Customer Service/Hospitality

Our libraries are busier and we are asked to do more with less, but if our service standards continue to rise, we will feel better about ourselves. Poor service does not lessen our burden or make our jobs easier, it makes our jobs harder and our workplace unpleasant. High quality service with good customer service benefits everyone. ALA TechSource posted a very interested article about service called "Plugging in With Kindness." Within the article are two videos that are worth watching.

Danny Meyer at Gel 2007 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

New Books

• Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community by Chrystie Hill

FYI: "Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community provides practical advice and inspiration for building community with your library. Based on a scan of the community and technology environments within which libraries operate, related literature, and the practical experiences of hundreds of library staff actively building communities through their work, the book provides much needed insights into the essential elements of community building through
-Identifying user needs and designing services to meet those needs
-Engaging communities with service selection, creation, and iteration
-Utilizing practical new technologies..." - from the back cover

• The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (2nd ed.) by Joyce Saricks

FYI: "This revised edition provides a way of understanding the vast universe of genre fiction in an easy-to-use format. Expert readers' advisor Joyce Saricks offers groundbreaking reconsideration of the connections among genres, providing
-Key authors and themes within fifteen genres
-The elements of fiction most likely to entice readers
-An explanation of how the different genres overlap

Provocative and spirited, The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, second edition, offers hands-on strategies for librarians who want to become experts at figuring out what their readers are seeking and how to match books with those interests." - from the back cover

Challenged Books

Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books
of 2008
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom has released the list of the Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008. The children’s book, “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, remains at the top of the list for the third year in a row. “Tango” still faces frequent challenges for reasons that include religious viewpoint, homosexuality, and age appropriateness.

The ALA’s Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008 reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality, unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group.

-From the PLA Blog

From the Funny Pages

Click on the cartoon to see the whole thing.

New Book

• Public Libraries and Internet Service Roles: Measuring and Maximizing Internet Services by Charles R. McClure and Paul T. Jaeger

FYI: "According to experts Charles McClure and Paul Jaeger, the Internet has had more impact on public libraries than any other technology since the creation of the book. It may not alter the fundamental nature the the public library, but there is no question that the Internet is changing the roles and expectations of public libraries." - from the back cover

Additionally, the References section is extensive and many of the sources listed are available electronically.

NPR Library Blog

According to American Libraries:
"National Public Radio's library has started As a Matter of Fact (www.npr.org/blogs/library), a blog covering 'everything from pop-culture in-sanity and weird pronunciations to the history of NPR and libraries in the news.'"

I have added the link to the Interesting Blogs sections.

New Material

• Foresight 2020 - Future Savvy: Trend Impacts and Organizational Readiness- delivered 12/10/2008(Urban Libraries Council)

FYI: Each audio conference unit contains a CD-ROM of the conference audio plus access to event materials. The accompanying binder also contains printed materials.

Please Note: The ULC library member reaction panel included Sheldon Kaye, Director, Lee County Library System.