Happy Tuesday!
Cengage may declare bankruptcy.
Don't judge old books by their new covers: Restyling the covers of classics.
A law librarian at the Library of Congress blog investigates the origin of "In God We Trust" on our currency.
The Appeal of Reading True Stories--a list of suggestions for nonfiction reader's advisory.
From Scientific American, The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper vs. Screens.
Why Haruki Murakami translated The Great Gatsby.
From the World's Strongest Librarian Josh Hanagarne, five great books about libraries.
Just for Fun:
How to Host a Genre-Reveal Party.
Help a library, send a postcard!
50 tattoos inspired by books.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Guest Post: Learning the Collection Through Displays
This post was originally run by Kristi over at Books, Yarn, Ink, and Other Pursuits, but it is relevant to our interests here as well! She recently began working as a library director in western Massachusetts, and has been doing a lot of learning on the job.
________
Now that I have been here a year, I am starting to work on filling the holes in my knowledge about the collection. Over the last year I did accomplish some massive weeding projects throughout nonfiction, VHS, and books on cassette. We had some heavy-duty shelf sitters and overcrowded subject areas. The previous director loved nonfiction, but I have always been a fiction buyer and that was where I focused my efforts when I began working with the collection. Mysteries are the most popular genre here, but they still need to be weeded from time to time. I also broke out science fiction and fantasy into its own area.
One thing I have enjoyed bringing to the library is more displays. We are a small library, but I have a bay in the New Titles area and a cart in front of the circulation desk where I present new displays one or two times a month. I have mostly done "Celebrate X Month" displays, although I do try to highlight authors that have recently passed on, and this month I have a gardening display up because oh-my-goodness I am ready for spring!
It was really when putting together this month's displays -- gardening, Jazz Appreciation, and National Poetry Month -- that I realized I was seeing, if not necessarily shelf-sitters, but titles that were not being picked up as much as I had anticipated. Usually, when these displays go up, I have to fill in spaces several times throughout the month. With these, not so much. I think I have only replaced four books so far.
This could be interpreted in my patrons' lack of interest in the subject areas, but as you can see, they are not the latest titles. I think I had just one gardening book that was published in the last couple of years. We have no recent poetry anthologies, and jazz is not a topic that we have a lot of requests for.
So I sent my selector off in search of some more recent titles in gardening and poetry, with the help of our recent issues of Library Journal (which highlighted both subjects in recent print articles and reviews) and looking at the topics online at both Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I figure if people are buying them there, they will borrow them here!
This has really made me wonder about how best to take a look at smaller areas of the collection, as opposed to the "weeding the 600s" mentality that can sometimes exist in libraries. My library is all part-time staff except for me, and while they do a great job at weeding and making recommendations, we certainly do not focus on these tasks every week. By using displays, we will actually be able to analyze the collection more and make decisions based on patron interest and usage. I am hoping to see this grow into a scheduled review of specific sections each month when the displays change out.
Do you ever find yourself making collection development decisions based on displays?
Kristi is the Director at Emily Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton, MA. She blogs at Books, Yarn, Ink and Other Pursuits and is usually trolling the Twitter feeds looking for library and knitting inspiration as @booksNyarn.
________
Now that I have been here a year, I am starting to work on filling the holes in my knowledge about the collection. Over the last year I did accomplish some massive weeding projects throughout nonfiction, VHS, and books on cassette. We had some heavy-duty shelf sitters and overcrowded subject areas. The previous director loved nonfiction, but I have always been a fiction buyer and that was where I focused my efforts when I began working with the collection. Mysteries are the most popular genre here, but they still need to be weeded from time to time. I also broke out science fiction and fantasy into its own area.
One thing I have enjoyed bringing to the library is more displays. We are a small library, but I have a bay in the New Titles area and a cart in front of the circulation desk where I present new displays one or two times a month. I have mostly done "Celebrate X Month" displays, although I do try to highlight authors that have recently passed on, and this month I have a gardening display up because oh-my-goodness I am ready for spring!
It was really when putting together this month's displays -- gardening, Jazz Appreciation, and National Poetry Month -- that I realized I was seeing, if not necessarily shelf-sitters, but titles that were not being picked up as much as I had anticipated. Usually, when these displays go up, I have to fill in spaces several times throughout the month. With these, not so much. I think I have only replaced four books so far.
This could be interpreted in my patrons' lack of interest in the subject areas, but as you can see, they are not the latest titles. I think I had just one gardening book that was published in the last couple of years. We have no recent poetry anthologies, and jazz is not a topic that we have a lot of requests for.
So I sent my selector off in search of some more recent titles in gardening and poetry, with the help of our recent issues of Library Journal (which highlighted both subjects in recent print articles and reviews) and looking at the topics online at both Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I figure if people are buying them there, they will borrow them here!
This has really made me wonder about how best to take a look at smaller areas of the collection, as opposed to the "weeding the 600s" mentality that can sometimes exist in libraries. My library is all part-time staff except for me, and while they do a great job at weeding and making recommendations, we certainly do not focus on these tasks every week. By using displays, we will actually be able to analyze the collection more and make decisions based on patron interest and usage. I am hoping to see this grow into a scheduled review of specific sections each month when the displays change out.
Do you ever find yourself making collection development decisions based on displays?
Kristi is the Director at Emily Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton, MA. She blogs at Books, Yarn, Ink and Other Pursuits and is usually trolling the Twitter feeds looking for library and knitting inspiration as @booksNyarn.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Click My Link: May 10, 2013
More Potter! Universal announces of the expansion of the Harry Potter theme park.
How do YOU like your classic lit: in a ball gown or lingerie?
Women love erotica: they always have and they always will. (Women are a monolith now?)
Polish spy, said to be inspiration for Bond girls, to be commemorated.
Sourcebooks and Overdrive present: The Big Library Read.
Ergonomics 101: for writers. (A lot of this applies to librarians, some of whom also sit a lot.)
10 disappointing film adaptations of classic American novels.
10 "essential" neo-noir authors.
Famous books you didn't know were censored.
Just for Fun:
Could you talk to a caveman? (I do. So often...)
The best SF/F moms.
William Shakespeare's Star Wars staged in Philly. (!!!)
I would read each one of these fictional mama's biographies.
How do YOU like your classic lit: in a ball gown or lingerie?
Women love erotica: they always have and they always will. (Women are a monolith now?)
Polish spy, said to be inspiration for Bond girls, to be commemorated.
Sourcebooks and Overdrive present: The Big Library Read.
Ergonomics 101: for writers. (A lot of this applies to librarians, some of whom also sit a lot.)
10 disappointing film adaptations of classic American novels.
10 "essential" neo-noir authors.
Famous books you didn't know were censored.
Just for Fun:
Could you talk to a caveman? (I do. So often...)
The best SF/F moms.
William Shakespeare's Star Wars staged in Philly. (!!!)
I would read each one of these fictional mama's biographies.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Click My Link! Thursday, May 9, 2013
Happy Thursday!
Last week, I presented on "Full-Frontal Shelving: Erotica in the Library" with Kristi Chadwick--lots of opportunities for collection development in that area!
The Anthony Award Nominees are out!
Locus Award Nominees!
Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards (outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic).
A handy flowchart for YA humor books (via the Lawrence PL).
If you were waiting for a sequel to A Time to Kill, you're in luck.
Via our friend @librarymary40, some tips on how to get started in a new library job.
From Book Riot, your guide to summer movies based on books.
Just for Fun:
A brilliant solution to the quandary presented by reading in the bathtub.
Last week, I presented on "Full-Frontal Shelving: Erotica in the Library" with Kristi Chadwick--lots of opportunities for collection development in that area!
The Anthony Award Nominees are out!
Locus Award Nominees!
Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards (outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic).
A handy flowchart for YA humor books (via the Lawrence PL).
If you were waiting for a sequel to A Time to Kill, you're in luck.
Via our friend @librarymary40, some tips on how to get started in a new library job.
From Book Riot, your guide to summer movies based on books.
Just for Fun:
A brilliant solution to the quandary presented by reading in the bathtub.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
What the Heck is Denewing?
"Denewing" is the term I invented for the process of taking books from the new shelf and changing their status to, for lack of a better word, "not-new." Sure, I could farm the work out to other people in my library, but it's never been clear to me why I would when denewing presents the perfect opportunity to see what has been circulating, how many times, and (thanks to Evergreen, our new ILS) the last library at which an item was checked out. Plus, peeling stickers = therapeutic. Denewing is something I can do on desk while I help people with their various computer issues.
Denewing also makes your new shelves look better. Because space is at such a premium in most public libraries (although regular weeding could help with that--cough), the New Shelf is the place where we have the best opportunity to showcase what we're buying and catch people's attention. The new shelf should be positioned somewhere where it will catch patrons' eyes and shout (item-wise): HEY, THESE ARE THE COOL, INFORMATIVE, USEFUL THINGS WE ARE BUYING WITH YOUR TAX MONEY.
A "before" shot. Notice how the book on display is squeezed so far over that it's only half visible? That is not ideal. An overcrowded shelf says "sure, put that book back wherever you want, we won't notice."
An "after" shot from one of my sections. Which shelf would you rather peruse?
Leave enough space for one book to be displayed face out and enough space for books coming back to be shelved in the section without creating a space problem for the book on display. New books usually circulate more frequently than denewed books, and sometimes they all come back at once. And, out of consideration for the people (patrons, pages, circ staff, or reference librarians) who will be looking for specific books in the New section, have your display books be from approximately the same call number range as the shelf they are sitting on! A book from the 100s should not be on display in the 900s.
And then there are the opportunities for art . . . all those stickers have to go somewhere, right?
I usually denew every month or so, and the items I'm switching have generally been on the shelf at least nine months. I know from some conversations on Twitter that this is a long time for a lot of libraries, but it seems to work for our collection. Rather than denew on a schedule, I keep an eye on my subject areas (nonfiction only, my collection responsibilities do not extend to hardback fiction) and denew whenever they're looking a little crowded. I may order a lot of books in one subject area one month (e.g., martial arts, for which I recently ordered several titles), which would lead to heavier denewing in that area nine months later. I don't necessarily denew everything I pull off the shelf, either. I might keep a high circulating book on the New Shelf, or one that is seasonally appropriate.
Try to keep in mind that every book that you denew has to have its own shelf space in the regular stacks. For every book in, there should be a book out.
What are your experiences with denewing?
Denewing also makes your new shelves look better. Because space is at such a premium in most public libraries (although regular weeding could help with that--cough), the New Shelf is the place where we have the best opportunity to showcase what we're buying and catch people's attention. The new shelf should be positioned somewhere where it will catch patrons' eyes and shout (item-wise): HEY, THESE ARE THE COOL, INFORMATIVE, USEFUL THINGS WE ARE BUYING WITH YOUR TAX MONEY.
A "before" shot. Notice how the book on display is squeezed so far over that it's only half visible? That is not ideal. An overcrowded shelf says "sure, put that book back wherever you want, we won't notice."
An "after" shot from one of my sections. Which shelf would you rather peruse?
Leave enough space for one book to be displayed face out and enough space for books coming back to be shelved in the section without creating a space problem for the book on display. New books usually circulate more frequently than denewed books, and sometimes they all come back at once. And, out of consideration for the people (patrons, pages, circ staff, or reference librarians) who will be looking for specific books in the New section, have your display books be from approximately the same call number range as the shelf they are sitting on! A book from the 100s should not be on display in the 900s.
And then there are the opportunities for art . . . all those stickers have to go somewhere, right?
I usually denew every month or so, and the items I'm switching have generally been on the shelf at least nine months. I know from some conversations on Twitter that this is a long time for a lot of libraries, but it seems to work for our collection. Rather than denew on a schedule, I keep an eye on my subject areas (nonfiction only, my collection responsibilities do not extend to hardback fiction) and denew whenever they're looking a little crowded. I may order a lot of books in one subject area one month (e.g., martial arts, for which I recently ordered several titles), which would lead to heavier denewing in that area nine months later. I don't necessarily denew everything I pull off the shelf, either. I might keep a high circulating book on the New Shelf, or one that is seasonally appropriate.
Try to keep in mind that every book that you denew has to have its own shelf space in the regular stacks. For every book in, there should be a book out.
What are your experiences with denewing?
Monday, April 29, 2013
Click My Link: April 29, 2013
Good morning and Happy Monday!
Recommended reading for new (and not so new) librarians.
What we can learn from PEW's changing world of librarians.
Judging Gatsby by its cover(s).
The digital truths traditional publishers don't want to hear.
Fascinating blog of books available in the Guantanamo Bay library.
LJ's Periodical Price Survey 2013.
Isabelle Allende on her new book, grandchildren, and loss.
25 vintage photographs of librarians....being awesome.
20 amazing outdoor libraries. (Outdoor....I think I just got hives!)
Internet archive strives to keep web history alive.
Just for Fun:
Stephen King's 11/22/63 on track to become a tv series.
LA Confidential getting a TV series sequel.
Recommended reading for new (and not so new) librarians.
What we can learn from PEW's changing world of librarians.
Judging Gatsby by its cover(s).
The digital truths traditional publishers don't want to hear.
Fascinating blog of books available in the Guantanamo Bay library.
LJ's Periodical Price Survey 2013.
Isabelle Allende on her new book, grandchildren, and loss.
25 vintage photographs of librarians....being awesome.
20 amazing outdoor libraries. (Outdoor....I think I just got hives!)
Internet archive strives to keep web history alive.
Just for Fun:
Stephen King's 11/22/63 on track to become a tv series.
LA Confidential getting a TV series sequel.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Click my Link: April 24, 2013
Happy Wednesday!
Flowchart: Which Shakespeare play should I read?
A special Bush Library exhibit puts visitors in the president's shoes. Yay?
Authorized Margaret Thatcher bio coming in May.
JD Salinger letters discovered.
From Whitman to Lethem, a journey through Brooklyn's literary past.
Jason Segel to write children's book series.
Original BEA interviews with Wally Lamb and Ishmael Beah
11 famous actors reading Shakespeare out loud.
Just for Fun:
Cover battles: Original covers vs. redesigns. (As if Abercrombie Anne of Green Gables would ever win.)
A library of miniature books.
Do you need to hear the Game of Thrones theme played on a college bell tower? Of course you do!
Flowchart: Which Shakespeare play should I read?
A special Bush Library exhibit puts visitors in the president's shoes. Yay?
Authorized Margaret Thatcher bio coming in May.
JD Salinger letters discovered.
From Whitman to Lethem, a journey through Brooklyn's literary past.
Jason Segel to write children's book series.
Original BEA interviews with Wally Lamb and Ishmael Beah
11 famous actors reading Shakespeare out loud.
Just for Fun:
Cover battles: Original covers vs. redesigns. (As if Abercrombie Anne of Green Gables would ever win.)
A library of miniature books.
Do you need to hear the Game of Thrones theme played on a college bell tower? Of course you do!
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