Aurora library election loss

So Aurora citizens soundly defeated (54 to 46%)the proposal to shift funding of Aurora, Colorado public libraries from the falling sales tax to more stable property taxes. All understood that 4 of 7 libraries would close, and some 40 jobs be eliminated. Said the victorious leader of the opposition, "This is not a referendum on libraries." Rather, it was to save property owners an estimated $5.69 a month.

Aspen Walker at Internet Librarian

My executive assistant, Aspen Walker, is a recent MLIS grad. Before she came to work directly with me, she was in our Community Relations Department. Recently (Oct. 28, 2009), she presented at the Internet Librarian conference. The title was "We're All Marketers Now." Aspen is a rising librarian, focused on the Right Stuff.

Aspen blogs, and tweets (as AspenWalker)-- both worth following.

Here is her intriguing presentation.

Zombies and the library

I don't know which I like best about this -- the clear animated description, so helpful to the earnest student, or the fact that well, zombies are just everywhere, and hardly deserve comment. This is true for so many of us these days.

Halloween book burning

You can't make this stuff up. To get the UK-based report about this upcoming North Carolina event, click the title of this entry.

To get the list of books to be burned, and why, go right to the Amazing Grace Baptist Church site (in Canton, North Carolina) here.

Does the Brain Like E-books?

Click the title of this entry to go to the fascinating compilation of short essays in the New York Times.

The question: is reading an electronic text (or video book, called "vook") qualitatively different from reading ink on paper? My two favorite quotes:

"I have no doubt that the digital immersion of our children will provide a rich life of entertainment and information and knowledge. My concern is that they will not learn, with their passive immersion, the joy and the effort of the third life, of thinking one’s own thoughts and going beyond what is given. Let us bring our best thought and research to preserving what is most precious about the present reading brain as we add the new capacities of its next iteration." Maryanne Wolf, author of "Proust and the Squid."

"Reading online is thus not just about reading text in isolation. When you read news, or blogs or fiction, you are reading one document in a networked maze of an unfathomable amount of information. My own research shows that people are continually distracted when working with digital information. They switch simple activities an average of every three minutes (e.g. reading email or IM) and switch projects about every 10 and a half minutes. It’s just not possible to engage in deep thought about a topic when we’re switching so rapidly." - Gloria Mark

These are not Luddites, but thoughtful researchers revealing what we do now (decode, then go beyond), and trying to track the continuing evolution of the brain as it wraps itself around new technology.

Speaking to libraries

I've just come back from giving three talks to librarians in as many weeks: Burley, Idaho, Elko, Nevada, and Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.

All were fascinating. I like librarians and library people. And although there are some regional differences, I think we have far more similarities. (Well, OK, Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans, dealt with two hurricanes. That's kind of unique. I hope.)

My talks to these groups have centered around three themes:

* brain research. Science has learned a lot about how and why we think, how we learn to read, and why that's so important for humanity.

* models for library development and market penetration. Some librarian pioneers from around the country (and beyond) have done some useful experiments that point the way for the rest of us. Those models and trends need to be shared -- they'll save us time and money.

* combining all of these things into a new story that will work on building not just library use, but library support. Today, outside my own library, there was somebody gathering petitions to roll back taxes to the point where local municipalities, libraries, and schools, would be driven into penury, to our mutual detriment. OK, free speech, but a testament to the profound lack of civic understanding of too many of today's voters. But that same brain research tells us that cold, hard facts probably won't change any minds. We need a new and more compelling frame. The best research on this topic to date is OCLC's "From Awareness to Funding."

At any rate, those are the topics I converse with librarians about these days. If you want to know more about those things, email me. Have opinions, will travel.

So do you want to be happy, or what?

Thanks to Hank Long for this one, although I don't know where he found it. It does seem to size things up.