This summer, as public libraries continued to get budget hit after budget hit across the country, several readers asked for a comprehensive picture of the ravages of the recession on library service. In partnership with 2010 Movers & Shakers Laura Solomon and Mandy Knapp, Ohio librarians who bought the Losing Libraries domain name,…

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,…

A hundred years after Marie Curie received her Nobel Prize in Chemistry, this arm of science is pointing the way to a more sustainable future. Growing movements like green chemistry, which strives to create alternative and new chemical reactions that produce no harmful waste products, and molecular engineering hold great potential for industry,…

The "LJ" Index of Public Library Service 2010, "Library Journal"'s national rating of public libraries, identifies 258 "star" libraries. Created by Ray Lyons and Keith Curry Lance, and based on 2008 data from the IMLS, it rates 7,407 public libraries. The top libraries in each group get five, four, or three stars. All included libraries, stars or…

This article features Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), winner of the Gale/"Library Journal" Library of the Year Award 2010. CML, comprised of an operations center and 21 branches, serves the 847,376 people who inhabit a large portion of Franklin County in central Ohio. It is an independent library with its own taxing district. CML…

Western fiction is unique among the major fiction genres recognized by public libraries (which would include romance, mystery, and sf) in that it is defined principally by its physical setting--the American West (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and in particular the frontier territories of the 19th century. The popular conception…

The Do It Yourself (DIY) section is an essential and well-used part of the public library's collection and must be kept up-to-date to remain valuable, since tools, materials, and building codes are always changing. Current economic decline has increased the topic's popularity as homeowners choose to remodel rather than buy, or attempt to make…

This article outlines Public Library Association (PLA) 2010 annual conference to be held in Oregon Convention Center, Portland on March 23-27. The days quickly fill up with the picks of over 100 programs as well as valuable "talk tables" and special events. The well-organized schedule, divided into eight broad tracks (e.g., technology,…

With the recession, library budgets have been hit hard just as demand keeps climbing, a paradox that creates a resource gap for even the best-off libraries. Short term, the recession has library leaders scrambling to find ways to close the money gap and keep core services alive. Long term, it has them thinking about how to stabilize their…

In this article, the author presents the results of "Library Journal's" 2010 budget survey. The overall trend in FY10 indicated that 72 percent of survey respondents said their budget had been cut, and 43 percent had staff cuts. Among libraries serving populations above one million, these figures were even more acute, with 86 percent reporting…

U.S. libraries gave the world a top talent when Deborah Jacobs left her transformational role as City Librarian of Seattle in 2008 to head the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Libraries program, the international sibling to the U.S. Libraries program. The initiative fosters national-scale projects with grantees in transitioning countries…

In the library world, there seems to be a fundamental conflict between reference and readers' advisory (RA). But in fact, the two are similar in approach, an insight that goes back to James Wyer's 1930 "Reference Work: A Textbook for Students of Library Work and Librarians." It defined the reference librarian as a mediator of information,…

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…

Prior to retiring from full-time librarianship to concentrate on readers' advisory (RA) consulting, teaching, and book and media discussions, Ted Balcom, longtime administrator of the Villa Park Public Library (VPPL), Illinois, repeatedly demonstrated a particularly effective approach to shoring up essential library support. Balcom, 1996 winner of…

There is a surging need for library services, placing high demands on staff time just as staff time and resources are shrinking. The increased demand coupled with decreased resources puts stress on those on the front lines and on administrators, many of whom are themselves suffering the same financial anxieties as their patrons. Nationwide, public…