What’s New in Open Shelf January 15, 2015

What’s New in Open Shelf? is a Table of Contents of sorts. Open Shelf publishes when we have compelling new material. Every two weeks is our plan.

In this release we discuss Twitter (twice!), small libraries, staffing structures, the phenomenon that is Welcome to Night Vale, and Christmas, Kimberley Christmas that is.

Twitter has quickly gone from curiosity to mainstream, and (given the longevity of some social media) maybe its on its way to obscurity. However, it is currently an important tool for public libraries as Mary Cavanagh discusses in “Talking It Up One Tweet at a Time: #information #conversation #action @publiclibraries” part of the Research for Practice column edited by Paulette Rothbauer.

Twitter is also about information management. Mary Kosta explores the nature of the hashtag in “Twitter Folksonomies.”

While Twitter serves a population of millions, the new Wilberforce branch of Haliburton County Public Library serves less than 3,000 people. Erin Kernohan-Berning tells us why small is beautiful in “Size Matters: Small Library as Place.”

In his continuing series as part of the column Open for All?, John Pateman explores another key aspect of library management and library focus. This time it’s Structure, staffing structures in particular.

In the spirit of “and now something completely different” I interview Jeffrey Cranor of the wildly successful podcast Welcome to Night Vale. What does this have to do with libraries? First, the Night Vale crew will be doing a live show at the upcoming OLA SuperConference. Second, the show is called “The Librarians.” Nuff said.

While there are changes coming to the Random Library Generator column (stayed glued to Open Shelf for important news on this), Robin Bergart continues her idiosyncratic (can we say, just plain odd?) interviews with OLA members. This time its Kimberley Christmas from the Richmond Hill Public Library.

As always, let us know what you think of Open Shelf.

…Mike Ridley
Editor-in-Chief, Open Shelf