"Fit Libraries Are Future Proof"

by Steven Bell (American Libraries, October 2010. online here)

To thrive / survive in our fast-changing times, he offers 12 "fitness" steps. Ones I want to try/use:

- engage the user, as in roaming ref, being in the community
- fix what's broken: "make finding and fixing what [day-to-day services are] broken part of our routine operations" "Would you patronize a retail operation where many things failed on a regular basis?" No, of course I don't. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Verizon. And you, work photocopier!
- master adaptability
- keep up
- create passionate users - How can I nurture TAB to advocate library use to their peers?

More Fashion

Beautiful peacock-blue cashemere(?) sweater, nice black pants -- and a sizable black vinyl fanny pack worn more-or-less centered on her tummy.

A light dusting of snow fell in Capital City last night!

Took out Christmas decorations today!

Fashion

One patron is wearing striped leg-warmers (they match her striped shirt) and sandals. She is unlikely to be a dancer.

Another has a T-shirt with a seal of some sort, and letters arcing above and below it proclaiming Y'ALL UNIVERSITY."

nuff said

Spent most of this week's creativity juices making the annual Christmas card scene. In involves robots, felt, and glitter. Here's a felt heart from the scraps.

Plus ca Change

While home sick recently, I read an article in the VHS's journal about outcries against modern art Virginians made at mid-century. Ross Valentine, art critic for the Times-Dispatch, led much of the complaining -- yet he did note that "the furor sparked an interest in art, but it also 'has given some of us something to talk about besides atom bombs, hidden treason, deficit embezzlement and other historical obscenities in an age that has, I am afraid, become hardened to obscenities.' "

Aiello, Thomas, "The Champion and the Corpse: Art and Identity in Richmond, 1950." (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 117 : 1)

Bad Teen Librarian

When, in a nyquil-induced haze, I heard the announcement of the National Book Award on the radio this morning, I thought the "young people's" book was The Mockingbirds (by Daisy Whitney), which I remembered from blurbs as being about mean girls -- it turns out it's also about surviving date rape. I fretted people would confuse it with Mockingjay, the last of the Hunger Games series. It turns out, the winner is Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine, about an eleven-year-old with Asperger's.

I gotta pay more attention.

Northside History

Cool blog about tourist homes on Chamberlayne! I don't think of this area as "in town" at all, but one card (part way down on this post) describes the house as "four minutes from the business section" and touts the fresh air and whatnot of being out of town.

365 may be more creativity than I can handle, but one a week won't stress me out. How 'bout ... hearts! Spotted this leaf at Dutch Gap on a Veteran's Day outing.