Post Gives NYPL TelRef Star Treatment

An article in yesterday's NY Post profiled New York Public Library's 24/7 telephone reference desk. Despite highlighting the service's glam factor with a couple mentions of Mad Men, the piece did an acceptable job presenting the wide variety of questions librarians commonly face.

More Fallout from Local Library Budget Cuts

Patrons of most New York Public Library branches will have to check their libraries' opening hours: starting February 16, service hour reductions will take effect at 58 locations. Blame Mayor Bloomberg's $5.9 million cut in library funding for this latest hardship.

In happier NYPL news, the system's St. Agnes Branch is set to reopen on February 11th after undergoing a top-to-bottom renovation.

Look at the Pretty Colors!

New York Public Library's website has been Drupalized. At first glance, it appears to be a major improvement. Three cheers for navigability! The new site features more locally-produced content and streamlined searching.

Welcome to NYPL's "evolving information ecosystem":

Ups and Downs at Queens Library

The era of extended weekend service may have come to a close. While all three New York City library systems had managed to increase service hours during the recession, Queens Library is the first to reverse this course. Beginning in February, 14 branches will be open Monday to Friday only.

But not all news is bad news for Queens Library this week. The Long Island City branch's Literacy Zone project has received a windfall grant from the New York State Department of Education. A new Welcome Center will include comprehensive literacy services and support a full-time case manager to "provide pathways out of poverty for individuals and families."

What other wonders and terrors have been visited upon us in the last month?

• More termites were discovered at Brooklyn Public Library's Fort Hamilton branch, delaying its reopening until Fall 2010.
  
• The NY Times' Paper Cuts blog profiled the Ottendorfer Library in recognition of its 125th birthday.
• Professional development requirements for New York State Public Librarian Certification are now more rigorous.
• Long Island University is looking for a new Dean of University Libraries.
• And the biggee: the New York State Legislature cut Library Aid by $4.2 million. Major ouch.
  

Biblioball 2009: Baby, It's Cold Outside

It finally is cold outside! The Desk Set is throwing a lavish, entertainment-filled winter formal this Friday, December 11th at The Bell House. Where else can you score free happy hour whiskey and winter ale (8-9 pm), watch a lady on her flying trapeze, win a fabulous raffle prize, hear tons of live music, and dance the night away? Plus: foot juggling, food, portraits (both photographic and illustrated), and more librarians than you can shake a stick at.

Proceeds from this carnival of delights will be donated to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. Tickets are $20 in advance/$25 at the door and all kinds of worth it.

See you there!

Biblioball 2009 from Desk Set on Vimeo.

P.S. Please don't shake sticks at librarians, just dance with one!

Terrible Things Now Underway

Nancy Pearl: the librarian's golden calf? Discuss. Or just go watch her daughter take the stage this month in Terrible Things. Here are all the relevant details, including special promo pricing for the librarian community. And if you attend a performance, please share your thoughts in the comments.
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Science Tuesday meets Oklahoma angst as Lisa D'Amour and Katie Pearl flip P.S. 122 into a low-rent IMAX and get up close and in between molecules, quarks and memories. Have you ever wondered if all those lives you've imagined yourself living are actually happening in a parallel world(s)? Terrible Things takes audiences on a T-R-I-P inside the many lives of Katie Pearl and her action-figure literary mom, NANCY PEARL. Expect an in-your-body out-of-body experience shaped by Katie Pearl, three killer dancers: Emily Johnson, Morgan Thorson, and Karen Sherman, two Brazilian Jiu Jitsu wrestlers, and 1000 marshmallows. Featuring the choreography of Emily Johnson.

Here is a special discount code that you can use and pass along to your friends to get a special ticket price (normally $20)*:

$15 Single tickets with code BOOK15
2-for-1 tickets with code BOOK241

You just enter this code when you purchase your tickets here: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/203/1259712000000.

PERFORMANCE INFO:

Fri, Dec 4 - Sun, Dec 20
Thu - Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm
Late shows: Sat, Dec 12/Fri, Dec 18/Sat, Dec 19 10 pm

Additional shows Mon, Dec 14 + Wed, Dec 16 8pm
No show Thu, Dec 17

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122
150 1st Avenue @ East 9th Street, NYC
www.ps122.org

"Next time D'Amour and Pearl bring their enchanting work to town be sure to take it in." - John del Signore, The Gothamist

"The collaborative team of playwright Lisa D'Amour and director Katie Pearl make beguiling, innovative theatre pieces." - American Theater Magazine

www.pearldamour.com

*Restrictions apply - May be discontinued at any time, may not be applied to past sales or combined with other offers.

Happy Birthday, Me

Shelved @ NYC quietly celebrated its first birthday last week. Say what? Yeah, I almost don't believe it myself. The shock is so great, in fact, that I'm off to Mexico to catch my breath. Keep it real in the City, turkeys; a tanned and blissed-out Shelved will be back in December.

LeClerc Announces Retirement

At yesterday's New York Public Library Board of Trustees meeting, President Paul LeClerc revealed his intention to relinquish leadership in the summer of 2011. The early announcement gives the search committee plenty of time to find a suitable replacement.

Embrace Your Independents

We're already two days into Independent Bookstore Week! All ears open to the music of language, from now through Saturday, the 21st. Brokelyn highlights some of the sassier, Brooklyn-ier offerings of this first annual installment, brought to you by the Independent Booksellers of New York City.

Mid-Year Budget Crisis Threatens Library Funding

New York legislators are set to work overtime next week to reduce the State's $3.2 billion budget deficit. Governor Patterson's proposed plan includes a $3.4 million cut to Library Aid, a reduction that has public library advocates justifiably concerned. Despite New York Library Association's compelling testimony at the November 5th Senate Budget Hearing, the final outcome appears grim. Brooklyn Public Library and others urge you to contact your State Representatives and express your opposition. Time is short!

Growl or Purr: NYPL Redesigns Logo

New York Public Library's stately lion logo is being replaced with a "more modern and digital-friendly image."

Out with the old:
In with the new:Better? Worse? I'm wondering how much it will cost to print new signs, banners, handouts, etc. for every single branch. But no matter. NYPL made this little video to get you all excited about the change:

Student Suicide at NYU's Bobst Library

A New York University student, Andrew Williamson-Noble, committed suicide in Bobst Library at 4:30 this morning. He died after throwing himself from the 10th floor into the central atrium below. (Read NYU President John Sexton's community-wide email in the Huffington Post.)

After a spate of suicides earlier this decade, NYU erected 8-foot plexiglass barriers along the atrium-side of the library's stairwells and corridors to prevent further attempts. I work in Bobst Library and can attest that it is one depressing, vertiginous folly. Thanks, Philip Johnson. I'm not being glib. Nothing about Bobst's design inspires scholarship or contemplation. It's uncomfortable, physically and psychically. Perhaps these reflections have no bearing on this sad story, but they're worth pondering.

November Confesses to All Kinds of Terrible Things

My second least favorite month is nearly upon us. (February's the hands-down worst, no contest!) If you're equally disenchanted by the end of Daylight Savings and November's general gloom, distract yourself with this, that, or the other:

• Nov. 4: Get schooled on RDA by everyone's favorite cataloging instructor and winner of Library Journal's 2008 Teaching Award, Rick Block, at the New York Technical Services Librarians fall program.
• Nov. 6-7: Wondering how to get patrons of all ages interested in poetry? Attend the Poetry in the Branches National Institute at New York's beautiful, spacious, and new-as-can-be Poets House.
• Nov. 19: SLA's New York Chapter upgrades your brain at the New York Information and Intelligence Forum.
• Nov. 21: Eat brunch with America's most famous library-lady, Nancy Pearl. Okay, Laura Bush might be more (in)famous. Proceeds benefit her daughter's upcoming dramatic confessional, Terrible Things. Mmm...marshmallows...
  

The McNally Jackson Halloween Embarrassment

From the lovely ladies of the Desk Set:

The Desk Set is delighted to be helping out our friends at McNally Jackson for their Halloween happy hour costume party The McNally Jackson Halloween Embarrassment.

Here’s your chance to bust out, dust off and iron up your old Lizzy Bennet gown, stick a red felt A on your chest, or throw on some round specs and a striped scarf. Enjoy some tunes, some drinks, and some bookstore ambiance as you show off your clever costume. What’s that? You’ve already made plans for Halloween? Well, make McNally Jackson your first stop: festivities start at 7:00, costume contest is at 8:00, and you’ll be on your way to whatever debauchery awaits by 9:00.

Two more terrific things about this party: Esther K. Smith will teach you how to make some badly needed cootie catchers, and you can purchase paperbacks from the Books Through Bars wishlist to donate while you party.

Here are the details as supplied by McNally Jackson:

The McNally Jackson Halloween Embarrassment

You’re a nerd. And not just a little nerd either, no, you’re a nerd of magnificent proportions. You love books so much that you’re not satisfied just reading books shamefully in the privacy of your home, no, you have to read them on trains, buses, in restaurants. It’s embarrassing.
Not only that, but you think about books all day, you talk about them. When you walk down the street, when you kiss your children goodnight, you are a book nerd even then, in your heart.
You should be ashamed but you’re not. No, you celebrate your nerd-dom, you revel in it. Then, on Halloween, otherwise known as Nerdmas, you take to the streets. You wear your nerd heart on your nerd sleeve and dance (poorly) and sing (poorly). You let the nerd all hang out.
And somehow society just lets this happen? People don’t flee; indeed, some join in with you! You form roving nerd troupes, carnivals of embarrassment and glee!

You, dear reader, are invited.

This Halloween we hope book nerds of all sorts will join us to act like damned costumed fools amid our stacks. With a little help from the nerdy librarians of the Desk Set, we’re hosting our annual Halloween party, and that means it’s time to dust off your spats and clichés, grab those fangs and poorly executed allegories. We’re inviting all attendees to draw on their bookish lore to dress up as a favorite character. Or theme. Or setting? Even a title will do. Anyhow, we expect you to impress us with your book-themed costume. Uncostumed book nerds are welcome, too, they just won’t have a shot to win fabulous prizes.

We’ll begin with a horror reading at 7:00, followed by music and drinks. At 8:00 we’ll host our costume contest, with a panel of judges rating your getup for execution, originality and enthusiasm.

We’ll have plenty of other ways for you to embarrass yourselves, too, including:
*a scary voice contest
*papercrafts with our neighborhood paper wizard Esther Smith
*charity book donations (kindness is embarrassing, isn’t it?)
*and plenty of opportunities to indulge your embarrassing love for sweets

The party is open to the public: no fee or reservation required. All we want is your nerdy nerdy self.
Note however, that this party is for fully-grown nerds. Younger party-goers are welcome to our kid’s Halloween celebration from noon to 2.

McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St.
(b/t Lafayette & Mulberry)
New York, NY 10012
212.274.1160

October 31, 2009

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

ILS Developments at Queens and Brooklyn & 2CUL for Two Schools

For tech services librarians, nothing beats getting screwed over by your ILS vendor. Queens Library's recent trouble with SirsiDynix was the subject of a Library Journal article a couple weeks ago. According to QL, they chose to migrate to Dynix's Horizon system based on promises of aggressive product development. Once Dynix merged with Sirsi, however, those promises were rescinded. Queens is now suing their erstwhile vendor, charging breach of contract, breach of guaranty, and fraud. They've since migrated to VTLS' Virtua system.

Further catalog news: Brooklyn Public Library announced improvements to their public interface, touting hold freezes, online fine payments, and a book-rating system amongst their catalog's new features.

Finally, Columbia and Cornell announced their intention to pool resources in their collection development, acquisitions, and processing operations. The project -- dubbed 2CUL -- is buoyed by a $385,000 Mellon grant. From the press release:

The two universities will form a separate service entity to facilitate the collaboration. Ithaka, a not-for-profit organization that assists research libraries and the academic community to leverage advancing information technologies, will provide project management and assist in the planning. Initial work will focus on several global collecting areas, as well as collaborative funding and support of technical infrastructure in various areas.

Yes, 2CUL is pronounced "too cool." No, the powers that be don't realize this is a laughable, supremely uncool name. Best of luck though.

Take the Field: Trips, Week of Oct. 5, 2009

I'm not sure how anyone can concentrate on librarianship with the sweet promise of postseason baseball just days away. If your priorities don't include pennants and pinch runners, you have my pity...and freedom to attend these bookish events:

• Oct. 6: Sneak a peek at Jewish Theological Seminary's incredible library; then make your way downtown to help plan next year's Anarchist Book Fair.
• Oct. 7: Go deep inside The Strand with METRO. You'll "learn how books are processed, how rare books are selected and hear how librarians can purchase books for their libraries and themselves."
• Oct. 9-11: Rutgers delivers the Mobile Communication and Social Policy Conference, a weekend-long affair of potential interest to the media-savvy, globally-minded librarian.
• Oct. 10: Do you like to read stuff and then talk about it...at a bar? No heavy tomes to struggle through for this reading group's Saturday meeting at Flannery's.

Remember to check the right-hand calendar for additional excursions.

Weekend Field Trips: Banned Books Week Ends, October Begins

Have you checked out the Shelved @ NYC calendar for October? The number of conferences, classes, library tours, and other events is borderline scary, but in that pre-Halloween, embrace-the-foreboding kinda way. Here are some things happening THIS WEEKEND that won't harm your psyche or pilfer your wallet (badly):

• The Contemporary Artists Book Conference is in residence at P.S.1. The sessions started today, but there are three more for you to catch tomorrow (on print-on-demand, zines, and a stellar keynote conversation).
• Here's the buzz: Pratt SILSSA is taking Banned Books Week seriously. Bee a part of the Librarian Swarm at Union Square this Saturday afternoon.
• Flickr Commons fans should head to the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night for Common Ground, "a beautiful nighttime parade of images gathered and transmitted from the global Commons network, meet staff from Brooklyn and NYPL, get your hands on some cool Flickr schwag and enjoy the surrounding First Saturday festivities."

Poetry's New Cathedral on the Hudson

Congratulations Poets House! As reported by Library Journal, the 24 year-old poetry library and education center has successfully moved from its cramped Soho digs to "a stunning new location in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, in a LEED Gold-certified building, with huge windows overlooking the Hudson River." (For a more detailed description of the space, check out this NY Times article.) Their grand opening celebration took place over the weekend, while regular library and reading room hours recommenced today.

"Throughout its transformations, the heart of Poets House has remained its poetry collection," their website states. "With over 50,000 volumes of poetry—including books, journals, chapbooks, audio and video tapes, and digital media—our collection is among the most comprehensive, open-access collections of poetry in the United States and is the foundation for all our programs and services."

And speaking of programs and services, Poets House will host its annual Poetry in the Branches (PITB) National Institute the weekend of November 6-7. The PITB program works with NYC's public libraries to increase patron exposure to poetry via workshops, readings, improved collection development, and librarian training.

A Branch Library Grows in Brooklyn

[Re-posted from Lower East Side Librarian]

A new alternative library grows in Brooklyn: the Branch Library in Clinton Hill is a project driven primarily by designers I believe, but they were respectful enough of the library profession to talk to some librarians, including the NYC Radical Reference collective. They'll be open the next 8 Sundays (and they hope beyond) from 1-5 in an unused parking lot on the corner of Myrtle and Clinton.

It may be some librarians' immediate reaction to be defensive, critical, or even angry at these amateur upstarts, but I think we'd be smarter to embrace, encourage, and advise them (when asked). I love their community centric approach. Jerome Chou, one of the group's core members, described how they're letting patrons design the library at our last Rad Ref meeting.

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Click to continue reading Jenna's post!

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And if you'd like to volunteer or donate supplies (and books!), please contact Jerome at librarybranch@gmail.com.

Mid-Manhattan Gets Caffeinated

Check out these pics of Mid-Manhattan Library, taken over by Tim Hortons yesterday. It's corporate sponsorship gone wild! Here's my fave:

[Photo by Don Pollard]