or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk


Copyright on Campus Video

   March 3rd, 2011 Brian Herzog

I think this is reatively new - the Copyright Clearance Center has released a very good overview video about "Copyright on Campus"

This is a follow-up to their "Copyright Basics" video, and is among others in the series of educational tools and guidelines. Hopefully the next one will be "Copyright in Public Libraries," but it's all useful - thanks for sharing, Katie.

It also occurred to me that this format might be a good vehicle for an "ebooks basics" tutorial - except, regardless of how informative it might be, I think that would be an ultimately unpleasant video.



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Community’s College Library

   October 7th, 2010 Brian Herzog

Now that the new television season has started, I've been watching Community again - a show about a group of adult students at a community college.

The way they worked Twitter into the new season was brilliant, and while I was checking out @oldwhitemansays and the other characters' accounts, I stumbled across the website created for the campus library - complete with rotating banner:

Greendale Community College banner

NBC has the official website, but they also created one for the fictitious Greendale Community College, complete with a page for the campus library - they even have a (fairly realistic) food and drink policy:

Please remember that the library is a communal place for all GCC students, faculty and staff. Please discard all trash when leaving a study area. And, due to frequent misuse, all window blinds must be left open or raised. Prepare accordingly.

While conversing with your fellow colleagues is natural, we ask you to please keep the noise level to a minimum in respect to others that are studying silently.

Food and drinks, with the exception of closed water bottles, are strictly forbidden in the library. However, they are allowed, within reason, within the study room walls only. Librarians will be walking around and monitoring the floors during working hours. If you are asked to discard of food or drink, please do so quickly and regretfully, as it is for the protection of our books and materials. No exceptions will be granted.

It's impressive they put the extra effort into creating this, but it also makes the show more fun. And yay for a relatively positive portrayal of a library in prime time.



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