Recommended Reading, Links Galore, Plentiful Screenshots, Occasional Commentary, and Color-Coordinated PowerPoint Slides on the Topics of Libraries, Publishing, Technology, Politics, Social Issues, and Much More
Excerpt:Finally, the people of Jacksonville will have to answer these questions:
Do they want an outstanding library system or one that is deteriorating?
Do the people want declining numbers of materials, which mean longer waits for them, with insufficient staff to help them and with facilities that are falling apart?
Does Jacksonville want the library to be able to plan for the future?
The system can’t do that now, Gubbin said.
Frankly, with the major literacy issues in Jacksonville, the city can’t afford to let the library system slip.
Too many adults are functionally illiterate.
Too many students can’t read at grade level. The libraries are equipped to deal with these issues.
To let the library system deteriorate is to let Jacksonville’s future slip, as well.
Excerpt:Council members considered 15 ideas — which stemmed from discussions at previous budget workshops — for saving money or generating new revenue. Among them were
raising the mill rate,
reducing employee pension contributions,
drawing from the city’s emergency, or “rainy day,” fund,
layoffs, furloughs, wage cuts for city employees,
selling more advertising through billboards and bus shelters,
consolidating city departments or city and school operations,
selling off city assets, such as a parcel of land adjacent to Batterson Park in Farmington,
cutting contributions to the public library[bad idea] and
implementing a voluntary payment in lieu of taxes program.
Excerpt:Ten years ago, shoppers envisioned a day when RFID tags would allow them to whisk shopping carts through a checkout without unloading them -- or bypass the checkout lane and ring up groceries as they walked through the store.
But RFID never got cheap enough for razor-thin grocery margins. And we're still stacking groceries on conveyor belts, a 19th-century invention.
Year after year, retail trade shows buzz with the prospects of new checkout technology. But the pedestrian task of paying for groceries mostly still depends on clerks and shoppers being efficient.
There have been some innovations in checkout lanes, and shoppers will see a few more over the next couple of years. Smartphone scanners and technology that keeps up with the flow of shoppers may speed up shopping trips, but many chains say they're finding that their employees are the best weapon against long lines. More stores are reconfiguring their express checkouts with one line leading to multiple cashiers, which has been proved to be speedier.
Trader Joe's, for example, uses a single line for express checkout. [Metcalfe's, both Madison locations, does this for its self-check lines.] Some Whole Foods stores have self-checkout registers, but for quick trips, the single line leading to several cashiers is considered faster, Whole Foods Market Southwest region President Mark Dixon said.
Excerpt:The bill is currently awaiting Governor Jan Brewer’s signature, and the Media Coalition, which defends first amendment rights in the media, has sent her a letter outlining some of the problems with the legislation.
“H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to use any electronic or digital device to communicate using obscene, lewd or profane language or to suggest a lewd or lascivious act if done with intent to ‘annoy,’ ‘offend,’ ‘harass’ or ‘terrify,’” the letter notes. … ‘Lewd’ and ‘profane’ are not defined in the statute or by reference. ‘Lewd’ is generally understood to mean lusty or sexual in nature and ‘profane’ is generally defined as disrespectful or irreverent about religion or religious practices.”
Philadelphians use their libraries less than their counterparts in most of the 14 other urban
communities studied.
One factor contributing to Philadelphians’ relatively low use of their libraries has been the extraordinary number of times that branches have experienced temporary, unscheduled closings
in the past few years.
The Free Library has been slower than some other big-city libraries to adapt to the changing
needs of its population.
In Philadelphia, efforts to adjust to changing customer demands in a tough fiscal environment are
complicated by a complex and often cumbersome governing structure.
Overall library spending in Philadelphia, at $43 per resident in 2011, is slightly below the average
for the communities studied.
Most populous counties (1950) and population growth
Counties that have lost population since 1950
*Pepin County's population was 7,213 in 2000.
Other counties with significant gains in population since 1950.
Copy of Milwaukee Journal article and maps found in this publication.
Considering that there were about 170,000 farms in Wisconsin in 1952, I think the reporter used a pretty effective hook to open his story.
Your Wisconsin librarian is likely to be a farmer's daughter, but you won't find the farm organizations supporting her work, a statewide survey showed Saturday.
In that case, we'll have to let the Premiers (no e, actually) show her some love.
From the article:In an attempt to figure out whether parents should embrace e-books with great enthusiasm or ration e-reader screen time as they do TV time, Julianna’s class is participating in a research project for the Center for Literacy at the University of Akron.
The project is meant to find the best way to integrate e-books into classrooms. It is part of a broader study of kindergartners through second graders using a range of devices and computers.
From the article:Lisa Guernsey, director of the early education initiative at the New America Foundation, says conversations about how events of a story relate to the child’s own life, or asking open-ended questions about what happened, are examples of spontaneous dialogue. But this kind of interaction is often different with e-books, she said, and in some cases, disappears.
Excerpt:Arrests at the Monroe County Public Library in downtown Bloomington have tripled in the past six years, as have the number of reported assaults, The Herald-Times[subscription required] reported. The number of people considered "trespassers" rose from one in 2006 to 14 in the last year, according to Bloomington Police Department data.
Library director Sara Laughlin said the library tries to be a safe and welcoming place for everyone who ends up there — including the smokers, the drinkers and the enraged.
But increased reports of drunkenness and other issues have forced some changes in the library's environment and policies. New white tile and additional lighting have been installed in the men's restroom to reduce vandalism. A tobacco-free policy that was enforced March 1 has helped improve the atmosphere near the Kirkwood and parking lot entrances. More changes are coming. Landscaping crews will work to reduce large seating areas where groups gather and to add interactive and educational pieces. Staff also plan to review the library's Internet policy and consider filtering computers to reduce inappropriate websites, mainly in response to the handful of complaints each year about Internet pornography.
[snip]
When an intoxicated person is banned, staff members give them a card letting them know when they can return to the library. That way, when they're sober again, they'll remember they've been banned.
Excerpt:The Indianapolis Public Library Board of Trustees on Monday unanimously approved a plan to restore most of the operating hours slashed across the system's 23 branches in 2010.
Under new hours taking effect May 13, nearly all branches will open at 10 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays. Some will open at noon on Sundays. All except the Flanner House branch will be open at least six days a week.
The Central Library and seven other branches will be open seven days a week. The board approved the new hours by a 7-0 vote, said Jon Barnes, the library's spokesman.
I first discovered a copy of this 11-page report when reorganizing the library's administrative file drawers, probably around the time of Middleton's 2003-2004 remodeling and expansion project. I casually paged through it but otherwise didn't give it much thought. It seemed like such ancient history.
But then while looking for documents to supplement the "Chapter 43" series, I stumbled across a copy at the UW-Madison SLIS library. This time I decided to give it a more careful reading.
From the title page. A late great sociologist, Edward L. Thorndike, has suggested that we can measure the ambitions, the cultural and intellectual interests, and the social goals of any community by the quality of its library. He noted that a well-supported public library is a universal characteristic of an intelligent, progressive community.
I made a halfhearted effort to locate the actual quote, without success. Anyone else up for the challenge?
The reports recommendations. It is readily apparent that the Middleton library falls short of Wisconsin statutory requirements and ALA minimum standards in many respects. The low circulation figures, the poor quality and number of books, and the low budget are all indications that the library does not presently reflect the "ambitions, interests, and goals of the community". It is equally apparent that community resources -- both human and financial -- are entirely adequate to the task of developing a library that will meet the needs of all of its citizens.
Reformatting the information found on page 2 of the report.
I exclude Stoughton from the suburban Madison category, using this observation from Wikipedia as my reason. For much of the history of the area, Stoughton has been the second-largest and economically important city in Dane County after Madison.
Excerpt: While Grand Rapids Public Library leaders preferred staff cuts to closing branches or reducing hours of operation, a unanimous vote tonight to ax 14 jobs including the Web branch manager will shut the city system’s “virtual front door,” said a college librarian who criticized the $494,000 budget cut.
“You’re going to see a stale Web site,” Rabey said. “You’ve essentially just put yourself back in the 20th century.”
Faced with a revenue gap caused largely by declining property tax receipts, Warner proposed a $9.2 million budget that met a board goal of maintaining hours of operation at the library's eight branches. More than half of the job cuts will come from the library’s planned implementation of a radio frequency identification, or RFID, system. Warner said the other job cuts are part of an ongoing effort to make library operations more lean.
Excerpt: On Tuesday, Mayor Paul Soglin and others kicked off a $29.5 million reconstruction of the worn shell that will bring a glassy, modern facade, a third-floor, new technology, more natural light and public space to create a state-of-the-art facility at the corner of North Fairchild and West Mifflin streets.
The library will reopen in the summer of 2013.
"I'm very pleased with what we ended up with," Library Board President Tripp Widder said. "I think the community is going to be very pleased with it 18 months from now."
The ceremony featured the removal of the library's 1965 cornerstone, which will be reused in the reconstruction.
The cornerstone protected a time capsule holding books, newspapers, and library materials that were displayed during the event.
City officials and library advocates have long sought to modernize the building, which is structurally sound but lacked space and technology and suffered from millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.
Excerpt:Last week’s 31-1 no-confidence vote in the Rockford Public Library’s director by its union didn’t go unchallenged at Monday’s Library Board meeting. After several staff members and supporters spoke about their concerns over Executive Director Frank Novak and the future of the library, the board’s president and past president addressed the crowd of about 80 people, saying they stand by Novak and think he’s doing a good job.
Excerpt: St. Croix County levies a yearly library tax on property owners in municipalities that don’t have a library. The revenue is used to compensate libraries for users who come from outside of the municipalities that operate the library.
The Hudson City Council held a special meeting in a packed council chamber Monday night to discuss how to bring the library into compliance with the state requirement.
Mayor Alan Burchill said the city and partner municipalities won’t have to reimburse the library for the past shortages, but will need to abide by the state statutes beginning in 2013.
4 options to reach compliance as presented by City Finance Director Neil Soltis presented four options for reaching the level of library funding required by the county and state law.
Continuing as a joint library with an increase in city tax support for the library,
Continuing as a joint library without an increase in city tax support for the library
Reverting to operating as a municipal library with an increase in city funding.
Reverting to operating as a municipal library without an increase in city funding.
43.64 County tax.
(1)The county board of a county expending money for public library service to its inhabitants may levy a tax to provide funds for such service and shall include any amount of tax under this subsection in the amount of taxes determined to be levied under s. 70.62 (1).
(2) (a)In this subsection, "library fund" means the funds raised by the city, village, town or school district by tax levy or appropriation under s. 43.52 (1).
(2) (b)Procedure and formula for exemption from the county library tax. Except as provided in sub. (2m), any city, town, village or school district in a county levying a tax for public library service under sub. (1) shall, upon written application to the county board of the county, be exempted from the tax levy, if the city, town, village or school district making the application levies a tax for public library service and appropriates and expends for a library fund during the year for which the county tax levy is made a sum at least equal to an amount calculated as follows:
1.Divide the amount of tax levied by the county for public library service under sub. (1) in the prior year, less the amount levied for public library capital expenditures, by the equalized valuation of property in that area of the county that was subject to the county property tax levy for public library services in the prior year.
2.Multiply the amount determined under subd. 1. by the equalized valuation of property in the city, village, town or school district for the current year.
(2m)No exemption allowed if public library does not comply with standards.No city, village, town or school district is exempt from the tax levy under sub. (2) for any year if, by September 1 of the year preceding the year for which the tax is levied, the county board determines that the public library of the city, village, town or school district that is a member of the public library system has not complied with standards approved under s. 43.11 (3) (d) and (e).
(3) Each city, town, village or school district participating in a joint library under s. 43.53 shall be treated individually in determining its eligibility for tax exemption under sub. (2).
Revised Dane County Library Service Standards 2008. (From June 2008 Director's report to Middleton Public Library Board of Trustees.)
60 Atty. Gen. 389. A municipality having a traveling library service within its municipal limits could raise a library fund for that service and be exempted from the county tax by meeting the requirement of sub. (4).
65 Atty. Gen 182. A town, city, or village that does not maintain a public library, but makes contributions to a nearby public library, cannot be exempted from the county library tax levy under sub. (2).
72 Atty. Gen. 190. A municipality, otherwise qualified, is entitled to an exemption under sub. (2) when the county has not acted to levy a tax specifically designated as a county library tax but does finance money expended for public library services to its inhabitants by a general tax levy.
