Take a look at this nice video about a pub in Yorkshire Dales, UK, which has begun offering library services! What a clever idea. The folks behind this clever project do clarify that volunteer services such as their cannot replace formal libraries, since it is the volunteer services of professional librarians, and the collections they [...]

Con ganas de celebrar el bicentenario de Colombia aquí recojo información sobre algunos eventos y colecciones que se han organizado en Colombia y virtualmente. ¡A celebrar se dijo! El proyecto Libro al Viento se ha asociado con la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (BLAA) para traer varias biografías sobre los grandes de Colombia al público en [...]

At the beginning of the month I was in Montreal and got to visit La Grande Bibliothèque! This library is one of the city’s largest public libraries, and the collection is part of the Library and National Archives of Québec. I presume that since this region of Canada includes a vibrant separatist movement they feel [...]

Can Fox News really be this detached from reality? Apparently so. Here’s the headline to one of their recent stories; “Are Libraries Necessary, or a Waste of Tax Money?” The report has so little substance I don’t understand how Anna Dalvates, the author, can even pretend this is actual news, or that tax dollars spent [...]

Earlier this week I got to visit the Toronto Public Library. Before arriving there I had seen some beautiful pictures of the main branch and had read that it is the largest urban public library system in the world. Of course I had to see it myself. The Toronto Public Library system has 99 branch [...]

Boston Public Library (BPL) branches  are on the cutting board; sad but true. The first USA city to offer its residents the service of public libraries is now planning on cutting 15 out of the 26 branch libraries. Sadly, Amy E. Ryan, the BPL’s director, and Mayor Menino are all for this idea. Both have [...]

The folks from BiblioRed were so kind as to send me some additional images of the two libraries I visited, the Biblioteca Pública Parque El Tunal, and the Biblioteca Pública Virgilio Barco, and I wanted to share them. They also send me some great facts about the library systems. Thank you! During 2009 BibloRed received 4,437,945 visitors, [...]

Today I spent the day at the Parque Biblioteca España – Santo Domingo Savio. I had read about this library before in the NYT, and was fascinated to see that Colombia was developing a great public library systems. The library has been running for three years now, and was initially build with a grant by [...]

Monday morning I was out walking around downtown Bogota when I happened upon this lovely little library in the park. This stand makes part of the Paradero Para Libros Para Parques (PPP), a program created about 10 years ago to help promote literacy across the country. The program is part of Fundalectura in association with [...]

Today I went to visit a couple of the libraries that make up the BiblioRed in Bogota. BiblioRed is Bogota’s public library systems, and it’s composed of a number of large, and small libraries, as well as a bibliobus. Today I went to visit the Biblioteca Pública Parque El Tunal, and the Biblioteca Pública Virgilio [...]