"Books can have such an impact on our mood and sense of wellbeing: they can make you laugh when you need picking up, they can comfort through empathic storytelling, provide calm when your mind is racing or inspiration to face life's ups and downs. A good read can be truly life-enhancing."
tehBookseller, 20 May 2008, BBC teams with NYR
"the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world"
Rare Book News, 28 April, 2008 Google Wants to Scan all the Books in the World
"Books do more than furnish a room: they are our intellectual companions."
Times Online, 15 February, 2008 E-books will never be our friends
"acid-free books will be usable in 500 years"
LISNews, 19 January, 2008 Not all books are created equal, but good books are a sound investment
"...book culture, a culture centred on ideas and a long, thoughtful conversation about life, love, politics, philosophy and what it means to be human."
FairfaxDigital, 13 September, 2007 Leave the antibooks on the shelf
"With proper care, microfilm and non-acidic paper can last for centuries"
CLIR, October, 2003 Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs
"You can leave a book on a shelf and if the paper is acid free and there are no floods or fires, it will still be there in 100 years ... Even CDs, with a lifespan of 20 years before they degrade, will turn to dust far more quickly than paper"
FT.com, 16 March, 2007 History in the Trash?
"Some books sell because Oprah Winfrey wants you to buy them. Others get help from a major prize, a controversy, a movie tie-in, a famous author or an especially clever marketing campaign. And some ... sell because they're great books."
Yahoo News, 27 February, 2007 Posthumous novel becomes commercial hit
"Paper doesn't last more than 15-20 years"
Daily Times, 22 January, 2007 Archives Public Library - a silent witness to independence
"the gift that you give the artist and that the artist gives you"
Boing Boing, 17 November, 2006, Zadie Smith on the practice of reading
"'If you don't know the trees, you may become lost in the forest. But if you don't know the stories, you may become lost in life.' - Anonymous"
Hampstead Public Library, , Welcome to Hampstead Public Library
"it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us ... our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed"
Guardian Unlimited, 8 December, 2007 A hunger for books
"...But mostly, public libraries deal in stories—the narratives that enlighten, entertain and communicate knowledge and wisdom ... Stories are how we communicate who we are, where we’ve been, what we’ve accomplished. Stories communicate our dreams, our fantasies, our hopes. Stories are, to a great extent, what makes us human."
WebJunction, 5 March, 2007 The Storied Library
"Libraries knock down borders and open the door to knowledge. They play a key role in educating and emancipating the public. They help develop individuals and communities that are informed, creative, and educated"
Library Journal, 8 August, 2008 2008 World Library and Information Congress - 4,000 librarians from 150 countries meet in Quebec City
"Since none of us can know more than a small fraction of the total word population, a dictionary will always be a place of infinite discovery and delight."
guardian.co.uk Books, 14 July, 2008 'Infinite discovery and delight'
"Museums, libraries and archives stimulate creativity, inspire learning,
engage communities and help to build the knowledge economy ... A thriving cultural infrastructure which
includes museums, libraries and archives makes a place attractive to live in,
work in and visit."
MLA North West, December, 2005 Bolton study
"the public library is a gathering place for people of all ages and abilities to share ideas and gather information"
The Huntsville Times, 11 June, 2008 Library is 'community,' new manager says
"books breed wit and intelligence"
Guardian Unlimited, 23 April, 2008 Banter on the books blog
"librarian Michael Stead isn’t claiming that the nation would be overrun by the undead if we didn’t have information professionals. But he does say that the world would be all the poorer without them"
The Independent on Sunday Blog, 29 November, 2007 Why do we need professional librarians...
"a great desire to know about things and read about them"
The Good Library Blog, 19 March, 2008 Very good results from Hillingdon
"Our public libraries play an important role, not only educationally but culturally and socially, for the communities they serve."
Shetland Today, 7 March, 2008 Readers benefit from new machine at library
"A nation that does not read for itself cannot think for itself. And a nation that cannot think for itself risks losing both its identity and its freedom."
Shelf Awareness, 6 March, 2008 Laura Bush: 'In the Company of Good Books'
"the one institution in our society that’s figured out how to institutionalize sharing"
PUBLIB, 23 February, 2008 Quote about libraries
"'If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.'—George Bernard Shaw"
Tame The Web, 16 February, 2008 Care to tell us why you’re a librarian?
"to inspire our users to learn, discover and innovate"
Bluhalo, 21 January, 2008 "The future is now", says library chief
"the initiator of their [young peoples'] cultural experience"
TheStar.com, 17 January, 2008 Those who said libraries dead should eat their words
"They [libraries] are increasingly regarding themselves as places of integration"
Goethe-Institut, April, 2007 Good ideas cross the Atlantic – the International Library in Frankfurt am Main
"But whether it be worth of looks/ We gently love or strongly,/ Such virtue doth reside in books/ We scarce can love them wrongly"
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 14 January, 2008 Not all books are created equal, but good books are a sound investment
"essential information, informal education and, most important of all, hours of pure pleasure ... immeasurable pleasure to people of every type, class and age"
Daily Mail, 7 January, 2008 ROY HATTERSLEY: Why closing local libraries is a tragedy for us all
"It is the mind that makes the body rich"
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 16 January, 2007Save this library
"Libraries are the bedrock of literate culture"
The Independent, 31 December, 2007 Anger at library cuts as ministers admit 40 have closed this year
"...heritage as places for intellectual improvement and social interaction and cultural cohesion"
NeXT SPACE, September, 2007 Librarians on Social Networking
"Libraries are still about the processes of collection, preservation, organization, dissemination, and sometimes evaluation of data and information."
Infomotions, 1 December, 2007 Today's digital information landscape
"Equality of access to information and to learning is vital if we are to offer everyone the opportunity to achieve their full potential."
DCMS, 2003 Framework for the Future
"the public library always offered a sense of stepping out of one’s busy world and into timeless peace and tranquility"
The Fergus Falls Daily Journal, 3 November, 2007 Wooden library pins were lures to keep kids reading
"a clearer sense of what we as a civilization, a species, do know and don’t know"
The New Yorker, 5 November, 2007 Future Reading
"Libraries should first and foremost be an open house for the intellect, where access to the best in culture and literature is truly democratic and where you forget the bare necessities of life."
Guardian Unlimited, 4 September, 2007 Where's the great literature in local libraries?
"It was recognized early on that access to literature on every discipline would help create the kind of society we yearn for."
thestar.com, 6, August 2007 Library cutbacks are shortsighted solution
"Don't mess with librarians ... they're right on
the front lines of our intellectual freedom."
PUBLIB, 7, August 2007 How do you correct a coworker giving incorrect information?
"For decades, libraries were the places that ensured that knowledge was not the domain of a few, but accessible to the many ... traditionally, libraries ensured that access to knowledge was available to the many rather than the few ... our role, which has not changed – ensuring easy and equitable access to information for all."
National Library of Australia, 19 April, 2007 Rethinking the catalogue
"Personal libraries have always been a biopsy of power. The empire-loving Elizabeth I surrounded herself with the Roman historians..."
NYTimes.com, 21 July, 2007 C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
"What we get out of it is a more literate and educated world ... something we all can build the foundations of democracy upon"
smh.com.au, 19 July, 2007 Once upon a time ... e-book revolution
"We have found that a library is not an end in itself, but a means to many ends. Charles E. Rush, 1939"
PUBLIB, 23 July, 2007 Harry Potter Party
"Libraries ... are morphing from large, concrete physical plants to smaller, yet larger, organizations ... They will have no walls, no borders or artificial barriers."
LAW.COM, 6, July 2007Embracing Intangible Law Libraries
"...with invigorating passion to maintain all libraries as superior sources of information and knowledge"
Medialab Solutions BV, , AquaBrowser Library
"Libraries are about being a focal point of the community."
The Wichita Eagle, 12, July 2007Libraries let you borrow online
"Without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures."
post-gazette.com, 24 June 2007, The Internet gives birth to an 'official' online library
"the record of human thought and achievement, for the purpose of information, education, recreation and culture"
The National, 20 June 2007, PNG public libraries: Out of touch with the information age
"The public library really introduced me to books as a kid."
Shelf Awareness, 4 May 2007, An Introduction to Books
"when you work in a library, 'at the end of the day you can go home knowing you've done something good.'"
LISNews, 11 May 2007, Meet Dionne Mack-Harvin, Director of the Brooklyn Public Library
"the library belongs to no one and everyone"
insidehighered.com, 27 April 2007, Good at Reviewing Books But Not Each Other
"Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
LISNews, 21 April, 2007 Quote for Librarians
"serendipitous possibilities"
washingtonpost.com, 02 April, 2007 Your Room Is Booked
"the latest thinking in what a library must be and do"
Berkshire Eagle Online, 14 April, 2007 Redefining a library
"The story behind it [the Space Tether] goes back to Hoyt's high-school days. One day, Hoyt was in the library, and he picked up a book..."
LISNews, 16 April, 2007 Space Tethers: Slinging Objects in Orbit?
"This isn't the time to be making it more difficult for people to become better educated and more informed citizens"
battlecreekenquirer.com, 08 April, 2007 High court weighs right to check out library books
"Only when these children have an opportunity to learn from books can Thai society truly become a learning society"
LISNews, 02 April, 2007 Thai Princess calls for more libraries
"a place 'where democracy happens.'"
Atlantic Free Press, 02 April, 2007 Tomgram: Ward, How the Public Library Became Heartbreak Hotel
"the library was my peephole into the mysteries of the adult universe"
Atlantic Free Press, 02 April, 2007 Tomgram: Ward, How the Public Library Became Heartbreak Hotel
"For Eskander, the National Library and Archive is more than just a building. He says it's a battlefield where the prize is Iraq's very soul."
NPR, 16 March, 2007Iraq's Cultural Curators Defy Sectarian Unrest
"long-term preservation of intellectual and cultural goods and artifacts"
People's Daily Online, 13 March, 2007UN calls for development of libraries in Africa
"If we consider ... every human being has, by the nature of the case, a right to hear what other wise human beings have spoken to him. It is one of the rights of men; a very cruel injustice if you deny it to a man!"
LSJ, February 2007 Carlyle, Panizzi, and the Public Library Ideal
"In many ways, 'a librarian is like an artisan'"
The Japan Times, 21 February, 2007 Tokyo librarians to vanish by attrition
"in the service of those timeless values"
Chronicle Careers, 20 February, 2007 The New Library Professional
"Question me with wise words. But do not let your opinion remain hidden, or what you know most profoundly stay obscure. I will not tell you my secret knowledge if you hide the strength of your mind from me, and the thoughts of your heart. Men of perception ought to exchange their sayings."
Course Notes - Ancient and Medieval Libraries
"The more we use, share, and exchange information on the web in a continual loop of analysis and refinement, the more open and creative the platform becomes; hence, the more useful it is in our work."
bmj.com, How Web 2.0 is changing medicine
"Linebaugh calls Penrose [library] an 'equalizer' within the community - a place where lawyers linger among the stacks with day laborers"
Colorado Springs Gazette, 16 October, 2006, 'It's somewhere to be'
"When the downtown library opened in 1905, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who had donated $60,000 toward its construction, sent a telegram that read, 'Cordial congratulations upon opening of library, free to all, the People's University.'"
Colorado Springs Gazette, 16 October, 2006, 'It's somewhere to be'
"'We save the world's memory -- that's one way to think about what a library does.'"
The Boston Globe, 18 November, 2006, Mold problems forcing Waterbury library to toss 20,000 items
"I love libraries because I believe they are a true manifestation of the public sphere in the US. They are a place where people can read what they want, be who they are, and inform themselves about what interests them ... I like to help people do that."
librarian.net, about
"The job titles may change but the mission of the profession remains the same: organize information and help people find it."
John Hubbard, Librarians: We're Not What You Think
"Any country worth its salt will ensure that library facilities are available to its citizens and even visitors for the major part of any given day."
Antigua Sun, 25 November 2006, Library closure - national disgrace
"If you are fond of the concept of the library as a place where you can access literature and knowledge, it remains that at its heart"
The Guardian Unlimited Money, 25 November 2006, Facts at your fingertips
"...the role of libraries as storehouses of memory and imagination."
cbc.ca, 20 November 2006, The Constant Reader
"...building collections, matching readers to books, promoting education, preserving culture and local history, access to information, etc."
Chris Rippel, 10 December 2003, What Libraries Can Learn from Bookstores
"After all, the public library does belong to 'the people'"
Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, Vol 1, No 1 (2006), "That's 'E' for 'Everyone'": The Future of E-Learning in Public Libraries
"Learn. Discover. Enjoy.", "Preserving the Past, Serving the Present, and Shaping the Future", "Where Imagination Takes Flight", "Opening Doors, Opening Minds"
Marylaine Block, CHANGE ON THE CHEAP: BIG PAYOFFS FROM MODEST INVESTMENTS
"each and every library as a tool to maintain our democracy, create jobs, aid local businesses, and foster families. Libraries by their nature are melting pots of race, creed, gender and age ... Libraries are part of the essential fabric of our city and our neighborhoods. They are the institutions which open the doors of opportunity to many citizens, especially our immigrant populations. They provide for our children important public safety and educational functions; as they are a safe haven for many children and also provide the added value of an educational learning center ... Libraries are not just brick and mortar, but they are the pulse of our community, they are people ... individuals yearning for knowledge, growth and betterment."
StarTribune.com, 21 December 2006, Keep open all the library doors of opportunity
"Poets are our original systems thinkers ... They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand."
NYTimes.com, 21 July, 2007 C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
"We read because we love ideas. We love sharing people's thoughts and dreams. We love to be inspired."
Avid Reader, April, 2008THIS MONTH
"Reading, said the great English essayist Matthew Arnold, 'is culture.'"
ALA, 21 February, 2006 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
"the best way to really absorb their content is to mark them up, write notes in the margins, fold over pages, then refer back to them when I recall something interesting or useful from them"
Web Worker Daily, 30 April 2007, Why E-Books Will Succeed
"Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theatres"
cbc.ca, 20 November 2006, The Constant Reader
"A book is a kind of thing that requires a man to be self-collected. He must be alone with it ... A good book is the purest essence of a human soul. How could a man take it into a crowd, with bustle of all sorts going on around him? The good of a book is not the facts that can be got out of it, but the kind of resonance that it awakens in our own minds."
LSJ, February 2007, Carlyle, Panizzi, and the Public Library Ideal
"...the sheer volume of online library resources discourages use." "...difficulty with navigation, an over-abundance of 'how to' guides and poorly designed web pages all contribute to users defaulting to open-web search engines for primary research" John Law, IWR Horizons 2008.
September, 2008, Internet Resources Newsletter, Issue 165
"'Library users are going to be less and less willing to spend a lot of time learning about how to access specialist resources. They'll want their information available through the sources they're most comfortable with. As information professionals we may still feel that we should be leading people to our catalogues and teaching them to get the most out of them, but in reality if students are going to search Google we need to make sure they can retrieve our records there as well.' Gordon Hunt, University Librarian, University of the West of Scotland. Library + Information Gazette 27 June - 10 July 2008, p.23."
Internet Resources Newsletter, 5 August, 2008 Random quotes
"the printed book is not about to disappear, because it presents a large amount of material conveniently"
The New Yourk Times, 27 July, 2008 First It Was Song Downloads. Now It’s Organic Chemistry.
"Computers, in their prolonged infancy, are not ready to substitute for stacks of books. "
Newsweek, 17 January, 2008 A Tangled Info Web
"The web is a jumble of data without index. Maybe the search firms that now spring up will substitute for an index, though it is a very poor substitute. A library has an index."
LISNews, 17 March, 2008 The Icon Speaks: SLA Interview with Peter Drucker From 1992
"...We’ve also heard the regrets of researchers who did get to the business library but used it like google: go in, find the first useful fact and get out with enough of a half-formed impression to move on."
Sparknow, 19 December, 2007 googling not good enough
"a digital environment that doesn’t just list the library hours, but functions as a branch location"
iLibrarian, 10 September, 2007 September Lib-Tech Online Seminars
"The Internet is marvelous, but to claim, as some now do, that it's making libraries obsolete is as silly as saying shoes have made feet unnecessary."
American Libraries, April, 2001 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
"...most information isn't online. It's a difficult concept to measure, but some estimates put the proportion not on the internet at 85%, much of it in books."
theBookseller.com, 12 March, 2007Google's unlikely ally