“The New Library: Making it Without Books”

I like books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, maps, and the other assorted objects in the library.  Working at George Latimer Central Library, I'm surrounded by an overwhelming number of things, to the point where I'm not sure what can and should be done with it all.  Collection development was a much simpler thing in a small library, although it was rarely the focus of my day, since my job was frequently best described as "Behavior Control Technician."



Now I have the time to deal with the collection, but not the ability to cope with the scale of it.  Part of my issue is the disheartening fact that the value of the printed word has plummeted, along with the perception of the librarian as an important source of information.  As a result, public libraries have been struggling to find an identity for quite awhile now, and I've been struggling to see a positive future for my career.  How do you proceed when you lack a clear mission?  Popularity favors integrating makerspace tools and activities into the library setting, and while I admire my colleagues' enthusiasm for this change, I haven't been particularly supportive of it, primarily because it feels like dabbling in something that we have little expertise in, which in my mind is likely to further devalue the library and the librarian.  Lowertown already has CoCo for creative professionals, a crowd that we are unlikely to attract.  It took this short article from Wired for me to realize the obvious, that "[m]any people don't have access to classic hacker spaces, are intimidated by them, or can't afford them."  Ah.  Ah-ha!  This intrigues me, because it also takes the library beyond the role of collector/distributor of information and into the business of creating knowledge.  That is where I want to be.

ACTIVITY 5: FREEGAL

I've been an intermittent user of Freegal since we started the program. I'm hoping that using the e-mail reminder feature will get me back on track to taking advantage of it more regularly, because if there's one thing that I am hopelessly addicted to, it's music. And getting more music. And more and more. I try to spend a reasonable amount of time listening to what I already have, but it's hard to resist the allure of adding new (and old, especially old) songs to add to my collection. The fact that Sony has somehow picked up the digital rights to a bunch of small jazz labels* has been a boon for someone with my particular illness. Are the artists seeing any payment for this? I'd like to know, but I also spend plenty of money on records, so I don't feel too guilty about using the service.

I have had a patron call in about certain tracks and albums not downloading, which is apparently an occasional glitch people have encountered, but other than that it seems like most users are pretty self-sufficient about accessing it (unlike e-books).

*Ever heard of Chiaroscuro Records? Me neither.

ACTIVITY 4: ZINIO

Sorry, this blog post does not exist.

(kidding)

I don't recall helping any patrons use Zinio, but I have used it on my iPhone and iPad Mini.  While I still prefer the convenience of a print magazine, I was mightily impressed by the digital image quality, especially on the iPad.  Absolutely trounces glossy paper stock.  Nice to be able to access magazines remotely, on a whim.  Wish you could browse and check out in the app itself, though, which would be much simpler and more user-friendly.