The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach Program
This Sunday afternoon program was intended as a follow-up for individuals who had participated in Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach workshops. Although I was not one of those lucky few, I decided to attend the session to learn more about it, and I am very glad I did, as the information provided could be useful to [...]
Press Release: PLA Receives Gates Grant
PLA receives Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to help public libraries build skills and experience needed to increase local support and funding
$7.7 million grant will fund national training program for library staff and supporters
(Washington, D.C.) – Susan Hildreth, president of the Public Library Association (PLA) announced during the 2007 American Library Association (ALA) Annual [...]
Still Time to Enter the BEST OF SHOW Promotional Materials Competition
Public libraries can be total rock stars when it comes to publicity. Take a moment to strut your stuff by entering the competition (details below) now that they’ve extended the deadline!
C’mon – you know your library does some amazing public relations work . Show it off to the rest of the country! [...]
Advocacy @ Your Library
I’m a SLIS student at SJSU volunteering to report my experiences at Spring Symposium. I attended the Advocacy @ Your Library workshop on Friday morning and Mining the Gold workshop Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
Advocacy @ Your Library introduced Advocacy Toolkit for Success, a collaboration between PLA and the Metropolitan Group . Earlier in [...]
“You don’t want to join, you want to belong”
The title for this post comes from a sign I saw in one of the hotel elevators when I first arrived yesterday. I’ve heard Karen Hyman speak probably about 4 times by now, but it’s never too many times. Her well-attended presentation this morning on “The Customer-Centered Library: How to Stop Tweaking [...]
Podcast: Mary Baykan, LJ Librarian of the Year, Keynote Speaker
I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Mary Baykan, director of Maryland’s Washington County Free Library, executive director of the Western Maryland Public Libraries, and Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year for 2007, present the keynote session for the symposium, which Mary graciously gave us permission to record and podcast for your listening pleasure.
After an [...]
Proposed Service Responses Discussions
As you’ve seen from our recent buzz, the drafts of the new and improved PLA Results Service Responses are now available. True to the first round of the process, we are opening up each new Service Response for discussion here on the blog.
The original set of service responses numbered 13, and last time around we [...]
Dewey Donation System
If you don’t know about the Dewey Donation System, take a look.
Started in 2003 by a blogger and writer Pamie, the idea is to get book donations for libraries that need help. In 2003, it was the Oakland County Library, and in 2004, DDS helped out a branch of the San Diego Public Library [...]
Intellectual Freedom in Rural Libraries
update: links should work now
Jessamyn already wrote about the “Small But Powerful Guide to Winning Support for Your Rural Library” (available here as a PDF). You can now also access the Small is Powerful Online Toolkit for Winning Support for Your Rural Library online. I haven’t had a chance to study it in [...]
Podcast: McGuire family sells lemonade to help libraries
This afternoon, as I was walking through the conference center with Kathleen Hughes, I saw out of the corner of my eye a flutter of yellow balloons. Outside near the shuttle buses, a the McGuire family, Bob, Meg, Miles (the 8-year old Marketing Mastermind for the stand), and Callan (a.k.a Cal, the 7-year old [...]
