library for now

A little while ago I asked: "what is a library[an]" In that entry, I gave you some idea of what I, and other folks, think a public library is, and what it should be. I also talked about what a librarian is, and what that critical roll should be as the library moves forward into the future.

Well, we're bumping into that future right now.

The folks over at Street Lab--the ones who brought us the Storefront Library in Boston's Chinatown, which I wrote about in one of my first blog entries--are now working on that next step. The Uni Project grows right out of what Street Lab learned with their Storefront Library. Uni fills gaps in library service by providing the physical needs of a public library in an even more portable, flexible, and accessible format than the Storefront model.

The Storefront Library brought a temporary library service into the Chinatown community by turning a vacant commercial space into public space.

The Uni brings temporary library service right out into the existing public space we inhabit and use now.

Places like Times Square in New York City,* Chicago's Millennium Park, and others like them, are redefining what public spaces can be, and Uni fits right into that model: extending and reshaping public space to be more useful, interactive and rich.

Bringing the public library to the people is not a new idea. Wikipedia cites an example of a "perambulating library" back to 1857, in England; early bookmobile, yo. The US Lighthouse Establishment (read: US Coastguard) began its Traveling Library program in 1876, with wooden boxes of books, delivered to lighthouses for the use of the keepers and their families, who had trouble getting from their remote locations to the library. Need a more personal sized portable library? Its not exactly public, but I guess it could be. Maybe you could borrow the whole thing with your library card.

WiFi hotspots are not enough. We need libraries--in all shapes, sizes and locations--to keep us connected intelligently. The Uni Project is underway right now. Check out their video to find out more and see how you can help.

* Times Square is one of the places the Uni is scheduled to premiere this fall.**
** UPDATE: Times Square is not on the Immediate list, but elsewhere in New York. Take a look at the comment below from Sam from the Uni Project. Thanks Sam!

heretics

Book five y'all: Heretics of Dune.

Frank Herbert certainly takes the long view when it comes to the epic saga, boy. So, some time has past in the narrative since book four, but the story of the Dune universe pushes forward. This book, in a lot of ways, seems to be laying the groundwork for the finale, which I presume occurs in the last book in the series. Bridge books are fine, as long as they are entertaining and continue to move the story forward, and that's the case here. [I just looked back at what I wrote about the second book in the first trilogy: Dune Messiah. I called that one a bridge book too.]

So check out the cover; sandworms are obviously still a part of the story, that much is clear. Paul Atreides, or Muad'Dib, through his progeny are also, is still very much a part of the narrative, but Herbert has deconstructed the original story and re-built a new storyline from its parts. What's that mean for us readerfolk? A sequel-ilogy that reads pretty well on its own, has some of the familiar elements, but isn't the same old story warmed over to cash in on the readership. In other words: so far, I think the second trilogy is pretty good.

This volume also revisits some of the more peripheral elements from the earlier stories, and brings them more center stage. The Bene Gesserit and the Tleilaxians for example, get a little more in depth review in this book, the Tleilaxians maybe more so than the BG, only because the BG were pretty well delved into in earlier stories. I'm dancing around here because I don't like spoilers so thats probably as far as I'm going to go.

I burned through the last part of this book, and I'm looking forward to the last book. Not sure what's next yet. The Cicero books aren't all out yet here in the US so that's on hold for a while. I've got The Prince by Machiavelli on deck, or I might just jump into Asimov's Foundation series after reading Orson Scott Card's short story a little while ago.

friends

I've had this bookmark for a while, but I don't think it goes back as far as 1989, which is the copyright date noted at the bottom. This bookmarker is obviously a campaign to increase awareness and encourage membership in Friends of the Library USA (FOLUSA). When you visit their website, you get this message on a blank white screen:

"Citizen support for libraries received a big boost on February 1, 2009. This marks the date when Friends of Libraries U.S.A. (FOLUSA) and the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) joined forces to become an expanded division of ALA. The new organization is called the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF)." *

And then you are shunted to the ALTAFF site, which is under the umbrella of the America Library Association. The Association for Library Trustees and Advocates still has a site of its own at the ALA site, but it looks like no one has been there for years. I'm not sure why it still up. Its a little creepy actually, its like a ghost site. This apparently is a real term, go figure.

So the folks that run public libraries and the folks who volunteer to help out public libraries have joined forces, or more accurately, their respective advocacy groups have joined forces, and are supported, at least in part by the ALA. Good for them!

They have their own national conferences (just happened in New Orleans) they've got training seminars for trustees, organizational assistance for new or reorganizing Friends groups, and they even have a new bookmark. Looks like the next big thing is National Friends of Libraries Week, October 16-22, 2011. I'll have to keep my eye out for a bookmark.

* Apparently, who ever is in charge didn't think alta folusa was a good name. Sounds like Italian for a tall, loose woman or a small, mountain dwelling mammal.

god emperor

Oh Frank Herbert, that is some wacky* stuff brother.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and compare the Dune saga to The Lord of the Rings. I know, heresy for the true believer--whether you're the Tolkien true believer, or the Herbert true believer--but what I mean is; both of these guys have managed to weave stories of epic proportion within their respective genres, which include all of the trappings of a good novel, set against a stunningly detailed backdrop of people and places, and the customs, ethnicity, politics, religions, sciences, ecology and economics which bind and contrast them.

I can't imagine keeping all that straight. Oh, and Herbert needs to manage the philosophical output, psychology and inner dialog of his characters as well, even as they age and develop over time. This from a guy who shopped the first novel, Dune, to twenty-odd publishers before someone took a chance on him.

So back to it. God Emperor of Dune is the fourth book in what has become know as the Dune Chronicles. You may recall that I was a little reluctant to continue on to the fourth book, after finishing the original trilogy, fearing that the second group of books wouldn't hold up, or would feel contrived, as many, better-left-unwritten sequels can be. So I was pleasantly surprised.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, given how many folks are gaga over this series, but I guess I try not to get caught up in that stuff, and find that I usually end up reading stories a while after they've cooled off, just to see if they still hold my interest after the initial advertizing and buzz blitzkrieg. Waiting a while also means I can get them cheap and/or won't have to wait for them at the library...shhh!

Now, would I say this was the best yet? No. Would I say its a must read? No. Would I say that its an interesting, if a little over-long, follow up to the original trilogy, that eventually gets over itself, and leaves a reasonably tantalizing outcome at the end, which is probably enough to get me to read the next installment?

What? I just said it. Okay, so: yes. Whatever.**

* when I was searching through my older posts on the first three books, I found that I also used the word wacky to describe them.
** Dude, there is a crap-load of colors I can choose for my little whisperings. Some of them; you can't even see, they're so quiet.

east longmeadow library bookmark

This bookmark was printed to commemorate the groundbreaking of the East Longmeadow Public Library in Massachusetts, on July 13, 2002. That's nine years next week! My office did the architecture, and I managed the project right through the construction. It was a great project to work on. You can see some images of the building here at the library's website. OSO Interiors did the furnishings. The library re-opened to the public in its present location on February 3, 2004.

For the year and a half that the construction was going on, the library continued to serve the public from a couple of double-wide trailers, set up on the grass next to a church parking lot in town. The New Life Baptist Church, was kind enough to donante the use of this land, its parking lot, and storage space inside the church for the protions of the libraries collections that wouldn't fit in the trailers, all for the library and its patrons.

The groundbreaking ceremony was also a chance for folks to take a last look around the old library, which began its life as a hardware store. I brought my young son to this event and he was delighted to write on the walls of the soon to be demolished building.

The quote is from Winston Churchill; "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us", from a speech given to the House of Commons on October 28, 1943, about plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber, destroyed by an enemy bomb on May 10, 1941. I think this quote is especially fitting for public libraries and other public buildings, which help to define and support our democracy.

cryptonomicon

I'm not quite sure why I chose to read another thousand page, super-tome so soon after my trip to Sherlock-land, but I have and it was good, actually.

My dad has been telling me about this book off and on for a couple of years. He actually gave me another book by Neal Stephenson to read first, only because his copy of Cryptonomicon was on loan. That book, Anathem, was more in the speculative fiction/sci fi realm, and because I hadn't read any of Stephenson books, I assumed he was a sci fi guy. Nope.

Cryptonomicon is a modern day--okay, maybe a few years into the future--novel, with an historic fiction sub-plot weaving through it. Sounds pretty simple, and it is, but Stephenson does a great job of weaving the story-within-a-story into the narrative to create mystery and depth, so that, eventually, it doesn't matter which is the main story and which is the sub-plot; they become interchangeable and support one another.

Each of the parallel story lines is related to the other, through time, and this gives the characters tangibility and personal history. As things are revealed in the historical plot line, it has implications in the modern plot line, and weirdly, vice versa.

The story is rich with history, technology (both modern and WWII era), crypotology (again, both modern and WWII era), math, science, war stories and love stories. Sounds like a lot, but Stephenson pulls it off again. Anathem was also a weightlifting exercise, with similar plot complexities, and he pulled that off too. So huzzah to Neal Stephenson for being able to write a big book, about big ideas, and do it so its interesting, albeit, not a page-turner, all the way through.

So why, you may be wondering, after finishing another big boy book, would I be so dumb as to begin a trilogy of 500 pagers? Or, more accurately, the fourth, fifth and sixth book in a sexology. what? I'm sure I'm using that word right. What can I say, I'm a sucker for punishment. Wish me luck as a revisit Dune.

soapbox

Is this light waiting for you?

But, you aren't waiting for it, are you? Nope, you're already gone.

That's okay, I know you're in a hurry. You know what? I'm not in a hurry, I'll wait.

You know who you are: as soon as you wander (or speed walk) to the corner, you press the big, shiny button on the light post for the walk light, so you can cross the street. But 4 seconds later, the two visible cars within a half-mile have gone by, and you boogie across the street and on your way. No problem. Mission accomplished. Pressin' buttons, and gettin' things done.

60 seconds later, I come along in my car--I know, I'm a bad person for driving the 5 miles to work every day--and what do I find but a red light. No problem, I'm a patient driver, red lights happen all the time. But then the walk light comes on... it stops traffic in both directions... all of us carbound folk look around for the lil' ol' lady we're expecting to see, waiting to cross the road... but, where are you?

You're gone!

Maybe its a pet peeve. Maybe I'm the only one who notices this, and everyone else is happy to wait, or just doesn't notice. Maybe.

If, on the other hand, this scenario seems familiar to you, or even, dare I say it, you've pressed that button without a second thought, then maybe you should read on. And if by chance, this happens to you when you're driving AND you also press the walk light button without thinking (And I know you do) then by all means, read on, and perhaps bookmark this page for future reading whilst performing self-flagellation.

Before we get started, let me just say that there is a fine line between a rant and respectful, social commentary. I'm pretty sure that line runs right through here somewheres.

Pressing the walk light is an implied contract, between you and the people around you. See? BOOM, I just came right out and said my thing. I'll explain later. We live in a world that is populated, dear friends, with other people. People who care about the world they live in, just as you do. America especially, is an experiment in freedom, and we Americans revel in our freedom. And we can do whatever we want in America, right?

Not really. And that, is where I believe the problem lies. I know careless walk light pressage is a small issue, but what better, than an insignificant issue to test the American ideals of freedom and liberty. Y'all remember this little diddy, right?

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - Thomas Jefferson

That's from the Declaration of Independence. Life and liberty, baby. Our rights! Sweet. Life we got, but this liberty thing is a little trickier. Jefferson explains liberty this way:

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. - Thomas Jefferson

So its not a whatever-you-feel-like-it kind of deal. Your liberty is limited, and so is mine, by the equal rights of others. Its not the law that prevents you from pressing the walk light when you don't need it. Or, heaven forfend, allowing your kid to smack it over and over and over again, while you wait for the bus! for real yo, seen it. And this one too. check it out. Or--and this one makes my skin ccraawwwl--purposefully pressing the walk light with the express intent of slowing and or stopping rush hour traffic so that you can wave ELECT ME FOR... (Mayor, city councilor, or whatever) signs at the folks sitting in their cars, trying to get home. It boggles the mind! Who's going to vote for the chump that made their commute last an extra 10 minutes?

So how does all this highfalutin talk relate to walk lights? Like so: when you press the button to call for the walk light, you're making an implied contract with the people around you, regardless of whether they are standing next to you, or are in a car down the road that you can't even see. Just because you can't see me, don't know me, or are just in a hurry and hedging your bets, that doesn't mean its okay to hit that button to stop traffic for you if you have no intention of using it. You have a social responsibility to the rest of us, to think about someone other than yourself.

And that's the trick right? If you're using the light to get across the street, then I'm right there with you brother. Press away. Cross at liberty and pursue your freedom! But if you're planning on just crossing the street as soon as you get a break in the traffic, why press the walk light? In most cases, the walk light won't even activate until the next light cycle. What that means is: its not going to come on until the light turns red anyway, so if the light is going to stop traffic, you'll have plenty of time to get across the road then, so just wait for the traffic light.

And pressing the walk light won't make the lights turn red any quicker either. that's a take away message right there homey Any more than pressing the call button for an elevator 19 times will make it travel any faster, or skip over other floors, in its efforts to get to you and your trembling, button jonesing fingers.

So whats the right thing to do? Its simple; be careful with other people's time, and expect them to be careful with yours.

the digitized library

This is exactly what I was talking about!

Gwen Glazer has just written a paper about making all the information in libraries accessible on the web. I'm so excited, I could spit!

Image: National Diet Library digitization project. (They're digitizing everything yo!)

My recent blog entry--of which I spit--is titled "what is a library[an]" This blog entry was actually noted in the June 1, 2011 American Libraries Direct newsletter! That publication directed over 1,600 people to my lonely little blog, and some folks were nice enough to read a little, and even click through! Sweet! Anyhoo... what that means to me is: that in some small way, AL Direct has been nice enough to include my ideas in the conversation, for which I am grateful. So imagine my excitement when I hear that one of the biggest ideas I'm crowing about, namely: getting access to all that great stuff in our libraries, shows up in a policy paper from the ALA's information policy office!

Go ALA, I'm right there with ya, brotha! Or sista!

Okay so, the paper is like 10 pages, so I'll summarize for you. The ALA has such a thing as the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) which releases policy briefs on info tech. The announcement on the 2nd was for the inaugural edition of their OITP Perspectives. A new publication designed to supplement the policy briefs, and to "provide an outlet for topics that are more specialized than those covered by policy briefs." So they tapped Gwen Glazer.

Glazer is a writer, editor and social media coordinator at Cornell University Library. She put together this ten page paper for the American Library Association's OITP in Washington, D.C. The ALA announced this just days ago. Click here to read the press release which includes a link to Glazer's paper.

Here's how I break it down:

THE GIVEN
-Libraries hold a vast amount of info
-Often, these collections contain local and/or special info, available nowhere else
-This info is searchable (typically) by title, author and subject only
-This info is searchable (typically, and as stated above) only from within the library*

THE VISION
-It would be good if all of this info was accessible, and searchable
-It would be even better is all this info was accessible, and searchable, from anywhere

THE PROBLEM
-If this info is not made available on line, it will become increasingly 'invisible'**
-Special collections may be at an even higher risk of loss, due to reduced demand over general info
-In their current forms, some special collections are at risk of loss, or decay
-Some items are difficult to convert to digital forms given their age, fragility, or form
-Smaller institutions are especially disadvantaged due to lack of resources

THE PLAN
-Establish a program to digitize collections in public libraries
-Digitize all the info
-Create a single portal through which these collections can be accessed

Easy, right?

So what does all this do for us? Making our collective knowledge, history, memorabilia and records available on line and in a searchable form will put our libraries back in our own hands, allow access to materials that many don't know even exists, and may allow for some of these rare and or historical materials to be linked to other materials, projects, records and data-streams elsewhere. And you know how I love the linkage!

Image a Smithsonian type institution, with a display on hometown parades, with all kinds of old-timey documents and prints to help flesh out the exhibit, all tied into their on line exhibit, with all of the materials cataloged. We've all seen things like that, right. Now imagine another layer, that digs down to the historical collections in your own hometown--right there on the Smithsonian site.--Links to pictures, postcards, advertising, newspaper stories, speeches by the town fathers, at the parades in your own town, from your library. See, it ties these stories to us. Yeah, gimme some of that.

In fact, don't imagine, go to the Library of Congress site, and check out their digital materials collection. There's even a page on their standards for metadata and retrieval protocols. Clicky-click around on there for a few minutes and see for yourself. Go ahead, I'll wait...



Your back, great! Amazing, right?

One of my favorite short stories in a collection I just read by Orson Scott Card, is based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Card's short story takes place, far in the future of mankind, 10,000 years or more. Man's spread across the galaxy is vast, and this collective of human inhabited worlds is what is know as Foundation. spoiler coming Card's story is essentially about the end of Foundation, or more accurately: the beginning of a new, Second Foundation. Built by librarians.

Let me say that again: The Second Foundation, according to Card, is a movement to [re]create a better Foundation for all mankind, by building a better, more interconnected and annotated public library; the basis for a reborn civilization. And there is a physical place where the librarians work, called a library, which is the repository of man's collective history and knowledge, and a workplace for the librarians and scholars, specifically designed to aid in the fruitful and free thought processes, upon which the Second Foundation will be built.

Maybe it is pie-in-the-sky, but I don't think it ever hurts to think big, and then act incrementally. Glazer and the ALA are talking about the first incremental step in this move toward our technologically rich future. There's enough crap on internet; wouldn't it be nice to have the internet enriched with more quality information?

* - In this case, 'within' the library means via the library's catalog system, whether or not the catalog is being searched remotely. This is whats called a 'Hidden Collection'.
** - That is, unused, or at the very least underutilized.

burnham library marker

The public library in Essex, Massachusetts is named after their local son: Thomas Oliver Hazard Perry Burnham. Who, according to the town's website, was born in Essex in 1814, and during the mid 1800's became a successful and affluent used bookseller & publisher in Boston. In his will he bequeathed $20,000.00 for the building of a town hall and library in Essex. The design, by Frank W. Weston, of Malden, Massachusetts was selected over two others in a blind competition and is representative of the Shingle Style architecture.

The building was apparently describe in the March 1894 issue of The Library Journal:

The interior is finished in antique oak, and the walls are painted in hues of brown and yellow. In the upper story is situated the town-hall proper. It has a seating capacity for 550. There is a stage and a gallery which will allow of entertainments being given there. One-half of the lower floor is devoted to the library, and will accommodate several thousand books.

I've been by the building a number of times; its got a great site looking out over the Essex River flats, and hasn't been messed up yet with any major additions or renovations, altho it is still home to both the town hall and library for this growing New England town.