TBLC News

But let’s not stop there.  My boss at the Sleepy Hollow Public Library often said, “I’d forget my head if it weren’t attached.” 

Well, why not boil all this ID-specific information down to one barcode and have it tattooed—in ink visible only under ultraviolet light—on our foreheads?  With the same data on an RFID tag we could wear as an earring?  Sure, you’d have to stick your head out the window when you went through a Sunpass toll booth.  But that’s a small price to pay for overall annoyance reduction.

Think about it. You’d look perfectly normal. (Well, as normal as you ever look. And it’s not your fault that your mom dresses you funny.)  But you could go anywhere and use anything, so long as you brought your head along.  It would be like the old days, when all your friends recognized you on sight.  Even your imaginary friends.  Only now it would be computers who’d be saying, “Hey!  Que pasa?  Whazzup?”  (They’d actually say “1011010011010…!”  But I thought it would be best to translate.)  And you could leave your billfold at home.

This is not yet a service TBLC is offering. But if there’s enough demand….

–Al Carlson

TBLC will be closed on Monday, Sept. 1, 2008, in observance of Labor Day.

We hope you all enjoy the holiday! 

Through our group purchase program, TBLC members are eligible for a discount on Global Road Warrior (www.globalroadwarrior.com), a comprehensive social, cultural and travel database covering 175 countries and territories.

Global Road Warrior signed us up for a FREE trial period to share with our members, which they have extended until Sept. 30. To access the content for the entire site, visit www.globalroadwarrior.com and use the following codes:

User name: grw
Password: baker

Please note that your subscription to Global Road Warrior will depend on the total number of member libraries that subscribe through TBLC. If you’re interested in a quote, contact Vickie Frost no later than Sept. 30, 2008, at frostv@tblc.org or (813) 622-8252 (ext. 224).

Newspoke, the Alaska Library Association newsletter, included a nice tribute to John Iliff along with coverage of awarding the first John Iliff Award to the Durham Public Library.

The July-Sept 2008 issue (available here) included a transcription of the speech written by Jean Armour Polly and read by the Public Library Association president to introduce the first annual PLA Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award, an article about John written by Julie Moore and some nice photos.

John was an inspiring librarian.  He is sorely missed.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jeanne Williams, who served as supervisor of the Technical Services Department for Alachua County’s Library System for six years.

Her husband, Mike Williams, has asked us to convey the following message:

I want to thank all of you who sent cards & condolences to my wife, Jeanne Williams, and our family during her illness.  Each and every correspondence meant so very much to her.

Jeanne always spoke so fondly and with such great pride about her years at the Dunedin Library and she never forgot all the wonderful people that she met and worked with.

Thank you so much for you concern and your kindness.

Sincerely,
Mike Williams

*****

The following information is courtesy of The Gainesville Sun:

Jeanne S. Williams of Gainesville, FL passed away on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at E.T. York Hospice Care Center.

Mrs. Williams was born in New York City, New York to Blake & Gertrude Starnes. She moved to Gainesville from Pinellas County in 2001. Jeanne was Supervisor of the Technical Services Department for Alachua County’s Library System for six years.

She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Michael; sons, Christopher of Marietta, GA, Benjamin and his wife, Tracy, of Old Orchard Beach, M Daniel and his wife, Erinn, of Gainesville; six grandchildren and sister, Susie Starnes of Clearwater, FL.

In lieu of flowers please make contributions to E.T. York Hospice Care Center, 4200 NW 90th Blvd, Gainesville, 32606.

Arrangements are in the care of Forest Meadows Funeral Home, Cemeteries, and Crematory. Please sign guestbook at www.forestmeadowsfh.com.

We regretfully announce that Michelle Oleson has resigned from her member services assistant position with TBLC. She recently earned her master’s degree in library and information science and has accepted a wonderful new job as the web/digital services librarian at Salisbury University in Maryland. Although we will miss Michelle’s presence in the office, she has agreed to handle our web programming and development on a long-distance contract basis.

Best of luck, Michelle!

Please direct any questions to Beth Farmer at farmerb@tblc.org or (813) 622-8252 (ext. 228).

This is just a reminder asking you to let us know if your libraries or staff experience damage from Tropical Storm Fay, particularly if assistance is needed or you need to communicate to the library community. Email cparker@tblc.org or call (813) 622-8252 (ext. 222) if you have anything to report.

We’re hoping that our member libraries, their staff, and our region make it through this uneventfully.

Charlie

Through our group purchase program, TBLC members are eligible for a discount on Morningstar Investment Research Center (www.morningstar.com), which provides independent and in-depth recommendations and research on stocks, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds in an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand format.

Morningstar signed us up for a FREE trial period to share with our members until Sept. 15, 2008. To access, visit http://library.morningstar.com/Membership/setup.html and use the following codes:

User name: tampabay
Password: library

Please note that the cost of your subscription to Morningstar will depend on the total number of member libraries that subscribe through TBLC. If you’re interested in a quote, contact Vickie Frost no later than Sept. 20, 2008, at frostv@tblc.org or (813) 622-8252 (ext. 224).

I need to follow up on Beth’s “Sacred Cows?” post.  For years—make that centuries—libraries have been drawing lines around their services.  “Only catalogers can do this!”  “Only reference staff can do this!”  “We serve only this geographic area!”

Piet Hein (whom you will probably Google after you read this) created a short epigrammatic literary form called the “grook.”  Here’s one of them.

On Problems
Our choicest plans have fallen through,
Our airiest castles tumbled over,
Because of lines we neatly drew
And later neatly stumbled over.

We can and will still draw lines to help us define a service or a service population.  But we have to learn to draw them very lightly.  With dry erase markers.  And admit that they may be in the wrong place, even as we are drawing them.  As a guy whose attention span falls somewhere between ‘chipmunk’ and ‘toddler,’ I think this is just fine.  (Usually.  Unless they are my lines.)  But even librarians who are actual grownups need to get comfortable with rapid, seemingly disruptive, change. 

We know the cause (Can you spell WWW?), and we’ve seen some of victims:  the music industry, the auto industry.  Our job is to be smarter and more nimble than they have been.  Hint:  TBLC is here to help with that.

Al

In a recent blog posting about “sacred cows,” Andrew Pace of OCLC questions all of the circulation rules in place in many libraries.  He says “Take a hard look at those systems, folks…Is it time to simplify?”  Read more here.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative calls for more open resource sharing in the interlibrary loan world.  The Rethinking Resource Sharing Manifesto says, “Restrictions shall only be imposed as necessary by individual institutions.”

Are we all ready to be more open to relaxing our policies and getting more into the hands of the user, in an easier way? 

Beth