People are sacred, objects are not

People (our customers, our colleagues) are sacred.

Objects (library books, library processes, computers) are not.

Pretend for a moment that nothing else exists and you have a choice between meeting the needs of an object or the needs of a person. Which would you choose?

Extrapolate that out to the everyday-ness of working in a busy library environment. Consider each and every transaction and decision. - which do you choose to be more important, objects or people?

People are sacred, objects are not.

Cool Christmas in Cafe Isabella

Cafe Isabella
Originally uploaded by Unbendable Girder

December in NQ, it's 33 degrees C outside, but these chaps look nice and cool inside the libary cafe!

Microsoft Surface in a public library

Microsoft Surface at Darien Library - found via John Blyberg's blog

The best part? They're putting it in the kids section!

From John's blog post:
We decided to put it in the Children’s Room for several very basic reasons. Kids will just “get it” immediately without any explanation. Kids are tactile creatures who are very comfortable with hands-on activity. If we can give them a piece of really cool technology they’ve never seen before and invite them to literally put their hands on it, I have no doubt they will not only be impressed, but empowered as well. They’re not going to ask silly questions like, “why would you put one of these in a library”, because they intuitively know why.