April 26, 2016
by Daniel Gross
Weeding the Worst Library Books
Last summer, in Berkeley, California, librarians pulled roughly forty thousand books off the shelves of the public library and carted them away. The library’s director, Jeff Scott, announced that his staff had “deaccessioned” texts that weren’t regularly checked out. But the protesters who gathered on the library’s front steps to decry what became known as “Librarygate” preferred a different term: “purged.” “Put a tourniquet on the hemorrhage,” one of the protesters’ signs declared. “Don’t pulp our fiction,” another read.
In response, Scott attempted to put his policy in perspective. His predecessor had removed fifty thousand books in a single year, he explained. And many of the deaccessioned books would be donated to a nonprofit—not pulped. Furthermore, after new acquisitions, the collection was actually expected to grow by eighteen thousand books, to a total of nearly half a million. But none of these facts stirred up much sympathy in Berkeley. A thousand people signed a petition demanding that Scott step down—and, in the end, he did.
Public libraries serve practical purposes, but they also symbolize our collective access to information, so it’s understandable that many Berkeley residents reacted strongly to seeing books discarded. What’s more, Scott’s critics ultimately contended that he had not been forthcoming about how many books were being removed, or about his process for deciding which books would go. Still, it’s standard practice—and often a necessity—to remove books from library collections. Librarians call it “weeding,” and the choice of words is important: a library that “hemorrhages” books loses its lifeblood; a librarian who “weeds” is helping the collection thrive. The key question, for librarians who prefer to avoid scandal, is which books are weeds.
Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, two Michigan librarians, have answered that question in multiple ways. They’ve written a book called “Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management,” which proposes best practices for analyzing library data and adapting to space constraints. But they are better known for calling attention to the matter with a blog: Awful Library Books.
Kelly and Hibner created the site in 2009. Each week, they highlight books that seem to them so self-evidently ridiculous that weeding is the only possible recourse. They often feature books with outlandish titles, like “Little Corpuscle,” a children’s book starring a dancing red blood cell; “Enlarging Is Thrilling,” a how-to about—you guessed it—film photography; and “God, the Rod, and Your Child’s Bod: The Art of Loving Correction for Christian Parents.”
Sometimes it’s the subject matter that seems absurd. Of “Wax in Our World,” a nonfiction book for young adults, Kelly said, “Who came into a publisher’s office and said, ‘You know, the kids really need a book about wax’?”
Kelly and Hibner came to value weeding when working at a library in Detroit, in 2008. “Most people that come into a library are looking for a new job, or they’re facing a financial crisis, or they’re trying to do research on a medical problem,” Kelly, who has worked in libraries since 1998, told me. Unfortunately, the library’s career and medical shelves were cluttered with outdated material. “People were picking up books from the seventies on how to find a job,” she recalled. “We were going to the résumé shelves and finding things that would tell you to put your height, weight, and marital status on your résumé,” Hibner added. “We were like, we can’t give this to people.”
“It’s not free to keep something on the shelf,” Ann Campion Riley, the president of the Association of College and Research Libraries, told me. According to Riley, weeding goes back at least to the medieval period. “There are writings where the monks are saying, ‘Should I keep this? Should I keep that?’ ” These questions are pragmatic, but profound—and they have been joined by new ones, such as, should libraries phase out physical books and move their holdings online? The trouble, as Jamillah Gabriel, a librarian at Purdue University, explained, is that “there’s not always an e-book for everything.” Digital libraries are becoming more popular, but they’re not on pace to replace tangible books anytime soon.
When Hibner and Kelly worked together, they had a goldfish they named Ranga, after the Indian scholar S. R. Ranganathan, whose “Five Principles of Library Science,” first proposed in 1931, are still frequently cited today. “No. 5 is, the library is a growing organism,” Hibner said. This conception of libraries—especially public libraries, where universal access is more important than permanent preservation—explains the metaphor of weeding.
When I asked about what happened in Berkeley last year, Kelly and Hibner said it helps, from a public-relations standpoint, to weed gradually. “I pull one or two books a week. Nobody’s going to even question that,” Hibner said. She also keeps a bag of her favorite weeded books under her desk—“Vans: The Personality Vehicle,” “Be Bold with Bananas”—in case any inquisitive patrons want examples.
Some of the books Kelly and Hibner highlight seem so bizarre as to be worth keeping. Shouldn’t everyone have a chance to flip through “The Psychic Sasquatch and Their UFO Connection”? But public libraries aren’t designed to preserve unusual texts, they said. “There are places where you want to hang on to the weird stuff of our culture. That’s in museums and archives,” Kelly told me. “Keeping a bunch of crap on a dusty shelf is not preserving anything,” Hibner added.
Awful Library Books caught on quickly: within a year of launching, the site had been featured on Time.com, CBC Radio, and Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show; the site’s Twitter account now has eleven thousand followers. Hibner and Kelly figure that the site will eventually outlast its usefulness, but for now they still get submissions every day—such as “Should a Therapist Have Intercourse with Patients?,” by Arthur Seagull, which was sent in a few months back.
Hibner and Kelly both emphasized that many factors come into play when deciding which books should be kept. You want your books to reflect the community you serve, but the popularity of a book is by no means the only barometer. At Hibner’s library, “War and Peace” has been checked out just five times in the past twenty-two years. “It’s huge; it’s taking up quite a bit of space,” Hibner said. “But for libraries like us to not have ‘War and Peace’ at all—it doesn’t seem right.” Something tells her that Tolstoy is not a weed.
Source: The New Yorker
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
CBC News North: Yukon library book returned, 50 years late
By Paul Tukker | April 12, 2016
A Yukon library book has been returned from half a world away, and only half a century late.
The book, The Story of Madame Curie by Alice Thorne, was due back at the Whitehorse public library on Dec. 18, 1965. Instead, it took a prolonged side trip to New Zealand.
"My family moved from the Yukon in 1967, and unfortunately this little book was not returned and sat at the bottom of a cabin trunk for many years," wrote Roslyn Selby of Bethlehem, New Zealand, in a letter sent along with the book.
"Only recently finding it (after 50 years), as it is still in reasonable condition, I have decided to return it to you."
Selby wrote that reading has been a lifelong love of hers, and the overdue book — a biography of pioneering researcher of radioactivity Marie Curie — was influential in her young life.
"I went on to a career in medicine (paediatrics), and am sure this book helped to inspire me to do so," she wrote, adding that she recently retired after a 40-year career.
"What an incredible story," said Sarah Gallagher of the Whitehorse Public Library.
Gallagher said she was excited to receive a package at the library, initially thinking it was new DVDs for the collection. What she found was even better.
"There were happy tears," she said.
"I was blown away," said Aimee Ellis, director of Yukon Public Libraries. "You hear about these stories in other libraries, and I was excited and thrilled that we got to experience the pleasure of a long-overdue book with a good story."
So, what about the late fee?
'No doubt I have a large overdue fee now,' Roslyn Selby wrote. She sent along a few new books in lieu of payment. (Paul Tukker/CBC)
Selby didn't send money along, but recognizing her possible debt, she instead included several new books as donations to the Yukon library collection. She also promised to send more in the future.
That more than settles it, said Gallagher.
"It's fine-free month at Yukon Public Libraries. Roslyn had no idea how good her timing was."
To read the full article, please visit CBC News North.
A Yukon library book has been returned from half a world away, and only half a century late.
The book, The Story of Madame Curie by Alice Thorne, was due back at the Whitehorse public library on Dec. 18, 1965. Instead, it took a prolonged side trip to New Zealand.
"My family moved from the Yukon in 1967, and unfortunately this little book was not returned and sat at the bottom of a cabin trunk for many years," wrote Roslyn Selby of Bethlehem, New Zealand, in a letter sent along with the book.
"Only recently finding it (after 50 years), as it is still in reasonable condition, I have decided to return it to you."
Selby wrote that reading has been a lifelong love of hers, and the overdue book — a biography of pioneering researcher of radioactivity Marie Curie — was influential in her young life.
"I went on to a career in medicine (paediatrics), and am sure this book helped to inspire me to do so," she wrote, adding that she recently retired after a 40-year career.
"What an incredible story," said Sarah Gallagher of the Whitehorse Public Library.
Gallagher said she was excited to receive a package at the library, initially thinking it was new DVDs for the collection. What she found was even better.
"There were happy tears," she said.
"I was blown away," said Aimee Ellis, director of Yukon Public Libraries. "You hear about these stories in other libraries, and I was excited and thrilled that we got to experience the pleasure of a long-overdue book with a good story."
So, what about the late fee?
'No doubt I have a large overdue fee now,' Roslyn Selby wrote. She sent along a few new books in lieu of payment. (Paul Tukker/CBC)
Selby didn't send money along, but recognizing her possible debt, she instead included several new books as donations to the Yukon library collection. She also promised to send more in the future.
That more than settles it, said Gallagher.
"It's fine-free month at Yukon Public Libraries. Roslyn had no idea how good her timing was."
To read the full article, please visit CBC News North.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Inside Halton: Crafty creations at Oakville Public Library's Community Expo
John Bkila | Oakville Beaver | April 17, 2016
The Oakville Public Library held its inaugural Community Expo earlier this month in the auditorium of its Central Branch on Navy Street.
The free, family-friendly event featured local crafters and technocrafters showcasing their skills.
Titled Create & Innovate, the event also allowed residents to try their hand at something new.
Activities included: silk screening, jewelry and card making, 3D printing, coding, robotics, and arm knitting, among others.
“Coinciding with the library’s mission of building community by connecting people and ideas, the Community Expo aims to bring residents together in an inspiring, intergenerational environment,” stated a media release.
“OPL’s Community Expo is just one example of how its offerings are evolving to encourage creativity, collaboration and discovery in new and exciting ways.”
The Oakville Public Library has six branches located throughout the town and offers programs for all ages, collections of books, digital media offerings and town-wide outreach endeavors.
The Oakville Public Library held its inaugural Community Expo earlier this month in the auditorium of its Central Branch on Navy Street.
The free, family-friendly event featured local crafters and technocrafters showcasing their skills.
Titled Create & Innovate, the event also allowed residents to try their hand at something new.
Activities included: silk screening, jewelry and card making, 3D printing, coding, robotics, and arm knitting, among others.
“Coinciding with the library’s mission of building community by connecting people and ideas, the Community Expo aims to bring residents together in an inspiring, intergenerational environment,” stated a media release.
“OPL’s Community Expo is just one example of how its offerings are evolving to encourage creativity, collaboration and discovery in new and exciting ways.”
The Oakville Public Library has six branches located throughout the town and offers programs for all ages, collections of books, digital media offerings and town-wide outreach endeavors.
Please visit Inside Halton for the full article and pictures.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
The Guardian: Take two chapters, daily – how to prescribe fiction
April 12, 2016
By Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin
Take two chapters, daily – how to prescribe fiction
GPs are to going to give books to help teenagers with mental health issues. It’s a great idea – but not a new one. Here, two seasoned bibliotherapists discuss the power of novels-as-therapy
The news that GPs are offering books by the likes of Mark Haddon on prescription to young people with mental health issues is no surprise to us. We have been recommending – or “prescribing” – books as “cures” for common ailments from depression to heartbreak since 2008, when we started our bibliotherapy service. Our medicine draws not on pharmaceuticals, but on 2,000 years of great literature.
The concept of bibliotherapy is not new. Plato said that the arts are “not for mindless pleasure”, but an “aid to bringing our soul-circuit, when it has got out of tune, into order and harmony with itself”. Our practice focuses on great works of fiction that effect a sea-change in the mind of the reader. We use writers from Apuleius to Austen – by way of Haddon, Ali Smith and Meg Rosoff – to help people put their lives into perspective, to distract, soothe and rally. Sometimes, it’s the story that offers solace – a sense that we are not alone; sometimes, the rhythm of the prose. Recent studies have shown that reading a book can be more effective for reducing blood pressure than going for a walk or stroking the dog. Try reading Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet when your mind is too agitated to sleep, and you’ll see what we mean. Or, conversely, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain when you’re in an energy slump – it’s better than caffeine. Fiction has also been shown to help us to relate to and understand others.
The Reading Well for Young People campaign is an excellent initiative, both as a way to approach mental health issues for adults and children – and for encouraging people to turn to literature as a salve. Unlike self-help books, novels are not written to educate or impart advice. Indeed, most novelists do not think too much about the reader at all when seized by the creative urge. They seek instead to understand and articulate something they have observed in life, and in doing so to get as close to the emotional truth as they can. It’s these truths we read for – the insights, observations, often in the form of minute details, on what it is like to be human, to interact with others, and to try to make sense of the world. Transported by the story, we see through other eyes, feel another set of feelings and experience different lives to our own. By reading, we are expanded, enriched and, perhaps, are better placed to understand ourselves.
Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin are the authors of The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies. Their new book: The Story Cure: Books to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise will be published this September.
Source: The Guardian
By Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin
Take two chapters, daily – how to prescribe fiction
GPs are to going to give books to help teenagers with mental health issues. It’s a great idea – but not a new one. Here, two seasoned bibliotherapists discuss the power of novels-as-therapy
The news that GPs are offering books by the likes of Mark Haddon on prescription to young people with mental health issues is no surprise to us. We have been recommending – or “prescribing” – books as “cures” for common ailments from depression to heartbreak since 2008, when we started our bibliotherapy service. Our medicine draws not on pharmaceuticals, but on 2,000 years of great literature.
The concept of bibliotherapy is not new. Plato said that the arts are “not for mindless pleasure”, but an “aid to bringing our soul-circuit, when it has got out of tune, into order and harmony with itself”. Our practice focuses on great works of fiction that effect a sea-change in the mind of the reader. We use writers from Apuleius to Austen – by way of Haddon, Ali Smith and Meg Rosoff – to help people put their lives into perspective, to distract, soothe and rally. Sometimes, it’s the story that offers solace – a sense that we are not alone; sometimes, the rhythm of the prose. Recent studies have shown that reading a book can be more effective for reducing blood pressure than going for a walk or stroking the dog. Try reading Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet when your mind is too agitated to sleep, and you’ll see what we mean. Or, conversely, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain when you’re in an energy slump – it’s better than caffeine. Fiction has also been shown to help us to relate to and understand others.
The Reading Well for Young People campaign is an excellent initiative, both as a way to approach mental health issues for adults and children – and for encouraging people to turn to literature as a salve. Unlike self-help books, novels are not written to educate or impart advice. Indeed, most novelists do not think too much about the reader at all when seized by the creative urge. They seek instead to understand and articulate something they have observed in life, and in doing so to get as close to the emotional truth as they can. It’s these truths we read for – the insights, observations, often in the form of minute details, on what it is like to be human, to interact with others, and to try to make sense of the world. Transported by the story, we see through other eyes, feel another set of feelings and experience different lives to our own. By reading, we are expanded, enriched and, perhaps, are better placed to understand ourselves.
Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin are the authors of The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies. Their new book: The Story Cure: Books to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise will be published this September.
Source: The Guardian
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Halifax Public Libraries adds collection from Autism Nova Scotia
April 08, 2016
As the number of families affected by autism continues to grow, Autism Nova Scotia and Halifax Public Libraries want to make helpful resources more readily available.
The organization donated more than 100 resource books to the library and invited about 40 children and Mayor Mike Savage for story time to welcome the new collection on Thursday.
“Autism Nova Scotia had a large resource library in our space but it
wasn’t overly accessible, because of our hours they were kind of hard to
get to, so we donated them to the library,” Director of Development for
Autism Nova Scotia, Laura Hastings said at the event on Thursday.
The collection has a range of books from children’s picture books to resource books for parents and adults.
“Not a lot is different about the children’s books besides the topic that’s covered in the book. Often it is about how kids can behave differently and how individuality is ok,” said Hastings.
“Some of the other books may be little more science based, some of them were first person biographies, some are on living well as an adult with autism or improving employability,” Hastings said.
Manager of Collection and Access for the Halifax Public Library system, Dave MacNeil, said the library is thrilled to receive the donation of specially curated books.
“We’ve been noticing that because there is less of a stigma behind the topic, we see more people asking questions and coming out to the public instead of asking doctors about this kind of stuff,” said MacNeil.
The library has a budget each year, limiting the number of books that can be brought in on each particular topic in an attempt to appeal to wider audiences. It would have taken the library years to build up a collection this large on such a niche topic, but MacNeil said that’s not the only thing that makes this donation so special.
“We have a small group of people who do the selection for all the books for the library system, as talented as they are, to have someone whose expertise are on something very specific as autism and autism awareness, to have them supplement our collection with a large number of very high quality books is just fantastic,” said MacNeil.
The books will be distributed throughout the public library system and titles that are unavailable at one location can be sent to another on request to allow for accessibility in more rural areas.
Source: Truro Daily News
As the number of families affected by autism continues to grow, Autism Nova Scotia and Halifax Public Libraries want to make helpful resources more readily available.
The organization donated more than 100 resource books to the library and invited about 40 children and Mayor Mike Savage for story time to welcome the new collection on Thursday.
Children laugh during story time at the Halifax Central Library during an announcement with Autism Nova Scotia on Thursday. © Jeff Harper/Metro
The collection has a range of books from children’s picture books to resource books for parents and adults.
“Not a lot is different about the children’s books besides the topic that’s covered in the book. Often it is about how kids can behave differently and how individuality is ok,” said Hastings.
“Some of the other books may be little more science based, some of them were first person biographies, some are on living well as an adult with autism or improving employability,” Hastings said.
Manager of Collection and Access for the Halifax Public Library system, Dave MacNeil, said the library is thrilled to receive the donation of specially curated books.
“We’ve been noticing that because there is less of a stigma behind the topic, we see more people asking questions and coming out to the public instead of asking doctors about this kind of stuff,” said MacNeil.
The library has a budget each year, limiting the number of books that can be brought in on each particular topic in an attempt to appeal to wider audiences. It would have taken the library years to build up a collection this large on such a niche topic, but MacNeil said that’s not the only thing that makes this donation so special.
“We have a small group of people who do the selection for all the books for the library system, as talented as they are, to have someone whose expertise are on something very specific as autism and autism awareness, to have them supplement our collection with a large number of very high quality books is just fantastic,” said MacNeil.
The books will be distributed throughout the public library system and titles that are unavailable at one location can be sent to another on request to allow for accessibility in more rural areas.
Source: Truro Daily News
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
For Newcomers, the Library is About More Than Just Books
The Toronto Public Library is upping its newcomer
support resources to serve the influx of Syrian refugees.
North York Central Library. Photo by James from the Torontoist Flickr Pool For newcomers to Toronto, the library is much more than a place to borrow books—it’s the connection point to job and settlement services, a place to build language skills, and a space to learn about recreational and cultural programs. It’s a community hub.
“Libraries are the one place where newcomers can find everything they need,” says Elsa Ngan, multicultural services specialist for Toronto Public Libraries, at Tuesday night’s welcome event. Along with musical performances, the evening offered story time for kids and an information fair to help new residents get acquainted with settlement and cultural services across the city.
Toronto libraries have long offered programs and services to help newcomers settle into their new city. They host ESL classes, resumé-building workshops, and offer books, movies, and newspapers in dozens of languages.
But with the recent intake of Syrian refugees to Toronto, libraries have added a number of new services to ease the adjustment process even more.
For instance, the MAP (Museum and Arts Pass) offers newcomers a package of free passes to museums and attractions across the city, including the AGO, the Ontario Science Centre, the Museum of Inuit Art, the City of Toronto Historic Sites, The Toronto Zoo, and the ROM. Regular MAP passes are available to anyone with a library card—you simply borrow it like you would a book, and it gives two adults and up to five kids access to a museum or gallery, for example. The pilot program, specifically for Syrian newcomers, offers families vouchers for one of the participating venues of their choice.
“We encourage people to check out some of the cultural institutions in Toronto and really give them a chance to explore the culture in the city through the museums and other things that are available to them,” says Brian Francis, manager of programming and customer engagement.
TPL has also expanded its Arabic, Armenian, and Kurdish collections to better serve the latest wave of newcomers to the city. Seven branches have Arabic collections, three have Armenian collections, and one has Kurdish.
At 14 branches, settlement workers are on-site to offer newcomers help finding jobs, learn English, navigate the settlement process, and assist in getting a driver’s licence, among other services.
“The library is a safe space for newcomers to be welcome, to use the library for their employment needs, for their personal needs, and to keep connect with other families,” says Ngan.
Certainly, Tuesday’s event was a testament to that. After the music died down, families mingled in the lineup waiting for their first Toronto library cards, as kids tinkered with instruments and chased each other around the room.
“This was amazing,” a man named Hussain, a husband and father of three from Syria, said about the event–all of which he captured on his smartphone. “We sang, we got our cards, we met friends.”
Source: torontoist.com
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Dropping loonie squeezes library budgets as costs for materials climb
Last updated
(Chris Bolin For The Globe and Mail)
Every morning, Tom Hickerson turns on the TV and checks for the day’s exchange rate.
He is not a trader, banker or economist. But still, what he sees will have a major impact on the day ahead of him.
As
the head librarian at the University of Calgary, Mr. Hickerson has
watched in horror over the past two years, as the dropping dollar eats
into his library’s purchasing power. Every drop of a penny against the
American dollar takes a bite of over $100,000 out of his acquisitions
budget.
The fall of the loonie – from just over 94
cents in early January, 2014, to the low 70s today – has left academic
and public libraries with less money to pay for the increasing number of
materials they are billed for in U.S. dollars.
Public
libraries have made much of their transformation into digital hubs. In
addition to allowing customers to download e-books and audiobooks, some
also offer music and film streaming, as well as digital subscriptions to
magazines like the New Yorker.
But these services all originate with American vendors – and when the Canadian dollar drops, the libraries’ costs go up.
Vickery
Bowles, city librarian for the Toronto Public Library, said her
institution spent nearly $1-million on currency conversion in 2015, out
of a collections budget of $18-million. In 2010, the figure was $58,000.
Most of those costs were for digital content. “That’s a huge difference
and takes a real bite out of our collections budget,” she said.
Ms.
Bowles said physical materials such as books and DVDs still represent
more than 80 per cent of library circulation, but “we are spending more
and more of our money on e-books.”
To
compensate, the library buys fewer copies of popular books, but that
leads to longer wait times. Toronto Public Library customers placing a
hold for André Alexis’s Giller Prize-winning Fifteen Dogs, for example, have about 1,000 people in line ahead of them. (The library owns 276 copies.)
Ms.
Bowles said the library analyzes usage to shift dollars from
less-borrowed items like paperbacks to e-books, and has found ways to
fulfill holds more efficiently, “so people get them more quickly and we
don’t end up having to buy as many copies.”
In
Halifax, where the public library’s collections budget is $1.7-million,
collections head Debbie LeBel said she is seeing “sticker shock” when
it comes to databases and e-books such as John Irving’s latest, Avenue of Mysteries, which costs the library $86.
Meanwhile,
the prices of printed books, which have been stable for the past couple
of years, are now also on the rise. Robin Hoogwerf, general manager of
Calgary-based United Library Services, which purchases and catalogues
books for libraries, said prices rose an average of 8 per cent in 2015,
and “we’re already seeing price increases for spring/summer titles in
2016.”
As public libraries talk about shifting resources, academic librarians speak in more apocalyptic terms.
Marc
Truitt, university librarian at Mount Allison, in New Brunswick, says
the “perfect storm” of a flat library budget, frozen tuition, and rising
journal costs – mostly paid for in U.S. dollars – has “all but
eviscerated our budget for books.”
“At
some point something is going to have to give in terms of our ability to
provide for our patrons,” Mr. Truitt said. “We can cut and cut and cut,
but if the budget doesn’t go up, and the exchange rate doesn’t shift,
and the native prices of materials keep climbing, then we’re headed for
zero.”
Journals are the key driver of
university library costs. The market is dominated by five publishers,
and Mr. Hickerson says price increases average more than 6 per cent a
year. To make matters worse, publishers – like cable companies – bundle
titles so that universities may have to pay for hundreds of titles in
order to get the few they really want.
Late
last year, Memorial University in Newfoundland shocked faculty by
cancelling subscriptions to more than 1,700 journals. (The library
originally cut 4,000, but is resubscribing to many – some on terms that
only allow access to articles a year after publication.)
Mr.
Hickerson says 85 per cent of University of Calgary library purchases
are in U.S. funds, most of that going to electronic journals. “Over a
period of nine months last year, we lost $800,000 in buying power.
That’s just tremendous, and it’s happened so rapidly,” leaving the
library struggling to adjust. “A particularly expensive contract may not
come up for renewal until 2018, so that may be the one we would choose
to cancel, but we will be under pressure to look for other cancellations
in the interim,” he said.
Five years
ago, the library got an injection of funds intended to acquire materials
for weaker parts of the collection. “We haven’t done any of that for
the last three years,” Mr. Hickerson said. “Those funds have not gone to
strengthen our holdings but to reduce the damage.”
To
make at least some dent in the costs of journals, the Canadian Research
Knowledge Network negotiates bulk licences for its 75 member
universities. Since 2013, it’s also offered them a foreign exchange
project, allowing them to hedge against further drops. In 2014-15, 19
universities took part, saving a total of $116,000.
“They
didn’t train me in library school to be a currency speculator,” Mr.
Truitt said. While he thinks initiatives like this can help, they still
provide only a small amount of relief for the budget crisis. Librarians,
he said, are “one big unhappy family right now.”
Source: The Globe and Mail
Monday, April 11, 2016
Musical instrument lending library opens in Toronto
By Taline McPhedran, Special to CTVNews.ca
Thursday, April 7, 2016
People interested in playing a musical instrument can now try one for free, thanks to a new lending program that’s debuted in Toronto with plans to roll out across Canada this spring.
The library, sponsored by Sun Life Financial, is stocked with 100 instruments including classical and acoustic guitars, bongo drums, xylophones, violins and keyboards. And all of them can be borrowed as easily as taking out a book.
“We know how much music enriches life, but many Torontonians don’t have ready access to musical instruments for financial reasons,” Toronto librarian Vickery Bowles said in a press release announcing the launch of the Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library on Thursday.
“Programs such as this one break down those barriers and connect people to wonderful opportunities.”
A keyboard that will be available from the Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library on April 7, 2016. (Tim Fraser)
Using a valid Toronto library card, instruments can be borrowed, one at a time, for a period of up to three weeks. Borrowers can even extend the loan period with two possible renewals. Returning the instrument after the due date will result in the same fines levied on overdue adult books: 40 cents per day, up to a maximum of $16.
Unlike books, which can be returned to any branch, instruments can only be returned to the branch from which they were taken, in this case the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library.
According to the release, the program is part of a national initiative to get similar instrument lending programs in place in other cities across Canada.
“This new program is a natural extension of our support of music education, bringing music into the homes of residents across the city of Toronto,” said Paul Joliat, assistant vice president of philanthropy and sponsorships at Sun Life Financial.
Other musical lending libraries in Ontario include the Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library in Kingston, Ont. and the instrument lending program at the Prince Edward County Public Libraries.
Libraries have begun to stock more than just books recently with power tool libraries showing up in cities throughout the country such as Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary. Those in Vancouver can also borrow seeds from the North Vancouver City Library and library card holders at the Greater Sudbury Public Library in Ontario can borrow snowshoes and fishing tackles. 3-D printers and other electronics are also becoming commonplace at libraries throughout the country.
Source: ctvnews.ca
Thursday, April 7, 2016
The Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library opened at the
Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library on Monday, April 7, 2016.
(Tim Fraser)
People interested in playing a musical instrument can now try one for free, thanks to a new lending program that’s debuted in Toronto with plans to roll out across Canada this spring.
The library, sponsored by Sun Life Financial, is stocked with 100 instruments including classical and acoustic guitars, bongo drums, xylophones, violins and keyboards. And all of them can be borrowed as easily as taking out a book.
“We know how much music enriches life, but many Torontonians don’t have ready access to musical instruments for financial reasons,” Toronto librarian Vickery Bowles said in a press release announcing the launch of the Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library on Thursday.
“Programs such as this one break down those barriers and connect people to wonderful opportunities.”
A keyboard that will be available from the Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library on April 7, 2016. (Tim Fraser)
Using a valid Toronto library card, instruments can be borrowed, one at a time, for a period of up to three weeks. Borrowers can even extend the loan period with two possible renewals. Returning the instrument after the due date will result in the same fines levied on overdue adult books: 40 cents per day, up to a maximum of $16.
Unlike books, which can be returned to any branch, instruments can only be returned to the branch from which they were taken, in this case the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library.
According to the release, the program is part of a national initiative to get similar instrument lending programs in place in other cities across Canada.
“This new program is a natural extension of our support of music education, bringing music into the homes of residents across the city of Toronto,” said Paul Joliat, assistant vice president of philanthropy and sponsorships at Sun Life Financial.
Other musical lending libraries in Ontario include the Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library in Kingston, Ont. and the instrument lending program at the Prince Edward County Public Libraries.
Libraries have begun to stock more than just books recently with power tool libraries showing up in cities throughout the country such as Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary. Those in Vancouver can also borrow seeds from the North Vancouver City Library and library card holders at the Greater Sudbury Public Library in Ontario can borrow snowshoes and fishing tackles. 3-D printers and other electronics are also becoming commonplace at libraries throughout the country.
Source: ctvnews.ca
Saturday, April 9, 2016
The Cape Breton Post: Books2Eat at the library
 |
| The "Belly Button Beach" cake was on display at the 2015 international edible book festival at the McConnell Library in Sydney. This year's Books2Eat event is taking place at the McConnell on Friday, April 1. |
March 27, 2016
Silent auction will support adopt-a-book campaign
 |
| The Bookie Monster |
SYDNEY — It's time to eat up those books once again.
The international edible book festival – Books2Eat – is happening at the McConnell Library on Friday, April 1 from 4-7 p.m.
The event is open to everyone.
Local home cooks, chefs, bakers and food stores will feature their artistic talents by creating food shaped like books, inspired by books or related to books, all in celebration of April Fool's Day. The public is welcome to use their artistic talents to take part.
During this event the library will celebrate the ways we learn, both formally and informally, throughout our lives.
 |
| An edible "I SPY" cake |
The edible artworks will be on display at the library starting at 4 p.m. on April 1.
A selection of these items will be auctioned off in a silent auction during the celebration to support the library’s adopt-a-book campaign which helps to put new books on library shelves.
In the spirit of fun and foolishness, there will be a family fool’s fair, with games, face painting and a show by Klutzy the Klown.
Each year, through adopt-a-book, members of the public are asked to make a donation to support the library’s book collection. Donations are used to purchase materials that are needed for the local libraries.
 |
| A "Frozen" edible cake. |
The book purchased will include a permanent book plate with an inscription of the donor's choice. The donor can also designate the library branch where the book will remain.
The donor's contribution is tax-deductible and will put a book on a library shelve that otherwise would not be there.
Adopt-a-book donations help the library meet its fundraising obligation of three per cent of the annual operating budget.
Source: The Cape Breton Post
The Columbus Dispatch: Breaking Bread: Libraries' cookbook clubs taste-test recipes
By Lisa Abraham
March 23, 2016
Imagine being able to taste your way through the publishing world’s newest cookbooks without having to buy the books or even do much cooking.
Sounds like fun, right?
The members of the Cookbook Club at the Westerville Public Library think so.
They arrive each month, covered dishes in hand, ready to sample a dozen or so recipes from that month’s cookbook selection.
Mindy Bilyeu, the Westerville Adult Services librarian who oversees the club, said the group has been meeting for about five years.
Other local libraries, including Worthington and the Delaware County District system, also offer cookbook clubs.
Bilyeu selects a book for the club each month, and members return prepared to discuss the book and share a dish made from a recipe in the cookbook.
“The Vermont Country Store Cookbook” was the club’s March selection.
For the recent meeting, Julie McIntosh prepared fire-roasted tomato cheddar soup with crunchy cheese straws.
The 48-year-old Westerville resident said the club gives her the opportunity to try dishes she might otherwise not prepare for her family, which includes children ages 20, 18 and 15.
“I don’t think my family would eat this,” she said.
The soup was well-received, even though McIntosh acknowledged that she mistakenly bought fire-roasted tomatoes with hot peppers but used them anyway.
About a dozen members attend each month, Bilyeu said. She posts a sign-up sheet online to avoid duplication of dishes.
Members spend about an hour tasting the dishes and sharing stories of their successes and failures with the recipes.
Westerville resident Carl Messenheimer, 67, tries to attend meetings at least four times a year.
“I like to cook,” said the semiretired engineer, who has participated in the club for about two years.
His selection of a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust was a hit; it turned out perfectly and received cheers from the group.
The oatmeal lace cookies filled with toasted pecans — made by Cindy Vazquez, 67, of Westerville — also were a tasty success, and, as Vazquez noted, were easy to make.
There were misses, too.
Galena resident Inge Noyes, 81, had to take extreme measures to salvage a recipe for blueberry pie that she tested. The filling didn’t thicken as it should have, Noyes said, explaining how she strained out the berries, returned the filling to a saucepan, added more thickener and cooked it longer so that it would jell properly.
When another woman mentioned that she experienced the same problem, Noyes questioned whether the recipes were tested as well as they should have been before being published.
“I would not buy this book,” she said.
Being able to vet the book before deciding whether to buy it, of course, is a benefit of club participation.
Friendship, conversation and plenty of good food are others.
Elise Schwartzwalder, 61, of Westerville, said she started attending the group in hopes of meeting new people now that her children are grown and she is semiretired.
The group meets from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month.
On the last Monday of the month, the library sponsors a senior book club (using the same cookbook selections) at 1:30 p.m. at the Westerville Senior Center.
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
March 23, 2016
 |
| Ellen Wilson pages through a cookbook while waiting to taste the dishes prepared by fellow members of the Cookbook Club at the Westerville Public Library on March 15. |
Imagine being able to taste your way through the publishing world’s newest cookbooks without having to buy the books or even do much cooking.
Sounds like fun, right?
The members of the Cookbook Club at the Westerville Public Library think so.
 |
| Blueberry zucchini bread was one of the foods prepared by the Cookbook Club on March 15. |
Mindy Bilyeu, the Westerville Adult Services librarian who oversees the club, said the group has been meeting for about five years.
Other local libraries, including Worthington and the Delaware County District system, also offer cookbook clubs.
Bilyeu selects a book for the club each month, and members return prepared to discuss the book and share a dish made from a recipe in the cookbook.
“The Vermont Country Store Cookbook” was the club’s March selection.
For the recent meeting, Julie McIntosh prepared fire-roasted tomato cheddar soup with crunchy cheese straws.
The 48-year-old Westerville resident said the club gives her the opportunity to try dishes she might otherwise not prepare for her family, which includes children ages 20, 18 and 15.
“I don’t think my family would eat this,” she said.
The soup was well-received, even though McIntosh acknowledged that she mistakenly bought fire-roasted tomatoes with hot peppers but used them anyway.
About a dozen members attend each month, Bilyeu said. She posts a sign-up sheet online to avoid duplication of dishes.
Members spend about an hour tasting the dishes and sharing stories of their successes and failures with the recipes.
Westerville resident Carl Messenheimer, 67, tries to attend meetings at least four times a year.
“I like to cook,” said the semiretired engineer, who has participated in the club for about two years.
His selection of a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust was a hit; it turned out perfectly and received cheers from the group.
The oatmeal lace cookies filled with toasted pecans — made by Cindy Vazquez, 67, of Westerville — also were a tasty success, and, as Vazquez noted, were easy to make.
There were misses, too.
Galena resident Inge Noyes, 81, had to take extreme measures to salvage a recipe for blueberry pie that she tested. The filling didn’t thicken as it should have, Noyes said, explaining how she strained out the berries, returned the filling to a saucepan, added more thickener and cooked it longer so that it would jell properly.
When another woman mentioned that she experienced the same problem, Noyes questioned whether the recipes were tested as well as they should have been before being published.
“I would not buy this book,” she said.
Being able to vet the book before deciding whether to buy it, of course, is a benefit of club participation.
Friendship, conversation and plenty of good food are others.
Elise Schwartzwalder, 61, of Westerville, said she started attending the group in hopes of meeting new people now that her children are grown and she is semiretired.
The group meets from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month.
On the last Monday of the month, the library sponsors a senior book club (using the same cookbook selections) at 1:30 p.m. at the Westerville Senior Center.
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
Friday, April 8, 2016
The Huffington Post: Cop Who Told Woman In Library To Remove Hijab: I Thought It Was A Hoodie
Christopher Mathias
March 25, 2016
The police officer who sparked public outrage this week for threatening to arrest a woman at a Washington D.C. library after she refused to remove her hijab says he mistook the head covering for a hoodie and wants to apologize.
“It appeared to be a hoodie,” D.C. Public Library Officer Timothy Craggette told The Huffington Post of the confrontation at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library on Wednesday.
“It was not a religious hat that I know. She didn’t have that,” Craggette said. “I asked her to take her hoodie off and told her: ‘If you’re not going to take it off, you have to leave.’ So I pulled out my handcuffs and then she got up and she left.”
Craggette, explaining that he knows a hijab when he sees one, said he has Muslim neighbors.
“Most people will tell you they’re Muslim and say, ‘I can’t remove my hat’” he said. “She didn’t claim that.”
He also said it’s normal for police in libraries to ask people to remove hoodies “so we know who the people are.”
But D.C. Public Library spokesman George Williams told HuffPost there’s no policy or guideline that says so. “The library does not have a policy preventing wearing hoodies in the library,” he said.
An eyewitness to the encounter between Craggette and the woman says there’s no way Craggette could’ve mistaken the hijab for a hoodie.
“It was very clear that she was wearing hijab,” said Jessica Raven, who described the scene at the library as “horrifying and heartbreaking,” and a “blatant act of discrimination.”
“I was within a foot of the woman who was harassed,” Raven, who is the interim executive director of the grassroots anti-sexual harassment group Collective Action for Safe Spaces, told DCist immediately after the incident.
“All I heard was he started asking her to take off her hijab. My jaw dropped,” she said. “The man next to her spoke up, but the officer continued to harass her. Ultimately, he came towards her in an intimidating way, pulled out his handcuffs and said if she didn’t want to take off [the hijab], she had to leave.”
The woman “stormed out,” Raven told HuffPost.
“I talked to her afterwards, and I basically told her she did nothing wrong,” she said. “You could tell she was blaming herself. She didn’t want to report it. She handled it as well as she possibly could have. Hopefully this could be a symbol that Muslim women harassed by the police are supported.”
Another witness, Eric Robinson, told WJLA that he was “enormously angry about it” and reported the incident to library management.
Williams, the library spokesman, said that Craggette has been removed from the library pending an investigation. He faces a host of possible punishments, including termination.
What happened, Williams added, “goes against one of the primary principles that library exists to serve: We welcome everyone to come into a library. This particular customer not being welcome is something we take very seriously.”
The spokesman said he hopes the woman whom Craggette told to leave will come forward so that the library can formally apologize to her.
“No one should have to feel like she felt,” Williams said. The woman has yet to identify herself.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes and rhetoric have recently been surging across the country. On Tuesday, after the deadly ISIS terror attacks in Brussels, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called for “Muslim neighborhoods to be patrolled and secured.” Republican front-runner Donald Trump reiterated his call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Craggette told HuffPost he’s sorry about the incident at the library.
“I would apologize to her if she was Muslim,” he said. “She never identified herself as Muslim. I’m sorry for the library and I’m sorry for her. I hope something positive comes out of this.”
Something might.
Williams said the library was contacted this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group. He said CAIR, which praised the library’s response to the incident, is interested in developing a “programmatic element” with the library, to “make this a learning opportunity and to promote respect for different people’s cultures.”
Source: The Huffington Post
March 25, 2016
Timothy Craggette says he’s sorry. An eyewitness says there’s no way he mistook the hijab for a hoodie.
The police officer who sparked public outrage this week for threatening to arrest a woman at a Washington D.C. library after she refused to remove her hijab says he mistook the head covering for a hoodie and wants to apologize.
“It appeared to be a hoodie,” D.C. Public Library Officer Timothy Craggette told The Huffington Post of the confrontation at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library on Wednesday.
“It was not a religious hat that I know. She didn’t have that,” Craggette said. “I asked her to take her hoodie off and told her: ‘If you’re not going to take it off, you have to leave.’ So I pulled out my handcuffs and then she got up and she left.”
Craggette, explaining that he knows a hijab when he sees one, said he has Muslim neighbors.
“Most people will tell you they’re Muslim and say, ‘I can’t remove my hat’” he said. “She didn’t claim that.”
He also said it’s normal for police in libraries to ask people to remove hoodies “so we know who the people are.”
But D.C. Public Library spokesman George Williams told HuffPost there’s no policy or guideline that says so. “The library does not have a policy preventing wearing hoodies in the library,” he said.
No one should have to feel like she felt.”
Washington D.C. Public Library spokesman George Williams.
An eyewitness to the encounter between Craggette and the woman says there’s no way Craggette could’ve mistaken the hijab for a hoodie.
“It was very clear that she was wearing hijab,” said Jessica Raven, who described the scene at the library as “horrifying and heartbreaking,” and a “blatant act of discrimination.”
“I was within a foot of the woman who was harassed,” Raven, who is the interim executive director of the grassroots anti-sexual harassment group Collective Action for Safe Spaces, told DCist immediately after the incident.
“All I heard was he started asking her to take off her hijab. My jaw dropped,” she said. “The man next to her spoke up, but the officer continued to harass her. Ultimately, he came towards her in an intimidating way, pulled out his handcuffs and said if she didn’t want to take off [the hijab], she had to leave.”
The woman “stormed out,” Raven told HuffPost.
“I talked to her afterwards, and I basically told her she did nothing wrong,” she said. “You could tell she was blaming herself. She didn’t want to report it. She handled it as well as she possibly could have. Hopefully this could be a symbol that Muslim women harassed by the police are supported.”
Another witness, Eric Robinson, told WJLA that he was “enormously angry about it” and reported the incident to library management.
Williams, the library spokesman, said that Craggette has been removed from the library pending an investigation. He faces a host of possible punishments, including termination.
What happened, Williams added, “goes against one of the primary principles that library exists to serve: We welcome everyone to come into a library. This particular customer not being welcome is something we take very seriously.”
The spokesman said he hopes the woman whom Craggette told to leave will come forward so that the library can formally apologize to her.
“No one should have to feel like she felt,” Williams said. The woman has yet to identify herself.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes and rhetoric have recently been surging across the country. On Tuesday, after the deadly ISIS terror attacks in Brussels, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called for “Muslim neighborhoods to be patrolled and secured.” Republican front-runner Donald Trump reiterated his call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Craggette told HuffPost he’s sorry about the incident at the library.
“I would apologize to her if she was Muslim,” he said. “She never identified herself as Muslim. I’m sorry for the library and I’m sorry for her. I hope something positive comes out of this.”
Something might.
Williams said the library was contacted this week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group. He said CAIR, which praised the library’s response to the incident, is interested in developing a “programmatic element” with the library, to “make this a learning opportunity and to promote respect for different people’s cultures.”
Source: The Huffington Post
PasteMagazine.com: Time Travel: The History of Libraries
By Sarra Sedghi
March 16, 2016
This week in our Time Travel series, we’re flipping through the history of libraries.
For thousands of years, people have traveled to libraries in search of knowledge. Once civilization dawned, people needed a place to store information and archives, and thus libraries were born. The earliest libraries are traced to present-day Iraq and stored cuneiform data on clay tablets. China’s creation of paper in the 2nd century BC helped spread knowledge westward at a faster pace, and more libraries appeared in sacred and private spaces.
During the Enlightenment, libraries experienced a golden age and development shifted to opening these troves of knowledge to the public. People founded more public libraries as time progressed, especially in Europe and the United States. Today, rather than shudder at technology, libraries embrace it, multiplying their catalogue of knowledge.
March 16, 2016
This week in our Time Travel series, we’re flipping through the history of libraries.
For thousands of years, people have traveled to libraries in search of knowledge. Once civilization dawned, people needed a place to store information and archives, and thus libraries were born. The earliest libraries are traced to present-day Iraq and stored cuneiform data on clay tablets. China’s creation of paper in the 2nd century BC helped spread knowledge westward at a faster pace, and more libraries appeared in sacred and private spaces.
During the Enlightenment, libraries experienced a golden age and development shifted to opening these troves of knowledge to the public. People founded more public libraries as time progressed, especially in Europe and the United States. Today, rather than shudder at technology, libraries embrace it, multiplying their catalogue of knowledge.
 |
| The earliest libraries were found in Sumerian temples in present-day Iraq. These troves were stocked with archival clay tablets written in cuneiform script. |
 |
| In China, private libraries emerged around the 16th century BC and were later stocked with a multitude of records and media. The Chinese invented paper in the 2nd century BC, and the practice eventually made its way westward. |
 |
| The Library of Alexandria is arguably the most significant library of the ancient world flourished as a center of learning for nearly 300 years. After the Romans conquered Egypt, the library was destroyed. |
 |
| Islamic libraries were known as "halls of science"and encouraged both religious and secular studies. Most Islamic libraries were destroyed during Mongolian invasions, but some, like the Chinguetti in Mauritania, still exist today. |
 |
| The golden age of libraries coexisted with the Enlightenment movement and saw the birth of some of Europe's most prestigious libraries. During this time, libraries also became more accessible to the public. |
 |
| In 1753, the British Museum and the first true national library were constructed in London. Neither the church nor the king owned the British Museum's library, which was open to the public. |
 |
| The Western basis for the modern public library came about in the second half of the 19th century. After the Reconstruction Era, the movement to increase the number of public libraries in the United States exploded, especially among women's groups. |
 |
| Libraries have adapted the technological advancements that posed threats to books, multiplying the available wealth of information. In addition to housing more forms of media, libraries have incorporated recent innovations, such as web databases, into their catalogues. |
Source: PasteMagazine.com
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
The Atlantic: How Libraries Are Becoming Modern Makerspaces
They’ve long served as communal gathering spots, but these civic institutions are becoming gateways to technological tinkering.
By Deborah Fallows
March 11, 2016
If you could ask Ben Franklin what public institution he would like to visit in America today, I bet he would say the public library. And if you asked him which part of the library, I bet he would say the makerspace.
Ben Franklin is well known as a founder of the early subscription library, the Philadelphia Library Company, almost 300 years ago. It may be less well known that Franklin used the library’s space for some of his early experiments with electricity.
Today, perhaps taking a cue from Franklin, libraries across America are creating space for their patrons to experiment with all kinds of new technologies and tools to create and invent.
As I wrote in a short piece in the March issue of The Atlantic, called The Library Card:
The first modern library makerspace appeared about five years ago in the Fayetteville Free Library in upstate New York. Lauren Smedley, a graduate student in Library and Information Science at nearby Syracuse University, proposed the idea of bringing a 3D printer to the library. Library Director Sue Considine liked the idea and with the entire library team, built on it and created what would be the first makerspace. That was just the beginning. Today, Fayetteville’s 2,500-square-foot Fab Lab (stands for fabrication lab, and is a common name for makerspaces) has expanded to include a Creation Lab for teens and pre-teens, and a Little Makers space for the tiniest makers.
While traveling around the country for the American Futures project, I was always on the lookout for makerspaces in town libraries. I found one right here, in my own backyard, at the flagship of the D.C. public-library system, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
So, I signed up for a tour of their Fab Lab. At my Saturday afternoon tour, I joined a standing-room-only crowd of some 30 people, from 20-something hobbyists to budding entrepreneurs, including a family with their homeschooled pre-teens.
Adam Schaeffer, the hip Library Associate and a perfect match to the accessible, collaborative culture of makerspaces, gave the tour. He introduced us to the eight 3-D printers, four of which were named Kevin Spacey, Dr. Stephen Nash (I googled him; he is a professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University, right here in Northern Virginia), Johnny Pie (I googled him; this is a handle for a contributor to Reddit.), and Maria the Metropolis (a robot from the 1927 sci-fi film, Metropolis). Since heavily-used, new technology like these printers are in frequent need of monitoring and repair, the lab staffers are on a first-name basis with them.
We saw the laser scanner and the laser cutter, which can etch metals, or cut cardboard, wood, paper, and even pumpkins, one of which Adam passed around. There was a wire bender, named Fender Bender Rodriguez. There was a milling machine that can make prototypes of wood or plastics or even soft aluminum.
There was a tool station along one wall, which looked more like your childhood basement tool shop, with lots of super glue, duct tape, how-to inspirational books and magazine, and a collection of old-fashioned tools. If you’re lucky, you can join Adam’s Coffee Club, a coffee station using beans sourced from spots all around DC.
Like everything else in public libraries, everything in the D.C. Fab Lab is free. (Some library charge for some supplie.)
There are 25 branch libraries in the D.C. public library system, in addition to the downtown library. One branch near our house, the Tenley-Friendship Library (a.k.a. the Tenleytown Library), is newly remodeled. In an equally modern step, the Friends of the Tenley-Friendship Library, looking for a project for some extra funds they had raised, decided to sponsor the first ever Maker-in-Residence program for D.C.’s public libraries.
Billy Friedele and Mike Iacovone won the competition. Billy and Mike are artists, teachers and friends, and together they started the Free Space Collective, an arts effort that is all about engaging people with their public spaces, via art.
Billy and Mike have been focusing on different ways for people to look at their cities. The 3-D printing was a first step in speaking to the concept. The simple task that day was to take a familiar object you see around you, like a crunched-up soda can lying on the street, and inspire a new look at it. This was experimental, and who knows where it might lead. To an artist or even a non-artist like me, I say take a leap of faith here; Ben Franklin did. Every maker does, from the sophisticated technologist to the craftsy dabbler.
As artists, and as makers-in-residence, Billy and Mike are very focused on the community. They use words like “sync up” and “interact” with the residents of D.C. I asked if they would call themselves “community artists,” but Billy said that they don’t label themselves, and that it’s much less about themselves as artists and more about the experience of the community and interaction through the art.
As part of the agreement for being makers-in-residence, the pair conducts community workshops at some of the libraries. I decided to attend one last fall. About a dozen folks from the neighborhood showed up on a Saturday afternoon for a project they were calling “Walking as Drawing.”
We would create input for a collective work of art. We would all walk for about 45 minutes, starting and ending at the library, and trace our paths either on our phone app, or the old-fashioned way, by hand on printed street maps of the neighborhood. The only rule was to stick to public spaces (read: don’t cut through people’s yards). They encouraged us to store up impressions of what we noticed or felt along the way. We would reconvene to share our experiences and turn in our personal maps. Then, Mike and Billy would turn our group walks into digital art. Have a look:
I must admit, I was surprised to experience my familiar neighborhood with new eyes and ears. I hadn’t noticed a pop-up park along a street that I probably drive several days a week. Others were surprised at the sounds they heard—the trucks, the kids. We noticed the density of community spaces—besides the library, there was the elementary school, the middle and high schools, the church, the assisted living center, the public swimming pool, and more.
I would say that if the mission was to bring folks in the community together, to ask them to look at their neighborhood in a closer, different way, and to report back to share, then they completely succeeded. They produced this within the framework of art, and art they did produce.
Here is more of Billy’s work and Mike’s work.
Source: The Atlantic
 |
| Ben Franklin experimenting with drawing electricity from the sky, via a kite flown in a lightning storm |
 |
| A Little Maker from Fayetteville |
March 11, 2016
If you could ask Ben Franklin what public institution he would like to visit in America today, I bet he would say the public library. And if you asked him which part of the library, I bet he would say the makerspace.
Ben Franklin is well known as a founder of the early subscription library, the Philadelphia Library Company, almost 300 years ago. It may be less well known that Franklin used the library’s space for some of his early experiments with electricity.
Today, perhaps taking a cue from Franklin, libraries across America are creating space for their patrons to experiment with all kinds of new technologies and tools to create and invent.
As I wrote in a short piece in the March issue of The Atlantic, called The Library Card:
Miguel Figueroa, who directs the Center for the Future of Libraries at the American Library Association, says makerspaces are part of libraries’ expanded mission to be places where people can not only consume knowledge, but create new knowledge.
 |
| Schaeffer with a maker’s bent wire |
***
While traveling around the country for the American Futures project, I was always on the lookout for makerspaces in town libraries. I found one right here, in my own backyard, at the flagship of the D.C. public-library system, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
So, I signed up for a tour of their Fab Lab. At my Saturday afternoon tour, I joined a standing-room-only crowd of some 30 people, from 20-something hobbyists to budding entrepreneurs, including a family with their homeschooled pre-teens.
 |
| Etched pumpkin |
We saw the laser scanner and the laser cutter, which can etch metals, or cut cardboard, wood, paper, and even pumpkins, one of which Adam passed around. There was a wire bender, named Fender Bender Rodriguez. There was a milling machine that can make prototypes of wood or plastics or even soft aluminum.
 |
| Tool wall at Fab Lab |
Like everything else in public libraries, everything in the D.C. Fab Lab is free. (Some library charge for some supplie.)
There are 25 branch libraries in the D.C. public library system, in addition to the downtown library. One branch near our house, the Tenley-Friendship Library (a.k.a. the Tenleytown Library), is newly remodeled. In an equally modern step, the Friends of the Tenley-Friendship Library, looking for a project for some extra funds they had raised, decided to sponsor the first ever Maker-in-Residence program for D.C.’s public libraries.
Billy Friedele and Mike Iacovone won the competition. Billy and Mike are artists, teachers and friends, and together they started the Free Space Collective, an arts effort that is all about engaging people with their public spaces, via art.
On my second trip to the Fab Lab, Billy was experimenting with transforming a photograph into a 3-D object. He was trying out the software and hardware systems that begin with a series of photos he made of a plant in a planter, and turning out an actual, miniature 3-D replica. The magic happens in photographing the object in 360-degrees, including from the top and the bottom, and sending that information to the 3-D printer to do its work. While we talked, the printer was patiently exuding the plastic fed from a spool of wire through a tiny pencil-like nib, onto the platform inside the small oven-looking printer. It was deep purple, Billy’s choice.
 |
| Billy Friebele with photo for 3D printing |
As artists, and as makers-in-residence, Billy and Mike are very focused on the community. They use words like “sync up” and “interact” with the residents of D.C. I asked if they would call themselves “community artists,” but Billy said that they don’t label themselves, and that it’s much less about themselves as artists and more about the experience of the community and interaction through the art.
 |
| 3-D printing purple plant and holder on “Maria”. |
We would create input for a collective work of art. We would all walk for about 45 minutes, starting and ending at the library, and trace our paths either on our phone app, or the old-fashioned way, by hand on printed street maps of the neighborhood. The only rule was to stick to public spaces (read: don’t cut through people’s yards). They encouraged us to store up impressions of what we noticed or felt along the way. We would reconvene to share our experiences and turn in our personal maps. Then, Mike and Billy would turn our group walks into digital art. Have a look:
 |
| You can watch this video on Vimeo by clicking here. |
I would say that if the mission was to bring folks in the community together, to ask them to look at their neighborhood in a closer, different way, and to report back to share, then they completely succeeded. They produced this within the framework of art, and art they did produce.
Here is more of Billy’s work and Mike’s work.
Source: The Atlantic
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Slate: Book 'Em: Why Some Libraries Offer Amnesty to Scofflaw Borrowers - and Others Call the Cops
March 28, 2016
by Helen Chen
Book 'Em
Why Some Libraries Offer Amnesty to Scofflaw Borrowers - and Others Call the Cops
The San Jose Public Library wants its books back. And its CDs and DVDs. Taken altogether, library patrons are holding onto or have damaged 97,000 items and owe the city $6.8 million in fines and fees. The situation is so out of control that about 40 percent of the city’s library cardholders can no longer borrow anything until they return their library holdings and pay what they owe. For a library, this is a DEFCON moment. Maybe not DEFCON 1, but at least DEFCON 3.
What can San Jose do? City councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio has suggested a limited-time amnesty on fines for overdue materials. “If you bring those items back, that’s worth a lot of money just in that inventory of items,” he said earlier this month. In other words, in return for its patrons doing what they’re supposed to do, the library will let bygones be bygones. What’s a little fine between friends, after all?
Over the years, libraries have fined patrons for not bringing back books and offered no-questions-asked return periods. They’ve published the names of book scofflaws in local newspapers. They’ve paid personal calls on people who hold onto books past their due dates, and even sicced the police on particularly recalcitrant readers. And they still don’t really know how to get their books back.
“Librarians have been playing with this issue for a century and a half, and there is little consensus,” says Wayne Wiegand, author of Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library.
One thing’s for sure: Taxpayers often bristle at amnesties, seeing them as gimmes for slacker citizens. And so it is in San Jose, where more than a few were quick to complain. “As a property owner, I’m sick and tired [of] subsidizing the libraries and having to subsidize malfeasance,” one person said at a city government meeting held earlier this month. An amnesty, he added, “enables lack of personal responsibility.” Online commenters weren’t much more supportive. “Once again, irresponsible people getting all the breaks,” one said over at the San Jose News.
Maybe. But no one’s actually proven that fines work. “Our first rule of thumb is we are providing materials with taxpayer funds,” says Julie Todaro, the incoming president of the American Library Association. But, she’s quick to add, “A lot of people will tell you higher fines aren’t a detriment to returns. It is a detriment to people using the library. Period.”
San Jose’s problems began when it raised fines in 2010, from 25 cents to 50 cents a day. Other area libraries charge less. San Francisco dings late borrowers 10 cents for every day late, with a hard stop at $5. The San Mateo County Library, where borrowers from wealthy Atherton check out books, charges 25 cents a day for adult books, up to $8, and 15 cents a day for children’s books, up to $3.90. Exclusive Mountain View is also at 25 cents, and allows borrowers to keep books for four weeks.
San Jose not only charges borrowers more money for late returns; it has a three- week borrowing window, and allows fees to accrue until they reach $20. At the same time, it’s likely a greater percentage of city borrowers are having a harder time paying the money. Children owe $1 million of the unpaid fines. And many of these kids need the library. While located in wealthy Silicon Valley, San Jose contains significant pockets of poverty, with 47 percent of the city’s school public school district’s students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
In Wiegand’s view, library fines are vestigial, a leftover from 200 years ago, when books were highly valuable items, and few could afford to purchase them. Handing over a book for a limited period of time involved a significant financial risk for the lender, and a fine protected that investment.
But even back when, a fine couldn’t guarantee a library would get its goods back. Even George Washington neglected to return The Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel and a volume of debates from the English Parliament to the elites-only New York Society Library.
The New York Society Library needed to wait until 2010, when the New York Daily News outed the founding father, to recover its property. Embarrassed employees of the Mount Vernon historic site saw the article and tracked the missing items down. In return, the New York Society Library gratefully waived the $300,000 in overdue fines. (Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr agreed on one thing, by the way. New York Society Records showed they returned borrowed books regularly.)
Fines had another thing in their favor: They could double as a source of revenue. During the Great Depression, the Cleveland Public Library’s budget shriveled by 40 percent. So it began promoting “overdue weeks,” in which flush patrons were encouraged to hold on to their borrowed books past their due date and pay the fine, an effort to bolster the library’s bottom line.
A large number of California municipalities turned to fines to get by in the wake of anti-tax measure Proposition 13. According to archivist Cody White, who wrote an award-winning paper on the subject, within two years of the tax-cutting initiative’s passage in 1978, 40 percent of the state’s libraries had either raised or added fees as a way to bring in desperately needed revenue. Some systems even began to charge nonresidents for the privilege of getting a card.
And when that wasn’t enough, many California libraries turned to collection agencies. This was so successful that it’s now a widespread practice. There’s even a collection agency—Unique Management Services—that specializes in library accounts, and handles the most recalcitrant of borrowers for 1,400 library systems in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Unique uses a method it calls the Gentle Nudge, which basically means that no, it won’t call you multiple times a day to ask where the books are. But it doesn’t play all that nice, either. Instead, the agency reports malfeasant patrons to credit bureaus if they don’t return the missing materials and pay up. It’s a potent threat. The Madison, Wisconsin Public Library, for example, reports that in the 10 years since it brought in Unique, it paid the company slightly more than $120,000 and, in return, got back just under $1 million in overdue fines and missing materials. Few people, after all, want to pay higher interest rates on loans ranging from mortgages to credit cards because of a library book.
Not surprisingly, patrons aren’t fans. About a decade ago, a New York City rabbi sued Unique after discovering his credit record was damaged when he failed to return several CDs to a library. Librarians don’t always like firms like Unique, either; in 2001, San Francisco politicians dinged a proposal to turn seriously overdue borrowers to a collection agency after librarians complained. Not only did they think it unfair to patrons; they insisted it was their job to rustle up the lost books.
On the other hand, a collection agency is probably preferable to the police. Arrests aren’t unheard of for book hoarders, but nothing is more absurd than the time in 2012 when police in Charlton, Massachusetts, paid a call on the family of a 5-year-old girl who hadn’t returned How to Tie My Shoes and Eloise’s Birthday. Her dad also owed money for an audiobook. National ridicule ensued, but the library said the visit inspired other borrowers to return their books. “We’ve gotten quite a bit back,” a library spokeswoman told CNN. “Even some things that weren’t overdue!” Other times, the involvement of public officials can at least be amusing. In the 1980s, the notoriously eccentric Baltimore mayor William Schaefer called surprised patrons, and said, “Hey, this is the mayor. How about returning your library books?”
Some systems try their own gentle nudges. The Phoenix Public Library, for example, will forgive fines for teenagers enrolled in summer reading programs who write book reviews of what they’re reading. In Nashville, the public library has offered a Food for Fines exchange, knocking $1 off an outstanding bill for every packaged food item a debtor owes donates.
But others swear by limited-time amnesties. They were popular during the Great Depression, when libraries couldn’t afford to replace lost materials and patrons couldn’t afford to pay the fines. They remain popular today—Chicago has offered two amnesties over the past five years, recovering more than 120,000 items. Getting decades-old overdue books isn’t unusual during amnesties. A 1983 Philadelphia amnesty netted $1.5 million worth of books and other library property, including a book originally checked out in March of 1922.
In fact, amnesties have a lot of things going for them. The limited-time offer ensures media attention, so locals will hear about it. They’re also not punitive. That’s important to librarians, who love books, want their materials back, and want their patrons visiting frequently. If fines work, they’ll go along, but if an amnesty works, they’ll take that, too.
Meanwhile, back in San Jose, the library announced plans to debut an improved texting system to notify borrowers when their books are due. Maybe some really naggy emojis will do the trick?
Source: Slate
by Helen Chen
Book 'Em
Why Some Libraries Offer Amnesty to Scofflaw Borrowers - and Others Call the Cops
The San Jose Public Library wants its books back. And its CDs and DVDs. Taken altogether, library patrons are holding onto or have damaged 97,000 items and owe the city $6.8 million in fines and fees. The situation is so out of control that about 40 percent of the city’s library cardholders can no longer borrow anything until they return their library holdings and pay what they owe. For a library, this is a DEFCON moment. Maybe not DEFCON 1, but at least DEFCON 3.
What can San Jose do? City councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio has suggested a limited-time amnesty on fines for overdue materials. “If you bring those items back, that’s worth a lot of money just in that inventory of items,” he said earlier this month. In other words, in return for its patrons doing what they’re supposed to do, the library will let bygones be bygones. What’s a little fine between friends, after all?
Over the years, libraries have fined patrons for not bringing back books and offered no-questions-asked return periods. They’ve published the names of book scofflaws in local newspapers. They’ve paid personal calls on people who hold onto books past their due dates, and even sicced the police on particularly recalcitrant readers. And they still don’t really know how to get their books back.
“Librarians have been playing with this issue for a century and a half, and there is little consensus,” says Wayne Wiegand, author of Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library.
One thing’s for sure: Taxpayers often bristle at amnesties, seeing them as gimmes for slacker citizens. And so it is in San Jose, where more than a few were quick to complain. “As a property owner, I’m sick and tired [of] subsidizing the libraries and having to subsidize malfeasance,” one person said at a city government meeting held earlier this month. An amnesty, he added, “enables lack of personal responsibility.” Online commenters weren’t much more supportive. “Once again, irresponsible people getting all the breaks,” one said over at the San Jose News.
Maybe. But no one’s actually proven that fines work. “Our first rule of thumb is we are providing materials with taxpayer funds,” says Julie Todaro, the incoming president of the American Library Association. But, she’s quick to add, “A lot of people will tell you higher fines aren’t a detriment to returns. It is a detriment to people using the library. Period.”
San Jose’s problems began when it raised fines in 2010, from 25 cents to 50 cents a day. Other area libraries charge less. San Francisco dings late borrowers 10 cents for every day late, with a hard stop at $5. The San Mateo County Library, where borrowers from wealthy Atherton check out books, charges 25 cents a day for adult books, up to $8, and 15 cents a day for children’s books, up to $3.90. Exclusive Mountain View is also at 25 cents, and allows borrowers to keep books for four weeks.
San Jose not only charges borrowers more money for late returns; it has a three- week borrowing window, and allows fees to accrue until they reach $20. At the same time, it’s likely a greater percentage of city borrowers are having a harder time paying the money. Children owe $1 million of the unpaid fines. And many of these kids need the library. While located in wealthy Silicon Valley, San Jose contains significant pockets of poverty, with 47 percent of the city’s school public school district’s students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
In Wiegand’s view, library fines are vestigial, a leftover from 200 years ago, when books were highly valuable items, and few could afford to purchase them. Handing over a book for a limited period of time involved a significant financial risk for the lender, and a fine protected that investment.
But even back when, a fine couldn’t guarantee a library would get its goods back. Even George Washington neglected to return The Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel and a volume of debates from the English Parliament to the elites-only New York Society Library.
The New York Society Library needed to wait until 2010, when the New York Daily News outed the founding father, to recover its property. Embarrassed employees of the Mount Vernon historic site saw the article and tracked the missing items down. In return, the New York Society Library gratefully waived the $300,000 in overdue fines. (Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr agreed on one thing, by the way. New York Society Records showed they returned borrowed books regularly.)
Fines had another thing in their favor: They could double as a source of revenue. During the Great Depression, the Cleveland Public Library’s budget shriveled by 40 percent. So it began promoting “overdue weeks,” in which flush patrons were encouraged to hold on to their borrowed books past their due date and pay the fine, an effort to bolster the library’s bottom line.
A large number of California municipalities turned to fines to get by in the wake of anti-tax measure Proposition 13. According to archivist Cody White, who wrote an award-winning paper on the subject, within two years of the tax-cutting initiative’s passage in 1978, 40 percent of the state’s libraries had either raised or added fees as a way to bring in desperately needed revenue. Some systems even began to charge nonresidents for the privilege of getting a card.
And when that wasn’t enough, many California libraries turned to collection agencies. This was so successful that it’s now a widespread practice. There’s even a collection agency—Unique Management Services—that specializes in library accounts, and handles the most recalcitrant of borrowers for 1,400 library systems in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Unique uses a method it calls the Gentle Nudge, which basically means that no, it won’t call you multiple times a day to ask where the books are. But it doesn’t play all that nice, either. Instead, the agency reports malfeasant patrons to credit bureaus if they don’t return the missing materials and pay up. It’s a potent threat. The Madison, Wisconsin Public Library, for example, reports that in the 10 years since it brought in Unique, it paid the company slightly more than $120,000 and, in return, got back just under $1 million in overdue fines and missing materials. Few people, after all, want to pay higher interest rates on loans ranging from mortgages to credit cards because of a library book.
Not surprisingly, patrons aren’t fans. About a decade ago, a New York City rabbi sued Unique after discovering his credit record was damaged when he failed to return several CDs to a library. Librarians don’t always like firms like Unique, either; in 2001, San Francisco politicians dinged a proposal to turn seriously overdue borrowers to a collection agency after librarians complained. Not only did they think it unfair to patrons; they insisted it was their job to rustle up the lost books.
On the other hand, a collection agency is probably preferable to the police. Arrests aren’t unheard of for book hoarders, but nothing is more absurd than the time in 2012 when police in Charlton, Massachusetts, paid a call on the family of a 5-year-old girl who hadn’t returned How to Tie My Shoes and Eloise’s Birthday. Her dad also owed money for an audiobook. National ridicule ensued, but the library said the visit inspired other borrowers to return their books. “We’ve gotten quite a bit back,” a library spokeswoman told CNN. “Even some things that weren’t overdue!” Other times, the involvement of public officials can at least be amusing. In the 1980s, the notoriously eccentric Baltimore mayor William Schaefer called surprised patrons, and said, “Hey, this is the mayor. How about returning your library books?”
Some systems try their own gentle nudges. The Phoenix Public Library, for example, will forgive fines for teenagers enrolled in summer reading programs who write book reviews of what they’re reading. In Nashville, the public library has offered a Food for Fines exchange, knocking $1 off an outstanding bill for every packaged food item a debtor owes donates.
But others swear by limited-time amnesties. They were popular during the Great Depression, when libraries couldn’t afford to replace lost materials and patrons couldn’t afford to pay the fines. They remain popular today—Chicago has offered two amnesties over the past five years, recovering more than 120,000 items. Getting decades-old overdue books isn’t unusual during amnesties. A 1983 Philadelphia amnesty netted $1.5 million worth of books and other library property, including a book originally checked out in March of 1922.
In fact, amnesties have a lot of things going for them. The limited-time offer ensures media attention, so locals will hear about it. They’re also not punitive. That’s important to librarians, who love books, want their materials back, and want their patrons visiting frequently. If fines work, they’ll go along, but if an amnesty works, they’ll take that, too.
Meanwhile, back in San Jose, the library announced plans to debut an improved texting system to notify borrowers when their books are due. Maybe some really naggy emojis will do the trick?
Source: Slate
Monday, April 4, 2016
Globe and Mail: Opening up the library
March 26, 2016
by Anya Georgijevic
Opening up the library
Book sales have turned a page and ignited new interest in creating novel nooks for reading. Anya Georgijevic profiles striking public and private spaces devoted to devouring the printed word.
A decade ago, when print sales began to dwindle, and countless bookstores closed their doors, no one could have predicted that real, hard-copy books were going to make a return – with a vengeance. Today, not only are book sales rising (industry organization BookNet reports that print copies accounted for 80 per cent of total book sales in Canada last year), but public libraries are becoming increasingly cool places to hang out.
Architect Vanessa Kassabian, a project manager behind Snøhetta’s winning design for the new Calgary Central Library, sees the once forcibly quiet institutions as a place for social activity, “Libraries now are almost more social spaces than they are about learning,” she says.
Snøhetta’s design (aimed for completion in 2018) eschews a single type of circulation in favour of several options for getting around. “We offer a lot of different ways of navigating the building,” says Kassabian over the phone from the firm’s New York office. One can climb the grand wood staircase, walk the ramp along the façade, or navigate the ascending platforms filled with bookshelves. “[The library] has a lot of interstitial space that you can hang out at,” says Kassabian, noting the moments where one can stumble upon a cluster of furniture or semi-enclosed pods, surrounded by bookshelves, serving as semi-private spaces. The design team opted for materials and objects with a domestic feel – warm wood and colourful furniture – to create a welcoming environment.
Calgary is not the only Canadian city that has invested in a new library with the aim of encouraging social gathering. The Halifax Central Library, which opened in December 2014, was conceptualized as a “city’s living room,” architect Morten Schmidt, of Schmidt Hammer Lassen, told The Globe and Mail shortly before its opening. The building’s dramatic cantilevered glass-encased fifth storey features an open space for socializing, with descending stairs doubling as seating, reminiscent of a contemporary agora. The City of Ottawa has also announced plans for a new building, and Edmonton is giving its Stanley A. Milner Library an overhaul. And perhaps not as grand in scale, but big in spirit is the Story Pod, a public book-exchange space in Newmarket, Ont. The eight-by-eightfoot wooden pavilion, designed by Atelier Kastelic Buffey, is a take on the Little Free Library project gaining steam across North America. The Story Pod, which was installed last August, features integrated seating, creating a tiny living room in the heart of the town.
While public libraries are taking inspiration from living rooms, home libraries are also being reinvented. With book sales steadily improving, architects and designers are looking at similar ways to showcase ever-growing private collections. Heather Reisman, Indigo’s CEO and Chief Booklover, says that the interest in collecting is now extending beyond beautiful art and photography books, which remained in demand during the e-book craze.
“Beautiful books to read, love and display are showing up in all categories,” explains Reisman via e-mail. “We recently created a cloth-bound limited edition of Anna Karenina with the original cover art that promptly sold out in all stores.” For those who haven’t Marie Kondo’d their entire book collection, a home library is something to be proudly displayed (and documented with #shelfie and #bookshelfie hashtags on Instagram).
When it came to renovating his Emeryville, Calif., loft, architect Peter Benoit created an entire concept around a bookshelf. The Wood Box, which houses the book collection compiled by him and his wife, also forms the walls of a bedroom, under-stair storage, and a dressing room above. The project, completed in 2010, was hand-built using inexpensive, straight-from-the-mill unfinished Douglas fir one-by-four boards. Another epic built-in residential project is Bookcase Staircase by Levitate, a London-based architecture firm. Built in 2005 as a space-saving solution for an avid book lover, the straight-out-of-a-fairy tale library staircase is lined with English oak shelving, and the books are brilliantly nestled underneath the stair treads. The library leads to a loft space, with a skylight guiding the way.
Utilizing the staircase for book display is not only an efficient use of space, but it can also make the bookcase the focal point in a home. In 2014, for clients who wanted a generous space to display their collection of precious stones and books, Toronto-based firm The Practice of Everyday Design created an elegant shelving unit, with a ceiling-high bookcase downstairs morphing into a shorter waist-high one upstairs, thus bridging two floors in one continuous line. When looking up from the entrance of a Modernest-designed Toronto home built in 2014, one catches a glimpse of a colourful shelving display in the second-storey hallway, parallel to the stairs. The shelving designed by architect Kyra Clarkson, who co-founded Modernest, is composed of a series of custom modular display boxes, organized in playful manner, with the primary-coloured units jutting out like a Mondrian painting come to life.
And Toronto-based Architect Tamira Sawatzky came up with an economical solution to constructing a bookcase for the live/work home of Public Studio, a collaborative art and architecture practice she runs with artist Elle Flanders. The shelving runs the entire length of the living room and is entirely comprised of Ikea components: A one-inch butcher-block countertop sitting on Ekby Lerberg brackets. The pair catalogued the collection by both subject and colour, creating a beautiful gradation of hues.
Whether in a private or a public realm, paper books inspire a sense of comfort and warmth, perhaps due to a healthy dose of nostalgia. Reisman also attributes the return of print to the need to unplug from a world increasingly dominated by technology: “This resurgence of the physical book directly taps into the desire for individuals to take mindful moments, and they are now displaying their books proudly in their homes, whether on coffee tables or their bookshelves.”
Source: Globe and Mail. See original for photos.
by Anya Georgijevic
Opening up the library
Book sales have turned a page and ignited new interest in creating novel nooks for reading. Anya Georgijevic profiles striking public and private spaces devoted to devouring the printed word.
A decade ago, when print sales began to dwindle, and countless bookstores closed their doors, no one could have predicted that real, hard-copy books were going to make a return – with a vengeance. Today, not only are book sales rising (industry organization BookNet reports that print copies accounted for 80 per cent of total book sales in Canada last year), but public libraries are becoming increasingly cool places to hang out.
Architect Vanessa Kassabian, a project manager behind Snøhetta’s winning design for the new Calgary Central Library, sees the once forcibly quiet institutions as a place for social activity, “Libraries now are almost more social spaces than they are about learning,” she says.
Snøhetta’s design (aimed for completion in 2018) eschews a single type of circulation in favour of several options for getting around. “We offer a lot of different ways of navigating the building,” says Kassabian over the phone from the firm’s New York office. One can climb the grand wood staircase, walk the ramp along the façade, or navigate the ascending platforms filled with bookshelves. “[The library] has a lot of interstitial space that you can hang out at,” says Kassabian, noting the moments where one can stumble upon a cluster of furniture or semi-enclosed pods, surrounded by bookshelves, serving as semi-private spaces. The design team opted for materials and objects with a domestic feel – warm wood and colourful furniture – to create a welcoming environment.
Calgary is not the only Canadian city that has invested in a new library with the aim of encouraging social gathering. The Halifax Central Library, which opened in December 2014, was conceptualized as a “city’s living room,” architect Morten Schmidt, of Schmidt Hammer Lassen, told The Globe and Mail shortly before its opening. The building’s dramatic cantilevered glass-encased fifth storey features an open space for socializing, with descending stairs doubling as seating, reminiscent of a contemporary agora. The City of Ottawa has also announced plans for a new building, and Edmonton is giving its Stanley A. Milner Library an overhaul. And perhaps not as grand in scale, but big in spirit is the Story Pod, a public book-exchange space in Newmarket, Ont. The eight-by-eightfoot wooden pavilion, designed by Atelier Kastelic Buffey, is a take on the Little Free Library project gaining steam across North America. The Story Pod, which was installed last August, features integrated seating, creating a tiny living room in the heart of the town.
While public libraries are taking inspiration from living rooms, home libraries are also being reinvented. With book sales steadily improving, architects and designers are looking at similar ways to showcase ever-growing private collections. Heather Reisman, Indigo’s CEO and Chief Booklover, says that the interest in collecting is now extending beyond beautiful art and photography books, which remained in demand during the e-book craze.
“Beautiful books to read, love and display are showing up in all categories,” explains Reisman via e-mail. “We recently created a cloth-bound limited edition of Anna Karenina with the original cover art that promptly sold out in all stores.” For those who haven’t Marie Kondo’d their entire book collection, a home library is something to be proudly displayed (and documented with #shelfie and #bookshelfie hashtags on Instagram).
When it came to renovating his Emeryville, Calif., loft, architect Peter Benoit created an entire concept around a bookshelf. The Wood Box, which houses the book collection compiled by him and his wife, also forms the walls of a bedroom, under-stair storage, and a dressing room above. The project, completed in 2010, was hand-built using inexpensive, straight-from-the-mill unfinished Douglas fir one-by-four boards. Another epic built-in residential project is Bookcase Staircase by Levitate, a London-based architecture firm. Built in 2005 as a space-saving solution for an avid book lover, the straight-out-of-a-fairy tale library staircase is lined with English oak shelving, and the books are brilliantly nestled underneath the stair treads. The library leads to a loft space, with a skylight guiding the way.
Utilizing the staircase for book display is not only an efficient use of space, but it can also make the bookcase the focal point in a home. In 2014, for clients who wanted a generous space to display their collection of precious stones and books, Toronto-based firm The Practice of Everyday Design created an elegant shelving unit, with a ceiling-high bookcase downstairs morphing into a shorter waist-high one upstairs, thus bridging two floors in one continuous line. When looking up from the entrance of a Modernest-designed Toronto home built in 2014, one catches a glimpse of a colourful shelving display in the second-storey hallway, parallel to the stairs. The shelving designed by architect Kyra Clarkson, who co-founded Modernest, is composed of a series of custom modular display boxes, organized in playful manner, with the primary-coloured units jutting out like a Mondrian painting come to life.
And Toronto-based Architect Tamira Sawatzky came up with an economical solution to constructing a bookcase for the live/work home of Public Studio, a collaborative art and architecture practice she runs with artist Elle Flanders. The shelving runs the entire length of the living room and is entirely comprised of Ikea components: A one-inch butcher-block countertop sitting on Ekby Lerberg brackets. The pair catalogued the collection by both subject and colour, creating a beautiful gradation of hues.
Whether in a private or a public realm, paper books inspire a sense of comfort and warmth, perhaps due to a healthy dose of nostalgia. Reisman also attributes the return of print to the need to unplug from a world increasingly dominated by technology: “This resurgence of the physical book directly taps into the desire for individuals to take mindful moments, and they are now displaying their books proudly in their homes, whether on coffee tables or their bookshelves.”
Source: Globe and Mail. See original for photos.
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