Different Kinds of Staff
The serious stuff first: We've been reviewing and updating all of my library's policies for the last few weeks, so I've got policy v. procedure on the brain. Because of that, it occurred to me this...
View ArticleOpen To All ~ At All Times
The biggest oversight when my library was built was that they only put in one Quiet Study Room. It is constantly in use, and constantly in demand. Because people want a quiet place to close the door...
View ArticleHugs Not Shushes
I like this video from Denmark. It shows police officers using hugs to make the point that laws are there to keep people safe. So of course I thought, "could we do this in a library?" I can just...
View ArticleLibrary policy about personal blogging
A couple of weeks ago, the director of the Wadleigh Memorial Library in New Hampshire wrote me with this question (I'm paraphrasing): We have an intern for the summer, and she's started a blog about...
View ArticleUpdating Library Policies
I'm finally getting my library's updated policies online. We started revising them in April 2008, and the Trustees approved the new versions in April 2009, so I'm a bit behind. Updating a...
View Article(Dreaming About) Appropriate Libraries Games
This is bizarre: a little while ago I dreamed about telling an a adult patron he was being too loud in the library, because he was playing Marco Polo with his kids to entertain them. He yelled back,...
View ArticleLibrary Overdue Policies in the News
I'm sure most people by now have seen the story about George Washington having overdue books from the New York Society Library. This got me thinking about overdue books. The ALA's 2010 State of...
View ArticleFree Books, not Free Hugs
Yesterday afternoon, patrons suddenly started asking our Circulation staff why there was a man on our front steps holding a "Free Hugs" sign. This was news to us, and since there were also a couple...
View ArticleWarner Video Restricting DVD Sales to Libraries
The cataloger at my library found out last week that Warner Home Video has initiated a new policy that puts a serious crimp in the way libraries can buy DVDs - and I'm surprised it hasn't met the same...
View ArticleLost Item Replacement Policy, And When To Ignore It
My library recently updated our policy for patrons replacing lost or damaged items. The problem that arose is that patrons would check out a book (say, a non-fiction book that was five years old, with...
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