Cites & Insights Crawford at Large Libraries • Policy • Technology • Media Sponsored by YBP Library Services Volume 7, Number 11: October 2007 ISSN 1534-0937 Walt Crawford

of mid-September, based on Worldcat.org holdings and actual sales), it’s the same price, same place. If you prefer bright white heavyweight interior pages and don’t mind a cover that may not be quite as crisp or have quite the right colors, or if you want to save a few bucks on postage and handling, or just don’t want to open a Lulu account—the book is also available at Amazon.com, same price, as is Balanced Libraries. (Only Amazon.com, not Amazon’s interna- tional subsidiaries.) “Search Inside the Book” has been activated so you can see sample pages (as you can at Lulu.com). At Amazon, the ISBN is 978-1434805591 (the ISBN for Balanced Libraries is 978- 1434805256)—the Lulu versions don’t have ISBNs. You can also buy the versions with ISBNs from Cre- ateSpace.com, technically the publisher of record for the ISBN. (For more about this and an update on my Lulu experience, see the final section of this essay.) The book’s been out since August 25, 2007—and I’m delighted to say Worldcat.org already shows three library holdings, two of which do not have blogs in the book. Inside This Issue Bibs & Blather ...... 6 Library Access to Scholarship ...... 7 ©3: Balancing Rights ...... 14 Making it Work ...... 18 It’s here: Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. Net Media Perspective: High-Def Discs...... 27 The 299-page 6×9 trade paperback (x+289 pages) features descriptions and sample posts for a Why This Book? wide range of blogs from 196 public libraries of all Here’s part of Chapter One: sizes, in the , Canada, Australia, Ireland The purpose of this book is to guide you to blogs that you and New Zealand. might find useful when thinking about your own library’s You can buy the paperback with a great cover case—blogs from nearby libraries, blogs from libraries and cream heavyweight “book paper” interior pages with similar service populations, or blogs that specialize for $29.50 plus shipping from the Cites & Insights in topics or work in ways that you’ll find interesting. bookstore at lulu.com (lulu.com/waltcrawford). If you Most of this book is examples: 252 blogs from 196 li- haven’t already purchased Balanced Libraries: Thoughts braries, arranged geographically. It’s not a comprehen- on Continuity and Change (and clearly most of you ha- sive survey (and I did exclude non-English blogs for ven’t—no more than 125 personal copies have sold as reasons of practicality), but I did attempt complete cov- Cites & Insights October 2007 1 erage within a few basic criteria. I was impressed by the ¾ 25,000 to 33,000: 20 libraries diversity and quality of what’s out there. ¾ 34,000 to 46,000: 17 libraries Public libraries vary enormously in service size, funding ¾ 51,000 to 69,000: 17 libraries and staff resources. What works for a library serving half ¾ 75,000 to 97,000: 11 libraries a million people with $120 per cap funding may seem ¾ 100,000 to 137,000: 19 libraries wholly out of reach for a library serving 7,000 people ¾ 146,000 to 240,000: 21 libraries ¾ 260,000 to 497,000: 10 libraries with $20 per cap funding (or, for that matter, for a li- ¾ More than 670,000: 13 libraries brary serving 7,000 people with $120 per cap funding Libraries are included for these Zip and postal codes: but the smaller staff likely in that library). ¾ 01301, 01557, 01702, 01824, 02048, 02090, What’s here? Public library blogs that were listed 02188, 02330, 02347, 02459, 02860, 02895, in one of the two primary wiki lists of public library 03060, 03743, 03773, 03820, 03842, 03849, blogs as of May 2007 and that met a few basic criteria: 04030, 05301, 06096, 06111, 06426, 06810, ¾ In English 06820, 06850, 06870, 06880, 07753, 07764, ¾ Started before 2007 (since “young” blogs have 07922, 08043, 08525, 08542, 08831, 08857, a high failure rate and I’m inte