Robert Darnton recently wrote in the New York Review of Books (12 June issue) about “The Library in the New Age”. It is definitely a very intriguing read. In the first chapter, he asked the question of “what will become of research libraries in the face of the technological marvels such as Google?”
Talking about libraries, for those who have yet to watch the Sex & The City - The Movie, the New York Public Library was featured quite prominently in the movie as Carrie Bradshaw borrowed a romantic poetry book as well as the wedding venue of Carrie and Mr Big. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t happen because Mr Big got cold feet on the morning of the wedding. I’m sure it raised the profile of the New York Public Library a little. Hmmm … I didn’t remember seeing any librarians though.
And on the topic of librarians, an American writer and professor, Junot Diaz, wrote an opinion piece in the Syndey Morning Herald on 25 May about how a librarian may have played a part in keeping him on the straight and narrow by introducing books for him to read. I think I heard something similar at the recent Library Association of Singapore Conference at the keynote by Mr. Kishore Mahbubani. Junot Diaz won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Call No.: English DIA).
Books … the latest hip, new book is about James Bond, Devil May Care. Written by Sebastian Faulk as Ian Fleming, it is to commemorate the 100th birthday of Ian Fleming, who was born on 28 May 1908. Anyway, the book is not available at MPOW yet. If you are interested in getting the book, MPOW is currently running a “Devil May Care” promotion where you can win yourself a copy of the book. All you have to do is borrow 4 books at any of our public libraries, get a contest form from the counters, answer a very simple question and drop it into the contest box. The contest runs till the end of June. We’ll be awarding one book to a lucky winner at every one of our public libraries.
- Teachers ‘Not Reading Children’s Books’ Research by the Centre for Literacy and Primary Education (CLPE) in the States has found that many teachers do not regularly read children’s literature. In addition, they tend to choose books from a narrow band of authors. I wonder if it’s true for teachers in Singapore as well. (via LISNews)
- Report: Women Increasingly Choosing Dead-End Careers Over Dead-End Relationships Although on the surface the report seems to have nothing to do with the library, there is a part in the report and I quote “… an overall increase in those settling for absolutely futureless secretarial or librarian positions …”. Hmmm … I wonder how many of my colleagues will agree with that. However, there is a need to take this article with a big pinch of salt as The Onion is a satirical news website. (via LISNews)
- This is not your parents’ library, or yours either The Toronto Public Library has opened the first of several planned KidsStops - an indoor interactive literacy playground - to promote literacy development in children up to age 5. Hmmm … wondering if any colleagues will be going to Toronto after the IFLA Annual Conference in Quebec. (via LISNews)
In MPOW, we have developed a space called Virtual Verging All Teens (V.A.T.) at the Jurong Regional Library to cater to teens. We have teen volunteers help run V.A.T. by organizing programmes such as band performances. The volunteers also conduct book club sessions although we have not gone the route of having game consoles like some libraries in the U.S. In a couple of years’ time, we will have another space for teens to hang out at a new library at the soon-to-be=built youth park/centre, *scape.
So, what are your thoughts on services to teens in libraries? Should we be chasing them out of our libraries or actively work with them to make it a win-win situation?
Anyway, I’ll be sharing this article with my colleagues and hopefully, we can think of ways to encourage more teens to make better use of our libraries.
According to a news article in The Star, it seems like a library in Johor Bahru, Malaysia is facing real difficulty in getting people to return the books they have borrowed. The library currently has more than 6,400 books missing that have not been returned by about 2,000 patrons, some from as far back as 1999. Even with a campaign drive to get their patrons to return the books by waiving their overdue fines, they have managed to recover only 40 books so far. Total costs of the books not returned has been estimated to be about RM325,000 (about S$137,000). The library plans to extreme measures, if the patrons still choose not to return the books, by conducting door-to-door visits.
Super cool video on a summer reading programme at the Worthington Libraries. Maybe we can do something similar for promotional activities for READ! Singapore or our upcoming Teens Holiday Programmes.
A very interesting video that gives a behind-the-scenes look of the happenings in the backroom of a library. Maybe my colleagues in our Library Supply Centre might be interested in doing something similar. A lot more fun than your normal corporate video. I particularly like the ending in the video.
Yesterday, I had a post more towards to children books. So, for today, I found two resources (via LibrarianInBlack) for teens.
The first one that you should check out is Turning The Paige. It’s a teens’ book review blog and is run by Paige Turner, who reads and reviews the books. You can search for books by genre, age level, series or grade through the categories in the sidebar. Turner has a rating system for the books reviewed which would not be foreign to students … A+ to F-. As the site was started only at the beginning of the year, there are not many reviews at the moment. But you might be interested in the “Top 10 Lists” category to find interesting reads.
As for the second resource, the name of the site is Ergo and is created and run by the State Library of Victoria, Australia. Information literacy for students and teachers at the high school / secondary school level is the focus of the site. It has great resources on research skills, essay writing skills and study skills. It has also many great resources for teachers as well. Although the site is quite Victoria- and Australia-centric in terms of the content, there are still many useful tips that anyone can use.
- Ginger Spice renounces singing to become author Geri Halliwell, or better known as Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls, seems to have given up her singing career to concentrate fully on her writing career as a children’s author. Her first of six books is officially published today by Macmillian. The series of books revolve around a small, vivacious, ginger-haired girl called Ugenia Lavender. Do check it out when it arrives in either your local public library or bookstore.
- Anti-terror threat to librarian role Apparently, police in the UK and US have requested for librarians to release information of persons under surveillance of their borrowing records as well as records of internet sites visited. Do you face such issues in your libraries? (via LISNews)
- 21st Century Library Design: A Thought Provoking Program A summary of the presentations done at the recent panel discussion at the Public Library Association 2008 conference in Minneapolis. Useful for those who are planning new libraries. (via LISNews)
From this Times Online article, a “Living Library” is one that loans out a real person rather than a book for 30 minutes.
Depending on availability, the line-up of the human “books” are different. This seems like quite an interesting way to acquire knowledge. But I guess this might be a more effective method for some people rather than just reading a book.
“Living Library” first started as an experiment by Ronni Abergel at the Danish Music Festival in 2000 and it has toured most parts of Scandinavia.
It seems like Australia caught on to the concept of the “Living Library” quite a bit and about 4 libraries have set up such a service. The most active is the Richmond-Tweed Regional Library’s Lismore’s Living Library, which holds one session per month and they have about 15-20 “books” per session. They even have more than a copy of the more popular topics. Other libraries include the Gosford City Council’s Living Library and Swinburne’s Prahran Library. There is also a Living Library in Sydney that runs only once a year in October as part of the Mental Health Week there.
In other parts of the world, Canada’s Douglas College has also started a Living Library where students can “borrow”. And now there’s one in London.
- Carnegie’s shortlist takes children back in time UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s book award has just announced it’s shortlist. Interestingly, all the nominees have a common theme of world history and its conflicts. The shortlist is as follows: Elizabeth Laird’s Crusade, Tanya Landeman’s Apache, Philip Reeve’s Here Lies Arthur, Linzi Glass’ Ruby Red, Kevin-Crossley Holland’s Gatty’s Tale, Meg Rosoff’s What I Was, Jenny Valentine’s Finding Violet Park
- Darwin’s first draft goes online The draft notes of Charles Darwin which eventually led to the writing of his theory of evolution has been made available online. These draft notes are part of the 20,000 archive items that have been made available as part of the Charles Darwin online archive.
