Indian River Opens Joint Use Library

Congratulations to Indian River County Library System and Indian River State College on the October 27 opening of their new 30,000 square foot, 2-story library.

The Brackett Library is named for funders Bob and Sandy Brackett and was made possible by a combination of public and private funding. Read more at
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/oct/27/indian-river-countys-newest-library-branch-opens/

Library System Receives Grant

October 3, 2009
by Elizabeth M. Mack /Tallahassee Democrat Staff Writer


Leon County Commissioner Akin Akinyemi is at the library at least two to three times a week — sometimes he even brings his kids. He comes mainly in between meetings.

"It's always full when I come," he said. "I'm fortunate that I have an office computer, but for some people this is all they have."

Akinyemi was among county officials celebrating news Friday that the library system received $83,250 in grant money from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The money will be used to buy 150 miniature laptop computers, which will double the amount of computers the library system has, said Helen Moeller, director of libraries. Demand is high for the computers; people have to wait up to an hour to use them for an hour-long session.

"There is a tremendous demand for the libraries' public computers," she said. "The world of information has changed so drastically that if you don't have the Internet, it can be difficult to get information and even do things like apply for jobs."

Moeller said the new computers will help decrease the "digital divide" among people who can afford computers and those who can't. Library card holders will be able to check out one of the mini laptops and go anywhere in the library to access the Internet.

Mike Pate, Tallahassee program director for the Knight Foundation, said studies by the organization have proven that a majority of the population in the country without access to computers go to public libraries.

"Libraries are the greatest providers of free Internet, offering residents access to the critical news and information they need to make decisions about their lives," he said. "At the least, we can put the libraries and their users in a situation where they don't have to wait as long for a computer."

Library officials said the computers won't be available for a few months. Staff members must first develop policies and procedures for their use.

Central Florida libraries reduce hours and services

Orlando Sentinel story reports cuts in operating hours in Orlando and reductions in services at other central Florida libraries.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-orlando-library-hours-cuts-091609,0,814261.story

State tells schools hands off library funds

Dave Weber reports in the Sentinel School Zone that a Florida Department of Education memo has warned school districts that school library funds are to be limited to a specific purpose. An e-mail message from public school chancellor Frances Haithcock advised superintendends that public library media categorical funds are intended for the purchase of library media resources to be checked out through the school library by students and teachers.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2009/09/state-tells-schools-to-keep-hands-off-library-money.html

The future of libraries, with or without books

By John D. Sutter

- From CNN, updated 8:14 a.m. EDT, Fri September 2, 2009

- Thanks to Chuck McClure for sharing

Libraries are trying to image their futures with or without books.

(CNN) -- The stereotypical library is dying -- and it's taking ist shushin ladies, dank smell, and endless shelves of books with it.

Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. "Loud rooms" that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians.

And that's just the surface. By some accounts, the library system is undergoing a complete transformation that goes far beyond these image changes.

Authors, publishing houses, librarians and Web sites continue to fight Google's efforts to digitize the world's books and create the world's largest library online. Meanwhile, many real-world libraries are moving forward with the assumption that physical books will play a much-diminished or potentially nonexistent role in their efforts to educate the public.

Some books will still be around, they say, although many of those will be digital. But the goal of the library remains the same: To be a free place where people can access and share information.

"The library building isn't a warehouse for books," said Helene Blowers, digital strategy director at the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library. "It's a community gathering center."

Think of the change as a Library 2.0 revolution -- a mirror of what's happened on the Web.

Library 2.0

People used to go online for the same information they could get from newspapers. Now they go to Facebook, Digg and Twitter to discuss their lives and the news of the day. Forward-looking librarians are trying to create that same conversational loop in public libraries. The one-way flow of information from book to patron isn't good enough anymore.

"We can pick up on all of these trends that are going on," said Toby Greenwalt, virtual services coordinator at the Skokie Public Library in suburban Chicago.

Greenwalt, for example, set up a Twitter feed and text-messaging services for his library. He monitors local conversations on online social networks and uses that information as inspiration for group discussions or programs at the real-world library.

Other libraries are trying new things, too.

The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina, has a multimedia space where kids shoot videos and record music. It also runs a blog dedicated to gaming and hosts video game tournaments regularly.

Kelly Czarnecki, a technology education librarian at ImaginOn, a kids' branch of that library, said kids learn by telling their own stories.

"Our motto here is to bring stories to life, so by having the movie and music studio we can really tap into a different angle of what stories are," she said. "They're not just in books. They're something kids can create themselves."

Czarnecki believes that doesn't have to come at the expense of book-based learning.
The Aarhus Public Library in Aarhus, Denmark, takes things a step further.

The library features an "info column," where people share digital news stories; an "info galleria" where patrons explore digital maps layered with factoids; a digital floor that lets people immerse themselves in information; and RFID-tagged book phones that kids point at specific books to hear a story.

"The library has never been just about books," said Rolf Hapel, director of the city's public libraries.

Community Centers

Jason M. Schultz, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley Law School, said libraries always have served two roles in society: They're places where people can get free information; and they're community centers for civic debate.

As books become more available online, that community-center role will become increasingly important for libraries, he said.

"It depends on whether we prioritize it as a funding matter, but I think there always will be a space for that even if all the resources are digital," he said.

Some libraries are trying to gain an edge by focusing on the "deeply local" material -- the stuff that only they have, said Blowers, the librarian in Ohio.

"How do we help add that value to a format like the Internet, which is expansively global?" she said. "So we look at what do we have here that we could help people gain access to by digitizing it."

That material can be used to start community discussions, she said.

Librarians

This shift means the role of the librarian -- and their look -- is also changing.

In a world where information is more social and more online, librarians are becoming debate moderators, givers of technical support and community outreach coordinators.

They're also no longer bound to the physical library, said Greenwalt, of the library in Skokie, Illinois. Librarians must venture into the digital space, where their potential patrons exist, to show them why the physical library is still necessary, he said.

A rise in a young, library-chic subculture on blogs and on Twitter is putting a new face on this changing role, said Linda C. Smith, president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Some wear tattoos, piercings and dress like they belong on the streets of Brooklyn instead of behind bookshelves. They're also trying on new titles. Instead of librarians, they're "information specialists" or "information scientists."

Libraries like the "Urban Media Space," which is set to open in 2014 in Aarhus, Denmark, are taking on new names, too. And all of that experimentation is a good thing, Smith said, because it may help people separate the book-bound past of libraries from the liberated future.

"It's a source of tension in the field because, for some people, trying to re-brand can be perceived as a rejection of the [library] tradition and the values," she said. "But for other people it's a redefinition and an expansion."

Funding woes

In the United States, libraries are largely funded by local governments, many of which have been hit hard by the recession.

That means some libraries may not get to take part in technological advances. It also could mean some of the nation's 16,000 public libraries could be shut down or privatized. Schultz, of the Berkeley Law School, said it would be easy for public officials to point to the growing amount of free information online as further reason to cut public funding for libraries.

Use of U.S. public libraries is up over the past decade, though, and many people in the information and libraries field say they're excited about opportunities the future brings.

"I came into libraries and it wasn't about books," said Peter Norman, a graduate student in library and information science at Simmons College in Boston who says he's most interested in music and technology. "Sure I love to read. I read all the time. I read physical books. But I don't have the strange emotional attachment that some people possess."

"If the library is going to turn into a place without books, I'm going to evolve with that too," he said.

FLA President Promoted

Wendy Breeden, Lake County Library Director and President of the Florida Library Association, has been promoted to be the director of the newly created Lake County Department of Public Resources.

The new Department included the divisions of Library Services, Tourism & Business Relations, Parks & Trails and Agricultural Education. The Department also includes the programs of Public Lands Management and Volunteers.

Read full announcment at http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/media/news_releases/news_release.aspx?id=1049

Centennial Park Branch Library Faces Final Chapter

by Kevin Wiatrowski/ The Tampa Tribune
August 26, 2009

HOLIDAY - Pasco County commissioners may sacrifice Centennial Park Branch Library, the first county-financed public library, to keep Pasco's other libraries open five days a week.

Commissioners' other option is to rotate staff between Centennial Park and the nearby South Holiday library, opening each on alternating weekdays. They'd both operate short-staffed on Saturdays.

Library Services Director Linda Allen will spell out those options in more detail at the county's next budget workshop Sept. 1 in Dade City.

Either option would take effect Oct. 1 with the county's fiscal 2010 budget.

Closing 21-year-old Centennial Park would shift its 28,700 regular patrons to South Holiday, doubling the burden on that newer but smaller branch.

The two libraries are about two miles from each other - Centennial Park on Moog Road, South Holiday on Mile Stretch - both residential neighborhoods.

Closing Centennial Park, however, could still pose a problem for some patrons.

"Even though they're so close together, we have a lot of people who use only one," Allen said.

The prospect of closing Centennial Park arose during commissioners' budget workshop with county staffers this week. It reverses commissioners' earlier opposition to closing any libraries as they try to close a $36 million budget hole for fiscal 2010.

Pasco County has seven county-owned libraries. New Port Richey and Zephyrhills have their own libraries.

The closing is among a host of changes Allen has proposed to cut costs.

Allen told commissioners she plans dramatic cuts to the libraries' offerings. Sixteen online databases popular with student researchers will disappear. The county will buy fewer paperbacks, fewer periodicals and no DVD movies or audiobooks.

"We are not looking to make sure there's something on every topic in the library," Allen said.

Maintenance of equipment will be done in-house, and landscaping work will be cut by about two-thirds, she said.

Also on the horizon are the elimination of library-sponsored events for adults, fewer activities for teens and children and cutting the summer reading program.

Commissioners could appropriate $408,000 in new taxes to keep the library system as is. The money would fill 18 of 32 empty jobs, but it wouldn't expand hours curtailed last year. Those cuts closed libraries on Mondays.

Outside the Centennial Park library Thursday morning, Cathy Tobias made a sour face after hearing the library might close.

"This is real close to my home," Tobias said, who lives within walking distance. "We use this library all the time."

The prospect of closing Centennial Park library was quickly followed by concerns the empty building could become a target for vandals. County officials said they would consider moving employees from leased space into the empty library if it is abandoned.

Commissioners quashed Allen's proposal to rotate staff between the New River library in Wesley Chapel and the Hugh Embry library in downtown Dade City.

That strategy was seen as a way to keep each library open at least part-time, but commissioners felt the 14 miles between them posed an obstacle for many of their patrons.

Commissioners want both libraries open full-time.

Commissioners also asked County Administrator John Gallagher to search the county's construction funds for money that could build a library in Trinity to replace Centennial Park.

The most likely site is on county-owned land next to a new fire station on Trinity Boulevard, but it's unclear when or if that library could be built.