A weekly round up of library and information centre news and opinions from around the world.

Library and Information Centre News – Edition 18/2018

In this week’s edition:

The upcoming Liberty User Group Conference and Masterclass in Melbourne

A reminder for Liberty users who can make it, registrations to the 2018 Liberty User Group Meeting and Masterclass will continue to be accepted until the 10th of August. The conference and masterclass is being hosted by Monash College, at Level 7 Plenary, 271 Collins Street, Melbourne on the 28th and morning of the 29th of August.

Liberty and illumin Melbourne roadshow

A roadshow featuring our Liberty library management system and illumin, our knowledge and request management system, is scheduled for the afternoon of 29th of August at Monash College, at Level 7 Plenary, 271 Collins Street, Melbourne, from 1.30pm – 4.00pm following the Liberty User Group Conference and Masterclass. It is open to any library and information centre staff who are interested in finding out more about how these Information Centres’ solutions will help them exceed the expectations of their library users. Information Centre customers who use one of our solutions, but not the other, are also most welcome to attend the roadshow. If you are interested in attending, and did not receive an invitation to the roadshow, please click on the Contact Us button on the Softlink Information Centre Home page.

In the meantime, interested in finding out more about illumi or Liberty our library management system? Click here for information on illumin and here for information on Liberty.

City of Leicester’s “The Hulk” mobile library

Thom Pearl, writing on the For Reading Addicts site, reports on the recently unveiled City of Leicester mobile library. Funded by the Help the Homeless charity, and supported by Socks and Chocs, a charity whose aim is to “mitigate the trials caused by homelessness”, the van’s first service stop was the location of the weekly feed for homeless people. The van not only provides books and useful information that can help the city’s homeless people rebuild their lives, it also provides a place for them to charge mobile phones, get a clean sleeping bag, clothes, and toiletries. Yet another fantastic example, this time from Leicester’s public libraries, of collaboration that occurs between libraries and community services to benefit another one of their deserving community groups.

An analogy on how to get rid of Cruft

Writing on 3 Geeks and a Law blog, Ryan McClead’s article Lessons of a Former Life #2, provides the analogy of how, as an early adopter of music writing software and all its foibles like corruption of his files when he saved them, he slowly realised that losing saved compositions became less a devastation, and more a realisation that having to re-write those lost compositions produced better ones. It was not a case of start from the beginning, but an opportunity to write it better based on the last, lost attempt. He argues the same approach can be applied to any endeavours or projects we embark on. If it works good, if not, stop and ask critical questions that help reframe the project or ditch it – getting rid of the Cruft, and try something else. For librarians of all types libraries, the theory can apply to workflows, processes, or technology uptakes we embark on.

ARL webcasts on the latest SPEC surveys

If you are interested in the findings from the latest SPEC surveys, the Association of Research libraries (ARL) is inviting you to register, by August 8, for the webcast presenting the findings from their latest survey. Registered participants can also discuss the trends, identified in the survey, with the authors. Webcasts are scheduled after the published results of each survey they complete. The webcast for the SPEC Kit 359 ‘Library Development’ webcast is scheduled for August 18, 2018. Click the title link above to access the Add to iCal Calendar option. Click here to access the ARL page listing the SPEC Surveys scheduled for this year.

Medieval chained book library at Hereford Cathedral

Thank you to Philip Harvey, from the Carmelite Library, one of our wonderful Liberty users, who sent this fascinating little video of the Hereford Cathedral’s ancient library and its collection of chained books, to the ANZTLA forum. Needless to say we included it in the Softlink Information Centres’ The Scoop blog, in a bid to spread the joy around to all of our wonderful Liberty and illumin users, and any anyone else who checks out the Information Centres’ blog! The video page includes links to other interesting articles about, and photos of, libraries from around the world. Enjoy.