“Have you been borrowed yet?”

This piece from the London Times was found by Sue at NBAB about the Living Library. The first Living Library was held at a music festival in Denmark in 2000 and a library in the UK recently held its first Living Library. So what exactly is a Living Library? A library allows readers to borrow people for a 30-minute chat. Some choices offered at the Uk Library: Gay Man, Muslim, Male Nanny, Police Officer, Social Worker, Immigrant and Disabled Person.

In total Living Library People were borrowed 47 times, almost 24 book hours.

Anne Kilroy an organizer says,
" To anyone who wants to organize a Living Library around the world, please feel free to contact me so I can share our experiences, as well as guiding you on how to stage a successful event. Thanks a lot to everybody who wants to participate. anne.kilroy@living-library.org "

Technovirginity

Feedback from the Handheld Libraries workshop last week has been 100% positive. Everyone had good things to say, including one librarian writing as what she terms a technovirgin. Before the workshop she didn't see how being connected via a wireless device could help her in her daily life. She saw it as more of a burden. And now, like me, this person can't wait to get an iPhone. Commenters said they want additional forward thinking workshops. We at SCLS can't wait to begin planning something new. Again, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Portable Libraries

Talk about your portable library service. Take a look at the Shifted Librarian's posting on "The Ask Cart, " and actual hot dog cart. This is an amazing example of taking the library to the user, complete with goodies. Maybe not Hand Held, but definitely portable.

For those of you unable to attend the Program Hand Held Libraries here is a link to speaker, Aaron Schmidt's Blog Walking Paper .

And for those who just want to replay iPhone the musical by David Pogue, here it is :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vniMR6Ez9cE

One Phone Call From Jail?

What does the Egyptian Police, the micro blogging site Twitter, a mobile phone and the word “arrested” all have in common?

April 10, UC Berkley journalism student James Karl Buck was photographing a demonstration in Egypt when he was taken to jail. Egyptian Police didn’t take his mobile phone! Buck typed out the message “ARRESTED” on his cell phone and posted it to his Twitter account. That message was then instantly broadcast to those who follow Buck’s Twitter account. It was those friends who called, UC Berkley, the American Embassy and the Associated Press. Buck was released the next day.

Hope to see you tomorrow for Hand Held Libraries

Branding

PLA had a marketing track which included some great programs, one was presented by members of the Douglas County Library’s Marketing staff. Check out the blog that was set up by the marketing team at Douglas County. It’s the PLA presentation as well as tips on branding your library, how to get your programs in the local news and what makes an aesthetically pleasing flyer.

http://firstimpressionslast.blogspot.com/

They’ll answer your questions if you email them and SCLS will be presenting the program Speaking with One Voice: A guide to integrating customer service, marketing & public relations with Libby Post June 5, 2008.

Going Local

I found the information at CIL on going local most interesting. Charles Lyons from the University at Buffalo talked about opportunities for libraries to enter local information using Library 2.0 applications. This is an area where I believe libraries can shine.

According to the presentation, the internet makes it easy so sip globally, but so far not locally. Although Google Local is adding in more local search results, and people can find local news using a Google News advanced search, the local web is primarily
user-generated, participatory, amateur, civic, grassroots, citizen’s journalism. The local web gives knowledgeable people a voice. (I would say it also gives unknowledgeable people a voice as well, but that's a topic for a different posting).
With information about neighborhoods, streets, buildings, and communities, the local web is bringing a sense of place to the internet.

Are libraries helping to bring a sense of place to the Internet? Our key strengths are local history, and genealogy, as well as providers of community information. However, there are opportunites for libraries to become more local. We need to become expert users of local resources, raise awareness and assist the community in using them, broaden the scope of local data, become active participants in community-focused resources, and create our own local resources. We need to become experts at using Yahoo local, Google maps, and Ask city. Place and community blogging is another opportunity to go local. Check out the Darien Community Matters blog.

This sounds like a good subject for a workshop, don't you think? For more information, check out Charles Lyons Dewey&Main blog.