Librarians: What We Actually Do

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Bloomberg's Budget Takes $100M from NYC Libraries

Another year, another drastic budget cut proposal for New York's public libraries.

Last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a budget for fiscal year 2012-13. It proposes that nearly $100 million be cut from the city's three library systems: the Queens Borough Public Library; the Brooklyn Public Library; and the New York Public Library, which serves the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Bloomerg promotes reading while slashing funds for city libraries.

image source: http://www.getcaughtreading.org

Such severe cuts "would mean library closures in every community, most other libraries open only two or three days a week, and widespread layoffs," according to Joanne King, a spokesperson for the Queens Borough Public Library system. King vowed that she and others "will be working with elected officials at all levels of City Hall" to ensure that Bloomberg's version of the budget does not pass.

The efforts of King and her colleagues will be bolstered by those at the grassroots level. Groups including Urban Librarians Unite are already mobilizing to protest Bloomberg's proposed cuts to library funding.

For more details on these cuts, see the Library Journal article below.

Library Journal * February 8, 2012

Bloomberg Proposes Cutting NYC Library Funding by Nearly $100 Million

By Michael Kelly

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presented a $68.7 billion preliminary FY12-13 budget on February 2 that, as usual, proposes Draconian cuts for the city’s three library systems.

Bloomberg’s budget has almost no chance of passing through the City Council without significant adjustments, but it proposes a total cut of $96.4 million:

• Queens Borough Public Library, cut $26.7 million;

• Brooklyn Public Library, cut $26.9 million;

• New York Public Library, cut $36.0 million;

• NYPL’s four research libraries, cut $6.8 million.

These numbers are based on the latest forecasts that the city’s Office of Management and Budget has made for the city’s contribution for the current fiscal year (FY11-12) compared to what Bloomberg has proposed for FY12-13, plus the midyear adjustments (called Programs to Eliminate the Gap) that Bloomberg is anticipating this year. Officials from Queens and NYPL confirmed the figures.

“It would mean library closures in every community, most other libraries open only two or three days a week and widespread layoffs,” said Joanne King, a spokersperson for the Queens system. “We will be working with elected officials at all levels of City Hall to have the proposal restored,” she said.

Officials at NYPL declined to comment and Brooklyn did not respond to repeated calls seeking a comment.

Last year Bloomberg made a similar proposal only to agree with the council, after numerous protests, to adjust his proposal by $83 million, which resulted in relatively flat funding for the year. The City Council approved a total of $301.4 million for all the systems combined last year. City funding is the largest part of each system’s budget, except for the research libraries.

Archiving the Occupy Wall Street Movement

On the subway yesterday, I noticed that a woman standing near me was prominently wearing an "Occupy" button. "Occupy" buttons, T-shirts, fliers, signs, posters, and other emblems of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are becoming highly sought-after items for a growing number of people and institutions.

A woman at Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, October 2011.

photograph taken by the author of this blog

Many institutions - among them, libraries, museums, and historical societies - are actively archiving materials from the grassroots movement. One of these institutions is Queens College's Rosenthal Library, which has been gathering materials for its OWS archive since last November. It is also amassing the oral histories of occupiers. For more details on what Rosenthal Library is doing to preserve OWS history, see the Knight News article below.

The Knight News * January 29, 2012

Preserving OWS History

Part of the Queens College Rosenthal Library's Occupy Wall Street archive.

Photo: Monica Palermo

By Monica Palermo

The Queens College Rosenthal Library has started an archive of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, which began in September 2011 in Zuccotti Park and quickly spread into a world-wide phenomenon.

Faculty from the QC libraries department of special collections and archives traveled to Zuccotti Park to collect artifacts and oral histories in November 2011 in an attempt to preserve the movement.

“[Occupy] Wall Street is the first defining movement of the 21st century,” said Ben Alexander, head of the special collections and archives at QC.

Alexander, who came up with the idea for the OWS archive at QC, went down to the movement with two other members of the department.

The archive is comprised of many different materials, such as flyers, including ones from Occupy Queens College, posters with slogans such as “Health care is a human right,” minutes from meetings, buttons and a T-shirt.

The most important pieces in the collection are the oral histories, which document the movement through interviews with occupiers, according to Alexander.

“The people were extremely friendly and knowledgeable,” said Annie Tummino, who manages the library’s civil rights archive and who went to OWS with Alexander. “They provided great background on why they were there and what they had done.”

This OWS archive is just one of many. According to an article from The Brooklyn Ink, a news outlet staffed entirely of students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, called “The Anarchivists: Who Owns the Occupy Wall Street Narrative?,” not only is there a OWS archive owned by the movement itself that acts as a leaderless archive, but there are also archives starting up at large institutions such as the New York Historical Society, New York University’s Tamiment Library and the Smithsonian’s Natural Museum of American History, who are looking to become the defining archive of OWS History.

“You have big established institutions in New York, kind of fighting to get control of whatever the archive is,” said Alexander, who finds the power struggle ironic. “Some of these institutions are decidedly the one percent negotiating with the movement to become its archive, and it seems to me very out of touch with the ideas that are at the center of the movement.”

Compiling an archive for OWS is tricky because Occupy is an idea, according to Alexander. Another reason why it can be difficult is because archiving information has changed with “people being rushed to create a historical record within days of it happening.”

Archives are typically formed years after history has been made. Twenty-first century archiving seems to happen as events unfold, which Alexander believes will continue to be the trend.

Although there is no official date planned, Tummino said, that like with any of the other collections in the special collections and archives department, it is possible that the materials from the OWS archive will be exhibited.

The OWS archive at the school will continue to be developed by a small group of graduate students this semester. It is not yet open to students, but it will be by the end of spring.

Chicago Public Libraries Reopen on Mondays

After a ferocious public outcry that must have caught him off guard, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel reversed his earlier cost-cutting decision to close city libraries on Mondays.

Patrons of Chicago public libraries will no longer be left out in the cold on Mondays.

image source: http://media.travissaul.com

Public libraries will not be open all day on Mondays, however. They will only be open in the afternoons during the academic year, making them available as places of after-school study for students. "As Mayor," said Emanuel, "I've put children and education first and I will continue to ensure libraries are available to students after school."

Last month, Emanuel made the controversial move to close branches of the Chicago Public Library on Mondays. As this decision went into effect, both library goers and library workers boldly expressed their opposition to it. It seems the mayor has heeded the cry of his constituents.

NBC Chicago * February 3, 2012

Libraries to Reopen on Mondays

By Edward McClelland

Less than two weeks after allocating $2 million in resources to open libraries six days a week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that branch locations of the Chicago Public Library will be open from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays during the Chicago Public Schools school year. Mondays were already scheduled to be open for eight hours when CPS is not in session during the spring and summer.

“By opening branch libraries on Monday afternoons, we are providing students with a comfortable, safe place to study after school, while also making resources available to other patrons six days a week,” said Mayor Emanuel. “As Mayor, I’ve put children and education first and I will continue to ensure libraries are available to students after school.”

The more than $2 million allocated to open the libraries is a combination of savings and shifted resources, and will allow 90 positions to be placed in CPL branches. This includes shifting 25 library staff from Harold Washington Library to branches; reducing maintenance costs and services at the central location; leaving unfilled positions vacant; and reducing tuition reimbursement allotments.

The Harold Washington Library Center (400 S. State Street), Sulzer Regional Library (4455 N. Lincoln), and Woodson Regional Library (9525 S. Halsted), remain open seven days a week.

Branch libraries will be open Monday, February 6 and Monday, February 27, however all Chicago Public

10 Things to Know If You Want to Work in Libraries

When I was an undergraduate student, I worked part-time at my campus library. What started out as a convenient way to make a little spending money turned into one of the best jobs I have ever had. Years later, I'm earning a master's degree in library and information science so that I can work at a library in the "real world."

Earning a master's in library and information science is just one step along the path to a professional library career. Ned Potter, in a slideshow that I've posted below, lists nine more things that you should have or be aware of if you want to get a job (and get ahead) in a library environment. He also helpfully lists the many options open to you if you are looking to pursue a library career.

If you want to work in libraries

View more PowerPoint from Ned Potter

A Recap of What Librarians Really Do

In the popular imagination, librarians do little more than stamp books and shush patrons. (Think of the stereotype of the stern librarian with a finger to her lips.) However, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Many people's ideas about what librarians do are as

antiquated as the card catalog.

image source: http://flowtv.org

Today's librarians not only process incoming and outgoing materials, they also order materials for the library, create catalog data for these materials so that patrons can easily find them, educate patrons on computer programs and the Internet, and lead classes on literacy and English as a second language...and that's just for starters! In an article published last year by the Guardian, Emma Cragg and Katie Birkwood explain why 21st-century librarians are a whole lot more than "frontline, customer service staff."

The Guardian (UK) * January 31, 2011

Beyond Books: What It Takes to Be a 21st Century Librarian

From connecting with people to keeping up with the latest technologies, there is a whole lot more to the job than stamping due dates

Librarians provide training to show people how to search for

information and evaluate what they find.

photo: science photo library

By Emma Cragg and Katie Birkwood

If we stopped the next person walking by on the street and asked them what our jobs as librarians involve, we'd be willing to bet that their first answer would be stamping books. This is because many people's experience of librarians is of the frontline, customer service staff. Have you ever considered how the books get on to the shelves and ready for you to borrow? Behind the scenes there are teams of librarians working to make this happen.

There are librarians who select the books for purchase, librarians who process the orders and librarians who create the bibliographic records that make it possible for you to find the book in the library catalogue and then on the shelves.

Books are only one aspect of what libraries and librarians are about. Librarianship is a people profession; a librarian's job is to connect people with the information they are seeking, whatever format that may take. At their heart, all library jobs have a central purpose: to help people access and use information, for education, for work, or for pleasure. In all library roles customer service and communication skills are important. If anyone ever thought they'd become a librarian because they liked books or reading, they would be sorely disappointed if they did not also like people too. Libraries of all kinds are keen to demonstrate their value to as wide an audience as possible, and to open up access to culturally significant resources that they hold.

In the digital age, when information is increasingly becoming available online, there is a propensity to say that libraries and librarians are redundant. This is not the case. Information available online is often of dubious origin and there is still a wealth of information behind paywalls that can only be accessed by those who have paid. We have helped many library users who have only been using search engines for their research and come to the library perplexed because they cannot find the information they want. If anything, the internet has added to the range of services libraries provide and in turn this has also increased the variety of roles available to librarians.

As well as being good communicators with people and active adopters and exploiters of technological developments, librarians need to have detailed specialist subject knowledge to pass on to library users. Librarians provide training to show people how to search for information and evaluate what they find. These information skills sessions are now expanding to include digital literacies such as how to stay safe online, the use of social media sites and online collaboration tools.

There is no standard route into librarianship: librarians have first degrees across the whole spectrum of subjects. To become a professionally qualified librarian you also need a masters qualification in librarianship or information science. An introduction to librarianship can be gained through a graduate trainee scheme. These are run by libraries in a variety of sectors with an aim to provide experience and training in a work-based context prior to the masters course. A year as a graduate trainee can be useful but it is not a requirement for a place on a postgraduate programme.

More information about the wide range of jobs undertaken by librarians can be found through the Library Day in the Life project. This is a biannual event that encourages librarians to blog about their working week. Round 6 of Library Day in the Life ran from 24 -30 January 2011.

If you are interested in finding out about how to embark on a career in librarianship, Ned Potter has summarised the ten things you need to know if you want to work in libraries. Many librarians have also written about their route into the profession through the Library Routes Project.

Ephemera of Early Film Promotion on View at NYPL

Movie posters are such a common sight today that no one really thinks about them. During the first decades of the twentieth century, however, those 27-by-41-inch sheets of paper heralded a new era of advertising. A colorful sampling of these posters, lobby cards, fan magazines, and more from the early years of cinema are on display at the New York Public Library through March 10, 2012.

Early film posters, such as this one advertising

Theda Bara's 1925 film "The Unchastened Woman,"

are on display at the New York Public Library.

image source: http://www.bendbulletin.com

"The Birth of Promotion: Inventing Film Publicity in the Silent-Film Era" exhibit is on view at the Library for the Performing Arts, located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza in Manhattan. Visitors can eye the fascinating ephemera of early film promotion from noon to 8 PM on Mondays and Thursdays, and noon to 6 PM the rest of the days of the week (except Sundays, when the library is closed). Below is a charming preview of the exhibit that the New York Public Library posted on YouTube.