"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"

Yesterday's Division of Libraries All Staff Meeting was a great reminder, I thought, of our libary's mission and our place in helping that mission to succeed. We all get so bogged down in our individual work that these reminders are vital.

On that note, here is one of the animated short films that's been nominated for an Academy Award this year. It's described by its creators as "a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor."

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore Trailer from Moonbot Studios.

At the All Staff meeting, Dean Mandel touched on the concept of the library as a place, how that powerful iconography still speaks to people even in the context of the modern information age. Although as a research library, we are mostly hosting users engaged in scholarly pursuits and not reading for pleasure or escape, of course our concept of the book as object remains equally powerful. Thus, this fanciful short film might also help remind many of us just why we wanted to work in libraries in the first place.

I hope it will inspire you as we go forward with our new Strategic Plan!

Bonus confession: I totally teared up at the end.


via PhiliBiblos

Future of Libraries

Hmmm, the future of the libraries???

This topic seems to come up for discussion at every meeting I attend. Technology has taken over the world and will continue to play a larger and larger role in the future of libraries. But does this really mean fewer books, librarians and other staff who work in different areas of the library? Can this be entirely true? Hopefully, I will be alive to see this what this kind of a library looks like for myself! While I must admit that I do spend more time on the computer, searching for information when I am writing a paper, I still want to do research the old fashioned way…..FINDING A BOOK AND READING IT!

When I am in class, professors strongly suggest that we get most of our citations from either the library’s electronic databases or Google. This surprised me because I believed that books are the best source of information. Nowadays, such may not be the case. I guess it may be time to throw out my 1980 Britannica Encyclopedia Set. SIGHHHHH.

I am not saying that I’m too old for this new technology movement, but I never thought it would completely change the way a library operates. I may not be too old, but I am not that young either. Anyway, this is a neat clip on YouTube that explains and shows what modern library looks like.