The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
PLA preconference, Top Ten Benefits of Tough Economic Times
The PLA preconference, Top Ten Benefits of Tough Economic Times, was presented by Cathy Hakala-Ausperk and Kim Bolan Cullin. Cathy and Kim started the session by talking about the importance of the CASE philosophy. If you’re unfamiliar with the CASE it stands for Copy and Steal Everything. In that vein, I am going to present [...]
Suggestions
It’s 4 in the a.m. and while the body is tired my mind won’t quit. Others were still running later than I was as there are blogs to read from after my posting – did some of us get too highly recharged? Do I really only need 5 hrs rest? As per the title – [...]
Day 4: Reference Performance discussion group
The last of my “tour” of ALA discussion groups was the Reference Performance discussion group. Here’s a snapshot of some of the issues and questions that were brought up at the group. Feel free to comment on these!! What ARE the expectations of a librarian? The group agreed that it’s not enough to only be [...]
It takes a village to answer a question
On Saturday, January 12, I attended the “Best Practices in Cooperative Reference: Reference and Social Networking” session presented by QuestionPoint, with panel speakers Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College), Beth Evans (Brooklyn College) and David Lankes (Syracuse University). While the panel seemed targeted at academic librarians, I actually found a great deal that would be of interest [...]
Taking the PLA Blog “Audience” to “Community” level?
Monday morning I attended Social Media Breakfast 4 in Boston, the brainchild of Bryan Person, a local new media and networking rock star. Social Media Breakfasts are a chance for local media folks (fans, PR people, users, programmers, librarians, the audience is diverse) to get together over some morning nosh and talk about what’s new [...]
Grow your own librarians!
Your public library can grow its own librarians with a little help from PLA’s pilot program, the “Grow Your Own @ your library” Institutional Scholarship. PLA will award nine public libraries with a lump sum of $8,000 each to be distributed to as many of their employees as they choose for the purpose of working [...]
Borders Educators Savings Week
It’s that time of year again! Borders Educators Savings week is coming, September 26 to October 2, and librarians (current and retired) are included in the 25% discount offer on books, CDs, DVDs, and cafe (some restrictions do apply, see the site for details). These books can be for your library, or just for you [...]
Good start to the conference
My coworker and I came yesterday and had a great experience so far! Checkin was very smooth at both the hotel, JW Marriott, and also at the conference. I had not received my ticket to the Scholarship Bash in advance and needed to go to the will call desk, and that was no problem at [...]
The Hollywood Librarian World Premiere
The world premiere screening of The Hollywood Librarian: A look at librarians through film, left me with very mixed feelings. The film does an excellent job of using clips from movies like Desk Set, The Music Man, Love Story, Party Girl, and others, to juxtapose the image of librarians in film against the realities of [...]
Free science event resource for children’s librarians
I received this via the Massachusetts Library Association listserv, and thought I’d share: WGBH/Boston, a leading producer of quality children’s programming and award-winning resources for educators, is pleased to offer librarians a FREE Peep and the Big Wide World Event Kit. The kit has resources for organizing 3 different hands-on science events for preschoolers. This [...]
