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According to a February report, “The Future of Work after Covid 19,” by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work, e-commerce, and automation, with up to 25 percent more workers than previously estimated potentially needing to switch occupations.
America’s approximately 17,000 public library outlets’ staff are focused on meeting the needs of their communities, providing innovative programs, and connecting community members to resources that make a difference in their lives. But all too often they are reinventing these things from scratch.
During the final week of January, temperatures across the Midwest plunged to dangerous, record-breaking lows. Many libraries remained open and helped keep their constituents warm, out of the elements, informed, entertained, and, most of all, safe.
Spirits were high on the evening of Friday, January 25, when LJ celebrated 2019 Librarian of the Year Skye Patrick with a reception at Seattle’s Hotel Theodore.
On December 1, 2018, Berkeley Public Library (BPL), CA, rolled out its new Easy Access Cards, designed for library customers without a fixed address. These include patrons who are experiencing homelessness, lack current documentation, are in transition between addresses, or are in the foster care system.
Since the October 27, 2018, shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, when a lone gunman killed 11 worshippers and injured seven during Shabbat morning services, PJ Library has extended its mission to provide books and resources to parents who may be searching for ways to explain anti-Semitism to their young children.
At first glance, the image looks like the logo of a well-known shopping site or search engine; a closer look reveals the clever new marketing campaign from Milwaukee Public Library (MPL), WI.
Almost no one casually pulls their library’s strategic planning documents out of their pocket. No one, that is, except Peter Bromberg, executive director of the Salt Lake City Public Library (SLCPL), who did just that when I saw him at the LJ Directors’ Summit in San Diego, December 6–7.
On December 19, the House of Representatives passed the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) by a margin of 331–28, and it was signed into law on December 31. The bill, also known as S. 3530, reauthorizes the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through 2025.
Library Journal’s 2018 Directors’ Summit, held December 6–7 in San Diego, CA, convened 170 attendees at the San Diego Public Library’s Central Library to explore innovative ideas, programs, and services around the theme “Break Through: Unconventional Approaches, Exceptional Impact.”
If you are after ideas for changing up your library space—whether by reinvention or new construction—you need look no further than LJ’s package of design coverage.
The newly completed Central Library in Calgary, Alta., Canada, is designed by world-renowned architecture firms Snøhetta and Canadian-based DIALOG to make patrons feel welcomed and smart. Its construction provided a “catalyst and a structure for innovation” for the whole organization, using a design-thinking approach.
Prior to 2013,Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) coordinated a program styled on the “one book, one community” efforts, but its return on investment (ROI) was hard to measure. We wanted to do more and potentially reach a bigger audience. Brainstorming with our marketing team, the idea of a biennial book club conference emerged.
This fall, LJ expanded its previously semiannual Design Institute professional development offerings to hold two autumn events in different parts of the country. The first, in Minneapolis, took place on September 21. The second, in Cherry Hill, NJ, was held on September 28.
Breakout challenges at LJ's fall Design Institutes in Minneapolis and Cherry Hill, NJ, gave library leaders, architects, and conference attendees the opportunity to get creative on some real libraries' design questions.
In the days leading up to the November 6 midterm elections, libraries and their boards and supporters nationwide were working on getting out their yes votes—but not the Woodstock Public Library (WPL), NY.WPL’s allies focused on getting residents to vote no on a ballot question that would have eliminated its library district.
On the morning of November 6 as residents of Pleasant Valley, NY, were lining up to vote on the town’s first library referendum in eight years, firefighters were battling a two-alarm blaze at the Pleasant Valley Free Library.
Libraries in California fire areas found themselves playing several roles at once. A number were evacuated, and still more were closed for smoke and debris cleaning even if they did not receive direct damage. Many also served as community gathering places and regional assistance centers—some as soon as they received the all-clear to reopen.
Temple University, Philadelphia, builds a four-story library; NYPL's new Van Cortlandt Library breaks ground; Van Couver Public Library Central Library, BC, opens its rooftop garden; and more new construction and renovation news from the November 1, 2018 issue of Library Journal.
Oregon’s Douglas County libraries made news in spring 2017, after a measure on the November 2016 ballot failed and the 11-branch system closed its libraries. Since then, a small but loyal number of volunteers and Friends organizations have stepped in to bring their libraries back as DIY operations, one at a time.
Who says poetry and science don’t mix? Not Poets House, the national poetry library and literary center in downtown Manhattan, which recently launched its newest initiative, Field Work: Aligning Poetry and Science.
Voters turned out at the polls in record numbers on Tuesday, November 6, for the 2018 midterm elections. But strong voter turnout did not necessarily drive support for libraries at the voting booth.
This fall, the Seattle Public Library (SPL) kicked off a partnership with yəhaw̓, an Indigenous-led arts project created to spotlight the creativity of the local Native community.
Though print reference works continue to see a decline as many materials move online, there are still many new and noteworthy books that will find homes in general reference, ready reference, and academic collections.
An axiom of the Information Age is that LIS skill sets are versatile and valuable in a wide array of work environments, in addition to libraries of all kinds.
LJ's annual Placements & Salaries survey reveals that salaries are flattening somewhat—but there also are glimmers of improvement in gender pay inequities and interesting shifts across employment sectors.
What’s old is new again in this year’s job market for newly credentialed librarians. Our snapshot shows placements are resurging in traditional library settings, as well as continuing to gain strength in nontraditional areas that benefit from classic LIS skill sets.
Kent District Library, MI, launched Bookmark, a custom-developed pre-hire screening tool designed to help assess which job candidates are most likely to succeed in patron-facing library positions.
For the last two data cycles, we have hoped to be able to add Wi-Fi sessions to the five existing per capita statistics: circulation, e-circulation, library visits, program attendance, and public Internet computer uses.
Linda Hofschire, PhD, director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library, and a 2017 LJ Mover & Shaker, is chair of the newly created Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment Committee of the Public Library Association.
On September 5 the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a $50,000 grant to the New Mexico State Library (NMSL) for “Libraries Lead: A Creative Economy Initiative.” The funding will advance “Libraries as Launchpads,” a multi-partner program designed to enable small, rural, and tribal libraries across the state to serve as economic development centers and help entrepreneurs bring their business ideas to fruition.
I expected to be surprised, excited, and inspired by what I would encounter at Next Library’s satellite conference in Berlin this past September, and it did not disappoint.
Point Roberts Library, WA, reopens; Providence Public Library making headway; St. Vincent College Library, Latrobe, PA, embarking on a remodel; and more new construction and renovation news from the October 1, 2018 issue of Library Journal.
The subject of death and dying can be difficult—even taboo—for people to discuss, even as health-care professionals press for more honest dialog with patients and families. Springfield–Greene County Library District, MO, took the lead on closing that gap with a multilayered series called “Death & Dying: Conversations on End-of-Life Matters.”
A new report from Ithaka S+R looks at eight case studies of best practices and methods for addressing institutional challenges around equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). While the cultural institutions profiled are art museums, the authors suggest that these studies hold relevant, and applicable, lessons for libraries.
Since January, I have been a member of the five-person Board of Trustees of the Monroe County Library System, MI. For the past 20 years, I have also worked as a correctional officer in a medium-sized Michigan county jail.
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg is the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture Speaker at the upcoming ALA Midwinter Meeting. In this Q&A about his book Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, he suggests that the key to a more equitable society may lie in our shared spaces—particularly libraries.
Thanks to a $12 million gift, the New York Public Library (NYPL) has begun work on a permanent exhibition of treasures from its extensive—and eclectic—collections.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) introduced Insta Novels on August 22, posting a newly digitized, illustrated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll on its official Instagram account. The concept has been an immediate success.
It’s a fact. American voters have become less enthusiastic, less engaged, and less united in their support for libraries over the past decade. That’s what From Awareness to Funding, Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries 2018, a study by the American Library Association, Public Library Association, and OCLC, tells us.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services issued its most recent Public Libraries Survey (PLS) Report on August 2, offering a look at public library use, financial health, staffing, and resources in the country’s 9,068 active public libraries in FY 2015.
New Orleans Public Library’s (NOPL) Nora Navra Library celebrated its grand reopening in the city’s 7th Ward neighborhood on Friday, August 24 and Saturday, August 25. The completion of the new 7,800 square foot building marks the reopening of all six NOPL branches that were destroyed in the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
When workers at the Hurricane branch of the Washington County Library System, UT, were told to change signage on LTBTQ-themed displays and stop wearing buttons pointing library visitors to LGBTQ resources, they brought their concerns to the local press.
MORE POWER TO THE LIBRARY STAFF in Hurricane, UT, who have sparked an important conversation in response to a ban on displays about LGBTQ topics. They have been fighting this decision, which contravenes the Library Bill of Rights and departs from widespread practice around raising awareness of resources for underserved or historically marginalized populations.
An online ALA Council poll, held August 9–16, voted 140–4 to rescind a controversial meeting room interpretation. The Library Bill of Rights will revert to the 1991 version that had previously been in effect.
A newly released American Library Association (ALA) report marks the 10th anniversary of the American Dream Literacy Initiative and celebrates the many ways that participating public libraries have transformed lives.
Janelle Richards stepped into her role as the first Environmentalist in Residence at Toronto Public Library (TPL), ON, Canada, on June 4. An environmental educator and certified teacher with over seven years’ professional experience, Richards will offer her expertise on conservation and sustainability, as well as programs, workshops, and community consultations, at TPL’s Albion Branch and Scarborough Civic Centre Branch.
An article that appeared in Forbes magazine online on July 21, calling for all public libraries to be replaced by Amazon bookstores, has the library community—and the communities they serve—up in arms. The op-ed piece, “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money,” by Panos Mourdoukoutas, chair of the economics department at Long Island University’s Post campus, drew righteously indignant and thoughtful responses.
Mini design charettes offered attendees of LJ's Design Institute: Salt Lake City the opportunity to brainstorm solutions to the real world challenges of their library peers.
A new program being launched today by New York City’s three major library systems will give cardholders free admission to 33 museums and other institutions. Culture Pass, designed to encourage underserved communities to take advantage of the city’s cultural bounty, will let users reserve passes once a year.
The planned Barack Obama Presidential Center will not contain a traditional presidential library of physical archives from Obama’s two terms as president, but it will hold a branch of the Chicago Public Library to serve the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side.
For many attending the Public Library Association (PLA) 2018 conference in Philadelphia, the biggest challenge was simply getting there, thanks to an early spring Nor’easter that dumped snow from Washington, DC to New England on Wednesday, March 21. Just under 6,000 public library professionals and supporters registered to attend in person, with 1,821 exhibitors signed up as well.
There’s perhaps no better time to explore it than right now, and—lucky for you—the Philadelphia Convention Center is smack dab in the middle of some of Philly’s greatest hits.
Bard College, a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) have partnered to launch a “microcollege”—an innovative undergraduate program for nontraditional students—at BPL’s Central Library in Prospect Heights. Bard at Brooklyn Public Library is designed to give the experience of attending a small, high-quality liberal arts college to students who have confronted barriers to continuing their education. The two-year program will culminate in an associate’s degree.
At a November 15 board of trustees meeting, New York Public Library (NYPL) administration unveiled the master plan for renovations to its main branch, the Steven A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. The work is part of NYPL’s Midtown Campus renovation, which includes the gut renovation of the Mid-Manhattan Library across Fifth Avenue, currently in progress.
With record-breaking attendance, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, the 12th annual New York Comic Con (NYCC), held October 5–8, in a move to support its diverse and ever-growing body of attendees, this year extended its regular programming efforts by partnering with nearby businesses and institutions, offering events outside its central location at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
The New York Public Library is having a moment—a very good one. September saw the debut of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, a long-anticipated documentary by renowned director Frederick Wiseman that is sure to expand the appreciation of the impact of this great institution and libraries as a whole. As if that weren’t enough, there was also the announcement of a gift of $55 million from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to help bring the radically reenvisioned Mid-Manhattan Library into being.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) announced September 13 the receipt of $55 million from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to support the complete renovation of the Mid-Manhattan Library, NYPL’s largest circulating branch. Combined with the recent boost in funding for FY18 capital projects from the city of New York, the Niarchos Foundation’s gift will enable the $200 million gut renovation of the 105-year-old building into a modern circulating branch that will offer programs for children, teens, and adults; meeting spaces; a business library; and a rooftop terrace, designed by the Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo in coordination with architects of record Beyer Blinder Belle.
While some believe that libraries should remain entirely objective, several speakers at an ALA annual conference panel stressed the importance of using exhibits and programs to express political opinions and take a stand.
For over two years, Chicago Public Library (CPL) has brought free online courses to adult learners via its Learning Circles program, partnering with Peer 2 Peer University, a non-profit organization that facilitates learning outside of a brick-and-mortar classroom by cultivating high-quality, low-cost learning. The online program has helped over 225 participants complete classes since 2015, on topics ranging from personal finance to writing skills.
Cooking the Books: For this return to Chicago, Lonely Planet’s Laura Pearson helps librarians who want to go beyond the McCormick Place neighborhood find something different: six great Chicago restaurants by chefs who are also cookbook authors. Each of these establishments’ chefs have put out a cookbook or two (or nine…ahem, Rick Bayless). If you like your meal, consider adding
the source to your library’s collection.
Kevin Young stepped into his role as director of New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in September 2016, succeeding former director Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Young most recently served at Emory University, Atlanta, as curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library and curator of literary collections at the Rose Library, at the same time holding the Charles Howard Candler Professorship of Creative Writing and English. If it were not enough that Young now helms Harlem’s Schomburg Center, on March 15 he was also appointed poetry editor of the New Yorker, to succeed Paul Muldoon.
New York Public Library (NYPL) and big-five publisher Macmillan have reached an agreement that will see Macmillan release children’s and adult books inspired by and sourced at the library, making NYPL’s famed collection available to a broader audience.
The Book-Rich Environment Initiative will serve children living in HUD-assisted housing—and encourage families to use local libraries. The U.S. DOE and the National Book Foundation are among the new project's partners.
In the weeks since the 2016 presidential election, librarians across the United States have taken actions to foster dialog, confront intolerance, and reaffirm public libraries as safe spaces for all patrons. Whether as a reaction to the need to initiate community conversations or as a response to incidents taking place within the library, library employees are looking at ways to get people talking—and listening.
On Halloween night, Friends and trustees of New York Public Library (NYPL) got a treat that didn’t require a costume: Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and NYPL President Tony Marx sat down together for a lively hour-long discussion of research, preservation, digitization, Hayden’s plans for the Library of Congress (LC), and the influence of Hamilton.
Smartphone ownership is quickly becoming the norm, and smartphones have become a primary Internet access point for low income consumers. Here's a look at a few emerging trends, as libraries adapt to this growth by launching apps and responsive websites.
On July 26, New York Public Library (NYPL) launched the first permanent public library location at Rikers Island, East Elmhurst, NY, New York City’s main jail complex and one of the world’s largest correctional institutions. NYPL’s Correctional Services (CS) team has been providing library services at Rikers Island since 1984, currently operating five satellite libraries throughout the complex’s ten jails, but the new 1,200-volume library at the Rose M. Singer Center (RMSC) is the first to occupy dedicated space. Decorated with posters and vibrant, comfortable furnishings, the library is open for six hours every Tuesday, serving half of the facility every other week. Inmates may check out two books at a time for two weeks.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) on July 12 announced the launch of SimplyE, a new app for tablets and smartphones that employs a single interface for browsing, borrowing, and reading ebooks from multiple different vendors, as well as public domain ebooks. Enabling patrons to discover and start reading library ebooks with as few as three clicks, this initial version of the app is the fulfillment of a goal set two and a half years ago by the NYPL-led Library Simplified project.
Update: On July 7, Supreme Court Justice Dawn Jiminez-Salta ruled against Love Brooklyn Libraries, Inc.'s challenge to the Brooklyn Heights Branch sale and development. The project will proceed as planned. The controversial sale of Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) Brooklyn Heights branch to a New York real estate development group remains up in the air. The latest speed bump in the library’s sale, which was proposed by BPL, is a report suggesting the library system is getting a raw deal on the real estate, which is situated in one of the borough’s poshest neighborhoods.
Where's Pikachu? How libraries are connecting with patrons over this wildly popular new virtual treasure hunt that uses geolocation—and why the game raises privacy concerns.
In a June 25 session at the ALA Annual conference in Orlando, John Bracken, VP of media innovation for the Knight Foundation, said that the foundation has been focused on three key questions when working with libraries: What can be done to foster cross-discipline collaboration, possibly learning from projects in other civic sectors such as Code for America, 18F, or the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews collaboration; how can community be put “even more robustly” at the center of the foundation’s work; and how can the foundation help libraries tell their stories to wider audiences? “To succeed, particularly in a time of reduced public investment, it is vital to tell our stories in ways that people can understand the breadth of our work, and on platforms” where the public is present and listening, Bracken said.
On April 11, Tony Ageh became New York Public Library’s (NYPL) chief digital officer, responsible for developing strategy for the ongoing digital transformation of the institution, which includes making its collections and services as accessible as possible both locally and globally. Ageh most recently held a variety of leadership positions at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, beginning in 2002. There he created and implemented the BBC iPlayer, an Internet television and radio streaming service, which has delivered over 10 billion programs to British users, and acted as controller of the BBC’s Archive Strategy, partnering with such organizations as the British Library and the Open Data Institute on the Digital Public Space, an open access approach to learning and cultural resources.
Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins was on hand to cheer the city's first public library-based sites, 26 branches in Queens, a county of 2.3 million that's one of the most ethnically diverse in the country.
Ten libraries and museums were presented with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service in a ceremony at the White House on June 1. First Lady Michelle Obama joined IMLS director Kathryn K. Matthew to honor institutions from across the country for outstanding service to their communities, including one academic and four public libraries: North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh; Brooklyn Public Library, NY; Madison Public Library, WI; Otis Library, Norwich, CT; and Santa Ana Public Library, CA.
