The Library Catch-22: What Happens in Vegas....and Everywhere Else

Source: City of Henderson DoIT

Link to February 10 Las Vegas Sun article, "With revenue down and demand up, libraries are in a tough spot". (via Twitter)

Excerpt: The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District estimates it will lose $60 million over the next five years if changes aren’t made to its budget.

For libraries, difficult economic times are a catch-22 — their popularity skyrockets, but their funding, which comes primarily from property and consolidated sales taxes, plummets.

Over the past two years, circulation at Las Vegas libraries rose 12 percent, visits increased by 12 percent and research question, such as job search inquiries from patrons, increased by 23 percent, said Jeanne Goodrich, executive director of the Las Vegas–Clark County Library District.

Computer usage at the district’s 12 urban and 12 rural libraries increased by 25 percent over the past two years, too, she said.

“There’s a direct correlation between our high usage and high unemployment right now,” she said.

Because only 4 percent of the library’s revenue comes from fines and other fees, it is difficult for public libraries to find other sources of money, Goodrich said. As of yet, no new sources have been proposed.

Related article:
Las Vegas Libraries on a Roll. (01/17/2010)

February 18 is Snapshot Day at Connecticut Libraries

From announcement. On Thursday, February 18, 2010, libraries all over Connecticut will be taking a ‘snapshot’ – collecting information to capture the impact that Connecticut libraries have on their communities on a typical day. Snapshot Day is a joint project of the Connecticut Library Association, the Connecticut State Library, and the Connecticut Library Consortium. It is based on a project of the same name created by the New Jersey State Library and the New Jersey Library Association. We are grateful to them for allowing us to “borrow” this successful idea.

Link to details.

Wisconsin had its own appropriately named version.

Zachary Mason, author of "dazzling debut novel"*, is profiled in New York Times

*From Michiko Kakutani's January 27th New York Times book review.

Currently 19 holds on 7 copies in LINKcat

Link to February 10 New York Times article, "A Calculus of Writing, Applied to a Classic".

Excerpt: Zachary Mason’s critically praised first novel comes with a largely self-explanatory title: “The Lost Books of the Odyssey” purports to be a compilation of 44 alternate versions of Homer’s epic. What that title cannot possibly convey, though, is the unusual journey of Mr. Mason’s manuscript on its way to publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux last week.

Mr. Mason, 35, a computer scientist specializing in search recommendation systems and keywords, once worked at Amazon.com. He avoided writing workshops and M.F.A. programs as a matter of principle, and produced “The Lost Books” at night, during lunch breaks and on weekends and vacations.

A Silicon Valley native, Zachary Mason is the only child of a probation officer and librarian. He graduated from high school at 14 and began work on his doctorate at 19.