Urban Hang-Out vs Traditional Library

Slate has an interesting photo essay exploring the question of how to build a public library in the age of Google, Wikipedia, and Kindle. The grand old reading rooms and stacks of past civic monuments are giving way to a new library-as-urban-hangout concept, as evidenced by Seattle’s Starbucks-meets-mega-bookstore central library and Salt Lake City’s shop-lined education mall. Without some dramatic changes, The Extinction Timeline predicts libraries will R.I.P. in 2019.”

I have finally decided

After taking a sick day off work and being blamed for causing a gap service (despite the fact that I followed established procedure), I have made the decision to terminate my current employment at the library which I am working.

That WILL NOT stop me from keepin gthis blog current.

I still very much love library science and will hoefully find anoth position in the same field.

I just feel that my current working environment is dis-jointed and very inward thinking, if that makes any sense.

The people whom I work with are not bad in the least, but there is nothing too exciting about them, they are just kind of there.

I am looking for a working environment that invigorates me, and beckons me to get up in the morning. I know that may be a lot to ask, but all of my former positions did this for me, even when I was in the military.

So I will be handing in my resignation on Monday.

Wish me luck.

Library Organizations: Are They Worth It?

For years I have worked in a library, most of it in a public library but recent years have seen me dip my cap at academic and special librarianship.

All the while, I have never had the interest in becoming a part of the major library associations. They only time I was vaguely interested in these huge conglomerates were when National convention rolled around and they were being held in a city in which I would like to visit like the case with the ALA a few years back when they had their convention in The Big Easy.

My interest has sparked again this year with the Medical Library Association (MLA) holding a convention in Chicago during May 2008.

I would love to participate, but would like to do so for the right reasons and not for a free trip to Chi-Town.

Since, I am now working in a special/medical library; the MLA may be an association which I would like to become a member of. I will be doing some more research on this organization and let you know what I decide.

Any advice would be helpful as well.