Public library service is a critical service that must be preserved. Despite a current (FY08) budget cut of $5 million and the threat of reductions of nearly $20 million more in the next budget, the Queens Library has maintained massive and excellent programs of service and incredibly high levels of use by a public that lines up at every one of…

The President of ALIA writes about expectations for the Public Libraries Summit, and provides an account of what took place on the day of the meeting, and what has taken place since. In funding terms, the most likely areas of productive engagement with the federal government are considered to be: children, early learning and a literate Australia;…

"California Library Laws 2008" is a selective guide to state laws and related materials that most directly affect the everyday operations of public libraries and organizations that work with public libraries. It is intended as a convenient reference, not as a replacement for the annotated codes or for legal advice. The guide is organized…

Why choose librarianship as a career? Seventeen percent of public librarians responding to this question in LJ's Job Satisfaction Survey began their answers with the words "I love...." And not for nothing: 70% reported being either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with their jobs vs. the 31% who said they were "somewhat satisfied" or "not satisfied…

This article reports the findings of a survey examining the current performances of libraries. The libraries that were surveyed this year reported a solid performance in 2005, with a budget growth of 4.7 percent. For the next fiscal year, libraries predicted a 5.5 percent increase in budgets which exceeded the inflation. Many of them, however,…

Although single-purpose boards and commissions have been used to provide public goods and services since the colonial era, little scholarly attention has been given to the leadership characteristics and behaviors required of their members. As a result, appointing officials and those considering appointment have had little systematic guidance…

If one wanted to win a library election in 2006, what would have been the mythical perfect referenda? For building referenda, the sweet spot was hit with measures over $10 million, on a ballot sometime between September and December, with no other items on the ballot, in a general election, for a library serving a population under 100,000. For the…

Provides ideas to help libraries build a successful volunteer program in light of changing lifestyles. Suggestions include recruiting from new and diverse sources such as seniors, people doing community service, minorities, and persons with disabilities and using formal employer groups. The importance of flexibility and professionalism in managing…

This system for checking that library books are shelved correctly was developed at the New Ulm (Minnesota) Public Library where a 68,000-volume collection is checked every three months by four part-time teenage pages. Seven steps in the procedure are outlined, and sample schedules and monitor sheets are included. (MES)

This discussion of the role of the public library youth services manager emphasizes the importance of personnel management skills, and notes the need for attention to personnel management in library education. (10 references) (MES)

This article discusses the events that occurred when Donald J. Olson was arrested for arrested for insider trading and SEC violations. Olson had been arrested for embezzling money from his own company, cooking the books to hide the missing funds, providing insider financial information to friends to boost stock prices, and numerous other offenses.…

The St. Lucie West Library, also known as the FAU Treasure Coast Campus Library, is a joint-use library facility, with Florida Atlantic University partnering with Indian River Community College and the St. Lucie County (FL) Library System. This article will discuss the circulation, course reserves, interlibrary loan, and collection management…

Purpose: The paper seeks to describe the provision of access to the Safari Tech Books collection of e-books at Hillingdon Libraries. Design/methodology/approach: Details are given of how the e-books collection is part of a broader range of e-information services provided by Hillingdon. Methods of searching for e-books are described, with…

With the pileup of responsibilities that range from programming to outreach to web management, more and more librarians are finding vendor-based book selection enticing. Most librarians see vendor-based selection as an option to relieve the pressure and still provide good collections to their patrons. However, using vendors to help facilitate…

This overview of library finance issues examines governance issues at the state level, the nature of state enabling legislation, the organizational framework at the state level, state-local relationships, constituency characteristics and requirements, and governance characteristics at the local and regional levels, as well as the need for improved…