Tag Archives: library collections

National Screening Room at the Library of Congress

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I once got lost in the Library of Congress. I was on a high school tour when a couple of friends and I made a wrong turn and ended up in library personnel office space. A nice man showed us how to get back where we belonged. The library just unveiled its National Screening Room, and I’m having a similar experience trying to wrap my mind around it. In 1800, Congress decided to establish a library for itself. It was certainly not a public library, or even a federal government library. It was specifically the Library of Congress. Its scope has grown since then. Now, anyone can apply to visit it and use its collection, the largest library collection in the world. It has grown to more than 19.5 million items. And anyone can take advantage of its digital collections without leaving home. It has digitized more than 2 million items. 

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More innovative library services

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Technological innovation always leads to innovative library services. Libraries quickly embraced personal computers, for example. Probably any library in the country will help patrons learn to use a computer for the first time. Or help them learn sophisticated software. Libraries still find new ways to use computers and peripherals to add new services. More recently, the public has become addicted to mobile phones. So, of course, libraries use them, and help patrons use them, too. Here is the latest in an occasional series of posts about innovative library services.

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What’s a library without books? Some bookless libraries

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I read about a library without books sometime in the late 1990s, I don’t remember what college or university in New York  had no room in its library for a computer lab. So it opened one in another nearby building it owned and called it a branch library. Why? Because it was staffed with librarians. In principle, it’s not the presence of a book collection that defines a library. A library simply requires librarians. In recent years, however, libraries have experimented with bookless libraries based on digital technology. That is, they have books, just not printed books. How is that likely to work out?  I’m not much impressed by what I’ve read.

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Treasure trove: New York Public Library Digital Collection

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The New York Public library holds many rare and valuable materials. The new New York Public Library Digital Collection makes them easily available. Before the Internet, if you wanted to use them, provided you knew they existed, you would have had to travel to the library and consult them in person. When the library first began to digitize them and put them online, you could have seen and downloaded a low-resolution images. You would have had to pay for, and wait for, a high-resolution image. Discovery and access were still difficult. Perhaps its description of one of its major collection is representative of the library’s own concerns:

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22 ways to use the library

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Do you know what’s going on at the library? Even if you’re a regular library user, you may may be missing something interesting. Libraries represent a kind of “third space,” which is neither home nor work. Unlike many others, they are not a business. They don’t carry with them the expectation that you will pay for something. Of course, libraries offer numerous services you can use. You’re paying for public library services with tax dollars. You’re paying for academic library services if you are part of a college/university community. For most purposes, then, you never have to dig out cash or a credit card in the library. That makes a library suitable for a multitude of activities you couldn’t comfortably do in other third spaces. Plenty of libraries offer unique services, but here are some that nearly all of them will have. Let’s consider the library as a building, a set of services, a collection, and a place for activities.

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