Information Innovation Exchange

Surprisingly, it’s often the upper-middle classes that libraries are failing to serve, which cascades down to poorer service for the underprivileged. To compete in the information race, librarians must adopt market- or demand-based service models and more business-oriented decision-making

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Not surprisingly, Queens Library had the highest circulation last year of any public library system in the country. It loaned 21,033,861 items in the 2006-2007 fiscal year — almost 1.5 million more items than the Multnomah County Public Library in Oregon, which had the second highest circulation.The national ranking system, called the Public Library Data Service Statistical Report, is issued annually by the American Library Association. Last week, it released preliminary numbers for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended June 30, naming Queens Library as No. 1. Circulation of more than 22.8 million broke the U.S. record.

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“Egos complicate procedures and keep good people down. Egos squash good ideas and can take the best of an organization and turn it on itself,” say the Michaels (Casey and Stephens), who advise losing yours if you want to successfully lead a project, department, or other staff, and give tips on fostering other workers’ talents that will benefit you and the library in the long run while keeping everyone happy and feeling connected.

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It’s a hot, humid summer afternoon, a time when local libraries used to be languid sanctuaries of quiet and solitude. But no more. Today’s local libraries in the summer are more like accountants’ offices at tax time. Elementary schoolchildren are coming in by the droves to record the books they’ve just finished for the summer-reading program. Teenagers are working on the computers or signing up for video-game tournaments. And parents, already looking as if the summer has gone on too long, are finding respite in comfy chairs, looking through stacks for a good read or taking a moment to plan the next activity in their never-ending summer challenge to entertain the children.“It’s truly amazing the number of people coming in,” said Alice Knapp, director of public services for the Ferguson Library here. “It used to be back 20 years ago, circulation in the hot, hazy days was slow. We’d circulate 2,000 books a day. Now, systemwide we are circulating between 3,500 and 4,000. We are getting complaints that the library is too loud, which we love because it means we are well used.”

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Several years ago the American Library Association had a clever poster to encourage reading and patronage of libraries. The poster read “Free Information: Bring Your Own Container.” The container, of course, would be your brain. Your public library has mountains of free information to offer - books on just about every subject, both fiction and nonfiction, magazines, videos and often computers. What a great place to feed the mind, have fun and grow. Children grow quickly, and their tastes and interests change just as rapidly. The public library can accommodate their changing interests and expand on that by offering information on new subjects and ideas.

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