an example on Instagram from Phoenix Public Library

This repost on Instagram from Phoenix Public Library

LOVE. OF. BOOKS. ❤️ #Repost @hereweeread ・・・ "There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all." –Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis #quoteoftheday #quotesofinstagram #quotestoliveby #blackgirlmagic

A post shared by Phoenix Public Library (@phoenixpubliclibrary) on Aug 23, 2017 at 9:40am PDT

is a lovely promotion of reading widely.  There is a mosaic of titles to explore, and it is a great photograph for readers' advisory.

Have at look at your library Instagram feed - does it reflect the diversity of your community?  If not what steps are you taking to make sure that it does?

twisted preservation

Last year I heard a talk by Frank Vagnone. I found out about it from an email update from Museums and Galleries NSW. The talk was looking at historic house museums, and the ideas were of relevance to many other sorts of organisations as well.

The label photographed shows a feedback mechanism which was used to explore how people saw historic houses. It was a way to learn about what people liked, did not like and their ideas for change. This is a way to encourage people to suggest ideas.

For more ideas go and read Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums by Franklin D. Vagnone, Deborah E. Ryan.  It is a really interesting book with some great ideas about looking at history (and the need to be inclusive). I am thinking it is time for me to read it again too.

silence for #glamblogclub

There are a lot of ways this can be explored.  I thought about the ideas of the Silence and Silence in the library. Since starting this post I have read Jane Cowell's piece on silence which I enjoyed.

I am interested in who in your community is silenced:

• because they are not using the library
• because their history and stories are not being collected in local studies
• because people like them are not shown in the collection

This will vary from library type to library type.  My comments are mainly about public libraries, but are relevant for other libraries too.

Who is the library silencing?

With membership data it is possible to see, at least roughly, who is using the library.  For public libraries membership data could include postcodes and location names.  It should be possible to work out if there are geographic areas where residents are not connecting to the library.  There can be many reasons for this, and each library will need to investigate as they can include:

• not knowing what the library offers
• knowing what the library offers and not thinking it is relevant
• hours which make it hard to access the library
• slow download speeds so that even if you can get to the library to join borrowing econtent is not feasible
• the programs and services are not seen as relevant 

Are the programs targeting a narrow range of the community? When you try something different and have lower numbers, do you interpret this as a fail, and decide to never try something different again? 

Is how the collection structured silencing people?  In Australia we have not had the same high profile approach as the We need diverse books in the USA.  We also need diverse books, so that everyone is seeing someone like them in the collection, in fiction and non-fiction, but also so that we are all seeing a wider world.  This means working a bit harder on collection development. Also keeping in mind every community needs this diversity, even if the same diversity is not visible on the street (because you don't know who you are silencing).

Local studies as a special area of the collection also needs to not silence people.  Only collecting people of certain backgrounds is silencing everyone else.  As well as silencing them, you are making them invisible as well. 

We all need to change our ways.

A few thoughts about Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)

Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow by Cheryl Knott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very disturbing book. I read it because of a tweet from @Tuphlos. This is a book, wherever you work in the world, if you work in libraries, you need to read it. It is important history for one location, but it highlights ongoing issues for libraries around the world. It demonstrates that saying your library is welcoming and inclusive are a long way from your library actually being welcoming and inclusive. It also shows the need for effective outreach so that people who aren't using the library know about what it can do for them.

While this book shows legal barriers - segregation - to library use, make sure there are not other barriers in your area. This is a disturbing and important book to read. There was one sentence which highlighted problems "Most [libraries] who reported some move towards total desegregation also acknowledged that African Americans had not been told of these policy changes". Do you ever change something but don't tell the clients about it? Also "Libraries continued to restrict use to whites only...almost 2 million southern blacks lived in areas with public libraries that refused them service". This book continually demonstrated the need for a diverse collection and diverse staff - no excuses.



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