Author Archive: Jill R

Library Safety & Security Workshop — Library Updates

Bryan Oliver presented the workshop, Library Safety & Security, at the Saratoga Springs Public Library on October 27 & 28 2010 as part of the LSTA grant workshop series.  Participants learned how to recognize and appropriately handle safety and security threats in the library.  SALS asked workshop participants to share what they took away from the workshop and how they are using the knowledge at their libraries.

Here are some of their reports:

Kelly Shaginaw of the Town of Ballston Community Library wrote: “The Town of Ballston Community Library held a staff meeting to discuss the information presented at the workshop.  I gave an overview of the presentation, highlighting some of the information that was most relevant to our facility.  Library Director, Karen DeAngelo, and staff agreed that our library would benefit from an updated incident report form and the posting of a Patron Code of Conduct.  The incident report form was updated by the director and reviewed by staff.  The Patron Code of Conduct is under construction.Continue reading→

Revised ADA Regulations

The Justice Department’s new ADA (Americans with Disabilites Act) regulations took effect on March 15, 2011.

This is the first major revision of the rules in 20 years.

Many of you are bound to have questions; so, the Department has created fact sheets and posted the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design on their website.

In addition to these, there is an ADA information line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TTY), and the Cornell University Northeast ADA Center can also answer questions about the updated regulations.

The regulations that have changed that most directly relate to public libraries include a new definition of service animals and new guidelines for the acceptable use of “power-driven mobility devices” such as Segways.
You are encouraged to look at the updated regulations and how they may affect your library.

Book Club in a Bag

In the January/February edition of Public Libraries Tales from the Front section, the Camden County (N.J.) Library System reports about the success is has had with it’s Book Club in a Bag.  The book club bags include multiple copies of the same popular title along with discussion questions, and can be checked out by library patrons for up to eight weeks.

This is a great and inexpensive service that would be wonderful for outreach services librarians to market to their community members who have shown interest in starting book clubs, as well as to established book clubs.  In addition to the discussion questions, perhaps the book club bags could include guidelines for starting a book club and web resources relevant to the books.  ReadingGroupGuides.com has a lot of great information for book clubbers including book discussion guides for many popular titles.