News Desk, December 2010
Dec 15, 2010FOUR BRANCHES MAY STAY OPEN IN BOSTON
The Boston Public Library is still facing unprecedented challenges, as the country’s oldest municipally funded library struggles to avoid the closure of four branches.
Amy Ryan, the library’s director, has been negotiating with the city’s elected officials, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino, to see if $372,000 can be found to keep the branches, scheduled to close at the end of March 2011, open until the end of the fiscal year (June 30).
“We have talked about the best way to deliver library services to every Bostonian,” Ryan told LJ. Also, even as the closure debate takes place, the library announced that it will reopen the renovated Brighton branch on December 11. The 22,400 square foot branch has been undergoing a $5 million renovation since January 2009.
ALA HOPES LSTA FUNDING WON’T BE CUT FOR FY11
The election fallout that will shape the new Congress in January has only begun to settle, but the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office first has to deal with a lame-duck session that began November 15.
Emily Sheketoff, the director of ALA’s Washington Office, is hoping that the appropriation for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) will remain at about $214 million for FY11.
“Our money is in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill,” Sheketoff said. It is one of 13 appropriation bills awaiting action.
LSTA is a major source of revenue for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which distributes the majority of federal library program funds to the states.
“It looks like level funding,” Sheketoff said, “but there are many opportunities for cuts.” The Senate and House are hammering out differences over the appropriation bill.
ALA also has a target of $300 million for the reauthorization of LSTA, which is supposed to occur every five years.
MICHIGAN LIBRARIANS STUNNED BY BUDGET MOVE
Michigan librarians are upset with the state legislature and outgoing governor Jennifer Granholm, who have decided not to honor a legal obligation to pay the state’s 103 public libraries $3.2 million that they are due and were counting on for FY11.
“It’s a surprise attack,” Marcia Warner, director of the Grand Rapids Public Library and the incoming president of the Public Library Association, told LJ. “You wouldn’t anticipate this happening because it was in the law that we had to be reimbursed,” she said, referring to state compensation for tax-free areas the state creates to spur business but which reduce the property tax base on which Michigan libraries rely for 80 percent of their revenue.
HIDDEN TREASURE FOUND AT SAN ANTONIO PL
Every librarian dreams of that moment in San Antonio when the workmen broke down the wall.
“It was a real Nancy Drew moment,” Teresa Jensen, manager of the San Antonio Public Library’s central library, told LJ.
Inside this walled-over, closet-sized space on the third floor of the library’s former home, workmen discovered November 5 a trove of long-lost material, including a 1615 King James version of the Bible.
“I have to say that you don’t get this kind of an opportunity very often,” Jensen said, “and it really was a great treat. ”
The mystery, for Jensen and other staff members, is why were the materials put there and then forgotten about?
“It couldn’t have been librarians who threw this stuff in there because we would have been way too organized for that,” Jensen said.
TROY PL FUTURE LOOKS BLEAK
One disappointing result of the recent election was the defeat in Troy, MI, of four separate proposals that, if approved, would have avoided the closing of the city’s library.
Without another source of funding, the 51-year-old library will be shut down June 30, 2011.
The first proposal, a ten-year, 0.9885-millage, failed by only 675 votes, 15,736 to 15,071. The other three measures were defeated by large margins.
“Being director of Troy was my ultimate professional goal,” Cathleen Russ, the library’s director, told LJ, “because it was my library when I was growing up. I just feel so bad that the place I love so much is going to close.”
Mayor Louise Schilling told the Detroit Free Press that it was unlikely the city council would reconsider funding the library.
IN HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN BEAUTY IS NOT A FRILL
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, MN, voted October 26 in favor of aesthetics in harsh times.
The commission decided to keep setting aside one percent of the Hennepin County Library’s construction budget to purchase and install artwork, beating back the argument of one commissioner that spending money for art was frivolous given the county’s and the library’s straitened circumstances.
“I don’t view public art as an extravagance,” Mike Opat, the chair of the county board, told LJ. “I view it as an important feature to the experience of a good public building.”
STATE AID TO LIBRARIES APPROVED IN MASSACHUSETTS
At its November board meeting, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners approved the first round of FY11 state aid awards, totaling $712,255, to 96 municipalities that have met the State Aid to Public Libraries program’s requirements. About 97 percent of Massachusetts 351 municipalities participate in the program.
AT DESIGN INSTITUTE GREENVILLE, GREEN IS A GIVEN
Among the topics of discussion at LJ ’s latest Design Institute (DI), a daylong seminar on building and design hosted at the Hughes Main Library of the Greenville County Library System (GCLS), SC, in early November, were the challenges of urban vs. rural development and responding to changing user needs.
The event was the eighth in LJ ’s series on building and design and the first to focus consciously on rural issues.
“Things move a little slower in rural areas,” said Kristen Setzler Simensen, director of Calhoun County Library, St. Matthews, SC, where a new 12,500 square foot library was recently built alongside a workforce development center. “The process in small communities...can be difficult to navigate.”
At this go-round, the commitment to sustainability was a given. With energy costs paramount in funders’ minds, panelists said, most cities and towns are going to support such initiatives, whether they are called “green” or not.
Other repeated themes included the increased need for flexible design amid changing technologies and learning behaviors and the importance of building strong partnerships early on, not just with potential funders and donors but with your community, the local press, and the constellation of partners within your design team.Held in partnership with the South Carolina State Library and GCLS, DI Greenville was sponsored by the following architectural firms: Hidell Associates, Craig Gaulden Davis, H3 Hardy Collaboration, Holzheimer Bolek + Meehan, Humphries Poli, and PSA-Dewberry. Vendor sponsors included AGATI Furniture, Brodart Contract Furniture, DEMCO Library Interiors, Estey/Tennsco, Spacesaver, and TechLogic.
For full coverage of DI Greenville, including the architect-led breakout sessions, as well as a discussion of products, trends, and case studies relating to multiple aspects of library design, look for the spring 2011 Library by Design supplement, to publish with LJ 5/15/11. Check out past issues of LBD in the print Archives at www.libraryjournal.com
HOW TO GET LIBRARY EBOOKS ON THE IPAD/IPHONE, NO SYNC REQUIRED
LJ reference editor Josh Hadro couldn’t contain his enthusiasm when he posted the following on the LJ Insider blog:
“The day library patrons can download and read a library ebook directly on a mobile device will be the day I can die happy.
That’s why I library-geeked out so hard when I read this quote buried in a MobileReads forum thread: ‘an update to Bluefire Reader is now available on App Store. Top New Feature: support for library loan eBooks!’
The post comes from Micah Bowers, founder and UX director for Bluefire Productions, the shop behind the Bluefire reader. Bluefire is now my new favorite ereading app by a mile, and here’s why: the app plays nicely with Adobe DRM, which is what OverDrive uses and has been the barrier between me and reading on my preferred device (the iPad).
Below is a quick guide on how I got OverDrive ebooks working on an iPhone/iPad with no cords involved and no syncing required, using a refinement I read about on Mobiputing about emailing yourself the file.
Here's what you'll need to know to get started:
• An iPhone or an iPad
• The latest version of the free Bluefire app
• An Adobe ID used to authorize the Bluefire app (Note: you just need the ID; you don’t need Adobe Digital Editions for this to work)
• A library card at a library that offers OverDrive ebooks (try looking at the Sony/OverDrive Library Finder to get started)
• An email account accessible on your mobile device (you’ll have to use the native mail app on your device, not a Gmail or other app)
Here's what you'll need to do:
1. Download the title from your local public library’s OverDrive selection.
2. Locate the file you just downloaded that has the extension .acsm. It will likely have the title in the filename, along with some numbers.
3. Email that file to yourself so that you’ll be able to get to it on the iPhone/iPad.
4. Fire up your email on your device, and select the attachment you just sent.
5. Choose ‘Open in “Bluefire Reader.” ’
6. Choose ‘Read Now.’
At this point, you should be up and reading.”
—Josh Hadro, from the LJ Insider blog, 11/12/10. Full post at bit.ly/bPBlKK
STAT WATCH
DON’T PLAY BALL
Number of visitors to the 15 member libraries of the Washington County Cooperative Library Services, OR (June 30, 2009–July 1, 2010):
4,078,577
Number of attendees in 2009–10 to games of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers:
800,000
Source: Washington County Cooperative Library Services, OR
