Business as Usual, in Different Ways; Teen Library Events; "Promoting Reading with Reading Programs"

News December 7, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.14 MB, 6:33 min.)
Business as Usual, in Different Ways; Teen Library Events; "Promoting Reading with Reading Programs"

This morning our colleague Ken Davenport forwarded a link to a post on the “Musings on Information and Librarianship” blog: “Today’s digital information landscape.” The author, Eric Lease Morgan, says, “The main point of this lecture is to bring home a single idea, namely, the what of library and information science has not changed so much as the how.” He provides examples, in a powerpoint presentation—something you might like to check out—but his point is pretty simple. We are still developing collections, helping people find books and information, and providing programming. We are adding new formats to those collections, using new tools to select materials and let our customers know what we’re doing for them….the HOW we do it is changing—but then, it always has changed as new things came forward. I think that it seems like it’s new and different because it’s changing so fast. New tools and ideas are appearing at a rate that could be alarming if we forget why we are looking at these tools. How will we use them? Will this mean better service? Which can we use more effectively in OUR particular community? We’ve always been able to open new vistas for people, and if we look at it that way then it’s less daunting. Still a challenge to learn it, to figure out how to adapt and use it, but oh, what it can mean for providing our services in ever better ways, that reach more people, help more people! Change can be a little scary, but it can also be very exciting if we are willing to reach out and grab a new tool or two—don’t worry about doing everything at once—and put them to good use for our customers.

Speaking of new ways to do things: a webinar about SW and SE LSAs' downloadable audiobooks consortium, BASIL, is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 10. This consortium will make audiobooks available for member libraries’ patrons to download onto their computers and mp3 players. As consortium members, the cost to libraries will be a fraction of what it would be if a library were to off the service on its own. All SW libraries should have received an e-mail with information about joining us for the webinar. If you need me to send that to you again, let me know.

And I hope you’ve marked your calendar for the first Iowa Small Libraries Online Conference, or ISLOC, as we’re calling it, on January 16, 2008. It will ALL be online, in Wimba Live Classrooms, so you won’t have to travel.

Links from Today's podcast:

• “Musings on Information and Librarianship” blog: “Today’s digital information landscape.
• BASIL FAQs
• ALA Website
• SWILSA Youth Services
• YALSA Wiki
• Tune In @ your library Wiki

Book Reviewed by Marcia:
Promoting reading with reading programs, by Robin Works. Neacl-Schuman, c1992.