Summer Reading with WorldCat

The Summer Solstice is upon us this weekend. The longest day of the year! Hope you have a fun weekend planned or already beginning, if you're across the pond. We're coming into prime strawberry season here in New Hampshire. Finally!

So in honor of summertime and reading everywhere, we designed a few WorldCat bookmarks. 8, to be exact. The idea is that whatever your summer reading programs are, you can add in the online component with WorldCat. Download and print more at a moment's notice. Enjoy!

I realized I might not have told you about this little effort, when I read Katie's recent post. And she's got a great book list going for summer reads. Check it out.

WorldCat Lists

WorldCat.org now has list-making functionality! I have been excited to see this feature go in--and now it is available. I did a quick list search for "book" and it looks like 47 lists have already been created since Friday. And judging from the titles and descriptions, people are finding lots of creative ways to use lists. Awesome! I feel like it's like my own personal cataloging ability, powered by WorldCat. I will resist the urge (for now) to go through my entire bookshelf.

A few additional creative uses I'd thought about:

• I could see bookclubs or reading groups using the list functionality to keep track of what they've already read, and to solicit potential new titles from the members.
• For the academicians among us, you could load up the required readings from a syllabus into a WorldCat list--students could see at a glance which editions/articles were available at the library, what was checked out already, available as an eBook, etc.
• Maybe a family could track their library-movie-watching together, through a WorldCat list. Or a teen could post out the coolest sounds s/he has heard from the library's eclectic music collection...

I am sure other people have more ideas, too. How do YOU think you'll use WorldCat lists?

5 Blogs - Alane

Lorcan's post on the 5 non-library blogs he reads reminded me that Chrystie tagged us, her IAG colleagues as well.

I read many non-library blogs and a lot of them are work-a-day tracking interesting things sorts of blogs, but here are 5 that stand out for various reasons.

Journal. David Byrne is the author. If you're around my age, or are younger and maybe discovered Talking Heads or Byrne as an influence on younger performers such as Arcade Fire, you'll know he's a very clever multitalented person (who else could turn Powerpoint into art?). And he's a good writer. Journal is just one of many channels at his site. He even has his own web radio station.

By Neddie Jingo. (warning....no naughty pictures but topics and language are not always entirely SFW). A psuedonymous blogger who I find very, very funny (so does George) and who can rant better than most. Here's a fairly safe one from two years ago (just a few non-work words and no political views, which Neddie has aplenty) on "why are books the size they are?"

Arts & Letters. This is kind of cheating as A&L isn't really a blog. But it is blog-like and often the last webby thing I look at before going to bed and reading static words on repurposed trees.

the cassandra pages. This blog I read almost as I would a book...not daily, but in chunks, reading many posts at once, perhaps because cumulatively they are like chapters in a book and often beautifully written. One aspect of Elizabeth Adam's blog I like is that she is an American living in Montreal (as well as Vermont) and writes vividly and evocatively about being there. Many lovely photographs as well. Adams also writes a lot about religion--specifically Anglican/Episcopalian matters. I am not a church-goer but my father, among other careers, is an ordained Anglican minister so the topics and debates are ones I am mostly familiar with.

I really waffled over the 5th blog....the photo blog that would completely, irrevocably uncloak my politics? The nothing-but-cute-animals photoblog that would reveal my insipidness? The snarky celeb-tracking blog that would reveal my shallowness? So, I chose one that may be just as telling but about what, I am not sure.

I give you gapingvoid, Hugh MacLeod's cartoon blog from which I have borrowed cartoons for presentations when they do not have "Not SFW" words in them. It stands, in a way, as a metablog as on his blogroll are many other blogs I read regularly.


Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid.com

13 Ways of looking at a public library

With indebtedness to the research team and only marginal similarity to Wallace Stevens's work. The list below is a tour de force of what a public library is, was, and is in the process of becoming--for communities across the United States:

1. Technology center: Provides access to all forms of technology and software that people may not otherwise have access to, making the library relevant in the 21^st Century.

2. A resource for small businesses: Provides all the resources a small business would need – including free private office space, computers with internet access, phone, copier, scanner, and fax machine. It would also provide access to online databases like ABI Inform as well as other business related resources like books about finances, marketing, etc.

3. Workforce training center: Provides instructor-led classes on entrepreneurship, presentation skills, computer skills, sales generation, financial planning, marketing and other business related topics in order to improve the workplace skills and marketability of community members.

4. Source of all government forms/applications: Acts as a one-stop-shop for all government forms as well as provides resources and advice about filling out the forms and submitting them.

5. Resource for job seeking: Provides resources and consultation for resume writing and interview skills to aid community members in their job hunt. In addition, it provides free Internet access for searching online job seeking services like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com.

6. Resource for tax preparation: Provides tax forms, access to tax preparation resources and step by step guidance during tax season.

7. Health Resource center: Acts as a health information resource by providing the most up-to-date health and medical information, flu shots and other vaccinations, health insurance and Medicare information and advice.

8. Teen center: Provides a safe place for teens to gather outside of school, get help with school work, and have access to the Internet and computer games.

9. A community center: Serves as a community center that provides free meeting space to hold group meetings, attend/host special events or spend time socializing with friends.

10. Immigration center: Provides a place where immigrants have access to government forms, books and other information resources in languages other than English. It also provides literacy classes and other English as a second language (ESL) courses to help immigrants adapt to the community.

11. Music and art center: Acts as a cultural center where community members can come to learn about different types of music and art through books and other resources, but can also create and display their own art and perform their own music.

12. Research Center: Provides access to information on a wider variety of topics than you can find anywhere else through its online databases, reference materials, and the expertise of librarians.

13. Social center: Offers a café and lounge-like atmosphere for people to gather and socialize.

Of course, I'm not saying that every public library should be all of these things--but it's a nice consolidated list of many, many of the aspirations we've heard/felt/thought/seen, for public libraries in this country. Looking through this list, it feels like a little bit of paradise. (If only there was a beach or swimming pool--but I am sure that will come in PL 2.0.)