This resource is for anyone who has ever been trapped in "customer service" telephone tree hell, trying only to get connected to a human voice in the technological wilderness.

http://www.gethuman.com

Typical traffic patterns, slowdowns, accidents and problems can now be seen on Google Maps for certain areas of the country - http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-ways-to-beat-traffic-with-google.html 

 

Just don't try to view this while driving, or you're likely to cause an accident yourself!

This was an interesting article about the challenges that libraries in England are facing: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Your-library-needs-you-.4020534.jp 

There are some really, really good books that are out of copyright, which means you can download them for your Kindle for free. Two sites I just found are www.manybooks.net and www.feedbooks.com

 

I just downloaded Middlemarch by George Eliot, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, the Bible (one never knows when that might come in handy), Best American Humorous Short Stories (from 1915, it will be interesting to see how our collective sense of humor has changed since then), Grimm's Fairy Tales, Dale Carnegie's "The Art of Public Speaking" and a sci-fi short story by Cory Doctorow (current writer)... all for free. Man, I love my Kindle.

Thanks to Val S for pointing me to this blog post by the Shifted Librarian - http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2008/03/18/videogames-and-martinis-25-years-later.html. There was ALL SORTS of controversy when some libraries began circulating Atari video game cartridges 25 years ago. The arguments were similar to what I occasionally hear from people now. It just goes to show that we keep having the same arguments over and over and over again. Those of us who still secretly feel that audiovisual materials have no place in the library need to realize that in order to stay viable in this changing world, WE need to change. That means lending the kinds of things our patrons want to borrow. Which, occasionally, might be video games or other non-print materials. Good golly, Miss Molly.

The New York Times just published a short article about libraries and how we are using technology to serve our patrons- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/20Rlibrary.html?ref=nyregionspecial2 

 

Here's a quick and easy contest to do at a library -- we are having a Picture Your Pet Reading contest! Families can take a picture of their pet reading, and we will display it in the library (and on our blog: http://www.longhillreads.blogspot.com/). We have gotten such cute entries, we knew there was no way we could choose the best one, so we are just going to choose a winner at random (or maybe several winners). The prize? Probably a gift card to a local pet store.

 

We marketed this event not only on our website and in our email newsletter, but also by sending home a flyer with all the kids in grades K thru 5. This worked really well -- several mothers came in and said they were being bugged by their kids to take the picture. One woman checked out several books about mice and about cats because she wasn't sure what her cat would want to read. (!)

 

A study OCLC did a few years ago mentioned that the thing people associate with libraries the most is STILL books, no matter how we try to "update" our image. Hey, being associated with books is fine with me, and this type of thing is a great (and cheap!) way to get kids excited about books and reading.