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Articles by Library Services
Decontaminating N95 and SN95 masks with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation does not impair mask efficacy and safety
Summary Inadequate supply of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) for healthcare workers during a pandemic such as the novel coronavirus outbreak (SARS-CoV-2) is a serious public health issue. The aim of this study was to synthesize existing data on the effectiveness of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) for N95 FFR decontamination. A systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42020176156) was conducted on UVGI in N95 FFRs using Embase, Medline, Global Health, Google Scholar, WHO feed, and MedRxiv.
Study helps arboreta, botanical gardens meet genetic diversity conservation goals
LISLE, Ill. (April 30) - In a groundbreaking study, an international team of 21 scientists led by Sean Hoban, PhD, Conservation Biologist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, evaluated five genera spanning the plant tree of life (Hibiscus, Magnolia, Pseudophoenix, Quercus and Zamia) to understand how much genetic diversity currently exists in collections in botanical gardens and arboreta worldwide.
Comparative efficacy of opioids for older adults presenting to the emergency department with acute pain
Research ArticleResearch Systematic review Maaike de Vries, Jonathan Gravel, Daphne Horn, Shelley McLeod and Catherine Varner Canadian Family Physician December 2019, 65 (12) e538-e543; Available Languages Abstract Objective To systematically review the literature for studies comparing the efficacy of opioid analgesics for older adults (≥ 65 years) presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute pain.
Association of Pharmacological Treatments With Long-term Pain Control in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
[Skip to Content Landing] Figure 1. Flow Diagram of Study Identification, Screening, Eligibility Assessment, and Inclusion Figure 2. Forest Plot for the Estimates of Long-term Treatment Effects of Interventions on Knee Pain Estimates are expressed on a 0 to 100 scale. Point estimates refer to the posterior mean. The bars indicate 95% credibility intervals (CrIs). Figure 3.
NJ Library Co-op Faces Looming Shortfall
LibraryLinkNJ (LLNJ), a statewide cooperative that oversees a $1.36 million interlibrary loan (ILL) delivery service for 408 public libraries in New Jersey, will stay in business at least one more year after members voted to approve a $2.38 million budget for its fiscal year 2019, which starts on July 1. The vote came despite LLNJ’s candid warning that it will cease operations as of June 30, 2019, unless $370,000 can be found to plug a looming revenue shortfall.
Faculty, Student and Librarian Collaboration Kiwi Style | Peer to Peer Review
During a trip to New Zealand in January 2018, I was invited to visit with several of my counterparts at five different universities there to discuss the changing role of university libraries in the 21st century.
Saskatoon Public Library Readies for Staff Restructuring
As Canada’s Saskatoon Public Library (SPL), Saskatchewan, nears the launch of its new organization-wide restructuring, employees are both excited and apprehensive about their new roles, library leadership is optimistic about the shift to a community-led model, and negotiations with the library workers’ union are still in progress. On July 16, nearly 40 percent of the nine-branch system’s approximately 300 employees will change their jobs as a result of the restructuring.
2018 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: San Francisco Public Library
A model and inspiration for public libraries worldwide, the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL)—with its committed staff, transformational leadership, amazing array of programs, partnerships, popularity, and community connections—is the 2018 Gale/LJ Library of the Year. SFPL’s aggressive yet compassionate approach and the resulting services, outreach, alliances, and innovation offer new directions public libraries everywhere can apply to their services.
Five Libraries Take 2018 IMLS Top Honors
Representing every region of the country, five libraries have been honored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) with a 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service: Georgetown Public Library, TX; Orange County Library System, FL; Pueblo City–County Library District, CO; Reading Public Library, PA; and Rochester Public Library, MN. The winning institutions are ones that bring about positive change, both for individual patrons and in the community as a whole.
Materials on Hand | Materials Handling
In 1999, Minnesota’s Hennepin County Library (HCL) “was looking for ways to utilize technology to [improve] staff health and safety with better ergonomics and to streamline circulation processes, which…all improves patron service,” says Ann Woodson-Hicks, senior administrative manager, Hennepin County, Library Capital Projects.
Bibliotheca Offers Unstaffed Hours Solution
Technology and automation vendor bibliotheca has launched open+, an access and security solution that enables libraries to expand open hours to times when the library is unstaffed.
Accessibility Awareness | The User Experience
May 17 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The idea started with a 2011 blog post by web developer Joe Devon, in which he argued that “it’s more important to make a site accessible than pretty.” He also admitted that although he is a programmer, he was still ashamed of how little he knew about accessibility.
MIT Media Lab Collaborates with Public Librarians
Since its inception in 1980, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab has produced cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, working with partners ranging from IBM to LEGO. Recently the Media Lab has expanded beyond academic and corporate collaborations to join forces with public libraries for the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX).
The Memory Lab | Technology in Focus
Pictures on a phone. Journals on a hard drive. Videos shared on social media. It’s so easy and convenient to document and publish our lives digitally these days. Yet what happens when media formats become obsolete? Individuals and entire communities risk major losses of historical and cultural documentation. Unless, that is, the public is equipped to sustain digital memories by transitioning them to new formats.
Adding Apps | Technology in Focus
When LJ conducted its “Mobile Library Services 2010” survey, 44% of respondents from public libraries reported that they didn’t currently offer any services designed for mobile phones and that they had no plans to offer such services in the future. Thirty-five percent of respondents from academic libraries said the same. They can be forgiven for their lack of foresight. When the survey was conducted, Google’s Android OS had launched only a year and a half earlier.
Save Government Information! | Peer to Peer Review
Today, access to born-digital federal government information is relatively easy. Most of it is even available for free. But there are few legal guarantees to ensure that the information published today will be available tomorrow. Now, the GPO Reform Act of 2018 about to be introduced in Congress, pitched as a modernization of the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), will actually endanger long-term free public access to government information.
Joe Márquez & Annie Downey | Movers & Shakers 2018 - Educators
In a 2015 journal article for Weave: Journal of Library User Experience, Reed College Library’s (RCL) Annie Downey and Joe Márquez defined service design as “a holistic, cocreative, and user-centered approach to understanding customer behavior for the creation or refining of services.” They laid out a flexible, user-centered approach to understanding user and service provider experiences using qualitative tools—and then creating holistic solutions.
Andrea Blackman | Movers & Shakers 2018 - Change Agents
If those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, Andrea Blackman may have found one way to inspire learning. As division manager for the Nashville Public Library (NPL) Special Collections and director of the library’s Civil Rights Room—in charge of documenting the local history of the civil rights movement in one of its key cities—she has initiated an ambitious effort to meld the library’s unique holdings into a curriculum for change.
Margo Gustina | Movers & Shakers 2018 - Change Agents
Librarianship was a natural fit for Margo Gustina, who has always loved connecting people with what they need but disliked the hard sell of bookstores or the bureaucracy of social work. Her first encounters with small libraries in rural western New York shaped her view of what good service should look like.
Paralibrarian of the Year 2018: Orquidea Olvera
The Reading Safari van of the Monterey County Free Libraries (MCFL), CA, makes regular visits to preschool classrooms and the 18 MCFL branches throughout the 3,000 square miles of Monterey County. From its driver’s seat, Orquidea Olvera runs the system’s Early Literacy Mobile Outreach (ELMO), which carries literacy and science programs to preschool classrooms and some 450 preschoolers.
Cannabis Literacy | BackTalk
Many states are legalizing the possession, use, and sale of cannabis for medical and/or recreational purposes, even as it remains illegal at the federal level. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), legalization has been adopted in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington State, and Washington, DC.
Aspen Institute Releases Model State-Level Dialogue Report for Colorado
On January 31 the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries (DPL) released “Libraries: Building Community Resilience in Colorado.” The report presents the findings of The Aspen Institute Colorado Dialogue on Public Libraries, a meeting of community stakeholders and library leaders held on May 25, 2017, and builds on DPL’s work examining the evolving roles of public libraries and developing models to drive discussions between libraries and their communities.
Guns in the Library | Safety & Security
Run. Hide. Fight. The video walking viewers through these steps for reacting to an active shooter in a public place has received 6.5 million YouTube views since 2012 and forms a key part of a new generation of safety training for libraries. Gun violence has recently impacted public spaces such as concerts, schools, and churches and hit particularly close to home for many library professionals and patrons when a 16-year-old killed two public library employees in New Mexico in 2017.
IMLS Report: State Library Funding Still Suffering
State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAA) across the country experienced major decreases in revenue and staffing during the economic recession, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) biennial State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAA) Survey, conducted in FY16. “The SLAA report shows how many of the nation’s libraries continue to be financially challenged by the effects of the recession as they strive to maintain valued community services,” IMLS director Kathryn K.
Do Librarians Discriminate? | BackTalk
Suppose a librarian receives an email from a man named Greg Walsh, wanting to become a cardholder and politely asking what he needs to do to make this happen (e.g., Does he need proof of address?) or simply inquiring about the open hours. Would the librarian reply? And, if so, would the reply be polite, including for instance some form of salutation, such as “Hello” or “Good morning”? Does your answer change if the guy is called Tyrone Washington?
Lance Werner: LJ’s 2018 Librarian of the Year
If you ask Lance Werner, executive director of the Kent District Library (KDL), MI, what makes him a strong leader, an effective legislative advocate, and a champion of access for his patrons, his answer is simple: it’s all about forming relationships—with his staff, legislators, local business owners and CEOs, county commissioners, Michigan Library Association (MLA) administrators, LIS educators, patrons, and anyone else in a 100-mile radius.
Residents Sue Escondido Over Library Outsourcing
Roy and Mary Garrett, residents of Escondido, CA, and longtime library patrons, are suing the city over its decision to privatize the Escondido Public Library (EPL). Officials voted in August to turn library operations over to Library Systems and Services (LS&S), a private for-profit company that manages public libraries, to forestall a projected citywide pension shortfall. In October, the city council voted to enter into a ten-year contract with the firm.
Find Your Library | LJ Index 2017
Whether or not your library has been given a Star rating, you can benefit from finding peers in your expenditure category and comparing statistics. For the scores for all libraries included in this round of the LJ Index, use the links below to download a spreadsheet of all libraries with LJ Index scores.
All the Stars, State by State | LJ Index 2017
Click a state above, or use the drop-down below to jump to the Star libraries in that state. States with Most and Fewest Stars The 2017 Star Libraries are found in 40 states scattered across the country geographically. The top four states, ranked by their numbers of Star Libraries, are New York (31), Ohio (25), Illinois (22), and California (13). There is a tie for fifth place between Kansas and Massachusetts (12 each).
All-Time All-Stars | LJ Index 2017
Over the ten editions of this article, 606 libraries have been named Star Libraries in one or more years. A total of 69 received Stars in each of the ten editions. Of those, 13 U.S. public libraries earned five-Star ratings each and every year. We invited them to comment on the distinction, and many responded. We continue to remain strong in visits, circulation, and program attendance. We attribute this to exceptional staff and an engaged community that strongly supports the library.
America’s Star Libraries: Top-Rated Libraries | LJ Index 2017
We are pleased to announce the results of the tenth edition of the LJ Index of Public Library Service, sponsored by Baker & Taylor’s Bibliostat. The LJ Index rates U.S. public libraries based on selected per capita output measures. The 2017 Index derives from data recently released by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for FY15. This year, 7,409 U.S. public libraries qualified to be rated in the Index.
The Star Libraries by Expenditure Category | LJ Index 2017
The LJ Index is based on five types of per capita use generated by public libraries: visits, circulation, ecirculation, public access computer use, and program attendance. Star Library ratings of five, four, and three stars are awarded to libraries that generate the highest combined per capita outputs among their spending peers. For details about how the LJ Index is calculated and for whom, see the project’s FAQ. This year, there are 259 Star Libraries.
Every Star Library Ever Named | LJ Index 2017
This year we are again posting a detailed spreadsheet (link below) listing every Star Library award given since the inaugural edition of the LJ Index in February 2009. We have rated U.S. public libraries annually since then, and twice in that initial year due to scheduling of the release of the 2006 data.
University of Oregon Science Libraries Back Up Fossils with 3D Printer
At the University of Oregon (UO), staff at the Science Library have only had an in-house 3D printer for a few months, but have wasted no time putting the new equipment to use. At the beginning of January, the library printed a 3D model of a rare fossil in the UO paleontology department’s collection—the remains of a 5-million-year old saber-toothed salmon.
Straight from the Source | Innovation
Libraries possess a not-so-secret weapon when it comes to assessing the needs of their patrons—the frontline staff who engage with their communities every day. How can library leaders best tap staff members’ expertise, make staff at all levels feel safe and welcome to contribute, and harness that information to develop programs and policies that meet real-world needs?
Stigma-Free Reading for Adults | Collections
Nashville Public Library (NPL), the 2017 Gale/LJ Library of the Year, launched the Fresh Reads collection to adult new readers (ANR) in 2017 to offer stigma-free reading to promote literacy and learning. One in eight Nashvillians reads below a sixth-grade level, making tasks such as paying bills, helping a child with homework, or filling out a job application challenging and sometimes impossible.
Tomorrow, Visualized | Library by Design, Fall 2013
As I got ready to tour the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, last spring, as part of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) meeting held nearby, the buzz about the newly unveiled building had reached such a level that I expected to find it, however cool, overhyped. It wasn’t. It was exactly the right amount of hyped. “Every corner of the Hunt Library is designed to be memorable and stunning,” the library’s vision claims.
Convening Community Conversations | Programming
It can be challenging to start a substantive conversation, not just small talk, among people of differing experiences and opinions, even—or especially—when they are neighbors. But libraries, as institutions used and trusted by a broad cross section of the population, are uniquely positioned to convene productive dialog that can help patrons abandon the “echo chamber” and start talking to one another.
Mainland Libraries Aid Maria Victims with Money, Mapathons
Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage from September 18–20 in Dominica, Guadeloupe, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeastern Bahamas. At press time, most of Puerto Rico’s 66 public libraries and numerous academic libraries had not been able even to issue updates on their damage.
How to Hot Spot | TechKnowledge
Wi-Fi hot spot lending can help bridge the digital divide by addressing a persistent problem: lack of Internet access at home among low-income families. Without such access, students are often unable to complete homework with an online component, and parents can’t effectively job hunt or apply for government and other services. While Wi-Fi in school and library buildings has alleviated the problem somewhat, there are too many hours when those facilities are closed for that to be a total solution.
A Culture of Opportunity | Best Small Library in America 2017
For 30 years, Sandy Ashworth, the just-retired director of Idaho’s Boundary County Library District (BCLD), developed the library’s vision and community connections and identified the county’s new needs. She saw that openings would have to be created to encourage residents to innovate and build businesses that could strengthen the shrinking farming and timber economy.
After Harvey Libraries Reopen, Organizations Step Up
Over a five-day period, Hurricane Harvey devastated the Gulf Coast area of southeastern Texas and parts of Louisiana. More than 50 inches of rain fell, killing at least 66 people, displacing 30,000 others, and causing up to $190 billion in damages. When skies finally cleared at the end of August, cleanup efforts began in earnest.
What’s Next | Office Hours
The following cry echoed through the Dokk1 library in Aarhus, Denmark, from participants in the Next Library 2017 conference as a morning icebreaker/creativity exercise: “Yes, we made a mistake!” Mistakes were encouraged and celebrated during the three-and-a-half-day International Festival for library folk in June, intended, the conference website notes, as a “patchwork” of colearning, cocreative, participatory, engaging, pluralistic, and interactive meetings.
Libraries Across America To Celebrate Solar Eclipse on August 21
On Monday, August 21, all eyes—or at least, all those with adequate protection—will be on the first total solar eclipse to cross the country from ocean to ocean since 1918. The path of totality will cross the entire United States from west to east starting at 10:15 a.m. PDT in Pacific Palisades, OR (west of Salem) and ending at 2:48 p.m. EDT in Bulls Bay, SC (north of Charleston).
Charlottesville Libraries Weather Violent Protests, Offer Unity
Public and college libraries alike faced challenges and tough choices this weekend in Charlottesville, VA, when clashes between white nationalist demonstrators and counterprotesters took place on the campus of the University of Virginia (UVA) and across the city, leaving three dead and 34 injured. White nationalists from across the country gathered at Emancipation Park early Saturday morning, many of them bearing Confederate flags and sporting Nazi symbols.
Why Social Justice in the Library? | Outreach + Inreach
While the American Library Association (ALA) Code of Ethics positions libraries to elevate purposefully the voices and aspirations of all people in their service area, whatever the individual’s social, economic, legal, or citizenship status, many libraries have found that work to be impractical.
2017 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: Nashville Public Library, TN
In the scope of its programs, services, and collections; the incredible reach of its efforts in cooperation with other public agencies, departments, and local businesses; and its work to identify and fulfill needs of both the mainstream and marginalized people of Nashville and Davidson County, the Nashville Public Library (NPL), the Gale/LJ 2017 Library of the Year, is a model for the nation and the world.
An informatics approach helps better identify chemical combinations in consumer products
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- By using products such as soap, shampoo, body lotion, toothpaste and makeup, the average consumer may be exposed to dozens of chemicals each day. It's not easy, though, to know exactly what is in many consumer products or what potential risks they pose, either individually or in combination.
New libraries at Bega Valley, Rockdale and Speers Point
The Bega Valley officially opened the new Tura Marrang Library and Community Centre on 25 June. Opened by Mayor Michael Britten, State Librarian Dr Alex Byrne and The Hon. Andrew Constance, Member for Bega, the event was a resounding success with 1,125 people attending. What was once a dark inward looking tavern is now a light, bright, dynamic community asset. In its first month, the library has welcomed 295 new members, welcomed back 367 old members, loaned 7,166 items and had 8,033 visitors.
Scientists and zoos team up on landmark elephant welfare project
Given that elephants are the largest land mammals on the planet, one might expect that when it comes to enclosures for zoo elephants, size matters. However, a newly released study in which the University of California, Davis, played a key role reveals that social interactions and having an array of opportunities to engage with their surroundings may be more important for elephants than space.
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