The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
John Beck Captures Our Minds and Hearts
johnbeck Originally uploaded by informationgoddess29. I was taking notes on my Palm, because I wasn’t able to sit near a plug and my laptop battery was drained (again), and when I tried to save my file, it CRASHED. My notes are gone. Will you take my word for it that John Beck gave a brilliant [...]
Boston Public Library Throws One Hell of a Party
bpl Originally uploaded by informationgoddess29. A town crier announced events, attractions and the local time, greeting guests entering the foyer of the Johnson Building of the Boston (MA) Public Library’s main branch in Copley Square on Friday evening March 24, 2006. The entertainment included colonial cosplay (I swear I saw Sam Adams!), live music, young [...]
Overheard at PLA
“I don’t have handouts I tried to write them out last night and my hand got tired.” ~Aaron Schmidt, Thomas Ford Memorial Library “Libraries are not the warehouse for books, but a place for people to interact.” ~Dr. David Liroff, WGBH “You don’t want any problems with teenagers at your public library at 3:30? One [...]
Brand and Deliver: Montgomery County Public Library MD
“[We think that] marketing is given out keychains and pens – we’ve got to get beyond that.” Handouts for this session are online at http://www.ivylibrary.com; please contact presenters for the password – http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/libraries/index.asp Montgomery County PL got a grant to work with marketing firm to design a new logo and create taglines: Where the County [...]
A Teamster’s Farewell
Good-by now to the streets and the clash of wheels and locking hubs, The sun coming on the brass buckles and harness knobs. The muscles of the horses sliding under their heavy haunches, Good-by now to the traffic policeman and his whistle, The smash of the iron hoof on the stones, All the crazy wonderful [...]
A quick note about the Placement Center
I completely agree with Sarah: this being my first PLA conference, and having been to other state conferences, I was amazed by how nice everyone was, how easily conversations were initiated; I felt very comfortable. I also wanted to add a quick note about the Placement Center: I’d never interviewed at a conference, and was [...]
Where is your library on the curve?
Thursday was the day of flying and exhilarating talk about what a cutting edge library could do- meet the needs of gamer generation, have a website that reaches out globally, create a culturally diverse library or even look to new vistas for programming. Friday and Saturday was more business as usual. How is my library [...]
Readers’ Advisory Tool Kit 2
The overall theme: marketing books to readers. Since I’m horrible at RA and, like many librarians, am not great at marketing, this was a useful session. Neal Wyatt Spoke on articulating the appeal of a book to readers. “Appeal drives RA work.” The appeal may be based on a number of factors, such as pacing, [...]
Observations of PLA
I have been to a number of different library organizations’ conferences over the years (6 at last count) but this is my first PLA. I have noticed a few things that are different about this conference: There are a zillion publishers here. There is an entire floor in the exhibit areas for publishers, plus more [...]
“Guys Read”
When Jon Scieszka is speaking at a conference, it doesn’t really matter what it’s about – you should go listen. Today he assembled several author/illustrators from his Guys Read anthology to talk about guys and reading in the interest of exploring ways we can work to close the gender gap in reading and scholastic achievement. [...]
