Library Juice 1:8 - March 4, 1998
Contents: 1. Correction: URL for WHOA - Women Halting Online Abuse 2. MSRRT Newsletter - New Issue 3. Letter to ALA Member Forum on War and the ALA 4. Progressive Librarian 12/13 now on web 5. New Gov Docs website (USA) at University of Buffalo Library 6. Lunar Phases Web Tool [Java] 7. National First Ladies' Library 8. Computing and the Humanities - Round Table Summary Report 9. Linguistics Resources on the Internet--SILS 10. Virtual Collection Development - continuing ed. course via internet 11. Secretary-General's Mission To Iraq--UN 12. _The Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation_--GWU NSA [.zip] 13. Information Please: site of well-known reference sources on the internet 14. Nolo's Legal Encyclopedia http://www.nolo.com/briefs.html 15. "Understanding and Using Metadata" - OCLC Seminar 16. Africa Online [RealPlayer] 17. "New Visions: Beyond ALA Goal 2000" planning document open for input 18. ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS AND THE FCC TO PROTECT THE E-RATE PROGRAM 19. Notes on a talk by Regina Minudri, acting San Francisco City Librarian ____________________________________________________________________________ 1. Correction: URL for WHOA - Women Halting Online Abuse Here's the original annotation for the website, with the correct URL this time. Sorry to anyone who couldn't get to it before. http://whoa.femail.com WHOA! (Women Halting Online Abuse)'s purpose is "to educate the Internet community about online harassment, empower victims of harassment, and formulate voluntary policies that systems can adopt in order to create harassment-free environments. WHOA fully supports the right to free speech both online and off, but asserts that free speech is not protected when it involves threats to the emotional or physical safety of anyone. " Its membership is mainly made up of women, but it welcomes men "who demonstrate sensitivity toward the issues of harassment and a willingness to support" this cause. ____________________________________________________________________________ 2. MSRRT Newsletter - New Issue MSRRT Newsletter - "Library Alternatives". MSRRT stands for Minnesota Social Responsibilities Round Table. Part of the Minnesota Library Association. Chris Dodge and Jan DeSirey are the editors, working in the glow of Sandy Berman and creating their own worldwide. (See Library Juice No. 2 for Chris's web-page Street Librarian. Library Juice is archived at http://home.earthlink.net/~rlitwin ). > Since Chris seems slow in tooting his own horn, let me mention that I > was please to receive the new MSRRT Newsletter Toot toot. Web edition at http://www.cs.unca.edu/~davidson/msrrt Clip art edition (a.k.a Bathroom Edition) available for trade, cash, subscription, barter, or beautiful promises: MSRRT News, 4645 COlumbus Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55407. --Chris D. PS: No spring peepers heard here yet (despite temps in the 50s this week). Back to 32 and snowing this gray Saturday morning. Cheers! ____________________________________________________________________________ 3. Letter to ALA Member Forum on War and the ALA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 10:51:41 -0600 From: Mohammed Aman <aman[at]slis.uwm.edu> Reply-To: member-forum[at]ala.org To: member-forum[at]ala.org Subject: Re: War and the ALA Yes, you do have other outlets, this is a free information society and you should know that war is bad for libraries and education, peace and prosperity are good for these publicly-funded institutions which employ the majority of librarians/info. professionals and educators. So, librarians have a major stake in the issues of peace and war, if not for themselves, at least for their own constituencies who suffer when our military industrial complex grows and our education enterprises shrink and deteriorate. This was the case in the Johnson era when he sadly discovered that for all our greatness as a nation, we could ill afford "guns and butter." Furthermore, you refer to censorship-do you think that misinformation by certain elected officials or govt. bureaucrats is not censorship? If librarians don't care, their library users are entitled to the correct and right information. Censorship is not just about sex and race, it is about citizens' right for free and unbiased information about their government and its conduct in peace and war. Mohammed Aman At 09:36 AM 2/20/98 +0000, you wrote: >I too am concerned about the IRAQ crisis. But I have other outlets to >express those concerns. We have large issues to deal with that >relate to our profession here. Intellectual freedom, censorship, >ramps to the Information Highway, access to information, etc. These >issues are what we should be combining out efforts towards in this >forum. They are big enough to keep our attention for a very long >time. >Debbie Holmes _______________________________________________________________________ 4. Progressive Librarian 12/13 now on web I have just uploaded the text of the last issue of _Progressive Librarian_ to the website, and given it a new look. The URL is http://home.earthlink.net/~rlitwin/proglib.html. Here's the table of contents of issue 12/13: Issue no.12/13, Spring, Summer 1997 ARTICLES The End of Information and the Future of Libraries, by Phil Agre A House Divided Against Itself: ACRL leadership, Academic Freedom & Electronic Resources, by John Buschman A Primer on WIPO & Database Extraction Rights, by James Love Corporate Inroads & Librarianship: The Fight for the Soul of the Profession in the New Millennium, by Peter Mcdonald GII: Global Power Grab, by Vigdor Schreibman DOCUMENTS Speech by the Superintendent of Documents at ALA Statement of Robert L. Oakley on the GPO Budget Notes from the Front Lines at SFPL From France: Libraries Losing their Reason ADDED ENTRIES William F. Birdsall's The Myth of the Electronic Library,, reviewed by Mark Rosenzweig 7 Years of Progressive Librarian, Tables of Contents (this page) Notes on the Contributors _______________________________________________________________________ 5. New Gov Docs website (USA) at University of Buffalo Library From: Maryellen Donathen <donathen[at]acsu.buffalo.edu> Subject: Government Docs Website To: GOVDOC-L[at]lists.psu.edu In keeping with the Federal Depository Library Program mandate to promote a "more electronic library," the Acquisitions staff of Central Technical Services at the University at Buffalo Libraries has created an innovative region on the University at Buffalo Libraries' Website devoted to electronic government documents. The section encompasses United States federal documents received through the depository program, as well as, Canadian, New York State, and Erie County, New York documents. This section is located in the Government Documents region of the Electronic Books and Pamphlets section of the Website. The URL is http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ebooks/ What makes this site truly unique, is that while many of the documents are links to exisiting government sources already posted on the Internet, many others have been digitized or scanned locally. Acess is three-fold. Electronic versions of documents are placed in arranged alphabetically, fisrt by title and second by government agency. The third acess point is the Popular Table. This table is arranged according to eighteen searchable subject categories. The URL is http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/acq/doctab.html Publications which have been selected for inclusion appeal to a broad spectrum of the population and provide information to individuals in may areas important to their daily lives. MaryEllen Donathen Acqusitions Department Lockwood Library Bldg. SUNY at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260 donathen[at]acsu.buffalo.edu 716-645-2305 _______________________________________________________________________ 6. Lunar Phases Web Tool [Java] http://www-astro.physics.uiowa.edu/~lam/teaching/moon/ The phases of the moon have interested people for thousands of years. Although often appreciated, they are not as often understood. Professor Lawrence A. Molnar of the Physics & Astronomy Department at the University of Iowa provides this Java based tutorial that demonstrates lunar phases clearly and logically. It includes sections on time of day, time of month, and apparent direction of the moon. The Java demonstrations are meant to complement the simple yet elegant and powerful explanations of concepts. A typical demonstration involves a stick figure human on the earth's surface who can be interactively moved as the rotation of the planet is moved, to show how the phases change relative to time and direction. A quiz and teacher information are also provided. [JS] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 7. National First Ladies' Library http://www.firstladies.org/ Developed and maintained by the Stark State College of Technology in Canton, Ohio, this new site is the first virtual library devoted to the history of America's First Ladies. At the heart of the site is a comprehensive bibliographic database containing 40,000 books, articles, letters, manuscripts, and other works by and about the 43 First Ladies. Both the site and the new physical library aim to bring materials together to fill a longstanding informational void in both American women's studies and the history of the presidency. [MD] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 8. Computing and the Humanities - Round Table Summary Report Sender: International Federation of Library Associations mailing list <IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA> From: Terry Kuny <Terry.Kuny[at]xist.com> Subject: [DOC] Computing And The Humanities: Promise And Prospects Comments: To: DIGLIB Mailing List <diglib[at]infoserv.nlc-bnc.ca> To: IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT March 3, 1998 "Computing And The Humanities: Promise And Prospects," A National Arts and Humanities Computing Roundtable Summary Report Published by American Council on Learned Societies <http://www.acls.org/op41-i.htm> A summary report of the "Computing and the Humanities," roundtable meeting conducted last year at the National Academy of Sciences has now been released as an "Occasional Paper" by the American Council of Learned Societies. It is also available online. NINCH was an organizing sponsor of this meeting together with the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, the Coalition for Networked Information and the Two Ravens Institute. Determined to find more effective ways of working productively together in networking cultural resources, a prominent group of scholars, teachers and practitioners in the arts, humanities and computer and communications sciences met for what proved to be a most stimulating conversation, in which the possibilities and challenges of productive collaboration were equally examined. For all involved, this day was clearly the first step in continuing conversations that could lead to practical productive projects. Print copies of the publication may be obtained by contacting Candace Frede, Office of Publications, ACLS, 228 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017-3398. Fax: (212) 949-8058. E-mail: candace[at]acls.org. David Green =============================================================== David L. Green Executive Director NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE 21 Dupont Circle, NW Washington DC 20036 www-ninch.cni.org david[at]ninch.org 202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax _______________________________________________________________________ 9. Linguistics Resources on the Internet--SILS http://www.sil.org/linguistics/ This site is provided by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, located at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas. The focus of the whole site is the study of minority languages and cultures around the world. The Academic domains represented include linguistics, anthropology, translation, literacy, language learning, and computing. The Linguistics Resources on the Internet section contains annotated listings of resources of interest to the linguistics, computational linguistics and natural language processing fields of study. The page is divided into eight sections including computing resources (including links to text and speech analysis, morphology and phonology, and lexical software); journals and newsletters; conferences and meetings and electronic texts, dictionaries and data. The individual sections contain extensive lists of links, many of which are briefly annotated. [MR] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 10. Virtual Collection Development - continuing ed. course via internet X-Sender: jpearl[at]vms2.macc.wisc.edu Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 09:06:35 -0600 To: netinlib-announce[at]targetinform.com From: Jane Pearlmutter <jpearl[at]macc.wisc.edu> Subject: course on virtual collection development Mime-Version: 1.0 The School of Library & Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will offer an interactive continuing education course via the Internet on Virtual Collection Development. Every day, new resources become available in electronic formats and on the Internet. How does this impact traditional library collections? In this on-line course, you'll learn how to select and evaluate these resources, what policies should be in place, and how to use the Internet as a collection development tool. The course will run from from May 4 to June 12, 1998. More information about the course and its format can be found at http://ext1.uwex.edu/slis/vcd/vcdinfo.htm. Questions? Interested in registering for the course? Please contact Jane Pearlmutter, Outreach Program Manager, UW-Madison School of Library & Information Studies, 600 N. Park Street, Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-6398 (email: JPEARL[at]macc.wisc.edu). To unsubscribe, see http://www.targetinform.com/netinlib/ NetInLib-Announce Legalese is available at http://www.targetinform.com/netinlib/legalese.htm _______________________________________________________________________ 11. Secretary-General's Mission To Iraq--UN http://www.un.org/NewLinks/mission.htm The United Nations has posted relevant information about Secretary-General Kofi Annan's mission to negotiate an agreement with the government of Iraq on the issue of compliance with UN resolutions 687 and 715, concerning elimination of certain of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, along with compliance monitoring. The site is highlighted at this time by the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between the UN and the Republic of Iraq, and transcripts of two press conferences by the Secretary-General. [JS] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 12. _The Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation_--GWU NSA [.zip] http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/news/19980222.htm After spending 36 years locked in a safe in the CIA director's office, this highly critical report of the CIA's handling of the Bay of Pigs Invasion was made public on February 22, 1998, after a two year Freedom of Information Act effort by The National Security Archive at George Washington University (discussed in the September 20, 1996 Scout Report--http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/scout-960920.html#11). The top secret report, officially known as _The Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation_, strongly criticizes the CIA for misinforming Kennedy administration officials, poor planning and intelligence, treating rebel leaders as "puppets," and conducting an overt military operation beyond "Agency responsibility as well as Agency capability." Note that the report is available as a series of large .zip files of scanned images. They may be available as HTML files in the future. [MD] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 13. Information Please: site of well-known reference sources on the internet http://www.infoplease.com/ Information Please LLC provides this site, a cyber-ready reference library of information derived from its well-known publications, _The Information Please Almanac_, _The A&E Information Please Entertainment Almanac_, _The ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac_, _The Information Please Kids' Almanac_, and _The Information Please Girls' Almanac_, as well as the _Columbia Encyclopedia_, and the _Random House College Dictionary_. Users can search or browse by topic. Clicking on "Home" takes users to what amounts to an Almanac table of contents. Content at the site is current through 1997, except for the _Columbia Encyclopedia_, which has a 1993 copyright date. [JS] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 14. Nolo's Legal Encyclopedia http://www.nolo.com/briefs.html This site, provided by Nolo Press, a publisher of self-help law books and software, is a handy compendium of brief advice on fifteen topics, including small business, patent, copyright & trademark, legal research, wills & estate planning, and real estate. Content is composed of excerpted articles from Nolo books on the topics. Also provided are annotated lists of links related to each topic. While the purpose, of course, is to sell Nolo books and software, there is much useful content here. [JS] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 15. "Understanding and Using Metadata" - OCLC Seminar Sender: International Federation of Library Associations mailing list <IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA> From: Terry Kuny <Terry.Kuny[at]xist.com> Subject:[SEMINAR] OCLC Institute "Understanding and Using Metadata" To: IFLA-L[at]INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA The OCLC Institute announces "Understanding and Using Metadata" The OCLC Institute invites you to participate in an intensive 2 1/2-day theoretical and practical exploration of metadata and its applications. After participating in this seminar you will be able to: * Understand the foundations of resource description and its application to the Internet * Understand emerging Web standards such as XML, RDF, and the Dublin Core and their application in resource description systems * Evaluate your information management needs and determine the appropriateness of metadata for a variety of applications * Use Dublin Core metadata in a real-world application This seminar consists of lectures, structured lab exercises, and group discussions. First, you will receive an overview of Web-based resource description systems and detailed instruction in the Dublin Core metadata. Then, as a member of a small project team, you will design and implement a MARC- or webserver-based resource description system using metadata records for a real-world collection. Finally, you will evaluate the resource description system in terms of design and functionality, including data input, storage, retrieval, and display. How You Will Benefit * You will understand the current state of metadata and learn about expected long-term developments. * You will gain hands-on experience creating and working with several metadata systems. * You will be able to compare and evaluate the results of alternative approaches. * You will be able to plan, implement, or extend your use of metadata in your own environment. This seminar is designed especially for: * Internet/metadata catalogers * Systems librarians * Intranet managers * Knowledge managers * Anyone managing an information resource on an intranet or the Internet For complete details, including seminar dates and location information, and to register online, visit the OCLC Institute home page at http://purl.org/oclc/institute, or contact Erik Jul at jul[at]oclc.org, (614) 764-4364, or (614) 718-7132 Fax. Erik Jul Associate Director OCLC Institute jul[at]oclc.org _______________________________________________________________________ 16. Africa Online [RealPlayer] http://www.africaonline.com/ This site, provided by Prodigy's Africa Online, Inc., a provider of Internet communication services in Africa, is a gateway to information about that continent. Its' ten major sections include news, business & finance, computing, music, and women. Sections contain either original Africa Online content or pointers to relevant sites. The music section offers brief RealPlayer selections of contemporary music from five areas. Five English, one French, and one Swahili discussion forums are available. The site also connects to Africa Online sites for Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast, site is in French), Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. [JS] (From Internic Scout Report, http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/ ) _______________________________________________________________________ 17. "New Visions: Beyond ALA Goal 2000" planning document open for input From: Don Wood <dwood[at]ala.org> To: ala-ifc[at]ala1.ala.org, alaoif[at]ala1.ala.org, ftrf-l[at]ala1.ala.org, ifaction[at]ala1.ala.org, ifrt[at]ala1.ala.org, merritt-l[at]ala1.ala.org Subject: New Visions: Beyond ALA Goal 2000 >From Stuart Whitwell ____________________ Most everyone knows about ALA's strategic planning document "New Visions: Beyond ALA Goal 2000" widely distributed before, during, and following Midwinter. Now that document is on the ALA web site at http://www.ala.org/alagoal2000/beyond2000.html. It can be accessed from the ALA home page by finding the ALA Goal 2000 and Beyond listing under "Library Adcocacy & Support." Please encourage members to read the document if they have not done so. There are some modest but important revisions to the version distributed at Midwinter. As you will remember this is a working document in constant revision; it is distributed not only for information but also comment. We will be putting the URL on the Member forum and the council listserv. Thanks, SCAW ___________________________________________________________________________ 18. ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS AND THE FCC TO PROTECT THE E-RATE PROGRAM Sender: owner-ifrt[at]ala.org From: Don Wood <dwood[at]ala.org> To: ala-ifc[at]ala1.ala.org, alaoif[at]ala1.ala.org, ftrf-l[at]ala1.ala.org, ifaction[at]ala1.ala.org, ifrt[at]ala1.ala.org, merritt-l[at]ala1.ala.org, publib[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu, publib-net[at]sunsite.berkeley.edu Subject: ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS AND THE FCC TO PROTECT THE E-RATE PROGRAM ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS AND THE FCC TO PROTECT THE E-RATE PROGRAM Rumors have been confirmed that another bill is likely to be introduced next week that would cut the annual cap from $2.25 billion to $625 million. We have not been able to confirm the rumor that inside wiring/connections may be disallowed under the discounts. Clearly, here is another grave assault on universal service from interests that want to put the bottom line over serving every community in the United States. ACTION NEEDED Please contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives (phone: 202/224-3121) as well as the Federal Communications Commission (phone: 202/418-0500) and ask them again to protect the telecommunications discount program. MESSAGE * DON'T CUT FUNDING FOR THESE DISCOUNTS: A $2.25 billion annual cap was put on the part of the universal service fund designated for the school-library program. Maintain this funding and promote the rural health care initiatives. * KEEP ALL ELIGIBLE AND NECESSARY SERVICES IN PLACE: Keep inside connections and related services that will make these networks reach to the end-users. * KEEP THE PROGRAM MOVING FORWARD AND PROTECT THIS AS WELL AS THE ENTIRE UNIVERSAL SERVICE PROGRAM: Don't let other policy disputes disrupt this program. It must move forward to assure every community is connected by the Year 2000. BACKGROUND The telecommunications discount program for libraries, schools, and rural heath care providers--one of the most historic universal service programs mandated in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and intended to connect rural America and low-income communities--is again threatened even before it has a chance to get off the ground. At this writing approximately 20,000 libraries and schools have applied for universal service support, including more than one-third of all school districts in the United States. Applications from libraries and library consortia account for 20% of total applications so far. We cannot let our communities down! The e-rate program will give urban and rural communities a level playing field to meet our vision of networking every community. For the future of our children, for career and economic development, for rural health care, and for life-long learning -- these discounts are needed in schools, libraries and rural health care facilities in every community to assure universal access to networking and telecommunications services. FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact Lynne Bradley at the ALA Washington Office at 1-800-941-8478 or at 202/628-8410; E-mail: leb[at]alawash.org. ___________________________________________________________________________ 19. Notes on a talk by Regina Minudri, acting San Francisco City Librarian Jo Falcon originally addressed these notes to the student community at the San Jose State University SLIS, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area. I pass it along for the interest value it might have to others. From: Jo Falcon <jfalcon[at]WAHOO.SJSU.EDU> Subject: Notes on Regina Minudri's Talk at SFPL (long) X-To: Sendto CSU List <csu_slis[at]sjsuvm1.sjsu.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list CSU_SLIS <CSU_SLIS[at]SJSUVM1.SJSU.EDU> What follows are my notes of what you missed at "The New Main at Two Years: a conversation with Regina Minudri" (acting SF City Librarian). I've moved a few remarks from the original chronological order to where the bulk of the discussion of that topic was, but otherwise it's a fairly direct reconstruction; anything in quotes is a real quote or a close paraphrase, anything in [square brackets] is a gloss. This event was sponsored by BayNet, an association of all types of Bay Area libraries and information centers, with a more local focus than California Libraries Association, and an emphasis on collaboration and resource sharing. Student membership is $20 (a deal!). Consider bookmarking http://www.exploratorium.edu/baynet right next to the San Francisco (http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/sfsla/) and San Andreas (http://www.san-andreas-sla.org/) chapters of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). Jo Falcon, Duchess of URLs and schmoozer/liaison for the above groups jofalcon[at]ix.netcom.com (415) 826-2464 San Francisco =================== Announcements by ANDY KIVEL (Diablo Valley College): State Librarian Kevin Starr ("not to be confused with Special Prosecutor Starr") will be speaker at the Annual Meeting, May 12, with updates on the Library of California statewide networking project. Also: a series of workshops on web design and programming will be offered this spring; details in the next Newsletter. Introduction by PEGGY WATSON of AIM: Minudri was her first boss after library school. When Peggy showed up dressed for success, Minudri gave her advice that has shaped her entire career: "You won't last a day in those shoes." A past president of both ALA and CLA, Regina Minudri has worked at libraries in San Francisco, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Saratoga, Alameda and for 17 years as the City Librarian for Berkeley, as well as teaching at SJSU. She was brought out of retirement to serve for six months as interim director of SFPL -- and that was a year ago. Now, for a talk Watson thinks of as "Willie and Me and the Board of Supervisors" -- REGINA MINUDRI: Tomorrow (3/4/98) will be her anniversary at SFPL. When she arrived "there were a lot of lemons floating around, and we've made a *lot* of lemonade since." The building: yes, it's spectacular, it's imposing, and it IS larger than the Old Main (*not* counting the airspace, thank you). There's three times the amount of seating for readers, new features such as the room this meeting is in [Hispanic Community Meeting Room], special collections like the Wallace Stegner Environmental Center, the Art & Music Room, and the various Affinity Centers [African-American, Filipino, Gay/Lesbian, etc.], An aside about the James Hormel Gay/Lesbian Reading Room. Certain politicians are trying to make his ambassadorship conditional on his disassociating himself from the facility that was named after him over his modest protests. "Can you imagine having your career sabotaged because you gave half a million dollars to a public library?!" Other new features: a teen center (that's a first), a media studio that is the front end for the City's public access cable TV Channel 54, a cafe, a Friends of the Library gift shop, and one of the largest, best-stocked children's libraries in any urban downtown -- which is a good thing, because the growing number of kids in the Tenderloin have nowhere else safe to go. The number of bathrooms has increased from ten in the Old Main to 70 now, and there are much improved safety, ventilation, temperature control, and disabled facilities. What's wrong with the building? Not enough shelf space, "no matter how you slice it." Five miles were lost between the original plans and "as built" -- though it's still better than the Old Main. Too many books are in closed, compact shelving, accessible only through the paging desks. The flying bridges can't be closed off to add floor space because the ventilation and heating systems run through them. Traffic patterns are confusing and the signage isn't good enough to compensate. The Atrium is beautiful, and the natural light is a big advantage, but it's a lot of lost floor space, it can be noisy, and the sound dampening for *that* problem makes it hard to hear the closing announcement and other PA system alerts. And it's a looooong walk to the elevators from the main entrance, even longer from the two side doors. Brooks Hall [under Civic Center Plaza]: "It's free storage. I like that about it." 91,000 square feet of dark, dank, dreary former exhibit space (before Moscone Hall was built, the ALA met here); "depressing, but if you're a bound periodical from 1985 or earlier you probably don't care." Library using half the space, mostly for periodicals, about 45,000 books moved after the 1989 Quake and not on the OPAC, a sheet music collection, and the Mayoral papers. "You know how it is to clean out an attic -- well, City Hall's attic was no different" when the building was cleared out for its seismic upgrade. Easy to enter Brooks from the Library loading dock -- no stairs or elevators -- *but* half of it's a parking lot, and CO2 from the cars is bad for books. Ideally, the parking function would be ended so the space could be closed off and moisture controls installed. "Assuming nobody else wants it now that they could have Moscone instead, Plan A would be for the City to give Brooks Hall to the Library, put in a new floor, drop a ceiling with skylights to bring in natural light from Civic Center Plaza, add elevators, and run it as a public branch library specializing in the City archives and government documents. The Museum of the City of San Francisco [now at Fisherman's Wharf] would be a compatible co-tenant. It's cheaper than building a new space -- and possession is 9/10ths of the law." The staff: excellent, very cooperative, committed to serving the community, and welcoming change now that they are part of defining it. "They held this place together with spit and bailing wire" when administration was "ignoring details -- and the devil is in the details." Adding more staff to share the load has helped, but communications issues are more important. "When the building was going up and the hype was high, promises were made and not kept." Staff were involved at the beginning, focus groups were held on what they needed to do their jobs -- but during the construction process, "that dried up. The building process became a runaway train, and you better get outta the way." Not enough project management: the people were very competent, but there weren't enough bodies for the size of the job. Changes were not communicated to staff, "and there were plenty of changes -- over 500 construction change orders." In addition, new collections were being donated that hadn't been planned for, there was never a plan to increase staff (actually fewer pages and shelvers than at Old Main), staff didn't get proper training on the new technology, and because of all the media attention, demands on the library when it opened were enormous. Attendance went up from 2500 people a day to 14,000 for the first weeks; has now leveled off at 5,000/day. "When you don't work the process of managed change, you have a breaking of trust" that's finally beginning to be healed. The Community: "The citizens of this town want the books" and are mostly *very* pleased with the new seating, the light and airy space, Internet access -- to the point of fights breaking out in the lines for terminals. (At least once, a patron has tried to unplug a computer and take it home.) Library's popularity is a problem: circulation has leveled out at double what it was, patronage is way up, that means more wear and tear -- but "the City's maintenance budget for each Department is $100,000 and it takes a big chunk of that just to change the light bulbs in the Atrium. Think about it." Library Commission needs to educate Mayor and Supervisors "so the budget has some relation to reality." The Press: Yes, there was a lot going wrong, but few libraries have such a spotlight held on them. Many of the critics of SFPL were invited in by staff with good intentions who felt the story had to be told, but may not have realized that only the most sensational and negative stories would get printed. Worse, they may not have recognized "the destructive effect not just on SFPL, but on every public library in the state. Every negative story about any library affects us all: when Berkeley tried to pass a bond issue, every public meeting started with 'you're not going to waste this money like San Francisco did., are you?'" SFPL is still in a weakened position, with the city budget office and with prospective donors. Trying now to strengthen relations with donors in order to raise money for the 26 branch libraries, "where 70% of our business goes on." Summary: May stay till the millennium (depending on Mayor and new director search process) to reinforce these positive changes and "make sure they're not just a blip on the radar." Working with Library Commission to choose an executive search firm, find and rigorously interview at least three strong candidates for Director to present to Mayor. [Hiring decision now rests with him, since charter amendment; used to belong to Library Commission.] This process will involve community public hearings on what San Franciscans want from the Library. "The staff has a very great stake in making this library a good one, and I want to make sure their voices are heard." More staff involvement now in advising the Commission, refining programs and services, keeping administration in touch with what's happening. "There are 550 full-time equivalents here, that's over a thousand individuals -- that's an army. And as librarians, we know we're good managers, we should be able to work miracles." _______________________________________________________________________ This has been Library Juice No. 8 I am thinking about how I might organize Library Juice into appropriate sections. If you have a suggestion, please email me. If you have items for inclusion, would like to unsubscribe or just send your comments, email me at rlitwin[at]earthlink.net. Thanks for taking part! __________________________________________________________________ Rory Litwin mailto:rlitwin[at]earthlink.net PO Box 720511 phone: (408) 286-6409 San Jose, CA 95172 http://home.earthlink.net/~rlitwin __________________________________________________________________
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Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 12:13 PM