never been told in print before. These books are out there, but the New York Times needs to do a better job of finding and recognizing them.
Learn from the Best: LJ Speaks with Model LIS Teachers
Thursday, November 29, 2012, 2:00-3:00 PM ET Library Journal presents a gathering of past LJ Teaching Award winners as they discuss the changing nature of librarianship in the new digital landscape from the perspective of teachers setting the bar for innovation in LIS education. With decades of combined experience fostering critical thinking about library issues and essential leadership skills, these teachers have first-hand experience incorporating new methods and practices as they adapt to address the ever-evolving demands on their students. What challenges await the class of 2013 and beyond? What are the essential skills and qualities that will be required of future library leaders? Is the increasing shift toward online learning affecting the way librarians are trained, and if so, how? Register now!
NYU Medical Library Recovering from Superstorm Sandy
Weeks after Hurricane Sandy battered New York City, progress continues on the cleanup of New York University’s flood-damaged Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library. The Ehrman facility, the main library of NYU’s Langone Medical Center, hasn’t opened its doors since Sandy made landfall.
NYU Medical Library Recovering from Superstorm Sandy
Weeks after Hurricane Sandy battered New York City, progress continues on the cleanup of New York University’s flood-damaged Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library. The Ehrman facility, the main library of NYU’s Langone Medical Center, hasn’t opened its doors since Sandy made landfall.
Year in Architecture 2012: Waves of the Future [8 Photo Galleries]
This year’s 107 completed public library building projects—completed between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012—display innovative design in partnership with the community and in reference to the past. The data expands to include other costs, storage capacity, and revenue sources, along with our comparative six-year summary. And imagine the ideas you will glean from these galleries of beautiful and striking images. The future is here!
Latest News
NYU Medical Library Recovering from Superstorm Sandy
By Bob Warburton on December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
Weeks after Hurricane Sandy battered New York City, progress continues on the cleanup of New York University’s flood-damaged Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library. The Ehrman facility, the main library of NYU’s Langone Medical Center, hasn’t opened its doors since Sandy made landfall.
Instant Law Library: Just Add Building
By Meredith Schwartz on December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
You might think developing an entire law school’s collection from scratch would be a daunting task. But it just got easier for startup Indiana Tech Law School, in Fort Wayne, IN, which will welcome its first class in August 2013. Dean Peter C. Alexander announced on December 5 that the school has received a donation of an entire library collection.
New Jersey: Censorship in the Library?
By Gary Price on December 5, 2012
From The Star-Ledger (Newark): It’s all about a huge drawing hanging in the second-floor reference room, raising so much ruckus that the head librarian has had to cover it up — so no one can see what it shows. It’s covered with cloth and that’s the way many employees want to keep it. Kara Walker, [...]
National Federation of the Blind to Take Protest to Amazon, Denouncing School Kindle Use as Discriminatory to Blind Students
By SLJ on December 5, 2012
Due to their longstanding frustration with Amazon’s failure to make Kindle ereaders accessible to people who are blind, officials from the National Federation of the Blind will be protesting outside Amazon’s Seattle headquarters on December 12.
New Working Paper: “Manipulating Google Scholar Citations and Google Scholar Metrics: Simple, Easy and Tempting”
By Gary Price on December 5, 2012
Are the results of the research a real surprise? No. Google and other general open-web search engines are manipulated (aka gamed) all the time. It’s the nature of the beat and while the search engine industry works hard to control it, it’s a non-stop game of cat and mouse. Nevertheless, this research that focuses on [...]
Higher Education Rebooted | From the Bell Tower
By Steven Bell on December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
It may not rise to the trend of the year in higher education, but the “rethinking” of higher education is very much on the minds of everyone in the field. It’s time for a reboot.
Seven Questions with Library Anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster
By Meredith Schwartz on December 4, 2012 Leave a Comment
Library Journal: What does it mean to be a library anthropologist?
Nancy Fried Foster: I was trained as an anthropologist at Columbia University, and I conducted fieldwork in several Wapisiana villages in Roraima, Brazil. I also had the chance to do research in England, Guyana, Venezuela, and Papua New Guinea. My background provides me with a lot of field experience and a grounding in anthropological theory, all of which I apply when I look at what happens in libraries.
I Did the Math: Towards a More Diverse NYT Notable Book List
By Molly McArdle on December 4, 2012
Of the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2012, there are only 39 women, 16 authors of color, and a mere seven women of color. It’s the job of book review editors—as guides to the overwhelming volume of titles published every year—to draw readers’ attention to the kind of books that can broaden their world, that tell the kind of stories that have never been told in print before. These books are out there, but the New York Times needs to do a better job of finding and recognizing them.
Author Q&A: Drawn Together by Art with Aline Crumb
By Martha Cornog on December 3, 2012
Cartooning couple Aline and Robert Crumb have made their bed together, literally, throughout 35 years of marriage while supporting each other in individual and conjoint artistic careers. Intensely private yet disarmingly public, Aline has become a mistress of satiric confessional comedy, both in solo comics and in the comics of Drawn Together (Liveright: Norton. 2012. [...]
Archivist Puts the History in Historical Drama “Boardwalk Empire”
By Virginia C. McGuire on December 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
Archivist Heather Halpin Perez has become something of a celebrity since HBO’s hit show about Prohibition-era Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire, launched in 2010. But Perez, who manages the Alfred M. Heston Collection at the Atlantic City Free Public Library, says the work she does for the show is just another part of her job.
Patron Profiles
"Public Library Power Patrons Are Your Best Customers"
LJ's Barbara A. Genco presents key findings from Patron Profiles at Tools of Change 2012
Upcoming Webcasts
Learn from the Best: LJ Speaks with Model LIS Teachers
By LJ on November 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
Thursday, November 29, 2012, 2:00-3:00 PM ET Library Journal presents a gathering of past LJ Teaching Award winners as they discuss the changing nature of librarianship in the new digital landscape from the perspective of teachers setting the bar for innovation in LIS education. With decades of combined experience fostering critical thinking about library issues and essential leadership skills, these teachers have first-hand experience incorporating new methods and practices as they adapt to address the ever-evolving demands on their students. What challenges await the class of 2013 and beyond? What are the essential skills and qualities that will be required of future library leaders? Is the increasing shift toward online learning affecting the way librarians are trained, and if so, how? Register now!
More Webcasts:
- Innovating at Webscale
- Self Help = Service Improvement
- Unified Resource Management in Action: Alma’s Impact at Boston College and Fort Hays State University
- Graphic Novels
- From print to digital: the online evolution of the scholarly edition and its impact on the academic community
- Weeding Your Library Collection Is Easier with Bowker
- Science Fiction Announcements
- A Tour of Two Library Journal New Landmark Libraries
LJ in Print
Year in Architecture 2012: Exquisite Exteriors
By Bette-Lee Fox on November 26, 2012 Leave a Comment
The East New Orleans Regional Library is one of four new branches replacing those lost to Hurricane Katrina. Going for sustainability, it features fixed exterior sun screens, reflective white surface roofing, dark-sky exterior lights, and low-E tinted windows. CREDITS: Gould Evans Affiliates, P.A., architect; photo, Michael Palumbo. The trifecta of library spaces is provided by [...]
Year in Architecture 2012: The Best of Past and Present
By Bette-Lee Fox on November 26, 2012 Leave a Comment
The West Jordan Library & Viridian Event Center, Salt Lake County Library, is the perfect convergence of civic and recreational needs. The design captures the outdoors as flexible event space, with no need to add enclosed program areas. CREDITS: MHTN Architects, Inc., architect; photo, Trevor Muhler Photography. The new Walpole Public Library, MA, more than [...]
Featured Posts from LJ Reviews
I Did the Math: Towards a More Diverse NYT Notable Book List
By Molly McArdle on December 4, 2012
Of the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2012, there are only 39 women, 16 authors of color, and a mere seven women of color. It’s the job of book review editors—as guides to the overwhelming volume of titles published every year—to draw readers’ attention to the kind of books that can broaden their world, that tell the kind of stories that have never been told in print before. These books are out there, but the New York Times needs to do a better job of finding and recognizing them.
Author Q&A: Drawn Together by Art with Aline Crumb
By Martha Cornog on December 3, 2012
Cartooning couple Aline and Robert Crumb have made their bed together, literally, throughout 35 years of marriage while supporting each other in individual and conjoint artistic careers. Intensely private yet disarmingly public, Aline has become a mistress of satiric confessional comedy, both in solo comics and in the comics of Drawn Together (Liveright: Norton. 2012. [...]
Books & Bibles: Christian Writers Gather in Dallas
By Wilda Williams on November 30, 2012
Wilda Williams reports on the American Christian Fiction Writers’ conference.
Self-Help Meets God: A Classic Approach | Collection Development
By Graham Christian on November 30, 2012
Self-help: the term evokes the busier aisles of the bookstore and some of the most popular ranges in any local public library. It is also, as we know, a category of writing, publishing, and reading subjected to a great deal of mockery and satire in the public sphere and, perhaps, deservedly so: there is a kind of rapid reach for easy conclusions and at times a haste in writing and structure that leaves self-help writers and readers vulnerable to the most contemptuous sort of criticism.
National Book Awards 2012
By Barbara Hoffert on November 15, 2012
“The only thing I have ever wanted to do in my life is have a good time writing stories. This award says I am still at it.” That’s how Elmore Leonard gracefully summed up his acceptance of the 2012 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (otherwise called the lifetime achievement award), presented by the [...]
Annoyed Librarian
A Rare Victory
December 5, 2012 by Annoyed LibrarianWe Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges
December 3, 2012 by Annoyed LibrarianBlogs & Columns
Higher Education Rebooted | From the Bell Tower
By Steven Bell on December 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
It may not rise to the trend of the year in higher education, but the “rethinking” of higher education is very much on the minds of everyone in the field. It’s time for a reboot. Take the amount of time, effort and words that go into … [Read More...]
I Did the Math: Towards a More Diverse NYT Notable Book List
By Molly McArdle on December 4, 2012
I did the math. Of the New York Times‘s 100 Notable Books of 2012, there are 39 women, 16 authors of color, and only seven women of color.¹ Of their 10 Best Books, there are three women and one writer of color, who is also the list’s … [Read More...]
Return on Reading | Backtalk
By Brian Samek on December 3, 2012 1 Comment
There have been many efforts to quantify the return on investment of a library. Researchers take into account the cost of public meeting space, computer use, books checked out, and other factors, and have found that libraries return several times … [Read More...]
Place Your Bets, People: Semantic Speech Recognition and the Future of Libraries | Peer to Peer Review
By Rick Anderson on November 29, 2012 4 Comments
Some years ago, when cellphones were still mostly the province of celebrities and hardcore business travelers, I was walking through an airport and saw a well-groomed and prosperous-looking man engaged in animated conversation with, as far as I could … [Read More...]
Interviewing Across the Generations | Not Dead Yet
By Cheryl LaGuardia on November 28, 2012 5 Comments
Job interviewing in libraries has changed over the years I’ve been in the profession. When I started out, interviews tended to last less than a day and you met with one or two folks during the interview. Now, interviews typically last longer than … [Read More...]
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