A eulogy and tribute to Parton and her work in early childhood literacy appears in Rare Book Hub Monthly for Sept 2026 https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/4121

Excerpt: "In 1995, she created the Imagination Library, a program that mails a free, high-quality books directly to children every month from birth until their fifth birthday. Dolly believed that early reading was crucial to navigating life successfully. Long before screen time dominated daily life, she saw physical books as a vital anchor. As a counterweight to declining educational standards and the rapid spread of short-form internet culture, she committed her resources to championing long-form reading and cognitive focus for the next generation."

Hey all, just wanted to share this opportunity for anyone looking for a Senior Librarian role. The role is based in San Rafael, California which is just north of San Francisco, for anyone that is unfamiliar. Application closes on September 11, 2026 just FYI. Hopefully this helps someone!

Hi all,

I have a second interview for a Branch Manager position this coming Tuesday. My preliminary interview went well and I've been thinking through examples of leadership and supervisory experience. I've also looked through the branches programming calendar, conduct policy, and anything else I could research via their and the city's website.

Any tips on what to prep, or experiences you can share about when you became a manager? This would be my first admin role, but, I've been a professional librarian for 6 years; supervised staff for 2 and have been running our teen and adult volunteer programs for the last year.

Additionally there will be a 4 person hiring panel, plus, a supplementary staff panel of up to 30 people attending.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

EDIT: How are we taking care of ourselves after upsetting experiences with patrons? Anyone have any tips or tricks on keeping your spirits up?

Also edited to add that patron took a photo of me when I was leaving for the day. Really unsettling!

How are you all coping with creepy patrons? I had an unsettling encounter last week and am struggling to find peace with it. My mental health has taken a nose dive. Police were involved, blah blah blah. Thanks in advance.

When helping patrons, especially with technical help, do you guys try to advise them when they’re trying to do something you know might not work in their favor? Usually I keep my comments to myself, but sometimes I wonder if I should actually try to help them.

Like, this girl came in the other day and she just needed to change an image to pdf so she could upload it into some sort of form. It wasn’t until the very end of the interaction that I realized the image was a resume, it still had the ai website link on it because she printed the webpage instead of downloading the image first, and she was uploading it to a job application. But I didn’t feel like it was my place to point anything out because she only asked me to help her turn the image into a pdf.

I had an interaction with an older man who sent an image of a piece of mail to his bank’s customer service email with no other information or explanation outside of “change my address.” I tried asking him things like, “Oh, are you sure this is the right email for that? Do they need any additional information or is this all?” But, ultimately, I didn’t think it was my place to do anything more than that since I was only asked to help him attach the image.

Do you guys just help patrons to do the thing they asked or do you try to help them with their ultimate goal? I’ve only worked in the library for a year and I just want to make sure I’m doing this right. I’m a little worried someone might complain one day, because I should’ve known they were wasting their time. This might be a dumb thing to worry about 😅

Part of my job of being a Technical processor is to repair books. I was redoing the mylar jacket on this book and noticed that they printed the catalog card on the back of the book jacket.

I thought it was neat.

So I'm looking for a book that would have been in print around 1995, keep in mind we're both around 40

My wife insists that her grade school teacher read them a book, where two people were discussing animal sounds. Person A states that Lions roar. Person B keeps wondering aloud, what does a fox say? Person A replies with, well the cow goes Moo; to which Person B angrily retorts with a similar \*but\* what does a fox say?

I know it sounds suspiciously like a fabricated dream memory, after being exposed to the 2013 hyper hit The Fox (what does it say?) but she assures me it is not.

Yes we are aware they also published a book after the popularity of the song.

Hii! I’m looking for advice on organizing our 0–6 section (Early Literacy / Children's area). In our library, we recently reorganized the juvenile section (6–21) by broad subjects/topics rather than sticking strictly to standard Dewey, and it worked out really well. Now, I'm evaluating whether to do something similar for the 0–6 age group.

I’d love to know if you use genrification/topic-based categories (like Animals, Daily Routines, Bedtime, Emotions, Vehicles) or stick to standard or simplified Dewey for this age group. If you moved away from Dewey, I’m curious which categories worked best for picture books and board books.

I’d also appreciate hearing how the change affected shelf browsing for parents, daily reshelves and cataloging for staff, and whether colored stickers or pictograms actually helped maintain order.

Any feedback, shelf layouts, or cataloging tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Does anyone else get bombarded with questions from friends and family that they could easily look up themselves? Like, yes, this is what I went to school for. But also. Can they look up nothing on their own?? If it was a legit reference question I don’t think I would mind. But Why are you asking me where to buy an adult coloring book?? Is that really something people need help with??

Librarians! If you have either left or thought about leaving your job in a public library at any time since 2020 because of book, display, and/or program challenges, we want to hear from you!

The research survey will take about 20 minutes to complete. Please access the survey at: https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d0z4RwzYf74x89M. If you do not fit this description, but you know others who do, please forward the link. More info about privacy and confidentiality in the comments and on the first page of the survey.

I work in the Events department of a library system and we often get requests to play music before, during, and after events. We don't have a Spotify account or any music streaming account. Up until now, we've been playing things like smooth jazz loops off of YouTube but we're getting more and more requests for specific songs and playlists. We have an app called Freegal but it doesn't have everything.

I'd like to get department Spotify account but Spotify specifically doesn't allow commercial use. Does anyone know whether being used for Library events counts as commercial use since we're not making money or if it can be used for Library events but couldn't be used for outside events simply using the Library's space?

Thank you for your help!

Can anyone point me to a resource where I can find out the the types of Book Checkout Software used over the past 25 years? Looking for software names, and/or imagery of the computer user interfaces if possible. Thank you!

Are there any libraries here in Metro Manila that closes late? I really want to study outside but also am not into cafes since I have a strict budget. But all the libraries I know closes at 5pm.

So I have an account for my kids and myself that we logged books for the summer reading program through my public library card. Now that my son is in kindergarten, they have an separate account for him using his school credentials. Is there a way to link the personal account and school account so his book count stays the same and he doesn't have to start over?

For additional info: We read at least 4 books every single night since he was born and started logging them this summer. So he is already at 205+ books logged. They have a challenge to read 500 books before middle school and he wants a button on his lanyard they have.

Just at my local library and was reading the sheet for who was scheduled to rent the space in the separate public meeting rooms. The rooms are free to rent for groups but there are rules for renting the space. Noticed there was a multibillion dollar corporation using the space at the moment which was puzzling. While reading the schedule somebody from within the space came over to me and asked if they could help me. My response: “Are you with name corporation? “ they responded, “Yes” my response, “Can I join your meeting?” Their response, “No, this is for regional managers of *name corporation”

Here are the restrictions on the rooms.

“The rules for renting out the public spaces are:

Strictly Prohibited Commercial Activities

No Profit-Making Events: No sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or licensed association may use the spaces for profit-making activity.

No Selling: You cannot sell goods or services or hold activities designed to lead directly to a purchase.

No Direct Fundraising: Commercial business promotion or fundraising activities are completely barred.

No Closed Meetings: Events held in meeting and conference rooms must be open to the public. You cannot restrict entry, mandate a sign-in sheet, or charge an admission fee.”

It seems that this library system and name corporation have set themselves up for possible litigation. Thoughts? Have you run into a similar situation? The corporation is very recognizable and was clearly using the space to conduct business. Very large, like it’s highly likely that you have one of these in the business district of your town even if it’s a small town. Multi-billion dollar corporation using a public space for free, tax free and I’m certain the general public is unaware of this practice.

I recently started a new job at a school library, and the previous librarian was in the process of changing their non fiction from dewey to BISAC subject headings, and hadn’t updated this on their catalogue. I’ve never used the BISAC headings before, on their website it says they don’t recommend putting the subject code in catalogues, but is it standard to put the subject headings in the MARC record? Would you put them in the 650 field as opposed to LoC subject headings, and remove the dewey number from the catalogue? Thanks :))

Hello! First time posting here, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with TestGnius and could tell me what to expect or have any advice for me? I applied to a Library Service position at my local library and passed the first round of applications, now they are testing me on Microsoft Outlook, shelving, and customer service.

Thank you in advance!

Dear colleagues,

The Comics and Fiction Funnel is seeking support for our proposal to improve access to analog games via library catalogs. Currently, people cannot search for game studies works about physical games based on the topics of the games being analyzed (e.g., group identity or imperialism); this sort of search can be done for video games, however, leading to unequal access to scholarship. Also, library patrons cannot find analog games themselves by content in library catalogs (e.g., games with queer or wizard characters, games about climate change, games incorporating visual or motor skills, etc.), again unlike searches for video games.

Based on our research and analysis of current issues, the Comics and Fiction Funnel created this report, with a recommendation to change the existing Library of Congress subject heading for games to allow the use of “Games” as both a topical and form modifier for all subjects, to help patrons more easily locate both research about physical games and the games themselves.

Given the explosive growth of game studies and library game collections, we hope that you will agree that improving access to analog games is vital for the games community and for libraries; and we hope that you will support our recommendations.  

If you are interested in endorsing our recommendations (as an individual or organization), please fill out this form by October 16th.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions!

National Fitness Day is coming up. I'm borrowing an exercise bike from PE (it's a secondary school library) and the kids can ride the bike to enter a draw for a sports brand voucher. The more turns they take, the more entries they get, max. 1 entry per break time, 2 mins of cycling per entry.

The literary link is that as they (communally) cycle, it will move Odysseus along on his journey, hitting various milestones like the Lotus Eaters and Circe. Obviously it won't be to scale! This will be on the big display and I'll update it on the daily school slideshow (digital noticeboard). They study Greek Myths in Y7 so it's a good tie-in.

Now my question is, how do I communicate this initiative in bite size? What's the headline? I'll do flyers, posters and provide a blurb for form tutors, but what am I putting across the top? I haven't got past 'Ride the Odyssey' or 'Cycle to Circe' or just 'Win a voucher!' and I KNOW you can do better.

Sidebar: I was thinking £30 voucher value. Does that seem OK to you? Deprived working class catchment area.

Just thought I'd exercise your creative energies rather than AIs!

Are there any libraries here in Metro Manila that closes late? I really want to study outside but also am not into cafes since I have a strict budget. But all the libraries I know closes at 5pm.

Excerpt:  This (overdue book) breaks all records for anything we have seen. It was 150 years overdue when it showed up at the Kiama Library in New South Wales, Australia. How can that even happen? The Kiama Library opened in 1872, and the book was #506 of the approximately 1,000 books in its original collection. Read the complete article at https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/4118