A library should be a Living Organism

A library should be a Living Organism

In another new development the Palm Beach Atlantic University library 'will have a cafe, an outdoor patio, more than twice the number of books, and 653 study spots, up from 115. Students will be encouraged to take their coffee and pastries throughout the library, apparently an important perk for collegians. '

Findley, who is designing the library said. "A library should not be a rusty, rigid and boring place. It should be a living organism."

The impact on us is we have to embrace continuous change.

Public Libraries Going Private

Public Libraries Going Private

Very interesting development from the US concerning the privatization of public library. Do you think we can do this here? What is interesting about this is that they have bidders/proposals from their current outsource service providers already. Below are the reasons that gave.

• Private management brings solid corporate business thinking to the table. That means working hard to find the most efficient way to do things. It means looking for innovation and finding ways to get more productivity out of existing resources. It means knowing how to get the most out of every dollar spent. Corporations know how to do this.


• LSSI brings significant library management experience to the table. It already operates four public libraries in Tennessee and about 50 nationwide. It operates some very large public library systems such as in Riverside County, Calif. It also does work for the Library of Congress and for the Smithsonian Institution.


• Corporate management of the library will bring new resources to the library. LSSI has a nationally known advisory board including some of the top library officials and library science educators in the country. These resources will be at our disposal.


• Successful corporations know how to manage change. Change is difficult, but those who don't change with the times fall behind.


• A private management contract would be performance based. Benchmarks and performance standards would be set by the board and agreed to by the contractor. If the goals are not met, a management change could again be made. LSSI has an outstanding record of meeting its performance goals for the public libraries it manages.


• The LSSI proposal is reasonable and includes taking quick action to open a North Jackson branch, something that has only been talked about for too many years.


• Corporations understand the concept of living within their means. LSSI has been successful at finding new non-taxpayer sources of revenue in other libraries it manages

What I am interested to find out is their business model.

Librarian's Blogs

In the recent CONSAL in Manila a Filipino Librarian presented a paper on Blogging 101 for Librarians. The librarian cited few well known examples out of the US but what surprise almost nothing form this region. Well, it could be there are somewhere but not traceable or we do not blog down here. Is that means we do not write as well? I dreaded to ask ‘do we read’? Do not get me wrong I am not celebrating technology for the sake of it but it si the issue that we are always late at embracing technology to be an effective part of our daily being. Technorati is tracking around 3.3 million blogs now and although most of them a personal opinions a lot of these personal opinions are opinions that matter. Simply because these blogs are written by prominent people in their field. Blogs are no doubt a good reference sources now. I love to see a lot more of us to start to blog. One interesting blog by a librarian, he said he is, that I have discovered is Munmon’s Stories as I see it. Having a blog doesn’t mean that you have to update or write everyday. Once a week will do and it would be meaningful if you write something more pertinent. Of course some of you are blogging already but hiding under different names. Come out!