Selling the Classics

Not long ago I recommended to a friend that she read one of my favorite novels, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.1 I told her of its universal recognition as a first-tier classic, and I hoped to convince her further by offering what I thought at the time was an intriguing hypothetical scenario: How impressive she would be at her next social event by being able to say, "Madame Bovary? Why, of course, I’ve read Madame Bovary."

She accepted my challenge to take up this reading opportunity, keeping me informed of her reaction at various points.

Help PLA improve our Virtual Learning! Do you prefer:

* a 1 - 1.5 hour webinar? * a full day course focused on one topic? * a full day program featuring presentations on several topics?

Featured Articles

Improving Storytime Delivery with Peer Coaching

From the outset, Maryland Public Libraries (MPL) have been striving toward the same goals as the Public Library Association (PLA) and Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Every Child Ready to Read @ your library® (ECRR) initiative, with a popular 2001–02 campaign called It’s Never Too Early. It wasn’t immediately obvious after the well-received and highly praised
emergent literacy training program that many storytime presenters did not implement what they learned.

Featured Articles

Special Services in Special Times: Responding to Changed Information Needs During and After Community-Based Disasters

In disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, pandemics, or terrorist attacks, which can affect a whole community and not just a single institution, librarians may be called upon to provide new and modified information services to users whose information needs have suddenly changed, at the same time that access to information resources has dramatically diminished. Traditional disaster planning for libraries has often focused on the preservation of staff, collections,
and the physical plant itself rather than on the provision of information services.

Featured Articles

Getting the Most from Donations

In a recent informal survey, I asked librarians whether they considered donations of materials to their library a blessing or a curse—or somewhere in between. Not surprisingly, the responses were all over the map. Many praised donations as an unalloyed blessing, often despite the fact that they are a lot of work. Many gave them actual percentage rankings, ranging from 92 percent blessing to only 10 percent.

Going Green @ Your Library

Explores ways public libraries can contribute to a sustainable environment.

Environmental Literacy and Green Volunteer Opportunities for your Community

An article by Kathryn Miller

A new role for the public library is educating users in environmental literacy. Environmental literacy is a part of information literacy - it is the ability to recognize that one's choices impact the environment; to identify the most sustainable solution a problem; and to be able to act in the most environmentally friendly way on that solution. Public libraries have the opportunity to inform their communities in environmental literacy by example, through education, and by providing access to information about going green.

Book Talk

Book Talk provides authors’ perspectives on libraries, books,technology, and information. If you have any suggestions of authorsyou would like to see featured in Book Talk, or if you are interested involunteering to be an author-interviewer, contact Kathleen Hughes,Editor of Public Libraries, at the Public Library Association, 50 E. HuronSt., Chicago, IL 60611; khughes@ala.org.

Call to Action

An Interview with Nicholas D. Kristof

New York Times journalist Nicholas D. Kristof has twice won the Pulitzer Prize: the first was shared with his wife Sheryl WuDunn for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and the second was awarded for his 2006 coverage of the genocide in Darfur. For the past twenty years, he has traveled the world, and has recently focused his attention on women’s issues in developing countries.