Hartford Public Library Lets Patrons Design Their Own Library Cards
Aw! I want cool cards like this at my library!
"The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries."
—
Carl Sagan (via esprit-follet)
Carl Sagan + library = <3
(Source: espritfollet)
Read Away Your Overdue Book Fines!
nypl:
So let’s face reality - everyone forgets to bring back Library books sometimes. And when they do, they rack up fines. Sure, the fines aren’t that steep, but over time, they can add up. Here at NYPL, if you rack up $15 or more in fines, your card gets blocked and you can’t check out books anymore … and that’s sad. In this economy, even a small amount of money might be too much for some families, so one forgotten returned book becomes the end of the library for a while. So this summer, we are helping kids eliminate those fines (whether they be $1, $15 or more) with our new Read Down Your Fines program! Kids should sign up for our Summer Reading Program, then head down to their local library and explain that they want to read down their fines. For every 15 minutes they read, they get $1 off their fine. Great, right? We think so. Our priority is to get kids in the library, reading and learning all summer. So this is what we’re trying. This program goes until Sept. 9 - so hop to it! And in the meantime, enjoy the image above from the early 20th Century of “Heidi and Her Uncle Reading” from our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection.
How awesome!
"We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime."
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Seth’s Blog: The future of the library (via infoneer-pulse)
Really interesting points.
(via infoneer-pulse)
Meanwhile, The San Francisco Public Library - The Rumpus.net
Okay, this is just AWESOME. Click through to see the whole thing by Wendy MacNaughton - it is so worth it.
Yay for libraries!
Boing Boing brings us “10 Reasons Why The Internet Is No Substitute for the Library.” Click through for larger version. Then GO TO THE LIBRARY, DAMN IT!!!
I love the Internet, but libraries FTW!
I picked up some of those horribly abused books and felt like I was putting my hands on tangible populism. Those books are there because they’re read, and it actually made kind of a good reminder that the library was trying to help, that the idea was to serve readers. Whether you like genre fiction or not, the people who read it read books and support libraries and bookstores, and the proof is right there in all those spines that are half-unreadable because they’re creased in so many places.
[…]
They had magazines, they did have encyclopedias and research materials, obviously, and basically, if you have a small child, they will do everything short of holding your kid by his feet and dipping him in fonts of wisdom. There’s story time, there are tutoring rooms (which were in use when I was there), there’s a book club (they’re reading As I Lay Dying at the moment), and OH RIGHT, it’s staffed with people who clearly would really like it if you came up and asked them questions about books or anything else.
Loved this article! (Emphasis mine - I cracked up at that line.)
