The State of Idaho Libraries

The articles I read touched on a variety of topics we have or will discuss in class. What is information, what constitutes a book and how to deal with some of the social and economic issues that contribute to library use.  I was surprised at the variety of articles I found. I found many listings of the programs available at libraries, but I also found a lot of budget information, and many articles about art exhibits and other services provided by libraries. The following articles are the ones I found most interesting.

The Spine Down the Center is an article about a special type of library, the Idaho Center for the Book. It is a library that concentrates on books as an art form.  Before starting this class I probably wouldn’t have even considered the Idaho Center for the Book a library.  I held a pretty narrow view of what a library actually is. The Idaho Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Library of Congress and its mission is to promote literacy and books in Idaho.  It is supported by grants and the Library of Congress, and is open to the public.

The director of the Center, Stephanie Bacon, says “If they [artists] think in terms of making their own books or if they think about books not behaving in the way they expect books to behave, it enriches their entire relationship with reading and literacy.”  A book, according to the article may be “codex-format works, such as accordion fold, rivet, spiral or ring-bound, loose-leaf/boxed, sculptural or die-cut books. They may be traditionally bound codices with “eccentric” features, such as pop-ups, folded pages, inserts, pull-tabs or volvelles.” Yes, I had to look up the definition of volvelle; I didn’t even know what it was! This article highlights the many different ways people can read, use and understand books.

The second article is about the Caldwell school district linking all their elementary school libraries by computer and keeping them open year round.  Caldwell’s district has grown 46% from 2000 to 2006, and has about 68% of its students coming from low income families. Keeping school libraries open all summer will increase the access that many families have to books. If a student can get to their elementary school, it should be reasonable to assume they can get to the library at the school during the summer. Often times, access can be a big deal for low income families.  Not having to travel as far to get to the library could make a big difference in the amount of books those families read over the summer.

 I received a note from my daughter’s kindergarten teacher at the end of the school year, telling us that if children can just read a minimum of 7 books over the summer they will maintain most of their reading skills. My first thought when I read that was just 7 books all summer?!?! We often read 7 books in 1 day! Granted, I’m a little biased towards reading and literacy, but really, 7 books all summer? If books are made more available by being available year round in every elementary school’s library, children will have more chances to read. Keeping literacy skills honed over the summer, will allow for more progress the following school year.

The last article I read was about the Idaho Falls Public library installing an automated checkout system. I am not a fan of the self checkout for my own use, but reading this article made me appreciate how it can help the library as a whole.

One benefit of the self checkout system is that the library can use the money it would have spent staffing the circulation desk in other areas. No library staff cuts were made as a result of the self checkout system, the money was used in other areas such as new materials.  

The self check outs also increase privacy for patrons. Patrons don’t have their name verified out loud by the librarian, and they can keep the materials they are checking out private. If a patron wanted to check out a book on a sensitive personal subject, they can use the self check out, and no one else will know what they checked out. Hopefully, having the choice to use self check out will make people more likely to check out books on sensitive personal subjects.