Drawings Become Beloved Toys

I recently came across something that I thought was very fun: a company called Child' s Own Studio. Child's Own Studio will custom making soft toys for children based on their very own artwork:



I would encourage everyone to check out the website to see some more examples of the awesome stuffed creations that come straight from a child's own imagination. Child's Own Studio is Canadian based and "started with a simple idea: to make a recognizable comfort toy for a 4 year-old boy based on his drawing." According to the website, Child's Own Studio will usually charge between $70-$130 (Canadian) per toy and will ship to both Canada and the United States.

Although this doesn't seem to directly relate to libraries, I was trying to think of how I could spin it to be relevant for us library folk, so here's what I've come up with. Your library could hold a children's program centered around...let's say monsters. You could read books like "The Librarian from the Black Lagoon" by Mike Thaler and "Your Pal Mo Willems Presents Leonardo the Terrible Monster" by Mo Willems. Then, have the children draw their most creative monster and display those drawings in the library. Then you can either have a contest where patrons vote on their favorite drawing, or you can have a draw to pick one of the drawings and send the winning drawing to Child's Own Studio to have it made into a plush toy for the winner. It's a great way to promote creativity and the toys that come out are just so darn cute!

Canadian Libraries and SOPA/PIPA

If you were using the internet last Wednesday, you likely noticed that a number of major sites, including the English version of Wikipedia, Reddit, and Mozilla, were blacked out in protest of the United States’ Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Many other websites, especially small, online businesses, also went dark. While both SOPA and PIPA have now been shelved indefinitely (see articles on CNN and The Los Angeles Times), it is worth noting that the library community in the United States spoke out against these acts with a strong, unified voice. But should Canadian librarians care?

The passing of SOPA and PIPA in their current forms should concern Canadian librarians for two reasons. The first reason is that they pose a direct threat to freedom of information on the Internet. As it stands, SOPA gives individuals, corporations, and United States government the right to order a site’s payment partners to cut a site off or to block a site without ever going through a judicial process*. Ergo, this law would allow large media corporations and government officials to decide what content should be available on the Internet without having to answer to anyone.

The second reason is that if they were to pass, it is likely that they would influence pending copyright legislation in Canada. Michael Geist, University of Ottawa law professor and well-known copyright activist, details how SOPA and PIPA have already influenced the formation of Bill C-11 in his pre-blackout post “Why Canadians Should Participate in the SOPA/PIPA Protest.” If SOPA and PIPA were to move forward, it is possible that our government would attempt to align itself with the U.S. through similar legislation. (Also, see Michael's recent article on the Huffington Post.)

As defenders of the right to freedom of access to information, Canadian librarians should keep a close eye on SOPA, PIPA, and Bill C-11. The Internet has become the world’s forum and if we are to ensure that “[a]ll persons in Canada have the fundamental right … to have access to all expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity” as stated in the Canadian Library Association’s Statement of Intellectual Freedom, it important that we are aware of these issues and add our voices to the conversations occurring about copyright, censorship, and access to the Internet.

* See the link to the "One-page guide to SOPA" on the Swiss Army Librarian's Blog for information on how SOPA works. Other useful links are included in the post.

Promoting e-Resources

E-resources - databases, online sources, online learning, whatever you want to call them - are a big part of most libraries today. In many libraries, a large portion of the acquisition or collections budget are given over to e-resources, and libraries then (try to) proudly display and promote these sources.

However, this promotion doesn't always work the way it was hoped. Sometimes the message just doesn't reach the people (or the right people). Other times the message doesn't create the impression it needs to. In short, promoting e-resources is difficult, but definitely worth the effort.

The Northern Lights Library System (NLLS) maintains their own excellent blog for librarians. Just under a year ago, they wrote a two-part feature on promoting e-resources, and upon discovering it, I wanted to share from it.

"The idea behind promoting E-Resources to our library managers is that the more familiar you are with them, the more likely you will be to use them yourselves and recommend them to your patrons"
This point is well taken, and being 'familiar' with e-resources doesn't just mean knowing their names. The post goes on to suggest that some library systems quiz their managers to make sure their knowledge is up to date - a key part of helping patrons understand the sources. Of course, managers could also quiz their own staff, or staff could quiz the managers.
The post also suggests "To promote it, you may want to make sure there’s a short cut to it on your public computers. While in the site (using Internet Explorer, not Firefox), right click with your mouse." Many of you may already do this, but the advice is worth repeating.
From my own experience in libraries, I've seen some that include signs or posters in various parts of the collection that point the patrons to e-resources that complement the items in that part of the collection. I've also heard from patrons who found such schemes to be very beneficial.

To sum it all up, there are a great number of ways to make sure that your patrons are getting the most they can out of e-resources, and it may involve promoting them in ways you hadn't previously considered.

The post from the NLLS blog:

Part 1:
http://www.nlls.ab.ca/blogs/show_entry/741
Part 2:
http://www.nlls.ab.ca/blogs/show_entry/741?title=Promoting+E-Resources%2C+Part+2

24-hour Checkout at the Library

The Antigonish Town & County Public Library in Nova Scotia has been looking for ways to better serve their patrons and community by coming up with some innovative practices. Their 24-hour checkout initiative is really interesting. The library (with financial assistance from the province) has installed book lockers located at the main entrance of the building. By request, patrons can pick up their hold requests after hours using the lockers. When their material becomes available they are assigned a temporary access code to a book locker. Then, all they need to do is drop by the library, day or night, enter their code, and pick up their materials.

The idea came from public consultations with their community in which one of the needs expressed was flexible service hours. The library has found the service to be well suited to their rural community where people are not always able to get into town during library open hours. A great example of using innovative thinking to meet community needs!