I have read a few interesting books lately about libraries. The first is Double Fold by Nicholson Baker. In this book Baker, a novelist, charts the destruction of many of the hard copy holdings of books and newspapers in US libraries as a result of an evangelical drive to microfilm and digitise in the 1960s to 1990s. He alleges that the destruction arose not from a need to preserve crumbling paper but a hidden agenda to save space, and he laments the loss of unique and rare titles. This quote from the blurb says it all: "The players include the British Library, the Library of Congress, the CIA, NASA, microfilm lobbyists, newspaper dealers and a colourful array of librarians, collectors and digital futurists, as well as Baker himself - who eventually discovers that the only way to save one important newspaper archive being disposed of is to buy it himself."The second is Creating the Customer-Driven Library: Building on the Bookstore Mo
del by Jeanette A. Woodward. Woodward is a librarian who encourages us all to take a long, hard look at our libraries - their physical layout and appearance, services, presentation and so on - and compare these to the book chains such as Borders. What are the retailers doing right and how can libraries copy or adapt the bookstores' successful strategies? I found this book very useful in preparing the presentation on enhancing the usability of libraries I gave recently at the Management Strategies for Libraries and Information Service Centres Conference, Sydney, 19-20 September 2007. My presentation is on Slideshare.
del by Jeanette A. Woodward. Woodward is a librarian who encourages us all to take a long, hard look at our libraries - their physical layout and appearance, services, presentation and so on - and compare these to the book chains such as Borders. What are the retailers doing right and how can libraries copy or adapt the bookstores' successful strategies? I found this book very useful in preparing the presentation on enhancing the usability of libraries I gave recently at the Management Strategies for Libraries and Information Service Centres Conference, Sydney, 19-20 September 2007. My presentation is on Slideshare. 
Currently I am reading Phil Bradley's How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library in preparation for the NSW Health Libraries Forum 2007, of which I am co-convenor. The Forum is to be held at Gosford Hospital Conference Centre in New South Wales, Australia, on 8-9 November 2007. The focus of the Forum is on using Web 2.0 tools and technologies to enhance the library user's environment so this book is very timely. We actually have two donated copies of the book to give away at the Forum. The chaper on RSS feeds is great - very clear and well-written, not requiring any tech knowledge but with enough detail for those who want to know the "how" as well as the "why". I am really enjoying dipping into this book and filling in a lot of detail, as well as getting inspired about ways I can use Web 2.0 in my library.
