The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
Next Library unconference in Denmark, June 2009
Happy Holidays PLA Blog readers! This may be my last post for a week or more depending on how restless I get during my own Christmas and New Years celebrations. I’m looking forward to a little bit of time off to actually read books. There’s a common misconception that librarians just sit around and read [...]
Data-based decision-making at the Bushwick Library
Brooklyn Public Library is making a giant, concerted systemwide effort to boost material circulation right now. Suddenly I have a great opportunity to use some of the strategic planning training I received at PLA’s Strategic Planning Bootcamp a few months ago. Figured I’d share it with everyone. My plan is to rearrange my [...]
Library pictograms from Sweden
The other day I stopped by my favorite little bookstore, Spoonbill & Sugartown, and found a great book called New Graphical Symbols for Many More. New Graphical Symbols for Many More is “a (Swedish) national development and standardization project aimed at making public symbols more uniform and more serviceable in keeping with the concept [...]
pictotags link a mobile web app to a materials parking system
A few years ago I presented a new service model for urban public libraries that I called the Library Outpost. The Outpost is a small, storefront library space in a busy retail environment with no local, physical browsing collection. It is a space that assumes an increasing number of library users are happy [...]
Simplicity cont’d. begin Create and Share Content.
After strategic planning BootCamp last week, I’ve had Nelson and Garcia’s 18 service responses on my mind non-stop. It’s a significant step to drill down the services we can offer at public libraries to 18 clear bullet points. My last post on this blog offered a few anecdotes advocating for simplicity in the communication arts. [...]
21st Century Library Design: A Thought Provoking Program
It would have been a standing room crowd at 21st Century Library Design today if the rules allowed standing around the walls of the room in the Minneapolis Conference Center. Because of the municipal rules, dozens of people were asked to leave. They missed a program on library space utilization that included many good and [...]
