New Address for Pollard Blog is http://www.blog.pollardml.org/

Along with our website revitalization we've got a new address for the library blog. Please update your bookmarks/rss feed readers accordingly.

Wolfram launches CDF — PDF's replacement?

Library Journal reported last month that Wolfram Research, makers of the Wolfram Alpha computational search engine have released a document format that brings interactivity to static documents. The new format Computable Document Format or CDF would allow users to interact with online documents by imputing their own data and generating live results. The video above is impressive and it's easy to imagine this technology having a great impact on how information is conveyed in the digital world. The main value of a PDF has always been that the information contained is immutable and therefore its authorship is guaranteed. CDF will maintain authorship by fixing the information just like a PDF but it makes that static info interactive by adding computational tools on the receiving end. This is exciting. Someone reading a CDF can input their own information and see different results of their own choosing.

Surely presentations (academic or business or otherwise) will be greatly enhanced. In addition, e-textbooks, online journal articles, and other digital forms of information relation cannot help but benefit from enabling the the recipient (reader/student/learner) to interact with the content and generate unique results of their own while all the while the CDF format like PDF before it vouchsafes the veracity of the document's contents and the users generated content.

There are already 7,000 demonstrations of CDF documents available in Wolfram Demonstrations Project.

At present you would need to download a special browser to view CDFs. Wolfram says this technology will be entirely web based in the near future. Students, take note, if you want to impress your teachers this fall...

Illuminated Reading

Local author Jane Brox has published an illuminating essay about the history of reading in the Boston Globe this past Sunday. In it, she traces the past present and future of reading. One of the more interesting sections deals with the auditory tradition of reading, especially during the Medieval Ages, since there were few books and even fewer readers. Her meditation on the future of reading in a digital world is also interesting, and being a library we especially appreciate her defense of the printed word and our role in its preservation:

As the screen overtakes the solid page, and the ground floors of libraries have begun to look like the decks of starships, and the page has become its own lamp, as millions of books become available at the click of a key, and a simple search will turn up almost anything one needs to recall, surely the memory of what is read is dissolving all that much faster. As a stalwart reader of printed books, I’m left to wonder what will happen to the wide, slow silty river of the their history, to the countless volumes waiting now in the abandoned silence of library stacks. Stacks: The word itself connects books to the harvest, to corn and hay. They were always earthbound. Smell the must, feel the brittle, browning pages between your thumb and forefinger. The tears, the cracked spines, the stains and folds. Even if we readers forget them, printed books will hold us in their memory.

The Pollard's physical structure may never look like a starship but we, along with other modern libraries, are in a sense charting a course through strange new worlds in the digital universe. Though, our circulation numbers will attest that our stacks are far from being abandoned.

The full essay is available here. Consider subscribing to the Globe if you appreciate the writing.

Delayed Opening (11am) Tomorrow 7/7

A quick reminder, tomorrow is the first Thursday of the month and that means we will have a delayed opening to accommodate a staff training. The library will be open from 11am-9pm tomorrow. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

You can take the extra time to finish Dark Tide in advance of tomorrow night's discussion.

Welcome Evergreen!

Happy Tuesday! MVLC's Great Memorial Day Data Migration is over, and the new system is live! You can try it out at lowell.mvlc.org. And please, let us know what you think by sending an email to mloref@mvlc.org. We appreciate your continued patience and understanding while we work to address any challenges the new system might present in the coming weeks.

It looks like we're not the only library consortium to make the switch to Evergreen over the weekend. Bibliomation in Connecticut made the switch to the open source integrated library system too! There must be something in the late spring air.

The New Library Catalog will Go Live May 31st

Here's an update on the New "Evergreen" Catalog:

The Pollard Library along with the other libraries of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium, will be launching a new catalog over Memorial Day weekend. The current catalog will shut down at the end of the day on Friday, May 27, 2011. Patrons will be able to check materials in and out at the library from 9am-5pm on Saturday, May 28th but they will not be able to search the catalog or place holds on materials or book museum passes over the course of the Memorial Day weekend. Access to some online databases may also be disrupted. The new system is scheduled to go live on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. Access to the statewide Virtual Catalog was shut down May 17th.

Any holds previously placed on materials should carry over to the new system. Users will find that their personally-created lists in the bookbags will be available in the “My Accounts” area of the new catalog. Library users will enjoy some new features with the Evergreen system, such as the ability to share their bookbags with others, more flexibility in creating user passwords, and the ability to update their street and e-mail addresses. Patrons will also have more flexibility and control over their catalog searches with the new system, including setting account preferences to search the Pollard Library only or MVLC as a whole. If you want to try it out here is a link to the demo version of the new catalog -- (FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY).

Coming attractions over the next few months include an improved catalog design, a feature allowing users to track their reading history, and a version of the catalog usable on mobile devices.

The Merrimack Valley Library Consortium will be the first large library system in Massachusetts to use Evergreen. The move to Evergreen is part of a larger project that will see MVLC, along with two other Massachusetts’ library consortia, NOBLE and C/W MARS, using Evergreen by early 2012. These three library networks encompass approximately half of the public libraries in the Commonwealth along with a number of academic libraries. The project includes locally-sponsored development funded with a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and by participating libraries.

We appreciate your patience while we all get used to the new system and work to utilize the great new features. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to ask a librarian or email mloref@mvlc.org.

A Bookish Weekend

Friends Sorting Books at Donation Drop Off
Saturday, May 7, 2011

First of all, we would like to thank Nancye Tuttle for her article in last Thurday's Stepping Out section of the Lowell Sun. The article covered a lot of information about local area library booksales and our own Friends were fortunate enough to have been featured prominently.

So, don't forget, the Annual Friends Booksale is this Saturday from 9am-3pm at the Lowell Senior Center, 276 Broadway St, Lowell, MA.

And also, don't Forget, Friday is the Friends' Preview Night. Dues paying members of the Friends are invited to join us for first dibs on the cream of the crop of this sale. There will be light refreshments for this event. 5:30-7:30PM Friday May 20th at the Lowell Senior Center.

There are some real deals to be had at the sale and the money raised ultimately goes to the library for programs and services. For example, the Friends buy many of the library's museum passes which allow free or discounted entry for our patrons into many New England attractions (everything from the Boston Children's Museum and the New England Aquarium, to Zoo New England and the Museum of Fine Arts). These passes end up providing a great cost saving to our patrons. For example, two of our most popular passes are the Museum of Science and the Aquarium. Over the past year, they were used 237 and 206 times respectively. The cumulative average savings for patrons who used these two passes (depending on whether they used the 'maximum' number of entries available on the pass) totals more than $15000. For more information about what passes are available and how to reserve them please visit: http://pollardml.org/passes.html

The Friends also sponsor library programming. Such as our highly anticipated Summer Reading Kick-Off Event with the Pumpernickel Puppets, Wednesday, June 22nd @ 7PM (Free tickets available June 1st). For more information about the Friends and to find out how you can help you can email friendsofthepml@yahoo.com.

And in case the Annual Booksale only whetted your bookish appetite this weekend you should head down to UML's, O'Leary Library on Sunday, May 22nd at 2pm for a special book release party for three new 'Lowell' books being published by Loom Press. Two books of poetry and one of testimony. Welcome, all.

I would also be remiss if I didn't remind you we have the perfect lead in to this book related weekend—Steven O'Connor will be reading from his new book The Spy In the City Of Books Thursday, May 19th @ 7PM in the Ground Floor Meeting Room of the library. Don't miss it.

Powerspeak Languages Now Available at the Pollard

Powerspeak Languages is a new online language learning course that uses a variety of methods to engage learners. The core languages available are Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, and ESL for Spanish-speakers. Each course uses a variety of multi-sensory activities to take full advantage of the brain’s ability to acquire language. Designed specifically for use by the diverse audience of library users, the courses include a combination of scored online activities, exercises, lessons and games. Course lessons are bound together with rich graphics, audio, video, music and an intuitive way to check answers and track progress. Learners find a friendly structure that introduces vocabulary and are challenged to practice speaking and writing in a variety of interactive modules designed to simulate real conversations with native speakers. You can find it, along with the other Pollard Library Databases on our website. Ask a librarian if you have any questions, we're here to help!

MP3 Audiobook CDs

MP3 Audiobook CD's? What does that mean? Well, you probably know that an MP3 is a digital form of audio file that enables us to walk around with thousands of songs held in a device the size of a pack of cards (or smaller). The compactness of this technology has finally transferred to the world of audiobooks. So, instead of a 7 or 8 disc audio CD set, we now have entire books available on 1 MP3 audiobook CD. No more, changing CDs in the car, or carrying around bulky cases. You'll have to make sure your CD player can read MP3s most recently released CD players have the capability to play MP3 CDs, check your owners manual to be sure. The MP3 CDs are interfiled with our traditional audiobooks on the First floor of the library. Ask a library staff member for assistance if you have any questions. Happy listening!

Snapshot Day Numbers!

The numbers are in for last month's Snapshot Day. On April 13, 2011 the Pollard Library took part in a National Library Week effort to document a day in the life of a library. The numbers and comments below are compiled from observational records from staff and an optional patron survey.

Snapshot Day Numbers:

Total Visits: 502

Total Circulation: 465

Interlibrary Loan Requests: 131

General Reference/Research requests: 142

Reference questions related to computers and printers: 18

Reader’s Advisory Questions answered: 37

Museum Pass Questions answered: 7

Tax Form Questions answered: 4

Attendance at programs: 44

Use of meeting rooms: 44

Use of Internet PC's: 223

Newly registered borrowers: 17

Optional Surveys completed: 95

From the surveys completed here are the number of patrons who listed as a reason for their visit:

Visit General: 45

Check items out: 60

Job Search: 13

Research: 33

Homework: 17

Use Internet/Library computers: 44

Interlibrary Loan: 17

Get a library card: 16

Get tax forms: 4

Attend a Class: 2

Attend a program: 13

Volunteer: 3

Use a quiet room: 2

Read newspaper: 3

Play chess: 1

Here is what people wrote in the feedback portion of the survey. I have corrected obvious spelling and grammatical errors but by and large remained true to the original message. The question on the survey read:

Other feedback is welcome:

1. “The kids programs at the PML are awesome!”
2. “I really like the library – I like the interlibrary loan”
3. “The library is invaluable to me—for research and writing. Great collection and staff.”
4. “Love this library. But the video collection is pathetic.”
5. “I love the library, it helps me give my child an A. When it comes to making memories from the videos, books, down to puppets. Awesome place to be!!! Thank you.”
6. “The library is the best thing Lowell and Massachusetts have to offer”
7. “I have been coming to the library for over 50 years and it remains one of my favorite places in Lowell. Staff are always pleasant and helpful and the general atmosphere is equally pleasurable.”
8. “My visits to the Pollard Memorial Library are always pleasant, as I receive service with a smile!”
9. “More time to computer up to 1 hour. Also some employees are crast [sic]. Most are friendly and very helpful.”
10. “Computer time is short. Cannot complete tasks.”
11. “Enjoy being able to order items from other libraries.”
12. “The workers are very polite”
13. “Outstanding people.”
14. “What ever they decide for the library program. They should keep this option available for current residents and children.”
15. “In general, I have found the staff to be very helpful and informative, not just to me but to others. This is particularly so at the reference/research section.”
16. “I believe the staff here is very friendly, and helpful. Always willing to answer questions and address me politely and professionally.”
17. “Through the Interlibrary Loan section of the library, I was able to borrow the most recent edition of a physics textbook by name Conceptual physics, Paul Hewitt which has been very useful for me. Making use of the Library’s quiet reading room is such a great idea. Thank you, Pollard Memorial Library.”
18. “Staff is pleasant and helpful”
19. “Staff is pleasant and helpful”
20. “The library is of crucial importance to the community. There are some great staff at the library. However recent difficulties expressed in the press are one sided and patrons in general suffer due to mis-perceptions that have been created. There are obvious staff issues that need to be acknowledged and addressed as well as the difficulties with a small percentage of patrons.”
21. “The atmosphere is very pleasant. And the staff is very helpful.”
22. “Great music and other media such as movies / books / DVDs. Great source of community activities and classes/programs. Awesome activities for children. Other historical activities throughout the year are awesome.”
23. “Very quiet and relaxing library. Nice staff.”
24. “This library is very helpful for me in terms of getting on the internet and doing homework.”
25. “We love our public library!!”
26. “Always enjoy working—environment friendly and helpful”
27. “The library is a quiet place, most of the time, where I can go, relax and do my homework, research and studies in peace and serenity. Plus, not many people bother you, unless you’re doing something ridiculous. It’s a students’ paradise.”
28. “Love the Lowell Library. Building is beautiful, librarians are accommodating and you always have what I need. Thank you.”
29. “TTY is very old. We want to you suggest set up for the video phone only deaf people to the communications.”
30. “In restrooms use electric dryers.”
31. “Good place for me, interesting.”
32. “Helpful – professional – informed.”
33. “I like how the library is well ordered and the librarians are helpful and nice. If I could choose anywhere to be, I’d be here to focus on school and such.”
34. “The library is great. Thank you.”
35. “All your employees are very helpful and welcoming always bright and cheery”
36. “Staff are very professional and proactive. They are an enormous asset to one of Lowell’s greatest assets.”
37. “We love the Lowell Library’s history and stately beauty. Have used it since moving to Lowell in 1977. I love to see libraries in other places as well.”
38. “I mostly use the website to get books rather than picking them off the shelf.”
39. “The library is a quiet place to study”
40. “Excellent help.”
41. “The library is invaluable”
42. “I have found the staff to be very helpful and pleasant. Beth is great with the children during youth programs. Love the children’s reference librarian. Thanks to everyone.”
43. “Exceptional architecture. Pleasant staff.”
44. “Parents don’t realize they can check puppets out.”
45. “I love the library. To browse, read, just look….walk through the stacks reading whatever catches your eye.”
46. “Staff is great. Should wear name tags.”
47. “We do a weekly visit, my 2 year old grandson love this library. We also love story time.”
48. “We found that getting DVDs for our small children helped us and them to come back every week without fail to get books also. Now they are older they get several books each a week and they still like the DVDs.”
49. “Huge library fan—love getting items for free. Library staff is friendly and helpful!”

Thank you to everyone for your patronage, and for making 2011 Snapshot Day a success here at the Pollard and across the Commonwealth!

Updates Updates

Don't forget tomorrow is the first Thursday of the month. Which means two things.

1) We will have a delayed opening. The library will not be open to the public until 11AM so the library staff can have meetings and trainings. This delayed opening will happen on the first Thursday of each month. We apologize for any inconvenience.

2) Non Fiction book clubbers will be gathering tomorrow night to discuss the latest non-fiction gem. Jill Lepore's A is for American is up for tomorrow's discussion. The initial reaction to this book has not been warm but that doesn't mean we won't have a great conversation.

Also, Saturday is the last Book Donation Drop Off for the Annual Friends of the Library booksale. Meaning this is the last chance to donate books from your unwieldy collections for a good cause. I know there is a big banner in front of the library advertising this sale but please know: EVERYTHING will be happening at the Lowell Senior Center, 276 Broadway. So, bring your gently loved tomes this Saturday, May 7th from 9am-12pm to the Senior Center. Then come back to the Senior Center Saturday May 21st to buy some more books you might not need but surely want. And members of the Friends are also invited to a special Friend's Preview sale (with light refreshments) Friday, May 20th from 5:30-7:30 at the Senior Center.

A message from the Library Director

With the permission of the City Manager, the Pollard Memorial Library will be opening to the public at 11:00AM on the 1st Thursday of the month, starting May 5, 2011.

The staff will be using this time before the delayed opening to hold monthly staff meetings and training. I regret the inconvenience to the public, but I believe this will facilitate staff communication on important library issues.

-Victoria B. Woodley, Director
Pollard Memorial Library
401 Merrimack St
Lowell, MA 01850

Snapshot Day a Success -- National Library Week Half Over

Photo by Marianne Gries

Thank you one and all for the Pollard's Snapshot Day success. We couldn't have done it without you. Keep an eye on the library's flickr account to see photos from the day. And don't forget you can look at the Massachusetts Snapshot Day Pool to see photos from all the participating libraries in the state.

We thought this would be a good opportunity thank you for supporting us and Massachusetts' libraries during National Library Week and ask you to to let your state legislators and governor know how important libraries are to you! If you can find the time, please send an e-mail to your governor and your representatives today, to let them know how much libraries mean to you.

Library Freeze Mob

Here's a video of a some librarians and library friends out in Western Massachusetts participating in a freeze mob at the Holyoke Mall this past Sunday to promote National Library Week. This is certainly a fun and interesting way to gain attention.

The Pollard is going Green (Evergreen, That Is)

Since its St. Patrick's Day and we're all enjoying the color green we thought we might ask if you've heard the news that the Pollard Library, along with the other members of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium (MVLC) will soon move its library catalog and circulation system to Evergreen, an open-source integrated library system used by hundreds of libraries nationwide and in Canada.

This move is designed to improve services for you, our patrons. Some new features with the Evergreen system include a version of the catalog for use on mobile devices, more flexibility for you in creating user names and passwords to access and use the online catalog, and the ability for you to update your account information as well as to pay fines online. You will also have more flexibility and control over your catalog searches with Evergreen, including setting account preferences to automatically search the Pollard Library only or MVLC as a whole.

You may be familiar with Open Office which is another open source software system currently in use at the Pollard. Evergreen is a library-specific open-source software program originally developed by the Georgia Public Library. In case you're wondering what the big deal is about "open source" software, you should know that calling something open-source means that it is software that is mostly developed in a public, collaborative manner. This collaboration allows users to study, change, and improve the software as it is being used.

MVLC will be the first large library system in Massachusetts to move to Evergreen. The anticipated date for the changeover is May 2011. Stay tuned here at the PML Blog for updates and to learn about the new features Evergeen will bring. Go Green!