Superpatron

Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library 2008 book sale schedule

The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library now have their own website - faadl.org - and info on book shop hours are available on that site. Here is the info from that site:

Bookshop Schedule: The shop will be open Saturdays 10am-4pm and Sundays 1pm-4pm. The shop opens the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 and closes after the Summer Sale, June 21-22, 2008. Preview Night (for members and volunteers only) is scheduled annually in September before the shop's fall opening.

There will be some version of a bag sale at the Summer Sale, to clear out old inventory and make ready for new.

Thanks to Tim Grimes from the AADL and Sally Allen from the FAADL for this info.

Squirrel Hill branch of the Pittsburgh Library

On our Thanksgiving trip to Pittsburgh we stopped in at the Squirrel Hill branch library. It's constructed in a parking garage, and before it was renovated it was functional but not in the slightest bit lovely. Now it's lovely, really lovely with a well lit glass area in the front overlooking the street to read in, and a nice kids area near the back..

The Pittsburgh area libraries were redesigned by a team from Maya Design. I had seen the presentation of these ideas before and talked to Paul Gould about them. What was fascinating was to see these high design ideals in practice smashed up against the vernacular design of libraries by non-librarians who occupy parts of the space in the library.

Where this was most clear was at the back entrance, where the local Friends of the Library had a book sale. Instead of clear oval signage there was a jumbled box of books, and shelved old books for sale on shelves marked with masking tape. In an ordinary library this would not be anything out of the ordinary, but there had clearly been so much work done to change the signs that it was a quite jarring transition. It's almost as if the space needed to have some transition between the street and the library that could be occupied in a sensible way without it having to be kept shiny and neat.

Things I want to write more about here - categories A-G

Every so often I run into corners of the world that I want to explore. Here's some list of the things I'd like to write more about, even if I don't have a full blog-length posting for any of them written right now. I'm keying off the categories I've set up.

This is part 1: Amazon through Google Book Search.

Sorry no links yet....will hyperlink as I have time to edit, but I thought I'd get this out into the world.

Amazon - about the book cover and album cover art database they have; how to set up an affiliate bookstore that actually works; on using Amazon to do wish lists that are then fulfilled through your library (via Jon Udell); on using Amazon as a book finding system and then using Book Burro or similar to connect back to your library; much more I'm sure.

Ann Arbor - plans for a new library downtown; reviews of all of the branches; reviews of other Washtenaw County libraries; special libraries in town like the Ford Presidential Library

Archives - an interview with the folks who run the Labadie Collection; an interview with the Prelingers; an interview with Brewster Kahle; some discussion of the peculiar nature of archives in the digital age

Archival Television - Jeff Ubois blog of the same name; the loss of the video record; clearing and securing rights; bootlegs on Youtube; museums of the broadcast industry

Beyond big vendors - this was the title of a talk I gave; an exploration of consolidation in the integrated library systems space, and some understanding of new alternatives

Book Burro - at least an annual post on what it is (repetition is the soul of the net); a screencast showing how I use it; documentation for online book finding system developers to get them to have Book Burro pop up on their book screens; a discussion of how tools like this can be funded by affiliate revenues

Book covers - as finding aids; variations between editions; in online book finding and book inventory systems; search by contents of the cover, not contents of the book

Book trading - more reviews of any book trading systems I find; some stories about book swap clubs that meet in person; children's birthday parties where everyone brings a book and everyone gets a book

Bookins - how they advertise new inventory on Twitter; comparison with other book swap sites; integration with LibraryThing

Books - more book reviews, lots of book reviews would be welcomed; the book publishing industry as a whole; old books; smelly books; pretty much anything is fair game.

Books sorted by color - more discussion of cover art, illustrations, other metadata about the book captured in the cover art but not indexed by typical book finding systems; the book illustration business; how covers are designed; history of binding systems; algorithms to determine which color a book is; art and photographic illustrations of installations where books have been sorted by color

Bookshelves - compact shelving, buying shelves for personal libraries, reviews of bookcases, shelving for libraries, innovations in book shelving, reviews of books about bookshelves, how to build your own, built in shelving, what to do when yours fill up

Code - more code! software that does interesting things with book and library data; mashups, data extraction, search algorithms, recommender systems, page layout, interactive design, home grown alternative views of the library

Collection development - impact of patrons on collections; controversial materials and how they are added to the collection and perhaps subtracted from the collection; metrics used for weeding and deaccessions; building your personal library from another library's discards; libraries as endangering printed materials

Electronic collections - library originated book and non-book collections; hardware, software, and systems for managing and cataloging same; preservation of digital relics; copyright, fair use and international implications of same; the proper provenance of enthusiast collectors

Events and exhibits - individual events and exhibits, and also ways by which libraries can improve their ability to bring people through the door by hosting book-themed events. Compare libraries to bookstores and see how they stack up; facilities building and planning with events in mind.

Film - libraries for film; collecting video and film; archival television (via Jeff Ubois); rights, copyrights, and the like; stock footage libraries; impact of digital distribution on the circulation patterns in public libraries that have big DVD collections

Friends Bookshop - relationships between Friends groups and libraries; examples of particularly fun bookshops; self service bookshops; using friends book inventory to do outreach; purposes of friends bookshops - to entertain people who want to run a bookstore, or to raise money, or both

Friends of the library - about national and local organizations; demographics of friends groups; "Friends of the Library, for the net"; library advocacy; when friends groups turn into haters groups

Games - games in the library; word games; something more about Eli@AADL; Wii at the library. Games in the kids room - ice cream truck. Learning from games.

Google Book Search - contracts, restrictions on use of data, inaccuracies within, quality of scanning, quality of metadata, shout out to Ben Bunnell, aftermarket greasemonkey hacks to fix issues with, comparison with Microsoft et al, comparison with Open Library, Distributed Proofreaders

Google Scholar - library use and access to, Andrew Odlyzko on open publishing, relative frequency of citation of non-internet publications, Math 40 yr history of increased collaboration via Patrick Ion, quality of data, quality of metadata, use by scholars as replacement for vita

Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library bookshop open for the season

From the Ann Arbor News: (9/14/07)

For those of us whose reading habits occasionally (OK, often) outstretch our budgets, good news: The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library used bookshop reopens Saturday.

The supply of gently used books, records, CDs, DVDs and more has been replenished, and they're ready for you to lay in supplies for the long indoor season of curling up on the couch.

The bookshop is on the lower level of the downtown branch at 343 S. Fifth Ave. The hours are Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays from 1-4 p.m. Call 734-302-7774 if you need more information.

The Friends bookshop home page has more details:

The Book Shop is a bustling place. We recycle over 200,000 books each year to the community at bargain prices. The mystery, science fiction, drama, classic novel, and hardback fiction sections are alphabetized. There is a special area devoted to children's books. Several thousand books are put out each Saturday and the shelves are restocked throughout the weekend. If you can't find the books you are looking for, please ask us.

Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library Spring 2007 Book Sale, April 28, 29, 30

The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library have announced their spring sale dates:

The Spring Sale will be held:
Saturday, April 28th, from 10 - 4 everything is 1/2 price
Sunday, April 29th, from 1 - 4 fill a bag for $4
Monday, April 30th, from 10 - 8 fill a bag for $4

Bookshop hours are:
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 1pm - 4pm
There are many specially priced, beautiful books suitable for gift giving. Prices for regular books are: Adult trade paperbacks and larger, as well as hardbacks = $2.00. Adult pocketbooks = .50. Children's hardbacks = .50. Children's paperbacks = .25.

See you there!

Technorati Tags: library, faadl, annarbor, friends, books, sale

Flamingo House Happenings: Obsessions

Superpatron Denise loves her library:

My library. I love my library. I love my library more than any other library except the one I grew up going to (that is no longer a library but has rave parties in it). I love my library more than any bookstore (even Foyles, The Tattered Cover and The Strand). I go to my library website at least once everyday. When my library website is down, I am a lot more jittery than I am when my work website is down or when Bloglines is down.

The Alachua County Library District Friends of the Library (Gainesville, FL) spring book sale is April 21-25, 2007.

Largest Book Sale of its kind in Florida - More than 300,000 books, records, games, CDs, DVDs, audio, video, paintings, posters, prints, puzzles and magazines have been donated for the sale!

Hundreds of thousands of books and other items have been sorted and priced. The sale features books in more than 50 categories!

A vast array of classical and modern fiction, textbooks, large-print books, first editions and rare books, cookbooks, hobby books, plus a wide variety of other classifications!

Most prices range from $0.25 to $3.00

Collectors' Corner featuring signed books, first editions, Florida collectibles

Over 90% of items for sale were donated by the public (less than 10% from the library)

Technorati Tags: superpatron, florida, gainesville, library, friends-of-the-library

Friends of the AADL Bookstore reopens

Eric Owen forwarded this to me:

The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library are pleased to announce the re-opening of their Bookshop with the Holiday Sale on Saturday, December 2, 2006 at the Downtown Library.
Hours are:
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 1pm - 4pm
There are many specially priced, beautiful books suitable for gift giving. Prices for regular books are: Adult trade paperbacks and larger, as well as hardbacks = $2.00 for the month of December. Adult pocketbooks = .50 For opening weekend, children's books = $1.00 for hardbacks and .50 for paperbacks. The shop will be open the weekends of 12/9 and 12/16, and closed the weekends of 12/23 and 12/30. It will re-open Saturday, January 6, 2007.

Congratulations on getting this back up and going by holiday time.

Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library status update

Barbara Murphy, AADL board member, writes:

The Friends have taken our concerns seriously, and addressed their problems vigorously:

this from the AADL Board minutes of Sept 18:

Eric Owen, Interim President Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library (FAADL)

"Good evening, my name is Eric Owen; I am serving as the interim president of the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library. I want to begin by apologizing to our Friends members and volunteers, the Library staff, the Library Director, the Library Board, and the Ann Arbor community. Due to our recent failure to properly acknowledge receipt of a bequest donation, and the subsequent discovery that the state of Michigan had ceased to recognize our organization's status as a domestic nonprofit since 2003 due to lack of filing proper paperwork, we were asked to postpone our popular Bookshop Preview Night and suspend any book sales on Library premises until we have fulfilled a number of recommendations.

I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on the actions of the Friends Board to address the concerns of the Library Board in the hopes of returning our Bookshop and book sales operations to business as usual.

1. Since our Friends Board meeting one week ago, we have obtained the assistance of a lawyer, Alan Price, of the firm Hooper Hathaway, who is correcting our organizational and administrative procedures at no cost to the Friends.

2. The accounting firm Deloitte has been contacted on our behalf and they have agreed to provide us with assistance in financial matters, subject to the Friends Board approval.

3. We have begun to reorganize our internal organizational and financial records.

4. We have secured a new website (http://www.hvcn.org/info/faadl) and I will have handouts if you would like to look at these later. And we have a new mailing address- P.O. Box 7350, Ann Arbor, 48107 - we are still working with Library personnel to get a new phone line up and running.

It is the intention of the Friends to hold our Membership Preview Night and reopen the Friends Bookshop downtown to normal operations as soon as possible. Book donations continue to be taken at the Downtown branch and our volunteers are continuing to work hard in preparation for the reopening. We are working diligently to address the oversights and mistakes that have been made and have led to the current situation. I am confident that we will be able to regain the trust of the Library and renew the spirit of the friendship which we have cultivated over the past fifty plus years of our existence. Thank you for the opportunity. There will be extras of the handouts for anybody who would like to pick them up, with our new mailing address and URL."

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And at the same meeting:

07-039 XV. VOTE FOR MANDATORY MEETING WITH FAADL BOARD

Trustee Murphy, supported by Trustee Cahill, moved the following: There will be a very early meeting between the President of the FAADL and their legal counsel, treasurer,financial advisors and members of the board along with our board president, executive director, financial advisor and legal counsel and at that meeting both groups share understanding of what is expected of each other and clarify expectations and make it very clear what we consider to be satisfactory and what the timeline is to achieve those expectations. No more than a couple of weeks later, a second meeting will be held with the same people to report progress towards those expectations. The AADL Board President, after discussing with counsel, can call a special meeting of the board, or bring it to the next meeting of the board, depending on the timing, and we will try to make this all happen expeditiously.

The purpose of this first meeting is to determine who is doing what and why. Upon completion of their work, the FAADL will call the second meeting, depending on when they are ready to do so.

AYES: Cahill, Greene, Head, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.

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Saline (MI) Friends booksale

From Mark Smith comes this alternative Ann Arbor area book sale:

Another alternative for those who don't mind a short drive is the Friends of the Saline District Library book sale (scheduled for October 28th this month). Warning: in the morning, the book sale area is usually very crowded with many people bumping into each other.

Their web site says:

The Book Sales are held on the last Saturday of every month from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Book Sales benefit the community by enabling the public to buy a wide variety of books at very low prices, recycling donated items through the community, and providing a steady income used to enhance the library’s services and materials. Hardcover books cost $1, trade paperbacks are 75 cents, and mass market paperbacks are 50 cents. Other items are also reasonably priced. A $5 bag sale is held from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library web site

The web site for the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library has moved from the library's site to its own site.  Please make a note of it.  It still reports that the Friends book sale is postponed.

The Friends book sale was a source of $0.25 childrens paperbacks for Halloween; if you need those in Ann Arbor, your best bet is the ReUse Center.