The Toronto reference library was recently renovated, and they sent a drone flying around it to get a bird's eye view. They now have a salon for "writers, thinkers, artists and innovators come together for conversation and debate."  They forgot to mention ASTRONAUTS.  Have any of you had experiences with drones in your libraries? Or astronauts, for that matter?

It was Banned Books Week last week.  Did you know it is still an issue? The Mercury out of Portland also has a list of books challenged in Oregon.

Did you know Overdrive is integrated with Bing search engine?  Overdrive is the company behind Library2Go, Oregon's digital library consortium.  Search for a title in Bing, and you'll notice now on the right side of the screen there's an option to borrow the book from Overdrive.  I searched for "donna tartt the goldfinch" and despite the weird results (El Jilguero?), I found it under "Read this Book".

The Library of Congress has many many things in its collection.  And people do many many creative things with them. And creepy things. Artist Kevin Weir has more examples over at his site.

Kevin Weir

Why do we call it weeding?

Now that the autumn rains are here, and I can start uprooting some of the unwelcome guests that have survived the hot, dry weather in my yard, I'm contemplating on the difference between weeding in the garden and weeding in the library.

When I'm weeding in my garden, I'm pulling up things that planted themselves.  They're definitely not something I ever put there.  Granted, I do quite a bit of thinning, like the inside-out flower that's muscling in on the sweet woodruff.  I even sometimes completely eradicate something (or at least try to), like the bronze fennel and lemon balm that produced a bazillion seedlings every spring because I'd let them go to seed the previous fall.  But I had actually planted these thing.

When we talk about weeding in the library, we're getting rid of things that we did, in fact, plant in our collections.  It would be more appropriate, in my opinion, to call it thinning.  If we really mean weeding, we mean things that we didn't put in the collection in the first place - kind of like if a bunch of Captain Underpants books was sprouting in the Federal Documents Collection.

I doubt that the library world will make this change, but I can at least contemplate it while I venture into my newly-damp garden, weeding stick in hand, and start going after things I really didn't plant.

Sewing at the library

Here's another interesting idea of something "different" to add to a library collection - sewing machines!

There are open sewing hours at the Mountain View Public Library in California every Saturday and they've been getting more and more popular.  I like that the machines are all named Grace.

What kind of help do you think the staff provide?  I know we're expected to help patron's to a certain extent on the computers at my library, but I'm not sure everyone would be comfortable trouble-shooting a sewing machine or serger.

Does your library have any interesting things in their collection and do you help with maintenance or trouble-shooting?

We are having an OLA-SSD Open House!

When: August 15th from 1:00-2:00pm

Where: Gresham Library, 385 NW Miller, Gresham Oregon 97030

There is free parking and the Gresham Tri-Met Transit Center is very close by.


There will be a short presentation, light refreshments, and time for questions.

All interested Oregon library support staff are welcome to attend to find out more about SSD and get your questions answered live and in person. Support Staff Division is a great way to meet other library staff in similar jobs from around the state and find out what is going on beyond your own library, as well as a fulfilling way to get involved and give back to the library community in Oregon. We have opportunities open to help plan the annual SSD conference, as well as some open board positions.

Did you know? If distance is a factor for you, the SSD meetings can be often be done on a computer, virtually, to minimize time & travel expenses.

As always, scholarship help to join OLA SSD is available.

So, if you are looking for a new opportunity for involvement in the library world, SSD might be for you. Come check us out this Friday, we'd love to see you!

Library Ergonomics Zines

Zines are a convenient format for non-professional writers to publish their works and get them "out in the world".  Wikipedia says - "A zine is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier. A popular definition includes that circulation must be 1,000 or fewer, although in practice the majority are produced in editions of less than 100, and profit is not the primary intent of publication. They are informed by anarchopunk and DIY ethos."

The Indigo Editing blog mentions a zine called Ergonomics and You. It's a zine written by a library worker at Multnomah County Library. You can even find it listed in World Cat and that means you might be able to request it through Interlibrary Loan, possibly?

The only other zine on ergonomics I found is not directly library related, and is titled "A Mini Guide to Healthy Hands".

Is the zine format a good one for ergonomics?  Are videos better? Or even live demonstrations?

More OLA 2014 Conference Wrap-ups

From "The Second Floor Librarians" blog of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, here are some brief  thoughts about the conference as well as a link to a page containing some substantial book art.  Wet books, structures, Buddhas - there's a bit of everything.

Here's a conference wrap-up from OLA itself. There are links to the survey as well as the resources at NW Central.  There's also a list of award winners, both books and bingo. Sounds like fun!

You can read back through the twitter feed of the conference.

And finally, our State Librarian has a few quick thoughts on the conference over at her blog.

Did we leave anything out?

Rate the 2014 OLA Conference!

From the Oregon OLA Representative, Suzanne Sager:

If you attended the 2014 OLA Conference, please take time to fill out the evaluation form using the link below. This information is very useful in planning future conferences.

http://tinyurl.com/OLA2014conf-eval

Thank you!