SLRC Treasures: Business, Science & Technology Department

Probably the greatest hidden treasure of the Business, Science, and Technology (BST) Department at Maryland's State Library Resource Center is the collection of old department store catalogs, including Sears (1897-1993), Wards (1922-1985), and Penney’s (1984-2002). These catalogs allow you to walk down memory lane and see the styles and prices of the old days. Sears used to sell just about everything from clothing and furniture to pure-bred dogs and houses.

BST also owns a fantastic collection of old car shop manuals that date from 1929-1988 and owner’s manuals that range from 1913-1984. These manuals are great for people trying to restore a classic car, and the cars they cover include the Model T, Studebaker, Edsel, Reo Speedwagon, as well as the more common makes and models.

If you’re interested in historical business information, BST has old business directories, such as the Thomas Register (1925-2005), Moody’s Manuals, which also give financial information, (1900-present), and Best’s Insurance Reports (1915-present). The department also carries Jane’s Fighting Ships (1898-present) and Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft (1915-present).

The most important treasure in BST, however, is its crack staff of librarians, who will find your answer!

What kinds of resources are available for someone trying to become more environmentally responsible?

This is a topic that has been gaining in popularity over the years, and there are a lot of sources out there. A good place to start is the State Library Resource Center’s Green Living How-to Guide. This guide provides links to sites dealing with saving energy at home or in your car, where to find locally grown food or the closest e-cycling location, or how to be a responsible shopper.

For example, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fuel Economy site allows you to look up specific car models to see what their carbon footprint is, and you can also compare and contrast several models at once. Energy Savers offers links to energy efficiency tips, ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and energy use calculators.

Recycling Maryland is a nonprofit site that lists recyclers and organizations that take donations of items for reuse, including computers, computer parts, copy machines, electronics, and many others.

For print materials, you can look at several Pratt Recommends booklists, including Green Homes, Renewable Energy, or Selected Current Green Living Magazines.

Library Blogs

Here at the LATI Blog, we asked librarian Ray Cruitt to write a blog post about librarian blogs and how to keep up. His report follows:

I was asked to write a blog post about librarian blogs. I hadn’t kept up with them for some time, but remembered when I first became interested in being a librarian, about seven years ago, how surprised I was by the large number of them. It was intriguing; I had never been exposed to professional-oriented blogging before, and librarians seemed to have this genre covered in spades!

Since then, not only have there been a proliferation of library-related blogs, but also other professional-oriented blogs: pharmacist, police officer, waiter/server, and even a garbage man blog exists on the Internet.

There are several prominent library themes: for instance, The Union Librarian, by Kathleen de la Peña McCook is written by a well-known academic librarian involved in the Progressive Librarian Guild, a very left-of-center organization. She is a supporter of the unionization of libraries. Walt at Random is a blog that addresses many subjects relevant to librarians, from librarian blogs and bloggers to technology to library policy issues; it is written by Walt Crawford, a well known name in the library field who describes himself as a voice for the “radical middle.” On another side of the spectrum is the Conservative Librarian, the Government Information and Political Science Librarian from Purdue University, who writes very little, if anything, about librarianship, yet keeps the “Librarian” as part of his identity. He mostly writes about conservative politics. One thing is for certain, library blogs tend to be partisan affairs.

Another popular genre of library blog is the kind that either provides a forum for other librarians to vent about patrons or relate funny patron experiences, such as the LiveJournal site The Society for Librarians Who Say “M…” (ah, well, maybe I should refrain from stating the rest of the name, it isn’t exactly rated G). If you don’t like to say the “M” word, but still want to post about weird, funny, or disturbing patron stories, you can always check out the Merry Librarian (oddly enough, it starts with an M, as well!).

There are four blogs that I would like to highlight. One is old news, another is new, but based on an older group, one is thoughtful, and the other a great place to get technology news and analysis.

1) Best of Publib:

Publib is a listserv that was established in 1992 and now has over 8000 subscribers. Best of Publib is a blog that was established as a means to conveniently find some of the more interesting threads that have been woven over the years on the listserv. This new blog is an especially good resource for public librarians doing research on a subject relevant to their work. Along with some of the more serious topics there are plenty of fun threads that only a public librarian can relate to.

2) The Annoyed Librarian

As mentioned above, I’m including an old news librarian blog, The Annoyed Librarian (AL, as she is prominently known). This pseudonymous provocateur has resonated over the years with many librarians who sometimes wonder about the direction of their profession and professional organizations. With subjects ranging from the nature of the MLS degree requirement to the political nature of the ALA and the ALA Council, this librarian weighs-in on the critical side. Of course, this fact and “her” pseudonymous identity have annoyed many librarians, which is part of the allure. The AL has her favorite subjects, the ALA Council and its non-library related political resolutions, the Progressive Library Guild, Library 2.0, and the perceived drifting away of the public library’s original charter to afford the appropriate resources for a educated society. Tip: just don’t take “her” too seriously. It’s all in good fun!

3) Academic Librarian

The Academic Librarian is the head librarian for the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Princeton University. Although, his main sphere of librarianship is the academic world, his views, many times, transcend that of his particular specialty and are applicable to all librarians. The ideas treated in this blog are articulately expressed and there is always something in his posts to think about. It is a nice antidote to the partisan and snarky librarian blogs that populate the Web, including the Annoyed Librarian! Some topics recently covered: the ethics of library school students posing as patrons on reference chat, millennials, and reading.

4) Disruptive Library Technology Jester

This blog is all about technology and its influence on library and educational institutions. While there are many technology-related library blogs, the majority of them seem to be only concerned with the promotion of social networking or Library 2.0 technologies. As the name of this blogger entails, his main mission, the Jester’s mission, is to give the “raw facts,” as critical as they may be, about all the technologies available to libraries, whether ultimately useful or not. The Jester’s role has always been to entertain while simultaneously telling it like it is. This blog goes a long way in accomplishing this.

Maryland Libraries & Social Media

Here at the LATI Blog, we recently got a request to investigate how Maryland libraries are using social media and what success the libraries have had with it. Today we bring you the scoop on what the Harford County Public Library (HCPL) system is doing!

Dave McLaughlin, webmaster at the forefront of HCPL's official social media efforts had the following to share:

Harford County Public Library has recently started and ramped up a number of social networking initiatives. We have a Facebook page and Twitter account, both of which are used to broadcast updates from our website and special messages, such as closings, etc. We are also posting many photos from renovation projects, recent programs, etc. to Flickr and have started a YouTube channel that is currently used for advocacy videos and our iPhone app promotional video.

We will continue to expand these presences, but in the last month and a half (since the launch of our new website, on which we display a Facebook logo that links to our Facebook page) our number of fans on Facebook has quadrupled. Customers are commenting on our Facebook page and tweeting about us and we are able to engage them in discussions via both services.

One quick success story:

With all of the recent snow, we made sure to quickly post any information about closings to our social networking accounts. One day, shortly after posting that we would be closed, customers started a discussion on our Facebook page that went like this:

"So, if I have movies due tomorrow I won't get charged?"

"No - they said yesterday that no fines will be charged for items due when the library is closed - as long as they are returned the next day."

"are the parking lots cleared so we can at least drop them off when we are able to get out of our homes?"

"Abingdon was clear when I went by a couple hours ago"

"Do you need volunteers to help clear the backlog?"

While we are generally pretty quick at responding to comments and questions, our customers were answering other customers’ questions before we even had a chance. We followed up with more information, but I consider this a huge success!

What free technological resources are available through the library for the disabled?

We asked the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBPH) to answer the question. Librarian Tyson Fogel answered with the following information:

With regard to technology, the library has four adaptive technology workstations for walk-in patrons equipped with Jaws, Zoomtext, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and Kurzweil 1000 & 3000. We offer free one-on-one technology training that begins with an ability assessment and is then tailored to meet individual goals and objectives.

The library offers a large variety of books, magazines and newspapers available in audio, Braille, large print and digital formats that can be mailed directly to patron’s residence. A qualified team of librarians with specialties in reference, youth services, Braille, and adaptive technology is available to assist patrons with all of their information needs. In addition, The LBPH hosts a wide range of cultural, educational and youth programs such as book clubs, poetry workshops, art tours, and theatre. The library features a state-of-the-art adaptive technology lab with fully accessible computer workstations, and holds individualized computer and technology classes on a regular basis.

Also, we offer tours of the library and presentations of our basic services if anyone at LATI is interested. Contact information is available on their website.