Libraries in the Mainstream Media

Eric has been good enough to send me two media video clips in as many days, and I'd like to share them with you.

The first is a touching, heartwarming story that just about brought me to tears. It's a woman from Jackson County, Oregon who describes what an emotional, transformative experience the library and library staff have been for her, in her life.

Her article led me to the Jackson County blog--which I had read before but it's worth reading again now, as closure time nears.

Concerned citizens have started the Save Our Library Political Action Committee. This is way cool but too bad it had to come to this...

A TV clip from the CBS Early Show that looks at positive (Princeton, NJ) and negative (Jackson Co.) library funding areas. Nice plug from Leslie Burger in there. Their overall report saying library funding is up...which I am not sure jives with the recent LJ article. But mainstream media...that there was coverage at all is something.

And speaking of, Katie Couric did a page in her online notebook about libraries recently. Her message reinforced that libraries=books, but she did have good mentions of the additional materials you'll find there like DVDs, internet access and more.

Funny how no one mentions the marvelous electronic databases you can gain access to? Or more importantly, the wonderful, kind and caring librarians who can help kids discover magical new lands and help adults continue to grow and expand their world-views? It seems like mainstream media is focused on the stuff--but Meghan O'Flaherty's connection is clearly with the people first and the stuff second....

It makes me think that the people in the library--librarians, paraprofessionals, volunteer help--are even more important than your collection, in terms of helping people connect with (and support) your library.

Jackson County Library

Being the up-to-date librarians you are, I am sure you've already heard about the Jackson County Library's closing.
NPR covered it this morning. Listen to the story from Jeff Brady. National media is great for raising national attention.

Of course I, in my rose-colored-glasses world, wish the national media would pay attention when things are going great and we're serving more people than ever before in more ways than ever before...but I guess headlines like LIBRARY THREATENED TO CLOSE sells more papers/attracts more listeners than LIBRARY CREATES SMARTER CITIZENRY. Which headline inspires you to read it?

Incidentally, the Jackson County Library created a nice calculator page on their site to help you put a dollar value on their services. I am sure they would be happy to share the back-end of their coding with your library's Webmaster, should you want to implement a tool like this on YOUR site.

Their blog is also well worth reading. Especially see the "My Library" stories from library users.

I hope our National Advocacy project with the Gates Foundation can help raise awareness about the importance of library funding, with both consumers and elected officials. That's the idea, anyway. Did I mention I am the project manager for this, on the OCLC side?

Side note: As part of our project, we actually talked to State Librarian of Oregon, Jim Scheppke.