Chip Ward just retired after 29 years at the Salt Lake City Public Library. He left as the assistant director and might be the highest ranking library administrator to let the "dirty little secret" out.What's the secret?"Public libraries have become de facto daytime shelters for the nation's street people while librarians are increasingly our unofficial social workers for the homeless and mentally disturbed."Of course this is not news to anyone who frequents the downtown library in any city. We all have our homeless stories.Some of Chip's homeless highlights:Overheard:-"Don't mind me, I'm dead. It's okay. I've been dead for some time...
Another University Bookstore Goes to the Chains
First it was Sonoma State University now it is the University of Kentucky.The family owned and independent Kennedy Book Store has had the contract for the UK Book Store for the last 6 years. Kennedy Book Store has been a "campus mainstay since its was founded in 1950" by... Joe Kennedy, who remains the company president."What the University wants for the right to run the bookstore:a 10-year lease and $3 million to $4 million toward renovation of the 16,250-square-foot store.Kennedy offered $2 million and wisely "could not go beyond that given uncertainties that could arise during a 10-year lease"They are...
Internet 1.0: The Mundaneum
In 1895, Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, two Belgian lawyers, established the Repertoire Bibliographique Universel (RBU).Their goal: To develop a master bibliography of the world’s accumulated knowledge.They designed a classification system called the Universal Decimal ClassificationAfter seeing what systems were out there, like the Dewey Decimal and the British Museum systems, Otley realized that their weakness was their inability to go any further than getting the reader the one book they were looking for. He was thinking Hypertext.For the 1910 World's Fair in Brussels the pair created an installation entitled The Mundaneum. A "city of the intellect" that was...
Seattle and the New Koolhaas Central Library: Is the Honeymoon Over?
Before we dive into the current flurry of the form vs. function debate regarding our Rem Koolhaas designed Central Library lets step back and take a look at the big picture.The library is one of the many gifts of The 'Libraries For All' 1998 bond measure that passed by the largest margin of victory for a bond measure in Seattle history.Seattle got a new Koolhaas designed Central Library, 5 other new branches and improvements to all 22 existing branches in Seattle.The impact on our city has been profound:-library usership is up citywide- the Central Library has become a top tier...
Keeping Up With the Gates Foundation at the Library
I had a look at the 8 minute video/infomercial The Gates Foundation has released to help library advocates make the case for funding in their communities.The video is an accessory to the announcement by the Gates Foundation at the ALA mid-winter meeting this past January in Seattle that pledged 5 more years of support so "public libraries serving low-income communities continue to provide free, high-quality computer and Internet services and training to their communities".As advertised the video has a strong focus on minority and low income library users who are in some ways becoming dependent on library technologies to do...