Latest news from the Sister Libraries Blog

This week at Sister Libraries, the announcement of the NAPLE Sister Libraries Day, an annual celebration set on 13^th September which has in this first edition the slogan Reading is Fashionable! Many libraries will be celebrating this day organizing different events: this week you can also find in the blog three examples of activities for this day: the ones from Municipal Library Český Těšín (Czech Republic), the Kaunas County Public Library (Lithuania) and the  Arucas Municipal Library  (Spain). 

Visit the Sister Libraries’ blog for further information

The Right to e-Read

In the last few years there’s been a consolidation of the e-books market; the number of publishers and therefore the titles have experienced an exponent growth, along with the users. The lending of e-books in libraries has been a quite discussed topic in specialised forums and lists, with supporters and detractors: the need for libraries to keep track of the demands of a highly technology demanding community, the costs of offering both the devices and the titles in a budget-cutting context are just two examples of the discussions taking place in the library community. 

EBLIDA is aware of the obstacles getting in the way of libraries that wish to offer e-books to their users and has made a call on the EU Commission demanding a copyright framework, paving the way towards e-lending in European libraries.

You can read the whole text through this link.

Serbian Public library wins ERSTE Award

ERSTE Foundation is a European organisation working on the cohesion and enforcement of the relationships between European countries. They develop their own projects within the framework of three programmes: Social Development, Culture and Europe. The strategies developed by them are publicly accessible At the ERSTE Foundation Library, where they are preserved for the future.

Last year we published a post about an initiative from Public Library Radislav Nikčević in Jagodina. Well, we’ve been recently informed by EIFL they have actually won the prestigious ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration 2013.

You can find more details about it in this link

Innovation lab at the Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago

The Chicago Public Library opened last July 8^th the CPL Innovation Lab at the HaroldWashingtonLibraryCenter. Innovation labs offer organizations a place to test new ideas for services, programs and products and it can be very useful for the library community to experiment with new ideas and approaches in order to be more customer focused and able to adapt to the community’s changing needs.

As a first experience, they have launched the Maker Lab, the first free maker space in Chicago opened to the public. Created in partnership with the Museum of Science and Industry, the Library’s Maker Lab offers the public an introduction to technology and equipment which are enabling new forms of personal manufacturing and business opportunities.

You can visit  www.chipublib.org. for more information.

EIFL-PLIP awards for libraries empowering women and girls

EIFL-PLIP organizes since 2012 a series of awards for recognizing public and community libraries that offer innovative services using information and communication technology (ICT) to improve lives and livelihoods in their communities. Through the awards, EIFL-PLIP is seeking exciting stories about how innovative libraries contribute to community development. 

They have announced the winners of the fifth Innovation Award – for library services that use information and communication technology (ICT) to empower women and girls. Each winner receives a prize of US$1,500, a certificate and a trophy.

 You can check the libraries awarded through this link

Latest news from the Sister Libraries Blog

Back from their holidays, sister libraries have two new members: the North Ayrshire Libraries from Scotland and the Vega-La Camocha Municipal Library from Spain. You can also find in the blog the presentation of two new projects from the Municipal Public Library in Piekary Slaskie: the project “LIBRARY. I LOVE IT!”  and “Following the footsteps of the insurgents 1863 in Lithuania!”, the latter carried out with their sister Kaunas County Public Library (Lithuania), the announcement of the celebration of the NAPLE Sister Libraries Day next 13th September and a list of the libraries in the program without sisters yet. Some activities in City Library Mladen Kerstner Ludbreg (Croatia) and Aveiro Municipal Library (Portugal). You can also find pictures from the Ermua Municipal Library in Spain.

Visit the Sister Libraries’ blog for further information

Librarians Make #biblioteca Trending Topic Worlwide On Twitter

Librarians from all over the world got the hashtag #biblioteca to be trending topic worldwide on Twitter last 12 August 2013. Read here the timeline of #biblioteca.

This was the 5^th edition of the so called “Día de la #biblioteca en Twitter” (Libraries Day on Twitter) which was first celebrated in 2009, after Spanish librarian Natalia Arroyo wondered how many tweets it would take for a hashtag to become a trending topic.

After that a group of Spanish and Spanish-speaking librarians active on Twitter decided to try to make #biblioteca trending topic at 16.00 on that 10 August 2009. Since then, four other editions have followed, each time with more and more participation but this has been the first year where #biblioteca has become a trending topic worldwide.

At 11.47 Central European Time on 12th August 2013, #biblioteca became a trending topic in Spain for the first time of the day. The highest activity has been registered, as foreseen, at 16.00. During the whole day, there have been a total of 30,913 tweets with #biblioteca. Find more data here and here.

Sources:

Biblioblog

Julián Marquina

Libraries as “public living rooms”

Liz McGettigan, Head of libraries and information services at the City of Edinburgh Council, published a post a few weeks ago at Newstart. Marketing is an important aspect of Library Management. Plus, Edinburgh’s libraries offer an attractive set of services and have managed to increase usage and performance despite of the budget cuts. Read  the full article in this link:

Libraries as “public living rooms”

Economic Evaluation of the British Library

 Culture Economics is a relatively recent coined concept. Culture nowadays is an important engine of the world economy. It is an instrument for social cohesion and an activity that generates richness and workflow in society.

The British Library has published (April 2013) an interesting study of its economic value to the UK using a cost benefit analysis (BCA) within a Total Economic Valuation (TEV) framework, the results of which is “a clear illustration of the return which society’s investment in the Library provides to the UK”.

The study has also worked with a representative sample of 1,200 people, surveyed for evaluating the services of the British Library.

The conclusions of the study are very appealing, confirming the importance and profitability of this institution. We’ll highlight just one statistic: “The economic value the Library delivers for society is £5 for every £1 invested”.

You can find the full report in this link

E-books in libraries today: a full report

The French Ministry of Culture and Communication (through the General Direction for Media and Cultural industries, Books and Reading Service) has commissioned a report on the dissemination of e-books in libraries to a consulting company, IDATE. Based on analytical data about the situation in France and several other countries, mainly from Europe, it was released last June.

The report describes the international panorama on the matter: is there a model for book lending in libraries? Are libraries actively meeting with the publishers, trying to find a way for offering e-Books to their clients?, etc.  Then, in the second part of the report, it presents what they call the “Conditions to be met in order to establish a balanced framework”, a series of recommendations concerning both management and technological aspects.

You can access the full report (in French) through this link.