Recently added articles from Library Administrator's Digest:
Chopping Hours, Not Heads
Feb 01, 2009; ... Like many companies, Pella is looking to cut expenses because of the economic downturn. But instead of laying off more workers, the Iowa manufacturer of windows and doors is instituting a four-day workweek for about a third of its 3,900 employees. Chris Simpson, a senior vice president at the ...
A Library for a Library
Feb 01, 2009; ... For most children in Park Ridge, the library is part of growing up. For young patrons, it opens a world of discovery with reading programs and play areas. Later it can be a place to explore knowledge and new ideas, or simply a quiet spot to be with friends. Until recently such a place ...
Fairfax County
Feb 01, 2009; ... Most public libraries in America were established in the 19th or early 20th century, but the Fairfax County (VA) Public Library wasn't started until 1939, and then only with a bookmobile (see news item). Now it has 23 branches and serves multihundreds of thousands of people as one of the largest ...
Fifty-four Percent?
Feb 01, 2009; ... We all know that the Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library (another suburban library) is very well supported financially, and, at least recently, competently governed by its board. So it is no surprise to read (see news item) that it circulated almost 18 million items in 2008. Some kind of record? ...
Bailouts
Feb 01, 2009; ... In this current national climate of "bail outs," will patrons continue to defeat levies, assuming that someone with deep pockets will "bail" the library out? At some point citizens must take responsibility for their communities and the services therein. Whether it be the infrastructure of water ...
Making a Difference
Feb 01, 2009; ... Making a Difference in our community! That is what Davenport Public Library strives to do. We were honored to learn this year that the 91 percent Customer Satisfaction Rating we received from Davenport's 2006 Citizen's Survey was the highest rating attained nationally according to the ...
Kids Read Aloud to Dogs at Library
Feb 01, 2009; ... While it is no surprise that dogs have long been considered man's best friend, now the loveable animals are proving to be much more: good reading partners. As seen in the excitement of 6-year-old Olivia Hedke, who comes to the Manhattan Public Library every Sunday afternoon to read aloud ...
Library of Congress Leads Digitization Effort
Feb 01, 2009; ... The Library of Congress will digitally scan "The Heroic Life of Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator" as the 25,000th book in its "Digitizing American Imprints" program, which scans aging "brittle" books often too fragile to serve to researchers. The program is sponsored by a $2 million grant ...
Volunteers
Feb 01, 2009; ... During the past year, reports Volunteer Coordinator Martha Love, the library averaged 75 volunteers per week systemwide; together, the volunteers contributed an average of 250 hours per week. "If these library volunteers had been employees who were paid the 2008 Missouri minimum wage of $6.65 ...
We're Everywhere You Are!
Feb 01, 2009; ... This month the Fairfax County Public Library launches a year-long celebration of its seven decades serving the information needs of the residents of Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. We have come full-circle. After the Board of Supervisors voted to establish a countywide free library ...
Sets New Circulation Record
Feb 01, 2009; ... P arma, OH-January12, 2009-2008 was another record-setting year for Cuyahoga County Public Library. Card holders borrowed 17,761,451 items, an 8.10 percent increase in circulation from 2007. Of that total, 54 percent of all items circulated were print items. In 2008, the library launched an ...
Cleveland Public Library Debuts Standardized E-pub Format
Feb 01, 2009; ... The Cleveland Public Library with the other 29 libraries in the Clevnet system is the first in the U.S. to offer state-of-the-art electronic books in the new e-pub format, now used by almost all publishers. The CLEVNET library consortium's eMedia collection is ever-expanding its ...
Early Literacy Computers
Feb 01, 2009; ... What is 24 inches high, 28 inches wide, and loaded with early reading opportunities? Three bilingual preschool computers at new Downtown Library youth stations. These computers are made possible by a grant from the Indiana State Library and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library ...
Reading on the Rise?
Feb 01, 2009; ... Is reading making a comeback in the United States? That's the finding of "Reading on the Rise," a study released last week by the National Endowment for the Arts, which concludes that literary reading among adult Americans has gone up 3.5 percent over the last six years. The endowment ...
Crowded Libraries
Feb 01, 2009; ... At this writing, it is still three days before the Obama inauguration - I'm watching his pre-inaugural train trip on CNN. Big crowds along the way, and the train slows every once in a while so that people can wave to the president-elect positioned on the rear platform of an antique observation ...
A Piece of the Action
Feb 01, 2009; ... There's a lot of money coming out of Washington these days, and apparently more to come, all in the name of economic stimulus. And everyone wants some of the billions of dollars floating around. Including libraries, apparently. I've been reading about the hopes of ...
Ditch Heavy Textbooks?
Feb 01, 2009; ... In an article recently in Business Week (January 5, 2009), about the business plans of the cable channel Discovery, this appeared: "The even bigger money could be in textbooks. In the coming years, giant publishers like Pearson, Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, and others will go ...
More Green Roofs?
Feb 01, 2009; ... I noticed on a television news show I was watching a review of President Obama's policies in regard to alternative energy sources. They showed a picture of a flat-roofed office building where the roof was completely covered with solar cell panels. They must have produced a lot of energy for the ...
Layoffs
Feb 01, 2009; ... It certainly looks as if a wave of layoffs is likely to hit libraries during 2009 and maybe longer. States have drastically reduced revenues, affecting state aid to libraries, and local government is seeing their main revenue, property taxes, heading down because of the credit crisis. All of ...
The First Lit Mag on Amazon's Kindle
Feb 01, 2009; ... NarrativeMagazine.com, the nation's premiere online literary magazine, announced today that it joins Time. Newsweek, Forbes, Salon.com, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, and a select group of other major magazines available to readers on Amazon's increasingly popular electronic reading device ...