Heresy

Branch Reference Collections are a huge waste of money. That's my considered conclusion, based on 25 years of reference desk work and 15 years of reference materials collection development, as well as one year of running a tiny rural library and a recent couple of months of weeding at a branch, where I can see and hear without being seen.

Believe me folks, those reference collections don't get much use. For the past5 to 10years the books haven't been used enough to justify buying them and now, with the Internet available, short answer questions get answered online.

This is not to say that public libraries that have a Youth collection should ignore the needs of kids doing homework. But REAL research? Let's face it folks, only the biggest and best public libraries have the materials for research. University libraries do, of course, and when the public needs to do real research, that's where they should go.

For a while we thought that if we provided online materials, people would use them. Some of the patrons do use them, but not enough to justify the cost to the local library, especially if the state provides similar resources. We tried e-books, e-journals, automobile repair, business information--all of it. Usage was high at first, but tapered off as Internet sources became acceptable, and more and more people grew adept at using the Internet. Have you checked cost-per-patron-using lately?

I do think all libraries need a basic desk collection of such items as a dictionary, a road atlas, a world atlas and some local materials. And I do think that local history collections can be valuable, depending on community interest.

But all in all it's time to get rid of those reference books. They take up valuable money and space. Spend your time, money and space on what your patrons want. I's easy to tell what they want--demand will give you a clue. More computer classes, more youth programs, more fiction -- and pay for staff to give computer help and teach the classes, host the programs, and give skilled readers' advisory service.

Times are tough for everybody. Think about what your patrons want, not what you think they SHOULD want.

Serendipity

Blame Horace Walpole.

Thought Experiments

Domestic Disturbism

McCabism

Diane Rehm

Happy Birthday to Facebook

In honor of Facebook's 5th birthday, PC Magazine has listed 5 reasons we love the social networking site. I don't think any of them apply to me, and in fact I am way, way outside the usual demographic for users. On Facebook, "old" is anyone over 50. Still, it's interesting, given that someone said this morning that the social utility is 'inane.'



I like it because it's a lazy way to keep track of the people I am fond of who have moved away, and the people I used to work with, and my far-flung relatives.



What I can't understand is those who collect "friends" like trophies. I looked up the friend of a friend of a friend the other day and she had 444 friends. Is that possible? She obviously can't read what each of them is doing every day. If I got 444 little garden requests every day I would flee Facebook quickly. But I certainly do like seeing photos from friends in Alaska. We have 2 sets of friends up there and one is as much over 50 as I am! I may start a new group--when I think of a good name.



One more thing, a website called ReadWriteWeb has a good article this week on the Unforeseen Consequences of Social Networking.

They also have posted a warning in the form of 8 Tools to Track Your Footprint on the web. I cringe when I think of all that inane stuff out in the ether, somewhat like junk in space.

13 Books that Changed America

Yesterday I heard Jay Parini being interviewed on NPR about his latest book, The Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America.

Here is the list of books chosen by Parini:

Of Plymouth Plantation (1620-1647) by William Bradford
The Federalist Papers (1787-1788) by Hamilton, Madison and Jay
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)
The Journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1801-06)
Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain
The Souls of Black Folks (1903) by W.E.B. Du Bois
The Promised Land (1912) by Mary Antin
How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) by Dale Carnegie
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946) by Dr. Benjamin Spock
On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac
The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan

I must admit that although I've heard of every book on the list, I haven't read them all in their entirety. I briefly considered reading them one by one during this new year, but that idea was soon discarded. I do think it's fun to consider what might have been included instead of these. For instance, I think the works of the muckrakers, as a group, were influential. If I had to choose one, it might be The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. What about Tom Paine's Common Sense? I would also include John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, except that I notice the 13 listed books are all by Americans. Perhaps that's a requirement? Any ideas?

Travel

It's a new year and already I'm thinking about travel! I've honed my list of favorite travel sites down to those that I use all the time. I try new ones and drop those I don't find useful any longer, but these have been my favorites for a while:

1. First on my list is Yapta, http://www.yapta.com/, a service that will alert me to price changes for my favorite or tentative trips. If I want to fly to San Jose, and the price from my home airport is now $500, I can sign up with Yapta to alert me when the price changes by any amount I specify. Another use for Yapta is as a price guide for which time of the year is cheapest to fly.


2. I don't think I could live without Tripadvisor, http://www.tripadvisor.com/. If I plan to visit Chicago, I can look on Tripadvisor for a list of hotels with reviews by other travelers. Some people have criticized this site on the grounds that others are too picky or that the hotel owner may have slipped in a review. That happens occasionally, but judicious reading of the reviews, paying attention to the dates and other clues, usually gives good results. I don't think I've traveled anywhere in the past 5 years without consulting TripAdvisor, and I've never had a bad hotel or B & B; some of them have been gems.


3. Having decided where and when to fly, I check Seat Guru , http://www.seatguru.com/, before picking out an airplane seat. There are other sites purporting to be as good, but this one is my favorite.


4. I also like the 36-hour guides from the New York Times, with suggestions on things to do, places to stay and places to eat in cities around the world. Most of the cities are in the United States, but there are many from other places. These guides cover Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. Some link to Frommer's destinations, also excellent.

Those are my standbys. I've tried lots of new travel websites, but not many impressed me. Those that did are:

1. Straight-up Traveler, http://www.straightuptraveler.com/, lists the latest travel articles from the best travel publications. The web site is attractive and you may find yourself spending more time there than you meant to.
2. Uptake, http://www.uptake.com/, filters your search for lodging and attractions. After you enter a location, you choose from Family vacation, Romantic B & B's, Budget travel , etc. You can set a sliding scale to the price you'd like, as well. Other travelers' opinions are available, as well as practical data.
3. Finally, I found Hostel Bookers, http://www.hostelbookers.com/, which looks good for budget and student travel. It's not chatty like Lonely Planet, but lists affordable lodgings

The Best of the Best

Today I'm saving my friends from the trouble of chasing down the best applications of the year. Tis the season for lists, so mine is culled from other best 2008 applications lists. This one is in no particular order. Some of the apps are found in one list only, others are duplicated in several lists. I've tried many of them, but by no means all. In fact, there are a few that I'm not ashamed to admit I haven't a clue as to what they do. Here's my list:

1. Most under-hyped-apps of 2008, from LifeHacker


2. The Webware 100 top Web apps for 2008


3. 2008 Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Top 10 Applications list


4. Top Ten Consumer Web Apps of 2008 from ReadWriteWeb


5. Stepcase Lifehack Top 10 web apps in 2008

The next one is for mobile phones only:

FierceMobileContent Top Mobile applications of 2008

and finally, here's David Pogue's New York Times list of the best technical ideas of 2008, the Pogie Awards

Go and play with these...my personal favorites are pretty low-tech: meebo, photobucket, yapta(which I saw on no list), etsy (because my daughter sells jewelry there), pandora, flickr, facebook, google maps and google earth, netflix, Ask, and good old Aim.

Holiday Greeting Cards

About.com comes through with the top sites for Christmas E-Card greetings. This is a great source for any top ten or most popular or 'best of' lists.