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Public
Library Internet Use: "Best Practices"
Prepared
by Danielle Pilon for the LibraryNet Visioning Conference, July 15-16,
1997.
Bringing
the Community In:
Expanding
the Library Walls:
These
libraries are bringing the community into the network of the local library,
both literally and figuratively, and encouraging the community to come
to them. They are partnering with local government, businesses, and other
libraries to create unique services, make information about their community
available to others all over the world, or highlight the heritage of their
community. Some of them are using the Internet to draw in both local and
online patrons, through exhibits, contests, or the chance to have their
literary works published electronically.
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Bringing the Community
In
- These
libraries use the Internet as a way of bringing the community into the
network of the local library, both literally and figuratively, and encouraging
patrons to communicate with the library in many ways. Their web pages
offer unique services or make information about their community available
to others all over the world. Canadian public libraries are digitizing
local history archives at an amazing rate; more community heritage material
goes online every day. And a growing number of libraries use the Internet
to promote community library use or publicize fund-raising efforts.
Meanwhile, so many libraries are adding feedback opportunities to their
web pages that a new category of innovation best practice -- "Interactivity"
-- had to be created.
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Community
Information and Partnerships
- At the
Brantford Public Library,
three terminals with public access to the Internet were provided by
a grant from Human Resources Development Canada. In return, the library
gave its assistance in developing an on-line version of the local Human
Resource Centre's job bank, which patrons can access from the library
terminals.
- The Oxford
County Library Server, maintained by the Oxford County Library,
is a main access point for information in Oxford County (ON), including
links to the County of Oxford, local communities, and much more. At
the Ingersoll branch library, county residents can take low-cost or
free Internet training courses.
- The Richmond
Public Library (BC) offers a truly comprehensive selection of information
about Richmond on its website; the library also publishes an online
edition of the local community newspaper. A page of well-chosen links
to Asian-Pacific information reflects the heritage of many Richmond
residents.
- The Western
Counties Regional Library (NS) and the Western
Regional Health Board Library are partners in the online Western
Health Information Project to support consumer health and advocacy.
This cooperative effort includes the development of WWW consumer health
information pages and a directory of local health agencies and organizations,
and (with support from Yarmouth Public Library and Museum) access to
the Infotrac Health Reference Centre Database.
- The Southeastern
Regional Library (SK) has pioneered an innovative Community Access Project
- the provision of dedicated Internet services to four school boards,
through a library-managed email server and ISDN connections with 11
schools. This provides reliable, high-speed Internet access to over
400 PCs at a more economical rate than could be achieved by any of the
partners independently. Library staff manage the domain, handling all
subnetting, configuring, and troubleshooting.
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Local History
- The London
Room at the London Public
Library (ON) is a research collection for local history. Selected
pictures from it can be viewed in the Historical
Vignettes section.
- Local
history indexes, including census records, land records, and a database
of over two thousand catalogued historical photos, are searchable online
at the Halton (ON) region public libraries' home page (also known as
HALINET).
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Exhibitions and
Promotions
- At the
Red Deer Public Library
(AB), two special promotions are currently online: "Memories of
War, Dreams of Peace: The Home Front", an exhibit commemorating
World War II, and "Heitor
Villa-Lobos", a site dedicated to the music of this Brazilian
composer and to promoting a CD of his music which the library recently
co-produced.
- The Calgary
Public Library (AB) is running its summer reading contest for kids
over the web, as well as in the traditional manner.
- Winning
entries in the YA writing contest at the Richmond
Public Library (BC) are published online as text and in RealAudio
format, read aloud by the authors.
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Expanding the Library
Walls
On the other
side of the coin, many libraries use the Internet to expand outwards,
taking traditional library functions and adapting them to delivery through
the Internet. Children are some of the most enthusiastic users of both
the public library and the Internet; some of these libraries provide special
online resources for children, trying to make the Internet a "gateway
to learning" for their young patrons. Some of them use the Internet
to encourage reading by offering fiction lists, pathfinders, and reviews
through their websites, or moving the New Arrivals shelf online. And there
are libraries who use their staff's expertise in evaluating and cataloguing
materials to create collections of web resources, designed to make it
easier for patrons to locate good-quality subject information on the Internet.
Other libraries are using Web-based catalogues to enhance access points
in their online catalogues.
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Organizing the
Internet
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Children's Services
- Most libraries
have collections of links for their young patrons, but the Kingston
Frontenac Public Library (ON) goes all-out with their Froglinks
collection of pages of interest to kids. Their homework
page is especially strong on science and Canadian history links.
- The Calgary
Public Library runs a summer reading contest for kids with neat
prizes like a week at riding camp. You can enter online at their web
site.
- The "Page
des jeunes" page of the Bibliothèque
de Québec includes a list of interesting links, of course;
but it also helps kids understand more about the Internet, with explanations
of what the net is, a short glossary of terms, and a quick primer on
how to use browsers and search engines.
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Reader's Advisory
- On the
webpage of the London Public
Library (ON) is a section called "On
the Shelves" where the library posts book reviews by librarians,
booklists for various genres, links to other RA sites, and a special
section highlighting topics in the news (for example, London's mayor
recently went on a trade mission to Asia, so this month's titles discuss
how to do business in China).
- To see
something interesting and innovative, check out the "Reader's
Robot", an experimental database developed by Kevin Kierans,
a librarian at the Thompson-Nicola
Regional District Library System (BC). A reader chooses their preferences
from a list of choices, and is given a list of books they might enjoy,
based on the recommendations of those with similar tastes. The Internet
community is encouraged to add books.
- The Wheatland
Regional Library (SK) promotes selected new
acquisitions on their website: a picture of the cover and a précis
for each book are available. A user can then search their web catalogue
for that title, and click on the author to discover more titles by them.
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Web-accessible
Catalogues
- The Bibliothèque
de Montréal has a truly amazing web
catalogue. The public library's catalogue, as well as the Z39.50
catalogues of five other libraries/databases in Québec and the
US, are searchable. Context-sensitive help is available on each screen.
A user is able to click on a work's author, publisher, or subject to
find more items with those entries, and add titles to a personal "basket"
of bibliographic records.
- At the
Bibliothèque
municipale Éva-Senécal (QC), there is a similarly
powerful catalogue,
with a less graphics-intensive interface.
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