Although it is pretty easy to find colleagues who will express fatigue or frustration about the constant need for libraries to prove their value proposition, there is also an upside to the exercise of crafting a message that justifies librarians' mission. The catch is that however good their crafted message may be, they must forget about ever…

In these difficult economic times, everyone is on the lookout for savings. This author, an adult services librarian at New City Library in New York, has spent the last two years implementing small-scale open source and freeware replacements where proprietary or paper solutions once ruled. While none of these projects is individually revolutionary,…

The core mission of libraries has always centered on making content and related services available to patrons. The form in which that content is delivered has changed continually. The most ancient libraries or archives organized clay tablets or cylinders written in cuneiform. Centuries ago, the transition from scrolls to codices must have been…

When staff at the Wisconsin State Law Library began compiling a wish list for a new website, the topic of a new domain name came up almost immediately. Their old website was located at http://wsll.state.wi.us. Spelling that relatively complex domain over the phone day after day provided the impetus to explore other options. Whatever domain name…

A halo of signs, some stuffed into thick plastic sheaths while others curled under yellow tape, cluttered the service desks of the New City Library. They bleated out messages of closings, procedures, and warnings. Their number undermined their cause. All too often a customer would ask a question that was answered by the very sign they had pushed…

The digital era has revolutionized society's perception of space. Even so, against this backdrop, the struggle to preserve and enhance library space is a battle for the hearts and minds of the communities. It is ongoing, and it will never end. In this article, the author explores two characteristics of successful drives to revitalize physical…

In the corporate world, the "consumerization of IT" is being debated by C-level execs. Will libraries adopt the new bring-your-own-device-to-work policy? In the workplace, there may be room for debate, but in libraries, librarians don't have a choice whether or not to support the devices patrons want to use, at least not if they want to remain…

Any librarian who has managed electronic resources has experienced the--for want of words--"joy" of gathering and analyzing usage statistics. Such statistics are important for evaluating the effectiveness of resources and for making important budgeting decisions. Unfortunately, the data are usually tedious to collect, inconsistently organized, of…

With information technologies' pervasive use within all departments and by all staff, libraries and library staff get their fair share of mandated projects. Knowing how to successfully operate in this kind of environment is important to the overall success of the library as a whole. What is meant by mandated project? A mandated project is a…

In 2008, we started by pulling a sample of 483 public libraries from across the country, using 2007 public library annual report data. Because small libraries have different needs and resources than larger libraries, we stratified the sample to make comparisons by size, according to the following population groups: fewer than 10,000 served;…

Since SC LENDS started operating in June 2009, more public libraries have come on board. All of this on the back end connects to a Mozilla-based staff client that has distributions for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, using SSL encryption to keep communications secure and private between remote libraries and the servers hosted at a high-end…

Today's academic libraries must demonstrate their value to cost-conscious university administrators. Budget trade-off decisions that involve the library can be difficult for any university administrator to make, and such decisions are complicated by the recent appearance of massive global digital libraries that seem poised to replace the…

Traditional libraries are being redefined. They are not only places to access books in print, but are also rich resources for digital assets. As a result, technology training programs need to progress beyond basic "mouse and keyboard" in order to meet the ever-changing needs and demands of the public. As library collections transition to…

The public computing center offers an economical and environmentally friendly model for providing additional public computer access when and where it is needed. Though not intended to be a replacement for a full-service branch, the public computing center does offer a budget-friendly option for quickly expanding high-demand services into the…

People using libraries will expect to receive more of what they provide in more ways and in more places. It's already the case that people presume they should be able to do things they can do at the library through the web. Because they can do that, they presume they can use the libraries through their phones and their tablet computers. To some…