A Passion For Libraries

I’ve been spending a good part of this morning browsing iTunes to fill up the iPod for the four hours or so I’ll be spending driving over the next couple of days. I’m about to make the two-hour trip to upstate NY to see my future in-laws (my fiancee is already up there for her bridal shower).  While browsing, I came across a recent podcast on PRI’s Open Source that’s called “Passion: Libraries”. The host, Christopher Lydon, interviews several library directors from across the U.S. and Canada, and gets them to talk about their own libraries and what got them hooked on libraries to begin with. I was most interested in the interview with Amanda McKeraghan, Director of the Stevens County Rural Library District. She mentions how much territory the district covers – about 140 miles, or as she points out “twice the size of Rhode Island”. But none of the towns in the district have a population of over 5,000, and some of the branches are quite small, about 800 square feet or so. Yet there is widespread wi-fi access throughout the branches in the district, and they have developed a wiki that’s not just for library events, but for all county info and happenings as well. She also talked about how the library can make meaningful recommendations to their patrons for reading lists, since they get to know so many of them on a first-name basis.

Anyway, give it a listen. You can find the podcast and blog (with over 90 comments so far) here.