http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib281.html

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians sponsored by my bulk
mail provider,

WillCo

#281, July 21, 2006



SUBJECT INDEX to Past Issues

http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/archive.html

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Neat New Stuff I Found This Week

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My resume

http://marylaine.com/
resume.html
Or why you might want to hire me for speaking engagements or workshops. To see outlines for previous presentations I've done, click on Handouts

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My Writings

http://marylaine.com/
resume2.html
A bibliography of my published articles and columns, with links to those available online.

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Order My Books

Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet, and The Quintessential Searcher: the Wit and Wisdom of Barbara Quint.

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What IS Ex Libris?

http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/purpose.html

The purpose and intended scope of this e-zine

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E-Mail Subscription?

For a combined subscription to Neat New Stuff and ExLibris, please click HERE, complete the form, and click on "subscribe." To unsubscribe, use the same form but click on "unsubscribe." To change addresses for an existing subscription, unsubscribe from that form and return to the page to enter the new address.

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Highlights from Previous Issues:


My Rules of Information

  1. Go where it is
  2. Corollary: Who Cares?
  3. The answer depends on the question
  4. Research is a multi-stage process
  5. Ask a Librarian
  6. Information is meaningless until queried by human intelligence
  7. Information can be true and still wrong
  8. Pay attention to the jokes

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Guru Interviews

  1. Tara Calishain
  2. Jenny Levine, part I
  3. Jenny Levine, Part II
  4. Reva Basch
  5. Sue Feldman
  6. Jessamyn West
  7. Debbie Abilock
  8. Kathy Schrock
  9. Greg Notess
  10. William Hann
  11. Chris Sherman
  12. Gary Price
  13. Barbara Quint
  14. Rory Litwin
  15. John Guscott
  16. Brian Smith
  17. Darlene Fichter
  18. Brenda Bailey-Hainer
  19. Walt Crawford
  20. Molly Williams
  21. Genie Tyburski
  22. Patrice McDermott
  23. Carrie Bickner
  24. Karen G. Schneider
  25. Roddy MacLeod, Part I
  26. Roddy MacLeod, Part II
  27. John Hubbard
  28. Micki McIntyre
  29. Péter Jacsó
  30. the "It's All Good" bloggers
  31. the "It's All Good" bloggers, part 2

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Cool Quotes

The collected quotes from all previous issues are at http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/cool.html

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When and How To Search the Net

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Wanna See Your Name in Lights?

Or at least on this page, anyway? I'd like to print here your contributions as well as mine. As you've noticed, articles are brief, somewhere between 750 and 1000 words -- something to jog people's minds and get their own good ideas flowing. I'd also be happy to run other people's contributions to the regular features like Favorite Sites on _____. I'll pay you the same rate I pay me: nothing.

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Drop me a Line

Want to comment, ask questions, submit articles, or invite me to speak or do some training? Write me at: marylaine at netexpress.net




Visit My Other Sites


BookBytes

http://marylaine.com/
bookbyte/index.html
My page on all things book-related.

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How To Find Out of Print Books

http://marylaine.com/
bookbyte/getbooks.html
Suggested strategies, resources, and finding tools.

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Best Information on the Net

http://library.sau.edu/
bestinfo/default.htmThe directory I built for O'Keefe Library, St. Ambrose University, still my favorite pit stop on the information highway.

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My Word's Worth

http://marylaine.com/
myword/index.html
an occasional column on books, words, libraries, American culture, and whatever happens to interest me.

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Book Proposal

Land of Why Not: an Appreciation of America. Proposal for an anthology of some of my best writing. An outline and sample columns are available here.

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My personal page

http://marylaine.com/
personal.html



EMERGENCY RESPONDERS

by Marylaine Block

It's been dangerously hot across America for a week now, and, warned by the example of Chicago, where 465 elderly residents died in airless, overheated apartments in a 1995 heat wave, cities have started planning for heat emergencies.

When your community leaders make emergency plans, do they think of your library as part of the solution?

They do in Sussex County, Delaware, where several libraries are designated as official "cooling stations". County officials not only urge residents to come to these stations, they also have their paramedics visit them to answer people's questions.

They do in Columbia, MO, where officials issue heat warnings when the heat index reaches 105 degrees, and advise people of official cooling centers like the public library (which is located on public transportation routes).

They do in Yonkers; when a power outage compounded the heat problem, the city offered elderly residents free transportation to the Riverfront Library.

Do the area agencies on aging steer people to the library for relief? They do in Boone County, where the Council on Aging helps elderly residents find transportation to official cooling centers.

Does your library publicize itself as a cooling station? The Detoit Public Library does. Its web site splashes "Beat the Heat at the Library" across the top of the page, and gives the hours and locations for the branches officially designated as cooling stations.

Does your publicity work? Do your local news media know the library is a cooling center? They do in Detroit, where WXYZ pointed out that "The Detroit Public Library cooling stations offer a great opportunity to take in a book or newspaper in air conditioned comfort."

Are you part of the solution in other kinds of emergencies? Following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, the Nacogdoches (TX) Public Library, located in the Community Recreation Center, became part of the solution, providing a place where the Red Cross, the Texas National Guard, the United Way, the Texas Workforce Commission, and other agencies, could offer assistance to those in need; later, when Hurricane Rita came along, the library provided the Southwest Alabama Disaster Medical Assistance Team both office space and a place to sleep.

Next question: do you rely on more than cool air to attract the people most in need of it? Have you responded to the heat emergency with special programming for seniors, perhaps in tandem with the Red Cross, area agencies on aging, and maybe local historical societies? Have you provided a forum for community leaders (and maybe local utility companies) to explain to residents how they're confronting the crisis and planning for future emergencies?

If your library is not yet part of the solution, don't you think it should be? Not only would you be providing a critical service in a time of emergency, you would be raising the library's profile with both residents and community leaders.

And if your library IS part of the solution but your local government and news media don't seem to know it, this is a good time to do something splashy (maybe literally splashy, with kids invited to run through the sprinklers on the front lawn), stage some un-ignorable event, perhaps in partnership with a local radio station. You could set up a giant fake igloo or polar bear on your front lawn, for instance, or let a local youth organization put up a lemonade or snow cone stand there, or put on an old-fashioned ice-cream social or a churn your own ice cream event. For seniors you could put on a storytelling (or Liars' Club?) competition, or a quilting demonstration. And whatever you decide to do, don't forget to promote it like crazy.

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COOL QUOTE:

The librarians would never kick you out because you were allowed to sit around and read. I didn't have to worry about any kids bothering me too much because most bullies wouldn't go to the library and if they did the librarian kept them in check.

Patricia Cook, quoted in Beyond Words: BC's Public Libraries Are Changing Lives.

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You are welcome to copy and forward any of my own articles (but not those by my guest writers) for noncommercial purposes as long as you credit ExLibris and cite the permanent URL for the article. Please do NOT copy and post my articles to your own web sites, however. Instead, please copy a brief excerpt and link to the URL for the remainder of the article.

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2006.

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