The PLA Blog | Official Blog of the Public Library Association
Burrito Warning! And Other Food/Drink Info
I’ve been active on the message boards for Robert Earl Keen, a wonderful Texas singer/songwriter, getting some insider tips for San Antonio, since many hardcore REK fans are from the area. The key piece of information I’ve gotten is that burritos are a gringo invention and that if : you are in a restaurant with [...]
Meeting User Needs – A Checklist For best Practice
IFLA has updated a document they put out on meetiung user needs [PDF]. (link via Resourceshelf)
Local Library News
+ News from the Briggs Lawrence County Public Library [OH] about a new program called Learning Express Library which will “offer unlimited 24- hour, 7-days-a- week access to skill-building courses in subjects such as math, reading and writing and a wide variety of online interactive practice tests including civil service, graduate school entrance exams, middle [...]
Get free books for your public library from ALA
For the first time ever, we will be awarding a Bookshelf – 15 classic books for young readers on the theme of “Becoming American” – to 2,000 school and public libraries. This is four times the number of Bookshelves we’ve awarded in the past for a single application deadline! We hope you’ll take advantage of [...]
Will your library lend…?
Many new technologies are hitting the retail shelves these days. Recently I casually chatted with the Head of Information Services at my library about the potential to purchase and lend PlayStation Portable(TM) (PSP) movies (yep, the handheld game devices play movies, among other things), and what that means logistically for the library, which made me [...]
ALA Launched Advocacy Resource Center
From the press release: “The American Library Association (ALA) launched its Advocacy Resource Center today. Located at www.ala.org/issues&advocacy, the new online site is designed to provide members and advocates with easy-to-find tools and resources.” “New sections include: “Getting Started,” a motivational piece for the beginning advocate, and “Grassroots Resources,” a bibliography of articles and Web [...]
I’m a Mentor, She’s a Mentor, He’s a Mentor…
Wouldn’t you like to be a mentor too? We need you! If you are a public library leader and experienced national conference goer, read on. PLA needs 15 public library leaders to serve as mentors to ALA Spectrum Scholars who will be attending the upcoming PLA National Conference in Boston. As you may know, PLA [...]
Local Library News – Tues, Jan 3
Happy New Year! And with it come so many new beginnings. Repairs are now complete at Allerton Public Library [Illinois]. The new Delray Beach Public Library [Florida], set to open January 8, will feature a fabulously Zen-sounding waterfall and bamboo decor, self-checkout, a teen cyber center, and much more. A few more finishing touches are [...]
Local Library News
+ Some libraries on the Gulf Coast want us to collect books to help build up the collections, but not to send them yet: – “Please do collect books for us,” said Biloxi head librarian Charlene Longino, “but don’t give them to us yet, as we don’t have a place to store them. The libraries [...]
Want to Check out a Book? Give us a hand!
Not your typical post for the PLA Blog, but I couldn’t help posting this: Japanese library to use palm-vein for book check-out “A library near Tokyo is set to become the first in Japan to employ palm-vein biometrics as a substitute for conventional library cards, system vendor Fujitsu said last week. The company’s palm-vein security [...]
