CBC.ca: 16 must-see Canadian bookstores

By CBC Books | August 7, 2015 

The best Canadian bookstores
16 Canadian bookstores you need to visit right now

From East to West

1. BOOKMARK (Charlottetown and Halifax)

Bookmark opened in Charlottetown in 1972 and added a Halifax location in 1989. With close ties to the writing community in Atlantic Canada, Bookmark is the place to go for books and book advice.





2. WOOZLES (Halifax)

Open since 1978, Woozles is the oldest children's bookstore in Canada, "a place for and about children." With this vision statement as a guide, Woozles has served as a valuable community resource for children's literacy and well-being for over three decades.



3. OWL'S NEST (Fredericton)

If you like overstocked shelves, good prices for used books and plenty of choice, the Owl's Nest is for you. You never know what you might find. Just look at all those discoveries waiting to happen! (Salivating.)



4. LIBRAIRIE PANTOUTE (Quebec City)

This French-language bookstore has been in business for over 40 years. Known for its Quebecois literature, comic books, mystery novels, science fiction, young adult books and specialized topics and genres such as architecture, poetry, science, theatre and political science, Pantoute houses more than 50,000 titles in its two Quebec City locations.





5. DRAWN and QUARTERLY (Montreal)

"D & Q" has grown from a single-issue magazine to an internationally renowned publisher of the world's best cartoonists and graphic novels. The company operates a storefront named Librairie D+Q in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal, the same neighbourhood where the company was founded in 1989.



6. THE WORD BOOKSTORE (Montreal)

Located close to McGill University, The Word is an independent secondhand bookstore with a focus on literature, philosophy and poetry. Check out their selection of Canadian literary magazines, independent books sold on consignment and student-produced zines. Cheapie alert: They even have a one-dollar shelf and a fifty-cent pile that get replenished daily.



7. BLACK SQUIRREL BOOKS (Ottawa)

Ottawa's newest bookstore will buy and sell (or trade!). They double as a café and also host community events.



8. TYPE BOOKS (Toronto)

Type is an independent community bookstore with two Toronto locations. They have an extensive selection of contemporary fiction, small press, art, design and children's titles. They frequently host events and launches for local authors and run a popular storytime program for preschoolers.



9. BEN MCNALLY BOOKS (Toronto)

Opened fairly recently in 2007, Ben McNally has quickly become one of the city's best independent bookstores. The store, which takes its owner's name, is in the middle of Toronto's financial district: a curious location for an independent, but a welcome refuge for office workers looking for their next read. (There is no affiliation with McNally Robinson Booksellers.)



10. BISON BOOKS (Winnipeg)

Located among the city's notable landmarks, Bison Books boasts 20,000 used and out-of-print books as well a number of new reads. They're a great spot to hunt out valuable books, whether you're looking for rare and antiquarian titles or a signed first edition.



11. MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS (Winnipeg and Saskatoon)

McNally Robinson is the largest independent bookseller in Canada, founded in Winnipeg. Home to frequent readings and signings, they also sponsor three literary awards. The Winnipeg and Saskatoon stores are over 2,000 square metres in size and house Prairie Ink Restaurant and Bakery, in case all that book-hunting makes you peckish.





12. WEE BOOK INN (Edmonton)

Open for over 45 years, this community institution and gathering place is as famous for its cats (Saku, Fleur and Fergie) as it is for its used book selection. They currently have three locations in Edmonton that buy/sell/trade books. Which cat is the Ayn Rand enthusiast and which has the Lovecraft fixation? You'll have to go and find out.







13. MUNRO'S BOOKS (Victoria)

This magnificent bookstore (note the 24-foot Roman-style coffered ceilings!) is possibly the grandest in the country. And if you're wondering if the name has anything at all to do with Alice, you're on to something. Alice Munro and her husband, Jim, opened the first iteration of the bookshop in 1963, although it was much smaller then and offered mostly paperbacks. The shop relocated to larger sites in 1979 and 1984.





14. MACLEOD'S BOOKS (Vancouver)

Although it may be limited in square footage, this bookstore has a very large (if somewhat disorganized) inventory, as you can tell from the photo. On online reviewer describes it as "messy but nice," also advising you not to stay long if you have allergies. And yet, this home for books ranks fifth out of 65 places to shop in Vancouver.



15. THE BOOK MAN (Chilliwack & Abbotsford)

Open 364 days a year and the recipient of numerous retail awards, The Book Man has merged retail excellence with cat excellence, thanks to the friendly and purry services of Nietzsche and Gatsby. Between the two stores, The Book Man has over 250,000 titles in stock, 5,000 square feet of store space and three Facebook pages (two of which are for the cats).





16. MAC'S FIREWEED BOOKS (Whitehorse)

Boasting "the best magazine rack north of 60," Mac's Fireweed Books is your one-stop shop for every resource you may need about the Yukon. Known for their extensive collection of books written by Yukon authors and about the Yukon, they also have a complete selection of Yukon maps and travel guides.



From: CBC.ca

Macleans: No shushing, please

The new libraries aren't just “book temples,” but stunning spaces for designers, robot handlers–and tourists 

By Michael Fraiman | September 24, 2015

 Inside the Halifax Central Library / Photograph by Carla Antonio

At the end of this month, Calgary will break ground on a $245-million, 240,000-sq-ft. library in the East Village, a former industrial neighbourhood being groomed for revitalization. It’s the city’s most expensive, largest-scale undertaking in decades: Its glassy blue-grey facade, resembling a canoe-cum-spaceship, careens over a curving light-rail track, luring in pedestrians with an outdoor café and transparent theatre space. It will house 600,000 books, a technology commons, an innovation lab and $2 million in public art initiatives.

“It’s not just a building to hold books or a building to hold technology,” says Rob Adamson, a principal at Dialog, the local firm developing the project with Norwegian designers Snøhetta. “It’s really a building for people‚ because any building filled with books is just a warehouse of books.”

 

Photograph by Carla Antonio

Among Canadian cities, Calgary isn’t alone. While a glorified warehouse of books—which also sells housewares, electronics, clothes and toys, and promises to deliver all by drone—has turned on its head the bookselling business, we are seeing something of a renaissance in library design. The ebook has not staunched libraries’ innovation; it’s paved the way for it. The public library in Orillia, Ont., opened in 2011, combines double-height windows with Spanish terracotta tiles to match the nearby Victorian-era opera house, in what’s fast becoming a warm and inviting cultural neighbourhood. Surrey, B.C.’s LEED Gold–certified city-centre library boasts a green roof, a meditation area and a gaming room with a flat-screen TV. 

The Halifax Central Library is a stunning, $57.6-million building with a looming glass cantilever hanging over a stack of glass boxes; Edmonton has hired a “robot handler” to teach hacking and host robo-battles; and, in a Quebec City suburb, the Bibliothèque Monique-Corriveau rents out pedometers as part of a public walking initiative.

“Libraries are no longer these temples or repositories of books; they’re much more community centres, really—the urban living room,” says Shirley Blumberg, a founding partner of KPMB Architects, which designed downtown Toronto’s sleek new Fort York branch. Like branches across Canada, Fort York boasts a free-for-use 3D printer and makers’ space; visitors have created jewellery and toys, and one couple made tiny cake-topper replicas of themselves for their upcoming wedding—all for free.
 

 The Halifax library was shortlisted for the 2015 World Building of the Year Award / Photograph by Carla Antonio

These phrases—“urban living room,” “makers’ space”—are among a flurry of modern buzzwords being thrust into public vernacular by architects, urban designers and city planners. They describe libraries as an ideal “third place” (as opposed to the first two, home and work), no longer “temples of knowledge,” but rather “innovation labs” and “community spaces” with “digital literary librarians.” The message is clear: Libraries are no longer just for books. Libraries are part of the future.

Few exemplify this new vision better than the Halifax Central Library, which sees 6,000 daily visitors and is primed to help the city revitalize its struggling downtown. Visitors are led up a maze of thick, off-kilter white staircases to state-of-the-art kids’ toys, gaming computers and lounge furniture that pops with lime green and pale orange, from which anyone can glimpse a uniquely panoramic city view. “We tried to come up with a scheme, proposal and interior that would be very different from the civic buildings that you’re used to,” says Morten Schmidt, a senior partner at the Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen, which designed the building with local architects Fowler, Bauld & Mitchell.

Schmidt’s firm has made a global name for its radical libraries, and Halifax’s—shortlisted for the 2015 World Building of the Year Award—is no exception. City officials are crossing their fingers that the building’s international profile will boost economic and tourism numbers—a Bilbao effect, swapping the museum for a library.

In fact, librarians across Canada are hoping for a similar pull—with or without a new building. Administrators in Cambridge, Ont., have rebranded their system completely, ditching the stuffy “Cambridge Libraries and Galleries” moniker for a new title altogether—“Cambridge Idea Exchange.” Not everyone is buying it. “If it smells like crap, that’s probably what it is,” wrote one reader of the Cambridge Times. “I haven’t been in a library in probably 20 years, and I’m not likely to go to one just because you change the name of it.”

 

Danish partner Schmidt Hammer Lassen has designed similar structures in Europe / Photograph by Carla Antonio

New-generation librarians are walking a delicate line. They must draw technophiles, tourists and families with young children without alienating their core audience: passionate readers. But by emphasizing digital-only spaces, 3D printers, ebooks and multimedia rentals over printed-page loans, some forward-thinking administrators have become targets for zealous library purists.

The loudest example was the proposed $300-million New York Public Library redesign in 2012. In response to a 41 per cent plunge in collection use over the previous 15 years, staff wanted to redo the library’s iconic 42nd Street branch interior by shipping millions of hard copies to a warehouse in New Jersey, simultaneously transforming its little-used offices and reading rooms into public space, thereby opening up a third of the building previously inaccessible to the public. But the public was not pleased. One critic derided the plan as creating “a glorified Internet café,” while three separate lawsuits were launched expressly to prevent the revamp. The library scrapped its plans in May 2014.

 

 Photograph by Carla Antonio

The problem of how to renew public interest is not new. “The library buildings of the future must be a total departure from the buildings of the past,” Joseph Wheeler wrote prophetically in his 1941 book, The American Public Library Building. “With a few exceptions, they have given the people of America the false impression that libraries are aloof, unaware of what is going on in the world, unresponsive to current problems and demands . . . The new generation of librarians and architects must rise up with a mighty resolution to crush this evil tradition in design.”

It took six decades and the invention of the Internet for Wheeler’s ideas to come true, but the fight for libraries’ human-scaled shelves and meditation rooms has been brewing for well over a century. Starting in 1880, steel baron and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie began commissioning what would become 2,509 libraries across the world, including 125 in Canada, all with the express purpose of tearing down libraries’ daunting image: no more bookshelves so high, you needed a ladder to reach them, or entrance staircases so huge, you’d be out of breath by the time you opened the massive front doors. Carnegie dreamed of libraries with auditoriums, separated children’s rooms and even swimming pools. But perhaps his most enduring innovation was the concept of open stacks, whereby anyone could find and grab a book on their own, dispelling the perception of librarians as knowledge gatekeepers.

Architecturally, however, his buildings didn’t match his ideas. With air conditioning and electricity suddenly ubiquitous, these 20th-century structures shifted toward artificial light and deeper floor plans, retaining stately and reserved facades with towering columns, arched doors and flat roofs.
For the next several decades, libraries more or less stagnated in a sea of grey-scale carpets, bland beige walls and stiff metal stacks, even as their purposes skewed more utilitarian. Teenagers, moms with kids and recent immigrants began appropriating the spaces; many libraries adapted, allowing in food, expanding non-English sections and offering ESL classes.

 

Art Installation by artist Cliff Eyland, born and raised in Halifax / Photograph by Carla Antonio

Morten Schmidt noticed how we Canadians have clutched this people-first concept in one key way when it comes to design plans: We hold more public consultations than anywhere else. In Europe, he says, architects are trusted artists, given free reign to run with ideas; here, taxpayers demand to know where their money is going.

When it comes to public buildings, that isn’t such a bad idea. “Libraries are one of the few real public places where everyone is welcome,” says Brock James, a senior partner at LGA Architectural Partners, which recently completed Toronto’s 100th branch in Scarborough with a comparatively modest budget of $9 million. James points out how the library was built—as all libraries are now—specifically for its neighbourhood. With clear glass walls revealing sturdy wooden beams that lean together like chopsticks, the structure looks almost camouflaged among the surrounding trees of the modest Civic Centre Park, while a green roof helps to control rainfall and adds to the view for the growing number of nearby highrise condo-dwellers.

 The cards in Eyland's installation are 3x5, the size of a traditional library index card / Photograph by Carla Antonio

Inside, the library is pin-drop quiet. A man splays out near the front, newspaper in one hand and coffee in the other, while others sit around communal tables with laptops and food. A gaggle of children runs in and gets lost among the stacks, which are equipped with wheels; in case budget cuts force the library’s book collection to shrink, staff can rearrange the entire floor plan in a few hours. This is future-proofing, James explains. Libraries, after all, have to be ready for anything.

From: Macleans

PBS Newshour: People love public libraries, but they aren’t using them

By Laura Santhanam and Megan Hickey | September 23, 2015

Most people say public libraries provide communities with essential resources for literacy and education, but the number of people who actually take advantage of library services may be slipping.

Two-thirds of Americans told pollsters that closing libraries would dramatically change their community. Of people surveyed, 85 percent said they think libraries offer early literacy programs that prepare children for school and that libraries should collaborate with local schools to help students learn, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center.

And about three-quarters of respondents said that libraries should serve as technology hubs where people can learn how to use computers, smartphones and apps as well as how to navigate online privacy and security.

One strategy that libraries have successfully pursued is rebranding themselves as gateways to a high-tech, plugged-in world, said Lee Rainie, director for Internet, science and technology at Pew Research Center.

“Libraries have their own space in the educational ecosystem of a community,” he said.

The public may say they think libraries are important, but people’s words don’t match their actions.

Fewer than half of all survey respondents said they had visited a library or bookmobile in the last year. That’s down from 53 percent in 2012. And about one-fifth of respondents said they accessed library materials online in the last year.

It’s too soon to know if these results signal a downward trend in library foot and web traffic, Rainie said. To find out, researchers will ask about actual library use in surveys this year and next year.

To see more statistics from the PEW Research Centre study, please visit the PBS NewsHour website.

Toronto Star: Toronto’s public libraries featured in new adult colouring book

By May Warren | September 16, 2015

Artist Daniel Rotsztain, who grew up in Toronto, has fond memories of his home library branch, the Forest Hill Library. 

The sculpture of “sleepy polar bears” on the wall sticks in his memory years later. But Rotsztain, 26, collected many more recollections and anecdotes about Toronto’s libraries — all 100 of them — over a few months in late 2014. 

He also created a sketch of each branch.

Those drawings, 102 in total including two bookmobiles, form a new adult colouring book set to be released by Toronto’s Dundurn Press on Oct. 31. “In this oversaturated media world, the antidote is the colouring book,” Rotsztain said of the low-stress, low-tech trend.

Rotsztain said he was drawn to libraries because they’re “such phenomenal public spaces” that are accessible to everyone. He used the system’s many branches as a springboard for exploring the nooks and crannies of the city, travelling by foot, bike and public transit through busy streets, ravines and river valleys.

“(The libraries) are a really good way of gauging what a neighbourhood is like,” he said. They reflect the city's “rich, complicated history.”

Rotsztain said he often hears about the divide between the downtown and the suburbs, but he realized, while exploring the city for the project, that it’s not that simple.

The Albion branch in Etobicoke, for example, would qualify as a suburban library and is in a “car-centric neighbourhood.”

“But everyone walks to the library,” Rotsztain said. “There’s a disconnect between the landscape and the way people are using it, but the library is there to remedy that.”

Rotsztain was also surprised by the number of libraries found in malls.

“It just shows how adaptable the library is as a concept,” he said. “It can really just be fit into any architectural space, depending on where the people are.”

Although Rotsztain took on the drawings as a personal project, the libraries are excited to have him as an ambassador, said Yvonne Hunter, manager of cultural and special event programming at Toronto Public Library.

“He has single-handedly created a lot of love for the library,” Hunter said.

“Adult colouring books are currently all the rage,” she added. “It’s great to have this because it really engages people in a fun way.”

Good e-Reader: Hardly Anyone Knows their Library Loans out e-Books

By Michael Kozlowski | September 17, 2015

The vast majority of libraries in the United States have an e-book collection. The American Library Association claims that 90% of all branches have one, whereas the Library Journal states this figure is closer to 95%. The larger libraries spend millions of dollars every year, developing their collections, but is this money well spent? Maybe not. Pew Research has said that less than 38% are actually aware their library has a digital collection and only 6% have actually borrowed one.

One of the big problems facing libraries is how do you build brand awareness that you have an e-book collection and how to promote it? Some locations have promotional material, such as flyers and posters. In many cases companies like 3M, Baker & Taylor and Overdrive provide free content or promote in their branches. Overdrive has gone the extra step and actually created Free e-Book Day, which is drawing attention to libraries digital collections and rewarding those who do a good job with free credit to purchase more titles.

How exactly do libraries promote their digital collections without an expensive marketing campaign? Here is what a few of them are doing, maybe some of them will be relevant to your branch.
West Virginia’s Marion County Public Library System used Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter to expand their virtual marketing campaign with an “eBook of the Day.” Staff created this program to reach out to library customers and provide readers advisory focused on “hidden gems” in the eBook collection. As a result, the titles they showcased increased dramatically in popularity. With this success, the library has also added a “Staff Pick” component to their approach.  Check out the Pinterest page here!

The Kent District (State) Library recently hosted a virtual treasure hunt, hiding books throughout their community. Patrons were asked to take a picture of the found book and upload it to Twitter or Facebook to be eligible for some cool prizes.

Staff members at Sacramento Public Library came up with a clever way to connect its physical and digital collections: they place “Now in eBook Format!” stickers on the covers of corresponding titles in the physical collection. These stickers were printed in bulk and direct customers to the library’s website where people can sign up to borrow books online. It promotes the ebook service, without having to spend more money in marketing materials.

Another great way to promote a library’s ebook collection is to develop shelf cards. These can be inserted into the books themselves or placed underneath them. This gives patrons a picture of the cover art and name of the book, as well as a web-link to the book entry in the library’s computer system. This is a little bit more extensive, but libraries have seen a 100% increase in loan-checkouts when they employ this method.


The Mid-Continent Public Library developed a number of savvy posters and then digitized them to promote it on their website. These marketing materials were aimed at people who never used an e-reader or borrowed a digital book before. It encouraged people who had an e-reader that they had the ability to borrow books for free. Since they employed this method, checkouts increased by over 54%.

In the end, if more libraries actually promoted their collections instead of buying a bunch of expensive e-books and hoping for the best, the public would be aware.
From: Good e-Reader

The Windsor Star: Windsor Public Library’s how-to event proves to be huge success

A How-To Festival was held on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at the Budimir Branch of Windsor Public Library in Windsor, ON. The event featured an assortment of different how-to booths. Paresh Jariwala (L) gets a quick guitar lesson from Bob Soulliere from the South Windsor School of Music during the event. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

By Dave Battagello | Sep 12


Within about half an hour, visitors to the Windsor Public Library’s Budimir branch Saturday could learn to play a guitar, how to knit, decorate a cupcake, perform a magic trick, basic CPR and a couple of yoga positions to calm down from it all.

It was part of the first-ever How-To Festival staged by the library where people could receive a quick introduction to over two dozen different skills.

“This is the first time for Windsor Public Library to try this,” said Christine Rideout-Arkell, team leader of the library’s community branches.

“Other library systems elsewhere have tried this before, so we kind of stole the idea from them and put our own twist on it.”

Budimir library was selected as the site because it is one of the busiest branches and also has plenty of space on the grounds where over two dozen booths were set up.

“People are always very much into do-it-yourself or wanting to learn new skills,” Rideout-Arkell said.

 

A How-To Festival was held on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at the Budimir Branch of Windsor Public Library in Windsor, ON. The event featured an assortment of different how-to booths. Mike Bates, (R) owner of Refine Fitness Studio puts Mark Maurice and Kelly Youssef through a short exercise drill during the event. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

“This was also a chance to promote our non-fiction section. Each booth has books that people can check out on that topic, along with learning a new skill.”

Andy Chan with his son was among those in attendance. He tried his best at learning to strum a few bars on the guitar.

“I think this is a fantastic idea,” Chan said. “I hope they do this on a regular basis. Maybe try different locations around the city.

“I know I did awful (on the guitar), but it’s something my brother can do, so I also want to do it myself.”

Kelly Youssef and friend Marc Maurice were also busy trying many of the available activities. They learned how to decorate a cupcake, make salad dressing and a quick exercise program.

“This is awesome,” Youssef said. “It’s a great opportunity to learn some new things and get introduced to new businesses.”

Rideout-Arkell indicated the library will likely stage another similar event at some point soon with the main library downtown another possible location.

“It’s a really good event for all ages with a lot of fun things to learn,” she said.

 

A How-To Festival was held on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at the Budimir Branch of Windsor Public Library in Windsor, ON. The event featured an assortment of different how-to booths. Albert Zhou, 4, learns how to handle a dog during the event. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star).

From: The Windsor Star

huffingtonpost.com: Domestic Abuse Victims Paint Black Dots On Hands As Subtle Signal For Help

By Eleanor Goldberg | September 24, 2015

The Black Dot Campaign is a grassroots movement that isn't currently recognized by law enforcement or health officials.

One in four women in the U.S. has experienced severe violence at the hands of an intimate partner, yet asking for help is often far too dangerous for victims to even consider. That’s what inspired a new grassroots campaign that allows survivors to open up about their experiences without even having to say a word.

Domestic violence victims are most at risk for getting killed in the moment that they decide to leave their partners, Cindy Southworth, executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told The Huffington Post in June. To help survivors signal to others that they need help, but are struggling to ask for it, a new initiative is encouraging victims to paint a tiny black dot on their hands.

The goal is for the black dot to serve as a subtle, yet urgent, message to agencies, relatives, friends, and others that a victim is in need of services to help them escape the abuse.

“The original ethos for this campaign was to enable a victim to put a dot on their hand around someone they trusted to enable a conversation to start, so they could open that door and hopefully start a process of seeking professional help,” the Black Dot Campaign stated on its Facebook page. “This is an idea, thinking outside of the box, trying to open up the world's eyes and ears to what is going on in terms of abuse.”

The campaign comes at a crucial moment when resources for domestic abuse victims are alarmingly limited.

On a single day in September last year, nearly 11,000 requests for domestic abuse services in the U.S. were denied due to a lack of funding, according to a National Network to End Domestic Violence report.

Those services included emergency shelter, housing, transportation, childcare and legal representation.

But some say that while opening up the conversation to the public is a move in the right direction, publicizing the symbol could put victims at greater risk.

"The idea that survivors can do something in secret, which is then announced to the world, assumes that abusers don't also check Facebook or see the news," Kim Gandy, president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, wrote in an email to HuffPost. "Secrecy is actually an important element to safety planning for a survivor, which could be jeopardized if the abuser sees the dot, or sees the remnants of it, and knows it is an attempt to get help."

Gandy said encouraging the public to be more responsive to the signs of abuse and keeping hotline numbers handy might be a more effective approach.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, echoed Gandy's sentiments.

"It can be very difficult and dangerous for victims of domestic abuse to speak out about what is happening to them, due to fear of what the perpetrator will do, and fear of not being believed," Neate told HuffPost U.K. "The black dot could help some victims to communicate their abuse and it is useful to have a range of options because women’s circumstances vary greatly."

Still, an overwhelming number of survivors in need have flocked to the campaign.

Within a week, the campaign has reached nearly 5 million people, according to the group’s Facebook page. And it’s helped 49 people escape from their abusers to a safe place.

For many, the Black Dot Campaign is enabling victims to speak out for the very first time.

One pregnant woman shared that her baby’s father was constantly abusing her, and wouldn’t leave her side. But she said that when her abuser walked away for a moment while she getting examined, she felt bolstered by the Black Dot Campaign to jot a note on her hand to relay her condition to a health professional.

She took a pen out of the person’s pocket and wrote, “HELP ME.”

“I didn't have to say a word,” the woman shared in her Facebook post. “This campaign gave me the strength and the idea [of] how to ask for help. I am now safe somewhere else thanks to that consultant and the Black Dot Campaign. Thank you, 1 week to go until my due date and I am finally safe.”

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline or visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline operated by RAINN. For more resources, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center's website.

tbnewswatch.com: Airport, library join forces to provide books to passengers

 Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com

A passengers looks over the selection of books on Thursday at the newly opened Flybrary at the Thunder Bay International Airport.

By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com
 

Books and airplanes are natural companions.
But with last-minute packing and preparations, often reading material is left behind as passengers dash out the door to make their flight on time.

The Thunder Bay Public Library and Thunder Bay International Airports Authority have a solution, introducing on Thursday the Flybrary.

Tucked away in a quiet nook on the airport’s ground floor, passengers are free to grab a book to take with them on the plane and enjoy while on vacation or away from home on business. The hope, said chief librarian John Pateman, is that travelers will return the book upon arrival back in Thunder Bay, or leave another book they’ve finished with in its place.

“This is a first in Thunder Bay, maybe a first in Canada,” Pateman said, officially opening the Flybrary for business.

“It’s an opportunity for the library to advertise its presence in the community and to provide books for people to borrow and take away and bring back, or not, to replace. It’s just a statement to say the Thunder Bay Public Library exists in the city, beyond the four libraries that we operate.”

It’s win-win for passengers, he added.

“The beauty of it is it’s very simple. There are no rules or regulations. You just take a book and put it back or not, as the case may be.”

It’s popularity was evident on Day 1, with some passengers grabbing books before the official launch. Titles vary, from popular authors like Dan Brown and Danielle Steele to a wide range of children’s books for younger flyers.

It’s a partnership the airport authority jumped at said Ed Schmidtke, president and chief executive officer.

“We’ve seen these community libraries popping up on lawns around town and when the library came with the Flybrary idea, we thought it was just a natural (fit),” Schmidtke said.
“Downtime is inevitable. The book is still a fabulous communication tool. People drop them in the building from time to time. So if you’ve got some unexpected dwell time, a little longer than maybe you wanted and you don’t have a book with you, now we’ve got another opportunity to entertain you.”

The Flybrary also includes a pair of handcrafted white birch chairs, built by local craftsman Nathan Kushner.

The initial collection of books was donated from the TBPL's inventory. 

From: tbnewswatch.com

Publishers Weekly: Where Reference Fits in the Modern Library

Today’s reference user wants help doing things rather than finding things

By Brian Kenney | Sep 11, 2015 

 

 

 

For years, we’ve been hearing that traditional library reference service is dead. In reality, reference just disappeared, like Jimmy Hoffa. But unlike in the case of Hoffa, no one in the library field seems intent on figuring out what happened to reference. In fact, many librarians are intent on carrying on as though little has changed.

Sure, librarians are quick to acknowledge that library reference is different in the digital age. But even the innovations in reference service today are predicated on the same, age-old definition of a library reference transaction: people have information needs, and it’s our job to resolve them. And come hell or high water, no matter how desperate we may look, we are going to find people with information needs and, damn it, resolve those needs, because that’s what we librarians do!

That’s the problem. The library today is still a trusted institution, but the public is coming to us with different expectations. Clinging to an outdated reference mission has left many libraries struggling to meet these new expectations.

A History

Let’s pause for a moment and recall the general arc of reference services. Pre-Internet, a librarian would sit at a usually imposing desk surrounded by vast print collections. These reference librarians were true gatekeepers, and chances were that if you had research to do, or even just a nagging question, you had to approach the desk and ask for help. Those who did usually discovered that reference librarians were valuable partners who could help them with myriad challenges, from completing degrees to creating travel itineraries or writing books. But the dynamic was so intimidating that most patrons never approached the desk.

As the Internet expanded, there was growing anxiety among librarians about losing control over knowledge. Librarians first responded with efforts to vet web content, which resulted in the Librarians Internet Index, or to catalogue it, with projects like OCLC’s ambitious Cooperative Online Resource Catalog. The idea was to harness digital content and continue to approach digital reference much like we did in print.

In the 1990s, virtual reference blazed across the library sky, generating huge interest among librarians, and a new business for publishers and vendors. But virtual reference in public libraries never took off like we expected it to. In public libraries today, the service draws little interest from patrons and little enthusiasm from librarians.

For a while we tried to sell the public on the notion that they’re terrible at search and need librarians to show them how to properly seek and evaluate online content. It turns out that adults are as excited about information literacy as they are about flossing.

More recently, there’s been lots of attention paid to the reference desk itself, as though better interior design will buck up declining reference usage. Desks are being reinvented to be less like impenetrable fortresses and more like nonthreatening kiosks. Reference librarians, meanwhile, are experimenting with roving service—basically, walking around the building and trying to drum up business, rather than waiting for the public to come to a designated area. It’s not clear that roving reference is at all helpful to our patrons. But with doctors now saying that sitting is more dangerous than smoking, it may at least extend the life of some library staff.

Today, there’s talk about “community” librarians: basically, reference librarians who leave the building and embed themselves in groups—such as the Common Council or the Business Improvement District—providing them with information services. It’s the same simple idea behind roving: if users won’t come to us, we’ll go to them. It doesn’t hurt that the services ends up supporting some of the most influential members of the community. But few citizens would consider this a good use of their tax dollars.

 A Case Study

Where are we now? I offer my library, the White Plains Public Library, as a pretty typical example of public libraries across the country. In the past three years, my library has purchased one reference book: the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I look in wonder at all the new reference publications on display at the American Library Association conference. Yes, they’re darn handsome books. But who’s ordering these?

Over the past four years, I can recall using only three reference resources with the public. One is Consumer Reports, which the over-55 crowd still asks for.

The second is Black’s Law Dictionary, which a gentleman recently asked for. Surprised by the request, I commented that we don’t get asked for this title much anymore. “Oh, I don’t really need it,” the patron said. “This is just an old friend I met in prison, and I like to read it every now and then.”

Third, an adult came in wanting to learn about the Mayan civilization and needed to know where to start—a classic reference question! I suggested some titles, beginning with an essay in an encyclopedia. I advised him to use the bibliography at the end of the essay for more resource suggestions. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he quietly abandoned the encyclopedia a few minutes later.

You may think we use so few print reference books these days because our librarians are spending all of our time searching online. Sure, a few patrons who don’t own computers will request things like addresses and phone numbers. But that’s about it for librarians.

We do license access to a few reference databases. But when I recommend them to users their eyes glaze over. We mostly stick to the databases purchased by our state library, which receive only modest usage. Our digital spending is more often on services such as tutor.com and on popular content such as Midwest Tape’s Hoopla.

There are two exceptions to the above scenarios: one is the steady stream of questions we get for help finding stuff in the library (print books and DVDs, for example), and for placing holds. But that’s just because our online catalogue remains a conundrum for the average user. The other is for local history and genealogy information, most of which is locked away in print and microform and typically requires some kind of mediation between librarian and patron to access.

But here’s the interesting thing: even as traditional reference transactions continues to decline, the use of our building is surging, increasing about 20% every year. And even though users can now access information online quickly and easily through devices they carry in their pockets, we still interact with huge numbers of people at the library.

What Patrons Want

So what do people want from us? They want help doing things, rather than finding things. You could argue that users have always wanted this, and you’d be right. But the extent of this shift in recent years is unprecedented in the history of library services.

A lot of what people want help with involves technology. Sometimes it is assistance with the technology we offer at the library—downloading e-books for example. But often it’s more involved: creating and improving resumes, conducting job searches, uploading files, seeking insurance information. E-government has landed squarely in the library’s lap, and we’re finding that citizens regularly need help utilizing government sites.

And we’ve become the help desk for the community. It is assumed that libraries mostly help bridge the digital divide, assisting the poor and disenfranchised in getting online. But it’s more complicated than that. Keeping up with the full range technology today is a challenge for everyone, and when users have to fill in a knowledge gap, no matter their educational level or economic status, they’re showing up at the reference desk.

 

Helping patrons do things is radically different from traditional reference. It requires different knowledge from library staff, and greater flexibility in time and staffing, so that a librarian can actually work with a patron for 30 minutes and not just refer them to a book, or a class. It also requires a different relationship with our users—to truly help a job seeker, for example, you may need to follow up with a phone call in a week, and the week after that. It’s not easy. The shifting boundaries, exposure to personal information, unclear expectations, and the need for instructional knowledge is creating anxiety among public service staff, rightfully so. But librarians have no choice but to try their best and to face these changes head on. Rigidly sticking to a reference service that no one needs any longer is a recipe for obsolescence.

What to Do?

For years, librarians have been poring over virtual reference transcripts for clues to the future, and yet little formal research has been conducted on what’s actually happening at reference desks today. It’s time to acknowledge that something else—which we are only beginning to understand—is taking the place of traditional reference service in public libraries.

In The Atlas of New Librarianship, author R. David Lankes writes about moving from traditional reference transactions to “knowledge creation” as a model for librarianship. Perhaps this is what I’m talking about. But the term “knowledge creation” is still so ill defined and impossible to measure, I’ll resist it for now. What I see happening is still too dynamic to codify.

Meanwhile, most library and information schools either don’t discuss reference services at all, or do so in a way that is more relevant to libraries 15 years ago. Check out this assignment from one of the top-10 library school programs: “Examine the following bibliographies and be prepared to discuss what kinds of questions you could answer with these reference works: Books in Print, Ulrich’s International Periodical Directory, Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, Literary Market Place, WorldCat.” I can tell you right now what questions you’ll be answering with these bibliographies: none.

Still, there is room for optimism. A report released just last month from the University of Maryland’s iSchool, “Re-envisioning the MLS: Findings, Issues and Considerations,” acknowledges that offering “a more immersive and transformative experience,” as opposed to simply recommending a possible resource, “is a large challenge.”

That’s a start. Where we go from here, I can’t say. But I know this: the challenge isn’t going to get any easier until we start talking about it.

This article appeared in the 09/14/2015 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: For Future Reference 

From: Publishers Weekly

Westword: Denver Public Library to Host Shows for the Homeless

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY TO HOST SHOWS FOR THE HOMELESS

BY JEF OTTE  TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2015



The homeless folk who gather at the doors of the Denver Public Library at 14th and Broadway will have something besides books and air conditioning to look forward to on the morning of Tuesday, September 8. That's the date that the DPL plans to roll out what it's calling "Sunrise Concerts," a pilot program that, if all goes well, will invite Denver bands to play shows outside the library doors just before everyone files in for free internet.


"The show will take place in front of the main doors on Broadway," says librarian Simone Groene-Nieto. "It's not all homeless people, but there's a significant crowd that's always just standing there staring at the doors, waiting for them to open. Homeless services are often based on need; this is kind of a different approach. We're hoping to bring them some joy, a little pleasure for people who have it hard."

Accepting that mission is relative newcomer Piper Cub, the latest project of Denver fashion fixture Brandi Shigley (who happens to be one of our 100 Colorado Creatives and one of the first Westword MasterMinds), a presence so irrepressible that she wrote in a journal when she was thirteen years old that she wanted to be a fashion designer and a rock star — and then she did it. If anyone can perk up a crappy morning, it's probably Brandi Shigley. "I'm secretly hoping she'll roller-skate," says Groene-Nieto, "but no promises."

Piper Cub's inaugural set happens Tuesday, September 8, from 9 to 10 a.m.; whatever happens, it will be the last one this year. "It's a one-time deal for now," Groene-Nieto says, adding that the plan is to build it into something a lot like the concert series the DPL has done under the Fresh City Life banner, except in the morning, and outside. But it won't really get going until summer 2016, she says, because "it needs to be warm."

Why do it? "We're really building a name for ourselves in terms of services to people experiencing homelessness," Groene-Nieto says. "This is a symbol of our commitment."


From: Westword

TechDirt: No Library For You: French Authorities Threatening To Close An App That Lets People Share Physical Books

No Library For You: French Authorities Threatening To Close An App That Lets People Share Physical Books

from the this-is-crazy dept

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Sep 18th 2015 6:12am

EFF's Parker Higgins recently tweeted a question detailing the truly messed up state of copyright law. What do you think would happen if someone invented the public library today?
It's not necessarily a new idea. Nearly four years ago, we asked a similar question right here at Techdirt. And even after centuries of having public libraries, we sometimes still see authors lash out at them. And, indeed, you see some weird situations like when people put up little personal libraries in their front yards, people have tried to shut them down, but for being "illegal structures" rather than over the horror of the free lending of books. And you could argue that various attacks on parts of copyright law on the internet really are attacks on the modern form of a library. However, over in France, they really are taking the idea of attacking new forms of libraries to incredible new heights. There's a French startup called Booxup that is taking the above personal lending library concept and making it digital. You get an account, scan your books, upload a list of those you're willing to lend to others, and the service connects willing lenders with willing borrowers, putting books that would otherwise be collecting dust on shelves to good use actually being read and educating and entertaining the public. Neat.

Except... not so neat, according to French authorities who are claiming the whole thing could be illegal:

But an agent of the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF), the French consumer protection agency, recently visited the Booxup offices, apparently after a person working in the book industry, whose identity is unknown, contacted the DGCCRF to express concerns over this business model. Indeed, Booxup uses a sharing economy model, where users offer their  property or services to others, either for a fee, like Airbnb, or Uber, or for free, such as Booxup.

Uber suspended its services in France in July after its services were found to be illegal by the French government, and the DGCCRF agent who visited Booxup had been in charge of the Uber case. Could such a fate await Booxup? It may depend on how its business model fits within French intellectual property law.

Again, unlike Uber or Airbnb -- which are much more accurately described as the "on demand" economy, rather than the "sharing" economy -- Booxup really is about sharing. The book borrowing is done for free, not for a fee. The 1709 Blog, which surfaced this story, goes through a variety of possible French laws and can't find any that are truly applicable here. According to one of the reports that first discussed the story, the problem here isn't that Booxup is doing this for profit, but rather the opposite: that it's doing this for free. Suddenly, the fear is that this is a form of "piracy" because, you know, how can you compete with free (yes, of course, to say that seriously you'd have to erase from your mind centuries of public libraries co-existing with book stores, but shhhhh!).

What is it about people today that makes them freak out about "free"? Of course, in France (as in much of Europe) the book market is bizarrely heavily regulated with full-on price-setting. Booksellers are forced to sell books at pre-set prices and there can be no competition in pricing -- which is why Amazon got in trouble for offering free shipping on books in France. Apparently that was deemed "discounting" books. It sounds like this investigation may be under the same kind of law, and the idea that "lending" books for free somehow undermines the market for books by offering a discount. Again, in order to make this argument seriously you have to ignore public libraries.

It's unclear if Booxup will be allowed to exist, but just the fact that an investigation is occurring shows the kind of backwards, anti-competitive, anti-innovation thinking of too many bureaucrats these days. And it also highlights why you don't see too many disruptive startups coming out of France...

From: techdirt.com