Email: historybuff28@yahoo.com
Collections & Acquisitions Librarian, BiblioTech Digital Public Library San Antonio, TX. I'm an author, librarian, historian, husband and father. "Chance favors the prepared mind."
My sisters and I were yearning for entertainment that was anything other than staring at our laundry spinning in circles over and over again. Occasionally we had books to read but we would have benefited from (and enjoyed!) a story time program put on by local librarians. The Chicago Public Library has done just that for families who spend plenty of their time at laundromats like my family did.
One public library offers a safe space for immigrant families to gather. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the U.S. – Canada border, has become a safe haven and a commons for immigrants.
The DJ training program is nine weeks long and it “teaches teens not just how to remix a song and scratch a record, but also how to market themselves and navigate the business world. Reflecting both today’s changing job market and the interests of teens, the library is beginning to offer more courses around S.T.E.M. — science, technology, engineering, math — and the arts.
The opioid crisis in our country is no longer confined to dark alleys or areas beneath bridges and overpasses. This unfortunate tragedy has found its way into public libraries and many public librarians across the country are now trained to administer Naloxone, “a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose.” Make no mistake about it, the library staff at the McPherson library is saving lives and they are proud of their lifesaving work and dedication to their community.
It is finally all over! The 2017 solar eclipse craze has come to an end and public libraries all across the country managed to weather the storm. A plethora of public libraries across the country submitted applications through STAR_Net, a network of the Space Science Institute. STAR_Net distributed more than 2.1 million eclipse glasses to participating libraries.
Podcasting is an effective way for many groups, organizations, and individuals to relay their message to thousands of listeners. Public libraries have jumped on this trend and are reaching out to their communities via this platform.
It’s that time of year again when our nation’s youth flock to their local public libraries to participate in this year’s summer reading program.
For as long as I can recall, it seems when budget cuts are going to be made, PBS is always named as a candidate for defunding.
A lot of us can recall stories and tales told to us by our grandparents when we were young. Many of us hung on to these oral histories and have retold them plenty of times to our children in the hopes that they, too, will keep the tradition going. But what would happen if these oral histories were lost? Future generations would never know about their family’s history. Such was almost the case for the Navajo Nation.
One of the most devastating things that can happen to a community is for its local library or museum to be permanently closed when they have proven to revitalize struggling communities, act as a commons or safe haven for community members, and act as a resource for individuals of all backgrounds and ethnicities.
Books about Islam and any other religion belong in public libraries.
“Privacy is the right to a free mind. Without privacy, you can’t have anything for yourself. Saying you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”[2] Those powerful words reverberate what librarians have been preaching for so long.
Public libraries are inviting public spaces which can offer both privacy and solitude. Unfortunately, this also makes them the perfect spot for those seeking a place to use illegal drugs. According to the Associated Press, the characteristics of public libraries leave them particularly vulnerable to these types of situations, “They’re free of charge and open to everyone, and no transaction or communication is required.”[1] As the country is in the midst of a heroin/pain-killer epidemic [2], libraries have lately seen cases of drug users overdosing or passing out in library spaces.
A group catalog can be a wonderful thing for library users. A library opening up their catalog to patrons outside their service population signifies progress in librarianship. But stop to consider the postage price for libraries with small budgets. Many libraries are willing to forgo the risk of receiving books back from a borrowing library.
When your library has invested much time and money in a particular collection, you hope that your patrons take notice. Over the past four to five years, our cookbook section at Pharr (Texas) Memorial Library has grown tremendously. Unfortunately, the extensive collection circulated poorly. So we decided to roll with what we had and launch our own cooking show titled “Cooking with Ben” (after one of our staff members). Ben volunteered and was the ideal chef for the job. The response has been amazing!
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