Librarians are the ultimate information workers, with little they can count as done at the end of the day. Staying productive and motivated when there are no finished items that you have created at day's end can be difficult. For just this reason, David Allen, author and productivity expert, has proposed an information-worker-centric theory of…

Every U.S. state and the District of Columbia has a law on the books that protects a library borrower's privacy, both an ethical and legal obligation of the library. In addition, FERPA further restricts access to users' records. Getting the message across to staff can be a challenge, especially if you employ students or volunteers who may not…

This article features Naturita Community Library (NCL), winner of "LJ"'s 2011 Best Small Library in America Award, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The library is the largest straw bale library in America. It sits on the western slope of the Rockies, across the Uncompahgre Plateau from the county seat in Montrose,…

In her biography about her horticulturalist father, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, Mary Turner Carriel wrote the following of Turner's quest to fence prairies; words that may also serve as an allegory for present-day libraries: What he could have done to tempt the pioneer from his home in the East to settle upon the fertile lands in the West. The first…

In the library context, they depend on sophisticated business applications specifically designed to support their work. This infrastructure consists of such components as integrated library systems, their associated online catalogs or discovery services, and self-check equipment, as well as a Web site and the various online tools and services…

Respondents to "Library Journal's" ("LJ") annual book buying survey of public libraries nationwide reported that adult book budgets were down eight percent overall, the largest plunge recorded since the survey began in 1998. What's more, for the first time ever, cuts were reported for every region of the country and every size of population…

In 2010, Congress passed and the President signed the reauthorization of the Museum and Library Services Act, giving the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) unique federal responsibilities for the "development and implementation of policy to ensure the availability of museum, library and information services adequate to meet the…

Mentorship is often considered one of the best ways to develop leadership potential in new library and information professionals. Mentors act as teacher, role model, and cheerleader, but there are potentially serious aspects to mentorships that will negatively impact the protege. Such negatives include mentors sabotaging or taking credit for a…

Beyond the sprawling Denver International Airport, there's little to put Adams County, Colorado, on the map. The region's light rail only stretches south, so Adams County, a mostly working-class zone to the northeast, has come late to growth. There's no central city; the community is dominated by strip malls, big-box stores, and new developments.…

In this article, the author describes Reading Hall No. 1 of the Russian State Library. He was placed in the first reading hall in the mid-1990s, when the Russian government still honored Soviet traditions of granting certain privileges to certain foreigners. In the first hall, the rules are different. He can request as many books as he wants. He…

It is no secret that library budgets are in a downward spiral like the rest of the economy. The recent annual budget survey by the "Library Journal" indicates that per capita funding for libraries will decline 1.6%, and total library budgets will be reduced by 2.6% in FY 2010. Librarians are all too familiar with this bad news, and some of them…

This paper outlines the emerging trends for leadership in the knowledge era. It discusses these within the context of leading, creating and sustaining the performance development cultures that libraries require. The first step is to recognise that we all need to take leadership personally no matter whether we see ourselves as leaders or followers.…

This article presents an interview with two effective spokespeople, notable school librarian Sara Kelly Johns and retired public library administrator Molly Raphael, who compete to be American Library Association (ALA) president. One of them will be elected president of ALA for a year's term beginning in July 2011. Each candidate comes from a…

Library staff members should ultimately base their purchasing choices on the mission statements of their employing institutions. Fortunately, library mission statements have much in common. Undoubtedly, for example, all libraries have a goal that includes "serve the information needs of the community," because on some level, all libraries are…

There have been substantial changes in the labour market over the past few years and survey results indicate 60% of staff will leave public library service over the next decade. While this creates opportunities for library staff, limited training budgets and a focus on compliance and specific library skills training have led to a gap in the formal…