National Library Week

-- National Library Week, American Library Association
    Libraries = Strong Communities: Celebrate National Library Week April 7-13, 2019
-- "Happy National Library Week: This year's theme, how to celebrate and more," USA Today


1.  DC's public library system is current developing a master facilities plan, which is long overdue.

I revised my "Update: Neighborhood libraries as nodes in a neighborhood and city-wide network of cultural assets" as the first of two comments on the process. I haven't written the second yet, because I need to read the DC Public Library Strategic Plan which has four goals:

Reading
Support new readers and cultivate a love of reading.

Digital Citizenship
Prepare residents for life online.

Strong Communities
Ensure neighborhood libraries are vital centers of community learning and civic engagement.

Local History and Culture
Foster understanding and appreciation of what makes D.C. unique.

2.  The second comment will focus on how to approach library planning at the scale of the individual site, using the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach.

Foyer of the Petworth Library.

I have gone in to check a few library branches to see how they are promoting participating in the planning process and most of the libraries--Petworth, Northeast, Takoma, and Watha T. Daniel are the branches I checked--and outside of some postcards (some very out of date at the Northeast branch) there is nothing posted in the foyers of the libraries.

For example, while the DC Public Library system has lauded itself for having installations of small versions in branch libraries of the dynamite Right to the City exhibit by the Anacostia Community Museum, I went to see the version at the library in Shaw, Watha T. Daniel, and it pales by comparison to the main exhibit.

In large part it's because none of the branch libraries are set up to have decent spaces for exhibits.

There is a tension in this kind of planning in a small community like DC.  Do you have lots of smaller "neighborhood" branches, because libraries are the only civic asset open to all, and libraries by default become "community hubs."

Or do you have a smaller set of libraries serving multiple neighborhoods, larger, with bigger collections, and a broader array of programming and facilities?

3.  One resource that I don't avail myself enough of is the
Urban Libraries Council.  Each year the ULC calls attention to particularly innovative programs in an awards program, these are the winners of the 2018 Top Innovators.

4.  The biggest surprise with the rise of digital media has been the increased relevance of libraries, and even "books," when pundits thought the library was on the way out ("In a world of Google and Amazon, libraries rethink their role," C/Net).

This is where collections, not only access to computers, digital resources, but printed materials matters.  In the past few years, thinking about this in terms of periodicals and more specialty magazines and journals, I have been struck by how random and paltry such collections can be at branch libraries especially.

5.  One of the issues that many of the recent teacher strikes have raised is the need to fund school-based libraries, librarians (and nurses/clinics).

-- "Los Angeles Teachers Strike For Smaller Classes, More Nurses and Librarians," NPR

6.  Review essay, "In Praise of Public Libraries," New York Review of Books.  It includes discussion of the three hour plus documentary film, "Ex Libris," which has been broadcasted at times on PBS.

It's pretty amazing, no narration, just long pieces of all kinds of elements of the New York Public Library (which only serves Manhattan and the Bronx, the other boroughs have their own independent library systems).

7.  Library Journal, a trade magazine for libraries, has annual features on "Library of the Year" and Librarian of the Year, and on new library buildings.

8.  But I don't understand why the AIA/ALA Building Awards aren't released during National Library Week, instead of the week before ("Innovative, Sustainable Design Earns Six Libraries 2019 AIA/ALA Building Awards," LJ).

9.  While this isn't new, the Kansas City Public Library gave a book-oriented facade treatment to its parking garage, to hide its ugliness.


And recently Dutch street artists Jan Is De Man and Deef Feed painted a mural on an apartment building in Utrecht, not only featuring books, but including books owned by dwellers in the various apartment units ("Dutch Artists Transform a Utrecht Apartment into a Tri-Level Trompe L'Oeil Bookcase," This is Colossal).

So many libraries have blank walls that could be similarly adorned!

This would have been a perfect treatment for the west elevation of the Woodridge branch library,  especially because of its gateway position on the Rhode Island Avenue corridor, instead of the more prison like visage it presents.


10.  While a significant proportion of the funding for public libraries in New York City is raised privately, Mayor De Blasio's proposed cuts to library funding aren't going over well ("Huge majority of New Yorkers say budget cuts for public libraries would hurt communities across the city: poll," New York Daily News). I am not surprised that elected officials don't think of civic assets as a network and libraries (and elementary schools) as seminal assets within these networks. From the article:

An overwhelming 95% of city dwellers said the mayor’s plan to slash $16 million for public libraries — which could reduce hours, staffing and hiring across all five boroughs — would negatively impact their communities, according to a poll released Monday by Change Research.

Out of more than 1,000 New Yorkers polled online, 65% said the cuts would limit their access to books and the internet, and 73% said children and teens would have little to no alternative free after-school programs, the results show.

The survey — released just in time for National Library Week — also found that over 97% of respondents agree that low-income families, immigrants, children and senior citizens especially benefit from access to libraries, and major cuts would have serious consequences.

Getting a 95% approval rating for anything is a big deal.

The installation has an area for visitors to access information about the project on tablets. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

11.  The Tate Modern in London has acquired the art work, "The British Library," by Yinka Shonibare ("Yinka Shonibare's tribute to UK diversity acquired by Tate," Guardian). From the article:

A library with thousands of batik-bound books celebrating the diversity of the British population has been acquired by Tate.

Yinka Shonibare’s artwork The British Library has gone on display at Tate Modern after being bought for the permanent collection.

Three walls of the gallery are taken up with shelves of 6,328 books. On 2,700 of the books are the names, printed in gold leaf, of first- and second-generation immigrants to Britain who have made significant contributions to the country’s culture and history.