Have authors in your library for #MaykerMondays!

Posted on by pcsweeney

Hey librarians! Do you want some authors to come take part in your MaykerMonday events? We have a partnership with Togather to get authors interested in maker spaces into your libraries. Take a look at the details below and contact the amazing Dana Skirut for more details and questions.

About:
Togather is a free marketing tool that enables librarians to engage local communities with more great in-person experiences. Library events are an important way to connect and build relationships with new audiences, but turnout is hard to predict. Too often the programming doesn’t find demand, and valuable resources go to waste. Togather helps change this dynamic by making it easier to collaborate with local interest groups to plan more well-attended events. With Togather, libraries can leverage their strengths in research and curation to create enriching events that drive buzz about their services and bring in more patrons.

How Togather can help:

  • Access to authors: Togather has over 500+ authors on board, with some makers listed below. Have an author that you’re interested in, but not sure how to get in touch? They’ll do their best to make the connection!
  • Ideas for events: Not sure of the format for your event? Depending on your space, they can brainstorm some ideas for how to make the most of your class, talk or workshop — whether it’s in-person or the author is joining via Skype.
  • Custom event pages: Togather allows you to create a custom event page with plenty of sharing features to make it easier to promote your event. They’ll help set it up, and also provide a home for your library showing all upcoming Togather events.
  • All-or-nothing model: Not sure if people will want to attend? Set up a Togather event with an author and define a minimum attendance goal (e.g. 15 participants). Ask people to RSVP in advance to show their support. If there isn’t enough demand by a certain date, you won’t have to host an event for just two participants.
  • Raise funds: If your local Friends of the Library organization is involved, Togather can help you raise funds by making it easy to sell affordable tickets to your event.

Authors:
Here are just a few of their “maker” authors who are already interested in connecting with libraries around the country:

  • Kelly Rand, author of Handmade to Sell, which is full of useful business advice for those looking to make the leap into full time crafting, or wanting to expand into other areas of the indie marketplace.
  • Jeni Britton Bauer, author of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, an essential resource for making delicious and uniquely flavored ice creams, yogurts, and sorbets in your own kitchen.
  • Denise Grollmus, author of The Ohio Knitting Mills Knitting Book, which explores decades of traditional knitting patterns
  • Lori Sandler, author of the Divvies Bakery Cookbook, which features recipes for vegan treats that are sensitive to those suffering from major food allergies.

Contact:
If your library is interested in participating in MAY-ker Mondays with Togather’s help, please feel free to contact them directly to set up your event: dana@togather.com

A Ridiculous but Entertaining Hacker Solution to the Porn Problem.

Posted on by pcsweeney

Eric Riley posted this article to the ALA Think Tank group on Facebook. And, if it works, it could be the solution to all of the library’s privacy on the computers problems. No longer requiring computer filters and all that BS. So I’m sure Sarah Houghton would love it. Basically, the solution works like this;

Remove the LCD’s frame, cutting out its polarized film with a utility knife before removing the screen’s film adhesive with a combination of cleaner and paint thinner and reassembling the monitor. Once complete, grab the glasses, cut out the lenses and combine them with the plastic film removed from the monitor before inserting them back into their frames.

After you do all this, you will be left with a computer screen that will look like a white screen to anyone not wearing the customized glasses. In essence our patrons will be able to have complete and total privacy if wanted.

That being said, of course it’s not a perfect solution for a number of reasons, but right off the top of my head I see these;

  • Anyone wearing the glasses anywhere in the library will be able to see what’s on the screen (kids included)
  • You’ll be stuck with a bunch of folks with sunglasses on indoors (which always looks douchie)
  • You’ll have to supply glasses that have been worn (hardly sanitary)
  • The glasses will get stolen (as does everything else)

    • But anyway, it’s a fairly outside the box and entertaining solution and I’m always down for some creative solutions to problems no matter how radical. I love the thought of it, but maybe not in practice.

    Here’s a video if you want to see it yourself

    Are Guerrilla Libraries Saving the Soul of Librarianship? Redefining Libraries (Part 3)

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    For this third edition of the redefinition of librarians I would like to point out that there are quite a few librarians (and non-librarians) creating libraries in areas where other libraries can’t (or refuse) to reach. These are normal people who believe so wholeheartedly in the benefits of libraries that they are going out into the world and creating libraries. These people are the Johnny Appleseed of librarianship and without their work many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to have access to a collection of information or literature. These are also not collections that are maintained or controlled by an entity or a formalized organization. They are more like an anarchist’s library as many don’t have any rules, regulations, or memberships. What is great about this is that I have noticed more and more people taking up the cause as libraries around the country falter and I’d like to point out a few guerilla libraries that have been put together around the world.

    Mick Jones Library
    Mick Jones of The Clash and various other bands has created a Rock and Roll Library. This library features rock memorabilia from his own personal collection and contains nearly 10,000 items. From what I gather this is not a quiet library (it is rock and roll after all) and since its punk, you know it will tear down the walls of the library and scream with a rebel yell at the establishment.

    Telephone Booth Library
    Here’s another one from the UK. This is one of Britain’s old red phone booths like you see on Harry Potter. It has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries and only stock around 100 books. Since this library employs zero librarians, the Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library 24 hours a day. The library’s “Patrons” simply replace the books they take, with books they have read thus keeping the library’s collection well stocked.


    Payphone Library

    Of course, America has its own version of this but maybe it’s not quite as elegant. It does work however. The concept is basically the same in that it’s an old public phone that has been re-commissioned into a self-service library that is available to the local community 24 hours a day.


    Ikea Beach Library

    Alright, this one really gets me mad. It was set up by Ikea to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Billy Bookcase. I’m mad because absolutely love it and it should have been done by someone other than Ikea. I would however, like to point out that I LOVE Ikea so don’t think I have anything against them. It’s just that I really feel like a guerilla librarian or even a regular library really dropped the ball on this one. But maybe we can get some folks to replicate it somewhere else in the world. Or… There’s an Ikea right down the street from my library actually. Hmmm…


    Library In a Locker
    Here is a kid that is full of awesome! Apparently when he found that his school library had a bunch books that had been banned, he decided that he would offer these books from his school locker library. Here is his quote “…I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it’s the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on…”


    CSULA Guerrilla Library
    For my last entry, here is another set of kids with their own Guerrilla Library. The California State University in Los Angeles, due to budget cuts, closed its library during FINALS!! Does anything sound more asinine that that? I don’t think so, and neither do the students at CSULA. So they built their own library to study for finals and they did it Guerrilla style!


    Books and Beer
    My Last one is my favorite but it isn’t really a Guerrilla library as I have defined it here because its done in cooperation with a city and a library system. This library is a pub in the Yorkshire Dales may be a vision of the future for many communities. The awesome villagers of Hudswell have bought their local pub to save it from closure and have now set up a small library in part of the bar! There is nothing I love more than reading a good book with a beer in a good bar! I mean that seriously! Here is the video

    Now I ask you… If libraries are going away, or aren’t necessary, why is it that so many people take the time to create their own personal libraries at home OR take the time and effort to create guerrilla libraries in their communities? I’ll tell you why! It’s because people still love libraries in all of their forms and won’t let the man hold the library back!