One of the first sessions I attended was the Unconference (wonderful, by the way). At the Unconference I was talking with one of the other attendees about this being our first ALA and she said, “Oh wait! Someone forwarded this to me this morning. There is free food on Saturday! Give me your phone number and I’ll send you the information.” Lo and behold it was the ASCLA Awards Ceremony. Initially I was a little indignant. How could these moochers…
The prison and psychiatric hospital libraries were happy to participate in the Library Snapshot Day again this year. With the libraries open an average of 4.75 hrs for the day there were 1,033 visitors across the state. Check out the rest of the numbers here. Also checkout the pictures on our Facebook Page.
To re-new interest in the WSH Library, we began the year by participating in ILS Snapshot Day 1-11-11 and all branches shared stories and pictures on the State Library website. A month later, a WSH Library newsletter was introduced on campus to highlight the collection’s offerings. Starting mid-year, classes at the hospital treatment centers were entertained with a weekly show-n-tell—poetry—storytelling format library programming. District #28 Rep. Troy Kelley accepted an invitation to visit the library and WSH history museum. The…
Ten years ago, I had a library visit from a hospital staffer who excitedly asked me to provide him information about the “dead people in the park.” Although I’ve received some odd questions during my years in the library of a state psychiatric hospital, this request was something unusual even for me. I suppressed a grin and asked him to give me more details. He told me he had stumbled upon a numbered stone during his lunch break walk in…
With support from the American Library Association (ALA), Library Snapshot day is a national phenomenon that has quickly spread across the US. Library Snapshot Day provides a way for libraries of all types across a state, region, system or community to show what happens in a single day in their libraries. How many books are checked out? How many people receive help finding a job? Doing their homework? This initiative provides an easy means to collect statistics, photos and stories…