My new workplace...

Well, it's been six months now at my new job so I figure it's about time I post about it!

Ohio used to be the benchmark for public libraries in America, but that started to change during the 90s with decreased funding. However, this was nothing compared to the crash in 2008 when libraries across the country found themselves reeling.

This is the Union Township Branch of the 10-branch public library system of Clermont County. Compared to the neighboring county of Hamilton, which includes Cincinnati, Clermont doesn't have anywhere near the amount of resources or money for programming, but being a patron of Hamilton I can say that Clermont has one clear advantage and that is customer service. Not that Hamilton provides bad service, but comparatively Clermont staff is more attentive and personable. Union Township is slated to move towards the end of the year in proximity of the East Gate Mall and is poised to take over the #1 spot in highest circulation in the county.

As the adult services librarian, the reference desk is my domain!

Partial view of the DVD collection. A decent sized collection with a good mix of current movies and classics, vintage TV shows and various nonfiction titles.

To think I gave up my own office for a desk in a cubicle! But hey, this is a great place to work and I'm glad Clermont called me!

Memories of Munich!

I first started frequenting this library in 1988 during my year studying at the University in Munich. Otherwise known as die Zentralbibliothek des Münchner Bibliothekssytems, it opened in 1984 and during the time I was a patron, it was the most impressive library I had used. In addition to a vast audio/visual collection, I had an awesome laminated library card complete with a scanable barcode, something that wasn't commonplace in the states until the 90s!


Unfortunately I did not take any photos back in the day, but I did manage to find some recent ones on the web.

It's Parrot Time!

This is the Delhi Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, just one of forty branches in this system. It is one of the busiest library systems in the country serving a population of 500,000 or more and has one of the ten largest collections in the U.S. with over 9 million items!

This past weekend I attended my first library program in probably a decade. Three members of the Greater Cincinnati Bird Club gave a presentation featuring three of our feathered friends: a macaw, a cockatoo and an African Grey parrot. The program itself was held in the main part of the library and turned out to be a big hit with a final count of 76 people. After a brief introduction by the reference librarian who arranged the event, each member of the bird club talked about one of the parrots and offered advice for those interested in purchasing a bird as a pet and tips on maintenance.

Clymer Library in the Heart of the Poconos

This library certainly brings back a lot of memories for me. During the time I worked at Skytop Lodge, I used to frequent this library during the late 1990s to attend a monthly program entitled "Foreign Film Night."

It is a small rural library in northeastern Pennsylvania, but already more than a decade ago, they were offering internet access, had a very respectable AV collection and were even able to offer up adult programming on a shoestring budget.


Orderly, well lit and very functional, this may very well be my favorite small library so far. Hopefully I will be able to make a return visit in the near future... and get my library card renewed!

http://www.clymerlibrary.org/

The Mecca of Public Libraries

Don't ask me why I've taken so long to post this library. I am from New York after all! Well, when it comes to public libraries, I challenge you to find one more famous than this!
Technically, this is a research library although it is open to the public and is part of NYPL, the New York Public Library System, which consists of over 80 branches.

the most famous lion in New York

the grand reading room

the map division room

an old postcard featuring the library








For a history on the library, click on this link. I would rather present to you a blurb from this book by Marilyn Johnson. In her chapter entitled "Gotham City", she gives a very vivid view on the inner workings of the old library.

"This library is huge. It encompasses two city blocks, millions of items, miles of shelves, hundreds of librarians, a cavernous storage space beneath Bryant Park, the whole thing humming like a freeway. You locate what you want in the digital catalog, an ever-expanding index of knowledge. You write down your name and the particulars of the item, its call number and title, on an old-fashioned clip with a stubby pencil. You have just used the most sophisticated tool in the library and the least sophisticated; the twenty-first-century library embraces both. A reference librarian checks the call number against a map of the library, tucks the slip into one of the 1911-era brass tubes, and sends your request whizzing through pneumatic pipes to a station deep in the building's bowels. If you're lucky, the book is where it is supposed to be and arrives at the call desk on a conveyer belt; the slip you sent out like a prayer is answered."

Phoenixville Revisited!

Two years ago I blogged on the public library in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, the first library I ever worked at (2004-05). This year I made a return visit and met up with some former colleagues. Despite budget cuts, they seem to be busier than ever (pretty much the same story everywhere!). Here are some pix I snapped during my visit.

Don't you just love these houses that Carnegie built?
Well, he didn't build them but his money did!

Entrance to the "new" addition to the original Carnegie building.

Choose your route...upstairs to the adult library or down the stairs to the children's area.

The stacks in the old part of the building.

I think I know this woman!

A few of the library's workstations with the bulk of the DVD collection in the background.

Yours truly with the man that started it all, Phoenixville Library Director John Kelley.

Stadtbibliothek Unterschleißheim

I've always been a heavy library user, and it was no different when I was living and studying in Germany. This month's post is a library I had stopped by during a trip I took in 2000. This was of course 10 years ago, so I don't remember all the details, but I do recall checking out a few CDs using a relative's card. Their music collection was quite impressive for a library this size, although it does claim to be one of the largest public libraries around Munich.




You can find their website here. Back in 2000, I
remember it being a free service, but I see on their website that there is an annual fee of 15 euros, which is approximately 30 dollars. I have no idea when this went into effect, but perhaps there is no library tax imposed on its citizens?

Elting Memorial Library

This past summer I was visiting a friend in upstate New York when I came across this library in the heart of New Paltz. I used to spend summers in my early childhood in this area and haven't been back in nearly 20 years. The Elting Memorial Library is part of the Mid-Hudson Library System which consists of 66 libraries in 5 counties. The library was founded in 1909 and the building itself is on the State and National Historic Registers.

I try to remain incognito when visiting libraries, but I forgot what shirt I had put on in the morning. When walking past the circulation desk, the library worker said very loudly, "Oh my God, look at his shirt! I want that!" It was last year's "Express Yourself @ Your Library" summer reading tee. My cover was blown and I had to reveal myself as a librarian!
Yes! As much as I hated using a card catalog as a kid, one cannot deny the nostalgia surrounding these monstrosities. Back then, libraries were much quieter, civilized places!

Bibliotheek in Philipsburg

In my opinion, St. Maarten is one of the most interesting stops in the entire Caribbean. Half Dutch, half French, I had the opportunity to stop by the Philipsburg Jubilee Library located on the Dutch side a couple of weeks ago. Originally founded in 1923, the current building occupied by the library opened in 1984 and on its 75th anniversary in 1997, the library became fully automated.

From what I saw, this was definitely one of the better efforts in the Caribbean region, which so often neglects its public libraries and has little to offer in the way of materials and reference services. The staff was very accommodating and their collection not only included a decently sized section on the local history of the Netherlands Antilles, but also AV materials, a rarity in these parts. They even had a bookmobile!

Chattanooga Choo Choo!

Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library


From Gatlinburg in 2008 to Chattanooga just a few days ago. Obviously a much larger library, three floors to be exact, but the building itself was drab and unimpressive. To make it even worse, it had one of these dreadful metal sculptures out front presumably left over from scraps from its construction. But what saved the experience for me was when I stumbled across a card catalog in all its glory. Of course, the catalog is online, but talk about a conversation piece!

The collection was dated and thumbing through the travel section, I wondered if they weeded at all, but it was exactly for this reason that I wished all libraries would have space for older titles. Travel classics that I had to ILL, such as Aku Aku and An African in Greenland were right there on the shelves! But perusing the AV section was satisifying as well. Nonfiction DVDs were in good supply, but unfortunately it did appear they were charging for movies, a practice I cannot say I'm in favor of.

Despite being visually unappealing, I wouldn't mind at all being a patron of this library...