Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Libraries can circulate just about anything. During our recent travels around Nebraska to visit public libraries, we saw many of them that circulate Wilton cake pans (even interlibrary loaning them!). Here is a story on how libraries in Finland are 'circulating' free broadband:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=696482006 . A wonderful idea!!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

But is there a librarian? I saw this story about the new Iraqi Virtual Science Library that has been created at the National Academy of Sciences : http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003412210 . Here is a link to the "library" itself: https://ivsl.org/ . If anyone knows of a partner that includes the librarians as part of the deal in this project, please let me know.
I was once asked by an administrator to create a library at a hospital that did not include a librarian due to high personnel cost, but would just have a passcode lock on the door and a self-sign check-out procedure for circulation of materials. The doctors (my user audience) argued that without an information professional in place, this would not be a library. I agreed with the doctors, and added that the hospital could save money by having a do-it-yourself x-ray machine, too. (The librarian-less library idea was dropped.) By looking at the IVSL page, I think we are closer to what the administrator wanted.