MOBIUS Libraries

Aaron Schmidt recommends occasionally taking a break from "deep thinking about your library" and go on a Service Safari to other places that offer customer service. He recommends a series of questions to ask yourself about your experience as a customer. This in turn can help libraries with evaluating their own services. Other techniques for customer service self-evaluation in this article include: Make a Map: Block out paths created by library users to your services. Think Like a Child (a.k.a."5 Whys"): Figuring out root causes of problems by taking a single statement of a problem and asking "why" five times; an example is given.

The fourth New York Times article, this time looking at libraries both as gather places and as for solitude. Two of his comments stood out to me: "....we tend to subscribe to a set of norms: studiousness, solitude and quiet above all. These connect the sense that all these disparate places really are one place, consistent across times and cultures." And: "In their long history, libraries have been models for the world and models of the world...."

The third of four New York Times articles; written by a school librarian and focusing on how libraries are a participatory culture.

One of four articles from the New York Times about the debate if we still need libraries--focusing mostly on Internet access rather than other services.

The second of four New York Times articles, written by a librarian and therefore supportive, but he made several good points. Most learning centers offer computer skills in only English, but to offer those in four foreign languages is impressive, along with the move to circulating digital media and devices.

Major privacy issues that everyone should pay attention to in 2013: transparency, data sharing, and dodgy QR codes.

The burgeoning presence of ebooks on library catalogs is producing an unexpected problem-- what if the patron wants a print version of a book as opposed to an ebook version? How do you tease that out of MARC? RDA's GMD appears to be helpful, but not a useful as the Leader, 007, or 008 fields.