Library Garden

Overdue Books Affecting Credit Score

I am sitting here watching the local evening news when a story comes on about the fact that if a library reports your overdue fines to a collection agency you can lose anywhere from 50 to 100 points from your credit score. Wow, that is a lot of points for overdue books!

I only caught a portion of the story (Mommy duties intervened), but what I did catch was an interview with a library director stating something to the effect that in times of budget cuts it is essential that libraries make it know that overdue materials affect the bottom line.

I went searching for some reference to this story, and found an article published today on Kiplinger.com called Boost Your Score that starts with this tidbit:

Pop quiz: Which affects your credit score more, getting married or having overdue library books?

Surprise answer: A library fine that goes to collection can shave 100 points off your credit score — and boost your annual interest payments by hundreds of dollars. But getting married doesn’t affect your score at all unless you co- sign for a loan with your new spouse.

I am not entirely convinced that library fines are even needed in the first place, so my gut reaction to having someone’s credit score ruined by late library books doesn’t sit well with me at all. I might be more sensitive to this as I protect my credit score with a passion ever since I had to work so hard to build it from scratch when I first moved to the USA 9 years ago. None of your credit history follows you across the border (so I discovered, much to my dismay) and I could not get a credit card, car loan or any other other loan to save my soul for several years. A few points off your credit score can make a big difference in loan rate and I am sure that the average citizen watching this news segment did not get a warm fuzzy feeling about libraries learning that we could be the ones to impact their future mortgage rate.

January 14, 2007 at 10:28 pm 21 comments

Testing 1-2-3

Ever since we moved to the “new” blogger I have had a problem with my posts disappearing never to be found again. Just want to see if blogger is going to play nice with me today and finally let me post list for the 5 things meme since I have now been tagged twice. Nothing more to see for now… but hopefully more later today.

Edited to Add:
It worked!!!

January 5, 2007 at 2:16 pm

MySpace in the News

I am preparing this morning for an upcoming Tech Talk on January 2nd at MPOW that will cover MySpace and social netowrking. Karen Klapperstuck of the Bradley Beach Public Library will be presenting with me and the topic is already generating a lot of interest from the Tech Talk regulars. I am preparing early, for once, as I want to enjoy some time off over the holidays without stress (plus I am getting a jump on my New Year’s Resolution: No more procrastinating by telling myself that I work better under pressure!)

I am putting together a list of MySpace and Facebook stories to post to the Tech Talk Blog as a part of this presentation and here are three interesting MySpace stories that I uncovered this morning:

A few hours ago ABC News posted an article entitled Web King: MySpace Takes Throne From Yahoo. One quick highlight:

“An interesting online milestone occurred in November: MySpace overtook Yahoo as the No. 1 most-viewed site on the Internet, according to comScore Media Metrix.

The numbers are staggering: There were 38.7 billion — yes, billion — page views for MySpace versus 38.1 billion for Yahoo, and again, that was just for November.

It’s fascinating to see how the Internet has evolved. Who knew that simply socializing online could change the Internet?”

I love that last statement — it will be incorporated in to the talk for sure!

And then there are these two library related articles that were posted within the last 24 hours:

Prison Escapee Caught After Checking MySpace — it seems that an escaped prisoner from Georgia kept checking his MySpace account using his real name. He was accessing his account from the Philadelphia Free Library.

Manatee libraries block MySpace — in this case, the library has chosen to block access to MySpace because it does not server the library’s “educational mission”. Here is the precise quote from the article:

Administrators looked at the site and decided it did not serve educational purposes. And most MySpace.com users weren’t going to the library to check out materials or do research, Van Berkel said.

I looked at the policies page for the Manatee County Library System and after reading their Internet access policy, I can’t say I am surprised. The site uses frames so I can’t link you directly to the policy because no static url is given, so I will paste a portion of it here instead:

Policies Governing Internet Access

Due to limited resources, access to the full Internet may be limited and shall initially be made available primarily to provide:
Assistance to patrons with research of an academic nature.
Access to library on-line catalogs.
Local newspaper indexes.
Web pages of government agencies and local organizations.
Government documents research.
Genealogical research.
Historic and scientific research.

and shall not be available for:
Chat room access, e-mail or the creation of web pages.
Entertainment and recreational uses.
Accessing materials that are obscene, or child pornography, or materials harmful to minors as defined by Chapter 847, Florida Statutes.

Okay, that pretty much speaks for itself and does not really need commentary from me. Now I need to find a way to incorporate these stories in to the talk.

On a side note, I am collecting examples of libraries that have successfully used MySpace to promote services and as a method of outreach. If you want to be included in the talk, just let me know by commenting here at Library Garden or sending me an email.

Also, if you are within driving distance of Princeton, I would like to invite you to please drop by and join Karen and I on the 2nd. Here is the official “blurb” for the program:

Social Software: Hype vs. Reality
Janie Hermann and Karen Klapperstuck will give an overview of social software sites such as Myspace.com and Facebook.com, looking at the pros and cons of using them, and show you how to set up a profile. They will also provide tips for staying safe in online communities, and examine what is hype and what is not about the dangers of connecting and collaborating in a virtual world. Tuesday, Jan. 2, 7 p.m.

December 14, 2006 at 11:10 am 32 comments

When Librarians Attack!

Just a quick link dump to a piece that just appeared on TheSpoof.com yesterday: “When Librarians Attack!” DVD Enjoys Brisk Sales

The premise of the spoof is that a new DVD that depicts librarians attacking patrons is a huge hit. I was not offended mostly because it is so obviously a spoof. In fact I appreciated how it opened with a statement recognizing that librarians are underpaid (but I do disagree with the “frustrated” description — I know very few librarians who would describe themselves as frustrated. Overworked yes, but not necessarily frustrated).

The best part of the spoof is the final paragraph:

Fish and game wardens say librarians are unlikely to attack unless provoked, although they may view late returns of books as a threat. “If your book is overdue you should approach librarians with caution, holding the volume out at arm’s length with your hands palm down to show that you are not an aggressor,” says Billy Ray Lyman of the Missouri Department of Wildlife. “And don’t show fear–librarians can sense when you don’t have the two cents a day fine, and they will go for the jugular.”

December 12, 2006 at 12:19 pm

Advice from a Spin Doctor for Librarians

I just read Librarians ‘Should be Sexier’ on thisislondon.co.uk and I actually had to read it twice to be certain that this was a serious article. Yes, it would now appear that it has been decided by a “senior spin doctor” that the word librarian should be banned because it connotates too many negative images. Oh, and apparently the way that we can ensure the health and vitality of libraries is to hire based upon appearance — we need to make sure we staff our libraries only with beautiful people. The article does mention that librarians in Britain are disgusted with this suggestion, but I can’t believe that anyone even had the gall to suggest it in the first place. Maybe we need to ban the word politican because of the negative connotations or the word lawyer… just my quick two cents for the day.

November 16, 2006 at 9:44 pm 4 comments

Where are the 2.0 Classes in Public Libraries?

I often visit the web sites of libraries of all sizes to see what they are currently offering for computer classes and other technology training sessions. Over the last several weeks I have looked at 30+ class calendars posted on library web sites and of those only a handful were offering classes on a regular basis that touched upon Web 2.0 technologies.

I looked at the training calendars of 4 very large library systems and did not see any indication that they were teaching 2.0 and (in fact) they were still mainly teaching classes such as “Meet the Mouse” and “Intro to Email”. I know these classes are still needed by many and I am in no way advocating that they be replaced nor implying that they are obsolete. Courses for beginners are still crucial, but they do need to be supplemented to meet the needs of the more advanced computer user. Class offerings need to be kept current to keep training programs fresh.

My question of the day is: Where are the 2.0 classes?

I am optimistic that libraries are busy writing up lesson plans and planning to launch new classes soon. Many libraries that integrate blogs, wikis, RSS and flickr as part of their services and web sites have not yet made the important leap to educating their customers about these technologies in the same way that we taught them about OPACs when we ditched our card catalogs and about email and the Web when we started offering Internet access. Perhaps they plan to do this in the near future?

I sincerely hope that the replies to this post will indicate that there are many, many more libraries out there teaching courses on blogging, flickr, RSS and other new technologies than I am currently finding on my informal and somewhat happenstance survey method. Nothing would make me happier than to get a flood of replies to this post that proves me wrong — that 2.0 technologies are being taught.

It seems to me that a lot of the smaller libraries are moving forward with offering 2.0 classes before their larger counterparts. Princeton Public Library (aka MPOW) is currently teaching four 2.o courses — Become a Blogger, Fun with Flickr, What’s the Fuss about RSS, and Fantastic Freebies (which is a round-up of 2.0 sites) — as well as courses such as Digital Camera Test Drive, Downloading eAudiobooks and Sharing Photos Online. We will soon offer a course on bloglines and one on tagging/folksonomy. Here is a quick sampling of some other libraries that I found who are teaching 2.o:

Lansing Public Library in Illinois is offering classes on how to use bloglines, how to establish a blog and how to use Juice to create a custom radio station using podcasts.

Johnson County Public Library has a course called Cyber Six-Pack: Six Online Gadgets That Are Fun, Free and Easy to Use that is similar to the Fantastic Freebies we teach here at PPL.

Providence Public Library has a good assortment of classes including a 90 minute introduction to blogging.

Darien Public Library is currently offering classes on podcasting and blogging this fall and has a good selection of courses for advanced users (a good example of a library taking their training beyond the basics).

I know that in the past Reading Public Library has tried do some classes on flickr (but according to the cached copy I found using Google it had to be cancelled) and I see that Skokie Public Library has also offered at least one flickr class.

This post has been several weeks in the making (I just never got around to finishing it) and in the mean time I did notice that this was a topic at Internet Librarian 2006 in a session called Technology Training in a Library 2.0 World (a good summary can be found at Library Web Chic), so I know I am not the only thinking about this and how we can encourage others to jump on the “Teaching 2.o Bandwagon”. Let me know what you are doing or hope to do soon, I love learning about what others are up to with their technology training.

November 2, 2006 at 11:37 pm 13 comments