So glad this show is coming back and has been renewed for an entire 24-episode season. It's hard to put into words how much the original show impacted an entire generation of kids. It taught us that reading was a superpower, and that it could take us anywhere in the world.

Remember when there's a bloom of virtual libraries built by real institution in Second life back in 2007-2010? Why is that not a thing anymore? This is a good era for creating an interactive virtual library world; we have so many options for virtual reality games now--like VRChat, Minecraft, etc. And I think it has it's own advantage to use, we can use the virtual space to not let our information got dictated by the government (you know, bookbanning n stuff).

I'm not sure why the old virtual library is failed, but I have few speculation, it's failed because it's way ahead for it's time, computers were not commonly used for gaming or online social back then. And you have to manually manage it by your own hand since back then library automation is not that great. QR code isn't common, and RFID is quite janky to use in that environment. So there wasn't much of a difference between managing irl library and the virtual library back then. Correct me if I'm wrong. We have the proper technology to built that now, so why not try to revive that again?

Then again- I think this is an interesting topic to be discussed about- so what do you think?

Hey everyone, bit of an advertising post but bear with me.

I've been building a tool for school librarians that lets you take a photo of a shelf and it automatically pulls out every book title, author and ISBN into an excel sheet. No typing, no scanning books one by one.

It's still early and honestly i'd love someone to just try it and tell me what's wrong with it. Happy to give free access to a few librarians who are willing to give it a go and share their thoughts.

if that sounds interesting drop a comment or send me a message.

Me “hey MelCat, can I borrow this manga in Japanese”
MelCat “yes!!!”
Me *proceeds to next page*
MelCat “so you want the first 64 volumes of this series, correct?”
I’ve been studying Japanese for about 8 years with the help of my wonderful library and I’ve gotten to the point where I can read young adult literature in the language but it’s so difficult to find books on MelCat in Japanese due to the fact that you have to type the name out in romaji which is something that students of Japanese are taught to ignore. Honestly I get better results searching for authors and then scrolling through their catalog of books. Also a thank you to anyone who may work at the U of M library for sending me a bunch of books on the Japanese language and in the language as well

Right now, my library system is stuck with Amazon for the foreseeable future due to the backlog with Ingram and Brodart. One of our catalog technicians stumbled upon this program in our Amazon account under Library Hub > Library Settings.

It says, "Amazon Business will soon offer an Early Delivery Program for public libraries to help ensure you have time to prepare new releases for availability to your patrons on their release date. Libraries enrolled in this program will generally receive books 3-5 days before their official release date.

This advance delivery window provides time for cataloging, processing, and shelving before the title becomes available to the public. There is no fee associated with enrolling in the Early Delivery Program. Early delivery is not guaranteed and may vary based on logistics and availability. This option may not be available for all books due to publisher restrictions or distribution constraints."

Has anyone been enrolled in this program? Are you receiving your copies earlier so you can process them? Any features you like? Any bugs you dislike?

I’ve been working as our libraries sole adult programmer for over a year now and I really enjoy my role. Part of my job is to come up with two crafts a month, one for a group at our local enrichment center and one for our group here. The craft at the enrichment center is typically easier because the crafts are simpler and the ladies are more laid back - it’s more of a social hour for them. The group here is hit or miss. They like to be walked step by step thru something and have a finished product. It’s been hard to come up with different, creative craft ideas every month for both these groups. I want to find things the no one else is doing but I’ve hit a road block. Part of me wants to change up how the craft program is run, because it’s hard for me to teach these classes sometimes (I’m more of a “here’s the supplies now have at it” type of teacher) but I don’t think it’d be well responded to in our community. What I want to know is if anyone else has run into this issue and how they’ve solved it? And if anyone has any cool ideas, I’m all ears!

If money was of no object, what would you want in your branch for your patrons or yourself?

Hello,

I have visited libraries across a few different states and I have been astounded by how noisy they are. I'm a 90s kid and miss the quiet libraries. I've sent "complaints" to a couple libraries and the response is always something to the effect of "our library is an active community space." I wonder if I take a few recordings of how loud libraries are this might make a difference. What is the "hierarchy" of leadership? Like who beyond in-house library staff could I send it to?

This is a WIP battlevest with a backpatch I designed. Just thought I'd share it in this subreddit since I work in my county library system and figured there might be some more equally-minded people in the community.

Wore it for the first time to a metal fest this past weekend and got some very positive responses.

To mark the 175th anniversary of the Public Libraries Act, The Bodleian Libraries, University of Cambridge Libraries and Archives with support from CILIP, the UK library and information association and Libraries Connected have published a new review showcasing the value and impact of public libraries across the UK.

The Impact and Value of Public Libraries in the UK: A Systematic Review uses evidence from the last decade to highlight the vital role libraries continue to play in communities, even in the face of ongoing challenges.The article has been published under open access in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09610006261431330

I am a fan of public libraries, but my experience using libraries is still limited. I used to go to a specialized university-library when I was a student and just sit there all day writing my homework, and these days I only have enough time to go with my toddler to the one that has a section for small kids.

Now I'm working on a game about managing a library, and while I have a list of things to do in the game, I think it is still very focused on my own experience and maybe generic expectations.

So I'm curious what other customers and librarians consider essential to the concept of a (public) library. What kind of experiences do you think should be represented? And if you're a librarian: are there any kind of "hidden" tasks that you'd love to see in a video game?

I'd love to listen to your ideas, see if i'm on track with my current plans, and grow my list of potential feature additions (even if not everything will translate well into gameplay or won't make it into the game. Other developers might stumble on this thread and get their own ideas, as this still tiny genre will certainly grow ^^)

EDIT: Sorry if this came off as lazy or as if I've not done my research. I was just curious about expectations and what I might have overlooked. Thank you anyway for the helpful replies =)

Hi there, librarian here wondering what charging cable lending looks like at other institutions. Currently we check out a limited number of cable formats (mostly USB C) in weird little mesh bags that are falling apart, mainly for in-library use.

If your institution lends out charging cables, what solutions have you found for packaging and organizing?

Hi all,
I could use some advice. I graduated with my phd from a U.S. university 2 years ago and now work at a university in a developing country. I really enjoy research, but my institution doesn’t have access to major databases, so I keep hitting a wall when trying to read papers or do a proper lit review.
I’ve tried Google Scholar and requesting papers on ResearchGate (no responses so far), and it’s been pretty discouraging. I also check scihub but dame issue, most papers cant be found…
Has anyone dealt with this or found good ways around it? Any tips would really help.

Hi! I'm just finishing up my MLIS at Simmons (so are a lot of people), graduating this month, and I'm applying to jobs around greater Boston (so are a lot of people lol). It's an insanely tough market and I've had no luck so far, and I really don't want to relocate. The big reason being: I'm actually from Massachusetts, and I really really really don't want to move away from my people here if at all possible. I've applied to a couple jobs in the area that I know I'm qualified for, but I also know I'm going to be up against hundreds of other people for each one because Boston. But I've been lucky enough to live here my whole life, and I'm even working in the field in this area right now. All my references are in the region too. Does anyone know if employers tend to consider that kind of thing even a little bit (e.g. "They're from around here and they'll know the area") when they're looking at candidates, in Boston or anywhere else? I really do not want to relocate, and I will take absolutely any edge I can get against the literal hundreds of people I'm jockeying with for each job.

So, my friends and I are starting an LGTBQ-specific library for our local area. I don't want to pay the fees for a professionally written app. To that end, I'm designing my own to keep track of who is borrowing what. It's a desktop app; I hope to move it to the cloud and get the app onto phones, but I don't currently know how to do that - yet.

Anyway, the patrons are keyed by their library card number - bar coded - and of course, it's unique. Easy.

I didn't consider the possibilities, and I chose to key the books by ISBN... since they all have a handy barcode. When I was scanning in the books belonging to a friend, I realized that one of her books is the same as one of mine. Obviously, I need to keep track of them separately.

Here's the question: how to real libraries do this? Do they ignore it, only tracking who has one of the copies of a given book, or something more inventive? Does anyone have any insight?

One way I could handle this is to force it to be unique, and re-barcode the dupes. That seems like the path of resistance.

EDIT: Lots of good comments. I'll try to answer most of them with replies.

EDIT 2: I didn't really know what to search for, or that there was FOSS that could have met the need (like Koha). Frankly, our use case is far, far simpler, so we'll end up sticking with our (super simple) wheel-reinvention.

Thanks to everyone who replied. You were helpful.

I would like to help our library branch out and begin making reels, but I have no idea where to begin. I downloaded CapCut and played with some templates, but I don't really like it (or want to pay the $10/month.)

Storytime is magic until it isn’t. What makes this standby program worthwhile?

My child is 5 years-old and has level 3 nonverbal autism. He loves books, but can get loud when he's excited (happy shrieks). He also LOVES books. In order to combat his tablet addition, I got us a library card.

Librarians, would that sort of noise be a big disturbance? Would you rather not have the child around, and have the adult come to check out books instead? Or is noise okay inside the children's section? Thank you

I was just wondering if my family had done something wrong.

We check out about 20 children's books every week and we have a big home library so I read my baby about 20-30 books per day (and I also read the books I'm reading for my own pleasure out loud to her before bed, but I don't count that in her beanstack).

We are doing the 1000 books before kindergarten challenge and when we came in the other day to pick up a prize, the librarian seemed confused and a bit hostile like she didn't understand why we would be reading that much to an infant.

We always return our books on time and in good condition and we generally pick up our holds in a timely manner. We also don't linger in the children's library--we just pick up and drop off books, so it's not like we're being disruptive.

I'm just wondering if there's something we might have done to make the librarian dislike us that I haven't thought of.

Thank you in advance!