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National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints, repurposed for Christmas!
Once upon a time, there was no National Union Catalog, that is, a catalog showing the holdings of several libraries. If people using one library wanted to know what another library held, they had to...
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Catalogers: the invisible librarians
Catalogers at work You see their work, but when you go to the library you don’t see them. Or if you do, you can’t distinguish them from patrons like you unless you know them personally. Catalogers. I...
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Graphic novels at the library
Cover of Bloodstar (1976) by Robert E. Howard and Richard Corbin. One of the first graphic novels. The graphic novel is a strange beast in a way. It looks just like a comic book, except it usually has...
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Movies, technology, and libraries
I’m dating myself again, but I remember when home movies used 8 mm film. Movies available for sale were 16 mm. The latter were mostly made for educational purposes, so only English classes ever had...
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Presidential Libraries of the United States
George [H. W.] Bush Library, Texas A&M UniversityNow that the George W. Bush Library and Museum has opened, every former President from Herbert Hoover onward has a presidential library established...
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Classical music for children at the library
EMF Encircling the City, Greensboro Public Library, Benjamin Branch For the past three years, the Greensboro (North Carolina) Public Library, in partnership with the Eastern Music Festival, have...
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Borrowing from a digital library
I have written numerous posts about the general concept that libraries are about more than books. That doesn’t change the fact that libraries are still very much about books. It’s just that nowadays,...
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Something old and something new in a recent research project
Library patrons I concede: Real research can be done using only web sources. Just not much. Since this month is Earth Month, I want to look back at the first Earth Day in 1970 for one of my other...
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Library of Congress: government websites you should know
Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building It’s not like you can go into the Library of Congress and check out books. It’s not an ordinary library. But it’s as much your library as your public...
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War and a library: The Library of Congress burns
US Capitol after the burning Two hundred years ago, the War of 1812 entered its final stages. This now obscure war turned out to have a decisive influence on the development of the Library of Congress....
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5 more unusual and unexpected library services
Drones in flight All public and academic libraries offer the same basic services. Many offer unexpected services. In some cases, they are the library’s response to unique local needs. In others, one...
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Kids & Family at the Library of Congress website
Library of Congress home page As I have written before, the Library of Congress website contains such a wealth of information that it will take multiple posts even to begin to do it justice. Even the...
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4 library tips for busy college students
Circulation desk Writing papers and preparing for other assignments can take a lot of time. You can probably think of all kinds of other things you’d rather do with your time. Worse than time spent...
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22 ways to use the library
Do you know what’s going on at the library? Even if you’re a regular library user, you may may be missing something interesting. Libraries represent a kind of “third space,” which is neither home nor...
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Treasure trove: New York Public Library Digital Collection
Miniature of Annunciation, initials, linefillers, and border design, 15th century The New York Public library holds many rare and valuable materials. The new New York Public Library Digital Collection...
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What’s a library without books? Some bookless libraries
I read about a library without books sometime in the late 1990s, I don’t remember what college or university in New York had no room in its library for a computer lab. So it opened one in another...
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More innovative library services
Technological innovation always leads to innovative library services. Libraries quickly embraced personal computers, for example. Probably any library in the country will help patrons learn to use a...
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National Screening Room at the Library of Congress
National Screening Room web page I once got lost in the Library of Congress. I was on a high school tour when a couple of friends and I made a wrong turn and ended up in library personnel office space....
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Why you have to wait for ebook best sellers at the library
This is the library’s ebook reader. We [Sutherland Shire Libraries] use it to test out and learn how to download ebooks from OverDrive digital downloads, etc.Have you ever eagerly looked forward to the...
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What is the condition of US public libraries?
Paxton, Illinois Carnegie Library / Wikimedia Commons I recently received an important report on the state of libraries from WordsRated. WordsRated is a non-commercial, international research data and...
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