From Lorcan Dempsey's weblog:We need to find better ways of putting the library in the user environment, and not expect the user always to find his or her way to the library environment
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Bring back bookmobiles. And schedule their appointed rounds such that they don't come back to a given point before the due date, so you have to go the brick-and-mortar site.
Of course, I have no clue how feasible that would actually be, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
Wow. See, this is why it's good for people who don't work in libraries to read stuff like this. Bookmobiles are so far from my frame of reference as a cataloger in a research library that the idea of a bookmobile as a way of bringing the library to the user would never have popped into my head.
Of course, now I'm thinking about the possibility of library kiosks at your local supermarket/post office/pharmacy/wherever. I'm envisioning a kiosk with access to the library's catalog, allowing for searching and requesting of books, printing of articles from databases, etc., self-renewal of material along with returns and pick-up of items you've requested. Kind of like an ATM for library materials.
Ooh, yes! Now we just both need to win the lottery to come up with the seed money for such a project, 'cause $DEITY knows we'd never get any help from the guvmint. :-P (Sorry; I had to shut off my normal morning radio 'cause they were talking about Ahnuld's approval rating, and one of his supporters called in...so I'm a little more vehement in my distaste for government than usual today.)
Now we just both need to win the lottery to come up with the seed money for such a project, 'cause $DEITY knows we'd never get any help from the guvmint.
As a newly-minted government worker, I suppose I should protest that... ;)
(Unfortunately, I can't. I feel faintly dirty every time I read political news and connect it with the fact that these people are paying my salary. I know that what I'm doing is useful, but sometimes it's really hard to convince myself that doing it for the current administration isn't selling out my own values in some way.)
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Of course, I have no clue how feasible that would actually be, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
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Of course, now I'm thinking about the possibility of library kiosks at your local supermarket/post office/pharmacy/wherever. I'm envisioning a kiosk with access to the library's catalog, allowing for searching and requesting of books, printing of articles from databases, etc., self-renewal of material along with returns and pick-up of items you've requested. Kind of like an ATM for library materials.
Reply
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As a newly-minted government worker, I suppose I should protest that... ;)
(Unfortunately, I can't. I feel faintly dirty every time I read political news and connect it with the fact that these people are paying my salary. I know that what I'm doing is useful, but sometimes it's really hard to convince myself that doing it for the current administration isn't selling out my own values in some way.)
Reply
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