PLA Blog

On September 2, the ALA Office for Research and Statistics will release the 2007-2008 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study. One of the findings is that there has been significant growth in the online services being made available to the public.

In an effort to raise awareness of the study and draw attention to the wealth of resources public libraries are brokering for their communities to freely use online, the ALA plans to highlight this finding in its media materials.

“Licensed databases,” however, means little to people outside libraries and knowledge management. We’d like to highlight a handful of “fan favorites” – databases that get the most traffic and kudos from public library patrons – and “hidden gems” – databases that librarians love and want everyone to know about. Visit this link to participate in the survey. Based on emails from reference librarians (thanks, RUSA!), we’ve created a short menu of response options, but you can add your own in the “other” box.

Thanks in advance for helping us select a few favorites to share in future communications. If you have a memorable example of how one of your “premium Web sites” helped a library patron, we invite you to share that, as well. This survey will close Friday, August 22.