Collection Reflection

"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 (it...

Is this going to be a weekly thing? Got me. Like everything else, we'll do it until people lose interest. But there were seriously cool things on the new book shelves this week, two that I want to purchase for myself. Legendary Rock Songs - Nathan Bracket t Not only is this book cool, it is highly addictive. If you're even remotely interested in the "why" behind some of the most popular songs to hit our airwaves, you have to take a look at this book. You may not want to own it for yourselves (hello, library....) but I intend to buy it. It starts off, appropriately, with Bill Haley & the Comets and goes forward from there. I, for instance, had no idea that MJ's Billie Jean was about a stalker who had scaled the walls of his home and was found lounging by the pool in a bikini and claimed he was the father of one of her twins. (who the hell was the father of the OTHER twin?) And I loved this quote from Sting: "Every Breath You Take is an archety...

Who doesn't love looking at the new book shelf? Yes, we post new things on our webpage, and those are randomly generated and fun. But, I also can't help trolling our shelves of yet to be processed books, music and dvds to see what my colleagues have ordered. It is all so wonderfully random! Some people may still look for new books by broswing the shelves at their local library and/or bookstore, and some have taken to browsing Amazon and other websites for new and interesting things. Some people may not even know what they're looking for until they see it. Once they find something interesting, even at a bookstore, that doesn't mean they want to spend their recession dollars just to satisfy their curiosity. We hear a lot of people say they have two browser windows open, one with Amazon and one with our catalog. Patrons may learn about new items in a variety of ways, but the place where they can (risk free) try new books, movies and music remains the same. Since I ...